RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred ay-Two - Chivalry Isn't Dead

  The sed archivist we met was a whole lot more friendly than the first. A bit too friendly, maybe?

  Not that I believed that someone could be too friendly, but they were... nervously friendly. Like they khey might get into trouble if they didn’t aice, so any niess they did have didn’t feel quite as genuine as it could be. It reminded me a bit of talking to a salesperson in a store. The smiles weren’t fake, but they wereirely real either.

  “Proportion Distortion,” the archivist said as they walked through the stacks, their eyes roaming over the bindings of the books above them. The shelves were quite a bit taller than I was used to, but then again, the sylph could fly, so it made sehey’d build without w about height. “Ah.” They reached up and tugged a book out from a high shelf and then ope on the spot, pages flipping by as they skimmed through the tome. “Yes, this is it.”

  We returo a quieter table in a er of the library illuminated by a magical, fme-less mp, and one of those tall slit-windows. Caprica, Amaryllis and I squeezed in around the table while the archivist id the book down in front of us.

  “This se right over here, Captain,” they said, a fiapping at the page they’d opeo. “This is an older text, it hasn’t been reformatted to the current standard. I expin some of it, if you wish.”

  I leaned forwards to read.

  “Proportion Distortion. A skill thus far associated with a few rare stealth, infiltration, aertai csses. At the lower ranks (Novice to Apprehe skill seems to lend a certain amount of flexibility to the user. This flexibility mostly funs when the skill holder is attempting to enter a small location or pass through a small obstru.

  This skill tends to be notably less useful than a skill like Enhanced Flexibility, especially as the ditions ter it are more specific.

  Uniquely, the skill has a social po, assisting the user in appearing to be part of any group they are attempting to join or infiltrate or eain. This is difficult to assess a, but it is a noted, if minor, advantage of the skill, and may be why more assassination-ined csses have access to it.

  At higher ranks (Disciple and above) the skill allows the user te or reduce themselves in sizer. The user’s weight remains stant, but they literally bee rger or smaller at the expense of a stant drain of magical energy. Useful for infiltration, and an ability that be used in bat to some effect.

  “Whoa,” I said. That sounded really . I could do without the whole assassination stuff, but the... I guess it was a buff to social stuff was nice, and being able to make myself bigger or smaller sounded super .

  “That’s such a Broccoli skill,” Amaryllis said.

  “Well, it’s from one of my csses,” I said.

  “I meant more in the sehat it looks like a waste of a skill, but I’m certain you’ll find a way to use it to its full potential,” Amaryllis said.

  I grinned over at her. “I try,” I said. Reag down, I turhe page, but there didn’t seem to be anything more about the skill except for a long list of what I guessed were references. “Huh, there’s nothing on how to train the skill.”

  Caprica reached up and cupped her cheek, an elbow oable. “Usually that es from using the skill. Though in this case I see how it would be a difficult skill to practice.”

  I nodded. “Well, I always try squeezing into small pces, that doesn’t sound too hard.”

  Proportion Distortion E - 29%

  The skill had already gotten a bit of experiehough rank E was usually very easy to fill up. I guessed that it was more the social aspect of the skill that was gettihat experience. I couldn’t recall squishing into anything, except maybe for a few shorter sylph-made doorways.

  “If I may,” the archivist said. “You might sider practig in some dungeons that are known for having fiight spaces. It’s been hat training in a situatiohe person is challeends to produce much greater results.”

  “Broccoli’s levelling speed is genuinely incredible,” Amaryllis said. “She went from basically nothing to catg up to me in little over two months. I bme her ck of self-preservation.”

  “Hey now!” I said.

  Amaryllis huffed a sort of ‘I’m just tugging your tail’ kind of huff.

  “Are there any other skills that you have questions about?” the Archivist asked.

  "Well ..." I trailed off.

  The archivist gave me a smile that was clearly trying to be encing.

  ""Uh... since we’re here and you don’t seem to mind answering, I...” I paused, gng at Amaryllis, but she merely looked perplexed, so I turned back to the Archivist and took a deep breath. “This is embarrassing, but do you know of any good skills that bih Adorable to get rid of it. Please?”

  I noticed one of Caprica’s eyebrows rising, but she didn’t ent, which was great. My cheeks felt warm just from admitting I had that no-good skill.

  “Oopic of unfortunate skills,” Amaryllis added. “I have, of all things, Huffing.” She huffed very o prove it. “I don’t imagihere’s something that bily with that?”

  The archivist stood and bowed quickly. “I’ll be right back. en to have a lot of resources for binable skills. Are there any others you wao search for?”

  I shook my head, and Amaryllis did the same.

  “You two seem to have some fairly unique skill sets,” Caprica said.

  “Really? I think we mostly just have skills that we pick up along the way. I was never one for min-maxing or anything like that,” I said.

  “We have been in some retively dangerous situations. I think we’ve faced, what was it, four dungeons i month?”

  I frowned. Had it been that many? “We did some other stuff too.”

  “Ah yes, our other activities, such as visiting small hostile, iating with dragons, beating up a gang, fighting pirates, aing shot at with sers.”

  I ughed, and then had to expin to a curious Caprica that our adventures really had beey tame so far. Amaryllis argued the opposite, but Amaryllis liked arguing.

  “I’ve brought anything I could find,” the archivist said as they returhis time with a stack of tomes that they dropped onto the edge of the table with a heavy thump. “Five me, I didn’t expect it to take quite so long, but both skills are rather unon, and it took a moment to draw up a list.”

  I blinked as the archivist set down two pages onto the table. One was belled ‘Adorable’, the other ‘Huffing.’

  “Did you write all of that while you were gone?” I asked as I picked the page up. There was a short list on it.

  “Library magic makes cross-refereng works retively easy,” they said.

  I set the page down and leaned over it.

  The Adorable skill has been o bih the following skills to produce the followi:

  Adorable merged with Romang creates the Friendzone skill.

  “What’s the Friendzone skill do?” I asked.

  Caprica choked.

  “The Friendzone skill passively increases romantic attention, but also makes it actively easier for the skill holder to reject that kind of adva also provide a buff in a zone around them to anyone who siders the holder a friend. It’s a skill frequently held by courtesans. Did you want to read the full reports on the skill?”

  I hummed. Not something I really hen. It wasn’t like people were frequently attracted to me that way. Besides, I had a lot of buff skills already. “I think I’m okay, thanks.”

  Adorable merged with both an Unarmed bat Profiartial Art, and a Homemaking skill creates the Wai-fu skill.

  Arange martial art? Well, I had Way of the Mysti already, so I probably didn’t his one.

  Adorable merged with Booksmarts creates the Adorkable Skill.

  “What’s the Adorkable skill?” I asked.

  “It makes the user seem more attractive, especially when they’re w on something they're passionate about, usually that will be an academic subject,” the archivist said. “It’s on enough with librarians and archivists who are more socially ined.”

  Not what I was looking for either. Then again, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for to begin with. Somethier and more useful than Adorable. Something I could be properly proud of!

  Adorable merged with Intimidation-like skills creates the Adorifying skill.

  Nope.

  Adorable merged with Door Making Proficy creates A-door-able.

  Too silly.

  Adorable merged with Persuasions creates Mystic Eyes of Puppy Dogs.

  That was just weird.

  Adorable merged with a Chivalry-based skill and a Leadership-based skill creates Dork Knight.

  My hand smmed into the table and I jumped to my feet. Everyoartled, but I could apologize ter. “That’s perfect,” I said. “What’s the Dork Knight skill do?” I asked.

  “Ah,” The archivist said. They shuffled through the books and opened one up before paging through it in a hurry. “Dork Knight. It’s an unon skill, we only have two examples on record to pull from. The skill seems to focus mostly on assisting the user with chivalrous as. They tend to be unaffiliated, and somewhat difficult to read.”

  “So it’s like a dark and mysterious knight skill,” I said.

  “I’m quite certain that’s exactly what it isn’t,” Amaryllis said.

  I decided to ignore her. I was allowed to dream, darn it. “What’s a Chivalry-based skill?”

  “Certais of skills are broadly folded into a wider category,” the archivist said. “In this case, there are dozens of skills tred around chivalrous and knightly as. Chivalry is one, Padin’s Chivalry is ahen there are knightly orders with their own unique skills. Chivalry of the Knights of the World is a nearly unique skill that still shares most of its traits with the Chivalry skill.”

  “Oh, that makes sense. So it’s like Swordpy Profid Sword Fighting.”

  The archivist nodded. “Two skills that are, for the most part, identical, but with slight differences iion or use. Your example would both fit uhe Sword Proficy, for example. Some careers ask that a person have a skill that fits within a broader category. Librarians obviously need some sort of book-reted skill, but whether that’s Booksmarts or Book Learning Proficy doesn’t truly matter.”

  I nodded along. It made sense, if only so that people didn’t have to have big lists of applicable skills. “So how do I get a Chivalry-based skill?”

  The archivist shuffled through their books again, but they answered while searg. “Broadly speaking, such a skill will probably e from focused, tinuous a.”

  “So I o be real chivalrous for a while,” I said.

  “Exactly.”

  I grinned. “That sounds perfect.”

  “Oh, World,” Amaryllis muttered.

  “Now, what’s chivalry?”

  Caprica giggled, a hand pressed over her mouth to keep their mirth in. “Oh, you are wonderful, Captain Bunch. Chivalry is the way a knight or soldier should act. It’s a code, basically. A promise to act with courtesy and kindness, to uphold justice, to help the weak, and to act with honour above all else.”

  I blinked. “But that’s just being nice. How being nice be a skill?”

  “The skill presumably helps the skilled act accly,” Caprica said. “It helps knights pick the just option.”

  “But... I mean, some situations make it hard to know what the right thing is, but most of the time, it’s just the right thing to do.”

  Amaryllis reached over and pat me on the head. “Not everyone has the same moral fibre as you, Broccoli.”

  “My morals aren’t plicated; just be o everyone and treat everybody fairly, it’s not hard.”

  “Sure, sure,” Amaryllis dismissed.

  There had to be more to this chivalry thing than just being nice. “Does Bastion have a chivalry skill?” I asked.

  “I would imagihat he does, yes,” Caprica said.

  “Well then, I’ll just ask him how he got it, and then I’ll do the same thing.”

  ***

  RavensDagger

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