//------------------------------// // 4- Chaos inbound // Story: The Chaotic Gamer // by Silver_Fang15 //------------------------------// A new day, and a new objective to plan for. I needed to cause chaos, but how would I go about it in order to not get myself in trouble? Spread rumors? Nah, that wasn't my style, plus it could get traced back to me pretty easily. Stealing stuff? Maybe, but let's put that as an emergency plan. Unless I stole something valuable and high-profile, there wouldn't be much chaos to be had there, and I didn't feel like getting thrown in jail. Could I sabotage public buildings? That would be possible with some Rogue levels, and if I was careful no one would know it was me, nor should they be harmed… badly. I'd need both a lot of DEX and LUK to pull it off, though. Hopefully the Rogue class would give me what I needed. I had also the perfect way to test what stats it would give me! I quickly equipped the class, waving away the skill alerts after taking note of them. Class set to: Rogue Skills gained: Sneak (minimal) - passive - no cost * Your movements are slightly quieter and more careful than most. * +5% chance to be ignored * +1 DEX [Skill already obtained! Changed to +1 DEX!] Dagger mastery (minimal) - passive - no cost * You can use a dagger with some coordination. * +5% damage with daggers * +1 DEX Nothing unexpected about those. Now, all I had to do was complete both my daily quest and another one. It should be easy enough to find someone to help around town. The day was starting off on a bad note for the Apples. And for me too I suppose, since Big Mac fell right on top of me while he was fixing the barn's roof. Took about half of my HP, too. Then again, I could recover easily. Mac, on the other hand, found himself stranded on his bed and unable to work, bue to injuring his arm when falling. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if I were lazy) Granny Smith prohibited me from working as well, sustaining that "Ya don' want a back like mine! So when Ah tell ya to stay put ya stay put!" Applejack was pretty apologetic about the whole thing, and wanted to 'make it up to me'... get your head out of the gutter. She's pretty and all, but I'm not interested. I waved off her concerns. Sure, it could've been useful to have her feel indebted to me, but then she would've ended up prying into my business more. At least the daily quest was considered complete, allowing me to get some of that oh-so-important XP. After a few minutes bargaining with Granny Smith, I convinced her I felt good enough to head into town. It was… harder than expected. That woman was very stubborn, let me tell you. At least I had my chance to find another little quest, and to scour around the town for some possible targets. I kept my eyes and ears open for any chance, while observing the buildings, hoping for some kind of fallacy I could take advantage of. I came up with only one possible target: the town Hall. The roof didn't seem very sturdy, so a few touches would do the trick. I could possibly rig it so that it would be even more precarious, but not broken just yet. That way I'd have a chance to be somewhere completely different when it eventually broke. ...I'd also have to make it untraceable back to me. Who knew, maybe one day I'd be able to teleport and do stuff in other places, that way they wouldn't have a chance to pin it on me. Actually, I could spend Chaos Points to buy skills! So, how much would a teleportation skill cost? [Teleport] is not a purchasable skill. Required Mage LV: 80 I was so getting that. Ahem, moving on. In the end, I couldn't find a side-quest. I wondered if it was because of my low LUK, and remembered a quick fix to it: I could exchange 1 Chaos point for 5 Stat points. I quickly used 5 Chaos Points, bringing my LUK to 40. I hoped that with that I would've been able to find something. Nothing seemed to be changing, so it appeared I'd been duped. Just great! ...I should've put those points into DEX. What was the saying? Live and regret? No? Well, it fit in that case. With that idea down the drain, I started heading back to plan my next move. My thoughts were interrupted by a shrill scream and a rumble in the ground. "STAMPEDE!" Someone screamed, with people diving left and right, doors being slammed, and the rumble getting louder. A big cloud of dust appeared in the distance, and I just realized I was left alone in the middle of the road. "Shit!" I yelled, as I got out of the way. Just in time, too, as the bunch of cows passed by me. I turned around just in time to get a glimpse of Applejack running behind them fast enough to keep up. "Wait, wha- no, they aren't really human. I need to remember that." I moved away trough the side streets, trying to find something that could help in my plan tonight. +5 Chaos points for causing a stampede trough town! (In an indirect manner) "...wut." You were supposed to fix the cow's fence today, but you didn't! So a snake got inside, the cows got scared, and the rest is history. I wouldn't really award you just for that, but I chose to be nice this once and give you a push in the right direction. "Thanks, I guess?" Oh, one last thing. If you're planning to sneak around, you should look into some gear for it. Bye bye! Discord was very weird, but he was useful when he felt like it. So, I needed sneaking gear: dark clothes, gloves, a mask, and maybe another pair of shoes. Where would I find those? I couldn't buy them, as it would be suspicious as fuck, so illicit ways it had to be. At least my inventory would make stealing stuff hella easy. I still wasn't a fan of the idea, to be honest, but I was already planning to destroy public property: what was stealing some clothes when compared to that? Even though multiple people pointed me to one Rarity woman, I heard also of an actual shop, which was definitely more up my alley. When I entered the shop, whose name I didn't bother reading, I noticed there weren't any people other than me and the woman at the counter, who was looking royally bored. She did perk up when I came in, though. "Welcome to Quick Threads! Can I help you?" I pondered quickly if having her around was a good idea: on one hand, if I said no she might keep her eyes on me, so I couldn't pick up stuff that easily. If I said yes, I'd have her around, but I might be able to distract her. "Why yes, actually. I was looking to expand my wardrobe a bit, and I'd appreciate some suggestions." She snapped her fingers, giving me a cheeky grin. "I've got some things that would look amazing on ya, give me a moment!" She excused herself, heading in the back of the shop. Perfect! As soon as she was gone, I went to look for the stuff i needed, and tossed it quickly in my inventory… I was actually going to pay the rest of the clothes, though. No reason to take more than I needed, after all. The lass didn't really deserve that monetary loss, and it would be a better alibi if it came to that. On an unrelated note, the clothes I picked up actually gave a small bonus. Black sweater (male) - Rank: Common * Made of wool, will keep you warm. * 5% less chance to be noticed at night * -5 ice damage Black sweatpants (male) - Rank: Common * Great for working out in the cold. * 5% less chance to be noticed at night * -5 ice damage Black beanie - Rank: Common * Classic winter wear. * 5% less chance to be noticed at night * -5 ice damage Black scarf - Rank: Common * It's a scarf. It's black. It's made of wool. 'Nuff said. * 5% less chance to be noticed at night * -5 ice damage Black gloves - Rank: Common * Descriptions are boring. * 5% less chance to be noticed at night * -5 ice damage While I waited for the woman to come back, I picked up a few other clothes to buy. When she came back she had me try a few different things, giving comments for each of them. In the end, I took a few clothes with a small CHA boost, and a nice pair of fingerless gloves. They even added a little more 'oomph' to my punches! The total came to 200 bits exactly, which was unfortunately almost all I had… I felt it was worth it. I said goodbye to the woman, and got out of there. With my bags in hand I returned to the farm, had lunch, and left once more. I had enough hours to grind some levels. Well, I could only say one thing: Drain Stab is OP. Really, just one hit almost one-shotted a timberwolf, and that was while counting their regeneration! They just kept going down like flies! Name: Nicholas Pascaru Age: 23 Species: Human (+5% effect to all skills) Class: Rogue [lv 13] (245/390) LV: 34 HP: 2000/2000 (+60/min) MP: 1960/1960 (+42/min) STR: 27 (+3) [30] VIT: 30 DEX: 61 (+3) (+1) [65] INT: 25 (+1) [26] WIS: 21 LUK: 52 CHA: 17 Skills gained: Sneak (Basic) - passive - no cost * Your movements are quieter and more careful than most. * +10% chance to be ignored * +3 DEX [Skill already obtained! Changed to +3 DEX!] Lockpick (Minimal) - passive - no cost * You picked up the bare minimum of lockpicking. * Unlock Easy locks 100% of the time * Unlock Simple locks 50% of the time * Unlock Intermediate locks 25% of the time * Unlock Complex locks 10% of the time * Unlock Hard locks 5% of the time * Unlock Expert locks 1% of the time Yep, that was a lot of XP. Now, I needed lockpicks. Some clips I 'borrowed' from around the house would do the trick. Although... I didn't feel confident in my ability just yet. "Ok, fine. Tomorrow night, I'll be back. Get the next set of Rogue skills, and then go mess up that roof. No need to rush." The next morning... Applejack and I were lugging the cart over to the town, but we had to stop to let some kids pass. The problem was, that they didn't move. Instead, they stopped right in front of us, yelling excitedly something or the other about one 'Trixie' person. They seemed to be fans of hers for whatever reason. They left soon after, and Applejack was left flabbergasted by their words. Me, on the other hand, barely registered she hadn't started to move yet and tried to pull the cart. A futile endeavor, considering that most of the strength used to pull the cart was hers. I turned over to her, confused. "Why are we still here? Weren't we supposed to set up the stall, or something?" I asked. My words seemed to snap Applejack out of whatever funk she was in. "Oh, yeah right." She started pulling again. "Say, ain't ya curious?" I quirked my eyebrow. "About what?" She narrowed her eyes to me a bit. "This Trixie showmare the colts were talkin' about. Made 'er sound like she's the best thing since Zap Apples. Weren't ya listenin'?" I shrugged, my eyes half-closed. "Not really. Too sleepy to care. Still don't know why I should care." She took a moment to consider my words. "Fair 'nuff," she muttered, and we returned to lugging around the cart. We'd arrived at the market, but apparently we were either too early or no one had decided to come today. Really, it was deserted: not one stall nor person. Applejack seemed as perplexed as me, so it was definitely out of the norm. "Wonder where everypony could be," she muttered. "Methinks they're somewhere over there," I said as I pointed over the flashes of light coming sporadically from a few streets away. And so we went to check it out, after securing the produce and the cart. When we got there, we found a crowd of people staring at a stage. On the stage, was a woman dressed in a very... provocative show-woman attire, who was manipulating an astral bear of some sort, possibly an illusion, and telling a story. Either a travelling storyteller or just a display of illusions... maybe both? "Analyze" Name: Trixie Lulamoon Age: 24 Species: Magi (+25% effect to all magic-related skills, +50% MP) LV: 23 HP: 1.320/1.320 MP: 1.835/2.160 STR: 15 VIT: 17 DEX: 19 INT: 29 WIS: 27 LUK: 10 CHA: 33 About what I'd expected at that point, really: high intelligence and wisdom to make the illusions and control them easily, and high charisma to enthrall the public. Pretty fitting for a show-woman who specialized in magic... or was she a showmare, going by the equine terminology that seemed to be the norm here? Well, no matter. She was good at her job, and I found myself hanging by every word she said, weaving the tale of a great battle she had supposedly won against the astral bear... I doubted it, but who cared? She was doing an impressive job nonetheless. Unfortunately it seemed that very few shared my opinion, as people were grumbling. In particular, I noticed AJ's discussion with some other girls, who I assumed to be her friends. "Ah'm tellin' ya, that sounds like a buncha hooey to me." And I immediately lost interest. Didn't they get that it was a scripted performance? It was obviously fake, that was the idea in the first place! Tsk. Numbskulls, the lot of them. I returned to watching the performance, wondering what this Trixie person would do next.