Chapter 37: Exposure
[Exposure] (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%
By letting their bodies become a conduit between the inner self and the outside world, the user of this skill has learned to treat any regular sustained behavior as a form of meditation. This not only allows for more regular recovery, but improves the depth and power of traditional meditation. In addition, a myriad of future skills may develop from this root...
The user may meditate while physically active as long as actions taken are simple and repetitive.
Your HP, MP, and Stamina recovery are raised a further 10% while meditating 'normally'.
This skill deactivates temporarily if the user is distracted or takes complex actions.
Exposure acts as a precursor to many other skills.
Meditation trains Exposure and all skills that follow from it.
Spike simultaneously felt drained and full, warm and cool, heavy and light. His entire body ran with a slight heat even as he exhaled crisp air, and he could feel a tremor as he whipped one arm out to strike at thin air, the meditative trance breaking along with his stillness. That had been... a bit of a rush. The clock said that less time had passed than he expected (it had felt like they worked for days, but it was only just time to start heading back to drop them off), and his body was refreshed as if there hadn't been any effort involved.
Emotionally, he was... stable. The crying had been a whim, just a little venting to remind himself that it was still a thing he could do. He didn't need a reason to do it any more than Pinkie needed a reason to laugh or Rarity needed a reason to sing. It had felt right in the moment, so it had become a part of the sequence. At the same time, that didn't mean it was something he was going to ignore: It went on the list of things he had to ask Twilight when she got back... Which brought Spike back to his quest, and the schedule it implied.
> Sort new book shipment (boxes 1-4 in the foyer)
Quest Time Remaining: 2 hours, 47 minutes
And since he was looking at menus anyways, he might as well sort the haul from all of his efforts with the Crusaders: They'd want to know the fruits of their efforts, so he couldn't put it off any longer. It was just a bit of an intimidating list. Lots to unpack (internal monologue pun fully intended).
"Um, there's... a lot more here than I thought. Can we head back and drop everything off at the Clubhouse now? I'll figure this all out and tell you about it on the way."
"Awww, does that mean we're pullin' the cart on the way back?"
"Only if you want: I do still need to see if I can get a Multitasking skill."
They ended up giving him a break (he took it gladly), so Spike rode in the cart meditating as he went through the haul. He was making a list, and it was a big list. Eventually he trimmed the literal dozens of popups down to a nicely formatted list... Right before he realized that there was a 'Recent Notifications' menu that would have saved him the trouble. Typical, honestly, the things you only figure out when it’s too late to use them. The Crusaders listened as they made their way through Ponyville and out towards the woods.
"Alright, so... A few masteries finished, a few new ones started, made progress on that 'Internal Alchemy' thing. No real surprises there. Looks like doing the last leg of our training with my eyes closed really helped though!"
Craft has become a skill!
Intimidate has become a skill!
By using [Internal Alchemy] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 11%
By using [Sense Danger] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 80%
By using [Detect Bloodthirst] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 80%
"Good. I felt pretty bad kicking somepony who couldn't even see me."
"Somedragon."
"Yeah, he really is some dragon, huh?"
"Oh hush yerselves."
Spike chuckled as he moved down the list, trying to contain his excitement. Thanks to all of the sorting, he already knew about these, but they'd be surprises to the Crusaders. And he hadn't looked at the details, so there were still some things left unspoiled for himself as well.
"Picked up three new skills: Told ya about Exposure already, I'm grinding it right now. And then..."
A skill has been created through a special action! Through showing enduring power, a skill to reinforce your heritage, [Dragon's Scales] has been created!
[Dragon's Scales] (Active and Passive) Lv 1 EXP: 0.00% MP: Varies
The potency of a dragon lies not just in their magic or in their body, but in how the two intertwine. This natural fusion of powers is embodied by scales: They encompass and surround, support and contain. Scales can block and cut, crush and break, cloak and shield, be worked and be broken. Used well, strength (and scales) can move mountains. Used poorly, they can spell one's downfall.
You are able to perform unusual feats of strength without destroying your tools or surroundings.
You may focus your strength inwards, temporarily improving defenses and VIT based on STR.
Allows you to molt and shape your scales to act as short-lived clothing, disguises, and tools.
Increases the power and efficiency of the active portion of [Dragon's Heart] in regards to STR.
This skill will grow with STR and skill levels, gaining new features over time.
"Ah'm kinda surprised that strength is scales, and not like..."
"Muscle?"
"Yeah, or bones. He's already got Heart, right? That's a muscle... or a few muscles? I forget."
Giving them a moment to finish, Spike continued: It was relevant, after all.
A skill has been created through a special action! Through resisting significant critical harm, a skill to protect your heritage, [Dragon's Bones] has been created!
This has consumed [Physical Endurance]
[Dragon's Bones] (Active and Passive) Lv 1 EXP: 0.00% MP: Varies
At their core, dragons are unbreakable and unbroken things: unique, singular, whole. Their bones support them and make them distinctly stable, a bedrock on which great works may be based.
All of your past and future resistances become Merged Subskills of Dragon's Bones.
You reduce the bonus damage from critical attacks by 1%, to a minimum of the normal damage.
Skills and attacks that would normally pierce resistances have a 1% chance of failing to do so.
Your ability to resist damage from your Affinity elements is doubled.
This skill will grow based on how many natural and unnatural resistances it has consumed.
Merged Skills: Physical Endurance
Your ability to resist physical harm scales extremely well along with this skill.
"Oooh, that makes sense."
"Wait, so there are Dragon skills with no stat?"
"Aw man, there could be dozens of them!"
Spike blanched at the thought, although he wasn't opposed. Just concerned.
"I don't even have dozens of parts. If it's that crazy, the names might start getting... questionable."
"Hey, you already got Dragon's Bone!"
"Awful. Just awful."
Jokes aside, he realized this was a big deal. Not only was it going to be a huge improvement over the original (already quite good) Physical Endurance, it would only get better as he picked up more resistances... Which, knowing the Crusaders, would happen quickly whether he liked it or not. The bit about resisting his Affinities was interesting, because right now that included Earth. Would that make it harder for him to be hurt by stone weapons? An avalanche? Would it make it easier to eat that mysterious gemstone? All questions in search of answers... Eventually.
"Speaking of Physical Endurance, that got a bunch of levels... a bunch. So did basically everything else, with a heavy emphasis on the meditation skills, Heartsong, all the Dragon's stuff, and... um, Observe. Sort of."
For the first time (that he knew of) since this morning, Spike was massively wrong about how part of his new abilities worked. He had been assuming that the path to a skill's 25th level was hard, but just as a threshold: Beyond that point it would smooth off and get easier, the way normal ponies grew faster once they had base competence. Turns out it was more like the opposite... Observe was barely any higher than when they started, despite him casting it at least a thousand times in the last few hours.
Rather than thinking about how skills and learning worked for real normal ponies he should have thought about Twilight's lessons on sequences, and Shining's discussions about balance in game design. Levelling up skills just plain gets harder. Now that he had more data he could almost see the pattern in his head, an exponential rise in experience with a harsh spike every 25 levels. And then, assuming the curve continued like it was now, the 100th level (if it even goes that high) would take potentially just as much experience as all 99 before it combined.
"What's that put Observe at, like 40? 50?"
"...27."
"Yeeeikes. Bad beats, huh?"
"Eh. Just makes it clear how long-term some of these goals are going to have to be. Especially if I am getting bonus experience for this first quest."
"Well hayfeathers. Did yer stats make it up any better?"
At that, his expression brightened significantly.
"Oh yeah! I'm on par with you three for bonus points now: We nailed our goal."
"Sick!"
"That's going to be a big boost, huh Spike?"
He looked over his new character sheet stats with pride. While he hadn't gained any experience for his personal level during all that, he managed to hit thirteen across the board in his stats. A huge 30% spike (heh) in power for basically everything, even moreso for the Dragon's skills which scaled so strongly to stats. Balanced Soul was at full potency, his earlier Wisdom outlier being evened out by the training they did. And now he was, just like Apple Bloom, 18 points ahead of his level... Or he would be, if he spent the points from levelling.
He didn't spend any, of course: This just added more evidence favoring two of his theories! It helped back up the idea of 'Train First, Spend Later' and the idea that his first day was giving him some real big help along the way. The Crusaders spent 'years' grinding to get just as far ahead of the curve... Assuming they didn't have unspent points themselves. Beyond just the benefit of proof, Spike also confirmed that his HP and MP scaled up off of Vitality and Intelligence, respectively. Every point in VIT had been worth 10 HP, while INT gave 5 MP apiece. Their regeneration was also improved since they were based on a percent of the total, which left Spike feeling much better about his resources.
"Two finished Masteries, big progress on an existing one, two new Masteries, two new 'Dragon's' skills, seventeen points of stats... And then these three little weirdos."
"I represent that statement!"
"... Didj'all mean resent?"
"Said what I meant, meant what I said."
Spike ran his claws across the last line of UI, humming to himself.
"She might not be wrong, either."
"Wut?"
By [???], your Mastery increases by 3%
By [???], your Mastery increases by 3%
By [???], your Mastery increases by 3%
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For future reference, it's "I resemble that statement" when you're making that specific joke.
10068489
"Represent" works just as well for that kind of joke in general, and arguably better since it actually contains the entirety of the word "resent". Furthermore, in this case "represent" is the exactly correct word due to the implication that the three strange masteries are potentially tied to the three Cutie Mark Crusaders in some way.
Also, nobody likes a pedant. Especially a WRONG pedant.
I love how they get along. This is Spike's Crew!
Well, that’s interesting.
10068524
Which makes that singular upvote among the downvotes all the more baffling. Like, I can assume that's a troll, right?
Unknown increases, and only says Mastery increases, but which Mastery? All Skills currently undergoing Mastery grinding?
Ive been looking at using the Fibbonacci sequencee for points needed for several reasons, starting from the mathematical. Golden ratio, maximum energy efficincy, generated by chaotic oscilators, all sub sequences can add in all ways to add to known values for which step reached, how far to go etc.
Will the library be the last stop of the day, sorting the books, collating the skills, finally closing the day and setting character setup once in bed, so still has another couple hours to get more grind in? Hes had impacts, next theres crushing, squeezing, stretching, dropping, even back to damage and critical damage given the new skills seem to need all the grinding in them again?
Saw an intresting article today, the guy didnt mention the old English Archers, trained since childhood, but he said that according to measurements, if trained and tested constantly, a human should be able to be as strong as an orangutan.
Also, if Spike can have the PERN dragons bone tricks which I beleive they had, then he wouldnt need to breath. After all, Breath is for energy for living, and when a dragons bones are solid state crystaline nuclear reactors, they dont have to bother with the limitations of normal matter?
Wait wait wait! Does that mean if he repeatedly punches something OR Someone, that will count twords meditation by the skills definition?!
10068524
And as she is speaking as one out of three, 'represent' actually fits BETTER than 'resemble'.
Now that is one nice skill. Passives can be so good.
A very nice skill.
Oh hey, is that the final Dragon skill? It's a doozy.
Oh wait, that's not the limit.
Yeah, I was wondering about that theory. Didn't seem based on anything observed so far.
Interesting.
I'm curious why he hasn't tried adding them to his party.
10070757
Pinkies probably going to be the first. It’s a ‘Party’ after all.
. And then, assuming the curve continued like it was now, the 100th level (if it even goes that high) would take potentially just as much experience as all 99 before it combined
What, is he playing MapleStory now?
Damn... Spike might wipe major ass of the planet if he has a hole year to prepare... Damn... Dragon Lord titel incoming?
Neat... Should anyone try torture Spike they cant do anything seriouse to him also he become stronger no matter what as long its not lethal
I already can see it... Spike becomes the bane of all evil. They in turn will be a pain in his ass. Mutual assured pain in the ass for both sides.
At least they have that in common...