A king’s css huh. Isran wondered if she was being bullied by the gods watching her. Maybe that was why she was getting some pretty bad skill choices. Well bad was a stretch. They weren’t bad so much as they felt weaker than her css preluded.

  Or perhaps they were regur skills that had a little oomph. She was pretty good with her sword but she had never met anyone she could ask about the skill. Perhaps every person who had the skill was instantly better at wielding a sword. But then again, she had received a skill that gave her a pure stat boost, that had to count for something.

  “Assume we know absolutely nothing about skills or level progression.” Elysi said.

  The sheep girl had given Phaedra an empty notebook and a charcoal pencil wrapped in cloth. Isran wondered if the pencil would fade, but as she watched Phaedra scribble in a different nguage what she saw had to be ink. Magic was trippy as hell.

  Phaedra put a full stop at the end of a long paragraph she had been writing and looked up at them. “I’ll start with basics in level progressions. When it comes to levels, everything we know is fact. It has been tested and proven and so I will speak in certain terms.”

  Isran nodded and steeled herself to pay rapt attention. It was important to know the information she was receiving. She had always wanted to ask Elyis about it but they always got… distracted.

  “Every even numbered level one free attribute point is awarded, at every tenth level, a multiple of five free attribute points are awarded. After every tenth level the even numbered levels give an extra free attribute. For example, level six gives one free attribute and level sixteen gives 2, level twenty six gives three and so on. And at every fifth numbered level a skill is awarded, that includes when the skill is first unlocked.”

  “It is a common consensus that the experience points required to level up increase per higher level, although the exact numbers are completely unknown. Some schors have tried to deduce it but they never truly find the answers.” Phaedra begun to write in her book again.

  “Upgrades of pasts skills stack up, they don’t fill more skill slots, although it appears the skill slots are not limited so that isn’t a very important point… oh wait! If your skill has an upgrade sometimes the wording could seem like a multiplier combined with the previous iteration when in reality it only stacks up on the previous skill. It’s always good to be wary about those kinds of skills.”

  Isran gnced down to Elysi to see her girlfriend holding in a ugh. Phaedra was very amusing when she rambled off. At that point Isran was sure their dark-skinned companion had forgotten she was supposed to be educating them. Or maybe not, Phaedra’s mind had to surely be interesting though.

  “When it comes to god blessed csses it depends on the god really. Some gods like Deskian the god of honor and Wilner the goddess of knowledge dish out blessed csses far more than the other main pantheon. Lesser and demi gods tend to make a habit of blessing several csses sometimes unreted to their domains but then again, an unreted blessing is always better than no blessing.”

  “Take a drink.” Isran patted Phaedra’s p, handing her a bottle of water.

  Phaedra smiled shyly up at Isran, startled by the offer and took her fill. Isran appreciated the metallic whish of the water against the bottle, it was nostalgic in a way she could not pce. The bottle being copper colored was a bit jarring, looking like rust a bit if she was being honest though.

  “Sorry… I’ll take my time.” The healer wrote down a short line and continued with her little lecture.

  “The gods known for barely ever giving out blessed csses are Vycor the being of creation and Sephia the goddess of pleasure and beauty.”

  “Being instead of god?”

  Elysi answered her this time. “Vycor is neither male or female, neither masculine nor feminine. The being of creation is everything and nothing so we honor them by not constricting their magnificence with bels they do not possess.”

  Phaedra nodded in agreement. “They who creates is above all else.”

  Isran tilted her head. “Even the other gods?”

  “Even the other gods.” Phaedra continued. “There are many myths and some differ depending on where they were told from or how popur they become but the myth of creation is always the same.” She cleared her throat briefly. “Everything and nothing were the beginning but the beginning was a void filled with nothing and everything and so together the being of creation was formed, so that nothing could be filled with everything and everything could be filled with nothing.”

  Isran frowned and scratched her head. “A bit of a tongue twister.”

  Phaedra ughed. “Yes, most people don’t memorize it and remember a vague version of it but that is the creation story. It continues that the being of creation was lonely, and so they formed pleasure and when pleasure came to be she sought pleasure in names so she named herself Sephia and her unknown companion Vycor. But it was cold with so little created, so pleasure directed the hand of Vycor and then came Hipettime, goddess of the hearth. And with heat was needed knowledge and so Vycor created Wilner, goddess of knowledge.”

  “And pleasure wished for a different kind of being, for she gazed at the being of creation and saw not only feminine features so Vycor was once again directed to create by pleasure and Acknos, god of war came to be. But with war came chaos and so Vycor created Deskian, god of order and honor. But there were none for the creations of Vycor to influence and so Vycor created the old world Palos.”

  “The story continues that at this point several demi gods had come to be and they painted Palos with lush fields and strange creatures. But Vycor felt Palos missed beings that could be truly influenced so they created the races. And pleasure found hard terrain need softness to match with it, so from her need and Vycor’s love was born Liquam the god of the sea.”

  Isran wasn’t sure she remembered everything Phaedra had said, but she had at least recalled each god in the main pantheon and their domain.

  “What about Finros?” Elysi asked.

  Phaedra hummed. “It’s believed that Finros was not directly created by Vycor or even an offspring of the main pantheon. The story is separate from the main pantheon story.”

  “What is Finros’ domain?”

  “The entity of death, and cycles.” Elysi answered Isran.

  “Yes, and beginnings and ends.”

  “Entity?”

  “That naming has to do with the tale of Finros. It is believed that at a time creation and pleasure had a disagreement, one that pushed pleasure into the arms of others and pushed creation into a pce of isotion. From that pce of isotion Vycor believed that it was all over, for without pleasure there was no use to life and so came end and death. And when they finally resolved their strife and pleasure and creation were reunited once more there came new beginnings. And Wilner discovered the nature of cycles, for the entire world bent to the suffering of creation, and the entire world rejoiced when creation rejoiced.”

  “And so, although there was no being to attribute to, the events were clear as day, and Vycor cherished them, for they signified a creation the creator did not create and so she named them Finros. For she believed even events deserved worship.”

  Isran had to admit to herself at the very least, that she was quite confused by the creation tale of Finros but it didn’t matter. As interesting as the creation story was it wasn’t the primary reason, they were having their little lesson in the first pce. It seemed Elysi was thinking the same.

  “I’m not even going to ask why or how you have that memorised but I do appreciate hearing the tale. We should get back to the topic at hand though.”

  Phaedra blushed and ughed a bit. “Yes, csses of course.”

  “Csses like my own are not as common as blessed knowledge or honor csses but they are not rare. Healers are also not rare but blessed healer csses are known to have no god named in them. The rarest healer css is a cosmetic blessed css, a blessing form Sephia. Vycor never directly blesses csses although their influence can be noted in skills that are given to csses blessed by Sephia.”

  “Whore csses are academically ranked in three tiers. The common tear where the css is just named Whore, the intermediate tier where the css is named Audacious Whore, or Alluring Whore, usually preceded by a qualifier. Then there are Whores blessed by Sephia. Truly rare and far between.”

  “In the past when Evelncarth had a royal family one king had a whore that was blessed by Sephia, it is the only reason any one knows about this css. It was said that the whore was a man of feminine beauty and a mage. He had two primary csses, mundane and mage and his specific css (2) was an attack mage css. The details of the css I sadly don’t know but his specific css (1) had some mage adjacent spells. Aphrodisiac ranged spells that caused the opponent to be immobilised from pleasure and the like.”

  That reminded Isran of something she had meant to ask Elysi. She really had to start writing her questions down. “How do we unlock specific css (2)?”

  “When the specific css (1) reaches level thirty. That is a feat it self for some, but it’s become easier with more and more entering the dungeons. The dungeons have also been spawning more regurly than in the past few hundred years.”

  “And Isran’s css?” Elysi asked.

  Phaedra almost beamed with excitement. “Possibly the rarest css in the entirety of Neos. There have never been more than one documented case for the css present at the same time. I don’t think the head of the council is dead so you having this css is an anomaly. Oh! You have to go to Evelncarth, I feel so honored to be even acquainted with one looked so fondly at by the gods.”

  “We are friends. Much closer than acquaintances.” Isran tucked some hair away from Pheadra’s face to reiterate her point.

  Poor Phaedra seemed like she was going to explode from how much she was blushing.