25 Identify Treasure
Siegmund once more vanished as Ignatius returned to the glorious City of Stomrus.
For the briefest moment, Ignatius felt bad to be constantly summoning and abandoning the Onion Knight. He had to remind himself that the companion was just an NPC, and in any event, was programmed not to mind in the slightest.
Oh well.
Ignatius made his way to the eastern edge of the city, where he knew he could find the Arcane University. In the middle of the sandstone city, the University was a complex of buildings that seemed to have been sculpted out of liquid crystal. According to the lore of Path of the Immortal, a crystalline meteor had struck the city long ago, and the fragments of its molten, glassy body had hardened into what had finally become the University's buildings.
This was one of the grandest schools of magic in the Nation of Thijya, and was connected to many class quests for Astrologers and Wizards. Not that Ignatius cared about that. He arrived at the sparkling University walls for one reason: to identify a Skill Gem.
As soon as he stepped through the huge obsidian door which led into the hollowed-out main building, an NPC tried to talk to Ignatius. "Welcome, sir! What brings you to the Arcane University? Have you heard about the troubles plaguing our Monster Genetics department? It is true that we've been looking for an adventurer to clear out some dangerous beasts from the basement…"
Ignatius waved the NPC away. "I know what I'm doing here, thanks. Not interested."
"Oh," the NPC muttered, looking offended. "All right, then. Just ask if you need me for anything." He went back to reading the scroll he'd had in his hand when Ignatius entered.
Thankfully, one of the very first rooms in the main University building held Professor Moilin, an extremely thin man with a very tall witch-style hat on his head and a pair of bulging green eyes. "Mmmmmmyes?" he asked in a guttural voice as Ignatius barged into his office.
Ignatius slapped his [✯Skill Gem] onto the professor's desk, which was made of pure silver with intricate carvings of celestial beings all over it. "I hear you can identify magical items, Professor."
"Oooh, indeeed!" the man said in a musical, drawn-out voice. "But it will cooost you a bit of Eeeessence."
Ignatius manifested the 10 Essence which was required and dropped it onto the table.
"Veeery well!" said Professor Moilin, looking excited. He pointed at the Skill Gem, and a tiny spark of white light burst from his fingertip to sink into the item's surface.
In a single heartbeat, its label changed from [✯Skill Gem] to [✯Draw Energy].
Ignatius smiled and snatched the item off the table, putting it back into his inventory. "Thanks. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon."
"Come back aaany time!" the professor called as his guest left the office and exited the University building altogether.
Ignatius was in a good mood as he made his way through the crowd and to the Auction House in the northern part of the city. [✯Draw Energy] wasn't the most amazing skill in the game, but it would be useful in some situations. He double-checked its game information as he walked.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑
┠──[✯Draw Energy]
┃ ╰╼[Skill Gem]
┃ ╰╼[Level 0]
┃ ╰╼ Value ❖1200
┃ ╰╼[General Skill]
┠─[⇝60 sec|↻10 minutes]
┃"All matter in the universe has
┃ the potential to be energy."
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙
GAME: "Draw Energy" restores a percentage of your maximum Energy, based on the location you are standing on. More magically infused locations will restore more Energy. Leveling increases Energy restored and reduces casting time.
It was a skill which took a whole minute to cast, but could actually temporarily grant 10% more Energy than a character's maximum cap, so long as it was used on a highly magical place such as a shrine or a ritual circle.
Depending on the circumstance, that could be a very useful skill for long dungeon crawls.
As the skills granted by Skill Gems were used, the Skill Gem gained experience points which allowed it to level from 0 all the way to 5. Reaching maximum skill level would cut the casting time and increase the amount of energy Ignatius received from it, making it one of the most efficient methods of regaining energy which he could access for free.
With this in mind, Ignatius decided to keep [✯Draw Energy], rather than selling it for more Essence.
Each piece of worn equipment had at least one slot for a Skill Gem or Stat Gem on it, so Ignatius immediately equipped [✯Draw Energy] and then checked his character menu. He activated the expanded option to show which gems were slotted into which pieces of equipment.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼Ignatius
╟─╼Monk LVL 7
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼Health Points: 100
╟─╼Energy Points: 100
╟─╼Power Rating: 230
╟─╼Essence: 636
╟─╼Crystal Coins: 101
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ATTRIBUTES
║ ╰╼[Vigor] 10
║ ╰╼[Strength] 10
║ ╰╼[Dexterity] 10
║ ╰╼[Intelligence] 10
║ ╰╼[Endurance] 10
║ ╰╼[Luck] 10
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ACTIVE SKILLS
║ ╰╼[✧Sacred Fist] {⇝0.5 sec}
║ ╰╼[✧Balance] {⇝2 sec|↻10 sec}
║ ╰╼[✧Purgation] {↷10 EP|⇝2 sec|↻60 sec}
║ ╰╼[✯Draw Energy] {⇝10 sec|↻60 sec}
╟─╼PASSIVE SKILLS
║ ╰╼[N/A]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼EQUIPMENT
║ ╰╼R.HAND: [Empty]
║ ╰╼L.HAND: [Empty]
║ ╰╼HEAD: [✧Spirit Stone]┋[✧Sacred Fist]
║ ╰╼TORSO: [✧Monk Robes]┋[✧Balance]
║ ╰╼LEGS: [✧Monk Pants]┋[✧Purgation]
║ ╰╼GLOVES: [✧Sarexia's Gauntlets]┋[✯Draw Energy]
╟─╼ACCESSORIES
║ ╰╼BELT: [✧Monk Sash]
║ ╰╼AMULET: [Empty]
║ ╰╼R.RING: [Empty]
║ ╰╼L.RING: [Empty]
╚═══════════════╛
The gem system was a little complicated, but Ignatius had figured it out long ago. It would probably take the rest of the players some time to unravel all the mechanics.
Two types of gems existed in Path of the Immortal: Skill Gems and Stat Gems. They could only be slotted into equipment or accessories. Therefore, a character with every slot filled by an item could equip a minimum of ten gems, though some items would probably have two or even more gem slots.
If that same character took off their amulet, they would only be able to equip a minimum of nine gems, since they'd just lost one potential slot.
However, there was an automatic equipping system which made gem management fairly easy. If a character unequipped their amulet, then equipped a different amulet, the gem in the first amulet would automatically transfer to the second one. If the gem was removed from the amulet, though, it wouldn't automatically equip into a new amulet.
It was for this reason that Ignatius had still been able to use his Monk skills after equipping the Onion Knight armor: his Skill Gems had all transferred automatically.
For the moment, most players would only have access to Skill Gems, not Stat Gems, unless they bought gacha loot boxes with Crystal Coins. Otherwise, they'd be unlikely to find any Stat Gems from low-level content.
Unlike Skill Gems, Stat Gems didn't level up simply by fighting with them equipped. Instead, they could be crafted into higher-tier Stat Gems that gave larger stat bonuses.
For example, a [✧Cracked Dull Ruby] was the weakest version of the Ruby, and it only gave 1 Strength when equipped.
Three [✧Cracked Dull Rubies] could be crafted into a single [✧Chipped Dull Ruby], which instead gave 3 Strength.
The final Normal-rarity tier of Ruby was [✧Flawed Dull Ruby]. Three [✧Chipped Dull Rubies] combined into one [✧Flawed Dull Ruby], which gave 5 Strength.
Three of those combined into the next tier and raised the item to ☆Magic Rarity, granting an even larger bonus, all the way up to the ✵Legendary Rarity tier of Rubies which were necessary for endgame content.
As a Monk, Ignatius's core stats were Strength and Dexterity. Raising these would directly raise his Power Rating, which was the number that directly calculated into the damage his attacks dealt. After these, he was most concerned about Endurance, since this would increase his HP, Energy, and a bit of his damage resistance.
Besides Stat Gems, the best way to increase stats was to find equipment of ☆Magic Rarity or higher, since these always came with at least one special effect. This early in the game, that usually meant a stat boost.
One way or another, Ignatius decided that his next step was to fill his remaining five equipment and accessory slots. Even if the items gave him little benefit on their own, the ability to slot gems into them was very important.
So he bought another 200 Essence worth of food and returned to the Eternal Tower. So long as he didn't run into another situation like the fight against the Librarian, Ignatius was determined not to leave until he'd won a mountain of early game treasure.
