First Steps 3

Azula rose one hand into the air and snapped her fingers. And a moment later, two Imperial Fire Benders, the two most elite soldiers on this ship, besides Azula herself hurriedly made their way over and dropped to their knees, bowing before the girl in submission.

"How may we serve you, your highness?" one of them asked.

"Tell me Zan," Azula flashed me a coy smile, "What do you think your odds would be if I asked you to fight these right here?"

I looked at them, concentrating on them for a moment and checked out their levels.

(Imperial Fire Bender Shen – Level 27)

(Imperial Fire Bender Ako – Level 24)

Then I looked to my side, to the unconscious form of the soldier I uppercut into the air and did the same.

(Fire Bending Soldier Ray – Level 14)

"I'm unsure your highness," I replied truthfully. My stats from what I gather don't seem to be near the same of what a level three fire bender would be in this setting. If the fact I took out a level fourteen with such ease is anything to go by. So I'm stronger than my level suggests I guess. And on top of that, I have Dragon Blooded and Sozin Style, meaning I'd only take thirty percent damage from any fire bending attacks that hit me, "I've never fought anyone on the level of an Imperial Fire Bender for real, the closest was sparring with my sword teacher, Master Piando, though I'm sure I can take one of them at the very least."

Again, do not let their levels lead you astray. It is an overall combat and threat level assessment. It does not pertain to you. A master bender may be over level thirty, even if they are incredibly weak physically, it does not just estimate their physical abilities, but their overall combat and threat level as mentioned before.

"Is that so?" she stroked her chin, her smile widening at my answer, "Very well, I'm curious, pick one of them and you may fight them. If you impress me enough, you may be find yourself rewarded."

This time, as she said that, no quest screen popped up. So it looked like there wouldn't really be any system gains for doing this then I guess? Maybe if I had chosen both I would have gotten one.

"As you command princess," I dipped my head again, before turning to the lower levelled of the two, Ako and pointed at him, "I'll take this one on."

"Your high-" Ako began to speak up.

Azula rose her hand and shushed him, and he obeyed like a little submissive pet, "You don't waste any time do you? Quite the boldness to you, how interesting," she looked at Ako with a predatory smile, "Well, you heard him, prepare to face off against Zan here."

"..As you command your highness." Ako agreed and stood up.

The other Imperial Fire Bender and Azula stepped away, moving out of the way. While they did that though, I had something else to do. And that was spending the ten stat points I gained from levelling up.

Name: Zan

Race: Human

Level: 3 (233/276)

HP: 1600/1600 (80 Regen per minute)

CP: 1120/1120 (55 Regen per minute)

Strength: 16 (17.6) (18.6)

Endurance: 16 (17.6) (22.6)

Dexterity: 16 (17.6)

Luck: 6

Stat Points: 0

Gacha points: 0

I put three in each in Strength, Endurance and Dexterity and one into Luck. I was tempted to dump them all in strength so I could hopefully just get close and smash him in a few hits, that seemed like my best bet from what I could gather from the information on level assessment for others besides me, but it was probably better to play it safe for now. And even better, it seemed that my chi points were restored when I levelled up.

Once Azula and her other little submissive guard were far enough out of the way, the beautiful princess lifted a hand into the air, "You may begin boys." she stated.

As soon as she said so, Ako exploded forward, dashing towards me. As he did, he threw a rapid jab through the air, firing a large fireball towards me and following behind it.

It was fast!

Chi ignited along my arms and I threw up a guard, blocking the flames and parting them like a river around a rock. As I parted them, Ako was already attacking again, suddenly in the air, he shot down towards me from above, one leg outstretched for a flying kick, his leg clad in an aura of flame.

I could dodge and take no damage. But, I have a better idea.

I thrust my hands up, and took the kick. I choked as the strength of the blow smashed into my chest and suddenly I was flying back, but not before I unleashed another combined flame stream from my fists right into him at point blank range! I pumped double the amount of chi needed for the technique into each of them.

An explosion rocked the deck, and I skipped and rolled across the deck backwards before igniting flames around my fingers and slamming them into the deck, skidding myself to a halt on all fours.

I was prepared to launch myself into another attack, but there was no need. Because, Ako lay on the other side of the deck from me, half his armour scorched away, showing a burned, balding head and one half of a pointy moustache, the other half having been burned away by my attack.

​

(You have defeated Imperial Fire Bender Ako! Gained 75 Experience Points!

You have Levelled up!)

​

Just before the level up notification pooped up, I noted my stat bar. Two specific parts on it.

HP: 1370/1600 (80 Regen per minute)

CP: 920/1120 (55 Regen per minute)

Eesh, even with my resistances, that kick alone did over two hundred points of damage to me. Two hundred and thirty to be specific.

(You have gained 3 Reputation with Azula.)

(You have gained 1 Affection with Azula.)

The sound of clapping once again drew my eyes to Azula once again, "My, you do things a bit differently don't you?" she eyed me with those crazy eyes of hers, "Taking a powerful blow like that just so you could be sure to land your own. A brutal way of fighting and not something I would ever need to do stoop to, but I can't say it doesn't have its charm."

She turned to the other Imperial Fire Bender beside her, Shen, "Drag that fool off to the medical bay, and while you're at it, clear out the bedroom he and you have taken up residence beside mine," she ordered, before turning back to me and smirking, "I've found a much more interesting personal guard."

...I'm starting to regret choosing this option. Maybe I would have been better choosing the Zuko option? Now that I think about it, I could probably have got some instruction from Iroh if I did.

"Zan, come with me." Azula waved at me and bid me to follow her. I withheld a sigh, but did as ordered.

I brought up my status page as I did, and spent my stat points. I ignoring luck this time, putting three in strength, one in endurance and one in dexterity.

Name: Zan

Race: Human

Level: 4 (32/388)

HP: 1800/1800 (80 Regen per minute)

CP: 1320/1320 (65 Regen per minute)

Strength: 20 (22) (23)

Endurance: 18 (19.8) (24.8)

Dexterity: 18 (19.8)

Luck: 7

Stat Points: 0

Gacha points: 0

'The experience needed for levelling up seems to be rising rapidly.' I noted with interest. At level one, it had only taken me three sets of thirty experience to level up. To go from level four to level five fully, if I didn't already have thirty two experience already towards it, I'd need at least thirteen of them to level up.

...Actually now that I think about it, what does the luck stat even do?

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)Hmm? I wonder. Well, it's pretty straight forward and gives you some good benefits. Think on it a little bit, the system isn't just going to spoon feed you every answer you know?)

​

What a bullshit answer.