A Gamer Into Trails

Are you all enjoying the holidays?

Here's to some more Trails!

Most time spent with the family is now over. Apart from that, during this time, I focused on relaunching my Pokemon fanfic. It is now updating again!

On top of that, I do have an announcement for you all. I have finally made a Patre0n! Just do the normal url followed with /Aht666 (Needs the A too I think).

I will be changing how I approach lemon scenes going forward. They will not be directly posted here anymore. Instead, whenever you see a *** indicator at the end of a sentence or paragraph, that will mean for you to go to Patre0n to read the lemon scene!

Do not worry, I do not like blocking my content behind a paywall. All of my content on Patre0n is free. If you do see a subscription option available, that is only if you want to support me!

The next lemon scene for A Gamer Into Trails specifically likely will not happen for a while. Whenever the next one is posted, I'll give you readers a reminder.

Over time, you'll start seeing more and more collections added to my Patre0n.

As always, Giliath demands your power stones!

*****

With a heartfelt gratitude, Tio accepted the Scent Quartz. It was a grassy green in color, and the size of the marble-like sphere stretched a couple inches wide. Normal Quartz weren't terribly big. If I had to guess, Master Quartz were likely four to five times as big. They would eventually take up the middle slot in Combat Orbments.

I also finished using my Inventory, and brought out the basic tools one needed to tinker away at their Combat Orbment. It mostly involved a specialized hammer that could carve into what are called Lines. Along with Slots, the Lines are also sealed, until it is unlocked. These Lines allow the orbal energy to flow from one Slot to another, allowing one to cast more intricate Arts. If one had one singular line, they could potentially unleash the most devastating known Arts.

And in comparison, if one had several Lines that weren't interconnected, that would allow them to cast a more variety of arts. You would see that vary from character to character.

Tio in particular, however, was of the former. She had one of the few Combat Orbments that housed a single Line. To some people who played the Games, these were the ones that were sought after. You could create some crazy combinations with how the Quartz system worked back then.

The entire system changed once the Cold Steel games came out. What the fans call Quartz Math became a thing of the past, and Arts became steadily more available, depending on what Quartz you used. Lots of Arts were also tied to Master Quartz too. You didn't have to stack Quartz on top of each other to use a powerful Art. As long as you have the Quartz in question, you could cast that Art.

I do have some of those Quartz in my Inventory thanks to the several Quests I've completed over the years, but I should not use those right now. Just like with Professor Schmidt's current hypothesis, if they were used, then it was highly possible our existing Combat Orbments would just break apart into tiny little specks of dust. And that was because of how much orbal energy is released with the later generational Quartz.

The Quartz I'm giving Tio, on the other hand, appears both in the early generational Quartz and the later ones. It's one of the few you actually see a repeat version of it. Some Quartz do change elements over time. But right now, the Scent Quartz I had in my hand was of the Wind element.

So that meant it gave off a primary value of four counts of Wind. It also had a special effect, providing two counts of each other primary element. It didn't have any effect of the Higher Elements, just the Basic Elements. It provided four counts of wind, two of Fire, two of Earth, and two of Water.

It was a highly sought after Quartz for some, just from that affect alone. It allowed one to cast most of the basic Arts, and unlocked a very powerful medium-tier Art early on. The only risk the Quartz carried was its degrading effect, where you could easily get targeted by monsters close by. As long as you were within range of them, monsters would just attack you without question.

Thankfully, there was a single Quartz that counterbalanced the bad effect of Scent. I too had that Quartz in my Inventory. It was called Haze, and it belonged to the Mirage element. Adding to that, that's where the beauty of the three Higher Elements laid. You didn't have to be in a special area to use those Arts. As long as you had the Quartz, you could cast 'em.

Most normal monsters weren't weak to the Higher Elements, though. That particularly depended on where you were, or where Spirit Veins were presently active. Despite that, I still had interest in taking the Haze Quartz out. Before I handed over the orbal equipment to Tio, I decided to bring up this second Quartz.

"Say Tio, I should likely have enough Sepith on hand from the latest fight to let you unlock two of your Slots. The Scent Quartz will fill up one of them. If you are worried about aggroing too many monsters, I do have another Quartz in my Inventory that can cancel Scent's bad effect out.", I explained.

"You aren't talking about the Haze Quartz are you, Naoto?", Tio questioned, pausing her current motions. She still had the Scent Quartz in her hand. She had yet to tinker her Combat Orbment. The tools were out next to me now, but this was an idea I just thought of. I brought it up because I should have enough Sepith to let Tio unlock two slots, like I had just mentioned. It is just the first tier, so the required Quartz isn't a lot.

Let's say the very first Slot of six only required ten of each Sepith, then the second Slot would require fifteen, the third being twenty, fourth being forty, fifth being eighty, and the sixth being one-hundred and sixty. After the first unlock or two, it starts doubling the effects. That is why a single Line is the most expensive to unlock. And oppositely, if you have six different Lines, they would all require just the base ten Sepith to unlock, making them much easier to unlock.

I don't recall there being a character who had six Lines, the most being three or four. There might be one in Daybreak onwards. Shame I was brought into this world before experiencing Daybreak.

I personally have two Lines, so that means the amount of Sepith required to unlock each Slot will reset once for me, after I reach the third Slot. One cool thing about that was that you didn't need to wait for the fourth Slot to unlock it. The fourth Slot signaled the start of the second Line, meaning you could start unlocking the fourth and fifth Slots right away. It was up to how a person wanted to tackle it!

And likewise, with how each layout is, the amount of EP gained varies from each unlocked Slot. If you had a single Line, you would end up the most amount of EP obtained after someone was fully built up. It increases exponentially with a certain factor amount. I am not entirely sure what that number is, but I do know that it was always Tio who wound up with the highest amount of EP before the end of a game in the Crossbell Arc. They might have changed that in the later games since Quartz Lines aren't a thing in the later generations, aka Quartz Math, so I'll have to wait and see how that plays out.

But I think that's enough information to give for now. I went into a lot of detail explaining how the Combat Orbment works, so I'll return to the topic at hand. Unlocking a second Slot and giving Tio a second Quartz.

The reason why I want to upgrade Tio's Combat Orbment over mine is simple. This Instance Dungeon is mainly targeting her current combat parameters. The stronger she can get during this break, the easier she'll be able to mop up the rest of the monsters here. And secondly, it is because I have the Enigma II. Enigma II is the last of the devices that rely on Quartz Lines to use Arts. I don't know if it will behave the same way as the Games. The amount of Sepith required does reset once a game is complete, but if that doesn't happen here, then the amount of Sepith my Enigma II might require might be exponentially higher.

If the current generation Combat Orbment required ten Sepith of each element to unlock the first Slot, then it was possible my Enigma II could require 100 Sepith to acquire the first Slot.

You get the idea.

If it doesn't behave like the Games, then I likely don't even have the required Sepith to work on my Slots.

Just those points alone, it was clear enough to work on Tio's Combat Orbment first. Plus I wanted to see her wipe the rest of this Instance Dungeon.

Thanks to using two Aqua Bleeds and one Beam Zanber, she had 200 of her 250 EP left. I'd need to see how much Aerial costs, but she should only need one to wipe out whatever group is next thrown our way.

I nodded my head, seeing doubt in Tio's eyes.

"I am. Both Haze and Scent Quartz offer a pretty nice combination, don't you think? I got both ready to use, and I should have enough Sepith to unlock two of your Slots, if you're willing.", I suggested.

"If it was like before, I would be hesitant. But seeing the seriousness in your eyes, I should take it.", Tio replied with a nod of her head.

"The kiddo's right. Those two Quartz alone will give a much more variety of Arts to cast. You'll be able to stomp the rest of those spiders into the ground!", Lechter happily said.

"You make it sound so easy...", Tio retorted, returning back to her usual deadpan look. Hearing that, I cracked a smile.

"Haha! Didn't you just do that in the first two battles you finished, Tio?", I replied with a grin.

"That is true...those spiders were terribly easy to defeat. They also do not have high defenses, either.", Tio mused, recalling the first two battles she went through. No matter which Mottled Killer she attacked, they all died in a single blow. She hadn't fought a target that had high defense against Arts, so the rest of the Instance Dungeon should go pretty smoothly.

"Right? So go ahead and take these two Quartz. I'll give you some space to let you upgrade your Combat Orbment.", I said.

Seeing my resolute look, Tio simply nodded her head.

"Alright. Tio will for sure find a way to pay you back some day for this, Naoto.", Tio replied, cracking another rare smile. She didn't smile a lot, but during moments like this, they did start to come out naturally. That was definitely a good sign to see.

It gave me another urge to pat Tio's head again, but I withheld that urge. Instead, I activated Inventory a second time, and brought out Haze. She already had the tools and Scent, so I just needed to give this second Quartz for her.

I did get a notification, saying that it was subtracted from my Inventory. Guess that's how my Inventory is going to behave whenever I lend items out to someone. In this case, I don't think I will be getting these Quartz back, so the message didn't use any wording like "borrowed". I do hope Tio will continue to use these Quartz, until she decides to upgrade her Combat Orbment more, down the line.

"Thank you.", Tio happily nodded, receiving the Haze Quartz.

We then took a moment to wander to a safer area inside the dungeon that would trigger no monster attacks. Our conversation quieted down, and Tio started doing her thing. A soft hum of a hammer tinkering away at her Combat Orbment was the only sound that began to spread throughout the large and seemingly-endless tunnel...