I returned to Covern House and finished up my selections. I started with three combat skills.

  Shield Breaker. Gorver recommended it and I saw Justinian use it quite effectively. Shield Breaker breaks both magical and mundane shields. You need to employ a weapon of some kind, so I think of it as a melee skill. At level one, it breaks all shields equal to or lower than my level. At level 5 it breaks shields my level + 10. For me that would be level 50 shields. I do believe this could be a critical weapon in my arsenal, so I go ahead and raise it to level 5. Using the weird skill level cost formula, I find it cost 5 skill level points. I hate math.

  Sneak is actually a stealth skill, but its big plus is that it can be activated while in combat. It has a few additional bonuses. At level 1, you move silently. At level 3, when activated, it causes any enemy to be unable to see you and breaks any taunt buffs. At level 5, no one can see you. It is a sort of invisibility. Like normal Stealth, if you attack someone, the invisibility breaks. However, at level 10, Sneak doesn’t break even if you hit someone. Level 10 would cost half my skill level points, so that’s off the table. However, level 5 is worth it. Five more points spent.

  Danger Sense detects any danger around you based on your perception score. It’s not magical at first, it like a super situational awareness. The magical effect comes at level 5. Level 5 has a 3 second future sense. Clairvoyance for 3 seconds. The worse the danger, the stronger the sensation. It’s also good for sensing traps. Danger Sense is a passive skill. I like the idea of the future sense, so I spend the 5 points needed to get to level 5.

  I also selected Party. Party does what you expect it to. It allows me to form a party. At level one, I get up to 6 party members, not including myself. I also get the ability to see my party member’s health. Which is great for the healer. This way I know who needs healing the most. At level 3, it adds a communication capability. At level 5, it allows 9 more members to join the party, at level 10, 24 more people. While it is not a fighting skill, it is a team adventuring skill. Level 4 is all I need.

  I picked up some vision skills also. Far Sight is like telescopic vision, who wouldn’t want that. Being able to see far away as if it were close up is going to be an excellent skill. Level one lets me see 100 yards distance, like it was 10 yards way. Level 5 brings it to 1000 yards and 5 yards away, respectively. This will be excellent for gathering quest. I don’t see much need beyond 100 yards, so I leave it at level 1.

  True Sight provides some really great functionality. At level 1, I can see clearly, though darkness, through smoke, or most magical obfuscation. Level three add the detection of secret panels, doors, and floor pressure panels. Level 5 add the ability to see through illusions and glamours. I haven’t really experienced a lot of those, so I am not sure if that would be useful. Finally at level 10, I can see into the ethereal plane. I don’t even know that that is, so I don’t care at the moment. I settle for level 5, costing 5 more points.

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  After selecting the new skills, I review my list of skills.

  Skills:

  Combat 10

  Magic 10

  Weapons 10

  Sword 10

  Dagger 10

  Spear 7

  Unarmed Combat 7

  Identification 10

  Partitioned Mind 6

  Slow-Time 6

  Explorer 3

  Intimidation 1

  Nullification 2

  Negotiation 4

  Unbroken Mind 5

  Take Me Home 1

  Second Chance 1

  Harden 1

  Shield Breaker 5

  Sneak 5

  Danger Sense 5

  Far Sight 1

  Party 3

  Far Sight 1

  True Sight 5

  Healing Aura 1

  It is getting quite long. I imagine in the future; it will be even longer. Intimidation, Take Me Home, Second Chance and Harden stand out to me because they are all at level 1. Harden, I believe I can level on my own with little trouble. Second Chance is a definite no to leveling on my own.

  Second Chance at level 1 has a 30 day cool down period. At level 3 that is reduced to 15 days. Level 3 also provides invulnerability for 15 seconds. Fifteen seconds should be just enough time for me to reorient myself and decide if I need to stay and fight or runaway. The reduced cooldown and temporary invulnerability make raising it to at least level 3 mandatory in my book. I allocate the 3 skill level points. Second Chance is now at level 4.

  Take Me Home is an excellent escape skill. The ability to set a return location can be a life saver. At level 1, I can set 1 location and change it after 30 days. At this level, it is not very versatile. I will set it to my home garden, because it is usually empty, if I am not there. At level 3, I can add a second temporary location that lasts 2 days. If I don’t renew it, the temporary location expires and is deleted. At level 5, I get to reset the temporary location after an hour. It also lasts up to 2 weeks. This allows me to change the temporary location without waiting for it to expire. At level 6, if I am in a party, the entire party comes with me. Level 6 is very tempting, but it would be 7.5 points. I don’t know if I am willing to spend that much on it right now. I don’t have immediate plans on being in a party. I also don’t know if I have a need to reset the secondary portal every hour. I finally decide to go with level 3 for now. I can raise it later if needed.

  Lastly, Intimidation. I got Intimidation when I drove off those bandits. I haven’t used it since. Of course, I can see how I could use it to stop a fight before it even began. If you are intimidating enough, people will leave you alone. Since I have 54 skill level points left, I decide to allocate 3 points raising it to level 4. This leaves me with 51 skill points and 25 skill leveling points. I think I will hang on to them for now. Who knows what I might need in an emergency.