Blaise Corvin - Luck Stat Strategy

Secret of the Old Ones

Luck Stat Strategy

Secret of the Old Ones

Book One

By Blaise Corvin

Luck Stat Strategy

Copyright 2017 by Blaise Corvin

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Many Thanks

This book is for my awesome readers. My readers opinions make my writing better, their passion keeps me motivated, and their expertise allows me to write better characters.

Without my readers, Id just be telling strange stories to myselfprobably over too much rum.

Thanks to everyone who believes in me, I can tell stories to thousands of people, letting them share the pictures in my head.

-BC

Foreword

Hello readers! This is the second book Ive ever written! Huzzah! Now, I know some of you are sore that this book isnt another installment of Delvers LLC (Im looking at you, Mom). However, please trust me that writing SOO is actually allowing Delvers LLC to get written faster.

Now I truly understand why so many authors work on more than one story at a time.

Anywaysome readers may know this from the books cover, but Luck Stat Strategy is a LitRPG novella.

For Delvers LLC readers, please know that SOO is written differently than my other series. For one thing, this book is paced much faster. I tried to cram a full book into about half the word count. :)

Some readers might be curious what LitRPG means. The acronym stands for, Literary (or Literature) RPG (Role Playing Game). These types of stories have been extremely popular in Russia and other countries. Theyre just now making an impact in the West!

LitRPG is usually a funky mix of Fantasy and SciFi. The types of stories can vary, but what most LitRPG novels have in common is some clear method of progression (like leveling up) as well as a setting that most gamers can immediately relate to.

I really had a lot of fun writing this book. If youd like to visit my web serial website, the URL is http://blaise-corvin.com/

I also have a writers note in the back of the book with a whole mess of links as well as a few reading suggestions.

I hope you enjoy your time in Secret of the Old ones with Trent!

The World Tree

The character sheet read:

Name: Vale dePardon

Class: Occultist

Subclass: Explorer

Level: 10

Experience: 536542

XP to next level: 123468

Stamina: 49/49

HP 49/49

Mana: 70/70

Stats: (Total/Original/Level Ups/Bonuses)

Strength: 3/2/1/0

Agility: 7/3/4/0

Stamina: 5/4/1/0

Intelligence: 7/7/0/0

Willpower: 6/6/0/0

Luck: 15/8/4/3

Class Skills : Fencing, Ancient Body Magic, Paranoia, Ancient Occult Lore, Map Reading/Cartography

Permanent Bonus Source: Mystic Clover (Luck +3)

Trent Noguero smiled in satisfaction. It had been a long, hard road to hit level ten, but now his character, Vale dePardon, finally had a subclass!

Hed been playing as Vale dePardon in Secret of the Old Ones for a year and had just hit level ten a week ago. It was quite an accomplishment. Of the millions of people who were playing the game around the world, less than a couple thousand players had made it to level ten so far.

Level ten was a huge milestone and allowed a player to choose a subclass. Hed chosen Explorer, which allowed him to choose his fifth skill, [Cartography].

Now he only had a few more steps before he could start his grand, mystical experiment. He carefully tiptoed around the ornate sigils hed drawn in powder on the floor. He was trying to find one of the reagents hed taken out of his inventory earlier.

Where is itwhere is it? Ah, there it is! He found the glass tube of glowing blue liquid and grinned. He didnt have many more preparations to make. Vale carefully moved to the most concentrated area of the designs and symbols on the ground, some of which were glowing.

He took a deep breath. He only had enough *Distilled Azure Essence* for one try. He was about to make or break his complex magic gate spell. He uncorked the blue liquid and mumbled a few spells. The liquid began to bubble, and Vale threw it up in the air in a circular motion. In less than a second, the entire vial of liquid had turned to smoke. The sparkles in the air left over from the mystical reaction slowly settled to the designs on the floor.

Vale smiled and tilted his head back for a moment in triumph. Finally, he thought. He squatted down and carefully regarded the center of the spell network. The old, cracked parchment had probably been the luckiest thing hed found in the game so farif it actually was what he thought it was.

It was a big if.

It had taken him a month to figure out what the map might do, and after he knew, his mouth had gone dry from excitement. However, preparing to discover if he was right had been very expensive and time-consuming. Hed spent every coin he had to buy all the materials for the arcane accelerators and intricate symbols drawn on the floor. All his wealth had been used to cover his hidden cellar in ancient hoodoo.

At least the cellar had been free. He was just hiding in an obscure, out-of-the-way area and would leave when he was done. He wasnt sure if the cellar actually belonged to someone, and he didnt care. Their building was helping further scienceor magic, whatever.

He traced a finger along the mystic sigils rimming the maps edges and smiled. Hed been waiting a long time to test his theory. Now that he was so close, he felt anxiety building, the pressure crawling up his spine.

His subclass and his new [Cartography] skill were all part of a plan that hed been working on for half a year. Secret of the Old Ones deviated from other games with unique bonuses, skills, even rumored one-of-a-kind classes. In a game with 30 starting stat points, a level cap of 30, and only one additional stat point every level for a possible total of 60 stat points at max level

It was obvious that bonus stats would be a huge advantage.

When Vale had heard about these design decisions prior to playing SOO, hed decided on his strategy before even creating a character. Hed put as many points into the Luck stat as he could. In a game where stats were so important, where his character sheet even showed his original, level one choices, finding anything that could give him permanent bonuses would be amazing.

Luckily, two months in, his gamble had paid off. Whats more, he was able to find an amazing item that conferred a permanent attribute bonus of +3 Luck. Unfortunately, finding the Mystic Clover had been part of a long, involved adventure that had gained him a full-blown enemy.

Suddenly, he got a flashing system notice:

DANGER!

Unlike other notices, this one popped up and faded away on its own. Vales stomach dropped and he whispered, Oh no.

His [Paranoia] skill was currently letting him know an enemy was nearby, and he knew it had to be Brutus Vann, his nemesis, his enemy from the expedition where hed found the Mystic Clover. Vale crossed his arms and tried to decide what to do. It would be a few minutes before Brutus found himjust like he always did.

They had shared history, after all.

In the past, hed always fled from Brutus, managing to escape through luck and guile. Combat in SOO was a strange combination of in-game skills and real-life abilities. A character couldnt do things in the game very well unless they had a skill or class for it. On the flip side, if a character had a skill, they performed actions better if they had real-life skill and experience. The games system helped for skills that players were unfamiliar with, but there was no substitute for real training

The strange combat and skill system had actually motivated players to learn how to make antique crafts, pursue knowledge, and practice martial arts outside the gamepresumably, as the mysterious designers of Yggdrasil Entertainment had intended.