A Gamer Into Trails

As always, Giliath demands your power stones!

*****

"Hahaha! I'll give no comments for that. But that's enough about me and the Royal Harem that Grandmother approved of. It's still a progress in the works, and it won't come to fruition for a while still. So let's leave it like that, shall we?", I said, trying to persuade the two to keep this discussion there for now.

"Fine by me. We still have a mole to kill. This Instance Dungeon isn't over.", Lechter replied with a nod of his head.

"Yeah. It is possible we'll be able to kill the Boss in one hit. The Instance Dungeon was adjusted to Tio's Combat Parameters when she was still Level 1, so my ability thought Level 10 was enough to challenge Tio. That's likely what the Boss's Level will be but you're already Level 16, Tio. I don't think the Boss will prove much of a challenge because of that. It didn't factor into how stupid my title is when it's equipped.", I said to Tio.

"That does make sense. My Combat Parameters are already much higher than what should have originally been. And it's all because of you.", Tio replied. She smiled. It was still pretty rare to see Tio smile, so I was happy for her each time she was able to do so.

"You can say that again, kiddo. Because of what Young Master can do, you've already exceeded the expectations of this place. So I say we go out with a bang. I can go in and lure the mole, while you try to blast it apart with the most powerful Art you got. You should have more available to cast now, right?", Lechter suggested.

"Mmm. I do, thanks to those three Slots. I only have access to some medium-sized Arts, not anything super powerful. But we could do as you suggested.", Tio replied with a nod of her head.

"Well, what Lechter suggested is one way to approach this. Do not forget our next target are those mole Monsters. They can spawn in others, remember? Are you sure you don't want to take advantage of that? It's not like we can spend an eternity here killing those spawned moles, but we can spend a good time trying to kill some.", I replied to the two.

"True. We should take advantage as we see fit, but is it really worth it? The kiddo was already seeing diminishing returns being only a couple Levels higher after that third battle ended. She's almost twice as high in Level now. There won't be much to it, right?", Lechter wondered, recalling my words earlier. I smiled widely and let out a big laugh.

"Hahaha! Spoken like a true Gamer already, Lechter. Maybe you're more suited for this job than I am. Wanna switch places?", I questioned, teasing Lechter.

"Hell no. You can have that life, Young Master. I'd rather kick back and keep being my lazy sleaze-bag self, only having to report on situations when I really need to. School studies is already enough as it is too.", Lechter immediately answered.

"Hehe.", Tio replied, letting out a rare giggle.

Even I was surprised to see Tio do that. Let alone smile, she rarely laughs. Like, at all!

"Well, you got Tio to laugh, so no matter how you end up Lechter, we'll be friends from now on.", I retorted back at him.

"Okay?", Lechter questioned me, confused as to why I said that. Hey, I was serious there, you know? You'll be turning against everyone thanks to Father later on, but we can still be bros, right? Tio's going to be your enemy in the future.

Joking aside, we all shared a laugh during that. After that laugh ended, I glanced back at Tio.

"Anyways, we can proceed to go kill the Boss if you don't want to do any farming, I'm fine with that. Is it alright if I get another look at your new Status before we do that, Tio?", I asked. I haven't seen Tio's Status since she was Level 7, so it's probably looking much better now.

"Mmm.", Tio replied, nodding her head. Her happy expression only lasted for a short moment before she returned to her usual deadpan look. She was already turning into as big an expert as Lechter was when it was regarding my Gamer System. Just like how she would furiously type away at an Orbal Computer, she was quick to make her own Status appear out of nowhere, acting like second nature to her.

"You really adapt to this quick huh kiddo?", Lechter mused, seeing how effortlessly Tio willed her own Status to appear, sending it my way for viewing. I was already used to it like Tio was, considering it was part of me. I've been using the Gamer System for years, but it really was a surprise to see how quickly Tio adapted to using this System.

Still, her information was now displayed before me. I began glancing over her updated information. A lot sure did change!

[Tio Plato]

 Age: 9

 Level: 16 (1546/1600)

[Combat Orbment - Generation IV]

 -Slot One - Tier 1: Mind II (+25 EP) (+3 Water)

 -Slot Two - Tier 1: Scent (+40 EP) (+4 Wind +2 Earth +2 Fire +2 Water)

 -Slot Three - Tier 1: Haze (+50 EP) (+3 Mirage +2 Earth)

 -Slot Four: N/A (Locked)

 -Slot Five: N/A (Locked)

 -Slot Six: N/A (Locked)

Lines:

 -Earth: 4 Water: 5 Wind: 4 Fire: 2

 -Time: 0 -Space: 0 Mirage: 3

[Arts]

 Attack Arts: Stone Hammer, Petrify Breath, Aqua bleed, Blue Impact, Fire Bolt, Air Strike, Aerial

 Support Arts: Earth Guard, Earth Wall, Tear, Teara, Thelas, Curia, Sylphen Guard, Sylphen Wing

[Crafts]

 Attack Crafts: Beam Zanber

 Support Crafts: Analyze

[Equipment]

[Researcher - (Growth - Lv16  (1546/1600))(Upgradable)]

 HP: +220 EP: +350 STR: +55 DEF: +60 ATS: +200 ADF: +70 DEX: +35

 -Special Effect 1: Water Element Efficacy Rate: +100%

 -Special Effect 2: ATS +25% when battle begins, duration: 10 minutes.

[Status]

[WITHOUT WEAPON]

HP: 800/800 (+338) EP: 280/360 (+115)

STR: 50 (+10) ATS: 125 (+35)

DEF: 55 (+10) ADF: 95 (+35)

SPD: 35 (+8) DEX: 55 (+17)

(A/N: 360 EP Is with 3 Slots unlocked. EP is static. Does not increase with Level Ups))

[WITH WEAPON]

HP: 1020/1020 EP: 630/710

STR: 105 ATS: 355 (+10%)

DEF: 115 ADF: 165

SPD: 35 DEX: 90

'I did want to see if we could unlock Diamond Dust from the get-go, but I don't have enough Sepith to let Tio unlock Slot Four of her Combat Orbment. Should I switch her Mind II up with another Quartz? I'll have to check my Inventory to see if there's a Quartz in there that gives both Water and Space Counts...', I wondered to myself after reviewing Tio's Status.

Tio's Combat Orbment and her stats are already well underway on getting stronger. She has three Tier One Slots unlocked now. Three still remain, but hopefully we'll be able to unlock those soon. I'm sure the Epstein Foundation could lend all the Sepith Tio needs to do such a thing but we shouldn't rely on them. It'll be up to good old fashion Monster grinding!

This Instance Dungeon was just the beginning. We were able to come so far already, and I'm very interested to see how Tio will improve from here. It is a shame she can't cast Diamond Dust yet. Initially, this Art is less powerful than Blue Impact during the Sky Games. As Combat Orbments go through technological upgrades, Arts do change with them. Right now, Blue Impact should be insanely strong, but it becomes Blue Drop once the Enigma Combat Orbments enter the market. Blue Drop is less powerful, but also requires less EP to cast. That's how Arts behave as time passes. Diamond Dust is not strong now, but it will grow much stronger later.

So I likely don't even need Tio to adjust her Combat Orbment so Diamond Dust becomes available. Among the Quartz I have in my Inventory, I do have quite a few rare ones. That included the very hard-to-get Yin-Yang Water Quartz. You see, in the games, if you did certain Quests in the first game, that dialogue will carry over to the second game, triggering new Quests. There aren't many of these, but you can get the Yin-Yang Quartz from one of them. It is a Tier II Quartz, but it combines the effects of two other Quartz, Haze and Heal. Before specialized Quartz start appearing from Cold Steel onward making Trails Math a thing of the past, you would start to see this a lot before then. A lot of the higher rarity Quartz does combine effects of many others!

Because of that, they also combine the element Counts, while adjusting it to be something special. Yin-Yang gives a couple Space element Counts which neither Haze or Heal provides. With that, it is enough to use Diamond Dust. Sadly, it is a Tier Two Quartz, so even if I had it, Tio can't use it. She doesn't have any Tier II Slots presently active.

But like I originally said, while I did have interest to see if we could find a way to unlock a Tier II Slot for Tio, it isn't needed right now. With Tio's current setup, she can cast Blue Impact. With that in mind, I spoke out to her, after we had a good look of how Tio improved.

"Say Tio, can you display Blue Impact's information for me? We tested Aerial out last time. This should be the strongest Water Art you can cast against the Boss. Your Weapon boosts a Monster's element weakness by a large margin, so I figured we can test this Art.", I explained to Tio.

"That makes sense. Blue Impact is quite strong, considering what Arts we can presently cast. The Epstein Foundation has recently finished developing a new and improved Generation IV version, allowing people to have a third Tier in their Combat Orbments. It should arrive in the marketplace within the next year. Those special devices like the one you have, on the other hand, are still a while aways before they reach the market.", Tio explained to me. I had a feeling that was the case. Generation IV was currently available all around Zemuria, but my Enigma II wasn't. The upgraded version of the Generation IV model should be coming out in the next year, which is when Sky FC & Sky SC take place. So that was still progressing as it should.

"We'll be able to unlock a Third Tier to our Combat Orbments huh? Will we need to swap out our existing models entirely?", Lechter wondered.

"That is a good question.", I also said with a nod. Tio simply nodded her head.