For all the build-up, concentration, and PC I spent using my first skill, I really do have to admit, it was a massive fucking letdown.
I guess that was to be expected, considering it was a Non-Rank basic Talent Skill, but still, as I stood rooted in place watching the ripples spreading across the surface of the lake, I found myself feeling the urge to throw a temper tantrum.
Eight Feet, and so slow that I could have physically thrown it ten times faster, that was the result of the expulsion step. Hell, I’ve seen falling leaves move farther and faster than I just fired my Geo-Bullet.
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This skill is supposed to launch a projectile fast enough to kill opponents and cause damage, yet what transpired after nearly an hour of trial and error was like blowing a mouthful of air at someone.
In addition, the damn thing disintegrated before even reaching halfway through its already short lifespan, and around 4 feet after leaving my hand; it was already no more dangerous than the mythical attack known as...pocket sand.
With the surface of the lake coming back to stillness, I almost felt the need to say fuck it and give up on my new Talent; luckily enough, my natural stubborn mindset threw that idea away as quickly as it appeared, causing me to move on and examine how damaging the PC expenditure for my Sub-Talent use had been.
And I sincerely wasn’t expecting it to be as bad as what my Display panel was showing.
"Dear god…what the fuck, Collection cost me a whopping 30 PC, Refinement was another 20, and then 10 PC for expulsion; what in the hell…how is anyone supposed to even use something like this without becoming a potion addict." To my knowledge, a 60 PC expenditure for a single basic Talent skill was absolutely unheard of.
Although I understood it was partially my fault for dragging things out and not trying to speedily activate the skill, that didn’t matter much because, at the crux of the issue, the damn skill was a PC whore.
Even if I could somehow cut down the time it took for each step, after some quick calculations, I realized I would still be burning between 30-45 PC per use of Geo-Bullet.
Heaving a combination of annoyed and tired sighs, I popped the cork for one of my rapidly dwindling potion supplies and spent another 3 hours getting used to using my new Talent.
By the end of my little training session, I was confident enough to fully activate and use the stupid scatter shot of a bullet within a minute, yet it wasn’t enough for me to be satisfied.
Unless I could rapid-fire Geo-Bullet in less than a second, it would be virtually useless to me in a close-quarters fight, relegating it to a long-distance weapon…even though the farthest I had launched the bullet was all of 10 feet.
In the best-case scenario, I could use it as a distraction during the initial phases of a battle, but that would be it.
Unless the element of surprise was on my side, I couldn’t find a valid use for Geo-Bullet in its current state, a fact which would only continue to frustrate me further the longer I dwelled on it.
"While part of me wants to stay here and push my Geomancy up to Alpha rank…" pausing my monologue, I pulled up my system panel and checked the date…
"It’s already 3 am on January 13th…even by cutting down all that time, I still ended up wasting away the clock until the day before my birthday; oh well, I suppose it’s finally time to head back home." With that said, I got down on all fours and shoved my head into the lake before chugging down enough of the particle water to oversaturate my body with particles to a point where I felt full.
Sitting up, I shook my head like a wet dog before using my right arm to wipe my mouth and double-check my current PC.
{Alpha Particle Count: 175/25}
"Not bad, I was able to gain a significant amount of overdraw potential; still, the fact that I couldn’t reach 200 PC annoys me slightly, but whatever, it’s time to go back." Closing out my system panel, I headed to the opposite side of the cavern, where a second smaller light gate existed, the one which was both the exit and entrance to the Instance. Without looking back, I stepped through, returning to earth after a long couple of months.
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Traversing through light gates was never really something anyone could get used to, just like teleportation.
Both gave the feeling of being weightless. Unless you explicitly trained your senses not to go haywire, pretty much everyone would end up feeling like throwing up the second they landed back on solid ground, myself included.
However, after ascending to 6C, I noticed that the effects of such transitions had reduced drastically, leaving me with only a slight headache when my bare feet felt the plush carpet of my bedroom floor.
Lifting my arms over my head and stretching out my back, I knew there was no rest for the weary, and although all I wanted to do right now was flop down on my bed and sleep for the next two weeks, there was too much work to be done, especially since 1997 was going to be QUITE the big year for me.
When I sat down to come up with money-making schemes, several had entered my mind, some more lucrative than others, but one of the biggest ones, which could potentially bring in more than 23 BILLION, with a B dollars, would only be available one time.
In order to bring that plan to fruition, two things needed to happen: first, I needed to have enough strength to protect myself if push came to shove, and second, I would need to hop the pond to a little town in Scottland named… Edinburgh.