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Piercing Shot: Focus your energy into a single arrow, allowing it to penetrate the target's armor and inflict massive damage. Damage scales with Mana consumed. Can only be used when the target's health is below 30%. One-minute cooldown, three-second cast time. No level requirement.
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Inside the potion shop in the Starter Zone, Amy's hands were actually shaking as she held the skill book Flynn had just handed her. Her chest rose and fell in quick, uneven breaths, and all that calm professionalism she usually carried? Completely gone. Flynn, meanwhile, was doing his best to sneak a glance at how her tight leather armor hugged everything, running a quick mental calculation.
'B-cup? Maybe a C? Yeah.'
Amy had no idea she was being mentally graded. She was still stuck on the skill description. "Wait," she finally managed after catching her breath. "This is... this is for me? No. No way. I can't accept this. Do you have any idea what this actually is?"
"A Ranger skill book," Flynn replied easily. "What's the big deal?"
She stared at him as if he had just claimed a diamond was a shiny pebble. "Yes, it's a Ranger skill. But it's not like that Lockpicking book you found before. The skills you learn from a Class Trainer are Common Skills. Everyone gets to pick one. They're standardized. This," she said, tightening her grip on the book, "is different. This is a Special Skill. Trainers can't teach these. You only get them from rare skill books or very specific quest rewards. And Piercing Shot is an Intermediate Special Skill."
In Age of Conquest, skills were divided into tiers: Basic, which covered levels up to twenty; Intermediate, from twenty to forty; and Advanced, which currently capped the known progression at sixty. Intermediate Special Skills were rare enough that most players never even saw one in the early stages of the game.
Piercing Shot had no level requirement, meaning anyone who possessed the book could learn it immediately. That detail alone made it priceless in the current market. Amy did not even dare to guess what someone would pay for it.
"It's expensive," she said at last, her voice lower now. "Insanely expensive."
Flynn dismissed the concern with a casual flick of his wrist. "Friendship isn't measured in gold. Just take it. And maybe remember me next time you find something good."
Before she could protest again, he reached into his inventory and produced another item. "Actually, here. Hold onto this for me too."
A ring rested in his palm.
Amy froze.
Her thoughts derailed in an instant. First a skill book worth a fortune, now a ring? Her heart thudded against her ribs in a way that felt far too dramatic for a virtual world. The silence between them stretched uncomfortably as she stared at the band of metal.
It was not even a particularly pretty ring. It looked solid, masculine, and practical. If someone were going to propose, she thought faintly, they could at least pick something with a little taste.
Heat crept up her neck before she could stop it. She hated that her imagination had sprinted so far ahead of reality, but the combination of his earlier generosity and the unexpected gesture had left her flustered.
Flynn waved a hand in front of her face. "Hello? Earth to Amy. Where'd you go? I need you to hold it and ask your brother if any of his friends want it. If not, sell it for me. You can keep ten percent."
Her expression collapsed from flustered to blank in record time.
"Oh," she said, and the note of disappointment slipped out before she could catch it. "So the ring isn't for me?"
Flynn blinked. "For you? It's got Strength and Health. It's not even usable by a Ranger."
Amy straightened immediately, composure snapping back into place like armor plates locking together. "That's not what I meant," she muttered, taking the ring from him and focusing hard on its stats so she would not have to meet his eyes.
A moment later, her professional instincts took over. "Wow," she breathed. "This is best-in-slot for a Main Tank."
Strength, Health, and Critical Strike Chance. Three perfect attributes for any strength-based melee class. Accessories that boosted Health were rare in the early game, and finding one with balanced offensive stats as well was almost unheard of. Amy herself only had a single mediocre ring from a treasure chest. Her other slot was still empty.
"I can't even price this properly," she admitted, shaking her head. "Aren't you worried I'll rip you off?"
Flynn stared at her as if she had just insulted him. "I just handed you an Intermediate Special Skill and you think I'm worried about a few coins?"
Despite herself, she laughed. The sound eased the last of the tension between them. There was something disarming about Flynn's mix of audacity and humor. He pushed boundaries, certainly, but there was no malice behind it, only a kind of reckless sincerity.
"Fine," she said. "I'll handle it. You'll get every last coin it sells for. As for the other gear…" She glanced at the handful of Bronze items he had transferred to her. "We'll probably use some of it. I mentioned before that I'm part of a studio. It's small, about a dozen people."
"If you can use it, keep it," Flynn said. "Call it a gift."
Amy shot him a warning look. "I already feel guilty about the skill book. If I take all this too, I'll never be able to repay you."
A slow grin curved across Flynn's face. He leaned in just enough that she caught the faint scent of the standard in-game perfume most female avatars seemed to wear. "There are creative ways to repay someone," he murmured softly.
"In your dreams!" Amy jumped back as if he had cast a fire spell at her feet. Her face flared red all the way to her ears, and this time there was no hiding it. "You're unbelievable. Where did you even get all this stuff? Did you rob a GM?"
"Do I look like I can mug a GM?" Flynn shot back. "Besides, I thought the whole game was run by the Aether-Core AI. There are no humans to bully."
"Don't dodge the question. Where did you get it?"
"An NPC gave me the skill book."
Her eyes narrowed. "What kind of NPC hands out something like that? Yesterday you were bragging about a blacksmith giving you a pickaxe."
Flynn relented and summarized the questline for her, explaining how the blacksmith's request had led to a hidden chain, how one task flowed into another without ever clearly labeling itself as such. "I think I'm two or three steps in. I still have to turn in the latest part. So far I've gotten the pickaxe and this book."
Amy's skepticism faded into excitement. "You should feel lucky. A unique tool and an Intermediate Special Skill? That sounds like you hit a high completion score on the quest."
"Completion score?" Flynn echoed, his ignorance once again on display.
She did not even tease him this time. "Hidden questlines are made up of interconnected tasks. Sometimes the system prompts you to continue, but other times the clues are subtle. Whether you unlock the next stage depends on how you handled the previous one. Dialogue choices, optional objectives, how you treat the NPCs, all of it matters. Some quests are implicit. You never formally accept them. You just meet certain hidden conditions and receive the reward."
"Implicit?" he repeated.
"It won't appear in your quest log. No notification. For example, mining a thousand ores quietly grants you a point of Strength. The system tracks things in the background. My guess is that you triggered something like 'Listen to Parker's Troubles' just by talking to him properly. That's probably where your chain began. And the skill book, you must have satisfied a hidden objective when you helped John kill Kolut."
Flynn nodded slowly. "John did say I fulfilled his dying wish. That must have been the clue."
"Exactly." Amy's eyes shone now, the earlier embarrassment forgotten. "That's what makes Age of Conquest special. The world reacts to you. Secrets are hidden everywhere, tucked inside NPC conversations and item descriptions. If you pay attention, you get rewarded."
He smiled faintly. "Alright. So where do I check this completion score?"
"You can't," she said, spreading her hands. "It's a hidden metric. The more optional conditions you fulfill, the higher it goes. Higher score means better rewards. According to the forums, nobody has ever reached one hundred percent. Most people are lucky to break thirty or forty."
"I wonder what mine was," Flynn mused.
"If you had scored over eighty percent, you would have received a special achievement. No announcement means you were under that. Don't overthink it."
He gave a small laugh. "Fair enough."
Amy shifted her weight, glancing toward the door as if remembering the time. "I should get back to grinding. And… thank you. For the skill book." Her expression softened just a little. "I'll buy you dinner sometime. And if you find more items like this, come to me first. Our studio can offer better prices than random buyers."
"Deal," Flynn said, giving her an easy wave. "Go get stronger."
He watched her leave the shop, a thoughtful smile playing at the corner of his mouth. She was capable and sharp, but there was still a streak of earnestness in her that made her reactions honest, unguarded and interesting.
Once she disappeared into the bustle of the Starter Zone, Flynn took out John's Medallion and let it roll across his fingers.
"Time to go see Parker," he muttered to himself. "Let's find out what he's got for me."