Posted by Senior Counselor Windwalker on April 02, 2000 at 14:28:19 PM CDT:

One day I met a kind fisherman in Vesper. He approached me and asked my opinion about his fishing skill. He was kindly complaining about the chance of fishing a SOS, which was in his opinion too low with respect to the hard time he had to get his skill to GM level. I tried to explain the many news introduced with the skill management system. Still, he was quite unhappy.

He emailed me after that, so I decided to send him a short story that came to my mind thinking of the first time we met. I know this didn't solve his problem, nor did it raise his chance to fish a SOS, but it probably brought a smile to him. And now, when for any reason we still meet every now and then on the shard, we never miss to exchange a greeting and a smile.

So I thought I could share it with you as well. I hope you'll like it as he did.

Senior Counselor Windwalker
European Shards

-----

One day, in Britannia, close to Vesper's docks, a GrandMaster Accountant was enjoying the early Spring sun, 57.16 degrees over the foggy horizon. He stopped by along the coast of the Ocean, took his Calculator, performed a few quick calculations and started to think.

"It's wonderful! With this elevation over the horizon, the sun can still give 84.02% of the heating power it can give when it's just at the zenith. This will allow me, in only 2.65 hours, to get as many Sun-Tan points as I would gain in 4.22 hours being in Yew, where, as everybody knows, the sun is never beyond 48% degrees over the horizon, not even in full Summer!". With that, he leaned down on the fresh grass, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and thinking of all the poor Apprentice Tanned of Yew. They would be surprised, seeing him coming back with 100 points of Sun-Tan. He started imaging their white skins at the thought, showing off his Tan on the docks.

He narrowed his eyes, but couldn't miss to notice a pretty young girl, with long black hair, wandering alone on the other side of the dock.

"If I stood up and approached her now" he thought "I would lose 12.7% of my Tan points". He quickly evaluated the convenience of this action and thought that not even such a cute girl was worth the loss of his Tan gain during his Power Hour. "If she's still there at the end of the hour" he said to himself "I'll take care of her".

He couldn't help himself with smiling at the thought, and unconsciously started evaluating the gorgeous body of the girl using his uncommon Anatomy skill. Within a few minutes, he had composed a full map of every inch of her beautiful outline. He took his Palmtop, connected to Stratics, had a quick look to a table and smiled: the chance to meet such a gorgeous babe for a GrandMaster Accountant was only 2%. "This is a lucky day!". He closed his eyes again in the warmth of the sun.

But after a few minutes, a shadow started hanging over him. He opened his eyes, worried, as he had still over 30 minutes of his Power Hour left, and he didn't want to miss even a single Sun-Tan point. To his surprise, he spotted the wrinkled face of an old man covering his sight of the sun.

"Please forgive me, Master", the man started to speak "but I couldn't help myself with noticing you are a GrandMaster Accountant". Meeting you is such a honor for me, may I dare to ask your services?", and with that, he began deeply bowing.

"Good day to you, Sir" he answered "please stand up, and tell me about your problem. But please, be so kind to move a little bit and let me enjoy the light of this wonderful sun, so that I don't miss the 2.3 Tan points that I can still gain from the remaining 26 minutes of my Power Hour."

The old man shifted a little bit, sat on a bench and started speaking.

"My Master," said the man, "I tried reading the last official News, but that language is hard to me. I am sure you can enlighten me about their meaning."

"What is your job?" inquired the Accountant. "I am a Scribe" replied the man. "And what's your skill score?". The old man gave a slight start. "I can read 45 here... 'real' value... I'm afraid I'm not sure what this means. But what I know for sure is that, despite of my efforts, my knowledge is no longer raising as it used to do in the past. Oh Master, help me please. What am I doing wrong?"

"But yes!". The Accountant took his Calculator again, performed a few calculations and started to speak. "My friend, you aren't surely aware of the latest News about your profession. There is a very simple way to quickly increase your level of knowledge. I will explain you... please take a note". The old man took a parchment scroll and started to write as the Accountant spoke.

"Well, at a score of 45, you should start inscribing 3rd level spells. When the hourly gain of your skill falls below 75% of the gain you used to have when inscribing 2nd level spells, start inscribing level 4. But be careful not to go beyond 47% of the sum of the skill scores you had when starting level 2 and level 3. If this happens, take note of the score you have and start level 5. Let's call this score N. Do not forget it!"

The old man was anxiously writing.

"At a skill score of N*1.76" went on the Accountant "start inscribing level 6 spells. If your score is below 68, do not inscribe spells requiring more than 3 reagents, otherwise alternate spells needing 3 and 4 reagents. Now compute your percentage of success. Let's call it P. Every P/10 scrolls, take a book containing at least 2P words but not more than 4P and fully copy it on a blank book. After you have copied 12 books this way, start inscribing level 7".

The Scribe started slightly sweating, but did his best to keep on with the instructions and write down everything.

"Now add 25% of your current skill score to the score you had when you started inscribing 2nd level spells, then add P*N/200. If the result is greater than 80, start level 8. Otherwise keep inscribing 7 until you meet the condition. Once you are at level 8, alternate two elemental summoning spells and one resurrection. But never use Energy Vortex! It would deadly lower your skill gain!"

The Accountant was smiling. "Follow these instructions, and you'll be GrandMaster in a flash". He stared at the old man, who was finishing to write his notes, breathless.

The Scribe put the scroll back into his backpack, wiped the sweat from his face and stood up. "Thank... thank you, my Master... I'll remember your valuable lesson". He bowed again and walked away without any further comments.

The Accountant smiled. "Soon or later" he thought "I'll have to start asking for a fee as a consultant. Thanks to me, that Scribe will save 22.61% of the time he would need to become GrandMaster without my suggestions."

Then, all of a sudden, he noticed a small crowd who had gathered around him, curious for his discussion. Everybody started asking him advice about skill gain, but the Accountant kindly replied: "I beg you, good men, I still have 11.5 minutes of my Power Hour. Please, let me enjoy the sun for this short while, and let me gain these last few points of Sun-Tan. I'll be available for you immediately afterwards."

He was about to lean down again, when he spotted a young man who was peacefully fishing by the railings of the dock. He had to be in his early 30's. Without any special reason, the Accountant realized he was curious to know something more about him. So he stood and approached the man.

"Good day Master," the man greeted him as he saw him approaching, "is there anything I can do for you?". The Accountant smiled: thanks to his 8412 points of Fame, everybody was able to recognize him as a GrandMaster Accountant. He was especially proud of that knowledge, as the damned Palmtop refused to give out that information. But he had made a clever interpolation of all data from the monsters he had killed, so he was able to perfectly know his Fame level. Something definitely uncommon in Britannia.

"Hail good man," he replied "may I inquire about your name?". "Oh" said the fisherman "my name would have little meaning to you, but you can call me Wind Walker". "Wind Walker?" the Accountant stared at him in amazement. "Please forgive my daring, but where does such an odd name come from?"

The young man smiled. "Do not doubt, you will soon understand." The Accountant wasn't understanding at all, but continued. That man was somehow confusing him. "And pray tell, why didn't you join that small group over there? Perhaps there is something useful I may be able to tell you."

"I wouldn't know," said the fisherman "what about?"

"I see that you are a fisherman, you will be surely interested in the latest News about your profession". The young man cast the fishing pole in the bright water of Vesper's sea once again. "Tell me"

"Well," began the Accountant "First of all, I noticed you keep fishing always in the same place. You have no idea how wrong this is! If you move, at least 15 steps every time, your skill gain might increase by over 100%!"

"Thank you," replied the man "but I have quite a hard time in moving much, didn't you see my legs?". The Accountant looked at the man's legs and noticed with horror that one of them was missing, cut at the level of the knee. He couldn't avoid to wince with pain. "Do not worry," the man smiled "it happened some time ago, when an Accountant like you convinced me to fish in the middle of the Ocean. I was young and dumb, so I bought a boat and started sailing alone. But one day a sea monster, shaped as a huge serpent, attacked me. I could barely save my life, and managed to get back to the docks, but during the fight the monster snapped my leg" a shadow crossed his eyes "... and this is the result."

The Accountant could feel his pain. "I am so sorry, I should have noticed" and lowered his eyes. "Oh, don't be sorry, my friend." replied the fisherman. "You see, there is something nice in all of this. As I cannot move much, I fish a lot, here at the docks, every day. This way I quickly became grandmaster fisherman and chef. I organize small parties for the kids of the town and I cook the fishes I get for them. Then, at night, I stare at the Ocean and I allow my mind to run over the wings of the wind and I imagine to be in some far land. That's where my name comes from, you see?... 'Wind Walker'. I let the wind take me where my legs are no longer able to walk... isn't that amazing?"

The Accountant kept silent, as he felt that the fisherman was special, and was thinking of a way to help him. "Listen," he said "you surely are not aware of the latest royal law about fishing. You are a GrandMaster Fisherman" he bowed slightly "and Our Liege has decreed that a GrandMaster Fisherman has a good chance to find a SOS when fishing in deep water! I absolutely have to introduce you to a friend of mine. He owns a ship and is an excellent warrior. He could protect you from sea monsters while you fish, please allow me to make you meet him. You'll be reach! But you must hurry, as the royal guards are applying a new decree that makes finding a SOS much harder!"

"My friend," replied the man "please do not be deluded, but I have no idea what a SOS is. I don't need any wealth, nothing would make me richer than seeing these kids happy as we cook the fish together. And nothing in the world could convince me to leave this place. Look at this Ocean, don't you see how clean and beautiful it is? Here I can find the best fish of Britannia. And since the harbor has been cleaned, I'm finally no longer fishing those ugly dirty bottles my house is full of!"

The young girl with black long hair, at the other side of the dock, was listening and laughing silently. She approached the fisherman and hugged him tenderly. The Accountant, confused, had no clue what to say. He waved a goodbye, took his backpack, and started making his way to the road for Yew. As he was pushing through the crowd, he carelessly had a look at the horizon and saw that the sun was 31.42 degrees over it. "No longer enough to gain some Sun-Tan at my level" he said to himself. But for some strange reason, that thought was no longer disturbing him.

.