Chapter 302: Musings on the 3rd class I

“Thanks for helping me out.” I plopped down at a table with Artemis and Maximus, relaxing at the school after a lecture.

“Brrrpt. Brrrpt!” Auri took a drink out of the dish Maximus laid out for her, appreciating the Good Stuff.

“Of course! You’re sure we can’t pay you?” Maximus asked. “It’d be the easiest thing. What you’re doing for us is just so valuable…”

I shuddered.

“No, please. I’m Oathbound not to, remember?”

Maximus looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged.

“I don’t remember, but if you say so.”

“We’d help you out anyway, healy-bug.” Artemis leaned back in her chair, putting her feet on the table. Maximus gave her a dirty look.

“It’s my school, my chair, and my table. I can put my feet on it if I want.” Artemis defended herself. Maximus just sighed.

“Moving on. 3rd class, right?” He asked me.

I nodded.

“I’ve gotten some good advice from Night, Hunting, and Destruction. Specifically, wait some time to figure it out, find something I love, and find something that works with my kit. Given that you’ve made a study out of this, I was wondering about your input.”

“Know what you want before you go in.” Artemis cheerfully told me. “Like. The System’s pretty cool. If you work towards a specific class, it’ll be on offer in your first class-up. It might not be the best choice there. Gods, it’s unlikely to be. But it will be there.”

“You should pay attention to all this Auri, it’ll help you get better Fire classes.”

“BRRPT!”

Auri was instantly lasered in on my two mentors.

It was all about the right motivation.

“It’s worth playing around with your general skills.” Maximus leaned forward, getting animated. “You can probably get an Earth [Mage] class easily enough. But if you know you’re getting Earth [Mage], you can temporarily ditch a few of your general skills, get [Meditation] and a few more related skills, level them up, then class up. It’ll give you a significantly stronger start on the class, potentially move and merge the general skills into class skills, which will accumulate and build up as you advance your class. You can also remove the skills after getting the class, and put your old skills back in.”

“At level 1.” Artemis added in.

“At level 1.” Maximus agreed. “Normally, I’d caution you on how long it takes to level the general skills back up, but… that’s not a concern for you, is it?”

I shook my head.

I had time. Finally. Time, and more importantly, safety. I’d rushed quite a few class ups when I was younger, desperate for enough power to not be left behind. Needing strength to protect myself.

Well, I don't have those concerns now. Death was no longer nipping at my heels. I could take the time to do this right.

“You should bond with Auri first.” Artemis added in.

“Brrrrrrpt?”

“Bonding is…” I trailed off, not sure how to explain it super well.

Artemis and Maximus glanced at each other.

“Does Auri not know about companion bonds?” Maximus asked.

I frowned.

“I don’t think so…”

“Auri, would you like to learn about them?” Maximus asked.

“They’re a totally cool skill that relates to me.” I added in.

“Brrrpt!”

“Right, Auri and I will duck out for a minute.” Maximus and Auri left to another room.

“Let’s talk about you.” Artemis took her feet off the table, and sat up somewhat normally. “There’s quite a few ways we can go about this, but let’s tackle abstractions. [Warrior]. [Mage]. [Healer]. [Ranger]. [Laborer]. [Artisan]. [Leader]. [Priest]. And a few more esoteric ones. Are there any that jump out at you?”

“[Healer].” I answered, and at Artemis’s puzzled look, I explained.

“My healing class and abilities are top-notch. I have a few small holes in what I can and can’t do currently, but nothing major. I just don’t see myself taking another [Healer] class. What would I do with it?”

Artemis patted her sides and cursed.

“Always forget the damn things. One moment.” She ran out of the room, leaving me with a flickering torch for entertainment. I amused myself by eavesdropping on Maximus’s lecture with Auri.

“... bonds are believed to be lifetime, but your lives are not linked. The benefits are numerous, like…”

A moment later I heard Artemis’s footsteps running back through the halls. She came back in, holding a few scrolls and charcoal sticks.

“Let’s write this all down.” She handed me the writing implements, and I rolled my eyes at her.

“Running a school, and you’re still trying to get out of work?” I teased her.

“I’ve had you doing my scut work for years, just because you outlevel me, freed me from slavery, and are now a Sentinel doesn’t mean I’m going to start doing it myself again.” Artemis had absolutely no shame. Here I was, giving free lectures on medicine, making her school an attractive center of learning, and I was being made to do my own writing.

I wrote down the abstractions - putting in [Other] for the extremely rare ones - and crossed off [Healer].

“Any other ones you feel strongly about?” Artemis asked, and I scanned the list.

“[Priest].” I decisively crossed the option out. “I’m just not that religious.”

“A somewhat foolish take.” Maximus had absolutely perfect timing with that line, as he and Auri returned to the room. “Not the [Priest] abstraction, but the lack of faith. The gods do regularly answer prayers from the faithful, and it would behoove you to pick one god or goddess, and regularly pray to them. Then, in a moment when it’s needed, you can ask for a boon. It only takes a brief thought in passing, now and then, to potentially save your life one day.”

I had to reluctantly admit he had a point there.

“Brrrpt?”

“Yes, there’s a Goddess of Fire. Ildia.” I answered Auri.

“Brrrpt!” Auri got a strained, constipated look on her face.

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

“I’m a bit surprised you’re not jumping straight to [Mage].” Artemis leaned back. “Last I remember, you were entirely obsessed with magic.”

“That’s my problem.” I admitted with some embarrassment. “Everything is super cool, how can I decide? Sure, [Mage] lets me manipulate the elements, but an [Artisan] can create gigantic murals with a thought. A [Farmer] can grow an entire field in a day. An [Illusionist] can make themselves invisible. A [Cook] can instantly prepare fantastic meals, or even give small buffs! The ability to instantly clean a house. I have to wonder if teleportation is a thing. It should be. Can you imagine, going anywhere in the world in an instant? A -”

Maximus cut me off.

“I get it, I get it. It’s great, isn’t it?” He was grinning at me, a fellow kindred soul in the world of exploring everything the System could do.

“Why don’t we tackle this from a slightly different direction?” Artemis asked. “We’ve got two fields removed, and would I be right in saying that while you’re keeping your options open, [Mage] is still a top-tier choice for you?”

I nodded in agreement.

“I don’t see you becoming an apprentice to somebody else.” Artemis added in.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, [Apprentice Baker]. You’d go for [Baker] or bust.”

“Sure?” I agreed, somewhat taken aback by the change in direction.

“Just narrowing things down.” Artemis said.

“Similarly, do you see yourself doing hard physical labor for extended periods of time?” Maximus asked, and I shuddered.

“No thank you! I have enough work on my plate before getting a class like that.”

With that question, a lot of ideas and classes faded away. I wasn’t going to be a [Bricklayer]. I wasn’t going to be shucking fish. My career as a field hand died before it began.

I slowly nodded as I saw where Maximus and Artemis were going with this. Smart questions, designed to tease out what I wanted. Good questions, eliminating vast swathes of choices, making decision paralysis less of a problem.

They were the best.

“Brrrpt!”

Second best.

“You mentioned time.” Artemis said. “That makes me think towards a hobby class of some type or another.”

“Well…” I hedged, not wanting to narrow my choices so dramatically.

“Combat classes are still on the table. However, do you want to take a class that requires years of education to become good at, that requires thousands of hours to have a beginner’s proficiency?” Maximus asked.

“Like what?”

“[Architect]. [Engineer]. [Lawyer]. [Inscriptionist].” Maximus listed off. “We explicitly don’t train those here. We don’t have the staff needed to do them justice.”

“Yet.” Artemis Looked at Maximus, and there was a lot in there. “It’s why we’re so grateful you’re teaching the medicine classes again.”

I held my hand up as I leaned back in my chair, thinking about it.

“I don’t think I’m inherently against needing years of education to get a good class.” I slowly articulated, getting my thoughts together. “However, many of those classes are also high stress, busy professions. I think many of them are off-limits based on the ‘how long it would take me to get anywhere with them’, but not on the ‘it takes me time to learn’. After all, I’ve got time, right?”

“That you do!” Maximus agreed.

“And,” I sat up in my chair, getting excited at an idea. “Inscriptions are generally a skill, right? Not an entire class?”

“There’s generally a predominant skill to make Inscriptions, with the rest of the class skills being support, yes.” Maximus said.

“But not always?”

“Not always. It can be part of a larger class. Naturally, the Inscriptions wouldn’t have the same benefits and bonuses that someone with a dedicated class can do.”

“Like how I can pick up a spear easily, but I’ll never be as good of a fighter as someone who actually has a class and skills for it.”

“Not quite, but close enough that the differences don’t matter.” Maximus agreed.

“I can totally get Inscriptions in [Butterfly Mystic]!” I practically shouted, standing up as I did.

“That’s your learning class?” Artemis asked.

“Yeah! It picks up skills easily. I just need to study an Inscriptionist, probably a Radiance one, and I can get the skill! After I merge [Solar Flare] and [Sun’s Heart].”

I started pacing; I was so excited. Inscriptions! I could make enchantments! Nothing I’d seen so far had particularly wowed me, but I’d suspected that Asura’s casting method was similar.

Real similar.

Then again, I could be going “Hey, ships and houses are both made of wood! This is easy!” Like, yes. Learning to build one helped with the other, but they were also wildly different.

Also, I had the flex slot for now to level up and merge skills. Once I got an Inscription skill though, my slots would be locked, so to speak, and I’d be on pure upgrading of skills. I wouldn’t be able to pick up skills with an eye to merge anymore.

Ah well.

It wouldn’t be the end of the world. Now that I was back in Remus, the list of people I could learn from was kind of short.

At the same time, Awarthril had mentioned the Elven Academy…

“I should totally visit the Academy, and see what they have to teach and offer for powerful classes.” I muttered.

Maximus blinked.

“Excuse me?” Artemis asked.

Whoops. From their point of view that had been one hell of a non-sequitur. Kind of rude to dismiss them when they were trying to help me.

Focus on Artemis and Maximus now. Think about elves later.

“Sorry, was thinking out loud. I got sidetracked. What’s next?”

“Brrrpt.” Even Auri was unimpressed with me, as the three traitors shared a look.

“From a fun, awesome magic angle. What are some neat stuff you’ve seen people do? What would you like to mimic?” Artemis asked.

“Your Lightning.” I promptly replied. The memory of Artemis dancing with a Lightning-construct on the streets when I was a kid was seared into my memory. It was still the coolest thing I’d ever seen, bar none.

Looking back on it, Artemis had been a HUGE influence on me, and, well, everything.

She ruined the moment by punching me in the arm.

“No, really?”

I looked at her, trying to convey just how much she’d done for me.

“Yes, really.”

Artemis looked started for a moment, then quickly turned. I still caught the tear forming in her eye.

“What else?” Maximus asked, saving Artemis from cracking her voice.

“Arthur’s stealth is pretty amazing. His poison is quite something. I wish I had a better grasp of what Origen could’ve done with his runes. Julius’s speed was impressive. Destruction-”

Maximus put a hand over his heart.

“Ouch! What about me? What am I, chopped liver?”

“No, boring.” I retorted perfectly, and Artemis snickered.

“Brpt brpt brpt.” Auri laughed at Maximus’s face, and, well. He totally deserved it.

“Destruction’s earthquake. Tornados. Hunting’s Void magic, although for the reasons we discussed I’ll probably be a-void-ing that.”

I wriggled my eyebrows at my glorious pun, as Maximus groaned.

Artemis threw a quill at me, and I expertly leaned out of the way.

“Nyah!” I stuck my tongue out at her.

Stats ruled. Speed was rapidly becoming a favorite of mine.

“Moving on. Magic’s ability to completely disappear. Bulwark making walls, Sealing’s barriers. Actually, cancel Bulwark’s walls, Sealing was much cooler. Night’s, well, everything. Acquisition teleporting money around.”

I got a pair of strange looks from Maximus and Artemis at that.

“What!? It’s super cool!” I defended myself.

“You’re supposed to keep Sentinel skills under wraps.” Maximus said.

“Like senior Rangers like the two of you don’t know their entire public kit already.” I retorted.

“True.” Artemis admitted.

“Nature growing anything under the sun. Like, having a whole kit of anything and everything in his belt? Plus, free mangos, what’s not to love? Cancelers are interesting, although I think I’d be actively hurting myself doing that, hitting people from far away, FLYING!! Oh! And while I’ve barely used them or touched on it, potions are pretty neat. I’d like to learn how to make them. And…”

Artemis facepalmed while Maximus slowly shook his head.

I got the hint they were sending.

I just chose to ignore it.

I was on a ROLL.

“Lava magic, Sand magic, glass, singing glass into shape, whistling blades, Ooze has tons of potential, summoning chains and shackles and rocks on people seems completely bonkers, and let’s not forget about mile-long sniper shots. That’s before high-flying precision strikes, explosive gas, ripping weapons out from the wall, traps, and so much more. Like singing! Bards can do some neat stuff, and I do have a minor talent for storytelling. Oh! And the dwarves did neat things with implants. I could do a bunch of implants, then modify my healing to ignore them.”

“Copying other bards.” Artemis coughed into her hand, and I shot her a betrayed look.

“She’s not entirely wrong.” Maximus agreed. “Although, your stories were endlessly entertaining. It’s worth looking into that, especially if you enjoyed yourself.”

“Let’s tackle [Warrior]. I have no idea why you’re keeping it on the list.” Artemis pulled no punches.

“My thinking is that I’ve got a bunch of magical stats. Healing. Destructive, medium range combat magics. My weakness right now is when someone gets close up, and when I’m out of mana. A [Warrior] class would fix that.”

“Mitigate it.” Maximus corrected me. “You’d still be one physical class against two, or, if things continue the way they are for you, three physical classes. You’re not winning that.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t be a fish on the chopping block against a halfway competent Mirror [Warrior].” I argued back. It was my class after all!

“Let’s leave [Warrior] on the list, and work out what type of fighter you’d want to take.” Artemis said.

“Brrrpt.”

Auri thought poorly of my idea of being an up front, close and personal fighter. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t weigh on the scales, but she also had no experience. Her opinion shouldn’t count for that much.

“Brrrrpt!!”

I rolled my eyes at her. She was massively interrupting in the rudest way, but eh. I had a soft spot.

“No, I’m not going to just take a Fire [Mage] class and be done with it.”

“Brrrpt?”

“Because I already took a Fire [Mage] class once! I’m exploring the rest of my options.”

“Brrrpt!”

“Fine, if nothing else is good, I’ll take Fire [Mage].”

Artemis winked at me from behind Auri’s back. She’d been the one to train me as a Fire [Mage] in the first place. She knew how likely it was that I’d take it again.

Which was a great angle of attack for another day.

“There are as many different types of warriors as there are stars in the sky.” Maximus grabbed one of the scrolls that Artemis had, unrolling it and starting to write himself.

I briefly debated correcting him on the insane scale of how many stars there were in the sky, but decided against it.

“Is it safe to say that army-style fighters are out of the question?” Maximus asked.

I tilted my head.

“Not sure what you mean.”

“What he means are people that fight with others next to them.” Artemis said.

I shook my head.

“Interestingly, this makes me think we should look at gladiators, and their styles. Although, given that it’s a backup meant to cover your holes, how do you plan on getting enough experience in the class to level it enough to be significant?” Maximus asked.

“Forget the detailed view. Balanced. Defensive. Offensive. Fast.” Artemis disagreed.

I thought about it a bit, remembering the conversation I had with Senti-Null.

“It’d have to be offensive or fast. My healing’s too good to waste it on balanced or defensive.”

I wrote the two down on my scroll.

“And do you love fighting?” Maximus’s question was pointed.

I hesitated, and added a question mark next to [Warrior].

He had a point. If I took [Warrior], I wasn’t exactly sticking to ‘things I loved’. It was more a chore, another trick in my arsenal dedicated just to staying alive.

That was a good reminder.

“I think [Ranger] might also be out.” I reluctantly admitted, not quite willing to cross out [Warrior] yet. I did cross out offensive and left in fast.

I’d totally be down for a high-speed running class that happened to abstract into [Warrior]. Something that both let me run and fight at high speeds?

I could see myself happily doing it. Run, be free, be the [Beloved of the Wind], and in a pinch it had physical fighting skills to keep me alive, or escape trouble?

I circled it, but paused my charcoal stick on my way over to [Ranger].

“I have a thought on [Ranger] for you.” Maximus said.

“What’s that?”

“Well, first off, a class focused on Auri here would be a [Ranger] class.”

I instantly circled the class, and circled [Mage] while I was at it.

“And since you mentioned a willingness to learn, I’d like to share with you a class idea I’ve got rattling around. I haven’t seen anyone take it, but it should be viable, powerful, and scratch your itch for interesting magics.”

“Ok, you’ve caught my interest. What is it?”

“A Inscription archer. Not sure on the element, a few work. The idea is you put Inscriptions on various arrows, or perhaps the arrow shafts or feathers instead of the head, then you’ll always have the right arrow for the job. Archers frequently get some sort of stealth ability, which will help you hide, and get a longer range than most mages. Usually, it’s at a cost that their arrows aren’t as powerful as a similar spell, but you’d mitigate that with your Inscriptions! Endlessly flexible, and it doesn’t matter if they burn out, because you’ve already made your shot!”

I thought about some of the archers I’d known. Arthur, with his ability to go almost invisible, and hit monsters with surprise poison arrows. Aegion with his sniping. Oozy, with -

Fuck.

He was dead.

Another one of my Ranger Trainee friends who hadn’t made it through his first round.

I let the sadness well up, then pass me, and thought about another dead teammate of mine.

Origen with his runes, and the enchantments found in our armor. It’d be honoring him in a way, to take an Inscription archery class.

Plus, I was moderately sneaky, and found myself often sneaking around. Inscriptionist wasn’t the direction I’d seen myself going in, but it did scratch a few itches of mine.

I had the time… why not learn about it?

Heck, I wondered if they tied into Asura’s method of casting spells? That’d give me a strong class option in that direction in [Mage], while also supporting Maximus’s proposed class.

“What are the downsides?” I asked, sure there was a catch.

“Nobody’s been willing to try it out and tell me.” Maximus complained. “It should be doable, from everything I know about the System, but I don’t know for sure, because nobody’s tried for it.”

That was potentially a huge black mark against it, but I was willing to trust Maximus.

Like. Worst-case I asked Librarian, she said no, and I picked my second or third string choice. I wasn’t going to settle for ‘only’ aiming for one class.

“I’ve got [Beloved of the Wind]. Makes me think I should aim for something in that vein.”

Maximus got an awkward look on his face.

“I’m not terribly familiar with beloved classes, but picking your entire class based on your mostly random starting class element is generally a bad idea.” He said.

“Aww, knock it off. It’s a love class. She loves the wind, it loves her. There’s a strong affinity there, and it’s worth exploring.” Artemis disagreed.

I was probably due a moderately good class off of beloved… but I wasn’t sure how much that counted compared to everything else I’d done in my life.

“If I work with the general skills I have now, wouldn’t their high level give me a much stronger starting class?” I asked.

Maximus nodded.

“Could be worth seeing if a number of your general skills work well together. It’d indicate a bend or direction that you’re already inclined to take, upgrade your skills into class skills, give a strong starter class, AND free up a few slots for new general skills.”

I looked over my general skills with an eye to see how many I could squeeze together.

[Oath] wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t taking a healing class.

[Long-Range Identify] was likely to stay on its own. Unless I got the archery class Maximus was suggesting?

[Hatchling Rearing] would hopefully upgrade to Auri’s companion skill, class., and that was a strong option for a class. However, but I didn’t see it merging with other stuff. Except maybe [Long-Range Identify].

[Pristine Memories] had potential.

[Bullet Time] also had potential, and both it and [Pristine Memories] affected my brain. So did [Oath], thinking about it.

[Sentinel’s Superiority] seemed to be firmly stuck as a general skill, and its global boost to all my class skills was insane. I wasn’t sure if it was possible for it to move, especially as it hadn’t been an option for [The Dawn Sentinel].

[Persistent Casting] suggested meta magics, which had me looping back around to Inscriptions. Maybe? It was a bit of a stretch, but sometimes the System worked with that.

… it was a really BIG stretch.

Lastly was [Passionate Learning], and that instantly jumped at me as having strong synergy with [Pristine Memories]. I could do something with that. I loved learning, and having a perfect memory was awesome.

Maybe they could work with [Persistent Casting] for some sort of powerful Inscriptionist?

“The other abstractions I’m going to leave alone.” Artemis said. “They’re more of a personalized hobby pick. Let’s look at the real choices. [Mage], and the elements.”

“Brrrpt! BRRRPT!”

“Yes Auri, Fire’s the best element.”

“Brrrpt.”

Maximus pinched the bridge of his nose.