You are player level 20 and may choose a class. Your friend of the bears trait has unlocked unique class variants.
Your current combat level is: 20.
Remaining: 33 SP and 9 AP.
He flicked his eyes upwards and scrolled through the list of available classes. After a few moments of intense study, he concluded that Aveyad’s book was accurate. The Game’s listed classes were identical to the ones in the Champion’s Handbook.
Satisfied as to the soundness of the information on which he was basing his player progression, he focused on the three classes he had already shortlisted.
Class: Mage
Class skills: (1) air magic, (2) earth magic, (3) fire magic, (4) essence regeneration, (5) wands, (6) mystical garments, (7) spellcasting, (8) water magic.
Class abilities: Summon familiar (allows the caster to permanently summon and bond a familiar that can cast on its own).
Class type: Combat (magic).
Pre-requisites: Minimum base skill of 20 in each of the class skills.
Skill points still required to achieve class: 79.
Class description: Mages are the ultimate magic users. Specialising in essence-based spellcasting, mages are devastating at higher ranks, whether against single foes or armies. Their only weakness is their dependence on essence. Without this critical resource, a mage is defenceless, and at lower levels a mage can frequently find himself vulnerable before a foe.
Variant available: Jade mage.
Variant description: In addition to the abilities granted by its chosen form, a jade mage’s familiar is granted jade armour.
Class: Wild druid
Class skills: (1) beast bond, (2) body control, (3) light armour, (4) psionics, (5) telepathy, (6) air magic, (7) earth magic, (8) supportive magic, (9) spellcasting, (10) water magic, (11) nature lore.
Class abilities: Wild shift (allows the player to shape shift into a learned beastform).
Class type: Combat (psionic-magic hybrid).
Pre-requisites: Minimum base skill of 20 in each of the class skills.
Skill points still required to achieve class: 52.
Class description: Druids are divine spellcasters who have a close bond to the land, nature, and its creatures. Normally found in service to the land as either its protectors or avengers, most druids are pledged to Auriel, the goddess of nature.
Wild druids also possess a powerful bond with the earth, but their ties to the land are not forged through the divine. Instead, a wild druid’s affinity with the land springs from the strong psionic and telepathic links he creates with wild creatures. So deep are these bonds that a wild druid can assume the form of the creatures he has befriended. This ability, combined with their skill in spellcasting and psicasting, makes them fearsome foes.
Variant available: Jade druid.
Variant description: A jade druid’s wild shift allows him to morph his shifted form into one with jade armour.
Class: Psi witch
Class skills: (1) psionics, (2) telepathy, (3) telekinesis, (4) air magic, (5) earth magic, (6) fire magic, (7) body control, (8) spellcasting, (9) water magic.
Class abilities: Energy conversion (allows the caster to use any energy pool for casting).
Class type: Combat (psionic-magic hybrid).
Pre-requisites: Minimum base skill of 20 in each of the class skills.
Skill points still required to achieve class: 42.
Class description: Psi witches are unparalleled psi and spellcasters. Their extraordinary ability to use any energy form for casting allows them to perform feats of magic and psi that few others are capable of. This makes them the perfect choice in battles against other casters. Also, due to their high mobility, even assassins and archers find them difficult to pin down.
Variant available: Jade witch.
Variant description: A jade witch gains the bear’s telepathy trait, increasing the strength of his psi abilities.
He chuckled as he read the Game information on the three classes and at last saw the effects of the friend of the bears trait. The trait enhanced each class in a small but appreciable manner.
If he became a jade mage, his familiar would gain the same jade armour as the great bears of Aiken’s clan. While as a jade witch, his telepathic abilities would be strengthened. And as a jade druid, when shifted into beastform, he himself would gain jade armour.
He shook his head in rueful appreciation. The matriarch has been generous with her rewards, he thought.
From across the camp, where the cub nestled his great bulk against the comforting solidness of a rock wall, Aiken huffed, indignant at Kyran’s surprise. Of course, the bear’s emotions and mental sendings, seemed to convey—the matriarch would not be so small-minded as to stint Kyran for his efforts on the clan’s behalf.
“I apologise, brother. I did not mean to cast aspersions on your clan,’’ Kyran said placatingly. He was surprised Aiken was still awake. He had given every appearance of being fast asleep earlier.
Aiken snorted in terse acknowledgement before closing their mental connection again.
Kyran smiled, amused by the bear’s defence of his clan’s honour. He was careful, though, to make sure Aiken caught no further trace of his mirth. The bear could be sensitive at times, and he did not want to be subjected to another berating.
In truth, he was pleased that Aiken was taking an interest in his surroundings. Ever since the bear had emerged from the labyrinth, all his mental sendings had been coloured with anxiety. Through their bond, Kyran had been unhappily aware of the fear that clouded the bear’s thoughts. He had seen it as well in Aiken’s hesitant steps and frequent glances skywards. Kyran had been worried. Now, though, much to his relief, Aiken seemed to be overcoming his terror.
He returned to his levelling. He only had enough skill points to attain one of his shortlisted classes—that of the psi witch. Even so, he would have to convert some of his ability points to do it, but he could become a psi witch right this instant.
The mage class, though it had the fewest pre-requisites, was the furthest from his reach because he had not invested in either mystical garments or wands & staffs. He would only be able to attain the class at level twenty-three.
The wild druid class, due to its high pre-requisites, was also out of reach at the moment, but he could still meet the requirements at level twenty-one. Before pondering his choices further, he raised the four skills in common between the three classes to the minimum pre-requisite.
Base skill in air magic has increased to 20. Effective skill: 51.
Base skill in earth magic has increased to 20. Effective skill: 51.
Base skill in water magic has increased to 20. Effective skill: 51.
Base skill in spellcasting has increased to 20. Spellcasting cost reduced by 10.2.
Remaining: 17 Combat SP.
Kyran closed his eyes as the Game reached into him and reshaped the magical pathways between his body and spirit. When the Game released him, he inspected the changes to his being. The pathways he used to channel earth, air, and water spells had fundamentally changed. They were larger, stronger, and more vibrant than the other magical channels to his spirit.
A satisfied smile crept across his face as he realised he had grown measurably stronger and could now cast apprentice-ranked spells from the earth, water, and air schools of magic.
A second later his smile died as more Game messages unfurled in his mind.
The power of all rank 1 (novice) spells is capped at a base skill level of 20. Raising your base skill beyond level 20 will not further increase the power of your novice abilities.
You have attained your maximum potential for your rank 1 spells in the schools of air, earth, and water magic. The strength of your novice spells in these schools has been capped at an effective skill of 51.
You do not have a class. Increasing a non-class skill beyond level 20 requires twice the normal SP.
To increase spellcasting, earth magic, water magic, or air
magic to 21 will require an investment of 2 SP.
The Game messages were a double blow to the gut. He breathed out heavily, trying to calm himself and work out the implications. He had not expected this. Why had the Champion’s Handbook not mentioned these aspects of the Game mechanics? Or had it?
He had not looked at the tome in a long time, assuming his time of study with it was done. Willing the book out of his inventory, he perused its pages again.
While in the labyrinth, he had pored over every chapter in the book except the one dedicated to novice abilities. He feverishly read its contents now.
There.
At the very end of the chapter, in bold and highlighted lines, were the very warnings the Game had just delivered. He closed his eyes, lamenting his oversight.
He had previously only skimmed the chapter, assuming that his experience with his own novice spells had already taught him everything he needed to know. It turned out he had been wrong. I should have known better, he thought.
But done was done. What he needed to figure out now was how this would impact him and his choices going forward.
He scanned the first message again. The hard cap on the power of his novice spells meant they would not indefinitely improve as he had expected.
The further he progressed in the Game, the less useful his novice spells would become. He would be forced to replace them with similar apprentice-ranked spells. Assuming of course that such equivalents were available.
It also meant that he would have to be more careful in his choice of abilities, because eventually even his apprentice-ranked spells would become obsolete when they capped at skill level forty.
It would be a balancing act, he realised, between choosing enough abilities to be combat effective in his current rank and saving his ability points for higher-ranked spells later on. The cost of abilities, he already knew, increased from rank to rank, so he would have to carefully ration them.
His breathing eased. The Game message had caught him off guard, but the situation was not as disastrous as he had first assumed. He could manage this new wrinkle.
However, the second bit of unpleasant news delivered by the Game would be much harder to manage. Frowning, he re-read the message.
To increase a non-class skill beyond level twenty, he would have to invest two skill points for every point of skill gain. Which meant his choice of class was even more critical than he first imagined.
When he had considered his potential class, he had focused primarily on the benefits he would derive in terms of the gained traits and abilities. Kyran had not overly concerned himself with the skillset of each class. He had fully intended on investing in non-class skills. Now that he was aware of the penalties for doing so, it was clear that he could not invest heavily in out-of-class skills.
He went back to studying the full list of available classes. After a few minutes, it became clear that this latest twist had reduced rather than increased his shortlist. He breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, he’d feared that he might have to change his current development path altogether.
Thankfully that was not the case.
Versatility remained Kyran’s overarching objective. And given his attributes, the two classes that offered him the most flexibility were still the psi witch and wild druid.
The mage class was no longer an option. Following the path of the mage would mean sacrificing one half of his only two advantages in the Game—his powerful psicasting.
That left choosing between the psi witch and the wild druid, which was no easy choice. Classing as a psi witch would mean not only sacrificing supportive magic—which he could live with, given Gaesin’s development down that path—but also light armour and beast bonding, which he was less thrilled about.
Choosing the path of a wild druid, on the other hand, meant giving up telekinesis and fire magic. Fire magic had been the skill he had depended most heavily on, both defensively with his fire shield and offensively with fire darts. But he would still have the abilities available, and, looking at the list of available apprentice-rank spells, he saw that there were suitable alternatives available in the other magic schools when the novice fire-variants became obsolete.
And, he reminded himself, if he became a wild druid, he could still invest in fire magic if he really needed to do so, though the skill point expenditure would be inefficient. Wild druid is the best option, he decided.
It had the biggest pool of class skills, better defensive capabilities with light armour, and a class ability that could one day prove to be truly powerful, especially given the increased defence provided to his beastforms by the jade wild druid variant.
Beastform, he realised, could also provide him with alternate melee options, given that he could not develop longswords either—a non-class skill—beyond level twenty without incurring harsh penalties. He nodded to himself, convinced that the path of the wild druid was the right one, even if it meant he would have to wait a few levels before classing.
With that in mind, he spent his skill points to meet the pre-requisites he could.
Base skill in beast bonding has increased to 20. Effective skill: 51.
Base skill in psionics has increased to 20. Psicasting cost reduced by 8.2.
Base skill in telepathy has increased to 20. Psi damage: 40.8.
Base skill in supportive magic has increased to 20. Effective skill: 51.
He was nearly there, he saw. He checked with the Game to verify the outstanding prerequisites.
Outstanding requirements for the Wild Druid class
Body control: current skill: 10, required 20.
Light armour: current level: 12, required 20.
Nature lore: current level: 19, required 20.
Just two more levels and I will be able to class without wasting ability points, he thought. He would have to be cautious on how he spent his ability points. No more could he afford to convert them into skill points.
The next matter needing his attention was his set of new spells. He called up the list of available combat spells.
Note: Apprentice-rank abilities cost 2 AP.
Available apprentice-ranked combat abilities
Beast bonding: Beast befriend, beast bless, beast dominate.
Body control: (locked, skill of 20 required) Boxer’s strength, dancer’s grace.
Telepathy: Psi shield, mass sleep, psi wave.
Air magic: Haste, mirrored selves, air armour, shock wall, shock bolt.
Earth magic: Poison dart, oil slick, poison blade, ironskin.
Supportive magic: Cure wounds, cure poison, healing wisp, null field, detect magic, magic shield.
Water magic: Ice elemental, monsoon, ice bolt.
Light armour: (none).
Psionics: (none).
Spellcasting: Delayed casting.
Longsword: (locked, skill of 20 required) Riposte, lunge.
Telekinesis: (locked, skill of 20 required) Trackporter, levitate, slow.
Fire magic: (locked, skill of 20 required) Fire weapon, fireball, firewall.
Studying the list, he saw there were only two spells purely focused on area-of-effect damage: psi wave and fireball. Fireball was still locked. Psi wave it is.
New ability learned: psi wave (sends a wave of psi rolling outwards in a straight line from the caster). Cost: 2 AP.
Remaining: 7 combat AP.
And, of course, with his intended class revolving primarily around beast bonding, he had to learn one of its apprentice-ranked variants. He chose beast befriend over beast dominate.
The leash imposed by dominate was akin to slavery, and revolted Kyran too much for him to ever be comfortable using against any creature. Befriend, on the other hand, employed a much lighter touch to form the psi bond between caster and beast.
New ability learned: beast befriend (persuades the targeted beast, of similar karma as the caster, into establishing a bond with the caster).
There were multiple single-target ranged spells to choose from, and eventu
ally, he would have to choose one of them to replace fire dart. Likewise, sooner or later he would have to replace fire shield with magic shield. But not just yet.
Nor did he need additional support or protective spells for the time being. Gaesin fulfilled the party’s support role, and with Aiken—and perhaps even the whiesper to rely on for protection—there was no need for Kyran to be at the centre of any future battles. He could stay back and rain down spells on their foes.
Which left only the crowd-control spells to consider. He ruminated over his choices: mass sleep, shock wall, oil slick, and monsoon. Of the four, shock wall was the only one that dealt significant damage over and above its disabling effect. He chose it without hesitation.
New ability learned: shock wall (places a permeable field of static at the targeted area).
He considered the remaining three. Oil slick was the spell that would serve best, he decided. It would work to slow their foes and allow the party’s three ranged attackers to deal more damage from afar.
New ability learned: oil slick (causes black oil to spill out of the earth at the targeted area).
Remaining: 1 combat AP.
And with that, Kyran was done with his combat levelling. Turning his thoughts next to his non-combat skills, he delved into the Game interfaces for his civilian path.
✽✽✽
Xetil fumed in impatience as his body corporealized back onto his bone throne. He was eager to begin the hunt. The meeting with Misteria had been most productive, yet every second that he further delayed his search made it that much harder to track down his fleeing quarry.
He and Misteria had come to an…accommodation of sorts. Misteria, the cunning vixen, also had a force in play somewhere within the mountain kingdom, or spies amongst its denizens at least. He was sure of it.
Sovereign Rising (The Gods' Game, Volume III): A LitRPG novel Page 7