Chapter 133: Class Upgrade, Part 2 (Patreon)

The other classes have some cool gimmicks, but not having a tame makes their benefits unreliable and risky.

That leaves Companion Defender and Infusionist.

Defender promises a shield to combine with Companion’s Assistance’s sword. Aside from my tough-ass body and inner-exoskeleton, I don’t really have any means of defense. Danger Detection does a lot to keep me alive, but there are some attacks I simply can’t avoid.

When I fought Asher and the Superheated Grand Tastillin, all I could do was brace for the incoming fire damage. The same applies to the snowstorm I faced just a few hours ago. Without armor, I'll probably face thousands of situations where I'm forced to rely on my bare skin and bones for protection. I can block direct attacks with my gauntlets, but I’m powerless against splash effects like Asher’s fire sword and area of effect attacks like my gravity magnification field.

Infusionist promises more augment-type skills like my companion skills. Without Suggest Companion dulling my physical and mental suffering, I'd be crying in the fetal position right now.

Or worse, dead.

Not to mention, Suggest Companion has turned me from a bumbling idiot with no combat ability into a really fast bumbling idiot with zero hesitation and instant reaction time. Additionally, it lets me micromanage my unconscious body, giving dozens of benefits like mitigating injuries, removing taste when eating something bad, increasing body heat production, ignoring fear…

The applications are practically limitless. 

Suggest Companion is the gift that keeps on giving.

Heal Companion is the same, allowing me to fight death-defying battles without stopping for days on end. Without that skill, I’d probably be in the open world section of the tutorial right now, clearing settlements one by one. It's also saved my life by healing injuries that would've otherwise killed me, but that’s obvious.

One Mind/Two Bodies might be less appreciated than the other two, but it opens an avenue of combat that wouldn’t be possible without it. The skill's main purpose is to merge my mind with my companion. I have no use for that part, for obvious reasons. But its secondary effect lets me boost my mind and control my body to an unbelievable degree, along with enhancing my brainpower and letting me multitask.

Without it, I wouldn’t be able to cast spells relentlessly and would have to close my eyes to focus like the countless mages I’ve seen so far. I certainly wouldn’t be able to do it while dodging lethal attacks and punching things hard enough to throw them off their feet.

Infusionist implies that I’ll get more stuff like that. It says the class’s skill is a selection of some kind, making the exact applications vague, but also specialized to what I need.

So…

Guaranteed defense, or powerful but unpredictable buffs?

The answer seems obvious. Shoring up weaknesses should always take precedence over strengthening my best attributes.

Simple is best, as they say.

And nothing is simpler than a shield to protect myself from harm.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut…

Epic versus Legendary.

Infusionist grants four more stat points per level, and no doubt has higher-quality skills compared to the epic Companion Defender.

But I really want that shield.

I sigh and stand, collecting all the plastic wrappers from the loaves of bread. A quick walk takes me to the window, where I throw all of it down to the courtyard below. The screen hovers in front of me as I make my way up the castle, making me reconsider the options with every step. 

It’s time to take the lesser option.

It pains me to give up on a legendary class, but I need what I need. Before I make my decision, I read over the two classes repeatedly, looking for anything I missed before.

Right as I lift my finger to select, my eye widens.

Wait!

The description for Infusionist says ‘tames’ instead of ‘companion’!

Doesn’t that mean I could take multiple tames again!?

It’s not the fact that I could get a new tame that interests me. Rather, it’s the fact that I can distance myself from the ‘companion’ subclass. Ever since the ground rumbled and I first saw the system screen on Earth, I’ve wanted to be a mage.

Brax mentioned a ‘full reversal’ when he explained how Hinder changed his path with a single class upgrade.I don't have nearly enough dedication to becoming a mage to pull off a full reversal, but Infusionist could be the first step toward distancing myself from taming and getting a real mage class.

Companionship Pact Leader is a complete, hundred-percent taming class, but Infusionist is kinda half-buffing and half-taming.

If I’m lucky, my tier four class upgrade could be mage-based in its entirety. Hopefully, I won’t lose the effects of my taming skills when that happens, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

With a confident grin, I raise my hand and make my final selection.

[   Companionship Pact Leader > Infusionist   ]

[   Banked experience granted   ]

[   Skill Selection Available   ]

[   Infusionist (lv. 45) > (lv. 47)   ]

[   Tamed Being slots set to 3   ]

I gasp and drop to one knee as the stats hit me. My mind expands, and the mana current circling inside me grows stronger. My mana veins become a little clearer, and my mana becomes a little denser.

“Holy shit.”

That’s… amazing.

System, stats.

[Vitality: 181 > 201]

[Strength: 157 > 167]

[Agility: 111 > 115]

[Endurance: 195 > 211]

[Fortitude: 181 > 201]

[Intelligence: 53 > 80]

[Wisdom: 116 > 147]

[Perception: 100 > 113]

“Hahaha!” I yell and squirm with joy.

My Intelligence almost doubled in just two levels. The other stat increases confuse me at first, until I remember that I never checked my stats after killing the frost troll and maxing out Solo Stomper.

I can’t wipe the smile from my face as I walk up the stairs.

This is it.

My first step to becoming a true mage.

Now that I think about it, getting four levels in both my class and species from one monster is absurd. Then again, converting its tier a level brings it to 112, which is almost two and a half times my level.

Almost two and a half times my level. If you don’t add my class and species together, that is.

Still, eight levels from one enemy is crazy. At least, I assume I’ll also get two levels in my species when I evolve. I’ve killed a lot of people who were just below tier four, and they only gave me a fraction of a level.

Technically, two levels. One for my species and class.

Is the difference between tier three and four that big? The troll itself wasn’t that strong. If I weren’t fighting the environment alongside it, things would have been far easier.

Hmm.

Maybe it was weakened or something?

Or maybe I wasn’t an actual threat to it until the end of the fight. Until the finishing blow, all I did was leave some small scratches and bite marks on it.

I shake my head at my shameful display after losing myself to my hunger during the fight.

I had a perfect chance for a haymaker when I was on its chest, but I abandoned it to fill my stomach.

Something’s happening to me.

Before the integration, I'd gone hungry on Earth, but never enough to lose my rationality and jump at the nearest food source. Granted, the hunger I faced on Earth is nothing compared to what I feel in the tutorial.

It’s a difference of ‘ooh, I’m pretty hungry’ and ‘I’m fucking dying of starvation’.

Still, something’s off. Is it really me who’s jumping like an animal at fresh meat?

I think it over for a few minutes, then shrug and hop onto the throne. I rub my hands and lick my lips as I open the system screen once more.

Time for something a little more interesting.

[   Skill Selection Available   ]

Hell yeah!

[   Select a method of infusion   ]

[   State   ]       [   Element   ]       [   Effect   ]

Well, that’s new.

Element is obviously something like fire or water.

As for state and effect, it could be anything.

What does it mean by state? Like an emotional state?

I can already manipulate my emotions with Suggest Companion, so that would be useless. Surely, that’s not how it works.

I chew my lip as I think, but I have no idea where selecting state would take me. Knowing the system, selecting one option will probably make the others unavailable.

Effect is the same. I can think of thousands of different effects off the top of my head.

Vague, vague, vague.

I balance the Hobgoblin King’s sword on one finger as I consider the three options. I’ll get more opportunities as I make my way through tier three, so I’ll go with the safe choice.

[   Element   ]

The second I tap the screen, paragraphs of text appear.

[   Gravitic Infusion   ]

[   Send mana through the Tamer’s Bond to infuse a tame with the user’s gravity affinity. Allows the infused tame to resist all gravity-affinity spells and skills powered by the Infusionist’s mana. Gravity resistance scales with skill level, distance, Unity, the user’s gravity affinity, and the tame’s gravity affinity.   ]

[   Iatric Infusion   ]

[   Send mana through the Tamer’s Bond to infuse a tame with the user’s healing affinity. Aligns the infused tame with the Infusionist’s mana signature, increasing the efficiency, quality, and speed of all healing-affinity spells and skills powered by the Infusionist’s mana. Healing efficiency, quality, and speed scale with skill level, distance, Unity, the user’s healing affinity, and the tame’s healing affinity.   ]

[   Kinetic Infusion   ]

[   Send mana through the Tamer’s Bond to infuse a tame with the user’s force affinity. Allows the infused tame to disperse, focus and redirect all force-affinity spells and skills powered by the Infusionist’s mana. Relayed control scales with skill level, distance, Unity, the user’s force affinity, and the tame’s force affinity.   ]

Oh. My. God.

Archmage Kevin is so fuckin’ back.

These are all insane. Instead of scaling off stats, they all scale off other things that my unique situation maximizes.

Skill Level? I’ll be leveling.

Unity? Maxed.

Distance? Maxed.

My affinities? All high.

Tame’s affinities? Identical to mine.

The value of these skills is absurdly high.

Just in case…

“System, go back to the selection.”

…

“I choose effect instead of element.”

…

“State?”

…

Yup, looks like I’m locked into the element selection. 

The only question is… which should I choose?

Infusing gravity lets me resist my own spells, which is incredibly useful. My area-of-effect gravity magnification spell lets me absolutely crush agility-based enemies, but it hits me just the same. When it’s active, I can hardly stand under my own weight, forcing me to trudge toward the enemy while the spell guzzles my mana. Removing that limitation will make fights comically easy.

It also benefits my zero-gravity spell. If I’m able to partially resist the spell, I’ll be able to lower my body’s gravity without soaring off into the sky like a majestic bird.

Infusing healing is simpler, mega-buffing Heal Companion in every shape and form. With this, I might be able to get effective healing mid-fight. Right now, it probably takes more than ten minutes to siphon my entire mana pool through Heal Companion.

It'll probably take even longer now that my new class is boosting my wisdom and intelligence. Obviously, that’s far too slow for fast-paced fights that don’t last more than a handful of minutes. 

Unless I fight an army or something.

…

System, you didn’t hear that. No armies, please. I finally have some area-based attacks, but they’re expensive as hell and wouldn’t hold up over a long battle.

I stare at the ceiling for a second, shake my head, and turn to the last option. Not only are there three options instead of five, the last one is based on force magic instead of earth magic.

Didn’t Brax say my earth affinity is higher than my force affinity? Earth should be in the top three along with gravity and healing.

Ah, I bet it gave me the ones I use the most, not my highest affinities.

Thanks to my gauntlets, I use force magic far more than earth magic. Other than a handful of Stone Pillars, I haven’t really explored my earth affinity much.

I should be studying more now that I’m aiming to become an actual mage instead of a brawler with a couple of spells in his back pocket.

Literally.

The spells are in my back pocket.

Well, in my underwear, but it still counts.

Anyway, the force augmentation doesn’t seem too useful compared to the others. It allows the tame to manipulate the Tamer’s applications of force, but I don’t know if I can do that when I’m both. IIt would be amazing to focus and redirect my force bullets and force waves, but the wording makes it sound as though the tame has to be struck by those attacks first.

Would it work if I punched myself with force energy?

That seems reckless, even for me.

Even if it works, it’s still far less valuable than infusing myself with gravity and healing.

That leaves the two.