Chapter 86: Options (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kX6rTM7ajBdVQx0flhYGHEVApNRi3_DuepPnXcFv5Ss/edit?usp=sharing

--

With everyone else in class, the building was completely empty save for a single assistant monitoring a desk at the front of the building. They looked at Cayden suspiciously as he entered, but didn't try to stop him from following a sign directing him to the class stone.

At first, Cayden thought the suspicion was a remnant of the previous day's betrayal and attack, but he realized a moment later it was likely just because he was a student walking around when everyone was supposed to be in class. The events that transpired in the dungeon weren't yet common knowledge.

With some trepidation, Cayden stepped into the room marked as holding the class stone. The room was constructed of wide stone blocks and almost entirely empty, his footsteps echoing back at him from the bare walls. In the center of the room, illuminated by a skylight directly overhead, was a pillar. And on top of the pillar: the class stone.

The way the sunlight shined down on the class stone made the orange orb appear as if it was glowing with some ethereal inner light, and Cayden's breath was shallow as he looked upon the beautiful sight. He had been planning on simply walking in and looking at his class options, treating it as nothing more than an errand, but the room evoked a feeling of solemnity and reverence he hadn't been expecting.

With a simple touch of the orb and a selection from a system menu, he would be upgrading himself. He'd thought himself used to the concept after a decade and a half in this world, but the sheer magical-ness of it all hit him once again as he looked at the orb, and he paused in place to let it wash over him.

Ultimately, though, he was here with a purpose, one that he was impatient to complete. So after a few deep breaths, he stepped forward and lay his palm on the class stone.

Classes available:

New classes available:

Class: Berserker

Description: Red. The color of blood and of life -- and that is all the Berserker sees. Unparalleled in their ferocity and power, the Berserker metes out death to all in their vicinity.

Six class skills. Skills give abilities that heavily boost their physical capabilities based on their emotions and how heavily injured they are.

Class: Bodyguard

Description: Selflessness. A rare attribute, but one the Bodyguard embodies. Their protection is not given to all, but the few who acquire it can rest easy in the safety the Bodyguard provides.

Five class skills. Skills give abilities to protect themselves and the designated 'principal', along with weaker healing and offensive skills.

Class: Bruiser

Description: Hit and get hit: the two things that every combatant needs to be able to do. Neither a glass cannon nor a pure tank, the Bruiser knows that power comes from balance.

Five class skills. Skills give abilities that equally boost both survivability and physical damage dealt.

Class: Fighter

Description: Magic, stealth, traps: tricks for those too weak to seize true power. The Fighter knows that only in their own body can they fully trust.

Four class skills. Skills give abilities that boost survivability, increase capability with melee weapons, and provide boosted physical attacks.

Class: Guardian

Description: Enemies in front, allies behind, the Guardian is the shield between them. Lacking the offensive abilities that others may possess, the Guardian more than makes up for it with their defensive capabilities.

Five class skills. Skills give abilities that boost their own survivability along with the survivability of designated allies.

Class: Student

Description: Learning isn't just for the young. It is a lifelong pursuit, and the Student fully embraces this. Their mind never satiated, the Student knows that lessons can be learned anywhere and from anyone.

Four class skills. Skills give abilities that boost the mind stat, comprehension, and recall, along with boosts to skill learning and growth.

Class: Test Subject

Description: Wide is the path leading to mediocrity. Narrow is the path leading to greatness. The Test Subject forgoes the well-tread paths that common wisdom dictates are optimal, using their own bodies as a testing ground to reach new heights.

Four class skills. Skills are only limited by the path the user chooses to take, and the lengths they are willing to go to get there.

Class upgrades from Athlete:

Class: Advanced Athlete

Description: Above all else, the Advanced Athlete focuses on physical prowess. With their extreme devotion to training, the Advanced Athlete will stand supreme in any physical sport.

Five class skills. New skill options give abilities to further increase the Athlete's already impressive physical capabilities.

Class: Big Game Hunter

Description: Some hunt for money. Others hunt for sustenance. The Big Game Hunter hunts for pleasure. They find joy in the chase, in the immortal battle between predator and prey. And for the Big Game Hunter, everything is prey.

Five class skills. New skill options give abilities to track and kill single-target opponents.

Class: Gladiator

Description: Glorious combat. Many have used the phrase, but only the Gladiator truly understands what it means. Equal parts practical and flashy, the Gladiator doesn't just kill his opponents. He kills them with style.

Five class skills. New skill options give abilities that will impress any lookers-on.

Class: Martial Artist

Description: The Martial Artist understands that combat is more than just the physical. All parts of oneself are essential if one is to be successful in combat, and the Martial Artist equally trains the physical, mental, and mystical towards that end.

Five class skills. New skill options give abilities to apply magical and mental effects to physical combat.

--

"...so what do you think?" Cayden asked with some trepidation. In many ways, his class options were nothing personal. Only one could be chosen, the rest destined to be left by the wayside. Yet in another way, his class options were extremely personal. In the eyes of the system, they were the sum effort of his past year or so, a tangible list of all he'd accomplished. And while he was proud of what he'd done, seeing it all laid out so clinically made him feel strangely...vulnerable.

"I think that I would have liked for you to have written them down. What if there's some clue in one of the descriptions we're missing?" Elise asked, her pen poised over her soul notebook after having copied Cayden's options down word-for-word as he'd recited them.

"I'm pretty sure they're all right. The skills part, for sure. The descriptions...they're mostly all there." Cayden had done his best to memorize all the offered classes and their descriptions, but the status window listing his options only appeared while he was touching the class stone. Thankfully, his twenty-two points in mind made it so that he was reasonably confident that he remembered most of the important features of the offered classes. "I'm not sure how I could've written any of it down, anyway," he added a moment later, jerking his head to his right side where his arm used to be.

Elise, who looked like she was preparing a rebuttal to his explanation, instead winced. "...I guess the descriptions aren't that important. What we have is probably enough."

Cayden contained his smile. Missing an arm was miserable, especially when trying to take notes. He'd found that out the hard way during his two of his classroom lessons after touching the class stone earlier that day, and the itching hadn't subsided a bit. But using it to get out of Elise's lecture...he supposed it had at least some silver lining.

"What do you think, then?" he asked again before Elise noticed his growing grin.

Elise's eyes focused as she turned to her soul notebook. "Let's look at the class upgrades, first. For each of those you'll get to keep a certain number of the skills you have from [Athlete], depending on how similar to [Athlete] it is, so they'll be much more powerful than your other options. At least initially."

Cayden frowned. "But I'll still be stuck at level ten in my new class until the new skills are leveled up, right? So I'll be sitting at that level of power for ages."

"True, but not nearly as long as if you were to level an entirely new class up to ten. For class upgrades, you get to choose the skills you add to the class, rather than get assigned them like you'd be if you were to choose a brand new class, so there's less danger of getting stuck with a skill that levels slowly because you hardly ever use it. And if you're lucky, one of the new skills might be similar enough to an [Athlete] skill that it will trigger a skill evolution, carrying over the levels from the lost skill."

Cayden hummed to himself as he nodded, and Elise dove back into the list.

"First, you've got [Advanced Athlete]. This is a direct progression of [Athlete], so you won't be losing any of your old class skills, just gaining a new one. I'm guessing this isn't what you're looking for?"

Cayden shook his head. "No. [Athlete] hasn't been bad, but I'd like something a bit more combat-focused."

"Makes sense. So: [Big Game Hunter]." She tapped at her notebook with her pen. "Currently, between [Taunt] and your defenses, you're much stronger against swarms of weaker enemies than against powerful singular opponents. It seems like this class would fix that, at least offensively. I'm worried about it forcing a potential 'tracking' skill on you, though."

"That was my thought. A tracking skill would take forever to level," Cayden responded, before pausing. "But how would it force one on me? Can't I just choose around any tracking skills?"

Elise waggled her hand. "Maybe? It'll give you choices, but some of the choices may preclude others, forcing you to take one of the skills of a different type. After all, it wouldn't be much of a hunting class if it didn't involve any tracking skills. Of course, there'll likely be several options for tracking skills, which would hopefully let you pick one that is more useful in a dungeon." Cayden didn't look convinced, so Elise waved her hand before continuing. "Moving on: [Gladiator]."

But Cayden was already shaking his head. "Not for me."

"Yeah – 'equal parts practical and flashy' doesn't seem like it'd be a great fit. It’ll probably be more combat focused, though." Cayden was still shaking his head in rejection, so Elise moved on. "That just leaves [Martial Artist]. This one seems to be a decently good fit. The description is closer to [Athlete] than [Gladiator] or [Big Game Hunter], so you'll likely get to keep more skills. And it's definitely combat-focused."

"Yeah. But it seems like it'll force me to take skills that rely on the magic stats and mind...and I've kind of committed to not investing in those stats," Cayden responded. If it had been a few days prior, he likely wouldn't have been so opposed. But with all the free stats he'd been saving now added to his vitality, he'd need to commit quite a few of his future levels' worth of stats to bring his magic and mind stats to an acceptable level.

"Maybe, maybe not," Elise responded. "Just because a skill applies magical or mental effects, doesn't mean it needs to have those same stats backing them up." Cayden looked at her skeptically. "Most of them do, yes, but there are exceptions."

Cayden grunted. "Still seems risky."

Elise fell silent, staring at her notebook as Cayden ran through the options in his mind. Four different class upgrades, each with its own downsides. Some were much more significant than others, but no class felt like a perfect fit – he supposed it might have been too much to expect, but he'd been hoping that he'd have an option that fit his build perfectly, slotting in with exactly the skills he needed.

"...what about your new class options?" a quiet voice asked from the far side of the room.

Cayden started, having forgotten that Delphia was in the room. She sat in the furthest corner from where Cayden was currently sitting, her shoulders hunched now that the attention was on her. Cayden had been surprised to find her already in Elise's room when he'd come to visit, wondering when and how they'd become such friends. Part of him had hesitated to list his class options after seeing her, worried about giving away secrets of his build, but in his excitement to go over his options, he'd continued anyway. Plus, after some reflection, it wasn't as if what they were discussing was some big secret; at this point, they were only looking at the names and descriptions of his class options, which, as his teammate, Delphia would probably find out anyway.

"You certainly have more choices, there," Elise added, flipping the page back to where she had the rest of his class options copied. "Seven different classes, although I think we can dismiss a few of them off the bat. I doubt you intend on becoming a [Student]."

"I don't know, that line about boosting skill growth? Seems like it could be powerful for my general skills," Cayden responded, though not with much fervor. The lack of combat capability was too big of a detriment for him to seriously consider something like [Student].

"We'll leave it as a 'maybe', then," Elise responded, giving Cayden a skeptical look. "I'll give my thoughts on each in order. [Berserker]: six skills – a lot for a starter class – but it doesn't seem like you'll be able to use the skills with a team, at least not without other skills to balance out the detriments. [Bodyguard]: it probably isn't the best for a team of more than two, and you might be lacking in the offensive category. But a supplemental healing skill could be nice. [Bruiser]: seems like a combat class that's focused equally on offense and defense. If we were still delving alone, this would be better, but on a team, specialization is generally better than balance. [Fighter]: about as standard of a starting class as they come. I don't think there'd be any advantage to choosing this over one of the more advanced combat classes that come with more skills. [Guardian]: this one is the closest match to your current fighting style, but would likely offer even less offensive capability than [Bodyguard]. It seems like it's just a less specialized version of [Bodyguard] that can protect more than one person at a time. [Student], we already covered. And finally, [Test Subject]." She paused, a small smile forming on her face. "I wonder how you got offered that class?"

Cayden groaned. "I wonder..." he replied sarcastically. "But seriously, do you know what's up with that class? The description is different from the others."

Elise shook her head. "I don't. I can try and look it up though, along with the rest of them to get a better idea of exactly what skills they may offer."

"That'll be helpful, thanks," Cayden replied. "But I don't know about any of those, to be honest. It's just...it seems like such a waste to choose a new class over an upgraded class. I could've switched to one of them ages ago before I hit level ten in [Athlete]. And I'd lose all my progress I've put into [Athlete's] skills."

Elise shrugged. "I can try to find what I can about the class evolutions, too, but that'll be harder. The further evolved a class is, the more specialized to the person the offered skills end up being, and [Athlete] isn't the most common class."

They fell back into silence, and after a few moments, Delphia once more chimed in.

"Why don't you ask the Class Progression instructor? She might know more already."

Cayden and Elise stared at each other, surprised by the suggestion. Instructor Tawny had even offered her advice in her classes – yet for some reason, it felt...wrong.

For so long, it had been Elise and Cayden against the world. Exploring the system together, figuring out Cayden's optimal choices through pain, effort, and experimentation. It had been a journey, an adventure, and bringing in someone else who could simply tell them the optimal choice felt like...cheating.

Yet he was in an academy for adventurers. It would be foolish to disregard the resources that, through their hard work, they had earned. Begrudgingly, Cayden nodded.

"That's not a bad idea."

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AN: Next chapter in a few minutes. Also, patreon reopens today, so you'll be charged this month on whatever date that you first signed up.