Chapter 87: Consultation (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pJMY2OE9KmEI_CmRV5TrXZZLL3N5HYZ8bNOed_TphZM/edit?usp=sharing

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Cayden sat in his Class Progression class, leg tapping beneath the desk, as he impatiently waited for the bell. With the anticipation of asking the instructor for advice about his class options, he hardly listened to anything she was saying – though that was no different from any of his other classes over the last two days. With his looming class choice hanging over his head, he found it all but impossible to pay attention to any of the lectures, a good indication that he needed to make his choice sooner rather than later.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait much longer for the next step in making his decision, as the bell rang out over campus and students stood from their seats to begin filing out of the classroom. Cayden remained seated, waiting for the classroom to empty and enduring the curious glances from the exiting students.

It was something he'd had to grow used to over the last two days. Ever since the canceled tests, rumors had been flying around the academy about what might have happened in the dungeon, and Cayden, with his missing arm, was the obvious target of students’ curiosity. Luckily, he kept to himself and was intimidating enough to keep most from asking him questions directly, but that did nothing to stop them from staring and whispering to their neighbors whenever he passed.

Eventually, the class emptied, and Cayden stood and walked up to where Instructor Tawny sat behind her desk.

"Cayden," the ratkin instructor greeted with a nod as he approached.

Cayden started. "You know my name?"

"I make it a point to know the names of all the students I teach. I hope to get to know more about each of them, but that, of course, is up to them. Is there something you wish to speak with me about?"

"Er, yeah," Cayden responded, somewhat thrown off by the instructor's words. "I just hit level ten in my class, and I was hoping you could offer some advice on how I should advance."

"Of course," the instructor responded with a smile. "Why don't you follow me to my office, where the conversation will be a little more private.”

Cayden looked around the empty classroom before shrugging and following the diminutive instructor after she collected her papers from the desk. Luckily, her office wasn't far, and within a minute he was seated across from her in the small room.

"Now, before we begin, there are a few things I'd like to say," Instructor Tawny said. "First of all, you are obviously allowed to share as much or as little as you please, but I will be of more assistance the more thorough you are. I, of course, will keep everything you share confidential – though if you are offered a class that I have not seen before, I would ask that you allow me to share that information with others. Strictly for teaching purposes, and I will be careful to remove any connections to you before sharing it."

Cayden shrugged. "That sounds good to me." After having his realization with Delphia, he was feeling less protective of his class choices than he had been previously.

"Well then, go ahead and let me know what you'd like help with."

Cayden spent the next ten minutes or so listing off his different class options, followed by his hesitancies with each of them. It was awkward at first, revealing his opinions and goals to someone he barely knew. But as he spoke the awkwardness faded, his attention devoted entirely to his options and the pros and cons of each.

"...and so, I was wondering if you had any advice to offer." Cayden finished as the instructor looked passively on.

Instructor Tawny didn't immediately respond, instead folding her paw-like hands in front of her face in consideration as Cayden fidgeted.

"There are a few points in which I might be able to contribute," she finally said, and Cayden sighed in relief. He knew it wasn't rational, but some part of him had been worried that the instructor would simply laugh at his pitiful class options before kicking him out of her office with the instruction to 'train harder.' "You said you got your initial [Athlete] class around a year ago? If I may, what were you doing at that time?"

Cayden thought back. In the grand scheme of things, a year was not that long, but when counted by the number of life-changing events that had happened during that time, the past year felt like an eternity. "When I got my class, I had recently quit my job as a blacksmith. I had gone on my first delve a few weeks prior, and was preparing for my next delve."

"And why did you choose [Athlete] as your class?"

"I needed something that could help me in combat, and it was the best option."

Instructor Tawny nodded. "Classes are offered based on what you have been doing with your life up until that point. You had not been regularly engaging in combat prior to getting [Athlete], so you received no combat class options. As well as [Athlete] may have served you to get to where you are, it is not a combat class."

Cayden frowned. "What are you saying?"

"You are disappointed that your class upgrade options are not ideal for your circumstances. But the fact that you have been offered three separate class upgrades related to combat from a non-combat class is nothing short of a miracle. [Athlete], and its available upgrades, are a remnant of a time in your life before you were an adventurer. Do not hold on to a remnant that is only dragging you down."

It took a moment for Cayden to register what the instructor was implying. "Are you saying to choose an entirely new class? But...what about all the work I've put into the [Athlete] skills?"

"I'm not saying that – I'm merely suggesting that you should not overlook them simply because they are not 'upgraded' classes. And you are correct, choosing a new class would cause you to lose the skills you've invested so much time into. Yet which is better? A weak, useful skill, or a powerful skill that cannot be leveraged in the situations you most commonly find yourself?"

Begrudgingly, Cayden conceded that she had a point, though he didn't dismiss the upgraded classes as options entirely. For all that none of the upgraded classes were ideal, neither were any of the new classes without their own downsides. "What about the new classes? Any advice on them?"

"I cannot give specific advice, but perhaps some generalized knowledge will help you to make your choice." Instructor Tawny responded. "Common understanding groups classes into different tiers based on the number of skills they offer. Four skills as 'common', five skills as 'uncommon', six as 'rare', and so on. Many choose the highest tier of class they are offered, thinking it will be the most powerful." She leaned forward over the desk, maintaining eye contact all the while. "That is false. While yes, generally, more skills give more power and diversity to a skillset, and classes typically gain additional skills when upgraded, a class with more skills is not necessarily better than one with fewer. Not all class skills are created equal, and a class with three strong, applicable skills will be better than a class with ten weak, difficult-to-use skills. Even aside from the increased time required to level, more skills don't necessarily mean more power."

Cayden nodded. It made sense – he’d obviously take the tier-three [Resistance] skill over any three tier-one resistance subskills. Of course, class skills couldn't be combined or classified into tiers, at least not that he knew of. He frowned. "How can I know what class might have more appropriate skills if I can't see the skills until after choosing the class?"

"Ah, that is something we will be covering soon in Class Progression, and you will learn something similar in your Skills class. At least at the lower levels, there are only so many different classes, and for each of those, only so many different class skills. It isn't unfeasible to, with some dedication, learn all the possible skills for the most common combat classes. Then, if you ever find yourself in combat against someone else, recognizing their class will tell you roughly a third of their total capabilities. And if you recognize their race and know that race's skills? That's another third. Only leaving three to four general skills as potential dangerous 'surprises.'"

Cayden's eyes widened in understanding.

"Of course, that's harder to do when classes are more specialized," Instructor Tawny continued. "And since you're at the academy where only the best in the kingdom are admitted, memorizing common class skills won't be of as much benefit. But it certainly can't hurt, and it's saved my life multiple times. And that's not counting the secondary benefit," she held out a hand, and a blue status menu appeared displaying a skill called [Bulwark], a smaller screen over it indicating that it was a skill within the [Guardian] class. "Wisdom on how to choose your next class."

Over the next hour, the instructor went through each of Cayden's potential classes, showing him some of the possible skills that could be offered with each.

For the most part, it matched up with what Elise had already theorized, but it was helpful to receive confirmation and see with his own eyes some of the skills that he might get. None of the skills were guaranteed, as even with the most common classes like [Fighter] there could be some minor variations between what the system offered to each person, but he now had a much better idea of what to expect.

[Gladiator], unfortunately, would likely force him into taking at least one showmanship-type skill, which solidified his resolution to reject the class. Some of the tracking skills that [Big Game Hunter] offered revolved around sensing nearby monsters more than it did actually physically 'tracking' anything, which quickly shot that class option back to the top of his list. And while [Martial Artist] would likely need some investment into the magic stats to gain full use of some of its skills, the referenced 'mind' skills seemed to revolve around being 'centered' and resisting doubt and foreign influence – something Cayden would always want more of.

[Student], [Fighter], and [Berserker] were almost exactly what he expected, though [Berserker] with its six skills was even more powerful than he'd expected. Unfortunately, the powerful skills came with equally dangerous drawbacks, and he doubled down on his resolve to refuse the class. [Bodyguard] gave some cool utility skills, including a method of taunting opponents that, rather than affecting their minds like [Taunt], actually would bend the rules of space to force opponents towards him and away from whoever he was guarding. But while cool, the skills were only useful for protecting a single other person – a situation Cayden rarely found himself in now that he no longer went on delves with just Elise.

[Bruiser] and [Guardian] were also about what Cayden expected, with [Guardian] boosting Cayden's already impressive durability and [Bruiser] splitting some of that increased durability with offensive skills. Those two classes also helped Cayden come to a realization: he'd been using his class wrong.

Most people's builds revolved around their classes: a [Mage] cast from the backline, a [Rogue] fought from the shadows, and so on. They would use their racial and general skills to enhance their strategies, but most of their power came from their class skills.

Cayden had been the exact opposite.

While [Athlete's] skills were by no means useless, neither did they increase his durability or offensive power beyond the stat increase from [Physical Training] and the temporary boost from [The Moment]. Cayden’s durability and ability to be a worthwhile frontliner came almost entirely from his general and racial skills.

Most others would rely entirely on their class skills and vitality for their durability, saving their general skills for versatility. If Cayden was to combine his passive defenses from his general skills with the skills from his tankier class options? He was sure no one would consider his durability as a [Bruiser] as ‘balanced.’

[Test Subject] was the last of the new classes, and unfortunately for Cayden, wasn't one Instructor Tawny was able to offer insight on. She knew of the existence of the class, but she hadn't known anyone who had chosen it, and so was just as in the dark as Cayden was as to how it might work. She did request, politely, that Cayden share the results of the class if he ended up choosing it, to which Cayden responded with a noncommittal grunt.

It was a strange-sounding class with the way the description of the offered skills deviated from any of the other classes. It was also the only class that had also been offered in his initial class change to [Athlete] a year prior. At the time, he and Elise had just started to figure out how gargoyle's racial skills worked, and he was in desperate need of combat skills, so he had rejected it. He still had a need for combat skills, perhaps even more than he had a year ago, and it wasn't like he had an excess of free time to experiment and fiddle around with his class skills – yet he still couldn't bring himself to dismiss the option entirely. Something about the description, about choosing his own path, resonated with him – even moreso after learning how standardized so many of the other common classes were.

Unfortunately, Instructor Tawny's time wasn't infinite, and after about an hour of discussing the possibilities, she'd kindly, but firmly, kicked him from her office. Cayden left with so much more information and understanding than he'd entered with, and he'd managed to confidently eliminate some of his options, yet somehow he felt even more unsure compared to when he started. But he knew he would never be completely sure of his choice. Regardless of how much time he spent contemplating his options, he'd always have doubts. He'd already spent a day and a half waffling between his options, and aside from the slim chance Elise would be able to dig something up from the library that Instructor Tawny didn’t know, he had all the knowledge he was going to get.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to the building at the center of campus.

It was time to make his choice.

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