NOVEL NEXT Chapter 35: Learning
Leif was halfway through constructing a hog pyramid when Sieg emerged from the partially wrecked house. The spriggan had periodically checked on both sleeping humans every other hour.
Both men should be in peak physical condition, from what he could tell from their lack of wounds and restored lifeforce. But there was more to someone's well being than physical wounds.
Leif could still feel the ache in his very soul from the overuse of his skills. Speaking of skills… As Sieg sat down on a fallen log Leif looked through his current list in search of his next fusion.
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[Amber Blight Spriggan]
Gold Iron Physique / Amber Awareness / Blight’s Bounty / The Well Within II / Settle
[Noble]
Aura of Nobility I / Court Empath / Grand Action / Under My Protection / Legacy
[Brawler]
Grounded Stance I
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“What on earth are you doing?” Sieg asked.
“Looking at options for my next skill fusion.” He replied, still reading over the descriptions of each ability in turn. He noticed something odd about [Aura of Nobility] but chose to ignore it for now.
I don’t know what a note is, or how it got there, but it doesn’t seem important at the moment.
Sieg glanced at the orderly pile of sleeping hogs. “Right… listen, I owe you a whole lot. Me and Marcus both. If you need help with anything I promise to keep it between us.”
Leif closed his skill list. “What do you mean?”
“People are usually very secretive with their attributes, classes and skills. Even at the Academy only the most basic information is freely available.”
The spriggan nodded, it made sense. If someone knew the ins and outs of your abilities they had a major advantage if it came to a fight. “What about you, how can I help?”
“You’ve helped more than enough. I owe you more than you could know. Even if we lost most of the mana shards we still have a small fortune. I can finally promote my [Frost Slayer] class, I gained three whole levels from the craziness of the past few days. I’m almost level fifty now.
He took a deep breath, as if bringing himself back to reality. “I can barely believe it. I’m still shocked that we lived at all.” The two lapsed into silence, there was a lot to say, but very few words worth using.
“We survived.” Leif said simply.
“Fuck yeah we did.” Sieg snorted. “But again, it was thanks to you.”
“How about you tell me how you chose what skills to fuse?” Leif asked, his golden eyes twinkling with amusement.
“Sure, no problem. Let's see… My latest fusion was the skills [Enlightened Reader] and [Encyclopedic Mind] into a skill called [Repository of Knowledge]. They were reading and memory enhancement skills respectively. Very useful to have at the Academy.”
“What classes did they originate from?”
“That’s an easy question. Both were from my [Scholar] class. You wouldn’t believe how much class experience you get for [Scribe] in just a year at that place. I know that I didn’t, not until I saw the levels come flooding in. The class isn’t a requirement to attend, but pretty much everyone is offered it at some point if they do. Something about being in an academic environment.”
“Is there a reason to not pick a class?” Leif inquired, genuinely curious.
“Many.” Sieg said. “Everyone has a class limit, it starts at two, then increases by one after the level twenty five bottleneck, and again at fifty. If you’ve filled your class slots with classes you can’t level, or have no synergy, you’re in trouble.”
He continued. “There are plenty of stories of young people picking two combat classes then realising they have to fight to gain levels. The opposite is sometimes true, someone picking two technical classes and then realising they need to spend decades just levelling them to reach twenty five.”
“How many do you have?”
“Three total; [Frost Slayer], [Scholar] and [Sworn]. [Sworn] is an auxiliary class, inheritant, like your [Noble] class. But auxiliary classes don’t have slots like normal classes, instead you can only ever gain one of each type.”
This made Leif pause. So I can’t get another inheritant class because I have [Noble]? “Can you… Remove classes?”
“Technically, but it takes months, years if you have more than a few levels. The process is apparently incredibly painful and usually kills the person attempting it. You’re better off removing skills instead, but even that might cripple you for life.”
“Removing skills? To get below the advancement threshold?” Leif asked.
Sieg nodded. “Its grim work, the method was discovered a few centuries back. Discovered in the Academy no less. I know it's something related to how enchanters can imprint skills onto items, but I don’t know the specifics.”
I still need to lower my total skill count by one before I attempt the advancement trial. But if I could remove a useless skill like [Legacy]? Leif contemplated, several ideas filling his mind. He shook them away, from what Sieg had said the process sounded dangerous.
“Anyway there are lots of theories and ideas behind the best way to fuse skills. Pretty much everyone will disagree and I’ve witnessed two duels over debates that got too heated. Both me and Marcus did roughly the same thing though. We picked a skill we wanted to focus on and used it as the base for two separate fusions.”
“His gauntlet?”
“Mhmm.” The man picked up his axe, ice began to build on the weapon's head. “For me it's a skill called [Frigid Edge]. It worked for us, but it isn’t easy. Don’t forget that each fusion increases the difficulty and cost of the next. Fuse like with like, avoid fusing things that are too different. For skills with ranks like aura, comprehension and cultivation you should try to consolidate them.”
The spriggan reread the skills again. Reevaluating his choices.
“But don’t take my word for it. I’m only an Academy second year. There are surely things I don’t know.
Leif nodded and had one final look through his skills. What could he do? And what did he need? There were a myriad of options, but only a few he could clearly picture the potential outcome of.
Initiate a skill fusion?
Primary skill: [Amber Awareness]
Secondary skill: [Court Empath]
Fusion success rate: Major
Warning! Skills used in this process are lost after a successful fusion!
Warning! Newly fused skill will belong to the class of the primary skill!
You may only attempt a single fusion at a time!
Commence skill fusion? Y/N
In his time under Pherin, Leif had truly begun to understand the sheer usefulness of [Amber Awareness]. The ability to clearly see his mistakes from another perspective had been invaluable.
Would the fusion allow me to see the present and past in greater clarity? He pictured a skill that could observe his surroundings, then replay them with ever increasing detail.
Like my personal window into the past.
He accepted the fusion and picked up another hog.
Commencing skill fusion!
Fusion of skills [Amber Awareness] and [Court Empath] 1/100%