Levi looked at the army with a conflicted expression.
It really was a shame that he can only select up to 15 skeletons to store. The rest of these skeletons had some form of mysterious intangible connection that vanishes slowly after a certain distance and they will cease to exist, if ever Levi leaves the connection disconnected for too long.
Other limitation concerns the inability to bring excess skeletons in dungeons. Seeing forums and the guide given by Zia, this should be a deliberate limit by the game's design.
And while it makes sense, it still sucks to be on the receiving end of the nerf.
...
Other than that, the large army he amassed felt... Wrong.
The 'army' was quiet. No reactions. No glee of joy. None.
Nada.
Only the family of dead and alive furries were full of gloating expressions, the living horned furries he summoned using the halberd felt at home with their undead buddies, Levi even spotted a mischievous one playing with the skull of a non reacting Skeleton Warrior before pretending that nothing happened as soon as it felt Levi's gaze.
Bonehead...
Levi ignored the mischevous child as he kept his thoughts on track, continuing to while he waited for the materials to be collected by his skeletons.
He seems to be missing something with regards to the links with his summons, and with summoning skeletons in general. As of now he felt more like a puppeteer than a necromancer.
Not willing to dally even further, he opened his status screen only to find an expected notification for reaching level 20.
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> [Info] Congratulations on reaching level 20. You may select a tier 2 core skill from the list below:
> > Creation:
> >>Necromancer's Workshop
> > Reanimation:
> >>Repurpose Sentience
> > Curse:
> >>Deny Death. Deny Life.
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'Hmm...'
Levi took his time to evaluate the options. The skills presented to him kept getting more and more valuable. Much more so this time.
He wasn't that concerned with picking a wrong skill, it would suck, yes, but as Avalesk like other vr games tend to lean it's mechanics to favor realism.
The skill selection built in the game simply allows players to grasp concepts and progress levels without having to study or train for years just to get a feel of the mechanics and concepts that exists within the game.
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As such, some players tend to go spread out the skills they learn to all three basic skill trees. Even as far as buying skill books related or compstible to other classes.
With enough understanding and the required stat distribution, players could even break out of their own 'class' and create archetypes, even creating a brand new now class of their own, creating new skills and alike.
Levi had done this several times for other games including Haven. It was a great endeavor everytime, but it was pretty much the only way to solo end game bosses or a crucial requirement at the least as creating actions outside of system intended use is good and all,
But having the exaggerated effect of System-acknowledged custom skills is gold.
Now imagine if you have a stacking bonuses and passives from a 'Custom' class that is acknowledged by the system as well?
...
... ...
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Back to skill selection.
First: Necromancer's Workshop
-Based on description, the skill summons a mess hall of bone and flesh with a table in the middle. Allowing the necromancer to give life to one abomination before returning back to its original space.
The skill seemed to be a hybrid of creation and reanimation. With concepts such as space, and even bone and corpse creation all stitching together into what it seems to be a growth type skill.
Granted that all skills are 'scalable' depending on how you approach it's mechanics, certain have potential to evolve into something more ridiculous overtime.
Levi summed that the skill would eventually turn into something like: Dome of flesh and bones or even Frankenstein's Castle if ever a version of the classic character existed within the game.
Levi felt that he didn't really need the skill. The bones and corpses summoned along with the workshop could not be used and would vanish as soon as he finishes creating the 'Test Subject'.
Also customizing [Summon Skeleton Warrior] and [Skeletal Reanimation] is already possible [Bone Crafting]. And while having a feel of having a preview with the system assisted version of giving 'life', as well as space, bone and flesh creation, it wasn't enough to warrant him to skip either of the two skills next in the list.
...
Moving on to the next skill Levi frowned. He had been looking for ways to grant a certain level of autonomy for his summons, but his gut kept wrenching him back as soon as he even starts considering the skill.
Even outside of the game, the thought 'Repurpose Sentience' felt wrong. It felt immoral in levels he would not dare cross.
It wasn't even a moral slippery slope, Levi thought that picking the skill is simply choosing to deliberately drown into the abyss. And while he could see that the skill would allow him to rape the shit out of the balance of the game by forcefully taming not only creatures but even npcs, bosses, dungeon cores and even higher forms of beings therefore gaining an extension of their abilities...
Such a skill had to have severe drawbacks and would likely be limited In more ways than one. Making a mental note to decipher a way or even find or create a skill to detect Soul abnormalities, Levi shared the info back to Zara and Anri, Levi decided to move on to the next skill with great finality.
...
Deny Death. Deny Life.
Levi thought hard about the description of the skill. The skill seems to be a passive that extends to both him and his allies.
Essentially granting him and his summons the ability to live 5 seconds longer after 'Dying' giving him or his summons the ability to continue for fifteen seconds before denying life itself and crumbling into dust.
A very strategic skill, and a very overpowered skill in the hands of a necromancer. With drawbacks of course. Levi measured that unless he finds a way to deactivate or dispell the system bound curse skill, this skill would outright deny him possibilities of creating a phylactery and transforming into a lich.
And while he had no idea what Liches could do in Avalesk: Eternal, Liches in fiction and majority of games since time... describe liches with three distinct features.
Conditional immortality.
Unlimited Stamina.
Near unlimited mana.
All the good characteristics one would like to have for a back line character and more.
For end game though? Levi thought it was only so-so.
Drawbacks like limiting your skills to several branches of magic, and always having a direct counter is enough of a deal breaker since it highly limits customization.
Which is to say: It's a huge problem for someone who likes multi-dimensional growth like Levi.
After a few more rounds of back and forth, he finally sealed his decision.
...
... ...
To be continued.