At the same time in Reinsteel.

PoV Sarah Larsson (Kent’s sister)

“HOOOLD… HOOOOOLD… AND RELEASE,” one of Reinsteel’s officers yelled. Sarah didn’t know his name, only that she had been told to report to someone on the morning-side of the city walls. And now she had been standing here for hours, preparing for anything. Waiting for Mellum’s vanguard to do anything.

And they were doing things now.

Sarah herself was quite annoyed. Having to listen to part of the command structure that had separated her and Arryn, her brother, thus basically removing any chance of either of them being truly effective had put her in a sour mood. The order to not attack the few soldiers of Mellum’s vanguard camped at the edge of the zone had only agitated her and most people around her, given by the sour moods of everyone around her.

Her being separated from her brother was admittedly kind of understandably, together they fought on the level of someone like her father. Level eighties were no joke, neither were they when together. With the destruction of two buildings, it made sense for the siblings to be apprehended by the local enforcers, even to separate them had been more than reasonable. But now with the town under an ongoing siege, spoke of foolishness.

Foolishness that had been apparent from the moment the officials had noted the threat. It almost felt like the baron had no real intension of winning the invasion. Sarah didn’t doubt for a moment that the whole situation could have been resolved within minutes. While she was able to identify most guards, some eluded her, which spoke of people with higher tier class, so they shouldn’t have had any issues dealing with the people outside the gate. Five of them should have been enough to decimate the forty low-leveled people outside.

When the release command had finally come, she grew excited. Things would go back to normal now.

Empowered by her trait she connected with all of the plants close to her – a working that had been forbidden just moments ago – and saw what the plants needed to grow, thicken, and prosper.

Familiar Nature had the easy answer to that.

Mana.

But easy was boring and not nearly as efficient as applying some brains to the situation. She had picked up a skill to analyze the plants around her, and her trait had made the effect passive.

Light, water, nutrients, a component of the air, and time.

The first four were readily available, only the last was a slow trickle. With a flex of will her entire mana pool rushed out of her and the exhaustion gripped her. But it subsided quickly thanks to a lot of willpower. Within half a minuted it had went up to one.

She could feel the vines and crawlers that had established a stride thick barrier between the wall she was standing on and the outside world. Leaves reached even higher than the battlements, slightly obfuscating the soldiers and enlisted citizens behind the foliage.

The plants had taken what they had needed from the light around them, water and nutrients from the dried-out dirt below the battlements, plant material from the air, and her mana had speed them up.

“Nature, Growth, Water, Air, evacuate the walls, NOW!” the officer yelled. At least now he displayed the minimum competency of someone older than ten years.

At least internal conflicts would be avoided for now. And the little conflict that could be generated up there, had no doubt been reduced to only minor annoyances due to preparation and expectation.

A crash shock the wall sending debris all around, leaving only her plant structure standing. Yells and screams came from everywhere, but she just had eyes for the person clumsily entangled in her vines.

| Human - ??? - ??? |

That’s bad, where did she come from, were her last thoughts before darkness devoured her mind.

***

Kent hoped that the custom class creation would still allow for him to at least keep two of the skill trees he had had his eyes on.

Note – Titles have the unique ability to add Title-Specialization and Title-Revelation.

Note – A Title-Specialization is a brute force method to specialize in a skill tree associated with a title. Requirement for further specialization still require the corresponding cost.

Note – A title-Revelation is a synergetic effect with a title to gain knowledge of title associated skill trees.

Note – The cost of a Title-Specialization is based on the to be specialized stage (1, 2, 5, 12)

Note – The cost of a Title-Revelation is based on the to be revealed stage (1, 2, 3, 4)

Note – There has been an issue with one of the available trees. Specializing in the Pyromancy tree is ill advised.

Specialization Panel

Class Evolution (available Specializations):

Chose Specializations (Maximum: Two) (Available: Two)

Metallic Insight (Choose)

Metallumancy (Choose)

Title Specialization and Revelation:

Tormentor (2 Potential – Points)

Torment (Specialize (2) / Reveal (2))

Daggers (Specialize (2) / Reveal (2))

Afflictioneer (2 Potential – Points)

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Poisoner (Specialize (2) / Reveal (2))

Pyromaniac (2 Potential – Points)

Pyromancy (Specialize ERROR/ Reveal (2))

General Combat Magics (Specialize (2)/ Reveal (2))

Luminary of Metal (4 Potential – Points)

Metallic Insight (Specialize (2) / Reveal (2)) (Unav.)

Metallumancy (Specialize (2)/ Reveal (2)) (Unav.)

Adept Mage (2 Potential-Points)

Mage’s Augmentation (Specialize (2) / Reveal)

The notes were fairly self-explanatory for their part. Kent ogled appropriately at the different parts and was stumped accordingly when the note mentioned title specializations and title-revelations.

The issue the note mentioned was also very clear. He couldn’t choose the specialize options for Pyromancy. The answer to that was easy and it also relieved him to no end that he didn’t go down that route when he first got access to the skill menu. The affinity for Plants was somehow with him was his guess. Not in the form of a trait, but apparently through some other means. Trying to figure anything else out was best left to scholars he figured.

It was interesting that Scalpel of Escalating Confluences was not on that list, even though it was definitely on the same level of Adept Mage, maybe even greater due to the small increase it brought compared to the original version of Adept Mage. He suspected that his Combatant title was somehow involved in that.

Looking at specialization showed Kent one thing he had been dreading. Had he not had as many titles as he did, he would have severely lacked in the specializations department compared to the pre-built classes. The baseline was a maximum of two specializations, though he could apparently skirt the rules a bit.

The two options he had, specializing and revealing for certain trees were arbitrary and vastly different in scope. If he understood those correctly, he could either get another specialization or maybe see what other skills there were in the next tier of specialization.

He could see how the second option might appeal at a higher-class tier but right now it seemed utterly non sensical if he could get a specialization instead.

Some of the decisions were easy from just a glance. He had Daggers skills so he would like to have more potential for them as well as see new options. Torment was of no interest to him. None at all. Just thinking about it made him uncomfortable and brought up memories he would have preferred to not have. Afflictioneer only had one option, so he chose to specialize in it. The Pyromaniac trait had been decided for him, only giving him the General Combat Magics option which he chose to specialize in as well.

While he was at it, he constantly wondered whether or not this was some giant prank or illusion. He had just passed up a class with three specializations, how insane was that. And now he might even gain one with six specializations. If he continued gaining skills as rapidly compared to others as he had before level ten…

His thoughts further meandered until he arrived back at the panel. The Luminary of Metal Trait had four potential-points yet whatever he did, he couldn’t use them. As it seemed he also wouldn’t be able to use them in the future for more than just inspecting a tree as if he was reading the notes correctly, he would need five potential-points there. Adept Mage was the last title available for customization, and it allowed him to specialize in Mage’s Augmentation.

So, can I safe potential points? There was no answer. He hadn’t expected one, but the system had been helpful once with explaining percentages. Not like he could do anything about his Luminary of Metal Potential-Points.

That left nothing besides moving on to finalize the class creation.

You have gained the class “Ambivalent Pugioveneficus”.

Vitality – 2, Endurance – 1, Mind – 2, Magic – 4, Willpower – 4, Regeneration – 2

Primary Attribute: The Base value and gains of Regeneration are doubled.

Specialized Skill trees:

Metallic Insight – Tier 2

Metallumancy – Tier 2

Daggers* – Tier 2

Poisoneer* – Tier 2

General Combat Magics* – Tier 2

Mage’s Augmentation* – Tier 2

Affinities have been fused. Affinity Living Metal is being established.

With eagerness Kent went about inspecting his status again. Dismissing what had just popped up on the bottom of the class information.

Kent Larsson [Level 10] [0%]

Pools:

Health: 111/111

Health Reg: 24 - 70 /d

Stamina: 39/186

Stamina Reg: 59 - 172 /d

Mana: 72/122

Mana Reg: 143 - 417 /d

Stats:

Vitality: 24

Toughness: 15

Endurance: 34

Strength: 28

Agility: 25

Senses: 17

Mind: 17

Magic: 61

Willpower: 110

Regeneration: 48

Skills:

Accelerate Metal (5/20) (116/250 Exp.)

Penetrate (5/20) (107/250 Exp.)

Metallic Affinity (5/20) (115/250 Exp.)

Metallic Extension (2/20) (72/100 Exp.)

Mosquito (2/20) (28/100 Exp.)

Metallic Presence (3/20) (97/150 Exp.)

Magical Wellspring (3/20) (51/150 Exp.)

Kent squirmed on the branch on which he had hid for the majority of the night, cackling madly. With his skill caps increased to twenty he had plenty of space to grow and with regeneration as his primary attribute he would have plenty of resources to train his skills as far as he could take them quickly. No there was even a chance that his stamina situation would resolve itself with due time. His movements and staying awake already took less and less stamina and that would go down further with endurance. Penetrate however was still a stamina hog. Much less though than other skills he had seen in the Pyromancy tree or even Analyze Metal.

Metallumancy

Foundation

Accelerate Metal (5/20):

- Accelerate a previously attuned piece of Metal towards or away from you

- Acceleration: 42 m/s^2

- Max Weight: 37.5 kg

- Range: 150 m

- Cost: 1 m/s

Metal Extension (2/20):

- Cast a skill through an attuned piece of metal

- Effectiveness: 30%

Unlock Core skills by reaching Rank 11 in one of the Foundational skills.

Metallic Insight

Foundation

Metallic Affinity (5/20):

- Skills and spells that interact with Metal are boosted

- Boost: 50%

Metallic Presence (3/20):

- Gain regular impressions of metal in your environment. For a constant cost get constant information.

- Frequency: 3/h

- Range: 30 m

- Cost 10 m/s

Unlock Core skills by reaching Rank 11 in one of the Foundational skills.

Daggers

Foundational

Penetrate (5/20):

- Part of the damage dealt to armor is dealt to the wearer, as long as hardness is overcome

- Effect: 21%

- Cost: 4 sta/use

Mosquito (2/20):

- Teaches Dagger combat-forms

Unlock Core skills by reaching Rank 11 in one of the Foundational skills.

Mage’s Augmentation:

Foundational

Magical Wellspring(3/20):

- Increases Mana Regeneration by a static factor.

- Boost: 30%

Unlock Core skills by reaching Rank 11 in one of the Foundational skills.

His skills had grown well and they would grow even further and faster… After his nap. Kent made sure that he was positioned securely in his tree, having confirmed as much, he sipped turrl saliva from the cap of his canteen before closing his eyes and drifting to sleep.

Crap, I should have used my remaining mana so I can see my core options sooner. Oh well, I don’t have any skill points anyway.