‘A new profession.’ He had known something like this would eventually happen, but it felt almost too soon. He quickly opened up the next screen and read its contents.
For reaching Tier 2 in your profession you have unlocked a new profession slot. To gain your next profession slot reach a combined total of 5 Tiers with your two professions.
Like when Daniel had first selected his profession. A huge list of Tier 1 professions appeared before him. He spent several long minutes reading over the list of his available choices before he finally had a small list of professions he was considering selecting.
The first option he was considering was something like Jeweler. He has some experience with engraving. He knew some of what a Jeweler did and how their profession worked. It would be another profession that he could pick up and probably level quickly. There was some overlap with blacksmithing too so he had that experience with that aspect of jewel crafting as well.
The second was imbuer. It was a profession that was entirely new to Daniel which was one of the things that drew him to the profession. It was a profession that would allow someone to use mana to apply temporary enchantments onto items. They were also apparently stronger than regular enchantments of the same tier because of their limited nature. The only problem with that choice was the fact that he had yet to unlock his mana pool. However with his current amount of coins and Steve's help he should be able to buy the items he needed to do that soon. The main problem with this choice however was his lack of knowledge since it was an entirely new profession. He had no idea how to even start with imbuing items with magic, and he would probably have to either lean on the voices in his head to guide him or purchase manuals from the shop.
The last option he was considering was a profession called a Harvester. From the description of the profession it was one that specializes in the skinning, butchering and harvesting of valuable parts from monsters. Daniel could see why someone who regularly went out to hunt monsters might want this profession, but he was unsure if it was the right choice for him at the moment. Currently the only place he could go and fight monsters and beasts was the dungeons, and he was unsure if he would even be able to harvest them for anything valuable. If he was able to, he wouldn't be able to take it with him out of the dungeon.
Daniel decided to take a risk and chose imbuer. He would need to unlock his mana channels, but that was something he and Steve could work on. However, when Daniel selected the profession something inside of time began to tingle. Then it felt like his veins were burning. A fire had started inside of his body and did not stop, it continued to intensify.
The pain was nowhere near as bad as the times when his feat had activated and flooded his mind with knowledge, but it still hurt. He waited for the pain to end. As he stood still the pain came in waves. It ebbed and flowed as it seemed to travel to different parts of his boys. It started in his chest and branched outward to his head, then his arms, hands, and then finally his legs and feet. The energy did several cycles through his whole body. With each cycle the pain was lessened and once there was finally zero discomfort the energy stopped its cycling and culminated in a spot in the center of his chest. Once it was finally over he got to his feet and could feel a new sense of power in chest. He assumed it was mana, but was unsure.
Daniel stood and waited for a notification to appear in his vision, but one never came. Instead a different notification entered his vision.
Congratulations, you have gained the Imbuer Profession Level 1 (0 ->1), and have received +1 profession point. To receive stat points please choose your profession Skill Tree.
Please choose your Imbuer path from one of the available skill trees. When a selection is chosen you will lose access to the other skill trees until your next profession specialization.
Available Profession Skill Trees:
Path of Longevity: While your work may not last forever as all works of Imbuers are temporary, nevertheless you strive to go against their nature and make your masterpieces last for as long as possible. +1 to Willpower, + 1 to Wisdom and +1 Profession point per level.
Warning: by picking this path you will be forever barred from selecting the path of amplification
Path of Amplification: You are well aware that everything you make as an Imbuer is temporary, and you see no reason to deny the truth. You use the nature of your temporary works to make them even more powerful, by sacrificing even more of their longevity. +2 to Willpower and +1 Profession point per level.
Warning: by picking this path you will be forever barred from selecting the path of Longevity
Daniel looked over the skill trees that were available to him. He was a little surprised he had only received two options. So far in his limited experience he hadn't seen something like this before. He had received only two options and if he chose one of them then the other option would be forever lost to him.
This choice had suddenly become a lot more important for Daniel. For his blacksmithing skill trees, if there was a path he didn't choose he could eventually pick it later after he advanced his specialization. This was different though. Whatever choice he made now he would be forever stuck with. With such an important choice to be made Daniel decided that he would do what research he could and opened up his system provided wiki.
It took him over half an hour of reading to finally find all the information he wanted. He had managed to find out why this choice had been different compared to his blacksmithing paths. This was a branching profession. Most professions only had this happen much farther down the line, but Imbuer was special.
If he chose the ‘Path of Longevity’ his imbuer profession would eventually turn into the path of the enchanter. Enchanters used magic to permanently change objects by fundamentally altering their internal magical structure. However these effects were less potent than that of an Imbuer.
If he chose the ‘Path of Amplification’ then he would stay on the path of the Imbuer. He would be able to effect items in a more powerful way, but the effects he made would forever be temporary unlike the path of the enchanter.
It was a tough decision, but the information that eventually made the decision for Daniel hadn't been about the path of an imbuer or an enchanter. While he had been reading about how enchanters make their effects permanent there had been almost a throwaway comment about how being an enchanter wasn't the only way to give items permanent effects.
This had intrigued Daniel, and after digging a little deeper he had found his answer. There was an advanced form of blacksmithing profession called ‘Rune Carving.’ Highly advanced smiths were able to form runes on items that they made and then by filling the runes with mana could give items additional effects based on what runes were used.
Daniel liked the idea of eventually becoming a runesmith, and thought about what path he should take. That of an Enchanter or that of an Imbuer. However, his final deciding factor had been that runes carved were not able to be permanently enchanted, but they could be temporally imbued. Daniel saw no reason why he would want both enchanting and rune smithing. He saw no reason to double dip, so he came to his decision.
If Daniel was imbuing his own items before or possibly even during fights it wouldn't matter that they were temporary in nature if he could always keep the effects active. With that Daniel made his choice.
You have chosen the Path of Amplification. +2 to Willpower
Profession Skill Tree (Imbuer): Amplification
Amplify ( 0/5 ): You have chosen the path of the temporary. While many others seek to make items that will last forever you are content to make items of true power. Even if they are only temporary. Cost to increase 1 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Any item you successfully imbue will have its effects increased by 10%
Daniel read over the first skill offered to him as an Imbuer and was pleased. While it was nothing flashy he could already see how this skill would be the core foundation of his path as an Imbuer. When he eventually raised this skill to level 5 it would increase the effects of all of his skills by 100%. Everything he would imbue would be twice as potent.
Seeing no reason not to, Daniel put 1 of his two profession skill points into ‘Amplify,’ and was excited to see what his next skill had to offer.
Capacity ( 0/5 ): As a practitioner of the path of a true Imbuer the items you make while temporarily hold great power. Because of this some items you imbue may not be able to hold the great power you instill in them. Cost to increase 1 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Active): you can channel mana into un-imbued items to permanently alter their internal structure to Increase their magical capacity by up to 20%.
It was another good skill. While it also wasn't anything flashy he was able to easily see its synergy with ‘Amplify.’ It also meant that if he was working with an item with little to no mana capacity then he should be able to increase enough to be able to be imbued.
Daniel only had one profession point left which he had earned from his blacksmithing profession. He didn't know if he could use the point on a different profession, but he decided to give it a try. To his mild surprise he was able to with no trouble whatsoever.
It was a good thing to know. Later down the line when Daniel gained more profession slots because of his feat he would be able to level them up, but then use their points to help his other professions. Daniel didn't know if he would ever do something like that, but it was good to know that it was an option.
He now had the Imbuer profession, but he still had basically no idea how to use it. He also didn't know what that weird sensation he had experienced had been. He had some ideas on what it might be, but he couldn't say for sure.
Since he had not received an explanation from the system and with no better ideas Daniel decided that talking to Steve was his next best option. As Daniel walked out of his workshop and headed to the main room of the training hall. As he walked he saw another older notification flashing in his vision that he hadn't read yet. It was back from when he had been forging and working on a method on filtering the different voices that spoke to him while he worked. He decided to read what his new general skill did as he went to go find Steve.
Mental Workshop ( 1/5 ): You have learned to use your mind as a way to enhance your skills as you train in the physical and mental worlds at the same time. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Gain access to your mind scape. Your mind scape is a place where you can give ideas physical form in your mind. All objects in your mindscape gain permanence without the need for your active upkeep.
Level 1 (Active): While you are standing in a workshop in a workshop in the real world you may activate the ability ‘Mental Workshop.’ Doing so will make a copy of the workshop in the user's mindscape. While in the workshop the user also retains access to their physical body. While this ability is activated the users learning speed is increased by 10%.
Level 2 (Passive): Gain the ability to passively maintain more mental constructs in the mindscape.
Level 2 (Active): Learning speed while within the workshop is increased by an additional 15% (Total Bonus: 25%)
It seemed like a good skill, but Daniel couldn't be certain. He didn't exactly know what a mindscape was, but he could make some assumptions about it. He would need to look at the wiki to see if he could learn anything else about it.
Emerging from the hallway of the workshop he called out. “Steve! You here?!” He heard the sound of a small explosion coming from the weapons hall. Walking over to the room, he entered and saw dodging and casting spells at the shadowy humanoid entities that were used as training aides.
The Creatures rushed at Steve each wielding a variety of weapons and some wore armor. Steve ran dodging past the blows of the creatures around him while at the same time casting spells. He summoned a shield of water to block off two creatures that were bearing down on him from behind blocking them from advancing further; he quickly turned and launched a stream of fire similar to what Daniel had seen him use on the news, but different in some way Daniel could not place.
Steve continued to channel the spell as he swung his arm sideways, the stream of fire following the tip of his wand as it bathed over a large part of the training arena. The stream cleaved through two more creatures, but more quickly reformed at the edge of the arena and came back into the fight. As soon as one threat was dealt with a new one would appear.
The creatures he had blocked with a water shield finally managed to break their way through. With the creatures from behind and the newly reformed creatures re entering the battle Steve was surrounded on all sides. Daniel wondered what Steve could do in this situation. If he took care of one of the targets the others would be on him before he would be able to react. Surprisingly, Steve did not seem to panic, instead, he ran towards one of the creatures. He sent out a blast of wind at it as he closed the distance which cut the creature in half causing it to disperse. With one of the creatures dealt with he was able to put his back to the edge of the area without fear that one of the shadow constructs would be behind him.
Steve quickly raised his wand at the three remaining constructs who had continued to surround him and were closing in on his position fast. Out of nowhere tendrils of stone came out of the ground and bound the three constructs' legs. Each of them were forced to use its weapons to hack away at the stone binding them. Even with Steve’s quick reactions his plan didn't give him much time to relax. One of the constructs had only had one of its legs bound and was able to quickly break free of the bindings. Steve pointed his wand at the construct that had broken free, but it was quickly able to close the remaining distance, and brought its blade down on his head.
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Steve reacted quickly and used a new spell. It summoned a bubble of wind around him, and when the constructs sword struck the shield it burst and blacked the construct ten feet backwards. From there the rest was easy Steve. The other constructs were still struggling to break free. With the distance he had managed to create Steve was able to cast a couple of more fire spells and all three of the remaining constructs dissipated and did not reform.
Daniel had felt concerned for Steve when the shadow construct had almost struck him, but Daniel knew that these creatures were just training constructs and couldn't really hurt Steve. “That was quite well done. I hadn’t seen you use any of your spells besides that fire one which I saw on the news. I have to say that I'm quite impressed with the show you just put on.”
“Thanks, Daniel.” Steve sounded exhausted, but he had a note of pride in his voice. “It's also good to see you out of your crafting trance. I was starting to get worried. You have been working nearly nonstop for over twenty four hours.”
“A whole day? Really?”
“Yeah, I have done a few dungeon runs, and every time I went to check on you you were still working. I thought it best not to disturb you, but I was starting to get worried. I even asked the training room AI if we're alright, and it said that you were, so I left you alone.”
“I really worked for that long?” Daniel asked in a dumbfounded tone of voice. “And what do you mean you asked the training room AI?”
“Yeah, the training room AI with apparently a small fragment of the system. Each of the training halls has one of these AI? It is what you talked about when you asked for the workshop. We can also ask it questions and it maintains the training rooms for us, and tries to provide us with whatever we need to become better hero’s.”
“That's very interesting. I wonder if it can answer questions about what will happen after The System fully initializes.”
“It can’t. I already asked it and it can basically only answer questions about stuff pertaining to the training room. But you're distracting me. What about you? Why did you come find me?”
“I don't remember if I told you already, but my feat ‘The Crafters Legacy’ gives me quests. I just completed one of them which pushed my blacksmithing profession into tier 2 which allowed me to select another profession. I chose one called Imbuer which uses mana to temporarily give weapons and items effects. When I chose it I felt a new type of energy flow all through my body and culminate in my chest. I have a suspicion on what this is, but I wanted to ask you to be sure.”
“That sounds to me like when you chose this imbuer profession that it unlocked your mana.” Steve sounded surprised as he spoke.
“That's what I thought it might be, but I wanted to be sure.” Daniel sighed. “I know we had talked about buying items to unlock my mana with coins from the shop, but now that my mana is unlocked what do we do now?”
“Well first let me check your mana channels to make sure that nothing is wrong with them.”
“Sure. Is there anything you need me to do for this?” Daniel Said
“No, just stand still and try not to resist.”
Steve Approached Daniel and laid his hand in the center of Daniel's chest right over where the new ball of energy resided. Nothing happened for a moment then Daniel began to feel energy from Steve begin to enter his chest. Daniel tried not to resist, but as Steve's mana entered his body and began to flow though his newly made mana channels it was hard. Steve mana felt wrong, and like Steve’s mana it didn't belong. His body wanted to fight his probing mana, but he forced himself not to react.
After a minute or more of Steve probing Daniel mana channels with his own mana he began to withdraw his threads of mana out of Daniel's body. This process took another couple of minutes, but after a little while he was done and stepped back from Daniel.
“It seems like the new profession you picked opened up your mana channels. They aren't anything special; very basic in fact, but with them you will be able to use mana.”
“Basic? Is there anything we can do to improve them?”
Steve sighed and began to pace back and forth in thought as he held his hand up to his chin. “In theory yes we can, but honestly I don't know if you would want to.”
“Why is that?” Daniel asked.
“Well, based on what you briefly told me about your profession, it might be best if your body used and produced unaspected mana.” Steve stopped pacing and turned to face Daniel once again. “From what you told me about this profession you will use your mana to imbue temporary effects into items. Having aspected mana would help you with this if you somewhat, but it would also limit you.”
“Let's say you had fire aspected mana. You could use that man to let's say make any fire based skill more powerful or more effective, but what if someone wanted a water based enchantment. You would need to convert a large portion of your man to a pure unaspected form then convert it into water mana. It would be much better if you naturally had pure mana and then converted it into whatever elements you need instead of the other way around.”
“Okay, I like your logic, but it sounds like it will be hard to upgrade my pure mana.”
“Yes, that will be a problem. I haven't checked the shop for any of the items that are used to upgrade existing mana channels.”
Daniel nodded. “Yeah, we had been planning on buying items to open up my mana channels. How different will it be to upgrade them?”
“It won't be that much different. The main difference will be the items we need to buy. Most of the items we will need are natural treasures that have powerful effects. These treasures can range from powerful and rare plants to special minerals like mana stones or beast cores.”
“Okay, so we will need lots of coins if we want to buy the resources we will need to upgrade my mana channels. Just after that message appeared about one of the heroes dying I have wanted to get stronger.”
“I saw that message too. It's unfortunate and a little sad. I definitely understand what the message meant when it said that each of us who remain now have more of a responsibility.” Daniel and Steve fell into a contemplative silence for several minutes before Steve finally broke the silence. “Daniel I think I know how that hero Lukas dies.”
“Really? How?”
“I managed to beat up to the sixth floor while you were in your crafting spree, and on the fifth floor, there was a... mini-boss? I’m not sure what to call it, but it was a single arena-like room with only one creature in it. On the next floor, are still goblins, but they are all tier two and you continue to see more variations. My guess is if that trend continues there is going to be another miniboss on the tenth floor or maybe a real boss like in video games. If there is a stronger boss on the tenth floor that could be what killed Lukas.”
“I have currently cleared up to the fourth floor of the solo dungeon. Do you think I should go ahead and clear the fifth?” Daniel Said.
“I think you should. I got a pretty nice reward for clearing the fifth floor, so you should get one as well. I would also like for us to go into the team dungeon together, but I have some real world tasks I need to get done and will have to leave the training room for a little while. While I'm off getting my business taken care of you should do a couple more levels in the solo dungeon; just don't challenge floor 10 for right now if you get that far. I'm still concerned that one of the heroes died on that floor. Once I'm back we can go into the team dungeon.”
“What kind of business do you need to get done?”
“I’m hoping that I have a few more messages from some other heroes. You may have been the first hero to contact me after my little stunt on the news, but I am hoping that I can bring a few more here if you don’t mind, of course.”
“That's fine with me. Getting a few more people would be great, especially if we can get enough heroes togethers to try out the arena.” Daniel paused and thought for a moment. “I think I will go ahead and do another floor or two in the Solo Dungeon. I want to try out my new maul that I made, and I am also interested in that item you mentioned.
“Okay, then it's settled then. I’ll take care of this and you clear level 5 of the dungeon then we can challenge the team dungeon together.”
“Sounds like a plan. First, though I’m going to look over my status to see what changed after what happened, then I’ll go into the dungeon.”
“Take your time. I’ll be out of time compression while I’m looking over my messages, so there's no real rush.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.” Daniel waved to Steve as he exited the training room and when he vanished Daniel sat down on one of the sofas. It had been a while, but it was time to look at his new and improved character sheet.
Name: Daniel Martin
Age: 27
Race: Basic Human
Gender: Male
Level: 9
Tier 4 Class: Juggernaut (Please select your tier 5 class from the available options)
Crafting legacy professions:
Tier 2 Profession: Blacksmith
Level: 11
Tier 1 Profession: Imbuer
Level: 1
Number of Profession Tiers Needed For Next Profession Slot: 2
Physical Attributes:
Agility: 14 -> 15
Constitution: 42 -> 54
Dexterity: 16 -> 17
Endurance: 26 -> 28
Strength: 53 -> 67
Mental Attributes:
Charisma: 12
Intelligence: 13
Perception: 15
Willpower: 19 -> 21
Wisdom: 11
Free Attribute Points: 9
Free Skill Points: 9
Free Profession Points: 0
Coins: 10,421
Class experience to the next level: 3177 out of 9000
Profession experience to the next level (Blacksmith): 8934 out of 21000
Profession experience to the next level (Imbuer): 0 out of 1,000
Feats: Comprehend Languages, Troll Regeneration, The Crafters Legacy
Lore Skills: Blacksmithing Lore: Lv. 20,
General Skills: Identification ( 2/5 ), Mental Workshop ( 1/5 ),
Class Skills: Tough Skin ( 2/5 ), Heavy Blow ( 1/5 ), Enhanced Muscles ( 2/5 ), Powerful Organs ( 5/5 ), Death Blows ( 1/5 ), Quickened Blow ( 1/5 ), Dense Tendons and Efficient veins ( 1/5 ), Heavy Charge ( 1/5 ), Death's Embrace ( 1/5 )
Profession Skills (Blacksmithing): Hammer Speed ( 2/5 ), Hammer Strength ( 2/5 ), Powerful Grip ( 1/5 ), Master of all ( 1/5 ), Master of Speed ( 1/5 ),
Profession Skills (Imbuer): Amplify ( 1/5 ), Capacity ( 1/5 ),
General Profession Skills: Hammer technique ( 2/5 ), Shaping ( 2/5 ), Smelting ( 2/5 ), Master of the Forge ( 2/5 ),
Spells: N/A
It had been a little while Since Daniel had looked at his whole character sheet, and he was quite happy with his progress. There was only one thing on his character sheet that worried him and one more thing that he wanted to do more research on.
The thing that worried Daniel was the fact that he was approaching his next tier and he had still not selected his tier 5 specialization. He needed to find some way to finish his psionic awakening before reaching the next tier. It would have to be something to talk to Steve about once he reentered the training hall.
The second thing that Daniel wanted more information about was general skills. When he had gained the system he had already possessed. He had already received more general skill for his profession, and now he had gained one for his class, but he had never really looked into how to gain general skill or what they were for that matter. Daniel decided that now was the time to remedy that oversight. Daniel settled in on one of the couches in the main room of the training hall and got back to reading the wiki.
~~~~~~
Daniel ended up reading on the topic of general skills for quite a while. He found the topic quite interesting, and had gotten sucked into learning as much as could about the topic.
He learned that general skills were skills that anyone could theoretically learn. The most common general skill was ‘Identify.’ Most people had the skill, but there were better versions of the skill that worked better. One of those skills was ‘Appraisal,' but it only worked on inanimate objects unlike ‘Identify’ that worked on everything up to a limited degree. ‘Appraisal’ could give more specialized information on objects that ‘Identify’ would not.
There were also many other very common general skills. One of which was mana manipulation. Basically anyone who learned how to use mana gained this skill. which basically includes all mage classes.
The most interesting thing about general skills, unlike class skills, was that they could advance on their own without the use of skill points. Daniel had already experienced this with some of his general profession skills, but it was good to have the confirmation.
Daniel also learned about a few of the ways that someone could go about learning a new general skill. If someone with the desired skill had it at the max level of 5 they could teach it to someone else directly through physical contact. If such contact was impossible they could also use an empty skill gem. They would infuse their knowledge of the skill into the skill gem then anyone without the skill who touched the gem would have the option of learning the skill. This method removed the need for the teachers to physically go to the person wishing to learn the skill, but there were downsides.
Someone with a level 5 general skill can only directly teach the skill a total of 15 times. This included putting the skill into a skill gem or physically transferring the knowledge to another person. Some skills however couldn't be put into skill gems at all and could only be learned through trial and error, and others could only be given a single time. This all depended on the complexity and rarity of the skill in question, but for most common skills the general rule was that it could be taught a total of 15 times.
There was only one other problem with being taught general skills. People could only gain a general skill though a skill gem a total of five times and the same thing was true for being physically given the skill. This caused most people to be very picky about which skills they chose since they had a limited number of ‘shortcut’ skills available. This limit would be increased once they got past the first major threshold when crossing from tier 5 to tier 6
The next common way to learn a general skill was of course the hardest way. Someone could be taught the skill by the physical act of learning. This was the most common way to gain general skills since if someone worked hard enough they could eventually learn the skill by themselves, with the help of a teacher, or through following a written guide. Learning skills through a skill crystal or by imparted knowledge was mostly only used to learn skills that were extremely difficult or impossible to learn from just hard work, or in the case of some skills species could lack the specific organs needed to learn the skill themselves. For many species nightvision was one of those skills.
The last way was to be given the skill directly through the system. This could happen as a quest reward or some other reason, but learning skill in such a way was relatively uncommon. However, there were major advantages in learning skills this way. Primarily being that it didn't count against a person's limited number of slots. Daniel had learned his ‘Master of the Forge’ skill in such a way, and was pleased to know that learning the skill in such a way had not negatively affected him.
Daniel considered the ways in which he might be able to gain some of the more common general skills. He could buy Skill Tomes from the shop to try and figure out how to learn some skill that way. It would be almost impossible for him to learn another skill through blind trial and error like he had with ‘Mental Workshop.’
Daniel had many new ideas and half formed plans swirling around in his thoughts. He would have many things he would need to talk with Steve about when he returned. With all of his research concluded Daniel rose to his feet, and readied himself. It was time to enter the Solo Dungeon once again.
Daniel turned to Kota who had been resting on another sofa nearby, “Come on Kota we got work to do.” Kota hopped to his feet and gave him that doggy smile with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth as he trotted behind Daniel.
The last thing Daniel did before entering the dungeon was grab his newly forged maul. He had still yet to give it a name. Daniel stood just before the threshold of the dungeon entrance and looked at his hammer. “I think I shall call you ‘Ice Fang.” There were no system screens that popped into his vision at his pronouncement. However, naming the weapon he had spent so long making gave him just a bit more confidence for what came next as Daniel, closely followed by Kota, stepped into the dungeon portal.