Oh, Subclass, sweet Subclass. How from the moment he’d seriously thought about his near and long-term plans, Jordan had revolved his thoughts on getting it first. Perhaps for some, depending on exactly how the System made it work, a Subclass might be a waste of time. After all, it wasn’t hard to imagine a world where at least some people would consider crafting Skills as just a downtime activity at best, when they had nothing else better to do.
But not Jordan. For him, there was simply too much untapped potential there in terms of the synergy between Skills that he could form. Of how his current Skills could feed into his future ones, and depending on how gaining new Subclass Skills worked, there might even be room for a feedback loop of sorts if those future gained Skills allowed it.
Granted, it wasn’t like Jordan was some grand genius in this regard. He could only imagine that as people reached D Grade, they would also seriously think about synergy and what Subclass would best pair with their current Class. Most curious were the cases of those who’d gone for a Trade Class primarily, like Kelley, and would be forced to pick something combat-focused as their Subclass instead.
In any case, Jordan was rather eager to move on. While his expectations were based on the Artificer Class he’d been offered way back; he wouldn’t say no to at least checking out any new options that presented themselves. It’d be foolish to just immediately pick what he already knew was there, after all, when something potentially better could be available now.
The next screen to appear was initially the same list as before. The difference was that unlike before, when he’d been given the option to see if he wanted to look at Battle Classes or Trades, it just skipped him straight to seeing the latter. And for that, the starting options were still there as a Blacksmith, Mason, Alchemist, and Enchanter. Which now that Jordan thought about it, a Mason sounded like a pretty good person to have around for the construction of non-System-provided buildings for his Kingdom.
Huh, what do we have here? Jordan asked himself as he looked at the last Trade available. The System hadn’t offered him any new ones. But compared to what he confidently recalled, the final option was… different.
Subclass: Advanced Drone Artificer
Description: To some, technology is the greatest and most fulfilling of crafts precisely because of its added complexity. This Subclass focuses on using the foundation of knowledge already built and aspiring to reach an even higher level of technical skill needed to create all kinds of technology, with a a heavy specialization on drones. They are able to utilize their engineering prowess to create recreational devices, but can also effectively build the very machines that are used in wars.
Benefits: +2 bonus to Wisdom and Intelligence per Level.
Note:
The Benefit to the user’s bonus Stats per Level from any chosen Subclass will be applied retroactively.
So, a couple of things to address. Starting from the last screen, the retroactive application of bonus Stats was most certainly welcome. That alone would increase his Wisdom and Intelligence by 24 whole Points each.
When considering his multipliers, that was basically guaranteed to lead to at least two more permanent drones to raise the cap for Summon Land Drone. Something that should also decrease the reserved TP cost used per drone as well. And of course, speaking of his Tech Points, it’d be a great jump to both his regeneration and total pool. All in all, not something any sane person would ever complain about receiving.
However, the Subclass itself had definitely changed from when Jordan had first been offered it. Overall, there were three things of note. The name was no longer just Artificer, but now Advanced Drone Artificer. And in two spots, the Description had been updated to reflect both an even greater specialization toward drone building, and that just overall deemed him an expert rather than a beginner.
Perhaps it was the deconstruction of his land drones that had paid off to learn how they ticked, or maybe it was solely a result of the recently picked Trait. Either way, it was nice of the System to recognize this as enough to upgrade the Subclass itself.
However, the last thing to address was the Skill it offered. And yes, that was Skill, as in singular.
Active:
Skill: Build Advanced Drone
Grade: E5
Scaling: Wisdom, Intelligence
Description: Craft a type of drone from a set of advanced starter recipes for various kinds of tasks. The type and resources required depend on the model and quality of the chosen recipe.
Base Cost: Varies
On the one hand, like the Subclass itself, it’d also been upgraded from its prior version. All the way to Grade E5, even. Which brought up the question of whether it would also automatically evolve to D1 after finishing his overall evolution, or if he would have to pick between it and Summon Land Drone. On the other hand, either way, it seemed to be just a fact that he would get only one Skill this time. Unlike before, where he would have gotten four, same as any other option’s Class Skills.
I guess that’s why it’s called a Subclass, and not a secondary Class or something. The real question becomes how it impacts gaining new Skills from here on out, then. Because the only two paths are that it either overlaps with my main Class, and I have to pick between them every time, or it has its own separate progression. The easiest way to find out quickly would be to use an Advancement Crystal and see if I only need one to gain a new Subclass Skill.
With that thought, Jordan received the pop-up asking if he wanted to affirm his decision. While he was pretty certain, he still gave himself just a minute to think about the other Subclasses. When it came to a permanent decision that would follow him for the rest of his days, and he literally had all the time in the world to choose, there was no reason not to wait until it was 100% sure.
A minute later, he mentally nodded to himself, and confidently finalized his selection. At this point, Jordan believed that his evolution itself would be done. He assumed that the only thing left would be to see about getting either one or both of his Class Skills to D1, while also seeing what would happen to Appraise as an E5 General Skill.
However, yet another screen appeared. One that was relevant to his Skills, just not quite in the way he had expected or would have guessed to even be an option.
Within the System, many finalized choices are truly final. However, some opportunities remain available for the chance for the user’s mind to change. Limited to one chance per Grade, the user may swap out one Class Skill for another previously offered.
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Note!
If the user does not have previously seen and unchosen Class Skills, new options will be added by the System so that three are available. In addition, the available Class Skills that may be swapped out include those that came by default for the user’s Class. Furthermore, the chosen Skill will be automatically evolved to be of equal Grade of the removed Skill as needed.
Would the user wish to swap out a Class Skill for another?
Hmm. This is… huh. Should I just go ahead and swap out Zap for something else, then? Jordan asked himself. Overall, he had to admit that this was rather kind of the System. As while it was highly limited, it was still a chance for what would basically be build optimization.
The reasoning for getting rid of Zap was pretty straightforward. It was the ugly duckling of his Skills that had yet to ever really get used. When an electric attack basically just got utilized as a firestarter for kindling, that demonstrated how badly unused it went. Just for the sake of it, Jordan went ahead and pulled up the screen for the Skill in question.
Skill: Zap
Grade: E1
Scaling: Intelligence
Description: Conjure a small bolt of electricity to shock an enemy.
Base Cost: 2 TP per cast.
Yeah, there’s really nothing this does that helps me. Maybe if I’m pinned down without my Energy Pistol, and can’t summon any drones, it’ll actually be useful. But if that kind of thing happens, I’m basically dead already unless whoever I’m fighting happens to be critically weak to electricity damage. The only way it’d be helpful is if I invested in evolving it, and one of the options would be to greatly increase its range. But with two TP per use as the cost, I still might as well wait until I have enough TP for a drone. At the same time… there has to be a good reason why the System would include it as part of the kit for the Class, right?
Yet even asking himself that, Jordan wasn’t so sure. The wording of its Description made it pretty clear that the intended usage was for attacking a foe. Aside from that, the only case he could see in the Skill’s favor was that a self-reliant ability to generate electricity could be helpful for drone building. However, even that was questionable. From what he knew from how the other Trade Classes operated in their Skill Descriptions, they each relied on their respective Resource for creating.
After all, while the Base Cost of Build Advanced Drone would vary, the pattern remained strong that it would use Tech Points. Jordan even had further proof that this would be the case, in the form of his looking into how his current land drones functioned. The core converted TP into electricity, and then also did the reverse as needed for its functions. As long as his personally built drones did the same thing, he would only ever require one or the other.
And to tell the truth, if all one needed was a little bit, generating electricity wasn’t exactly the hardest thing in the world. There was a reason why that kind of thing was often part of a middle school science lesson. So even if he lost Zap to easily do so from his own body for “free,” it was by no means the end of the world. Especially compared to the potentially more valuable advantages of the Skill that could take its place.
In the end, it didn’t take much to convince himself about this current course of action. Not when Jordan already had an inkling for which Skill would take Zap’s place. After saying yes, and then confirming that Zap was the Skill he wanted to swap out, yet another screen appeared before him.
On this screen was a list of four Skills, as they were all the ones that he’d previously been given the chance to pick, but had passed over. There was Field Workbench and Basic Technomancy, as the alternatives in the selection that ended up with him choosing Summon Land Drone. Then there were the other two that were part of Mental Blueprints’s selection. Even now, they weren’t really worth going over. And that was for one primary reason.
Skill: Basic Technomancy
Grade: E1
Scaling: Intelligence, Wisdom
Description: Increases the user’s ability to fuse the capabilities of magic and machines into the hybrid known as magitech.
He was already certain that between all the old options, this was the one that would be most valuable to him now. Between his Subclass and potential insights from Kelley from an Enchanter’s perspective, he could see a lot of room for growth. And that was even before taking the Lesser Infernum his Industrial Miner had extracted just earlier, as a seemingly arcane metal infused with what was basically fire magic.
After taking everything into account, the choice was almost obvious. So after still giving himself the customary minute to be extra sure of what he truly wanted, Jordan finalized his selection.
Choices have been finalized.
The user’s updated Status is now ready, as the evolution to D Grade has finished.
At that moment, Jordan finally blinked as a wave of vertigo quickly came and went. As it turned out, having your brain remain active while your body was frozen in time was not the most pleasant of experiences. But shaking his head, he quickly got over the dizzy spell.
Taking a deep breath, Jordan turned his attention to the newest screen that now demanded it. Another one also had appeared, but he would look at it afterward.
Skill evolution to D1 automatically earned!
Please select one of the following:
Summon Land Drone
Build Advanced Drone
He sighed. Jordan had expected this possibility, but had still hoped that he’d just get both for free. Luckily for him, this was back in the real flow of physical time, where could move again. And from the look of things, this was another instance where the System wasn’t forcing him to make an immediate choice or otherwise indicated a time limit.
For now, he would do the smart thing and wait. There was a chance that Build Advanced Drone might seriously impress him, to the point where it may even get priority for further progression. But he wouldn’t know for sure until he actually tested the Skill for real, and received the inherent knowledge that using it at least once would come with.
Now would this mean delaying his complete evolution into becoming a “true” D Grade? Yes, since Haje had only attained that status upon evolving his Skill to D1. Something which had been automatic, since he only had the one Skill to begin with. But for the sake of knowing for sure which path would be the best for him to take, that delay and the benefits it might bring was a temporary sacrifice he was willing to make.
Jordan dismissed the screen, putting it off for later. When he did so, he turned his attention to the second screen. The text of this one, however, made his eyes widen with surprise… and worry.
Warning!
Achievement: An Initial Merger has succeeded in the slaying of-
Reading the rest of it, his stomach began to sink as it seemed to fill with more and more lead. As he read through it, he knew exactly who had caused this to happen. And as Jordan looked at the final sections of text, he already knew that the responsibility of triggering what happened next would fall on his shoulders.
After the listed amount of time has passed, prior restrictions on native fauna and flora of Vervina-C shall be lifted. This shall result in a varying Level increase to all native lifeforms, including a more significant increase for all Lords. For these Lords, they will also gain an instant understanding of their powers and achieve complete mastery of their abilities. In addition, the previously limited population of native fauna shall be greatly increased, along with the withheld uplifting of certain Lords into High Lords.
But be warned, for while only six of these High Lords will walk the planet and will be spread out to their own territories, their individual might shall be only appropriate for their elite status.
Time remaining: 6 days
What have I done?