With the warning from Szellem still ringing in his ears, Adam was less interested in checking over his status. Instead he closed his eyes and leaned back to let himself float free in his mindscape while he considered the old man’s words.
He distinctly remembered considering how he could bring down the wrath of the duke upon both Martin and Kleeb if they betrayed him. Thinking back on it, he was disgusted with himself. It was a negative, fear based reaction to other people. He might not have been able to point out each and everything wrong with that idea as Szellem could, but he could still tell it was wrong. Considering how it had made him feel when he made the decision, not to mention the even worse feeling when he thought of applying that same thought to Martin, he realized it wasn’t something he could keep doing.
Thinking more about it, he realized it was all connected. The worse he treated other people, the less he could help the children. Adam was certain that he didn’t like them, enjoy spending time with them, or know how to fix what was wrong with them. None of that meant that he would stop trying, however. He could list a multitude of reasons for that as well. His class needed someone to be a Mother to, he’d likely be ordered to do so, System Assistance would do it no matter what he wanted, or even the free education. None of it compared to the fact that he had made up his mind to help them because they needed someone to do so.
Szellem had said that his choices mattered, but he suspected that there was another facet to that. Adam, after thinking it through, believed that why he made certain choices would have to affect his affinity as well. Helping a child, no matter the reason, would increase his affinity with Mother, but he would get a more significant increase with certain types of Mother if he made that choice because he wanted to help versus being paid or told to do so.
If his Affinity was based on his personality adhering to a certain template, then it was likely to fluctuate for some time. Whether it was the hormones that were affecting his emotional state, the difficulty of making a personal change, or the simple fact that he was still growing, his Affinity was likely to go up and down quite often for the next few years. Knowing and accepting that ahead of time would keep incidents like earlier from happening again, provided he passed the thought along to Szellem as well. With the man always listening to his thoughts, he assumed he already knew but would pass it on all the same.
Adam, finding he had reached the end of his thoughts on the matter, turned to what he could still get done in his mindscape. Originally he had come to his mindscape to peruse his Sky Tome in the vain hope of finding inspiration to solve his questions. He still had one more skill point available to spend, as well as a Specialization to choose when he finally made it to level ten. Admittedly he had had zero hope of making progress on either of those, but having spoken to Szellem he had some new things to take into consideration.
New things to think about or no, the truth of the matter was that choosing his Specialization was a more difficult decision than ever before. If his Affinity changes affected not just his ability to evolve or distil his class, but also the result of those decisions, then it would also affect his decision on Specialization. Now he needed to consider his role both in and out of combat.
As for his next skill, he was debating a number of options. Scolding, along with everything in Protection with the exception of Mommy’s Here, wasn’t even on the table. He didn’t feel as though Mama Bear needed the extra oomph, and Scolding seemed more useful for children than combat. That would be useful for his near future, but he was hoping for something that could be relied upon in both situations. As for Mommy’s Here, it was still an emergency skill that he very much intended to get, but he didn’t see much use for it until he was stronger. That left Bottomless Purse, Disappointment, and Home Remedies as his main options. All of which impacted his future in different ways.
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In keeping with his idea of looking for things that impacted his day to day life as well as combat, he attempted to view them in that light.
Bottomless Purse: A purse that has everything a Mother could ever need. Both a spatial storage space, and an endless repository, the Bottomless Purse is exactly what its name implies. Repository contains an unending supply of mundane items that a Mother may need. Does not include weapons, armor, or anything magical. Spatial storage can store anything that can fit through the entrance; sapient creatures not included. Non sapient creatures will be placed into a form of stasis.
Disappointment: A Mother’s Disappointment is a terrible thing, even more painful than the physical punishment they can distribute. The only thing worse than the pain of a Mother’s Disappointment is the crushing weight of knowing it’s your own fault.
Disappointment causes damage over time. Slows movement, attack, and cast speed. Causes no actual harm to children.
Home Remedies: A Mother needs to care for her children’s health under any circumstances. Home Remedies allows a Mother to make a remedy for anything out of all sorts of household items. It also assists in growing the ones that you can’t simply find lying around.
There’s nothing Home Remedies can’t cure. Sick kids? Yep. In laws visit too often? You got it. Pest problems? Oh yes. Monsters? Of course. Need to work that libido one way or the other? Home Remedies has you covered.
Bottomless Purse would be a godsend if he had to go shopping, travelling, or hunting. Spatial storage would greatly ease those burdens. Combat would be mostly assisted by the ability to produce nearly anything he could think of that wasn’t actually a weapon. The downside to that was the number of things he could use as a weapon. Without clarification on that point, he was loathe to spend the point until it was absolutely necessary, or too useful to not take it. Right that moment didn’t seem to be that time. Someday though. It was on his must buy list, just not his must buy now list.
Disappointment was still his favored Discipline spell. From the description it would be useful in both combat and day to day life with the monster children. If there was one thing those two were missing, it was Discipline. That being said, he was uncertain how well it would work on them. At the moment he couldn’t see them being all that concerned about disappointing him, and he was unclear on whether the effects were magic, or were amplified by magic. Combat applications would be tremendous. Or at least they would be once he had a ranged weapon, or could do real damage with his mana channeling weapons.
Home Remedies was an odd choice. While not directly useful in either application, it did provide benefits to both. And nearly unlimited benefits at that, if it was anything like Alchemy. Healing potions, poisons, explosives, curatives, and the general utility creations could be useful in a wide variety of applications. The major downsides were time and space. As a slave he didn’t exactly have his own garden plot where he could grow any of the herbs he would need, so he would need permission. After that it was just a matter of time, literally. Various plants could take a single season to years before they produced the necessary ingredients. If those weren’t difficult enough reasons, there was also the cost of the plants or seeds themselves. And he didn’t have access to a lot of gold. As a bonus however, Home Remedies would likely pay for itself over time, if he could get a garden started.
There was a final option as well. He could keep the point until he had more options. Over the past month and a half since he had received his class he had unlocked quite a number of skills. Seeing as most people spent years in the Apprentice levels, he had some time, but it was shortened by needing to do them twice even with his head start.
Careful consideration led him to yet another thing he had been trying to avoid. He needed advice. It was time to see Ruth.