“You think I should go with the Spellspear job then?” Allen asked, reclining in his chair. He was all clean and dressed comfortably, just like everyone else sitting around him.

Christopher nodded. “Limit Breaker is a supporting Job, fundamentally. It won’t do well for you have it as your main damage dealing job. The Chaos aspect will always naturally have the magical overloading capabilities that you want, so I’m fairly certain that Limit Breaker being Power aspect instead is a sign that it’s compensating for the loss of that natural capability.”

“Meaning that it would be pointless to take that Job over Spellspear,” Allen surmised.

There were nods of agreement from Ty, Amelia, and Phantom, while of course Camila wasn’t paying any attention at all. Yes, the spider was part of the conversation. Nora was just sitting by Allen and listening in. She hadn’t reached her level two-hundred threshold yet, and Allen had told her to save all her points until then. She would be needing them to fix her build at some point.

The group was spending the down time discussing their Classes and Job evolutions in great detail, aside from Camila, who was half-passed out from an afternoon of binge drinking. Allen had gone first in getting the group’s opinions on his Job upgrades. It was important that they all knew each other’s abilities if they were going to work together seamlessly. With Basic Jobs, it was pretty easy to just guess, but that wouldn’t work anymore.

“I told myself I would get Dusk Lurker for stealth and Assassin skills if I went with Spellspear for DPS and movement,” Allen said. “That leaves my third Job for illusions, which I’ll explain later. The thing is, I don’t really know what Spellspear will give me, it could be just the same sort of thing I have right now: really hard punches and stabs, or it could be conventional attack magic like a surge or bolt spell. Dusk Lurker could be anything on top of the stealth skills I already have, I’ll have to test that stuff.” Allen took a deep breath and turned his attention to Ty. “How about you Ty?”

The big man grunted and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, gotta say it’s been weird tryna make myself into a Tank without drawing agro from monsters or distracting enemies. I’ve got three Jobs right now: Superheavy Greatshield Bearer, which is Body aspect, Steel Enhancer, which is Material aspect, and a Dawn aspect Paladin at tier five with only Siphon, Anchor, and Rush. Steel Infuser is the only good upgrade for Steel Enhancer, but for Bearer, I can either go Steelblooded Greatshield Bearer with more metal magic, or Greatshield Titan, which just seems like a straightforward upgrade.”

Christopher had a hand on his chin and nodded once Ty was finished. “Well, the Paladin derivative is redundant, you should try to evolve that into something else, perhaps some active magic.”

“Blood magic,” Allen said, earning a few strange looks. “What if he got a skill that worked like a proxy totem? He could take our damage for us.” He shrugged when he got the same looks again. Even Phantom wasn’t sold on the idea, so Allen gave up. That kind of blood magic would probably be Soul aspect instead of Life anyway, which was too different from Body, Ty’s main aspect.

“That is a possibility, Allen, but not one easily attainable in the near future. Earth or Metal might be a good choice for you Ty, considering you already have a Material aligned Armor Enhancer derivative Job. I can tell you already, that nothing you will get in that tree will give you any active magic; it will all be infusion, so you will need another Job for external magic.”

Ty just grunted. “I feel like I should be doing more, y’know, but can’t think of anything.”

“Ty needs better maneuverability,” Allen said to the group before focusing back on Ty. “You don’t need to stand in one place anymore because you’re not the one drawing agro. I like the Steelblooded one.”

“I agree, but on the grounds of it synergizing with the Metal element, not blood magic.” Christopher replied curtly.

“What kind of external magic?” Amelia asked, “He could only cast barriers, or does that count as support?”

The professor sighed. “Barriers are support when they funnel enemies, act as platforms, prevent attacks from landing, or serve some other strategic purpose. They are defense if they actually absorb damage.”

“This is fucking TOO COMPLICATED!” Camila groaned from the side. Everyone ignored her.

“Okay, which Job tree should I change my Paladin Job to?” Ty asked.

Allen tried to think of all the first tier starter jobs offered to Defenders, but he could only come up with four, and none of them seemed like they would offer external magic later on. Of course, thinking about it didn’t matter because Christopher was quick to answer.

“Gridlocker or Sentinel,” the professor said, “and choose Steelblooded Greatshild Bearer, it is more versatile. You can use Earth and Metal magic with armor and shields.”

“Oh, I think the Faceless Ones are Gridlockers, or some evolution of that.” Allen hummed to himself. “Onto Amelia,” he said.

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The Healer shifted in her seat as everyone focused on her. Phantom made happy chittering noises from her lap when she cleared her throat, still scratching him behind his head. “Okay, I already upgraded my job in the Arcane Healer tree to Arcane Biomancer, which is tier thirteen so I can upgrade again. I’ve narrowed it down to three options: one that increases overall healing power, one that allows for better regeneration of organs and limbs, and one that deals with toxins better.”

“Do you have ranged healing yet?” Christopher asked.

Amelia shook her head. “I’ve got another class for physical enhancements. I can buff natural regeneration and refill stamina at range, but that’s it.”

“I think you should focus more on your own combat abilities. You need to be able to defend yourself,” Allen said, tapping his finger on his chair’s armrest. Phantom hissed in agreement. “You can’t let your build end up like a temple healer, it’s dangerous.”

Amelia didn’t respond for a few moments; she was glowering at Allen and chewing on her lip.

“You should leave toxins and other things for another Job, and get it sooner rather than later,” Christopher began, interrupting the minor stare-down. “From what you’ve told me, you’re able to make use of the skills in your Arcane Healer derivative Job to manually heal wounds that skills at our level would outright reject. If the supposed addition of better regeneration abilities seems like it would be redundant, then take the Job offering increased power.” Amelia nodded and looked off to the side, probably at her status. After a brief pause, Christopher continued. “As for the range problem, I have something in mind that might help without forcing you to overinvest in Intelligence to make use of ranged skills.”

“Like what?” Amelia asked, turning back to the professor.

“My fourth Job,” he said.

Allen raised an eyebrow. “Fourth?”

“Yes,” Christopher bluntly replied. “I have one main Job, Arcane Waveshaper, and three lesser Jobs with only a few skills. They provide supporting magic that my main Job can make use of. I suggest Amelia do the same to get additional healing capabilities.”

Camila yawned while everyone else seemed to be thinking. Personally, Allen hadn’t considered Jobs like that before; he sort of thought it would be a waste to only get two or three skills in a Job and not really upgrade it. Apparently he was wrong.

“Okay, so how are you going to increase her range?” Allen asked.

“Right, I was getting to that.” The professor paused to take a sip from a glass of water he had gotten from his inventory. He looked pretty tired actually, especially after the raid earlier that day. “One of my supporting Jobs is Soul aspect. I have a theory that magic has a trigger point both inside and outside the soul, which is to say that all spells are cast from at least two foci regardless of the type of magic. That means that I might be able to move the external trigger point of Amelia’s healing magic even though it’s infusion type magic.”

“Huh.” Allen rubbed his forehead; there were a few other grunts, but nobody had anything to add. “I know about trigger points from working with illusions, but I’ve never heard anything about moving around a metaphysical part of someone’s soul to cast from somewhere else. That honestly sounds like hacking.”

“Soul magic should help with that,” Christopher said. “Anyway, my other Jobs are Mystic Visionseeker and Auric Sorcerer. The former is Mystic aspect, and it’s how I’m able to keep up with your movements, Allen. It used to be a Dawn aspect analytical Seer Job, but the Mystic aspect has better divination magic. I can get a read on danger and enemy magic, I can use a primitive form of scrying. I also have a Sphere perception skill, but it only takes snapshots, like a camera. I don’t quite have enough Intelligence to use it too much without getting a severe headache, just to let you all know.”

“I thought a Dawn aspect Job would get us group telepathy eventually,” Allen remarked. That had been a goal a while ago. “And are those your upgraded Jobs?”

“Yes, these are the new ones, only my main Job is above tier ten though.” Christopher took a deep breath as he got his thoughts in order. “Divination is better for now, I think. And as your spider friend knows, telepathy with Dawn aspect is easier said than done.”

“Wait, the spider can talk?” Camila blurted, suddenly sitting up.

“Yeah.”

“Oh shit, say something,” she urged, leaning in towards Phantom. The spider groggily looked up from Amelia’s lap and blinked. Camila laughed at something a few seconds later. “Cheers to that little dude!”

“Wait, how can you hear him without a mental empathic anchor?” Allen furrowed his brow and glared at Camila.

“Who says I don’t have a mental thingy?” the woman said, throwing her head back and chugging the remnants of her bottle of whiskey.

The whole group collectively groaned. Allen pursed his lips and gave Phantom a look. “You can talk to her?” he asked, sighing when the spider nodded candidly. “What the fuck? Is she secretly capable or something? Now I need to know her Jobs. Literally none of us know anything about her.”

Christopher cleared his throat. “Well, it’s probably the Soul magic from her third Job. I don’t actually know, but I’m certain her main two are Berserker and Gladiator derivatives. I was going to say that my Soul magic might allow me to create a mental link.”

“The Gladiator Job sucks dick and balls,” Camila said with a wave of or her hand. “No versatility and too many debuffs.”

“Noted.”

“So, then what is your second Job then?” Allen asked, receiving only a drunken, coy smile in return. “Right… Moving on, what about that other Job of yours, Christopher?”

“Ah, yes. Auric Sorcerer. That one is Reality aspect. I’m hoping to get space magic out of it, but right now I only have two skills: one which allows me to move small objects around within a certain radius of myself, and another that functions as a force resistance aura.”

“Alright, that’s it.” Allen said, standing up and dressing himself in his armor.

“Where are you going?” Ty asked, everyone else looking up. “It’s like, eight o’ clock.”

Allen shrugged. With his mask and hood on, nobody could see the smirk on his face. “I’m just going out to get the passive kill requirement for my DPS Job. All I need to do is look for a mugger or something and take them out. I should be back in a few hours tops.”

Ty grumbled skeptically, but in the end he waved him off. Allen was surprised the Defender didn’t say anything despite him revealing his full plans for the night. He could have just said he was going to get a snack, but that would be dishonest.

Maybe that signaled the end of his grudge. Allen hoped so. He left the ritzy hotel with a spring in his step and made his way towards the crumbier part of town.