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Seraphiel released a deep sigh as soon as she woke up. She could already tell this was going to be a mess. She didn’t even need to open her Status to know her stats had vastly increased, and that would create issues. Usually increases in your stats didn’t cause problems because the changes were gradual enough and the stats simply enhanced what was already there. However, there was nothing gradual about her current increase. She gingerly opened the portion of her Status that showed her levels and stats, which caused her to suck in breath.
All three of her Classes were at level 250, and she could tell there were several more levels stored up, just waiting for her to Class evolution. Even her Paladin Class had somehow skipped the level 100 evolution and gone to level 250. She assumed she’d get the benefits of that evolution later on anyway, but it was still odd to see. She needed to have a word with Luci. The evolution at 250 was a little different in the sense that it was the first one that required some real resources to perform. Resources that were not freely available. So far, she had been able to mostly ignore that facet of the whole process, but that would change.
The real cause for her surprise was not the levels, but the stats. Her stats had roughly quadrupled! As she quickly assigned her Free Stat points, her Physical stats were all 22000! That was a ridiculous increase that would take a while to get used to. And thanks to her high-ranking Classes and Race, she likely had roughly the same stats as someone twice her level. And most of that she’d gained overnight. She’d be bumping into things for the next couple of days, that’s for sure. The issue wasn’t as big as it would’ve been if her body had suddenly grown so much stronger and faster as stats worked a little differently, but it was still there.
On the other hand, her Skills were woefully lagging behind. The only one that had capped out at 250 was [Been there, Done That], which thankfully would speed up the leveling of her other Skills. A 750% bonus to leveling speed was kind of stupid to even think about. Still, it would take months, and she wouldn’t dare take her Class Evolution before getting at least her most important Skills up to par.
“You’re awake.” The voice of Shepard stirred her from her thoughts. “I can hear your mind working from the other side of the room. That and the incessant sighing.”
"I don't sigh that much." She protested.
“Yes, you do. You really do.” Shepard was having none of it though, as she laughed at her denial.
"How did it go?" Seraphiel decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and changed the subject.
"The battle? Your little stunt worked. Destroyed about 90% of the fleet. Destroyed, not killed, mind you. The part that remained consisted mostly of scattered outlying scouts that were outside the affected area. Still forced us to leave in a hurry since all of us were pretty exhausted. Aside from EDI of course, which is good since she had to do some fancy flying to get around those scouts that came back, not really happy about what had happened.” Shepard reported. “I’d say bloody good work, but that’s a pun that even I won’t deign to make.”
Seraphiel gasped in faux shock. "Something beneath your sense of humor? Say it ain't so!"
Shepard sniffed a bit. “I’ve evolved as a person.” Her pride entirely faked.
“Still, 90% isn’t bad, even if it was just a splinter fleet.” She allowed.
“Good enough to give even me and Evangeline over 100 levels. I can only imagine how many you got.” Shepard added.
“I can’t say. I’m capped out at 250.” She admitted.
“And you were just above 100 before, right? On your main Class at least. Ah. That’s a bit of a sudden boost in stats. I wouldn’t get up too quickly if I were you.” She could hear Shepard shrugging in her armor. “Either way, we gave the Tyranids a bloody nose. Should make them reconsider at least.”
"I'm not sure they work quite like that, but it is true they should now consider this area more trouble than it's worth with how much biomass they lost. That's their main consideration after all. Revenge doesn’t factor in to their thinking. Still, with a splinter fleet here, the main hive fleet shouldn’t be too far away.” If she assumed the ‘Nids worked like they had in the past.
"Well, as callous as it may seem, hopefully, they decide to go somewhere else after this." Shepard voiced what they both thought. "I'm going to assume you'll need a ride home?"
“I need to return to the Academy, yes. I need to get my Skills leveled up, and the headmaster has a nice solution to that issue." The resort and the time compression involved would be good enough to get her up to speed.
“Hey, at least this should be enough to let you skip several grades. Should land you amongst the advanced students at least. I think some academies allow you to graduate with those levels.” Shepard guessed.
“We’ll see. I think we can safely assume that my time at the Academy has been considerably shortened at least.” Seraphiel guessed.
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It had taken a couple of days of constant dueling with Kaede to get her completely adjusted to her new stats. She couldn’t quite match the elusive Ninja, but she wasn’t all that far off. Far enough that Kaede still didn’t need to make any real effort to beat her, but close enough that she couldn’t completely hold back either. Kaede mentioned that she could probably now fight Kū Fei relatively equally. A fact that clearly caught the Ninja off guard, as Kū Fei was almost triple her level. The downside of having worse Classes and a Race that was inferior stats-wise.
The work of getting her Skills up to speed was grueling, but the improvement in her [Been There, Done That] proved that her estimation had been off. She also wasn’t aware before now that when there was a large disparity like this, training Skills became faster. Her new and improved stats also helped her perform closer to her real standard, which the System recognized with easier leveling. It still took a month and a half inside Evangeline’s resort, which only meant a couple days outside, to get most of her Skills capped. She didn’t even complain when Kaede kept poisoning her constantly.
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One positive development was that several of the Skills became much more useful now that she had the stats and Skill levels to properly back them up. Her combat usage of [Telekinesis] for example was much improved. Her [Gravitokinesis] also started helping, and [Chronomancy] actually affected Kaede at this point, even if not as much as it was supposed to. One of the biggest positive surprises was [Royal Blessings]. That Skill scaled entirely with her stats and Skill level, so when she focused the power of the Skill on buffing a single stat, the effect was an almost 75% increase. When applied equally, it was still a nice 25% bonus to all stats, which at this point meant more bonus stats from the blessing than she’d had before the sudden increase in levels.
Some Skills were helplessly lagging behind still, and there was nothing she could do about it. Leveling [Magical Engineering] at the resort was almost impossible while [Star Of The Show] only improved when she was performing to a crowd, like in a tournament. Still, while occasionally useful, those Skills were hardly her most important ones.
On the other hand, some Skill combinations were downright silly in their effectiveness. The only time she’d actually managed to surprise Kaede enough to score a hit on her, was when she’d used the blessing to improve her psionic power and had dumped all that power into her [Reiatsu]. As the Skill increased in levels, it became more effective, and the sudden pressure placed on Kaede had caused her to stumble long enough for Seraphiel to hit her. Only once as the Ninja had not fallen for that trick a second time, but still…
As the two finally exited the resort, they ran into Eva straight away. “Ah, good. I was just coming to meet you. Are you done with your Skills?”
“For now. The rest will have to wait.” She replied.
“There have been some developments. The Tyranids have moved out in force, and there are talks about large coalitions forming against them. Even the academies are intending to participate. We’ll most likely want to borrow that ‘Fuck everything in that general direction’ ritual spell you used again. That’s not all though. All of the worlds that have suffered from incursions of several different types of locust species and otherwise seem to have grown worse. The demons that originate from the same universe have seen significantly increased activity, and there have been several reports of these odd green-glowing ships with completely mechanical crews that look like spooky scary skeletons as well. We have no idea what those are up to. Incidentally, one of the worlds with increased demonic activity is your home, so that bears looking into, even if it’s not currently urgent.” Eva apparently had decided that dumping all the information at once was better than doling it out one piece at a time.
“Those green-glowing ships belong to the Necron, I believe. They’re possibly even worse news than the Tyranids, but they at least can be communicated with.” Seraphiel spoke while frowning at the news. “What’s this about my home?”
“Well, the Angels and Draenei have, for a long time fought against demonic incursions. Also, it seems that the whole universe where all of these things are coming from is suddenly on a war footing. Incidentally, they’re not the only ones. Several other locust races have also become much more active. The Zerg have been quiet for a long time before this and now they’ve gotten active again, and invasions from species like the Orks and Beastmen have been sporadic in the past, but now it seems every dangerous species has decided at once to get ideas. Even raids from certain nefarious races like the Drow and Dark Elves are seeing an uptick.” Evangeline explained.
Kaede frowned a bit. "I've heard rumors about such things for a while but didn't pay too much attention to them at the time. It doesn’t seem so bad until you put it all together. It seems I’ve spent too much time training Seraphiel and not enough time intelligence gathering.” As a Ninja, having missed all this was somewhat embarrassing.
“Well, now it seems we have to pay attention," Eva stated firmly. "It seems everybody is starting to gear up for war, and not for the old-fashioned skirmish heavy war either, but for something closer to total war.”
"That doesn't sound too promising," Seraphiel stated the obvious.
"It's not, but with strife comes opportunity. Everybody knows war is the most effective way to gain levels, and when certain established powers get toppled, there's going to be a struggle for the riches that are suddenly available.” Eva didn’t seem too sad about the fact, although she’d always been a fan of some good old-fashioned drama. "Personally, I think the gods are bored and are stirring up trouble. Usually, when something big happens like this, they're at least partially to blame."
“What sort of stance are the academies planning on taking?” Seraphiel asked.
"Depends on the academy. Some, like the Argus Academy, have decided to take a very militaristic stance, essentially working as a mercenary force. Some academies that are not mobile or are tied to a certain association, like the Thessian Academy, of course will stand with their own people. Some like us are a bit undecided. Our cooperation with Thessia and the Citadel council seemed to work, so there’s that option. We have plenty of students from both your home, and the Citadel area, as well as some Eldar that have already evacuated that particular universe a long time ago. Some of their Craftworlds seem to have taken up residence with nearby friendly forces, but they’re rather divided, probably to ensure their survival. I suppose we need allies first and foremost.” Eva explained, knowing Seraphiel was a good person to keep in the loop.
“As to that, I may have some ideas, depending on if any of the places I’ve visited are around…” Seraphiel muttered. “I’ll need help with the resources for my Class Evolution though.”
“Those we have. We usually help our students, assuming they’ve performed well. And you certainly qualify” Evangeline nodded easily. “That’s a large portion of what we gain from all the tournaments after all.” It was, after all, one of the main draws of the academies, especially with worlds that didn't have access to those resources.
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The Mahora Academy had special chambers dedicated to students having Class Evolutions from level 250 and forward. Those evolutions usually took a bit more time than those that came before and usually required a dedicated ritual circle. You could do the evolution without a ritual circle, but the circle made the process more efficient, requiring fewer resources to conduct. The resources required were placed into specialized holders on the edge of the ritual circle, the exact nature of each holder depending on the nature of the resource used.
There was some leeway in the resources used. It wasn't that you needed some specific one resource, but instead that you needed a resource with a certain type of quality. The higher the level, the more stringent those requirements became, and usually the rarer the resources required also became. Part of the process was a gating system put in place to encourage and force competition for the required resources, but not all of it. Some of it was done to prepare the individuals to deal with the increased rigors their new abilities and stats would place on them. While some races could naturally withstand the strain from both, most didn't, and even the higher-ranked races had trouble dealing with some of the Skills and stats, especially if they didn't have a balanced stat build. The Classes that gave you an equal amount of all of the required stats were rather rare and thus ended up forcing somewhat unbalanced builds. These rituals somewhat compensated for that, though only to a certain extent. Those people with really unbalanced builds usually had to find other methods to solve the problem, while the rituals gave them some time to deal with it.
Seraphiel was confident that with her Vitality and XXX-rank race, she probably didn't need as many of the resources as most, but she wasn't taking any chances. Two of the five required resources were actually produced at Mahora thanks to the huge tree at the heart of the academy. One bowl held some sap from the tree, while another held magically charged blossoms that were created during the Mahora Festival. One of the holders held a chunk of ore, while another had what looked like feathers from some magical bird. The last one held a sizeable gemstone that radiated several colors.
"Take your time sweetheart. Level 250 is usually a very important step for most Classes. It's when you change from a trainee to a proper member of the Class." Her mom fussed. "It's also seen as a somewhat of a coming of age ritual among Angels, although you're a bit early on that front. Usually, we don't reach this level until we're in our late thirties or early forties."
"So not a huge surprise you're early for it," Raziel commented with a smile as well. He didn't seem too bothered that she'd suddenly passed him in levels, and not just by a little bit either.
"Also remember that we are often offered a choice to improve our race as well, though sometimes it's at the cost of improving our Class. Now I'm not saying what you should or shouldn't do, but becoming an Archangel has benefits beyond just improved stats at level up. I'd at least consider it if it's on offer, and in your case, I wouldn't be surprised." Her mom continued, not being aware that Seraphiel already had that part covered.
"Don't worry mom. I'll consider all my options, and I'm sure my Guide will be most helpful. If not, I'll have to have some words with him. He knows better, even if he's a little tricksy.” She promised before sitting down inside the circle. She didn’t miss the irony that her sudden increase in level had come as a result of another ritual, which only underlined the usefulness of that branch of magic.