PenguinKills
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Chapter 55 - F Rank
🕑 Added 2024-06-14 20:22:16 +0000 UTCDecisions, decisions.
The first thing I had to do was choose my last class skill. Looking back on the list of nine that my current class offered me was bittersweet. There were three I didn't have and I could only choose one.
Ice Manipulation(Common)
Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon)
Piercing Cold(Uncommon)
Shatter(Uncommon)
Hail(Common)
Barbarian's Rage(Common)
Frostbite(Uncommon)
Ice Bolt(Common)
Wind Chill(Common)
The three I didn't have were.
Wind Chill(Common)
Piercing Cold(Uncommon)
Shatter(Uncommon)
I dismissed [Wind Chill] because it focused more on de-buffing an enemy rather than empowering me. It also leaned more on wind than ice and my new law would do little with the skill.
[Piercing Cold] was similar to [Ice Bolt]. It summoned a spear of ice that left afflictions on whatever it hit. Similar to [Frostbite] in a way but more toward the slowing aspect of the cold.
I wasn't in need of another magic skill right now and [Ice Arrow] worked fine right now anyway. Maybe it was because I really wanted [Shatter] that I easily got rid of the other two.
Ever since the list came out, I knew I wanted [Shatter]. It would work well with all of my current ice skills and my law fit in with it perfectly. The law-empowered ice would explode more violently because more force would be needed and the shards would be better weapons.
I could see uses for all three of the skills but [Shatter] was the one my heart was set on. Its description was plain but it didn't need to be flowery. Using it, I could target ice and make it explode.
It was self-explanatory.
With my final skill slotted, my class evolution came up.
Class evolution available.
Not one to waste time, I pulled it up. Five classes stared back at me. 1 Uncommon and 4 Rare. I had hoped for a rare option and now I had the choice between four of them.
The uncommon was easily dismissed and I didn't look much farther into it than the name. Warrior of Ice sounded cool but it was dumb to go for the lower rarity when better were available. The only way that would happen was if the next four were so bad the increase wasn't worth it. I severely doubted that happening though.
I did take note of how many stat points were offered for it though. The Uncommon class gave 20 stat points per level which was a sharp increase from the 10 I got now.
The first rare was Arctic Barbarian Chieftain. It seemed to be a direct upgrade to my current class and built more into the barbarian side of things. I wasn't beholden to being a barbarian so that wasn't a dealbreaker for me but I also wasn't against it.
The next class I almost wanted to dismiss immediately. Village Leader. Seeing its description made me fairly certain Granddad had a lesser version of this class. It was focused on leadership abilities and commanding people. The only reason I could think of that this class was offered was because of my new Faction Head position.
I didn't know that taking on the position would give me a class option for it. It made sense that it would but it wasn't on the top of my mind when I became the leader. I had no desire to take the class.
After reading through all of them, it was two that I narrowed it down to.
Champion of Niflheim(Rare)
Warriors of Niflheim are known for their battle prowess and their magics of cold. Turning any environment to their advantage and creating weapons and armor of their element. Fierce warriors who thrive in the cold. Only the foolish or arrogant meet them in battle in the winter.
Requirements: Some form of Ice affinity, Least law of Ice, ...
+6 Strength, +3 Agility, +2 Perception, +4 Fortitude, +2 Endurance, +2 Vitality, +5 Free
Child of Winter(Rare)
Weapons, magics, or rituals, none are outside their scope. Turns vast swaths of land into places of ice and cold. Competent in various forms of combat without being beholden to one. Craft domains that few will easily enter and only the lucky will ever leave. This class starts you on that path of power.
Requirements: Some form of Ice affinity, Least law of Ice, ...
+2 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Perception, +2 Fortitude, +2 Endurance, +2 Vitality, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Acumen, +6 Free
It came down to what I wanted for the future. One would keep me a warrior and the other a jack of all. 2 in every stat point was tempting but it wouldn't let me excel in any. It also turned me into an all-rounder in terms of combat.
I liked being a warrior and I liked being in the thick of battle with my hammer. Child of Winter would take that away. It would make me too diverse and I wouldn't really excel in any form of combat, turning me purely defensive and only powerful inside the domain it could craft. I was a warrior first, and I wanted to keep it that way.
Seeing a class about Niflheim was a shock, it made it possible that it was real. A realm of Ice and cold from Norse mythology out there somewhere. It certainly wasn't outside the realm of possibility now that the System arrived. It made me wonder how many more legends were actually real.
Was there Zeus out there somewhere slinging lighting bolts and having way too many kids? It made me chuckle thinking about it.
Deep down I knew which one I was going to choose, but I wanted to give the choice the consideration it was due. Making a hasty decision now would affect every evolution to come and hopefully, there would be a lot.
Child of Winter would certainly be the better choice for the situation I found myself currently, but did I want to sacrifice my future for the present?
No. No, I did not.
It would be harder to protect everyone with Champion of Niflheim, but it would be worth it. I had to think about what was to come when we got out of this tutorial and stunting my choice now wouldn't be good.
With my choice made, I felt the change happen. It happened the same as last time and no level was given. It was the racial improvements that worked their way through my body.
It felt like all of my stat points meant a little more. I had to look at my stat sheet to find out how many stat points the evolution gave me. The racial evolution to G rank gave 2 points in every stat along with more subtle improvements as well.
The evolution to F-rank gave 5 in every stat and it felt even better than getting to G-rank.
I was curious to see what skill I was given from my class but there wasn't one. The last skill on my list was [Shatter] which I just got a few moments ago. My mind whirled through all of the possibilities and of the option that I wouldn't get one.
It was in my confusion that I felt something different. It was like a choice was pending and needed an answer. It had no descriptions and gave no skill names only vague feelings.
There were two options and after feeling them out a little more I understood what they implied.
One side was an assortment of weapons, the other, armor.
It was asking me to choose. Weapon or armor.
Seeing how my hammer held up fine and my armor constantly got destroyed, I went with armor. After I made my choice, my new skill appeared on the list.
Frost Armor(Rare) – Create a layer of ice and frost to cover the body in armor. Durability is determined by endurance and fortitude and can benefit from armor-associated skills.
I could now make my very own armor out of ice and had my first rare skill. Having it tied to my endurance and fortitude was another bonus since they were my second and third-highest stats. It would have been unfortunate to have it tied to my magical abilities and the lack thereof.
Giving it a quick test produced incredible results. I created ice with [Hail] and activated the skill which resulted in the ice not even being needed. The skill created its own. It felt odd to have ice start to freeze all over your body but it wasn't painful.
A thick layer of ice formed all over me before working to smooth out the edges. Joints were shaved down to articulate better, limbs were formed with ease of movement in mind. The breastplate thickened to provide better protection.
It was like having full plate armor mold to my specific measurements and it fit like a glove. There weren't any adjustments I had to make to it like my metal armor and there wasn't any pinching.
Everything flowed with my movement and felt perfect. I picked up my hammer for a few test swings and it felt amazing. The weapon of ice felt perfect in my hand and any skill flowed easier into it. My armor normally caused a slight delay in mana transfer or hindered it in other ways but this skill had none of that.
All of it was ice and melded together seamlessly to provide swift movement and mana transfer. It would be perfect.
Testing out my law to strengthen it worked just as easily. The rare skill aided by the law was stronger than steel and if it were an item would easily be in the common tier.
It took a surprising amount of effort to keep the law active on all of the ice though which was the only downside to an otherwise perfect skill.
Seeing how it was the perfect skill, it made me excited to see what the class had in store for the future.
Looking at my status I couldn't help but be giddy.
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: Human(F)
Class: (F) Champion of Niflheim(Rare) – Level 25
Profession: (G) Novice Blacksmith(Common) – Level 16
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 164
Agility - 72
Perception - 22
Fortitude - 77
Endurance - 94
Vitality - 50
Intelligence - 22
Wisdom - 28
Acumen - 24
Free Points: 0
Laws: Least Law of Ice
Class Skills: Heavy Blow(Uncommon), Fortified Body(Common), Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Beginner), Identify(Common), Frostbite(Uncommon), Sweeping Slash(Common), Ice Fortress(Uncommon), Heavy Armor Proficiency(Beginner), Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Novice), Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon), Barbarian's Rage(Common), Hail(Common), Ice Manipulation(Common), Meditation(Common), Ice Arrow(Uncommon), Shatter(Uncommon), Frost Armor(Rare)
Profession Skills: Sense Metal(Common), Create Weapon(Crude), Create Armor(Crude), Metallurgy(Common)
Coins: 0
Points: 17,234
My stats were improving and my skill list was getting even more out of hand. I was on my way to having enough points for the skill I was waiting for. [Mana Engraving] would help push my Blacksmith profession more toward enchanting like I wanted it to.
It would be silly to have a class and profession that both focused on strength as the main stat and I wanted to use my profession to shore up some of my lagging stats.
Enchanting was a magic-heavy profession and should lean more into the magic side that I currently was behind in. It also had the added benefit of being dexterity-heavy with fine, precise movements needed for rune etching.
If the stat points focused on agility and wisdom as the main focus it would be perfect. It would compliment my strength-heavy class with the added agility and give me enough mana to create giant works of ice while fighting.
Thinking about blacksmithing brought up a question I needed to check out. Would my new skill work over my armor?
It fit over my clothes just fine and didn't have any problems with it. If it fit over my armor I would have even better protection.
Trying it out led to less-than-stellar results. It worked, don't get me wrong, but it had things that needed improvement.
Layering my armor of ice on top of plate metal led to some unwieldy armor. It was entirely too thick and insanely cumbersome to move in. If my [Heavy Armor Proficiency] skill was higher then it might work, but as it was now it was unacceptable.
Not one to give up so easily, I brainstormed some changes I could make to improve the design. Thin out the metal to reduce thickness along with getting rid of anything at the joints.
The ice was strong enough to protect my joints by itself and I only really needed the vitals protected in metal.
Oh, the things I can make. I couldn't wait for the next wave to test it thoroughly.
--AN--
The evolution to F rank. I wanted to keep him warrior-centered with ice to augment his fighting. If you were wishing for him to lean more into a hybrid build then I am sorry to disappoint.
Comment your thoughts on what you thought his class was going to be and if you guessed right.
Comments
Alexander C Hyde
No affinity in stat sheet.
James Faulkner
Tftc!
Ian Chin
Thanks for explaining so clearly, that makes a lot of sense! I figured that it was some combination of these factors, but having it stated explicitly helps put into perspective where his magic skills reasonably fall in terms of power.
PenguinKills
I hope this makes sense and if there are any more questions I will be happy to answer them
PenguinKills
This is a great question. I would say the strength of magic is affected by a little of everything. The three magic stats correspond to (Intelligence= Mana Concentration, Wisdom= Mana Pool, Acumen=Regen). I took inspiration from Path of Ascension in this aspect if you have read that. Having a higher Concentration of mana will make magic stronger so a higher intelligence will make magic stronger. The scale we are working with though is why there hasn't been a sharp drop off in his skills. It's something that will shine later and be a huge deciding factor for power. Imagine a common mage who gets 2 intelligence a level for 10 levels in H Rank, then common class again for G rank getting 2 more intelligence. For 25 levels that's 50 points. 50 points isn't really that much higher than the 20 or so Chris has. 50 points will still beat a 20 points just the same as a 50 in strength is more than 20. Its more than strictly stat points though. Technique can bridge the gap in the case of strength and magic. His law certainly affects ice strength magic skills and his rank does as well. An F rank will have a stronger fireball than a H rank just because of the rank difference. So his higher level has something to do with it. Imagine a person has more metaphysical 'weight' at higher ranks and this gives their skills a boost. Plus, these are basic skills that have yet to be modified in any way. The only ones that have been modified are the ones he has upgraded. This is something he will learn later but the act of using a skill and getting familiar with it makes it stronger. A wizard who has mastered a spell sort of thing. Rarity also plays a role. An uncommon skill is just stronger than a Common skill it wouldn't make sense for that not to be the case. Strength in that aspect is relative thought. Body of a Barbarian is Uncommon but gives him almost 50 points in strength while Heavy blow is the same rarity but does something not as impressive. There's also conjoining skills that we have to consider. For the ice skills that Chris uses its never only one skill. Hail may spawn the ice but Ice Manipulation is used to control it. There will also be more involved later that add on top of each other. His law is the biggest help right now. Not only did it work to increase the rarity of his skills, boosting them that way, he can also use it to actively empower them. Think of it as a passive and an active effect. There are also modifications and mana cultivation aspects that will come into play later that will add to the power of skills. All this to say a lot goes into the strength of a skill. I'll end with an example. A warrior with 50 points in intelligence at F rank who has a law empowering a rare skill will beat a mage with over 100 points of intelligence if he either doesn't have a law or the gap in skill rarity is too high.
Ian Chin
I like him being a warrior and think it makes sense to keep that as his focus. My only question is how exactly the magic skills interact with his stats. What determines the strength of his hail, ice wall, etc.? If it's just his stats it would seem that they should all be pretty useless against the enemies he's facing since he still has the magic stats of someone unevolved and is fighting only creatures of the first or second evolution now. Is the actual strength of the skill determined by his level or just the rarity of his skill or something? Otherwise, it seems to me like he's not really getting enough out of the magic offered by his class with his current build.
