After her snack, Chan Si would next decide the backgrounds of her four classes. Monstrous characters didn't get backgrounds, just another reason they didn't do well typically.

There were numerous backgrounds available, all granting a variety of non-combat basic skills, and occasionally non-combat [Skills] as well, such as be able to craft magical items, whether they were gear of consumables.

Chan Si did not plan to select any classes that crafted gear, as leveling them would be too expensive. She wanted money makers so she could buy gear for her Ballista instead, along with purchasing potentially game breaking items. It was too hard to break the game through crafting gear, the system was very careful about balance for crafted gear.

Thus her choices were backgrounds that provided ways to harvest valuable raw materials, and backgrounds which could craft consumables.

Both types made good money, but the money of the raw material harvesters was significantly higher in most cases, as there was always demand for more raw materials. The reason she was considering consumable crafters was that buying consumables would be too much of a waste of money for her given the high price, but consumables would be a great boon to her farming speed and other tasks, so she would want to craft them herself if she could.

She could gain new non-combat [Skills] later by paying a trainer, if doing so was good for her, but she wanted to avoid doing so unless she had a direct method to convert that into the breaking the game.

Thus, she decided she would go with one of two set-ups. Either she would have one consumable crafting background and three harvester backgrounds, with one or more of the harvesters being of the type that could supply the crafting background with raw materials, or she would have two crafting backgrounds of different types and two harvester background, each ones matched in pairs to what raw materials would be useful to which crafter.

Before picking between those two options, she decided to browse the consumable crafting background options and make a short list of the ones she felt were best suited for her party. That would help her decide if she would make do with one crafter, or if she would get more advantage out of two.

Cook was one option. It was better than the comparable Alchemist because the buffs lasted for hours and could be stacked for as much food as your character could eat, which would go up as they leveled. Alchemy had no limit to the number of potions one could down, but because they only lasted a short while it required downing them in combat for any notable effect, which would be time not spent doing other things. Chan Si already had her hands full juggling gear, she wasn't going to add potion juggling on top of that. But cooking, it was a good option for the long term buffs.

Arcane Scribe. She hadn't selected Arcane for her Dual Elemental Master, but Arcane Scribe was a way to receive comparable effects, through the crafting of scrolls imbued with arcane magic. They wouldn't be as good or as varied as the class, but they would still be options. It shared the weakness of the Arcane of requiring large amounts of money.

Yet, unlike the Arcane, she could harvest these materials directly for scroll crafting, though she would need to dedicate all three of the other backgrounds to doing so if she wanted to avoid buying raw materials. As such, this option had the largest potential upside in combat, but would make her the least amount of money, mostly from selling scrolls she only made to level the background.

Fletcher. Just because Chan Si could sustain the cost of buying oversized arrows for her Ballista, didn't mean she wanted to. Not only would selecting this crafting class save her almost as much money as she would make with a gathering class, but she would be able to craft arrows with special effects that she wouldn't otherwise purchase, giving her a notable damage boost for a pittance of her overall income. The most efficient option, for sure, but not necessarily the best.

If she selected the True Totem Demon as the fletcher to craft bone arrows instead, it would be the best options in terms of money, but be weaker than properly crafted arrows, a sort of reverse option: a small damage loss in exchange for a good boost of her overall income.

Medicine Doctor. It was a special crafting background, in that unlike most, only the crafting class itself could use its consumables. Of course, it could still apply it to others. It could not just apply lengthy healing over time effects, but periodically remove debuffs. Potions could remove debuffs and heal too, but just instantly, and then you'd be back to square one. It was comparable to cooking, but did not apply buffs. Chan Si had little use for healing over time effects, but periodically removing debuffs would be a great boon! The class could craft a periodic remover for every type of debuff in the game, though the more powerful the debuff, the more powerful the medicine required to remove it. Even if it could not remove a debuff, it could reduce its severity, and again it would keep doing this over and over and over again, without stopping, for as long as the effect of the medicine lasted, often hours.

Because Medicine consumables could only be used by someone with the proper [Skills], there was only a small market for Medicine, but every top guild had at least a few people with Medicine [Skills] to keep their parties debuff free. If Chan Si selected this, she would have access to something she would have no access to otherwise, no matter how much money she paid, unless she spent enough to purchase the [Skill] training and spent significant time leveling it.

But just because she would be missing out if she didn't pick it, didn't mean it was the best thing to pick, other options could be better! It all depended.

Distiller. Unlike cooks or alchemist or even medicine makers, distillers made consumables which would harm the drinker. It could add the drunk or high statuses, which could blur vision and reduce stats, making the player feel as though they were really drunk or high. There weren't even positive benefits to make up for it, unless one was playing the Drunken Fist martial arts class, or another of the few classes like it. They couldn't be used sneakily either, it wasn't like the backgrounds that made undetectable poisons. It would be too obvious if someone served you alcohol or a hallucinogen.

Then why was Chan Si considering it?

Besides making money off players who liked to have a good time, many NPCs loved drugs and alcohol, and a distiller's products were the most common items for unlocking secret quests.

It was basically known as the ‘lucky bastard’ crafting class, because of the sheer number of distillers who managed to stumble their way into untold fortunes, entirely by accident. It was one of the most popular crafting backgrounds for this reason, essentially being seen a huge lottery ticket to the masses. Since Chan Si wanted to break the game, perhaps she should take a risk?

Finally, Provisioner. A Provisioner was similar to the True Totem Demon in its ability to craft for ‘free’. It was a sort of harvester crafter hybrid, being able to harvest any material, like it was a combination of every harvester background, except the materials it harvested could not be traded or sold, and would dissolve into nothingness in only a few minutes.

Thus the Provisioner could only use materials it harvested if it had the [Skills] to, and the product was not so complex as to require many ingredients. ‘Real’ ingredients and the ones harvested by the Provisioner could not be combined, it had to be all one of the other.

The background also offered the ability to craft the Common items from any consumable crafting background, which worked well with the background's harvesting limitations, as Common items were the most simple to make, requiring the fewest ingredients. Although this background would drop off quickly, it was the best in terms of initial benefits for Chen Si, truly elevating her early game to its peak level, and didn't even require a dedicated harvesting class to go with it.

Cooking, Arcane Scribe, Fletcher, Medicine Doctor, Distiller, and Provisioner. These were the six Chan Si were considering.

With her usual methods, she eliminated her weakest option, Distiller. If she ever encountered a situation where she felt it was likely she could unlock a secret quest, she could just buy the required drugs and alcohol from the market. And if she never encountered a situation where she thought it was likely, then that was fine too, she wasn't going to waste her precious limited resources on gambling.

Arcane Scribe meant she would dedicate all her harvesting selections to supporting it. Yet, directly accessing metamagic through the cheapest route possible would not only boost her combat ability, but increase her likelihood of being able to break the game. She wouldn't want to pair it with Dual Elemental Master, but the True Totem Demon. Arcane Scribes could only scribe magic they had innate access to, which meant magic [Skills] that came from their classes. [Skills] from gear and other sources didn't count. Except, the True Totem Demon's skills gained through replacing its own bones was an exception. While those skills were weaker than True Totem Demon's regular skills, such that they wouldn't normally be used, they were excellent for crafting into scrolls with applied metamagics, because then the effects could get really weird in ways the True Totem Demon wouldn't normally have access to.

There were a few True Totem Demons with the Arcane Scribe background already in the game and, although they were by no means considered powerful figures, they were incredibly strange ones, almost all of them were dangerous to fight from their unpredictability alone.

To someone who wanted to break the game like Chan Si, this was a great opportunity. She short-shortlisted the option.

Cooking, it was straightforward and effective, but it put her in awkward spot. Either she would need to dedicate three harvesting classes to it - one butcher for meat, one forager for fruits and vegetables, and one elemental siphon for seasonings - or accept that there would be some dishes she wouldn't be able to make. Three harvesting classes were too much, so she would sell the excess raw materials if she chose that, but among the harvesting classes, those three made the least money, due to how common they were.

The lower prices on raw materials meant Chan Si could potentially buy them without hurting her wallet too much, but in truth that was only for Rare and lower ingredients. If she wanted to make the best dishes as a chef she needed Legendary ingredients, and those were extremely pricey.

So if she got a legendary recipe, but lacked the appropriate legendary crafting ingredients, she wouldn't even be able to eat her sadness.

It also lacked truly game breaking potential, as there were no shortage of high level characters who had already made the system iron out the bugs when they stuffed their faces with as many buffs as they could fit. She didn't like giving up on cooking, but in the end she could only decide that giving it up was the right thing.

That left just Fletcher, Medicine Doctor, and Provisioner to consider. If she selected either Medicine Doctor or Fletcher, she could select Provisioner as well, select the harvesting class that best fit her choice, and then have a leftover harvesting class to optimize her income. Fletcher would be the best in terms of income, while Medicine Doctor would be the best in terms of not missing out the unique debuff-mitigating and removing effects the background could provide.

It wasn't simple for her to calculate how much the later was worth in terms of her overall plans. It might be the only means she has for dealing with certain tough enemies, or it might be a needless waste of a crafting slot.

It all depended on the future, which no matter how smart Chan Si was, she could not be certain.

Chan Si already had a lot of ways to reduce her expenditures, but she could always use more. Fletcher was attractive for that reason. In fact, between that, Provisioner, and True Totem Demon, she would never need to trade with another player unless they had a rare item, or she was trying to make money.

All the basics would already be covered by her.

That kind of self-sustainability capitalized on her playing five characters at once, allowing her to dive as deep as she needed into any dungeon or other extended campaign without ever needing to stop for lack of resources or someone else's schedule.

Thus, between the two, despite giving up the numerous unique benefit of Medicine Doctor, Chan Si felt Fletcher suited her better.

Thus the decision was down to just two. The amazing money making and sustain of Fletcher and Provisioner combined, or game breaking potential of Arcane Scribe.

After considering it for a while, Chan Si made her decision! If she truly ever gained an ability from the True Totem Demon which she felt she could usefully exploit with metamagic, she would bother learning Arcane Scribe on the class at that time. But she didn't know what her future was like, so preparing for what was to be soonest was best!

She needed money, and a lot of it, so she picked Fletcher and Provisioner without hesitation. Fletcher's main harvesting class was woodcutter, which would provide the raw materials for the shaft of the arrow. The adornments would come from drops from certain monsters, no harvesting needed. Only the arrow heads were an issue. The arrow heads needed to be forged by a blacksmith, who would need to be supplied metal from a miner. Blacksmiths did not make consumables, so although the Provisioner could mine, they could not turn them into arrow heads, and if Chan Si selected Blacksmith as a background, she would have no Miner to supply them with ores, because the Provisioner could not trade their metals.

However, that didn't mean she couldn't make arrows. Arrow Heads only needed to be forged by a blacksmith if they were made of metal. The Fletcher class could make arrow heads from most non-metal materials. The simplest version was sharpening the shaft, adding a point but no head. This made for the weakest arrows unless the wood was incredibly strong and had magical properties. If Chan Si made her True Totem Demon the fletcher, they could make arrowheads from bone, and could even make the shaft or adornments from bone as well!

Besides these two options, the Fletcher could also make arrowheads from basic stones or rocks, which didn't require any special harvesting class.

None of these were fantastic options, but this was where Chan Si's decision to select the Ballista class shined; because the class used oversized bows, they also used oversized arrows, where the damage bonus from the material of the arrow tips was very minor in comparison to the overall damage output. If you were struck by a log flying at you at a hundred meters per second, it wouldn't matter very much if it was tipped in metal or not.

The exception would be the tougher large monsters, like dragons, but Chan Si was not going to be regularly farming dragons, as dragons were not enemies that existed in large quantities in the game, so if she ever planned to fight such tough enemies, she would just buy oversized metal arrowhead at that time.

Thus, three of her four backgrounds were selected; fletcher, provisioner, and woodcutter. She could select one more background, and she already knew it was going to be harvester. After researching the various money making options, she simply picked the one that had the best intersection of price and potential harvesting volume, Disassembler, which could take gear drops and convert them into a portion of their raw materials.

The reason was simple. When she encountered items with poor statistics and benefits, who would want to buy such a thing? NPCs would buy almost anything, but offer the lowest price. Other players wouldn't want it at all, it would only be useful to other Dissassemblers, and so be sold under the price dissassemblers could resell the raw materials for anyway. With how many enemies Chan Si planned to be farming at once, she would have way too many useless gear drops without a doubt, so disassembling them was best! Plus, it would save on her item space by dissembling directly in the field if she had multiple items with the same types of raw materials, as the same materials would stack together, but no matter how much you wanted to, you could not stack gear in a single item slot.

It wasn't the highest income per volume, but it was the highest volume for Chan Si, and if she ever found herself with spare time and money, she could convert it directly into more money by buying bad items, disassembling them, and selling the materials.

Unfortunately arrows were considered consumables and not gear, so the dissembler could not disassemble them. Besides, if she ever encountered an enemy who dropped oversized arrows, she would just use them directly.

Matching her backgrounds to her classes was mostly trivial. The Dark Weaver and the Light-Fire Dual Elemental Master would be the two harvesting classes. The Dark Weaver would be the dissembler, and the Light-Fire Dual Elemental Master would be the woodcutter.

The only real question was whether the True Totem Demon should be the Fletcher and the Ballista should be the Provisioner, or the other way around. Either way both of them would be able to make arrows, although the Provisioner would only be able to make common arrows while the Fletcher would be able to make arrows of any rarity. The True Totem Demon would likewise only be able to make arrows from common bones, or bones of any rarity, depending.

It didn't matter if the group was together, but if it was apart, what did she value more; giving her Ballista the ability to craft any common consumable needed, or giving her Ballista the ability to craft quality arrows?

After weighing it, Chan Si decided to make her Ballista the provisioner, and the True Totem Demon the fletcher. Again, it did not matter if they were together, but apart she wanted to make sure the DPS maniac could properly heal and such. Self-sustainability was why she had chosen provisioner and fletcher in the first place.

Plus, this meant the True Totem Demon would never have wasted bones, even if their body was full of better bones and there was no superior bone gear to craft, the class could just make the consumable arrows! The arrows weren't great, but they could still be sold in large enough quantities. Directly selling bones wasn't good enough, most True Totem Demons had too many bones already, excepting Legendary bones they were too difficult to sell at all.

Of course, it would require the bones of a large creature to make oversized bone arrows for the Ballista, but regular sized bone arrows would sell better than the oversized bone arrows.

Thus Chan Si had her final important decision to make, the race for each of her four humanoid characters.

Unlike the decisions for class and background of which there were numerous in the game, there were only 10 races in the game. However, each race had five potential passive abilities, of which the player then chooses two.