Chapter 25: A Choice’s Meaning

As a result of the conversation between the Falst Guild Master and his brother, a letter started to make its way to the Adventurer’s Guild Grandmaster. Crimson’s status had officially changed.

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Crimson sat with Verity in the Guild Library, she was still swollen with pride from reaching Level 2 with the [Mana Influence Skill] and didn’t seem like she’d calm down anytime soon.

He was focused on something important: trying to figure out how to use runes to cast a spell. It was not going well, to put it lightly. Drawing them, circling mana through them, and slamming his forehead against them did nothing. He tried a bunch of different variations of the first two things as well, tearing the paper the rune was on, setting it on fire, throwing it, and more - he did all those things on paper he prepared, he wasn’t going to damage his book - he was making no progress at all.

He continued grinding his teeth over it for a while, before noticing that Verity was trying to catch his attention, “Crimson? Hello~ Crimson! Hey Red! Silver, look at me! Come on~ I need to talk to you!”

“What is it?” He asked, ignoring the embarrassment he felt from not noticing her plight earlier.

“Are you okay? You were slamming your head against a book.” She said with obvious concern and maybe a bit of amusement.

He grimaced in response and replied, “I’m fine, I’m just not making any progress on my current project.” He heaved a sigh, “I’ll set it aside for now. I wanted to achieve something before moving on, but I only have so much time.”

Verity tilted her head in confusion, “Is there some kind of deadline that I don’t know about?”

“I want to participate in the ‘under Lv.25’ category of the yearly Falst tournament. That’s only a little over a month away, which means that I have to get my [Class] before then.” He said.

Verity looked at him in surprise, “You want to get a [Class] and reach Lv.25 in a month?”

“No, I’m not going to rush to a high Level like that, I would just be setting myself up for failure if I don’t properly train my [Skills]. I’m also not that interested in winning, I merely want to test myself and learn more about unusual [Classes]. Many travel from all over the continent to participate and spectate, so odds are that I’ll be able to face a [Class] I’ve never seen before. Best way to learn about a new [Class] like that is to fight them. Just watching can only teach you so much.”

Verity nodded slowly, “I guess that makes sense, but what kind of [Class] are you after if you don’t feel like a month is enough time? It makes sense for me, but considering how talented and hard working you are, I think you could unlock and increase the grade of a [Class] in a fairly short time.”

“I’m after a [Swordsman Class].”

Verity actually sputtered in shock, then with a swift motion and embarrassed expression wiped the spit that she’d accidentally gotten on the table from her sputtering before she said, “You’re after such a common [Class]? You’re worried about it taking you a month? With how good you are, I bet you could get a high grade version of it instantly.” She slumped in her seat in disappointment, “I knew you wanted a kind of [Swordsman Class], but I thought you were after a rare version. I can’t believe you were after something so…mundane when you’re so awesome.”

Crimson carefully and forcibly cooled the irritation he felt in response to her words, whether or not she realized it she had just mocked him, but considering who he was speaking to he knew that she wasn’t actually trying to hurt him, getting mad wouldn’t achieve anything.

The tone he used apparently was a little intimidating because she flinched a little as he started speaking, “Do you think that rare means better? If you do, let me disabuse you of that belief. Rare means rare, that it is something you don’t see or interact with often. A rare [Skill] is a [Skill] that not many people have, a rare [Class] is a [Class] not many people have. It could be rare because it’s powerful, or it could be rare because it’s bad. A [Class] could be common because it’s actually a good [Class], or because it’s an easy [Class] to get.

“For example, the [Craftsman Class] is a rare [Class] because it is bad, not because it is hard to get. Well, saying that it is bad would be going too far, rather, it’s too unfocused. Since it incorporates elements of pretty much every production [Class] it would require you to split your attention too many different ways to actually grow strong with it. Having a [Class] that’s too focused can have the reverse issue where it’s only strong in extremely specific situations. With a broad [Class] you’d essentially have to cherry pick what parts of the [Class] you want to focus on to make it actually good.

“I will admit that both types of [Class] still have their place, and done right pretty much any [Class] can be strong, but picking a [Class] that is hindered by it’s lack of focus can make the path to strength very difficult, while have a [Class] that is too focused can be just as difficult, just for different reasons. Be cautious and wise in your choice, and don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

Verity asked, “Bite off more than I can chew?”

“It’s an idiom that means that you shouldn’t take on more than you can handle.”

She nodded with a look of understanding, then sat back in her seat with a…guilty expression? Why did she look guilty? He knew that he wasn’t too good at reading people, but he’d been with Verity long enough to understand her to an extent, so why was she feeling guilty?

“By the way,” she said, interrupting his thoughts, “what’s going to take you so long before you get your [Class]?”

Crimson looked her in the eye and pushed with his intent to help her know he was serious as he said, “I’m going to reach Lv.100 with [Sword Mastery] before I take up a [Class], and that’s just the minimum, if I could get one other sword relevant [Skill] up to Lv.10 before then, it would be even better.”

Verity stared at him, directly facing the force of his will, completely frozen as she seemed to be reeling from the revelation.

“You’re going to go…that far?”

“The Gods don’t allow effort to go unrewarded. I believe there’s something better than a High Grade [Class], and I want to find out what it is.”

Verity nodded her head a few times, then grinned, seemingly reaching some realization that she chose not to elucidate him on.

She spoke before he could ask, “Thanks for all your help Crimson, and thanks for introducing me to High Priestess Rei.”

He nodded slowly, because of the bridge he’d burned with Damus, he had ended up forming a mutually productive relationship with High Priestess Rei, which had been an unexpected development. Since he spent a lot of time helping at the temple he had caught her attention, and ever since they met she’d been helping him with his experiments. As per their deal, he had also assisted her [Priests] in growing stronger and even helped develop a training regimen for them.

He didn’t really think much about it since all he really cared about with it was his experiments, but it would probably have had a pretty big impact on Verity since she was working to a healer type [Class].

With a shrug and a wave of the hand, he responded to her, “It’s not a big deal, just don’t cause High Priestess Rei any problems.”

Verity nodded, then froze, after a second she jumped to her feet, “I actually have an appointment with her soon! I need to go!”

She waved to Crimson, then dashed off before he could respond.

He chuckled wryly to himself, then looked at the table where she’d been sitting and let out a sigh before starting to shelve the books she’d left out.

————

Verity dashed through the streets of Falst, dodging other people and obstacles on her way to the Temple. Rei was quite a patient person, but Verity did feel bad about making her wait at all.

She was forced to slow her pace as she got closer to the Temple. She might get in trouble for running in the holy space and that would just slow her down even further.

She wove her way through the crowd and made her way through the corridor on the right, heading toward the end of it. The clergy she passed recognized her and let her pass without issue as she reached the door at the end of the corridor.

Opening it let her into a hallway that she quickly strode down until she reached a staircase. On the third floor, she stopped for a second to get her heavy breathing under control. Even after all these months since she’d reset her [Blessing], she still couldn’t get used to have so much less [VIT] than she was used to, so she frequently pushed herself too hard without thinking since her instincts told her that she was strong enough to handle it.

She pulled out a handkerchief and glanced around to make sure that she was alone before quickly wiping off as much sweat as she could. She didn’t want to weird Rei out by smelling badly in addition to being late.

Once she finished, she made her way over to a door not far from the top of the staircase and knocked politely, a muffled voice responded so she opened it without any hesitation.

Inside the room, a tall woman in a plainly cut, but beautifully embroidered robe stood. She was a Lion-kin, and was easily three heads taller than Verity, with beautiful golden hair and the fur on both her ears and tail was clean, but despite the efforts toward hygiene, they weren’t well organized. Her hair spilled down her back messily and Verity could practically see the tangles from where she was standing in the room. Her gorgeous robe was wrinkled and looked like it had been slept in, but it was at the very least clean.

She had high cheek bones and a prominent nose, giving her features a noble cast, but that was completely offset by the lazy expression she was wearing. Most of all, and what Verity had been forced to adjust to the most, she had a gaping hole where her left eye should have been, with a dark scar spilling across the skin above and below the eye, her remaining eye was a lovely amber, and she also had a long scar across the bridge of her nose.

Rei was a woman who cared nothing for how she looked and how others thought of her, but she was extremely well respected by the common people, even if politicians thought her crass and vulgar. It was their loss to think like that.

Rei’s lazy expression was warped by the smile she directed at Verity, and she said, “How’re ya doin’ Verity?”

Verity smiled back, “I’m doing well, Crimson just lectured me again, but that’s normal.”

“Well, the boy’s lectures are always useful, so you shouldn’t complain about them.”

Verity shrugged, “I know they are, and they mean a lot to me, but that doesn’t change the fact that he lectures me all the time!”

Rei gently punched the top of her head, “That’s because you’re a golem, if you actually had a brain between those ears he wouldn’t have to lecture you so much.”

Verity spoke with fake indignation, “I’m not a golem! I remember everything he tells me!”

“But you don’t always understand it. If you’d just be willing to ask more questions he could actually brag about having a smart student.”

Verity shrugged again, then said, “So, what are we doing today?”

“I finally have an answer to you question, and you were right in your guess, but are you sure you want to be going behind Crimson’s back for this?” Rei asked with some amount of concern.

Verity nodded firmly, “I want to surprise him.”

“I don’t think he’d find this to be the good kind of surprise, he might see it as you chucking out all of his advice.”

“I’m not chucking out all of his advice, I’m using his very wise words to do something very stupid. Not only that, he indirectly told me it was possible just a few minutes ago.”

Rei let out a long sigh, then nodded, “Alright, let’s begin.”

————

With a strong sense of purpose, Crimson cleaned up his study materials. Considering what he was about to do, he couldn’t help but feel the weight of importance and excitement battling in his veins, causing his hands to shake. There was one last thing he needed to achieve today, one that would have a rippling effect on him.

He made his way out of the guild in the late afternoon light, waving a goodbye to Sherry as he left. He strolled over to the statue in Phase 2, and after checking to make sure no one was looking, entered the secret passage there. He moved through the passages until he reached the great door, the one he’d never been able to unlock. Unfortunately, he found that was still the case after trying it once more, but he hadn’t made the attempt with much hope, so the lack of success didn’t bother him.

Instead, he pulled out his bokken. His [Sword Mastery] was currently Lv.46, just 4 Levels away from 50. He’d reach that benchmark before bed today, and he’d wanted to reach it in a private location, so Mars stopping him before he hit it actually turned out to be a good thing.

He took a slow and measured breath, then slowly sunk himself back into the mentality he’d had earlier that day. All that mattered was the sword in his hand, but he pushed it a little further than before, rather than just letting his bokken speak to him, he asked it questions, sought to understand it. He refused to be passive - just letting things ‘come’ to him would never work, he had to reach out for the things he wanted, and he wanted to know his bokken.

He didn’t know how long he stood there, silently entreating his wooden sword, but eventually he felt that he understood his bokken, not just on a base or simple level, but he understood it as well as he understood himself. Truthfully, it wasn’t that hard, a sword was far more simple than a person, especially a simple one like this, but it was still an achievement, and that achievement had a mind numbing result.

With a single swing of the bokken, his [Sword Mastery] became Lv.47. With a thrust, it became Lv.48, after a sweep it was Lv.49, and after an iai, it became Lv.50.

—————

Level UP!

[Sword Mastery] 49>50.

Benchmark reached!

Calculating…

Receive questions?

—————

Lv.50 was a turning point for [Mastery Skills], it served as an opportunity to gain a philosophical center to [Mastery], and it would ask questions, not just for the Gods’ sakes, but for the user’s by helping them verbalize and define what they wanted.

—————

Accepted.

First Question: What is a sword?

—————

Crimson knew how to cheat on this test, but he wasn’t going to, honesty was the best policy. Even if that answer was a bit stupid.

—————

Input Answer: My Will

Confirm Answer?

Accepted.

Second Question: What do you hope to gain from the sword?

—————

Crimson had chosen the sword through process of elimination, he’d found them the most comfortable weapon to use and the katana to be the most comfortable type of sword to use, but that was just how he’d started, his weapons had become the extension of his determination, his will. They represented a path for him and he used them to wield his determination.

—————

Input Answer: A Future

Confirm Answer?

Accepted.

Final Question: What kind of sword would you want to wield?

—————

Crimson stared at the question for a long and thoughtful moment, then answered the question.

—————

Input Answer: One that will never fail me or anyone I love.

Confirm Answer?

Accepted.

Generating a [Skill] based on answers…

—————

It was a good thing he’d learning how to cheat the answers here from Raften, not because he wanted to cheat, but because it gave him an idea of what kind of answers to give. If he hadn’t known that, he would have taken the questions literally. Answering ‘all of them’ for the third question, while a powerful answer, is stupid. It’s too broad of an answer to gain a significant source of power.

He took a few deep breaths, trying and failing not to be nervous as the [Blessing] continued to process his answers. The ‘cheat sheet’ given to him by Raften had been vague to begin with, all it did was give him a series of inputs and outputs, the cheating part was when Raften blatantly told him the most powerful [Skill] it was possible to generate from this, and the answers to give for it.

That meant he only had a vague idea of the result and had no idea what specific [Skill] he was going to get.

Regardless of the reasons he had and excuses he made to himself, it didn’t change the fact that he hated how nervous he was feeling. Emotions were annoying.

—————

Utilizing Stored Unique Data…

Calculating…

Calculating…

Possible [Skill] choice(s): {10}

Administrator has applied modifications…

Possible [Skill] choice(s): {1}

One possible option, [Skill] is being automatically applied.

[Skill]: [Sword Kinship] has been applied automatically.

—————

Of course, he couldn’t read [Sword Kinship’s] description, so what did it do? Just by feeling, he could tell it was a passive [Skill], but nothing else.

He rapped his knuckles on his arm…no, he wasn’t made of metal, his fingernails and teeth weren’t any sharper, and none of his stats changed. It wasn’t an active [Skill] - he double checked that - and none of his [Affinities] or [Titles] changed, so that left…

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-Lv. 1 Wooden Bokken

-A stick of wood, carved into the shape of a katana, but lacking a tsuba. It was made with a practiced hand for practice. It has been both well used and well maintained by its owner.

-Attack +3 (+2)

-Durability: 6/7 (+2)

-Familiarity: Intimate

—————

His bokken had become about 3 times stronger out of nowhere. It was definitely [Sword Kinship]. Based on what he was seeing, it had added the [Familiarity] stat to his sword, which in turn had boosted the ability of the weapon itself.

He was left with a lot of questions because of it.

A part of him expected to be annoyed, but he was really excited to experiment and find out exactly what it did. With a grin, he charged back toward the guild. He needed to find out if [Sword Kinship] applied to every weapon, if it applied broadly to a specific type of weapon, and if it applied to individual weapons.

With a broad grin, he pushed himself to sprint even faster through the secret passages.

———

Rei let out another long sigh as she looked Verity in the eyes and started to speak, “There is a healer [Class] that uses all three affinities: [Holy], [Purity], and [Life], but I’m not sure you should take it. I’ve heard Crimson’s lectures about [Classes] too, and this seems like a horrible idea.”

Verity shook her head, “You haven’t heard those lectures as many times as I have, I’ve heard them at least five times and nine other rants besides. He speaks like lawyer, so you have to pay careful attention to his wording. He always make certain to point out that every [Class] is viable, but that some [Classes] will be far more difficult than others to make strong. It doesn’t matter if it’s too ‘specific’ as he puts it or too ‘broad’ they are still [Classes] that can be used. He’s literally told me before that every [Class] is designed in a way to allow you to specialize it with what you need.”

“But he’s talked about the danger of [Skill] overlap and conflicting [Classes].”Rei shot back.

Verity waved dismissively, stopped, then chuckled a little to herself. She’d just imitated Crimson with that gesture, and she was very proud that she did.

Ignoring Rei’s confused look, questioning her laugh, she said, “Those are two different things. You’re worried about taking several [Classes] that are similar, while I'm trying to get a single [Class] that does a lot of things. There won’t be any overlap if it’s just one [Class].”

Rei rubbed her remaining eye slowly, then spoke, “Do you have any basis for this foolish confidence?”

Verity grinned, “Crimson has never once said that it was impossible, just that it was hard.”

Rei grunted, then said, “What do you need?”

“I need spells, lots of them. I’ve mastered [Treatment] for all three Affinities, so I need to start on [Lesser Healing] for all three as well, in addition, I also need copies of [Lesser Barrier], [Holy Purge], [Detoxify], after I master those six, I want [Healing Bolt] in the [Life] Affinity, along with [Absorption Barrier], [Lesser Undead Purification], and-“

Rei covered her mouth, “Are you planning on bleeding me dry, girl? At what point do you plan to take a [Class]? From the way you’re talking, it seems like you never will. What’s even the point of learning all those spells?”

“I need to learn all those spells to make my [Class] become better. Crimson doesn’t plan on taking his [Class] until he reaches Lv.100 in [Sword Mastery] - if that’s his minimum requirement, then mine needs to be just as high as his.”

“Yes, but when will you take the [Class]?”

Verity blushed, “I’m not sure, but I need to have done enough to define my [Class] clearly.”

“Define?”

“Yeah, Crimson once explained that [Classes] are like roles in a play, if the role is clearly defined with a lot of nuance, it stands out to the audience and becomes more memorable, or in the case of [Classes], more powerful. I want a [Class] that can do everything that the basic healer [Classes] can do, but that doesn’t mean that I should actually train in everything. If I focus more on healing with the [Life] Affinity, defending with [Purity], and supporting with [Holy], I will be - as Crimson has put it - cherry picking what I need and making a broad [Class] more focused.”

Rei looked at her for a long moment before the gaze from her one eye hardened, “Your confidence doesn’t just come from him, certainly a lot of it does, but not all of it. What do you know, girl?”

Verity shuffled her feet in embarrassment, “Well…uh~ hmm… It’s…my mother.”

“Your mother?” Rei asked, raising the eyebrow over her good eye.

“Yeah, my mother has the [Cultivator Class], its an extremely broad [Class], all about growing plants. She grew everything from food, to flowers, herbs, to trees, and everything in between. She had a talent for growing that I’ve never been seen before, and it was all done with a [Class] that everyone regards as a ‘bad’ [Class].

“‘It’s weak’ everyone said, ‘you can’t grow trees well’ they said, ‘you can’t grow anything well,’ they said, and my mother proved them all wrong. She became better than them all, she could grow anything better than anyone, and I know I can do the same thing.

“If I was on my own, I would never be able to do it, I’d just pick the [Druid Class] and move on with it, but I have a secret weapon, I have Crimson on my side. My mother gave me proof that it's possible to make any [Class] powerful, my benefactor will give me the tools to make it reality.”

Rei nodded slowly, then said, “Paying me back for all those spells is going to be very expensive.”

Verity shot her a wide toothy grin, “I’ll pay you back when I’m Lv.100.”

Rei smiled back at her for a second, then grabbed her ear, tightly and firmly, then said, “No, we’re going to work out a monthly payment plan, and for as long as you’re in Falst, you’re going to be helping out here at the Temple to make up for what you can’t afford to pay us.”

Verity tapped Rei’s arm firmly and insistently, hollering that she gave up as Rei firmly began to lecture her about debts and responsibility while she flailed wildly. It wasn’t for a few minutes that they got to work, and Verity’s bootcamp began.

—————

Meanwhile, Crimson ignored the sea of extremely confused and concerned stares as he experimented with giving a Greatsword a pep talk to see if doing that would affect the familiarity. Unfortunately for his public image, it seemed to be going well.