Author’s Corner: Me again, guys! So, I was torn between a few different classes, and wanted to get everyone’s opinions on it. This is the first(but almost certainly not the last) time that I leave a decision like this up to the community. Mostly it’ll happen whenever I don’t really know which path I should take, and there is enough information to let the audience decide. Please read until the end of the chapter before voting on the poll! I’ll be taking tomorrow off from writing unless there’s already 100 votes up by then.

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Since there wasn’t as much point in hunting the fluffy menaces right now, I decided to head back to my usual training spot and practice magical alchemy! I still had a fair amount of other herbs saved in my inventory, six different varieties. I knew that blood weed and fireflower petals make healing potions, and that maple bloom mixed with heart grass made my slow damage over time poison. That still left two other plants I haven’t touched, as well as god knows how many combinations.

The first thing I did was to memorize and replicate the mana signatures for the last two herbs, which didn’t take as long as my previous attempts had. From what my handy book of plants had told me, one of the herbs, a leafy plant which had leaves in the shape of six pointed stars, was able to numb the skin on contact. He could vouch for that one personally, as I had brushed my hand against one of the leaves while trying to get a clipping. The other, a small red mushroom with a series of web-like cracks on the cap, was said to increase metabolism. There was a small note in that section saying that it was a common ingredient in beginner mana potions, but I wasn’t sure how that worked.

Now that I had finished that, I started the process of testing combinations. First, I tried combining the two new herbs, stillleaf and spider cap, together in various ratios to try to get a result. None of the combinations seemed to feel right to me, like it did with the poison or the healing spell. It was always too unnatural. Kind of a square peg and round hole deal.

So, next I tried mixing spider cap with the other herbs, one by one. I actually got two combinations to work, one from mixing it with blood weed, and the other from mixing it with maple bloom. Strangely, when I found the most potent combinations of each, I was awarded with the following message twice.

New Spell Developed!??? - Nature Magic Spell - ???

???

Mana Cost: 15

Is it because I don’t actually know what effect the combinations would have? I wasn’t really all that keen on being a test subject for a potentially poisonous spell, but I had to try something. After giving it some thought, I cast the first variant on myself, and waited. Keeping an eye on my status, my health was not dropping, my hands were not slowed, and my mana was not recovering faster. I even opened up my character window to check my stats, and my health and mana regen were not increased. Well, I know it’s something…

There was only one other thing that I figured it could be, given the nature of the two herbs, but I was not going to like testing it. Casting Alchemic Poison on myself, using the paralytic poison from the Heart Grass, I felt my body tense up, refusing to follow my commands as it should. Then, I quickly channeled my mana to cast the newest spell on myself, and that feeling faded away. At the same time, details for the spell appeared in the windwo.

New Spell Developed!Alchemic Antidote - Nature Magic Spell - ★☆

This spell mixes the mana signatures of different herbs to create an effect that will dispel poisons. The dispelling effect will only work on poisons equal or weaker to the strength of the antidote mixture used.

Mana Cost: 15

I smiled slightly, seeing that I now had an antidote spell in case something went wrong. Though, I was hoping that would have been the combination for a mana potion. Looks like I still need to find the last ingredient for that. Anyways, I sat down and waited a couple of minutes for my mana to recover, before I tried the second spell.

This time, the information window changed, no longer displaying this as a new spell. But at the same time, I coughed up a mouthful of blood. To no surprise, this combination had created an accelerated poison, which if my insides are being honest caused rapid internal bleeding. Never again!

I quickly cast my Alchemic Antidote and Alchemic Heal spells on myself, coughing up another mouthful of blood after I recovered. Okay, next time one of the spells includes a poison substance, I am going to go find a rabbit or something to test it on!

Next, I started from the beginning, going through the combinations with blood weed to see if there were any other spell effects. To my surprise, there actually was not. After that was the fireflower petals. I was tempted to just search the mana signature of the entire plant, but the herbology guide said that only the petals were useful. And once I mixed together fireflower with stillleaf, I ended up with another unknown combination. Trying it out on myself was probably not a smart idea, but I didn’t consider stillleaf’s numbing effect to be a toxic enough effect to warrant an external test. I probably should have.

A while later, I woke up at the same spot I had been sitting, unsure of how much time had passed. Looking around, I saw I had a message from Jacobs, asking how I managed to level so fast. Of course, what caught my attention was the other window that had appeared.

New Spell Developed!Alchemic Sleep - Nature Magic Spell - ★

This spell mixes the mana signatures of different herbs to cause the target creature to fall asleep.

Mana Cost: 10

Great… now I have a sleep spell, too.. Shaking my head, I dismissed the notification and opened the chat with Jacobs. “Hey, sorry I didn’t get your message before, had a bit of a mix up with a new spell.”

It wasn’t long later when he replied. “No worries, I just sent it a minute ago. But seriously, man, how’d you jump four levels already? I was grinding like crazy last night because the guards said that the morning was the most dangerous time to hunt.”

I chuckled, doing my best to contain my joy as I spoke. “Oh, nothing much, just poisoned a big group and a few wolves while they were fighting each other.”

“....That’s totally cheating. You know that, right?”

“Yup. But don’t worry, it’s not like I’ll be able to keep that up forever. I mean, how useful is it going to be once we get to the level where everyone is carrying around health potions or antidotes, and wielding the more high-tech weapons? Alchemy is only going to take me so far for now, unless I stumble on a really good recipe. On the other hand, your Gravity Magic will probably be a useful spell school no matter where you are.”

He chuckled at that, and I could almost hear him nodding his head as he replied. “True, true. Going to be working on learning Enchanting today. Got the feeling it’ll be pretty useful later.”

“Probably a good idea.” I nodded, and there was a distant ding in my mind as I thought about how all of the current tech in the game was fueled by mana. Since they wanted this to be realistic, then obviously any tech developed here would work the same as in real life. But since we had yet to leave our own solar system in real life, that meant that they had to fill in the gaps with magic, like a mana-powered FTL drive, or a portal gate between worlds. “Don’t know if I’ll be picking up another skill yet, or wait until I get to a bigger town. I can’t really get anything tech-related here.”

“True, again. I figure I’ll keep carpentry mostly for crafting furniture, get myself ready for if I can get my own house. Enchanting, however, is my go-to skill for making magical items. Maybe there’ll even be a branch of it to cover Magitech crafting.”

“No idea. I don’t know anyone that would be high enough level to ask.” I confirmed with my contacts list, and aside from my mom, who may not have even met a colony yet, I didn’t know anyone else with a level in the double digits.

“Well, going to go and find out eventually. Wish me luck!” He laughed into the connection, and then dropped it, likely going to learn his new skill. With the call dropped, a message appeared in front of me.

Your actions have indirectly caused the death of a wolf pack.The poisoned rabbits you let the wolves take were shared among the pack, weakening them enough that when a stronger predator attacked they were unable to put up much of a fight and were wiped out. I hope you feel proud of yourself.

You have leveled up!You have reached level 10! Inventory size increased. You may now choose a class.

I blinked slightly. Okay, sure, I might have actually been proud of myself for inadvertently causing the death of an entire wolf pack. I definitely felt proud of myself for reaching level 10, and the option to choose a class felt very nice.

Opening up my character sheet, I saw there was now the option to change my class away from Novice. Clicking it, I was shown a wide list of possible choices. They seemed to be listed in the order of relevance to my current skills.

DruidKnown as the guardians of nature, the druids are a fairly secretive people, borrowing the power of the natural world in order to fuel their abilities. Advanced Class example: Xeno-shifter, able to mimic the appearance and aspects of alien races.HuntsmanExisting within nature, and knowing how to live alone, the huntsmen are a proud archetype. Whether in the city or the jungle, even in the outer reaches of space, they are able to find the means to survive. Advanced Class example: Bounty Hunter, a mercenary which takes on the job of hunting people for profit.MageThe arcane masters of the realm, mages are the intellectuals, the ones who gave the various worlds most of their power they have to this day. Advanced Class example: Tech-Mage, a mage specializing in manipulating or creating Magitech.RogueLiving in the shadows, stealing life and coin with but a thought, the rogues are powerful allies and deadly foes. Through poison, stealth, and cunning, they can defeat any challenge. Advanced Class example: Assassin, refining the art of killing to the utmost.FighterFor those uninterested in stealth, uncaring for the arcane practices, and not bowing their knee to pray to a god, there can only be the path of the fighter. Wielding any variety of weapons, they can tear through an enemy with a giant's strength. Advanced Class example: Soldier, specializing in advanced weapons.PriestThose loyal to a god may draw their powers from realms beyond, causing harm or aid to befall their targets. While you will be restricted to the path of your chosen deity, you will gain powers more easily as you seek their guidance. Advanced Class example: Apostle, an embodiment of the chosen deity. KnightHoly warriors, those who show the wrath of the gods while protecting those who cannot protect themselves. They honor the edicts of their deities, and show those who oppose them the power of the heavens. Advanced Class example: Crusader, spreading the word and wrath to worlds beyond.CraftsmanEvery fighter needs his weapon. Every captain needs his ship. The Craftsman are those that specialize in production, often joining hands to create grand projects. Unlike other classes, they gain experience through crafting. Advanced Class example: Starlight Sculptor, able to sculpt the light of the stars into beautiful works.MerchantWithout economy, the world would be in chaos. Without merchants, there would be no economy. A merchant may gain experience through trading, often going vast distances, maybe even to entirely new planets, to turn a profit. Advanced Class example: Smuggler, a dealer of illicit goods specializing in discretely transporting them across borders undetected.

I looked through the classes, a bit surprised. Not surprised that there were so many options, but that there were so few. Though, each class had an Advanced Class example listed, so they could likely evolve over time. I glanced at the list of nine classes several times before I decided to narrow my choices to the top three. Anything below that I was truly not qualified for. After all, the fourth option was for Rogue, and the only rogue-like skills I have are poison and Mana Signature, which suggests it may eventually be a suitable stealth skill. Anything below that I have absolutely nothing for.

So… Druid, Hunstman, or Mage. Thinking over it for a while, I weighed the pros and cons of each, before ultimately making my choice. For better or worse, the class I picked was….

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Author’s Corner: You decide!