“Ah. One of those,” Babbage commented once Jonas had finished.

Jonas shouldn’t have been surprised. Although the Spellwrangler had been a Professional for only ten years or so, there was little he hadn’t seen or thought of regarding the Profession builds.

“It’s been done before?”

“A lot of people find that tempting. Do you remember the Fast versus Deep approaches I talked about when we first discussed build paths? This is the third one: the Wide.”

“Wide as in… pursue multiple similar professions at each tier.”

“Yes. A flawed approach that favours borrowing the future to pay for the now. I am always surprised when people think this is a good idea. Makes you think about the difference between Potential and actual,” he replied, eyeing Jonas.

“Besides, you of all people pay a heavy price to change Professions, so I am surprised you’d think of this. May I ask why?”

Jonas almost told it before checking himself. Babbage had been there when they reported the news about the Cores and the trunk shortcut to Brocarres, but was he involved in Agni? The Labyrinth scholar could be relied upon for discretion, but…

“We probably need to gain levels and tiers a bit faster than we expected. This seems to be a good idea, but I guessed there would be some sort of catch with it because it doesn’t – entirely - require having Adjustment.”

“You wouldn’t believe how many people I’ve told this. Even when I explain it fully, they insist. So, okay. Charles Babbage’s lesson on good-looking bad ideas, volume one.”

Babbage’s voice switched tones, becoming more like Jonas old teacher when he delivered the prepared lessons at the King’s Elementary School.

“There are a dozen arguments about switching your main tier Profession mid-way which make it an idea that raises its head again and again. My Milestone doesn’t help me because it lacks a good bonus. It has a second potential that is useless. I want a second skill rank for my main skills. And, of course, the one you mentioned, and one people tend to like the most. The first three Milestones of a tier typically take a bit over a third of the time of the next three, as a rough estimate. So, if you split your tier three into your two main possibilities for it, you can reduce your time by half. If you split your next tier into three possible Professions, you could reduce time by almost two-thirds. And so on.”

Jonas hadn’t thought about it. But, as he realized, the extra Adjustment would unlock all three of their tier four, making that a possibility for all of them, not just Guss and Jonathan.

“I’ve tried many metaphors, but no one likes them. Have you heard about Professional burden?”

“Jack Millard spoke of it, I remember. Something about one of his team having to change Professions because they haven’t found a Plaza for her.”

“Professional burden is the number of Professions you ‘carry’ in your descriptor. Remember, each Profession you have picked adds to your experience per level. Right now, what kind of creatures are you fighting typically? How much experience does your team get?”

Jonas remembered his last werewolf.

“Upper tier-threes normal creatures, around 205, for maximum experience. Around 1690 experience total?”

“And right now, your team carries a total of 19 burdens, with 3 from you. So, you get an effective 89 experience from that creature. Guess what happens if everyone in your team had one additional Profession as you planned.”

Jonas did a quick mental calculation.

“You get only 68 experience instead?”

“If you normalize your needed experience, that’s what it boils down. Of course, if you are in your early levels of the Profession instead of the late, you still need fewer creatures per level. But each Profession you picked remains. You can’t remove one.”

“So when we move to the next tier…”

“You lose six more shares. That’s six shares you will never get back. If only one of you does it and only once, as your friend Jonathan did, it’s not a major problem for a regular team. But if you all do it, and on a regular basis, then each of your future levels will take longer.”

Jonas almost replied that the idea was only for tier three, but Babbage was on a roll.

“Professional burden did not get named that way lightly. Someone with too much burden is, well, a burden not just to himself but to any team. What happens if one of your team wishes to leave? What happens if your healer or both of your defenders leave and you have to replace them? That happens. It might even be temporary. Who knows, you may want to found a family. To have kids, you need to stay out of the Labyrinth, because you can’t conceive in it, and if the mother steps into the Labyrinth but your unborn does not qualify, she immediately suffers a miscarriage.”

Jonas didn’t see that in the cards right now. But Babbage had a point. The team was on the same page, but they had been in the Labyrinth for a year only. Who knew what could happen, notably if they managed to win the war and defeat Napoleon once and for all. Alton would certainly keep going, but would Jonathan? Would Guss and Laura?

“Right now, as you move into tier four, you are actually becoming very attractive for a new teammate. Because you can acquire a tier four Profession without picking a side one, your team has less burden, and he’d level faster from it. Ditto once you get to tier five and the other person uses only seven or eight shares to your five if you can get to tier five.”

“Can’t be done,” Jonas immediately countered, before quickly adding, “even with careful choice, we do need at least one side Profession. But if we split our main Profession at each tier…”

“Then you become less attractive instead. If you take each of the two main INT at tier three, each three main INT professions at four, and each of the four main ones at five, then suddenly, you have eleven Professions for what’s usually seven or eight ones for similar ranked Professionals. Now, any team with one or more of you start getting a lot less experience for the same fights.”

Jonas remembered how the experience across the Great Line teamed with Cowen was good, but not as good as he might have expected. With ten Professions, the tier six Imposing Knight had weighted down the experience split against their individual twos.

“That would be only for tier three, though.”

“Are you sure? Because that’s the kind of easy thinking that grabs you. Oh, I can speed up my tier four now. Oh, tier five is easy if I do all of those in that order before I start my side Profession…”

“I’m certain.”

Babbage smiled.

“It won’t matter, though, because as the tiers increase, the requirements become more numerous and higher, and it should become nearly impossible to alternate. Maybe even for you. But Professional burden remains a specific trap at that point because picking the right side Profession is important.”

“I think that’s what Millard alluded. She bet she could find the right Profession Plaza, but she did not, and has to change.”

“It’s easier for us at low levels, since the higher tiers are starting to be well mapped. I know where to go for my tier five and six. But seven is the edge. Although this may change, if the cooperation with the United States starts bearing fruit.”

Babbage stopped, before adding.

“Which makes me think of a final problem which, I think, is very specific to you.”

“Oh?”

“Your Adjustment offers you a shortcut in term of tiers but doesn’t give you free levels. You’re about 110. If you switch Professions, you’ll be tier four ready by 125 or so. But can you access a tier-four zone? Lairs in zones tend to cluster about the zone’s average; there’s few at low levels and few at high levels. And you might need a lot of zones unlocked.”

“Oh. In our case, we have five Great Line zones for which we already have three lairs or so. In fact, we already have one for which we all have four lairs. The Plaza doesn’t have Professions for everyone, but we only need a single lair in any of those zones to access the next tier.”

Babbage’s pained look told volumes about how the man disliked his argument being demolished.

“Well, that’s one way of bypassing requirements. But keep that in mind for the future tiers. At one point, you will be among the higher tiers, and there won’t be anyone to help you.”

“But outside of realigning with the normal… Professional burden, there is no major impediment to shortcutting to tier four?”

Babbage made a final grimace before admitting defeat.

“No. And with your percentage reductions, the effect of Professional burden on yourself is not as big as it would be. It’s just that way for everyone else. If the speculation on Professional ageing is true, you may bear the cost of that decision for a very, very long time.”

“Then we’ll probably do it. And you may get information on the new powers from Adjustment soon.”

“Unlike you, Sims, I know how to wait.”

Jonas had almost gone back to the High Office headquarters when he remembered the odd American that had been enquiring about him. So, he turned around and headed back to the Frozen Boar to see if he had shown up.

He entered the inn and headed immediately toward the bartender, before spotting to the side someone reading the Gatepost Weekly who didn’t fit. As the inn owner had said, the man was black-skinned, with close-cropped hair and features not unlike those he’d seen in New York. Wearing civilian-looking clothes rather than Professional attire, but sometimes the distinction could be difficult. A bowler hat set on the table completed the quasi-mundane attire.

Jonas gestured to the afternoon bartender, who immediately drew the usual pint from the cask. Then, glass in hand, he headed to the visitor from the Colonies.

The man had already folded his newspaper and was looking at him when Jonas arrived at the table. Jonas proffered his wrist for a descriptor exchange, but the man raised a hand in denegation.

“You know, that’s not very polite not to introduce yourself,” Jonas said.

“Maybe. But I am not very comfortable when others peek at my full description,” the foreigner replied.

Jonas noted that he had a slight trace of an accent that felt slightly odd. Not entirely like the New York accent he’d heard so much when he was in the United States. But then, Professionals would come from all corners of the Colonies, just like an increasing number of British ones were recruited from distant Scotland or the Emerald Isle.

“So, you were looking for me.”

“Yes. But I expected you to be… taller.”

Jonas blinked. Why would the American expect him to be tall? Unless… the Adjustment progression seemed to increase their size slightly. It was the one thing about the Milestones the team kept secret. All of them were very afraid of the idea the Milestone physically changed them into something else rather than just modifying abstract Potentials like the normal ones. Combined with the name of the Milestone itself, this was very, very worrying.

And here, there was a Colonial asking him why he hadn’t grown taller yet. But Jonas immediately dismissed it as an odd coincidence. People with great reputations were supposed to be larger than life. Except maybe the Tyrant, which reputedly was a small man.

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint.”

“It’s not a disappointment. Well, not exactly… It’s just that hearing about some Professionals with strange Milestones and weird powers on Gates interested us. This is in part why I came here in London.”

“Well, you could have sought me while I was in New York last year. I’m sure the news about being there was spread wide.”

“Ah. Well, I wasn’t exactly in the United States back then. And I had not heard about you yet anyway.”

“So, here I am. It’s not just curiosity, is it?”

“As I said. Partly. But the way you got into the Labyrinth… that interests me a lot. I didn’t know about it, I only learned here of your origins.”

“Sure, but why? You’re a Professional already. One of the Professionals that was coming out of the Gate when it was closing ended up dumped back on the other side when he got caught in the chaotic surface. Others were not so lucky, though.”

“So I am. And my older brother as well. But our younger brother… he is not blessed to be Chosen. He’s smart. Probably way smarter than my brother even if he follows the path of Intellect. But he did not qualify and remains barred from the Labyrinth.”

“Well, that’s one way. But you would need something to close the Gate, I think, and people would be very upset about that.”

“Well, our brother did invent the aether disrupters, after all, so it would be his own instrument used in doing this.”

Aether disrupter seemed an odd name. Everyone called it a Gate closer, even the Americans back last year when he discussed it with the agents of their Gate Office.

“Uh? I thought the French did.”

“Well, no. We… may have given them the original device.”

“WHAT!”

Jonas’ chair fell as he rose, anger roiling and Presence spilling. What insanity. The Americans had invented Gate closers? And they sold it to the French?

“Stay your wrath, blessed Professional. It is not as if it was dangerous in itself. After all, the Gate eventually will re-open on its own, even if you do not have the power to repair it and then reconnect it.”

Jonas was fuming but managed to keep his self-control. Of course, the Closer makers would have tested it. Although why did he speak of repairing and reconnecting Gates as it were different things?

“Well, reconnect maybe. But we can’t really repair it,” he spat.

“Ah. Maybe it has to do with your low Adjustment Milestones. They don’t seem to be as effective as they should be.”

“Should be?”

“I expected more Potential from them. But now I see low Milestones are worth less than high Milestones.”

Jonas was puzzled by the observation. Sure, each Milestone gave one more Potential than the previous, and people looking at the descriptor only saw the Milestone total, not the individual ones.

“You have seen high Adjustment before,” Jonas stated. “That’s why you thought it gave me more Potential per Milestone… or that I should be taller.”

“Yes,” the man replied simply.

That still did not make any sense to Jonas. The Americans clearly hadn’t known anything about Adjustment effects, and they couldn’t have hidden the Gate closing to make Professionals with it, even if they had invented it. Besides, the man confessed his ignorance of that. He could see some complicated politics at work to use the French to win out concessions from England, but that did not make sense either.

“You are not American.”

“Aptly put. I just pretended to be one to come here.”

“You are… one of the Africans Professionals. The ones from Southern Africa. Where the fifth Gate is.”

“We call it the True Gate. I am Zenzele Cothoza, tier seven Chosen of Mhambi Meshindi, God King of the Zulu Nation.”

Jonas swallowed half of his pint. That was something unexpected. No wonder the man had not wanted to trade descriptors.

“And you have Professionals with Adjustment.”

“Mhambi Meshindi has the secret powers of the Labyrinth. Much higher than yours, although they are the same.”

Another Tyrant. Like Napoleon, an early adventurer, who returned with power and used it to cement his position above all others. And with twenty years of progression with Adjustment stacking, he could be very advanced indeed.

“He got swept in when the Gate first opened. That’s how he did it. Now you know,” Jonas said.

“No, he always had them. The moment the Labyrinth opened to the world, he came out of it with his full powers.”