Maya headed to the Travelers’ Hall with quiet determination. She had never actually gone shopping for a Specialization, having gotten hers in the tutorial due to her high luck bonus. While Path of Life certainly was a good specialization to have, it reduced her energy pool by a not insignificant amount. If she had her preference, she’d choose something that only drained Stamina since she used it less frequently. Or perhaps one of the exotic ones the other mages at the academy talked about. What was it, Star fire? It sounded magical and cool, at least.

But when she reached the door, any thought of specializations fled as a greeter NPC came up to her with a smile.

"Welcome, traveler! I see you've come to decide on your secondary class! Would you like any help with making that decision?"

Maya stared blankly, then remembered the flurry of notifications when she'd helped Sevard with his trial. Bringing it back up with a thought, there it was. Secondary class unlocked.

She grinned. "Yes please. I'd like something with good magic potential, possibly a bit tanky if that's an option, but prioritize power over survivability." She wasn't planning to do much PvP, and she didn't really mind dying so much. She wanted to have the power to win devastatingly, and be awesome with huge spells. An ongoing battle of attrition didn't appeal to her so much at all. What was the point of being a mage if you had to be careful about it?

"Battlemage sounds like the closest match to what you're describing, though an advanced classes could also do what you need."

"Battlemage, huh? I like the sound of it. What are the bonuses and drawbacks?"

"You’d have to talk to the Battlemage trainer for more specific details." He pointed to a pale-skinned human in green robes standing with a bored expression, staring fixedly at nothing. "But I can tell you it provides increased health and energy pools, and an innate affinity toward magic, making learning spells or creating new ones easier."

"Really? Being a battlemage makes spell creation easier?"

"Yes, but a Mage would be significantly better if you were planning to be a spell crafter. A Battlemage’s focus is more on the active than the mental."

"What can you tell me about Mage?"

"As one of the base classes, it gains increased energy, as well as boosts to magic related learning and casting. You should talk to the Mage trainer if you’re interested in the class."

"And it’s the best choice for spell creation?"

"Yes. There are advanced classes that can help you more, but they’re more difficult to come by and are not represented here."

Maya frowned. She wanted both. She wanted to create spells and use them. But looked like she'd have to prioritize.

Well, having Trickster as her primary class did help significantly in that respect. She could just rely on the high luck bonuses whenever she wanted to create new spells, and use the Battlemage bonuses to cast them.

She thanked the greeter for his help and approached the Battlemage, who stood with the same fixed smile as anyone who has to stand at the whims of infrequent visitors. It was such a lifelike 'I'm happy to help you but I'm bored out of my mind' expression, Maya nearly laughed. The teacher brightened immediately when it became obvious Maya was actually coming over to ask a question.

"How can I help you, traveler?"

"I'm considering specing into Battlemage for my secondary class. What can you tell me about the class?"

"You've come to the right place! Battlemage is a mage subclass which can either be substituted for a Mage primary, or taken as a secondary to boost magic-related abilities and potency. Battlemages gain a small advantage in casting time and cooldowns for spells and spell abilities. As a primary class, it grants fifty health and fifty energy, while as a secondary class you’d gain half that."

"And mage?"

The Battlemage pointed to the mage trainer. "Ask her."

The Mage class would give 100 to energy as a primary class, 50 as a secondary, and provide larger boosts to casting time, spell creation, and spell learning speed.

"I think I'd like to take some time to think about it. Thank you very much for the information!"

"And if you need anything else, you know where to find me."

Maya thanked the Mage, Battlemage, and the greeter as she headed out. She knew what the NPCs had to say, but she'd also like to get some second opinions from the actual player mages. The academy might be overcrowded and underpowered, but these were people who'd put much more time into their builds than she had so far.

When Maya arrived at the mage academy, there was someone waiting for her. Not Darrow this time, thankfully; she still hadn’t figured out how to deal with her ‘husband’. Nor was it Sevard’s friend, who was supposed to find her at some point unless she'd ruined everything.

No, this was a sleek blue-skinned merla with twin daggers, noob clothing, and a grin like a shark’s. He’d been loitering by the entrance but perked up and waved when he saw her.

Maya headed over to him, uncertainly. She felt sure she’d have remembered him if he’d been around the academy before.

"Mina?" he asked, grinning his pointy-toothed grin.

"Maya."

"Yes, the one who did the…" he mimed an explosion with both hands, "Fwoosh?"

"Ye-es. And you are?"

"Andevar! But you can call me Andy. I was hoping you had some time to go adventuring together."

"Um. I’m a bit busy right now, maybe another time." At least he wasn’t harassing her to correct his spells. Or straight up create them for him. Runescale still couldn’t get it through his head that ‘make me look awesome’ wasn’t a correctable spell even if Maya wanted to help the stuck-up brat. Speaking of Runescale, she was surprised not to see him lurking nearby. Maybe he’d finally grown up and moved on.

"Sure, sure," Andy said dismissively. "It’s only, see, I need help with my tier trial."

"Which one is it?"

"Overdrile." He grimaced. "The stupid thing is too fast for me."

"Aren’t you supposed to do it alone?"

"Technically, but if you do it assisted you just get a secondary quest to finish before it counts."

Maya blinked. If two people could complete their tier trial together… "Oh? Well, I’m pretty busy, but I think I know someone else who can help you. I’ll send him to meet you here, say…" she paused. "Wait, are you permanent, or do you have a schedule I need to work around?"

"Permanent. Founder, actually, so I don’t even have to worry about upkeep fees."

"Oh, perfect. So am— so is my friend. So, how about tomorrow morning, maybe an hour before dawn, does that work for you?"

"It does."

"Then be back here at that time, and Yon will be here to meet you."

He flashed his pointy smile again. "Thanks! I’ll be here!" Without another word, he logged out.

Maya shrugged and headed inside, mentally adding Mayon’s new appointment to her calendar. Maybe she could finally get his trial out of the way. And in the meantime, she had a low luck day to get through before she could do anything meaningful. At -100 luck, her experience gain would be minimal at best, her intuition would be skewed in the worst way, and she’d be more likely to provoke attacks from NPCs than anything reasonable.

Her luck bonus from the day before had long since run out, leaving her at a reasonable but not exceptional +10. So for the remainder of the day, she could expect minimal but tangible help. She could spend it crafting, use some of the materials she and Sevard had collected. Or continue her search for a new specialization. She’d gotten a bit sidetracked.

No, wait. She'd been on her way to ask about classes. Focus, Maya! Finish one thing, then move on to the next.

Though, technically, she'd started the specialization search first? Well, she could ask about both. She probably should have asked about specializations while at the Travelers’ Hall. That was her original purpose there, wasn’t it? Ah, whatever. The players probably knew more useful information anyway.

She set off toward the classrooms, momentarily feeling guilty at having skipped out on yet another Fire team class. Technically she wasn't required to attend them, but it still felt wrong to use the academy as a base and resource without ever showing up for the teaching parts.

"Stader! Have you had a chance to look at my ideas yet?"

Aaaand, there it was. Even without seeing her assailant, she recognized the raspy, overeager voice of Runescale. Her biggest fan - and definitely vying for the position of biggest annoyance.

She sighed. "I've told you before, I can only correct spells on certain days. And what you've given me isn't enough. You need to put in a lot more work before I can make it click."

"But I'm sure you can do it," he said, ignoring her attempt at deflection. "You're amazing!"

She wasn't sure what was worse - the fact that he wouldn't leave her alone about making spells for him, or the fact that part of her kind of liked the attention. Sure, he was overestimating her big time. Sure, he was really annoying and self-centered and inconsiderate. But being idolized was a new feeling, and one that wasn't entirely unpleasant. She almost wished she could just whip out a new spell to his specifications.

Not that she'd do it. Knowing the true restrictions on spell creation, the hours of work even at maximum luck that went into creating even a minor variant on an existing spell, she wasn't going to put in that kind of effort for someone who obviously couldn't care less about doing anything for himself.

But still. He was as endearing as he was annoying, and she tried not to let her frustration outweigh her desire to live up to his expectations.

"I have put in more effort," he said, eagerly. "See?" He offered her a detailed sketch of himself standing on a hilltop, thunderclouds gathering above him, lightning striking a zombie horde charging at his position.

"This isn't a spell formula," Maya said, handing the drawing back. "This is an artistic representation of an effect."

"Right! That's why I need you, to make it actually work."

Maya exhaled slowly. "You realize that it's not that easy?"

"You can do lightning spells, I know you can. Everyone knows lightning spells. But they're so boring. Just holding people in place? Who cares about that! You should make a giant lightning storm spell!"

He waved his hands about, making sound effects as he mimed throwing lightning bolts at enemies.

She couldn't help wondering just how young Runescale actually was. "I can't do anything like that, and especially not today. Why don't you join one of the study groups and learn the notation for yourself?"

He snorted derisively. "Nah, they just do dumb math, and none of it actually works. You're the only person here who's actually making new spells, they're just delusional math nerds."

"Right. Well, if not for their math I wouldn't be able to do what I've done," Maya said a bit testily. It was one thing to overestimate her, but to insult the people actually putting in the work bothered her a lot. "I have to go."

"where are you going? I'll come with you, it's fine. We can keep talking."

"I don't want you to," Maya said bluntly. "I'm sorry, but I don't have time for this right now."

Runescale looked around, frowning. "I don't see anyone else."

"I have important things to think about, which is best done without--" she stopped herself before she said something truly insulting, sighed, and shook her head. "Just, can you go? I need some time to myself, and there are other people I need to talk to."

"Sure, sure." He extended the drawing, which she reluctantly accepted and added to her inventory folder full of 'ideas'. "Let me know once you've figured it out!"

He scampered off, probably going to do more 'spell idea creation'. Maya shook her head, trying to remember what she'd been doing before he confronted her. Something about her upgrades...

Oh, right! She had levelup points to assign! Six of them, since she had two level-- no, eight? Higher tiers got more points! Nice. That should help offset the equipment imbalance. The lower your level, the less impact your own character had on your build, but as you got to higher tiers you gained more and more points.

It did explain why it was so hard to kill higher tier players.

Maya opened her character sheet and frowned at the numbers. She was feeling particularly squishy now without Path of Life, though she loved the new energy totals. She didn't want to put too much into other stats, Attunement seemed like her best bet for energy pool, while Intelligence would increase her available ability slots - which she desperately needed more of, having far too many spell variations now to have them all prepared at once. She could theoretically hot-swap them during combat, but the switching penalty made that inadvisable.

But if she invested in some sturdiness, she could increase her survivability without relying on a faction specialization.

She tentatively added five of the points to sturdiness, not applying the change, just to see. It added 25 to her health, which seemed like a decent amount, while still way too small. She wondered if there were any way to boost health outside of leveling or equipment bonuses. She'd never actually seen any items that directly impacted health. They always had things like '+5 sturdiness' which then increased health as a secondary effect, rather than '+20 hp'.

Just one more quirk of World 9352's weird stat system, she supposed.

There was an argument that could be made for stacking health, but the times when 25 health would make a big difference were behind her. She could gain the same amount of health by taking Battlemage as a secondary class.

Wait. Wait.

Maya frowned and pulled out a blank sheet of paper to scribble calculations on. Attunement gave 3 energy, and was the most energy that could be gained with a skill point. But Sturdiness gave 5 health. Therefore, unless Battlemage had some secret other advantage, Mage was the absolutely clear superior choice. She could replicate the effects of Battlemage with 5 skill points, while the energy gain from Attunement would require over eight stat points to get close.

And Mage was also better at spellcasting and spell creation? There had to be a catch. There was no way Battlemage was so clearly inferior to its base equivalent.

Then again, she was playing a class that literally wasn’t supposed to be possible to get at character creation, so World 9352 was clearly not the most well thought through game in the world.

Which reminded her… didn’t the Trickster have a specialization of his own? She’d never investigated. Maybe she should get his opinion too. Even if he was an untrustworthy liar, she had all her consultations for the month available still.

She’d just ask about the specialization and get out. That was all. What could go wrong?

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Mask: Mage Stader Affinities: Magical Physical Level: 14 Classes: Trickster None Tier: 5 Specialization: None Augmentation: None Resistance: None Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 90 8 74 8 Momentum: 39 15 1 23 Agility: 100 8 79 13 Control: 29 8 13 8 Attunement: 63 18 40 5 Focus: 35 8 22 5 Intelligence: 41 27 4 10 Flexibility: 15 8 2 5 Luck: 10 30 - -20 Unassigned: 8 Health: 372 of 372 Will: 48 of 48 Stamina: 349 of 349 Energy: 251 of 251 Speed: 318% Switch penalty: -31%, 8.1 secs Stealth: 381% Chain bonus: +13% Awareness: 225% Cooldown: 92.5% Max abilities: 12