The lich Basluth waits patiently for me to make the next move.

"So, what even is in it for me? What exactly does your help entail?"

"Oh, right, haven't told you yet. Well, I tried to present you a custom-made class through the Joker Core but as you, no doubt, noticed you couldn't take the Brightflame Sorcerer."

"That was your work?"

"Indeed. I... wasn't aware of the new restriction that prevents the undead from gaining light magic. So before I waste even more DP on another failure... what kind of power are you looking for? What do you think you need the most to succeed with the task I have presented you? I'll do what I can to create a fitting class for the Joker Core and do my best to give you the best Demon Lord class possible."

"You'll create that class? I thought this Amon guy from the Creed of Mutters or whatever would work on that."

"Yes, I'll be taking over the design job for that. The Creed is not someone you should meddle with, they are just trouble. Apart from those custom-created classes, I can give you training and knowledge. About your divine class in specific, divine classes in general, DP, a few tricks for governing your territories and more. Feel free to come up with questions on your own until then. Hmm... what else... Well, I'm bound to this boss room and you would basically enter this place from the back, so we can't open the next boss door which prevents me from power-leveling you by clearing the dungeon... but I could at least purge the monsters on the nine floors in front of me. Seeing as they are level two-ninety-plus this should make some dent into your exp needs."

Wait... we're on floor three-hundred!? And here I thought our dungeon was insurmountable...

"To be honest, that sounds like a very one-sided deal to my benefit. I would've tried to take care of the artifact anyway and given how suspicious the whole deva situation was - is - I would've probably gotten into trouble with them anyway."

"That may be so, but I have no other option. I'm tired of this state. I've even considered the coward's way out but ultimately decided against it. Gyev must pay for what he has done to Yulia. Nothing else matters to me."

Yeah, I noticed that. I just hope the feelings were truly mutual and it wasn't just a one-sided crush...

Basluth sounds impatient, "So, tell me. What do you need the most?"

"That's a whole laundry list... no idea how to narrow that down."

"Jared, I may be able to do miracles but there's a limit even to that... well, I'll see what I can do. So go on, please."

"Right, let me think for a moment."

"Sure, take your time."

What are the most important things I'm missing?

I can earn flight just from Aerial Mage or something similar, I only need a Class Core, so that can wait.

A buff for familiars or summons is definitely up there. Again, need more cores but also a ton of MP.

Defense is clearly an issue, HP and VIT are low, I'm a caster after all. Well, I'm not even up to a glass cannon, right now I'm just glass.

More spells? Eh, not really important. Maybe if it had hitscan or something that prevents friendly fire but I mostly need better stats there.

"I certainly need more and stronger summons. I tried earlier to tame a monster as a spirit but that obviously failed. Also, I need much more MP to keep them summoned... Do you have an infinite MP cheat in there?"

"Not really but give it a thousand levels and you won't care much about MP anymore. What else?"

A thousand... even a hundred levels may take longer than I have...

"Maybe a way to massively raise the limit of how many spirits I can have? I may not be able to field them at the same time, but one after another when they run out of SP or get hurt too much."

"You just need to dump more levels into the classes that give you [Summon Spirit]. Not worth wasting a custom-designed skill on."

"That's easy to say if you have dozens of classes with levels beyond eighty. I'm not even sure if I'll ever have a class with level thirty..."

"Eh, give it time and commit a genocide or two, preferably in the dungeons."

"You wouldn't happen to have a way to force all dungeon monsters to spawn as swarms? They are much easier to deal with but the exp per monster doesn't take that big a hit."

"Nah, you can't influence these spawns. They just are the way they are."

No exp cheats, no MP hacks... I know!

"Oh, can you enable me to have a spirit that can use spells? That would help a ton."

"That's deep in the realm of divine skills, though it would be on the more expensive side. Not sure I could fit it in, my DP are limited, I'll have to check."

"Speaking of, what exactly counts as a 'spell' for the restriction on summoned spirits? What exactly can't they use?"

"Any skill that has 'magic', 'arcane' or 'spell' in its name or description is out, as well as any skill that has a cost expressed in MP."

"What? So even something like a 'Spell Parry' would be out?"

"You got it."

Well, so much for that. Given that checklist, their MP stat is just dead. Maybe if we tried our luck with finding non-magic area damage skills? Maybe there is a Mana Drain skill I could obtain? Spirits have a 30% penalty to MP, not a 100% penalty, their MP has to be useful for something... Well, that's a problem for later, need more Class Cores first.

"How about something to strengthen my party members? I've taken most of them as familiars and I can share a few skills with them, is there a way to expand on that? Maybe share a whole class with them?"

"Hmm... I'm afraid that is in the realm of divine skills as well, so not an immediate option. But I'll keep it in mind."

"I guess my defense is also lacking, being a caster and all. Also, need to get rid of the [Undead] weaknesses. Not that I can do much with an enemy in my face, either way, spells are too slow to cast."

"Gotcha. For the latter, ask your little navi friend to search for a class with [Spell Mastery]. Check that out when you're on your own, there are too many classes that come with it. Choose one that comes with other benefits that suit you."

Spell Mastery

Passive

You gain (1 + skill level / 10) additional spell shapes you can apply to your generic spells instead of the likes of Rain and Blast.

The option to add additional effects like status is not restricted by the chosen shapes. Possible options are (relative to Rank 1 magic):

Barrage - 250 MP, shoot 7 projectiles in a random arc that each inflict 100% MAG damage

Blade - 100 MP, no cast time, instantly generate a sword made of arcane energy and attack with it for 200% MAG damage

Chain - 350 MP, projectile jumps to 4 more targets after hitting something, 150% MAG damage

Dash - 50 MP, no cast time, instantly move to a point within 5 DU and inflict 30% MAG damage to everything in the path,

the path between you and the target must be traversable with your current abilities, e.g. must be capable of flight to dash towards a point in the sky

Homing - 150 MP, shoot 2 homing beams that inflict 150% MAG damage

Mist - 1000 MP, create a mist to cover a 100 DU diameter area and lasts for 10 minutes, it inflicts 1% MAG damage per minute

Nova - 300 MP, create an explosion around self that inflicts 250% MAG damage in a 3 DU radius sphere

Spikes - 500 MP, cover 10 DU diameter area in spikes that inflict 30% MAG damage per step, lasts up to 10 minutes or until the next Spike cast

Wall - 1000 MP, create a 20 DU wide elemental wall that inflicts 150% MAG damage on contact and lasts for 3 minutes or until 20 hits are inflicted. Some elements may create solid walls instead.

One Dumb Unit was a bit less than a meter... I guess Blade or Dash would be what I should use to deal with melee attackers sitting in my personal space.

"Why don't you have that skill? It seems quite essential."

"I have [Alter Shapes] which is the same but limited to only two. It was sufficient for my purposes."

If I was just limited to two... I guess Dash to get out of dodge and then either Wall or Thorns as crowd control should suffice. Everything else is too niche for my taste, so I could live with either skill.

Like the mist option would need probably multiple thousands of enemies in its area before it beats rain assuming the reduced attack power can even overcome their magic defense. Pointless.

Barrage sounds just like the spread shot option I'm already ignoring. Pass.

Nova sounds like a trap. I would need to survive in the middle of a huge mob and finish the usual three-second cast without getting interrupted, not happening.

Chain does not say it ignores allies, so that would just backfire at the most inopportune time.

Homing might be useful depending on how strong the homing effect is. But then that's mostly just a problem because of my aiming skills, the regular shot is already about as fast and accurate as bullets from a sniper rifle. If someone could dodge that on a regular basis just by reflexes, I'd call that bullshit. Though maybe I can perform some trick shots with it to hit an enemy that engages in melee with my party members.

In the end, it comes down to what else the relevant classes give, but I'd be satisfied with the lesser version.

Basluth rattles their skull, barely suppressing a laugh, "Before I forget, if you want better melee options, you could check the Essence Binder class."

Essence Binder Growth Rates

24 HP, 57 MP, 45 SP, 2 STR, 2 DEX, 4 VIT, 6 MAG, 6 FTH, 7 WIL, 8 CHA Bind Vestige

500 MP upkeep per class of summoned creature

An alternate version of [Summon Spirit].

((Alan, add details here!))

You can have (1 + skill level / 10) additional spirits, same pool as regular summoned spirits.

Without the [Summon Spirit] skill you can't create regular spirits, are limited to 1 class on spirits and their level is capped at 1.

You can bind a monster that was slain by you within the last minute as a vestige spirit.

You can only attempt to bind a monster that has a level equal to or less than your summoned spirits.

You can't bind a boss monster.

You can't bind an elite monster with more classes than your spirits can have.

The attempt to bind a monster costs as much MP as the upkeep would be.

On success, replace its Monster-related extra classes with the Spirit extra class and then treat it like a regular spirit,

except that at 0 HP the vestige is permanently lost and the slot can't be recovered for 1 day. Summon Expertise

Passive

Can add 1 additional base class to your summoned spirits.

This increases to 2 at skill level 20, and 3 at level 25. Invocation

Concentration

Temporarily fuse with one of your actively summoned spirits.

The spirit's classes and race are added to your own at a fourth of their regular levels (capped at this skill's level, minimum level 1).

For HP, MP and SP only the max is increased, the current value is not affected.

During the fusion, you count as a (summoned) spirit and can't use magic.

In that state, you can't call forth more spirits but those that are already active stay active.

Death in fused form is also death for the caster.

After the fusion ends, the used spirit has to rest for 2h and you can't concentrate for 10mins.

So this binding stuff is basically what I tried just before? Thanks a bunch, B... couldn't you have kidnapped me before I almost kill myself?

"Where did that come from?"

"I may have watched earlier when you... *snort* played with that poor monster and I found the idea hilarious, so I quickly put that class together. In my enthusiasm, I kinda forgot that you kids nowadays need Class Cores to add a class. But before my work goes completely to waste I wanted to tell you about the option."

"So you're the reason the notification changed in the middle of the experiment..."

"Yeah, you can say that."

I might keep it in mind for later. If I get that class to level twenty-five we're already at a minimum of seven classes for the familiars. Though, I need far more max MP for that.

Invocation reads like a Fighter Transformation spell. Can't hurt to have but the option to fetch some powerful monsters as cannon fodder and the increase in classes for spirits is far more important.

While I was thinking about this class, Basluth has been poking into thin air.

"What are you doing this time?"

"I'm preparing the class you'll get from the Joker Core later. I think I have all the info I need to prepare some bribes presents for you. Got anything you wanted to ask? I'm out of conversation material."

"I'm curious how you have that many classes. I was told the limit is ten, not fifteen."

"...is that so? Well, they are clearly wrong. It is true that Class Cores can only take you to ten classes, but after that, it only gets difficult, not impossible. You need an increasing amount of Dungeon Cores and the stat requirements are fifty percent higher. Nothing else changes."

"Dungeon Cores? You mean the stuff found at the end of a dungeon? For which you would need to destroy a dungeon?"

"Exactly those. The eleventh class needs one, the twelfth two, and all the way up to the fifteenth class needs five Dungeon Cores. All in all, you need to conquer and destroy fifteen dungeons per person. I would suggest you search the minor dungeons out in the wild for that. Don't want to delete your entire economy, right? Also, they are much shorter and simpler, so even you might have a chance at completing them."

Yeah, yeah, just take every opportunity you have to rub it in how weak I am...

"Right... and titles? Is it twenty for those or is that info wrong as well?"

"Yeah, twenty is right until you use a Dungeon Core. Every time you add a class with their help, the title limit increases by one. So twenty-five at best. And no, you can't delete the titles you don't like, Jared. The best you can do is upgrade them. So you better choose wisely. But don't wait too long or you may receive another forced title like your 'Fate Breaker'."

"So, I'm stuck with the penalty titles 'World Resident' and 'Fate Breaker'?"

"The title 'Fate Breaker' isn't useless, it disables all forms of luck and fate manipulation used against you. But the other... you're out of luck."

"Well, at least I have confirmation for that... That aside, do you know any tricks to gain loads of exp fast?"

"Nothing you weren't already doing. Throw your biggest area attacks into the monster flood and you'll outlevel anyone that can't deal area damage. And maybe invest in classes with non-magical area attacks for your summoned spirits, one class per spirit should be enough. That should help you to get up to speed exp-wise."

"Right... so how do we proceed from here, Basluth?"

"Nothing special, really. I finish the class, you tell me if it is to your liking. If necessary I fix it and then I send you home. We'll meet again when your soul is ready to accept the Demon Lord class. That should be about a year outside, give or take. Once you're ready for that I'll bring you here again and teach you about your divine class's skills and maybe a few other things you want to know. We'll see about that then."

"Got it."

So just continue as before and await the inevitable. The lich isn't even asking for much but is willing to help a lot. But despite that, I've no confidence that I'll become strong enough to deal with the primary problem. A few more levels, even a hundred, won't change the quality vs quantity imbalance between my group and the opposition. We're far too weak for that...

Do I need to start screaming at the top of my lungs while changing my hair in stupid colors and shapes to give us a fighting chance?

Speaking of weak, "Would you happen to know a way to still obtain light affinity now that classes are out?"

"No, but why light affinity specifically?"

"Together with the 'Enduring Soul' title it should remove my light weakness once I obtain that."

"Oh, right, that."

How else can I get rid of that weakness? Every path I can think of is just closed off.

The lich continues, "Yeah, I use that title, too. Sorry, but I'm just from a time when things were different. Back then you didn't need silly Class Cores to add any of the first ten classes and the stat requirements were a lot lower. By the time you finished your basic education, you were supposed to have at least seven classes. I still don't get why they changed that. Well, in exchange, elite classes weren't a thing either."

"That would explain a thing or two."

"Uh, like what?"

"According to some stories, the people in the past could conquer some dungeons that are considered impossible today."

"Not the only thing that changed. But that is a thing of the past. As for a way to obtain light affinity... sorry, I got nothing. Technically there is a title to get it but as an undead, you can't get that either. Ask me again if you decide to take up my offer, I'll look into a loophole then."

"Alright, final question for now, how would I even contact you when something comes up? Aside from the whole dungeon in the way, I couldn't even get in here without... you know, Yulia..."

Not that I even know where 'here' is...

"...if you think it really is important... then do it. I've given up hope on saving her, it has been several millennia outside or almost half a million years for me in here and I couldn't come up with a way to undo the seal... I've suffered long enough, I'm tired of it. So close to the one I love but unable to ever be with her... In fact, one of the reasons why I want to mentor someone is that mentors have a strangely high mortality rate. I'd really like for a miracle to happen but as it is there is no one above that could grant that to me."

"I'll keep that in mind. But I don't like the idea of killing someone I could consider a friend."

"Friend? Nah, let's not fool each other. We're both just using the other for our own ends. I've even forgotten what it is like to have someone I could consider a 'friend'... and don't you dare force me to remember!"

Seems like I struck a nerve there, "Sorry..."

We have nothing else to say, so we both keep silent while Basluth continues to work on the Joker Core class.

I was always suspicious of Jeff but this goes way beyond what I expected of him. Is any of this really true or can Basluth fake the green shine of the truth gem? ...well, first I need to take care of the artifact, then... I'll hopefully not find a way to contact the devas. As long as I can't talk to them and especially not Jeff, all of this won't be my problem.

If he really was as abusive as Basluth made him out to be, then yes, he needs to be punished. But would the devas really employ such a person? They seemed to have everyone's personal file, so wouldn't they know?

I still have some hope that the devas at least as a whole are more on the side of goodness and justice with maybe some rotten eggs in there. The bigger the organization the sooner corruption sets in. Short of mind-controlling everyone it is basically inevitable.

...

I'm not a fan of love triangles or whatever this really was. And this one... did this love triangle really lead half the universe towards ruin? That is hard to believe.

Love is a terrifying thing. It can make the weak strong, it can tame the wild... and it can turn good people towards evil...

But how do the demons play into this? I haven't seen any so far. Well, aside from in the mirror... wait do I even have a reflection? Still haven't checked that one.

And if demons play a role in this... is it really ALL demons as Jeff wants me to believe or just a fraction of them? I don't even know if demons as a 'race' exist or if it is just anyone that holds this stupid title. For all I know, it could just be a strange translation for intelligent monsters or a human-adjacent race...

And this Dogma of Hush... are they related to these demons or are they yet another side to the overall conflict? Is it a free for all between half a dozen factions?

What even is anyone's end goal? Basluth wants revenge but what about anyone else?

We really know nothing, do we?

Well, if you'd ask me right now to make a decision... I would join none of the three to fifty factions. I would do my best to stay out of that mess. I have my own problems to take care of.