Guessing that I had around 50 minutes left before the finals started, I decided to open my curse mark skill first, since [Overloaded orb] would be affected by how that skill evolved. To be safe, I decided to hold off on making any decisions until I had considered both skills' evolutionary paths.

[Curse mark(guide)](100%)

Tier 2 skill.

Leave behind a curse mark (guide) when inflicting a wound on another entity.

Curse mark (guide) will attract incoming mana-based attacks from the holder to the target.

Use this skill in battle to increase progression.

Tier 3 upgrades

[Corrosive mark]

Leave behind a curse mark when inflicting a wound on another entity.

Corrosive curse mark (guide) will attract your mana-based attacks.

When an attack makes contact with the curse mark, its properties will strengthen and the affected area will spread. When a curse mark becomes strong enough, it will corrode the afflicted area rapidly.

A new curse property will be automatically unlocked: [Minor necrosis]

Areas affected by minor necrosis no longer heal naturally and are harder to heal with mana.

[Trans locative mark]

Leave behind a curse mark when inflicting a wound on another entity.

Trans locative curse mark (guide) will attract your mana-based attacks.

When an attack makes contact with the curse mark, the curse mark will reappear somewhere else on the target's body. The previously affected area will maintain its cursed properties.

A new curse property will be automatically unlocked: [minor mana distortion]

Areas affected by minor mana distortion will hamper the mana flow by 15%

[Serrating mark]

Leave behind a curse mark when inflicting a wound on another entity.

Serrating curse mark(guide) will attract your mana-based attacks.

Create up to three curse marks.

The wound that was originally afflicted with a curse mark will slowly enlarge and deepen.

A new curse property will be automatically unlocked: [minor bleed]

Areas affected by minor bleed will have localised blood flow increase by 35%. Bleeding wounds no longer heal naturally, until the blood flow stops..

For the first time since I had gotten my dark class, I was well and truly stumped by my choices. Not because they were incredible or something, though I had to admit they looked impressive. No, I was stumped because I had no idea what the difference between a 'curse property' and a normal skill description could represent. On top of that, the system's wording was suspicious. Since it said 'Immediately unlock', did that mean that there were ways to unlock those properties naturally, as well?

As I continuously grew stronger and stepped further and further down the path of a death knight, I was starting to realise that the lack of information about my class skills could play a bigger role than I had originally thought. With no idea where to start, I decided to just take all of the skills at face value, as well as make a little list with everything I knew about curse marks, so far.

First, each curse mark was harder to heal than a normal wound, whether by magic or naturally. There were many types of curse marks, but most dealt direct damage or weakened the opponent somehow. Getting access to a curse mark at tier 2 was rare, and my homing property even more so.

Comparing the three skills, each could play a different role.

[Corrosive mark] was a straightforward damage dealer that became more deadly over time. The skills would make curse marks almost unusable, unless you were willing to kill your opponent. At the same time, it would be highly effective when hunting powerful monsters. On top of that, every battle that counted, was one to the death. The corrosive mark spoke to me, if only because of its ruthless and straightforward efficiency. The necrosis property was a nice way of countering healers like myself, if it was necessary.

[Trans locative mark] on the other hand, was a little more tricky. Its main strength was the fact that it left behind all of the cursed properties, before switching to another location and waiting for another attack to hit it. In minutes, my opponent would be covered in its unique [Minor mana distortion] property. More importantly, my attacks would start to home in on different spots, which made them a lot less predictable than they were now. Of course, that was a double edged sword. I needed to hit the curse mark to make it jump to another spot, but if previously affected spots also drew in my attacks, that would be a difficult task. Ironically, my (guide) property was the one causing issues, this time. Corrosive mark, in comparison, heavily benefited from my first property, since hitting the same mark multiple times would be easy as pie if all my attacks naturally flew towards it.

Finally, there was [Serrating mark]. Like its name implied, it involved cutting into your opponent. The wound would deepen and bleed more quickly than normal. Compared to the other two options, this was rather unimpressive on its own. However, the fact that you could create three at once alleviated this issue somewhat. Regardless, I had to admit that I wasn't that excited about this option. It wasn't bad, per se, it just paled in comparison to the other two.

With that skill looked at, I decided to look at [Overloaded orb].

[Overloaded orb](100%)

Tier 2 skill.

Gathers expelled overloaded mana from the holder's surroundings into the centre of the holder's hand.

Gathered mana will form a small orb that can be launched and explodes on impact.

Skill is dependent on the parent skill [Overload aura].

Use this skill in battle to increase progression.

Tier 3 upgrades

[Phasing orb]

Gathers expelled overloaded mana from the holder's surroundings into the centre of the holder's hand.

Gathered mana will form a small orb that can be launched and explodes on impact.

The orbs can become intangible at will. Orb intangibility has a set duration of 3 seconds. Intangible orbs can't explode until the set duration is over. Each orb takes more mana to form.

Skill is dependent on the parent skill [Overload aura].

[Fusing orb]

Gathers expelled overloaded mana from the holder's surroundings into the centre of the holder's hand.

Gathered mana will form a small orb that can be launched and explodes on impact.

Fuse multiple orbs to create a single, more powerful orb. Fused orbs are unstable and explode after 8 seconds or on impact.

Skill is dependent on the parent skill [Overload aura].

[Relentless orbs]

A direct upgrade of [Overloaded orb].

Gathers expelled overloaded mana from the holder's surroundings and forms small orbs that explode on impact.

Create up to 5 orbs at once. Orbs can only be created within a one-metre distance of the skill-holder. Orbs take less mana to form.

Skill is dependent on the parent skill [Overload aura].

Seeing the lack of confusing terms this time, I heaved a sigh of relief.

The first option, [Phasing orb], was an interesting one. Unfortunately, it didn't sound practical. I was already struggling to fuel my skills with mana, and intangibility wasn't cheap, as [Ghost apparation] had proven. The skills itself mentioned this issue, in fact. Realistically, the only reason I could have to make those orbs intangible would be to get past some defences. Useful, no doubt about it, but if an opponent had such strong defences I couldn't get through them, then would the orbs themselves even do any damage in the first place, if they could get through the barrier? If it came down to it, then I could just phase through myself. No need to waste a valuable skill evolution to solve a problem I didn't have.

My second option, [Fusing orb], was even more frustrating. Was there any point to get a fusing skills, when I was already doing that by myself?! I was already fusing my orbs when I fought Cerion in the last round! On top of that, the skill didn't even have any other properties. Certainly, its future potential could be huge, but who was to say? A gamble that brought no short-term benefits wasn't my style.

That left my final option, [Relentless orbs]. At first, this skill, too, seemed unimpressive. That was, until I considered its possible ramifications. Right now, I was forced to sheath my sword or one-hand it when using [Overloaded orb]. After all, I needed my hand to form the orbs. If I wanted to fuse some, I had to keep both hands free. This left me at an annoying disadvantage where my ranged prowess and clos combat was an either/or situation.

[Relentless orbs], on the other hand, no long had the 'form in hands' part. Instead, orbs could be created freely around my body, before presumably being launched with [Overload Aura]. It had two more benefits, even! One, I could create five orbs at a time and two, they cost less mana than before! The skill seemed like the perfect way to meld my two types of combat together. Combined with y curse mark, aiming each orb separately wouldn't even be necessary. Hopefully.

With all these skills looked at, I considered my options.

Corrosive mark was my favourite when it came to curse marks. In the short term, however, it would be difficult to use the skill on Emeri in the coming fight. I didn't accidentally want to kill her, after all. On the other hand, who made skill choices thinking of the short term? If I had to go without my curse mark, so be it. Besides, Emeri's affinity had an advantage against my dark affinity. For all I knew, corrosive mark would hardly sting her. Coming to a conclusion, I picked corrosive mark.

For [Overloaded orb], the choice was more obvious. [Relentless orbs] was by far the most applicable skill. On top of that, its future potential was boundless, since it could still develop into any direction. Mentally, I picked the skill.

By now, the time to stat the final was fast approaching. I took one last look at my status screen, nodding in satisfaction as I reminisced on my growth these past few months.

Name: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Overloading Death Knight] LVL 50 Strength 304 Constitution 300 Dexterity 300 Intelligence 100 Wisdom 263 Affinity 528 Free stat points 0

Skills:

Passive:

[Dark radiance core](63%), [Dark flow sight](0%), [Cascading mana-intrusive Swordsmanship](13%),

[Expanded lifespan](N/A), [Mental palace](N/A), [Manifold processing](N/A), [Dark Form](48%), [Overload Aura](67%), [Weak mana sense](N/A), [Overload-reliant physique](N/A)

Active:

[Ghost apparation](19%), [Corrosive mark](0%), [Relentless orbs](0%), [Overloaded sword](81%), [Dark Blade Maelstrom](76%), [Aura step](41%)

A few minutes later, one of the organisers entered, personally inviting me to enter the arena, fully equipped. As I once again stepped onto the rocky soil of this now familiar battleground, the sudden sunlight was blinding. Time to extinguish that light.