After all the work I’d put in to get my magic skills up to the Initiate rank, I was now the proud owner of a solid eight class points: Two from getting the advanced Mental Magic up to 10, and then another one each from light, life, frost, earth, and air.

While normally having that many points would have been as daunting as it would be exciting, Advisor Flithus thankfully was proving his worth in all this advisory.

“Good! So from what you’ve told me, I’ve prepared a list with all the class skills you’re currently able to use your points on. Take a look and we’ll start crossing things off.”

He pushed the aforementioned list towards me, and I scanned it to find everything in order.

Arcane Arsenal Skill Options

Arcane Armaments - 2/5

Overload Weapon - 3/5

Spellsword/Swordspell - 0/5

Enhanced Weapon Skills - 0/5

Resist Magic - 4/5

Overload Armor - 1/5

Enhanced Physical Hardiness - 0/5

Mana Sink - 0/5

It was starting to get to be a solid list of options by now. I confirmed that everything looked right, and Flithus gently rapped his knuckles against the desk before launching into advising mode.

“Lovely. Now, I do believe there are a few options on here that are no-brainers, just as I believe that there are some you’ll wish to steer clear of for the time being. Past that, however, a great deal of where to place your points comes from what you want from your class. Let us talk of your ‘build,’ so to speak, and what you’re looking for…”

The session with Flithus ended up being long and drawn out, and throughout it all, I found my head reeling with the number of options I had. Still, it helped to clarify things greatly. Not everything was decided all at once, and so I switched between discussing things with the man and making selections in my class space.

First: The simple points.

Arcane Armament has reached Rank 5: At max rank, this skill does not have a limit on the number of weapons you may enhance. You may now summon or use enhancements on any weapon you are familiar with.

The sword hovering above the skill’s pedestal seemed to hum in approval as I made my selection, and I was happy to see that the limit had disappeared rather than just letting me select three more weapon types.

Raising Arcane Armament to the max rank was the only thing we didn’t have to discuss at all. While it was a bummer to lose that many points and not get anything new and exciting, it was just too vital a skill. Now that I had more weapons besides a spear and a bow, being able to enhance them was a must.

On top of that, maxing the skill out was required to run its class trial. If Mana Feet was anything to go off of, passing the Arcane Armament trial would be what gave me access to using the skill with advanced mana, as well as a host of other upgrades.

From there, things got dicier.

One option would be to throw one more point into Resist Magic, have my basic defenses maxed out, and then never look back. All my remaining points could go into the Arcane Weaponmaster path until I was capable of dishing out absurd levels of damage.

While not necessarily a bad way to do things, that option didn’t appeal to me too much.

For one, I cared more about defense than offense. If I were building a cool video game character, maybe that wouldn’t have been the case, but ultimately, death was very real here, and I wouldn’t be getting unlimited respawns. I had very little interest in being able to kill a boss with a single hit if it meant I’d die the very next day from something too strong for my defenses.

There was, of course, the whole thing about “the best defense is a good offense,” but that’s where the second crux of the issue came into play: Being a Protagonist.

For now, I was sufficiently obfuscated and tucked away that I wasn’t too worried. One day, however, I expected someone to figure out what I was and have no compunctions about trying to grab an Antagonist’s mark. And when they did come, I strongly doubted they were going to play fair.

Flithus, for his part, concurred. He rattled off a number of classes which excelled at fighting and killing as long as they were the hunters and not the hunted. Ambush classes. Assassins. The bow-and-arrow equivalent of snipers. Poisoners. Or even in a “fair” fight, there were classes whose attack speed would give me very little time to get a hit in before they struck.

All that to say, a heavily offensive build was nice if I was only thinking about fighting monsters in dungeons along with my teammates who could back me up. When it came to fighting other people, however, it was a recipe for disaster.

On the flip side, as much as I sometimes wanted to, I wasn’t planning on only throwing points into my defensive skills. I was tired of just being a scout during my dungeon runs. Especially with Emin largely playing a support role, I imagined I’d have to work a bit harder to deal some real damage.

And so ultimately, that was the name of the game: Points into Weaponmaster skills that would help me hold my weight in the dungeon in the short term, and then more points in the Armorist skills so I could hopefully not die.

Once we’d fully discussed that, I’d dipped back into my class space to make my next choice.

“All right then. Time to get something new.” I walked over to one of the fewer weapon pedestals that I’d yet to interact with, spending two of my remaining points.

You have learned a new class skill: Spellsword/Swordspell

All physical attacks deal an additional 10% of their base damage as magic damage.

All magic attacks deal an additional 10% of their base damage as physical damage.

Frankly, I’d been kind of skeptical of the skill since I’d seen it. The whole point of Arcane Armament was that my physical attacks already were doing mana damage. Considering I wasn’t rolling in attack spells right now, the skill wasn’t giving me anything I didn’t already have.

On the flip side, it was extra damage. On top of that, Sylum had a metal dungeon. Just about everything I fought this semester was going to be heavily armored. Even with my Strength past the first threshold, hitting a monster made out of metal with a mundane spear or arrow wasn’t going to do much. Magic damage was a must for me.

Having been one of the earlier skills in the tree, putting points into Spellsword/Swordspell also unlocked new options for me. As the pedestal lit up, purple light emanated from its base, traveling through the lines inlaid to the floor and dispelling the fog surrounding two other pedestals.

Excited to see what I’d unlocked, I quickly ran through them.

The first pedestal housed an almost comically conical dagger, looking more like a child’s idea of a weapon than something a blacksmith would actually make. From duels with Cal, however, I knew that was anything but true -- the cone-like design made the small blade perfect for punching through armor, a fact that she’d delighted in demonstrating to me back before I’d maxed out Arcane Armory.

Armor Penetration

Grants passive armor penetration. This skill allows your strikes to completely bypass a small, flat amount of armor, and also increases your strikes’ ability to pierce, puncture, and penetrate all forms of physical armor.

Actually pretty good if I want to be helpful in the metal dungeon, yeah? The extra mana damage I’d just picked up would be nice too, but against creatures that were essentially made out of armor, extra penetration was exactly what I needed.

The second pedestal held a short spear, a ball of light hanging above its tip.

Weapon to Wand

Allows the user to cast their spells from their weapons rather than their body. Spells cast this way benefit from a small portion of the user’s weapon skill levels and physical stats.

Neat, and probably a must-buy in the long term, but not what I needed at the moment. Considering I didn’t even have any attack spells, the bulk of the skill’s use would be lost on me.

Another trip out of the class space. Another chat with Flithus. He agreed with my assessment that Armor Penetration would be the most helpful in the short term, and that it would scale well in the future as well. Soon thereafter, I’d picked up another new skill, going so far as to drop two points into it.

You have learned a new class skill: Armor Penetration

Armor Penetration has reached rank 2!

On unlocking the skill, one new option revealed itself: As a close analog to the Armor Penetration skill, the next pedestal above it had a carbon copy of the same dagger, but glowing this time.

Magic Penetration

The description was the same as the first, but for magical defenses. Likely important, but nothing I needed right now.

As far as my weapon skills went, that was all I was doing for now. Enhanced Weapon Skills was useless until I picked up weapon skills. Flithus assured me this was very doable, but generally had to wait until I’d reached at least 20 in a weapon skill.

Overload Weapon was incredible, but the fourth rank wasn’t likely to be much better than the third unless an enemy was willing to let me stand there and charge up my attack for a minute.

Everything else, I’d already spent enough on for now.

With two points remaining, I headed into the Armorist room.

You have learned a new class skill: Enhanced Physical Hardiness

While wearing armor summoned or enhanced by Arcane Armory, all physical resistance skills are amplified by (5 + /5)%

Current value: 12%

The skill was sadly multiplicative rather than additive, which made it essentially useless to me right now -- With my Bleed Resistance at level 7, for instance, Enhanced Physical Hardiness only moved the damage reduction from 7% to about 8%. Still, I expected the skill to prove its worth as I picked up more resistances and leveled them.

More importantly, it let me get a bit further into the class tree.

Two new options presented themselves to the side of Enhanced Physical Hardiness: a set of heavily glowing cloth armor to the right, and a set of massive plate armor to the left.

I started with the cloth.

Status Resistance

While wearing armor summoned or enhanced by Arcane Armory, all negative, non-physical statuses will have their effects reduced. For temporary effects, additionally reduces the duration of the effect. For channeled effects, additionally increases the cost and effort required to affect you.

Wait, actually? I nearly spent my remaining point on the skill immediately, without bothering to read the other option. Non-physical statuses. Would that include… The Law’s Embrace?

I’d found it! I’d finally found a skill that would help me deal with Warram’s ridiculous immobilization skill!

Can I remove points from things? Maybe just take back all the points I just spent and shove them into this one?

Reluctantly, I decided to read through my other option as well.

Force Dispersal

While wearing armor summoned or enhanced by Arcane Armory, increases defenses against blunt-force damage and collisions. Additionally, reduces knockback effects, vibrational effects (sound attacks, etc.), and whiplash.

So maybe if I were still in dueling class, I’d get fewer concussions? A nice addition, although, why would I bother when the other option was right there?

Before doing anything rash, I exited my class space and reported back to Flithus with my new options. His response was as unexpected as it was annoying.

“Oh! I would say take the Force Dispersal option, yes?” He said it entirely matter-of-factly, as if it were the obvious choice. Despite my enhanced Perception, I found myself wanting a hearing version of Arcane Vision just to make sure I’d heard him correctly.

“Sorry. You want me to take the force one? Over the incredible status-reducing one?” What was I missing here?

Flithus fixed me with a bright and cheery grin. “I don’t want you to take anything. I’m naturally here just to advise you. But assuming you’ll eventually take both skills, it’s more a matter of what serves you well immediately. Metal dungeons are not known for status effects. What they are known for is having colossal metal golems which club people with tons of force and send them slamming into walls. Are you expecting to have to fend off negative status effects in the next semester?”

I internally groaned as the aged advisor made a fair point. I was fairly certain Warram wouldn’t be using his skill on me again as long as I was still affiliated with the archmage. On top of that, thinking back to the dungeons I’d already been in, most of the attacks that had actually hurt me had been force-based, like the tidal wave from the shower elemental or getting body-checked by the giant snake in Emer’Thalis. If all that was true, it really came down to choosing a skill that would possibly save my life in the dungeon or one that would make me feel extra smug.

But… I like feeling smug.

I spent a moment vividly imagining the downcast expression Warram would wear on using his skill on me, only to find it didn’t work anymore.

I reveled in the image for a few seconds and then opted to make the more reasonable choice.

You have learned a new class skill: Force Dispersal

One final skill revealed itself on the next step up.

Reactive Armor

Automatically summons your most protective armor whenever you would be hit by an attack which catches you unaware. Negates any bonuses that opposing attacks would gain for being surprise attacks.

Want. Want, want, want. Never mind that I couldn’t think of a single instance where it would have come into play. I still wanted it horribly. Right now, I was mainly trusting in all my obfuscation gear to keep any current or would-be Antagonist’s from killing me, but a skill like this would go a long way towards making me feel safer while out and about.

Unfortunately, I was out of class points.

With a sigh, I exited out of my class space and reported back to Flithus.

“So? What now?” The entire process had taken far longer than I’d expected, but it was only to be expected with how many points I’d recently gained along with the number of options I now had.

Flithus slowly lifted himself from his chair, walking out from behind his desk. “Now, my dear advisee, I believe a field trip is in order. To start off, what do you say to running a mile, hmm?”

You have learned a new skill: Running