Chapter 279: Chapter 278: Peer Reviewed Journal

Once she’d written everything down, Bridget passed the journal around for the group to review. Overall, the upgrades to her two classes that the orc warrior had received were excellent and no one could really find any flaws with her choice of skills. Thanks to all the demons that she had helped slay, Bridget had received two levels in her primary class and an astounding six levels in her secondary class. An eight-level increase from a single battle was massive, though a good deal of that increase could be attributed to how low level her secondary class had been going into the fight. Still, the fact that she had increased her CLR by so much in a single day was phenomenal, especially considering the number of people the experience had been shared with.

The growth was almost enough to recommend the idea of their little group seeking out armies of demons to fight. Almost. Jadis carefully did not voice that opinion. There had been far, far too many close calls earlier in the day for those kinds of risks to be taken regularly. Besides, she was fairly certain two major factors to their success were called Jack and Noll, and those two wouldn’t always be around to aid them.

The one skill that Bridget had gained from her twenty-third level in Lantern Light Landsknecht was an interesting mix of offensive and defensive skill.

While it didn’t actually provide Bridget with any direct defense, it did make any one or thing that attacked her pay for the assault. The upkeep cost of the spell wasn’t much either, so Bridget could easily keep it going through most fights. The main suggestion given from the others was that Bridget would need to increase her defenses so that getting hit would hurt her enemies more than it hurt her. Sabina planned on crafting Bridget new armor when they got back to Far Felsen, so her ability to take a hit was definitely going to go up.

The other three new skills Bridget had gained were from her Ardent Light of the Reborn class.

The first skill was just a plain ten-point total boost to her two defensive stats. Nothing special, but a necessary improvement to help keep the orc warrior safe on the battlefield, especially since she was a frontline combatant. It was also a better option than the other skills on offer that would either boost her Focus and Will or give her mastery skills that she didn’t really need.

The second was… undeniably lewd, but also one of the best skills Bridget could get. Both Aila and Eir gushed over Fuel for the Flame, and not because of the implied need to have lots of sex with Jadis. Or at least, that wasn’t the only reason. A temporary magic reserves buffer that could be gained through actions that they were all already taking was a major boon, especially when the buffer was so large and could be built up over the course of days before being used. If handled correctly, Bridget could very well not need to use her actual base magic pool in most fights at all.

The third and final skill of the class, Stamina Beacon, had a plain name but a powerful ability. Considering most melee warriors depended on stamina to use their active skills, having someone who could help replenish their stamina just by being nearby was a huge advantage. The synergy was especially good for Jadis, since she only needed to keep one of her bodies near Bridget and all three of her selves would benefit from the effect.

In the end, no one made any objections to Bridget’s choices and she solidified her skill selection. Since everyone was feeling tired and worn out from the day, Bridget immediately put her Stamina Beacon spell to practical use. As soon as she cast the spell, a soothing blue light emanated from the orc woman, washing over the gathered company.

Jadis could feel the difference the light made right away. It was almost like she’d drunk an energy drink: she could feel her stamina replenishing within her. It didn’t necessarily cancel out her existing fatigue and it definitely wasn’t a replacement for sleep, but she felt like she could keep going for a lot longer with Bridget’s pleasant glow warming her.

After Bridget, everyone took turns writing down the details of their newest levels. Everyone had gained multiple, though some had increased their levels more than others. The difference in level gains seemed to stem from a combination of what levels their various classes were at the start of the battle, as well as how much active involvement each person had in the fight. Still, everyone had at least two new skill slots to fill and there was some debate on what to choose for a few. By the end of the discussion, everyone was more than happy with the choices they had made, especially since none were weak or unwelcome skills.

Sabina had gained one level in her smith class and three levels in her enchanter class, raising them to twenty-two and seven respectively. Considering she’d barely participated in the actual fighting, it made sense that she hadn’t leveled up quite as much as Bridget despite her enchanter class being a lower level. She didn’t gain any skills for her smith class, but the two she gained for her enchanter class were both important for her future as a masterclass enchanter.

Neither were anything wild or lewd like Bridget’s new skills, but they were both building blocks that would help increase the power of Sabina’s future enchantments as well as open the door for better skills down the line. If Sabina was bothered by the lack of glamor her skills showed, she made no sign of it. Instead, she simply chattered along about the various enchantments she was planning on crafting once they returned to the city.

“Since I’ll be making true permanent enchantments, we’ll want them to be as good as they can possibly be! These passive skills will definitely help me with that, which is great because the last thing I want to do is mess anything up, especially if I do any enchanting on your cold flame armor!”

Thea’s new skills had a little more spice to them. She had gained two levels in her Imperial Soldier class, bringing it up to thirty, and three levels in her Shieldsworn Guard class which had increased to twenty-five. The new skill she’d received for her soldier class was a rare one, but also well documented as it was something other soldiers had received in the past, though usually at much higher levels.

The increase to Thea’s defenses was staggering. With how high her Fortitude had grown, even before Jadis’ newest levels were taken into consideration, Thea would be cutting thirty-one points of damage off the top of any attack that struck her before even taking her other damage-negating factors into account. Jadis wondered if a bone thief could even actually hurt Thea when fully armored.

The other two skills Thea ended up taking for her Shieldsworn class were a mix of interesting and practical.

Shieldsworn’s Haste was just a straight boost to Thea’s Agility. Considering what a difference it was making in Jadis’ combat ability, it only made sense that the rest of the melee combatants also upped their agility where they could. Besides which, the faster Thea could move, the faster she could react to attacks and defend against them.

Shieldsworn’s Deflection was an interesting defensive skill that had the potential for offense. Depending on the projectile that was knocked away, Thea could very well do some collateral damage to clusters of enemies that could be struck by the deflected attack. If she practiced with the skill enough, she might even be able to send the projectile back at the shooter. Plus, nothing in the description said it couldn’t be used on magic attacks. During their discussion, Thea made plans with Aila and Kerr to test the limits of what the skill could do.

Kerr had also gone up eight total levels, just like Bridget. Her primary class had risen one level to thirty-four, her secondary had risen one level to twenty-nine, and her new tertiary sniper class had jumped to level seven. No new skill was gained for Nox Archer, but Far Wilds Traveler had gained a skill that synergized well with her other two classes.

Considering how often Kerr had been perched in trees lately, shooting down at her targets, the skill made sense. Of course, they wouldn’t always be in an area where towering pines were around every corner, but finding an elevated position was always something Kerr would try to do in any fight she was in anyways. It didn’t even need to be a hundred feet in the air or anything; just standing on the top of the wagon would count as an elevated position for most situations.

Kerr had gained three skills for her new Bonded Slut Sniper class, two of which were completely mundane, useful improvements to her ranged prowess.

Both were basic, but obviously important steppingstones to greater skills that would come in the future. The real interesting skill that the sniper had received was, of course, decidedly lewd. A fact that delighted Kerr to no end.

Aside from how utterly debauched the skill was, the power it was offering was great. So long as Kerr achieved ten “climaxes” before using it, the arrow would do a huge amount of damage to a single target. While clearly not the kind of skill that could be used every battle since she could only create one “charged” arrow at a time, it would be useful to have what was essentially an elite-slayer attack that could help them cripple or outright kill a powerful opponent right from the start of a fight.

Of course, Kerr also made it clear that she expected Jadis to help her use her new skill as soon as possible. For practical purposes, of course.

Eir had received two levels in each of her classes, bringing her primary up to twenty-five and her secondary up to ten. Both had gained a new skill each. Beloved Cleric of Lyssandria’s new skill was a healing one, though it went in an unexpected, but extremely welcome, direction.

It was a safety net, one that was clearly meant to be paired with Protection of the D. Now, if Eir was ever injured and knocked unconscious again, she would immediately begin healing herself without the need for conscious effort. The only oddity of the skill description was the mention that it wouldn’t work if she was already channeling a spell. Jadis wasn’t sure how that could ever be a problem since if Eir was rendered unconscious, she wouldn’t be able to channel a spell anyway. Aila speculated that it could be an indicator of future spells and abilities, which most everyone agreed on.

The other skill she gained, this one from Lustful Oracle of D, was one that she chose specifically for Jadis’ sake. Or rather, for Alex’s.

Being able to see if there was a demon possessed person hiding in a crowd was good, but more than anything Jadis was hoping the skill would help her locate Alex. She fully planned on searching for the missing demonling in the morning, just as soon as she could. The mystery of where Alex had ended up was not one she was content to leave unanswered. Of course, they didn’t know for sure that Alex had possessed Eike. Sabina hadn’t seen that with certainty. But the fact that Eike’s body had disappeared did cause some suspicions that perhaps that was exactly what had happened. So, maybe the spell would help find Alex. Or maybe it wouldn’t. But Eir was willing to use her skill slot on the spell on the hope. Even if it didn’t work out the way they wanted, it was still a valuable spell to have to help guard them from hostile possessed individuals.

Aila’s Cart Driver class had only gone up one level, from twenty-five to twenty-six, but her Arcanist class had risen from twenty to twenty-four. As such, she had gained two new skills. The first was a new spell, an improvement of sorts to her force bolt spell.

Aside from having increased range, the spell would fire three force bolts at the same time, all for the cost of two force bolts. Since the spell created three individual bolts, Aila was also certain that the interaction with her spell modifications meant that each bolt would be modified separately. That meant that if she used an explosion modification on the spell, the results would be… explosive.

Jadis was definitely looking forward to seeing all the different ways the new spell could be modified.

The second skill Aila gained was a new spell modification, one that looked like it would work out great with her new spell but would also synergize in interesting ways with her existing spells.

The modification would transform Aila’s spells into homing missiles. While she usually had good aim with her attacks, especially since they moved pretty fast, the fight against the wind mage had shown that Aila’s spells could absolutely be dodged. Being able to lock onto a target would be a major benefit when fighting speedy and slippery enemies.

After all the skills had been chosen and all the free attribute points had been assigned, everyone’s status sheets were reviewed, just to make sure nothing had been missed.

Overall, Jadis felt everyone was looking pretty good.

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