Matt had a wide grin on his face on seeing that one of his options was uncommon. It was only his second time picking a class skill, but from what he had seen, uncommon rarity saved a lot of time. The scroll was common rarity in itself, so he had thought it would only offer him common options, but seeing as that was not the case, he was starting to seriously consider getting a couple more scrolls.
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First though, he had three skills to read through, and one of them even looked very familiar.
[Mind Wall] (common)
The mind holds immense power, but protecting it is no simple task. And while a fortress might be ideal, a wall is but a start.
Erect a wall around a target’s mind, protecting it from external attacks for a short duration. (Effect increased with willpower.) (Duration increased with wisdom.)
A mental barrier of some sorts? Matt thought to himself. He knew mental attacks were a thing. He had even experienced it firsthand on the first floor, courtesy of its resident mentalist, then again at the hands of Lara. The question was, how valuable was a mental barrier?
The cats had mentioned that his mental defenses should be on the upper end for his tier, thanks to his higher than average Willpower. Meaning a mental barrier might not be all that useful. But that wasn’t the reason he thought the skill wouldn’t be a good fit for him.
While the fight against the mentalist had been a wake-up call, it was also his own fault. Having the skill wouldn’t have changed that outcome since he doubted he would’ve been walking around casting it on repeat, which meant he would’ve fallen for the same trap.
Another reason was that he really didn’t want to be a buffer. Being a healer was bad enough, but being a buffer on top of that when he was the only one around was like opening a clinic on an empty island.
Worse even.
It was like opening a clinic on a monster infested empty island.
Would it come in handy and see some use? Probably, but it was also way too situational for it to be the difference maker, especially if he’s talking about normal monsters. A Lara level encounter was unlikely, and while he was still wary of the whole thing, he needed to think in broader terms.
It wasn’t bad, but he was hoping for something more, and [Mind Wall] wasn’t it.
“Moving on,” he muttered as he read through the next skill.
[Revitalize] (common)
Health is not the only limitation in battle, running out of resources could be just as detrimental. A mage is limited by their mana and a warrior by their stamina. As a mender, you have the tools necessary to make sure that resources are never in short supply. Imbue energy into a target, replenishing resources, giving it a second lease on life. (Effect increased with spirit and willpower.)
It was the exact same skill he had been offered in his first skill selection, and if he was being honest, he was happy to see it.
While he was being offered his first skill, he had really wanted [Revitalize]. The description was so open-ended and ambiguous that he couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities such a skill presented.
The issue back then had been twofold.
First, he didn’t need the skill, he simply wanted it because of the potential it held. A heal like [Mend], or a defensive skill like [Knockback], had been the smarter choice if he cared about living more than playing around. Some might argue he didn’t, but he liked to think otherwise.
The second reason was the loosely used term ‘resources.’ At the time he had only had a single fight using mana, one that hadn’t cost him much of the resource to begin with, which had left him unaware of how much mana he’d normally need.
In hindsight, picking [Mend] was still the correct choice at the time, but now, both those reasons no longer held water, which meant the skill was once more at the top of his list, even if it was only common.
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But there was one more skill to check, and an uncommon one at that, so he held judgment until he read the description of the third and final skill.
[Orb of Mending] (uncommon)
A skill that aims to solve two of a mender’s biggest limitations: range and targets.
Summons a floating orb of life mana capable of absorbing any healing skill cast on it and redistributing it to all friendly targets within range. (Effect increased with spirit and wisdom.)
You’d think that an all knowing system would be able to get that Matt was stuck alone and party skills were utterly useless to him, but apparently that had been too much to ask.
Every skill he had come across so far had been supportive in nature but still had its uses for someone in his position. This one, however, took the cake for the most useless of any skill he had seen so far.
Don’t misunderstand, he wasn’t calling the skill bad. In fact, it might be the most broken one of the bunch. Covering both weaknesses of a class with one simple skill was practically unheard of, and for a party of adventurers it’d be a must have. But for someone like Matt, it was just beyond useless. There were literally zero cases where he could use the skill.
It felt like a slap in the face, especially since it was the only uncommon skill on offer.
At first, on reading the name, he thought it’d be an orb that followed him around, healing him, which sounded perfect. One of [Mend]’s weaknesses for him was the channeling aspect. It was incredibly limiting since it was difficult to focus on offense while channeling mana for the skill. An orb that followed him around would’ve been perfect. Choosing between it and [Revitalize] would’ve been incredibly tough as well, but regretfully, the system decided to give him one more ‘fuck you.’
The ultimate ‘fuck you’ would’ve been if all three options were useless, but thankfully, one of them was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that he didn’t even let it bother him that he was practically only given one option.
With a sigh and a mental command, he confirmed his choice [Revitalize].
Skill unlocked!
[Revitalize] (common)
4 of 15 skills allocated
11 skill slots remaining
As if right on cue, the ‘skill engraving’, as Tara had called it, started forming, this time on his left wrist.
It was fairly simple, just like the rest of the common skills, being only two straight parallel lines, starting from the bottom left of the circle engraving and going all the way to the upper right.
Intuitively knowing how to cast a skill immediately after learning it was still an odd feeling, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been the first time around. Now it was just like remembering how to do something you had long forgotten. As if you had known what to do all along. Which was why he knew to bring his palm towards himself before willing the skill on.
Unlike [Mend], no tiny threads of mana came out of his fingertips, and no relief filled him. Instead, air shimmered around his fingers as a slight warmth entered his body from where he had cast the skill, before disappearing soon after. He was at 100% mana and stamina after all, so that was to be expected.
That’s when Matt decided to finally try his first idea.
He moved his right hand towards his ruined shirt and grabbed it, [Repair] already being cast. It was his first time using the skill since the evolution, and he was ecstatic to see what it was now capable of.
Right away, the first difference became apparent, as the tiny threads were replaced with what looked like jets of light green mana. He tried passing a finger through one, but nothing happened, as if nothing was even there. Magic is truly amazing, he thought before directing more mana towards the skill. Even if it said in the description that it could repair the inanimate, apparently his active input was still required to keep the skill running, or else it would simply stop. Also, while he didn’t need to actively push mana like he did with [Mend], he could still do it, speeding up the process while increasing the cost, which was good to know.
The mana cost was steep, but his mana reserves were large enough to keep it going for a few minutes at its normal mana expenditure.
A few minutes didn’t sound that bad, but you know what was even better? Endless casting.
Towards that purpose, he next cast [Revitalize] with his other hand, and… the warmth hadn’t stopped. It kept going from where his hand was and travelling throughout his entire body, making him feel as if he was being wrapped in a nice warm blanket on a cold winter night. The strain on his mana core from how much he was draining had lessened significantly, but was instead replaced with a slight mental strain from apparently casting both skills in tandem. Sadly, the pressure on his soul from when Lara had damaged it was still there. Tara had said it would heal on its own in a day or two, but he had hoped his new skill would be able to remedy it before then. Unfortunately, he’d have to settle for the mana and stamina.
Truly a shame.
He kept it going for a few minutes before eventually stopping. The shirt was slowly getting repaired, but it would be at least 30 more minutes. And while [Revitalize] was recovering a respectable amount, it wasn’t enough to overcome the expenditure, and he had discovered early on that he couldn’t push more mana into the skill. Meaning its recovery rate would stay the same for now. A fair compromise and something to work towards when eventually attempting to evolve it.
His new skill was as good as he had hoped. While it wasn’t endless resources just yet, he was sure it would eventually reach that point, he’d just have to get it there.
More testing was definitely needed. He had to get a good sense of how much mana it could recover and whether recovering both mana and stamina at the same time would slow it down or not, but unfortunately, now wasn’t the time nor the place for that. He still had much to do and not enough time to do all of it. Which meant playing around with his new skill would have to wait until he was back on the outside.
Thankfully, he soon heard a grinding noise, as the large slab of stone started opening once more, revealing one of the temple’s resident guardians, but not the one he had been expecting.
[Revitalize] was the correct choice? Is there a different skill you would like to see in the future?
Thoughts on current tiering system
