The World of Tactics

Chapter Nineteen II: Dear John, Off-Road, From Dork

Chapter Nineteen II: Dear John, Off-Road, From Dork

"Within the Anuicia Kingdom, there are three prominent anima systems. Those three anima systems were fire magic, wind magic, and thunder magic. As for the remaining anima-systems, they were very uncommon. Hence, it is common for an apprentice to major in the three anima systems. Beyond the anima system, there were also other special systems that an apprentice could strive towards.

There are three prime examples. Those three prime examples were the monster tamer, sigil crafter, and slavemaster. Those three classes use magic, but that magic is used under certain conditions and specialization.

A monster tamer was just a subcategory of the mage class because it specialized only in taming wild monsters by branding a monster's soul core with its taming crest. Apprentices that are weak in magic (magic stats and low health points) would usually choose to become a monster tamer because they can not exhibit the full potential of a mage (weaker than mediocre). The reason was quite simple: the creation of a magic crest brand only takes a smidgen of vitality (0HP) and quantity is sometimes better than quality. Just a simple gathering of the surrounding mana (forcefully) is enough to create a magic crest brand.

A stronger tamer could easily tame a weak monster. If the other way is flipped around, then the tamer would need to weaken the monster first before branding a magic crest onto the weakened monster's soul core. Likewise, an apprentice could tame one monster and at most, there were two monsters. This is requisite before being able to change class into a monster tamer. A monster tamer can tame up three or four monsters. The higher promotion of a monster tamer could tame up to ten monsters.

[Side Note: A monster tamer could only use one type of magic and was two to three times harder to rank up magic mastery rank.]

A sigil crafter specializes in the fact that their magic provides many useful bonuses in battle. Usually, the mage department is divided into many categories and one of the categories is mage support. This is where many sigil crafters are stationed. Likewise, it was also quite popular amongst those close combatants. A sigil crest barely uses much vitality to create, which is quite similar to a monster tamer's taming crest brand. The use of the sigil crest was able to temporarily be branded on the armor of the combatants to give some beneficial boosts.

The requirement for an apprentice to become a sigil crafter was not difficult to achieve. An apprentice just needs to learn at least three types of status-boosting sigil crests. Otherwise, the other requirement was to be able to brand someone with a sigil crest successfully for the first time. An apprentice could only brand at most two sigil crests at a time, while a sigil crafter could brand at most four sigil crests at the same time. Only the higher promotion of a sigil crafter could brand at most six sigil crests at the same time.

[Side Note: A sigil crafter can only use one type of magic of choice and has no limit to the number of people being branded with a sigil crest. Once someone is branded with a sigil crest, the sigil crest will last until the end of the battle. However, additional branding of any other sigil crest during battle is no longer possible.]

A slavemaster specialized in s*****y magic. A slavemaster is quite similar to a monster tamer regarding usage, but a slavemaster specifically targets those that use it (Humans, for example). The process of enslaving someone with a crest is much more delicate than a casual creation of a taming crest. Changing the crest of someone of a class into the crest of a slave will take a lot of vitality. Hence, under normal conditions, a slavemaster would not likely turn the crest of someone else into a slave crest.

Unlike a monster tamer, a slavemaster could have as many as twenty or so at the start. Likewise, only criminals and war prisoners would be subjected to becoming a slave. Otherwise, if a slavemaster were found for illegal enslavement. The slavemaster could also become a slave as well. Nevertheless, there were still many enslavements. An apprentice had to have enough vitality to cast the enslavement spell to e*****e a person with a crest. Class change does not matter as much, but a slavemaster would be able to e*****e someone much more easily and use less vitality. A higher promotion of a slavemaster could e*****e someone with the bare minimum amount of vitality usage.

[Side Note: A slavemaster can only use slave magic and can not use any other type of magic. However, a slavemaster could choose to master one type of weapon (sword, ax, lance). Otherwise, an apprentice needs ten health points to cast an enslavement spell. A slavemaster needs five health points to cast an enslavement spell. A higher promotion would only need to use one health point to cast the enslavement spell. The enslavement spell could be dispelled when a grade three magic-user class uses the dispel spell.]"

---

The white underbelly of the Uzi was outlined in strip lines of deep red. He prefers to call it the crimson strip more. Meanwhile, the alpha male direwolf only had a strip of light orange and the two other direwolves only had a barely visible yellow strip. He looks through Uzi's new status screen and looks at the difference. Uzi's status screen is displayed below:

[Name: Uzi][Race: Direwolf (Grade 2)][Level: 20/40][Rank: 2][HP: 18/18-20/20] +2

[STR: 10(18) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][][][][][][][][] ] +1

[MAG: 0(8) / [][][][][][][][] ] +0

[SKL: 5(18) / [1][2][3][4][5][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ] +2

[SPD: 14(24) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][][][][][][][][][][] ] +2

[LCK: 1(20) / [1][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ] +1

[DEF: 7(16) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][][][][][][][][][] ] +1

[RES: 1(8) / [1][][][][][][][] ] +1

[Hidden: [CON: 11][MOV: 8][SKILL: [Innate Sharpness]][EXP: 0/100][WEA: Innate: C]]

[Wolf Claws (Strong): Might +6, Hit +55, Crit +5, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

[Wolf Fangs: Might +5, Hit +95, Crit +10, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

A few more levels up and Uzi will be incredibly strong. His plan for Uzi was to increase strength, skill, speed, and the defense stat. He felt that he could also max out Uzi's stats as well if he were able to max out Uzi's level limit at forty. However, he also felt that solely focusing on the base stats is not good because Uzi's health points do not match up with an average direwolf. Likewise, he felt that Uzi would be stronger than Goon after both of them reached their maximum possible levels. The limit is what makes the difference and Uzi's stat limit is higher than Goon's. However, if Goon were able to get a hand on a beast slayer's ax, then Uzi would be no match for Goon at all.

Since Goon was already evolved, it was time to level up using soul cores. It was the first time that he had done this, but it would be a waste to not turn the soul core into experience points when there is plenty of hand experience. So, he first took out the soul cores that could give him experience. Those soul cores that could give him some partial experiences were those levels that were not lower than his by a difference of five levels. Otherwise, it would only give one single experience. He is sure for those that had a difference of ten levels. He believes that it would most likely give him no experience.

Since his current level is twenty-one, he only took out the soul cores that were level sixteen or higher. He did not include the grade two soul cores though, because those were quite valuable. Because of the strict requirements, there were only four wolves' soul cores that met the requirements, while the goblin's soul core hovers between levels fourteen to fifteen. The four wolves' soul cores could only provide him with twenty-four points of experience. Seeing the reality, he did not try to absorb it into his own experience because it was not worth it.

Instead, he turns his attention to the direwolves and hobgoblin's soul cores. Those five were the only ones that exceeded his current levels, while the lowest of them was level twenty-three. All of them provide the same amount, which was capped at sixty points of experience. He decided that he would use the one with the lowest level soul core, which was the second direwolf's soul core. He did not take out the soul core of the second direwolf and pressed on the stack of direwolf's soul core within one of the item slots. - Which pops up another mini-screen that shows each direwolf's soul core.

He then presses on the second direwolf's soul core icon. Then, he continues to press the [Use] option after the option appears on the right side of the second direwolf's soul core icon. Immediately, he saw a bar that signified his experience (experience bar) which was a bit more than forty percent filled in green. He saw a counter number that read '+60 EXP' to the right of the bar. The number plus sixty only stays for a second before it rapidly flashes as the number decreases. As the number decreased, he could see that his bar of experience was increasing. Even after it is filled up and the experience bar repeats a new cycle. He could still see a sliver of green growing before the number reaches zero.

Once the animation stops, he sees the familiar level-up system notification as his level increases by one level (John Smith, EXP +60, Level Up). Along with the level, he got three more additional unallocated points. As a result, he got nine unallocated points to allocate. He decided that it was best to allocate three more points to his defense. He felt a bit unsafe once he saw that Goon's strength had been maxed out. It would also boost his confidence out in the wild as well since he never knew what he could encounter after a battle against twenty-eight monster enemies. This is not a good sign for him at all, which is why he prioritizes the defense stat.

He sighs and decides that it is better to also level up Uzi once or twice within the [Soul Fusion] tab. He hopes that it will prove to be useful. Once within the tab, he moves Uzi's icon onto the single square on the other half of the left side. Along with that, he could see that another soul icon was highlighted. He could also see how many experience points would increase. It was obvious because within every single other square icon was a plus sign along with a number. The number shocked him quite a bit because it was very different compared to the amount that he would get. Not only was it different, but the amount was several times higher.

For uzi, the lowest leveled soul core could still provide ten points of experience, which was level twelve. Uzi's current level was twenty. That was a difference of seven levels. He only chose the lowest leveled soul core along with four other soul cores. The four soul cores were level thirteen, level thirteen, level thirteen, and level fourteen respectively. The five soul cores provide exactly enough experience points for Uzi to level up, which is why the four were chosen. With a single press on the [Fuse] option, Uzi gains a level (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up).

Even with the three unallocated points, he had not hurried to allocate them as of yet. He was not yet satisfied with uzi's current level. He wanted Uzi to become much stronger than this, so one level was yet to whet his appetite to let Uzi grow stronger. He wanted Uzi to be able to dominate the future upcoming battles. Only then would he be satisfied. So, he moved on to provide more experience for Uzi.

The next also cost another five soul cores. However, all of the soul cores were level fourteen (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up). The one later cost six soul cores. Two were level fourteen soul cores, while the other four were level fifteen soul cores (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up). This one was quite tricky because it only consumed five soul cores compared to the previous one. However, it was quite expensive with two-level fifteen soul cores, one level sixteen soul core, and two-level seventeen soul cores (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up). The last level for Uzi cost him one hobgoblin soul core at the level of twenty-four and the last remaining soul core was level eighteen (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up).

Uzi manages to gain five levels in a roll along with fifteen unallocated points for allocation. Likewise, by the time he realized what he had done. His inventory only had only three soul cores left. He never thought that the soul core that he had spent a lot of effort on getting would be gone just like this. He pocketed them quickly, but the soul cores left his pocket even quicker. However, he was not going to complain because Uzi was great with the additional five levels and fifteen unallocated points. Uzi's new status screen reads (after he allocates the points):

[Name: Uzi][Race: Direwolf (Grade 2)][Level: 20-25/40][Rank: 2][HP: 18/18-20/20] +2

[STR: 12(18) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][][][][][][] ] +1 +2

[MAG: 0(8) / [][][][][][][][] ] +0

[SKL: 5(18) / [1][2][3][4][5][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ] +2

[SPD: 24(24) / [...] ] +2 +10 R

[LCK: 1(20) / [1][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ] +1

[DEF: 10(16) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][][][][][][] ] +1 +3

[RES: 1(8) / [1][][][][][][][] ] +1

[Hidden: [CON: 11][MOV: 8][SKILL: [Innate Sharpness]][EXP: 0/100][WEA: Innate: C]]

[Wolf Claws (Strong): Might +6, Hit +55, Crit +5, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

[Wolf Fangs: Might +5, Hit +95, Crit +10, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

His first impression of Uzi's current form was great, but Uzi completely changed after he maxed out Uzi's speed stat. Uzi became much more slender than before and he could visually see that Uzi was toned and muscular, and Uzi's structured frame was elegant. Somehow, he felt that Uzi was pleasing to the eye now that Uzi had the same levels as Goon. Meanwhile, he also realized something. The appearance of a person also relates to their stats. He even found out that Goon's muscles were ridiculously much bigger than the leading hobgoblin that they had just encountered. Not really to the point of extremity, but Goon's hard muscles were a notch bigger.

He bit on hot hard bread while closing the inventory tab. Nothing is as good as something hot to warm the body from the night's coldness. Even with the fire from the campfire, he could still feel a cold chill within the shill of his worn-out leather boots. So, having some other heat source within his stomach proved to be a useful ordeal to fight against tonight's cold. He was exhausted, but he still had one last thing to do before going to sleep. He needs to do some maintenance to his bronze lance.

He attacks seven times and his durability decreases by seven points. He estimated that he could increase the durability by one or two points. He hopes that it increases by two points because that would mean a possible additional attack. He took out the bloodied bronze lance and started to clean it with a ragged towel. After removing the blood, it was time to check the damage to the bronze lance to see if there were any critical chips that he had missed. He did want to have additional durability after the maintenance.

He checked the pole and the blade. After some careful checking, it was only the blade part that was chipped, curved, and an almost unnoticeable slight twist from hitting and shattering some bones of the wolves. Otherwise, it was not that much of a deal to do some quick repairs with it. So, he took out the maintenance tools from his inventory. A few moments later, the blade part of the bronze lance was nicely fixed, except for all of the small scratches on the blade part. Once the blade was properly oiled, he put the bronze lance back into his inventory and finished up the hard bread along with a few strips of meat [Bronze Lance, Durability +2].

He used Dork's lying figure as a pillow. Tonight's stars are bright and beautiful. It was especially so because of the bright moon that was shown above. With the warmth of the fire, a warm and comfy pillow, and the chills of the night, he swept away his sweat. It was a pleasant and peaceful night. But, no matter how peaceful it was or how pleasant it is. He had his guard up and only dared to sleep, half sleeping and the other half with caution.

The morning was not as exciting as yesterday's battle. Now that he woke up, he still felt the drowsiness from staying up so late at night. He believes that he barely got a few hours of sleep because he was so busy cleaning up that the hours passed by so quickly. Likewise, this is just a consequence of not getting enough rest and sleep. His body was cold, a headache was brewing, his eyes stung a bit, and he did not feel quite awake as of yet.

He figures that Dork was quite smart and witty, so he gestures for Dork to get closer before showing the map to Dork. He did give Dork a few instructions and some sign language to show Dork. After that, he hopped on top of Dork and rode on top of Dork. Along the way, he felt that his head was the heaviest thing in the world. He would sometimes fall asleep before waking up as his body lurched forward. Sometimes, he even almost fell from Dork if he did not have enough reaction to quickly clear his head and reposition himself.

This continues for most of the morning. Before the time reaches an hour before noon, he fell into a deep sleep while hugging Dork's neck. He knew that Dork was a bit uncomfortable with this position, but he just could not hold on anymore. He needs some more sleep to cope with today's early morning. Once the time reached the afternoon with the sun hovering high above, he finally woke up after Dork was exhausted and laid the both of them down suddenly in the shade of a tree off the road.

His lips were dry and he could tell that Dork needed some water too. The smothering sun from above was evaporating the water content within their bodies. So, he quickly took out the canteen from yesterday and drank a few mouthfuls before giving Dork some as well. He was fully awake this time and that he might as well take the chance to turn the direwolves' and the wolves' meat into strips. Once they were in neat strips, it would be easier to roast them over a fire. After roasting them, he could get some juicy roasted meat instead of the dried strips of meat. However, he could also let them dry into his pile of dried meat strips.

Once the plan was set, he quickly turned the first wolf carcass into strips of raw meat. Each of the strips that he made was quite big for a first-timer and each strip was a pound. However, he eventually made the one-pound strip of raw meat into three smaller sections afterward. So, from the first wolf carcass, which was forty pounds of pure meat, he gained one hundred twenty strips of meat. It was quiet again. From just this, he could earn roughly twenty or so gold coins if he sold each batch of strips of meat separately.