Level Up!

by RisuUmbra

Chapter 35: Professions

Chapter 35: Professions
Marcus PoV:

I’ve always hated the feeling of waking up with a limb asleep, the pins and needles would catapult me out of whatever pleasant warm haze that remained after a good night's sleep. My right forehoof was pinned underneath something and the dreaded feeling was slowly crawling up my shoulder. Waking up isn’t usually so difficult for me, I really wanted to go back to sleep. I’m incredibly comfortable right now and my own hoof is betraying me right now. I let out a sigh from my dry mouth and almost inhaled a feather making me sputter to full wakefulness. I was still laying next to David but at some point Calcifer had migrated from the couch to my face. Using a bit of magic to nudge Calcifer’s wings out of my face and see what was crushing my hoof, at some point during the nap David had rolled over and had pinched my leg behind him.

Sliding myself free and shaking my hoof to bring back some feeling into it I glanced over to a nearby window I saw that it was still bright outside. Mentally chiding myself for forgetting that the sun won’t move until moments before its night. I really need to get a watch at some point, well… I do have one way to tell the time.

Time Until Reward Chosen: 9:12

Around 2 hours, that nap felt way longer but at least we didn’t waste the rest of the day. I suppressed a groan at the thought of continuing the rest of my explanation. I let Calcifer’s sound asleep body slide down a bit into a more comfortable position and looked over at the others. David was still deep asleep and still looked exhausted, whatever that spinning lightning move was it totally drained him. Morgana was actually smiling slightly in her sleep and was snuggling up to one of David’s wings, the sight brought a smile to my face. I relaxed back on the couch and really thought about what we have to do next. We had been making great time on getting to Mt. Canter but we can’t keep getting waylaid by things like this or else we won't make it in time. I shook the thoughts from my head, that's pretty far into the future so I wont drive myself mad thinking about it now.

Presently we only have a few things that we need to get to, first things first I need to go over our new [Professions] that was opened upon reaching level 10. Opening my menu showed me the new page was just below social skills labeled [Profession Skills] it was currently grayed out though. I mentally tapped on the flashing prompt saying [New Professions Available!]

Congratulations!

Upon reaching Lv: 10 the user gains access to the Professions system which grants various crafting abilities that correspond to your chosen profession. A good example would be a player with the [Carver] profession gaining wood based crafting skills like [Whittling]. Of course there are other uses for professions than just crafting, some professions can even have combat augmentations and other helpful abilities!

Available Professions:

Scholar [Poor]

Elementalist [Unique]

Pyrokinetic [Unique]

Enchanter [Rare]

Teacher [Good]

Witch [Pick this one please!]

Sigilist [Rare]

Cultist [Good]

The list was much more extensive than I was expecting, the scholar one I was kinda expecting due to my college background but the others were pretty odd. Elementalist and Pyrokinetic made some kind of sense but I was expecting some choices that had more to do with crafting, maybe these have something to do with my bond with Calcifer and fire. Enchanter was kind of expected with how much I flung around my imbuements, I internally chuckled at how I used that skill. I definitely don’t use that skill like I’m supposed to. I skipped looking at Teacher and moved on to Witch when I saw the modified grade next to it. I think my Goddess has something to say about my chosen profession. I let out a sigh and picked Witch for my profession, as much as I didn’t like being robbed of choice she hadn’t steered me wrong yet and I'm still going to stick to my promise of getting stronger.

Witch: A deep delver of esoteric arts and secrets that others would shy away from. Someone who communes with creatures beyond comprehension and creates objects of power through various sorcery.

By Choosing Witch as Profession the user will gain the following skills:

Crafting Skills:

Fledgeling Enchant: The ability to place a long lasting magical effect onto an object at the cost of the user's mana or a corresponding component. The intensity of the enchantment depends on the durability of the targeted object and the amount of needed components and their quality

Higher skill level will offset the needed durability of targets and lower needed components

Can be used in conjunction with other skills for higher output

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: Unavailable

Cauldron Crafting: Gives the ability to craft various objects ranging from potions to magical artifacts. The only limit is your imagination and you ingredients

Requirements: Cauldron

Known Recipes: Annealed Flask, Lesser Healing Tincture

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: Unavailable

Magical Skills:

Commune: Let’s the user speak with the esoteric forces that surrounds them

Mana Draw: Low

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Bind: Gives the user the ability to bind spirits to the physical plane for a chance to bargain or commune

Mana Draw: Medium

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Banish: Gives the user the ability to send unwanted spirits or summoned creatures away to the immaterial plane

Mana Draw: High

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Further skills can be unlocked at higher Profession Levels

I was able to look at the list of skills for all of ten second before the strain of so many skills being shoved into my brain knocked me back unconscious.

---

I was only out for a few minutes before Calcifer was able to wake me back up, the sudden strain felt through our bond must have woke him up. A pulse of concern came over the bond along with a questioning tone, I rubbed Calcifer’s feathery frill and told him I was alright. I had a small ache behind my eyes but it was fading fast, I pulled the menu back up and looked back over my new skills and the implications behind them. Isn’t Witch the female version of Warlock, are they two different things?

The [Enchant] skill is something I'm glad to finally get, I've been using my [Imbue] skill like a bastardized version of it essentially so it's nice to have the actual skill now and not have to worry about anything I make exploding… I just remembered that I imbued Lucky Harvest’s spear. I should properly enchant her spear the next time I see her. Calcifer fluffed his feather to get comfortable again at my side and reminded me that traveling would be easier now that we could fly. I felt a massive burst of excitement in my chest at that thought, I can fly! I am going to have so much fun later, Calcifer squawked a laugh at my excitement and I smoothly ignored him.

What I was mostly excited about was the [Cauldron Crafting] skill, the ability to make potions and various artifacts was priceless. The lesser Health tincture is exactly what we needed, Morgana doesn’t have infinite mana and there will be times where we would need to heal other ponies. There were only really three ingredients in the potion, one of them being water and the other being raw magic. The last ingredient is something that’s high in protein or nutrients, I had to distill down everything until it was just its base components. It was incredibly unscientific and mostly magic, all of it would be concentrated down into a swallow or two of red sludge. Though that does remind me that I need a cauldron and multiple different types of magic… I’m suddenly glad I saved up all those skill points. Whatever elements or types of magic I can’t develop on my own I can buy with the points, I felt David stir next to me.

“That… was the best nap… I have ever had” Surprisingly it was Morgana’s groggy voice I heard first, I watched her rise from the couch and stretch like a cat. The sound of her spine popping made me want to stretch too. David followed her example and fanned out his wings and seemed to forget that i’m still sitting next to him and slapped me in the face with them. It didn’t hurt, they really were soft and smelled heavily of ozone. Mumbling an apology David rolled off of the couch and started blearily looking around.

“Do you two want to finish our talk or… ?” My question kinda awkwardly fell apart but they still understood me. David had to take a second to remember what I was talking about but he seemed to understand in the end. I watched Morgana’s mood droop for a moment before shaking her head and slapping a smile back on her face before speaking.

“As much as I want to hear everything, we still need to get ready to continue on. Let’s use the rest of the day to stock up on whatever stuff we need and then we’ll continue this talk later… Are you guys okay with that?” Morgana’s question caught me off guard, I was expecting her to want to hear everything. If she’s okay with waiting then I am too, I shared a glance with David and said he agreed with a grin and a nod.

“Well, if we're all in agreement then I guess I only have one thing to tell you two about. I looked into the whole [Professions] thing we got when we hit level ten and from what I understand it’s basically crafting classes to an extent. There are some combat related ones but I really think the reason behind them is to get us to specialize in something” I watched both Morgana and David get Screen Gaze as I spoke, most likely getting their own professions like I did.

“Quick warning though, the amount of skills your profession might give you might make you pass out” Both of them flinched simultaneously before closing their menus and climbing back up onto the sofa with me. Calcifer and I made no effort to hide our chuckles/squawks, I hopped off of the sofa and trotted over to the window. The townsponies have almost returned to their normal lives, there were still a few damaged buildings here and there but they were being repaired swiftly by Keeper’s ponies. I hope the shops are even open, so I started to make a mental list of everything we might need.

We’re only about two day out from Mt.Canter so we won’t need to buy much in the way of provisions, add to the fact that we still have some food left over from the journey here. We need to get David a new sword and I need a cauldron, there might be a sword David can use in Ozzy’s hoard back at the manor. Can cauldrons be made small? I felt a sting of dread at the thought of lugging around a full sized iron cauldron… hmm, maybe I won't have too. I wouldn’t even have considered this in the past but now that I'm stronger and have much more mana… maybe I could use [Space Magic]? I still doubt that I'm strong enough to teleport anywhere but maybe I can use it to shrink the cauldron. As much as I am debating this, it doesn’t really matter in the end. I’ll need to be able to use every type and element of magic so eventually I will be getting [Space Magic].

“That was unpleasant… but kinda worth it” David’s strained voice pulled me out of my mind and brought my attention back to him and Morgana. The two looked like they were suffering from a particularly nasty headache, I could tell Morgana was debating using a healing spell to get rid of it.

“Did you choose a Profession you like?” David slid back off the sofa and reached for our bag, rummaging around a moment before pulling out one of the water canteens and taking a deep swig. Morgana finally gave into the temptation and with a quick flash of her hearty mana her headache was gone and she was all smiles again, her smile took on a softer tone as she spoke to me.

“ I actually chose one called [Life Saver], it lets me craft these powder things that stabilize anyone that’s dying. They don’t really heal but they’ll stop others from… slipping away before we can help them” I felt a warm smile grow on my face at the sentiment behind Morgana’s words, she looked… better. Instead of dwelling on the past she’s trying to make sure it won't happen again, I'm proud of her. With a refreshed sigh of relief David finished up his water and trotted back over to us while speaking.

“ So my Profession needs a bit of explaining, I think it’s linked to both the weather and how much I tinker with the clouds but it’s called [Aspiro Artificer] which is like tinkering with the weather and what it does, which at first I was completely on board with until I saw the first few skills it gave me… yeah it definitely leans more in the Artificer side than the weather side. The first recipe it gave me is a bomb… a straight up cloud bomb. I don’t know how I feel about it but I think it’ll be fun” … What?

Author's Note:

[At least were moving on now, it feels like we've been stuck here for months]

Bit of a dry chapter, apologies

Comments

[Mix-up]

Fun chapter, it really looks like Marcus is gearing up to become a evil cult leader with all the summoning related stuff he picked, I wonder hos his goddess will use that to her advantage. Nice to see that David is having a more defined weather skills, I wonder if my Sona helped him in sharing and develop a new weather tricks?

[Teraunce]

Well these have been some more fun chapters.

[Alyarin9000]

11304997
Well, his goddess hasn't shown herself to be evil... Yet. We'll see, I guess.

They probably should have talked with each other before picking their professions, since they know they'll be in a party :P Oh well, it's realistic for that to slip their minds.

Morgana's ability to stabilize could be useful, I guess, depending on how it's applied. Perhaps it'll be easier to apply in a hurry than a healing potion on an unconscious body...