42 – You’re Doing It All Wrong

Three Iron makes a Bronze. Four Bronze makes a Silver. Five Silver makes a Gold.

But unlocking the next rank isn’t just a matter of leveling.

Excerpt from Perk Selection Preparation Textbook For Pre-Class Teenagers, Standard Issue by The Architects of Humanity.

Alexandra looked at Louis’ books stacked on the table. There weren’t many. Four. No, five, the last one was more of a pamphlet. Two of them wore the Warden’s eye insignia. It was curious, she thought, that she could read their titles.

Summoning shenanigans.

“Alex, are you listening?” Louis asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I got it. I’m shit. Happy?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“You said I was using my class art all wrong!”

Louis sighed. “Which is perfectly normal and expected for a teenager who just received their class.”

“I’m no teenager.” She pouted.

“But you did just receive your class. Alex, I’m trying to help you. Think about your streak.”

She looked at him. “Go on.”

“Remember how you told me you got skills through daily quests? Look at your status. Do you think those skills are good?”

Alexandra frowned, and summoned her journal. She flipped it open to the second page.

Name: Alexandra Ward

Class: Heroine of Quests

Rank: Iron

Level: 2 (70/100)

Strength (STR): 15

Dexterity (DEX): 14

Constitution (CON): 15

Intelligence (INT): 16

Perception (PER): 17

Class Art:

• [Quest Journal] – A living record bound to its bearer. Generates daily quests tailored to the surrounding environment. Completing quests yields experience, rewards, and contributes to an ongoing Streak. The longer the Streak, the greater the bounty.

Class Perks:

• [Event Quests] (Iron)

General Skills:

• [Inflict Weakness] (Uncommon) – 6

• [Sickle Mastery] (Common) – 7

• [Dark Bolt] (Uncommon) – 3

• [A Face Among Many] (Common) – 1

• [Life Curse] (Uncommon) – 2

Achievements: Defiance II, Diligent Quester

She bit her upper lip. Inflict Weakness, Dark Bolt, and Life Curse came from her old Warlock class. She still hadn’t figured out why that was the case. Nevertheless, that left her with Sickle Mastery and A Face Among Many as the skills she’d acquired through her class art.

So few…

But she’d unlocked many more skill quests. She flipped the page of her journal.

Active Skill Quests:

• Running

• Diving

• Summon Lesser Fiend

• Basic Herbology

• Drain Life

• Cleaning

• Swimming

“Fuck, you’re right. They’re all useless.”

Well, not quite useless. But aside from Running, she didn’t see a practical use for those skills. Of course, Summon Lesser Fiend and Drain Life had to be powerful, but considering their skill quest required dealing with demons…

And they didn’t come from her class.

“Am I really wasting my class’ potential?”

Louis raised his hands. “From what you’re telling me, yes. But it’s hardly an issue. You’ve only been here for what? Two weeks?”

“Twelve days.”

“Twelve days. That’s nothing. We should start by figuring out how to make you stronger. Then we can worry about your long-term quests.” He paused. “Both the Yshant and Merinus are Gold rank. Fighting a Gold rank as an Iron is suicide.”

Alexandra smiled. “But it would yield a pretty good achievement.”

Louis stared at her. “A difference of three ranks isn’t so easy to cross. There’s more to ranks than an evolved perk.”

“I wouldn’t know.” She shrugged.

“Right. You wouldn’t. It’s quite simple. At level 4, you will get your third Iron rank perk. Then, on top of the experience requirement, you will be asked to complete a rank quest to reach level five. When you succeed, your perk selection will include both new Iron perks and the option to upgrade one of your existing perks to Bronze.”

“And the process repeats for Silver?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Yes, but you’ll need four Bronze perks. Then five Silver to reach Gold,” he said. “But as I said, it’s not just about the perks. Ranking up is an Achievement.”

“You mean…” Alexandra scratched her chin, and turned back to the second page of her journal to see her status. “Iron rank didn’t give me one.”

“You also didn’t have to complete a rank quest to go from Unranked to Iron.”

Alexandra could see the issue. If rank achievements scaled like Defiance, she could imagine that a Gold’s attributes would be way higher than hers, on top of better skills and perks.

“Dark Bolt is strong. I can deal with the downsides.”

“Can you?” Louis asked. “But that’s beside the point. This Dark Bolt of yours is only an uncommon skill. It just can’t be as powerful as you describe. Most likely, it’s highly effective against verdant beasts. I wouldn’t be surprised if the effects on non-plant beings were a lot milder. Not to say it’s weak, but… you know.”

Alexandra pulled up the skill description.

Dark Bolt – 3:

Sacrifice lifeforce to cast a needle of dark magic that corrupts the lifeforce of its target.
Each level increases the power behind the needle.

It was hard for her to say.

She locked eyes with Louis. “I can accept some delay to improve our chances. But we’re on a timer. Maybe not for Merinus, but someone will deal with the Yshant sooner or later. Also, I’d rather not meet more priests than I have to. They can sense me.”

“The Hands?”