Chapter 111: Resolution and Deduction!
The night grew deeper.
Soren carefully stored the elemental crystal stone and then checked his displayed data.
The killing experience he accumulated had already exceeded thirty-four thousand points, enough to continuously elevate several profession levels. However, the question before him was whether to continue raising his Wizard level or to upgrade his Thief level to prepare for an advanced profession. The Wizard level required time to memorize spells, but the potential for growth was significant. He estimated he wouldn’t have much time to memorize spells in the coming half month. If he upgraded Thief, he could directly advance, and Assassins and Shadows were also considered very powerful professions.
“Indeed, Wizards are all built with time and money!”
Frowning, Soren glanced out the window; he seemed to hear some rustling sounds, possibly from the village’s Elf patrol team. After midnight, it’s best not to be active outside, because even if you’re just wandering, others won’t believe you’re merely strolling. They might suspect you and even consider you a thief.
Faint gasps of surprise could be heard!
However, the commotion wasn’t very loud and soon disappeared after a while.
Soren quietly peeked outside and saw a torch flickering in the distance. It looked like over a dozen Elf guards had gathered near the temple. Every village had a small temple, housing priests who served the God of Elves. The temples were mostly built within cities, and the priests in the villages were usually apprentice priests around profession level 5, with limited divine techniques available to them.
After thinking for a moment, Soren decided to upgrade his Thief level first.
Compared to Wizards, he was more familiar with the Wanderer. Regardless of combat style or handling various situations, he could only unleash about half the effectiveness of his Wizard level, whereas upgrading Thief would allow him to fully tap into his potential. Additionally, Wanderers could undergo a second advancement when conditions were right and possibly even a third extreme advancement.
This naturally leads to discussing the advancement of Thieves.
The branches of advancement for Wanderers were numerous. The advancement leaning towards stealing ability is called “Master Thief,” the one focused on combat ability is “Wandering Swordsman,” the one focused on tracking ability is “Bounty Hunter,” the one focused on assassination ability is “Assassin,” and the one focused on stealth ability is “Stealth Assassin.” The advancement leaning towards evasion ability is “Shadow.”
There are also semi-advanced professions serving deities like “Ronin,” “Dark Guardian,” “Necromancer Hunter,” among others, as well as legendary professions for second advancements like “Shadow Walker,” “Night Facade,” “Treasure Hunter,” “Magic Shadow Assassin,” etc. Third advancement professions are very special and belong to the realm of deities, with very few types represented, notably “Lord of Shadows.”
The second advancement depends solely on whether the conditions can be met; if successful, the original advanced profession will be replaced.
Soren had once wanted to advance from “Stealth Assassin” to “Lord of Shadows,” but unfortunately, it completely failed!
He couldn’t acquire the divine shard of the Lord of Shadows.
During the Wilderness Ogre battle in White Horse City, that Lord of Storms was a priest part-time Barbarian, who simultaneously advanced to the legendary profession “Lord of Storms.”
According to Soren’s estimation, her Lord of Storms profession level was at most level 3.
If he had acquired the divine shard of the Lord of Shadows, his level 5 “Stealth Assassin” would have been replaced with level 5 “Shadow Walker,” ultimately advancing to level 1 “Lord of Shadows.”
In terms of overall profession level, there wouldn’t be much change, but the advancement would grant a significant boost in abilities!
If Soren remembered correctly, the deity he was most familiar with was indeed the Lord of Shadows. His profession levels were ‘Level 10 Wanderer/Level 10 Night Facade/Level 5 Lord of Shadows/Level 5 Shadow Weaver,’ in addition to the divinity-bestowed ‘Level 10 God of Shadows,’ totaling a profession level of 40.
To stand in the same realm as the gods, one must learn self-restraint, controlling the desire to acquire abilities recklessly.
Scattered focus can never compare to concentrating on one domain!
Strictly speaking, Soren’s route to power was still progressing towards “Lord of Shadows,” as it required high levels as a Wanderer and also spellcasting ability. Advancing has many requirements for attributes, skills, and specialties; generally, the higher the specialty attributes, the more advanced professions one can choose. Even if he doesn’t change his profession to “Shadow Wizard,” he can still reach the spellcasting level needed to advance to Lord of Shadows.
If he lacked spellcasting levels, the only way to advance would be—divinity!
Soren sat at the table, contemplating his future path of advancement. This was a significant decision because picking the wrong option would lead him down many wrong paths, ultimately preventing him from achieving his goals and unable to integrate his abilities. It would merely result in a jack-of-all-trades, with each skill only mediocre. If fortune did not favor him and he couldn’t acquire divinity, the final outcome would be becoming a half-baked legendary professionist, easily extinguished by saints. Back then, he dared to fight against pure-bred legendary wizards only because he was a pure-bred Wanderer of legendary rank.
Enhancing a specific ability to its limit ultimately touches the powers of the laws!
“If I upgrade to Assassin, I need to master over 200 points in Alchemy, and Poison Studies must be maxed out. Then to undergo the second advancement to turn Assassin into Magic Shadow Assassin. I can already release third-ring spells and will likely become a Magic Shadow Assassin upon reaching a higher tier. If I can even access the Orc’s territory, I could learn spell-like abilities such as Mirror Image, which would significantly boost my combat power compared to before.”
Soren pulled out a piece of paper and began writing dense symbols and characters on it, which represented his past memorized profession levels and the specialty skills he could train. Advanced professions highlight one particular aspect; if Thieves cover multiple areas well in stealing, combat, and stealth, then other advanced professions focus their abilities on one area.
That is to specialize in a particular direction.
Soren wrote a lot on the paper, estimating there were thousands of words and symbols. By the time he completed listing his various memory data, it was already close to dawn.
“Advancing from Assassin to Magic Shadow Assassin. Hmm… I still need three specialties, all of which are quite challenging to train.”
Soren looked at the ability data on the table, then drew a few lines connecting the abilities of Magic Shadow Assassin to Wizard levels. Finally, he noted the conditions to advance to Lord of Shadows with a frown, saying, “I still need twelve more specialties, five points in free attributes, over five hundred skill points, and a divine shard.”
Sigh.
Soren sighed and spoke to himself, “Indeed, it’s still the innate attributes that aren’t enough. Lacking the genius traits of a hero template, it’s impossible to advance in a short time with just my current talents.”
After finishing one set of data, Soren pulled out another sheet and began calculating the ability enhancements of the Shadow.
Advanced professions all possess some innate abilities; the ultimate purpose of these abilities is to stack up to reach the conditions for advancing to certain legendary professions.
Just like Dragonblood Sorcerers; if you lack the Sorcerer’s abilities, you can never advance.
It wasn’t until dawn that Soren completed the advancement deduction of the Shadow. He glanced at the densely packed symbols and murmured, “Shadows can advance to Shadow Walker; in Stealth, Evasion, and Shadow mastery, I’m good enough. Essentially, I don’t need to spend additional time training abilities, but it seems I’m still lacking two or three specialties.”
“And then, advancing to Lord of Shadows… the gap is still quite large!……”
Soren smacked his forehead hard, clearing his complicated calculations from his mind, then walked to the window and took a deep breath.
No matter how he advanced, he couldn’t reach the most basic conditions required by the Lord of Shadows: 450 points in Stealth skill, 300 points in Evasion skill, 300 points in Knowledge (Planar), 150 points in Spotting skill, 150 points in Search skill, 150 points in Spell Recognition, the Lord of Shadows’ “Innate Talent,” “Shadow Travel” (Legendary), “Inter-planar Teleportation” (Shadow), “Shadow Plane” (Legendary), 30 points in Agility, 25 points in Perception, and so forth.
“Useless.”
Soren gathered the papers on the table, murmuring, “No matter how I rely on advancement stacking, it’s still far from enough.”
The second advancement is the legendary profession.
The Lord of Shadows belongs to the third advancement. Its power is on par with that of deities. No matter how tortuous he wracked his brain, he couldn’t find an immediate way to advance.
Most of the ability specialties require long hours of training to master, a process that could take years or even decades!
“Without divinity, unless I am also a Son of God, my attributes simply can’t reach the threshold!”
Soren sighed, tearing the papers into shreds. Then, sparks flared from his fingertips, and soon all the statistical data turned to ashes. He sat back down, grabbed a pen, made a few strokes, connecting many complex symbols and words together, and murmured, “If I can’t advance to Lord of Shadows, I’ll have to focus on what’s in front of me.”
Assassin.
Shadow.
Bounty Hunter.
Soren drew three symbols on the paper and then listed the symbols for Warrior, Ranger, Wizard, Sorcerer, Priest, etc. He closed his eyes and pondered for a long time, attempting to deduce based on the combat abilities he remembered from each profession. This feeling was somewhat akin to a scientist running engineering simulations in his mind or a tactical simulation on a battlefield, and after a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and said, “It seems Shadow has the strongest adaptability; no matter what enemy profession, there will be no apparent weaknesses.”
“So?”
“Should I advance to Shadow? And then find a way to transition to Shadow Walker?”
“Years of turmoil!”
“d*mn it! How could mortals possibly confront the gods and saints descending to the mortal realm without absolute talent! No one’s willing to sacrifice their lives against them; with so many deities, what a hassle that would be! If only I had the talent of a Sorcerer, I could have advanced to Dragonblood Sorcerer first, then found the Fate Card to transition to Fate Sorcerer. In the future, no matter which gods I encounter, it won’t be without a fighting chance!”
Between gods and mortals lies an unbridgeable chasm.
Soren calculated for an entire night; the only advanced profession that he knew could stand against the gods directly was “Lord of Shadows,” but no matter how deeply he wracked his brain, he couldn’t meet the basic conditions to advance.
The giant dragons had started to appear.
Legendary professionists were emerging one after another, and soon enough, Sons of God and demigods would also show up. The pressure he felt was unknown to anyone.
Avoidance can only be temporary.
Even if he ran away with Vivian to the Frozen Kingdom, sooner or later, he would have to face those lofty gods.
Not to mention, Vivian could potentially be the Demon Son of Fear!
…
Knock knock knock.
Gentle knocking could be heard in the morning light, low and soft. When Soren opened the door, he unsurprisingly found little Vivian, who held a large tray with both hands, laden with porridge and snacks. She struggled to carry it due to her small stature, but the moment Soren opened the door, she immediately tilted her little head up with a grin, saying, “Brother, I brought you breakfast!”
Soren reached out to take the tray and lifted little Vivian up, giving her a hearty kiss on her tender cheek.
At that moment.
He made the worst decision in his heart; if there truly was no other way, he would give up his life to transition into— “Shadow Lich”!!! (To be continued ~^~)
