The night was getting late.
Soran put the Elemental Stone close to himself then pulled up his stats and read through it.
He had accumulated 34,000 Slaughter EXP. That much Slaughter EXP was enough for him to continuously upgrade several Profession Levels, but now the question was whether to continue to upgrade the Wizard or upgrade his Rogue to prepare for an advanced profession. Wizards took time to memorize spells, but it had great potential for growth. Unfortunately, he would not have much time to memorize spells in the next few months. Rogues could advance in a straightforward manner after promoting to Assassins or Shadow Dancer; these were very powerful professions as well.
“Spellcasters really need a lot of time and money to succeed!”, he said.
Soran frowned and looked out of the window. He seemed to have heard something moving. It might be the village Elf patrol.
After midnight, it was better not to be outside. Because even if you’re just hanging out, no one would believe you’re just taking a stroll. The guards would often suspect you, and even assume you’re a thief or robber with bad intentions.
There was a cry of surprise.
But the sounds were not loud and disappeared soon after.
Soran looked out quietly and saw torches burning in the distance as if more than a dozen Elf guards had gathered near the shrine.
Each village had a small shrine with Priests serving the Elven deities. Most of the shrines were built in the cities. The Priests in the villages were Trainee Priests with a Profession Level of 5 or so, and their ability to use Devine Spells was limited.
Soran considered for a while and finally thought that it was best to level up his Rogue first.
Compared to the Wizard, he was more familiar with the Rogue, whether it was the way of fighting or when dealing with various situations. He was only confident about utilizing half of the Wizards powers after leveling it up. However, Soran was able to utilize a hundred and twenty percent of the Rogues powers after leveling it up. And the Rogue could even advance a second time if the conditions were right. It was even possible to make a third advancement.
There were many branches to the Rogue’s advancement. The [Godly Thief] had more stealing abilities. The [Swashbuckler] more fighting abilities and the [Bounty Hunter] had more tracking abilities. The [Assassin] with assassination abilities and the [Lurker] leaned toward more stealth abilities. Finally, the [Shadow Dancer] was the best at evasion.
In addition, there were semi-advanced professions which served the Deities, the [Ronin], [Blackguards], [Hunter], and so on. There were also the legendary professions of the second grade [Shadow Walker], [Darkmask], [Treasure Hunter], [Spellblade Assassin], and so on. The third advanced profession was very special as it belonged to the realm of gods, and the types were quite little. Among them, the most well-known was the [Shadowlord].
Secondary advancement could only be achieved if the advancement requirements were met. If successful, the original profession would be replaced.
Soran was once obsessed with becoming a [Lurker] then finally advancing to be a [Shadowlord]. Unfortunately, he failed in the end.
It was because he could not obtain the shard of divinity from the Shadow Lord.
At the Whiterun Ogre battle, the Stormlord was originally a Priest multiprofessioning in Barbarian. After which, she was able to advance to become the legendary profession [Stormlord].
According to Soran’s estimates, her Stormlord was probably around level 3.
If he had gotten the shard of divinity from the Shadow Lord, then his Level 5 [Lurker] would be replaced by the Level 5 [Shadow Walker], and eventually, he would become a Level 1 [Shadowlord].
There would be little change in the overall career level, but because of the profession advancement, one would acquire a great improvement in power!
If Soran remembered correctly, the Deity which he was most familiar with, the Shadow Lord, had professions that were, Level 10 Rogue/Level 10 Darkmask /Level 5 Shadowlord /5 Shadow Weaver. In addition, he had level 10 Shadow God, which was an ability of the Gods. Thus, his total Profession Level was 40.
In order to stand side by side with the gods. One must learn to exercise restraint and restrain the urge to learn random abilities.
Diversification would never better than focusing on one area.
…
Strictly speaking, Soran’s path to power was still in the direction of the [Shadowlord] because the profession [Shadowlord] required a high-level Rogue many attributes, skills, and abilities, while also requiring casting abilities.
In general, the higher the attributes a person had, the more advanced professions he could choose. Right now, even if he didn’t advance into the [Shadowcaster], he was at the required Spellcasting Level of the Shadowlord.
If he did not have the required Spellcasting Level, then the only method to advance into Shadowlord was to obtain a Shard of Divinity!
Soran sat at his desk thinking about his future advancement routes. He had to make this decision carefully because if he chose the wrong path, then he would need to take many detours which would lead to him ultimately failing to achieve his goals. If his personality wasn’t great and could not acquire a Shard of Divinity, the results would be nothing more than a half-assed legendary profession. The Saints would be able to kill him with one hand.
At first, he dared to fight pure legendary Wizards because he was also a pure Rogue of the legendary class.
After maxing out an ability, the result was only the sensation of power!
“Advancing into Assassin required a mastery level of more than 200 in Alchemy, and toxicology must reach the max level. Following that, I would advance into the second advancement of the Assassin which was the Spellblade Assassin. Since I am already able to cast level 3 spells, I probably only need to go into higher spellcasting levels to become a Spellblade Assassin. If I could go to the orc’s territory and learn the spell-like ability Mirror Image in the future, then my combat effectiveness would undoubtedly be much stronger than in the past.”
Soran took out a piece of paper and began to write dense symbols and words on it. These were the Professional Levels he had remembered in the past and the abilities he could train and master. Advanced professions were very proficient in one aspect. If Rogues could do everything well, whether stealing, fighting or stealing, then the more advanced professions would focus on one aspect of their abilities.
That is to say, he could specialize in one direction.
Soran wrote a lot of words on the paper, maybe tens of thousands of character and numbers. By the time he finished listing all kinds of memorized materials, it was almost dawn.
“From Assassin to Spellblade Assassin, yes…I still need three abilities, all of which are difficult to train.”
Soran looked at the capability data on the paper and drew several lines. Connecting the Spellblade Assassin’s abilities to the Wizard’s level, then finally adding the Shadowlord professions advancement conditions. Soran frowned and said, “Twelve specialties are still missing. Five free attribute points, more than 500 profession skill points and one Shard of Divinity.”
Soran sighed and then said to himself, “Sure enough, there were not enough innate attributes that were gifted. With my present talents, I would not be able to advance in a short time.”
After compiling a list of data, Soran took out another piece of paper again and began to calculate the ability bonus of the Shadow Dancer.
All advanced professions had some gifted abilities, and the ultimate goal of these abilities was to stack up in order to achieve the requirements needed to advance into a legendary profession.
The Dragon Disciple, for example, made it so that if the person did not have Sorcerer abilities, then he would never be able to advance.
It was not until daybreak that Soran completed the advancement route of the Shadow Dancer. He looked at the dense numbers and characters and murmured, “The Shadow Dancer could advance into the Shadow Walker. By then, I would have met the requirements in Sneak, Evasion, and Grasp of Shadows. Basically, no extra time is needed to train these abilities, but there seem to be two or three missing abilities.
“Then the advancement into the Shadowlord…still too large of a gap!”
Soran knocked hard on his forehead to drive the complicated calculations out of his head. Then went to the window and took a deep breath.
No matter how he advanced, he just couldn’t reach the basic requirement of the Shadowlord: 450 in Sneak, 300 in Evasion, 300 in Literacy, 150 in Scout, 150 in Search. 150 in Spellcraft, Shadow Jump [Legendary], Shadow Realm [Legendary], 30 Dexterity, 25 Wisdom and so on.
“It’s useless.”
Soran gathered up the paper on the table and murmured, “It’s no use. Even if I rely on the progressive stacking of abilities, there’s still such a big gap.”
The second profession advancement was to a legendary profession.
Shadowlords belonged to the third advancement, and its powers were comparable to the level of gods. No matter how hard he racked his brain to recall, he could not find a possible method of advancing as soon as possible.
Most of his abilities required him to spend a long time training and mastering them, which may last for decades!
“Without the Shard of Divinity, or being a Son of god, I just don’t have the base stats and talents!”
Soran sighed and tore the paper to pieces. Then with a little fire on his fingertips, he turned all the statistical information into ashes. He sat down again. Picking up the pen and stroking a few strokes, linking many complex symbolic words together. He said to himself, “If I can’t advance into a Shadowlord, then I can only look at what’s in front of me.”
Assassin.
Shadow Dancer.
Bounty Hunter.
Soran drew three symbols on paper, then listed the symbols of Fighter, Ranger, Wizard, Sorcerer, Priests, and so on. He thought for a long time with his eyes closed, trying to deduce in his mind all the profession abilities that he could remember. The feeling was somewhat like that of a scientist deducing engineering methods in their minds, or tactical sandbox simulation. He slowed down after a long while then opened his eyes and said, “It seems like the Shadow Dancer has the strongest coping capabilities. No matter which profession it came across, they would not have obvious shortcomings.”
“So?”
“Should I become a Shadow Dancer? Then think of ways to advance into Shadow Walker?”
“Time of Troubles!”
“Damn it! How is it possible for mere mortals without any talent to confront those saints who came down from the Heavens? No one is throwing their lives to kill them now, but how many would die when they really fought? If only I had the talents of a Sorcerer. First, I would become a Dragon Disciple, and then I would find the Deck of Destiny to switch profession to Fatespinner. Then no matter what gods I met in the future; I would not be helpless at all! ”
There was an insurmountable gap between gods and mortals.
Throughout the night, Soran calculated the only advanced profession he knew could use to confront the gods head-on, the [Shadowlord]. However, no matter how hard he tried to think, he could not reach the basic requirements necessary for advancement.
The Dragon had appeared.
Legendary professions were also appearing one after another. It won’t be long before the Son of gods and Demigods also showed up. No one knew the amount of pressure in Soran’s heart.
Running away was only a temporary solution.
Even if he fled to the Frost Kingdom with Vivian, sooner or later he would have to face these high and mighty Deities.
He was also worried about the fact that Vivian could be a child of a Deity!
…
Tang, Tang, Tang.
There was a gentle knock on the door when it was morning, a very low knock too. Soran opened the door and saw little Vivian. She was holding a large tray with porridge and snacks because she was too small it was difficult for her to hold it steady. But as soon as Soran opened the door, she immediately raised her little head, laughed, and said, “Big brother. I’ve brought you breakfast.”
Soran reached for the tray, picked up little Vivian and gave her a well-earned kiss on her tender cheek.
At that moment, he was prepared for the worse outcome. If there was really no other way to be strong soon enough, he was ready to give up his life and become a [Shadow Lich]!
