The morning was damp with a slight fog rolling through the hills. The sky was a dull grey telling of a sunless day but at least it did not look like rain. I and Vivi met the dwarven guards at the gatehouse. I had not shifted back since last night in order to restore my mana as much as possible. There was still some flux left from our experimenting the day before but it would disperse before noon. My occasional scouting these last few nights had shown it was a nocturnal hunter mostly living off the fish swimming into its lake from up- or downstream. We hoped to surprise it in the middle of the day when it was resting.

The captain greeted us flanked by his vices. The 25 guards stood in a loose formation behind them. Three more dwarves in leather and packed with supplies and our vis interceptors in hand.

“Good morning, you two. You’re just on time.”

I hooted and Vivi meowed in response before I formed a connection. Vivi had kept her supersensory matrix at Safrah’s house. It was much easier for me to keep the connection up.

“Good morning”, I sent.

“Now, let’s get started. We got a long walk ahead of us.”

He turned around and called out to his men.

“Everyone! Move out!”

I had expected the dwarves to be more disciplined but they just walked out of the gate without getting into a closer formation. The five spearmen formed a half-circle at the front with the two vices guarding the archers and crossbowmen from the sides. Captain took up the rear, just behind the three carriers. The two of us joined at his side.

“Now, we got the basic plan down, for the fight that is. Fio takes the first strike with Vivi lying in wait to support her. Try to lure the Monstrosity out of the water so we can shoot it. Get out if you are in danger. That’s about it. All clear?”

We nodded.

“Good. For the walk, I’d like you, Fio, to fly up and scout ahead. Warn us when we’re getting close to the lake. We’ll set up a short distance away, where the beast can’t sense us. These three”, he indicated the dwarves carrying supplies, “are trained healers. They are carrying our potions, of which we have ten, traditional healing supplies like bandages, food and a few tents. We’ll have you show us how your… vis interceptor, was it?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, you’ll show us how it works once the camp is set up. Vivi, I’d appreciate if you can scout out the surroundings for any traces of danger for the medics. I want to bring all our combatants to the fight. They can hold off most beasts but not everything.”

The ocelot nodded as well.

“Good. That’s all, for now. Anything from you?”

I considered for a moment. I was almost sure just that single Attribute Point I had available would not change the fight, no matter if I put it in Intelligence or one of my speed Attributes. But this was the perfect opportunity to ask, right? Did I really want to talk about my Attributes? He had it figured out somewhat but… I had to give him more details if I wanted any meaningful advice. I turned my head and saw him looking directly at me. I felt a little challenged in my pride and returned the stare. A moment later he shifted his eyes to look slightly past me. I just barely found the confidence to ask.

“I’m not sure where I should invest my Attribute Points. Any tips?”

He turned his head to look forward and put a hand on his chin.

“Hmm. There’s a few things to consider. Mainly, you want to think about what you can do right now and what you want to do in the future. Then, you pave the way to make it as easy as possible. Generally, most people invest heavily into either force or speed Attributes. Race levels will keep the others somewhat competitive. Though, depending on your Class and your Skills, you might want to change that approach. For you, I’m pretty confident you have a lot in your will Attributes, right?”

I confirmed his question.

“[Assassin] is usually a speed-focused Class but you have your magical attack and movement Skill as well as those shadows so I can see why you would want to go for that. If mind serves me correctly, most magic focused Classers get three of their physical Attributes pulled up somewhat evenly by race levels. Is it the same for you?”

Again, I nodded. How much knowledge did he have? I guess he was the oldest dwarf and by that the oldest person I had met in this world but still. To figure all that out from just one question?

“So, you want to consider your Skills. What Attributes do they profit from? Are there any Attributes that would reduce their effectiveness? And is there a Skill that’s out of line? That means, is there a Skill that profits from entirely different Attributes than most of your others.”

He gave me a bit of time to think, which I appreciated. Out of all my Class Skills only [Surprise Attack] only profited off speed Attributes. [Winged Death] profited off nothing explicitly but I guessed it was improved by Intelligence and Wisdom. My race Skills also had one, namely [Soundless Flight], that only improved with Dexterity and Perception. Maybe…?

“Am I supposed to alter that kind of Skill with practice?”, I asked.

The dwarf widened his eyes. He glanced at me for a moment.

“How do you know about that? It’s one of the most difficult things to do. Are you level 75 already?”

I blinked.

“So level 75 lets you alter a Skill? Good to know.”

“Sort of. It gives the option if you have aptitude, that is, a sort of natural disposition towards a different form of a Skill. You really did it on your own? What… no, I won’t ask. And no, altering the Skill is usually not the best way to go about it. You should do that with one that’s not a total outlier. It is much more likely to be improved to something useful. On level 100, your Class will evolve. That’s the best time to replace an outlier since most people get a few new options more aligned with their new Class. If you really do have an outlier, you can justify not going for the Attributes benefiting it.”

Class Evolution? That sounded amazing! I had to get to level 100 soon.

“But… Those Attributes benefit other Skills as well. It’s just that the Attributes benefiting them don’t improve this one.”

The dwarf’s mouth turned into a frown.

“That’s… difficult. You might want to focus on what benefits most of your Skills, then. Especially if that is magic. Race levels only give physical Attributes, after all, so they’ll catch up.”

That was insightful. So I had not ruined my build, then? Wonderful.

“What happens if someone changes their Class?”

The dwarf looked at me, eyes hard and focused.

“Do not do that. Unless your Class actively hinders what you want to do, don’t. You will lose all your Skills and Attributes gained from it. Granted, it’s easier to learn those Class Skills as General Skills afterwards, but it’s still incredibly difficult. I also heard it’s incredibly painful to lose your Attributes and Skills, worse the higher level you are.”

I bobbed my head meekly. That sounded very scary.

“And when do you unlock the second Class?”, I asked.

The captain smirked.

“No idea. Some say it’s at level 100, others say it’s for accomplishing some special feat. I’ve never seen anyone with two Classes, but I’d assume most of the big cities’ Guardians and a lot of the clan-heads and powerhouses are there. I really don’t know, though. Only got level seven [Identify] after my Class Evolution, which was pretty recent.”

Huh. Interesting. It was quite a ways away then. Though I might catch up quickly if I travelled a lot and made interesting friends. That sounded extremely fun. A thought for later.

We had made good progress, is what I had hoped, but our conversation barely lasted half an hour. Enough time for me or Vivi to make it halfway to the lake but the dwarves lacked any predatory grace in their armour and equipment. They were slow. I thanked the captain for his insights and took off with the excuse of scouting. While in the air I mulled a bit more about all the new information. Level 75 would let me alter a Skill or maybe do other things. I was not entirely clear from what he had told me and even asking him once more through the connection did not help. Apparently altering a Skill was the default option everyone had but many people told of different things, some confirmed by multiple sources, others obscure enough to be dismissed as myth. What was confirmed, was a free Breakthrough for a Skill at level four. Not everyone could get it, mostly depending on how used they were to said Skill, but it looked promising to me. I had three Skills that could possibly benefit from it.

In the end, I came to the conclusion to keep going with my magic Attributes. Class Evolution seemed not too far away if I spent some time on grinding and would hopefully give me something like [Magical Assassin]. My free point went into Intelligence, bringing it up to 37 and evening out with Wisdom. I took a careful look at my status.

Species: Sgiathan Dorcha Owl (adult)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy, Beast Core (unique)

Level: 27

Class: [Assassin lvl 54], -

Strength: 22

Constitution: 16

Dexterity: 26

Perception: 26

Intelligence: 37

Wisdom: 37

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 5], [Preening lvl 4], [Owl Stomach lvl 5], [Soundless Flight lvl 4]

Offensive: [Solid Grip lvl 4], [Intimidating Screech lvl 4], [Owl’s Shadow lvl 6], [Aerial Combat lvl 4]

General:

[Maths lvl 4], [Hidden Identify lvl 5]

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 5], [Surprise Attack lvl 4], [Mingling lvl 4], [Eldritch Shift lvl 5], [Winged Death lvl 3]

My big hopes for this fight were [Winged Death] and a combination of [Surprise Attack] and [Owl’s Shadow] along with the distraction my allies could cause. That would hopefully let me profit from [Surprise Attack]’s bonus more than once.

The hike kept being boring until the dwarves finally closed in on the lake. I told Captain through the connection and guided him to a small clearing for the medics to set up. The sky had not lightened up at all and was in fact darkening even more. Maybe there would be rain, yet.

The camp was ready in minutes, the dwarves experts at their job and everyone helping where they were needed. We came together for a small briefing to remind everyone of the strategy. After that, I showed off the six vis interceptors, giving one to each of the spearmen. They were small enough to be fixed to the back of their shields with the mesh right next to their hand. They could just ‘catch’ the water, though I warned them to keep an eye on the jars. Once full, the interceptor would take a longer time to turn the caught vis into essence and push it out into the void. They also had to be careful of flux but the latch used to hold the interceptors could be loosened quickly to throw the device away if it got dangerous. The sixth interceptor went to Captain.

With that, we were ready. It was time to hunt.