Pillar of Yita

Many people would choose Mirroring Techniques, a skill that allows a Combat Artisan to copy the control commands for one Flexible Construct to another, letting them control multiple Flexible Constructs with the ’CPU’ usage it takes to control a single one.

Of course, there is some loss in the edge algorithms, so this technique is not without its flaws. The more Flexible Constructs being controlled, the greater the meaningless chaotic loss, and generally, exceeding three would be counterproductive.

Moreover, this skill often applies only to similar types of Flexible Constructs.

Both of these skills are what’s known as Ether Knowledge, which is the knowledge specific to certain schools that other schools generally wouldn’t choose. The term ’big’ often refers to node skills—because they are relatively profound, they usually require consuming more experience to learn and master.

Fang Hong chose the latter according to his own thoughts:

Mirroring Command [Skill/Technique/Alchemy/Level E]: ’Consciousness extends from the soul, and now you extend it even further—’, allowing the secondary target’s computational load to drop to 0, with a maximum control limit of 3.

For each additional target beyond the main one, the operation precision drops by an extra 10% (second target 90%, the third target 80%), and each additional target beyond the second target increases the computational load by 60% (third target 60%, the fourth target 120%).

Skill Learning Requirements: Intelligence Rating F+ or higher

Skill Prerequisites: Ether Knowledge D level or above, Medium Flexible Construct Basic Theory E level or above

Fang Hong raised this skill to only E level, because without the appropriate auxiliary plugins in the early stages, using Mirroring Command to control more than three Flexible Constructs was not worth the loss, even if the abilities of a school skill above level D could not make up for the wasted experience.

After all, node skills require experience consumption that is at least three times that of regular skills. For instance, Mirroring Command, if learned to level D, would need over a hundred thousand experience points, but in reality, he had already spent around forty to fifty thousand just to raise it to level E.

Adding to that the experience consumed in learning its prerequisite skill, Medium Flexible Construct Basic Theory, the two hundred and twenty thousand experience points he obtained from the Dolifen Copy were almost a third spent.

Of course, the Orides School didn’t just have these important Ether theories; although theory is fundamental, there are also many smaller sub-skills that revolve around this theory.

But Fang Hong didn’t blindly choose these minor skills at the start—this is a mistake many inexperienced newcomers make, selecting a school direction too early to begin building their skills around theory.

While this is not inherently bad, experienced veterans would say that it is a choice that can waste quite a bit of time.

Because the formation of a combat style and factions is not something that happens overnight, and newcomers generally have less experience. Instead of building an incomplete faction, it’s better to spend that effort on something that can more significantly enhance combat capabilities.

And the higher one’s combat capabilities, the better an Invoker can handle more challenging adventures, thus achieving faster growth.

However, for Free Summoners, the problem is that no one will tell you what choices best fit your current situation, the choices that would enhance your combat abilities the fastest; those are closely guarded secrets between the Grand Guilds.

Solitary summoners only can research the most suitable path for themselves through the information circulated in the community, akin to clearing a path through a thicket of thorns while risking the chance of choosing the wrong way.

But Fang Hong appeared quite confident, having mulled over these options countless times. After acquiring the core node from the Orides School, he turned his attention to the Supreme Choice School—

While the host of Orides School skills that decrease ’CPU’ usage and increase computational efficiency is useful, they clash somewhat with Miss Tata, the Fairy Master’s abilities.

Even if he had such high computational power, he didn’t have the funds to assemble a large army of Constructs right away, and even if he spent everything to pull it off, his Magic Guided Reactor wouldn’t have the terrifying magic power reserves to support an army’s consumption.

It would be better to wait until he’s a higher level and met the prerequisites for another key node skill from the Orides School, ’Energy Management’, before considering this direction further.

So the best way to enhance his combat capabilities now was to choose one from the Supreme Choice School and the Immortal Knight School. But even choosing skills for a temporary boost in combat capabilities should not be done haphazardly. The current choice should align with the future path so as not to waste experience.

In Eteliria, when it comes to choosing a path, everyone has only one chance. Therefore, everyone is sufficiently cautious and critically examines their decisions, making them as perfect as possible.

The abilities of the Immortal Knight School aren’t too bad at this stage, where the enhanced Fearless One and Shield Bearer branches can greatly improve a Combat Artisan’s combat power before Level 15.

Unfortunately, they somewhat clash with the path Fang Hong would choose later on, and he did not want to pick a skill that was useful now but would be shelved later, even if the experience was easy to come by; it wasn’t to be wasted like that.

Moreover, this experience was earned at the risk of one’s life—

Therefore, the Supreme Choice School was the only option, though holding multiple jobs might seem like a waste of experience, it wasn’t so for a Combat Artisan. A proper multiclassing was actually necessary for all Combat Artisans; not to mention some Warrior and Ranger skills and techniques in the early stages could effectively enhance a Combat Artisan’s own survival capability.

Even in the later stages, techniques like Strength Enhancement and Swift Burst could be applied to plugins of Flexible Constructs, after all, some high-rank Warrior and Agility-focused Constructs possess plenty of Warrior and Ranger skills, which wouldn’t be usable without the relevant knowledge.

In fact, most Combat Artisans would have more or less experience with Warriors and Rangers, or Nightingales. It’s just that they differ from the Supreme Choice School in whether they view this experience as an aid to control Flexible Constructs or as an aid to their own scholarly pursuits in those related professions.

Fang Hong was naturally not a fan of the Supreme Choice branch, but he had his own opinions; with Miss Tata, the abilities of a Fairy Knight were akin to saving him a vast amount of experience from the main Orides School.

Most of the abilities of the Orides School related to reducing ’CPU’ consumption, which in fact, overlapped with Miss Fairy’s abilities.

And Miss Tata’s abilities came without side effects, which was important to know as many of the Orides School’s knowledge and skills, like ’F2A’ techniques, were very powerful but also came with significant negative effects.

With this in mind, he could focus on learning only the most crucial node skills and passing skills, while ignoring the unnecessary branches and computational power enhancements.

The experience saved could then be entirely shifted towards the Supreme Choice School, or even spread across both schools.

The advantages of leaning towards another school were clear, among which effectively enhancing a Combat Artisan’s own weak survival capability was undoubtedly the most direct benefit.

Moreover, with the groundwork laid by the Orides School, he could completely avoid the perilous paths taken by the ’Seniors’ on the Supreme Choice path and strike out on his own.

So when entering the Supreme Choice branch, Fang Hong simply contemplated a bit and then discarded some of the initial strategies he had in mind, opting for what would seem to the Supreme Choice as an odd skill:

Reinforced Control Gloves [Skill/Knowledge/Alchemy/Level D]: ’Most Combat Artisan’s Control Gloves are their most cautious and carefully protected core device, but not you. You will use it to hit people—’ Permits Combat Artisans to use Reinforced Artisan’s Gloves, which are considered a type of close-combat Magic Guided Conductor, with the following attributes:

Reinforced Control Gloves (Magic Guided Conductor, Gauntlet/Shield, Equipment Level: D)

Basic Attributes: Attack 29–42

Block Value: +120

Plugin Addition: —

Weight: +60%

Interface/Output Occupation: Common with Control Gloves

Requirement Level: —, Combat Artisan exclusive, Reinforced Control Gloves Level D

Skill Learning Requirements: Intelligence Rating F+ Level, Strength Rating F Level

Skill Prerequisite: Magic Guided Basic Theory Level D, Ether Knowledge Level D, Enhanced Component Knowledge Level D

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