The Strongest Spellblade

“Now before we get you settled into your room for the welcoming ceremony in three days from now and the start of your classes, we need to review your course selection,” she said and picked up my status sheets. Her eyes went wide as she looked them over.

Level: 1 Experience: BLOCKED

Healing: 420/420 Stamina: 430/430 Mana: 250/250

Class: Tier 0, Child(Blue)

Effect: Increased Skill Acquisition(+10%), Increased Learning Speed(+10%), Increased Stat Gain(+10%), Increased Physical Gain(+10%), Increased Mental Gain(+10%)

Vitality: 42 (+1)

Endurance: 43 (+1)

Strength: 33 ()

Agility: 40 (+1)

Perception: 31 (+1)

Mind: 92 (+3)

Magic: 25 (+1)

Focus: 43 (+1)

Free Points: 0

Tier 1(26)(10+): Light Armor(100), Eldarin Etiquette(75), Shield Skills(75), Spear Skills(71), Drawing Skills(70), Pulse Strike(67), Bow Skills(52), Pugilist Skills(50), Combat Tactics(50), Cleaning Skills(50), Monster Processing Skills(46), Driving(39+39), Dancing Skills(38), Axe Skills(34), Dwarven Language(30+13), Dagger Skills(29), Stealth(25), Deflection(25), Throw(25), Sweet Tooth(25+6), Cooking Skills(22), Wrestling Skills(21), Medium Armor(20), Speech(17), Dwarven Etiquette(15+7), Dwarven History(13+6)

Tier 2(44)(2+): Mana Sense(100), Danger Sense(100), Focused Breathing(80+8), System Sense(74+4), Soul Sense(60), Focused Toughness(60+5), Darkness Vision(56+11), Algebra(49+5), Focused Running(44+8), Focused Meditation(43+3), Geometry(42+2), Trap Detection(40), Focused Sword Skills(37), Shadow Vision(34+1), Speed Reading(26+6), Critical Thinking(24+4), Mana Vision(23+3), Focused Dodge(22+2), Monster Analysis(20), Depth Sense(20), Focused Rage(12), Eldarin Lore(8)

Tier 3(54)(1+): Empowered Will(99+16), Soul Resistance(89+4), Fear Resistance(60), Poison Resistance(56+14), Healing Resistance(54+6), Eldarin Runes(40), Fire Resistance(27+7), Lightning Resistance(26+6), Empowered Writing(20), Cold Resistance(20+3), Mana Manipulation(18+6), Soul Strike(17), Arcane Resistance(16+6), Skill Control(16+7), Physical Resistance(10+2), Alchemy(5), System Control(4+2), Social Resistance(3)

Tier 4(4): Pain Immunity(3+1)

Tier 6(-): Experience Siphon(C)

Equipment

Gloves: Gloves of Processing(T2) (Blocks Mana T2 and Below)

Boots: Armored Boots(T1) (Basic Equipment)

Head: Armored Helmet(T1) (Basic Equipment)

Body: Light Armor(T1) (Basic Equipment)

Ring1: Ring of Concealment(T3) (Hide Status T3 and Below)

Ring2: Ring of Remote Awareness(T3) (Allows for remote viewing from companion ring)

Amulet/Bracelet: Experience Blocker(T4) (Prevents all experience gain for primary level)

Weapon1: Beginner’s Blade(T2) (Sharpness-T2, Durability-T3, Self-Repair-T2)

Equipment1: Runic Writing Set(T3) (Write Runes T3 and Below)

“I…that is incredibly impressive,” Melody said after a solid five minutes of looking over everything.

“Thank you. I have my mother and the excellent tutors she had provided to help me along. Also, quite a bit of hard work and suffering,” I said.

“We normally discourage resistance skills in younger students. But this is incredibly impressive. You weren’t joking about your skill levels in relation to your age.”

“Didn’t you check with your own skills?” I asked.

“Just a couple key skills like Meditation, Eldarin Language, and Mana Sense. I sensed you had mastered them, which is confirmed by your status sheet.”

“There is no skill to check all of someone’s skills?” I asked.

“There is, but most staff members don’t have such a skill. Using the Orb of Truth is most effective with spot checks on specific skills. Someone will confirm the top 10 students personally and those around the elimination threshold to ensure the integrity of the College. But checking over 10,000 students each year, that would exhaust anyone,” she replied and I nodded at this. She pulled out a sheet of her own listing off the main courses.

“Give me a moment, while I mark down which skills you have already completed,” she said. I was quiet while she took three minutes to mark everything down.

“You are more like a fourth year student. That is both good and bad. Good, since you will get off to a strong start, but earning skill levels on easier skills isn’t possible,” she explained.

“That is not a concern. I am here to advance my skills as quickly as possible.” That was all I could do to reach the number one spot. Worrying too much, just like checking my status constantly would be counterproductive.

“A good mindset to have. There is a lot of research supporting checking one’s status only occasionally, rather than constantly. The three month mark was determined as the most ideal. Stuff like that you will find in the rulebook I gave you. While not a rule, it will help you on the path to success,” she explained something I already knew, which was fine.

Stolen story; please report.

“You would be acceptable in multiple disciplines except for Alchemy and Crafting. Rune, Combat, and eventually Spell would work well as existing disciplines to focus on during your time at the College,” she explained.

“I thought I just needed to pick skills?” I asked.

“You do. But disciplines are where people want to focus their efforts. Core are for general skills like Mathematics and Meditation. Everyone is expected to get all Core skills. But outside of those, most students are encouraged to focus on a specific discipline with the goal being to progress heavily with skills in regards in that discipline, rather than scattering their focus,” she explained.

“After looking at the times, this was the initial plan, I came up with,” I explained and pulled out another sheet of paper which Melody took.

“Five courses, you are pushing yourself. Speech, Dwarven Language, Etiquette, History, and Monster Processing,” she said while looking it over.

“Yes, do you think it is good?” I asked.

“A good initial selection and you already have some levels. The biggest concern is Speech which you might not be able to master in six months. All skills are trained in six month increments. Students are expected to achieve mastery.”

“But the levels gained per month per course are just the average,” I said and she nodded.

“They are, but don’t expect to go beyond that rate unless you put in a lot of outside study, which isn’t as effective as the classes themselves. Most students are a level or two higher than the leveling rate, with long trail. It isn’t a bell curve, if you understand?”

“I understand. Most students are clustered near the top, with several low performers bringing the down the average,” I replied and she nodded.

“Exactly. That is why the average is a good guideline. I also suggest you find an additional course to take in the evening as well from those that aren’t in the main course book,” she said.

“I thought five was quite a bit? If I max out all five of those skills, that would be 379 skill levels,” I replied.

“That would put you near the bottom of the top 10 students in your year. A very strong achievement, but the competition is insane and you won’t be able to register for new main classes until the end of the six month period. I sense you want to be at the top,” Melody said.

“And you get some kind of reward as well?” I asked.

“Of course. Us advisors are ranked based on the performance of the students we advise. As a full-time advisor with the best student, I need to help you reach your full potential. The competition here is cutthroat. Looking at your skills, I suggest you join ancillary classes for Focused Running, Focused Meditation, Algebra, and Geometry,” Melody suggested.

“Why those four?” I asked.

“Meditation and running skills take a long time to increase in level, especially at bottlenecks or breakthrough points. Since The Mathemancer is the Dean, we are encouraged to suggest math skills. While they might not seem immediately useful, being able to calculate quickly is very useful in a range of situations,” she explained.

“What about Mana Manipulation?” I asked.

“It is clear you want to build up your foundation more in the first couple of years. For your main classes, you will focus on tier 1 skills to get them before they no longer count. As for training outside the classes, core skills are always a good choice and there are always ancillary classes for core skills,” she explained.

“What is the difference between an ancillary class and the main class?” I asked.

“Ancillary classes have Assistant Professors and are once a week. Often used to slowly work on a skill outside your main class hours. There is a lot of self study, but the environment and equipment is top notch.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to focus only on the main classes?” I asked.

“Maybe, but I would rather push you in the first couple of months to see how you handle the pressure. If you do well these first three months, we can increase the pressure. The teaching methods of the College of Advancement are quite different than you are probably used to. There is far less individual instruction. You get the textbook and the equipment you need in the classroom. Tests are given when you reach a bottleneck to help you break through for more mental skills,” Melody explained.

“Why not start from the maximum?” I asked.

“There are guidelines. And I am already pushing to the edge of them based on your status sheets you have given me. The goal for your first two years is to get all the tier 1 skills maximized that you can while working on key tier 2 skills. If you can master the dwarven skills in six months, then the elven skills can be done next semester, with the remaining languages and history and languages completed at the start of your second year. The second semester of your second year can combat focused skills,” she explained.

“I was thinking something similar,” I replied and she nodded.

“Don’t think too far ahead. That is a good way to kill your motivation and focus. Working through the tier 1 skills in the first two years are more than enough. Going for a Rune Mastery with all supporting runic skills isn’t easy. Years three and four, will focus on tier 2 skills. Hopefully the ancillary classes will have allowed you to reach mastery in several of those skills beforehand. That way you can easily transition to tier 3 skills as quickly as possible.”

“The spell skills,” I said with a grin.

“Yes. That is one of the major reasons people come to the College of Advancement. The challenge is that the higher the tier of class, the more time it takes up during the day. You will be able to fit less of them in. And you are also focusing on runes. That is why we strongly recommend against focusing on multiple disciplines,” Melody explained.

“Too many skills,” I said and she nodded.

“Don’t worry. My job is to help you focus and achieve your goals. Your success is my success. Our goal is to clear as many tier 1 skills off your status as possible while working on more difficult tier 2 skills. While it will make you spoiled for choice when figuring out tier 3 skills, I suspect you will want to focus on spell skills while you are here at the College instead of runes,” she said.

“Maybe. I know I need to learn both, but I really want to learn spell skills,” I replied.

“We are famous for teaching spell skills here at the College. And if you graduate as a full graduate from year 7, the College will always have its doors open for you. Many students choose to stay with the goal of becoming Professors. But you can also continue your studies with our latest methods,” she explained and I nodded at this.