~Cobb POV~
I checked how my older brother was faring at the opening I created. He seemed tired and was having slight trouble moving around because of all the blue guts covering him and the doorway. I raised a thick wall of sand and pushed back all the Qrabiles nearest to the door. They were pushed back thirty or so meters before I lost control of the sand and no more force was applied. I harshly ran sound over JST's scales and scraped the dried blood and drying guts off of him all the while making sure I avoided his open wounds. That being done I turned my focus onto my class choices.
"Thanks bro!" He called back. The Qrabiles were already closing in. Unfortunately I forgot that Qrabiles make for good charges luckily JST wasn't a stranger to impact. He braced himself as he covered the doorway with his tower shield. The same old process repeated itself.
Hmmmm. The choices were very interesting and it seems like each has their own set of advantages. Some of these classes like the Druid even unlock a whole new stat. The Geomancer has something called a Class Effect attached to it as well and apparently skills have Upper Tiers? From the looks of it each class has an average of an additional four levels worth of stat gain each level, twenty stat points each. However from what I can deduce each class is as balanced as possible so while the Geomancer has a Class Effect the Hunter gains more stats per level. As I wondered what appealed to me I read how each Class was chosen and suggested, it was amazingly accurate. My tendencies and actions were spot on and the choice appealed to different parts of me as well. Off the bat I crossed out the Hunter since I wasn't planning on hunting monsters or seeking glory I only planned to be at the top. Next I marked off Enchanter and while it did appeal to the paranoid, strategizer in me I also felt that it might limit my potential to the amount of items I wear. In addition it wasn't really what I wanted to play. Next I marked off the Druid, I loved nature and animals don't get me wrong but relying on them? No thanks. That amount of trust I gave only to my brothers and myself. I also didn't plan on taking orders from any God or Goddess in this world or mine, even if it was for the greater good. I wasn't looking for justice I was trying to have fun. Then I took a moment to admire the Species Cataloguer it was such a unique class and many games probably didn't have enough depth to even consider creating a class like this. The note was correct, I was very good at analyzing behavior and my skills probably did give me quite the advantage in the field. Still it wasn't what I was looking for I wanted magic, fun, unique magic. And between the Geomancer and the Animator the Animator was the clear winner. Though the Geomancer seemed a very strong class, unlocked only because of my advanced earth manipulation, it was too straightforward. I would get bored of it very easily. Now the Animator seemed underrated given the bonuses from the other classes but it had the highest potential skill cap. I don't think I'd ever get bored with this Class. The note was right, it was the most in line with my playstyle and I honestly believed I would have the most fun time playing it. I chose it.
The deed is done.
That makes sense something needs to regulate how much I can control at one time, I'll have to figure out the formula as I go. The fact that my constructs can have intelligence and personality is pretty cool too but could that lead to insubordination?
At some point in this game someone could raise an Undead Dragon? Are you fucking kidding me?
Before I tried my new flashy skill I confirmed that I still heard gooey squelching coming from my right and then checked my status.
My Wisdom got a huge boost from the class bonuses applying to every level after 15 and because of that my mana regeneration was moderately high. In total I gained 140 Wisdom after the class bonus applied. My mana which was rising from around 250 points started to rise significantly faster. I dumped the rest of my points into Enliven and brought it up to 110. It looked like my Squad Points relfected my Enliven stat. I recalled that kill Jennifur's friends bumped us up to around level 18 from level 7. After killing Jennifur we raised our levels by 4 and then after around 2 hours of nonstop Qrabile experience we managed to level up to level 23. From what I could tell our leveling had started to plateau after 15. Right after most people would've got their classes. It made sense in a way after level 15 more bonuses applied to you after each level AND since even getting to level 10 was a chore it made sense that experience needed to level up increased exponentially. Even high level monsters that were levels ahead of us brought us up by 4 levels. In addition it only came as easy as it did for us because we chose the Challenge Start, without that the grind might've been more difficult and we would have had competition in the form of other players. In short I didn't expect the levels to come easy at all after 20.
It was time to try out Animate. First I conjured up a clone of JST, lifesize. I gave him a tower shield and a warhammer. I didn't know how this would work so I worked in a pattern of scales. I completely copied how JST looked minus the man parts, I didn't want those flopping around. I didn't know what else to add but I wanted to have fun so I gave him a fancy tophat and colored it green. It was light brown copy of my tan older brother. I looked him up, I decided that instead of keeping him naked I would just dress him up in a fancy tuxedo and slacks. I colored his sand clothes emerald green to match his hat and looked at him a final time. He was the height of my brother, with the same face yet less defined. His scales were clearly visible but disappeared under his light green tuxedo. He had a green bowtie and a green tophat as well. I stood staring at him, he was still lifeless when I realized I had no idea how to use Animate. I had to achieve insights on life right? What did I want this construct for? I wanted him to fight and help JST and to do that he had to know how to use his weapons. In my head I pictured myself running through the forms and then sparring JST, from there I played JST and Jones sparring matches in my mind and focused on JST's combos and Jones evasion. With that done I looked at my construct. Somehow, maybe the system prompted the feeling, maybe I had another insight, maybe it was magic, but I knew I had to name him.
"Greenhat." I breathed. Gentle wisps of magic swirled slowly out of my mouth and into him.
He blinked.
