Tom had just entered the challenge trial almost bubbling in excitement.
This trial mattered, as it was his first non-common trial since he reached Existentia. Monster trials were the weakest type and had the lowest bonuses. Then you had scenario, crafting, challenge, class, trait and unique trials. A challenge trial was considered tier four versus Monster’s tier one status and had subsequently a significant improvement in benefits.
He knew how lucky they had got with the personality of the trial being helpful. Now he needed to make the most of that, so he remembered everything from the DEUS tutorial and all the lessons he had learned.
This was not a game of badgering the personality to extract everything he could. Knowledge improved the chance to maximise an activity, but good relationships could create unique opportunities. It was a Dux saying. Being the best in a competition that rewarded two credits to the winner was not comparable to getting into a contest where even the losers received a hundred.
He needed to remember that.
“Hello.”
Welcome Challenger.
“Call me Tom. How would you like to be addressed?”
There was a tiny hint of hesitation.
Which ever way pleases you.
“No, preference. Rose, Susie, Beatrice?”
I’ve always fancied the name Susie.
This was good Tom decided.
The personality was talkative. He wasn’t going to need to extract information with a pair of pliers. If it had been the type to resort to answering only yes and no, then it would rapidly become an exercise in frustration to squeeze out everything he needed. This was just a trial AI and not DUX. Presumably it could only answer literally and couldn’t adjust to intent like Dux had been able to. He would have to be careful with his phrasing.
When dealing with the unknown, it was always prudent to be polite. “Well, Susie, it is a pleasure to meet you. Is it okay if I ask a few questions?”
Please do Tom.
“Is it possible to increase the buy-in?”
Yes.
“Great. Do you think it is a good idea?”
That’s really hard to answer as it depends on your personal aims.
Tom laughed. “I guess that was an unfair question. Tell me what happens if I raise buy-in amount first with experience and then with other items?”
Experience is diminishing returns over 4,096, reducing to half value per experience at 8,192 and to zero at 16,384.
“I see multiples of two?”
Always.
“And is the change mostly linear?”
Mostly.
“And you know how it says I can use artefacts or mana objects. Are they in separate pools to experience costs?”
If you spend 16,384, then any sacrifice of artefacts will not increase the rewards of the trial. They are all in the same pool.
“I guess it makes sense. Is there a different way to enhance rewards?”
Sacrificing skills, spells, class skill points and titles are in a different pool. Amount sacrificed is limited by the rank 64 overlay.
Tom froze at that volunteered information. Then he remembered the personality was helpful. He had been ready to throw himself into the trial with an eight thousand buy in having assumed that everything was in the one pool. Then again, that was not what Susie had said, so he was thankful he had asked the extra question.
His mind thought furiously. Tiles and traits benefit was obvious. But how did it work with Skills and Spells? “What do I get if I sacrifice Spark?”
Spark is a purchased skill. You will get back the relevant experience and it will be automatically assigned to the same pool as experience or artefact sacrifice.
“But I have a skill of 66 in it?”
That is inherited proficiency from lightning ball. If you wish to sacrifice skill levels in lightning ball, you will get a significant upgrade.
“Not doing that.”
I think that is a good choice.
Tom examined his list of spells and skills. There was nothing he particularly wanted to lose, but maybe a title. Healing sponge only gave him a thirty percent boost to people healing him, but that would not be used very often and trial dominator (II) was something that he could probably afford to lose. +8 to all attributes in a GOD’s trial in a couple of months would not move the needle.
“If I sacrifice titles do I give up associated ranking points?”
No.
“Should I sacrifice my healing sponge and trial dominator?”
There was a pause.
I can’t really answer that accurately. What I can confirm is that you are very likely to get something back of a higher value.
“Wait. Why do you sound so confident?”
I believe you have the title Speedstar (IX) that makes you 280% faster within a GOD’s trail. Challenge trials are time based. If you perform average, you get that average score multiplied by three times because of the speed bonus.
“You’re telling me that the challenge does not adjust its difficulties for titles.”
For Titles or Traits. The difficulty is only adjusted for current rank and the level of all Spells and Skills.
Again, Tom was briefly surprised at the extra information. That helpful personality trait was working overtime. It was paying off in spades.
He took a moment to absorb this advice and then marshal his thoughts.
Titles and traits that rewarded benefits on class up would contribute nothing to the trial run. What matters were those with an active effect that could benefit him in combat.
Tom reviewed the key ones mentally Trial Dominator (II) - Would give him a passive benefit in any combat part of the challenge. Healing Sponge (III) - If he was taking damage. It would boost his healing slightly and if he was trying to evolve Touch Heal, then it was a thirty percent improvement in his capability. Speedstar (IX) - Would be valuable in virtually all scenarios. Venom Resistance (V). This one, like healing was situational. If he tried to develop a venom resistance, then this title would almost guarantee that his overall performance rank would be improved. If they had appeared in a jungle or swamp instead of glass land and rocky foothills, then his decision would be different, but in a mountain he doubted that improving his ability to survive, poisons, venoms or toxins would help him. Friends of Elementals enhanced his elemental summoning abilities, which would be useful in a combat trial given he was almost certain to be summoning at least one elemental and there were probably options to bias the trial to a scenario he wanted. That was definitely something to look into.
“Can this trial be used to boost class skills?”
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Unfortunately not.
Tom frowned at that, but it was the answer he was expecting. If it had answered yes, he would have definitely looked at boosting his elemental summoner class with his traits and trials that would get a tremendous boost. Lightning Mystic, his next title improved both elemental summoning and direct lightning damage. There was something to be said for pushing hard down a path that relied on him summoning elementals. He would be almost guaranteed to outperform by a lot, and that meant he could sacrifice more safely.
Finally, Tom examined his active traits to see if any of them would give him something extra. His soul storage would help in lots of small ways and Child of Elements, which was a straight damage increase, providing he was using an elemental spell or summons.
Tom considered all that. If he was going to min max, then there were three obvious ways to go.
The first was to create a skill advancement that required the use of summoning elementals and getting them to destroy things. That would take advantage of a powerful title and trait and if he biased it towards lightning, then it would benefit from two potent titles and a trait. If he added all the advantages up, he would be almost tripling his power.
The next option was to develop his magic directly. The problem with elementals was that if he was surprised they were rarely useful because of the time to summon them. It was only twenty seconds if he rushed, but that was too long for a combat situation. Furthermore, it used so much of his mana pool that rushing an elemental at the start of the fight would limit his usefulness for the rest of the contest. Being able to fight head on was better.
That logic implied he should focus on developing lightning further where he had a hundred percent improvement damage or use the opportunity to develop another direct elemental power, such as dark or earth to match his outstanding affinities between them. The extra diversity of a different elemental would offset the loss of the lightning title and the help it will give him in the coming performance.
The last path was his initial intention to evolve his healing.
Mentally, he assessed the three options. It basically boiled down to the more specialised he got the larger bonuses he would get from his titles and traits while adding versatility would get him a lower benefit.
“Time for decisions Tom.” He muttered to himself. “Evolving healing is out.” While he wanted to heal others, it was not his job and if he was sacrificing two titles, he did not want all that massive potential to get directed into a side skill.
A focus on summoning also felt wrong. It had the greatest long-term benefit because of the extra trait and title support within the challenge, but it also did the least to expand his repertoire.
Despite everything, he didn’t have sufficient information about this yet.
A thought occurred to him and he initially dismissed the idea, but the response of the personality had been surprisingly insightful. “Can you read my mind?”
Yes.
“Have you been following my internal reasoning?”
Yes.
Once upon a time he would find that creepy, but years of asking Dux questions and living with Pinkwing had taught him about the lack of privacy that he had in his own head.
“Which one should I do?”
I can’t answer that.
“Is there anything that you can say that might help?”
Lightning Mystic and Child of Elements are likely to increase your final result by a quarter of a tier each. Speedstar (IX) depending on the scenario will push you forward half to one tier.
“I assume Friends of the Elementals is a quarter of tier as well?”
Yes.
Tom thought about that. The speedster title would improve his performance by a tier. That meant that instead of getting a Very Good rating he would be rewarded an Outstanding one. Countering that the two other titles that he was considering specialising to maximise his outcome would only shift him half a rank. If he was a low Very Good, naturally prioritising a scenario that used those titles might not even push him up to Outstanding. To put it simply while they provided a benefit they weren’t that material.
“Well, that makes the decision easier?”
To exclude an elemental base, yes.
“Susie, stop reading my mind.”
Sorry.
What? embarrassment flashed through him. He had forgotten for a moment what he was dealing with. “No, I’m sorry. That was supposed to be a joke. You’re doing great. If I’m sacrificing two titles and spending eight thousand experience, what are the expected rewards by performance levels?”
If you were going to choose a new element of magic, which one would it be?
Tom thought back to the trial. There was a reason he had chosen the Child of Elements trait. His worst element affinity had been moderate, and he had three outstanding affinities. They were exceptional base states and a contrast to the non-elemental magic lines. In those fields, he had an above average rating on the subclass of healing in the life magic school and was well below that in all the others like arcane, blood, summoning, tree growth and all the mental disciplines he was basically terrible at.
“It will be one of my outstanding affinities.” He told Susie.
For a new element, you will receive the following by tier of performance.
Terrible 1 tier 0 spell 1 tier 1 spell Spell skill rating of 8 A Rare title
Poor 2 spells between tier 0 and tier 2 Spell skill rating of 16 1 Epic title 1 or more lower-level Titles
Skill rating was the level of skill he would receive at tier 0. He skimmed over average, good, very good and outstanding levels as they showed similar steady improvement in skill and focused on the true upgrades.
Exceptional 1 or more spells of each tier up to 4 Spell skill rating of 128 to 256 Earth Affinity Increased 1 Legendary title 2 Epic or above titles
Perfect 1 or more spells of each tier up to 5 Spell skill rating of +256 Earth Affinity Increased Significantly 1 Mythical or Unique title 1 Legendary title 1 or more additional titles of lower tiers
Anything giving spell skill levels above 128 was extraordinary not to mention what a legendary title might give him. He doubted he could get a perfect score for the challenge, but if he did, he would get a mythical title and spell skill level of 256. He knew how valuable the 128 threshold had been for Spark. He couldn’t imagine what the next benefit was. He could pay experience to find out, but he wasn’t going to do that.
Before making his mind about sacrificing his titles, he needed more information. “Are these trials calibrated around the Good or the Very Good performance levels?” He asked, figuring one of the middle levels would represent the expected outcome.
The average result is between the two tiers, but closer to Good than Very Good.
Tom immediately checked the return for the higher category, assuming that he was better than most people.
Very Good 1 spell of each tier up to 4 Skill rating of 64 to 128 Earth Affinity Increased Slightly 1 Legendary titles 1 or more titles of a lower rarity
He was sacrificing two epic titles to, on average, gain a legendary title. Everyone would take that trade. This was a onetime opportunity. The exchange was only so favourable because this was his first challenge Trial.
Tom reviewed his advantages. If he took Earth, Dark or lightning magic, then he had the experience of the DEUS’s tutorial to draw upon. In those forty years, he had utilised all three element types extensively. The challenge trial was going to gift him a spell and then force him to use it effectively to progress to later stages. For the initial stages, it was likely Tom would already have significant mastery over it, providing a massive advantage. Then he had his various titles that collectively should propel him up a full results tier. Finally, he had the benefit of fate.
If the average person got between Good and Very Good, then he would expect to at least achieve an Outstanding performance level. Add in the titles and it was quite possible that the Exceptional was achievable.
“I assume the above was for earth or dark?” Tom guessed, as the rewards had not talked about any improvement in existing skills or titles.
Yes.
“And if I focus on lightning?”
It’s similar to the earlier details, with the exception that Lightning Mystic may be upgraded instead of a new title rewarded.
As for spells, you’ll get fewer as Spark and Lightning ball are likely to be upgraded rather than receiving a new spell. If this happens, skill levels will be added to what you have already earned.
“That last bit is better? Isn’t it?”
Generally, if you are improving a specific school of magic upgrading the levels of existing spell is superior to getting a new spell.
Tom thought about what was happening.
He was definitely going to sacrifice the two titles that did not suit him. There were still a few questions unanswered. One, whether lightning or a new element was the better choice. He could see the argument for both, but promoting Spark’s skill level up to the three hundred level sort of had some romantic appeal to him.
Then again, gaining either earth or dark would give him different avenues to fight the coming battles. Being able to adjust his approach to the enemy would allow him to get the most out of the lessons he had learnt in the DEUS tutorial.
The last question was whether he should sacrifice more titles for this endeavour.