Chapter 121 - Leveraged Strength

~~AN~~

Extra Chapter!

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While all of the classes sounded powerful, there were two that were lesser compared to the rest. Both Blizzard of the Frost Giant and Chilling Death of Helheim came with downsides that I wasn't comfortable with.

That wasn't to say I would never be comfortable with them, only that wasn't the direction I wanted to go right now. That may change down the line as I experienced new things and my worldview expanded, but right now, it wasn't something I wanted.

That left the decision between the other two. Captain of the Boreads and Hammer of the Jotnar. Both were warrior classes that gave good stats.

A heavy focus on Strength with a secondary emphasis on Fortitude and Endurance. Captain of the Boreads had a focus on Intelligence that the other didn't have. Probably to give the commanding skills some strength if I had to guess.

Where Hammer of the Jotun was a pure warrior stat spread, Captain of the Boreads diversified a little bit in other stats. One had commanding and magic skills while the other focused wholly on weapon and armor skills.

I needed to decide the direction I wanted to go.

Usually, I had ignored the leader-type classes before but I wouldn't be able to keep doing that forever. When I built my city, there would be guards and warriors who would fight for the city that would need a leader.

My fighting style didn't really account for other people though. I was more of a solo fighter than a leader during battle. It would be a fundamental change to the way I fought, but it seemed like the sensible option when one owned a city.

Unless I appointed someone else as Guard Captain. Like a certain Earthen warrior I knew who would be perfect for it.

The question boiled down to what kind of skills did I need to fight on a higher level. The class I chose would give me 6 skills and I needed those to be able to boost my power set further than the other class would.

For being a supposed warrior I didn't have a lot of weapon and armor skills. I had a lot of skills that affected the environment, but not many that were typically associated with melee fighters.

The only big ones I got back from my first class. When I first chose Warrior and got [Power Strike], [Penetrating Strike], and [Fortified Body] which have since turned into [Mighty Blow], [Pervading Cold], and [Reinforced Body].

I used those skills every fight, damn near constantly at that.

Champion of Niflheim gave a good set of skills that were stat-boosting. [Frozen Fortitude], [Momentum of the Avalanche], and [Glacial Presence] boosted my stats by a large margin while fighting.

It also came with an armor skill that has kept me alive.

I had prioritized skills that would help me deal with a large number of enemies rather than one strong one. I wasn't sure how well my skill set would hold up against one strong monster rather than the waves we were used to.

A monster that [Permafrost] and the cold couldn't hinder. Strong enough that any ice I threw at it shattered rather than cut and one my hammer couldn't smash.

I had to plan for the future when we were back on Earth. My biggest worry and threat I thought we would face was one higher-tiered monster that we wouldn't be able to handle.

We were experienced in fighting waves of lesser-strength monsters and I knew we could deal with those, but it was the big ones that worried me.

Ones that exceeded the bosses we faced now. Back on Earth, there wouldn't be a curated atmosphere to keep stronger monsters away. For all I knew a strong monster could come out of nowhere and attack us and there would be nothing we could do about it.

From what information we were able to get we knew that as monsters rose in tier, they sought out areas of high mana density. They needed more mana to help keep them growing in strength and purifying their bloodline.

They would grow as much as they could in the areas they were in before seeking out new ones. During their travel, they could pass by areas of civilization and there was a possibility they would attack.

Now, I hoped to stay ahead of the monsters in level but that wasn't a guarantee. I could hope all I wanted and it wouldn't make it true. Plus, it was unrealistic to plan on staying ahead of the billions of beasts that no doubt inhabit the planet.

What I relied on mostly when fighting the bosses and monsters higher level than me was my stats. With [Avalanche] boosting them and now [Glacial Presence] pushing them further, my stats were higher than anyone I knew by a significant margin.

What I didn't have were powerful skills to back that up.

I had [Mighty Blow], sure, but I meant skills that meshed together and built on top of each other. Jonathan had better skills than me in that regard.

If I chose Captain of the Boreads I would be getting more of what I already had. Of the 6 skills it would give, a few would be magic skills, a few warrior skills, and a few commanding skills.

It was a range of different skills that would no doubt be powerful based on the Legendary Rarity, but they wouldn't synergize.

They would be added to the list of skills I already had and used independently. Hammer of the Jotnar sounded almost singular in purpose leaving all of the 6 skills it would offer either weapon or armor related.

They would push that one aspect of my fighting further than Captain of the Boreads would be able to. My environmental and magic skills would take a hit but that wasn't the end of the world.

I had plans on how to upgrade them further than what they were now. Specifically, merging a few of them. I still wasn't sure what the end product would look like but I had plans for the direction I wanted to push a few skills.

Plus, there would always be a chance to switch it up later. E-rank wasn't the end of the line and I would be able to change my class again in 50 levels. The only thing I needed to decide on now was if keeping my class unspecific was better than not.

What it came down to was what would make me stronger in the long run and there was only one of them I thought would do that. My skills were already plenty diversified, I needed to choose a specialization.

Hammer of the Jotnar would boost my strength more than I thought Captain of the Boreads would. It was different but similar enough that it would be able to leverage my high stats and environmental skills better than anything else.

It would take what I already had and apply it in a better way than building upon what I was already doing.

Plus, it meshed well with the stats my profession would give me. My magical stats wouldn't be left behind with the +8 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom, and +6 Acumen I would be getting every level from Runesmith

With my decision made, I locked in Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary).

With both Profession and Class selected, it was time to get to the last part of the evolution.

I knew what others said about what was going to happen but it still shocked me. I felt the energy flowing into me from the heart sitting next to me and it was asking to be used.

It was a rush of energy that was larger than I thought it would be. The small heart was a greatly concentrated ball of energy and it kept flowing into me without end.

Vinny said it was like forging a weapon and mine was similar, kind of.

It was like I was back on the mountain making my hammer again for the first time. Condensing down the ice into the right shape and packing it together. Creating something from nothing.

My first choice was permanent or temporary.

The lecture with the alien Cypteris talked about the two and their differences and we had read about them in various booklets, but this was the first time I felt it on such a personal level.

I held the two choices in my hand and the energy was demanding to be used. I wasn't sure how long my body would be able to hold it together under the pressure so I didn't dally.

One of the choices, the temporary, would take the power from the heart and build upon my existing bloodline with it. It would boost its power and when it was called upon, it would manifest an ethereal heart over my own, boosting what it was capable of for a limited time.

Giving me the power and magic that the heart held for the time I was able to call on the bloodline.

That was how the temporary option worked. The parts built onto it would only show up when the bloodline was called upon. Austin's wings would only show up when he wanted them to. Same with the shell Jonathan incorporated.

The other option was different, the permanent option. It would mesh the Frost Giant heart with the one already in my chest. Some of the power would be lost in the transfer but the boost it granted would always be available to me.

It wouldn't only be there when I called on it, but always with me as it beat in my chest. Temporary would be a bigger power boost but it would only be available for a limited time, permanent was a bit weaker overall, but was always available.

I knew that nothing would change visually but a great number of things would on the inside. My vitality would get boosted. Meaning that every stat point I had in vitality would mean a little more than before. My heart would be able to handle sustained fighting better than before, boosting endurance as well.

And it would help me while controlling Wind and Ice. Wind was the secondary focus of Frost Giants and it wouldn't boost my skill with it as much as Ice, but it was still a boost.

It was a choice that I had deliberated on endlessly. Do I or don't I was a constant war in my mind. When I first heard of the options available to us, I nearly dismissed permanent outright.

I didn't want to change myself or mutate my body like the option implied. The only reason I even considered it was because this was different. It was my heart, not adding a third limb or something like that.

I wasn't grafting wings on my back like I was sure Austin might do later in life. He didn't have the same hang-ups I did.

How much would changing my heart change me overall? People had heart transplants all the time and they didn't change. They didn't suddenly become a different person.

Comparing a heart transplant from before and the magical operation I was currently doing wasn't the same, I knew that, but this whole world had changed.

I could afford to do the same to an extent. I would probably never go very far, or anything too out there with changes, but for this evolution, I felt the permanent choice was better.

It would help make me stronger for the trials to come back on earth. We had already lost so much family, I wasn't sure I could take losing any more.

I was okay with changing myself this small bit if it meant being strong enough to protect my family.