Gaven guessed correctly.
After retreating from the battlefield, Zalanda was even busier, with a pile of matters awaiting her attention.
Casualties needed to be counted, the wounded required treatment, the battlefield had to be cleaned, and the convoy needed to be prepared.
By the time she managed to carve out a moment for herself, she found Gaven nowhere to be found, and then she was stuck dealing with other people and other matters.
At this moment, Gaven had returned to his room at Nort Castle and started planning his career.
At first glance, his career path seemed quite straightforward—resuming his journey as a warrior, the field in which he was most proficient.
However, compared to what Gaven needed to do in the future, the path of the warrior was not the best option.
Because warriors only focus on enhancing themselves, and their means to affect others is nothing more than fight, fight, and fight again.
And for the kind of war he was going to prevent—sadly, even the top legendary warriors would be cannon fodder. The only way to intervene in the wars of deities was to become a god oneself.
Ascension to godhood for mortals was not unprecedented in Toril. Last year alone, four well-known individuals were directly promoted from mortals to deities. Midnight, the Magic Goddess who Gaven traveled back in time to stop from perishing, was one of them.
But their circumstances were too special, completely relying on the fall of the gods to mortal realms and seizing the opportunity, lacking replicability.
The best solution Gaven could think of was to acquire the ability to influence more people, and in this regard, mages clearly had an advantage.
In fact, in his past life, he had become a warrior out of utter necessity. If it were up to him, he would definitely choose mage first.
But mage is a profession that relies heavily on knowledge and information. In his past and current life, he had never systematically learned magic, and based on the magical knowledge he knew from daily exposure, it's uncertain if he could immediately embark on this profession. He would need specialized study before pursuing this path, probably a matter for several levels later.
As he pondered, Gaven concentrated deeply, allowing his consciousness to become highly focused. The powerful fluctuations of magic power appeared once again, rising and falling with his breath, slowly approaching each other until finally, they synchronized with the Magic Network.
A completely different world unfolded before Gaven.
A world composed of countless mysterious runes and numbers, where everything could be symbolized and digitized, including Gaven's own body.
The magic power flowing into his body was doing just that.
However, the familiar career options did not appear before Gaven immediately.
Instead, he saw a tear-shaped object bathed in moonlight. A small humanoid figure, vivid yet translucent, was floating in its center.
The translucent figure was all too familiar to Gaven—it was himself.
The Tears of Sulun?!
Gaven recognized the identity of the tear-shaped object in an instant—it was the key item from his past life's plan for crossing over.
Yet, it had transformed from a tangible object into an ethereal one, appearing within the sea of his consciousness.
Such is the nature of a Divine Artifact; despite being heavily damaged before, it was not completely destroyed.
When Gaven focused his gaze on the translucent figure, a chain of mysterious rune inscriptions emerged. He did not recognize even one, but that did not prevent him from understanding their meaning.
Soul of the Legendary Warrior: An overly powerful soul will place a heavy burden on a fragile body, causing irreversible damage. A portion of your soul is temporarily sealed within the Tears of Sulun. It will echo, gradually releasing and merging with your body as your professional level increases.
Echo of the Soul of the Legendary Warrior: Regardless of the profession you choose, all warrior skills are considered your class skills. Weapons and armor of a warrior's profession are all considered proficient. Your first Life Dice will be calculated as a warrior's, and you will gain additional feats corresponding to that warrior level.
Whoa! Whoa!! Whoaaaa!!!
Even with four lives under his belt, Gaven couldn't keep his cool at this moment.
He would have never guessed that such a huge Easter egg was hidden within his consciousness sea.
If he chose the warrior career with the resonance of the Soul of the Legendary Warrior present, he'd be a super idiot.
The warrior career is composed of three main parts: combat skills, numerous extra feats, and a lot of internal attribute enhancements.
A resonance with the Soul of the Legendary Warrior would solve two of those parts, and the final part, the internal attributes enhancement, could be compensated by many other methods—such as the Wish Spell, blessings from magic equipment, boons from deities, and so on. Even maintaining high-intensity training normally could improve them before stepping into the Transcendent, albeit very slowly.
Moreover, the advantages brought by pairing with other professions and thereby enhancing them, was the true path to take.
In an instant, Gaven's mind overflowed with seven or eight new choices and tactics—combining close combat with long-range magic was the cornerstone approach.
"Oh, Goddess Tymora above, may your favor still be upon me, let's see what professions I can choose from."
Gaven silently prayed, his consciousness further coalescing, and more data streamed in.
Warrior.
Ranking first, there was no surprise there.
Thief.
This was the second choice; he had dabbled in a few levels in his past life.
Mage.
Huh, unexpectedly, without systematic study, the Magic Network had also recognized that he could switch to being a mage.
Psychic Sorcerer.
Seeing the option below, Gaven was more excited than he had been about the mage option, for a simple reason: anything related to magicians was basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as it was often tied to bloodline inheritance.
It was innate, you either had it or you didn't. At least in his past life, the magicians Gaven encountered were naturally so.
For someone like him to uncover it later in life was, if not unique, certainly rare.
Psychic abilities weren't common in Felen, but they were not too scarce either, often synonymous with great power, with the typical representatives being Mind Flayers and Abyssal Mawfish.
Gaven had just tasted the sweetness of psychic abilities, a single Psychic Blast had directly floored a Giant Dire Wolf with a challenge rating of not less than level five—though it only stunned it for a few seconds rather than killing it.
This ability, invisible and intangible, was indeed a perfect tool for underhand strikes, and if combined with his own natural advantage in close combat, he would be able to play many more tricks.
What's more, Gaven had heard of a special advanced profession in his past life—the Arcane Adept, which could simultaneously enhance the spellcasting level of both mages and Psychic Sorcerers.
Magic combined with psychic abilities, along with his own combat skills, seemed the perfect combination.
"It's you!" Gaven quickly made his choice, focusing his thoughts on the Psychic Sorcerer option.
All other information slowly faded, leaving only the Psychic Sorcerer details to become clearer and clearer, then transforming into a torrent of magic power that poured into Gaven's consciousness, tuning his soul to it.
Gaven focused and calmed his mind, closely feeling every stream of magic flowing through his consciousness, bringing new information with each moment. He was about to face a series of choices that would determine his future path.