Chereads / Steel and Fire: Rise of the Lord Commander / Chapter 3 - Character creation

Chapter 3 - Character creation

The four class options have their advantages, they are mythical classes, after all... Each class offers six skills, some are more balanced and others are totally specialized.

Herald of Light and Child of Fire are specialized to the extreme. The former offers healing spells that border on miraculous, including resurrection... it also has area healing, regeneration, temporary increases in attributes and abilities, summoning an avatar of light and a defensive ability that involves illusions.

The son of fire is all about destruction. You can destroy single targets, area targets, you can create a domain that turns the affected area into a volcanic terrain, you can turn into a lava creature and create small suns, you also have immunity to natural fire and resistance to magical fire...

Blood Knight is a suicidal berserk who has an aura that recovers life and stamina as he kills enemies, creates a domain that traps and weakens enemies, loses life to double power, has a medium-range attack that kills everything around him, and a very strange ability that can weaken an enemy if he's too strong, or strengthen that enemy if he's too weak.

The blood knight is a hybrid class, with elements of both magic and martial classes, namely mastery and aura. A domain is a magical ability that affects the environment, and an aura is a martial ability that affects allies or enemies.

A lord commander, on the other hand, is a more generic class, with an aura that transforms the weapons of allies into magical weapons, and another that increases movement and reaction speed. A healing skill, a defense skill and another that summons a magical mount. But the big highlight is the skill that allows you to found an order of cavalry, allowing you to turn normal people into superior soldiers, elite, champions and heroes... that's getting to be a good thing, right?

After analyzing each class and skill, I discard the herald of light, because... well, it's just a sophisticated cleric.

The blood knight was also discarded, this purely offensive type doesn't appeal to me.

Son of fire tempted me a lot, if I'd had a more peaceful start in this world, I'd probably have chosen it. But this is a class for a lone wolf, and even if I don't care for many people, I have little Tom with me and I won't abandon him.

That leaves lord commander, a very balanced option, vaguely reminiscent of a paladin. What made me choose this option was the Foundation skill.

I don't know how rare a hero is in this world, but I almost died to get my class, and having the option to name heroes so easily was too tempting.

[Do you want to choose Lord Commander?]

"Yes"

Lord Commander.

Mythic Skill - Foundation: Create an army to follow you into battle, made up of heroes, champions, elites and superiors.

Heroic Skill - Black Fire: imbues your weapon with magical properties, causing physical and magical fire damage. Ignores part of defense and resistance. Can be shared with allies

Epic Skill - Arcane Shield: creates a mana shield that absorbs damage caused by physical or magical attacks.

Epic Skill - Speed Aura: increases movement and reaction speed.

Rare Skill - Regeneration: increases the speed of passive health regeneration. Spends mp to instantly heal a wound.

Rare Ability - Animal Companion: summons a magical creature that serves a support in battle.

I don't feel any different... Let me see the other rewards...

[Choose two common skills]

The options here are significantly greater, with basic skills encompassing practically everything... Various weapon skills, stealth, breathing, blacksmithing, movement, dancing, cooking... The options are simply endless.

I'm forced to narrow down the options to specific fields, then narrow them down again and again, until I can start analyzing the options.

The first skill will be spent on a weapon, the question is which weapon... sword mastery, spear mastery, bow mastery, axe mastery, hammer mastery. The choice goes to the sword because... it's the easiest to find, I think.

The second skill ends up being spent on a magical summoning skill, which allows you to bring in a small animal to serve as an explorer.

Now, what do I do with these coins?

[Silver coin: Used to increase the level of attributes or skills]

[Gold coins: Used to buy items or skills in the divine store]

Wait, what store is that?

[Divine store: ...]

An image appears in front of me: potions, weapons, armor, scrolls, amulets... dozens of different items are available...

Total restoration potions, level-up potions, strengthening potions...

A diverse collection of mythical equipment, including weapons, armor, shields and jewelry in general...

Scrolls of teleportation, summoning, resurrection, control...

Obviously, my first thought was to get a weapon and armor, but I decided to stop and think again.

Once again, I wonder how rare the items are here... after all, these two gold coins were an extreme stroke of luck, since they weren't even in the quest. Should I spend it on items or skills? If I get a mythical sword, will I be able to keep it, or will it be taken by someone stronger? I already have a lot of skills, will I be able to use them, or will I be limited by the amount of mana? After all, the stronger the skill, the higher the cost...

Leaving gold coins aside, I'm going to use silver ones. As soon as I think about it, status appears in all its glory.

Status

Name: Jon

Species: Human (Mythical Hero)

Class: Lord Commander

Talent: Indomitable spirit

Level: 02

HP: 21%

Stamina: 52%

MP: (/)

Attributes: +4

Strength: 00

Agility: 00

Vitality: 00

Vigor: 00

Magic: 00

Mind: 00

Will: 00

Class Skill:

Foundation (nv 00); black fire (nv 00); arcane shield (nv 00); regeneration (nv 00); speed aura (nv 00); animal companion (nv 00).

Skills:

Basic swordsmanship (nv 00)

Summon familiar (nv 00)

Starting at level zero is a bit depressing, but at least I have a talent.

[Indomitable Spirit: Your body cannot be broken. As long as your mind persists, your body will continue to fight]

… This explains my superhuman stamina.

My state of health is a little worrying, so I decide to start putting points into magic and use my healing ability, and as I have a lot of silver coins, I decide to buy some extra points as well.

Then the nasty surprise hits. The first attribute point cost 1 coin, but the second cost 2... I change the option to improve the healing skill and the price remains at 2... If this pattern continues, I can buy 7 more attribute points or increase a skill 7 times...

Once again, which option is the right one? I don't have an answer to that question, but in my current state, I decide on the attributes and put another 4 into magic, 2 into strength and 1 into agility and stamina. That leaves a measly 4 silver coins, with the next purchase costing 9.

I start using my healing ability. I feel a cold energy coursing through my body, it's almost as if I'm submerged in a lake. The sensation quickly disappears, replaced by a strong dizziness. My HP has risen from 21% to 27% at the cost of almost all my MP... It's not what I expected, but it's something. Now it's time to see how long it takes to regenerate the mp and use the skill again.

Returning to the question of gold... I start checking item by item, description by description, and I learn a few things. The first is that the items are not magical, the mythical classification is only due to the material they were built with, which opens up space for enchanting them in the future, with the exception of jewels, which are truly magical items.

Another thing I notice is that there are potions that permanently increase an attribute by 25 points, and there is a certain scroll that serves to upgrade an item.

The whole question now revolves around the price, does the cost also increase with each purchase?

After much consideration, I decide to buy the upgrade scroll as the first item, and then start checking the price of the other items. Consumable items such as potions, some scrolls and most equipment still cost 1 gold coin, but special items such as the upgrade scroll itself and magical gems now cost 2 coins.

Skills work differently: common, uncommon and rare skills cost 1 coin, epic skills cost 2, heroic skills cost 3 and mythical skills cost 4. Options above this are not available.

I ignore the skills, since I'm not going to spend money on rare options, and reluctantly buy the second item.

[Scourge of fire (mythical): A blade created from the bones of a lava giant, immune to fire and resistant to magic]

A long sword, its broad blade completely black. Rather than being forged, it seemed to have been carved from a single piece of bone. Even the pommel, hilt and guard shared the same material as the blade, a smooth, hard bone as dark and shiny as ebony. The hilt was decorated with a silver fabric, with silver filaments decorating the guard and part of the blade, forming runic patterns.

The sword is large, the blade alone reaching almost a meter, but despite its size, it is quite light...

[Do you want to upgrade this item?]

"Fuck it. Yes!"

[Scourge of fire (sacred):...]