Good to know. I found it interesting that there was a holy spell to fortify food. I wondered if there was one to replace food altogether. I asked the priest but he didn't know of any Holy spell that could do that, at least, not in the first or second tiers.
Oh yeah, that was a thing too, spell tiers. Apparently, a Tier 1 class, like [Mage], could only cast Tier 1 magic. Level ten was when we'd unlock a class evolution to get a Tier 2 class.
Tier 2 classes required twenty levels to evolve to a Tier 3 class. Tier 3 classes required thirty levels, and so on. So, the start of Tier 2 was level ten, the start of Tier 3 was level thirty, the start of Tier 4 was sixty, and so on. I forgot the name of that pattern, but there was a mathy name for it. A something-series? Whatever.
Most professional adventurers reached somewhere in the third tier before retiring, level 30-60. Tier 4 individuals were incredibly rare, usually adventurers of great renown, or loyal bodyguards to kings and influential nobles. Even fewer were able to reach Tier 5 at level one-hundred, anyone who reached that level would be considered a true legend.
The reason why people couldn't just keep levelling forever was Power Greed. The more one killed monsters and absorbed Taint, the higher the risk there was of accidentally absorbing too much. Gaining power while avoiding corruption required slow and steady progression, a constant low level of Taint absorption, sustained for decades or even centuries.
How could a human live for centuries? By levelling up, of course. There wasn't much of an effect until reaching Tier four. Once a person's natural HP regeneration got past a certain threshold, the aging process slowed down dramatically. That was tied to the Endurance stat, apparently. It seemed I might have to invest some points in that stat in the future if I wanted to stay nice and youthful.
I asked about known Tier 2 class evolutions at level ten. Emi's gamer instincts proved correct, unlocking and training skills affected what options were available. [Priest], for example, required bringing [Holy Magic I] to its cap at rank ten. [High Priest], which was Father Jordan's third tier class, required being a [Priest] and mastering either [Holy Support Magic II] or [Holy Combat Magic II] tier 2 Skills.
Most people took their time, and trained every new skill up to rank ten before going out into the field and leveling up again. It was quite rare to reach level 8 in a single day like me. For most, leveling that fast would guarantee a case of Power Greed, corrupting their body with Taint, causing mutations and mental degradation, potentially even turning them into a monster that needed to be put down.
Luckily, once I hit level ten, levelling stopped until I picked a new class, so if I hit level ten early and didn't like my options, I had as much time as I needed to train my skills before picking a class upgrade and leveling again.
As for known [Mage] upgrade options… Each first tier magic skill had its own class upgrade associated with it. [Fire Magic I] resulted in the [Pyromancer] class, for instance. Water turned into [Hydromancer], Unholy turned into [Warlock], and so on. Unlocking all schools of elemental magic, mastering Arcane, and mastering [Advanced Mana Manipulation], resulted in an upgrade to [High Mage] which was a rare and prestigious class to have. Apparently, it offered more stat points per level than the other, easier to get, classes. [High Mage] also eventually led to the Tier 3 class [Archmage], and the Tier 4 class [Wizard], which were considered some of the most powerful magic wielding classes out there.
I asked about lightning, and the priest explained that lightning was divine fire from the sky, the wrath of the gods. Becoming a [Lightning Thaumaturge] required Fire and Holy at maximum rank, and Air magic unlocked. That didn't seem scientifically accurate to me, but I politely decided not to say anything.
Lightning still seemed like a good option for me, I had two thirds of the required skills already unlocked. I was hesitant to share my other idea, a Succubus, or some sort of sex-based powerset with the priest. I didn't want to lower his opinion of me any further than it already was.
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"Right, so all that mage stuff is nifty," Ash said, after I'd asked all my questions. "But we need to start killing monsters and making money. How do we do that?"
"How do you do that, you mean," the priest corrected. "I won't condone taking the girls with you to fight. They'd only get you and anyone else stupid enough to follow you raped, or worse."
Ash gave the man a dirty glare, "Fine, how do I make money killing monsters."
"The Royal Adventurer's Guild posts bounties for most types of common monster," the priest explained. "They also organize regular mass hunting parties for those of a lower level like you, you can earn levels safely, and get well paid for participation."
"Can't I just go out and kill stuff on my own?" Ash asked.
"You have no idea how dangerous the forest is, do you?" the priest replied.
"Well uuh… we kinda marched through the middle of it yesterday. We killed a lot of shit. It didn't seem too hard." Ash said.
"I killed most of them," Lysander commented. "Without the aid of powerful, accurate, long range arcane spells, you would have likely become their prey at some point."
"Don't think yourself invincible, girl. Level seven isn't very high and certain monsters are highly resistant to the kinetic damage of arcane spells," the priest scolded. "You and your party must have only been on the outskirts of the forest. The further away from civilized lands you go, the higher the monster levels get."
"Perhaps. The highest level we encountered was twenty-three, most were below ten," Lysander said.
"You must have gotten lucky then," the priest replied. "Beyond the border regions, monster levels tend to vary from level 10 to level 40. Further out? Specimens higher than level 100 have been spotted by explorers in the deepest reaches of the corrupted wilderness. Going into the woods alone with a first tier class is simply suicidal. Adventurer guidelines suggest that, for example, a level ten monster would require a party of five level tens, or ten level fives to beat without taking losses. Large groups are your only safe option until you reach a higher tier."
"We defeated a level 23 rock mimic with an average level of three and a half at the time. If your implied exponential relationship between party level, party count, and monster level holds true, that would imply we are the equivalent of 32.86 individuals our own level."
"What? How did you figure that out?" I asked.
"Math," Lysander replied simply.
"It's not a firm rule," the priest sighed. "But it's the sort of advice that keeps reckless young parties alive. You'd do well to follow my advice here. I've seen more than my fair share of ambitious young folk vanish into the wilderness, never to return."
"To be fair, I'm pretty sure most of us would be dead by now if we didn't have a healer and weren't all immune to Taint," I said.
Lysander sighed. "Indeed, that is a factor," she reluctantly admitted.
"Either way, I'm not sending you out to die," the priest said firmly. "Ash, there is a hunting party for the guild leaving today. Twenty men, led by a tier 3, on a five-day journey. If you want to borrow the sword I found for you, then you'll leave in the company of a proper hunting group and follow their lead. If you won't listen, then you won't get any further charity from me."
The priest gave him a serious look, "Trust my words, young one. I've seen enough proud young men die. Get some proper experience, go up a tier or two, and then maybe you can lead your women through the wilderness and come back alive."
Ash grumbled in annoyance, but didn't argue. "Fine. What's it pay?" he asked.
"One gold piece, I believe. At least it was last time I checked," the priest said.
"That's most of our Chloe registration debt guys," Ash said.
"Is one gold a lot?" Maddie asked.