Chương 80: Selecting Courses And Settling In

"Now, before we get you settled into your room for the welcoming ceremony in three days from now and the start of your classes, we need to review your course selection," she said and picked up my status sheets. Her eyes went wide as she looked them over.

Level: 1 Experience: BLOCKED Healing: 420/420 Stamina: 430/430 Mana: 250/250 Class: Tier 0, Child (Blue) Effect: Increased Skill Acquisition (+10%), Increased Learning Speed (+10%), Increased Stat Gain (+10%), Increased Physical Gain (+10%), Increased Mental Gain (+10%) Vitality: 42 (+1) Endurance: 43 (+1) Strength: 33 () Agility: 40 (+1) Perception: 31 (+1) Mind: 92 (+3) Magic: 25 (+1) Focus: 43 (+1) Free Points: 0 Tier 1 (26) (10+): Light Armor (100), Eldarin Etiquette (75), Shield Skills (75), Spear Skills (71), Drawing Skills (70), Pulse Strike (67), Bow Skills (52), Pugilist Skills (50), Combat Tactics (50), Cleaning Skills (50), Monster Processing Skills (46), Driving (39+39), Dancing Skills (38), Axe Skills (34), Dwarven Language (30+13), Dagger Skills (29), Stealth (25), Deflection (25), Throw (25), Sweet Tooth (25 +6), Cooking Skills (22), Wrestling Skills (21), Medium Armor (20), Speech (17), Dwarven Etiquette (15+7), Dwarven History (13+6) Tier 2 (44) (2+): Mana Sense (100), Danger Sense (100), Focused Breathing (80 +8), System Sense (74+4), Soul Sense (60), Focused Toughness (60 +5), Darkness Vision (56+11), Algebra (49+5), Focused Running (44+8), Focused Meditation (43+3), Geometry (42+2), Trap Detection (40), Focused Sword Skills (37), Shadow Vision (34+1), Speed Reading (26+6), Critical Thinking (24+4), Mana Vision (23+3), Focused Dodge (22+2), Monster Analysis (20), Depth Sense (20), Focused Rage (12), Eldarin Lore (8) Tier 3 (54) (1+): Empowered Will (99 +16), Soul Resistance (89+4), Fear Resistance (60), Poison Resistance (56+14), Healing Resistance (54+6), Eldarin Runes (40), Fire Resistance (27+7), Lightning Resistance (26+6), Empowered Writing (20), Cold Resistance (20 +3), Mana Manipulation (18+6), Soul Strike (17), Arcane Resistance (16+6), Skill Control (16+7), Physical Resistance (10+2), Alchemy (5), System Control (4+2), Social Resistance (3) Tier 4 (4): Pain Immunity (3+1) Tier 6 (-): Experience Siphon(C) Equipment Gloves: Gloves of Processing (T2) (Blocks Mana T2 and Below) Boots: Armored Boots (T1) (Basic Equipment) Head: Armored Helmet (T1) (Basic Equipment) Body: Light Armor (T1) (Basic Equipment) Ring 1: Ring of Concealment (T3) (Hide Status T3 and Below) Ring 2: Ring of Remote Awareness (T3) (Allows for remote viewing from companion ring) Amulet/Bracelet: Experience Blocker (T4) (Prevents all experience gain for primary level) Weapon 1: Beginner's Blade (T2) (Sharpness-T2, Durability-T3, Self-Repair-T2) Equipment 1: Runic Writing Set (T3) (Write Runes T3 and Below)"I…

that is incredibly impressive," Melody said after a solid five minutes of looking over everything.

"Thank you. I have my mother and the excellent tutors she has provided to help me along. Also, quite a bit of hard work and suffering," I said.

"We normally discourage resistance skills in younger students, but this is incredibly impressive. You weren't joking about your skill levels in relation to your age."

"Didn't you check with your own skills?"

"Just a couple of key skills like Meditation, Eldarin Language, and Mana Sense. I sensed you had mastered them, which is confirmed by your status sheet."

"There is no skill to check all of someone's skills?"

"There is, but most staff members don't have such a skill. Using the Orb of Truth is most effective with spot checks on specific skills. Someone will confirm the top 10 students personally and those around the elimination threshold to ensure the integrity of the College. But checking over 10, 000 students each year and with multiple years, that would exhaust anyone," she replied, and I nodded. She pulled out a sheet of her own that listed the main courses.

"Give me a moment while I mark down which skills you have already completed," she said. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I was quiet while she took three minutes to mark everything down.

"You are more like a fourth-year student. That is both good and bad. Good, since you will get off to a strong start, but earning skill levels on easier skills isn't possible."

"That is not a concern. I am here to advance my skills as quickly as possible." That was all I could do to reach the number one spot. Worrying too much, such as constantly checking my status, would be counterproductive.

"A good mindset to have. There is a lot of research supporting checking one's status only occasionally, rather than constantly. The three-month mark was determined to be the ideal. You will find stuff like that in the rulebook I gave you. While not a rule, it will help you on the path to success," she explained, something I already knew, which was fine.

"You would be acceptable in multiple disciplines except for Alchemy and Crafting. Rune, Combat, and eventually Spell would work well as existing disciplines to focus on during your time at the College."

"I thought I just needed to pick skills?"

"You do. But disciplines are where people want to focus their efforts. Core skills include general areas like Mathematics and Meditation. All Core skills are expected of everyone. However, most students should concentrate on a particular discipline to advance their skills, rather than spreading themselves too thin."

"After looking at the times, this was the initial plan I came up with," I explained, pulling out another sheet of paper that Melody took.

"Five courses, you are pushing yourself. Speech, Dwarven Language, Etiquette, History, and Monster Processing," she said while looking it over.

"Yes, do you think it is good?"

"A good initial selection, and you already have some levels. The biggest concern is Speech, which you might not master in six months. The training for all skills takes place in six-month increments. Students must achieve mastery."

"But the levels gained per month per course are just the average," I said, and she nodded.

"They are, but don't expect to go beyond that rate unless you put in a lot of outside study, which isn't as effective as the classes themselves. Most students are a level or two higher than the leveling rate, with a significant drop-off. It isn't a bell curve, if you understand?"

"I understand. Most students are clustered near the top, with several low performers bringing down the average," I replied, and she nodded.

"Exactly. That is why the average is a good guideline, even if you are exceptional. I also suggest you find an additional course to take in the evening as well from those that aren't in the main course book."

"I thought five was quite a bit. If I max out all five skills, that would be 379 skill levels."

"That would put you near the bottom of the top 10 students in your year. An extreme achievement, but the competition is insane, and you won't be able to register for new main classes until the end of the six months. I sense you want to be at the top."

"And you get some kind of reward as well?"

"Of course. Advisers' rankings depend on how their students perform. As a full-time advisor working with top students, I need to help you reach your full potential. The competition here is cutthroat. Looking at your skills, I suggest you join ancillary classes for Focused Running, Focused Meditation, Algebra, and Geometry."

"Why those four?"

"Meditation and running skills take a long time to increase in level, especially at bottlenecks or breakthrough points. The Dean, The Mathemancer, encourages us to suggest math skills. While it might not seem immediately useful, being able to calculate quickly is very useful in a range of situations."

"What about Mana Manipulation?"

"It is clear you want to build up your foundation more in the first couple of years. For your main classes, you will focus on tier 1 skills to get them before they no longer count. As for training outside the classes, core skills are always a good choice, and there are always ancillary classes for core skills."

"What is the difference between an ancillary class and the main class?"

"Ancillary classes have Assistant Professors and are once a week. Often used to work on a skill slowly outside your main class hours. There is a lot of self-study, but the environment and equipment are top-notch."

"Wouldn't it be better to focus only on the main classes?"

"Maybe, but I would rather push you in the first couple of months to see how you handle the pressure. If you do well in these first three months, we can increase the pressure. The teaching methods at the College of Advancement are quite different from what you are probably used to. There is far less individual instruction. You get the textbook and the equipment you need in the classroom. When you reach a bottleneck, the tests help you break through for more mental skills."

"Why not start from the maximum?"

"There are guidelines. I am already pushing them to the edge based on the status sheets you have given me. The goal for your first two years is to get all the tier 1 skills maximized that you can while working on key tier 2 skills. If you can master the dwarven skills in six months, then you can do the Elven skills next semester, completing the remaining languages, history, and languages at the start of your second year. The second semester of your second year can focus on combat skills."

"I was thinking something similar."

"Don't think too far ahead. That is a good way to kill your motivation and focus. Working through the Tier 1 skills in the first two years is more than enough. Going for a Rune Mastery in all supporting runic skills isn't easy. Years three and four will focus on Tier 2 skills. Hopefully, the ancillary classes will have allowed you to reach mastery in several of those skills beforehand. That way, you can easily transition to Tier 3 skills as quickly as possible."

"The spell skills," I said with a grin.

"Yes. That is one of the major reasons people come to the College of Advancement. The challenge is that the higher the class tier, the more time it takes up during the day. You will fit fewer of them in, and you are also focusing on runes. That is why we strongly recommend against focusing on multiple disciplines."

"Too many skills," I said, and she nodded.

"Don't worry. My job is to help you focus and achieve your goals. Your success is my success. Our goal is to clear as many tier 1 skills from your status as possible while working on more difficult tier 2 skills. While it will make you spoiled for choice when figuring out tier 3 skills, I suspect you will want to focus on spell skills while you are here at the College instead of runes."

"Maybe. I know I need to learn both, but I really want to learn spell skills."

"We are famous for teaching spell skills here at the College. And if you graduate as a full graduate from Year 7, the College will always have its doors open for you. Many students choose to stay to become Professors. But you can also continue your studies with our latest methods."