Ether09

my inner ocd wishes that this was chapter 15 or 20, to symbolize the importance of the class advancement

*bing

Summoner Class Max Level Reached.

Choose a Class Advancement

-Fire Mage

-Water Mage

-Earth Mage

-Lightning Mage

-Wind Mage

-Light Mage

-Dark Mage

-Druid 

-Arcanist 

-Cursemancer 

-Battlemage

-High Summoner 

So...it is practically the same as before, with the exception that Summoner is replaced with 'High' Summoner. So far in my travels, I have learned of the usefulness of both numbers and having loyal subordinates. Not only has the ground I can cover increased, but the mental aspect of having allies is much greater than I would have imagined. I didn't realize it until I thought about it one day, that I could actually relax knowing that Sigrun and my life summons were standing watch, and willing to protect me with their lives. Humans are social creatures, and while I like to think that I am ok in solitude, which I am as I was able to survive relatively well alone, I will not deny the security and mental stability having companions have given. Although, I do somewhat doubt that I could achieve this kind of mental state with normal allies, rather having eternally loyal servants are the main reason I can sleep easy at times. With that in mind I choose High Summoner in hopes of furthering the amount of ground I can cover with even more summons. 

My level is back to 1, the max has increased by 40. From 5->10->20->40 most likely means that the max level doubles every time I advance. My mana and mp regen also increased by a flat 25. I have gained 5 more attributes to spend, but the main art of this class advancement would be the new skills available to me. 

High Merc Summon. Instead of just summoning a beast like the original Merc Summon, it specifies that any summon using this skill will bring forth a tier 2 summon. Since the skill has 'High' in it it should be safe to assume that tier 2 is higher than what I have been currently summoning. There are also 3 more races to summon-demon, angel, and dragon. Unfortunately the mana costs have also increased. For beasts from 20->25, plants-30->35, undead-40->50, and so on. Judging from this patter, it seems that the lowest race summon increased by 5, and for every increase in race quality there is an additional increase of 5mp. So the mana cost has become ((prev race rank mana cost)+5*(race rank) where beast rank=1, plants=2, undead=3 means that undead=(35+5*(3)=50 or plants=25+5*2. This means that as the race type increases, the mana costs grows at a rather ridiculous scale as shown by how the last race costs a whopping 200mp. I am unsure of the merits for summoning tier 2 and as to if it justifies the increase in mana cost. I am also wondering how strong the new three races to summon are, but this skill should be very strong. It even has a max level of 50, which is the highest I have seen, which means that this skill should be one worth investing into.

The next skill is called Oath of Fealty and...it give me even more life summons! Unfortunately I can only get two which is even less than the skill from summoner, but I get to choose my life summons??!?! Amazing. This skill has crazy potential. If I wanted to I could possibly just increase my Int to get 200mp and summon a dragon and then contract it so that it would cost no mana regen and instantly boost my combat potential by leaps and bounds. Of course though, I plan on taking the rational approach of continuously Merc Summoning all sorts of summons to try to find right one to pick. Whether that be for its combat potential, utility, or to find a member that can fill in the gaps of my teams current capabilities is something only time and luck can tell.   

Evolve is another..interesting skill. Atleast this means that my life summons shouldn't fall behind as I gain more advance summoning skills right? Perhaps the next summoner class will let me even summon tier 3 monsters. The high mana cost suggests that I probably shouldn't try summoning a tier 1 beast and then evolving, rather the permanent effect makes it seem entirely to be made for my life summons. 

The Heal and Replenish skills, while not as exciting as Merc Summon or Oath of fealty, are still essential skills that I understand should not be underestimated. The ability to heal and replenish the mana of my summons seems incredibly useful to me. In a way I could become a literal battery and infirmary for my summons with my mana, but the the mana cost ratios seem rather awful. 5mp:1hp or 1mp seems very inefficient, but I think that the ratio should improve with levels. 

Last, but not least, ITS THE MIND SKILL AGAIN! Instead of mage's mind, the skill is called summoners mind, but the effects of increasing Int and Wis by 25% remains the same. This is an incredibly useful skill the higher stated I become so I am rather happy to have it, but it makes me wonder if the other classes also have this skill. Summoner didn't have it, rather High Summoner did. So perhaps instead of the first job earth mage, the 2nd job version of it would have earth mages mind as well? Would it be worth it to stray from my current class path just to continuously stack up this passive though is the question, even if far off from now since it will take a while to max my level this time as the exp requirements have only up. 

Anyways, lets think about how in what order I should invest my skill points in. Both the Oath and Evolve skill have a level indicator that I have gleamed from how the other skills often put the skill level requirement in the descriptions, that starts at 10. This means that I would not gain any benefits until the skill is at level 10 so it would not be good to invest my first few points in them just yet.  Plus since I can re summon the same Merc Summon after summoning it once, I can just hold off of the Oath skill, perhaps until I unlock all the races and check my available options. Evolve could be a really nice skill to upgrade Sigrun and the rest, but it requires 20 skill point since I am assuming that they are atleast tier 1 so level 10 Evolve should do nothing to them. Since there is an option to evolve a monster to tier 1, it should be correct to assume that there are tier 0 creatures right? I wonder if cows from earth would count, or if it has to be a weak 'monster' like the horned rabbits. I will probably put a point int Heal and Replenish just to have them available to me, but there is no strong need for their usage yet. Summoners Mind would be the strongest skill for me stat wise as a straight way of improving myself as well. Since the mana costs for High Merc Summon seem to get incredibly high, I think that I will invest one point to be able to summon tier 2 beasts, but first max S. Mind first. 

After some more deliberations here is the final order I have planned for myself currently. S. Mind,High Merc Summon, Evolve, Oath, Replenish, and Heal