The Way Ahead

Chapter 75b: Two Paths Diverged In The Verdant

He’d pulled out all of his previous organization, as he wanted to reassess them with fresh eyes and with advice from someone he trusted more than Lefi. Still, they quickly eliminated some Paths like Slave, Child, and Novice- Paths with little to no or harmful impact. That was followed by the mundane profession Paths, like Brickmaker, Gardener, and Physical Laborer. Sure, they might give him something good, but he also couldn’t confess to being terribly interested in them over their more interesting counterparts. He similarly couldn’t claim to find appeal in his Ascetic, Exile, Rebel, Recluse, Traveler, Revolutionary, and Imperial Ally paths nor their ilk, so those got cut next.

From there, Inion helped him pick out the ones which were likely to give him an Attribute; namely Path Less Traveled, Scout and Athlete. He asked about getting Intelligence or some other related attribute, hopeful that he might be able to get it through Scientist or Researcher, but Inion told him that given he already had mind-related Skills pertaining to research, it was unlikely that he would get the attribute from anything he had unlocked. In fact, shy of something along the lines of a Genius path, he was probably out of luck for Willpower and Intelligence. Edwin didn’t really understand it, but Inion seemed certain, so…

Edwin mentally shrugged. It didn’t matter that much, he supposed. He liked to think he was already smart enough to survive, but was realistic enough to recognize that was an idle hope at best.

Inion also thought there was a good chance that Unkillable would give him Constitution, which he was initially in favor of, but she also said that there were cheaper Paths liable to give the Attribute. Edwin wasn’t sure if it was worth waiting on something that stood such a good chance of keeping him alive, but the 90-point Path was a pretty big commitment.

He’d reassess it once he had everything figured out, but for now he reluctantly set it to the side for the time being. He’d probably still take it in the end anyway. Not dying was high on his priority list, after all. Apparently Path Less Traveled was a Big Deal, because Inion said that it was still a priority even with the cost.

That was when it started getting hard. Virtually any of the remaining Skills he would most likely be content with. Assassin would help him survive by staying unseen, Escapee would help him avoid mental ensnarement, Titan Slayer would give some really great combat Skill that would aid him in taking down strong foes…

Okay, think. If two Paths had the same point cost, the more general one was probably superior for someone like him, who needed broadly applicable Skills rather than a few specialized tools. Unless, of course, he really liked the sounds of the Path. That was also a factor to consider. However, more expensive Paths would give him Skills that were more distinct from what he currently had, and that was generally a good thing, so….

He still set aside Realm Traveler on account of being just too expensive for the time being, World Traveler and Way of the Empty Hand for just more or less being more specific variations of Wanderer and Warrior, Almanac Administrator for not being what he could most benefit from…. It was a painful process, but he slowly narrowed it down.

Hunter and Killer would be cheap ways to get attack Skills, was that worthwhile?

He only really needed one Medic skill, what did he want to focus on?

How many Fey-related Paths should he go for?

Blackstone Conqueror, Stonehide Vanquisher, Deepwoods Panther-Hunter, Superior Alchemist were all likely Trophy Paths. How many did he want? Which did he want? Did he want any?

He only needed one fire-related Skill if he was being honest, but Firestarting had been so useful he should probably take a flame-focused Path to give it a potentially even better use, though he only needed one, and it probably wasn’t going to be Autopyromaniac.

Did he want Skill Researcher or System Scholar? Did he want either? Both? Hmmm….

Master of Obairlann would probably tie him to its eponymous location in some way, and considering he was about to leave, it wouldn’t be the most useful. Unless it would be? Ah, maybe if he already had a teleportation Skill. But probably not yet.

He… probably didn’t need more explosion-related Skills. At least not yet, right? He was cautious about blowing himself up following the assassin’s attack.

Primal Ritualist and Constructor were both rather expensive, and Edwin wasn’t sure if he wanted the nature overtones they brought with them. The natural world was fine, but he was no Biologist.

On something of a whim, he decided to sort them based on what their categories seemed to be. Maybe that would help him figure things out, based on how he wanted his Skill distribution?

Attributes Likely

Path Less Traveled 0/90, Scout 0/60, Athlete 0/60, (Unkillable 0/90)

Trophy: Blackstone Conqueror 0/60, Deepwoods Panther-Hunter 0/60, Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60, Superior Alchemist 0/60

Combat: Alchemical Warrior 0/90, Assassin 0/60, Giant Slayer 0/60, Heedless Hunter 0/60, Hunter 0/30, Killer 0/30, Titan Slayer 0/90, Trapper 0/60, Warrior 0/60

Magic: Mage 0/60, Magical Gardener 0/60, Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Novice Pyromancer 0/60, Novice Ritualist 0/60, Skilled Arcanist 0/60

Science: Alchemist 0/60, Chemist 0/60, Biologist 0/60, Physicist 0/60, Engineer 0/60, Experimenter 0/60, Purifier 0/30, Researcher 0/60, Scientific Revolutionary 0/90, Scientist 0/60

Physical: Physical Alchemist 0/90, Physical Arcanist 0/60

Medical: Alchemical Medic 0/60, Field Medic 0/60, Steadfast Medic 0/60

Alchemical: Makeshift Alchemist 0/60, Potioneer 0/60, Practical Alchemist 0/60

Fey: Fey Friend 0/60, Feybound 0/60, Feycaller 0/60, Fey Scion 0/60, Feytouched 0/90

Other: Adventurer 0/30, Daredevil 0/60, Dedicated Student 0/60, Escapee 0/30, Explorer 0/60, Forerunner 0/60, Outsider 0/60, Pioneer 0/60, Skill Researcher 0/60, System Scholar 0/60, Wanderer 0/60

Hmm. It didn’t make things any easier, but it did help him visualize everything better. He had fifty Paths to choose between, and eighteen Skills to go with them. This… was going to be tricky.

He didn’t need that many combat Skills, and so he could eliminate the ones like Hunter, Killer, and Assassin which… well, no, Assassin might be useful given how it stood a chance of giving him some sort of stealth Skill. Well, Trapper, then. Or no. Traps would work well with his theoretically perfect fighting style, wouldn’t they? Setting up hazards and letting people blunder into them? Well, he could take out the 30 and 90-point Paths if nothing else. He wanted to try and use Alchemical Warrior on Bomb Throwing when the time came. But he could probably re-earn it if he tried? He’d gotten it escaping the dwarves, hadn’t he?

Darn it, this was supposed to simplify things!

Fine. He’d take out the 30-point ones- with none of his current Skills really all that combat focused, he’d need something with a bigger impact. He’d also take out Heedless Hunter and Warrior, the former because he felt like whatever Skill it provided would involve hurting himself, which he wasn’t terribly fond of, and the latter because… well, no. He’d leave Warrior in for now, as a nice generic combat Path.

Magical Gardener… nah. He wasn’t likely to keep growing stuff while on the road. It might be useful if he ever settled down again, but not for the time being. Micro-Biomancer would probably be very cool, but more effective if he already had something… Nutrition would probably pair well with it, wouldn’t it? Hadn’t he gotten the two at the same time? It was still expensive, though. Off to the side for now.

Well, with Science, at least the choice was easy! He was a physicist and alchemist, not a biologist. That said, he certainly was more of a biologist than a doctor, so… he moved the Skill over to his ‘medic’ category. Purifier might be nice… he’d see if he needed a cheaper Path. Experimenter, Researcher, and Chemist were all great… but inferior to the others.

Did he want his physical Skill to involve magic or alchemy? Hmmm….

Choosing a medical Skill should have been easy, but did he really want to hyper-focus on alchemy? It might leave him vulnerable if he was ever caught unawares. So should he take Field Medic? It was between Alchemical and Field for the time being at least. But maybe he should go with Biologist? It would be somewhat out of left field, but he trusted his science background far more than he did his half-remembered first aid skills from his days as a scout, so it might work in his favor. Between Alchemical Medic, Field Medic, and Biologist, then.

Potioneer… Edwin wasn’t really sure what that would do. Well, it would help him make potions, that much was obvious, but that was only one part of alchemy, and one he was already decent at for that matter. Shouldn’t he try to expand his capabilities? Makeshift Alchemist would probably help him with difficulties he might encounter from not having adequate supplies, but Practical just sounded… well, practical.

His Fey paths… Feybound and Feycaller both seemed suboptimal. He wasn’t really inclined to try waking up or dealing with any more, making Feycaller superfluous, and Feybound made Edwin think it might make him more susceptible to fey influence. It would no doubt come with some really impressive benefits, but he wasn’t sure the added benefits outweighed what he’d get from Fey Scion or Feytouched. Fey Friend seemed fine, but the name just didn’t seem quite as impressive to him as Scion or -touched. Petty, perhaps, but he needed some way to narrow down what Paths he was taking, and if it came down to personal preference in the end, may as well get a bit ahead of the curve there.

Adventurer… well, Edwin wasn’t sure what that might provide him. It might give him some sort of general-purpose Skill that aided him as he wandered about, or it might do something tying him to the Empire in some way. Given the Path wasn’t Lirasian Adventurer, he doubted it, but it was still something to keep in mind.

Daredevil would… hmmm. He needed to think about that.

A bit of conversing with Inion and general musing later, he felt like it would probably give him some sort of crash-resistance Skill, possibly evolving Flexibility to improve his capabilities of absorbing falls and blunt attacks. The question was, did he really need that? Between Health and whatever he ended up choosing to enhance his combat and physical prowess, not to mention his current non-Skill proficiency with ducking and rolling, he could deal with most situations well enough. Did he need more? Eh, probably not. It would be more of a niche Skill if his predictions were right. He’d keep it in mind in case he needed an extra Path for some reason, but he’d take it off for the time being.

Escapee was a cheap path with some utility. Keep for now.

Explorer and Forerunner were similar, but Edwin couldn’t say he was terribly inclined to go exploring trackless wildernesses… no, that was flatly untrue. He was still in the mindset of Earth, where there wasn’t anywhere left to explore. He absolutely needed one of them, but which? And was Adventurer close enough to count? Argh! He wanted everything!

Outsider he absolutely wanted. It was the main Path (alongside Path Less Traveled and the Almanac skills) that would let him leverage his supposedly mythical status as an Outsider. Well, Realm Traveler also fit into that mold, but he was not spending that many points on a Path this tier. The unique aspects of it would probably be largely wasted, but if he waited for a Tier or two, well, he might well get some kind of teleportation ability.

Inion had told him flat-out that nothing he had was close enough to teleportation for even the 120-point Path to get him there, but depending on his advancements, he might get there next Tier. Longstrider, which was what Lefi had predicted he’d get by taking Wanderer to evolve Walking, might make it possible- he dropped it on his list of strong contenders. In addition, Wanderer just spoke to him on some level. It encapsulated what he wanted to be in this next phase of his life. It was simple, yet profound

In any case, Outsider was on the shortlist. Pioneer was more debatable, though. It was halfway between his System paths and Explorer…. Would it be better to have more Skills like that, or fewer? Why did this have to be so hard?

Dedicated Student… maybe it would help him learn faster? He already had Memory for that sort of thing, though…. Maybe a focus Skill? That would be appealing, but given it required a year of work to unlock the Path, it was more likely to give some sort of willpower improvement. That was honestly kind of appealing… Hmm. He’d put it to the side for now. While appealing, it didn’t seem like the kind of Path or Skill that would help him with his attention span, which was all he really needed assistance in that regard.josei

Edwin had no clue what Skill Researcher or System Scholar might get him. Maybe some sort of Skill-identifying upgrade to Identify? But he could already sort of mimic that with Almanac. Should he wait for next Tier and see if they would evolve Almanac? Outsider’s Almanac was already a fantastic Skill, he couldn’t imagine how good it would get if he managed to get it integrated into the System further. System Scholar would be put off to the side for now, then. Skill Researcher, though? He needed to understand the System, and Skill Researcher seemed to fit that bill perfectly.

Tallying them, that left… 36 Paths. Still twice as many as he really needed.

Okay, time to get picky. Titan Slayer was cool, but if he was to take a 90-point Path, it wasn’t going to be that one. He wanted to invest more points where he actually wanted to focus. He wasn’t going to be a Forerunner, leading people to new frontiers; Explorer fit him much better. Pioneer met a similar fate. He’d look at them both again when he was ready to teach people.

Escapee and Purifier were both nice, cheap Skills, but he didn’t want cheap. Ironically, he couldn’t afford cheap. He could spend a few more months getting the points needed for his more expensive Paths if need be, he could push through a bit more training if needed.

Deepwoods Panther-Hunter and Stonehide Vanquisher… they were cool, and trophy Paths were very cool, but he didn’t know if they quite stacked up to their competition. Did he really need four trophy Skills, anyway? He’d rather take the ones based on his alchemical prowess rather than his ability to swing on a vine or burn himself half to death.

Okay. He could work with this.

Two trophy Paths, one or maybe two combat-oriented Paths, two or three magic paths, two or three science paths, one physical Path, one medical Path, one or two alchemical Paths, one or two fey Paths, and up to five ‘other’ Paths. That was a total of sixteen to twenty one Paths, which was right in the ballpark of what he needed.

That just left the question of which.

Attributes

Path Less Traveled 0/90, Scout 0/60, Athlete 0/60, (Unkillable 0/90)

Skill Improvements

Blackstone Conqueror, Superior Alchemist, Adventurer, Explorer, Outsider, Skill Researcher, Wanderer,(One or two of Alchemical Warrior, Assassin, Giant Slayer, Trapper, Warrior), (two or three of Mage, Novice Pyromancer, Novice Ritualist, Skilled Arcanist), (two or three of Alchemist, Physicist, Engineer, Scientific Revolutionary, Scientist), (one of Physical Alchemist, Physical Arcanist), (one ofAlchemical Medic, Field Medic, Biologist), (one or two of Makeshift Alchemist, Practical Alchemist), (one or two of Fey Scion, Feytouched)

He stared at the list for a fair while longer, going back and forth on what he wanted, debating the merits of what each might provide. Alchemical Warrior would lean into what he wanted his strengths to be, Assassin and Trapper would help keep him safe, and who knew what Giant Slayer or Warrior might give him.

Mage was a nice, broad Path that would give him more magic; Novice Pyromancer would give him Basic Pyromancy in conjunction with Firestarting; Novice Ritualist may be exactly what he needed to become a true mage-scientist, if he got a Skill that aided him with rituals in general; and Skilled Arcanist had already given him one of his most powerful Skills with Mana Infusion, who knew what else it might provide?

Alchemist again played to his strengths, Engineer might give him some sort of artificing ability to help with mechanical creations, Physicist played to his experience, Scientific Revolutionary was just awesome, Scientist was nice and broad. Physical Alchemist sounded to him like steroids and potions of strength, whereas Physical Arcanist was more of a ‘punch wizard,’ if that memeworthy concept translated to Joriah.

Alchemical Medic was more potent, Field Medic less likely to be interfered with. Makeshift Alchemist helped his resiliency, Practical Alchemist was exactly the sort of thing he needed to push ahead with his bombs and potions. Fey Scion and Feytouched… he didn’t know enough about either (and Inion was no help), but he suspected that Scion would give him fey abilities of some form, whereas -touched would change him to become more feylike. What that entailed, he wasn’t sure.

He just kept going back and forth on what he wanted, what his plans were, and he eventually had to admit he just didn’t know. He could play it by ear, he could push it off just a bit more. After all, he still had some Skills to level and explore fully.