It was fortunate that Nous would give her a hand because there was a lot to unpack, and she wouldn’t have had the time to do so at the breakneck speed the knights were going at. Her slow perception helped her think.

She quickly wondered if the interface offered this to everyone who progressed mid-battle but decided that knowing didn’t matter at the moment. She had a choice to make.

A brief inspection revealed that all choices were valid, in the sense that none of them felt clearly underwhelming. In the end, picking a path depended on, and would shape, how she saw herself in Nyil and what she intended to do. For that reason, she eliminated Tabula Rasa almost immediately.

It was perhaps the most powerful class all around, able to match the others on every aspect from politics to survival provided it was done for the sake of change, and therein lay the problem. It would require that Viv never stop, and she didn’t like that one bit.

‘Capacities are increased when used for the purpose of altering the path of the world’ was broad enough that she could justify using them here to conquer Sinur’s Gate. It was a required step to establish a durable seat of power and she needed power to act, but then it would continue from then on. Conquering the Deadlands would not change things durably, or at least, she would not be able to convince herself that she was changing the path of the entire world. She would need to go after Enoria, then Baran and the northern cities, then Halluria, then what hid beyond the sea or the far eastern isthmus. Tabula Rasa meant turning the world into what she envisioned by sword, knife, or manipulation. Or guns. There was merit to bringing a modern mindset into a world that envisioned stagnation as the natural state. Mankind would gain ascendancy if she guided them through an industrial revolution that did not send children into coal mines. She could avoid most pitfalls of progress. Become the messiah of a new civilization. However… that wasn’t her.

It was not that Viv was fundamentally selfish or self-centered. She cared. It was more that the path required a firebrand, a believer. A zealot. And Viv had been jaded through her teenage years. That path would burn her out before they even conquered Enoria. And that was even before taking the cost into account: the countless bodies this would leave in her wake.

She had studied the ‘Terror’ in history, that period of time that followed the French revolution. It had been a bloody epoch that led to the expression that a revolution devoured its children. That path was lined with the corpses of her allies and enemies. Rivers of blood would clog its gutters. Even if she succeeded, it would… not be worth it.

Viv hated fanatics. To them, the ends always justified the means. That made them the perfect monsters. She wouldn’t be like that. Never. Tabula Rasa demanded a level of forward-moving tension she was unwilling to pay.

Ascender was next.

The gist of it was clear enough. That path would make her more well-rounded, with a strong focus on defense. In particular, the shield skill meant she would not just use her physical shield better — that was always a secondary thing — she would be using her shield spells better. Aegis was already quite powerful. Improving it further would give her defenses unmatched except for the strongest brown mages. Between a bolstered aegis, her danger sense, and the acuity-based reflexes, the only reliable way to take her out would be to overwhelm her. That, or send someone much more powerful and those were no longer that common. She was a fourth step. That was already the human elite.

It would also make her more physically resilient. The most interesting part was not that, however. It was the soul mastery skill.

She had a feeling that knowing and manipulating one’s soul was extremely important for a variety of advanced skills, and quite possibly turning into an elemental as well. Ascender’s whole point was to allow that ascension to happen. It was a stepping stone towards a more powerful option of the fifth step. That wasn’t saying the other wouldn’t have a strong option as well. She had a feeling several of the offered options might be offered at the top. It was more a question of prioritization.

There was also an issue with the stepping itself. Even with her traveler’s gift, it was clear that it would take a while to reach that level. A long while. Years at the very least.

Still, it was a tempting option.

The third one was Abyssal Conduit and its focus on raw magical power.

Viv had loved magic the moment she’d touched it, back on the outskirts of the fallen capital. She was born for it. She didn’t need the interface to tell her that, although it had. Magic was just great and she was good at it. It fulfilled a fundamental wish of mankind to see their emotions and thoughts influence the world directly, rather than through their weak bodies. That path would focus on that and purely that, and she was okay with it. The lack of focus on social skill could be remedied through practice and returned to at a later step. That was fine. Once again, she would not be losing her progress, merely focusing on the magical aspect of her path. The focus on arcane meant that she would become much more versatile on and off the battlefield. Large-scale black mana purification or a transportation gate network could be achieved, perhaps, or achieved faster. The aspect of the messenger would also mean she could obliterate her targets through a surprise attack. She would become a peerless duelist and gain the ability to go against far more powerful foes, overwhelming them before they could bring their higher abilities to bear. There was just one problem: the pain tolerance thing.

Viv had a deadline in the form of her body being on the verge of shutting down. Aspect of the messenger would turn it into a conduit, temporarily overloading every cell. That didn’t mean just intense pain, it meant actively attuning her body to black mana. The path description failed to mention that, and it also failed to produce a solution or a way to help her transition to part elemental. It was the path of the glass cannon, powerful for a short while, then she would have to see Elunath immediately after. And that was a problem.

It was not just the idea of service that worried her. The issue was that Elunath had promised to do his best, and it was in his interest for her to survive… but there was no guarantee she would make it because, among other things, no one had helped someone else turn part-elemental before. All those who had succeeded had been mighty and knowledgeable archmages. Her luck wouldn’t save her. It created opportunities, not certainties. Straining her body further felt unwise to her, despite the lure of raw power. She would have to pass for now.

The last option was Abyssal Lady, the normal continuation of Lost Heiress. Abyssal Lady considered her dual roles as leader and mage then fused them into a path that bolstered her the most when integrated within her army. It was the leader's path, and it provided everything she needed. The one-woman tactical array ability would help her face Harrak’s main problem right now: the lack of qualified war mages. It would also be useful in scuffles and ambushes provided she had the time to set up. The main point was, of course, the merged skill.

Merged skills were always more powerful than their parts and then they started at a lower rank, which meant that they improved faster. Viv used intimidation to negotiate what she wanted, or else, while leadership supported her speeches. It also helped her inspire and guide people if they saw her as a leader. She felt the new skill would give her an aura of danger and respectability that would carry her through any meeting while pushing her men to new heights. It sounded perfect.

So by elimination, Ascender and Abyssal Lady remained the most preferable choices. Both were perfectly viable. In the end, it was really about what she prioritized, how she saw herself.

Viv wished she could have consulted Solfis, even though the golem probably didn’t have enough data to advise her.

Ascender was an investment in herself while Abyssal Lady was an investment in Harrak, possibly. One of them was more conservative and would help her survive while the other would help her develop her ‘nation’, to use the term broadly. For a moment, she wondered if it would matter after she transformed, but then remembered Elunath still had a class. Viv decided that Abyssal Lady was probably the best option. The other felt too careful.

But then… there was soul sense.

Soul sense was the key, she felt. All the gods had massive souls and were able to use them. Social skills relied on the soul. It had to be involved in the transformation process, not least because she had to remain attached to her mortal coil while it underwent the ‘procedure’. And there was something else. Conduits were not physical. Neither was her core. Her ability to cast magic and progress in its mastery were not linked to her body beyond the need for it to withstand its effect. Her soul made her a caster, not her fingertips.

She felt that this was the secret to greater heights and that Nous was giving her one path to grow to greater heights, all while giving her the best chances at making it.

Viv felt an intense burst of frustration at having to give up such skills as Aspect of the Messenger, but her decision was made. She picked Ascender.

It would do.

You have picked: Ascender. Mental statistics are five times more efficient when wielding black mana, twice as efficient for arcane (colorless) mana. You may not manipulate any other color. Associated skill acquisition is massively improved. Soul mastery has become a class skill at Beginner 4

Shield mastery has become a class skill at Novice 1

Shield mastery will apply to magical shields.