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It was not at all lost to me how powerful ritual magic could be if I used it with [Light Signal], this opened up a ton of different magical options for me. More than most people with the number of magic affinities I had. Barring a few I probably had at least a small amount of affinity with everything, certainly all the common ones they had tested at the guild other than Holy.

I tested another magic circle I was familiar with, a fire creation magic circle. Usually it was only really useful for starting small fires since the overall mana conversion was bad, relative to only using it to start something like a bonfire at least. I used a thin line of light, enough to get good accuracy without inflating the cost of the magic too much and drew the circle. This ritual took a bit more time because the runes for the fire circle were a bit more detailed than the one for water. Once I had it done I was able to use [Light Manipulation] to scale it down and move the circle around. Doing this took a lot of concentration but I was sure that I could get better at it with practice.

Using [Light Manipulation], I pointed the small circle away from me and took a deep breath. I activated it and got something that seemed similar to a lighter flame. Now that the circle was active I imagined pushing a lot of mana through the circle all at once, ramping up the intensity of the flame. My little lighter flame quickly turned into something more akin to a blowtorch now, pointed away from me in the same direction that I had rotated the magic circle. Even after the circle was active I was able to use whatever remnants of [Light Signal] that still remained after its activation to manipulate the orientation of the flame. It was actually due to playing with my new flashlight, or rather my [Light Beam] spell, that I was able to intuitively understand how to anchor and manipulate the magic circle.

After a while I released the ritual magic and only then realized I had been panting with the exertion. I was excited though. Excited to find more applications for this ability, test out which rituals would work best when combined with [Light Signal], spend more time dissecting and recombining different magic circles to get new effects. I felt like an entire new world just opened up for me.

"Lilith, that's amazing... I don't even know what to say..."

I sat there panting for a while until I caught my breath. I hadn't pushed myself that hard using magic before so the effects were a little new to me.

"I wonder if something like this has been done before."

Bella leaned against my shoulder. "I've never heard of it and at least some amount of ritual magic is well known. Light magic is decently well known too but isn't as popular among adventurers from what I've heard. I would be surprised if you're the first ever to do something like this but either way it's not a common way of doing things."

I looked around. It had been a few hours since I started checking my abilities and playing with my new skills. I still had some time to kill and as long as I made a point to actually keep watch I would have plenty of time to think about my stat build.

I checked my status briefly so that I could look at my stats. I have 20 unallocated stat points since my last levels. Right now my finesse is 90 after the extra finesse I have from Black Cat, if I change my class it'll drop to 40 and my luck will drop quite a bit too. I've built up more karma from all of the dungeon exploration so it'll drop to the 200-ish range. Still pretty high compared to all of my other stats though.

Right now I think I want to focus on increasing my Magic Control and Magic Force though, especially since I have some new spells to play with. Magic Force is raw power but Magic Control gives me better efficiency and considering all of the light manipulation I intend to use, I think it would synergize with what I plan to do better. For now anyway. I had been holding out for Magic Force for a while but now that I have it, I kinda think Magic Control is actually more useful for me at this stage. Especially since I'm not really intending to be as heavy a hitter as Morrigan is. My value will probably be more in my utility and versatility, especially if I'm able to learn more about rituals and how to create my own.

I decided to put all 20 of the points into Magic Control. I don't think having more Magic Control than Magic Force will be much of a detriment to me right now, especially while I'm still getting a handle on using and manipulating magic. It does feel a bit weird to put a lot of my free stats into my magic stats while my class is more focused on other things but hopefully that makes me a bit more versatile. I just hope I don't end up a jack of all trades, useless at everything. On the subject of classes maybe it's time to revisit them since I'm able to safely change it again.

Right now Black Cat is my highest leveled class but there is a lot of benefit in switching things around temporarily, especially since I'm presumably in less danger now than when I was in the dungeon. I still should switch to Intermediate Swordsman at some point to unlock Speed, though I'm not sure I would invest any points into the stat right now anyway. Novice Light Mage might be good to level too but I think I'm already getting most of what I need by leveling Light magic on its own without the class. A tiny bit of extra magic control while equipping it just doesn't seem worth it. Novice Illusion Mage is almost the exact same class but giving bonuses to illusion magic instead of light magic. Novice Prostitute might be fun to level since it apparently lets you gain skills related to sex easier but for obvious reasons I don't plan on equipping it right now.

That means I should either leave Black Cat equipped or equip Novice Swordsman for the day. I lose a big chunk of Finesse but I gain the speed stat line. The 10 you get from unlocking it is probably worth switching on its own and it isn't like being a swordsman for the day should put me at that much of a disadvantage compared to normal. My actual swordsmanship might be a bit more sloppy but the 30 speed after the class bonus and the little bit of extra strength it gives would probably make up for it. It might be a tad impulsive but screw it. I switched my class to Intermediate Swordsman.

[Changed Class to Intermediate Swordsman]

[Unlocked Statistic - Speed]

[Speed]

Speed influences your physical reflexes and your ability to move quickly. As Speed increases the user is better able to process the mana in their body to move faster and comfortably control their body at higher speeds. Higher Speed will allow the user to run at faster speeds, make sharp movements more easily, and react to their senses more quickly.

The sensation of changing my class felt weird to say the least. Losing that much Finesse all at once made me feel clumsy while the huge increase in my Speed stat made me suddenly feel a lot lighter. Those changes together made me slip on the dirt under my feet and fall backwards over the log I was sitting on. It happened so fast that I slammed the back of my head into the ground.

"Lilith! Are you okay?"

I cautiously stood up and rubbed the sore bases of my horns, rather than actually hitting my head my horns took the impact and rang my skull like a bell. It wasn't particularly painful so much as it was hugely disorienting. The bases of my horns felt like they got yanked really hard though. "Yeah I uh, just switched my class and my stat totals are different enough that I wasn't used to it. I lost my balance and when I flailed it just made me slam my head back faster..." I was really embarrassed but Bella looked more concerned than amused so I carefully sat back down next to her.

She turned my head away from her and ran her fingers gently through the fur on my head. She whispered a quiet incantation to herself and I could feel her cool mana run over my horns and sooth them till it disappeared. She gave the top of my head a little kiss before letting me turn back towards her.

Her gentle smile made me feel really warm inside. It was worth hitting my head that hard if I would get my cute deer girl to pamper me a little. "Thanks for kissing it better." I leaned in and kissed her, intertwining my fingers with hers at the same time.

Now it was her turn to look embarrassed. She smiled cutely and looked down while her ears took on the light pink that gave away her blushes every time. "It's no trouble."

I leaned in and kissed her cheek again before looking back into the forest. I sat there quietly for a minute before deciding to ask Bella about her levels.

"Did you level up much from that dungeon? It was kind of a lot, all of it."

"I got 3 general levels and 15 class levels. I'm level 15 now and my Novice Nature Healer class is level 18 already, even though I only just unlocked it. It's honestly pretty insane, I've leveled up more in the last week than I have my whole entire life combined. Well at least for my class..."

"How long does it usually take to get the next rank of a class? Like Intermediate Nature Healer?"

"Mmm, I don't really know. It probably depends. A healer working safely in a city might take years of practice to get to the next rank. A healer working in a war clinic might get to the next rank in a year, healers that go into dungeons and participate in fights probably level a lot faster than both. Not only do you get more experience from being there when monsters are killed, the system also seems to give more experience in more stressful and dangerous situations."

"I wonder how the system knows how dangerous or stressful a situation is. It makes it sound like the system has a mind of its own."

Bella shrugged non-committedly. "I don't really know but sometimes the system is more specific about how you unlocked something or why. My [Karmic Healing] ability says in the first line: 'You have shown your loyalty to your master by protecting her,' considering our situation it might be the first time the ability was created. Either the system is intelligent or it's controlled directly by one of the gods."

"I would like to argue that but considering I met a god yesterday it's kind of hard for me to dispute it."

Bella chuckled.

I decided to take a look at my full status with everything it'll show me now that I've changed my class.

[Status]

Name: Lilith [Surname Undefined]

Race: Succubus [Race Hidden - Displayed as Beastkin (Sheep)]

Gender: Female

Class: [Intermediate Swordsman] Lv. 1

Level: 25

Stat Spread:

Strength: 50 (53)

Vitality: 100

Charisma: 10

Luck: 20 (234)

Finesse: 40

Magic Control: 50

Magic Force: 40

Speed: 10 (30)

Karmic Energy: 2140

Unallocated Stat points: 0

Available Classes:

Black Cat Lv. 10

Novice Prostitute Lv.1

Novice Merchant Lv. 1

Novice Light Mage Lv. 5

Novice Illusion Mage Lv. 1

Novice Swordsman Lv. 1

Apprentice Swordsman Lv. 1

Intermediate Swordsman Lv. 1

Skills:

Haggling Lv. 1

Swordsmanship Lv. 35

Illusion Magic Lv. 3

Light Magic Lv. 5

Light Manipulation Lv. 4

Uuna Riding Lv. 13

Linguistics Lv. 10

Ritual Magic Lv. 3

Drawing Lv. 8

Mana Sense Lv. 4

Special Passives:

Special drop rate up

Sightspeak

Double Down

Innate Abilities:

Karmic Balance

Karma Awareness

Karmic Resonance

Karmic Retribution

Dominating Authority

Karmic Hypnotism

Soultouched Connection Lv. 2

Racial Traits:

Infernal Heat Resistance

Infernal Cold Resistance

Darksight

Sexual Appetite Lv. 3

Soultouch

Minor Physical Shapeshifting (Succubus)

Soulbound Companions

Lubricating Saliva

Titles:

[World Traveler - Hidden Title]

[Origin of Succubi - Hidden Title]

[Dungeon Destroyer]

[First Explorer]

[Early Intervention]

Spells:

Light Magic:

[Light Orb]

[Fireflies]

[Light Beam]

[Light Signal]

Illusion Magic:

[Zone of Silence]

Luck Magic:

[Melee Hex]

[Coin Flip]

[Die Nudge]

[Blackjack]

It's pretty long when you list out every part of it. My build is pretty unfocused, god if I hadn't dumped all of the points I had into strength when Mark was... Ugh...

Still, being a swordsman has really come in handy, especially with our party composition. Maybe if I could find someone to fill the proper tank roll I could focus more on DPS. Though if I really want to make the most out of my build I should try and merge spell casting into my swordplay. Maybe I could get some sort of Arcane Swordsman Class.

I closed my status and thought about the conversation I had with Torien about buying out their slave contracts yesterday. I feel a little guilty I didn't consult Bella about it first but I was kind of following my heart at the time.

"By the way Bella, I think we should try to buy out Morrigan and Torien's debts. I already told Torien I would try... Sorry I didn't talk with you about it first."

"That's okay, I like them too. I'm not really surprised though, you've warmed up to them pretty quick. Well, other than the thing with Mimi I guess.

"I think it's because I like them that the conflict with Mimi bothered me so much. I resolved it with Torien though. She said she was jealous I was taking her under my wing so quick. She apologized and I feel a lot better about the whole thing. Lets just hope they actually get along better now."

"You don't have any wings though."

I jumped to the disembodied sound of Mimi's voice. I looked over to the sword I had sat against the log.

"You scared me. I thought you were still asleep. How long have you been listening?"

"I filled up on mana a long time ago. I've been paying attention since you brought me out of the tent."

I sighed.