― Nitya Prakash

Mithra eventually returned to her place resting in the sunlight while John tried to figure out where to begin with his training. The answer seemed obvious, honestly - he couldn't train anymore without completing his quest. Seras and Sophia were still gone, too, so he didn't exactly have to rush… but the constant clock ticking in the back of his mind wasn't helping with things.

"Right… firstly - you!" John pointed an accusing finger at the drone still hovering in almost the same spot that it had arrived in, whirring and buzzing with unspoken programs running. "Status Report! Or… whatever. Any luck in contacting Tricia on the other side yet?

The drone beeped at him, but he got no extra information. He was pretty sure if the communication was successful he'd already have Tricia sighing at him, so that was a no on the home front. John wondered how long the drone would take? Should he bring the drone back with them if it hadn't found anything by the time they returned?

Not that it mattered yet. Even if the lines were open, he couldn't return for just under four hours. He was committed to this, and he had to make it count.

"Right. Let's do this, then…" John mumbled, steadying himself as he flicked through his menus and activated the Reincarnation ability.

A golden light filled the air around him, emanating from his skin. There was a rushing sound, though John felt no movement of air, and his body began to shiver slightly as his strength felt as though it were flowing out of him. John fell to one knee, and as the rushing noise and his new aura faded over a few seconds, a large window appeared before him.

*Reincarnation* successful!
Reincarnation Number: 2
Feature Unlocked: Creation Experience
Creation Experience: You are growing fast. I lend you what strength I can, but you must stand on your own eventually. This is one step in that direction.
From now on, Dungeon Completion Bonuses will only be applied to the user. As compensation, the percentage of stats lost during Reincarnation will be decreased to 80%. This reduction will apply to this and all future Reincarnations. In addition, upon dungeon completion, the user will receive 100% of the base Dungeon Completion XP as "Creation Experience". This XP may be distributed among any number of creations and may be used to directly boost the level of a creation or to increase the level of their skills. Creations will still receive XP from kills and their own training.
-21 All Stats
+12 Stat Points available to be placed**

"That… will probably always catches me off guard," John mumbled, shakily regaining his footing. Without wasting any time John started checking through his menus, double checking that everything had been properly reset. Once he was sure about that part, he focused a bit more on his free points.

John's gamer instincts were… unsure, for perhaps the first time ever while staring at an allocation screen. He'd had doubts, of course, or reservations. Sometimes he would save stat points or perk points for hours until he found a weapon or build that he couldn't resist trying out. He had none of that here. Everything was so freeform he wasn't sure what to do. Just putting his stat points evenly - as happened every time he leveled up - felt like a real waste, but he needed everything! Strength for his blade, Intelligence and Wisdom to cast spells more often and more effectively, Endurance to not actually fucking die, and… well, Charisma and Libido were really the only things he had no desire to put stat points into.

"My spells don’t do as much damage… but they have a lot more versatility. If it had just been me using my sword against that Metallomancer, he might have gotten me even though he was a way lower level. I need to either work on my mana and versatility or get so strong that I can deal with that kind of thing."

The thought was not as ridiculous as it had seemed a few days ago. After snapping a blade at the hilt, John's confidence had increased - Moira had assured him the blade he'd gotten from one of their fallen warriors was stronger, but he didn't want a repeat, and she'd insisted on returning it for a proper funeral all the same. He probably should have asked for another, but… well, she was quite angry with him for leaving already. And frankly, John was too low of a level to do much himself right now anyway.

"No, there's too much I could learn to do. I don't even have any defensive spells yet. What if that's the solution? Keep a few heavy-hitting spells for myself, then focus on utility and defense. That'd minimize my mana-consumption, let me protect my friends, and still hit like a truck."

That meant sacrificing a stat or two, though. If he was healing and shielding, he might not need as much Intelligence, depending on how his powers classified his future abilities. He definitely needed Wisdom, though. With burst-y spells like he had now, he'd gotten by just depleting his mana pool and hoping everything in front of him was dead. If he was relying on steadily wearing people down with physical blows and his allies' help, then he'd need to see how long it would take to make regeneration worthwhile in battle.

"Alright Evellyn… I'm ready to get started. First question - what's the formula on my mana regen?"

"As you have acquired no items, feats, or skills which enhance your mana regeneration rate and since you are not currently under any buffs to the same, your mana regenerates at a rate of 1.55 points per minute. You regenerate .05 points of mana per minute per Wisdom point."

"That's… really not good. How do I get some feats and skills that will increase my regeneration.?"

Evellyn stuttered for a few moments and almost looked as if her projection was flickering. "I am sorry, Master Newman, but I am not capable of accessing that information."

"Eh… that's alright. I've been winging it this whole time, you're still helping a lot with that. Okay, so… even if I put every point I have into Wisdom, I'd only be up to a little over two points per minute - that's twenty-five minutes per lightning bolt, or about two points of health per minute healing. Not great. Not great at all…"

"Might I suggest learning to Enchant so that you might create more powerful objects?"

"Do I need to learn that? I've already made some magical items."

"No, Master Newman, you've made objects with magic imbued in them. Through your rudimentary Crafting ability and your semi-magical materials, you can create objects that can store magic or pass it through you. Learning to Enchant would allow you to direct the flow of magic through objects and to create weaves of magic within them. Otherwise, you are limited to basic levels of magic and constrained by the natural flows."

"That's actually interesting. Really interesting. But I only have a day - it took me longer than that to learn a few Runes."

"Levelling up your Runecrafting would also be wise. While more restrictive than Enchanting-"

"Okay, no time for all that," John said, waving off Evellyn's advice. XP was king, at least until he was closing in on his previous levels of strength. "I'll worry about those sorts of things if and when I have some downtime with mana to spare. For now, I'll go with something conservative that lets me focus up."

John put two points into his Endurance, knowing that every point would count for his first few levels - he didn't want a stray Barrier monster to clear his entire health bar with a lucky shot. Thankfully his armor provided him with a bit of extra cushioning, especially with his Runes of Disruption that he'd refilled on their way back to the Brighton Manor, adding a bit of magical resistance to them.

With the other ten, he simply added two to his Intelligence and then four each to his Strength and Wisdom. It was the best way he could think of to boost his versatility without entirely abandoning his Intelligence score. What would he become? A spell-slinging swordsman, perhaps? A bit cliché, but… apparently quite effective, judging by his own results and the people surrounding him like Etriyya who had gotten this far by doing similar things.

That left his skill points. John had gotten three total for levels 11 through 13 and had never used a single one of them. Finishing up his Team Player ability for Lesser Heal, John decided to see what his newer abilities had in store. Given that it had recently saved his life - or at the very least, his freedom - John started with White Lightning.

Forked Lightning: *For 50% additional mana [Currently 25], a second target may be hit for 75% damage. This target must be within range from both the original cast location and the selected original target. For each point placed into this Skill, another target may be chosen that is within range of both the caster and each target before it, however the cost increases by an additional 25% [Currently 12.5] of base cost for each additional target.

"That's pretty damn good. 75% damage for 50% the cost, and it goes off at the same time. That's a big efficiency improvement." John dumped one of his points into it, and was tempted to immediately drop his last one as well, but he decided it was best to at least check his others before moving on.

Fire Orb offered a "homing" effect, but John hadn't used it in quite some time due to its uncontrollable nature and the fact that he'd been in too many urban environments to risk burning the place down. Build only offered a decrease in build time, something not really relevant to his needs. Shadowform was the one that ended up drawing his attention.

Safety in Shadows: *Shadowform may activate on damage that would kill the user, render them ****, or place them into the Dying state. This activation is automatic and may trigger even if the user is unaware of the source of damage, but will not activate for any forms of damage Shadowform is ineffective against [Fire, Light, Divine, Capable of Striking Ethereal], forms of damage that are prolonged or cannot be evaded over a period of <5 seconds [Poison, Bleed, Burn], or any attacks which inflict one of these incapacitated states without inflicting damage [Mental or Psionic]. This ability can only activate once every hour, and costs 100 MP/second instead of the normal 20.

"Fuckin' A, I love it!" John cheered, grabbing the ability without bothering to comb over the extended branches of his older skills. It was basically a "Get Out of Jail Free" card for life. With his points distributed and his gear ready to go, all John had to do now was wait briefly for Seras and Sophia to return with their first load of food.

"Evellyn… do you know what porcelain is made out of?"

"Yes, Master Newman. The information was mentioned very briefly within the Chemistry book you learned in a side paragraph, and I can gather more information from the Crafting - Know How skill you purchased. It's comprised primarily from varieties of clay as well as a few other choice minerals."

"Great. Figure out whatever drops clay… I want to wait to start farming material for armors and weapons until I can safely go against some higher level enemies. For now, I have a bathtub to make."