MT Chapter 14 (Patreon)

[author's notes] Alrighty, it's crazy what taking a break from something can do with how willing you are to write it. I'm excited with where the story is going again and it doesn't feel like hard work to write compared to the rest. The chapters going forward will be about half as long but with all the other stories being that length it didn't make sense to have 2k word chapters on this specific one. I'll split the difference and combine the chapters once the story is done. [author's notes end]

God, I’m fucking stupid! This entire time since we came back to the village she could have had a class! My min/max attitude couldn’t handle that level of inefficiency. Aki could have had her magic affinity checked as well and been taught the basics to unlock that type of magic. I mean… Even without a class, she’s still so strong compared to me. She’s also at a high enough level for her subclass as well.

I really fucked up. It was hard to understate how silly I was to not make someone in my party stronger. It was such an easy thing to do too so I wasn’t sure why it didn’t cross my mind. It must have been because she is a goblin. I wasn’t sure it was possible but it had been done in the past to slavers trying to get the most out of their slaves. It meant it was possible and I was hindering her growth by not thinking about it.

She could have been gaining levels in almost ten more skills the moment we arrived but wasn’t because of that oversight. At least I caught it before we left the village or attempted to start leveling even more. She absentmindedly flipped through her screens that weren’t available for us to see. Each creature had their own way of interacting and she had learned enough common to read so it gave her the status screens.

Talking with the beast tamer I learned that isn’t what happens normally. If a beast tamer had a wolf tame it would evolve at level one hundred. The more intelligent monster races not only can learn a class but also evolve on top of that. She would be a hobgoblin right now if she wasn’t born mid rank. I tried to convince her to tell me what her choices were but she casually waved me off before going back to her choices.

A click later and when she smiled at me I knew I could check her stats for her new skills. 

Name: Aki

Race: Goblin

Age: 3 Years

Class: Ninja

Secondary Class: Beast Tamer

Title: None

EL: Mid tier

Level: 55-56

Stats

Strength: 156

Agility: 220

Endurance: 119

Intellect: 41

Wisdom: Locked

Ninja tool specialization 01, Taijutsu 01, Ninjutsu 01, Genjutsu 01, Shukuchi 01, Climbing 20, Shield specialization 04, Starvation resistance 40, Running 35, Sneak 26, Dagger specialization 28, Alchemy 23, Aphrodisiac secretion 16, Strong back 04, Jumping 19, Herbalist 01, Wind magic 01, Shadow magic X, Beast taming 01, Beast lore 01, Danger sense 01

Ninja tool specialization 01- Gain proficiency with all ninja weapons, armor and tools.

Taijutsu 01- Supplemental skill that increases the rank of all physical skills by taijutsu level.

Ninjutsu 01- Supplemental skill that allows the use of handsigns and instinctive knowledge of new spells.

Genjutsu 01- Instinctive knowledge of illusion magic, access to shadow magic

Shukuchi 01- Move at intense speeds almost imperceptible to the eye that most will confuse with teleportation. The effort required means nothing else can be done while using the movement technique.

Beast taming 01- Taking care of a beast gives you relationship points. Can feel what your tamed beast wants to convey to you. Tames do not count against dungeon count thresholds.

Beast lore 01- Focus on a monster to learn as much as you can from them. Lore checks made that are interrupted will give partial information or can alert the monster.

Danger sense 01- Gain a sense of danger around traps.

HAHAHHA she picked beast tamer as her second. When she hits one hundred she could choose to become a monster tamer, perhaps she wouldn’t be given the option but that’s really funny to me. She also got two extra skills with it, sometimes you’re only given the key skill tied to the class when you pick it as a secondary class. She got lucky and was given a skill that would help her with taming beasts. Her tamed beasts could evolve into monsters as well… It was like a Russian nesting doll of tames right now.

We had her magic tested and unlocked. She had wind magic at a stronger affinity than even myself which was beyond uncommon. It was most likely a goblin monster thing where all goblins tended to lean a single element and her affinity was higher because of that. Wind magic wasn’t that strong but my chances of killing them would have been much lower if they could run faster or guide their ranged attacks with wind currents.

She didn’t like training it but even still she began her new ninja training before and after her job with the alchemist. I was still seven levels off from getting my secondary class and I was leaning toward a healer-focused class to round out of group in the future. Most people would do the opposite of me and go healer first then pick a secondary class to round out their skill set. My healing was already better than someone with a healer class since I had unique magic and support magic they most likely wouldn’t have.

She rapidly increased her new skills as they leveled extremely quickly. I wish I could help her with ninjutsu but it was all instinctive. Her body would move naturally depending on how she wanted to twist her spells. She had learned to make wind blades, a strong gust of wind that would rip small creatures into the air and a backdraft spell allowing her to increase her mobility faster than the haste spell.

Her shadow magic was insanely effective and she gained genjutsu levels faster than everything else because that’s what she focused on. Her favorite trick was to make a shadow version of herself to fight with. At the moment she couldn’t deal damage but most people would flinch if something that resembles human smoke lunges at your eyes. I had kept improving myself but with her new skills, she started to outpace my growth again.

Taijutsu made it so her offensive skills and anything athletic she did would also scale faster because of taijutsu. I bet she regretted her secondary class now. Like before, beast tamer was a hard class to do correctly and we had to wait until winter ended to even have a chance at taming a beast for her. Eventually, we would have another pet in the group… Possibly even more if she could stand the long process of taming beasts.

It wasn’t until a month after winter ended that something big finally happened in the village. A large group of adventurers came and knocked on my door. With a big fake smile, the leader spoke. “Hello, I wasn’t told there was a healer living here. May I come in and speak with you?”