25 A Mothers Worry (1/2)

Once Maisen and I stepped out of the compound, my new bodyguard turned to face me.”I need you to release your party with Kalistra and then party with me,” she requested quietly.

”Do I have to party with you?” I asked.

The warrior's eyes looked deep into mine.”Milord, in order for me to serve properly as your bodyguard, it is essential that I party with you,” she replied.”Look, I understand that you may feel embarrassed about revealing your current level, but there are a number of benefits in being partied with me.First, I will be able to see your pop-ups, including any damage you take and any bad condition or status effect that you receive.Second, if we become separated somehow I would be able to sense your location and find you more quickly.Thus, it is important that we join in a party so that I could do my job to ensure that you stay alive,” she explained.”Otherwise, there is no point in wasting your gold to hire me.”

”Fine,” I shrugged.When the pop-up request screen appeared, I hit, ”Yes.”I took the opportunity to learn more about my bodyguard.The left column showed her avatar and underneath were: ”Title: Bodyguard, Title: Instructor at The Butterfly School of Swordsmanship.”The middle column of her player screen read: ”Name: Maisen, Race: Human, Alignment: Lawful-Neutral, Profession: Swordswoman (Journeyman), Level: 15, Experience: 116,547/120,000, Reputation: 14,389, Attack: 206, Damage: 30-35 (Unarmed),40-50 (Long Sword Specialization), Critical Attack: 18% (Normal), 35% (Long sword), Critical Damage: 300%, Immunity to Electricity: 50%.”The right column read: ”Health: 270, Stamina: 325, Mana: 72, Strength: 30, Intelligence: 18, Wisdom: 15, Dexterity: 20, Constitution: 35, Charisma: 12.”

Even though my bodyguard was five levels lower than Kalistra, somehow Maisen managed to have higher health and stamina than the cat girl.The likely culprit for such difference was probably due to Maisen's higher attributes in Strength and Constitution.But then again, Kalistra had a much greater Dexterity score, and that probably translated into the ungodly 50% chance to incur a critical hit for greater critical damage than Maisen with a long sword.If we were to compare the two fighters, Maisen was more suited as a tank while Kalistra was a more efficient damage dealer.

Fighting prowess aside, I was really surprised to see Maisen's immunity to electricity.I wasn't sure if ”immunity” meant damage reduction or the chance to ignore this type of damage entirely as those were two very different things.But either way, it was a very impressive innate ability that my bodyguard possessed and I couldn't help but wonder how she wound up receiving it.Was she born with it or acquired it somehow via training?I would have to ask her about it later.

I looked at Sister Maisen and saw that she was also busy studying my stats.I had to admit that she was far more powerful than I expected.I noted that she was at the rank of Journeyman at level fifteen while Kalistra was Master-ranked at level twenty.I guessed level twenty was the cutoff to reach the rank of Master and therefore, my bodyguard still had a long way to go.

I also took this opportunity to clear out my very last pop-up messages.The next one read as follows: ”+25 Reputation, +50 XP.”When I accepted Maisen as my bodyguard, my personal reputation with the school increased slightly.I was thoroughly enjoying how rapidly my experience points were accumulating.It was much easier than I expected.I didn't have to fight monsters or go dungeon crawling to earn experience in this gaming world.That being said, I was mindful of the fact that I was exploiting my low character level to generate experience.Once I reached higher character levels, I was concerned that gaining experience would be a rather tedious affair.We will find out soon enough.

The final message read, ”-8 Health.”This must have occurred when I went splat face first on the ground while carrying Gendun on my back.Speaking of Gendun, was he injured when I fell on the ground?”Um, since you were nearby when I fell while carrying Gendun on my back . . . is the boy okay?” I asked with concern.

Maise gave me a reassuring smile.”Gendun is fine.He had his breath knocked out of him when you collapsed on the ground so suddenly.But your body cushioned his fall and he was not injured.May I ask you a personal question?” she asked.

”Sure,” I nodded.

”Why did you elect to train in swordsmanship?With your high intelligence and your innate magic detection ability, you are very well suited to become a mage instead,” she observed.

”True, I suspect that I would make an excellent mage.However, I don't have many friends in this town and I figured that being a warrior would help me stay alive.I do plan to switch professions eventually,” I admitted.

”My younger brother, Maisel, is a mage.Whenever you decide to leave the path of swordsmanship and become a mage instead, I could ask him to consider taking you as his pupil,” she offered.”If he can't teach you himself, Maisel could help you find another suitable teacher as well.”

”Yes, I would appreciate that,” I replied.Suddenly, I thought of an important issue related to professions.”Is there any sort of penalty for switching professions?” I asked.

”Yes and no,” Maisen said.She took a deep breath and started her lecture.”Some non-human races, like the animal people, are limited to one single profession in their lifetime.Since elves are extremely talented as a people, they can have three.The other races are allowed two.Non-humans cannot switch professions.They have to multiclass instead from the very beginning.Humans, on the other hand, are unlimited in the number of professions we can switch to.But we're inherently limited by our shorter natural lifespan compared to most non-human races.The second issue is the cost involved.When we change profession, we cannot use the skills of the old profession until we have accumulated more experience in the new profession than the old one.At that point, we become dual-classed and have access to the skills of the old profession.”

My bodyguard paused to ensure that I was following her.

I nodded for her to continue.

”And as I mentioned before, non-humans have to choose at the outset to become multiclass.The experience required to advance to the next level is doubled for two classes and tripled for three classes.Thus, it becomes much, much harder to multiclass than to dual-class.After a human becomes a dual-class, the experience gain is split among the two classes.And in the rare instance where a human switches to a third class, he would have the same restriction on the use of the previous professions until he gained enough experience in the newest profession.Once that occurs, the experience is split evenly among all the existing classes.While humans do have the advantage in changing professions, we don't live long enough to fully use these additional skills compared to the other races,” she lectured.

I nodded in understanding and turned my thoughts back to Amelica.It must have taken her a long time to regain access to her Songstress skills.

”So where are we going?” my bodyguard asked.”Remember, we must return within the hour,” she reminded me.

”I would like to go back to The Noble Lady.Gendun's mother must be very worried about her son.I want to assure her that her son is doing fine at the dojo.Also, I am renting a room there so my lunch is included,” I noted.

”Okay, let's go!” she said.Maisen allowed me to take the lead and hovered silently behind me as we walked northward.