Nuking the flood on the day after the meeting with Chloe and Therese proceeds as normal for the most part. Though this time again something feels off like there was just a moment ago some movement in the water - and exactly like st time, neither Elly nor [appraise] find something. I give up.

  I did my 6 hours of training, MP is empty from a bit of rain and most of what I see on the fortress map doesn't interest me at the moment. Guess it is time to study again. Pulling an all-nighter like an university student before an important exam. Except that I don't have to deal with the tiredness and fatigue from that.

  Before I can begin reading Elly chimes in, (so I guess I have good-ish news and bad news. The good news is that I've finished restoring Gzeph's files on titles and the css build he wanted you to go for.)

  (And the bad news is that they are empty?)

  (Not quite but close enough. I'd like to go with you over the build file since... there's not much to go over. Out of the maximum of ten csses, I could only restore six, two of which are half guesses. And as for titles... I got only three. Everything else on that is lost to the ages.)

  (Good enough. Tell me what you have. I'll probably ignore it anyway.)

  (Right, so the first one is Wizard which should've been clear already since you both agreed on that during the initial setup.)

  (Yeah, but it's good to know we're at most 90% wrong in what we do.)

  (Second seems to be Cleric, wait let me get you the stats.)

  ClericGrowth Rates40 HP, 38 MP, 27 SP, 6 STR, 4 DEX, 6 VIT, 5 MAG, 8 FTH, 6 WIL, 5 CHA Cure Magic Rank 1Able to use curative spells at rank 1.Basic cure magic costs 500 MP per use, single-target only.The healing effect can freely be split between HP and status damage.A???b???s???o???l???u???t???e???l???y??? ???u???s???e???l???e???s???s??? ???f???o???r??? undead. (What? Did he want to achieve some kind of red mage? Not that I would mind, it is one of my favorite css archetypes in RPGs. And with the 20% penalties, I wouldn't be able to operate as a single-minded specialist anyways.)

  (True that. The biggest benefit I see from this css is already covered by your race - if it wasn't for the restriction through [Undead]. So I guess we can skip that.)

  (I agree with that. The css might have something critical in the two unknown skills though I don't know what that would be. Clerics in games tend to have some form of blunt weapon skills and maybe buffs or a super-effective anti-undead move. For the tter fire magic should work well enough as a substitute, assuming that the real anti-undead power wouldn't rip me to shreds while casting it in the first pce. Blunt weapon... I guess my spear skill or eventually my cws should suffice.)

  (Speaking of - why didn't you try them st time in the dungeon? You weren't using SP for anything else.)

  (I simply didn't think of it. Not that it would've changed much. The damage over time status was enough for even the boss and the fire slimes would've turned me into ash before I get even close enough.)

  (And what about the wolf that never learned about personal space?)

  (I was panicking. I was too certain I'd be safe behind the zone wall. I simply I didn't think of it at the time.)

  (Ok, then next css. I've no idea why that is in there but here goes.)

  Battle MageGrowth Rates39 HP, 45 MP, 32 SP, 6 STR, 5 DEX, 6 VIT, 6 MAG, 5 FTH, 6 WIL, 3 CHA (Choice) Magic Rank 1Gain one Rank 1 Magic skill of a chosen element from:fire, ice, lightning, wind, water, earth, poison, light, darkAlso, gain the elemental affinity for the chosen type. Weapon Magic ActiveAble to infuse a weapon temporarily with a damage spell.The used spell is applied at a third of its original strength on the next 5 weapon attacks. (Uh, why does it dispy the level 5 skill? None of the other csses did so far.)

  (I had a good hard look when we encountered the elite slimes on floor 12.)

  (And why didn't you do the same for Survivor with Chloe?)

  (I did.)

  (...so then why not tell me what I'll gain ter?)

  (They are nothing to write home about but here you go.)

  Trap Lore PassiveEnhances ability to find and disarm traps. Create Food and Water Once per dayCreate one meal's worth of bread and water.(Trap Lore is certainly something I want ASAP. The other... kind of a letdown for what is effectively a mark of mastery.)

  (Hey, not having to worry about starving when lost in the wilderness is certainly useful!)

  (If you can eat the stuff. I can't.)

  (Ok, so back to Battle Mage, hmm... not sure about that one. Too melee heavy for my taste. Sure, if it works as written there I could deal about three times as much damage for the same MP cost by applying a spell to my weapon instead of throwing it directly but that is single-target only. I don't have a 'sword rain' option and I sure as heck am not standing in the middle of the monster flood for a roundhouse ssh.)

  (I get the feeling Gzeph's build pn relies on knowledge we don't have or even runs contrary to the current situation.)

  (I mean it sounds like it would give me a tiny bit more survivability but stat-wise it doesn't look like too much of a difference to what I already have. When even the weakest monster I've seen would deal 150 damage to me after applied defenses a difference of not even 10 HP is meaningless, not to mention the stronger ones that would exceed 1000 damage or like estimated 2000 damage for the fire casting slimes.)

  (Yeah, so next is the st of the regur csses I could identify from his pn.)

  SchorGrowth Rates29 HP, 27 MP, 43 SP, 4 STR, 5 DEX, 6 VIT, 6 MAG, 5 FTH, 6 WIL, 8 CHA Quick LearningPassive20% bonus to combat exp gain. (20% more exp should be big if I survive long enough. It would eventually just pay for itself. Like if I had this and five other csses I'd effectively level Schor for free. Doesn't even matter if the two unknown skills are crap. That and decent stats, I'm sold. Add it to the list. Though how does the +20% interact with my 50% penalty? Additive or multiplicative?)

  (I think it is additive, so times 1.4 your current exp gain.)

  (Even better. I definitely want that css then.)

  (Just remember that you can have 10 csses at most and still need the 'Css Cores' for them.)

  (Eh, I think it is more important to get out of the early game hell and through the mid-game crisis than worry about an optimal endgame setup. By then I will most likely have so many different active skills that I can't use just because of action economy and the passive skills I've seen so far would probably be less worth than just the stats from one or two extra levels in ten csses.)

  (Ok, then on to the two elite csses I could decipher.)

  (What's the difference to regur csses?)

  (Just that they require you to have a simir enough regur css already. Like you can't become an archpriest without being already a priest or comparable css. Also by default you can only have three elite csses total.)

  (Gotcha. Are they simply stronger than their regur counterparts or why else are they locked off that way?)

  (You should think of them more like specializations. They build upon skills a suitable base css provides. Imagine a made-up css like a spell master, it doesn't come with any elemental magic skill of its own but instead makes it easier to chain cast spells or lets you exclude allies from aoe attacks or something. So the css by itself is near useless unless you already have a css with a magic skill.)

  (I guess that makes sense.)

  Aerial MageElite cssGrowth Rates23 HP, 42 MP, 49 SP, 3 STR, 4 DEX, 3 VIT, 8 MAG, 7 FTH, 6 WIL, 6 CHA Magical WingsConcentrationUser can generate magical wings if they have none.The style of wings can be freely chosen.Flight consumes (20 - skill level/10) MP and SP per second. (Flight would be nice to have but a mere thirty seconds won't get me anyway right now and then I don't have enough MP left to do something worthwhile.)

  (I think the same.)

  (Do I need another regur css first or does Wizard suffice?)

  (That should be enough.)

  (Hmm... ok, but I'll wait on that one. The stats seem below average and currently flight wouldn't do too much for me because it is way too expensive.)

  (And for the other elite css I got the file listed them as 'Fortress or Moon Knight'. Seems like they both perform the same niche Gzeph wanted to fill.)

  (Ok, show them to me.)

  FortressElite cssGrowth Rates58 HP, 12 MP, 37 SP, 5 STR, 2 DEX, 9 VIT, 2 MAG, 1 FTH, 8 WIL, 4 CHA Armor TrainingPassiveCan equip medium and heavy armor.Increase effective VIT by (skill level) while equipped with medium or heavy armor.

  Moon KnightElite cssGrowth Rates50 HP, 33 MP, 25 SP, 5 STR, 5 DEX, 8 VIT, 5 MAG, 6 FTH, 5 WIL, 4 CHA Luna Barrier500 MPCreate a barrier around either self or target ally.The barrier can absorb up to (FTH + 5 x skill level) HP damage.Barriers do not stack and st at most 5 minutes. (I guess this is what the melee mage css was for then, a prerequisite for this duo.)

  (That might be the case.)

  (Not sold on them. Don't get me wrong they give almost double the HP and VIT as my current csses but that is basically already everything they do for me stat-wise. And deciding based on one mediocre first skill doesn't seem like a good idea. Fortress' armor training doesn't seem worth also taking battle mage if I could just get it directly from a regur knight css. And blindly guessing that the css is worth it for the two hidden skills seems wasteful.)

  (The barrier one doesn't seem that bad to me. Costs the same as cure magic and undoes about just as much damage.)

  (Maybe but that would cost almost half my MP pool currently, let's say a third if I had the levels to take it. And how much damage would that really prevent? Not even half of one of the bigger attacks we've seen, more like a quarter. If I take it it would make more sense as like the seventh css so I can build up enough MP and FTH to make it usable.)

  (So do you want to just go full in on a gss cannon build then?)

  (Not really. But short term there's just too much bullshit that can one-shot me and there's no guarantee I can get another core. This one is the st they had, the truth gem verified as much. So the best I can do would be taking something like the Battle Mage which is just 9 extra HP compared to my main css. That is too little if I have to face attacks dealing upwards of 2000 damage, at least that's what I imagine the fire-spitting slimes would have dealt to me. That css doesn't even make a dent into that problem. The better option would be to get something that massively increases how much damage I can deal to the flood monsters. That would let me level quicker and get me the difference in HP just through raw extra levels. Remember, I just have ONE core. Pnning for two, three or even four is a luxury I can't count on. So that one css I choose has to count, Elly.)

  (I understand, that sounds like a reasonable point of view.)

  (Which brings me back to what I said in the dungeon: I want some kind of summoning skill or something that lets me create disposable minions. Depending on how exactly they work it might be just what I need to get significantly more exp per day while still providing a safety net for the dungeon.)

  (Gotcha, wait a second, let me quickly check the csses tab... ok, those would be your base css options according to the search filter.)

  CallerGrowth Rates24 HP, 32 MP, 19 SP, 4 STR, 5 DEX, 5 VIT, 7 MAG, 7 FTH, 8 WIL, 9 CHA Summon Spirit Rank 1500 MP upkeep per css of summoned creatureCreate a spirit ally.The spirit can have any race and up to 3 base csses the user knows.Each of its csses and races has a level of (1% CHA + 2x skill rank).Compared to a normal creature HP, MP and SP are reduced by 30%.Spirits can generate special equipment if needed, these items grant no stats.Once a spirit is summoned its race and csses can no longer be changed, only further csses added, limits permitting.Spirits can't die, instead when they reach 0 HP they have to rest in their owner for a week, during this time the upkeep can't be canceled.The owner can create a total of (2 + skill level /10) different spirits.

  InvokerGrowth Rates25 HP, 33 MP, 22 SP, 4 STR, 5 DEX, 4 VIT, 8 MAG, 7 FTH, 7 WIL, 9 CHA Summon Spirit Rank 1

  SummonerGrowth Rates23 HP, 40 MP, 17 SP, 4 STR, 4 DEX, 5 VIT, 7 MAG, 8 FTH, 8 WIL, 8 CHA Summon Spirit Rank 1 (Ok, so they start with the same skill and stat wise they are close enough as well. No idea what any of them has as a second or third skill so just blind guessing, great. The summon spirit thing looks complicated, a bigger rule book than even undead but most likely useful. I'd take whichever css I can use first. One point off in either direction doesn't change much when I need hundreds. Add that to the to-do list as well.)

  (Affirmative.)

  (So with that out of the way nothing in Jeff's css list suggests to me that it would strengthen status effects. As strong as they were so far I'd like to look for a css that goes even more in that direction. Especially if it would enable me to nd some status via mass aoe spells.)

  (You did quite a 180 in your opinion on status effects since the beginning, Jared.)

  (Just think about it. Imagine rain spells that have enough status effect power behind them to inflict damage over time effects. Instead of just tickling hundreds of targets for single-digit damage per drop they'd be sent to their grave or at least have to retreat and seek treatment if their intelligence allows.)

  (I think I know the right skill for that, give me a second I'll check the css overview for a css that grants it... hmm, no, doesn't seem like we know of any css yet that gets the skill.)

  (What exactly do you mean by 'know' in this context?)

  (The css search tab lists all csses you could potentially ever take. Things like monsters or race-locked csses do not appear in there. For each of those csses you can by default see the stat growth rates and the first skill.)

  (Yeah, I saw that. And the level 5 and 15 skills are just listed as 'unlocked at level x'.)

  (Yes, but you can fill in those skills just by appraising someone that has the skill at a high enough level.)

  (Ah, so that's a common feature and not just another of your cheats?)

  (Correct. So the skill we're looking for is this:)

  Ailment BoostPassiveIncrease the status infliction rate of your skills and spells by (2 + skill level/15).Lowers the effective rate threshold where status infliction automatically fails from 10% to 5%.(Huh, that would expin why the status rain failed. I think it was 40 base rate times 5% for rain shape so that is 2 maybe slightly more if my stats come into py. That is way below the 10% threshold so it auto fails.)

  (Indeed, I interpret it the same way.)

  (So with the passive I'd be at 4% at least, some more levels and I'd get past the then 5% hurdle. Once I do get past it the exp would flow in a lot faster while I can just nuke such a flood with it.)

  (I think the chance is affected by MAG or for mind effects CHA.)

  (Then I think a css with [Ailment Boost] would be my top priority once we've found one.)

  (I'll keep on the lookout.)

  (Do that.)

  If I have access to ailments or debuffs how is strengthening magic looking?

  (How's the flip side of that coin? Would we know something about buffs?)

  (Umm... that's a very open-ended question. From what I can see probably around a third of all skills would fall into that category one way or another.)

  (Then please give me three examples for buffs that you find on csses I could take right away. Out of the avaible ones show me the stronger ones.)

  (Sure, one moment.)

  Benediction400 MP upkeepIncrease 2 base stats of choice by (3% FTH + skill level) points.Affects up to (2 + skill level / 7) allies, can include the user.(So, uh, +7? That's the best we can do?)

  (It would take some time but it would eventually get really strong. By like level 15 you would increase two stats by about 30 for 4 targets so 240 points total.)

  (Hmm... that is nothing for now. What else is there?)

  Defense OrderConcentrationUser and allies within hearing range receive (1 + skill level / 20)% x CHA to VIT and WIL.(Concentration is problematic, I need that for my [Disguise]. But it might be a decent increase when I get it above level 20 and have a group I trust enough that I don't need the disguise. Are there any buffs that are good upfront?)

  (None that you could make much use of but there's something like this here.)

  Blessed WeaponConcentrationRepeat 20% of inflicted melee damage again as light elemental damage.(A little bit hard to understand but I think I get the effect. No counterparts for magic to this?)

  (There are some skills that affect or modify spells to an extent but not as a first skill so I can't find a fitting css.)

  (Got an example for my curiosity?)

  (Sure.)

  Overload SpellConcentrationWhen casting a damage spell sacrifice HP equal to the MP cost to increase the spell's power by 50%.(Honestly, if I'm in one-shot range anyway this would let me get at least some use out of HP. But long term? I'd rather not.)

  (Understandable. Anything else you want to check while we are at it?)

  (No, I think I'm good for now. At least I can't think of anything we haven't yet failed to find.)

  I have to let this information sink in, (so I think we have to keep looking for a css with [Ailment Boost]. That would probably do the most for me if I can get over the 5% threshold on status rain spells with higher MAG.)

  (Sure.)

  (Eventually, I want Aerial Mage as well but that must wait until I have a bigger MP and SP pool. Before that, it would just be a near dead skill slot. That leaves schor and a summoning css...)

  (I'd honestly say you should go for summons first. Schor might give you an effective 40% exp gain increase but the majority of exp you gained in the dungeon is currently not yet from killing monsters but still from learning or reading. And disposable minions as scouts would probably allow you to get further - or at least spare me some heart attacks.)

  (Makes sense to me. Elly, do we have any idea how steep the stat requirements of the summoning csses are? Just in case we find a css with [Ailment Boost] before meeting them.)

  (There was actually a formu for that in Gzeph's notes. If it is correct the overall stat requirements increase with the number of csses you have so if you collect too many low CHA csses before it might not be possible anymore to take a summoning css in a reasonable amount of time.)

  (Good, I'll keep that in mind. Can you show me the formu?)

  (Sure, just one moment.)

  The base requirements for each stat are:(target css's stat) x 10 x (2 + number of already unlocked csses) x (90% + 10% x number of already unlocked csses)30% less with a trainer(So, tl;dr if your first css has a near-zero value in a stat you'll never branch out of that archetype?)

  (More or less. A warrior will probably never get any magic csses but a high-level wizard may take a warrior css. The world isn't fair.)

  (At least it is unfair to my advantage for once.)

  (Wait, it just says trainer, not matching trainer?)

  (Uh, I guess that was just sloppy writing on Gzeph's part.)

  (Ok, so any idea what the biggest bottleneck for taking any of the summoning csses is?)

  (Let's see... it seems to be CHA. For Summoner, you'd need 352 CHA or 247 if a miracle occurred and you find a trainer for it. The other two need 396 CHA or 278 trained. The remaining stats should be trivial in comparison.)

  (That's... a long way off. What if I took another css first? How bad would it be then?)

  (The requirement would rise to 480 CHA for Summoner, untrained of course.)

  (352 to 480... 128 extra. So about 20 levels total extra if all csses had at least a CHA growth of 6? Yeah, I better take that early then.)

  (So, uh, next we can talk about titles?)

  (No, keep that for tomorrow or the day after. That was enough info dump for today.)

  (Sure, no problem.)

  3QGN73