Evolution of a Healer

Of course it was an Arachi in charge of the storeroom. Thankfully Cyn had arrived with Hex, who spared no time telling the creature what they were after, so she did not have to get over how uneasy the multi-limbed humanoids made her. If she had been alone, she might have just decided to come back later in an effort to avoid interaction. It was perfectly polite, if a bit surprised they would be getting started on professions so quickly, and had no reservations about showing them the carefully stored profession stones. When it spoke it was with a slurred accent, and frequently making small chittering sounds, as if its mouth was not really made for speech.

Since, much like the weapons during their class selection, the stones were activated by touch, they were carefully stored to avoid accidental touching.A glass display case with nine separated sections, each section having a small metal knob to pull open the door, housed the profession stones. The stones looked almost like totally normal river stones, all smoothed edges and small enough to be held in Cyn’s palm. The only thing that made them stand out was the prominent rune carved or painted onto one side of each one. Hex had seemingly already found what he was looking for, and by the time she got around to using Inspect on the first stone the Rogue was opening one of the small glass doors.

Builder - A root profession focused on the creation of structures. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Builders will gain +2 Strength, +1 Mind, +1 Agility and +1 free point when leveling up.

How delightfully vague. Not as if that was a pattern or anything. Could this even be used for combat? She could imagine a builder quickly putting up defensive barricades, or a structure for ranged combatants to fight with a height advantage. Or just a more comfortable camp while traveling. Fighting well rested would definitely have an advantage over the aches and pains that came with laying on the bare ground. But it felt like Builder was a profession based more on living as a society. Hex was already gone, so Cyn moved on to Inspect the next stone.

Smith - A root profession focused on creations using primarily metal. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Smiths will gain +3 Strength, +1 Agility and +1 free point when leveling up.

While the explanation was not any more clear than Builder, at least Cyn could make a good educated guess at what a Smith could do. Armor and weapons definitely. Not useful to her most likely, but she could see Scott or Sam taking this one.

Cook - A root profession focused on edible and drinkable creations. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Cooks will gain +1 Vitality, +2 Mind, +1 Will and +1 free point when leveling up.

Cyn now knew why Hex was able to get in and out of here so fast, what the Rogue knew he wanted was in the top row. They probably would not want to have the same professions, so Cyn moved on.

Tailor - A root profession focused on creations using various types of cloth. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Tailors will gain +2 Mind, +2 Agility and +1 free point when leveling up.

Stereotypical RPG Tailor would make armor for light classes, like Mage, and just clothing in general. They would also likely make household goods like blankets and rugs. Definitely a solid option for a Mage, and decent stat allocations, so she would keep it in mind when making her final profession selection.

Creature Handler - A root profession focused on understanding non-humanoid creatures. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Creature Handlers will gain +2 Vitality, +1 Will, +1 Agility and +1 free point when leveling up.

This was an odd one. In a broader sense, Cyn could see this being for animal husbandry. Understanding livestock would go a long way to making them happy, and happy livestock produced well. But what about combat? Did ‘understanding’ here mean the ability to communicate? Or just an expedited process of learning what could normally be achieved through observation, like behavior patterns and weak spots? Cyn could see this leading to a sort of animal companion to fight with you, though the idea of sending a hound after something like the Illuminated Harvesters seemed absurd. Not sure what to make of it, Cyn just used Inspect on the next stone.

Leatherworker - A root profession focused on creations using primarily creature remains. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Leatherworkers will gain +1 Strength, +3 Agility and +1 free point when leveling up.

Like Tailor this was another standard profession Cyn expected to see. Unlike Tailor, she did not see this working out as an advantage for her as a mage. She wasn’t keen on working with dead animal parts, anyway.

Socialite - A root profession focused on understanding humanoids. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Socialites will gain +5 free points when leveling up.

Five free points on level up. Cyn could only assume that meant Socialite was a particularly broad profession, and having dedicated stat allocations was not feasible. Not even talking about how this could possibly help them fight, she found the idea of being a Socialite wildly unappealing. She wasn’t a loner, but she also had never been a particularly social person. Plus, like Builder, this one just seemed skewed towards living in a society as a whole. Five free points though, was tempting.

Jeweler - A root profession focused on creations that use gems and precious stones as foci. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Jewelers will gain +2 Agility, +1 Mind, +1 Will and +1 free point when leveling up.

Not entirely what Cyn would have expected for the description of a Jeweler. The base idea she anticipated was there obviously, with the mention of gems and precious stones, but the idea that using them as foci, presumably for some kind of effect, instead of just making jewelry and accessories was interesting. A Jeweler presumably made her diadem, and she could imagine herself being able to improve it, or making other items with useful effects. Jeweler was going on the back burner while Cyn looked at the final profession stone.

Woodworker- A root profession focused on creations using primarily wood and plant fibers. Root professions are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Woodworkers will gain +2 Strength, +2 Agility and +1 free point when leveling up.

Bows and arrows were the only things that came to mind with being a Woodworker, and she was just not interested. She was surprised to see no options for alchemy or enchanting. It could be that Cogtopia just did not have stones for those professions, although it would be pretty weird since they had one for Woodworker, and Cyn doubted that could be more useful than alchemy with what looked like limited flora. More likely, she reasoned, alchemy could stem from Cook. What are potions if not drinkable creations? She had actually kind of hoped to find enchanting as an option, since her limited experience with enchanted items made it seem like there were interesting effects. Perhaps they were limited to being given out by the System, or linked to one of the other root professions in a way she did not understand.

That left Cyn with the options of Tailor, Creature Handler, and Jeweler. In her eyes, Tailor was a given. Mages wore light clothes and armor, and that's exactly what a Tailor makes. Its downside was that it would likely have limited usefulness for her party. A cloth armor piece probably would not be high in strength or agility, Cyn reasoned. She could maybe make items that made camping more comfortable, and stitch up their civilian clothes until they could find or make more useful gear. It also felt like the kind of thing she might have to sit down and just dedicate herself to for a while in order to make anything useful. Not that that was a bad thing, especially since it was probably true for all of the professions, but Cyn had done some sewing in her life and would not call it an activity she was thrilled by the idea of doing regularly. It was kind of boring. Being kind of boring weakened its viability in her eyes, but it was still a solid option.

Creature Handler was just odd overall. She had almost dismissed it outright, but the amount of possible skills and effects really called to her. And what could she say, Cyn loved animals. As long as those animals were not spiders. She even liked most bugs, as long as they had less or more than eight legs. It also had stats she liked more then Tailor or Jeweler, propping up her weaker vitality and agility. The +1 mind she did not feel strongly about, but only two of the professions gave vitality on level up at all, and she did not intend to be a Cook like Hex. The very large downside was that she was working with assumptions on limited knowledge, and in that regard she could not even tell if this would be more of a benefit to her, like Tailoring was, or to her party. If it was useful at all.

Jeweler did not look like it would suffer from being boring, or from only being useful to Cyn herself. It did however suffer the same problem as Creature Handler, in that she was really stretching assumptions while evaluating it. Her only example of work from a possible Jeweler was her diadem, and ultimately she did not even know if that was a standard she should be basing her decision off of. What if her gift from the Arcane Hall was a crazy advanced craft, and a ‘normal’ Jeweler could not make anything like it? She also felt like she could not directly ask anyone a question like that, because she would likely have to come up with excuses as to why she did not know much of anything. If more people found out they were living inside of a dungeon, like Kreeble had, because she was asking super weird questions about general knowledge, who knows what could happen? If she found out she wasn’t real, that would probably make her act irrationally and recklessly. If that held true to even a small percent of the population here it could make things far more difficult for them.

Maybe she should go back and talk to her party about the options and see what everyone else thought? It was tempting, but no one seemed to have a problem with her and Hex going to pick out professions first, even though it functionally meant Cyn had first pick. Hex didn’t count since they all already knew what he was going to do. Plus, Kreeble had made it clear that because she was a root human, choosing a profession was not just about what was useful to her right now. It would have a ripple effect on everything else about her, and on her future as a whole. Short term they might suffer a disadvantage for having the same professions, but long term they would likely evolve differently. Was getting through the short term the only thing she should be caring about?

They were also going home at some point, and Cyn doubted the world would be exactly the same as when they left. She refused to consider the possibility that they would not all make it out, but in the future she might not always be fighting alongside the same people. In that case, her carefully chosen profession would become just a part of her total kit, no longer carefully tailored to work with a set group.

So which one of these did she actually want to do? That had an easy answer, surprisingly, and Cyn opened the case to grasp her chosen profession stone before she could continue to think herself into further indecisiveness. The familiar full body warmth spread out from her skull, just like when she chose her class, and she felt herself receiving notifications as her profession locked in. I am going to pet all the things!

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