One More day

Riley decided to pick the Botanist subclass. And they forgot to share with us the actual attributes that they would gain, but apparently they would be getting more Energy and Mind as they leveled up. One thing that seemed to be unique about subclasses was that, unlike main classes, they didn't have any negatives on the attributes.

At least not when picking the class. According to Riley, or more specifically to Riley's System, this happened because subclasses didn't really mesh much with attributes. So saying that it was going to have a reduced effect in one attribute or another didn't make sense. Although there was the possibility of in the future, once we were dealing with Tier 2, maybe 3 or higher classes, then that reduction would be there. But it would be much less prevalent than it was for the main class.

Anyway, they were offered two skills. The first was something called {Phytotherapy}, which allowed them to understand the compounds a bit better and use that knowledge to create various concoctions. Very much a potion-making or medicine making skill. Although it didn't help with the actual process of making the medicine, it just made it easier for the witch to understand how things were supposed to work together.

The second skill was something called {Essence Extraction}. And by spending some Energy, Riley was able to turn plants of certain sizes into either paste, powder, or oil. They already had a similar skill to that, but now it was more directed and improved.

The other skill would just let them speed up processes that could be done by hand. This version was more powerful than that and would result in better quality after going through that effect. It also helped a lot that the plants in question didn't need to be inside Riley's hands anymore. If they wanted, they could just trigger the skill while they were holding it or placing it inside a vial.

Apparently, those were all the skills that were offered, which the witch took both right away. What they really wanted was some version of a skill that would help them create potions with the materials they already had on hand, but it felt like something more advanced. For starters, they were going to use this and be very happy about it.

Learning about their choices only made the rest of us even more excited about our own subclasses. I tried asking the System for more information about how to get one, but the response was always the same.

[If user does something that is not directly related to the class, user can acquire a subclass.]

And it didn't seem like it had to be something that we did for a very long time. After all, Riley spent just a couple of days working on the spell circles and already managed to get it. Even if we were to consider that the subclass was something that came from their previous experiences.

But in the end, we also had one more option to get information about subclasses. And that was our dear Rodenti companion. He was clearly aware of the existence of subclasses, and the likely scenario was that he already knew more information about it than we did.

While Riley was playing with their new skills, we shifted our attention to Rex who, after understanding that the silk witch came running just to talk about subclasses, started to walk away and went back to helping the Rodenti in the village to build some houses and repair a few others that were broken down. This wasn't something that Rex's sister caused. These were issues they were having due to the passage of time and the lack of people with the right skill set to fix that.

"So, Rex," I spoke as the three of us arrived in the area that he was working. "Can we ask for some advice?"

The Rodenti nodded. "Of course, friend. Rex happy to help."

I smiled and walked closer to the Rodenti while he was moving around some large pieces of rock. This was an area of the village that had been falling into disrepair, and the best way to go about things here was to break the houses down and build them again. It would take Rex a couple of weeks to finish it all by himself, but the people of the village were just asking for him to demolish the houses. And that could be done in the matter of hours thanks to his skills. It was safer for him to do it than for them to have people actually trying to break down the walls, risking a cave in. Which made a lot of sense and it was a good reason for him to be here helping.

"I know you got a bit upset since Riley was talking about secondary classes and you already knew what they were, but do you mind explaining to us about it? We are not entirely sure how to actually get them," I asked.

"Okay, and?" Rex said without looking away from his work.

"We were kind of hoping that you could give us some hints about how to get a subclass," Michael added.

Rex shook his head. "Never got one."

"But you must know something about it, right?" I asked.

"Only what was told."

"Okay, that's more than we know. Do you mind telling what that was?"

"Not sure if helps, but sure. You get subclass if you work with something you like. Something different from class. Can happen quick, can take time. Nothing can do to change."

"There is really no way for us to speed up that? No way for us to get the subclass faster?"

Rex just shook his head. "Don't know."

We tried to ask him a few more times, hoping that there was something we were missing, but according to him, there was nothing else we could do. It was just something that would come with time and all we had to do was live until then. As frustrated as I felt with that answer, there wasn't really anything else we could do.

We kept workshopping some ideas, trying to come up with a way to get the subclasses among ourselves while Rex continued his work building and demolishing the houses. After almost 2 hours of discussion, which took part during dinner, Astrid stood up with an expression of certain realization.

"Did you figure something out?" I asked.

Astrid turned to me with a smile and said, "Yes."

"What should we do then?"

"Follow Rex."

"What?" Michael frowned.

She just started walking away, talking to a few other Rodenti and vanishing into one of the houses. A part of me wanted to follow her and figure out what she was talking about, but somehow I felt like I should leave her be. She had a look in her eye that inspiration had struck, and I wasn't entirely sure if my interference could remove that feeling or not.

"What do you think she meant by that?" Michael turned towards me as he took a bite of another mushroom.

I frowned. "I don't know. Maybe we should start building houses or..." I paused. "We should do something."

Michael rolled his eyes. "Yeah. I know we should do something, but like what?"

"She's talking about instead of being here talking about how to get a subclass, we should figure out something that we like to do, something that we want to do, and just do it. The subclass will come later."

Astrid came out of that building carrying the pelt of a wolf. She had a big smile on her face and was walking along one of the elderly Rodenti, who seemed to be talking to her.

"Something tells me she's going to start making clothes again," I said.

"Again?" Michael frowned.

I nodded. "Yeah. She made this."

I tapped on the cloak that was on my back. It was the same Pelt of Frost that she had made using the fur of the Ice Devil. That was the first big monster we ever fought together. The Pelt could protect us and make sure we were always comfortable in hard weathers. Even if it was cold. And I was very happy with the results. I could only imagine that Astrid was too, and she was going to try to make new versions of this. Or something along those lines.

Michael nodded. "Okay, then she's going to be making us clothes, Riley's going to be making potions and medicine and stuff. That leaves us two to do what?"

"I don't know. I need to think about what I want to do. You know?"

"Yeah, me too," Michael stared at Astrid for a moment, "You know, I'm the one who used to make weapons back in the village whit my parents. Hunting tools. Spears and hatchets, things like that."

"Did you like it?" I asked.

"It kind of sucked if I had to do the same thing over and over again, but trying to make different things could be interesting. And like..." he glanced at Astrid, still following that elderly Rodenti. "We know now that we can make some more interesting stuff with weapons. Maybe I should be our blacksmith." He smiled.

But I couldn't hold back a chuckle. "I really don't think smiting is the right thing to do now. Can you imagine how many Eaters the heat is going to attract?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that sucks. But if we can find some kind of blades made in the old world, maybe I could fashion something to match it. And now that you're talking about it, you gave me an idea. Your {Compression} skill can change the size of pretty much anything, right?"

I nodded. "Pretty much. There are some size limitations, but they're pretty generous."

"So what if I start making really big weapons, like stuff that would need to be used by giants, and then we use {Compression} to make them all smaller and more sturdy?"

"You do need to keep in mind the weight. My skill changes the size, not the mass. So if you use a giant log to make a dagger, the dagger is still going to weigh like the giant log."

"But do you think it's possible?"

"Honestly, I don't see why not. And I'm glad you managed to figure something out. Now it's my turn." I sighed. "Don't you have something you want to do?"

"Maybe. The first thing that comes to mind, if we're talking about complimenting our abilities, is for me to enchant weapons or maybe accessories. Like earrings and stuff with spells. But that's something that we don't even know if it's possible, and I'm not into that kind of manual work," I replied.

"If you want some help to figure something out, let me know. I'm going to talk to a few of the Rodenti, see if I can make them some weapons just to start things out."

"Sure, go ahead. I'll try to think about something. It just kind of sucks that by the looks of it, we're going to stay here for at least one more day now. The last thing I would want was to have deprived Rex of his possible subclass, or any of you, for that matter."

"Well, Astrid and I can probably do that anywhere, but Rex, yeah, making houses. If it's going to be an architect subclass or something, he kind of needs the village to practice," Michael glanced in the direction our rodenti companion was. He was still working, even while eating.

Michael finished eating and moved out, leaving me alone sitting on this makeshift table. It was basically some rubble that Rex had cleared out and we were using it to hold our food while we ate. Tables weren't something that really existed here, as the Rodenti, or at least from this village, didn't really use furniture to eat. They tended to eat on the ground using their hands. We were the ones who had to prepare some forks, bowls, and stuff like that for us to eat comfortably.

But for the first time in a very long time, I was feeling a bit left out. All of my companions, my friends, were off doing their own thing. All the while I was here sitting alone while trying to figure out what I could do to improve and survive the attack on an Eater's nest.

I took another bite of the mushrooms, realizing they were very tasty, especially considering that they didn't have all that much experience in making and cooking this time of food. I still wasn't quite sure the type of subclass that I wanted to get. And maybe being the accessory maker, the jeweler, or something like that could help. Those kinds of things work like they would in a game, giving us extra skills or extra attribute points. But it felt too abstract.

For now, I figured I was going to try to learn something a bit different from that. Something that could help us a bit more in our daily life. After finishing my meal, I took my plate to the small creek that was being used to wash stuff and met with the cook of the night. It was a middle-aged Rodenti couple who were always the ones responsible for food, even before we showed up here. But they refused to go with Rex's sister since this was their home and they had no intention of leaving people behind.

"Hi there," I said.

Both of them were a bit surprised by my greeting, but unlike a good amount of them, they greeted me back.

"Hello, Cassandra. Can we help?" the woman asked.

"Maybe. You see, we travel a lot and we're probably going to travel soon. I was wondering if you could give me some pointers on how to make meals be a bit more tasty with little to nothing in resources. While camping outside, and it's kind of hard to take time to make anything. I was hoping I could have some pointers about cooking from you to make it a bit more pleasant for us, instead of it just being something that we have to do."

The two of them nodded with wide smiles and quickly started talking about the various things that I could do to improve the flavor of the meal. Once more, I was really glad about having the System, since without it I doubt I would be able to remember everything they were telling me.

While I was being lectured about spices and the proper way to cook certain parts of things, I was still thinking about the possibilities for myself. Maybe I could figure out a subclass soon.