The answer to how long they'll be out is 45 minutes. That's how long it takes them to get the notifications under control and get past the dizziness. If they're functional, that means they've gotten enough levels to safely be here, even if they're not equipped for it, or capable of clearing it on their own.
"Do you want to do your skills in here and test them now, or take some time to think about them and test them another day?" Cain asks.
"If we can come back that would be great. I've got so many skill points that I could go down two different paths at once, and I don't want to mess my development up with poor choices because I'm in a hurry." One of the Mages says wisely and the other one nods in agreement.
"You'll have to check your inventory afterwards too. It's set to standard loot so the dungeon itself assigns the drops however it feels like. You might have gotten a skill book or a really good piece of armor that will influence your choices." Cain adds and they all look excited as they back out the gate, Cain taking up the final position and dismissing the extra summons as he steps out.
The gate guard has cautioned them not to mention any drops in public, giving essential advice that Cain himself should have done, so they had back to the Guild House to sort their loot.
"That was quick. Got the kids a few levels for the day and came back for a snack?" Ghaz asks when he sees them returning.
"Power Leveling is evil. Pure evil in a way the demons themselves couldn't imagine." Triss responds with a frown and Kone laughs.
"But you're strong now. How did you do on levels anyhow?"
"I got up to level 51 and the Mages are level 54 now. I can't imagine what would happen if we stayed in there all day." Triss laughs, eyes vacant as she looks at her inventory.
"You recovered faster than I would have expected. I thought you'd be out until nearly level 60." Cain grins and the Mages shake their head.
"I would say you should have warned us, but no warning would be sufficient to explain what just happened in that dungeon without seeing it for yourself." The smaller of the Mages adds.
"Get anything good? Everyone here can be trusted."
"I got a Rank C [Greater Rock Shaping] spell. It's amazing for sculptors and architects." One Mage confirms.
"I got a Rank A [Stone Rain] spell that looks pretty good. I don't know if it's any use outside combat, but at least it doesn't clash with the Earth Mages path if I can get an apprenticeship to become a miner or a Smith." The other grins.
"No skill books for me, but I got a sweet piece of armor that reduces stamina usage to half. That could be useful at work." Triss says and Cain can see she's about to equip it.
"Wait, wait. First try, change in a private room. We learned all about wardrobe malfunctions from the Demon Dungeon." Cain reminds her before she can do something dangerous.
She comes out of the back room a few seconds later in a very low cut dress that ends below her knees. The only sign of armor on it is a plate belt, but the way that it sits Cain suspects there's armor underneath.
"It's a chain mail piece, but it fits very well." She nods looking down at herself. It's a fairly bright sky blue with black fur trim around her cleavage. much more normal than Cain had expected from the Beastkin dungeon.
"Looks great on you." Cain smiles, making her blush at the compliment, while everyone else present nods their agreement.
This is the point when Ghaz realizes Triss has no idea what she's doing, and probably hasn't yet allocated her new wealth of skill points. There are a few mistakes he wishes he hadn't made while leveling, as options don't always become visible until you've filled the prerequisites, so he takes her aside to help her plan her path.
As durable as she is now, there's no reason she couldn't do dungeons in Sunnybrook with the Guild if she wanted, or even tag along on Beastkin dungeon runs. Though the way Cain does them, about anyone could join that particular run.
He drops in to see that Ghaz has drawn out a chart of the available skill options he has learned, and that he has learned about from others. Triss never learned the non class skills taught in school, but with as much money as the Guild is making it would be no problem to buy them for her if she wanted to regularly enter the dungeons.
The Class skill list looks fairly comprehensive though, the skills warriors learn in school are mostly variations of things they will learn at a higher level later, and Triss has gained so many levels at once that she can pick a lot.
Tanking definitely isn't her thing, so Ghaz is pointing out the skills that would be most useful to the damage type warriors. they've come up with a pretty good path, and without the wasted skills that are only useful at the start and don't lead to things they will need later, she's got a fair number of points left over once their path is complete.
They are trying to decide between a few durability skills and a very mediocre stamina skill, when Cain points out a path nobody in Ghaz's notes had explored. The brawling path. It starts at level 40 with a damage buff that makes fists gain a big increase in damage, and gives a small strength buff, but that's all that's noted.
"Bartenders throw a lot of drunks out to settle their differences in the street. That might be a useful path for Triss. Plus, every skill costs one point per rank, so getting extra higher level skills is probably a better deal than a bunch of lower level ones while you've got points saved." Cain suggests.
He's got a point, they just don't know what will come once they start into the skill tree. Which makes it a bit of a risk, but one Triss is willing to take, even if it's just for the extra thumping abilities when it's time to knock heads together.
She spends her points for the optimal damage type warrior path and then puts a single point into Brawling to see what happens. There are three levels to the skill, and once they're done the warrior will get access to two more skills. First, an option to put points into grappling, to pin opponents more effectively than the lower level grab skills. Second is the Endurance skill, which gives a lot of base strength and greatly reduces stamina usage. Another very useful one for a barmaid or housekeeper.
The points to into Brawling and then the necessary single point into Endurance. That unlocks the steel skin ability, a single Rank Armor upgrade. Instead, she opts to put a point into grappling next, which lets her see a Dwarf exclusive skill called [Might of Mountains] Every Rank into it increases strength and damage with fists or Gauntlet type weapons until only the very best of swords could keep up with her bare hands.
There's a lower level version of this skill for Swords and Axes that she also took. It's not Dwarf exclusive, but they get a bonus to the modifier with Axes. This is definitely an improvement to her damage potential.
Filling in Grappling and then Might of Mountains uses the last of her points, but she can see there is one more skill in the tree, [Pugilist]. You need to take every previous skill to get it, so only a Dwarf could unlock it, but it increases attack speed and damage even further when bare handed or using fist type weapons.
"So about me not being much of a Warrior. Suppose I could tag along for one more run?" Her question causes both men to burst into laughter. Of course any self respecting Dwarf would prefer to have every skill in the Bar Fighting based tree if given the choice. They should have expected that.
Gramps is curious about what they're doing and puts on a smug grin when Triss explains. The Dark Dwarves consider that the hidden skill tree, as if you put a single point into defensive skills down the Tank type skill path, as almost everyone does while leveling, due to excess points and lack of options at lower levels, it become unavailable beyond the Brawling skill. But with Steel Skin being mandatory to unlock Pugilist, the bare knuckle fighter should still be survivable enough in heavy armor.
There's also a Dwarf exclusive skill set at level 80 for Hammer and Axe damage that she will still be able to take if she makes it that far, but being able to keep the tavern under control is enough for the work minded youngster, at least for now.
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