125 2.30 SBAT – Party Role – Ranged DD

Flora finished the weapon talent assessment with + 1 OV in all three foci and the combat tool. After she figured out the right mixture of speed and accuracy at the intent focus trial and that she would get bonus points for using two weapons at once, the other magical weapons were easy.

The fairy led her to the next test, the Party Role Assessment.

The room wasn't much bigger than one of Flora's boxes. Five portals and the exit lined the walls.

**************

Party Role Assessment

Choose the portal to experience the party role. Follow the party leader's orders.

1. Group Fight

2. Boss Fight

3. Assessment for receiving the Legacy Class

Use your own skills or the skills I will provide.

Use your own equipment or the equipment I will provide.

You may skip or repeat any phase or portal.

**************

"What's a Legacy Class?"

"Via a legacy, you get the class and all its skills without doing any learning, usually by opening a scroll, Milady. The Analyst Class Robby gave you was a legacy. In this case, each of the three main party roles has a class. You have to prove that you are mildly proficient in the execution of the position to receive the class. The assessment is very easy, Milady." Aidan said. "By the way, clan Riverstones requires of its squad members that they have two party role classes."

"We will get all! Let's start with the easiest." Flora inspected the signboards above the portals: Tank, Ranged DD, Melee DD, Healer, Support. "Which is the easiest?"

"Opinions differ, Milady. However, a majority thinks Ranged DD."

Flora nodded and went through the portal. She landed in an antechamber with weapon and equipment racks and two domineering boards.

>>>

Temporary class: Arcane Mage

Branch: Magic

Passive: + 1 Training efficiency modifier for arcane spells

Active: No Magical Regeneration Penalty in Combat

STA: Magic Missiles

AOE: Arcane Rain

DEF: Magic Shield

MOV: Blink

SIG: Arcane Spring

Taught by the Halls of Magic, Zauberberg and Branch Talpica

Touch the board to receive the class temporarily for undertaking the test. Activate the skills by saying the name or mentally pressing the corresponding button in your HUD.

<<<

"Look at the Active, Aidan! That means I have full mana reg even in combat, right? I need the class for the active bonus alone. Aito, find out whether a class with the corresponding physical reg bonus exists."

Flora concentrated on the skills to get more information. The first three were the usual Bolt, Rain and Shield spells she knew from the elemental mage classes. Blink was a short-range teleportation skill but shared cooldown with the 7-Mile Step. Only when reading the last one, Arcane Spring, Flora's eyebrows rose.

Name: Arcane Spring

Description: Activates Access Leylines and fills you with magical energy. Your spells cost half the mana and produce more damage. Moving won't break the effect.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Duration: 10 seconds.

Range: Self

Flora touched the sign, and five buttons for the spells appeared in her head-up display. Curious, she pressed against Magic Missiles with her mind. Blue silver energy sprang out of her hand and hit the floor and her thigh.

"Woa!" Flora shrieked and jumped to the side while her hand shot uncontrolled missiles through the room. "Make it stop!"

The spell ended, and Flora regulated her breathing.

"Horrible, just horrible. The worst way to cast spells by far!" Flora muttered while waiting for her heart to calm down. "Don't they know that dangerous buttons should be colored red?"

"I can change their color, if you like, Milady."

"I'm just trying to deflect my own stupidity, dear; no need for changes."

Flora tested the buttons again and also the voice activation.

"That won't do. I want the class and the real spells." Flora opened her skills. "Do we have any arcane spells as templates?"

"All spells are arcane, Milady. The category is for skills, which have no elemental effects and don't operate directly with the subject or object. There is no Arcane Affinity, either."

"Kind of a residual wastebasket? Oh no, I don't want to call my sweet little darlings waste." Flora inspected Acid Ball. "I just cut out all the elemental stuff, and we'll see what happens."

**************

You gained a new skill: Magic Missiles.

Description: Pure magic to hurt your enemies.

Cooldown: None

Range: 15 meter

Spell gets integrated into your "Magic Bolt" skill.

**************

Flora repeated the action for Magic Rain and Magic Shield.

"One more needed for acquiring the class. Hmm." Flora analyzed 7-Mile-Step, but her experience with Trick skills was low, and she couldn't identify the different components of the diagram. "We have to ask somebody for it. That cute blond friend of Mia with the impressive ice elemental knows it, but I would prefer contacting someone from the clan. Who might have the spell?"

"BBQ Grillmaster 99%, Ponda Pottom 75%, Dice Swifticle 75%. I haven't included the members of squad 3-2 in the analysis because I thought you prefer to contact people you already know."

"Excellent. Call BBQ."

"Heeeeeellllloooooo?" Grillmaster appeared in Flora's communication window in slow motion.

"Oh, dang. I'm in time dilation!" Flora exclaimed. She concentrated on speaking slow and precise. "Huhu, dear. I want to trade for Blink. I have all the elemental standard spells. Are you interested?"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I'm busy at the moment. Can we speak another time about it?"

"Sure. Or could you show it to me for 5 seconds, and I owe you a favor additionally to the spell?"

"Uhm… okay."

The firehealer opened the diagram for Flora.

<Blink>

Flora vanished and reappeared two meters away, flashing a thumbs up. She wiped the system messages about the mage class away and thanked BBQ before ending the call.

"Aidan, get rid of the temporary stuff and integrate the new class in my tree."

"We can connect it through Magical Healer if you would unlock the arcane healing spells, Milady."

After Flora cast the required skills, she looked at the second board. It provided the temporary skills for the Marksperson class. Because Flora already had it, she turned to the equipment racks.

Flora skipped the bows and guns and looked at the foci. They were all C-rated, so she just sniffed at them and fetched the Wavering Wave Ring and her Plasma-Sword Lightning Focus.

On a mannequin hang a light blue robe, a conical head, gloves, and slippers. They provided 8 OV Magical Micro-Control and + 1 damage to arcane spells as a set bonus. Next to it stood a mannequin with a red robe, 8 OV Magical Power, and + 1 OV to elemental spells. Flora donned the latter.

"Should I fetch the octopussies and the mech-suit, or pretend to be a regular elemental mage?" Flora mused.

"You should show the test everything you are cable of doing as a ranged damage dealer, Milady. So maybe not the mech-suit, but the octopussies, the turrets, and an elemental would be fitting."

8 MR/min Aito-Octopussy

8 MR/min Aidan-Octopussy

4 MR/min for four Turrets

5 MR/min Bliz

1 MR/min Wavering Wave Ring

1 MR/min Onyx Lightning

After Flora arranged her setup and buffed Aito with Tinker, she walked through the next portal, entering a cavern.

One male Fireling with a shield, two female Woodlings, one with daggers and one with a bow, and a male Waterling in a Robe awaited her. On the other end of the room, five pale yellow colored insectoid monsters patrolled.

"Okay, team. Wait until I've caught their attention. I'll mark the focus target, gun it down. Mind your aggro. Ready?" The Fireling said.

"Yes!" The rest of the team yelled.

"Hello?" Flora said, looking between them. She waved tentatively. "I'm new. Nice to meet you."

"Okay, team. Wait until I've caught their attention. I'll mark the focus target, gun it down. Mind your aggro. Ready?" The Fireling repeated.

"Yes!" The rest of the team yelled.

"Um, okay?" Flora said.

Before she could add anything else, the tank charged at the group.

Flora shrugged helplessly but was ready to try out her new favorite spell.

<Arcane Spring>!

A target butt appeared above the smallest insectoid.

<Lightning Bolt>!

As soon as the spell left her hand, she cast the next one.

<Lightning Bolt>!

The first lightning crashed into the marked target, and the spell jumped over to his neighbor.

<Lightning Bolt>!

After the next bolt spread, four of the monsters turned around to Flora with clicking mandibles.

"Oops." Flora's eyes widened as the monsters approached.

"Run, Milady!"

Flora dropped her plasma-sword in shock and dashed away.

"To the tank, Milady, always run to the tank!"

"But there are monsters!"

"He will save you."

"I don't need anyone to save me! I'm a grown woman I can save myself. We do the stringy thingy as we did with the trash elementals."

"Kiting? Two ranged fighters are in the mix; you can't kite those in the small cave. Running to the tank is the standard practice because otherwise, you'll destroy the formation."

Flora changed direction to the Fireling. He had already followed her, leaving the two spike shooting insects alone. Her original target was dead, but two melee insectoids followed the tank and hit him on his unprotected back.

The Woodlings concentrated on one of them, and the insect attacked the dagger-woman.

Flora pushed the two insects closer to their ranged mates. One of the latter had changed targets to the Waterling Healer.

Chaos ensued while Flora helplessly cast Bless and Condemn while dodging blows and spikes.

In the end, the team survived, but they weren't happy with Flora.

"What didn't you understand about 'mind your aggro'?" The tank snapped at her.

"Sorry. Puh. What happened?"

"You stole the aggro of the marked target and three of his friends. Because the Tank had to follow them, he couldn't block their damage. The healer had to work twice as hard and earned the hate of the monsters because of that. So everybody besides the Archer was under attack, but the opponents were too spread out for the tank to regain control." Aidan explained. "I suggest you retry the phase, Milady."

Flora agreed, and she reappeared in the anteroom.

"So, what can I change? I won't use Arcane Spring and the Onyx Lightning focus. Is that enough?"

"Because your damage is so great, probably not. Maybe, Aito can mark the target when it's safe to use spells, and at the other times, you just shoot cantrips."

*beep*

Aito generated a narrow red arrow over the training dummy. Then she let it grow bigger and more orange.

"The bigger the shaft, the harder I can go?"

*beeheheheep*

Flora rolled her eyes. "You know what I've meant!" Flora exclaimed, but grinned. She grabbed the elemental focus from the rack. "Again."

"Okay, team. Wait until I've caught their attention. I'll mark the focus target, gun it down. Mind your aggro. Ready?" The Fireling said.

"Yes!" The team yelled, and Flora joined in.

The Fireling charged. When the target butt appeared above the head of the smallest insect, Aito's smallest arrow pointed at it.

Tentatively, Flora sent a damaging cantrip from her new focus. Nonetheless, the arrow grew thicker, and she dared to use the Wavering Wave Ring as well. Unfortunately, the growth stopped there. The indicator even diminished when the Fireling stomped on the ground.

It took a few seconds more until the arrow finally widened and turned orange.

The insect died when Flora's spell hit.

"What now? AoE?" Flora asked eagerly.

"No, Milady," Aidan answered as the next target butt appeared on a mantis-like insect that attacked with two spikes. Aito's smallest mark followed.

"Boring," Flora said, but dutifully only used the cantrips of her foci.

"You have to be kidding me, Aito!" Flora complained after a few more seconds with no change in the size of the indicator.

*farting beep*

The arrow changed when the insect was nearly dead again.

For the next target, Flora worked on her focus swinging speed. Aito only allowed her to cast the death blow.

Flora inspected her teammates. Jealously, she watched them casting skills.

This time the arrow changed sooner, but the insect still died from Flora's spell.

Aito graciously allowed Flora to cast spells for the last opponent. After the second lightning bolt, it turned to Flora, but then the tank roared, and it stayed on him.

"Good job, Flowing Flowers." The Waterling healer said. "We can definitely kill the boss with your damage."

Flora coughed. "Thanks," she said and added her gratitude to Aito silently.

They walked through a tunnel towards a larger cavern. A hive queen surrounded by eggs sat in the middle.

"Okay, team. Wait until I've established the hate. Focus the eggs as soon as they change color. If you are too slow, AoE the hatchlings. Ranged, dodge the webs. Melee, run away from the acid. Ready?" The Fireling said.

"Yes!" The team yelled while Flora searched for webs.

"Aidan, tell me when to dodge. I can't find any webs." Flora said as her team stared at her. "Ready."

"Under my command!" The Fireling pointed at Flora.

"What? I have behaved at the last group!" Flora sulked because she had invested a tremendous amount of self-control, but the tank didn't appreciate it.

After the Fireling charged the hive queen, a gigantic orange arrow appeared above her head.

"That's what I like!" Flora cheered.

<Arcane Spring>!

<Thorn Cannon>!

Flora went all out.

"Dodge, Milady."

Flora dived to the side, and a web sailed to the spot she had just vacated.

When she looked back to the boss, the arrow was gone.

"What should I do?"

"The egg, Milady."

Flora spotted Aitos indicator above an egg, which slowly turned violet. The Archer and her companions were already shooting at it. With a lightning bolt, Flora cracked the shell.

Aito's arrow went back to the hive queen, and Flora shot thorns at her.

Suddenly, the little icon of turret 3 dulled. One of the towers was bound in webbing, but Aito cut it free while still firing at the queen with her eyes and other tentacles.

Pimples sprouted on the hive queen. As they grew, the Woodling dashed away. Because neither the healer nor the archer moved, Flora continued attacking. Like mini volcanos, the pimples exploded and drenched the tank in puss.

"Ugh!" Flora cast a healing water ball on the tank out of compassion.

The arrow changed to another egg, and Flora cracked it with two lightning bolts before the melee fighter even left the boss.

The arrow on the boss was getting thinner, so Flora tried out Lightning Arc, her new beam spell. With the other hand, she prayed for mana. It worked, the arrow grew again, and Flora reverted to casting Thorn Cannon.

After demolishing another egg and another puss attack, the Fireling yelled: "Give it your all."

While the robots activated Rapid-Fire, Flora needed a moment to remember a method to raise her game.

<Super-Charge>

Time slowed, and Flora cast with one hand Lightning Arc and with the other, she rained Lightning Bolts on the boss.

Just when Flora started to cackle, the queen turned her head to her.

"Oh no, not again!" Flora started to run, but Aidan interrupted her.

"You can stay, Milady."

As he finished his message, the hive queen turned back to the Fireling.

Aito's arrow was still orange, so Flora returned to casting.

Soon afterward, the hive queen fell to the ground.

"Just the way I like my runs, everyone alive and no emergency cooldowns needed." The healer beamed.

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