17 The Gambits

Aser spent the next few hours focusing on completing his daily Essence Cultivation. After restarting, he instantly noticed that there was an improvement to his rate of Essence Cultivation. The earlier insight and creation of the [Essence Flash] skill had increased his understanding quite a lot, and a breakthrough to 23 Essence Per Hour didn't seem far. Although he was able to reach 22 Essence Per Hour in a month, it was evident to him that increasing it again within a short period of time wasn't possible.

Stretching his body upon completion, Aser checked his current essence. It was sitting at 270/3200, and if everything goes according to plan, he will be Unknown Level 6 at the start of the term. While this might seem normal from his perspective, Aser knew that the average student would start with at most Unknown Level 3. Granted, the First Son's Academy wasn't an average academy either, so it wouldn't be weird to see the exceptional first years being equal to him in cultivation. The speed for leveling up after Unknown Level 6 would drastically slow down though, as the earlier levels were far easier to breakthrough.

The moon was already shining brightly outside, the grounds relatively quiet with the flickering of Light Crystals illuminating the distant buildings and dormitories. Shaking the urge to go to bed, Aser decided to look at the subject he would need to cover for the first exam. Surprisingly, it was about Essence! Knowing that he still didn't have a great grasp on the basics of Essence, Aser memorized the names of all the books required for the trial and went downstairs to retrieve them.

The first floor of the library had a ghost-like silence amidst its towering shelves and gentle crystal luminescence. Locating the aisle for Essence, the boy retrieved the few books that were in his reach and put them on top of a nearby trolley. Looking around, he spotted a step ladder to help in his gathering venture. After about a dozen minutes, the trolley was precariously stacked with books on top of each other. Rolling the trolley towards the stairs, Aser let out a sigh, his eyelids fluttering and slightly closing.

Back in the study room after a few trips retrieving all the books, he decided to briefly go over all of them while Ashes was compiling the information into materials for him to study. Right away, he noticed that even though his basics were shoddy on the subject, he knew a lot of the broader topics and even some of the advanced ones. After familiarizing himself with most of the topics involved in the collection in front of him, Aser realized that what Ashes had gathered for him through [Essence History] wasn't systematic. The information was there, but due to Ashes never having actually gone through the topic written by researchers, she hadn't been able to categorize the topics in a meaningful way, but instead had done it through connecting similar topics together, regardless of their level of difficulty.

At the moment though, Ashes would divide the hundred tomes required for the first Library Trial in to four volumes in the System Library. The volumes would be a supplement to his current Knowledge regarding Essence Cultivation and each finished volume would also result in a 25% progress on the trial. The 4-day study plan would then allow Aser to complete the trial in the shortest amount of time while learning the essentials of the topic. And this would continue for all the other Library Trials afterwards for this month, hoping to finish at least 5 trials by the start of the new school year. Even though he could finish the task for the trial, unfortunately, he couldn't submit them until the term started, and so wouldn't get any of the rewards either.

Waiting for her to finish copying the contents to her memory, Aser went ahead and retrieved the 5th book of the "General Knowledge on Professions for advancement from Unknown Rank" series. He already had a good idea on the Profession he wanted to progress towards. It was demanding, but he felt as if it would be his best option with the advantages Ashes gave him. It was a Hybrid Profession, focusing on the Knowledge-type, with the Social and Warrior fields as sub-types.

The title of the Profession was called "Gambit".

…

[Profession Type: Hybrid]

[Primary Field: Knowledge]

[Secondary Fields: Social & Warrior]

[Profession Title: Gambits]

[Introduction: Gambits are Knowledge-type strategists prioritized in reducing the risks while gaining the biggest advantages possible for a group or organization. Working both on and off the field, Gambits specialize in assessing tasks, gathering intelligence as well as maintaining strategic initiative. Historically, the biggest disadvantage for Gambits had been their requirements for large amounts of data to process the advantages of their job on current tasks, but the disadvantage can be reduced by a significant margin when the Gambit has a vast wealth of information already learnt. Processing the mission's given information, strategizing significant advantages while reducing all disadvantages and achieving the objectives of the mission are what Gambits are most famous for.]

…

Even though Gambits weren't a popular profession and had very high requirements in order to be certified as one, Aser felt this was a field made for him. He knew it would be a long road in order to even become a Rookie Gambit, much less any of the higher ranks in the field. Even the most famous Gambit in recent times had only been an Adept Gambit who went missing two hundred years ago! Disregarding the disadvantages to the field, the advantages were numerous. All sizes of organizations would want to employ a Gambit among their staff, but due to their rarity, 95% of small or medium organizations wouldn't even find one, and larger organizations had only a few among them.

Gambits were also in charge of Intelligence in most organizations, and thus had a high position naturally. They were feared cause not only due to their knowledge about almost everything, but also due to their combat prowess. Unlike traditional Knowledge based jobs, Gambits require combat training as well, as such most Gambits even have a Warrior sub-profession. The most famous Gambit in the history of Gigantes, Sun Tze had said, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

Thus, it can be seen how formidable a good Gambit would be, for organizations as well as any adventuring squad. It was also in line with Aser's current philosophies in regards to combat, where he would rather strategize and stay far from the opponent instead of fighting with his fists.

[System Report: Memorization complete.]

Looking at the moonlight streaming through the glass panel, Aser got up to and started carrying the books downstairs once more, placing them from where he had retrieved all of them previously. Finished with the work, he went back into the study room to call it a night.

While drifting off to meet the sandman, Aser realized that this was the first time he was sleeping in a new environment. Somehow, the foreign study room seemed just as cozy as his bed in the orphanage. Perhaps, it wasn't that he didn't miss the orphanage, but both seemed to not be home for him. Perhaps, he was simply born to be someone who would never have a home.