John had gotten the first level in Arcanist all the way back when the Class system had first been patched in. Back then, Rave had just joined him in Cologne, Eliza was still dead, Metra was still an enigmatic piece of metal and Lydia had barely given him the time of day. In other words, it was an eternity of events ago. In real time, over a year had passed. Which, given that he was somehow only nineteen still, was a fair chunk of his life.

Taking all time dilation into consideration and adding the extensive changes the rising Stats had made to him, categorizing him as a regular nineteen-year-old physically would have hardly worked. Regardless, that was his official age.

Levelling up Arcanist turned out to be a harder task than the previous Classes. This was unsurprising, given that he was pushing into higher Class Levels than before, but a bother nonetheless.

John faced a large number of Challenges that were focused around combat or combat simulation. He had to perform a specific feat of skill against an enemy. Most of the time, Nia sufficed as that enemy. The only caveat was that she had to fight earnestly.

Seldomly had John felt so closely reminded of the fact that he was mortal as when fighting the pariah and Observe revealed exactly why.

Aside from her anti-magic powers being the counter to John’s whole existence being magic in some way, Nia, at that very moment, had somehow overtaken him in level. The totality of her Stats was lower than his, he scaled with 8 every level and she had the usual ‘talented’ level of 6, but the higher-level number went to show just how much she had improved since her training with Alice.

It had to be noted that Nia was always one of the girls with an extremely high Potential Level, sitting at 666. Seeing those vast improvements, the blonde Miss Fae had made in such a short time made John wonder just how powerful Alice was in reality. It was a thought that occurred between fights, as he was way too occupied trying to evade her otherwise.

Nia made a mockery of every one of his usual battle strategies. Activating Particle Skin against her was a mistake. When her anti-magic weaponry collided with the defensive spell, it only blocked the attack due to the density of mana that was obliterated. What normally functioned as an efficient way to protect his health bar became an invitation to burn his entire MP reserve with a couple of strikes.

Trying to get her into traps was even more impossible. Using her third eye, she could spy the influence of magic on the environment and, using her powers from the other side, she could neutralize whatever threatened her. That was if he even hit her. While she didn’t have the Agility of Sylph or Siena, she was far from slow. She was certainly faster than John. Pairing that with her pariah senses made her dodge attacks in uncanny fashions, like a phantom that shuffled through obstacles.

When he finally thought he might have caught her, she just disappeared, and a moment later he had her curved dagger on his throat or her long-bladed lance resting on his collarbone. Both of the sleek, light-eating weapons would deal damage both to his HP and MP when they hit. Gamer’s Body protected him from physical harm and from falling unconscious when his soul was cut, but he took extra damage in the grand scheme of things.

Just to get things more fair, John had to call for backup. First, he called in Gnome, and was still handily beaten. Then he got Siena involved, and that helped somewhat. With Sylph also in the mix, they got the win rate almost equal. Salamander tipped it to be 50/50. Undine’s and Stirwin’s involvement did fairly little to influence the odds. Only with either Aclysia or Beatrice involved as well was John the favourite to win.

That wasn’t to say that Nia won in an overwhelming fashion. The more fighters got involved, the longer each fight took. Strategically minded, the blonde Maiden of Null simply knew that her only goal had to be the Gamer and treated everyone else as obstacles that needed to be dodged. As such, those that had Agilities matching or surpassing hers were the greatest issue she had. Aclysia joined as a considerable roadblock because of Master’s Shield. The taunt ability took a moment and considerable power to break.

Nia won when she reached him and John won when they either exhausted the pariah’s ability to neutralize magic without fading or if they landed a square hit on her. Because of Nia’s relatively low Endurance, a good hit by Gnome or Aclysia took her out instantly or did so much damage that she had to reset her body at a considerable cost.

Even with the entirety of his familiars active, Nia still won a quarter of the time. This was on a battlefield that became increasingly more complex as elemental manipulation after elemental manipulation changed the shape of it.

During some brawls, John entirely ignored the objective of the Class Challenge and focused solely on winning. He was driven by a peculiar mixture of emotions. Pride demanded that he maximized his performance. Love made him so happy to see Nia fight so well. Fear told him that he would be absolutely screwed if a powerful pariah ever went for his head.

Training with anyone but Nia would have likely gotten him to the wanted results quicker, but the combat experience he got out of it was almost more valuable than an actual level would have been.

All in all, John felt incredibly blessed that the two strongest pariahs in the world were on his side.

Aside from those Challenges he got done by fighting Nia, he had to either head into a dungeon to defeat a Boss in a certain way or do something that was long-winded and repetitive. The former was at least somewhat fun on most occasions, but the latter was just a mindless slog. It reminded him of farming herbs in World of Warcraft, just running in circles and clicking every highlighted plant in the landscape.

Overload had been in the first set of Perk choices for this Class as well and John liked it as little now as he had then. The damage increase looked potent, but the Gamer had faced too many fast opponents to favour a single powerful blow over casting twice. Knowledge of Mana looked a bit more interesting, but it was rare enough that he could get Whisper of Mana fully stacked. Since the passive relied on actually KILLING an enemy with an Arcane Spell specifically, it was the most useful in Instant Dungeons. The Gamer wasn’t in the habit of killing his enemies in real life and he especially didn’t do so in a row. That wasn’t to say it could never happen, just that he wouldn’t use up a Perk for it.

Mana Chain, however, was an extra spell in his arsenal. It had been a while since his skillset had gotten an addition that wasn’t based on evolving something or improving it through a Class Perk. A shackle not connected to his own body would have been a bit more useful, since he was a ranged support sniper that primarily wanted to keep enemies away from him, but it could still have its uses.

Magic Machine Gun was another returner, although the last time he had seen it, it had affected Mana Ray instead of Arc Lance. This implied that Perks changed to accommodate Skills they were meant to affect. That was useful knowledge to have, even if he had no interest in taking that Perk. The 50% cost reduction was potent, but John didn’t see himself chain-casting Arc Lances to get there. His mana had so many uses that spending it in such an offensive action seemed unwise. In the rare cases he did need such a damage burst, Purgatory’s Arcane Ascension filled the niche better.

Surface Chain did sound nice at first, but it was actually garbage when one thought about it. What was the cost of a single Possession? 1 MP per second. Did John care about preserving that bit of mana when he already regenerated 30 after all the regular expenses (familiar upkeep)? The answer was no.

Arguably, Interrupt Cast was still worse than that, because it had very little in the way of practical applications. The best thing John could think of, and only testing would reveal if that actually worked, was to cast Arcana Strike, Interrupt Cast it, recast it for half the cost and repeat that process to stack up mana on Stirwin’s Unleash. That being of any value seemed like wishful thinking at best.

Still, it was a massive quality of life improvement. Threatening enemies with an Arc Lance without firing it into the ground afterwards would be a possibility and unused Unstable Arcanas could be cleaned off the battlefield to give some of the stored value back. Also, he could use Arcana Strike as a threat and not actually deliver on it. He imagined the eradication of entire city blocks was a worthwhile tool in negotiations.

Considering everything, Interrupt Cast was the choice he wanted and could reasonably take as well.

The fourth Perk of the Arcanist Class offered him yet another repeat he immediately dismissed. Between Spiked Chain and Multi-Chain, John preferred the former. Neither were exactly bad and there were easy cases to be made for both, but the Gamer’s intuition told him that having more in the way of physical damage was better for the Skill than adding extra chains was.

‘Yet more chain upgrades,’ John thought, scratching the back of his head as he thought about things. ‘I suppose the primary weakness of Mana Chain is that it can be broken by physical force, so taking Thorned or Hardened Chain feels like the most adequate decision. Thorns are better, I think.’

That decision made, John felt the tingle of anticipation rise in his stomach. It was finally time. He retrieved a certain book from his inventory and pressed the necessary buttons. Then he looked at what he had unlocked.

“Alright, let’s get the First Perk for this then,” John decided and went into an Assault. He only took Gnome and Undine along, aiming at keeping the enemies as weak as possible. Active Aura was a horrible Skill, because it cost him 100% of his MP Regeneration, so he didn’t want to keep it triggered while he didn’t have to. Having Gnome allowed him to focus on strategies that immobilized enemies, which he then finished off. Undine’s healing made the entire thing more secure.

John finished the Class Challenge towards the end of the third of the twenty-one days they were to spend inside this grinding barrier.

John barely even wanted to think about the choices outside of Magus Circuits, but, in the spirit of always finding the best overall option, he did it anyway.

Fundamentally, Active Aura was awful (for John’s fighting style). It was so awful; John had banished it off the list of Skills that showed on his menu. He had it, he even levelled it sometimes, but it was not something he would ever rely on.

With that background, Arcane Stance was an alright improvement. It reduced the cost by 75%, which made it usable for John. However, it also reduced the Physical Stats bonus he got from Active Aura at level 100 (which it wasn’t but John could calculate from the increases per level) by 80%. It got usable, but, mathematically, it actually got worse.

Arcane Fist was the complete opposite of John’s fighting style. It locked him into a certain strategy for one minute and that strategy was to blast everything he had into his opponent, using his own spells. Nothing, absolutely nothing, about that synergized with his elementals, his Artificial Spirits, or his focus on adaptive strategies.

Of course, both of them promised to get him on a certain path and John didn’t doubt that further Perks would make those fighting styles viable. ‘But why would I take something that fundamentally doesn’t work with what I got going now?’ the Gamer asked himself. ‘I suppose there is a point to Arcane Fist if I am to seriously step up my melee game. Picking this Class up came about because I didn’t want to be helpless on my own… the thing is that I’m not anymore. My close combat weakness is not nearly as pronounced as it used to be and I will never win against dedicated melee fighters of my level anyway. Magus Circuits promises me more tools to take advantage of my high-range attacks and better mobility… that’s universally useful and helps in situations where I’m stuck in a duel as well. Also 5% MP Regeneration is baseline good for me.’