Chapter 50 – Perking Up

Perks were broadly divided into two initial categories: Personal Perks, and Tower Perks.

Tower Perks, more commonly called Augments by the Classers of Foundation City, were gained for every ten Floors a person climbs, and offer a variety of effects. Some altered the person's Class in some way, while others affected their experience in the Tower. Skipping previously cleared Floors, granting minor insight into the next Floor before moving to it, improving loot drop frequency or value... and many more things were possible.

While there were some people who worked to compile a comprehensive list of Augments, the list was always growing- and not everyone was willing to divulge exactly what they had gained.

But what was in front of Cam now... was a choice of a Personal perk.

Personal Perks, as the name suggests, affect some aspect of the person and their Class. Some Perks alter a Class Ability, some add entirely new Abilities... others change the individual directly, and in a variety of ways. Some Perks were specific to the Class, others more generalized to their role- whether tank, damage, caster, healer... and some Perks were available to nearly everyone, offering numerous benefits...

Every five Levels came a Perk selection, with the first one being considered the most important, as many considered it to set the tone for the direction of the Class.

Regardless of whether it was a Perk or an Augment, three options were offered to choose from, but only one could be taken- though previous options had a chance of appearing again later.

"My Class technically only has one Ability... or does it consider all of the Abilities I've gained to now be part of my Class?" Cam mused for a second; Realizing he was delaying, partially out of nervousness at what would be offered, he quickly took a deep breath before opening up his options...

And Cam was not disappointed.

Early Harvest

Reduce Soul Harvest Cooldown by 10%.

Perks were expected to be good, as they had a significant effect on the Classer, but this was even better than Cam expected. With Soul Harvest's one week cooldown, this Perk would reduce it by almost seventeen hours; While not quite a full day faster, being able to grab more Abilities faster was absolutely a top tier choice, and Cam nearly took it without even glancing at the remaining choices.

Restraining himself with another deep breath, he knew better than to rush his choice; Every bit of advice about Perks told him to consider all the options, as it was possible another was just as good, or perhaps just more useful immediately... or any number of reasons to take his time to weigh his options.

Weapon Training

Increase damage with weapons by 5%.

Cam's breath caught in his throat at seeing another ridiculous option. He had heard of similar Perks, as they were common enough, just... lesser, and better, in their own ways; Sword Training increased damage with swords by 10%, and similar perks for hammers, spears, bows... basically any type of weapon.

His Perk option offered a worse damage increase, but applied to any weapon, and fit incredibly well with his more versatile Class and build direction.

Between the two choices so far, Weapon Training was more immediately beneficial, while Early Harvest had greater long term potential... though it was also possible that taking one of them would open up a Perk Chain, granting increasing benefits the further he went along the same line; If that turned out to be the case, then Weapon Training possibly had a greater potential, as Cam knew he would eventually have more Abilities than he could reasonably use.

That thought made him reconsider his kneejerk reaction to the first option...

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Party of One

Increases the number of Clones to 2, with the second Clone having 75% the Stats of the first Clone.

Cam was dumbfounded. He had expected all of the options to be pretty good, maybe with one being obviously better than the others... but all three being so good was a surprise. Sure, he had heard of that happening to others occasionally... but it wasn't common, and he didn't expect to see it on his first Perk Selection.

Taking a second to run through the mental math required of his last option... it was good, but not crazy good. An extra clone meant more help with clearing Floors, though the Stats... 75% of Eron's already lower Stats would put the new clone at just slightly over half of Cam's- which, with how Cam had spread his Stats out, would make the new clone equivalent to a fresh Level 1 Classer... though that was also considering that he hadn't distributed the Stats from his recent Level up...

But, even then, after running through the math, Eron would have a 17 in all his Stats- thanks in part to it rounding up-, and, if he took the extra clone, its Stats would be... either a 12 or a 13, depending on whether the system rounded Eron's Stats before calculating for the new clone or after...

That would actually make it between to a Level 2 Rare Classer and a Level 2 Epic Classer(assuming they could spread their Stats evenly like he could) or a Level 6 Common or Uncommon Classer(again assuming the spread)... Which actually wasn't bad, all things considered. Sure, it would be significantly weaker than him, but it was effectively another person helping him climb.

A person that already knew his every thought, wouldn't really conflict with his way of doing things, and was perfectly willing to sacrifice themself repeatedly as long as it meant Cam survived...

Of course, it also meant another body he would have to equip, with limited Inventory space, and the new clone would struggle significantly more than Eron did.

"Well? What options did we get?" Eron impatiently asked after watching Cam staring at seemingly nothing for several minutes; While he didn't mind not having access to Soul Harvest or the Clone Abilities, not being able to see the Perk choices was driving him crazy!

Grinning at his clone, and excited to see what his reaction would be- because how often could someone actually see their own reaction to something like this?- Cam quickly explained their options, as well as his thoughts on each one...

And Eron's response didn't disappoint him. The excitement over how good the choices were, the disappointment at realizing they could only choose one, even the way he furrowed his brow in deep thought at the choice... Seeing his own reactions to the situation was still a novel experience for Cam.

"I think we can just ignore the first one." Eron said after a moment to think. "I mean, yeah, it's good... but, if we climb more than once a week- which, yeah, I know most people don't-, we will have more Abilities than we can possibly use before the month ends. Well, depending on how high we climb, really... But, still, even if we stopped at Floor 10 every time, and assuming two climbs a week, we'll probably have like... fifty Abilities by the end of the month! Or more!"

"Assuming we don't start running into a lot of duplicates." Cam tentatively agreed, not having truly considered the numbers before then. He knew a lot of teams only climbed once a week, as the constant fighting and tension while in the Tower would weigh on them... but, even if he followed their example- which he had no plans to-, he would still have far more Abilities than anyone else of his Level... or even those much higher Level...

That particular realization also took a lot of pressure off of his shoulders; Sure it would be better to grab as much as he can on this first climb, to be prepared for the trouble he may find when he exits the Tower... but, as long as he could enter the Tower even once or twice more, he would be swimming in Abilities!

So why stress himself too much right now? Well, other than the fact that he had no idea what the reaction will be to his solo climb...

"But that's a fair point." Cam sighed, already mentally crossing Early Harvest off the list... but that still left two very solid choices. More damage was always going to be a good choice, especially since it would apply to every weapon he wielded... but, at his current Level, that would really only be 1 extra damage added to each of his attacks- and Eron's attacks, he quickly corrected himself.

A decent increase, with the chance that Weapon Training would lead into a great Perk Chain.

But having an extra clone...

Ignoring the possibility of Perk Chains, as he had no idea if his Clone Ability would get one- or even if he would be lucky enough to see the Weapon Training Perk Chain-, Party of One felt like the right choice; Not only would it add extra damage into their fights, but having an extra body to keep mobs off of him increased his survivability...

To say nothing of the fact that having an extra person, even if it is a clone, would reduce the tension he felt building on each Floor. Maybe only a little, but even a little bit helps in the long run.

"Extra clone?"

"Yeah, extra clone... but what will we call him?"

"Oh, damn; I didn't even think about that!"