Tim's POV
The disguise work took all morning.
The data crystals from the tomb's collection contained enough information about item modification and cosmetic enchantment that the process was accessible rather than experimental, I was working with tools designed for exactly this kind of adjustment, the creation tool responding to the modification parameters I fed it.
The paladin armour and sword emerged from the process looking like Adamantite work. Not exactly, an expert in Adamantite metallurgy examining them closely would find inconsistencies, the underlying material behaving differently than Adamantite behaved under specific conditions. But for the purposes of casual observation, guild records, and the Theocracy's intelligence network noting that Tim was still wearing his standard Adamantite equipment, the disguise was sufficient.
The actual project of the day was something I had been planning since the revival mathematics had become clear to me, since the moment I understood that revival removed five levels and that the levels removed were random, which meant revival was a destructive process that could be directed toward useful ends if the person being revived had useful and useless levels in a specific distribution.
I had been carrying a level distribution that was the product of the shotgun strategy applied over twenty years of deliberate accumulation, broad, intentionally imprecise, covering as many classes as I had been able to access with levels distributed to serve the strategy of reaching level one hundred through quantity rather than quality. The gardener class had given me druid. The druid class had given me capabilities that were now mostly absorbed into my permanent skill set even without the class levels actively maintained. The farmer class had served its purpose. The cook class had generated enormous acceleration early and had plateaued years ago. The doctor class had given me nothing, as it was know-how that I already knew.
These were classes I did not need to maintain. But they were occupying level slots that I needed for better job classes.
Revival was the only mechanism I had identified for removing levels, and the random nature of what was removed was the complication that required my diary.
---
The diary had been a project of mine for a long time, a systematic catalogue of everything I knew, everything I could do, every skill and spell and ability in my current arsenal, written in sufficient detail that I could assess post-revival what had been lost and make decisions accordingly. It was the most comprehensive document I had ever produced, forty pages of precise notation covering fifteen years of accumulated development, and I read it twice before beginning to confirm that everything significant was recorded.
Hejinmal received my proposal with the specific expression that were either very stupid or crazy as we went to a very emty spot in the Katze Plains.
I explained that the Katze Plains' undead generation property, the plains that turned unrevived bodies into undead, the mechanism that meant dying here without immediate revival will turn me into the deadliest lich in history, and will end up destorying the world, and KILLING YOU, and than turning you undead too, as you will serve me FOREVER.
The argument was sound. The leverage it applied to Hejinmal's cooperation was perhaps slightly manipulative but better safe than sorry.
He took the crystal. Confirmed he understood the procedure. Looked at me one more time with the expression of someone hoping the person in front of them would reconsider.
I stabbed the paladin sword into my brain with the clean precision of someone knew that best optimal entry points for immediate incapacitation and/or death.
---
[I rolled a 100 sided dice, and if it landed on any job class than minus 5 level, if the job class cant pay the full 5 levels than it moving to the next job class next to it, True randomness]
The revival was immediate, Hejinmal was motivated and the angle worked quickly and return me to consciousness.
I checked the diary immediately.
Gardening knowledge. Specific sections, the seasonal timing knowledge, the soil preparation techniques, the pest management information that had been the foundation of the early orphanage curriculum. Gone, but not the fundamental stuff, Just some of the technical gardening knowledge that had been the surface layer of the class.
This was acceptable. I noted it and proceeded.
The second death produced more gardening knowledge loss, the deeper layers of the class, the more fundamental cultivation techniques. Still acceptable.
The third death hit the druid class itself.
I sat up after the revival and checked against the diary and felt the specific absence of capabilities I had been using for years. The green language gone, the *Bind* spell was gone. The direct plant communication was gone, than it came back, as I heard the green again, and than remembered that durid is unlocked form having gardener and wizard, so I'm good.
The swordsmanship loss was little, as my six fold slash returned to 5 fold slash.
I noted it. Proceeded.
The fourth death took the wizard spells entirely, which I had expected was a possibility and which was genuinely bad luck, my wizard class was shallow, the levels representing years of difficult progress against a discipline I had no natural talent for, and losing the entire class in one revival removed work that had cost significant time. The doctor knowledge that went with it, as I cared little for that.
Fifth death: assassin skills. Partial. The core abilities, merge with shadows, body swap, remained, but lost my shadow clone, I will get it back when I get back home.
Sixth death: the ninja class.
I lay on the Katze Plains grass after Hejinmal revived me and looked at the sky and said curses that I would not have said in front of the children or most adults.
The ninja class required maxed-out assassin as a prerequisite. The assassin class had been partially reduced in the fifth death. I had lost the ninja class in the sixth, which meant recovering it required rebuilding the assassin class to its maximum and then maintaining that maximum long enough for the ninja class to reappear.
I noted it with the controlled frustration of someone who lucked out, and IS NOT MAD ABOUT IT.
Seventh death: farmer knowledge. I exhaled in genuine relief. The farmer class had been serving no purpose beyond occupying a level slot, and losing it was the closest thing to a clean result the process had produced.
Eighth death: cook levels. More relief, the same reasoning. The cooking knowledge that made me useful in a kitchen but I didn't care for it.
Ninth death: the remaining gardener class was all gone.
I came back from the ninth revival and lay on the ground and counted.
Forty-five levels lost across nine deaths. One level recovered immediately as the durid class reasserted itself in the absence of competing class slots, the holy warrior path clicking back into place with the recognition of existing equipment and existing moral alignment.
Net loss: forty-four levels.
Current level: approximately forty-three, pending full assessment against the diary.
Hejinmal was looking at me from his position three metres away as he waited.
"Are you finished?" he said.
"yeah, for now," I said.
He made a sound that suggested this was not the reassurance he had been hoping for.
I lay on the Katze Plains grass and looked at the sky and ran the full accounting.
I am twenty years old, so I have plenty of time to level up, till I am thirty-five years old, and than Aniz will show his bony ass.
---
[before]
Farmer 15/15
Gardener 15/15
Cook 9/15
Paladin 3/5
Doctor 4/10
Wizard 1/10
Priest 8/10
Assassin 10/10
Vermen killer 2/10
ninja 5/5
Swordman 6/10
Durid 4/5
Dragon slayer 4/5
total levels: 86
[plus 5 warrior levels form ring]
total levels: 91
[After]
Farmer 10/15
Cook 4/15
Paladin 3/5
Priest 8/10
Assassin 5/10
Vermen killer 2/10
Swordman 5/10
Durid 1/5
Dragon slayer 4/5
total levels: 42
[plus 5 warrior levels form ring]
total levels: 47