ch 62

The next anomaly teaches us a few important lessons. Most importantly? Durkil was an absolute monster.

With his new armor, he tears through enemy ranks with reckless abandon, a walking force of nature. We actually have to hold him back so others can get kills and gain experience.

The same could be said of all our elites—they outclass the Level 19 anomaly completely.

It forces us to rethink our approach to tackling dungeons. Keeping all the elites in low-level fights is a waste the experience gained plummets fighting weaker opponents. What’s worse, is it also stunts the growth of our lower-level fighters.

So we adapt. Fights below Level 15? We leave to Ellison and the standard fighters. The elites? They split off to find more suitable challenges.

And as the days pass, we push our limits. Fight after fight. We take special care not to complete three dungeons in any region. Ellison plots important landmarks to bring back to Jared for strategic planning and expansion. 

Levels are far from the only spoils of war either. UBC’s begin to stack up, along with more shards, weapons, armor and skill books. 

Eventually, the time came to return to our village.

Not a single day had been wasted. Every single elite had reached their first class evolution. I hit Level 30 in my evolved class Warden of Judgement and level 18 in my fighter class, Durkil reached Level 31, Mischief surged ahead to Level 33, and Nick, Alex and Daevon are not far behind.

The growth exceeds all expectations. And through it, we uncover key insights about class evolutions.

The first big takeaway is that the level 25 class evolution is where talent really starts to shine through. Our elite fighters gain more unique classes and higher stats per level plus more impressive skills. 

But the real difference came in stat gains per level. Base classes gained 16 stats per level. Standard evolutions ranged from 19-23 stats per level. Strong evolutions pushed into the high 20s.

Our elites? They broke the mold. Alex, Nick, and Daevon each had classes that gain 32 stats per level. 

Durkil: 34 stats per level.

Mischief: 38 stats per level.

Me? 50 stats per level.

The second big takeaway–titles Shape Evolution Paths. We’d suspected it, but now we had hard proof—more and better titles led to better class evolutions.

The system rewarded those who pushed boundaries, took risks, and accomplished meaningful feats.

Titles weren’t just stat boosters—they were a roadmap to power.

The third and last important nugget? Higher Stat Gains equal slower Leveling

There was a catch to those high stat evolutions. More power meant more experience required per level.

It was a tradeoff—but one every member of the faction was willing to take.

By the end of the week, we’re running on fumes. Sleep is a luxury. Food is fuel, not a pleasure. Every morning, we wake up sore, bruised, aching—and then we do it all again.

Not a single person complains. No one asks for a break. They know what’s at stake.

They simply went to work. So did I, spending my time playing my role as support, watching as my faction grew and powered up every single day. 

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love every second of it.

This world was a strategy game, and I was learning how to play it at the highest level.

I loved watching my people grow. I loved optimizing paths to power. I loved crushing challenges that were supposed to be difficult.

But above all—I kept my focus on the true goal–Creating safety.

For my faction. For anyone who needs it.

Because the moment we stop growing—was the same day we’d become the prey my faction spent crushing in dungeons.

As much success as faction LM had gained not everyone had evolved yet. Sadie and Xander were close—but they’d started from too far behind.

With our usual enemies sitting at Level 20 plus, it had been brutal for them. A Level 5 facing a Level 10 was already a stretch. Facing a Level 20 plus? Pretty much impossible.

Early level disparity was a real thing.  A five level disparity at level fifty might not be so bad. Facing something twice your level at five was essentially suicide. It meant your opponent would have double your effective stats.

But they refused to give up. Fortunately for the two of them the system was gracious with how it allocated experience. Even if your contributions towards a kill were minimal the system would still recognize it and experience trickled in.

Their efforts paid off and both landed killing blows on enemies twice their levels netting massive experience boosts along with a title called david vs goliath. 

There was a problem though. The more we learned, the more I realized that class maxing became a serious balancing act. Higher enemy levels meant massive experience, and more fights before evolution might mean more potential titles.

The problem was, if you rushed your leveling without gaining the right titles you might be rushing into evolution too soon hampering future growth potential.

That realization made my brain spin.

I started thinking about my own progression. Could I time my evolution to maximize gains?
Was there a perfect way to game the system to get the best results?

Ultimately, I didn’t have all the answers. And for all I knew I might never know. I resigned myself to just do the best I can and hope it works out. 

I know myself and if I spiral down the rabbit hole I would second guess every decision that I had to make. Right now I’m satisfied with all we have accomplished and excited to get home and show Jared.