Yeah I don’t remember the exact blood oath, but it was something along the lines of making the people responsible pay. They killed the bug bears who came to the village and the oath still isn’t fulfilled, so I can’t see where anything short of the killing the bug bears leader will fulfill the oath.
I assumed that the oath would be fulfilled when Modara the dark elf is killed as that's the only named raider we know of who escaped. If it's the whole basilisk alliance then Richter is heading into negative charisma territory.
Ultimately their ruler carries some responsibility for his subordinates hundreds of miles away taking actions to further the war effort, but he wasn't the one sending out the troops or ordering the raid. I'm assuming those are the people that Richter will have to hold responsible for now, with the rest following later when an army large enough to push back can be gathered.
I might be in the minority here but if I was Richter I wouldn't level for a while. Gaining xp gets harder for him as he levels right? So outside of Alma's BD he doesn't have a good source of XP coming in for him, and at 6000xp per talent point that ability could give him a steady source of points if he holds off on leveling. Maxing out soul stone yield and number of soul stones would be my first picks to buy with those TPs as he has a good amount of common soul stones in the village and he'll be able to utilize those for better enchantments while saving his higher tier stones for later once he gets better blueprints/metals/etc... So for me a viable long term strategy he could adopt is to consolidate his power base where he is and focus on skill training to level up herbalist, maces, war leader, and magic and any other skills he can so he can have more fun chats with Nexus as he gets more professions then when he does start to level again he'll gain more talent points as a result, and the wording in the books is iffy but the way I read it he needs to gain 10 levels in the profession before he can choose his specialty. He can funnel his xp into more TP's to fill out his enchanter tree and bank those points for the future professions as well. If he gets multiple spell schools up to journeyman then I could see a rare specialty like Archmage being offered.
You get to learn a crafting/ gathering profession at level 10 or a combat profession at level 20. Richter needed to level 10 times before he could get his specialty, not ten skill levels. He still isn't still level 55 as an enchanter. We don't know the criteria for earning a second profession, but its not as simple as having skill level 45 in a second skill. If it was Randy should have multiple professions. He has earned multiple masteries the hard way. I'm inclined to think that its limited in some way, meaning something like 1: Once you go for your proffession trials you can declare multiple professions. People that train up multiple skils beforehand get multiple professions. I don't think that's it. 2: Ability. 3: You can earn the right to a second profession somehow.
I think each profession coincides with skill + desire. After Richter was tortured he said "I am enchanter" and Nexus said something along the lines of he just needed to realize he wanted to be an enchanter. I threw herbalism out there since he's close to the 45 mark, seems somewhat interested in the dynamic of connecting to the plants as well, but as far as true desires go mage is a good fit IMO and he does seem to love cloud running(although who knows what that profession would be called). Randy loves the rogue stuff but his water mastery is from his heritage in part is the way I rationalize him not having a second profession whereas the duel profession we know of could be the desire to find rare materials(mining) and seeing what she can make with them(crafting). With limitless though who knows if he'll have any actual limits on those types of progression paths though. Since he'd have to gain 10 levels, xp not skill, to gain a specialty and that becomes harder and harder the higher he goes if he is going to have more than one professions just makes sense to open those up earlier than later to take advantage of those specialties, and yeah whenever we learn what a focus is and how to obtain one for those specialties.
Doesn't explain why Randy doesn't at least have a water mage profession in addition to being a spy, he is a Master water mage. That means decades of study and hard work, especially if you don't have a Master to learn from. If its a question of desire he would have gone after reaching skill level 45, its a weeklong trial for something that will help you level the skill faster. The only explanation I can see is that he simply cannot go or chooses not to because there is high price to doing so. I think the first is the answer, he simply can't.
1. We have never seen a normal profession test. From context in the story, it sounds like you can fail, not that we have ever seen anyone fail. If you fail, can you try again or are you locked out? If you have to gain 5 or 10 levels because a huge obstacle for people who have gotten to the T1 threshold. 2. Does the test you have to pass become harder when you have more professions? Who knows. 3. I think I remember someone suggesting at one point the idea you could have only one combat profession. Is Rogue locking him out of the others? 4. I don't remember just being an enchanter gave him any bonuses by itself. Richter gets talent points for having a profession + more for having a high affinity. Do you get the affinity bonus for all professions or only the highest one? If it is only the highest one, additional professions don't provide more benefit and only dilute your main one if you split talent points. Was there anyone in the story so far with more than one combat profession?
In the end we'll have to see how the multiple profession thing is explained but I feel like my explanation of desire being a factor might not have been expressed correctly? I'll use myself as an example. Really good at math, used it a lot through my career and made a lot of people happy with the solutions I've come up with using math but I've never dedicated myself to a career path focused on mathematics because crunching numbers isn't something I want to trap myself in an office doing. So my aptitude(affinity) for math is high and if it was a skill progression I'd say all the calculus, number theory, etc... courses I took in college and got an A in without much effort and applied to real world situations would lead to a higher skill level but because it wasn't something I wanted to pursue it wouldn't be considered a profession. In other words just because someone has a high affinity for water magic and uses it doesn't mean it coincides with their personality and life path. That's all I meant about desire being a part of going for and achieving a profession. I believe book seven did have Randy saying that everyone becoming a profession without failure was unheard of so there is failures, and I agree there's probably a waiting period or penalty for failure or ____ along with it which would make sense for the checks and balances.
This is some random thought I had a while ago: Would Richter have even passed the Enchanter trial normally? I think the only enchanting he had actually done before his trial was refill up item charges with a soulstone. Was it his chaotic aura bending fate to have him take the trail without know ritualistic words? Is giving up the way you normally fail? If he had strong motivation and kept trying forever would have eventually have passed it anyway?
The trial is just that. Nexus wasn't torturing Richter because he is a bully, a thug, or an asshole - though he is all those things and he seemed to quite enjoy allowing his sadism free rein -, he was forcing Richter to take a step back, to dig deep. I think not knowing the ritual words may have benefited Richter in a different way from others, curbing some of his arrogance. Its one of many events where he walked in nose held high and treated those far above him in power without respect. Richter challenged a demigod level creature in his own realm and he paid the price. When you know the words it seems from what little we have heard that Nexus shows you things related to your new profession. The pixie queen was taken through wondrous meadows and to all sorts of places, while Nexus played the perfect gentleman. Sure some of that was him provoking Richter, but we know he has people above him that will intercede if he pushes things too far.
Maybe he was not allowed to leave for two weeks because of his oath to serve the royal family and the king didn't value his magic skills. Then once he was booted from the castle he couldn't explain his disappearance under his fake personality since it wasn't ranked high enough for a profession. Oh! and I have a BS excuse why he's not a professional Mage.....being part water elemental, mastering water magic is not a ptofession it is part of him I don't buy it, but any explanation is better than nothing.
The thing is, Randy has served several kings over the course of nearly a century. I don't know why its seemingly limited, but I think Aleron has considered it since he brings it up as an oddity Richter has an interest in. I'm hopeful its something difficult or limited. But also something that can be earned. Off course it could just be a limit of one combat profession, as someone said above.
Failing your trial is like dying for chaos seeds Spoiler: The Land: Forging Book 2 chapter 18, Yoshi If you do not pass the challenges, then you lose a personal level and one skill level in every skill you have.
True I don't think that there is a good reason that Randy doesn't have AT LEAST two professions. AK probably just overlooked it and screwed up. Maybe the requirement is horrible, like you must kill your best friend and take his/her potential for a profession.
Ive been wondering if there is a limit of power you can contain. For example, maybe you can have only 3 profession relayed powers. That means one profession, one specialty and one focus in randys case. Or two professions and a specialty, or three professions. If this was the case, i presume the limit would increase if you manage to increase your tier. It could also be based off of the energy system that was introduced in gods eye, and richter is just unable to know what his energy level is (yet).
Doesn’t sound like he’ll be back to the village by the end of it. Hopefully I’m very wrong and he completes some quests and finds his way quickly back.
