Volume 4 Chapter 45: Career Choice

The introduction of the Beast Master Hunter and the Jungle Hunter was somewhat similar. They could use various long-range and short-range weapons, and also had some enhancement in summoning abilities. However, this enhancement was limited to beast-type creatures and certain special plants. As for undead summons like necros and puppets, he could still have them, but there was no enhancement.

The Demon Hunter also had no restrictions on weapon types. In addition to close combat abilities, they possessed many auxiliary skills, such as: Magical Arrays, Eye Techniques, sacred auras, cursed spirits, and so on. There was a wide range of choices in this aspect, allowing the Apostle to freely select.

As for the last one, the Combat Mage, it was a very unconventional combat profession. This profession bore the name of a Mage, but it wasn’t actually a long-range attacking profession. Instead, it used magic for close combat, somewhat similar to a warrior skilled in both magic and martial arts. Qin Lun speculated that this career path was closely related to his own Crystal Mirror Magic Array.

These four combat professions made Qin Lun hesitate a little. It wasn’t that he doubted his chosen career plan, but he lacked information and couldn’t determine which profession suited him better.

Although taking up a combat profession required completing a Career Quest, choosing a path early would clearly help in preparing the skill combinations for that profession in advance.

In fact, Qin Lun didn’t know that ordinary Apostles wouldn’t have such a fortunate problem. Regular Apostles found it very difficult to obtain Skill Scrolls. Before unlocking their career paths, they had undergone at least over ten Otherworld Missions.

During these many Otherworld Missions, these Apostles generally gained enough information and planned their career paths earlier than Qin Lun. When they obtained a certain Skill Scroll, they would usually immediately exchange it for a specific skill. So when they unlocked the profession system, they generally only had one or two very similar combat professions appear, not a wide variety like Qin Lun.

However, when Qin Lun tried to focus his mind on those grayed-out follow-up advanced professions, he finally made a choice.

The Combat Mage was first ruled out by Qin Lun. This combat profession mainly focused on close combat. Even if it enhanced some magic, it was like starting over from scratch, wasting his currently strongest long-range attack ability.

The follow-up advanced profession of the Combat Mage was indeed the magic-warrior. If martial skills were the main focus and magic was secondary, the final profession would be the sword Xiu from Eastern mythology. If magic was the main focus and martial skills were secondary, then the half-human, half-Demigod combat profession from Western mythology would appear.

The Demon Hunter had several branches for its follow-up advanced professions, such as Grand Druid, Alchemist, Puppet Master, etc., with strange and varied abilities. The advantage was that it could handle many complex combat environments, basically a jack-of-all-trades, but compared to other combat professions, it lacked a powerful killer move.

After careful consideration, Qin Lun also chose to give up. Someone like him found it hard to gain others’ trust. A jack-of-all-trades profession might seem all-around, but without assistance from others, lacking a killer move would make things difficult in the later stages.

As for the Beast Master Hunter and the Jungle Hunter, they were two combat professions with relatively similar paths. Their long-range attack and close combat abilities were almost the same. Only, the Beast Master Hunter focused more on summoning creatures, while the Jungle Hunter leaned towards enhancing survival abilities, possessing high evasion and certain camouflage skills.

After becoming a Beast Master Hunter, he would directly obtain a summon creature’s offspring from some other spacetime. If he became a Jungle Hunter, he would randomly get a camouflage skill or a trap skill.

According to Qin Lun’s original plan, he should choose the Beast Master Hunter. Because, given the current attention the Shattered Starry Sky paid to him, he was very likely to get a high-quality summon offspring. Once this summon creature grew up, it would be like having a powerful helper that would never betray him.

However, Qin Lun ultimately could only choose the Jungle Hunter, because Joey disagreed with choosing the Beast Master Hunter.

The combat profession Joey actually favored was the Combat Mage. The Dissector greatly admired the sword Xiu profession from Eastern mythology. Even the Western half-human, half-Demigod combat profession was acceptable to him; he just didn’t want to be a Beast Master Hunter hiding behind summon creatures.

After a battle of wills between the two, they finally chose the Jungle Hunter as a compromise. In fact, although the Jungle Hunter mainly focused on long-range attacks at this stage, with trap mechanisms and close combat as secondary, if this profession were pursued to the end, it would become a combat profession with both strong close combat and long-range attack abilities—the Demon Hunter.

In the description of the Demon Hunter, the Apostle must possess two mixed bloodlines: Elf Bloodline and Demon Bloodline. Although the conditions for mixing two bloodlines were extremely strict and the cost was unimaginable, in the Devil’s Horn, it wasn’t an unreachable goal.

It must be known, this Apostle City had both the Demon Clan and the Moonlit Elves as managing races. And Qin Lun had good relations with Beruses of the Demon Clan and Mafa Moliya, an elder of the Elven Race.

Qin Lun sighed. Even though he couldn’t get the Beast Master Hunter profession he wanted, after becoming a Jungle Hunter, he could still obtain a trap skill or a camouflage skill, greatly improving his survivability, which wasn’t completely unacceptable.

Thinking of this, Qin Lun remembered another matter. Ever since his Maiar Summoning Art obtained the “Summon Stacking” skill, he seemed to have two empty summon slots.

One of these summon slots, Qin Lun planned to reserve for Frank. After finding a suitable body, he would transfer Frank’s Soul from the Maiar Crystal Ball. Although this was still just an idea for now, once the Murderer Team took shape, he would need a trustworthy assistant.

Although Frank’s Soul, due to the chance with the Maiar Crystal Ball, had been brought into the Shattered Starry Sky by him, the possibility of becoming an Apostle was very low. The only way was to revive him through summoning, which might require Qin Lun to pay a certain price.

As for the other summon slot… Qin Lun rubbed his chin. It seemed he should talk to Beruses again. The Elven Race was unlikely to agree to let an Elf become his summon, and ordinary plants and animals provided minimal help to an Apostle. Only the Demon Clan had some low-intelligence but powerful creatures with strong combat abilities.

After thinking through the plan for summon creatures, Qin Lun finally turned his attention back to the combat profession. Having chosen the Jungle Hunter as his future career path, he began carefully checking the requirements for becoming a Jungle Hunter.

To become a Jungle Hunter, the Apostle first needed to reach the second tier level, which he had already achieved. The Jungle Hunter required intermediate long-range attack skills and basic close combat skills in combat techniques. He had intermediate Firearms Expertise and basic Swordplay, so he met the conditions.

As for the five Apostle Skills related to the Jungle Hunter combat profession, because he possessed the relevant Moonlit Elf Bloodline, it was reduced to four. Among them, Wind Drift Art met the movement requirements of the Jungle Hunter, Mazer Summoning Art and Clock Eye met the combat assistance requirements, and Combat Gunmanship met the attack skill requirements.

What surprised Qin Lun was that the “Weakness Crosshair” and “Spiral Shot” he created himself using the Combat Model were also listed as secondary skills. Although they didn’t meet the profession requirements, they were still recognized by the Shattered Laws. Clearly, after the Law Body formed muscle memory, these two skills would also become Jungle Hunter profession skills.

This way, the only condition preventing Qin Lun from becoming a Jungle Hunter was the last one: the Career Quest.

Qin Lun currently had Career Quests for all four career paths (Demon Hunter, Combat Mage, Jungle Hunter, and Beast Master Hunter). Among them, the Demon Hunter only lacked one related skill, and the Combat Mage lacked two.

Qin Lun could accept all four Career Quests at the same time. However, if he didn’t finally take up the profession, he wouldn’t get the quest rewards. This was probably the standard given by the Shattered Starry Sky to all Apostles, allowing them more time to think during the Career Quest period, to avoid regretting after taking up the combat profession.

Although it was possible to change after taking up a certain combat profession, the Apostle’s own skills would need to be reorganized, which was clearly a cost no Apostle could bear.

“Apostle 70053, you have accepted the Jungle Hunter Career Quest: Hunter’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony. Quest objective: Independently capture or kill one intermediate fifth-tier creature. There were no restrictions on creature type (except Apostles). The hunting spacetime was not limited; it could be freely conducted in the Other World or the Shattered Starry Sky.”

It was actually possible to take up the profession directly in the Shattered Starry Sky! After reading the quest, Qin Lun’s eyes lit up. Although the quest objective required independent capture or kill, since it could be done in the Shattered Starry Sky, he could obtain creature information from the Apostle City and choose a suitable hunting target.

“Apostle 70053, the Jungle Hunter career rewards include the following:

1. Upon becoming a Jungle Hunter, receive one comprehensive enhancement of the Law Body;

2. After completing the Career Quest, automatically receive one profession skill (either a camouflage skill or a trap-type skill);

3. The Apostle’s current dagger, sword, bow, and firearm skills will have a certain proficiency increase;

4. The Apostle can use the ‘Coming-of-Age Gift’ obtained in the Career Quest to refine a certain long-range attack weapon, with a certain chance to improve weapon quality or enhance skill power (Life-Taking Relics are not included in the upgrade range).

5. The Apostle’s current movement evasion skill will receive one enhancement by the Laws. If the Apostle currently has no movement evasion skill, the Shattered Laws will randomly reward one movement evasion skill.”

After reading the career rewards, Qin Lun stretched, and a growl of hunger came from his stomach. The Law Body also had energy consumption, so regular meals were still necessary.

Qin Lun walked out of the room. As soon as he entered the living room, Didi stood up happily from the sofa.

“Master, you’re out! There are several message notifications for you on the call device!”