Chapter 134 Level 100 uncommon skill

Another day, another long grind of killing undead. Cherry was mostly keeping track, and we had already killed over fifty thousand. I had stopped paying attention to my levels years ago, but for the first time in forever, they climbed like they did when I first started out. It was to the point that most of my wives were already reaching the uncommon cap to purchase their level hundred skill, or had already gone into the rare rank for their class. And soon enough, I followed them.

Johnny Appleseed- Tree seeds planted by you no longer need any care to gain the full benefits from your class.

Food is medicine- Those who consume your food can slowly improve their health, even from chronic, incurable illnesses.

Eat, Pray, Love- Lose all bond-related skills, but retain all other skills, and start over from level one with a different class of your choice.

The choices were all life-defining. I ruled Eat, Pray, Love out right off the bat. Sure, it would mean I could live a few years longer, but the stat reduction from myself and my wives would mean this undead army we were fighting would most likely be the end of us. If I were given this choice earlier in my life, I might have chosen it, but with how my life played out, I don’t think I’d change anything, no matter how much you offered.

And the offer was insanely amazing if I picked it. I could pick my class; that was an insane skill. Becoming the hero class was something I strived for when I was younger, but… Wasn’t protecting your loved ones, fighting the undead, and all the other forces trying to constantly destroy us something a hero would do? Heroes only came around to fight terrible threats to all of humanity. There were only stories about the hero class, so as much as a deal breaker starting over was, the hero class almost made up for the choice.

Food is medicine seems like the best choice, but… At the same time, only nobles really enjoy my food now anyway. The higher quality stuff gets bought up the moment it hits the market, and even years after the previous king died and the new king changed the rules that allowed farmers to pick any options when they gained skills, no one could match my quality.

Either way, I didn’t need rich people already getting more benefits from my foods. Sure, I could charge more, but money wasn’t a problem for us anymore. The city Cynthia and my wives ran made more money than I could ever make farming, and we were even richer than most noble families just because we didn’t spend lavishly as they did.

That really only left me with a few options. Pick the Johnny Appleseed skill, which doesn’t help me in the slightest at the moment, choose to rank up, or pick a subclass for myself. I had gained enough patience to wait for good things, though, and choosing to rank up or a subclass right now would deprive me of an extremely strong skill going forward.

As lackluster as Johnny Appleseed seems, imagine making entire orchards all throughout the land. I could gain passive income and experience while also helping with the food crisis when it came up. It wasn’t just apple trees, either, but all fruit trees. The truth was, I was already leaning towards the first skill as soon as I saw it.

I grew up an orphan. The food was less than I’d have liked. Most nights, I’d go to bed hungry, and increasing the yield I could produce while not needing to take care of the orchards myself would help people who couldn’t afford good food eat good food more often. I knew that the rich nobles who bought all my food wouldn’t be able to buy all the fruits I produced if I picked them, so it was also to screw them over as well.

I may have been rich, but I grew up poor. I had a chip on my shoulder when it came to the ‘nobility’ because they all seemed so fake to me. Most weren’t even strong; they only had power because their ancestors sided with the right person. The entire system seemed rotten, and unless the current king cleaned house, taking out even those loyal to himself, I didn’t see it changing anytime soon.

I picked Johnny Appleseed and felt a sudden weakness hit my body as my stats dropped back down to level one again. I also stopped looking at my stats, but it was worth seeing how they changed after the sudden level drop.

Stats

Strength: 23.42

Perception: 15.90

Endurance: 22.59

Charm: 16.15

Intellect: 18.01

Agility: 16.56

Luck: 14.05

It was easy to know how much my stats dropped as they all went up at the same rate. For common rank, it was one stat point per hundred levels; at uncommon, it was two. I was back down below twenty-five strength; the only real big loss was to my luck, but it would quickly replenish as I leveled. I might even reach max level again, but my wives who had combat classes were far ahead of me now.

Both Silk and Tems were catching up to Leaf as they were far more active, but both had already reached the rare tier for their class and were even halfway through. The combat classes gained around twice as much experience as we non-combat classes, and only now, after years of leveling together, were we seeing the difference in how fast they leveled.

While everyone either had an uncommon or a rare class now, we punched far above what our ‘rank’ and ‘classes’ would show, all because of the bond skills I had that shared stats. Most of us had stats equivalent to those a rank or two higher in our main stat, but we were all well-rounded, while someone with a legendary class would mostly be focused on a single stat.

Me losing two stats doesn’t make much difference, but it was also my wives who had lower stats now. Most people, choosing a skill was a risk as their stats would lower, but once again, our stats were so high the few I lost for the skill wouldn’t make a difference, where it might get someone else killed… Most likely.

I felt that this would be ending soon, though. It was only a matter of time before they ran out of troops. I was honestly surprised by how many already fought. Even with just the numbers we fought, they had to use most of their forces in this attack. Multiple generals dead, their leadership crippled, I wasn’t worried about them reaching our city; I was worried about them running out before I could get my levels up again.