Skill progression ed up, with Natalie not having enough points to funnel into another adva. Following that, Natalie set out for the armory with Jordan to test out her new abilities. First and foremost, she o find a neon. [Bigger Is Better] was clearly urgioward a style that utilized oversized ons, and Natalie was happy to follow down that path. Her shield and hammer had been reliable, but nothing inspiriher.

  “So what are you thinking?” Jordan asked. “Warhammer? Great axe? Two-handed sword?”

  “With the strength bonuses, I’m holy thinking warhammer.” Her thoughts flicked to Otto, wearing his heavy ptemail. “It’ll be good against armor. Plus we have that hammer drop from earlier, so I’ll be able to equip myself right away.”

  “Figured,” Jordan said.

  The two of them looked around the armory. As expected of an institution like Te, all ons were ated for, every shape, size, and type a person could imagine. Even she couldn’t name some of them, and Natalie erson who’d grown up learning the ins and outs of bat.

  Finding the appropriate se where ridiculously sized ons were stored, she perused her options. Giant polearms, swords, axes, and every other sort lihe racks in rows, or hung on dispy.

  Some were ridiculously oversized. Bigger by a signifit margin to the unwieldy warhammer they’d found down in the dungeon. Natalie saw how Jordan’s attentioo those, and she turo Natalie and quirked an eyebrow.

  “Well,” she said. “Let’s start big?” She gestured to the rgest warhammer of the set—ohat was easily twice her height and had a hammer head the size of half her body.

  “There’s a point where it bees physically unreasonable,” Natalie said, amused. She approached the on heless. “This thing would not work well in hallways.”

  She gripped the on’s haft, then grunted as she dislodged it from its resting pce. Even with her retly boosted stats, easily doublirength when bining [Juggernaut] and her passive level boosts, the on was a nightmare. With a bloetal the size of her chest for its head, that was pletely uandable. Jordan whistled, impressed that Natalie could hold the thing at all.

  “Yeah,” Natalie said, muscles straining to hold the thing. “This’s probably meant for some of the uppercssmen.”

  “You don’t say,” Jordan replied dryly. She eyed the bulky thing with an appreciative look. “Probably where you’re headed, though, long term. Imagine swinging that thing around. Pretty sure you’d pulverize even bosses.”

  With some difficulty, she pced the on back. She picked a more level-appropriate warhammer. Still as tall as she was, and with an impressive bloetal for its head too, the on would be devastating in its ht. This one had a pointed end, inteo further help dig into metal.

  No longer handling something ridiculously oversized, the giant warhammer felt much more fortable in her hands. She gave it a few test swings, theed it on her shoulder.

  “Yeah,” Natalie said. “I could work with this.”

  Just the day before, that certainly wouldn’t have been true. But her strength boost with [Juggernaut], and explicit bonus with [Bigger Is Better], made the on more than maneuverable—if admittedly less so than her previous shield-and-hammer set up. But when ating for her level up, neon, and offense-oriented skills, her offensive capabilities had probably tripled at a minimum, and without her defeaking too massive of a hit either. A solid smack with this thing would crack a good portion of her oppo’s HP, if not ht break it. The problem, of course, would be actually getting a good sma; maneuverability would be difficult. Even gng blows would be devastating, though.

  But against other heavily armored oppos, that wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Natalie might have bee a tank killer. She suspected her fight against Otto would go a vastly different route, this time.

  Or, maybe. Natalie begrudgingly would admit he was one of the top freshmen tanks of Te, which meant he was one of the top talents in the world. Natalie had a petitive streak, but she reized from a practical standpoint that losing to him said nothing about her personal skill—besides that she wasn’t one of the best in the world herself. And only as it stood. Plus, he probably had a level on her during their fight. Regardless, there was no shame in losing to world-css talent. Or so she told herself; rationality aions didn’t aly h each other.

  “Let’s give it a test run,” Jordan said. “Ygest problem will be with slippery targets, so I’m the ideal person to practice with. We’ll see if you need something lighter.”

  Natalie nodded. All csses and fighting styles came with upsides and downsides, and where this on would excel against a heavily armored tank, or any other ot skilled at getting out of the way, someone like Jordan or Sofia would fare much better.

  That said, if Natalie even caught a gng blow on a rogue htweight fighter, she might win the fight ht. All it would take was a smart pieisdire, or somehow handling the fight to for undodgable attaot easy, but not impossible.

  And misdire? Trig an oppo for oating, fight-winning strike? Well, [Illusion] sounded quite useful there. There might be more coherence behind her css than she’d first thought.

  She and Jordan headed for a practi. They had a short amount of time to get a few spars in and for Natalie to familiarize herself to her neon before real bat csses began.

  For the while, she and Jordan sparred. As Natalie expected, the enter was a clear demonstration of her biggest weakness—an inability to nd strikes on a slippery target. That said, Natalie quickly picked up how to hahe warhammer, using her momentum to always be in motion and advang on Jordan. Jordan’s strength wasn’t in a one-oher; she did best attag from fnks, with her oppo focused on someone else.

  She tested her illusions, tryily what she’d figured would be effective earlier—trig her oppo into dodging one way, then nding a devastating blow. But Jordao watch for her illusions, and so fared better than a dungeon monster or even another sparring oppo would.

  The fight didn’t end with a clear winner or loser, sihat wasn’t what the spars had been inteo be—they were just testing out Natalie’s yle.

  That said, for these uping fights in today’s bat csses, she inteo be a lot more petitive. Her empowered stats were immediately noticeable, and she felt the improved power, speed, and stitution surging underh her skin.

  “And that’s before [Juggernaut] boosts year,” Jordan said. “You’ll be even more of a monster in the dungeon. Especially as we get stroems.”

  Natalie nodded in agreement. “It’s a shame we ’t use gear in spars.” For some other petitions and situations they could, but not everyday spars. The reasoning as far as Natalie uood it was to test their ‘base strength’, but certain abilities, like this ret strength boosting one of hers, did get overlooked in that case. But there were no perfect solutions, so Natalie uood.

  With early m self-training ing up, she and Jordan headed to css. Natalie found herself more excited than she had been in some time. She wao test herself in ear against whoever their oppos were today.