The Golden Experience Point [Part 1]

Chapter 24: "Enhance Follower"

After teaching Kerry and the other girls magic and raising their INT high enough for them to access their inventories, right now Rare only had 144 XP left. [Enchantment Magic] took 20, the cheapest elemental magic would cost another 20, [Enhancement Magic] was yet another 20, and finally [Enhance Follower] was the sole 40. If these calculations were correct, then she'd only be able to learn one type of enhancement for now.

In order to raise the group's safety margins, she wanted to boost VIT. However, considering all the battles she'd seen so far, the catkin girls had never taken a serious hit. Well, technically, there was that ambush where she had established first contact, but that had nothing to do with stats, Rare had used her family's secret techniques, so it didn't count. Or like, she had already decided to erase that ambush from the chronicles of their first meeting anyway.

That meant the next best stat to improve would certainly be AGI. It provided the most synergy for both the catkin girls and the ice wolves. The problem was the ants, but, strictly speaking, they were Sugaru's followers, so they shouldn't be eligible for Rare's [Enhance Follower] skills. All she had to do was use the remaining 44 XP to have Sugaru take [Enhance Follower], though, then the ants would also have a buff available to them.

On the other hand, another approach was to go offensive; depleting more of an enemy's forces in an initial attack was a viable strategy. Since Rare's forces were numerous, they simply had more hands to play. If those hands were powerful enough, then most opponents could simply be crushed with brute force.

The best candidates for that strategy were STR and INT, now that everyone had both magical and physical attacks at their disposal. To take someone by surprise, or to knock an opponent off balance, it might be better to focus more on magical attacks. After all, their side consisted of beastkin, wolves, and ants; they'd never expect magic to suddenly be flung in their faces.

Yet another approach would be to learn an element of magic that no one else could currently use, so that the diversity of attacks at their disposal increased. The options here would be [Earth Magic] or [Wind Magic], which meant VIT or AGI.

After mulling it over, since never being hit meant taking no damage, and not being able to hit was useless too, the choice was clear—Rare went for AGI. She picked up [Wind Magic]'s [Air Cutter]. She also considered [Desiccate], but she felt that wouldn't contribute to the team's variety.

Next she learned [Enchantment Magic] and [Enhancement Magic: AGI]. And in the all-important [Discipline] skill tree...

As predicted, [Enhance Follower: AGI] was unlocked.

"So now, until I've learned all of these skills, I'll need to funnel all of our XP into myself."

In order to master the entire category, they would need to farm up another 300 XP. Rare grimaced at the thought.

"And now to check the all-important [Enhance Follower: AGI]'s effects..."

The skill read [Increases the AGI of all your followers by 10% of your own AGI].

"Holy cow! It's a passive skill! That means it should stack with [Enhancement Magic]! Wait, huh? That also means..."

If that was the case, then if Sugaru also learned [Enhance Follower: AGI], 10% of Rare's AGI would count toward Sugaru's AGI which would trickle down to all the other ants. Hot damn.

It was probably incredibly unlikely for a character with [Subordinate] to control someone else with [Subordinate]. However, once both Rare and Sugaru had all the [Enhance Follower] skills, depending on Rare's own stats, it was becoming more and more likely that the ants would end up becoming the primary attack force.