Her Advancement

Wiping away her tears, struggling to form words as her chest heaved, Joseph looked equally surprised.

“Calm, calm. Speak clearly. What kind of class?”

Sniffling and drawing in her runny nose, Tokko steadied her breathing before reading from her status.

(D) Spear Defender – Skill: Perfect Parry, Skill: Riposte, Skill: Agile Footwork, Skill: Counter Strike, Stat: Concentration (+1 Vitality, +1 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +3 Agility, +3 Concentration)

Her eyes were wide, almost pleading as she looked at him—desperate to know if this was finally good enough. Joseph thought it over, then allowed a small, pleased smile to form as he raised his hand, fingers spread slightly.

“Well… good job. That’s a pretty fucking insane class.”

Tears welled again as she slowly raised her hand. Inch by inch, she moved closer until he finished the motion with her, their weak but resolute high-five echoing between them.

Meekly retracting her hand, she looked back at her status as it updated, relaying the information to Joseph as she read:

Name: Tokko

Class: Swordsman > Spear Defender [D] (+1 Vitality, +1 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +3 Agility, +3 Concentration)

Title: None

Level: 10

Vitality: 13
Strength: 16
Dexterity: 28
Agility: 32
Magic: 0
Concentration: 0

Active Skills: Precision Stab (E), Spear Guard (E), Spear Deflection (E), Step Back (E), Perfect Parry (D), Riposte (D), Counter Strike (D)

Passive Skills: Meditation (D), Analysis (E), Vital Exploit (E), Sharp Instincts (E), Fast Reactions (E), Agile Footwork (D)

Perfect Parry (D) – Deflect an attack at the moment of contact to greatly reduce its force within a small strength range.

Riposte (D) – Execute a swift strike with a small bonus to penetration efficiency. After a successful parry, damage and penetration increase further.

Counter Strike (D) – Execute a swift counterattack with increased effectiveness when used immediately after an enemy strike.

Agile Footwork (D) – Refines lower body movement, allowing quicker directional shifts and enhanced evasion. Provides a small Agility boost during use.

Clasping her hands together, Tokko looked at him with sparkling eyes full of expectation. Joseph gave her a rare smile as he stood and spoke.

“Well, happy?”

She nodded, instantly dizzying herself from nodding too hard, but despite that her joy was written all over her face.

“Good. You should be. Be proud—you worked hard for that.”

Still flushed with excitement, she accepted his hand when he helped her up. They returned to the guild slowly, the mood lighter than it had been in days. Joseph found himself grinning quietly.

‘Hahaha… not only did I prove one of my major theories, I’ve got myself a perfect forward attacker-slash-defender. The stat boost she’s going to stack up? Insane.

And those skills… Perfect Parry, Riposte, Counter… they’re tailor-made for the role I want her in. All she needs now is an aggression skill or technique, maybe stamina support or damage mitigation. Step Back still feels off, it was an accidental acquisition after all… but at higher levels, maybe it could shine.’

That evening was quiet, most of the guild away on missions or personal business. Joseph and Tokko trained alone for the rest of the day. Later, Osric came downstairs and joined them.

He spent much of the time advising Tokko, who had slowly warmed up to some of the guild members. His tips were practical, born of experience, but when he turned his advice toward Joseph, he found little to offer.

Joseph’s odd hybrid style and spirit magic left even Osric more curious than instructive.

By the end of the night, Osric realized he had learned more from watching Joseph’s experiments than he had taught, his expression a mix of interest and bafflement.

The next morning, Tokko was waiting outside Joseph’s door, bouncing with impatience to test her class. They rushed their morning routine and headed into the forest.

Fate wasted no time either. Not long in, they stumbled upon four Blubberhides. Tokko’s eyes lit with fire, and she sprinted forward.

She opened by driving her spear into one’s knee joint, activating two of her skills as the spear’s tip glistened unnaturally, crippling its leg with a fast, precise strike.

The other three closed in, but she danced just out of reach, hair’s breadth dodges keeping her alive. When one attacked alone, her spear glowed faintly—Perfect Parry activated for just a fraction of a second.

The monster’s club ricocheted off, as her knees bent and eyes tightened, not expecting such a force to still travel through. But still, in the same motion she struck its elbow, severing nerves with a precision thrust, finding the spear pierce through with an unnatural efficiency.

Backing up to create space, she manipulated their movements, forcing errors and isolating one at a time. She aimed for knees, elbows, tendons, anything vital but not fatal, bleeding them out slowly instead of gambling on a direct kill.

Fifteen minutes later, she stood over the crippled beasts. Breathing heavy, her spear slick with blood, she smiled—not with relief, but with triumph.

‘Good. I like this new Tokko.’ Joseph thought. Her blood-streaked face smiling at him before she eagerly turned back, wanting more. ‘All it took was showing her the path forward.’

The hunt continued. Joseph supported only by keeping large patrols from overwhelming her, letting her take every kill for the full experience. By evening, she had skyrocketed to level 20, her progress boosted by his shadow summon baiting extra monsters into her path.

By the end of the day, as she loomed over multiple wolf-like creatures’ corpses, he caught a glimpse of something on her face. A glimpse of a genuine feeling he had yet to see her have, value.

By the twelfth day since entering the guild, Tokko had shot up to level 25. That evening, they sat down together in the mansion and reviewed her new advancement options, eventually setting on the tough choice.

Name: Tokko

Class: Spear Defender [D] > Spear Dervish [C+] (+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Agility, +6 Concentration)

Title: None

Level: 25

Vitality: 44
Strength: 45
Dexterity: 80
Agility: 80
Magic: 0
Concentration: 80

Active Skills: Precision Stab (D), Spear Guard (E), Spear Deflection (E), Step Back (C), Perfect Parry (C), Riposte (C), Counter Strike (D), Cyclone Strikes (C), Impenetrable Defense (C), Spear Whirlwind (C), Flashy Moves (C)

Passive Skills: Meditation (C), Analysis (E), Vital Exploit (D), Sharp Instincts (D), Fast Reactions (D), Agile Footwork (D), Streamlined Movement (C), Spear Affinity (C)

Cyclone Strikes (C) – Executes spinning spear attacks at high speed. Effect scales with Concentration used.

Impenetrable Defense (C) – Reinforces spear to create a defensive zone around the user. Provides a moderate increase to defensive ability.

Spear Whirlwind (C) – Consume Concentration to generate a whirlwind of energy around the spear.

Flashy Moves (C) – Enhances actions with attention-drawing effects. Increases enemy targeting toward the user.
Streamlined Movement (C) – Reduces wind resistance, moderately increasing speed and agility.

Spear Affinity (C) – Moderate increase to power, precision, and speed of spear techniques.

Joseph leaned back, brows raised. ‘Well, I’ll be damned. She’s really coming along nicely. Tokko’s stats shot past mine even before we were at a similar level, and with our careful planning of her skills and focus she’s been able to keep her main ones high-levelled and focused.

She’s still behind in total skills, but raw stat numbers? She’s overtaken me.’

“Well, Tokko… you’ve surprised me. Don’t sulk about not hitting a B-rank class. Even I’m only at C+.”

“…But you and Han advanced by two ranks. I thought… I thought I could too.”

“Maybe. Maybe you could have if we waited, kept you fighting. But maybe is always just maybe. We waited last time because there was no risk.

Useless is still useless. Now? Now you’re caught up and useful, very useful. We can’t stall forever chasing miracles.”

“…I know. It’s just—if I want to stand beside you, I have to give 200%. I can’t let anyone say I don’t deserve this chance.”

Joseph sighed. “No one else gets to decide that. If you’re here, it’s because I chose you. That’s all that matters. Now—let’s celebrate. I’ll cook.”

For the first time, Tokko truly laughed, the sound light and unguarded.

Later, Han and the others returned from their mission. Tokko’s growth shocked them—especially Han, who couldn’t hide his surprise at her meteoric rise. But Joseph’s pride soured when he learned the others had basically reached level 30.

He wasn’t behind yet, but he hated the feeling of being even. Han is the baseline, he reminded himself. ‘I have to stay ahead of him.’

That night, while the guild slept, Joseph slipped back into the forest—still sore but unwilling to waste a single hour. He pushed deeper than before, toward an eerie new region of towering, ancient trees that loomed like watchful sentinels.