For the Glory of Rome: Chronicles of an Isekai'd Legion-Chapter 28B3 : Growth Spurts

B3 Chapter 28: Growth Spurts

During his pursuit of the orcs, Quintus and his men had neither the time nor the opportunity to visit a class stone—an oversight that he was eager to remedy upon his return. Tiberius’s promise that they’d soon strike at the castle only made it more pressing. Given the amount of resistance they were sure to face, making sure that he was up-to-date on his skills, stat allocations, and everything else would be paramount.

Of course, he hadn’t missed the fact that the Legion had leveled. Nor had Devin and his men, who had nearly leaped off their horses at the sudden sunburst that engulfed the Legionnaires on their march. Luckily, they’d been a bit more restrained for the second—which was very fortunate, considering that it had happened in the midst of battle.

Quintus personally wasn’t too shocked. Between the number of orcs they’d felled, their levels, and the securing of Novara, it was well past due. Though earning two levels was an unexpected surprise. The other varied activities of the Legion certainly helped as well. Perhaps the garrisons in Habersville, Stonium, and the rest of their territories were doing even more than expected to funnel experience toward the group. If they could keep this up, then perhaps reaching level ten wasn’t so distant of a prospect after all.

The prospect of his newfound gains had the centurion seeking out the nearest class stone as soon as his meeting was over. He laid his hand against the obelisk’s smooth surface, waiting for the golden glow to resolve into text before him.

Information: 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Name: Quintus Carius Libo

Age: 43 (XLIII)

Class: Legionnaire: Primus Pilus (Legendary)

Level: 6 (VI)

Experience: 248 / 3,600,000 (CCXLVIII/ M̅M̅M̅D̅C̅)

Stats:

Strength: 24 (XIV)

Dexterity: 20 (XX)

Constitution: 19 (IXX)

Charisma: 17 (XVII)

Wisdom: 15 (XV)

Intelligence: 15 (XV)

Free Points: 8 (VIII)

Titles:

Born to Fight

Bonds of Brotherhood

Bane of Cats (III)

Bane of Spiders (II)

Bane of Ghouls (V)

Boss Slayer (I)

Craftsman (III)

Blood on Your Hands (III)

Titanslayer

Warforged (I)

Crowd Favorite

Arena Champion (I)

Bane of Orcs (II)

Hero of Legend

Skills:

[Swordsmastery] (Rare) - Lvl 15 (Individual)

[Voice of Command] (Uncommon) - Lvl 49 (Individual)

[Tear] (Rare) - Lvl 7 (Individual)

[Battlefield Intuition] (Uncommon) - Lvl 53 (Individual)

[Sure Footing] (Common) - Lvl 145 (Individual)

[Warpath] (Uncommon) - Lvl 48 (Legion)

[Coordinated Bulwark] (Uncommon) - Lvl 51 (Legion)

[Unity] (Rare) - Lvl 10 (Cohort)

[Rend] (Rare) - Lvl 7 (Century)

[Coordinated Offense] (Rare) - Lvl 5 (Contubernium)

The sight brought a smile to his face. It had been too long since he'd seen his numbers increase to this extent. The more gains he made, the more difficult the next ones became.

Before anything else, Quintus assigned his stats. Two points each went to strength, dexterity, and constitution. After a bit of thought, he also put the final two into constitution as well. Increasing his resilience was never a bad idea. Especially if he was to continue working alongside the cavalry. The last thing he wanted was for a stray kick or fall from his saddle to end him.

The titles were also welcome, if not entirely unexpected. They’d certainly killed enough orcs to warrant a bane for them, which would help in future conflicts. The [Hero of Legend] title, though… Quintus wasn’t entirely sure where that came from. But the bonuses it gave to “heroic actions” might come in handy, whatever those were.

As for his skills, they also proved quite a welcome surprise. [Voice of Command] and [Battlefield Intuition] had both made greater strides than he’d expected. Perhaps leading Devin and his men had helped to spur new growth in the skills, a consequence of both learning to work with unfamiliar troops and an entirely new style of battlefield tactics. He’d certainly had to change his own approach to both.

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The leveling of his rare skills was comparatively slow, but quicker than he’d initially expected. Those tended to take much more time to grow than the lower rarity skills.

Speaking of lower rarity skills… Quintus glared at [Sure Footing]. As useful as the skill was, the fact that it still had yet to evolve rankled. That was despite all of his morning practice and efforts to stretch its use in unexpected directions. At this point, it was honestly a bit embarrassing.

He flicked over to the skill selection menu in hopes that this would finally be the day that changed. Yet once again, he found himself disappointed. At least it wasn’t all bad, though.

Available Skill Evolutions:

[Voice of Command] (Uncommon) -> [Lead from the Front] (Rare)

[Battlefield Intuition] (Uncommon) -> [Tactician’s Awareness] (Rare)

Evidently, levels weren’t the only thing he’d gotten from exercising those skills. As usual, they sounded like improvements that would fit right in with the direction his duties were going. [Lead from the Front] in particular sounded right up his alley, though he wondered if it truly was a strict upgrade over his current abilities.

Regardless, what exactly they did differently remained to be seen. He accepted both of the evolutions. They brought him one step closer to a full repertoire of rare skills. Now if only he could be rid of that last common rarity one…

There were a couple of other new skills he’d acquired since last visiting the class stone—[Horsemanship] and [Mounted Combat]. He equipped each one before unequipping it just as quickly. He had little interest in actually keeping either. The usefulness of such things would largely depend on how long Tiberius intended to keep him in charge of the Redcliffe cavalry forces. But he had a duty to add them to the Legion’s ever-expanding skill list.

Once that was done, he quickly skimmed through the enormous list for anything interesting. Nothing particularly stood out amongst the walls of skills, not until he looked through the higher rarity skills. A few more had been added to the list, making it quite impressive now. Someone had even managed to unlock an epic skill—something called [Suicidal Charge], a name that certainly raised his eyebrows. Something to inquire about later.

Nodding in satisfaction, Quintus finally removed his hand from the stone. The familiar rush of vitality and strength from his new stats washed away his exhaustion like a cleansing tide. Even the tender skin of his recently healed foot had faded back to a more natural color.

“Big changes all around. Aren't they?”

Quintus turned to see Gaius approaching, a pair of Legionnaires flanking him to either side. The young legatus waved off Quintus's attempt to salute. “Relax, uncle. No need to be so formal.”

“You are the legatus. It's only right that I show you proper respect,” Quintus pointed out.

“Funny. I don't feel much like the legatus.” Gaius’s smile took on an odd quality. But before Quintus could inquire further, the young man was already moving on. “The emperor mentioned that you have matters to speak with me about. Care to join?”

The older centurion nodded before falling into place beside the new legatus. Quintus had already spoken with Tiberius about many of the rewards and promotions to be distributed among the men. He summarized the conversation for Gaius, also taking the opportunity to highlight a few more minor outstanding individuals and acts that he hadn’t deemed worthy of the emperor’s direct attention.

Gaius nodded along as he spoke, accepting the need for promotions. Between their losses here and previous conflicts, there were more vacancies than Quintus would've liked to admit. Fortunately, there were just as many men stepping up to meet the challenges before them.

Their walk took them into a stone building that has been repurposed as a temporary command center. As they finished talking through the proposed recognitions, Gaius nodded.

“This all seems reasonable enough to me. We'll inform the men of the promotions immediately and plan a more formal ceremony to recognize those with accolades after this is all wrapped up. There's too much going on to squeeze something like that in right now.”

“Agreed,” Quintus replied. It would be good for morale, but immensely impractical.

The younger Legionnaire stretched before slumping back in his seat with a sigh. “Well. That's all taken care of. So… are you ready to storm the castle tomorrow?”

Quintus shrugged. “We had better be. Otherwise, our losses so far will seem like a pittance.”

Gaius snorted. “I think you underestimate our abilities. Do you realize just how impressive it is to have a class that offers this many stat points?”

“As you've mentioned,” the centurion said, having heard it before. “Yet I've heard the reports. The enemies we go to face are as high as level thirty.”

“Yes, yes,” Gaius waved the comment off as though it were irrelevant. “But think about it. We both get ten points per level. Ten! That's as much as an uncommon rarity class gets in five levels. So really, we're likely on par with a level twenty-five in that respect.”

Quintus considered that. He'd never gone through and done the math himself. Numbers and arithmetic were never his specialty. But put that way, it certainly did sound impressive. Only…

“... Except the majority of our men don't receive that many points,” he countered. “The rank-and-file only receive six. That's only as much as an epic class, correct?”

The legatus sighed. “‘Only,’ he says… While you're not wrong, you're also making a few massive oversights, uncle. Epic classes are exceedingly rare. In fact, based on my understanding, I'd be surprised if more than a few dozen people in the entire city have rare classes, much less epic ones. That's not even mentioning the astounding might of the centurions or our absurd skills.”

Quintus mulled over the information. Given that Gaius had become the Legion's premier expert on such things, there was little reason to doubt his words. Still, the rosy picture the young man painted felt a little at odds with the realities that Quintus saw in battle.

When he said as much, Gaius simply shook his head. “I disagree. Remember that these advantages are what allow us to contend with forces that we'd otherwise have no business challenging. Well, one of the things, at least. Stat totals like these are nothing to scoff at, especially given the sheer numbers we're fielding.”

“Numbers that dwindle with every fight,” Quintus muttered.

“That's something we can fix. Once we've established a foothold here, I'm sure that training up men to replenish our ranks will be high on the emperor’s priorities once this is all over.”

Gaius seemed unperturbed by the issue. Perhaps that made sense, given that they had both auxiliaries and elven forces that could prove worthwhile candidates in the best future. But though losing one's brethren was a cruel reality of war, it was still one that Quintus would never allow himself to simply overlook.

Changing the subject, Quintus turned back toward the real matter at hand. “We should discuss your plans for the assault.”

“Should we?” Gaius cocked an eyebrow. “I was under the impression that the emperor would be taking command for it.”

“Even so, that does not mean that you should simply wait idly,” the elder centurion chastised. “This is a good opportunity to develop your thinking and consider what tactics you should use. For example, where would you attack from? The front gate is an obvious answer, but are there other options that might prove more advantageous…?”

The two men bent over a map conjured by one of Gaius's aides. They began to plan, slipping easily into their old roles of teacher and student despite their difference in rank. Of course, once they were on the battlefield, it would be Gaius calling the shots. But despite having been promoted to Legatus, neither of them held any illusions that the boy was suddenly infallible. Quintus was still the more experienced one when it came to battle.

They talked for as long as they were able before other duties pulled them away. After all, Gaius still had much to learn. And Quintus wanted to ensure that those lessons didn’t come at too high a cost.