Corvus had done it.
He had reached level 15.
The mindless insanity of grinding for 3d, 12hrs actually wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Why?
Because of his reliance on his most OP feature: Pause.
It really couldn't be understated how valuable of a tool Pause was.
Before, he had been using it to scan his surroundings, think about his situation, or plot out his next move.
But it had the benefit of acting as a period where he could rest his mind.
Possessing a pseudo sort of gamers body, Corvus didn't require any sleep, and could theoretically have done the mine exp grind all in one take.
But such actions only led to mental insanity. He was no droid or mechanical automaton.
Fortunately, he had a very active imagination, and while it was boring to be effectively staring out into nothing, he could change his POV between 3rd person and 1st person. By closing his eyes, and going into 1st person, Corvus could mimic the rest period one would go through before sleep.
Like this, Corvus had stretched out this 3d, 12hr exercise in pain to over a week's worth of slacking off.
Then, by treating the mine exp grind like a fast food job, Corvus managed to get through it.
Of course he had received some odd looks from his companions, but he had told them he was engaging in an ancient meditation ritual, and could not be disturbed for four days.
Kyra didn't buy his bs, neither did Yon or Paradus, but Jax, Linyin, and Zork seemed enthralled with his actions, and spent an embarrassing amount of time observing him from a distance.
But Corvus had soldiered through this attention, as he was solely focused on his goal.
A goal he had achieved!
Sitting at level 15, Corvus had a LOT of things to go over and decide upon.
As a reminder, he had four menus to peruse upon level up.
These were: Skills, Abilities, Attributes and Feats.
Skills were things like Stealth, Demolition, Persuade, Awareness, etc.
Attributes were stats like strength, dexterity, constitution, etc.
Abilities were Force powers.
Feats were actives like [Power Attack] or passives like [Toughness].
The Consular class granted Force Power every level, except on every third level, he had 2 Force Power points, such as his current level, 3.
He also gained a Feat every 3 levels.
Whereas he gained Skill points every level, and a stat point every 4 levels.
Starting with his character sheet, he had gained a point at levels 4, 8, and 12 it now looked like this:
STR 10
DEX 14 -> 17
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 12
He chose to up dexterity the most so that he would be better at handling his lightsaber, moving at high speeds, reflexes for when he eventually became a pilot, general mobility, and a whole host of other reasons.
Next were the feats he had chosen:
Feats:
Lvl
0 Jedi Defense + Force Sensitive + Force Focus
1 Finesse: Melee Weapons
3 Toughness
6 Regenerate I
9 Two-Weapon Fighting (Padawan)
12 Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (Knight)
15 Master Two-Weapon Fighting (Low Master think Aayla Secura or slightly worse than her)
The level 0 feats were the skills that came to Corvus upon making his character. Jedi Defense gave him an uncanny ability to block attacks with his lightsaber, Force Focus boosted the effects of ALL his Force powers by 10%, whilst Force Sensitivity was self explanatory.
The three new feats he had chosen would make him supremely skilled at dual wielding lightsabers, wielding the lightsaber that Maul used, and even included dual wielding blaster pistols, or any combination of weapons.
Since he had collected so many lightsabers during Order 66, Corvus figured he might as well make use of them.
There were a few other feats, such as Toughness, Conditioning, & Regenerate that interested him.
What really interested Corvus, and would be his next upgrade, was Force Focus. A Consular class exclusive power, it was quite frankly busted. If he upgraded it to the next level, it would buff all his Force powers by 15%!
Corvus had almost chosen Force Focus over Two-Weapon Fighting, however, as he had gone into Dex, he wanted to pick something that complimented such a choice.
Next, he went over his Skills.
Skills:
Computer Use: 12 -> 17
Demolitions: 10
Stealth: 12
Awareness: 15 -> 20
Persuade: 15 -> 20
Repair: 10
Security: 10
Treat Injury: 10
It was his standard procedure to dump everything into Awareness, Persuade, and Computer for obvious reasons.
Awareness to spot enemies/notice hidden clues, Persuade to talk his way out of situations, or convince people that he couldn't Mind Trick, and Computer so that he could hack into systems.
Second to last was when the juicy bits came up.
Force Powers!
As mentioned earlier, he got one every level up, and gained an additional point every 3 levels.
Additional point at level: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15
As he didn't spend the additional point at level 6, Corvus had a total of 13 floating ability points for Force Powers.
He had distributed them as such:
[Heal I] -> [Heal II]
[Energy Resistance I] -> [Energy Resistance II]
[Force Speed I] -> [Force Speed II] -> [Force Speed III]
[Shock] -> [Force Lightning]
[Force Valor I] -> [Force Valor II] -> [Force Valor III]
[Mind Trick I] -> [Mind Trick II]
[Force Push I]
[I] = Low-Knight
[II] = Knight
[III] = High-Knight
[IV] = Low-Master (Available lvl 25)
By the end of this splurge, he had spent over half his points upgrading what he already had.
13 minus 8 = 5 floating Force Power points.
Holding onto the remaining 5, Corvus reserved these points for when he needed them most.
There were a few powers that interested him, such as Revitalize, Saber Throw, Stun Droid, the improved Force Push, as well as Force: Crush/Body/Suppression/Deflection. However, it would behoove him to lock in on any one of them at the moment, when he could better use the floating points to defeat a tough opponent.
With all the standard level up stuff taken care of, there was one last final, and crucial decision to make.
Class promotion.
Yes, he could Prestige into one of six options.
And what options they were! Different from what Corvus remembered from the games, these 6 classes came with some absolutely stunning text!
His options were:
Sith Assassin: You easily grasp the weak points of any person, building, or starship. Wielding explosives, sniper rifles, and poisons comes naturally to you. You are difficult to track through the Force. Grants the ability to become invisible at any time.
Sith Marauder: You have the stamina of a dozen mules, and double your current strength. Armor restrictions no longer apply to you. Grants the ability: Sith Rage: temporarily tripling Str, Dex, Con while also losing an equal amount of Intelligence and Wisdom for the duration of the ability.
Sith Sorcerer: You can see the unseen, feel the currents of that which is hidden. Whispers of ancient artifacts long forgotten sing to you, cursed texts that would trap your mind forever promise forbidden knowledge, and ghosts wish to instruct and possess you. The subtle thrum of the universe pulses in your veins, you can feel it on your fingertips, but can you grasp it? All magics can now be studied, and given enough effort, understood. Grants ability: Sith Lightning: red colored, Force Lightning that slowly tortures victims, draining them of their life force to fuel spells.
Jedi Weapons Master: You easily grasp the forms of saber combat. Whether it is wielding one blade, two blades, or a dual blade, none seem difficult in your hands. They are to you, no more difficult to learn, than a child learning to ride a bike. As a Weapon Master, you have realized that your body is the greatest weapon. Grants the ability: Force Punch: coat your hands/body in the Force, and tear apart durasteel as if it were made of paper.
Jedi Scholar: You have a perfect memory, and a great insight into learning. Skills that do not require the Force such as: math, language, history, art, engineering, mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology, they all come naturally to you. Grants the ability: Translate: you can decipher anything. Whether it be a spoken language, text, or even the subtle sway of body language. There is nothing you cannot uncover.
Jedi Shadow: You can sense the darkness lurking in the people around you, their hearts and any deceit are laid bare before your eyes. You can pull upon the Dark Side of the Force without becoming corrupted yourself. There is no penalty for casting Dark Side abilities, and you can siphon the darkness out of others. You are difficult to track through the Force. Grants the ability to turn invisible at any time.
Glancing at these choices, Corvus just about had a giddy panic attack considering how amazing each of them were.
If he wasn't in Pause right now, he would surely be hyperventilating!
Carefully reviewing each of his options, Corvus felt as if he spent hours within the frozen time of Pause as he read each promotion line by line.
He thought he had made a decision, but he wanted to go through the prestige classes one more time before he ultimately decided.
Starting from the top was the Sith Assassin. It was a complete package perfect for murder, terrorism, and was possibly the best fit for what Corvus planned to do to the Empire. Sith Assassin was great, but not quite what he was looking for.
Sith Marauder was too bull headed for him, and didn't fit his build. This was an easy pass, but if he were a front line combatant in the old SWTOR universe, then maybe he would be tempted. Triple strength was no joke, especially when combined with Flurry and other Feats.
Sith Sorcerer was extremely tempting. Magic in this universe was busted, and allowed one to do the unimaginable. This was a close #2 pick, but the drawbacks were immense, and were what held him back from choosing it. If he went down this path, Corvus could abandon the Path of the Jedi altogether. Fueling spells by draining the life of others was a dark, dark road. Perhaps he was capable of it if he fed the spells slavers and cartel thugs, but there would be no way to explain these abilities to his Jedi cohort.
Moving on to the Lightsided picks, Jedi Weapon Master occupied a similar position in Corvus's heart as the Sith Marauder. A stunningly brutal prestige class, the Weapon Master would be something worth considering if he was fighting full time in the Clone Wars, but Corvus had other considerations to attend to. This was a pass.
Jedi Scholar was actually a little tempting. If he had to govern a planet, look over a system, or act as a diplomat, then this would be the class for him. One could become the God of Bureaucracy, Merchants, and Science if they invested in this class. On a macro scale, so long as one had time to build their forces, Corvus could see how terrifying the Scholar's potential was. Honestly, it was on a similar level as the Sith Sorcerer. The end tier of science and magic were often blurry, it's just that the science route, while safer, would take exponentially more time to achieve.
If Corvus had transmigrated during the Phantom Menace, than he 100% go down this route. Unfortunately, time and safety were a luxury at this moment, and he couldn't afford to indulge his inner nerd.
Ultimately, Jedi Scholar was a reluctant pass.
Saving the best for last, it was his personal choice, the Jedi Shadow.
This prestige class would back up his claims that he was a bonafide Shadow, and brought along with it some nifty QOL abilities.
If Corvus interpreted the text correctly, he would be able to tell truth from lies, and detect the darkness in others. Not only that, but he could drain it from people! This would be a great tool in training new Jedi, especially Jax and Yon. Furthermore, it could be a supplemental attack against Darksiders, as well as any regular people affected by overtly negative emotions. Lowkey, this was the ultimate Sith hunting ability.
The icing on the cake was that there would be no penalties to casting Darkside powers. As a Jedi influenced by the Kotor System, he had a buff towards Lightside abilities that decreased the cost by -25%, whereas Darkside abilities were +50% more expensive to cast. Eliminating this cost meant he really could spam Force Lightning like a hillbilly spamming fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Lastly, of course, was the invisibility and hidden nature of the Force. If he was to remain hidden from Palpatine and cause mayhem in the Empire, remaining undetected was critical to his success.
At the end of the day, Shadow was his pick.
After unpausing, Corvus felt the Force react to him differently, and he had a keener perception of the world around him.
The shadows in the room beckoned to him, and he felt as if he were a ghost, almost like an ethereal being that could come and go at will.
Along with this promotion came a new quest.
[New Quest: Path of the Shadow:
0/1,000 Stealth Kills
0/100 Infiltrations
0/10 Purged
0/1 ???
Reward: ???, + 1 All Attributes]
Glancing at it quickly, Corvus put it to the back of his mind, as he was still processing this new, and enhanced state within the Force.
Letting out a turbid breath, and cracking all his joints, Corvus felt more in control of his destiny as power coursed through his veins.
He didn't think he was at the level of a Master, but if pitted against an average Knight, he thought he could defeat them.
Corvus really needed to spar with Kyra and the Padawans, to improve his skills.
But before he did any of that, he had to act whilst Palpatine was off planet.
There was only a 2-3 day window before he returned, and Corvus had to act fast.
This sense of urgency was fueled by a small worry that Palpatine might emerge and take matters into his own hands.
Afterall, what Corvus planned on doing wasn't small in any way.
To start things off, he had a hit list of some of the most powerful, and competent Imperials.
In no particular order these were the people he had in mind:
1) Armaand Isard
2) Sate Pestage
3) Wilhuf Tarkin
4) Wulf Yularan
5) Tagge
6) Ysanne Isaard
7) Rae Sloane
8) Mas Amedda
9) Sly Moore
10) Thrawn
Close confidants, intelligence agents, and military officials were those he wanted dead the most.
Especially Palpatine's friends. Sly Moore, Sate Pestige, and Mas Ameda were adept politicians, and all knew of Palpatine's secret. They had his full trust in carrying out his orders. By removing these levers of control, Corvus would cripple Palpatine's rapid consolidation of the Senate.
Tarkin was practically groomed by Palpatine to be his #1 attack dog, and snuffing him out would make way for less competent, insecure, overly aggressive Imperials to take his place. The murder of competent officers would create a downward spiral within Imperial Command.
Lastly, intelligence was the lifeblood of any dictatorship, and the Isaards, as well as Yularan were all hypercompetent individuals. They were his prime targets, as were their systems. The reason he had invested so heavily in Computer was so that he could spike them, and gain access to everything that went on in COMPNOR.
By taking these people out, Corvus was sure to gain the ire of Palpatine, and invisibility be damned, Corvus wouldn't have the balls to step foot in the Senate District for some time after this daring plan came to fruition.
Corvus couldn't help but smirk to himself as he imagined Palpatine's expression.
The old man would be immeasurably disappointed coming back from Mustafar, carrying a charred Anakin, and learning that the CIS leadership were still alive.
But that feeling of rage would only magnify once he learnt that his careful planning and political maneuvering had been crippled to, Palpatine would become apocalyptic!
Chuckling to himself, Corvus left a note behind for the others to read, then made for the sewer entrance, and began to stealthily work his way back to the Jedi Temple.
The Revenge of the Jedi was at hand!