Chương 53: Human/**

Velkaris, the adventurers' guild. Kyle stood at the entrance of the second floor with a hint of surprise on his face.

"This is even more luxurious than Mirevale…" He murmured. Looking at the cashmere-covered floor, the sofas, elegant tables, and bar filled with various drinks, Kyle took it in without comment, which felt like the only reasonable response.

"You don't seem overly surprised?" Luke looked at him oddly.

"Yeah, this isn't my first time. I've seen the guild's second floor back in Mirevale," Kyle waved and said.

"Ah, I forgot about that." It was only then that Luke remembered their meeting with President Richard. He chuckled and changed the subject.

"So what do you want to do first? I recommend trying the orange-Milo fruit mix at the bar; it's my favorite." Luke's lips curved upward, his expression brightening with eagerness. He paused, seemingly remembering something, before pointing at the emptiest counter on the other side of the floor.

"By the way, you can measure your stats there. It's a neat feature provided by the adventurers' guild to learn where you stand within your rank. Most importantly, it's free for the first time," Luke said with a grin, a hint of mischief hidden within. Kyle immediately remembered the status card that Marielle had shown him earlier.

"Oh? That's cool. I'm definitely going to try it." Kyle's eyes lit up. They walked to the counter and greeted the clerk there. It was a handsome-looking young man this time.

"Good afternoon. How can I help you?" the young man asked with a polite smile.

"Good afternoon, Adrian. This guy is a new one; help him measure his stats." Luke wrapped his arm around Kyle's shoulder and said with a faint smile on his face.

"Sure, please give me your adventurer tag first." Adrian nodded and said. Kyle handed him the tag and waited. The confirmation process didn't take long. Adrian soon handed him the tag back and placed a thin crystal slab, roughly forty centimeters square with a marked handprint, in front of him.

"Please place your hand over here and inject your mana periodically every second. Once your mana enters the crystal slab, you'll feel arcane energy pushing back against it; try to push it as far as you can." Adrian pointed at the handprint and explained.

"I understand." Kyle nodded before placing his palm over the handprint and injecting mana into it. A yellow line lit up on the right side of the slab, rising as he pushed against the arcane energy. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Kyle pushed back as far as he could. He felt as if he were pushing against a spring; the further the line rose, the greater the pushback.

"This thing…" Kyle muttered through gritted teeth, his face turned red, and veins popped on his forehead. He took a deep breath and pushed his body and mana to their limits. At one point, Kyle felt like he was pushing against a mountain, unable to push it forward even another millimeter. In the end, his mana could no longer move forward. The arcane energy pushed his mana back out, forcing Kyle to pull his hand away and take a few steps back.

"Huff! Huff!" Kyle panted, beads of sweat flowing down his forehead into his eyes. His arm was trembling slightly.

"Pfft!" Luke looked away, trying and failing to suppress a laugh.

"Ahem! Don't worry, man. This is a step every adventurer who wants to measure their stats needs to take. I was even more miserable than you at the time." Luke muffled a laugh.

"You…" Kyle was speechless.

'I'll remember this.' Kyle noted this grudge.

'Speaking of which, Luke became more cheerful here?' Kyle wondered whether it was because he was in familiar territory or if the guy just opened up to him. It took him almost a minute to slowly regain his breath. He wiped his sweat and looked at the crystal slab. The light slowly thinned out, and it soon turned off. Adrian took back the crystal slab and placed a piece of paper on top. A few seconds later, he picked up the piece of paper and handed it to Kyle.

"Here's your data sheet." Adrian gave him a polite nod before returning to his work. Status Name - Kyle Vaelthorn Race - Human/** Class - Swordsman Rank - 1 (Professional) Level - 2 Age - 16 Mana control - D-class Kyle carefully scanned each item on the datasheet. Most of the information was easy to understand, but he was puzzled by two points. He pondered for a moment and figured out that the information wasn't sensitive enough to keep secret, so he showed the datasheet to Luke and pointed at the last section.

"Is D-class in mana control good or bad? How does it compare to other adventurers of the same level?" He curiously asked. Luke looked at the datasheet, then shot Kyle a curious glance.

"Hmm, it's about average; that's the level of control most new professionals have. My mana control is currently at C-class, as is Captain Doyle's. To reach rank 2, you need B-class mana control. Raising your level of mana control is easy at the beginning, but it gets progressively harder." He paused, his gaze drifting to the other adventurers on the second floor.

"It's also the greatest hurdle on the path to rank 2. Most professionals can reach level 5 with time, but they get stuck on the B-class mana control hurdle, unable to cross it throughout their lives." Luke's tone sank; a hint of anxiety laced his voice.

"I see." He remembered Marielle's instructions back on that night. She said that a certain level of control over one's mana is needed to reach rank 2, and to reach that level, he needed to constantly hone his combat skills. Through the constant use and mastery of one's combat skills, mana control naturally improved. However, talent determined a person's speed of improvement and whether there would be bottlenecks. Kyle shifted his gaze to Luke's face. He saw through his anxiety.

With just a bit of thinking, he realized that Luke had no confidence in raising his mana control to B-class. This was a bottleneck that all professionals had to face, and only a small percentage would pass through it. Kyle stored that thought away. His talent made all bottlenecks effectively nonexistent, but he kept that to himself. His gaze shifted from the mana control column to the race column; a trace of confusion flashed in his eyes.

"Then what do those symbols next to 'race' mean?" Kyle took a deep breath and asked.

"It means that you have some trace of a non-human bloodline. It's just that this test isn't adequate to determine what type of bloodline it is." Luke shook his head. Kyle thoughtfully looked at the race column. His body didn't have any non-human parts, and neither did his father. Carefully thinking back on it, his father never mentioned that their family had a non-human bloodline. His grandfather was a farmer, and so were his parents.

'That leaves…' Kyle's eyes narrowed.

'My mother.' Marielle's evasive answers and his father's silence immediately came to mind.

'This is getting interesting…' The corner of his mouth slowly rose.