Chương 131: Chapter 136: Stats

Fuck, I was tired. Mentally tired. Those damn curses were a pain in the ass to deal with. I had to remove first the one from the ring, the Thirsting Halo. Its curse, Living Deficit, absorbed life force constantly, and it had been a bitch to put into the grimoire. But now it was free of curses, and I spent half an hour going around draining gremlins and filling it up to settle the curses into the Grimoire without getting drained myself.

The ring was far from being full, despite putting in more than twelve of the little shits' energy. At least it was showing promise. Gradually, one by one, I freed all the items and the fruits too. I wanted to raise my resistance, and stocked multiple curses of the same kind in the grimoire while drinking two sets of stat potions. While at the beginning of the tutorial this nearly killed me, now it was more of an inconvenience than anything. Actually, it was good aura training.

My aura was the reason my Curse-Born Resilience trait was so good at removing curses. It automatically ground them down, destroying them and absorbing something from them. Vix proved that his words were gold. Synergy was the name of the game. The curse resistance trait, together with the Cursed Aura one, worked in tandem, multiplying their individual capabilities. Now I was eating stat-enhancing fruits non-stop. My stats swelled dramatically again, but I was nearly done. I bit into the Gravemelon of Might.

Whoever gave this thing its name was a moron, but the annoying part was that it was aptly descriptive. It tasted like a melon on the verge of spoiling. That was the grave part, probably. I had to force myself not to vomit. But I swallowed it down, and after finishing the mercifully small melon, I felt a surge of strength filling me up, running through my body and enhancing me massively. I had already consumed the potions, the pills, and the gas vials. Those had been the easiest by far.

You just had to break the vial and inhale the gas, a gas that apparently liked to be inhaled, because it nearly went inside my nose by itself. They smelled good too. Around me, a small pile of items on my right was ready to be sold back, or used by someone in the group, while another smaller pile was for my personal use. On the other side there were boxes of pills and fruits, empty vials, and broken glass. It was starting to become messy here. I drank some water, then forced myself to continue.

After eating the last one, the Tyrant's Cherry, I felt like dying, but the influx of Willpower from the fruit gave me a jolt. I lay down in the grass and opened my status.

──────────── Name: Elias Mercer Race: Human Class: Hexer Level: 25 Titles: Apex Slayer, Paragon of Potential, Baron Slayer, Untouchable, Defiance of Tiers, Elite Slayer (I, II, III), Paragon of Growth, Profane Substitution, Overpowering Magic, Genesis of Damnation, Butcher (I, II), Forced Evolution, Origin of Unity, Deviation of Sequence, Paragon of Ascension, Dreadful Gaze, Enhanced Being, Refined Will, Paragon of Supremacy Stats: Vitality: 361 (666) Constitution: 346 (615) Endurance: 364 (664) Strength: 404 (732) Agility: 386 (727) Dexterity: 321 (617) Perception: 339 (599) Charisma: 374 (678) Wisdom: 416 (765) Intelligence: 463 (863) Willpower: 666 (1296) Free Stat Points: 0 Traits: Curse-Born Resilience, Cursed Aura, Arcane Shaping, Hexer's Touch, Unbound Arcana Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road.

Report any occurrences elsewhere. Skills: Arcane Sense Lv43, Arcane Manipulation Lv38, Arcane Dart Lv25, Arcane Blast Lv25, Curse Rebinding Lv10, Arcane Infusion Lv10, Multi-casting Lv10, Hex Lv10, Malign Intensification Lv10, Drain the Accursed Lv10, Marionette of Regret Lv8, Aural Manifestation Lv15, Accelerated Processing Lv2, Aura Tether Lv3, Piercing Eyes Lv7 Conditions: Curse of the False Saint Tutorial Points: 52065 ──────────── Absolutely insane.

Halfway through my feeding frenzy, I started to get notifications upon notifications of the enhanced series. Like for the Enhanced Will achievement. Now all the others passed the 500 stat mark. Hell, Willpower gained a new one as it crossed the thousand stat threshold. Then they all combined into a single new achievement. ──────────── [Achievement Earned: Enhanced Being] Requirement: Achieve 500 points in all stats Description: Your existence has been fundamentally altered.

Every facet of your being has surpassed conventional limits and stabilized at a level few could ever reach. Rewards: • All attributes gain +10% cross-scaling efficiency (each stat partially enhances the others) • Body Harmonization • Aura Harmonization [Achievement Earned: Refined Will] Requirement: Reach 1000 Willpower Description: Your will is unshakeable. External forces shatter against your resolve, and your mind stands unyielding even before overwhelming pressure.

Rewards: • +20% to Willpower • +30% Resistance to Mental Effects • +30% effectiveness to all Willpower-derived effects [Achievement Earned: Paragon of Supremacy] Requirement: Reach 5000 total attribute points before your second class evolution Description: There is no balance left in your growth, only overwhelming accumulation. Every attribute has risen to heights that distort the scale by which power is gained, starting to converge into something far greater than their sum.

Your bloodline no longer awakens in fragments; it surges in full, reacting, adapting, and expanding under the pressure of your relentless ascent. What was once inheritance is now transformation.

Rewards: • +50% Skill Mastery Insight • +75% Class Experience Gain • Bloodline Expansion (All bloodline abilities gain increased scaling and may evolve beyond their current tier) • Class evolution requirement reduced by 1 (Permanent, Stacks) • Bloodline Evolution Token ──────────── My status changed again, another small boost in stats from the achievements, but something deeper was going on here. My aura felt like it was syncing more with my new self. I could feel my blood boil.

All these bloodline enhancements were not there for nothing. There was something going on, but I couldn't understand what it was. Still, it was power, potential. It was coursing through my veins, encompassing my very being. I could feel so much power coursing through me right now that it was incredible. I didn't even think this session of enhancement could propel me this much. I was three times stronger than before, on paper, but that felt reductive.

I felt like I could take ten of me from yesterday at once, and that just by spending money. Well, if I couldn't remove the curses from the fruits, I'd be dead many times over, but in any case… It made me wonder how it was for the children of some very rich alien out there in the multiverse. Would they reach a hundred thousand stat points total before level ten? Was it even possible?

I knew that the cost of the normal items for stats was tenfold at the minimum, but if I wasn't cursed I would have taken the life potion of the shrine by myself and gotten a million plus points. I could have done the same as I did now, and there were more items in the shop that gave stats, I was sure. I just had to find them. I rose to my feet, the motion incredibly smooth and fluid. I tested my muscles, my senses. Everything was amplified. These stats were absurd.

I used Accelerated Processing to analyze my body better as I moved towards a tree. I was so light. I felt like I had no weight, that if I just pushed a little, I would fly. I realized something. My weight didn't change. Of course, the System enhancements never displayed themselves physically. The body didn't change with the stats. Something more magical changed. What kind of effect would high stats have on physical fighters? What if you had ten thousand Strength but couldn't apply it properly?

I didn't have that limitation, being a mage and aura user, but still. My mind was processing data at incredible speed by itself, and using the skill made the surroundings feel like they were still. But I could feel the light breeze touching me despite how slow it moved. I felt like I could dodge the wind in this state. I was moving very fast to normal perception, but in my own, I was merely strolling. Well, skipping more than strolling. Pushing so hard with my feet to go faster made me not really walk.

Now that super expensive skill was looking more and more alluring. I reached my target. The broad tree stood still, every leaf like frozen in time. Then I put my hand on it gently, pressing my palm flat on its rough bark. In the fastest way I could, I pushed both with my feet and with my arm. My palm entered the wood. It felt like styrofoam to me. The tree cracked, then cracked again. It started slowly splintering in half, starting from my hand.

I looked at it, at the crack spreading upward in slow motion, bark snapping and leaves rustling. Then slowly, oh so very slowly, when the crack reached the top, a part of the trunk began to fall to the ground. I moved directly to the side of the fall, as I waited for the tree to reach my waist. I prepared to kick it directly upwards. As it reached the right height, I braced with my left leg and kicked up with my right. I miscalculated.

My leg went through the wood, splitting it in half along the fibers, and then my own kick propelled me higher up into the air. As I reached three meters up, I readjusted myself and then fell down lightly, my balance perfect. Hah! I would like to see the ballerina do the same! She could probably do much better if she had my stats, but she didn't, and that was all there was to it. I wanted to experiment more, to see how much I could push my new body, my skills, my mind. My skills. I nearly forgot.

I came here to prepare for the snake fight. I still had to evolve them… But a thought came to my mind… how fucking powerful was that stupid snake if it required all of this and still nearly killed me? Fuck. I better get back to work.