Rotten Veteran's EXP Grind

I stared blankly down at my body. Flawless, smooth skin without a single blemish. A perfectly sculpted physique with muscles placed exactly where they belonged.

“No way. Is this actually real?”

I rushed over to the mirror on one side of the room and examined my reflection. A familiar face looked back at me.

Asbel of Karnadan.

A face and body so beautiful that even a man could fall for them. It was the very definition of peak male beauty.

“It’s real. I’ve been possessed.”

I let out a hollow laugh. To think something like this would happen to me after everything I’d been through. When you get possessed, there’s one mandatory line you have to say.

“Status window.”

It was an utterly miserable status window. He came from a knight family, yet his physical stats were so abysmal he couldn’t even train in martial arts. With such an overwhelming mana pool, couldn’t he just become a mage? That was possible in theory, but his innate trait—Weapon Mastery—held him back.

In short, his body wasn’t suited for knighthood, and his trait prevented him from walking the path of a mage. When the game first launched, players had hurled every curse imaginable at the developers for creating a character like this.

“He’s basically a character you only pick for the Contractor of Divine Artifacts skill.”

The moment Asbel started displaying real combat power was after he reached 1000 mana and unlocked the SSS-rank skill Contractor of Divine Artifacts. Even the Weapon Mastery trait existed solely to complement that skill.

That was why hitting 1000 mana was incredibly difficult. But the moment you overcame that grind, you awakened as an untouchable munchkin.

“I know exactly how to raise him. Still… what’s the difficulty setting this time?”

The growth route changed depending on the difficulty, so this was information I absolutely needed to know.

The instant I muttered those words, a notification window popped up as if it had been waiting.

My face turned deathly pale as I read the floating window.

“What the hell? Permanent death? And the Four Great Evil Dragons are already trying to wake up? Wasn’t that an event that only triggered after academy graduation no matter the difficulty?”

I couldn’t stop myself from shouting. The Realistic difficulty, which had been scheduled for update next month, was a completely insane mode where the final bosses—the Four Great Evil Dragons—began preparing to awaken right from the prologue.

“Young Master. May I enter?”

While I was lamenting this absurd situation, a sudden knock sounded at the door.

“Uh… come in.”

“Excuse me.”

The door opened and three maids stepped into my room.

“We’ll assist you with preparations.”

With those words, the maids silently began helping me.

They dressed me in a neatly pressed and perfectly set suit, then tidied my hair.

That’s right. Asbel’s prologue started exactly like this.

I had forgotten while I was busy worrying about how to clear this difficulty.

The Asbel route began with the head of the Lichtenauer Ducal House summoning all his sons and daughters for a grand speech. I needed to figure out how to survive this insane difficulty, but I couldn’t afford to miss the main event.

“Thank you, everyone.”

Once my clothes and hair were done, I looked down at myself and gave a satisfied nod. The maids returned a light bow and quietly withdrew. I walked over to the mirror and examined my appearance one more time.

“He looks celebrity-level handsome.”

Now that it was reality, the feeling was completely different from seeing it on a monitor. The handsomeness was so unreal I almost couldn’t believe the face in the mirror was mine. No wonder he had been so popular as a character for those kinds of fantasies.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror like a narcissist for a moment before straightening my back with confidence and heading toward the training grounds where the prologue event would begin.

“Let’s do this. I’ve already carried this character to victory multiple times even on Hardcore difficulty.”

I walked forward without hesitation.

I didn’t know why I had been possessed, but when it came to raising Asbel, I wasn’t just a veteran player—I was practically rotten.

I had no intention of dying simply because I failed to see the ending.

No matter what it took, I would survive.

The Steel Empire had planted its roots in the cold and barren north.

The Southern Union had settled in the warm, fertile plains of the south.

These two nations stood as the strongest powers among the humans of Karnadan.

The Steel Empire possessed two ducal houses. One of them, the Lichtenauer Ducal House, was renowned as a family of knights.

At the family head’s command, a total of fifteen of the duke’s children had gathered in the vast training ground paved with blue-white stone. The atmosphere was so cold and oppressive that it felt less like a father meeting his children and more like a ruler holding court with his subjects.

The fourteen children standing at perfect attention all secretly directed sneers toward the one person standing at the very back.

Asbel.

Asbel Lichtenauer.

A boy born with an excessively frail body. True to the northern creed that only the strong had the right to live, he had originally been destined for abandonment. However, his mother from the south had desperately begged the duke, allowing him to survive.

But the barren north had apparently been too harsh for a southerner. When Asbel was five, his mother fell ill, suffered for three days, and quietly passed away. After that, Asbel was left completely alone.

No one pitied the pathetically weak boy. In the north, the weak were meant to die. Asbel received no attention whatsoever and was left to rot. He became a good-for-nothing who spent his days quietly reading in his small room—completely unsuited for a knightly family.

He was only standing here because he was the duke’s son. In terms of actual ability, he didn’t even deserve to be at the bottom rung.

While the quiet mockery and snickering continued, a figure appeared on the distant platform.

A massive frame. The master of the Lichtenauer family, clad in armor crafted from the hide of an Upper Dragon he had personally hunted.

Kaiser Lichtenauer had appeared.

He quietly gazed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the fifteen children looking up at him and spoke.

“An admission notice has arrived from the Imperial ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Academy. They will select the four most outstanding among you to enter as new students.”

The duke slowly scanned his children’s faces.

“Excluding the four already enrolled and the three who cannot enter because they are not yet nineteen, eight remain. I will choose four from among them. In two months. Precisely at three in the afternoon. You will take the entrance exam. In my presence, through sparring, I will select the four qualified individuals and send their names to the academy. Admission to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠academy is a great honor. All of you should train with that goal in mind.”

“Yes!!”

After hearing their resounding reply, the duke stepped down from the platform and returned to the mansion. Only after he disappeared did Asbel finally relax.

Seeing him in person instead of through a monitor, the pressure is no joke. He really is one of the Empire’s Top 10.

Thinking that, Asbel turned to head back to his room.

“Hey. You fucking bastard. What the hell are you doing here?”

Until someone blocked his path. A tattoo engraved on his face. Tall stature and a well-trained body. The delinquent aura rolling off the man was all too familiar to Asbel.

“Brother Rizer.”

“What? You turned nineteen this year too, so you came out because you’re eligible for the academy? A weakling like you? Even when Father calls, you should have read the room and stayed hidden.”

Rizer stuck out his tongue with a smirk, openly mocking him. Asbel tried to slip past in silence, but Rizer wasn’t about to let him.

“Hey. You fucking bastard. I’m talking to you!”

With a dull thud, Asbel took a blow to the leg and collapsed to the ground. Rizer chuckled at the sight.

“Where does a pathetic weakling get off pretending to be human? If you’re a cripple, then act like one and stay locked in your room reading books. Understand?”

Rizer stomped down on Asbel’s head, grinding it into the floor. Asbel let out a pained groan, but none of his brothers or sisters stopped Rizer. They simply ignored it as if nothing had happened and went on their way.

“Fucking retarded piece of shit. Ruining the mood by showing up at an important event like this.”

Rizer’s kick slammed into Asbel’s stomach. His body flew into the air before crashing back down.

“Ugh…”

After spitting on the twitching Asbel, Rizer walked away laughing.

“Don’t you dare crawl out again in two months and ruin my mood.”

As Rizer disappeared into the distance, Asbel continued writhing on the ground for a long time, unable to stand.

All his physical stats were below average, so his injuries healed slowly.

“Classic early-game villain.”

Asbel muttered while struggling to catch his breath.

“First I need to obtain Contractor of Divine Artifacts. I need that skill to pass the entrance exam. I can deal with Rizer during the test itself.”

After taking several deep breaths, Asbel finally recovered enough to stand.

Without wasting another second, he headed straight back to his room.

Two months later, the academy entrance would be decided. Failing to enter the academy meant missing every single growth event that followed.

However, until he acquired his skill, Asbel was essentially a completely broken character. Therefore, the first priority was reaching 1000 mana. There were three main methods to achieve this.

The first was the safest option—slime grinding. It was a tedious hunt that took roughly a year and a half of in-game time. It was safe but so long and boring that very few players chose it.

The second was kobold grinding. Players would head to the kobold nest west of the ducal estate. This method took about six months of in-game time and was what most players selected.

The problem was the high difficulty. Hunting kobolds with this frail body was anything but easy. While a normal character could slaughter them instantly, doing it as Asbel required extensive preparation, trap-setting, terrain exploitation, and countless other factors.

In crude terms, you had to pull off some insane stunts just to kill them. Mastering numerous techniques was the bare minimum. Because of this, many players grew sick of the process and abandoned their Asbel playthroughs. But if you overcame that trial, the suffering would be rewarded many times over, creating one of the most broken characters in the game’s history.

And finally, the fastest third method.

A method that only took two months of in-game time.

The only route among the three that would let him unlock the skill in time for the entrance exam two months from now.

But it possessed a difficulty that made kobold hunting look like child’s play.

Therefore, even fewer people chose it than the slime method.

It was the Queen Arachne hunting grind.

“Let’s see. I have all the preparations, right? Crossbow, magic explosives, and the chunks of meat to use as bait.”

I quietly checked the items laid out on the floor.

“Good. This should be enough.”

As expected of a knight family, the armory was stocked with every weapon imaginable. When I invoked my status as a young master and said I wanted to grow through hunting, I obtained these tools without any trouble.

“Timing the cliff steps and the stalactite explosions. I can handle it.”

The two techniques that turned the Queen Arachne hunt into an extreme difficulty challenge. Any normal person would have given up after hearing them, but I had practiced those maneuvers thousands of times, mastered them perfectly, and even uploaded multiple strategy videos.

I could do this.

“Let’s go.”

I gathered my equipment and stepped out of the ducal estate.