Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 113
Chapter Title: Allocating Stats
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[Stats]
[Level] 62(+37)
[Vitality] 1
[Mana] 1
[Faith] 1
[Endurance] 1
[Proficiency] 1
[Strength] 1
[Magic Power] 10
[Holy Power] 10
[Durability] 7
‘Hmm…….’
I placed my hand on the Ability Check Orb and checked my status while pondering how to distribute the points. It was the third full day of this agonizing deliberation.
The experience gained from subjugating Lucia, from the creature forsaken by the gods, and the additional experience from the newly unlocked regions had poured in far beyond my expectations.
My level had risen a whopping 37 times to reach 62.
Even taking into account that leveling up to 100 was relatively easy and the true hell began around 200, this was no number to scoff at.
‘The place I need to head to right now is still an endgame field, though.’
I sighed inwardly. I’d barely cleared the Abyss Dungeon, the DLC’s final field, in the Holy Kingdom, and now I had to head to the main story’s final field, the Imperial Palace.
Of course, it wasn’t like I was going to clash with the knights there, so nitpicking that didn’t mean much, but my stomach still churned.
‘Get it together.’
I steeled my resolve and focused on the status window. The story going off the rails was something I’d prepared for ever since taking down that forsaken creature at this timing.
Since things had turned out this way, it was fine as long as the main storyline flowed properly, even if I didn’t follow every little detail.
‘How much should I put into Strength?’
I’d decided on the build long ago. The extreme late-bloomer cleric build and the mage build that constantly gasped from mana shortages were practically trash in this modded game, leaving melee as the only option.
The real dilemma was stat allocation. I’d need to use buff spells later, so should I invest in Mana and Faith ahead of time for that, or just wing it when the moment came?
‘Buffs are non-negotiable.’
In the vanilla game, they were nice to have if available, but in this modded version where enemies’ health had ballooned across the board, the presence or absence of even minor buffs made a massive difference.
Hadn’t I avoided touching Magic Power and Holy Power precisely to make use of the Bloodstained Sword’s buffs? In any case, since I’d already invested stats there, I had to milk them for all they were worth.
Though the story derailing so badly had brought the point where I could ditch the Bloodstained Sword much sooner than I’d expected.
Vitality was just a dump stat in this modded game anyway. I could think of it as reallocating what would’ve gone into Vitality in vanilla into Mana and Faith.
After agonizing over it for a while, I finally made my decision and brought my finger to the blue status window.
[Stats]
[Level] 62
[Vitality] 1
[Mana] 10(+9)
[Faith] 1
[Endurance] 5(+4)
[Proficiency] 1
[Strength] 25(+24)
[Magic Power] 10
[Holy Power] 10
[Durability] 7
‘I’ll put points into Faith later if I get the chance.’
It was a bit regrettable that I couldn’t properly use the Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse I’d gone to such lengths to acquire, but they could be substituted with other spells. There was no need to invest in Faith right now.
If I really needed to smash some demons, I could just request backup from the Holy Kingdom outright. They wouldn’t refuse to hunt demons.
Especially after the relationship I’d built with the Pope.
Endurance was a lesson learned during the boss fight with the god-forsaken creature. It was better to have a little margin on roll count than to cut it too close.
In the game, you could spam them densely as long as you memorized the patterns with no issue, but here, who knew what variables might pop up.
I stared blankly at the numbers next to the stats before finally confirming. My stats jumped in one go, but I didn’t feel any remarkable change right away.
I swung my arm around vigorously. Nothing. No sense of suddenly becoming insanely strong or anything.
I removed my hand from the orb. The blue light filling the room faded away. All that was left was hoping Minerva, whom I’d face at the Imperial Palace soon, wouldn’t take notice of my changes.
I left the room with the Ability Check Orb and returned to the castle’s training grounds. Upon arrival, I spotted Iris and Lize in the midst of a fierce sparring match, their momentum at full throttle.
“Haaap!”
Iris’s longsword swept from upper right to lower left, then rose back up to near her right shoulder amid a massive whirlwind from her left side.
From that position, she thrust her arm with all her might. Gray wind coiled around the blade practically cleaved the training ground in two as it shot toward Lize. A deafening boom echoed out—Kukwagwang!
Lize didn’t just sit there and take it. She crossed her left arm over right and right over left in front of her chest, then swung them horizontally. A sheet of sharp frost blanketed the training ground floor.
A sharp sound like shattering glass rang out, thick blue mist billowing up. Chilled air mixed into the raging winds. The whirlwind and frost mist clashed head-on.
Recalling the counters to those attacks in my head, I approached Claudia and Erika, who were quietly resting in one corner of the training grounds. Erika, her face much slimmer than before, greeted me.
“You’re here, Mr. Delta.”
“How’s the prep going? Smoothly?”
“……I’m so nervous I could die.”
Erika made a miserable face. Even Claudia, usually so bold and wrinkle-free, was visibly tense, hands clasped under her chin as she sat half-bowed at the waist.
“You’ve worked at the Imperial Palace before, haven’t you? Still like this?”
“That’s exactly why I’m more nervous. It’s been so long since I’ve gone back.”
The content of Cäcilia’s edict was simple. Aurora and the Silver Dawn Knights were to come to the Imperial Palace in three days for an audience. A teleportation scroll for that purpose had been enclosed.
The knight commanders accepted the edict without a word. Only Aurora, suddenly saddled with an audience with His Imperial Majesty alongside us out of nowhere, grimaced about the extra hassle.
Of course, the commanders weren’t showing it outwardly, but they were burning up inside too. Even the reason for this sudden sparring was tied to the edict.
After fussing over preparations for the Imperial Palace for over a full day with nothing left to do, they’d grown restless and started this to clear their heads.
I was just as antsy during our chats, fretting over where Cäcilia might bolt to next, but it wasn’t as bad as the commanders. If anything, my worries felt downright mild by comparison.
At this point, I was starting to get curious about Cäcilia’s reputation.
I sat between Claudia and Erika, watching the other two’s sparring, when a sudden thought struck me. Claudia was here—perfect chance to test my Strength stat.
“Commander Claudia, mind lending me your sword for a sec?”
“My sword? Why?”
“Got something to try.”
“Go ahead. But you won’t even be able to lift it? The others struggle with it—how could you—”
Claudia handed over her sword with a beaming smile on her face, then fell silent upon seeing me lift it with one hand.
‘Whoa, it actually lifts.’
My arm holding the greatsword trembled, shaky enough that a moment’s lapse would drop it, but the mere fact that I could lift this greatsword was what mattered.
I could really feel just how much my Strength had gone up. The old me couldn’t have lifted it with one hand even desperately, let alone with my whole body.
‘What was the requirement again?’
36 or 37, I thought, and with my current Strength at 25, it was just manageable.
Warnings popped up saying too heavy to equip once my stat fell below half the weapon’s requirement. In other words, I could one-hand anything up to a 50 Strength requirement.
Claudia’s greatsword suddenly felt all too real in its weight. It was brutally huge, brutally thick, brutally heavy. How the hell did she swing this thing around?
Still, at this point, it wasn’t a weapon I couldn’t use at all. Gripping with two hands calculated Strength at 1.5x, so I could swing without damage penalty.
Not that I had any intention of using anything but a one-hander for parries, of course. I slammed the greatsword’s tip into the ground with a thud, tilting the hilt toward Claudia.
“Here you go. Man, it’s insanely heavy.”
“…….”
Claudia gaped at me with a blank expression. Considering her personality, it was an exceedingly rare look.
No, it wasn’t just Claudia. Erika right beside her, and even Iris and Lize who’d been clashing swords while half-wrecking the training grounds—all froze in place, staring at me.
“What’s with everyone? Got something to say?”
“How… how did you do that, Delta…?”
“It’s not the first or second time I’ve pulled something like this, is it? Just roll with it.”
I grinned, locking eyes with Lize, who stared at me in shock. I’d never been this brazen before, but somehow, it felt like my shamelessness was growing day by day.
The commanders’ reactions were just as I’d expected—faces saying they’d see about that. If I changed my tune later, they looked ready to kidnap and lock me up until I spilled the secret.
“…….”
Maybe because of my antics, the mood felt somewhat relaxed. I hadn’t intended it as an atmosphere reset, but good results were good results.
Time flew by after that. Midway through, there was a mishap where Claudia took a direct hit from Lize asking if her bed strength had improved and to experiment that night, causing her to sink.
Before I knew it, only about an hour remained until departure for the Imperial Palace.