Chapter 23 - By the Light (1)

“Achoo!”

Verity wiped his nose, feeling a shiver run down his spine. They’d been walking for a little over ten minutes, and he’d been feeling fine, so the sneeze felt rather out of place.

“Sick already?” Evangelina asked.

Verity shrugged. “I don’t think so…”

‘Is someone talking about me?’ He wondered.

Evangelina frowned. “Well don’t get any snot on me, kid. This cloak wasn’t cheap.”

“Of course, Master!” Verity exclaimed, cupping his hand in his fist.

“I already told you to call me Teacher!” Evangelina barked.

Verity, however, only smiled back, which caused Evangelina to grunt in exasperation. Verity had seen this trope before. He would of course never mention it to her, but his new Master seemed to be somewhat of a… tsundere.

To him, it was clear that while she genuinely seemed reluctant to the idea of a disciple, she didn’t exactly hate it, or maybe it was Verity that she did not hate.

Either way, Verity didn’t plan on calling her anything but Master since she was going to teach him the spear.

Evangellina sighed. “...Stay quiet for now, we’re passing through monster territory, and I don’t feel like babysitting you.”

‘Monster territory…?’

Verity couldn’t sense anything, but that did not discredit his master’s words. He imagined that she must have had a detection skill of some sort, so he wasn’t going to argue. Plus, he did feel uneasy. The forest was eerily quiet, and the darkness permeating it seemed to contain things that he better avoid. For now, he’d stay on her tail and make himself unnoticeable.

In the meantime, he thought that he could finally look at his status. He’d missed a lot of notifications from the system during that battle, and he was curious to see what he had gained from it.

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Status Window

Name: Verity

Age: 22

Level: 11

Inventory:

Alias: N/A

Class: [Fool Lv. 5]

Traits : Unemployed, Favored, Goblin Slayer

Skills: [Lesson Learned Lv.3], [Why Me!? Lv.2], [Accumulate Lv.1], [Never Again Lv.2]

Sponsor: [-Error-]

Stats

Unallocated stats points : 24

Strength : 12 (+1) (+4)

Stamina : 13 ( +1) (+13)

Speed : 12 (+2)

Intelligence : 18 (+3)

Dexterity : 9 (+1)

Arcane : 7 (+1)

Agility : 10 (+1) (+3)

Foolishness : 1 (+1)

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His stats had risen, and it was now obvious to Verity that he had been gaining one point toward every stat for every level up. His strength went from seven to twelve while his dexterity went from four to nine, matching the five levels he had gained.

What’s more, his stat multipliers also made more sense. His stamina was the most obvious. The second modifier simply doubled it, and since the value of the added stats had increased alongside the stats themselves for both his stamina and dexterity, it was likely that both of them were also increased in proportion to the base stat.

‘Since I get three points for my agility which is at 10… then it’s probably a thirty percent increase.’

Verity smirked, pleased by his own mental math skills.

The second multiplier was quite easy to understand but his first modifier, on the other hand, was still unclear to Verity. Its value hadn’t changed, and it seemed to differ for some stats. There didn’t appear to be any logic to it, and no matter how hard Verity tried to make sense of it, he could not.

He racked his brain for a moment, but ultimately gave up. ‘Yeah, that one’s weird… let’s put it aside for now.’

He then looked at his unallocated stat points, which had gone from fourteen to twenty-four. Since he was level eleven, that meant two points for every level… plus two free points?

‘Haha…Was I supposed to use those during the first trial…?’

That really might have made things easier.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Verity sighed, there was no use in thinking of the past.

Even now, he wasn’t entirely sure where to put them, but he was leaning toward strength. He had realized in his fight against the orcs that he could not take hits at all, and that was only further confirmed in the beatdown he received from Ash. Upon any impact, he would be sent flying, unable to even deflect, let alone stop, the blows of his opponents. He really was too weak, in the literal sense of the term. Verity thought that, at the very least, he should be able to receive a blow or two without flying away.

And so, he put a few points into strength.

He remained conservative, and used up only three points, bringing his strength from twelve to fifteen. As his stat was modified, the sensation was minimal, but Verity definitely felt a difference. Sensing a flicker of power grow in his body, Verity felt a sudden urge to put more points into strength, but quickly decided to hold himself back.

‘Let’s not make any rash choices.’ He told himself before moving on.

While Verity made sure to carefully study his entire status window, what drew his attention the most, was of course, his new stat : Foolishness.

‘A shame we don’t get more information about stats.’

Frankly, he could not even begin to guess what the stat could do. The others, he could all infer to a certain extent, but this one left him stumped.

Foolishness? Really?

‘First of all, I don’t know if I should take the growth of this stat as a good thing or an insult…’

Would it increase if he did something stupid? He imagined that he obtained the first stat point by standing up to Ash, but only one point for all he went through? That seemed rather underwhelming.

‘No use thinking about it too hard, not like the answer will suddenly pop up in my head….’ He waited for a moment. ‘Not like the answer will pop up in my head…right? That would be way too convenient…right?’

[Your sponsor rolls her eyes, ‘I’m not telling you’]

‘Tsk, worth a try.’

[Your sponsor chuckles.]

Verity could only click his tongue again and move on. He hadn’t expected much from his mysterious sponsor anyway. Besides giving him that ring, she hadn’t done anything useful since the start of the tutorial.

[Your sponsor frowns at your thoughts.]

‘What? It’s true!’

[Your sponsor turns away, ‘Then let’s see how well you do without me!’]

Verity was the one to roll his eyes this time. ‘Yeah yeah, whatever.’

He opened his class window next.

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Class : Fool

Level : 5

Rarity: Unique

Description : You lack wit, strength, and charisma, but you aren’t without qualities. Where others see failure, a mysterious being sees promise. The Fool is a combatant who’s persistence is their greatest, and perhaps their only redeeming quality. They may be mocked, ridiculed, and tossed aside, but in battle, they are the first to rise and the last to fall. They prove to all that even a fool can turn the tide of fate.

Class exclusive skills.

1st Skill : [Accumulate Lv. 1]

2nd Skill : [Never again Lv. 2]

3rd Skill: [Unlocked at class level 10]

4th skill: [Unlocked at class level 25]

Ultimate Skill: [Unlocked at class level 50]

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He had gained many levels ever since that battle with Ash, and Verity could now say with a high-level of confidence what exactly prompted a class level-up. For him, it appeared that he was rewarded if he went through some sort of hardship. As the system had said, Verity had gained experience toward his class for overcoming a challenge where the odds were against him.

While this made it simple for him to level up his class, it also meant that it was highly likely that he would not gain anything from killing goblins, or at least not much. His class was actively telling him to put himself in danger if he wanted to grow stronger.

Still, there was an important factor as well. He didn’t necessarily need to resolve the situation with his own abilities. Perhaps that would have granted much more experience toward his class, but as he saw, as long as he managed to get himself out of the situation, his class recognized it as a success.

‘Maybe even successfully running away would have given me experience…’

Could he throw a rock at a dragon, then immediately escape to farm experience? Then again, could he really escape from a dragon set on killing him?

‘I could have someone carry me away…’

Verity shook his head. His hypotheticals were getting ridiculous. He’d have time to properly understand what leveled up his class, and felt that he wouldn’t ever feel the need to look for faster ways to do so. He had no doubt that from now on, danger would lurk everywhere he went.

His next stop was his ‘special’ skill, which granted him sub-skills after overcoming challenges. He hadn’t heard the system mention anything about it, but he might have simply missed the notification, or perhaps there was an update, but the system hadn’t announced it.

In any case, he was eager to find out.

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Skill : [Never Again]

Rank : A

Level : 2

Rarity : Unique

Type : Passive

Description : Fool me once? Jokes on me. Fool me twice? That won’t happen.

Effect: Gain resistances or immunities once a challenge has been surmounted. Immunities are absolute, but the potency of the resistance is dependent on yours and the skill’s level.

Current Effects

[Indomitable will] - Grants resistance to all fear and intimidation-based skills.

[Minor Poison Tolerance] - Grants a minor resistance to all substances with debilitating properties.

[Painkiller] - Grants resistance to physical pain.

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Verity was surprised to see that he had gained a resistance, although disappointed it was not an immunity, but something bothered him.

‘Hmm, the poison tolerance is listed as Minor, but both Painkiller and Indomitable Will have no level of effectiveness.’

He suspected that Poison Tolerance, unlike the other two, might not scale with his level, as described by the skill. Or, since the system never chose its words blindly, it did scale with his level, but simply at a much lower rate compared to the other two. Would that mean that there is a Moderate, or Greater poison tolerance? An evolution of the skill, perhaps?

Also, had the system simply not felt inspired when naming that sub-skill? Minor Poison Tolerance was… boring, to say the least. Verity felt he’d have found a better name for it if given the chance.

‘Something like…Elixir of a thousand poison…or Anti-Venom!’

He did not know that venom and poison were two different things, of course.

“Why are you giggling to yourself back there?”

Verity was jolted out of his thoughts, and covered his mouth in embarrassment. “Sorry…”

Evangelina rolled her eyes. “Did I pick up a crazy one?” She mumbled to herself. “In any case, we’ll be setting up camp here, I’m hungry.”

They were in the middle of the forest, and it was still too dark for Verity to see anything around him.

“Sit.” She told him bluntly.

Verity did not retort. He carefully felt the surroundings with his hands, until he found what seemed to be a rotten tree log, and sat down. It was moist, and cold to the touch, but it was at least better than a rock.

Not wasting a moment after giving her command, Evangelina snapped her fingers. “[Light].” And a mote of light appeared in front of her, illuminating the expanse of darkness surrounding them as it floated in the air.

“Is that… a skill?” Verity asked. He couldn’t help but ask when he was curious about something.

“Magic.” His master replied flatly.

Verity frowned. “You can use magic…? I thought you were a Spearman?”

She smirked. “Weren’t you the one who said classes weren’t everything?”

‘Touché’

Verity cleared his throat. “But still… Without Terra’s touch, swinging a spear seems easier than using Magic.” He studied the light intently. “To be honest, I even thought magic itself was a class-exclusive skill.”

Evangelina sat across from Verity, her arms resting on her thighs. “You’re right about the first part. Magic, at its core, is more difficult than wielding a weapon. Without the help of Terra’s touch, it took me ten years just to produce this small mote of light.” She brushed her hair backward. “But it’s not class exclusive, and you’ll eventually come to learn that nothing really is.”

Verity stroked his chin, still studying the magical ball of light. “I see…”

He tried touching it, but his finger went right through it, which made sense, since it was entirely made of light.

‘Fascinating…’ He thought.

“Kid.” Evangelina’s voice cut through the silence. “You’re not from this world, are you?”