Chapter 27

I jumped from level 2 to level 5 in one fell swoop, with all the extra stat boosts that came with it.

The explosion of growth, as if all the hard work I’d been doing was being rewarded, sent a shiver down my spine.

‘It’s almost tripled, well, a little more than that, but the rate of increase is similar to that in the game.’

Of course, Lilith was already level 15 when she first joined the team, so this was just a guess based on the main character’s rate of growth.

Of her many base stats, the most significant upgrade is probably in her mana cap.

Already at nearly 300 at level 2, her maximum mana had skyrocketed to a staggering 855.

At the same time, I felt a cathartic rush of emotion as the pain and suffering of the past overwhelmed me.

‘…My efforts were not in vain, after all.’

If the past few days were any indication of my suffering, those past three days of eating more garlic than usual hadn’t been in vain!

The sheer number of the 855 mana cap proved it.

If I were Lilith in the real game, I would have to be almost level 30 to get stats like that.

At the moment, however, I was only level 5, and I wasn’t even out of the single digits yet.

Granted, the other stats besides the mana cap were pretty mediocre, but this alone was enough to make Lilith a more formidable foe.

…Of course, this would only give her a slight advantage in combat compared to the average person, and her actual strength would still only be that of a rookie soldier.

Well, in reality, I’m still an 18-year-old, almost like a high school girl, and I’m not as strong as a rookie soldier.

At least in this lifetime, I didn’t have to bother trying to increase my mana cap. Even if I just get to level 30 normally, I’ll be as powerful as any mage.

I’m never eating those damned cloves of garlic again.

Of course, it wasn’t just my mana cap that grew.

My lowly 15 HP, which rendered me incapacitated after one hit, had also risen to a respectable 47.

The miserable Attack and Defense stats of 3 and 5 were also raised to a more respectable 12 and 17.

I still didn’t have enough damage to cut a slime in half, but I could take it down with a steady stream of two or three attacks without magic or skill.

For the record, I do remember catching slimes as Lilith before I regained my memory.

It’s not uncommon for slimes to spawn near rural farmhouses after rain.

That’s probably why I was level 2 instead of level 1 when I regained my memory.

I think I had to hit one about 10 times to kill it then, which means I’m almost three or four times as strong now.

Life happens.

…Of course, aside from the usual stats like Attack and Defense, there were a few stats that increased quite abnormally.

『Charm: 12 → 40

Luck: 0 → 1』

The rate of increase wasn’t so much that I thought it was weird, but… the disparity is definitely a bit on the extreme end compared to other things.

Lilith’s Charm, which was originally in the low 10s, became a horrible 40 as soon as it tripled, like other stats.

Luck, on the other hand, was a disaster, only going up by 1 despite gaining 3 levels.

This may not be so strange, considering the stats of Lilith at level 15.

I don’t know if this was the game devs’ intention, but Lilith’s Charm at level 15 is an insane number; it’s almost 200.

Even at that level, my luck never broke out of the single digits.

Of course, depending on your character’s personality and role, certain stats will increase significantly while others won’t.

It’s hard to say anything good about having more Charm when you’re in Lilith’s shoes.

‘I’d hoped to see a more even distribution.’

I was especially disappointed with the minor increase in Luck, as it’s a stat that directly affects combat.

In the game, characters with low luck would often see effects like “Attack missed!” or “Nothing happened!” during combat.

Lilith is no exception to this curse, as she is an unlucky character.

The only saving grace is that Lilith is a support character and a buffer in the game, so her low Luck is covered by her Charm’s modifier.

I also have a few more exclusive skills with a 100% hit rate compared to other characters.

The problem is, the direction I need to take from here on out is a complete 180 from what I would normally do in the game.

What, you think I’m going to focus on support magic like I did while playing Luminor Academy?

That’s not good for anyone, and it would only make it easier for Ethan to take advantage of me.

‘Offensive skills are essential because I need to utilize the overflowing mana pool. I can learn other skills gradually.’

If you were unlucky enough to miss an attack spell or two, you could just cast a third or fourth to make up for it.

I increased my ridiculously high magic mana to do that and even learned triple-casting.

Besides, as I said, Lilith had a few skills that had a 100% hit rate.

One of them was Mana Blast, one of the first “enhanced skills” you learn.

『Mana Blast: Consume all of your remaining mana to deliver an ultimate blow to all enemies. Damage dealt is proportional to the amount of Mana consumed.』

If you have a Mana Blast with a 100% hit rate, it’s practically game over. You’ll be able to blast through monsters up to level 25 with this one shot.

Of course, once you use it, you can’t use any other spells until you refill your mana, and you’ll be fighting with 0 mana the moment another enemy appears.

Still, it’s a basic human instinct to want to have a reliable special move prepared, even if it’s only a one-shot attack.

I certainly wasn’t planning on using this magic to escape Blackwood Manor or anything grandiose like that.

Even if I wanted to escape my status as Ethan’s exclusive maid, that didn’t mean I’d have to take anyone’s life to do it.

I just wanted to keep it as a last resort in case something happened.

‘Even Lilith’s full-powered Mana Blast wouldn’t work against Harold in the first place.’

It’s better for my mental health to eliminate options that aren’t realistically possible.

Anyway, the next skill I had to learn was obviously Mana Blast, so of course, the skill progression had to be geared towards getting it.

While the normal path, as Lilith, would be to increase character durability and support magic, I’m going to go out on a limb and skip them in favor of offensive magic.

I don’t really have any other options at this point.

Before we start taking skills, I should explain that the basic “skill system” for Luminor Academy works this way:

『1. All characters gain 3 skill points every time they level up.

2. Each character has several kinds of Skill Trees according to their personality, and the initial skill of each Skill Tree costs 2 points to learn.

3. In each skill tree, you can learn an Enhanced Skill by mastering all three of its sub-skills. The first Enhanced Skill in each Skill Tree costs 5 points to learn, and after you learn an Empowered Skill, you can learn 3 new skills at the next level.”』

So, to summarize, this means that:@@novelbin@@

In order for Lilith to use Mana Blast, I must first learn three sub-skills. I must spend 6 points in the process.

I then need to spend another 5 points to learn Mana Blast, the first Enhanced Skill in the Offensive Magic skill tree.

This means that I need a total of 11 points to learn Mana Blast.

…but how many skill points do I have now?

『Skill Points Remaining: 10』

“Haaaaa….”

I sighed in frustration at the number of Skill Points that didn’t change, no matter how many times I looked at it.

Yes, it was true that collecting 10 points at once was an incredible feat.

…but maybe it was just me being greedy and wishing I had one more point.

Note that the 2 Skill Points I spent on Clean were in the Support Magic skill tree, so wouldn’t help me learn Mana Blast, which is in the Offense Magic skill tree.

‘Of course, at the time, I couldn’t not learn it because there was no skill that was more efficient than Clean.’

I can’t unlearn Clean and learn Mana Blast now. After all, without it, I wouldn’t have been able to boost my mana cap.

In the end, I spent 6 of my 10 points to learn three sub-skills of offensive magic, leaving me with a sense of regret.

『Shockwave』

『Magic Arrow』

『+10 Mana Cap Increase』

To be honest, the last skill I didn’t really want to increase was my mana cap.

It was a stat that was necessary to learn Mana Blast, after all.

In the game, it was a must-have skill for Lilith, who is heavily mana-dependent early game. However, I now have almost the same mana cap as a level 25 monster, so it feels like a one-mana increase.

I didn’t spend the remaining 4 points right away. I had to save them for Mana Blast at the next tier of the Skill Tree.

Given the nature of Luminor Academy, where you get 3 points for every level up, I could have spent 2 points, but I figured I’d just get character durability and support magic anyway, so I didn’t bother.

I didn’t want to spend too much and end up running out of points later when I really needed them.

I’ve played as the protagonist dozens of times already, so I could recall a skill tree with my eyes closed, but starting as Lilith was a first for me in both my previous life and this one.

If I failed, I might not get another chance, so I had to think carefully and make a decision.

With that in mind, it’s always best to play it safe.

‘It’s not bad at all that I learned Shockwave and Magic Arrow, anyway.’

I can use them to hunt when I have time, and Clean is only useful when it comes to using up my overflowing magic.

For now, I’ll just have to settle for two decent offensive skills.

“…Let’s get back to work.”

Judging from the brightness outside the window, it seems like only a day or so has passed.

Time is of the essence, and Isabel and Catherine must have already gone back to the manor with the coachman, but it’s not like it’s a long walk from the fiefdom to the manor.

I’ll just have to walk slowly, pretending I’m still recovering from my incapacitated state.

“Oh dear.”

Grabbing the pouch of money and the letter from the top of the dresser, I walked back to Blackwood Manor before the day was over.

…It was about two hours later that I realized I had been lying there for three days straight.