Chapter 11

A few minutes later, the rush Keith experienced faded, replaced by uncertainty. What he collected earlier more than quintupled his total collection, and there were now so many items in the Collection Grimoire that it could fill a few of the military warehouses Markus showed him in the past.

When factoring in diminishing returns, Keith calculated he would need to collect items valuing trillions of gold to have the same increase in stats he just had, and the only way to acquire that much money was to plunder an entire nation.

Keith summoned his Collection Grimoire and rubbed its surface, sighing. He had reached a bottleneck.

Developing your innate gift was the most common route people chose when they wanted to grow stronger. For many, it took decades or centuries to exhaust their potential, not merely three or four years like Keith.

While disappointing, Keith had expected this day to come, as it had for so many others. Besides, there were other methods to acquire power.

Skills.

Stats.

Equipment.

Among the three, Keith’s skill levels weren’t too noteworthy outside of Mind Enhancement and Mind Division, with most of his skills ranging from 400 to 550. If Keith wanted to focus on this aspect of himself, there were two ways to go about it: repetition and understanding.

Through repetition, Keith could push his skills to level 700+. Beyond that, he needed understanding. Unfortunately, repetition required time, and understanding came from education and experiencing life.

Neither were quick routes to success.

The only exception was Mana Manipulation, as it was a Universal skill. Even without repetition and understanding, an epiphany could boost it to level 1,000. Naturally, people encountered epiphanies by chance, so Keith didn’t pin his hopes on that.

Instead, raising your stats was always a reliable way to grow stronger.

Although Keith had previously maxed out his body’s resistance to gaining stats from food and medicinal baths, that was only when skills were limited to level 500. Nowadays, chefs and alchemists have long since pushed their levels beyond that, and with the profit Keith still made from collaborating with his Grandfather, he could easily afford their services.

As for equipment, when Keith considered the customized ancient grade equipment set arriving tomorrow, he felt he had done his best, what with hiring one of the best blacksmiths around.

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Satisfied, he was about to send Adeiv a message and turn in for the night when he slowly came to a pause.

Keith sighed, indecision striking him.

Could he lie to himself?

To come this far only to turn back at the last moment?

After all, wasn’t this the inevitable conclusion of his choice years ago?

No, he couldn’t.

Doing so would be a disservice to himself, those around him, and all the sacrifices he witnessed from others.

It was simple, really.

The best method to gain stats, skill levels, and amazing equipment was to brave the unknown. That meant leaving the safety net provided by his country, stepping into the frontier, and hunting increasingly stronger monsters.

Was that Keith?

Was that something he could do, would do?

Whenever he fought monsters, it was only after buying a data report on their territory, abilities, habits, and weaknesses. Even in the case of trouble, there were numerous adventurer teams nearby.

The frontier didn’t have that.

He’d have to face unknown monsters, unfamiliar geography, and the possibility of encountering people from other dimensions. And if he made a mistake, it could be fatal.

Keith opened his status panel and frowned.

Whether he took this final step or not hinged on his confidence, and he had no reference for his power level. Was he as strong as an Adventurer Academy graduate? Or did he near the level of his Father and Ska’dur?

Keith heard Ska’dur had been running around the nearby zones hunting all manner of monsters by himself, so if Keith were at least 60% as strong as Ska’dur, he’d do it.

Keith was willing to take risks, not throw his life away.

Possessing 60% of Ska’dur’s power was Keith’s bottom line.

Having committed to a decision, Keith sent his Father a message explaining his intentions and then went to bed. When he woke up, the first thing Keith did was check his magic tablet.

And there it was - a blinking notification from his Father.

In the message were a few sentences from Markus: You have my full support. Should you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.

Immediately drawing Keith’s attention was the snapshot of Markus and Ska’dur’s stats.

[Markus]

Level: 708

Health: 664,000

Mana: 412,000

Strength: 12,825

Agility: 12,729

Intelligence: 7,400

Vitality: 11,248

Endurance: 11,262

[Ska’dur]

Level: 715

Health: 588,000

Mana: 583,000

Strength: 10,112

Agility: 10,130

Intelligence: 10,180

Vitality: 10,150

Endurance: 10,159

Keith had mixed emotions after looking through their stats. He was stunned and excited because he hadn’t expected to be so close to their overall stat count and confused about how he could catch up so easily, considering they were both hundreds of years old.

And then Keith remembered something –Markus and Ska’dur hadn’t formed a Mana Body yet. The realization left Keith feeling unexpectedly wistful. There was still such a big gap between them, even after three years of hard work.

On the upside, since Keith had similar stats to Ska’dur, who was killing ancient grade monsters left and right, Keith had the confidence to perform similarly. While there was no doubt Ska’dur’s equipment was leagues better than Keith’s, Keith’s transcendent grade Mana Body didn’t just increase his stats; it gave him an all-around improvement. Especially the effect that boosted all of Keith’s skills by one grade.

It was decided, then.

When the shipment of customized equipment arrived later today, Keith would set off for Typhoon Beach. No longer would he hold himself back.