What Verity saw before him was… shocking. His status window was now a lot different than when he had last opened it two months ago.

Of course, his level hadn't changed since he had not slain anything, but his class level had increased, by six whole levels at that.

‘That’s gotta be from the constant fights with Doll’ He thought.

This confirmed what he had somewhat suspected. The leveling of a class was different from one's own level. For Verity, to level the Fool class meant to undertake challenges where the odds were stacked against him, and surely, the greater the challenge, the greater the amount of experience gained.

‘So the system rewards me for being an idiot.’

A grin tugged at his lip. He could work with that.

His eyes moved down the window and fell onto his new Trait, ‘Martyr’. It sounded grand, so of course Verity focused on it, and opened the Trait window.

----------------------------------------

Trait : Martyr

Rarity : Common

Type : Passive

Description : Do you enjoy being beaten to a pulp?

Effect: +0.1% physical damage resistance

----------------------------------------

Verity’s grin faltered. ‘....Just who makes these…’

He sighed and closed the window. The ‘Martyr’ trait was essentially useless, almost a joke. It’s not that he’d expected otherwise, considering what his other traits were, but it still stung to be so sorely disappointed. On the positive side, this trait could be viewed, which was something to rejoice…. Verity supposed.

His attention then drifted to another piece of information on his status window. Something he was especially excited to learn about. With a thought, a window for his new skill [Beyond Reason], opened before him. The name alone had an air about it, so Verity could only imagine what it actually did.

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Skill : [Beyond Reason]

Rank : A

Level : 1

Rarity : Unique

Type : Passive

Description : Only a Fool would persevere where the outcome has already been determined. Only a Fool would press forward where all others have fallen. In this world, there are those who know their limits, and those who do not. You, Fool that you are, belong to the latter.

Effect - Gain a percent stat increase proportional the height of the wall you face.

----------------------------------------

Verity pressed his hands against his mouth, preventing a wide grin from spilling out into the open.

‘This is kind of cool, isn’t it!?’ He thought.

This time, although the description still insisted on calling him a moron, it at least sounded like what you’d expect an all-powerful entity like the system, or the person behind it, would say. Plus, its effect seemed genuinely useful, even more so than his previous skill, [Never Again,] was.

Its rank was not any higher, but if he understood it correctly, the stronger the opponent he faced, the stronger he would become.

Now, this skill really gave Verity what you’d expect of a main character. It would give him the strength he needed, when he needed it.

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Of course, the skill probably had its limits, scaling with Verity’s proficiency, and surely had conditions to activate. Even considering all of that, however, Verity was quite happy about it.

What’s more, the ‘height of the wall’ he faced was an ambiguous way of putting it, and since the system never chose its words haphazardly, Verity expected that there was more to this skill than met the eye.

‘Still… why are all my skills passive…?’

Was it just a coincidence, or was it intended?

Verity had no way to know, and in any case, there were more changes to be explored in his status window.

Of course, there was his very newest skill, [Minor Aura Circulation], but considering that he was not sure exactly how much time he had, Verity decided to skip over it. Its name was descriptive enough, so even without the system’s help, he could somewhat guess what it did.

What required his attention next were his stats of course. They too, had changed, and Verity needed to see which ones, by how much, and perhaps even understand why they had changed.

His eyes left the row detailing his skills and-

‘Wait a minute.’

Something was amiss. Verity squinted, and looked at his skills very carefully, but no matter how intensely he stared, Verity’s eyes did not adjust the error in front of him.

He frowned.

Had his vision gone bad? Most likely not. If anything, it should have gotten better.

So then, why was he seeing this?

He placed his finger on top of the skill that seemed out of place. ‘Not…Why Me...but Not Me…?’

He was certain his skill had been called ‘Why me!?’. In fact, he thought the name was ridiculous, which is why he was certain he had not just seen wrong.

If his eyes did not betray him, then this meant that the name of his skill had changed.

He hovered his finger over it, about to open the window.

‘Might as well look at i-’

SWOOSH

An arrow flew past him, grazing his cheek, and drawing a few drops of blood.

“Circulate your Aura, and defend” a calm voice echoed through the room. “If you want to survive the night, of course.”

Verity blinked, and immediately raised his spear. “That wasn’t even a five minute break…” He mumbled.

Soon, a dagger flew toward him. Remembering the day’s teachings, and his battles with Doll, Verity anchored his feet into the ground, clumsily circulated his Aura, and sliced it in half.

A rush of satisfaction filled him, but the voice echoed again. “Stay alert.”

Three spears, and three arrows shot out of the walls, all headed straight for Verity.

He let out a dry chuckle, and prepared to stand his ground. “Figures.”

He gritted his teeth, Aura surging, and prepared to meet them head-on.

—

Sitting at the small wooden table in her kitchen, Evangelina scoffed, and took a sip of her tea. Closing the display which let her watch over Verity, she leaned backward, and let out a long sigh.

“You have to do at least that much if you want to improve, kid.” She whispered.

For someone with his kind of talent, his growth thus far had certainly been decent, but that was it.

Out in the world, real prodigies roamed. The kind of people who crushed dreams, hopes, and the spirits of their peers. There was also nothing to say that those guys didn’t just work as hard as everyone else. For Verity, simply training a little more than them wouldn't cut it. If he wanted to catch up, he’d need to go further, push past reason, past sanity. He’d have to be crazy.

Evangelina thought back to the large young man she’d shared a carriage with on her way back to Plamodel.

To her standards, that man was more than decent, and that was a compliment coming from Evangelina. His talent when it came to circulating his Aura was above average, and he seemed to have received the teachings of an especially powerful martial artist.

But that girl at the gate? The one with the eye-catching beast on her shoulder. That one… Evangelina’s eyes narrowed just remembering her. That one was a once in a millennia kind of genius.

Evangelina could tell at just a glance that she had already attained Sword Aura, which was impressive enough for her age, but there was something more… something about the way the world seemed to become quieter around her, that really grabbed Evangelina’s attention.

It was evident, that girl, she had already gained insight into the next step.

‘There was someone else like that, wasn’t there…’

As she mentally re-designed Verity’s training regimen to further propel his growth, Evangelina thought back to the Aura circulation session they’d had together. Verity was no prodigy, but he was no ordinary man either.

“Just what was that energy….” She whispered.

As she forced Verity’s paths open, Evangelina had felt something strange… a power, or rather presence within him. When it came to Verity’s control over his own Aura, that strange energy was neither helpful, nor harmful, yet a strange chill coursed through Evangelina's body just remembering it.

It wasn't divine power, spirit force or even miasma.

She had never seen anything like it before, and with her life experience, that wasn't something that happened often.

It had truly piqued her interest, but she had decided not to inform Verity on it so he could focus on his training.

With a deliberate movement, Evangelina reached for a large, worn down book resting on the table, and flipped its pages.

“Aurelius...” She read through the old notes on the page. “Yes. He might know...”