Yesterday, I was able to survive that increased handicap effect because of the mystery mushroom. In the final moments, I couldn’t take it any longer, so I took a bite off the mystery mushroom, hoping it would negate or decrease the effect instead of invigorating it further. Luckily for me, it worked. It was worth it because while the others spent their time hunting the mutant goblins and the Greater Mutant Goblins for coins, I diligently searched for the mystery items.
Although, after eating the mushroom, the handicap’s effects diminished by a lot, it was still unbearable. Maybe it was due to all my stats being set to level 1—which was lower than an average human.
“Elias! Stop day-dreaming and finish your meal quickly!”
“Uh? Ah, right. Sorry mom.”
I was about to put the spoonful of soup into my mouth, when my mother said with a gentle smile, “You know, your grandma is going to come in a few days.”
I spat out the soup. “We’ve a grandma?!”
My sister who was sitting beside me, drinking the same soup, also spat out hers. “Huh?! We do?!”
“Yes. You do have a grandma. She has been away for a while because of training.”
Hmm? Now, that was interesting…
“What sort of training? If she is our grandma then she must be in her seventies. Isn’t that right, mom?”
Hmm.. Yes, my sister’s point was valid.
“Uhm, yes, that’s right. She is turning seventy four this year.”
My mother added on.
“She is a member of the Frontline Forces.”
By this time, I became really curious. I couldn’t resist asking a question. “Frontline Forces? Isn’t that the state’s most reputed and commanding military unit?”
But wait..something didn’t fit in right.
“But, you said she was in her seventies, right? So, she should be eligible for retirement.”
My mother had an unknown expression on her face. Then, she proceeded to tell me the whole story. From her childhood, up until now, the present.
The story goes like this:
This grandma was from my paternal side. Which meant that she was my late father’s mother. When my mother first met her, my grandma was at a general rank in the military. Then, after my mother married my father, my grandma rapidly went up in the military rankings and even got into the most reputed and commanding military unit—The Frontline Forces. This unit was first made in resistance to the mutant goblins. This unit guarded the world from extinction while being the most vulnerable to death. The unit has a separate authority from the state, and supreme authority during the time of apocalypse.
My grandma, after a few years of my parents’ wedding, left the house to train against the apocalypse. She felt that her current power wasn’t enough to eradicate the mutant goblins, so she would train, train until she was certain that she could eliminate the entire mutant goblin species. The result came after thirty years. She finally decided to retire from the Frontline Forces.
“Now she is coming here after retirement?”
“That’s right.”
I have mixed feelings about this. I didn’t know that I had a grandma until just a few minutes ago. What was she like?
“She would be arriving in a few days’ time.”
“Uhm, okay.”
If she was returning from ‘training’, then she must be a powerful person by now. I can’t be looking like a wimp in front of her. I had to start leveling up in my own way. Wait..she, too, must be having the system right?
Before I left the house, I asked my mom, “Does she have the system?”
“Of course. Everyone has it. It is the only way to fight against the mutant goblins.”
Hmm.. I wondered what to do to better myself from now on as I walked my usual path to the Dungeon Agency.
[Coins: 20,200]
First, I should probably upgrade my stats.
----------------------------------------
Individual Information
Name: Elias Raymon
Unit: Combat
Attribute: Apprentice of Fire
Level: 33
Exp: 287/1582
Stats:
Strength: 40
Stamina: 40
Defense: 40
Agility: 40
Endurance: 47
Magic Power: 40
Skills:
Blaze Lv.10
Dark Eruption Lv.1
Perks:
Goblin’s Shield
----------------------------------------
[1,200 coins have been consumed, Endurance: 47 —> Endurance: 50]
[2,000 coins have been consumed, Strength: 40 —> Strength: 45]
[4,000 coins have been consumed, Stamina: 40 —> Stamina: 50]
[2,000 coins have been consumed, Defense: 40 —> Defense: 45]
[4,000 coins have been consumed, Agility: 40 —> Agility: 50]
[4,000 coins have consumed, Magic Power: 40 —> Magic Power: 50]
[Coins: 3,000]
Hmm, I still have 3,000 coins left. What should I upgrade? I think defense should come first rather than strength.
[2,000 coins have been consumed, Defense: 45 —> Defense: 50]
[Coins: 1,000]
Okay, with the remaining, I could upgrade my strength a bit.
[800 coins have been consumed, Strength: 45 —> Strength: 47]
I could feel my body changing. I let out an energetic sigh. The difference between level 40 stats and the level 50 one is amazing.
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----------------------------------------
Individual Information
Name: Elias Raymon
Unit: Combat
Attribute: Apprentice of Fire
Level: 34
Exp: 472/1640
Stats:
Strength: 47
Stamina: 50
Defense: 50
Agility: 50
Endurance: 50
Magic Power: 50
Skills:
Blaze Lv.10
Dark Eruption Lv.1
Perks:
Goblin’s Shield
----------------------------------------
[You have leveled up!]
You can level up just by upgrading stats? Wow, I didn’t know that.
[Your attribute is evolving!]
…
[Your new attribute is Disciple of Fire.]
I opened my [Individual Information] to check it again.
----------------------------------------
Individual Information
Name: Elias Raymon
Unit: Combat
Attribute: Disciple of Fire
Level: 34
Exp: 472/1640
Stats:
Strength: 47
Stamina: 50
Defense: 50
Agility: 50
Endurance: 50
Magic Power: 50
Skills:
Blaze Lv.10
Dark Eruption Lv.1
Perks:
Goblin’s Shield
----------------------------------------
Cool…
Anyways, I should probably train and upgrade my stats even further to meet the expectations of my grandma.
Also, Christmas is just around the corner…
I went to the dungeons every day. I even went two times on some days and saved up a lot of coins. After about a week, this was the amount of coins I had after paying the lease.
[Coins: 17,800]
I didn’t spend that on the stats. Instead, I bought the entire Intermediate area of the dungeon. The Intermediate area, normally, costs around 20k to 23k coins, but as usual I got a discount because I was cool. Just kidding. I begged the Dungeon Agency.
[Coins: 0]
Haha, I was broke. But not for long…
After an entire month of working hard, I finally saved up enough to make huge changes to my stats.
[Coins: 32,600]
This much money was nothing once your stats reached level 50.
[1,200 coins have been consumed, Strength: 47 —> Strength: 50]
I should upgrade my magic power more than my strength since I wasn’t a melee user.
[8,000 coins have been consumed, Magic Power: 50 —> Magic Power: 60]
[8,000 coins have been consumed, Stamina: 50 —> Stamina: 60]
[8,000 coins have been consumed, Agility: 50 —> Agility: 60]
[4,000 coins have been consumed, Endurance: 50 —> Endurance: 55]
[3,200 coins have been consumed, Defense: 50 —> Defense: 54]
[Coins: 200]
Shit.. It was like this. Even after working hard for a month, I couldn’t get all my stat components to level 60.
----------------------------------------
Individual Information
Name: Elias Raymon
Unit: Combat
Attribute: Disciple of Fire
Level: 38
Exp: 720/2245
Stats:
Strength: 50
Stamina: 60
Defense: 54
Agility: 60
Endurance: 55
Magic Power: 60
Skills:
Blaze Lv.12
Dark Eruption Lv.2
Perks:
Goblin’s Shield
----------------------------------------
Also, the new skill Dark Eruption was amazing. Black flames emerged everytime I cast it. It looked as cool as its destructive power. The Goblin’s Shield made me invincible against normal goblins. Maybe mutant goblins would be able to deal some damage. Only ‘some’ though.
Finally, my grandma arrived. At first look, she didn’t look all that special. It was just your ordinary old woman. But, one could tell after inspecting carefully that she was trying her hardest to maintain a mundane look while suppressing her immense aura.
My grandma greeted us. “Hey little ones. It’s your granny.”
I felt a little awkward as I tried to be affectionate. “H-Hello, Mada…Grandma.” I nearly said ‘madam’ instead of grandma..shit. We were practically strangers meeting for the first time. My little sister hid behind me while she too, shyly welcomed our grandma. Eloise muttered in a timid voice, “It’s nice to meet you grandma.”
“Oh, it’s your first time meeting me isn’t it?”
“More like the first time hearing about you.” My mother, who had been watching us with an uncomfortable look, joined in on the awkward conversation.
“Right..my bad. But, it’s all for your sake, my dear!”
“Sigh..Mom..it’s been thirty years..thirty long years..” My mother paused for a second and looked over at the picture of my father. “Even your son passed away during that time. You didn’t even attend his funeral.”
“My dear, I’m aware of that. I trained all these years to prevent that from happening to you all.”
Oh, this situation. I understood it because my mother told me the backstory. To protect her family, our grandma went on a journey around the world to train and get stronger. While my mother, whose mother passed away at a very young age, wanted to have our grandma as a substitute for the lost motherly love in her life. Both of them loved each other dearly and are showing their affection in their own ways. No one is right or wrong here.
For the next hour or so, my grandma would console and explain things to my mother, and finally my mother half-heartedly grumbled, “...Fine, I get it..mom. I love you.” with tears welling up in her eyes.
Once the dramatic spectacle was over, everyone became their normal selves. My grandma became mixed with our family in no time. Soon enough, we began exchanging warm-hearted stories of our lives up until now.
While talking about her life, I became curious about one thing. If she had trained and reached this level, then she must definitely have the system. Wait.. Why do I keep having this doubt? Of course, she would have it. Even my mother said so. There was no other way to get stronger in this world.
“Um, grandma.”
“Yes, dear. What is it?”
I stumbled before I finally asked her. “Can you show me your [Individual Information]?”
She let out a brief laugh before saying, “Why are you hesitating to ask your own grandma? I don’t mind. Here, take a look.”
Then, a screen appeared in front of her. I went behind her to see the information clearly. Eloise too, became curious and joined me. She was also about to get a system soon after all.
----------------------------------------
Individual Information
Name: Borna Raymon
Unit: Combat
Attribute: Sound God
Level: 100
Exp: ???
Stats:
Strength: 200
Stamina: 200
Defense: 200
Agility: 200
Endurance: 200
Magic Power: 200
Skills:
Song of Blare Lv.25 (+10)
Shepherd’s Ring Lv.25
Sound Barrier Lv.25
Soundwave manipulation Lv.25 (+10)
???
Perks:
Goblin’s Shield
Goblin Gambit
Double Coin
Coin Madness
Dividend Party
----------------------------------------
What the…
I was rendered-speechless by her [Individual Information]. I mean it made sense. It should be maxed out. She trained with single-minded focus for thirty years for one purpose.
“Grandma, your stats are amazing!” Eloise also saw the first-class stats and exclaimed.
“It is awesome, gran, but..” I paused for a second before continuing, “Why are there a lot of question marks?” My questions didn't end there. “Also, why are there additional stats next to some of your skills?”
Grandma looked at the [Individual Information] screen for a moment before answering. “To answer your first question, it’s because I broke the system.”
..Broke the what now?
“To answer your second question, it is because I use system-buff weapons. My sword enhances the skills’ power.”
My grandma looked at my stupid expression and restated her answer. “I went past the system’s limits, so I unlocked a new unknown skill. My level also reached its max, so the experience is meaningless.”
“You can unlock skills?”
“Why, yes, of course you can. There are multiple milestones. Once you reach those milestones, you can either choose to get more coins, perks or skills. I chose the latter because after a certain point onwards, stats become useless. Perks are the hardest to acquire. You can guess why I only have five now right?”
She ‘only’ has five perks…
[Individual Information]
----------------------------------------
Individual Information
Name: Elias Raymon
Unit: Combat
Attribute: Disciple of Fire
Level: 38
Exp: 720/2245
Stats:
Strength: 50
Stamina: 60
Defense: 54
Agility: 60
Endurance: 55
Magic Power: 60
Skills:
Blaze Lv.12
Dark Eruption Lv.2
Perks:
Goblin’s Shield
----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, I only have one…
My grandma looked at my system screen and was astonished.
“Dear! This is incredible! You have amazing talent.”
Her words of appreciation made me grumble. “It’s fine grandma. Please don’t pity me.. Abusing the system’s powers is no talent.”
“No dear! This much progress within this short of a time is truly commendable. And, even ‘abusing’ the system’s powers requires talent you know?”
She pointed to my stats and slowly moved her fingers downwards to the perks area while saying, “Look. Look at your average stats level. Each of your stats components is 50 or above. And, you managed to achieve this within 5 months? I am genuinely impressed. It took me a whole year to average my stats to 60.”
She didn’t stop there. She added on.
“Now, look at your attribute. You are the ‘Disciple of Fire’. You are halfway there to mastering your attribute. Keep working hard like you've already been and the results will definitely show.”
My grandma proceeded to explain the attributes in detail. There were a lot of things I wasn’t aware of, so this was helpful.
So, it seemed like the title of the attribute changed depending on my level of mastery. My other stats — skills, levels, stat components and perks — also played a considerable role in my mastery.
The attribute titles goes in the following descending order:
God
Master
Lord
Disciple
Apprentice
Servant
“Next is your perk. As I mentioned earlier, getting a perk is tough work. The only possible ways is by buying it through the shop or winning it through a tournament. The shop quotes an exorbitant price for them though, so it’s impossible to buy them. There is one more hidden way to acquire perks against a species. For example, I have the ‘Goblin Shield’ perk. I had to kill ten thousand normal goblins to get it. That’s right, to get a perk against a species, you had to kill ten thousand creatures of that species.”
Wow.. To think I would get such an awesome thing… I don’t know if it was luck or chance.
“I got my perk through a tournament, gran.”
“What, really?! To think my little boy won a tournament…” She looked at the ceiling and seemed to be having a slight sense of regret.
“Wait.. Gran, we both have the same perk.”
My grandma looked at the perk closely and confirmed. “Oh, yes. It is the most effective perk against the mutant goblins. I’m glad that was your first perk.”
Then, my grandma went silent for the next few minutes. She seemed to be in deep thought. After some time, she declared, “Okay! Starting tomorrow, I’m going to train you until you get strong enough to be able to wipe-out entire legions of mutant goblins.”
I laughed uneasily.