Blue boxes crowded Dollar’s surroundings, all vying for his attention. Unlike his previous notifications, these ones seemed angry. Probably because he’d neglected them for months on end.

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 6.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 7.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 8.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 9.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 10.]

….

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 13.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 14.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 15.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 16.]

[Symbol Memorization has reached level 17.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 6.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 7.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 8.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 9.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 10.]

….

[Symbol Divination has reached level 16.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 17.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 18.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 19.]

[Symbol Divination has reached level 20.]

[Symbol Negation has reached level 8.]

[Symbol Negation has reached level 9.]

[Symbol Negation has reached level 10.]

[Symbol Negation has reached level 11.]

[Transcriber of Reality has reached level 9.]

[Transcriber of Reality has reached level 10.]

[Transcriber of Reality has reached level 11.]

[Transcriber of Reality has reached level 12.]

[Defy Death has reached level 4.]

[Ength’s Touch has reached level 2.]

[Ength’s Touch has reached level 3.]

[A Will Eternal has reached level 13.]

[A Will Eternal has reached level 14.]

[A Will Eternal has reached level 15.]

[A Will Eternal has reached level 16.]

Huh. Interesting. Dollar read through the messages with a calm gaze.

Most of his time had been spent figuring out the gravity symbol, which was why [Symbol Memorization] and [Symbol Divination] had made massive gains. They were active at all times, both working in conjunction to figure out the concept of gravity and how it related to the eldritch lines that refused to be studied.

But Dollar was a master of time management, and he refused to take his winnings and leave. He wanted to pile on as much as he could take until the mountain of riches threatened to collapse and crush him. Ever since he had theorized that certain actions would cause certain [skills] to level quicker, he had set about testing his theory with the limited time he had.

For [A Will Eternal] the conditions were simple. He just had to use the [skill] on living beings. However, there was apparently a limit on how many levels exerting his will on the nearby fish could give him, and Mitsy and Bill hadn’t netted him any levels either. For some reason he was viewing them as people he didn’t want to command and dominate, so his [skill] didn’t influence them in a way that would allow it to level.

He suspected that was a subconscious issue. Or a brain parasite.

[Symbol Negation] leveling was the result of wearing a mask of darkness on his face and activating its darkness effect over his eyes, using [Symbol Negation] to see through it. The training process became automatic at that point. Alternatively, [Transcriber of Reality] leveled quickest when he moved symbols onto artifacts to form arrays, which was why it hadn’t leveled much. He had a lot of high expectations for its future.

I might have to see if there’s any better ways to level it now that I have time. Dollar mused. I only did a few dozen tests.

“The only issue is [Defy Death],” Dollar frowned.

Bill raised his head curiously, and Dollar gave the grec’s snout a pat.

He still hadn’t figured out how to level [Defy Death] quickly. Admittedly, it wasn’t the focus of the past few months, but the lack of progress irked him. He had tried [Defy Death] on artifacts, but it hadn’t leveled in a noticeable way so he couldn’t figure out which of his tests had yielded the best results.

There’s something there. I know it. Dollar peered at the System notifications until it trembled under his gaze.

“Status screen,” Dollar said.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Name: Dollar Tiberius.

Class: A Will Eternal.

Bloodline: Bond of the Divine.

Affinity: Spatial.

Adventurer rank: Bronze.

Symbologist rank: Silver.

Affiliations: Members of the Adventurer’s Guild of Cresta. Member of the Symbologist Guild of Ioa.

Stats:

Level: 62.

Mana: 420.

Life Essence: 118.

Intelligence: 42.

Wisdom: 44.

Stamina: 155.

Dexterity: 213.

Available stats to assign: 110.

Available core points to assign: 0.

Bonded companion: None selected.

Divine bonds remaining: 1.

Skill list:

General:

Language - Symbols (Epic): Level 1 (Max).

A Will Eternal (Legendary): Rank 1, level 16.

Aura:

Aura Sense (epic): Level 22.

Symbology:

Symbol Crafting (Uncommon): Rank 1, level 18.

Symbol Memorization (Uncommon): Rank 2, level 17.

Symbol Library (Uncommon): Rank 1, level 50.

Symbol Variation (Rare): Rank 1, level 15.

Symbol Obscurity (Rare): Rank 1, level 50.

Symbol Divination (Rare): Rank 1, level 20.

Symbol Communication (Rare): Rank 1, level 8.

Symbol Array Deconstruction (Epic): Rank 1, level 20.

Symbol Negation (self) (Epic): Rank 1, level 11.

Defy Death - Symbols (Epic): Rank 1, level 3.

Transcriber of Reality (Epic): Rank 1, level 11.

Ength’s Touch (Legendary): Rank 2, level 3.

“I have too many free stat points,” Dollar said.

Dollar was talking mostly to himself, but slightly bragging to Bill at the same time. Then his good cheer faded. He hadn’t forgotten that this world was a death trap, and any hesitation could lead to his capture or worse. As much as his hoarding instincts wanted him to save the stat points for a rainy day, his mind said that he needed to deploy them so that they could work for him now.

Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, he had several difficult decisions to make.

Intelligence.

Life Essence.

Dexterity.

Stamina.

“I only needed dexterity and stamina before,” Dollar said. “With so many new options, I need to flesh out my priorities.”

Dexterity and stamina were the first he considered.

Dollar intended to overcome his stamina weaknesses by creating an artifact that used the sustenance symbol. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but if he was in a position where he needed stamina but couldn’t craft a sustenance symbol then he’d probably have bigger things to worry about.

“Dexterity…” Dollar knew the stat was vital. It helped him carve symbols quicker without making mistakes, but now that he could transfer those symbols directly to make artifacts there was less urgency behind the stats' existence.

However, his most flexible strategy was to draw symbols on the fly and transfer them to other areas using [Transcriber of Reality]. It allowed for limitless options in any situation. Which meant he couldn’t abandon the stat entirely.

There was also a far, far more important consideration.

“If I’m going to be making artifacts that increase my speed through a haste array, I need to be able to adjust to the new speeds properly. Dexterity is the most important stat for that,” Dollar said. “The haste symbol provides a small boost to mental faculties to compensate, but in an artifact that speed boost is going to be amplified while the mental boost will likely stay the same. Unless I somehow find a core material capable of handling both functions, which would require two different arrays. No. Dexterity is more likely to help me in that area anyway since I’ll be switching artifacts as I make them.”

Also, Jasper was faster than me when crafting symbols. Which was very annoying. Dollar frowned. Okay. So points will definitely keep flowing into dexterity. It needs to be equal to or catch up to my other advances.

[Dexterity: 213 -> 263.]

[Free Stats: 110 -> 60.]

Dollar held down a bellow as his body filled with power granted through the System. The rush was stronger this time, and he flexed his fingers experimentally, watching each one obey his commands that slight bit quicker. Dexterity wasn’t a speed boost. No. It allowed Dollar to move his fingers flexibly in different ways, perfect for fine-tuning crafting materials with his dagger, and also for using new tools. It also allowed him to respond to different stimuli, making his reactions smoother and adding elegance to his movements.

“Yeah, that’s not going to get addictive at all,” Dollar mused. “Seriously. I should watch out. Or maybe just tell the System to not make it feel so good.”

Dollar was well aware of the dangers of addiction. He’d helplessly watched his sister back on Earth fall into that pit trap over time. Whether or not the System was doing it intentionally, he couldn’t tell. Especially since he was gaining a lot more stats than the norm.

After all, his legendary [Class] gave him ten stat points per level, compared to the four stat points of an uncommon [class], or the two to three stat points of a common [class].

He flexed his fingers experimentally. Fifty stat points into dexterity was more than a noticeable boost, his fingers were practically dancing as they obeyed his every command. More importantly, he knew exactly how they were moving and why, as though he were perfectly in tune with his body.

Mitsy must either have a lot of dexterity or a lot of training. Dollar thought. Since she can do this too. In fact, she moves even smoother, except with her entire body, as though she’s one with herself. Is that a [skill], or just skills?

“Well, I needed this to help with my crafting as well. Carving symbols isn’t the only part of artifact creation I need to work on.”

Ioa wasn’t like Earth. They had countless different crafting materials, each with their own unique properties, but also different tools to match them. The small glimpses he’d grasped in the city of Tiber had shown him that he had only touched the tip of the iceberg of artifact crafting.

By preparing himself to be able to use any tool to craft artifacts, dexterity was an investment for today, but also an investment for the future.

“Now, onto my new abilities,” Dollar allowed a light smile to creep onto his lips. “With great magic comes great responsibility.”

His eyes lingered on the intelligence and life essence stats.

Dollar had unlocked his spatial affinity, a grand ability which he was sure would help him in the future, though he wasn’t sure how. A small part of him still remembered the portals that Orona had conjured up in Zendria. The ability to teleport was more than intriguing, it was a game changing ability for someone on the run. Or someone who wanted to strike at his enemies unexpectedly.

Unfortunately, Mitsy didn’t know much about magic but had told him that it was widely accepted that magicians required three things to thrive.

Teachers.

Mana.

Time.

When she’d seen how downcast Dollar was about the news, she had written him a handy guide on how to learn magic. It was incredibly simple.

Step 1: Spend years of your life studying each spell.

“Why do all the good things require years of nonstop study,” Dollar sighed. “Damn it, I just want to be able to shift reality and break the laws of physics in a single day. Is that really too much to ask?”

His intelligence stat was the source of mana, a fact that he had learned from his mother in her lessons. If he put his stat points into intelligence, each stat point would increase his manapool by ten mana.

It also increased the speed with which he could learn spells. Only by a bit, since apparently humans had a curve for how smart they could become, but it was still an improvement.

“But I don’t have a teacher, and I’m not likely to find one soon. Time is even more of an issue. If it takes months or years to learn a spell then I’ll have to stay in one place, probably in public, and risk being exposed. That’s a little too much risk for unknown gains.”

Dollar couldn’t lie to himself. He loved the idea of using magic. But in his heart, he was also practical. His stat points had to be used in ways that could help him now. Hundreds of people were about to descend onto Lake Tiber. Maybe thousands. He would have to compete against them all for the prized symbol dormant within it.

More importantly, anything could be waiting to devour him once he stepped outside of the dome. He needed practical applications for his stats right now.

“So, magic is out, for now,” Dollar hummed. “My bloodline. Life essence. Not only can I increase my new stat, but I still have one bond left to form.”

The moment he spoke, blue boxes popped up at the corner of his vision. Dollar focused on them and expanded them until they were readable.

[You may establish a bloodline bond with a willing being of your choice.]

[Number of bonds available: 1.]

[Potential bond detected!]

Dollar nudged Bill’s side. “I can establish a bond with you.”

“Oink,” Bill turned onto his side, exposing his stomach for belly rubs.

Dollar obliged, wondering if he really wanted to use his sole bond on Bill.

If he’s really the descendant of a dragon, then that’s a good bond, Dollar thought. Probably. Maybe. I don’t know what dragons are like here. They sound menacing, but grecs are everywhere. There are tens of thousands of them in this city alone. Then again, none of them survived dragonsleep like Bill has. They also don’t have symbols all over their body that are increasing in number.

The notifications hovered in front of Dollar temptingly, but when he turned his gaze onto Bill they vanished. Replacing them was a single box with a purple glow mingling with its blue interior.

[Would you like to establish a bond with Bill(grec)? Y/N]