"Fay, send me back to the personal space!" Alex commands Fay through the [Magic Chip] after as soon as he arrives at Beginner Town.
Alex exits the [Transporter Capsule] and goes on to retrieve the F-ranked {Evolution Potion} from his [Storage Box]. He inserts the potion into the [Evolution Capsule] and starts his 5th evolution. After 2 hours, Alex comes out of the capsule.
"Congratulations, Alex Volff. You have ranked-up to E-rank 1-star Defender. You have been awarded 500 credits and one {Evolution Potion (E-ranked)}," Fay's delightful voice sounds in Alex's head as soon as he comes out of the [Evolution Capsule].
"Congratulations, you have broken the record as the fastest Defender from Earth to advance from F to E-rank. You have been awarded 500 credits," Fay continues with another notification.
Alex was expecting the first notification, but the second one catches him by surprise. Alex calms down after a brief period of euphoria. He uses [Observe] to find out his current stats.
>-----<
Name: Alex Volff
Age: 15
Race: Human
Rank: E*
Credits: 3908
>-----<
Basic Stats:
- Strength: 83 (+14)
- Speed: 77 (+13)
- Agility: 79 (+13)
- Endurance: 88 (+15)
- Spirit: 126 (+21)
- Mana: 126/126 (+21)
>-----<
Skills:
- Energy Manipulation (E)
- Energy Arrow (F)
>-----<
Kill Count: [80 F*], [72 F**], [63 F***], [53 F****], [50 F*****]
Achievements: 1
Records: 1
>-----<
All of his stats are now above 75 points, the requirement to advance from F-rank to E-rank. Just based on his spirit and mana, it is enough for him to rise to E-rank 3-stars, but his other stats are still not enough.
Alex refrains from using the E-ranked {Evolution Potion} he just got. Using the evolution potion twice in a short amount of time will just waste the effect of the second one. He needs to let his body gets used to the recent evolution first before attempting another evolution.
The next thing Alex does is check the system store for the E-ranked items that are now available for him to buy. He has quite a lot of credits saved up. They are enough to purchase some decent E-ranked items from the store.
Usually, Defenders don't have as many credits as him when they rise from F-rank to E-rank. Other Defenders need to buy new skills and equipment everytime they rise one star. By the time they rise from F to E-rank, they would usually only be able to purchase low-quality items. Alex's advantage lies with his {Energy Manipulation} skill. Alex can feel how truly marvelous this skill is. With the {Energy Manipulation} his fighting power rises proportional to his basic stats, so as he gets stronger, the skill gets stronger with him. This is not the case with other skills in the store. Other skills would get less effective when facing an increasingly stronger opponent.
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Take his {Energy Arrow} skill for example. Against the
Alex puts away his stray thoughts and returns his focus to the list of items in front of him. He doesn't want to buy something immediately. Instead, Alex takes a note on which skills, equipment, or other items that might be useful and affordable for the current him. He will decide which ones to buy when he gathers enough information about the E-rank.
Gathering more information about the E-rank is now another problem for Alex. He knows Fay will explain all the new things about the E-rank. But, there are other things that he will need to find out for himself.
The E-rank is shrouded in mystery for the public on Earth. The UDA only made information regarding F-rank available to the public. Also, those publicly available information only cover around 50% of the F-ranked information in the UDA database. There are some minor pieces of information about E-rank that are accessible for F-ranked Defenders, but they are very much lacking compared to what he needs as a true E-ranked Defender right now.
Of course, if Alex just tells the UDA that he has risen to E-rank those problems would disappear. It will be easy as he only needs to bring out an E-ranked {Energy Stone} as prove. Then, he will be able to access the E-rank database.
But, by doing that he will create new problems for himself. There will be many questions raised about his unbelievable performance. The Realm of Defenders' system itself just confirmed that Alex is the fastest Defender to rise from F-rank to E-rank. He doesn't want to create unwanted attention towards him. Despite being young, Alex knows the importance of keeping his key cards close to his chest.
Another thing is that Alex doesn't trust everyone inside the UDA. He remembered overhearing his father and mother talking about a member of UDA pressuring his father not long before his father disappeared. He was still a little 5-year-old boy then, so he wasn't really clear on the detail, but it still causes him to be careful about sharing a secret with the UDA.
Of course, the UDA as an institution and members of the UDA needs to be differentiated. The UDA as an institution is the biggest organization on Earth. It possesses an unbelievable amount of resources and knowledge that can help him advance in his path as a Defender. That's why he was thrilled to join them when they asked. But, as a huge organization, it can't control every move of its members, so there are bound to be some bad apples inside of it. Alex doesn't want to reveal his secret and gains unwanted attention from these bad apples.
Alex decides to use the internet to find some information for now. There are some pieces of information about E-rank that can be found on the internet, but as with everything on the internet they are not reliable. He needs to filter out which ones are true and which ones are false. This is his only option for now.
Having decided what he needs to do about obtaining information, Alex closes the store page hologram in front of him He walks up to Fay to receive the explanation about this new rank of his.