"Confirm level-up?
Yes/No?"
Level Up? Preparing for a Rainy Day
This Daoist made it?
Ahem... I could level up?
Looking at the huge "Yes/No" options, even though Gwen tried his best to calm himself, he still could not help feeling excited.
Originally, Gwen had planned to keep challenging higher-level Guardian Undead or Chariot Undead to test what level of "Great Achievement" was needed to level up. He had not expected to have already met the requirements.
This not only meant that Gwen's line of thinking had basically been correct—he needed to accomplish certain "Great Achievements," such as defeating powerful enemies, to level up—but also that the requirements were lower than he had expected.
Defeating no more than a squad of low-level Undead had been enough to meet the conditions. That meant Gwen would not need to worry about finding the "Great Achievements" required for at least the first few levels. He could achieve them directly in Destiny's virtual training rooms.
This would make Gwen's path to leveling far smoother and easier than expected. He would not need to worry about facing a Herrscher despite a massive gap in strength just to level up.
However, despite his surprise, Gwen did not rashly press "Yes." Instead, he struggled to control his trembling thoughts and selected "No"—
It was almost foreseeable that as Gwen grew stronger, gaining ability values would become increasingly difficult.
Once Gwen leveled up once or twice, ordinary training, which could still bring tremendous improvements now, would become hard-pressed to yield anything.
Therefore, while there was not yet any crisis urgent enough to set the roof on fire, Gwen decided to raise his lv1 attributes even higher first. He did not need to grind his mental attribute all the way to EX rank, but he had to at least max every attribute out at triple-S.
Based on the similarity the leveling system had displayed to DanMachi's Blessing System, Gwen had reason to believe that after leveling up, his current attributes would be retained as hidden ability values. They would become part of his "vessel" and serve as the foundation of lv2.
And based on his current rate of progress, Gwen believed that he only needed another ten days to half a month to max out all his attributes.
If so, why not wait until every attribute was maxed before leveling up?
Doing his best not to open the flickering level indicator, Gwen closed his status panel. He glanced at the still-unchanged Chat Group interface and sighed inwardly.
Although the leveling system's lower threshold had made Gwen's path to becoming stronger much smoother, that did not mean he did not want another cheat at the same time.
"Forget it. If there isn't one, there isn't one. At least I won't have to agonize over whether to bluff them or come clean..."
With that as his only consolation, Gwen drank two pots of tea, read through some study materials, and prepared to go to bed.
Of course, before sleeping, Gwen did not forget his nightly routine. He poured all the Honkai Energy he could mobilize into the Light Shadow Stone he had summoned beneath the covers and continued his energy-based cultivation.
However, Gwen, who had fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow every day for the past month and a half since leaving the hospital, unexpectedly suffered from insomnia today—
The silent Chat Group had left Gwen slightly discouraged, but the good news from the leveling system had invigorated him so much that even his sleepiness had been suppressed.
With nothing better to do, Gwen summoned the system again. This time, he opened the store.
Usually busy studying and training, Gwen barely had time to carefully browse the countless white-tier items in the store. Now, he might as well take a look.
Glancing at his points, which had already risen past eight thousand, Gwen did not act rashly. Instead, as he had planned before, he began browsing the white-tier items.
Half a month ago, when the limited-time store refreshed, Gwen had checked the non-white items that very day.
Unfortunately, this time there had not been any high-grade goods useful to Gwen. There were only two items that, judging from their descriptions, seemed to be props for Kamen Riders and Sentai teams to switch forms. They were not even worthy of being called useless.
And with tokusatsu studio props appearing in two consecutive refreshes, Gwen had even briefly wondered whether this store had wandered into the wrong genre—
If the store followed the leveling system, then it was probably meant to cultivate some unconventional tokusatsu protagonist who fought monsters barehanded.
If the store followed the Chat Group, then it was probably meant to cultivate a group owner who gathered a bunch of tokusatsu characters to fight costume battles...
Could it be that the Invitation Letter on my end hasn't reacted because Honkai Impact 3 isn't a tokusatsu setting?
Gwen froze when that thought crossed his mind.
But then he thought of the Light Shadow Stone in his hand and felt that could not be right. Otherwise, he should not have been able to obtain this Light Shadow Stone.
"Once I've saved enough points, I'll buy ten Invitation Letters at once and try a ten-pull. After all, it's perfectly normal for invitations to be rejected..."
Comforting himself that way, Gwen immersed his mind in the sea of innumerable white-tier items, wanting to see whether there was anything worth buying.
As everyone knew, browsing online shops was addictive. Gwen quickly became absorbed in it and temporarily forgot his worries about the Chat Group.
By the time Gwen felt tired and finally closed his eyes to sleep, several white-tier items had appeared in the "backpack" included with the store.
They were not anything especially remarkable, merely plenty of decent-quality food and water, as well as several vehicles that together could handle the vast majority of terrain. Altogether, they had cost only a few dozen points—
Although Gwen was quite satisfied with his current life at Destiny Headquarters, he believed he was ultimately just a chess piece in some unknown plan of Otto's. There was a good chance that one day, he and Otto would turn against each other.
When that happened, even if he did not become the enemy of the entire world, his circumstances would not be pleasant. He might even be hunted for a while before he could seek refuge with Anti-Entropy or World Serpent.
Preparing these things in advance was better than losing his life because of such an oversight when the time came.
By the same logic, Gwen had bought the Light Shadow Stone not only to gamble on his luck, but also to prepare for the future—
If he truly rebelled against Otto someday, perhaps the armor on him would not be taken back. But wearing it while fighting Destiny would always carry some risk.
No one could be certain whether Destiny had remote-control methods for the armor it had manufactured.
If Gwen could have a set of quality armor unrelated to Destiny and completely under his own control by then, he would feel much more at ease.
Therefore, even though Gwen could not yet use the Light Shadow Stone to summon armor, he would not reveal it even if he could, unless it was a matter of life and death—
What rebel exposed that he had weapons and armor ready before even rebelling, right in front of the reigning tyrant?
After Gwen fell deeply asleep, the Light Shadow Stone he had used as a pillow beneath his hand today emitted its usual gentle earthy-yellow glow. It was simply more enduring than before...
Level Up!
Half a month passed in a flash amid Gwen's diligent studies and sweat-soaked training.
"I'll be going now, Sister Amber..."
Outside the restaurant, the well-fed Gwen smiled and waved goodbye to the bishop's secretary wearing golden crystalline goggles.
"Mhm, goodbye..."
Amber waved back at Gwen, then turned and left as well. The golden crystalline cape behind her fluttered slightly in the breeze.
Since You Lan Dai Er, Rita, and Anna had all gone out on missions, Gwen had simply gone to a restaurant Anna had strongly recommended for dinner today.
There, Gwen had unexpectedly run into Amber, who had also come for dinner.
Gwen was no stranger to Amber. Aside from her visit to explain things on the night he was discharged from the hospital, Gwen had also seen the bishop's secretary several times after soaking in medicinal baths.
Naturally, acquaintances had to greet each other when they met. Gwen had simply forgotten that Amber was also rather straightforward, so one greeting was enough to invite her over to his table. That was how the scene of them saying goodbye had just happened.
Although Gwen felt slightly doubtful about unexpectedly running into Amber at the restaurant, he merely kept his suspicions to himself. On the surface, he remained calm, open, and perfectly natural—
In less than three months since crossing over, Gwen's experience getting along with the opposite sex had increased considerably. He no longer showed weakness so easily.
And the sight of Gwen, the beautiful young man who had remained a hot topic of discussion, having dinner with Amber, the famous bishop's secretary, before waving goodbye to her, was witnessed by quite a few people present. It was posted on the Headquarters community forum and quickly became a hot topic.
After all, although Gwen, this fake young boy, was not exactly the only green leaf among a sea of flowers at Headquarters, once his Honkai Energy resistance was factored in, he was close enough. He was already quite popular in the Headquarters community.
Moreover, the people who frequently appeared beside Gwen were no ordinary figures either: Rita, rumored to have the best chance of becoming the next S-rank the fastest; Anna, the talented young lady of the Schariac family; and You Lan Dai Er, the notorious workaholic known to almost everyone at Headquarters. All of this had made Gwen a "man of the hour" people often mentioned in casual conversation.
And now, Gwen had even shared dinner with Amber, the bishop's secretary, and addressed her so intimately. It added even more fuel to the community, which was already beginning to speculate on relationships.
However, Gwen himself did not care about the attention he had drawn. Or rather, he had not paid any attention to it at all.
Compared to such trivial matters, Gwen wanted to get home as soon as possible—
After half a month of diligent study and hard training, Gwen's attributes had basically grown to the triple-S limits as he had hoped. As of yesterday, only Energy, which had started later than the others, was still slightly lacking. But today—
"Gwen—lv1 Strength—SSS1999 Endurance—SSS1999 Dexterity—SSS1999 Mentality—EX Energy—SSS1999 Energy System: None"
Sitting on the sofa and looking at the ability values that had finally all reached the triple-S limit through his daily hard training, Gwen could not stop the corners of his mouth from rising.
There had been no great surprise since he could see his progress every day, but looking at those luxurious numbers still filled Gwen with a sense of accomplishment.
Of course, Gwen, who had always suspected that his home might contain surveillance equipment used to monitor him, Otto's chess piece, did not level up directly. He first made some preparations to cover it up—
Gwen turned the bathroom lights to their brightest setting. Without turning on the ventilation fan, he showered until the bathroom was quickly filled with a pale haze and visibility dropped to its lowest point.
He raised a hand and checked. Only after confirming that the mist was thick enough did Gwen excitedly open his status panel.
Although leveling up in DanMachi did not produce any special effects, Gwen was using a system after all, so he chose to err on the side of caution.
Looking at the flickering "lv1" that made his heart beat faster without him realizing it, Gwen held his breath and focused. He clicked it with a thought, and a confirmation window appeared.
Facing the "Yes/No" choice again, Gwen no longer had the slightest hesitation. He selected "Yes."
As his thought clicked down, Gwen's vision blurred. A surge of heat suddenly erupted from his limbs and bones. It felt as though magma were flowing through his veins, and as though he had become Sun Wukong in an alchemy furnace, his body being roasted by Samadhi Fire, about to be refined into an immortal pill.
In an instant, heat streamed from the pores that had opened from his recent hot shower, accompanied by sweat pouring down his body. The bathroom's temperature rose by another dozen degrees.
The next moment, Gwen, who felt searing heat from within and without, from his body to his soul, found his mind inexplicably clear. He even seemed to enter a special perspective for a moment, as though he could see all the changes taking place within his body.
However, with Gwen's current mental strength and knowledge, understanding those changes was nothing more than a fool's dream.
Before Gwen could examine the images flashing before him, his vision returned to the hazy bathroom. Everything he had just seen was like flowers in a mirror or the moon reflected in water—illusory and indistinct, as though it had merely been a hallucination.
Knowing this was not a secret he could investigate yet, Gwen shook his head and wiped the sweat from his face. Only then did he realize that his body temperature seemed excessively high, and he could faintly smell an odd odor.
Remembering scenes from novels he had read in his previous life, Gwen looked down. The sweat in his palm was indeed extremely hot, but apart from that, it was no different from ordinary sweat. There was no phenomenon of his pores expelling foul mud after cleansing his marrow like in those novels.
Feeling his body still burning hot, Gwen felt as though he were Sun Wukong after leaving the Supreme Lord's alchemy furnace, having refined the medicinal power of the golden pills and peaches within his body. He felt comfortable all over.
Silently experiencing the changes in his body after leveling up, Gwen did not immediately check the system. Instead, he turned on the hot water and washed his overheated body.
As Gwen gradually lowered the water temperature, his body temperature also rapidly dropped and returned to normal.
After spending some time clearing the mist and strange smell from the bathroom, Gwen wrapped himself in a bath towel and lay on the bed with his hands beneath his head, staring blankly at the ceiling. Yet his current status panel had already appeared before his eyes—
"Gwen—lv2 Strength—I0 Endurance—I0 Dexterity—I0 Mentality—I0 Energy—I0 Energy System: None Development Abilities (Selectable): Nourish Soul with Soul, Nourish Body with Soul, Power of Earth."
Seeing that all his ability values had indeed changed from triple-S before leveling up to I0, beginning with an "I," Gwen quietly let out a sigh of relief—
This meant his guess had been correct. The leveling system he possessed was extremely similar to DanMachi's Blessing System. Ability values were graded from I to S, and after leveling up, they became hidden ability values that could continue to grow.
However, Gwen's system seemed even more powerful, making ability values above one thousand—originally exclusive to the protagonist—no longer unattainable for him.
As everyone knew, EXP buffs were important for leveling up
Although he did not possess the internal vision abilities commonly found in martial arts or fantasy worlds, and although that fleeting glimpse had revealed almost nothing, Gwen could still sense that he was now stronger than he had been before leveling up, even by feeling alone.
This meant that for Gwen as well, the ability values of the previous level—in other words, the attributes that became hidden attributes—were retained.
Of course, although the changes to his basic ability values matched Gwen's expectations, he had expected them, so they did not bring him much surprise.
In comparison, the newly appeared Development Abilities below were far more surprising to Gwen.
Although he could no longer clearly remember the exact definition of Development Abilities in DanMachi's Blessing System, Gwen understood them as abilities akin to passive skills that granted their owner certain special powers or talents.
For example, "Mage" could strengthen the user's magic power, area of effect, and mental energy consumption. It was the mark of a high-level mage.
Before you continue