Secret Enhancement

Morgan's gaze shifted among the four attributes.

Before long, he made up his mind.

First, he definitely had to enhance his strength once.

It was the most basic and important attribute. Whether he was swinging a sword or keeping his bow drawn for a long time, he needed great strength to support him.

With that thought, Morgan's mind stirred.

He spent his first attribute point on the plus sign next to Strength.

[This enhancement will consume 1 Soul Power. Enhance?]

"Enhance!"

"Strength LV1"

A pale white glow flickered.

Once again, he felt a rush of heat flow into his body from nowhere.

Morgan seemed to sense that something had changed inside him, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

He clenched his fist slightly.

Good. This time, he could feel it.

Every enhancement from the system was like having knowledge forcibly poured into him.

He could absorb it all at once in a short time, but what he actually learned was extremely simple and crude, no more than the basics.

Morgan had experienced this firsthand over the past month as he enhanced his Archery.

Looking back, when he'd met the Dwarves at Bilbo's Bag End a month ago, he'd won his contest with Kili, his current "student," partly through sheer luck.

Only now, after becoming more proficient in Archery, did Morgan understand.

At the time, he'd benefited from the system forcing its knowledge into him. In terms of actual Archery skill, he'd only been Kili's equal, or perhaps even a little worse.

Judging by the Archery he'd enhanced before and the Strength he'd just enhanced,

enhancing a skill was like having a wealth of theory and experience poured into Morgan.

To truly master it, he had to practice and train for a long time, gradually making it his own.

Enhancing an attribute was much the same, as with the Strength Morgan had just enhanced.

He needed to practice and get used to his suddenly increased strength before he could truly control it.

Otherwise, the following could easily happen:

Using the same amount of strength,

before enhancement, Morgan could hit a target a hundred paces away.

After enhancement, he might not even hit one fifty paces away.

Of course, the time it took to master the enhancement would differ from person to person, depending on their skill, comprehension, learning ability, and even diligence.

In short, the Time Traveler System's enhancements

weren't simple boosts that he could immediately master with ease.

Morgan needed extensive practice to make the results of the system's enhancements truly his own.

Otherwise, the enhancement could backfire.

Just like now, after enhancing his Strength, the sudden increase in his bodily power would definitely make him less accurate with a bow than before.

And that was after enhancing it only once, with just a modest increase in strength.

If he enhanced it further and his strength suddenly grew even more, his accuracy might drop even lower.

That was because he hadn't learned to control his strength well enough.

Naturally, his accuracy would suffer.

Archery was a precise art.

He'd enhanced his Strength once.

Looking at the 3 Soul Power remaining in the Soul Power field, Morgan turned his attention to the other three attributes.

"Three Soul Power. I can still enhance three things."

After a little thought, Morgan decided to spend it on Constitution and Agility.

The importance of Constitution—more health and the ability to take a beating—was self-evident.

As for Agility, Morgan's role in the Expedition Team was that of an archer.

Enhancing Agility wasn't just about moving faster or making it easier to run away.

More importantly, Agility benefited archers.

Just think about it: whether in history or in movies, powerful archers were usually slender and quick on their feet.

That was why.

[This enhancement will consume 1 Soul Power. Enhance?]

"Constitution LV1"

[This enhancement will consume 1 Soul Power. Enhance?]

"Agility LV1"

Two flashes of white light followed one after the other.

Along with the slowly spreading warmth inside him, Morgan could feel some subtle changes in his body this time.

He didn't dwell on them.

Looking at his final point of Soul Power,

Morgan's gaze lingered a little longer on the least conspicuous of the four attributes: Spirit.

He didn't want to distribute his points evenly.

That wouldn't maximize his strength.

"As for Spirit, apart from resisting the One Ring's temptation and the Dark Lord Sauron's whispers, which is part of my plan to claim it, there don't seem to be any enemies skilled in mental attacks on the journey ahead."

"Besides, Gandalf is with the party."

Morgan racked his memory for the relevant plot details and thought to himself.

"Since killing Orcs gives me Soul Power anyway, I can put off enhancing Spirit for a while."

"Right now, the most important thing is to improve my overall strength."

With that, Morgan turned his gaze away from Spirit and toward the other three attributes.

This time, he took a little longer to think.

[This enhancement will consume 1 Soul Power. Enhance?]

"Enhance!"

"Agility LV2"

A pale white light flickered.

In the end, Morgan decided to spend his last point of Soul Power on Agility.

His role in the Expedition Team was that of an archer.

His greatest strength also lay in Archery.

Enhancing Agility would make him even stronger!

Morgan's status panel now looked completely different.

[Time Traveler: Morgan]

[Race: Human]

[Biological Level: Tier 1]

[Soul Power: 0]

[Attributes: Strength LV1; Constitution LV1; Agility LV2; Spirit+]

[Abilities: Common Tongue; Muay Thai LV2; White Crow Swordsmanship LV2; Archery LV3]

[Talent: Intimacy (Special Skill)]

[Current World Exploration Progress: 0.35%]

[.]

"Phew."

Seeing the number beside Soul Power turn back to zero,

Morgan sighed.

But as he looked at the refreshed Attributes and Abilities fields,

and felt the changes in his body and the precious new memories in his mind,

he couldn't help feeling genuinely excited and thrilled.

After a while,

once Morgan's emotions had gradually settled, he finally noticed something.

The World Exploration Progress on the status panel had already reached 0.35%.

Just yesterday afternoon,

Morgan remembered, it had been only 0.31%.

A small-scale battle had increased it by 0.04%.

It seemed that finding characters from the story, actively interacting with them, and taking part in the plot was the only way to increase World Exploration Progress.

Just then,

"Morgan."

A voice suddenly came from beside him.

Morgan came back to himself and opened his eyes. The speckled deer roasting over the fire on the tripod was done.

The air was filled with the aroma of roasted meat.

Morgan stood up, but as soon as he took a step, his foot landed on a loose stone.

His footing slipped, and he lost his balance.

Then, under everyone's astonished gazes, Morgan fell.

He pitched forward and landed face-first, sprawled out like a dog eating dirt.

"Morgan, what are you doing?"

"Morgan, you don't have to get so excited over one roast."

"That's right. Bofur's right. If you put in the effort, we can have roast meat every day."

"Haha."

Morgan gritted his teeth. "My foot's gone numb."