Strength Explodes, Surges, Goes Wild!

Lucian donned the complete Banished Knight Set and pushed the door open.

He was heading to the Grace behind the castle, the closest one.

The other two Graces required taking an elevator to reach, which was rather inconvenient.

What Lucian did not know was that shortly after he left, Irina arrived outside his guest room, supported by a maid.

Irina had already changed clothes and bathed. Her light green gown and delicate features had swept away the bedraggled look she had worn while wandering outside, fully revealing the beauty of a noble lady.

Although Irina usually paid great attention to courtesy and manners when dealing with others, she herself had never carried the airs of a noblewoman.

Now, the gown embroidered with patterns in fine gold thread added a touch of aristocratic elegance and splendor to Irina.

The maid stopped walking, and Irina knew they had arrived.

She reached out with her right hand, found the door, and gently knocked.

She wanted to properly thank Lucian for helping her along the way. Without him, she would have long since become a cold corpse, never able to return to Castle Morne and reunite with her father.

For this expression of gratitude, no matter what reward Lucian wanted, Irina would certainly agree.

If it was something she could not decide herself, she would still plead with her father.

"Knock, knock."

There was no response.

"Knock, knock."

Still no response.

Had Lord Lucian fallen asleep? After such an intense battle, it would make sense.

But there did not seem to be any snoring from inside the room.

Irina hesitated, lightly biting her lower lip in conflict.

After thinking it over, she finally spoke toward the room.

"Lord Lucian, are you there?"

After waiting for a while with no sound still coming from within, Irina could only leave regretfully.

By then, Lucian had already arrived before the Grace behind the castle.

Lucian removed his helmet. It was a habit of his. He did not want to speak with Melina while wearing it; that would have felt somewhat rude, so he took it off every time.

As he sat before the Grace, Melina appeared as well.

Looking at Lucian, who was wrapped from head to toe in the Banished Knight Set, Melina could not help but praise it.

"Such beautiful, sturdy armor. With this equipment, the battles ahead will be much safer."

Lucian agreed completely.

The Banished Knight's equipment was indeed superb. It was clearly heavy armor, yet its mobility was not all that poor.

No wonder Castle Sol's strongest warrior could use Lightning Whirlwind Slash so fluidly.

Melina extended her hand, signaling for Lucian to take it.

"Take my hand. I will bring you to the Roundtable Hold."

"No, there is no rush to go to the Roundtable Hold. I want to convert my Runes into strength first."

Lucian placed his hand in Melina's.

Feeling the massive amount of Runes within Lucian, Melina was deeply shocked, followed by profound confusion.

The Misbegotten had not carried many Runes, and the Leonine Misbegotten could not possibly have possessed this many either. Where had these Runes come from?

Melina had watched the battles at Lucian's side the entire time. If there had been an enemy carrying an enormous amount of Runes, she could not have failed to notice.

The only time she had stopped watching was when Lucian had washed himself in the side room. She had remained in the guest room, lost in thought.

Was it then?

No, forget it. Everyone has secrets.

Since we are companions now, I should trust him as he trusts me.

Although Melina had initially described her relationship with Lucian as a transaction.

She could tell that Lucian had never treated it as merely a transaction from the very beginning.

He had truly trusted her as his second Maiden.

Even when she had tested Lucian, that display of distrust had not angered him, and his attitude toward her remained the same as before.

If that was the case, then she should not pry into a companion's secrets either.

"Melina, what is wrong?"

Seeing Melina suddenly space out, Lucian called to her, interrupting her thoughts.

"Sorry, I was distracted just now. Please tell me which aspects of your strength you wish to improve."

Lucian was just about to explain the stat allocation plan he had prepared earlier when he looked at the status panel only he could see and discovered, to his surprise, that his Endurance and Strength had each increased by one point.

Lucian checked carefully. That was right. His Endurance had been 11 and his Strength 15 last time, but now they were 12 and 16.

Fortunately, Melina spoke up, neatly answering Lucian's question.

"Oh, and congratulations. Your Endurance and Strength improved during battle."

Lucian thought about it. He had been constantly pushing his stamina to the limit during the previous battles, so it was only natural that he improved somewhat after recovering.

After all, unlike the Tarnished, other beings such as soldiers still had to rely on training if they wanted to grow stronger.

Yet Lucian still had a question, so he asked Melina.

"Will stats improved on their own increase Rune consumption?"

If they increased the cost, then it would be fine if the stat in question was one he had planned to level anyway.

But if a stat he had no immediate plans to level increased on its own, it would disrupt Lucian's Rune allocation plans.

"No. Stats gained through your own training naturally will not increase Rune consumption."

Fortunately, they did not increase the cost.

Lucian considered it and began assigning his points.

First, six points into Vigor, bringing it to 25. Stability was everything.

Four points into Endurance. With the one point he had gained in battle, it reached 16.

Four points into Strength. With its own one-point increase as well, it reached 21.

Four points into Dexterity too, bringing it to 18.

He had added a total of eighteen stat points, leaving him with a little over 3,000 Runes.

By the game's leveling standards, Lucian had jumped from level 15 to level 32 in one go. With the two points gained through battle, his actual stats were now equivalent to level 34.

His level had more than doubled. His strength exploded, surged, went wild!

As a warrior, Lucian's abilities had now improved across the board.

Lucian clenched his hand, feeling the new strength within it.

There was a basis for Lucian's stat allocation. He was not simply spreading points around at random.

Vigor went without saying. Could a warrior even be called a warrior without raising Vigor to 40?

The Banished Knight Set was somewhat heavy, so Endurance was essential for combat.

Strength and Dexterity were for wielding all kinds of weapons.

And now that both his Strength and Dexterity were fairly high, Lucian could freely use most warrior weapons, whether it was a Greatsword requiring tremendous Strength or a curved greatsword like Bloodhound's Fang that required both Strength and Dexterity.

The greater the variety of weapons, the more flexible his tactics would be.

He could also bring out different weapons tailored to different enemies.

As for Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane, Lucian did not rely on them for battle for the time being.

If Intelligence truly improved one's intellect, Lucian would prioritize maxing it out no matter what.

But unfortunately, Intelligence here only represented one's ability to comprehend sorcery.

Besides, as long as he used Wind Spirit Moon Shadow, turned on the five-times Rune multiplier, and fought achievement bosses, would a jack-of-all-trades build not be inevitable sooner or later?

After beating one, he could use the five-times Runes to level up, then use his replenished attempts on the next achievement boss. It was a completely costless deal.

Lucian looked at Melina and smiled confidently.

"All right, Melina. Take me to the Roundtable Hold."

"Let me see how I compare to those heroes."

Melina looked at Lucian and smiled as well.

"I believe that even among those heroes, you will surely be the most dazzling."

Battle was awesome! The early game would basically focus on a Storm-themed warrior build, since this was a Vagabond start. Once the snowball got rolling in the midgame, it would begin turning into a small jack-of-all-trades build, using Intelligence and Faith to branch into the various related questlines. There should not be any problem with the setting that training could improve stats, right? Growing stronger in battle was a warrior's destiny to begin with. Though the protagonist would not gain many points in total; I expected fewer than ten altogether, mostly in the early stages. The main purpose was to give NPCs a chance to grow, since they could not allocate points. Finally, the usual request for recommendation votes! ∩_∩