Attribute Lock

This chapter gave a detailed explanation of a concept known as the Attribute Lock.

As professions developed, there naturally came to be ways to measure one's own abilities, divided according to five attributes.

It happened to match Lance's panel exactly. It seemed that when the panel had integrated into this world, it had adopted this system to display his attributes.

For ordinary humans, the upper limit for each basic physical attribute was 10 points.

No matter how one trained or refined one's skills, once they reached the mortal limit of 10 points, conventional training methods could no longer improve them unless they took up a profession.

"Troublesome..."

Lance frowned.

He brought up the system panel and checked the requirements for becoming a [Pale Sentinel] once more.

Constitution requirement: 12 points.

This clearly required him to break through the limits of his race. No wonder it was called a Great Deed Profession.

Attributes, skills, trials, great deeds.

Any one of these four requirements alone was enough to drive an ordinary person to despair, yet this profession demanded the full set.

Lance sighed and continued reading.

Since the book mentioned Attribute Locks, there had to be a way to break them.

Sure enough.

The book listed several ways for humans to surpass their limits.

The first was personal talent.

Some people were born extraordinary, and their awakened talents could directly raise their attribute limits. Those people had been blessed by the heavens.

Lance could skip that one outright.

He was purely a mechanics freak; he did not have such simple and brutal numerical bonuses.

That left only the second method.

Drugs.

This world contained many alchemical potions capable of forcibly raising an individual's potential.

The book specifically recorded a magic potion that could help humans break through their Constitution Attribute Lock, called the "Troll Amber Potion."

This substance came from the Life Alchemy School in Viridia, the sacred land of alchemy. Its main ingredient was regenerative enzymes isolated from Forest Troll blood.

After consuming it, a human's Constitution could forcibly break through its Attribute Lock and continue increasing.

Since it could break the rules, its price was naturally astronomical for someone without a profession.

Lance found the latest market reference price in a note tucked between the pages.

[Troll Amber Potion: Reference market price: 13 gold coins]

Looking at that number, Lance felt his teeth ache.

That was three gold coins more than his life goal of saving up enough money to marry a wife in Ostella.

One bottle of this medicine would not only bankrupt him, but leave him deeply in debt.

If he followed the conventional route—saving money, buying the potion, then challenging the Great Deed Profession—

He would probably have to wait until the year of the monkey.

If it were any other adventurer facing this chasm, they would likely have no choice but to save money obediently or simply give up.

But Lance was different.

He had cheats.

Since the proper route would not work, he could only take the back door.

His gaze turned to the [Biological Research] module on the system panel.

Biological Codex: Demi-Human Species: Goblin

Current Research Progress: LV2 (9/50)

According to the settings from the game before.

Once he completed LV2 research, he would gain a map-marking function for that species.

It was equivalent to activating a full-map wallhack. Every red-named monster within a certain range would be marked on the map.

Whether it was used to avoid danger or eliminate targets at specific locations, it was an incredible ability.

More importantly, there was LV3.

Lance clearly remembered that once LV3 research was completed, players could plunder one racial talent from that species.

Goblins might be weak, but as magical creatures, some of their bodily functions were beyond anything humans could match.

And that was not even mentioning Goblins. What if he could research high-Constitution monsters such as Trolls and Ogres in the future?

Copper Creek Forest also had Constitution-focused monsters like Ironhide Boars and Stone-Shell River Crabs, all of which could be included as possible targets.

There was a high chance he could forcibly break through humanity's Attribute Lock by plundering their talents.

This was the third path unique to Lance.

Lance looked at his current panel data.

Constitution: 6

Spirit: 7

Perception: 5

He was still a full 14 attribute points away from the Pale Sentinel's requirements of 12 Constitution, 10 Spirit, and 10 Perception.

Constitution in particular was still short by double.

"First, I'll raise my basic attributes."

Lance made a plan in his heart.

Before his attributes reached the limit of 10, there was no need to consider how to break through the Attribute Lock.

By then, he would probably have hunted plenty of magical creatures and obtained enough racial talents to make his push.

As for training basic attributes, the book recorded that there were absolutely no shortcuts.

Although the gods high above the heavens had generously granted every race the right to climb the long stairway and approach divinity in terms of life itself.

Every race still had to undergo arduous training before earning the right to set foot upon that stairway.

Lance turned a page and found an illustration of a Red Dragon.

These creatures were born powerful, yet not long after their hatchlings broke free of their shells, they had to undergo a cruel ritual called the Charcoal-Swallowing Rite.

Before young dragons could truly breathe the dragonfire capable of burning all things, they had to swallow scalding, jagged volcanic crystal day after day under their parents' supervision.

They used those hard, scorching things to repeatedly tear apart and temper their tender throats.

Only through countless cycles of injury and healing could a layer capable of insulating against extreme heat grow within their bodies, granting them the talent to breathe dragonfire.

Even dragons, born powerful as they were, had to endure this. How much more so did frail humans?

For humans, the only way to become a profession holder was through tedious training day after day.

No matter which professional path one chose, the minimum requirement was to bring at least one basic attribute to the mortal limit—the so-called Attribute Lock.

Those who wished to become Swordsmen had to endure the soreness of torn muscles and swing their swords tens of millions of times, tempering their bodies until their strength struck that invisible ceiling.

Those who wished to become mages had to endure the loneliness of sitting still and meditate endlessly through the night until their Spirit attribute overflowed.

It was an absolutely fair, yet incomparably cruel path.

Whether they were royal heirs and nobles or humble peddlers and laborers, anyone who wished to walk this path inevitably had to suffer.

Thus, one often heard stories across the continent of a duke's child who possessed the finest resources and bloodline, yet could not endure the pain of training due to an overly lazy nature and ultimately failed to become a profession holder.

Such stories became amusing gossip for the commoners of their fiefs after meals.

Nor had this world ever lacked commoners of ordinary birth who, through grueling training bordering on self-torture, eventually rose step by step to godhood and became legends.

At the end of the book, a line of small print concluded:

The gods had already bestowed the greatest fairness upon this world: the sweat of hard work could truly become the power to change one's fate.