Attribute Lock

This chapter explained in detail a concept known as an attribute lock.

As professions had developed to this point, there were naturally methods for measuring one's own capabilities, divided according to five attributes.

It happened to be the same as Lance's panel. It seemed that when the panel had integrated into this world, it had used this system to display his attributes.

For ordinary humans, the upper limit of every basic physical attribute was 10 points.

No matter how one trained or refined one's techniques, once one reached the mortal limit of 10 points, conventional training methods could no longer bring any further progress without becoming a professional.

"This is troublesome..."

Lance frowned.

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

Constitution requirement: 12 points.

It was clearly demanding that he break through the limits of his race. No wonder it was called a Great Deed Class.

Attributes, skills, trials, great deeds.

Any one of those four requirements alone was enough to drive ordinary people to despair, yet this profession required 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 humans could surpass their limits.

The first was individual Talent.

Some people were born extraordinary, and their awakened Talents could directly raise their attribute caps. Those people had simply been blessed by heaven.

Lance could skip that one outright.

He was purely a mechanics abuser and had no such simple, brute-force numerical bonuses.

That left only the second method.

Taking drugs.

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

The book specifically recorded a magical potion that could help humans break through the Constitution attribute lock: the "Troll Amber Potion."

It was produced by the Life Alchemy School of Viridia, the holy land of alchemy. Its main ingredient was regenerative enzymes extracted from Forest Troll blood.

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

Since it could break the rules, its price was naturally astronomical for someone who had yet to become a professional.

Lance found the latest market reference price in a note squeezed into the margin between the pages.

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

Looking at that number, Lance felt his teeth ache.

It was three gold coins more than his life goal of saving enough money to go to Ostella and marry a wife.

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

If he followed the conventional route—save money, buy the potion, then challenge the Great Deed Class—

He would probably have to wait until the end of time.

If it were any other adventurer facing this impassable chasm, they could only honestly save money 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 fell upon the [Biological Research] module on the system panel.

Biological Compendium: Demi-Human Species: Goblin

Current Research Progress: LV2 (9/50)

According to the settings from the game before.

As long as he completed LV2 Research, he would gain the map-marking function for that species.

It was equivalent to unlocking a full-map wallhack. All red-name monsters within a certain range would be marked on the map.

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

But what mattered even more was LV3.

Lance clearly remembered that once Research reached LV3, players could plunder one racial Talent from that species.

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

And that was only Goblins. What if he could Research high-Constitution monsters like Trolls and Ogres in the future?

Copper Creek Forest also had Constitution-oriented monsters such as ironhide boars and Stone-Shell River Crabs. They could all be included as possible options.

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

This was Lance's unique third path.

Lance looked over his current panel data.

Constitution: 6

Spirit: 7

Perception: 5

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

Constitution in particular still needed to double.

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

Lance formulated a plan in his mind.

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

By then, he would probably have hunted quite a few monsters and obtained enough racial Talents to make the push.

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

Though 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 grueling training before earning the qualification to step onto that stairway.

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

Even the young of these creatures, born powerful, had to undergo a cruel ritual known as the Charcoal-Swallowing Rite shortly after hatching.

Before young dragons could truly breathe the dragonfire that burned all things, they had to swallow scorching, jagged volcanic rock crystals day after day under their parents' supervision.

They used those hard, burning objects to repeatedly tear apart and temper their delicate throats.

Only through countless injuries and recoveries could a layer of heat-insulating flame membrane grow within their bodies, allowing them to develop the Talent to breathe dragonfire.

If even dragons, born powerful, had to endure this, how much more so frail humans?

For humans, the only way to become professionals was through tedious day-after-day training.

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

Those who wished to become Swordsmen had to endure the searing pain 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 one was a royal descendant or a common laborer, suffering was unavoidable if they wished to walk this road.

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

Such stories would become amusing gossip among the commoners of the fief.

And this world never lacked commoners of ordinary birth who, through almost self-torturing training, gradually ascended to godhood and became Legendary figures.

At the end of the book, a line of small text summarized:

The gods had bestowed the greatest fairness upon this world: the sweat of effort could indeed become the power to change one's fate.