“Surprisingly,” Diana’s mother wasn’t surprised, as if she already knew they lived in the same house.
That didn’t prevent the atmosphere from cooling down and the house falling silent for some time.
“It wasn’t a situation that lasted long,” explained Alexander. “I had to travel a while ago and asked Diana to take care of the house and Ocean... Since the house had 2 bedrooms and was convenient for both, she ended up living there.”
“The house in question is inside the academy itself,” he said seriously. “That’s why it was safer and more comfortable to live there.”
“…” Diana’s father. “In that case, we’ll accept your offer. We’ll stay with you in Twin City.”
“…” Diana.
“…” Diana’s mother.
“Alright,” replied Alexander without even blinking or frowning.
With everything decided and everyone returning to eating, he thought he should have come up with a better reason not to eat the meat.
But he also couldn’t say he wouldn’t eat it for fear of leveling up and ruining his plan.
When everyone finished eating and went to do their things, Alexander went back to disassembling creatures in the backyard.
Coming across the body of a bear, he remembered the various notifications he hadn’t seen yet—including the mission one—and decided to check them.
Ding!
[You are forcing your body's current limits…]
Ding!
[You are exceeding your body's current limits…]
Ding!
[You developed the scalable active skill |Limiter Removal|]
Ding!
[Mission Completed]
Ding!
[You leveled up. But due to the interference of the special skill |Attribute Control|, all your attribute increases upon leveling up were denied and converted into free attribute points.]
[+50 free attribute points]
[+1 growth point]
Ding!
[Your body is receiving an amount of energy that exceeds its limit…]
Ding!
[Your body is receiving an amount of mana that exceeds its limit…]
Alexander didn’t expect to develop a scalable skill during the fight against the {Forest King Bear}.
Still, it was an extremely pleasant surprise, which he immediately maximized even before appraising it.
Ding!
[The skill |Limiter Removal| has been maximized]
[|Limiter Removal (MAX)|: Allows surpassing your bodily and mental limit. Cost: 1 energy/second. Side effect: Using this skill causes the body to suffer a great recoil effect after being deactivated. The more the body's limit is surpassed, the greater the recoil. Limit: 50% of physical and mental limitations.]
“This skill is another dangerous double-edged sword,” pondered Alexander analytically. “But it can obviously also be one of my greatest trump cards if used correctly.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Taking advantage of that momentum to check information, Alexander decided to see and immediately receive the rewards from his last mission.
『 Missions 』
Proof of Bravery
Mission Type: Protection.
Mission Description: Save the villagers from the wave of wild creatures. Completion Evaluation: {S}.
Rewards: (200K XP), (20 free attribute points), (2 growth points), (Familiar Level-Up Card) and (Title: ||Little Hero||).
Extra Task: Kill as many creatures as possible in the Wave. Completion Evaluation: {SS}.
Extra Task Rewards: (1M XP), (100 free attribute points), (10 growth points), (Tier-Up Card) and (Random Copy Card).
[You completed the mission: (Proof of Bravery)]
[You received: (1,200,000 XP points), (120 free attribute points), (12 growth points), (Familiar Level-Up Card), (Title: ||Little Hero||), (Tier-Up Card) and (Random Copy Card)]
Alexander came dangerously close to leveling up, and thus evolving, upon receiving the mission rewards.
Fortunately for him, the amount of XP he received was reduced—he killed only the leader.
But Alexander didn’t think much about that at the moment.
He was more interested in the title and the rewards from the {SS} completion evaluation. They seemed very promising.
Alexander knew that a large number of free attribute points and growth points would certainly help him a lot in the future. Yet what really caught his attention were the other rewards.
Curious about their use and effect, he couldn’t help but use |Appraise| to get as much information as possible about them.
[||Little Hero||: Title granted to a rising hero. If other heroic achievements are obtained, the title will evolve and grant bonuses and an aura. (1/3)]
[(Tier-Up Card): Raises a skill, spell, combat technique or similar to one Tier above the current one. Limit: Special skills are not included.]
[(Random Copy Card): Copies a random part of the selected target's status to yourself.]
Alexander didn’t need to think much to identify the perfect target for his (Random Copy Card): one of the greatest powers on the continent, one of the pillars of the Vermilion Empire, was at the academy he would be competing for. His only question now was just deciding what to do with the other rewards.
Putting aside his fantasies about the future, Alexander decided to use his free attribute points to maximize his Dexterity and save the remaining rewards for later.
[85 points added to Dexterity]
Ding!
[Your (Dexterity) has reached the maximum possible for a Dual-Core Goblin]
Ding!
[Your physique has reached perfection. You acquired the title: ||Perfect 2nd Evolution||]
[||Perfect 2nd Evolution||: A consumable title granted to 2nd evolution creatures that managed to maximize all their physical attributes and only lasts while the creature remains in the 2nd evolution. Effect: Increases all damage dealt by 20% and provides an extremely solid base that improves options for the 3rd evolution.]
Suppressing his inherent excitement and carefully analyzing the condition of his body, Alexander couldn’t help but think: “With my current power, I think I’ll have a good chance of actually winning this Imperial Tournament… But this damn feeling of restriction is very bothersome.”
Not wanting to focus on that feeling, Alexander turned his attention back to the pile of creatures, however, it wasn’t easy.
He needed to disassemble them while restraining the enhancement (Essence Harvester) to avoid gaining more XP.
After spending the entire day disassembling creatures, he finally received the notification he had been waiting for for a long time.
Ding!
[The proficiency skill |Disassemble| has been maximized]
Alexander’s desire wasn’t unfounded.
When the |Disassemble| skill is maximized, it provides knowledge to use mana and energy to perfectly separate soft parts.
This not only speeds up the whole process immensely, but also increases the quality and selling price of the products.
Satisfied with that day as a whole, Alexander decided to take a bath and end the day after eating.
He wanted to wake up very early the next day.
The next morning, when Diana’s family woke up and left their rooms, they were hit by a rich, fragrant aroma.
The moment they arrived at the kitchen, drawn by the aroma of the food, they found Alexander placing a ceramic pot on the already set table—Ocean was devouring his share voraciously from a bowl.
They didn't know what it was, but if they could, they would fight the she-wolf for it, simply for the intense aroma the food gave off.
“You should sit down,” said Alexander as he uncovered the dishes on the table. He revealed several Baos—steamed stuffed buns, typically Chinese/Asian—and a meat stew with vegetables, which still bubbled with heat.
As soon as everyone sat down, Alexander provided large bowls and “chopsticks” for everyone and handed a large ladle to Diana’s mother.
When they thought he had finished, Alexander placed one last ceramic mold upside down on a large wooden platter on the table. Only then did he sit down.
The aroma coming from the dish wasn’t as good or rich as the other dishes. But it was still good and familiar.
With all the food already served, Diana’s parents were quite surprised to see Alexander standing still—as if waiting for something.
Diana, who understood him well because she had already lived with him, began her usual prayer.
Alexander was never very interested in the gods of the world he ended up in—mainly because he didn’t want to get involved with people who would be the main candidates for possessing divine abilities that could pose a danger to the |Concealment| of the [Ring of the Thief God].
However, he still respected each individual’s beliefs—especially Diana’s.
Since there were several gods and various forms and reasons for prayer, it was common for each individual to pray to the gods they felt most attached to or had the greatest affinity for.
The most common ones, for obvious reasons, were those of creation and the elemental ones.
Perhaps influenced by each other, Diana and her parents worshiped the goddess of earth and the goddess of light to thank and ask for health and food for their family.
Whether such “gods” existed or not—or if they interfered in some way—Alexander didn’t know.
What he knew was that it cost him nothing to respect others’ faith—as long as they didn’t directly interfere with his life.
