[Congratulations! You gained: +10 Loyalty]
[Congratulations! You gained: +10 Loyalty]
[Congratulations! You gained: +10 Loyalty]
"Hmm, it seems they’re now out of juice."
Lucien looked at the narrow tunnel, packed with Glimmergnaw all lying on their backs, pot-bellied and bloated, faces frozen in extreme satisfaction.
Since he had extracted the agility points from every one of them, there were no more flashes of shadows, only stillness.
They were all like sitting ducks, quite miserable.
"Well, at least thanks to me, they got to eat to their hearts’ content."
Lucien didn’t feel guilty about their state as he was far too excited, eyes fixed on his drastically changed status panel.
[Name: Lucien Goldveil]
[House: Goldveil Viscount Lineage]
Minor Mana Sensitivity (Passive)
↳ Allows faint perception of ambient mana. Alchemy - Mediocre Venom Insight (Passive) - Rare
[Skills (Classified)]: Golden Flick (D-rank), Rodent’s Greed (F Rank)-Ready To Evolve
Funds: ~250,000 Gold Estate Holdings: Goldveil Manor, Minor Properties]
• Dorian Edoria – 500,000 Gold and partial deed to Azure Vein Trade Route
Glimmergnaw (F-Rank) (× 20): 100 Loyalty Points (Max Out)-can make them surrender]
Glimmergnaw (E-Rank) (× 56): 100 Loyalty Points (Max Out)-can make them surrender]
"Hiss... 188 points in Agility?"
Lucien took a sharp breath, genuinely shocked by the number displayed on his status panel.
"But... why can’t I feel it?"
He was confused as, after a point, he no longer felt the lightness on his body when he received the reward.
Now, he felt that he was slightly faster than those E-rank Glimmergnaw if he ran at full speed, but that didn’t justify the points he had.
"Maybe my body capped out?"
Lucien looked at his remaining, utterly pathetic attributes like strength, endurance, and perception, and thought it made sense.
After all, to use such high agility points, he also had to have the body capable of it, right?
’Maybe I should find ways to increase my other stats too. Too bad these guys could only give me Agility points.’
Just when Lucien thought this, he once again heard an impromptu prompt in his mind from the system.
[A high amount of Agility Points beyond the body’s capabilities has been detected.]
[Do you want to use your Agility Point to construct a skill?]
The system seemed to know the predicament, as it suddenly gave him the solution.
’Constructing a skill? Even this is possible?’
As far as he knew, skills could only be awakened after class awakening. And most of the time, one could only awaken skills related to their class.
So, it was quite a surprise, although it made sense.
Lucien looked at the prompt and thought for a while.
’Although 188 points of Agility is extremely high, it is of no use if I can’t use it. I might as well just generate a skill.’
’System, construct a skill!’
Lucien didn’t dawdle much and immediately ordered the system in his mind.
[Using Agility Points to construct a suitable skill.]
As soon as he gave the order, the system immediately responded,
[Congratulations! You awaken a Skill: Shadowstep (C-rank)]
[Shadowstep (C-Rank)-Active Skill]: Instantly teleport up to 10 meters within line of sight.>Cooldown: 15 seconds, can use 3 times consecutively before a 30-second cooldown.>Mana Cost: 20 per use. (Can be used without mana with certain drawbacks to the body.)]
[Note: You can evolve a constructed skill with the corresponding attribute points.]
[Next evolution: 100 Points Agility]
[Remaining Agility: 88]
The moment the system sounded, Lucien felt a flux of information load into his mind as his body went through specific changes unknown to him.
It didn’t take long for him to come out of his reverie; however, his face was now filled with surprise.
"Teleport... I can now teleport?"
He couldn’t help but mumble unconsciously with wide eyes, almost having the urge to use the skill immediately.
Fortunately, he stopped in time. Otherwise, he might be badly injured.
After all, he was utterly manaless.
’Damn! I need to awaken my class ASAP. But... what is the test for fuck’s sake?’
Lucien had never felt the need for awakening like he did now. Unfortunately, even now, he didn’t know what the hell the test was at all.
Maybe his parents never thought he would take it, hence nobody informed him.
’Sigh... it is so uncomfortable, having power but being unable to use it.’
Lucien sighed, forcefully put aside those thoughts for now, and finally looked at the next thing on his status panel.
He still had two things to do.
’System, evolve the skill Rodent’s Greed.’
He first gave the order.
This was on his list before he even decided to take a risk. He wanted to know if this useless skill could become useful.
[The Skill Rodent’s Greed (F Rank) is eligible for evolution.]
[Congratulations! The Skill Rodent’s Greed (F-Rank) has been evolved into Tunnel Greed (D Rank)]
[Tunnel Greed (D Rank) – Active Skill (55/100)]: Erupt a pulse of greed-driven illusion on your target.
Effect: -30% Defense, -20% Willpower, aggro redirected away from you for 15 seconds.
Cost: The Higher the Intelligence Stat, the higher the effect. May drain your mental power if used on a higher-level entity.]
"Damn! Finally, something useful."
Lucien was immediately excited as soon as he saw the skill he got.
"And I can evolve this further, too."
Unlike Shadowstep, which he couldn’t use unless necessary, this was a skill he could activate even with his meager 8 points in Intelligence.
So, of course, he was happier than before.
"With this, I won’t be helpless when I encounter a monster or someone powerful."
After all, this testing area was just a novice dungeon. At most, there had to be D-rank monsters in it, ones he could at least affect.
"Only, it’s time to increase my other attributes too. Maybe even an attack spell?"
Lucien began to make plans. For him to become strong, he had to increase his attributes all around.
And to do that, Tunnel Greed might be extremely useful.
"Greed-driven illusion, huh..."
The major pain for Lucien was that although he could collect debt, how to force someone to take it was an issue.
After all, not all monsters were greedy like the Glimmergnaws. Otherwise, why would he have almost been killed by that wolf?
’But with this skill in hand, it might not be hard to force them to...’
The more Lucien thought, the more feasible it seemed, as his eyes began to shine with pure excitement.
Unconsciously, his gaze shifted toward the depths of the tunnel, where that loud roar and heavy aura had just echoed from.
’However, before I decide, I need some helpers.’
Lucien reined in his excitement and finally looked at the little guys below. Aside from the one who led him here, all the other rodents now lay flat with happiness.
They seemed content and had no intention of attacking like before. Lucien even managed to see reverence in their eyes toward him.
Unfortunately, after maxing out their Loyalty Points, they had nothing more to offer, not even a skill.
They were now useless... unless there was still another use.
"System, use the Loyalty Points to make them surrender."
They could still be used as decoys.