Chapter 221: Leveling Up Fast Is Cheating?
"Mmm... hmph..."
Lloyd let out a comfortable, muffled groan, gave a long, hard stretch, and sat up in bed. He then subconsciously reached for the small kitten beside his pillow.
But his hand found only empty air...
The little kitten had already woken up and moved away.
Lloyd just rubbed his face and eagerly summoned his panel.
He remembered leveling up a ton yesterday and getting a bunch of skill fragments.
But he’d probably suffered a bit too much Spiritual Contamination; his head still felt a little woozy. That was why he hadn’t had a chance to take stock of his gains—he’d fallen into a stupor and passed out the moment his consciousness returned to his bedroom.
Fortunately, a glance at the panel showed there was nothing wrong with his mental state. It was still ’Normal,’ which was a relief.
’Time to assign my points!’
points to [Rationality], 25 points to [Spiritual Power], 5 points to [Inspiration], and 25 points to [Cognition]! Add, add, add!!!
[Ding~ Point assignment complete.]
[User: Lloyd]
[Status: Normal]
[Madness Value: 5653/8500, Limit: 17500]
[Rationality: 175]
[Spiritual Power: 170]
[Inspiration: 100]
[Cognition: 170]
[Systems: Twist LV3, Veto LV2]
In that one spree last night, he’d gained a whopping 16 levels, maybe even more! It was his most satisfying power-up ever! It felt just like he was using a cheat engine.
But that just went to show how overwhelming the Spiritual Contamination he’d endured must have been...
All he could say was, thank goodness for [Dizziness Resistance]. Otherwise, he would’ve passed out long ago.
’This skill is a true life-saver, a Divine Skill!’
Besides the huge influx of Madness Value, there was also a massive pile of assorted fragments, leading to an across-the-board increase in his skill levels.
[Ding~ Sufficient skill fragments acquired. Skill level increased. Investigation → Enhanced Investigation]
[Ding~ Sufficient skill fragments acquired. Skill level increased. Divination LV4 → LV5]
[Ding~ Sufficient skill fragments acquired. Skill level increased. Dizziness Resistance LV5 → LV6]
[Ding~ Sufficient Knowledge Fragments acquired. Skill level increased. Twisted Realm LV6 → LV7]
[Ding~ Sufficient skill fragments acquired. Skill level increased. Aggressive Speech LV3 → LV6]
[Ding~ Sufficient Knowledge Fragments acquired. Skill level increased. Blessing Distortion LV4 → LV5]
[Mastered Skills: Focused Learning; Enhanced Investigation; Divination LV5; Dizziness Resistance LV6; Extraordinary Swordsmanship LV2; Twisted Realm LV7; Aggressive Speech LV6; Blessing Distortion LV5; Orbital Control (Twist) LV4]
The sheer number of skill level-ups was insane. Not only did [Investigation] and [Divination], which hadn’t been upgraded in a long time, level up, but his three main pillars—[Dizziness Resistance], [Twisted Realm], and [Blessing Distortion]—all went up a level as well.
Even more absurdly, [Aggressive Speech], a skill he rarely used, jumped a whole 3 levels! It was like he’d used a game editor to set the skill’s level directly.
The only slight disappointment was that [Extraordinary Swordsmanship], which relied on physical practice, and [Orbital Control], which had a strict knowledge requirement, didn’t level up.
’It’s like having cheats on, but not all of them. So it doesn’t really count as cheating, right?’
In addition to his existing skills, a new category had appeared: [Special Skill].
[Mastered Special Skills: The Supreme One Thus Spoke]
This was the new skill he had learned last night. It was also the skill he’d used, at the suggestion of his bizarre Intuition, to one-shot those five formidable maids.
As for the skill’s specific effect...
’I don’t know. I have no idea...’
Even its skill description was just a single, baffling line:
[The Supreme One Thus Spoke—All that is great shall not be profaned.]
Even the fine print below it, meant as a supplementary note, was longer than the description itself:
"You cannot reach that which you cannot comprehend."
That was the entire description, including the corresponding knowledge that surfaced in his mind. Nothing more. Even Lloyd himself couldn’t understand this new skill.
Although he had used it last night, it was as if he’d slept and completely forgotten everything. He couldn’t recall any more details, nor could he remember how to actually use the new skill.
He only remembered subconsciously uttering a single sentence, and then the maids had floated into the air and vanished instantly.
Given his current memory, having this kind of lapse was especially strange...
Even the font for it on the panel was several shades lighter than normal, indicating an ’unusable’ or, perhaps, ’unreachable’ state.
’Does that mean I can’t just use this skill directly?’
’Is it like those Big Moves in Krypton Gold Mobile Games that need a full energy bar? Or require certain conditions to be met? Or maybe it just has a long cooldown?’
In any case, Lloyd couldn’t figure it out for the time being. He even scrolled back through his panel logs but couldn’t find any notification for acquiring the skill; it was as if he had just spontaneously mastered it.
Deciding to set aside what he couldn’t understand for now, Lloyd turned his attention back to his other upgraded skills to see how they had changed.
His three main, frequently-used skills hadn’t gained any new functions; their existing effects were simply strengthened—
[Dizziness Resistance] now allowed him to resist the vast majority of dizzying effects. He wouldn’t pass out even if poisoned, under a Curse, or even if someone pried his skull open.
On the flip side, it also meant that medical anesthetics could no longer render him unconscious. ’If I ever get hurt and need surgery in the future, will the anesthesia even work?’
The enhancements to [Twisted Realm] and [Blessing Distortion] were similar; they were both improved in three ways: faster activation, greater intensity, and being harder to resist.
However, [Blessing Distortion] was a Fusion Skill, incorporating the effects of both [Veto Declaration] and [Seed of Distortion]. Since Lloyd had been slacking on his [Veto] System training, the [Veto Declaration] aspect of the skill was struggling to keep up with its level.
’Looks like I’ll have to attend [Audience with the Saint] more often to catch up on this side of things.’
As for [Aggressive Speech], which had jumped 3 levels, the improvement was quite significant.
Aside from the increase in ’aggressiveness,’ he no longer needed to spew profanities to activate it. As long as the skill was active, anything he said would carry its effect. His personal refinement had suddenly gone up a notch.
Furthermore, not only could it imbue his words with a portion of his System’s power, but it could also ignore physical soundproofing, forcibly transmitting his speech into the target’s ears. Even a deaf person couldn’t escape it.
It was somewhat like how the [Wisdom] System allowed users to speak directly into someone’s mind, only far more aggressive.
But those weren’t even the main improvements.
The skill’s biggest change was its new ability to forcibly instill knowledge, fragments, memories, and even things like Spiritual Contamination from his own mind into a target!