Finally, we had managed to defeat the final boss of the dungeon, conquering the city of tears.

A few hours later, Cerion and I had healed up a bit, and were resting near the edge of the battlefield, looking at our gains.

Congratulations! You have dealt the killing blow and 59% of all damage to a member of the tier 3 elite duo bosses, [Tear of power], and dealt 63% of all damage to a member of tier 3 duo bosses, [Tear of skill].

Extra experience awarded for level difference. Extra experience awarded for tier difference.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Overloading Death Knight] level 50!

Stat points allocated. 5 free stat points per level up awarded.

Finally, I had reached level 50! The tier difference had been enough to push me to the limit, allowing me to reach my goal in one fell swoop. That also meant that I would now have to choose several new skill tier-ups, because all of my physical stats had reached the third milestone.

Before I began another lengthy system tangent, I decided to invest my newly gained free stats in wisdom again, as a precautionary measure. I still had 25 points left over to get my intelligence to the second milestone, but I was still determined to ask my uncle about what to do, since I felt he had my best interest in mind and probably knew a lot about the system that I didn’t. The risk of turning insane at the system’s whim stayed my hand from investing my points carelessly, especially since Cerion and I had managed just fine so far, and there were no major battles left to fight before the tournament began, giving me ample time to consider my options. If anything, I wanted to have made a decision and invest those points before the tournament itself started, just in case.

After investing in wisdom, I looked at the rest of my status screen.

Name:

Arthur

Titles

[Dark prodigy]

Class:

[Overloading Death Knight] LVL 50

Strength

304

Constitution

300

Dexterity

300

Intelligence

75

Wisdom

263

Affinity

528

Free stat points

25

Skills:

Passive: [Dark radiance core](46%), [Dark sight](84%), [Berserker Swordsmanship](88%),

[Growing lifespan](N/A), [Mental palace](N/A), [Fast processing](N/A), [Dark Form](35%), [Overload Aura](49%)

Active: [Ghost apparation](17%), [Flexible senses](N/A), [Curse mark(guide)](92%), [Overloaded orb](87%), [Overloaded sword](68%), [Dark Blade Maelstrom](56%), [Aura step](29%)

With a satisfied smile, I leaned back and sighed contentedly when I saw that nice, solid ‘50’ next to my class level. I had worked hard to achieve it, and things had gotten out of hand on my path to this level, taking just a few months. I was confident even my uncle, a tier 6, would consider that record time an impressive achievement. Still, it wasn’t about the speed at which one leveled, it was about the heights one could reach in the end. This was not dictated by how fast you leveled up, but by how much you gained from each level and tier, as well as whether or not you could pass the trials that came with each class tier-up.

I hummed thoughtfully as I looked at my status. As I had calculated, my physical stats had all reached three hundred without me ever needing to invest free stats into them, though that might not be the case in the next tier.

Furthermore, my affinity had grown again after the last two battles. It grew nearly thirty points in just a few days, proving that reaching the tier 2 limit of 599 was definitely possible as long as some of the tournament’s contestants were strong enough to challenge me, I pondered with a grin.

Sparing a moment, to look at my wisdom, I noticed that it, too, was approaching the next milestone, though tiering up the skill it represented would have to wait until the next class tier, unfortunately.

Finally, I took note of my skill progression, which had seen monumental changes, relatively speaking. Over the past few months, what had frustrated me the most and had made me want to pull out my hair was said progression. Fighting goblins and rats had slowed me down and made me fear that I would never tier-up the relevant class skills in time before the next tier. Now, I had hope that the majority would be done before I had to worry about that.

Mentally, I put my class skills into three boxes to differentiate the role they could play in my tier-up.

[Dark radiance core](46%) and [Overload Aura](49%) were both tier 3 skills, so they didn’t need to be tiered up for the next tier. It would be nice, of course, but by their very nature, they grew slowly. Even when using them constantly, they had only gotten halfway there in several months. I wasn’t particularly sure whether or not to delay my tier-up by another two months to get them tiered-up, but I was considering it.

[Dark sight](84%), [Berserker Swordsmanship](88%), [Curse mark(guide)](92%) and [Overloaded orb](87%) were all skills that would naturally tier-up with a few weeks practice or a few challenging fights in the tournament, so I wasn’t worried about them lagging behind.

Finally there was the third category: [Overloaded sword](68%), [Dark Blade Maelstrom](56%) and [Aura step](29%). These were all skills that I had made myself, partway through the second class tier. None of them technically counted as ‘class skills’, since they hadn’t been assigned to me upon tier-up, but they did play a big role in my fighting style. The fact that I had created them would no doubt have a positive effect on my class assignment, but both [Overloaded sword] and [Dark Blade Maelstrom] were somewhat close to tiering up, making that a genuine possibility, too. All in all, I wasn’t sure how far to push this whole training thing.

[Aura step] was already tier 3 and was a long way off from reaching the next tier, so I crossed that one off the list, but the other two could realistically be trained to reach tier 3 themselves.

In the end, all of my doubts could be summarized in one question. ‘Should I put off my class tier-up for a month or two after the tournament until all possible skills are tiered up?’. I wasn’t sure how to answer that question, but felt my inner desire to maximize my gains bubble up. I had trained for decades on end before, what were a few more months in the face of that?

With a sigh, I decided to put off the decision and focus on what mattered the most, currently. I had three milestone skills to decide upon, after all.

To start, I opened up [Flexible senses] system notification, the skill that represented dexterity.

[Flexible senses](N/A)

Tier 2 skill.

All of your body parts become flexible.

You can increase or decrease the sharpness of your senses up to half. All senses are increased or decreased similarly at the same time.

Increase dexterity to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

Tier 3 upgrades

[Reactionary senses]

A direct upgrade of [Flexible senses].

Your senses increase or decrease in sharpness by up to three times their usual sharpness, depending on your environment. [Flexible senses] becomes a passive skill.

[Weak mana sense]

Awaken a sixth sense that can pick up large shifts in mana or dense areas of mana from a distance.

Note: Overrides the tier 2 skill effect.

[Mana refracting senses]

Mute all of your senses for an increase in mana generation. Mana generation can increase by up to 100%, based on the percentage of your senses that are muted, following a 1% to 1% consistency.

Note: Overrides the tier 2 skill effect.

As per usual, a tough choice appeared before me.

[Flexible senses] had been a skill I used sparingly, mostly activating it when I was trying to sneak around or was trying to avoid traps and ambushes. In an actual fight, there was so much noise and light that improving the senses often proved distracting and detrimental, rather than helpful, so the skill saw limited use. I had chosen it in the hopes that it could grow into a more useful skill eventually, and it seemed my gambit was already starting to pay off.

[Reactionary senses] seemed like a vastly better skill than its predecessor. It increased the growth of the senses by six times, with the caveat that it became a passive skill determined by my environment. I wasn't quite sure what that meant, exactly. Would my hearing increase if something rustled in the distance, or would, it improve if I listened intently and focussed on that rustling? The difference between these two possibilities was stark. With the latter, I would still have some control over my passive skill, like I did with my dark form, making it much more useful. The former was also a good skill, but could be used against me in a worst-case scenario.

[Weak mana sense] seemed like a straightforward example of a decent skill that had a lot of potential for growth. The ability to notice large changes in mana density wasn't to be underestimated, since it could alert me to surprise attacks and dangerous developments in the surrounding area. Unfortunately, it couldn't be used to look at my surroundings in detail, at least not yet. Mana was present everywhere, so if this skill developed into a 360-degree, detailed mana sense, then I would have exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately, it would get of my current skill effect, only keeping the superhuman flexibility that the milestone skill had granted me at tier 1.

Finally, there was an odd ball skill, [Mana refracting senses]. This one involved a trade-off. Mute all of your senses partially or entirely, to improve mana generation of the core skill by a certain percentage. It was a powerful skill, objectively, but it didn't really feel like I needed it myself, since I already had a lot of mana generation. Then again, if the increase was multiplicative, the effect would be rather pronounced. I had some trouble accepting the loss of my senses, though, especially all of them at once. Bad smell, touch and taste were one thing, but in a fight, bad sight and hearing would get me killed very quickly.

In the end, I put off the decision for a few hours, to first check my other milestone skills. I wanted to see if there were any other skills that synergised with other possible options, first.

Following this line of thinking, I opened up the next two skill choices, both at once. I was slightly surprised that I even got the option to tier-up my strength skill, because I had combined [Mana physique] into another skill.

Instead of getting the typical menu with three choices, however, I was awarded a brand-new skill.

Ding! 300 strength reached! Awarded the [Overload-reliant physique] skill.

[Overload-reliant physique](N/A)

Tier 3 skill.

When entering a mana-overloaded state, effective strength slowly increases by up to 30%, temporarily.

Increase strength to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

I could only nod happily as I read the simple yet useful skill. It seemed tailor-made for me, and with how rare stat-increasing skills were, I knew I could look forward to this skill's next tier.

As a passive skill, it wouldn't cost me anything, and I overloaded my mana in every battle, as a general rule. I had to wonder though, how long would it take before my strength increased by the full 30%? Hopefully, I wouldn't need to drag the fight on for half an hour before it reached that point.

With that choice taken out of my hands, I looked at the final skill I would have to tier-up, [Growing lifespan]. This skill gave me a year of life for every two points in constitution, which meant that currently, I would live until I reached 150 years of age. On its own, that was impressive, but when you considered that stats increased exponentially per tier, nearly quadrupling each time, you would come to realise how powerful a skill like that really was. To put things into perspective, by the time I reached the fourth constitution milestone of 1200, I would live for 600 years, and that was before this next tier-up.

[Growing lifespan](N/A)

Tier 2 skill.

You gain 1 year of life for every 2 points in constitution you possess.

Increase constitution to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

Tier 3 upgrades

[Expanding lifespan]

A direct upgrade of [Growing lifespan].

Gain 1 year of life for every 3 points in any physical skill you possess.

Note: Overrides the tier 2 skill effect.

[Transfer vitality]

Transfer lifespan from yourself to another.

Note: Maintains the tier 2 skill effect.

[Sacrificial lifespan]

Sacrifice the innocent in return for vitality.

"Yeah... that last one kind of sticks out, doesn't it..." I murmured quietly, causing Cerion to look over inquisitively.