Over the next few days, I returned to my previous habits and started to train like I used to. Day in, day out, I swung my sword, practiced my skills and sparred with Cerion.

After all, I had made a promise to the tier 6 classers and, more importantly, myself that I would win that Helios-forsaken tournament, even if it cost me my sanity.

Figuratively cost me my sanity, of course. I wasn’t actually prepared to sacrifice my efforts to stay ahead of my affinity just for this, which is why I made sure to meditate using [Mental palace] for a few hours each day.

So far, my mental space was still progressing, rather than degrading, so I supposed that my meditation cancelled out my affinity's effects on my mind.

A day after the conversation in the palace, I sought out my uncle to describe a dilemma I was facing. He usually stayed in the castle, but for convenience’s sake he was willing to pay a visit to the guild and tutor me for an hour each day. On one such occasion, we discussed my intelligence statistic.

“So you are worried that further increasing your intelligence will increase the risk of your class evolution, but at the same time the milestone you could reach would help you significantly in the short term?” Uncle Robart asked, reiterating what I had explained to him a moment earlier.

“That’s exactly it. The [Fast processing skill] helps a lot when I’m trying to think on my feet in battle and attack at the same time, but I’m not sure if it’s worth taking a risk for.”

My uncle hummed thoughtfully, before replying.

“Well, I do not have any easy solutions for you, but I suggest you weigh the risks and benefits before deciding. Keep in mind that tiering up your skill will also have a positive effect on your class evolution. Furthermore, the system seems to have already pushed your class down a certain path with its focus on overloading your mana. Considering your high physical stats and wisdom stat, I believe the risk would remain minimal anyway.”

I nodded slightly, somewhat convinced by his points. It seemed my uncle could tell I was still somewhat skeptical, though.

“Why don’t you ask your guild head for some advice before deciding? You still have plenty of time before the second round of the tournament starts, since you don’t have to participate in the first as a seeded participant.”

That had been the end of the conversation, but when my guild head gave me roughly the same arguments as my uncle, I decided to make a decision and put 25 free points into intelligence. There was a common saying that the system disliked those who never took risks, after all.

As I put the points in, I felt my vision, no, all of my senses cleared up a little, as if they became sharper. I could pick up more details simultaneously, I knew. Before my new status could pop up, I was distracted by the skill tier up system notification.

[Fast processing](N/A)

Tier 1 skill.

Your brain's processing speed increases marginally. Does not affect learning ability beyond the increase in processed information.

Increase intelligence to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

Tier 2 upgrades

[Inscription processing]

Process information gained from inscribed literature much more quickly.

[Spell processing]

Process visual information gained from viewing spell creation much more quickly.

[Manifold processing]

A direct upgrade of [Fast processing]

Consciously process information coming from multiple sources at the same time.

For once, I didn't take long to decide which option I would go with. This was only the second milestone and therefore it didn't give a very personalised selection yet. This was apparent from the fact that the system had given me a scholar's skill and a mage's skill, as well as a more general skill that I found far more useful than the other two.

Cerion had explained that [Inscription processing] was a skill used by scholars and mages, when I asked him. Supposedly, most magical theories and spell books were written by using mana to carve words into thick paper, a method of writing that was more commonly known as inscription. A person who picked this skill would, then, be able to read and understand magical knowledge more quickly.

Actual mages tended to prefer the second option, though. [Spell processing] allowed one to more easily understand the inner working of spells that one viewed. Powerful mages could simply show their apprentices a spell, and they could understand some of its intricacies on their own. On top of that, mages would more easily be able to see what was lacking from their own spell usage, and could improve more quickly. As a final cherry on top, the skill synergised with mana-viewing skills like my [Dark sight]. Despite all this, the skill was mostly useless to me, since I didn't use spells.

That meant that there was only one skill that would be marginally useful to me. [Manifold processing] would allow me to focus on multiple things at once. I could already pick up information from multiple sources, of course, but this was done unconsciously. I could listen to a person and at the same time react to their body language, but I couldn't focus consciously on both at the same time.

This new skill would therefore allow me to aim at two things at once, for example. It wasn't weak for a tier 2 skill, but, hopefully, it would grow into something more useful in the future. Mentally, I picked the skill and tried out its effects.

Sure enough, I could now focus on three things at once somehow. Honestly, it felt a little strange, like I was looking at multiple things at once. Problem was, while I could focus on three things at once mentally, my eyes couldn't. If I looked at a rock in the distance, I could take note of a bug at my feet as well, but my eyes would focus on the rock, making the rest of my vision a little blurry. Maybe a future skill could help with that. Thankfully, this issue wouldn't hinder me in battle.

With that done, I decided to continue my training.

A few days later, Michael received a letter from the white oak royal academy, that he had applied to several days ago.

As Doran handed him the letter, he looked ready to faint from the stress, and he hesitated to open the envelope for a moment. Eventually, though, he gathered enough courage and ripped it apart, quickly unfolding the letter itself.

I saw his eyes skim the piece of paper from top to bottom, before he jumped up in excitement.

“I passed!” he exclaimed ecstatically.

Surprisingly, Doran was the first to wrap him up in a hug, though Cerion and I quickly joined in.

The party lasted for the rest of the night, and that was the only time that I took a break from my training.

For the next week and a half until the tournament started, I would be utilizing my time as efficiently as possible, mental health be damned.

The next morning, I got to work. The guild had their own separate training areas, filled with boulders, logs and other targets that were replaced each day. The guild head had been kind enough to give me my own training yard to use for a few weeks, so I made sure to use it as much as possible.

Since my level had been maxed out and stat points could only be increased naturally before awakening, I could only focus on my skill progression.

Most of my skills didn’t give me any difficulties and progressed steadily, though I placed most of my focus on the skills that were close to tiering up. That decision turned out to be the right one, because a week later, two of the four skills that I had focussed on were ready to tier up. Both [Berserker swordsmanship] and [Dark sight] were long overdue a tier up, so I wasted no time and looked at my options.

[Berserker Swordsmanship](0%)

Tier 2 skill.

You possess an instinctual understanding of swordsmanship, involving two handed weapons specifically.

The longer an instance of combat lasts, the faster your sword becomes. This effect ends after combat.

Train under the guidance of a higher-ranked swordsmanship holder or use a two handed sword in combat to increase proficiency.

Tier 3 upgrades

[Marauder swordsmanship]

You possess a journeyman-level of instinctual understanding of swordsmanship, involving two handed weapons, specifically.

The skill holder's weapon increases in effective weight as it increases in speed. This effect also affects the skill-holder.

[Cascading mana-intrusive swordsmanship]

You possess a journeyman-level of instinctual understanding of swordsmanship, involving two handed weapons, specifically.

The skill holder can transfer a small part of the mana coating the wielded sword into the body of any target cut by it, at will. Subsequent attacks transfer more and more mana, until the end of battle.

Note: Overrides the tier 2 skill effect.

[Freeform swordsmanship]

You possess a journeyman-level of instinctual understanding of swordsmanship.

When I first saw my possible options, I was a little underwhelmed. All three seemed like decent skills, but none seemed tailor-made for me, like so many of my new skills were lately.

Marauder swordsmanship seemed powerful in direct clashes, but it hardly had any growth potential. At most, subsequent skills would just increase the weight even more. Not to mention that as my swinging speed increased, the weight increase would slow me down again. I had a high strength stat, so I might be able to keep up for now, but in the future? A tier 4 version of this skill would be too much for my strength to handle and would make me too slow to hit anything. In other words, its use seemed limited while it carried an inherent risk that might force me to dump free points into strength just to keep up with the skill.

The last skill, freeform swordsmanship had the opposite problem. It would allow me to freely use any sword and carried no risks, but was there any point to that? I intended to keep using a great sword, even if I had the choice. Furthermore, its growth potential seemed average.

The final skill that I considered was [Cascading mana-intrusive swordsmanship]. Helios, what a mouthful. the skill would overwrite my current berserker swordsmanship, in favour of a new, very specific effect. When I asked Cerion about the skill, he told me his father's skill catalogues hadn't described anything like it either. He did ask me a question that left me hopeful, though.

"So if you picked this skill, would you inject overloaded mana into your opponents' bodies with each sword-based attack? You don't coat your sword in normal dark mana, after all..."

For a moment, I stared at him, gaping at the possible implications of the skill. Indeed, for anybody else, the skill might have been borderline useless. Normal elemental mana wasn't that dangerous, after all. If Cerion possessed the skill for example, enemies would, at most, have trouble using their skills because their mana was contaminated with another type of mana.

In my case, however, they would be torn apart by my overloaded mana, since almost nobody was used to dealing with it. I had personally witnessed the effect of overloaded mana coursing through the body, and I knew that without [Dark form], I would die within minutes, if not seconds. That being said, I couldn't know if the skill transferred enough mana at a time to seriously harm my opponents. On top of that, it took away the previous skill's advantage that sped up my attacks.

In the end, my choices boiled down to [Freeform swordsmanship] and [Cascading mana-intrusive swordsmanship], since [Marauder swordsmanship] seemed like too large a hassle for too little reward.

That meant that I either took a large risk for a potentially gigantic reward, or played it safe, risking the skill's future potential instead.

After a few hours of practice to clear my head, I made a choice, praying the skill would be worth the risk.

Mentally, I picked [Cascading mana-intrusive swordsmanship]. Time to share some of the pain overloading mana had brought me with my future enemies, I thought sadistically.

Oh, and Cerion. He had volunteered to test the skill, after all.