The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound

Chapter 324: The Shadowless King of the Black Sea (1)

<Vikir>

-LV: 1 (%)

-Title: 'Gutter Rat Hunter', 'Hell's Dog', 'Daylily Lumberjack', 'Majin Executioner' (NEW)

-Stats

Strength: 300

?Agility: 270 (+10) = 280

?Stamina: 300

?Physical resistance: 1

?Magic resistance: 0 (+1) = 1

?Reflexes: 1

Vikir's status bar has changed once more.

The title "Majin Executioner" adds a deep karma to Vikir's soul.

Vikir's body will be faster and his sword will be a sharper when dealing with Majin in the future.

After feeding the little madam, I ate all the remaining Agility Candies.

It's the most difficult of the three primary stats to get, so you have to be diligent about eating it whenever you get a chance.

'... but that's not the point right now.'

No matter how valuable the Agility stat is, is that all there is to it?

Vikir took note of a new stat, Magic Resistance.

This is in line with the Physical Resistance stat, which bends the laws of reality to create unusual force distortions.

In the case of Mana Resistance, it makes you more aware of the flow of mana in the real world, and resists mana flowing in the opposite direction.

In other words, it rejects aggressive mana that flies at you from an opponent and forces mana that flows backwards through your body to be repelled in its original direction.

'To put it simply, it halves the enemy's magic attacks and suppresses the mana surge that occurs within my body.'

This is the ultimate stat for anyone practicing mana, especially mages.

It halved your opponent's magical attacks, but being able to control the mana surges within your own body was an incredible perk.

Mana surges are usually the last thing a swordsman or mage wants to see when they step up to a higher level.

Just as a worm emerging from its cocoon or a crustacean breaking out of its shell is at its weakest, those who practice mana also become weakest at the very moment they transcend their limits.

Having a high Mana Resistance stat will help protect you from one of the worst dangers of all: Mana Surge.

'...Before regression, Camus invested everything in her Magic Resistance stat in the tower, and used that overwhelming resistance to learn all of the high-risk spells that would definitely result in Mana Surge if practiced.'

In High Risk, High Return, she's cramming all of her risk into her stats and then taking all of her return.

It's a very ignorant thing to do, but it's something you can't do without absolute confidence in your skills, talent, and future.

"...Alright, now I have all six stats."

The stats you'll never get in the early stages, or even see until the end of the tower in the later stages, are Physical Resistance, Magic Resistance, and Reflexes.

These three special stats are the Tower's most secret hidden prizes and are progressive perks that grow with their owner, and now that Vikir has succeeded in flowering all of them, he just needs to level them up.

As you level up, all of your stats will naturally increase, so you don't need to get any weird candy to grow all three base stats and three special stats.

When Vikir was lost in thought.

"My lord, with all due respect,... I have a question."

Highbro spoke up from beside him.

"When you got 10 level candies earlier, why didn't you use them to level up? At level 10, wouldn't you be able to find 10% of your power outside the tower? It seems like that would be much more beneficial than just raising your stats a bit right now...."

"Hmm. It's to bloom all six stats."

Vikir explained the stats to the Baskerville triplets.

When the triplets realized that in addition to the three primary stats of strength, agility, and stamina, there were three special stats, they were motivated.

"We'll try to find them, too! Then, my lord, you have collected all 6 major stats, so you can now level up!"

"You're going to get a huge level!"

"You're going to get a huge level!"

But Vikir shook his head.

"I won't be leveling up as much as I can for a while. If you get level candy, sell it to the candy store and exchange it for stat candy, and when you get to the second half of the game, don't use the level candy, but save it in your pockets."

The Baskerville triplets look puzzled at this.

Vikir explains the reward structure inside the tower.

"As you level up, you regain some of your power outside the tower, which allows you to grow quickly in the beginning. However, the increasing difficulty of the tower's missions and the decreasingly small rewards in the later stages of the tower can put people off."

While newcomers to the Tower may be all-in on collecting stat candy and converting it to level candy, experienced players don't do that.

The rule of the tower is that the lower the level, the better the rewards.

Great feats by the strong are rewarded with mediocre rewards.

Even when the weak achieve minor achievements, they also receive modest rewards.

When the strong perform a small feat, they receive almost no reward.

... But when a weak person does something great.

In these cases, the rewards are vastly different from what you'd expect!

That's why Vikir, in his Level 1 existence, has slain a Gutter Rat, Hellhound, Cerberus, a Daylily of Blood Tree, a number of Insectking, and the Majin from earlier.

The rewards of these missions have been labeled "rare," "difficult," "epic," and "awesome".

But even with all these missions and rewards, Vikir is still treated as an underdog.

That's because of the system in the tower, which uses level as a measure of strength.

'I've grown tired of playing weak.'

He sighs. All the time he had spent in Colosseo Academy as a nerd who hid his strength had been a long wait for this day.

"...Anyway. This is why you don't need to level up at the beginning."

The triplets nodded eagerly at Vikir's words.

To the triplets, who gave him a look of blind loyalty, Vikir added another word.

"And one more thing, leveling up is a waste because...."

Hearing Vikir's whispered words, Highbro, Midbro, and Lowbro's eyes widened for a moment, before returning to their normal size.

"Hmph, so all those fairy things that keep encouraging us to eat level candy are a scam...."

"Indeed. I guess I should never eat level candy at the beginning, then."

"I guess I should just focus on increasing my stats for now."

There was no reason to rush to level up, as the stat candies that were collected without eating them could be exchanged for level candies at the candy store later.

Vikir repeated the advice to the triplets one more time.

Then.

...Kurrrr!

A small anomaly occurred at the spot where Dogma, who had become a Majin, had died.

A single flame, black and glowing, danced across the surface of the water.

Vikir leapt to his feet and grasped the flame in his hand.

It was hot enough to boil the water around it, but surprisingly, Vikir's hand didn't feel the slightest bit hot.

-<Fire of Inferiority 'Fire'> / Flint / A+

A stone that allows you to get hot embers anytime, anywhere.

It burns with the inferiority complex deep within you as firewood.

-Hotness +1,000

*Temperature may be higher or lower depending on the level of inferiority complex.

"...So, you use inferiority complexes as firewood, then I'm not going anywhere."

Vikir, too, was once a victim of inferiority complexes.

His lowly origins, his family's alienation, his deformed appearance, his former life filled with nothing but shame and hatred.

With such bitter memories, Vikir has virtually unlimited power.

...Crunch!

Vikir carefully tucked the flames of inferiority burning within his grasp into his arms.

No longer would he freeze to death or be unable to cook his food, no matter where he was.

Then.

[O-our savior, get us off this island!]

Vikir had to listen to the shouts of the Insectking again.

It was annoying, but it served their purpose.

Vikir needed to get off the island and down to the deeper levels, so it couldn't hurt to play along.

"Right. You said you had a ship, right?"

It was said that a ship was the reason why the two races of Insectking, rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles, have been at odds for so long is because of one ship.

Apparently, it was a dispute over which of the two races would take possession of the ship.

They nodded in a sullen tone.

[Yes, there is one ship].

"Where is it?"

Vikir asked, and the two elders stretched out their index fingers and pointed in unison.

[It's anchored over there].

"...?"

Vikir scratched his head. There was nothing where the two Elders pointed.

Nothing but a distant horizon.

"...What?"

Vikir turned his head, and the two elders nodded with a heavy expression.

[Yes, it is sinking].

The ship, the only means of escape from this island.

It is sunk at the bottom of the Black Sea right now.