"What was that demon's strength?" I mumbled after finally finding a safe place to stay for a while. "There was nothing like that in the game."
Rethinking about the past hour, the fight between Celia and Arthur, his betrayal, the strength of demons, everything aside from answers, I had more questions in my head.
"I knew the events of the game were changed from the start, but to think it would affect this much…." Even from the start, I knew this world had a lot more to offer than a mere game. But I still thought there would be things that remained the same.
The theory of the butterfly effect is something solid. But let's say you just pushed a rock on a random dessert. That doesn't necessarily mean in just two years in another part of the world, the future of a person will be affected.
Turning my attention inward, I sought answers from the ever-present system within my consciousness. 'System, do you have any explanation for these deviations?' I asked, my thoughts laced with a hint of skepticism.
Though I knew the system was limited in its capacity to provide detailed explanations, I couldn't help but seek some semblance of understanding or maybe a piece of information that I would be able to catch from its words.
To my surprise, the system responded with its usual prompt. <Ding! Host, thanks to external sources influencing the fate of the universe, the Universe will take action, changing future events.>
As the system's voice echoed inside my head, my brows were raised. 'External sources, you say? Can you elaborate on it?'
<Host. I am unable to answer your question.> Hearing this, I made a knowing expression inside my head.
I had already figured out the behavioral pattern of this system. Thus, it wasn't hard for me to accept this fact.
'But, external sources could mean a lot of things. It might be related to Arthur becoming a transmigrator or might be related to some other phenomenon. But, it is likely that it is related to Arthur.'
I thought about analyzing today's events.
It was evident from the way he arrived with a tense body that he was aware of the presence of the demon….. Although he had a body that was prepared to attack and follow his orders, his fighting style was disorganized and ineffective due to his lack of knowledge in utilizing it. He had poor technique, bad posture, and most importantly, lacked the ability to make quick judgments..'
For a combatant, the most important thing is never knowing as much as techniques as possible. It is knowing which type of technique you need to use in special circumstances.
'But, if he had really been trained in combat, he would know how to fight or use a sword. Even if the opponent were a demon he was encountering for the first time in his life, he would still be able to beat it, thanks to Celia's magic at that time. But his blows weren't good enough, and he was a coward. That means one simple thing.'
'His source of strength doesn't come from his training.'
After reaching this conclusion, interpreting the meanings of my words was not that hard. Considering my own circumstances and this world being based on the game, I pretty much knew the source of his strength.
"He has a system as well." The moment that realization hit me, the reason why Arthur showed up here also made sense.
'He must have received a quest from the system. And looking at his past behavior, instead of improving himself, he is constantly looking to flirt with girls, yet he is still this strong. Does his system related to some sort of lewdness or affection meter?' I thought.
'Well, it doesn't matter anyway. The important thing is he has a system; thus, the world is making everything a lot harder for us to balance things.' With that realization, I knew the events of the game might also be brought forwards, which meant I needed to get stronger at a faster rate.
"Suddenly, the difficulty of the game increased, huh? Bring it on."
With that mumble, I stood up as my head cooled down and my body rested enough.
'Then, I guess I need to train….'
In the end, there was one thing I could do….
******
As I reached my room, I noticed I forgot to check my quests and the new achievements. In any case, since it was not urgent like the quest itself, I didn't lose anything either.
--------------------------------
Urgent Quest – Confront the Demon – Completed
Description: Thanks to the failure of the main protagonist of the game, you needed to step up in his stead to save the academy. But, of course, you wouldn't do it for free.
Requirements: Confront the Thannexath, Hell's Demon
Rewards: 0.1 increase in the strength stat, 0.1 increase in the stamina stat, 0.1 increase in the mana stat
---------------------------------
Inspecting the description and the rewards, a smile bloomed on my face. 'Now that these quests are returned, I can improve at a faster rate.' I thought.
No matter how talented you are, at some point, increasing your stats will get a lot harder as you improve. This was one of the things I was having a hard time dealing with, but thanks to this event, the fast improvement rate returned.
'Status.' I thought, looking at the panel in front of me.
-----------------------------------------
Stats-
- Strength – 4.6
- Speed – 4.9
- Stamina – 4.6
- Perception – 4.9
- Magic – 4.8
----------------Hidden Stats--------------
- Luck -???
- Charisma – 8 (sealed)
- Intelligence – 9
- Perseverance – 10
------------------------------------
'I am pretty close to reaching the five-star realm.' I thought, inspecting the panel in front of me. 'I think it will take at most a month until I reach the bottleneck. I can even maybe reach the five-star rank before the next semester.' With that thought, I closed the panel, turning my attention to the system logs.
'Now, there was an achievement there.'
-----------------------------------------
Achievement – Avatar
Requirements: Beating an enemy stronger than the user while using all four major elemental magics
Rewards: Increase in the elemental magic damage and casting speed
-------------------------------------------
Looking at the achievement panel, I made a knowing expression.
'Just as it was in the game.' I thought. This achievement was one of the things I was also aiming for while fighting with the demon since, in any way, I had confirmed the existence of such achievements.
With that thought, I reached my basement and instantly started meditating under the mana-gathering formation.
In the end, if the difficulty of the world was raised, then the only thing I could do was to improve myself.
-------------------------------A/N----------------------------------
The next chapter will be a time skip; then, we will continue with the next story event. Hope you liked the chapters.
You can check my discord if you want. You will be able to see the illustrations here and engage in a conversation with me if I am available.
https://discord.gg/XJEgBRM3C
Check out my new book if you are interested.
This time it will have a modern hunter theme, where MC will be driven by the feeling of vengeance.
The name is; Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest
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