Chapter 199: Power Of Runesmith Class

[Accumulated EXP will now be consumed.]

[You have leveled up. Level 11 → Level 16]

[Mana (+1), Mind (+1), Stat Points (+2)]

[Mana (+1), Mind (+1), Stat Points (+2)]

[Mana (+1), Mind (+1), Stat Points (+2)]

[Mana (+1), Mind (+1), Stat Points (+2)]

[Mana (+1), Mind (+1), Stat Points (+2)]

Alex was surprised when he saw the notifications. The first thing that caught his attention was his current level, because after all the monsters he had killed, he had only reached Level 16.

He had killed an enormous number of high-level monsters, many of which were at Level 20. Yet despite all of that, he had only gained five levels.

’My guess was correct. The EXP requirement really does increase exponentially with every level,’ he thought.

Alex looked at the notifications again and thought about how difficult leveling would become from this point onward. Even with the vast amount of experience he could accumulate in Hell Difficulty, reaching the next level would probably require an even greater number of monsters.

This raised an important question in Alex’s mind, because if every level required him to kill more and more monsters, didn’t that mean monsters would eventually disappear?

After all, monsters also ate the Gene Potential of other monsters to level up. If both Ascendants and monsters constantly needed other monsters to grow stronger, there should eventually be fewer monsters left.

’This means monsters have another way, one completely different from Ascendants, to level up,’ Alex thought.

Of course, it was also possible that non-combat classes could gain EXP through other methods after reaching Level 11. Perhaps they could gain experience by training their class abilities or some other method, but Alex had no way of knowing that yet, so he decided not to think too deeply about it.

The second thing Alex noticed was that his level had increased from Level 11 rather than Level 10. This meant that ranking up was counted as going from Level 10 to Level 11, which answered a question he had not even realized he had.

’I wonder what the limit of my current rank, Adept Rank, is? Level 20? Or maybe something like Level 25 or even Level 50?’ he wondered.

Since there was no way for him to get an answer right now, Alex moved on to the last thing that caught his attention in the notifications. It was the huge number of Stat Points he had received from leveling up.

Previously, he had gained two free Stat Points whenever he leveled up. Now, however, each level gave him four Stat Points, with one automatically going into Mana, one into Mind, and the remaining two being free for him to distribute.

’One Stat Point is fixed in Mana and one in Mind. This must be the Stat distribution of the Runesmith Class,’ he theorized.

Alex suspected that other classes probably had different Stat distributions. A warrior class might automatically receive Strength and Constitution, while another magical class could have a completely different arrangement. He would be lying if he said he was not disappointed that he could not put all four Stat Points into Mana. He would much rather receive four free points and dump every single one into Mana, but he consoled himself with the thought that Runesmith was an incredibly powerful class, and it was worth the stat distribution.

The level-up had also healed all of Alex’s injuries and completely restored his stamina and Mana. Even so, he continued using Life Mana throughout his body because he wanted to figure out how he could use it for healing.

He recalled the mana patterns he had seen from the Principal’s healing skill used on him. After ranking up, Alex’s control over mana had improved tremendously, and this improvement was not simply because of his increased Mind or Will.

His mana could now flow through his body much more smoothly than before. There were fewer restrictions, less energy was lost during circulation, and the overall process felt much more natural.

Only now did Alex realize that his body had previously been preventing him from channeling mana as smoothly as he could. He had simply become accustomed to that resistance and therefore never realized that it existed.

Alex continued moving his mana according to the patterns he had learned from the Principal’s skills. He soon realized that the Principal’s skill had moved mana in much more complicated ways than anything he had been capable of noticing. Since principal was a rogue, he could easily use such a difficulty mana skill, as System supported him.

Alex, on the other hand, had to learn to control the mana for the spell himself. It made him smile. This was fun.

Alex continued practicing and adjusting the flow whenever necessary. After some time, several notifications suddenly appeared in front of him.

[Minor Heal Spell detected.]

[Would you like to learn Minor Heal?]

[Yes/No.]

’Nice, I got it—’

Before Alex could finish his thought, another notification appeared.

[Minor Tumor Growth Spell detected.]

[Would you like to learn Minor Tumor Growth Spell?]

[Yes/No.]

Alex immediately cut off his Life Mana supply. He stopped it so quickly that he would have praised himself for his reaction speed if he were not currently staring at the notification in front of him.

He sensed the area where he had been using the Life Mana and discovered that something had started growing there. It was a tumor, and thankfully, he had stopped the Life Mana early enough that the growth was still small.

Cold sweat formed on Alex’s forehead as he realized what could have happened. He remembered how he had almost blown himself up with Fire Mana, accidentally paralyzed himself with Lightning Mana, and now nearly given himself cancer with Life Mana.

’So giving too much Life Mana to the wrong place or using it incorrectly can cause flesh to mutate. That’s no pressure at all,’ he thought.

Alex wrapped condensed mana around the tumor inside his body and crushed it. There was some pain, but he gritted his teeth and endured it until the abnormal growth had been completely removed.

Only after confirming that the tumor was gone did Alex relax and let out a sigh. After that experience, he decided that learning the healing spell was the safer choice.

[Minor Heal Spell learned.]

[Minor Heal, E Rank, Level 1]

[Arise.]

[Effect: Allows you to heal injuries slowly.]

Alex was pleased with the spell. He could have also taken the Minor Tumor Growth Spell, but he had no real use for it because he could not currently use spells directly inside other people’s bodies.

To do that, he would first need to penetrate their bodies with his Will, and Alex still could not accomplish that against someone with a comparable rank. Therefore, there was little point in learning a spell that he could not properly use—

’Huh? Is it me, or did my Will improve?’

Alex suddenly noticed something different about his Will. It felt purer than before, and after testing several spells, he became certain that his Will had indeed improved.

After thinking a bit, he realized that this must be another benefit of ranking up. His stronger Will should now be capable of entering the bodies of people who were lower rank than him.

That realization also made Alex understand something about the Wild Orcs. They had been able to freeze them so easily because the monsters were Adept Rank, while all of the Ascendants were stuck at Initiate Rank Level 10.

The difference was not simply their stats. Because the Wild Orcs were Adept Rank, their Will was also stronger, and that gave their abilities an advantage when they targeted the Ascendants of Initiate rank.

With this knowledge, Alex no longer hesitated about learning the other spell. Now that he knew he could use his strengthened Will to affect targets of a lower rank, the Minor Tumor Growth Spell had suddenly become a useful offensive ability.

[Minor Tumor Growth Spell]

[Minor Tumor Growth Spell, E Rank, Level 1]

[It’s not a toomah!]

[Effect: Allows you to mutate the cells to a small degree.]

Alex looked at the newly acquired spell for a moment before storing the information in his mind. The spell seemed like a good attack-type ability, although he would need to find a proper way to train it later if he wanted to make it useful against stronger opponents.

With the spells dealt with, another matter came to his attention. Alex wondered what had happened to the additional requirements for his class evolution, since he had completed them and received the Runesmith Class, but he had not noticed any separate reward.

’Were the rewards for it included in everything I got, or was the System still holding onto it?’

He was still thinking about the matter when another series of notifications appeared. Alex’s attention immediately shifted toward them as he read through the messages.

[Reward for completing Additional Class Evolution requirements will now be given.]

[Please choose one of the rewards...]

..

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