The Game Difficulty
Is Insane
Two days after leaving Avenue Fortress.
As the sun set and the temperature dropped, Glen stopped by a small village along the road, tied up his horse, and rented a room at an inn.
The condition of the room wasn’t very good, but it was far better than camping outside in this cold weather.
Click—
After sending Romina to the room next door, Glen sat at the desk and took out paper and a quill pen from his inventory.
Then he wrote down the growth plan he had been thinking about while traveling.
Scratch, scratch—
The quill pen, dipped in black ink, danced smoothly across the paper.
Dealing with Penelope and the demon legion’s main force was important, but since he had been given a week, he needed to reorganize his personal growth plan as well.
‘I really did neglect this while worrying about the incoming demon vanguard.’
Glen first opened his status window and checked his stats.
《Glen Wordsworth》
《Race》 : Human / 17 years old
《Stats》
§ Strength : 40 Agility : 45
§ Stamina : 45 Charm : 30
§ Holy Power : 55 Demonic Power : 33
《Unique Latent Abilities》
§ Demonic Power User
§ Favor of Blades
§ Knight Without Rings
§ Survivor’s Will
The last time he checked had been half a month ago, and compared to then, his overall stats had increased significantly.
In particular, his demonic power was approaching 36, the requirement for the third ring.
Unlike holy power, whose growth had slowed, demonic power had been increasing at an incredible speed ever since meeting Romina.
‘At this rate, I’ll be able to form the third demonic ring in just a few more days.’
If that happened, Glen would be able to operate a total of seven rings when using the Gray Ring.
‘Seven-star, huh…’
Based on the original story, the seventh stage was considered the first major wall in a character’s growth.
Even that rotten Sacred Saint Knight had to invest a considerable amount of time to reach seven stars.
And precisely because it was so hard to break through, a 7-star showed an overwhelming level of power that couldn’t even be compared to a 6-star.
Considering the people and monsters Glen had faced so far, that was easy to understand.
But once he formed the third demonic ring, Glen would be able to wield that powerful 7-star strength, even if only for a brief moment.
That alone was incredibly good news.
‘If there’s another noticeable change after demonic power… it’s definitely charm.’
His charm, which had once been −20, now stood at the impressive number of 30.
At this level, charm could finally start functioning as a proper stat.
For reference, charm was closely related to initiative in conversations, negotiations, and the success rate of trades.
Even if two players under the same conditions proposed the same deal, the one with higher charm could secure slightly greater benefits.
There were also many other minor advantages, but in the current situation, charm had no chance to shine.
‘Because it’s wartime.’
Still, steadily increasing charm would allow him to gain various additional benefits as the scenario progressed.
‘That should be enough for stats.’
He had thought there wouldn’t be much progress due to the preliminary battle against the demons.
But thanks to the continuous fighting, experience had steadily piled up, resulting in fairly satisfying gains.
Next were skills.
Simple enough.
The proficiency of the Gray Ring had increased.
《Skill “Gray Ring” proficiency has increased by 1. Current proficiency: 3/12》
As a result, its duration increased from 6 minutes to 7 minutes, and the penalty decreased from 11 hours to 10 hours.
The penalty was still overwhelmingly longer than the duration, but since Glen had been using it effectively, it was worth enduring.
Honestly, without the lunatic skill called the Gray Ring, Glen wouldn’t have made it this far.
That was why he planned to keep increasing its proficiency, even while shouldering that penalty.
Scratch—
The quill pen that had been moving busily across the paper suddenly stopped.
Glen tilted his head.
‘Wait. Isn’t it about time Einheria gained its second ability?’
Glen took Einheria out of his inventory and checked its information window.
《Einheria》
《Grade》 : Legendary
《Type》 : Long Sword
《Option》
: “Soul Dwelling in the Sword” – This sword absorbs half of the experience gained by its user to grow, and gains additional abilities through a total of five stages of evolution.
As stated in the info window, Einheria had been consistently absorbing half of the experience Glen earned ever since he received it from the blacksmith Gotrel.
Considering the number and strength of enemies Glen had cut down since then, it should have accumulated quite a bit of experience.
‘But there’s been no reaction.’
That silence meant Einheria hadn’t gathered enough experience to enter its second stage yet.
‘That’s a shame. If I get Einheria’s second ability, I’ll be much stronger than before.’
Still, judging by the amount of experience it had already absorbed, the next stage didn’t seem that far away.
“Hoo…”
Placing the quill pen on the desk, Glen stretched his arms.
Whether it was stats or skill proficiency, considering that he’d been fighting the demon vanguard nonstop, the results were decent.
It was a bit disappointing that he hadn’t obtained the third demonic ring or Einheria’s second ability yet, but Glen still had time.
‘Five more days.’
He would catch both rabbits within that time.
The next day.
After leaving the village early in the morning and riding hard, Glen arrived at the Wordsworth estate in the late afternoon.
The estate he returned to after a month didn’t look much different from before.
“This is your home?”
Romina looked up at the Wordsworth estate with exaggerated surprise.
“Why. Is it big?”
“Yeah. Not as big as the castle I used to live in, but this place is still pretty large.”
“You should compare things properly.”
Comparing the home of a declining noble family to the castle of the Demon King didn’t make any sense.
