Finally.
Levi felt a rush of pure satisfaction.
After nearly a week of grinding, he had cleared the first stage of the Knight’s Path.
The system had mentioned a class change, right?
He glanced at Don Quixote, who was still muttering some half-remembered ceremony under his breath, then pulled up the quest panel.
Two completely different knight paths appeared at once.
[Class Change Triggered!!!]
[Knight Squire Levi, you have met every requirement to become a true knight.
You possess solid physical attributes and the virtues a knight should hold.
Now it is time to choose your path.]
[Path One: Lord Knight]
[As a Lord Knight, you will no longer receive attribute bonuses.
In exchange, you will gain far greater gold rewards.
You will hold your own territory and ensure your people live in abundance.
Class Change Reward: 100 Gold Coins.
Unlocks the Lord skill tree.]
[Path Two: Hero Knight]
[As a Hero Knight, you will no longer receive gold rewards.
In exchange, you will gain far greater attribute bonuses.
You will climb toward greater heights and become a legend.
Class Change Reward: All four attributes +0.2.
Unlocks the Knight skill tree.
Grants the Knight’s Body.]
Levi stood there, genuinely torn.
Both paths looked like roads to the top.
The Lord route promised serious wealth and the chance to build something untouchable.
The Hero route pushed raw personal power to the limit.
With enough stats, he could become something the world had never seen.
He decided to head back to the basement first.
Big decisions needed a clear head.
Don Quixote’s knighting ceremony finally wrapped up.
“…By the Duke’s command, I now declare you free of the squire’s burden,” Don Quixote intoned, tapping Levi’s shoulder with solemn weight.
“You are a true knight now.”
Levi snapped back to the moment and grinned.
“Does that mean I can stop calling you Sir Knight?
We’re equals now, right?”
Don Quixote paused, his sleepwalking brain actually chewing on the question.
“But once we drive out the witch, the Duke will promote me further.”
“Sure, sure,” Levi said, shrugging.
“Can we go home now?”
Don Quixote looked at the boundary stone Levi had casually shoved aside, nodded, and led the way back to the basement.
Once Don Quixote’s chainsaw snoring filled the room, Levi made his choice.
He was skipping the Lord Knight path entirely.
He was going all-in on Hero Knight.
The Lord route sounded comfortable, especially with a hundred gold coins dropped straight into his lap.
But Levi had always believed in one simple truth:
Let the neighbors stockpile grain.
He would stockpile guns.
And when everything went to hell, their silo would become his.
This life had already taught him that the only person he could truly count on was himself.
System.
Give me the power.
He read the description ten more times, double-checking every word.
Then he took a deep breath and slammed his will into the Hero Knight option.
[You have chosen to become: Hero Knight]
The panel shattered into countless motes of light and poured straight into his body.
This time the power wasn’t a warm current or even a rushing river.
It was a raging flood.
Molten iron poured directly into his marrow.
Invisible giant hands ripped every bone, nerve, and muscle fiber apart, then hammered them back together with something far denser and stronger.
“Ugh…” Levi clenched his jaw so hard his teeth creaked.
“This one feels… different.”
He could hear his own bones popping and shifting, like his skeleton was being reforged on the spot.
His spine arched hard against the mattress, every vertebra thickening and locking into place.
Time stretched and snapped at the same time.
Levi slowly pushed himself up off the mattress.
Sweat had soaked him through.
A faint dark film of blood had even seeped from his pores.
[Strength 1.2] → [Strength 1.4]
[Constitution 1.2] → [Constitution 1.4]
[Spirit 1.3] → [Spirit 1.5]
[Obtained: Knight’s Bronze Body]
[Clumsy Eloquence] → [Silver Tongue]
[Silver Tongue: Once per day.
Automatically convinces those with weak wills.
50% chance to convince those with strong wills.]
[Berserk] upgraded.
Duration extended.
[Berserk: Once per day.
For 60 seconds, Strength, Constitution, and Agility are doubled.]
Too many notifications hit at once.
Levi pulled up his full status screen.
[Name: Levi]
[Age: 17]
[Class: Knight · Bronze Body (Transcendent)]
[Strength: 1.4]
[Spirit: 1.5]
[Agility: 1.4]
[Constitution: 1.4]
[Skills: Silver Tongue, Berserk]
[Equipment: None]
A new class.
And what the hell was Bronze Body?
He focused on it.
[Knight’s Bronze Body (Transcendent): Your first step into the transcendent.
Your body is evolving toward something beyond human.
You are now wrapped in a special layer of power you can activate at will.]
[When active, it provides moderate resistance to physical damage, weapons, disease, and plague.]
Levi stood in the tiny bathroom, stared at his reflection, and laughed out loud.
This was a massive fucking win.
Those 0.8 attribute points had pushed every single one of his stats into the realm of elite athletes and special forces operators.
Two of his skills had evolved thanks to the Spirit jump.
Berserk’s duration had doubled.
But the real prize was the new Bronze Body.
He could feel it now — a faint, invisible shell wrapped around him, responding to his thoughts like a second skin.
“Decent resistance to weapons…”
Levi’s eyes drifted to the cheap manual razor sitting on the edge of the sink.