Ultimately, Blaze decided against attempting to restore the Dwarf’s Wisdom. The Hundred-Womb Ganges was already enough of a menace; there was no need to cause extra complications.
Fortunately, he had a second backup plan. Just like draping a Lion Skin over Armor, he could attach the Lion’s teeth and claws to his weapon as decorations.
This was far less difficult than directly forging them into the weapon as Enhancement materials. The trade-off was that the Destruction Effect would only apply to the specific spots where the decorations were attached.
[Long-Twisted Glory]
[Once bestowed upon a certain Knight as a symbol of honor, one only needed to see this weapon to know the Knight’s name. However, after being exiled, the Knight no longer cherished it. Through countless fiery battles and clashes, its shape gradually Twisted, turning into the fangs of a Wild Beast.]
The Twisted Giant Sword was Blaze’s main weapon. The Sharpness on it was less a sword’s edge and more of jagged gaps. However, this weapon had already been cleaved in two by Flying Brick’s [Eight-headed Ama no Murakumo] and could no longer be used normally.
"Until I get a replacement weapon, I’ll have to rely on hand-to-hand combat."
Blaze selected the [Fighting Master Level 10] Profession from his Blessings. A Fighting Master could be upgraded to a maximum of Level 15. It was one of the starting Professions, and its Skills were relatively simple.
Bee Sting Fist A, Butterfly Dance A, Vibrating Fist A, Toughness A, Rocky Perseverance A.
Seeing this uniform row of A’s (the highest Skill Level), and calculating the number of Skill Points he could obtain by Level 30, Blaze’s expression stiffened.
The previous Black Beast Knight had likely dumped all of his Skill Points directly into upgrading his Skill Proficiency, rather than learning as many Skills as possible.
"Are you kidding me? Was this guy exiled because of Sloth—because he was too lazy to practice his Skill Proficiency naturally?!"
Thinking about how he pinched pennies and meticulously saved his Skill Points, only for his predecessor to waste them so recklessly, Blaze felt the urge to reroll his character entirely.
[Great Sword Master Level 10] was in the exact same situation. It only had a sparse few Skills, making it seem as if the Profession inherently only possessed that handful of abilities.
Fortunately, the Skills that had been learned were all highly practical, which offered him a sliver of comfort.
Lost Skill Points were like fading youth—once they were gone, all he could do was bid them a clean farewell.
Both the [Great Sword Master] and [Fighting Master] could undergo Profession evolution, not to mention the Profession sacrifice the Tree of Life had told him about, which would turn them into new Professions. However, he wasn’t considering that right now, because his level was only Level 31. A drop in level would result in a drop in stats.
Foreigners rapidly reached Full Level by acquiring a large number of basic Professions that required minimal Experience Value to upgrade. Then, they increased the strength of their Professions by dropping levels through Profession evolution and sacrifice. Therefore, the multitude of Professions obtained at the beginning had to be carefully selected and combined. A Profession needed to be at Full Level to evolve, and the same likely applied to sacrifice.
The maximum level for a Hunter was Level 15. Being able to perform a Profession sacrifice at Level 5 meant the Tree of Life must have utilized some sort of special privilege.
"The Experience Value earned gets distributed evenly across all Professions, and the Experience Value required to level up differs for each one. If you pick up a new Profession before maxing out the current one, you’ll be crushed under the pressure of leveling them all up," Blaze muttered, feeling an impending headache as he looked at his list of Professions, none of which were at Full Level except for Soul Suppressing Knight.
"Chicken, who gets the Experience Value from the Monsters you defeat?"
"It counts as yours, of course. The Experience Value you speak of is actually soul fragments. Only the Blessed can absorb them. For any creature other than the Blessed, what you call ’leveling up’ is actually just the growth of Life—like my claws, for example."
Chicken raised its claw. Because its body was so short and stubby, the motion made it look like it was doing the splits as it showed off its claws.
"You saw those Titan Hybrids yourself. They were ordinary creatures subjected to the Erosion of the Evil God’s Blood, making them equivalent to Level 0. The concentration of the Evil God’s Blood within their bodies is exactly the level they obtain."
"Tell me, what level were those twelve Traitors originally?" Blaze asked, his expression growing somewhat stiff.
"I’ve never met them directly. Probably around Level 150?"
"Level 150... If the Evil God’s Blood virus in their bodies reaches 100%, wouldn’t they be Level 250?!"
Blaze had once cast a distant glance at the towering Titan Evil God whose head pierced the clouds. At that time, he had heard the murmurs of a Foreigner.
[Titan Giant Level 500]
Those Traitors possessed nearly half the strength of the Titan Evil God, and they each had their own unique abilities to boot.
"You don’t need to worry so much. Just as the Blessed require an increasingly massive amount of Experience Value, the time it takes to raise the concentration of Evil God’s Blood in one’s body also grows exponentially longer." Chicken, entirely unbothered, began to console Blaze.
"Think about it. That Hundred-Womb Ganges has been around for less than a year. Even if they immediately betrayed the forest, it would be impossible for them to complete their transformation in such a short amount of time. They are probably still in a deep slumber right now."
"You could have said that sooner," Blaze replied, his shoulders slumping in relief. He felt as though the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head had been launched out of sight.
Though, [The Great Stars] were still constantly reminding him of it through his Blessing.
With his sense of crisis significantly diminished, Blaze’s pace quickened considerably. Meanwhile, Chicken nestled comfortably in the mane of his Lion Skin.
"Say, my Night Watcher class is a Summoner Profession, right? Shouldn’t I be the one riding on you?"
"Then I’ll give you a shopping list. Once you collect everything on it, I’ll let you ride me." Although Chicken’s catchphrase was ’proud as I am,’ it didn’t get angry at Blaze’s ’rude’ request and answered earnestly instead.
"If you want a mount for long-distance running, I’ll need an [Ostrich] skeleton. If you want to fly, I’ll need the skeleton of an [Eagle] or a [Vulture]. If you want me to provide combat power, it’s best to have an offensive organ like a [Flame Bag]. However, I completely refuse a [Highly Poisonous Bag]. A noble being such as myself would never engage in an unseemly act like vomiting."
"Then if I gave you a Human skeleton, couldn’t you transform into a Human?"
"..." After a brief silence, Chicken answered seriously, "There’s no need to go out of your way to make a body for me. Once I grow to a certain point, I’ll obtain the [Humanization] Skill and will be able to transform directly."
"Oh, that’s truly magical."
Blaze helplessly steered the topic away. One of the topics the Foreigners frequently discussed was the human forms of their Contracted Beasts, and their smiles during those conversations had been more than a little sleazy.
He had thought this indecent topic might elicit some kind of special reaction from it.
"Hm?"
The Natural Guidance brought about by the [Forest Blessing] began to pulse once again, followed by the sight of a blurry flag in the distance.
A green Travel Hat adorned with a massive feather.
It was the merchant caravan of [Hermes’ Travel Hat], along with swarms of short, green Monsters engaged in fierce combat with the Guards.