# Chapter 14: Talent of Willpower
The narrow staircase slowly grew quiet after the last hound-fox choked on its own blood. The air was thick and smelled heavily of blood. The thirteen survivors stood among the dead monsters, their bodies covered in sweat and blood.
Michael stood still at the front line, he was out of breath and his chest heavy from the sheer adrenaline of his lure and escape and the following fight. When his iron tip pierced the eleventh hound-fox, he had accumulated enough experience points and reached level 4, the notification still hovered at the edge of his vision:
[Ding! You have leveled up]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 4. All baseline attributes have automatically increased by +1 point. You have received 5 attribute points and 1 skill point.]
The massive golden wave of energy had completely knitted his wounds together, erasing the dull throb in his left arm. But as he looked down at his status sheet, his eyes locked onto a section that had been active since his previous level-up.
When he had hit Level 3 on these very steps after his first five solo kills, the System had granted him his talent. He hadn’t had time to read it during the chaos, but now, the text was clear and steady:
[Talent Name: Iron Will]
[System Description: A unique trait forced into existence by absolute and extreme determination that defies impossiblities.]
[Passive Effect: Substantially strengthens the user’s resolve and mental focus. Any attribute increase allocated to Willpower — both manual investments and automatic level-up gains — is automatically doubled.]
Reading the details, Michael felt a sudden, heavy knot in his stomach. A wave of irritation and deep uncertainty washed over him. *Doubled Willpower increases? That’s it?*
A wave of doubt hit him hard. In a world where monsters were actively tearing people apart, he had desperately hoped for an offensive combat ability—use of magic, a skill that multiplied his physical damage, a speed boost, or some kind of lethal weapon mastery. Instead, the System had handed him a purely mental utility talent. He stared at the screen, unsure if this trait would actually keep him alive when facing larger, stronger threats.
But as the initial disappointment cooled, his gamer mind instinctively took over. He forced himself to look past the lack of raw damage and started calculating how to exploit this power.
He realized the talent had retroactively reshaped his growth. He had started the apocalypse with a baseline Willpower of 9. After reaching Level 2 it became 10. When he hit Level 3, the automatic +1 increase from the System became +2 because of the talent, instantly bumping his Willpower to 12 instead of 11. Now, with his arrival at Level 4, the System had just granted him another automatic point. The talent intercepted it, doubling the reward once again.
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Instead of a modest 12, his Willpower score had just soared to a rock-solid 14 without him spending a single free point.
The moment he saw that number, the changes and effects of those 14 points hit him like a mental wave. The change from his old baseline of 10 was night and day. Suddenly, his perception was incredibly sharp, far beyond normal human limits. His thought processes sped up, allowing him to weigh options and make tactical decisions at higher speed. His awareness of his surroundings expanded drastically; he was absorbing a flood of environmental details at once like the movements of the others in his view.
Even stranger, a completely new sensation brushed against his mind. He could faintly, barely tangibly, feel *something* radiating from the people around him. It was a tiny, indistinct pressure emanating from each student. He couldn’t understand what it was yet, nor could he decipher its meaning at this current moment, but the faint mental hum was undeniably there.
It wasn’t a flashy skill, but it was a massive multiplier. He just needed to figure out how to use that much information and mental processing speed to control the battlefield.
Behind him, the scene was completely different.
During the height of the second wave, the other students had finally broken past their 50 XP limits through their teamwork. One by one, separate waves of warm, golden energy had hit them right in the middle of the fighting. They had reached Level 2 earlier, but with the final monsters dying, their individual progress bars had quickly filled up again, pushing them straight into Level 3.
Now, they were discovering the exact same systemic rule Michael had crossed earlier: the Level 3 threshold was a major turning point.
“Michael... look at this,” a student whispered, staring blankly into the air as the unique talent prompts finished manifesting across the steps. The power dynamic of the entire team was changing right before their eyes.
Michael turned around slowly, his sharpened perception taking in the awe and confusion on the students’ faces. He still had 15 unassigned points sitting untouched on his status window. He had the option to increase his physical capabilities right now, but despite his doubts about his talent, he refused to rush into a permanent decision before seeing the Class. *The Class should be unlocked at level 5 or 10. I guess it to be level 10. In games level 10 is always a milestone*, Michael pondered. That’s why, he would not tell the others to distribute their points.
However, planning future battles required information. If they were going to survive the next choke points, he needed to know exactly what kind of tools his team now possessed.
“Guys, tell me your talents,” Michael asked, although his voice was authoritative and sounded more like a command rather than a question. “We need to know our abilities and exact capabilities to plan our next steps and coordinate in our upcomming battles. You two first.”
The two veteran fighters looked at each other before stepping forward.
The veteran on the left, an Indian student named Rashid, was the first to speak. “Hey, my name is Rashid. My talent is called Sharpness,” he said, holding up his iron spear. “I can actively make objects sharper. The system description says the scale and quality of the sharpening depend entirely on my overall status attributes.”
Michael nodded once, his mind instantly mapping out the tactical advantages. His talent was not a game changer and couldn’t be of much help in the opcoming battles but having someone who could bypass the dulling of iron during long skirmishes was still an advantage for keeping the front line lethal.
The second veteran, Maximilian, stepped up next. “I am Maximilian. Mine is called Strength Boost,” he reported, his jaw set. “It lets me boost my Strength attribute by a specific percentage. Right now, it gives me a 5% boost that lasts for exactly one minute. The duration and the percentage will increase as my status grows.”
A short-term burst of raw physical power. Michael calculated the value immediately—Maximilian would be their heavy anchor, perfect for blocking sudden rushes from larger beasts or breaking through physical barricades.
The remaining ten students stood in a tight group on the steps, their eyes wide as they listened to their teammates.