"Phoenix Archon at Rank 4. Incredible," Bastion said, brimming with excitement.
He could already picture his own reward from the Goddess.
'Maybe it will be a Rank 4 version of the Diamond Knight class. Diamond Domain? Diamond Castle? Diamond Meteor Shower?' he thought, his mind racing.
While his imagination ran wild, Lilia offered her own observations.
"Your status points reduced to a tenth of what they were, your health and mana have remained the same, and your Alchemy, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Mage Hand, Amplify, and Analyze have all reached level 4," she noted.
Although her status values had decreased, their actual effectiveness remained unchanged. This indicates that each of her current status points is now equivalent to ten times the value of her previous ones.
"I was born with Fire affinity, and I never stopped practicing alchemy even after it reached level 3. As for Water Magic, Amplify, and Analyze, I use them often when brewing. Mage Hand… well, it helps when I brew. Yes, let's go with that," Seraphina said, her voice touched with embarrassment.
Realization dawned on Lilia, who had also discovered the less conventional use of Mage Hand. Her face turned red as she looked away in shared embarrassment.
Seraphina quickly allocated her status and skill points before checking the results.
[Name]: Seraphina Phoenixhart
[Age]: 24
[Class]: Phoenix Archon (Rank 4), Alchemist (Rank 2)
[Ability]: Phoenix's Blessing, Alchemist's Flame
[Rank]: 1 (Rank Up Available)
[Level]: 200
[Health]: 200/200
[Mana]: 425/425
[Strength]: 5
[Dexterity]: 42
[Vitality]: 20
[Intelligence]: 42.5
[Wisdom]: 42
[Charm]: 7.5
[Status Points]: 0
[Arts]: Alchemy 4, Fire Magic 4, Water Magic 4, Earth Magic 3, Wind Magic 3, Dark Magic 3, Light Magic 3, Throwing 3, Staff 2, Cooking 1, Riding 1, Taming 1, Traps 1, Tailoring 1, Leathercrafting 1, Scribing 1, Jewelcrafting 1, Cartography 1
[Skills:]: Mage Hand 4, Amplify 4, Analyze 4, Synthesize 3, Extract 3, Vaporize 3, Summon Bottle 3, Fire Bolt 3, Smash 2, Parry 2, Dodge 2, Dash 2, Jump 2, Summon Familiar (Mew) 2, Eternal Flame 1, Deathflare 1, Cremation Pulse 1, Scorching Wings 1, Phoenix Contract 1
[Skill Points]: 150
She allocated 30 points each into Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom, and 10 points into Vitality, which she considered her most important stats. She also unlocked all of her Phoenix Archon skills without spending anything extra.
She took a moment to adjust to the sudden surge from quadrupling her thinking speed, memory capacity, and bodily control before fully regaining her composure. She was quite fortunate she wasn't strength based as that would have required a significant amount of time to get used to.
"Did you find any good classes for Rank 2?" Bastion asked.
"Battle Alchemist at Rank 3 and Potioneer at Rank 2," Seraphina replied. "They're solid backups, but I want something more profitable."
"You might as well spend the next hundred years earning Scribe at Rank 2. It's guaranteed to earn you the money you want. The dukedom has plenty of Rank 1 beast skins, blood, and the occasional magic stone."
"Don't you need those to pay taxes?" she asked.
"It's a worthwhile investment if you can get Scribe. And I'm not planning to rely on the dukedom alone to make money. Why do you think I've been busting my ass studying all this time?"
"You'd really do that for me?" Seraphina asked softly as she approached Bastion, eased onto his lap, and nestled into his embrace with a tender smile.
Lilia finally managed to regain her calm.
"So, you're going to have to start working out, right? Because of your elevated potential?" she asked.
"Yeah, and it'll probably be higher than a commoner's base 30 in all stats. It should be lower than my initial stats when I turned 20 but it's better than nothing."
"How long does it take to fully excavate the potential?"
"About 10 years of daily training and a proper diet," Bastion replied.
Just like when he first started out with basic stats, Bastion had to train relentlessly to fully excavate them at the Apprentice Rank. The same now applied to Seraphina, who would have to begin training anew to unlock her extra stats.
The average human at Apprentice Rank had a baseline of 10 in each attribute. With daily training and a proper diet, this could be raised to around 30 per attribute by the time they turned twenty, once the body had fully matured.
On average, this took about ten years of consistent effort at Rank 1. An alternative method was to gain stats through combat, which could be faster but often left some stats unexcavated due to uneven attribute usage compared to targeted training.
At Rank 1, Seraphina stood to gain anywhere from a minimum of 30 points up to her fully excavated potential at age twenty, depending on the level of attainment her bloodline allowed. Thanks to her distributed status points, she was guaranteed to reach 90 in her main attributes at Rank 1, but this level of gain would likely diminish at Rank 2 and beyond, as innate talent faced diminishing returns.
By Rank 3 or 4, stat increases began to resemble those of commoners, with more modest and gradual gains. This often forced individuals to specialize in a few primary attributes while leaving the rest underdeveloped.
It was one of the key reasons commoners struggled to advance. Their free status points were typically funneled into one or two attributes, creating significant imbalances that made further rank-ups increasingly difficult.
In contrast, nobles like Seraphina and Bastion had a considerable head start. Their elevated stats allowed them to take on higher-ranked enemies early, accelerating their level progression. As a result, they could achieve higher ranks at a young age rather than spending most of their lives fighting for each level.
At Rank 3, when their best attribute increased by no more than 40 points, they were granted the advantage of having most of their lifespan to steadily work toward the next rank. As long as they managed to survive, reaching Rank 4 was all but guaranteed.
Commoners, on the other hand, often faced a far harsher reality. Most of their lifespans were spent battling opponents of similar level, making slow and arduous progress through the ranks. Even after reaching the next rank and extending their lifespans, the struggle would only continue as each step forward was met with even greater difficulty. Without outside help, reaching Rank 4 was virtually impossible.
The greatest exception to this rule was commoners like Bastion's mother, whose combat prowess allowed her to bridge the gap in stats. It was a truly impressive feat given her circumstances.
As for how Bastion and the party were able to defeat Rank 1 enemies who were ten times stronger or even Rank 2s who were a hundred times stronger, their advantage came from firearms and the blessings of the Goddess's domain. These served as equalizers in the power balance, especially since demon worshipers often had unstable or uneven status distributions to begin with. Unlike those blessed by the gods, who were granted the potential to grow stronger through training.
"Oh! I almost forgot," Seraphina said, stepping into the center of the room. "I need to summon a phoenix for the contract."
"Do you need anything?" Bastion asked.
"I don't think so. I just have to activate the skill."
Seraphina activated the skill, and a summoning circle immediately expanded in front of her, glowing as it spread to a two-meter diameter. Mana surged into the formation, causing it to shine brilliantly before fading and revealing a phoenix the size of an eagle.
The creature stood tall and regal, its long, fiery tail feathers trailing behind like ribbons of molten light. Its plumage shimmered in shades of gold, crimson, and amber, each movement radiating waves of heat and brilliance as it took flight with a grace that mirrored the flames it embodied.
It circled the room once before perching on Seraphina's shoulders, a sight that was oddly comical given its size.
"It's actually quite light," Seraphina remarked with mild surprise.
Though Seraphina was easily five times stronger than the average human, the phoenix itself was featherlight, likely because it was composed mostly of flame.
"It looks just like Cyrus's," Lilia remarked.
"Cyrus's is just a summon. Mine is a real phoenix. She's young and clearly in the early stages of Rank 1. I'll need to level up the contract to bring her up to my level," Seraphina explained. "She shares experience with me, and I share mine with her, so leveling might take longer than usual. On the bright side, I've gained an extra source of damage, which should help balance things out."
"That's good," Bastion said with a nod. "We could always use more damage dealers."
"Between Lilia and I, we're covered on healing and support. You're the perfect tank, and Eli excels in single combat. As for damage dealers, it's really just me so far. I think we need at least one more person focused purely on damage," Seraphina said.
"I've been looking around," Bastion replied, "but I haven't found anyone at the academy who's on our level. The older students seem to have their own plans."
"What about your marriage proposals? Any promising ones?"
"There are a few, but it depends on what they're really after. I do have a top pick, though."
"Oh?"
"She's an archer. Low strength, but incredible eyesight. The problem is she can't draw a heavy bow."
"I've always wondered why fantasy novels write archers as dexterity types. Anyone who's tried drawing a hundred-pound bow knows that's not how it works."
"Tell me about it. Anyway, if we can get her a few levels, she might turn into a decent shot."
"Do you think you could make a gun for her?"
"I could, but there's still the issue of strength requirements. She can handle Apprentice Rank enemies just fine, but Rank 1 threats need Rank 1 firepower. She wouldn't be very effective unless it's a grounded sniper rifle or something mounted, like my autocannon."
"Then we power level her to Rank 1, dump her points into Strength, and have you make her a pair of Rank 2 pistols."
"That could work, but then we're back to the issue of money. Bullets often shatter, so there's no recovering them. A decent archer can at least reuse some of their arrows."
"We'll figure it out once we have a better handle on our finances."
"Agreed."
The party continued their discussion late into the night and returned to their regular schedule by morning.
Encouraged by the excellent results of Seraphina's rank up, the rest of the party redoubled their efforts to level their skills.
Lilia was especially motivated after seeing Seraphina receive Battle Alchemist at Rank 3. If she could max out her own skills, perhaps she would unlock a Rank 3 class as well. Even a combat-oriented version of Mystic Water Mage would be an improvement over her current Rank 2 options.
Elyra, meanwhile, had her own plans for ranking up, but it would require meeting with Sibelle again to complete the necessary requirements.
Thus, the party focused on their lectures, last-minute research, and skill leveling right up until the end of the semester, when it was finally time for their graduation from the Royal Academy.
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