Victor rolled his eyes and said helplessly, "I already told you, I'm not joining the Bonfire Society."
Elena waved her hands quickly. "I know, but that's not why I came this time."
As she spoke, she took out a heap of items from her storage ring.
They piled up in Victor's yard like a small hill.
At a glance, Victor saw experience scrolls, healing potions, mana potions...
Basically, all the hot-selling items on the market-Elena had practically bought one of everything.
"These... are all for me?" Victor pointed at himself, a bit puzzled.
Elena blinked her pretty eyes, as if it were only natural. "Yeah. Why else would I put them here?"
Victor shot her a wary look and said in a low voice, "We've only met once. All this must be worth several hundred thousand Federation coins, right!"
Elena smiled. "I looked into your family background and found your finances... aren't great. Without support, your training path would be very tough, and that won't help your future development."
Victor was at a loss for words.
In truth, with his talent The Chosen One, he didn't need any of these items at all.
But his talent was too powerful to reveal casually.
So from the outside, his training road would inevitably look full of hardship.
"Alright, I'll accept these, but only as a loan." Victor didn't want Elena hanging around, in case it worried his parents.
Elena shook her head, firm and decisive. "No need. Just consider it a favor you owe me!"
With that, she vanished like a ghost, leaving no trace.
"Sigh." Victor let out a quiet breath and could only store all the training items Elena left into his storage ring.
Back inside, Victor pretended nothing had happened and slipped back to his room.
After washing up, he opened his panel and began analyzing it carefully.
[Name: Victor]
[Class: Knight]
[Level: beginner (lv.1).]
[Health: 100/100]
[Mana: 50/50]
[Strength: 150]
[Agility: 90]
[Constitution: 120]
[Spirit: 100]
[Talent: The Chosen One!]
[Awakened Skill: Dash.]
[Unassigned Skill Points: 4580]
[Unassigned Attribute Points: 0]
Victor looked over his panel. It was fairly balanced.
That was the hallmark of the Knight class: average in every aspect-nothing too outstanding, but no glaring weaknesses either.
"Now, time to assign points." Victor took a deep breath and used his will to begin.
Soon, the first enhancement was done.
[Spent 100 skill points; skill advanced from Dash to Blink Dash.]
"Blink Dash-pretty good."
Victor nodded in satisfaction and went for a second enhancement.
[Spent 1000 skill points; skill advanced from Blink Dash to Phantom Dash.]
At that point, Victor paused his upgrades on Dash for the moment.
Because unlike Blink Dash, using Phantom Dash consumes mana.
Although it only costs five mana each time, if he advanced it one more tier, Victor's mana probably wouldn't be enough.
Fortunately, Victor was pleasantly surprised to find that while advancing Dash, he also obtained a companion skill.
It was a skill called Slash.
"Let's invest points into Slash too." With a thought, Victor advanced Slash.
[Spent 100 skill points; skill advanced from Slash to Heavy Sword Slash.]
[Spent 1000 skill points; skill advanced from Heavy Sword Slash to Earthsplitter Slash.]
"Good, good!" Victor nodded in satisfaction. He had spent three thousand skill points to push both skills up two tiers.
Earthsplitter Slash didn't consume mana, but each use would drain Victor's stamina.
If he overexerted himself by using it repeatedly, it could even deduct his health!
What surprised Victor even more was that after awakening two skills, a hidden skill appeared on his panel.
The hidden skill was currently blacked out.
The panel indicated that to awaken this skill, he needed to spend 100,000 skill points.
For a normal awakener, they might not be able to unlock it even in a lifetime.
But Victor was different. A hundred thousand skill points was less than two days' worth for him.
Over the next two days, Victor took it easy, nothing like others who trained frantically after awakening.
Once he had saved up 100,000 skill points, he couldn't wait to awaken the hidden skill.
At that moment, Victor had 150,000 skill points. In the blink of an eye, 100,000 vanished.
On the panel, the blacked-out hidden skill icon disappeared, replaced by a burst of golden light.
When the light faded, a line of golden text appeared before Victor's eyes.
[Awakened Skills: Phantom Dash, Earthsplitter Slash, Holy Light Dragonbane Slash (Tier 1).]
"Such a powerful skill!" Victor stood up, pacing excitedly.
Opening the skill's details, Victor read the description.
[Skill: Holy Light Dragonbane Slash (Tier 1)]
[Type: Active Skill, Hidden Skill]
[Traits: No mana cost, no side effects, usable once every 24 hours.]
[Advance Requirement: 1,000,000 skill points.]
[Effect: The user is shrouded in holy light, summons an Ancient Dragon, and gains the authority to command it. The dragon can be urged to transform into a sword to unleash a lethal slash!]
"Summon an Ancient Dragon!" Victor muttered the words, unable to contain his excitement.
An Ancient Dragon-that was a creature out of myth!
And as everyone knew, anything tied to dragons was bound to be overwhelmingly powerful.
Victor's only regret was that Holy Light Dragonbane Slash was currently just Tier 1.
To push it to Tier 2, he'd have to spend one million skill points.
Even though he earned more than eighty thousand skill points a day, it would still take over ten days to reach the next advancement.
"Maybe I should get out for a bit." Victor muttered as he looked at the flow of people outside his window.
Just then, his phone suddenly rang.
Victor was a bit surprised-he didn't expect anyone to call him now.
It wasn't like Victor had no friends at school. At first, when they heard he'd only awakened an ordinary Knight class, quite a few had texted to comfort him.
Victor had told them he wasn't discouraged, but the exchanges had ended there.
After all, once you awakened, everyone had to grind for skill points. Who had time to chat with Victor every day?
Victor answered, and a rough male voice came through. "Hey, Victor, you free tomorrow?"
Victor frowned. The caller was a delinquent from his high school class named Morse.
In his impression, he'd never had much to do with Morse.
Back then, Victor had been the top student in school; someone like Morse naturally kept his distance.
"Tell me what it is first." Out of caution, Victor didn't say he was free.
Morse's voice turned a shade meaningful. "Our class is planning an expedition. The location is... Darkwood Park on the surface. How about it, genius? Do you dare to go?"
Victor paused to think and recalled Darkwood Park.
Darkwood Park, though on the surface, was designated a Protected Zone.
On the surface, the Federation didn't lack all control.
On land, areas fully controlled by the Federation were called Safe Zones.
In Safe Zones, even unarmed civilians could live without worry.
Of course, at present, civilians weren't allowed into Safe Zones; most were Federal government outposts.
Protected Zones, on the other hand, were purpose-built training grounds.
They were guarded by elite Federation warriors, who would drive off or slay beasts that were too powerful.
That way, many combat-class professionals could safely hunt beasts and train.
Darkwood Park was a place suited for beginner Awakeners.
Many entering a Protected Zone for the first time chose to go there.