Arnold was sitting alone in his new room inside the Black mansion. He had just returned from the headquarters of the Flying Swords guild. Just thinking about that guild made him angry, after all he did for them... He even gave them a chance to correct their mistakes but still they betrayed him.

"I should've left the guild long ago..." Arnold shook his head, now wasn't the time to waste regretting the past. ​​

He thought about the nightmare he had the other day. At that time he had dismissed the thought that someone wanted to take his sister away from him but after today's incident, he knew someone was after Nicole. The only problem was that, he didn't know who was the person and why they wanted Nicole so desperately? He kept thinking but couldn't think of a single reason why someone would want to harm an innocent girl like her.

In the end he gave up and started thinking about what he had to do next. He considered himself lucky that he was able to 'defeat' Bob, but he didn't want him to be dependent on luck, he had to get stronger and he had two ways to do so... either clear more dungeons and gain more experience or learn new affinities and abilities. He chose to go with the latter. Earlier he didn't wanted do it because he thought that others might get suspicious about his sudden abilities but now he was worried about only one thing - protecting Nicole. Just when he was about to pull an affinity scroll from his inventory, a message popped up.

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There are unclaimed quest rewards. Please claim them before they expire.

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"Right, I didn't claim the rewards for 'killing' Bob." He said and opened the tab.

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QUESTS : The Mad Brawler

• [ INTRODUCTION ] : The bruised and battered brawler has sworn to kill you and has unleashed his full power. You can no longer stall him. You have to kill Bob

[ TASK ] : Kill Bob.

[ PROGRESS ] : Kills 1/1

[STATUS] : Completed

[ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] :

• 5000 EXP

• one random ability

• one random blueprint

• one special attribute

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"Claim."

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[QUEST REWARD] :

You've gained 5000 EXP.

You've leveled up!

Current level : 41

You've gained a new ability :

• [BERSERKER'S RAGE] : (Active ability)

A type of offense spell. When activated, all of the user's attributes will be boosted by 150%.

Duration of skill : 20 seconds

[ Rank : C ]

[Mana cost : 100]

[Cooldown : 1 Hour]

You've gained a new attribute :

• MYSTIC (MYS) : Can be used to increase the number of summons generated by the user.

For every 10 Attribute points added, one extra summon would be created.

You've gained a new blueprint :

• [PHOENIX CLOAK] : A cloak made up of ashes left behind by the last of the Phoenix.

Grade : B+

Defense : 56 (physical)

Armour Type : Cloak

Weight : 0.56 kg

Additional effect : [TITAN'S BLESSING] - Reflects 15% of damage received as physical damage to the attacker.

Additional effect : [BLAZING PHOENIX] - Boosts the effect of fire affinity by 25%.

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"Mystic attribute is really nice. It has potential of becoming my most useful attribute... I should level it up alongside my intelligence. [BERSERKER'S RAGE] is quite useful as well. If I use it while using the [VINDICATOR], my damage output would be explosive! As for [PHOENIX CLOAK], I better check out the materials needed to craft it before jumping with excitement... "

He opened the tab and clicked on the [PHOENIX CLOAK] blueprint.

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Items required to construct a [PHOENIX CLOAK] :

• 1 spindle (Only available in the shop)

• 19 (Only available in the shop)

• 20 crystals

• 1 crystal

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"I knew it... There's no way I'm going to challenge another rank A monster while I'm at rank C." Arnold still remembered what happened the last time he went up against a rank A boss. "It's Better to give up on [PHOENIX CLOAK]... for now."

He then opened the main interface to allocate the 44 attribute points he had. He immediately used 20 points increase his mystic stat, then used the remaining points to increase his intelligence to 60, agility to 50, evade to 40 and strength to 45.

He didn't used his potential points because he was planning on learning new affinities. He randomly took out an affinity scroll from his inventory.

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YOU'VE PICKED UP AFFINITY SCROLL. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN AFFINITY?

•YES or •NO

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"This could be interesting... yes."

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REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED.

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

YOU'VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED AFFINITY.

You've unlocked new ability(s):

• [ARCANE FLAMES] : (Active ability) The user controls the power of hellfire and can guide a sea of flames to incinerate anything in its path. This skill is only effective on organic targets.

Targets affected by the skill will get marked and receive 0.5% additional damage per second.

[ Rank : A ]

[Mana cost : 150]

[COOLDOWN : 5 minutes]

• [PLASMA SHIELD] : (Active ability) When activated, the user gets surrounded by a thin layer of plasma which absorbs 45% of the incoming damage (Both Physical and Magical. Not effective against true damage). The shield would be able to withstand a damage equivalent to 1000 HP and it will shatter once the total damage exceeds this account.

[Duration : 10 seconds]

[ Rank : C+ ]

[Mana cost : 80]

[COOLDOWN : 2 minutes]

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Before Arnold could comment over the new abilities he just acquired another notification popped open in front of him.

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TWO ELEMENTAL AFFINITIES FOUND.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO MERGE THE AFFINITIES TO LEARN AN ELEMENTAL AFFINITY? YOU WOULDN'T LOSE ANY ABILITY YOU'VE LEARNT SO FAR AND YOU'D BE ABLE TO LEARN THEIR RESPECTIVE ABILITIES IN FUTURE AS WELL.

PROCEED WITH ADVANCEMENT?

•Yes or •No

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Arnold didn't hesitate even for a second and proceeded with the advancement. He was able to take on opponents of rank B, when he had only one advanced affinity, he couldn't even imagine what he'd be able to do with two such advanced affinities!

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REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED.

COMBINING.... SUCCESSFUL.

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

YOU'VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED AFFINITY.

You've unlocked new ability(s):

• [ ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : LAVA HOUNDS ] : (Active ability) Summons 5 lava hounds to do your bidding. Their attributes depend on the summoner's level. When they are destroyed, they have 16% chance of splitting up and forming 2 smaller lava hounds, and will have 80% of the original hound's attributes. They have low health which use compensated by their high attack and agility.

[ Rank : S ]

[Mana cost : 120/Hound]

[COOLDOWN : 8 minutes after all summons are destroyed once ]

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"This is... not bad at ALL!" Arnold jumped with excitement.