Chapter 55. Limit I could not add more points to Perception. I had to just think about adding points, and mentally confirm the number it should end up at, and done. But now no matter how many times I thought or confirmed, nothing happened, meaning that my stats could not increase after reaching a hundred. There were no tangible changes within me that I could feel either. I did not exactly understand how experience points, stats, and skills worked. It was scary knowing that there was an 'entity' that could give you skills, and classes, increase your body's strength, in a sense change you. And this meant that it could also take it all away. One day, suddenly, it's all gone. It was this thought that made me scared. So from now, I was going to add another thing to my training routine. As mana and stamina were the catalysts to every skill, I was planning to learn how mana behaved when I 'activated' a skill. It was different from the time when I got mana control. During that experiment, I was trying to get used to the feeling of the movement of mana, trying to limit it. I was trying to understand how it moved, not where it moved, where it was fast, where it got slow, the amount at a specific spot. It was all very complicated when I first tried it. But if I understood the working of mana, I could alter the skill to my liking, or maybe make a new one. An ambitious, but possible statement. For example, the skill used by Luke. His skill did not enhance his body but covered the weapon with a glow making it stronger. This skill needed some time to cover the weapon but altering it could make the skill instantaneous. Or make the glow disappear. This might affect some other areas of the skill, like power or a backlash. The important part was to change the skill to how it suited me, How the skill should adapt to my style, not me changing my style to fit the skill in. I still had fifteen points remaining, and I noticed one thing about my fighting style. It was not centered around overpowering the opponent nor was it being speedy. It was all about pressure. The hobgoblin had 'revived' to just be killed by the pressure exerted by bloodlust. Most of my skills worked when I fought for a long time. [Carnage] and [Bloodfield] made me stronger as I fought, while the three recovery skills allowed me to keep fighting. And the stats that supported this prolonged style of battle were, Endurance and Vitality. So I will bring them up to a hundred and then add the rest of the points into dexterity. Why dex? because Str and Agi were equivalent to Int and Wis, one for the body, the other for mana. I wanted to keep them balanced for now. I was about to start practicing when the Records issued a quest, not just to me but to everyone on this planet. [World Quest] [Seeking Knowledge] [A month from now, people meeting the requirements will be allowed entry into the Tower of Guidance and be bestowed knowledge on how to walk the path leading towards ascendance] [Condtion: 100,000 people reaching level 45 or above] [Requirements: above level 35 (fulfilled)] [Reward: Knowledge] [Failure: None] This was one of the second most weird quests that I had seen, the first being the opportunity one that almost had me killed. A quest that affected the whole world. It could be a good thing or a bad thing, only time knows that. It also meant that leveling up wouldn't be as simple as killing monsters. It was worrying and interesting at the same time because I was sick of killing these weak monsters. I could see Arthur and the others rushing towards me, with excitement all over their faces. "I saw the quest." "Everyone received this quest, even the normal civilians!" Lucy said. "Every single soldier will be above 35 by then, some of them already are," Arthur spoke. "That is a good thing, but we can't leave the people behind alone, I don't want another incident to happen while we are gone," I spoke trying to think about a solution. There was a possibility of a similar incident to that of Hendry occurring, and I did not want to risk it. And here Arthur surprised me, "I might have a solution to that," he said after a few seconds. "Everyone received a quest this afternoon, a world quest 'Seeking Knowledge,'" Arthur spoke out loud. We were in the main building, Arthur, the twins, Garry, Chloe, and me. We stood on the balcony, facing the large crowd in front of us. It was Arthur's idea to gather everyone here. "Only those above level 35 can enter the tower and there are not many from this city who fulfill these requirements. Fifty to sixty people out of ten thousand is not a lot, 0.5 percent that's all. To increase that number, I have decided to start recruiting people for the army. The second batch." The people started whispering, talking about the announcement their leader had just made. The drafting of the second batch was not planned this early, it was a month or two later but this sudden 'World quest' had us bring our plans forward. "The second batch will be the last batch given an armor for free, a money-like system will be implemented after this quest is over." This was the first time I had heard of a money system. There were discussions between us trying to come up with a solution, but we couldn't find anything that worked in every case. Arthur glanced towards me and nodded his head, I understood he would explain everything after this. It was a weird and proud feeling, to see Arthur take all these decisions. Weird as I was the one who had the final say in things till now and proud as Arthur my student was the right choice for the position of the leader.