His eyes couldn’t help but be filled with pride as he looked at his stats again. They had all multiplied compared to before the battle at Cinzolia, becoming over five times higher across the board. It meant that Liam was now tens of times stronger than before. This was only in theory, however.

‘I can’t use all of my power yet.’

His stats had grown by too much in too short a period of time. He hadn’t adapted to his new strength; even now, he guessed he could only wield a fraction of it properly. It was vital for him to know his own limits, so he immediately placed the action of getting used to his stats as his top priority before increasing them any further. If he continued to mindlessly increase his level and stats without getting used to the jump in power every ten levels, he would end up misjudging his own ability and committing severe mistakes.

With this in mind, Liam took a look at his Skills. Advanced Spear Mastery had become One With The Spear, while he had acquired a new Skill called Master’s Domain. Liam didn’t need to open their information windows, as he already knew what each of them did. One With The Spear was the next step after Advanced Spear Mastery, allowing him to control the spear as if it were part of his own body. Back on Earth, the spear was hailed as the king of all melee weapons. Quick, effective, and deadly, it was also easy to use. One had to be wary of even untrained spearmen, while masters were a force to be truly reckoned with.

Liam realized that this was the level that Eynart had reached. It was how the Golem had managed to bridge the gap between their stats and fight Liam on even ground, even if only for some time.

‘To think I’d catch up to your centuries of effort in only a year. I’m sorry, old man.’

An emotional smile made its way to Liam’s face. He carefully analyzed the spear he had been carrying this whole time.

Cracked and close to collapsing, the only reason why the weapon had held on for so long was due to Liam’s protection. He had purposefully poured his Aura into it even as he sacrificed his own body, unwilling to let the only memento he had of his master be destroyed. If he hadn’t done that, it was only obvious that the spear would have long turned to dust, especially considering it was only an A-ranked Equipment. Even his S-ranked armor had been destroyed, after all.

Liam knew it was time to change his weapon once more, but he couldn’t bear to part with this one. The emotional value it held was simply too high.

‘I’ll think of something later.’

Sighing, Liam turned his thoughts to his second newly-acquired Skill. Master’s Domain was the culmination of the instincts he had been building ever since he lost his five senses for the first time, in a Rift against the Corrupted Great Earthworm. It was the domain in which he could fully express his prowess without relying on his body at all. There was no need to think, only to act.

With a satisfied nod, Liam closed the Window. Now came the most important part of this whole reflection period.

What would he do from now on?

He thought carefully, deliberating on each possibility. Now that he had become stronger, the quickest way to return to his friends would be to help Arimiar kill the enemy commander. Once that was done, the Drakkhan would be able to take over Cinzolia Fortress single-handedly. The problem with this plan was that Liam himself wouldn’t grow any stronger from it, and would face a heavy risk when trying to face the enemy commander, as he didn’t know whether his soul could end up being damaged by some technique. The enemy was a King and the last survivor of a summoned species; it was unlikely that he would be ordinary.

Another option would be to continue his siege against Cinzolia on his own, now that he was certain that the enemies wouldn’t be able to kill him. This would provide the biggest gains to his strength, albeit it would also take an unknown amount of time. It had other cons, as well; he could end up being captured instead of killed if too many troops focused on him. This was without considering that he’d already decided not to grow his stats for the time being in order to adapt to his power, which already made this alternative unviable.

‘I might be able to store all the XP and only use it when I feel like I’m ready.’

However, Liam still leaned heavily towards it. Cinzolia was a veritable treasure trove of XP. Since he had no idea when he would find himself in such a situation again, he needed to take the most advantage of it as he could. If worst came to worst and Varlian decided to eliminate him or his loved ones, he would be able to use up all of the stored XP for an instant power boost.

‘Alright, then. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing for now.’

Liam’s eyes grew determined. Now that he had chosen his future path, he needed to prepare accordingly. In terms of his own development, he could see two roads in front of him.

The first was related to technique; developing through One With The Spear and its evolutions, as well as other Passive Skills that were mastery-reliant, would allow him to close the gap between himself and opponents with higher stats.

The second was related to levels, stats, and the System itself. By taking advantage of the first ability of his Personal Attribute and his own comprehension, he could manage to massively increase his stats while also stacking Passive Skills. Leveling up provided him with considerable, instant jumps in power that also proved to be tremendously valuable.

‘Of course, I need to walk both of these paths at the same time.’

It was the natural choice. There was no rule that determined that he should only choose one of the two; while it would be more efficient and quicker to focus on a single path, advancing on the two of them would provide better results in the long term. The problem with this approach was obvious. Liam thought to himself.

‘There’s no long-term when it comes to me.’

As this realization hit him, Liam doubted his decision for the first time. His lifespan was too short to consider the future potential of his choices. He needed power and he needed it now, before he died and it all proved to be in vain. With that perspective in mind, the second path seemed to be the right choice. It was the quickest road to power, one that took advantage of Conversion, his strongest cornerstone ability.

Nevertheless, Liam couldn’t shake off the feeling that he would regret it if he chose this path. Clenching his fists, he steeled his mind and made his choice.

‘Fuck it. Go big or go home. I’m doing both at the same time.’

Liam stood up, swinging the spear in his grasp. The atmosphere inside the training room shook severely.

If this was the path he had chosen, then in order to make sure his technique didn’t fall behind his stats, he would be forced to put in enormous amounts of effort. He couldn’t rely on his Perception and talent to do the trick. Just like he had done ever since he began training with Eynart, he would train for over 23 hours a day, every day, only resting when he absolutely needed to.

‘Given my increase in my Aura and Recovery stats, it’s very likely that I won’t need to rest for a long time.’

He could freely go all out and push himself to his very limits, which had been massively increased as his stats grew. Since the day hadn’t gained more hours and time passed by at the same rate, all that Liam could do was increase the intensity of his training. He needed to make it so nonsensical that even his immortal body was pushed to the brink.

Liam pulled out his Communicator, opened the First Level of the Library, and browsed its Passive Skills. Now that he had reached Eynart’s level of spear mastery, he was finally able to truly understand and improve upon the Active Skills the Golem had taught him. In order to do so, it was vital for him to accumulate as much knowledge related to spearmanship as he could.

He frowned as he looked at the Skills. Finding spear-related Skills wasn’t too difficult; the Drakkhan possessed a humanoid shape, in spite of their lizard-like characteristics, which meant that the weapons they used would likely be similar to the ones used by humans. Spears were also the most simple type of weapon and consisted of nothing more than a stick with a sharp tip, at their core. Liam fully expected to find spear Skills easily. The problem lay in their simplicity.

‘These Skills are too basic.’

While Eynart’s techniques weren’t overly complex, they were still a level above the ones in the First Level of the Library. Even Crescent Moon Wave, the simplest of the techniques that Liam had been taught by the Golem, was still more effective than the ones he found on the Drakkhan database. The difference lay in terms of output. Even though Crescent Moon Wave was nothing but a wave of Aura fired from the weapon, its efficiency was higher than the endless similar techniques Liam found. It could reach a higher level of power at the expense of less Aura.

Even so, Liam did not close the Library and continued to browse the techniques. He understood that although the Skills were basic in nature, that did not mean they couldn’t give him the spark of inspiration he was looking for. With this in mind, Liam soon noticed that unintentionally or not, some of the Skills seemed to try to touch upon a higher level. Those Skills in particular possessed more intricacies than others. Every time he found such a Skill, he analyzed them in depth while sitting on the mat.