Joseph couldn't stop sighing about the fact that he asked for advice on getting stronger from Ezreal, but what he got instead was Ezreal's bragging about his adventures throughout the entire continent.
Of course, Joseph's knowledge about the world of Victory increased.
But those weren't the answers to his questions.
Eventually, somewhere in the middle of dawn. Joseph finally acquired what he needed.
The most optimal distribution of stat points for the Grand Duelist was finally given to him by Ezreal who had a smug look on his face while being proud of having such knowledge.
Right now, his stats were distributed as follows
[Name: Joseph
Level: 15 Gender: Male
Class: The Grand Duelist
Title: "The Sun that Overlooks Everything"
(You are an absolute existence.
You will acquire five stat points for every level.
You will resist all kinds of crowd control effects, debuffs, and abnormal statuses.
Your Reputation cannot go down a certain level even when you're infamous.
Once your health is at the minimum. You will acquire a shield that's equivalent to 100% of damage that you suffered within the last ten seconds. Extra damage that's more than your Health Points also counts to the strength of the shield that you'll acquire. The shield lasts for twenty seconds.
Dying as an overwhelming existence is shameful. Your death penalty for dying is doubled.)
Title: "Deemed Ungrateful by the Gods".
(You are despised by the Gods.
Whenever you are facing an enemy that is affiliated with any God, your stats will dramatically increase.
If you died under the hands of an enemy affiliated with any God, the penalty that you will receive upon death is tripled.
Probability of success in Item/Armor/Accessory Enhancement is dramatically lowered.
Devout believers of any God will instinctively feel hatred at you.)
Title: "Mythical Authority".
(You have an overwhelming presence as someone who dared to go against the gods.
No one can make you submit.
There's a certain probability of inflicting "Fear" status towards those who dare stare at you.
Your dignity can never be lower than those who dare stand before you.
Your presence alone incites fear to enemies while increasing morale to your allies.
You are a natural leader. Your Leadership can never be lower than those who dare compete against you.
As an authority, no talent can escape your eyes. Skill: "Character Scrutinize" is generated and listed as a passive skill.
[Character Scrutinize Lv 1
Talents in the rough can never escape your eyes, a single look from you and their talents will be uncovered.
Skill Usage Conditions: Mystical Authority
Skill Cost: None
Skill Cooldown: 24 Hours ]
You can summon a Divine Avatar, through the skill "Divine Authority Summoning".
[Divine Authority Summoning Lv 1
Summon a Divine Avatar out of your own authority as a person comparable to the gods. Your Divine Avatar acts as an independent presence. It possesses half of everything that you have, but is innately unruly, arrogant, and untamed. Similar to the Divine Avatar of the previous Grand Duelist.
Your Divine Avatar lasts for half a minute, scaling by your Level and Divinity Stat.
Skill Usage Conditions: Title: "Mythical Authority", and a Mythical Class
Skill Cost: None
Skill Cooldown Time: 72 Hours] )
Title: "My Power? It's over 9999!".
(Strength + 200)
Health: 6450/6450 Mana: 450/450
Strength: 201 Dexterity: 50
Intelligence: 1 Stamina: 20
Spirit: 5 Tenacity: 5
Reputation: 232 Divinity: 20
Charm: 5
Undistributed Stat Points: 0]
From what he heard from Ezreal, the Grand Duelist was a class with extreme close-quarter combat capabilities. But from Joseph's perspective. The Grand Duelist was more like a class that could be considered as a glass cannon. Even though his offense was at the peak. He was too squishy...
Thankfully, the Grand Duelist could resist any kind of abnormal conditions with the title, "The Sun that Overlooks Everything", and not only that. He could also reflect all sorts of damage from any source. If not for this then, the Grand Duelist would be somewhat useless in large-scale battles.
Joseph decided on distributing most of his undistributed stats on Dexterity while placing a part of them on his Stamina.
Stamina not only increased one's Health Points by a certain flat amount. It also increased the character's tolerance when it comes to strenuous movements such as running, swimming or other movements that required exertion from the player.
As for Dexterity...
According to what Joseph found online. Dexterity was a somewhat vague concept in Victory. But players more or less found that Dexterity didn't only include Movement Speed in its scope.
It also included Evasion Rate and fluidity of one's movement. This large scope was the reason why most players, even mages...
Invested a part of their stats on Dex.
Joseph also found some information about the Spirit and Tenacity Stats. Spirit increased one's resistance to abnormal conditions, while Tenacity decreased the duration of any abnormal statuses that the player acquired...
But because of the special title that Joseph had, it was useless and he never bothered about it anyway apart from what they meant.
Reputation, from the name itself, it was pretty self-explanatory.
Joseph couldn't find any information for Divinity, and he felt conflicted about it. He was sad that he couldn't find more information about it...
But he was also happy due to the fact that lacking information meant that Divinity was a stat only for those with unique classes or statuses.
But of course, Joseph had enough common sense to know that Divinity had some relations to those so-called Gods above the skies or something.
As for Charm... Well, Joseph knew what it meant but he had no intention of growing such a stat.
The current him only wanted to grow stronger, and acquire a lot of money...
Nothing else.
Joseph also didn't add any points on Intelligence for his skills didn't really need Mana.
With the distribution of his stats, it was finally time for Joseph to visit the Underground Penitentiary of the Kingdom of Nether within the Capital City of Reinhardt. However, just as he was walking towards the Penitentiary.
A system message appeared before him.
[Notice: You have been playing for more than 12 hours. Please take care of your health and other, worldly matters and log-out! We, the P.H Works are not liable for any damages, injuries, or loss of property that you suffer in the outside world while you are in the game!]
The Gaming Capsule that Joseph bought. Even though it was quite expensive, couldn't be considered to be at the peak of all Gaming Capsules.
It lacked some features such as automatic body adjustment while in the Gaming Capsule and so on...
However, it had enough features for someone that wanted a capsule that was bang for their buck.
Joseph opened his Main Menu and found that the Gaming Capsule analyzed that his bladder was full and he also needed some water and food.
Joseph logged-out of Victory after confirming all of these details.
He checked the time and found that it was already 6 PM. In other words, it was the end of the day.
He made an internal promise about paying those two sisters for their taxi service, but it looked like he'd fail on his promise if he didn't make an early withdrawal from his high-yielding savings account and suffer the penalty.
But with the amount that Joseph had in his bank account. He'd pay a hefty penalty if he decided to go against the contract and withdraw some money. But if he didn't do that.
Joseph didn't have any other way of paying the services of those two sisters.
"What a hassle..." He couldn't help but inwardly curse as he prepared some dinner. Once he satisfied the cravings of his body and exercised a little. He could return to Victory once again and maybe, back in Victory.
He could find a way of paying those two sisters.
But for now, Joseph had to eat something first and sate his aching stomach.
The smell of meat filled the room, Joseph had a blank expression on his face as he thought about how he could pay the two sisters when suddenly...
A ringing sound came out from his Gaming Capsule which also had a function of receiving messages.
[You've got a message!]
One of the reasons why Gaming Capsules were so expensive was because they made a few house appliances somewhat obsolete due to the number of features that it had. One could even sit back and watch a movie on the integrated display at the ceiling of some Gaming Capsules.
In other words, Gaming Capsules had features that weren't limited to gaming.
[Hello there, customer~ We're from GetCashQuick and we observed that you may be in need of some quick cash? If you're interested, kindly reply to us by mail or call our hotline at 09161866943~]
"Fuck!" Joseph loudly cursed at the timely arrival of the advertising message as he hurriedly turned off the Voice Function of the Gaming Capsules for message notifications.
But he couldn't help but think...
"Am I really someone that cannot escape from the hands of debt? I am trying my best on running away from them, but fate finds one way or another on giving me a debt!"
Joseph shook his head and finally calmed down after a moment of silence. But before he could even put food in his mouth.
The doorbell of his house rang out.
But...
When he heard the familiar sound that he hadn't heard in ages, his eyes widened in shock.
"An intruder?!"
He jumped from his seat and hurriedly reached out to a drawer where a flashlight-looking stun gun was located. He gripped it tightly and turned on the Voice Function of the Gaming Capsule.
He had a camera pointing at the entrance of his house. He installed it for the sake of deterring package stealers.
"Yawa, who is at the front door? An intruder?" Joseph's common sense didn't work anymore from the shock that he felt as he held his breath. Even though he had a lot of knowledge about fighting in Victory. He was a pacifist in real life.
The kind of pacifist that just follows the flow of everything.
In other words, Joseph was a pushover.
He didn't know what he should do if the one in front of his house was really an intruder.
A beeping sound came out from the Gaming Capsule and a response arrived: [Analyzing complete, the target doesn't seem to be an intruder but a visitor.] The mechanical voice of the Gaming Capsule entered Joseph's ears and thoroughly shook his heart and soul.
"A visitor?! Those bastards, I already paid them enough for at least several years of amortization. Just what in the hell are their purpose in visiting me?! Yawa, analyze and find out about what company they belong to. Until you verify who they really are, I am not going out and greeting them."
Joseph's flashed with anger.
[Analyzing...]
[The target seems doesn't seem to belong on any companies that you have listed on the blacklist. Further analysis of the target's figure has revealed that there's an eighty percent chance that the target is a female.]
"A female?! Holy shit, they are using honeytraps now?!"
[Objection, there's a high chance that she's someone that the user knows.]
"What do you mean about that, Yawa?"
[In other words, there's a high chance that she's a friend of the user.]
Silence reigned in the room when the home system within the Gaming Capsule ended its sentence.
After a moment of silence, laughter suddenly came out from Joseph...
"Hahaha! A friend? You can even joke now, Yawa? You're telling me that the one outside is a friend of mine? Hahaha, Is that some kind of an early April's fool joke?" Joseph laughed in a sarcastic manner.
The home system turned silent and didn't say anything anymore.
Joseph silently came out of his room and approached the front door of his house with silenced footsteps. He flipped the switch of his stun gun as he said in a voice that barely contained his fear within the darkened room: "Who is that? I have a weapon and I am not afraid to thrust!"
A feminine voice replied behind the closed door: "It's me, Joseph! How are you doing all these months? I found that you recently cleared your debt and even paid those pesky companies in advance. I'm sure that you're doing quite well, right?"
The nervousness within Joseph's eyes disappeared when he heard the familiar feminine voice. His fear turned into excitement as he hurriedly opened the door and revealed the figure of a young woman whom he considered as his life-saver at the darkest times of his life.
"
He sweetly smiled and greeted the young woman before ushering her inside.
[Author's Note: If you're curious about her sudden visitation, you can find the clues for this at the end of chapter 3 ; ) ]