A blaring noise arose from the Afterlife's system, practically forcing Ian to hastily click the [Rank Up] button that appeared the moment Ian reached level 10. Incapable of bearing the system's noise, he quickly punched the rank up button on his blue screen.
{Ian has ranked up to Beginner Rank} {Ian has leveled up to level 2} {Ian has leveled up to level 3} {Ian has leveled up to level 4}
In the span of a nanosecond, Ian felt a sudden influx of power that he had never felt throughout his entire lifetime, including his time before the Afterlife. He felt as if he had the power of a man who had been intensely training for a lifetime, and yet the only change to his body was an increase in visible abs. Curious about how his stats might've changed, Ian checked his stat panel.
{Ian Ernest --
BEGINNER RANK - Level 4
Potential: [MALFUNCTION]
Strength: BEGINNER RANK
Mana: BEGINNER RANK
Agility: BEGINNER RANK
Defense: BEGINNER RANK
Skills -
Rock throw // Blade slash // Human regeneration // Mind Break // Flame Gale // Force Shield // Multiplier}
As expected, all of his stats reached Beginner rank except his potential. It seemed as if his potential was staying the same no matter how he increased in power. As for the matter of whether or not that was a good thing, he felt as if it was impossible to unearth that answer currently.
"Did you just rank up in the midst of all this, Ian?!"
Artemis wasn't able to believe what she had just seen. The mysterious man in front of her, Ian, appeared to be a mere weakling when she first saw him. Now, he appeared to be an absolute monster that was just now able to one-shot two average royal knights. Although frightened by his sudden gain in power, she only became more determined to have him join her group.
"Sorry for worrying you, I did in fact rank up by accident."
Ian realized the pain he was in when the Afterlife's system showed the [Rank Up] button was visible to nearby people. He didn't want them to be worried about every single spectacle he created in the near future. To create a lighter mood, he attempted to ask about knights that he recently annihilated.
"Why exactly were the knights bothering you, young lady?"
Ian calmly followed up his spectacle with a question to Bridget. It couldn't have been normal for a small shop such as the Forge to be attacked by such brutish knights. If all Royal Knights were truly awful, he didn't want to ignore the abuse of power shown by the Royal Empire.
"Thank you for saving my humble shop, adventurer… Those knights were trying to imprison me inside the Royal Castle walls. Is there any way I can repay you for protecting me?"
Bridget quietly spoke out, slowly revealing herself from behind the Forge's register. The answers she gave Ian caused him to lose his smile. He remembered his past life and the cause of the Earth's stagnation. Corruption brought down the world to the point where only Ian's prodigal mind was able to almost save the Earth. Even if he had failed once before in his past life to make the world prosper, he wasn't about to let the Afterlife get ruined too.
While looking over his strange potential stat, he made up his mind. He had to stop the corrupt organizations of the Afterlife before it was too late.