It was a new day. The morning sun was shining on my face as I sat outside Caelum's house. The hustle and bustle of the town slowly started to ramp up... And from what I could guess, Virion and company had already left for Aelthrie.
Deep in thought, I went and grabbed a notebook and pen.
In the notebook, I began writing about what kinds of fighting I had done and my relative power level. It was time to officially plan out my growth and show you all where I stand.
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Encounter 1
Foe: Wild Mountain Ram
Strength: Livestock (F rank)
Danger level: High
Notes: I nearly perished to an animal that farmers can butcher with ease.
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To be fair though, the farmers of this world were essentially systematic killers. They were combatants capable of subduing the beasts that they reared on their farms.
Basically, the farmers of this world were badasses who couldn't be taken lightly.
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Encounter 2
Foe: Wizard Edward Thrum
Strength: 2 Mastered Spells (F+ rank)
Danger level: Low
Ally: Miana Alasant Yytrius (D rank)
Notes: An idiot wizard. Despite his greater stats, he was incapable of utilising it. Mana Vision played a vital role in my battle. The low danger level is due to the ally I fought with.
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Wasn't it funny how the dumbest one was still such an effective traitor? After all, I fashioned Edward after the statement,
[ An intelligent enemy is better than a foolish friend. ]
The look on Virion's face when he realised that the person who killed his friends was an idiot was priceless to write.
I loved describing the crumpling of his expression when he heard Edward's nonsensical statements. The absolute futility he had to deal with when he threatened him. And the frustration he felt knowing that Edward would have never understood his wrongs no matter what.
Writing Virion's anguish was... lovely.
But I rarely used that trope again. After all, the more Virion grew, the more intelligent his foes became. I found other ways to make Virion suffer.
I spun my pen between my fingers as I stared at the page filled with my writing. I turned to a new page and wrote down the stats I set for Caelum Phricius.
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Stats: Caelum Phricius
Physical Ability: G+
—Description: Refers to the upper limit of a person's body. Speed, resistance, endurance, senses, and power are sub-stats for this branch.
Mental Acuity: F-
—Description: Refers to the upper limit of a person's brain and nervous system. Reaction time, intelligence, calculative prowess, focus, speed of thought, and memory are sub-stats for this branch.
Charismatic Force: F-
—Description: Refers to the upper limit of a person's social skills. Stealth, speech, aura, and palpable intentions are sub-stats for this branch.
Mana Quality: G+
—Description: Refers to the upper limit of a person's Mana. Fluidity-viscosity, density, purity, and radiation are sub-stats for this branch.
Luck: F-
—Description: ...
Specialisation: N/A
—Description: Refers to the upper limit of a person's uniqueness.
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It was low. Really low. I cringed just from writing these stats. If not for a beast's natural lack of intelligence, I wouldn't have killed that ram. If not for Mana Vision and Miana's help, I wouldn't have been able to defeat Edward.
"I guess having F- ranked luck is still quite useful." I smiled to myself. I made a special mechanic for luck in this world.
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Description: The [ Luck ] stat refers to the upper limit of the likelihood that events will go in one's 'favour' through the anomalous statistical inclination phenomenon. Higher Luck values allow heaven and earth to fight on one's side.
Now, 'Probability' in this world was simply a battle of luck stats between involved persons. The one with higher luck stats would always have probability in their favour. Thus, nothing would be truly random in the face of the anomalous statistical inclination phenomenon.
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The reason why Virion had a much more difficult time fighting Edward was because his luck was at rank G. Nothing goes in Virion's favour, unless it doesn't largely involve probability.
This statistical detail was something I added because I found it funny and sensible. There must've been a reason as to why Virion suffered so much—and that was his horrendous luck.
Poetic, no?
Seeing as I had run out of space for writing once again, I turned to another page. The sun was glaringly bright now, illuminating my face and the notebook in my hands.
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Path to Power: ???
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I wrote three glaring question marks on the page. There was no name for the pathway I was going to take. It was going to be a path that only I could take, using mysteries only I knew the answers to.
And to begin that path, there was one vital step I had to execute.
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• Devolution into a Lesser Human
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To others, it would seem counterintuitive to regress one's state of being. But I knew better. Lesser Humans, although they have stats that are overall weaker than humans, sitting around G- and G, their sensitivity to mana is much greater than that of humans.
Lesser Humans in the world are rare, but they are characterized by their translucent skin, paleness, physical weakness, sickly constitution, and mentally inferiority. The people of this world characterise being Lesser Humans as a disease or birth defect.
But few have been able to observe that Lesser Humans evolved into regular Humans once they reached a certain age.
And when they do evolve, they are usually gifted with more power that trumps any average human being.
That was why I was going to devolve myself.
Though it can only be achieved using special means, it would be for the sake of restarting my foundations. Through devolution, I can reset my abilities so that when I evolve back into a regular Human, my starting point would be much higher than usual.
I had to finish this before the entrance exams that would occur in ten days.
The plan would be to devolve myself today, train and absorb special nutrients while I am a Lesser Human, and evolve back into a Human the day before the exams. To make up for all the time I would spend in one place, I would have to take a zeppelin to Aelthrie. Thus the need for a lot of cash.
I stretched my body after going through all of this in my head.
"Let's begin,"