When Riezel opened his eyes, he had already woken up from his dream.
At this moment, he was in a room at a guesthouse.
Last night, he rented the guesthouse with a single golden leaf and exchanged some of it for a substantial amount of travel money.
Originally, he had planned to rest here for just one night and continue his journey at dawn, but he unexpectedly found himself dragged into a dream by Yoriichi, where they battled for several hours.
Now that several hours had passed, the real world was bright and well into the afternoon. He could also hear the faint sounds of people bustling outside.
"Ugh..."
As Riezel tried to get up, he was stopped by a wave of intense pain.
Clearly, the pain from head to toe told him that, although everything had just happened in a dream, the side effects of using 'Blooming Radiance' did not seem to be limited to the dream alone.
Realizing this, a question arose in Riezel's mind.
'Was that really a dream?'
Even though this question was indeed thought-provoking, perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing. At the very least, he didn't have to worry that the several hours of fighting with Yoriichi would be considered meaningless simply because it was a dream.
Such a real experience, a real opponent, and a real battle would surely turn into valuable excelia, allowing him to take a crucial step forward.
'Let's give it a try.'
Riezel quickly retrieved Loki's blood from the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube with difficulty, then let a drop fall onto his forehead to update his status.
Soon, his new status was revealed.
...
Riezel Brynhart
Level 5
STR: SSS1303 → SSS1313
END: SSS1300 → SSS1305
DEX: SSS1385 → SSS1399
AGI: SSS1393 → SSS1407
MAG: SSS1399 → SSS1401
Lightweight: F → E
Swordsman: F → E
Mage: G
Battle Adept: I → H
...
Undoubtedly, this status update showed that Riezel's increase in basic abilities was the lowest in history.
It couldn't be helped.
Since Riezel had already reached the limit of his potential at Level 5, any increase in proficiency was considered a good outcome.
Given this, it wasn't surprising that each of his basic abilities had increased by only a few points—or rather, it felt quite normal.
However, the proficiency for the two basic abilities, AGI and MAG, did catch Riezel a bit off guard.
'Proficiency has reached 1400, but it's still SSS?'
Riezel thought in surprise, his eyebrows raised.
Since SS was for proficiency ranging from 1000 to 1199, he had thought SSS would be for proficiency between 1200 and 1399.
However, it seemed that SSS's proficiency range should be from 1200 to 1499.
Before SS, the proficiency for all ranks, whether the highest S or the lowest I, was 100 per rank. It was only at SS that it increased to 200, indicating that the addition of an extra letter, from S to SS, increased the proficiency by 100.
If that was the case, then with SSS having an additional letter compared to SS, it made sense that the proficiency for this rank could increase by another 100, reaching 300.
Given this, it was understandable for Riezel's AGI and MAG to remain at SSS, unchanged.
On the other hand, all of his development abilities, except for Mage, had advanced by one rank. It was clear that his time spent as a sparring partner for the Hashira and his decision to focus on honing his swordsmanship had not been in vain.
Nevertheless, such growth seemed trivial in the face of level up.
Riezel closed his eyes, confirming his status once more.
Now, he was certain that he had finally gained enough high-rank excelia to level up.
Shortly afterward, the blessing on Riezel's back appeared, the sacred text flickering.
Evidently, this was the sign that he had accumulated enough high-rank excelia to level up.
Understanding this, Riezel instantly smiled.
'Thankfully, this dimensional travel is a success.'
Having gained new powers and ventured into a new realm, this dimensional travel had indeed been a success.
Without delay, Riezel immediately entered the phase of self-level-up.
First was the confirmation of development abilities.
In this level up, Riezel had met the learning conditions for several development abilities.
Aside from the development abilities already provided by his skill, such as Healing Power and Spirit Healing, Riezel could learn three new development abilities.
The first development ability was 'Healing'.
Its effect was actually pretty simple—it enhanced the effects of magic related to healing, recovery, and other restorative properties.
It was probably because he frequently used powerful healing magic like Dia Fratel that this development ability was triggered. Once learned, his healing magic effects would improve significantly.
The second development ability was 'Fire Resistance'.
As the name suggested, this development ability improved resistance to fire.
Perhaps it was because he had evolved Sun Breathing and possessed Pioneer of the Sun that this developmental ability was triggered.
The third development ability was 'Fast Attack'.
Since he had no memory of anyone possessing this development ability in the original work, it seemed to be a rare development ability that had not appeared before, like Lightweight and Battle Adept.
As for its effects, from the description, it might be related to attack speed.
Seeing the three new development abilities, Riezel frowned.
Among the three, Fire Resistance was definitely the first to be excluded. With Pioneer of the Sun in his possession, he already had resistance to light and heat, so there was no need to waste a development ability slot on it.
Between Healing and Fast Attack, he was more inclined to choose Fast Attack.
His reason was simple.
'Even though I'm not sure about the specific effects of Fast Attack, it's clearly another development ability for combat.'
Riezel stroked his chin, deep in thought.
'Moreover, while Healing is useful, I'm a fighter, not a healer. Since the effect of Dia Fratel is already more than enough for me, I don't need to specialize in it.'
'Yeah, Fast Attack is definitely more suitable for me.'
After careful consideration, Riezel made his decision.
'Alright, I'll choose Fast Attack.'
Riezel focused his thoughts and quickly completed the level-up process.
...
Riezel Brynhart
Level 6
STR: I0
END: I0
DEX: I0
AGI: I0
MAG: I0
Lightweight: E
Swordsman: E
Mage: G
Battle Adept: H
Fast Attack: I
...
Riezel finally stepped into a whole new realm.
Level 6, a level so rare that even in Orario, fewer than ten people had reached it.
Even within the entire Loki Familia, only three members were at this level, and they were considered top-tier adventurers.
From today, Riezel was a Level 6.
===
Due to the side effects of Blooming Radiance, Riezel chose to rest an extra day in the guesthouse instead of leaving immediately.
It wasn't until the next day that his body recovered enough to move, though there was still some lingering muscle soreness.
'Seriously, I really should find a way to improve this sword form and reduce its side effects in the future...'
Riezel thought to himself as he felt the soreness.
As powerful as Blooming Radiance was, its side effects were even scarier those that of using Ariel.
Blooming Radiance truly made him a one-strike superhuman—either his opponent died, or he did.
Knowing the side effects of Blooming Radiance were too severe, Riezel thought it might be possible to improve them.
For example, instead of draining all of his body's strength in an instant, it could drain only about half, leaving some reserves and margin. Even though this might reduce the power of Blooming Radiance, the side effects would also be lessened.
If he faced stronger opponents who wouldn't push him to the brink, even half the power of Blooming Radiance would be enough to deal with them. In fact, he might not need half the power—just about a tenth of it could be enough to handle most enemies who were only slightly stronger than him.
'Yeah, I can try to work on that later...'
Riezel noted this as a future task and began testing his new power after leveling up.
As usual, after leveling up, his body once again struggled to keep up with the surge in power and became uncoordinated. With no one available to spar with him and help him adapt to his new power, he could only adapt slowly on his own.
Fortunately, since he still had half a month left to stay in this world, he should be well-adapted before leaving if he used this time wisely.
Eventually, Riezel began experimenting with the effects of his new development ability, Fast Attack.
As he had suspected, it was a development ability related to attack speed.
However, it didn't actually increase the attack speed itself but rather enhanced his reflexes.
Once his reflexes improved, his reaction time and athletic ability were also enhanced.
If others could only perform one action in a second, someone with exceptional reflexes and reaction time could perform two or three actions within that same second and even change the action mid-course to another one.
Needless to say, this also resulted in increased attack speed and improvements in recognizing, reacting to, and dodging attacks.
'It's indeed a development ability for combat...'
Riezel was quite pleased to have gained such a developmental ability.
With this developmental ability improved, perhaps someday no one would be able to avoid his attacks, and no one would be able to hit him, causing him harm.
After understanding the effects of Fast Attack and trying it out, Riezel confirmed his current power.
'Under normal circumstances, even without entering strong attack mode or fast attack mode, I wouldn't lose to anyone in Level 6.'
Indeed, just as Riezel had surpassed the strongest Level 5, Ais, upon reaching Level 5, even though he had just reached Level 6, his latent basic abilities accumulated from previous levels and various combat-type development abilities ensured that his power, even in a normal state, would never be surpassed by anyone at Level 6—even by those who had reached the limit of Level 6.
Moreover, this was without entering strong attack mode or fast attack mode. If he used one of these modes, his power would be greatly enhanced once again.