Chapter 107 - Level 4!
Time flies, and two years have quickly passed.
During these two years, with the joint efforts of various major Familia, the power of Evilus has been suppressed to the limit, and it may not be long before they will be completely eradicated.
Luke and Ais have been living a stable daily life during this period.
The two have successively crossed the Lv2 and Lv3 stages, and both of them have been promoted to Lv4 adventurers.
Their amazing upgrade speed of one level per year has shocked the entire city.
Now, the aliases of 'Sword Master' and 'Sword Princess' are known throughout Orario.
Their fame can even be compared to that of top adventurers like Finn and others.
But after reaching Lv4, Luke and Ais have clearly found that the growth rate of their ability values has slowed down.
This is a normal process, as the gap between Lv4 and Lv5 is a qualitative change from the second class to the first class, a challenge that countless adventurers cannot cross in their lifetime.
Moreover, from Lv5 onwards, each upgrade for a first-class adventurer is an arduous journey, taking three, five, or even ten years to overcome.
However, Finn and others have succeeded in this challenge.
A year ago, when Luke and Ais had just upgraded to Lv3,
Finn, Riveria, Gareth, the big three of Loki Familia successfully transcended themselves and upgraded to Lv6 adventurers.
Now, Loki Familia, with three Lv6 adventurers, is showing a trend of surpassing Freya Familia, which has only two Lv6s.
If this trend continues, it's not impossible for Loki Familia to dominate as the strongest in Orario.
Not only have Finn and others made progress, but Ganesha Familia did the same, almost as Luke predicted, with nearly ten Lv4 adventurers collectively promoted to Lv5.
With such a large number of first-class combatants, Ganesha Familia also made a big splash during this period.
The significant increase in Orario's overall strength is also one of the main reasons for the decline of Evilus.
The city's atmosphere has also seen a significant improvement over these past two years.
...
"Okay, your status is updated. Are you still going to try it this time?"
Loki handed the parchment with the updated ability values printed on it to Luke.
Compared to Ais's upgrade speed of one level per year, Luke has always been ranking up at a pace of half a year per level, though it's publicly claimed to be one year.
So, in fact, he has been upgraded to Lv4 for over a year now.
And in this past year, Luke also successfully maxed out all his attributes to S: 999.
Of course, his magic attribute remains a pitiful I: 0.
Besides the improvement in basic parameters, there hasn't been much change in magic and skills, basically similar to three years ago when Luke first received Falna.
Actually, for someone like Luke who has no magical talent at all, it's not that there's no possibility of gaining magic.
There exist some alternative methods to acquire magic in this world, among which reading 'Grimoire' is the most mainstream.
'Grimoire' can force the reader to learn a type of magic regardless of talent or potential and are treasures that countless adventurers dream of possessing.
However, not just anyone can write and produce Grimoires.
Only a very few who have developed the 'Mage' and 'Mystery' development abilities to the extreme can write 'Grimoire'.
And after being read once, 'Grimoire' loses its effect, turning into a book with blank content.
Due to its immense value and scarcity, the prices of 'Grimoire' have always been high.
They are even more expensive than many first-class weapons and equipment and are always in a state of high demand.
Taking the parchment, Luke heard Loki's question, then looked at the ability value stuck at S: 999 for some time, and replied to her:
"Let's give it another try."
"Although I think it still won't succeed this time, it's better to try it before making a conclusion."
It was mentioned before that every time an adventurer levels up, all attributes return to I: 0, and the accumulated ability values don't disappear but are converted into hidden parameters.
So, Luke always maxes out his attributes to S: 999 before each upgrade.
Now, as a Lv4 adventurer, his accumulated ability values have far surpassed those of his peers.
Not only that, but he also tried to break through the S rank limit, hoping to raise his ability values to SS rank.
After all, Luke knows that someone in the future has done it, so it's not an absolutely impossible task.
However, he obviously failed.
Luke's intention to break through the S rank limit is known to all high-level executives of Loki Familia like Finn, Riveria and Gareth.
When they first learned about it, Riveria once said to Luke,
"That is a realm we cannot enter; we can only reach the peak but cannot surpass the limit."
Riveria wasn't denying the possibility of surpassing S rank but was explaining a common sense of this world to Luke.
For example, Riveria herself, an elven royalty and a mage, can only raise her 'magic' attribute related to effect of magic to the highest S rank.
But for 'strength', 'endurance', and other attributes where elves are naturally weak, it's impossible to achieve similar growth rates.
In Riveria's view, Luke's ability to raise all attributes except magic to S: 999 is already an incredibly unbelievable feat.
But his constant I: 0 magic attribute also proves Riveria's point to some extent.
Just like academics, crafts, technology, martial arts, etc., everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and indeed, there are limits to everyone's ability values.
Reaching the limit is already quite difficult, let alone surpassing the limits of Falna.
For Luke, physical fitness is not within his 'talent' range; his talent has always focused on one thing only, which is 'sword'. Increase in physical strength is just a side result.
Luke first tried to break through the S rank limit when he was about to upgrade from Lv1 to Lv2.
But it didn't take long for him to give up.
Through this attempt, he essentially understood the relationship between his talent, the agent identity, and Falna.
Normally, if exercising, say running 100 meters, could gain 1 attribute point, to gain the 2nd point, one might need to run 200 meters, and for the 3rd, 300 meters.
Then, after gaining 100 points, mere exercise won't have any effect anymore, only maintaining the previously gained attributes, preventing them from regressing.
The benefit of being an agent of the main god space is that it allows you to continue gaining attribute points through exercise beyond the limit of 100 points.
As mentioned before, agents have no upper limit in gaining attribute points before reaching a certain rank, but the difficulty still rises gradually.
And the role of Falna is to accelerate this process, allowing you to gain 1 point by running 1 meter, and 2 points by running 2 meters.
The purpose of Falna is not to make adventurers stronger but to unearth their potential, develop their possibilities, and shorten the time they become strong.
The reason there are so many adventurers who can't make progress all their life is because they no longer have any possibility of being stronger.
The state they could only achieve in a lifetime has already been reached ahead of time with the help of Falna.
To continue to become stronger, one must either surpass their limits or accumulate more potential over time, which is the so-called 'rank up'.
It must be noted that Falna is a training 'accelerator', not a 'cheat'.
But Luke is slightly different from ordinary adventurers, mainly because of his identity as a 'main god space agent'.
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