I went to my room, left my phone and wallet on the desk, and tore the scroll they gave me. Immediately, a portal opened. I scrutinized it for a moment, but it was no different from the other portals I had seen, so I paid it no further attention and entered.
Instantly, I felt myself transported to another place and was once again in the temple of Luxuria in Scheherazade. I walked to the reception, exchanged the ticket they gave me for the keys to my storage room, and then went to get my things.
Once I finished, I went to the prayer temple to speak with Luxuria.
"Hello beautiful Noona, it's been a while since the last time," I said, and a few seconds later, I received a response.
"Hello my Prince, I'm glad you still remember your Noona," said Luxuria with a very charming voice and a flirtatious tone.
Along with her words, I felt a quite strong aura envelop the place. The aura was warm but at the same time gave a certain sense of excitement, but I easily suppressed any unnecessary impulses with my will.
"It would be impossible to forget a lady as beautiful as you. I still look forward to the day we meet in person again," I said playfully, and she took her time before answering.
"You've definitely stopped being a charming boy to become a dangerous man for women, but it takes much more than that for us to meet again. Trying to conquer the goddess of lust is not easy, you know? You have to make an effort, but just because it's you, I'll give you a chance. If you want us to see each other again, you have to first solve the parasite problem we have here. If you do, I'll accept your invitation to dinner, and if the date goes well, who knows, maybe a very satisfying reward awaits you that night," she said in a whimsical tone and with a quite provocative voice.
"If you put it that way, I suppose I'll have to advance my plans and deal with the parasites much sooner," I said in a heroic tone, but after a few seconds, we both started to laugh.
"Thank you, it's been a while since I had so much fun that I even forgot the gravity of the situation for a moment. How can I help you, my prince?" said Luxuria in a more serious tone.
"I need to know how many levels I can gain if I exchange my contribution points earned from my last encounter with the parasites? And I need to know if instead of getting levels, I exchange the contribution points for skill points, how many can I get?" I said.
"Your contribution in the last attack of the parasites on humans was huge and worthy of great rewards. If you use all the contribution points you've earned in that encounter, then your class can be raised to level 5 if we're talking only about contribution points. However, I could only raise you to level 4. If you want to ascend to level 5 or higher, it's necessary that you go to the temple of the goddess in charge of your Class. In the case of Mages, both Avaritia and Acedia are the goddesses who can help you.
You also have to consider that based on your achievements and fighting style, you can opt to choose a specialized and personalized Class. If that's the case, then the cost in contribution points to level up will increase, and it's possible that the points that are enough to raise a standard class to level 5 may only be enough to raise a specialized and personalized class to level 3 or 4.
As for directly converting contribution points to skill points, let's say you can convert them into 30 points directly," said Luxuria.
So, I could jump to a level 5 Mage with my contribution from the last fight or a customized Class of level 3 or 4, or exchange my contribution points for 30 skill points directly.
All this is a lot of material to think about. The real benefits of leveling up with the Paradise system are not as good as they are in video games. It can be said that there are only 3 advantages to leveling up with the paradise system:
First advantage; Prestige, generally levels 1 and 2 are considered novices who will not be taken into account for almost anything, they are like university interns in practice, they are taken to run errands and not as professionals.
But if you are level 3 or 4 then you are already taken into account as a combat force and your words have some weight.
Then levels 5 and above. Just by being level 5 you are considered a veteran and your words will be taken very seriously and the higher your level, the more this will increase.
Second advantage; Class skills, the higher the level of your Class, then there will be several Class skills that you can learn, and if your Class is unique and personalized, then there will be more skills available.
Third advantage; skill points, each level gives you a number of skill points according to the level, for example when I obtained the level 1 Mage class, I obtained 1 skill point and if I go up to level 2 I will get 2 more points, at level 3 you get 3 points and so on, at level 5 if I accumulate all the previous points I will have 15 skill points in total at the end.
Skill points can be used in 3 ways, the first is to learn class skills, in other words instead of spending time and effort training to learn a skill, you can use the points and get that skill directly.
The second use of skill points is to rank up an already learned Class skill, no matter if the skill was learned by skill points or learned by training.
And the third use of skill points is to increase physical Stats like Strength, Mana, Luck, etc... The skill points needed to improve a Stat will depend on the rank of the Stat, if the rank is Very Low or Low only 1 point is needed to improve a modifier, in Intermediate rank 2 points are needed to improve a modifier, in High rank 3 points are needed, in Pinnacle rank 4 points are needed, in Ex rank 5 points are needed and so on.
So knowing all this I can say that using my contribution points to level up is a bad idea. Of the 3 advantages that leveling up offers, none of them suit me. If it's prestige by level, I don't need it, I have prestige just for my real power and my Class, I don't need to tell anyone that I am level 1, I can say that I am level 6 or 7 and by demonstrating my power no one could object.
As for Class skills, I'm not interested, skills are based on understanding, training, and mana control, as long as I have those requirements I can learn any skill, not to mention that with my current skills I have more than enough to fight perfectly at short, moderate, and long distances. I don't need more skills that I possibly won't use, my fighting style is already defined, I don't need to add anything to the mix.
And the only good thing I can get by leveling up are the skill points, but if I use all my contribution points I can only go up to level 5 and get a total of 15 skill points, so it's better to simply invest my contribution points to acquire more skill points instead of leveling up my class, Luxuria already said that with my current contribution points I could get 30 skill points which is double the points I would get if I leveled up my Class instead.
But I wouldn't use my skill points to learn or improve skills because to begin with, they only serve for class skills, and of them, the only skill that would be worth improving is [Mana Application] because it improves my mana control. However, I prefer to master that skill on my own through practice rather than depending on external methods.
This leaves me with the use of contribution points for a single truly useful purpose, and that purpose is to improve my Physical Stats. But my stats are at such a high range that even if I invest all 30 points in one of my stats, I might only be able to raise it by one full rank... unless I use the skill points along with Elixirs to get the best performance, but at this precise moment, it's not a good idea to increase my Stats or use the elixirs because the moment I do, I know the Parasite Queen will see the change in my power and become alarmed.
At this moment, due to my deception, she must have a terrible misunderstanding of my power, but if I suddenly strengthen myself, that will change and my plans will be in danger. That's why it's better to wait. I'm not in a hurry to use my points or elixirs right now. I'll wait for the right moment, and if that moment doesn't come soon, then I'll have to wait for phase 2 of my plan to use them.
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that, one way or another, my contribution points must be used to obtain skill points, and the skill points must be invested in my Physical Stats. Of my Physical Stats, the best options are Mana, which is always good to have more of, or Luck, the only Stat that cannot be improved by any training or any other circumstance. I've tried many ways to improve it over the years, but none worked. It seems to be a Stat that can only be improved by special means like luck elixirs or skill points.
All my analysis only took a few seconds, so Luxuria didn't get impatient watching me think. When I finished thinking, I finally spoke, "I've decided, for now, I won't use my contribution points and will continue to accumulate them until the right moment comes."
"I understand, it's good to take things a bit calmly and think them through. Besides, that gives more excuses for you to come back. If you raised your class to level 4, then you would be obliged to go directly to Avaritia and Acedia to measure and control your progress, and that would reduce the times you could come to see me," said Luxuria with a hint of jealousy in her voice.
I laughed and said, "I don't need a reason like that to come and see my beautiful favorite Noona. Whenever I can, I'll stop by one of your temples to chat, so you don't have to be jealous."
"Good, it's a promise. If you break it, I'll make sure you suffer the wrath of a goddess," she said jokingly, and then we laughed and chatted about some trivialities like Gula's terrible sense of Class naming or that Superbia likes cute things like stuffed animals and usually denies it because of her Pride.
That reminded me that Claire is a level 6 Archer, and the higher a person's level, the closer their personality is supposed to become to their goddess, which would explain Claire's peculiar taste for cute teddy bear underwear since Superbia is the only goddess in charge of the Archer class, or it could just be a coincidence.
After chatting for a while, we finally said goodbye, and I left the temple. This time I went to Sinyoung to greet Hannah, Seohui, and Seora.
At Sinyoung, I was able to find Hannah and we chatted for a bit, but when I asked about Seohui and Seora, she told me they were not there. Seohui was taking care of some matters on Earth, and Seora was on an expedition with a group of novices and trainers from Sinyoung. After her participation in the battle at Eva, she earned enough contribution points to rise to level 2, and after leveling up, she joined any low-level expedition that Sinyoung had available, apparently doing her best to strengthen herself.
Having learned that, I said goodbye to her and then left Sinyoung. I began to run across the sky towards Haramark, where I have many things to do, like meeting with master Maldong, catching up with Teresa, meeting old Ian, whom I could not talk to given the situation last time, but he's someone I really want to discuss various things with, and finally preparing to go to the Forest of Denial where I hope to meet and help a certain ghost girl...