Emilio sat on the ground and focused on the System. Now that he knew that the assignment of Free Stat points was a way to learn how to upgrade the Sats, he was not going to waste the chance. He had to focus all of his attention on what the upgrade did.

  ‘Free Stat points.’

  Emilio mentally chose to upgrade his Vitality and he immediately started feeling his body start to generate a lot of the same energy he absorbed in the Trial.

  There was a big difference in the way he felt the energy that his own body generated. Instead of feeling burning hot, it felt completely natural and painless. As his body kept accumulating the energy, Emilio didn’t feel any pressure at all. It even felt nice and refreshing. When his body felt completely full of energy, it started to fuse with his blood again, quite similar to the way it had been fused during the Trial.

  Once all of the energy finished fusing, Emilio felt like his body woke up from sleeping, he felt even more awake than before.

  Emilio opened his eyes and saw Tour staring at him.

  “So, how was it?” he asked.

  “Pretty weird. It was different than in the Trial. Over there, the energy that entered seemed to not belong to me and clashed with my body. But now it felt as if I generated it. The part about it fusing with my blood was actually the same,” Emilio commented.

  “Ohh, interesting. So that was the Vitality Trial,” Tuor commented. “Now that you realized some of it for yourself I am allowed to talk a little bit more. The way you felt a moment ago is how you usually raise the Stat and the Vitality is yours and generated by you. You have to slowly accumulate the generated Vitality and then fuse it. Usually, this way of upgrading the Stat is very slow without the Free Point.

  “The Trial works similarly as when you use an external method to raise your Vitality. There are specific treasures that are made for that. You just have to absorb the Vitality within, assimilate it and that’s it. It seems the Trial wanted to teach you another way to upgrade Stat.

  “It is also normal that the assimilation, or what you called fusing with your blood, was the same in both cases as that is actually the act that raises the Stat.”

  “It's good to know that the Trial shows me another method to upgrade the Stat. I will pay attention to both. Now, how do I generate the Vitality inside my body as the System did?” Emilio asked.

  “That I can’t say unless you figure it out. But try to not do it until the month is over, it would be a shame to lose Trial Coins because you went experimental. If you want to try to understand more you can add another free point,” Tour advised him and Emilio did exactly that.

  Emilio sat down and tried to feel where the Vitality was coming from during the upgrade. As he focused on the reddish energy, he realized it was actually coming from his heart.

  Even if he reached the source, he could not discover how it was being generated. It actually felt almost natural for him.

  “I forgot that your weapons can be upgraded,” Tuor said with envy in his voice as he looked at the flow of World Energy entering the daggers.“I kind of envy you integrated people, but, at the same time, you have no heritage.

  “Do not use the points outside of the Trial. Those upgrades are valuable. The higher it goes the more valuable it is.”

  “I didn’t even know it worked with Free Stat points,” Emilio admitted. “Can you tell me why they are so valuable? It seems similar to all the other upgrades.”

  “They are not, the weapons are objects. They do not have the ability to grow,” Tuor explained “A blacksmith can make a weapon or sometimes upgrade it with the right materials, but unless they are genius they can only make weapons of a lower Rank than their own. A Rank 2 blacksmith can usually make High or Exceptional Rank 1 Weapons. To make a Peak Rank 1 weapon you would need a Rank 3 Blacksmith.

  “Also, they do not work for free. A good blacksmith at the peak of his Rank can usually make Regular weapons of the same Rank, so it is what people normally use. If we are talking about upgrading a weapon, it is as hard as making a peak weapon of the same Rank. This means that it is not normal for a blacksmith to have this kind of work. Only rich people who are really attached to some weapon might spend the money to do it.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Hold on, what are these categories you say? And why would a Rank 3 blacksmith do a Peak Rank 1 weapon when they can do a Rank 3 weapon instead?” Emilio asked.

  “Ohh yeah. I forgot I have to explain everything. The weapons are categorized in 9 qualities for each Rank. Lowest, Low, Passable, Regular, Medium, High, Exceptional, Superior and Peak. For each subrank the weapon is harder, usually sharper and can take in more impact and more Energy.

  “At the same time, a Ranked weapon will pressure, you just can’t feel it because your weapon is Rank 1. Even like that, you should have felt something when wielding it.

  “Normally a Rank 1 can use Rank 1 weapons. If a low Rank 1 wants to use a high quality Rank 1 weapon, they might feel a little bit pressured, but they will still be able to use it.

  “But if you want to use a Rank 2 weapon, even if it is of the lowest quality you need to have the appropriate Stats to wield it or it will be worse than a Rank 1 Regular weapon.

  “If a weapon is not even Rank 1, it is not considered a weapon at all. These ones are considered Mortal Rank for the System, but they are kind of useless if you really need to depend on them. At the same time, they don’t pressure the user at all.” Tuor explained.

  “Does that mean that if I keep upgrading my Stats and it becomes Rank 2 I won’t be able to use it?” Emilio asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Tuor answered. “It is a System reward, so the System will take care of it in some way. Just know that your weapon will be useful for a long time, the more you upgrade it, the better.”

  Emilio finally realized he did well in naming his daggers. As long as he could grow a bit more in the Trial they were going to accompany a long time. If he reached 7 points in the rest of his stats he would be able to get a Rank 2 weapon of regular quality and was going to be much more confident in facing the trials the System was going to throw them

  “Can I also ask about the Skills?” Emilio asked while reading the System message again.

  “Skills are abilities you can use without actively thinking exactly what to do.” Tuor started to explain again “There are System Skills and normal Skills. The normal Skills are developed by people. For an ability to become a Skill you have to reach a certain understanding of what you are doing, practice it enough to become natural for you and will it to become a Skill for the System. This will allow you to use it as a Skill without actually thinking about what you have to do.

  “The System Skills are considered a way for the System to teach you how to use your Stats. The System gives you one every five Stats in Rank 1, but once again the amount gets lower the higher your Rank is. They are one of the most important things you can get at Rank 1 and you will get chances to upgrade them. They will accompany you for life.”

  “That explains how I could use one of them in the Trial,” Emilio understood. “ I will check my new Skill then. Let’s see if it is something good.”

  ‘Skill Regeneration.’

  I can heal faster, right? Am I becoming a superhero? But then again, anyone will be able to grow like this now. This one is passive. At least I don’t need an explanation to understand what that means.

  After checking the Skill and given that Tuor decided to let him be by himself while reading it, he decided to keep leveling up his Vitality. The ninth point felt just like the others, but as he assigned the last one he felt something different. As the Vitality assimilated in his blood, he felt weirdly full. It was like having a full stomach inside his blood.

  So this is the Stat cap. I definitely can’t upgrade Vitality anymore. At least until I Rank Up.

  Let’s check the Trait.

  “Tuor what are the Traits?” Emilio asked.

  “You must have reached 10 Vitality for you to remember about them,” Tuor commented “Traits are modifications that happen to you. You can see them as mutations to your body. They can be initiated by yourself, by some treasure or directly by the System. They are rare and valuable as they can strengthen you forever. In this case, it was a natural Trait initiated by you. Just reaching certain thresholds in Stats makes your body mutate in certain ways, and unless you have some special body mutation they are all the same. You should have Vitality Control and Vitality Limit Unshackled, so congratulations on reaching your limit in Vitality!”

  “If everybody has the same Traits, then they are not a real advantage, right?” Emilio asked.

  “No, not really,” Tour nodded, “it’s more of a difference between reaching the thresholds or not reaching it, you will just be much stronger than someone with just 9 in the same Stat and that’s it.”

  Emilio understood that even if they were good, the Traits were just something normal for the people with the System. After understanding it, he revised if he had something else he wanted to ask the shopkeeper.

  “I guess there is nothing more to do here right now. Should I leave this place?” Emilio asked.

  “Sure, just come back next week for another Trial. Remember to try to get stronger even if you are not here, there is some tribulations waiting for your whole world.” Tuor answered, making Emilio shiver a bit.

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll do my best. If I come to the same Monolith I will find you here, won't I?” Emilio asked.

  “Correct, but it is not as if you can change Monoliths easily. You will have to skip a whole week’s Trial to change between Monoliths during the first month. It is a way to not overwhelm the Shopkeepers.” Tuor pointed out.

  That side comment seemed something normal, without any significance, but for Emilio it was not. When he heard the explanation, his face suddenly turned white. He was thinking about his sister who was in the US and realized she might have entered the Monolith over there. If she really did she would be stuck half a planet away or she would miss a Trial.

  “If that’s the case I have to go ASAP, my sister might enter a Monolith on the other side of the planet. See you next week.”

  With that, he ordered the system ‘I want to leave the Trial’ and he vanished.

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