Bloodthirsty Gentleman
As I accompanied Loki and Ais within the Ganesha Familia's festival, I got bored and decided to call up the system to better understand the capabilities and limits of my strength.
'System, display UI.'
[FOR HONOR SYSTEM]
[Armory]
Host: Reza (Half-Angel)
Equipment:
(Armor)
Helm: Helm of Dullahan
Arms: Arms of Dullahan
Chest: Chest of Dullahan
Legs: Legs of Dullahan
(Ambrosia)
Blade: Blade of Golden Aleister
Hilt: Hilt of Golden Aleister
Guard: Guard of Golden Aleister
Status:
Level: 2 (0/1000)
Power: 0 I (2398)
Endurance: 0 I (2398)
Dexterity: 0 I (2398)
Agility: 0 I (2398)
Magic: 0 I (0)
Abilities:
[Warden of the Fallen]
Rank: ???
[Parry]
Rank: S
[Divine Swordsmanship]
Rank: SSS+
[Slash]
Rank: S
[Pierce]
Rank: S
[Shoulder Bash]
Rank: A
[Devour]
Rank: ???
[Phantom]
Rank: SSS+
[Bloodlust]
Rank: SSS+
[Blood of the Primordial]
Rank: ???
[Angel Wings]
Rank: ???
As I looked over my stats, I internally calculated where my strength currently lay in comparison to people of other levels.
'Hm... In terms of stats alone, I am currently nearing the stats of most of the weaker level 5's. If I combined my stats along with my abilities however... I should be able to achieve a power equivalent to a level 5 adventurer with C level stats in all aspects...
Internally giving a nod to myself as I was satisfied with my current capabilities, I then moved on to my abilities and inspected them once more. As I was inspecting them, a thought suddenly cam to mind which made me furrow my brows a bit.
'System, is there any way I can identify the ranks of [Warden of the Fallen], [Devour], [Blood of the Primordial] and [Angel Wings]?'
[Yes, my liege.]
The response of the system made me surprised as I was just asking out of curiosity. Snapping myself out of my shock, I then continued to question the system.
'If that's the case, then why are their ranks shown as question marks?'
[It is merely because the ranking scale of this world does not have a classification for the abilities of my liege as they have exceeded the SSS+ mark.]
'Does that mean that there are no limits to how much one can raise their abilities?'
[My liege is correct. There are no limits to how far someone can raise their abilities. There are only the limits of the person who are training those abilities.]
I then fell silent as I comprehended everything that the system informed me of. After feeling like I correctly understood the information, I then asked the system once more.
'System, can you rollback the ranks of all my abilities by 4 ranks? If so, will the skills be affected in any way?'
[It is possible to do so my liege. There is also no loss of power or risk in rolling back the ranks of my liege's abilities. There are also no advantages to doing this as even though my liege's ability may have returned do that of a lower rank, it would still be as hard to improve it as with its previous rank.]
'Then, please do so and display the UI to me afterwards.'
[It shall be done, my liege.]
The system then went silent for a for a few moments and finally displayed the UI once more.
[FOR HONOR SYSTEM]
[Armory]
Host: Reza (Half-Angel)
Equipment:
(Armor)
Helm: Helm of Dullahan
Arms: Arms of Dullahan
Chest: Chest of Dullahan
Legs: Legs of Dullahan
(Ambrosia)
Blade: Blade of Golden Aleister
Hilt: Hilt of Golden Aleister
Guard: Guard of Golden Aleister
Status:
Level: 2 (0/1000)
Power: 0 I (2398)
Endurance: 0 I (2398)
Dexterity: 0 I (2398)
Agility: 0 I (2398)
Magic: 0 I (0)
Abilities:
[Warden of the Fallen]
Rank: S
[Parry]
Rank: D
[Divine Swordsmanship]
Rank: A
[Slash]
Rank: D
[Pierce]
Rank: D
[Shoulder Bash]
Rank: E
[Devour]
Rank: S
[Phantom]
Rank: A
[Bloodlust]
Rank: A
[Blood of the Primordial]
Rank: S
[Angel Wings]
Rank: S
Although I kind of felt unsatisfied not seeing the maxed out abilities, I knew this was for the better as I would be able to see the progression of my skills rather than just seeing '???' when inspecting them.
As I was about to think of something else during this boring escort mission, I was abruptly brought back to reality by Ais holding a skewer with a bunch of various meats right near my face.
"Do you want to eat, Reza?"
Ais was looking towards me with a concerned face as I was merely accompanying them while they ate and took nothing for myself. I was stunned for a moment as it was the first time Ais actually said my name. After I got over it, I gave a heartfelt smile and took the skewer from Ais.
"Thank you, Ais."
She gave a nod in response to my words of thanks and then stood besides Loki once more.
After that little exchange with Ais, my thoughts were filled about her as I was truly mesmerized by her appearance and personality.
'She reminds me of my high school crush back in my previous world... Except for the fact that Ais is a 100% more beautiful.'
I always liked the smart, strong, caring and independent type of women as opposed to the shy, needy and 'intellectually low' women as something about them really caught my eyes. After my thoughts wandered about, it finally got to the point of me thinking of how to make Ais mine. As soon as it got to that point, I merely smiled and lightly shook my head at those thoughts.
'If Ais doesn't fall for me and continues still falls for Bell in the end, it's fine with me. However, if she does fall for me..."
My eyes shone at the thought of it as I even decided to resolve myself to turning Loki into my ally at whatever the cost if she were to be a part of the Gods that planned against the Wardens if Ais were to fall for me. While trying to think of ways to get Loki on my side, we came across Eina and another employee of the guild talking about some sort of trouble.
As they were about to look for some adventurers help them out, Loki finally interjected.
"What? You guys got a way to make some money?"
When Loki said that, she was then pinched by Ais as she took the role of speaking.
"Did something happen?"
They then looked towards Ais dramatically and spoke amazedly.
"The Sword Princess?"
"Ais Wallenstein?"
And, after speaking those words, they for some reason just astared at her without telling her anything yet. Seeing that they were still in a daze, I furrowed my brows and interjected from the side to snap them out of it.
"Would you two ladies please inform us with that problem with yours?"
"Ah, Yes! There were some monster that escaped-"
Before she could even finish, a monster appeared near one of the stores near us nad screamed which caused a wave of wind to appear, causing Ais and the rest to cover their eyes with their arms to prevent them from becoming blinded. I, however, was ecstatic at the sight of the monster for it has truly been a while since I executed an enemy for stats.
"Or should I say that since I 'devoured' my enemy for stats since my [Execute] ability is now [Devour]?"
I muttered in a low voice as I activated [Phantom], [Bloodlust] and equipped Ambrosia as I swiftly appeared in front of the orc and attacked.
[Slash]
[Devour]
I used the two skills in succession as I slashed towards the ogre's head and swiftly beheaded it while experiencing the feeling of devouring a soul for the first time. Strangely enough, I was able to somehow 'taste' the soul and even found it to be quite 'delicious'. Added on to that the visible feeling of becoming stronger with the stats I just devoured, I laughed in ecstasy as the people around me, including Ais, Loki and Eina looked at me weirdly. However, as I was too wrapped up from the feeling of ecstasy, I paid their looks no heed and swiftly appeared in front of Eina and the pink-haired girl of the guild which scared the both of them a little.
"TELL ME, ARE THERE STILL OTHERS!?"
They both froze up at the sight of my appearance being distorted due to [Phantom], causing me to look like some sort of monster. Add on to that my bloodthirsty-like tone when I asked them, itscared them quite a bit. Eina quickly got over it however and responded to my question.
"Y-Yes! There should be about 3 or 4 more..."
As soon as she said so, I swiftly disappeared, in search of some more prey to devour.
______________________________________________
After Reza disappeared, the civilians around us all fell on their knees as they were gasping for air as his aura was quite suffocating. At the sight of this, I sighed and said my thoughts out loud.
"Ha... I swear, that guy can change his personality so quickly. One second, he acts like a gentlemen and in the other, he becomes a bloodthirsty killer..."
My dear Ais beside me nodded in response which made me want to try and take advantage of her. However, she swiftly dodged away from my hand which made me disappointed. It was then that Eina spoke to me from the side.
"Goddess Loki-sama, was that person a member of your familia?"
I then turned towards her and puffed out my chest while speaking proudly.
"Yes! That guy's a new child of mine!"