Chapter 10: Champion

Meanwhile, in the void of space above Aria there stood two beings which the likes of Leo couldn't even start to imagine the power of. Silent, the two beings stood there, looking at the tiny and seemingly worthless Leo.

"He is quite lively don't you think?" A veiled woman wearing a beautiful black dress perfectly embracing her gorgeous body asked the man beside her. Her tone was cold and devoid of emotion but seemingly able to enthrall the soul of anyone who would hear it.

"Yes, he is not bad, but I was expecting more from him. How come he was reincarnated as a cat? He has a noble soul, right?" The man asked as he stared at the beauty beside him. He was beautiful enough to drive any man crazy. But he would never dare court her, as he would literally be courting Death.

"Hum, my job was only to bring him to Aria. In a normal situation, I could have impacted his reincarnation. However, things are different since it was a soul meant for the game. Whatever happened after was up to his fate and the influence of the world. " Lady Death said.

"I see. I guess it was his fate then." The man said calmly but Death could feel a trace of mistrust in his tone.

"I don't get why you'd choose him. There is very much at stake here and you could have found a better champion. While his soul is quite powerful, he would need to learn everything from ground level, and that already puts him many steps behind many other contenders." Lady Death said as she stared at the Lord of Space. She was already surprised when she was notified that his champion would come from a garden. But she was even more surprised when she found out who the soul belonged to. She just couldn't understand what he was trying to accomplish by opposing Nature now.

"Just call it a gut feeling." the Lord of Space answered calmly, unbothered by the questioning tone of Lady Death.

'There is already the scent of Vita on Leo, meaning she already found him. Wonder what that dumbass end would be like.' Lady Death thought as she looked at the

"A gut feeling uh. I don't know why you are trying to fool me. Do you really think I wouldn't notice anything?" Lady Death asked.

"Hey, Nox, since when did you become so chatty? You couldn't be interested in my champion now, could you?"

"A piece of advice, Cael. It has been a long time since I collected the True soul of a Sage. If you continue to play it smart like this yours would be the first I would be taking in a while." Lady Death said in a chilling tone before disappearing. She would have already erased that idiot if she could. However, things would become too complicated to deal with if she was too rash in her actions.

"Tsk, pretentious b*tch." Cael muttered before disappearing too.

After this short exchange, the two beings gave a last glance at Leo before disappearing into the void as if they were never there, to begin with.

**

Meanwhile, Leo, completely unaware of those events happening in the background, was cautiously making his way back to the cave.

During this one venture, all of Leo's skills one time. Leo was very happy about this and at the same time, he was surprised that Shadow cloak too only leveled one time. Since Leo had Shadow cloak constantly activated whereas the two others were only used during fight, he concluded that it was gaining exp slower or skills used during fight would gain exp quicker.

'Dash Lv2/5 (8/100):

Upon activation, increase your movement speed by 12% for 3 sec.

Cost: 9 Stamina'

ScratchLv2/5 (5/100)

Your claws are extra sharp. Attack with your claws deals 112% physical damage to your opponents.

'Shadow cloak Lv2/5 (3/100):

Upon activation, enter a stealth state by covering yourself with shadow. Skill efficiency is reduced by 52% in daylight or a lighted place. Chances of being discovered are reduced by 52% during the night. You'll lose your stealth state as soon as you attack or an attack hits you.

Duration: None; Cost: 3MP/sec'

Other than his skills, Leo's abilities also improved. After fighting a couple of times Leo was able to get a better grasp of each of his skills and was now able to use them more efficiently. For example, when using Dash, he was able to reach his maximum speed a lot quicker than before and he has better control of his body when moving at high speed. His timing and accuracy when launching surprise attacks were also better than before. He could also take better advantage of his surroundings while moving to sneak around. At least, he stopped activating Shadow cloak and walking in the middle of the road, as if the place belonged to him and thinking nobody would notice him.

Despite those improvements Leo knew there was a lot more room for him to grow, he was still a newbie after all. For example his senses. While he wasn't as unaware of his surroundings as he was when he was on the earth and would be careful while moving, he tended to over-rely on his sight and not take into account the signals from his other senses unless they were something glaring. His sense of danger too was practically non-existent. If he had a good sense of danger, he would have been able to feel and maybe dodge the snake bite, sparring him with that unnecessary suffering.

Last but not least was that now Leo had a better understanding of Innate hunter. To activate it, Leo just needed to express the intent to kill a specific target, Innate hunter wouldn't activate if Leo's killing intent wasn't directed towards a specific target or if Leo goal wasn't to kill. Innate hunter would stop working once his prey was dead or he gave up his goal of killing it. Other than that, Leo discovered he could voluntarily stop Innate hunter effect and his stamina consumption was nearly tripled when using Innate hunter. Finally, it wouldn't activate if he was already engaged in a fight and if the distance between him and his prey was too big he would automatically leave the hunting state.

After walking for some time Leo managed to return to his cave and after making sure it was safe jumped into it. Now that he was safe, Leo loosened his breath and quietly rested on the floor for some minutes.

'Hum, Luxia. I think it's time to allocate my stats points. Can you tell me more about each attribute?' Leo asked as he opened his status window.

[Yes, Leo.] Luxia said and started telling about each attribute.

First, there were the physical stats. Constitution, strength, and agility.

Constitution was the attribute representing the overall state and quality of his body. It determined his Health and Stamina. 1 Constitution gave 20 HP and 15 Stamina. Constitution also affected some abilities and skills and increased HP and Stamina recovery rates. All actions depleted stamina, be it attacking, blocking, walking, running, swimming, crafting, etc. Some more than others.

Constitution also affected physical defense. Basically, it was an attribute that couldn't be ignored since it was completely about his survivability.

Strength was the stats that determined the performance of his muscle and the power they could produce. Each point of strength would affect the overall power of all his body. Be it attacking power, running speed, the ability to use some piece of equipment.

Agility was the third physical stats. It was the stats that improved his movement speed, attack speed, acceleration time, flexibility, evasion, reflexes, and reaction speed. Simply put it determined how quickly he could wield his power.

Luxia warned him that unlike how it worked inside game, each of these stats shouldn't be considered separately, if the disparity between each of them was too much it would hurt him more than anything.

For example, if his strength was too much higher than his constitution he would find himself in a situation where he would be unable to use his strength because he would be hurting himself. It would simply be because his muscle fibers wouldn't be sturdy enough to withstand their power and would end up snapping or tired in the process.

It would be the same if his agility far surpassed his strength. No matter how quickly he could react, if his strength wasn't enough his body would be unable to follow. His agility only improved the use of his muscle when it comes to speed matters. So no matter how high it was it would be useless if his base strength wasn't high enough. In the same way, if his agility was lacking he would be too cranky.

Overall, he needed to find a good synergy while assigning his stats or he would harm himself.

'If I trained myself I wouldn't have that concern, but if I trained normally I wouldn't be able to put all my body at the same level. However, with the system, each point of strength would benefit all my body.' Leo muttered.

After that, there were the magic related stats. Intelligence and Spirit.

Intelligence was the stat that affected his mana capacity (1 Int for 20 MP) and magic damage. It also increased his perception, reaction speed, reflexes, learning speed, and comprehension ability.

Spirit was the stat related to mana regeneration, mana control, casting time, magic resistance, and mind resistance.

There was no need to waste time talking about the importance of the synergy between those two stats. Without spirit, your control and mana regeneration would be too weak and would make you useless. Without enough intelligence, there would be nothing to control or regenerate at all.

Heck, even if he wanted to focus on the magic path he couldn't afford to ignore his physical stats. From what Luxia said while his body didn't need to be too powerful he still needed a certain quality or he would be hurt by the mana.

'Sigh, I would have created a mess if I had carelessly assigned my AP.' Leo muttered with cold sweat running down his back.

The last two were well more independent stat.

Charisma increases your degree or likability, how easily you can build a relationship, and the power of charm skills.

Luck cannot be increased with AP and is a somewhat mysterious attribute that affects the probability of something good happening to you.

Once Luxia was done with her explanation, Leo sighed and started thinking about how he should assign his AP. While Luxia asked him to be cautious she didn't give him a specific ratio, so he would need to figure things by himself.

While in his mind he leaned more towards the magic side of things and didn't intend to be that much of a physical fighter, reality was different, unlike in a game where numbers were king in reality a rightly aimed hit could easily end a fight before it even began. There was no critical probability or bs of that kind. Someone skilled enough could kill someone stronger if he was smart enough or he could end up pulverized before doing anything.

Right now he was alone so making himself a glass cannon was the best way to ask for death. Nobody would obediently sit and let himself be bombarded to death without reacting and he didn't have that much if no fighting experience plus you never know when you'd get surrounded.

Anyway, with what he heard from Luxia he already knew he would be giving a bit of stats to every stat while focusing on the physical one first. Since his combat style leaned towards melee, it was the best right now. But once he would be given the opportunity he would swerve towards magic.

Why? Well, simply put, the talk with Luxia he managed was informed of the value his MP and HP should have been at. And he discovered that his MP was four times higher than normal while his HP was only two times. There was no need to ponder before understanding that choosing to be a melee fighter would be a waste.

'Well, I should assign my point now.' Leo said and mentally began to adjust his AP to various stats.

[Name: Leo

Race: Shadow Cat

Rank: E

Qualification: Common

Title: Reincarnated, ???

Status:

Level: 4/10

Experience (Exp): 0/400

Hitpoints (HP): 360/360

Mana points (MP): 1120/1120

Stamina: 270/270

Constitution (CONS): 5>> 9

Strength (STR): 6>> 12

Agility (AGI): 12>> 16

Intelligence (INT): 11>> 14

Spirit (SPI): 8>> 10

Charisma (CHA): 3

Luck (LUK): 4

Free attribute points (AP): 15>> 2

Skill points (SP): 9

Skills:

General: Weak Poison Resistance

Rank E: (2/10) Claw Lv2, Dash Lv2,

Rank D: (1/5) Appraisal Lv1

Bloodlines skills: Shadow cloak Lv2,

???????: ?????????Lv Max

Talent: Quick Learner, Innate hunter

Elemental Affinity: Shadow

Resistance: Poison: 5%

Currency:

System credit (SC): 10520 SC]