Peak Squire-stage body

The Clerk's shock was understandable. 

Getting a C - quality rating within an hour of refining was unheard of. The old man stared at Hex as if he had found a treasure. 

"T-this is…Heavens…," the man stammered, not knowing how to proceed. Hex watched the man's shocked response with a calm expression. Inwardly, he was thanking his luck.

'Thank the Heavens I kept my disguise on.' 

"I guess I got lucky," he said with a chuckle. "What is it worth in coins?" 

Hex was already content with the amount of energy he absorbed. But to avoid suspicion, he asked the Clerk about the payment. 

Although the old man was still in shock, he still retrieved a pouch with coins. 

"A C-quality crystal pays five hundred coins."

Hex happily took the pouch. 'Not only was I able to absorb energy at their cost, they even are paying me for it.' Hex almost burst out laughing. 

Just as he was about to leave the temple, the old Clerk stopped him. 

"Sir, wait please."

Hex looked at the man with a raised brow, although he suspected the old man's intent. 

"Sir, when will you come again? We can increase the reward if you could come more often."

"I will come soon. I have a few other things going on."

With that, Hex left the old man behind. 

'I will return during the second round of the tournament. Attracting too much attention wouldn't do us good in this phase."

At the moment they were trying to investigate the Dawnbringers. He even would infiltrate the sermon in a few days. He couldn't have a lot of variables. 

'Even now we are running blind primarily because we don't know all their members.' 

The Knights were capable of apprehending all the suspects they knew of. But their real target was the Herald. Unless the Herald was caught, the Dawnbringers wouldn't be stopped. 

'Hopefully, we can get a big fish in our net after the sermon.'

…

The next day Hex stood in the middle of the training room, in front of the measuring equipment. He retrieved a small box from his pouch, filled with pills. 

A medicinal aroma wafted out when Hex opened the box. Hex looked at the pills, recollecting the previous time he had swallowed four.

'I nearly lost consciousness last time after I took four. I should be able to swallow even more now.' Hex's body was stronger and should be able to hold more energy. 

Hex took a deep breath. One by one, he started to swallow the pills. All the Knight-grade pills melted on his tongue. 

Having experienced the process once, he didn't wait to sense the energy contained in the pills. Without pause, he swallowed pill after pill.

When he reached the seventh pill, he started to feel the chaotic energy wreaking havoc on the inside. 

But Hex didn't stop. With gritted teeth, he pushed himself to swallow the remaining pills. His body was trembling and hurting.

With each pill, he felt the energy well up. It felt as if the energy would burst him open. 

By the tenth pill, he barely held it together. His hands were shaking. It took Hex everything he had to push the pill inside his mouth. 

Bam!

The tenth pill was the limit. Hex felt as if his insides had exploded. The next moment everything went dark. 

…

"Arg."

Hex groaned as he pulled himself up. It took him a while to regain his composure. 

Losing consciousness seemed like a normal thing for Hex. But it wasn't without its benefits.

'Last time I couldn't stand after four pills and it took me a whole night to recover. This time I could absorb the energy of ten pills and it's not even dusk yet.'

Hex peered through the broken windows of the training room. The sun was still far from going under.

'I wonder how long before I can go all out without fainting,' Hex mused, mocking himself.

But once he looked at the measuring equipment, he became excited. 

'Those ten pills should have increased my pure physical strength to above the sixteen crystals. But let's see to what level,' Hex thought, anticipating the result.

BOOM!

White light shot out from the bottom. Crystals lit up, one after the other. Hex's eyes were glued to the staff.

As he had expected, crystals after crystals radiated bright white light. 

'Sixteen…nineteen, twenty-o…one!' 

Seeing the topmost crystal shining brightly, Hex was stunned for a while. Then he started to laugh boisterously.

"Peak Squire-stage body. Even if I run out of energy, I can keep fighting against Blessed!"

Just like energy could be absorbed, enhanced, and refined, so could the human body. It did require the use of a lot of resources. 

Hex suspected that the average human would require tens or even hundreds of thousands of coins to have a body comparable to his.

"My stone heart truly fits its title as the ultimate treasure in the world. I perfected my body using just a fraction of the resources. And that too in such a short time!"

Hex was filled with joy as he exited the training room. His energy-based attacks were also at their peak now. That too while he was still a double Blessed.

'I think this is why the baron said it was a good thing to have a second Blessing focused on enhancing my attributes. At the peak, I can focus on varying my skill set instead of improving my energy.'

Reaching the triple Blessing state was not hard for Hex. He just required more energy so every part of his body was saturated with energy.

'I suspect a couple of weeks of crystal refinement should do the trick. I can now focus on training with techniques and improving my combat skills.'

The remainder of the time until the night of the sermon, Hex spent studying and practicing the Flex Step. 

Apart from moving only upward or downward, he became adept at stepping in the air at different angles. 

Combined with his sparring sessions with Althea, he soon was skilled at fighting, while moving through the air. 

Although he couldn't defeat the girl, he wasn't defeated either. His combat awareness had improved by leaps and bounds. 

Time passed and soon it was the evening of the sermon. Using the darkness as a veil, Hex led Althea through the slums.

Hidden in Hex's old house, they readied themselves to replace the old couple. And then…infiltrate the group participating in the sermon.