Chapter 5: Achievement Rewards
-----
After pressing [Yes], Vlad absorbed the corpses, leaving nothing behind at all other than whatever they carried. Their entire bodies become nourishment for his accursed Trait, the Insatiable Gluttony.
A wave of different kinds of energies reached his body, this time it wasn’t just the natural Blood Energy gained from absorbing it from another being, but something else too.
[You have absorbed the corpses of the [Night Werewolf (Tier 1: Rank 3)] [Black Fang Tribe Orc (Tier 1: Rank 4)] [Crimson Imp (Tier 1: Rank 2)] and [Crimson Imp (Tier 1: Rank 1)]!]
[You gained +400 Blood Energy.]
[You have stolen the [Lesser Werewolf Bloodline Fragment], [Lesser Black Fang Tribe Orc Bloodline Fragment], and [Lesser Imp Demon Bloodline Fragment] x2.]
[Your Bloodline is compatible with the Fragments; they have been automatically absorbed.]
[Your own Bloodline: [Strong-Blooded Dhampir Bloodline (Tier 1: Rank 1)] has absorbed all fragments and Ranked Up to Tier 1: Rank 3!]
[You gained +200 Blood Power]
[You have unlocked the Racial Skill: [Moonlight Boost (C): Lv1]
[You have unlocked the Racial Skill: [Ogre’s Muscles (C): Lv1]
[You have unlocked the Class Skill: [Treacherous (D): Lv1]
[You have reached the Racial Skill Limit of 5/5; unequipped Skills have been stored.]
[The Demonic Seed of Gluttony seems satisfied and is slowly digesting its meal.]
[You cannot absorb any more corpses for the next 10 Hours.]
Vlad noticed he had gained three strange Skills, it seemed these weren’t specifically from Vampires, but from the foes he had absorbed.
The werewolf’s Skill [Moonlight Boost], gave them enhanced speed, senses, and dexterity while below the moonlight.
The orc’s skill [Ogre’s Muscles], made them naturally bigger and stronger than others from birth.
And lastly, the [Treacherous] Skill, considered a Class Skill, was used by Imps to more easily trick and convince people.
“Gluttony lets me get Skills outside of my own Racial Limits?” he thought. “The only limit itself is the Skill Slots… Hm?”
Suddenly, he felt a tingling sensation inside of his soul, as if something else had entered and slowly digested, becoming part of it.
[You have used the [Soul-Eating Fist Technique (S): Lv1] to eat the souls of your foes.]
[Your Soul has fully digested their small souls; their Soul Ether has become yours.]
[You gained +150 Soul Ether.]
[Your Soul is in a state of recovery, eating more Souls could cause negative effects, so be wary.]
“My Soul Ether increased? So that’s why the Heavenly Demon taught me this technique… I see it now,” Paul nodded.
He quickly realized that the strategy was simple: aside from the basic tempering he had to go through after eating the pills, by eating souls, he would also be able to more easily restore his soul after it suffered the tempering process of Soul Cultivation.
“So my entire progression system is about eating everything—souls, corpses, blood, anything…” Paul thought. “Well, that’s easier said than done; I only have five minutes left in this form, might as well quickly get back home for now.”
He didn’t want to drop dead on the floor thanks to his annoying Paralysis, so he hastily carried Camilla in his arms as he jumped over the buildings and back to his house.
On the way there, he made sure that nobody followed him, using another of the Heavenly Demon’s Martial Arts known as {Void Walk}, which allowed him to walk through any surface and make no noise while also veiling his own presence into the void.
The sheer number of techniques and abilities in this ten-minute state was immense, and Paul could only practice them as much as he could and remember them later.
One of them was the {White Crane’s Flight}, which quite literally allowed him to use his own Ki to fly in the air like a superhero from comics.
The drawback was that it drained his Ki rapidly, and although he had a large pool in this form, it wasn’t infinite either.
Once back home, he quickly moved to the bathroom, where he decided to wash down Camilla after he fed her some of her blood.
He wanted to do this as quickly as possible while he could move freely, so while little Camilla enjoyed her blood bottle, he frantically washed her with all the soap and sponges he could find.
The pride of the Heavenly Demon affected his character. Vlad, the brother of Camilla, couldn’t accept that his sister was in such a state!
“Ouch, big brother, you’re scratching my head too hard…”
“Well, it has to be done because your hair is full of dust, my sister… Now, be patient; let me wash it.”
He made sure to leave her pipping clean; even washing her little feet, which were almost completely black, made the Heavenly Demon side of Vlad almost have a heart attack.
As a tyrannical overlord, he lived a life of luxury after reaching the pinnacle, so seeing this level of filth was simply unacceptable!
“Hahh… And we’re done.”
The golden and black aura covering Vlad’s body dissipated in that moment, as he fell head-first into the floor.
“Ugh… dammit.”
“Oh… Big brother fell again…”
Camilla was wearing the only clean dress she had, a pink-colored one, and black-colored shoes with white socks.
Her long, red hair looked glossy and finally well cleaned, although still a bit messy because Vlad was quite rough with his sister when washing her.
However, she finally stopped looking like a creepy and abandoned doll and more like a little noble vampire girl.
“Ugh… Camilla, can you carry me back to my room, please?”
“Okay…”
Camilla nodded as she carried her brother back to his room with her Telekinesis.
Finally, back in his room, Vlad rested on his comfortable bed and allowed himself some respite.
There were a few other things he wanted to check on his Status and new Skills, so he decided to quickly swap skills first.
[Racial Skills (5/5)]
[False Immortality (S): Lv1] [Blood Bending (A): Lv1] [Bloodline Absorption (S): Lv1] [Venomous Claws (B): Lv1] [Moonlight Boost (C): Lv1]
“They’re all good, but I want the Ogre’s muscles at least; that’ll give me some stamina, I think,” Paul thought. “Which one can I throw away? They all look useful. Moonlight Boost is a must; the full moon is always in the sky most of the time. Maybe this is why werewolves are always so fast, no matter what.”
After pondering for a minute, he swapped Venomous Claws for the Ogre’s Muscles Skill for now. The Claw Skill was strong, but he already had strong Martial Arts that even ate his foe’s souls, so it was enough for now.
[You have swapped the Racial Skill: [Venomous Claws (B): Lv1] for the [Ogre’s Muscles (C): Lv1] Racial Skill!]
The moment he equipped the Skill, Vlad felt the changes right away.
His body started squirming, and the weak muscles of his physique began to become reinforced.
This wasn’t the cultivation of a physique, but the effects of a skill tied to the bloodline of orcs.
“T-This is…?”
“Wow, brother, got a bit bulky?”
Camilla noticed the changes as she sat down by her brother’s side, finishing to drink her blood bottle while playing with wooden dolls.
It was a bit surprising she wasn’t more affected after everything happened; Paul wondered if the NPC was programmed to “forget things” because of her Broken Mind Flaw.
“Yeah, kind of…”
Paul looked more closely at his Avatar’s body, it now resembled much more his own IRL Physique, rather muscular, even a bit taller. He even felt more energetic.
[What sorcery is this? No technique of mine could fix your useless body, but you got a new Skill, and it did?!]
“Maybe there’s a way to somehow mitigate the flaws a bit…” Vlad smiled with some hope. “Perhaps with new Skills, rarer and stronger ones… Or maybe equipment too.”
[Well there’s nothing mitigating my need for a beautiful man in my life, so you better get us one no matter what!]
“Hah…”
Paul was caught off guard by that comment, he sometimes just forgot there was such a "flaw," not like he liked calling being gay a flaw, but that’s just how the game made the Heavenly Demon’s greatest wish be.
He thought that being gay itself wasn’t the flaw, but the flaw was his madness, which made him go insane because he lacked the love he always desired.
“A beautiful man…”
Paul thought for a moment, as the image of Chris appeared inside his head right away.
“Come to think of it, didn’t he log in already?”
As he thought about contacting Chris after logging out, he quickly noticed Camilla slowly crawling over the bed, covering herself with the blankets.
“Big brother, I’m eepy…”
“Wait, don’t you have a room yourself, Camilla?”
“It’s scary to be alone… I don’t want to be alone anymore…”
“Hah…”
Vlad sighed. He couldn’t really fight against the sister assigned to his character; she had become increasingly important as she was the only one capable of carrying him around, something he desperately needed to progress.
And above all, even if this was a game… Paul pitied the poor child.
"Fine, but let me tell you that your brother snores a lot.”
“I don’t care…”
Camilla cuddled with a teddy bear she had found in Vlad’s closet and then fell asleep right away.
“She’s tired…”
[She probably spent all her Arcana using that Telekinesis of hers. You better take good care of our sister! I won’t tolerate you mistreating her or ignoring her! I never had a family before, so you better appreciate the little we have.]
“Okay, don’t worry…”
Before he was to log out, however, Paul saw a new notification.
[Congratulations! You have fulfilled all conditions.]
[You have received the background-only {Achievement Title}: [Hardworking Big Brother]
[You have shown that you’re someone who takes care of their family, and you have not let Camilla feel lonely. You fed her, you protected her, and you taught her to be clean. This alone is more affection than what the little dhampir had experienced throughout her whole life.]
[Your bond with your sister has grown slightly, and Camilla now trusts her big brother more.]
[Acquisition Conditions]: [Protect, take care, and help Camilla feel less lonely.]
[Achievement Rewards]: [Arcana Stat Unlocked] [Basic Magic Formula and Theory Guide for Dummies (D Grade)] x1 [Basic Magic Circle Formation Guide for Dummies (D Grade)] x1]
“What…?!”
Paul was left perplexed; he had no idea he would get an Achievement this quickly!
Achievements were tied to titles, and whenever you get one, you’ll usually get a set of rewards as well. They were tricky to get, and every background had its own personal set of achievements, so he couldn’t really look online for them.
He never thought that acting kindly with this NPC, which simply surged naturally from his kind heart, would end up rewarding him in such a manner.
Paul noticed two new books appear on his inventory, and his Arcana Stat was automatically unlocked, with a stat number of... just 100.
“Thank you for this gift, Camilla.”
He gently caressed Camilla’s red hair before he decided to sleep as well, which would mean he would log out.
“I’ll check those books tomorrow; I am already getting tired of being inside this damn capsule.”
Paul quickly logged out after spending roughly four hours inside the game. He didn’t have much time other than that; as a busy student, he also had to do some homework the teacher gave everyone.
“Phew… What the hell?”
Paul opened his eyes wide as he noticed there were several unread messages from Chris…
[Paul]: [Shut up goblin]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Ok troll lol]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [cryingcat.jpg]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [What the hell man, I got this randomized character, and it's weird!]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Like… Ugh, it’s embarrassing to talk about it, at least I got into Obscuritas too, in some rural town. But this character is weird! I don’t like it…]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [But the game says that if I delete it, I have to wait six months to make a new one?! What kind of game is this? I want a refund!!!!11]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [dude can you help me with this somehow? I don’t know what to do… -.-]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Paul!]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Are you there?]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Can’t believe I’m being ghosted by the loner…]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [imma just log out for now, I hate this…]
“Haha, looks like he got the short end of the stick too! At least he’s on Obscuritas…” Paul smiled.
[Paul]: Okay, I’m back. What’s wrong? What’s the character like?]
Paul sent the message and went to the bathroom.
It looked like Chris didn’t have much to do because he answered very quickly after his message.
“Was he waiting for me to respond all this time?”
[Chris ;3 <3]: [you’re back dude! I was so bored… I mean, I was drawing… Anyway, this character, man… how do I even explain this thing? Ugh.]
[Paul]: [What’s wrong? What is it? Just tell me]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Aaahhh… I don’t know, it’s weird… embarrassing.]
[Paul]: [???]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [I’ll just show it to you later… Err, what’s your town name anyway?]
Paul was feeling worried about how Chris was being so secretive about it, but he let it slide anyways as he started doing his homework, nothing too big, he just had to write down some things, investigate a few others, and do it in just thirty minutes. He was a very diligent student.
[Chris ;3 <3]: [what’s your town???]
[Paul]: [Calm down, I was doing homework… my town’s name is Elderbridge, it is on the outskirts of the Iron Blood Empire’s Capital.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Nice! I am at Moon Solace. There are a lot of werewolves and moon elves here, but I think I can get there in a day. I’ll get moving there. Thankfully, this character can fly, at least.]
[Paul]: [Wait it can fly??? Did you get a gargoyle or something in the randomizer?]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Ahhh… not really, anyways, I’ll move my character there, then log out. Do we play together tomorrow or what? I am not playing this shit anymore if you’re not playing with me! You forced me into this!]
[Paul]: [I didn’t force you into anything… but ok, sure.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [nice, you’ll carry me??]
[Paul]: [I don’t think… I can do that yet.]
Paul also had his own secrets and honestly didn’t want to talk about his own character, which was quite pathetic even with the power of the Heavenly Demon.
The day went by, and Chris stopped messaging after he said he went to eat dinner with his family outside, Paul ate dinner, and then decided to go to sleep early.
Another day passed, and the next one arrived.
It was Wednesday already, and Paul couldn’t help but think the week was going by really fast.
He somehow woke up more confident today, perhaps the experiences in the game had made him feel a bit more confident in himself.
The action, the story, and everything were very moving; it helped him feel better, and many of his worries dissipated into thin air.
It was a good, sunny day, with a few clouds above the beautiful skies of LA, the seagulls flying in the sky, and people walking down the streets.
“It’s a nice day for sure~”
He was really relaxed; nothing could ever go wrong in his life.
He had figured things out already; he would work hard, study, get a nice career, work, and occasionally help his mom in the bakery.
Aside from that, he really didn’t have any other plans, his life was fine as it was, and he didn’t really plan on changing that.
“Alright, let’s do our best today as well,” he thought, trying to think with good vibes.
Yet…
“Yo~ What’s up.”
A wild Chris had appeared!
“Ahh!”
Paul felt shocked to see him standing right to his left!
He could swear he didn’t even feel him moving there.
“Hahaha! What’s wrong? You got all spooked, lol,” Chris laughed. “Were you spacing out or something? Seriously, you’re such a doofus.”
“Good morning, Chris.” Paul sighed, trying to ignore his teasing words. “Anyways, classes are starting, so let’s just-”
“Hey, girls! So this is the guy~”
Suddenly, Paul felt like his soul was about to leave his body, as he saw Chris bringing three girls with him, they were some of the friends he had made so far.
And he just brought them to Paul?!
“W-What are you doing?!” Paul thought he couldn’t even scream because of the social anxiety he felt.
“Hey, you’re Paul, right?” A really pretty girl asked; she was tall and gorgeous, with a flawless face, long blonde hair, and small green eyes. “Chris said you’re a pretty cool guy! Wanna hang out?”
“H-Hang… out?!” Paul muttered.
“Why is he screaming?” asked a girl behind Chris.
“Ah, he’s kind of shy, but that’s cute, right?” Chris giggled.
“I mean, kinda,” another girl said. “He’s handsome, though, yeah.”
Paul was slowly growing redder, Chris could swear he was seeing smoke coming out of his ears, he was barely containing his laughter after seeing him struggle so much with a basic human interaction.
“Y-Yeah, sure, nice to meet you…” Paul muttered. “So did you girls… pick programming too?”
“Yeah!” said the blonde. “I’m Carol; by the way, that’s Stacey and Ely, my besties! We’re new here, like Chris, and he said you were a senior and really nice.”
“C-Chris did?!” Paul muttered.
He didn’t know if he wanted to kill the little goblin or thank him for giving him such an opportunity!
However, his social anxiety was such a struggle that he might want to do the former.
"Alright, let’s go. Come on, dude,” Chris said, as the girls walked inside the classroom first. “You gotta be a bit more… You know, cool? Think that you’re a Chad alpha-sigma male or something like that. Girls love that, right?”
“What are you even talking about…” Paul cringed as he sighed, walking behind Chris.
Despite having seen three cute girls, his eyes still ended up stranding towards Chris's back as he ran inside the classroom.
He really had a good…
“What am I thinking? Ugh…”
Paul quickly tried to just not think about anything and become a living monolith instead.
He remained silent and calm through the entire day in the classes, barely talking other than nodding and the occasional “yeah” or “not really”.
He was trying to act cool, but he was actually just frozen due to his social anxiety.
Chris was constantly facepalming as he saw his friend fail over and over again to have a proper, entertaining conversation with any of the girls.
Carol was rather interested in him, mostly because of his looks at the beginning, so there was a chance.
But at the end of the day, all such chances were completely destroyed.
Paul was barely able to talk with the girls; their presence and beauty were too overwhelming for his shy little heart.
“Hahh… I really screwed it over; I feel like dying right now…” Paul sighed.
“Hahaha! You sure did, man. What the hell was that? I told you to be a Chad alpha-sigma male, not to become like… a silent protagonist or something. Were you imagining yourself as Cloud or Link? You weren’t even talking,” Chris kept laughing.
“Please shut the up…” Paul was dying inside.
Chris shrugged, patting his shoulders.
“What am I going to do with you~?” he giggled. “You’re such a helpless guy, good thing you got me as your friend. Come on, we can do it again another day, don’t worry. There’s a bright future ahead!”
“Of course, you’re saying that you have a natural talent for attracting girls…” Paul sighed. “And you talk so well all the time; how can you be so social? It’s so hard for me…”
“I… dunno? I just am. I grew up surrounded by a lot of friends, and my parents are very talkative, and... well, it just came out naturally. I don’t really understand why some people struggle with it so much,” Chris sighed. “But well, that’s that, and this is this, bro; it’s not the end of the world~”
“It is for me!” Paul cried, he felt like the cute little imp at his side was enjoying his suffering.
After all, the cheeky brat was smiling teasingly as he talked, as if he would ever believe his words after looking at him with that face!
“So do you have a girlfriend or something?” asked Paul. “You get along with so many girls, I bet you do, right? Or have you been with one before? Can you give me some tips?” Paul had grown more accustomed to talking with Chris, so he ended up asking him a lot of bold things.
Chris blushed a bit after hearing that, which surprised Paul.
“A-Ah! Well… I…” Chris muttered, beginning to sweat.
“Wait, don’t tell me you’ve never…?” Paul smiled; he was the one teasing him now! “Despite your popularity, you have never had a girlfriend?!”
“I-It’s not like that, dude! I just… am not into it,” Chris shrugged. “I-I mean, how do I say this… Err, fuck.”
“What?” Paul asked, he felt like Chris was afraid of something.
Of revealing something to him.
Something that could potentially drive him away and break their friendship.
Why? Mostly because not everyone was as open-minded as one would want.
“Come on, tell me, I won’t react in any weird way, is there some big reason why not?” Paul sighed.
“Yeah, I mean…”
As the two walked out of the college and reached the train station, Chris decided to just not say anything for now.
“Nothing, I just don’t like compromises, haha!” Chris gave a fake laugh, smiling. “See ya in the game then, Paul. Don’t be a lazy ass and log in quickly, I’ll be waiting for you at the town square!”
“Eh? Sure…” Paul felt slightly down. “I guess he can’t just trust me so quickly either, right? I shouldn’t have asked that; did he get upset?”
Paul didn’t really know what to think. Chris looked like someone who was really social and popular with women, but when he asked him if he had a girlfriend, he flinched because he didn’t know what to say.
It either meant he was terrible at handling romantic relationships or...
“Is he…? Maybe?”
Paul had his suspicions, but it would be rude to assume that of someone just because they were a bit feminine and didn’t act as the “standard male” or something.
Or maybe he just worried too much about everything; who knows?
“Just move on, move on.”
Paul got back home quickly and then sat on the bed, checking for Chris' messages.
He sent me a message before going to take a shower.
[Paul]: [hey Chris, sorry for asking you weird stuff earlier, I got a bit… err, well, a bit ahead of myself? I don’t know, sorry.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [it’s fine dude, forget it… were you thinking about that all the time?? lol]
[Paul]: [What’s wrong with that dude? Your response was a bit… well, whatever. Sorry again]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [there’s nothing to be sorry about, so are you going to show me your damn character or what???]
[Paul]: [I’ll do it once we meet. But he’s like a dhampir, with long white hair, red eyes, the typical fanfare.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [oooh?? That sounds kinda cool! What the hell dude…]
[Paul]: [What did you get?]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [l-let’s keep that a surprise, I’ll show it… to you once I find you, just stay in the town square once you log in.]
[Paul]: [sure…]
After finishing that frantic conversation, Paul sighed, walked to his bathroom to take yet another warm shower, ate a sandwich, and then logged in.
“Ah…”
He slowly opened his eyes, finding himself resting on his bed again.
Camilla was still there, sleeping soundly.
Unlike him, who was a Player and was given several benefits, such as a body that wouldn’t seem to age, get nasty, or need to go to the bathroom, it seemed that NPC did need such things.
Even a small nap for a Vampire lasted three to four days, so Camilla was fast asleep.
“Dammit, how do I wake her up?” he sighed. “Can I go alone? I should have just told Chris about my damn flaw!”
Vlad started to panic as he saw his sister sleeping soundly, slowly crawling out of his bed to get some clothes on.
“Wait, right, Arcana! I did get that, right?!” he thought.
He quickly opened the guides he got; the one about magic circles taught him how to create them, specifically the special Magic Circles that wizards forged inside their hearts.
By increasing their circle number and runes, wizard characters would enhance their Arcana stats and gain even stronger magic and spells.
It was the standard progression system for magicians.
Vlad was still figuring out what the class assigned to his own character; just the prince character didn’t tell him anything.
Was he a magician? A swordsman? A lancer? A tank? A rogue? What was he?!
“I mean, the only path for me is magic; my body can’t move well without it,” he sighed. “Yeah, there’s no other option.”
He watched the block. Chris said he would log inside the game in roughly an hour, as he said he was busy having lunch with his parents.
So to use that time well, Paul started frantically reading both guides as much as he could, learning about their contents.
Interestingly enough, as he read, the information was stored in mini folders of information within his own character background.
And once he finished reading everything, both guides turned into particles of light and disappeared.
“Wait, they’re gone?!”
He almost panicked before remembering everything that was stored inside his character background information.
“Okay, if I get the gist of it...” Paul thought. “I have to first imagine something, and the Arcana will naturally come out? Is that it?”
He tried that out, Vlad’s hand rising as blue-colored energy slowly started to come out, like tiny particles of azure light.
Spark, spark…!
And then these particles, through his own mental input, started to take shape.
“Form the runes first.”
The spell he wanted was an obvious one; it required three basic runes, one elemental rune as the core, and two auxiliary runes to complement the entire formula.
Each rune had its own shape and form, and each of them represented something—a word of the world itself that represented an aspect of existence.
“Arcana, Gather, Release, Wind, Connect, Flight.”
These were the five runes he required, each one taking a little while to form as the particles of Arcane slowly materialized into them.
Slowly and steadily, he created all five of them, floating in the palm of his hand.
“Here comes the harder part.”
After that, he quickly used the rest of the Arcana energy and turned it into an ethereal ring around the floating runes.
This was the magic circle!
Slowly, the magic circle encompassed the runes, as they all connected into something singular, a single spell.
“{Float}!”
FLASH!
A wave of green light erupted as the magic circle was formed, encompassing Vlad’s entire body.
“T-This is…”
His body slowly started to float, only around fifteen centimeters above the ground, but it was more than enough for him.
“It worked!”
Vlad started moving around the room, mostly by waving his own hands across the air, it helped him move as if he were sliding over the floor, even though he was floating.
“I look so dumb doing this, but it can’t be helped… Most people will think I am just another magician who doesn’t like flying, right?” Paul wondered, smiling. “I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without her, though- Ugh!”
However, his celebration came short, as Vlad found himself falling to the floor, gasping for air.
His Arcana energy was not specified completely within the status, but he only had 100.
If those 100 ran out, then any magic he had activated would run out alongside it!
“I knew it, I was only able to activate it for, like, three minutes,” he sighed. “My Arcana is way too low; what do I even do now?”
[Aren’t there any potions or elixirs that could restore that energy?]
“I bet, but they’re probably super expensive; what about the Treasury?" Can I get something that could help me?
[Nothing of the sort; in Murim, there was no such thing as Arcana, we all cultivated Ki. But you can’t properly cultivate Ki because of your flawed physique, unfortunately.]
“Damn. I need to think about something… Wait.”
And then Paul remembered something—a small post in a forum he had read.
It was about the people who chose the Alchemist Class and how they were saying they would revolutionize the entire game’s economy by providing amazing magic items.
Alchemists are capable of imbuing magic runes and spells into equipment permanently.
Not only that, but they can also give equipment their own Arcana pools, so the player can use the magic even if they lack the stat.
Paul just happened to have a Level 3 Alchemy Skill.
“I think I have an idea…”
He was making a very weird, creepy face right now, like he was thinking about some really macabre thing.
[Your face… I hope you don’t make such a face in front of your future male bride, or you might end up scaring them!]
Paul wanted to strangle the Heavenly Demon, but the bastard was already dead.
-----