Chapter 80: Level 10, CHA And LCK Revealed!

Damian tossed another Condensing Essence Pill into his mouth.

The medicinal energy dispersed almost immediately, and with the Essence Surge Pill still happily doubling everything that counted as eligible Experience, the result appeared before him.

[+20 EXP.]

[Experience Points: 30/88.]

Another pill followed.

[+20 EXP.]

[Experience Points: 50/88.]

Then another.

[+20 EXP.]

[Experience Points: 70/88.]

Damian reached for the next pill before pausing.

This was his eleventh Condensing Essence Pill since beginning the process.

Meaning...

The adaptation threshold had finally kicked in.

The first ten pills granted ten EXP each before the Essence Surge Pill doubled them to twenty, but starting from the eleventh, each dose fell to nine EXP.

Still doubled, naturally.

He swallowed it.

[+18 EXP.]

[Experience requirement fulfilled!]

[Overall Level increased!]

[Overall Level 8 → Overall Level 9.]

[Mage Level 8 → Mage Level 9.]

[Experience Points: 0/99.]

[Free Attribute Point acquired.]

[Spell Slot acquired: Level 4 ×1.]

[Current Spell Slots:

Level 1 ×5

Level 2 ×4

Level 3 ×2

Level 4 ×2.]

[Ordinary Feat milestone reached.]

[Feat Category: General.]

[One Feat Per Level activated.]

"Perfect."

Damian was especially pleased by the zero.

No overflow this time, no awkward partial amount sitting in the next level.

The adaptation curve had practically landed him exactly where he wanted.

More importantly...

Two Level 4 Spell Slots.

He had not even acquired his first Level 4 Spell Manual yet and already possessed enough capacity to cast one twice for one tenth of the manual casting cost.

Damian could almost hear Rosewood Town’s Mages Association rubbing their hands together in the distance.

Anyway, he could and would buy the spells later.

First came the Attribute Point.

As before, Damian did not hesitate.

[SPI: 12.4 → 13.4.]

The same indescribable strengthening passed through his existence.

Damian was beginning to recognize the sensation now, although describing it remained ridiculous.

Damian rubbed his chin, as now came the interesting part.

Level 9 granted Damian two Feats.

One from the ordinary Valorian Overworld System progression, and one through <One Feat Per Level>.

He opened the General Feat selection first.

There were indeed options.

Just... not many that excited him anymore.

That was becoming a problem with Damian’s increasingly ridiculous build.

<Alert>?

Once upon a time, enhanced awareness and protection against being caught unprepared would have been wonderful.

Now he had <Divine Sense>.

Why buy a better security camera when you already possessed supernatural radar that could scan through walls?

<Mobile> had similar issues.

Enhanced movement sounded excellent until Damian remembered that he possessed <Misty Step>, absurd physical Attributes, <Perfect Combat Instinct> and now <Athlete> reducing the physical cost of movement by half.

At that point, another mobility Feat felt like buying racing tires for a teleportation circle.

<Lucky>?

Already owned it.

<Durable> and <Tough> were admittedly tempting.

More health, endurance and survivability were never useless.

However, Damian had access to Shengyuan.

One properly selected Body Feat could probably reproduce those benefits and then keep scaling alongside cultivation.

Why spend precious Valorian Feat space solving problems another power system could handle better?

That left one option Damian found genuinely useful.

<Actor>.

He selected it.

[Feat Acquired: Actor.]

[Feat Name: Actor

Feat Category: General

Effect 1: Grants the Deception Specialization at Novice mastery.

Effect 2: Grants the Performance Specialization at Novice mastery.

Effect 3: Reveals the Host’s Charisma Attribute.]

Two unfamiliar bundles of understanding settled into Damian’s mind.

<Deception> was exactly what one expected, helping him control expressions, phrasing, body language, misdirection and the thousand tiny details that determined whether someone sounded believable.

<Performance> was broader, governing deliberate presentation before an audience, whether through acting, storytelling, speech, entertainment or simply playing a role convincingly.

Useful.

Extremely useful, actually!

Damian lived in two realms while trying to ensure nobody in either one discovered that fact.

Anything improving his ability to control how others perceived him deserved respect.

Then the final effect triggered.

[Hidden Attribute revealed.]

[Charisma: 7.7.]

Damian’s eyebrows rose. "Oh?"

The System then clarified enough for Damian to reconstruct the number.

His natural Charisma before supernatural alterations had been seven, already comfortably above average.

The additional 0.7 came from the Charisma he had harvested through <Demonic Plundering Dao Body> during his battlefield excursion.

Interesting.

Damian had never considered himself some legendary lady-killer back on Earth, but seven made sense.

Charisma did not merely mean having a pretty face.

It affected presence, attractiveness, persuasion, social influence and the general ability to make people pay attention when one spoke.

Given his life before transmigration, perhaps Damian had simply never possessed enough money, health or free time to capitalize upon it.

Hard to become Casanova when your dating schedule competed with overtime shifts and hospital bills.

"Better late than never."

Now came the <One Feat Per Level> selection, and this one required far less thought.

Damian had noticed it several levels ago.

He had merely been waiting for the right moment.

<Boon of Spell Recall>.

The word Boon alone told him this was not something a normal Journeyman Mage casually picked up after breakfast.

Damian selected it.

[Feat Acquired: Boon of Spell Recall.]

[Feat Name: Boon of Spell Recall

Feat Category: Epic Boon

Effect: Whenever the Host expends a Spell Slot through successful spellcasting, there is a chance for that Spell Slot to be immediately restored.

Spell Recall Chance = ((INT × WIS) ÷ SPI) × LCK.]

Damian froze, then slowly leaned forward.

"Oh?"

Now that was interesting.

The Feat had four Attributes feeding into one formula: Intelligence, Wisdom, Spirit and...

Luck.

A second notification appeared.

[Hidden Attribute revealed.]

[Luck: 3.]

Damian’s expression immediately brightened.

Three?

According to the system, the average adult possessed roughly one point of Luck.

Meaning Damian was walking around with three times that baseline before he had even begun deliberately building the Attribute.

"Ha! I knew I was blessed!" He exclaimed with arrogance.

He paused, then remembered his former life.

"...Eventually blessed." He muttered with humility and modesty.

He quickly calculated the current recall rate.

INT stood at 11.5.

WIS also stood at 11.5.

SPI had just reached 13.4.

LCK was 3.

Eleven-point-five multiplied by eleven-point-five gave 132.25.

Divide by 13.4.

Then multiply by 3.

Approximately...

[Current Spell Recall Chance: 29.61%.]

Damian sat back.

Nearly thirty percent, huh?

Every time he spent a Spell Slot, there was nearly a one-in-three chance of simply getting the thing back immediately.

That was too broken!

Imagine casting <Fireball>, watching an entire battlefield section disappear...

Then... ding, Spell Slot refunded!

Tsk, tsk, he could already picture the weeping, mourning and gnashing of teeth from his enemies.

But there was something better.

Something much better in fact.

Damian possessed <Lucky>, a Feat that could forcibly shift one eligible outcome per day in his favor.

Spell Recall was an outcome.

Meaning that even if the Boon failed at the exact moment Damian desperately needed a Spell Slot restored...

<Lucky> could interfere.

Damian’s smile slowly became sinister. "So once per day, I can basically reality bend for free."

A critical Level 4 Spell that failed to recall, then <Lucky> nudged reality, causing the slot to be restored.

That combination alone made the Epic Boon worth taking.

And the recall percentage would continue changing as his Attributes increased.

LCK in particular had suddenly become far more interesting.

Damian mentally upgraded it from ’nice hidden stat that makes fortunate nonsense happen’ to ’please give me more immediately’.

Unfortunately, he would have to grind it out using Demonic Plundering Dao Body, as it was a hidden stat.

That was fine with Damian, because he still had a war on the other side waiting for him.

......

Damian picked up another Condensing Essence Pill.

His adaptation count now sat at eleven, meaning every pill in this band granted nine EXP before being doubled to eighteen.

He swallowed.

[+18 EXP.]

[Experience Points: 18/99.]

Another.

[+18 EXP.]

[Experience Points: 36/99.]

Third.

[+18 EXP.]

[Experience Points: 54/99.]

The entire process was so absurdly comfortable compared to his previous Qi Nourishing nightmare that he almost felt offended on behalf of his past self.

The fourth pill brought him to 72/99.

The fifth reached 90/99.

One more.

Gulp!

[+18 EXP.]

[Experience requirement fulfilled!]

[Overall Level increased!]

[Overall Level 9 → Overall Level 10.]

[Mage Level 9 → Mage Level 10.]

[Experience Points: 9/110.]

[Free Attribute Point acquired.]

[Spell Slots acquired:

Level 1 ×1

Level 2 ×1

Level 3 ×1

Level 4 ×1.]

[Current Spell Slots:

Level 1 ×6

Level 2 ×5

Level 3 ×3

Level 4 ×3.]

[One Feat Per Level activated.]

Damian released a long whistle.

Three Level 3 Spell Slots and three Level 4 Spell Slots.

His magical endurance had jumped considerably across only four levels.

And once <Boon of Spell Recall> began refunding some of those slots?

His practical casting capacity could become considerably larger than the raw numbers suggested.

Excellent!

The Attribute Point naturally went into Spirit.

[SPI: 13.4 → 14.4.]

The strange existential strengthening returned again, and Damian calmly endured the cosmic promotion.

At this rate, he would eventually reach the point where his metaphorical passport simply read:

Holy shit, it’s Damian Baines! Don’t ask questions, quickly let him through!

He chuckled.

Level 10 provided no ordinary Valorian Feat milestone.

Poor normal people.

Thankfully, Damian was not one of them.

<One Feat Per Level> activated as usual.

This time, his attention settled upon another deceptively simple combat Feat.

<Dueling>.

[Feat Name: Dueling

Feat Category: Class

Effect: While wielding a one-handed weapon and no weapon in the opposite hand, all damage dealt through that weapon is permanently multiplied by a factor of three.]

Damian’s expression became serious.

Three times damage, and the condition was ridiculously easy for the build he was already creating.

One sword and nothing in the other hand.

That was it.

He selected the Feat.

[Feat Acquired: Dueling.]

Damian slowly flexed his right hand.

The synergy with his future Bladesinger setup was obvious.

His sword would function as a normal melee weapon in close combat.

Through <Object Control>, it could become a ranged melee weapon, flying independently through the battlefield while remaining under his control.

Then Valorian enchantments could transform that same sword into a magical focus to cast spells.

One weapon with three jobs.

Slash someone standing beside him, fly one hundred meters away and stab another cultivator through the chest, then rotate in midair and spit magic from the guard.

And because it remained his one-handed weapon while the other hand carried no weapon?

<Dueling> tripled its weapon damage.

Add <Martial Adept>.

Add <Seven-Turn Sword>.

Add <Perfect Combat Instinct>.

Add his ridiculous physical Attributes.

Add the ability to manufacture the Flying Sword himself and design the enchantments around his exact needs.

Damian slowly rubbed his hands together.

"Heh heh heh..."

This was becoming unfair!

More importantly, the sword did not interfere with spellcasting.

His free hand remained available for gestures, magical components or whatever else a spell demanded, while the sword itself could eventually serve as a focus.

That was not merely a Bladesinger anymore.

That was some bastardized cultivator-Mage hybrid that would probably cause both worlds to accuse him of cheating.

Which was perfectly fine, because they would be correct!

Damian reviewed his current progression.

Level 10.

9/110 EXP.

SPI 14.4.

Spell Slots:

Six Level 1.

Five Level 2.

Three Level 3.

Three Level 4.

<Actor> had unlocked Deception and Performance while finally revealing his Charisma.

<Boon of Spell Recall> gave him a 29.61% chance to recover spent Spell Slots, with <Lucky> available once per day to bully probability when necessary.

<Dueling> had tripled his one-handed weapon damage.

And the Essence Surge Pill remained active.

Only one level remained within the Journeyman stage.

Damian looked toward the Condensing Essence Pills still sitting upon the table.

Level 11, the Adept.

The next Class Stage.

Whatever changes came with crossing that boundary were waiting just ahead.

Damian picked up another pill, excitement returning to his expression.

"Only the final level left."

Time to become an Adept!