Chapter 200: Founding Monarch, Class Specialties, Energy Traits

Thinking of this, Lance set down the spoon in his hand and raised his head toward the opposite side.

“Uncle Ryan, after becoming a Professional, is the only way to continue increasing base attributes in the future simply by leveling up one’s class?”

Lance voiced the doubt lingering in his heart.

In truth, ever since Ryan casually spoke about the exclusive Class Advancement Ritual of the hidden god Chaos earlier, Lance had already stopped viewing the elder before him as an ordinary retired soldier.

The other party absolutely possessed an extraordinary past.

However, since Ryan chose to bury those past events deep within his heart, Lance tacitly refrained from asking further questions.

Everyone had the right to keep their own secrets.

At the very least, Ryan had lived peacefully in Graystone Town for over a decade, so those troubles had likely long since been completely severed.

Hearing Lance’s question, Ryan carefully recalled the knowledge system regarding the supernatural domain within his mind before giving an affirmative answer.

“In this world, every method capable of directly increasing a Professional’s base attributes is extraordinarily precious.”

“Because that’s equivalent to forcibly broadening a person’s life potential.”

“And among these methods, there exists one ironclad law.”

“Once a person uses any particular attribute-enhancing method once, the body will develop absolute resistance to it.”

“A second use will become completely ineffective.”

“So within Professional circles, every time a rare resource capable of increasing attributes appears, it immediately triggers frantic competition among all Professionals.”

After hearing the old soldier’s explanation, Lance instantly thought of his Biological Research Panel.

The natives of this world had to risk their lives for even tiny attribute bonuses, while also suffering strict resistance limitations.

But he was completely different.

As long as he continued farming research progress from different monster species in the wilderness, he could endlessly extract racial talents and attribute bonuses from those creatures.

As long as there was sufficient species diversity, he could ignore this world’s restrictive rules and endlessly stack his life potential.

This meant that when facing future adventurers of the same rank, he would possess a gap in power so overwhelming it would drive others to despair.

“Now that you’ve successfully ignited your Source Furnace and become a true Professional—”

The old soldier paused slightly before shifting the topic toward more immediate matters.

“When the first week of the Summer Crown begins next month, you need to hurry to White River City.”

“Go to the Veterans’ Hall there and officially use the Heroic Spirit Baptism quota I transferred to you earlier.”

“The permanent enhancement brought by that baptism will greatly help your future dungeon explorations.”

At this point, Ryan seemed to think of something amusing, and the corners of his lips couldn’t help curling upward.

“That quota only becomes active during the first week of the Summer Crown every year.”

“During the ritual, you’ll encounter those newly advanced nobles and royal family members from the capital seeking resonance with Heroic Spirits.”

“Kid, remember this carefully. If you encounter a choice during the baptism ritual and get the opportunity, then no matter what, you must fight with everything you have to select a legend related to Clovis Pendragon.”

“The founding monarch?”

Lance froze briefly.

Within the kingdom’s general education system, that name was universally known.

Ryan nodded with a smile.

“That’s right.”

“Back then on the battlefield, he carried the mighty title of the ‘Red Dragon.’”

“And in the end, he killed the ‘White Dragon’ during the northern war, which allowed him to successfully establish our present Iris Kingdom.”

Ryan had personally witnessed the majestic Red Dragon phantom behind Lance.

If Lance could resonate during the Heroic Spirit Baptism with the founding monarch who possessed the title of Red Dragon, then the enhancement he obtained would absolutely undergo some astonishing qualitative transformation.

And moreover, it would also serve as a perfect slap to the faces of those nobles within the capital. Rumor had it that the royal family’s princess known as the “Scarlet Crown Red Dragon” should also complete her Class Advancement within the next two years. If they encountered each other, things would become very interesting.

The two were just about to continue chatting along this topic—

When suddenly, a huge commotion erupted from the street outside the house.

Chaotic footsteps mixed with cheers penetrated through the wooden door, sounding as though a large crowd had suddenly flooded the street.

Ryan instantly withdrew the smile from his face.

“I’ll go outside and see what happened. Sit here and keep eating.”

It sounded like some kind of major good news had occurred outside.

Watching Ryan lean on his new cane and push open the door, Lance withdrew his gaze.

He once again focused his attention upon the virtual panel before him and continued carefully examining the class information he had not yet fully digested.

The difference between Legacy Classes and ordinary classes was not merely reflected in explosive growth of base attributes.

Their true core advantage lay within special class specialties.

Ordinary Professionals could only select abilities from the normal specialty pool, while Legacy Classes possessed an exclusive specialty pool in addition to compatible foundational specialties.

According to class rules, every level gained granted one specialty point for strengthening oneself.

Using his thoughts, Lance opened the specialty tree of 【Pale Sentinel】.

Among the numerous specialty icons, he locked onto the three exclusive abilities available at Level 1:

【Death Kingdom Pact】, 【Unyielding Ironwall】, and 【Deathline Hold】.

He first looked toward the option 【Death Kingdom Pact】.

Its effect allowed Lance to designate one to three allied targets and bear half of their physical or mental damage for them.

For a team core member, this specialty was practically a divine skill.

But Lance skipped over it after only one glance.

He currently had no teammates whatsoever to share damage with, so selecting it would be a complete waste.

The remaining two options caused him to hesitate briefly.

The effect of 【Unyielding Ironwall】 was extremely hardcore.

It granted immunity against all forced displacement effects from enemies of equal or lower rank, such as knockbacks and pulls.

At the same time, it greatly reduced the loss of mobility caused by limb destruction.

This meant that even if one’s arm was broken or half the body torn apart, the Aether Energy within the heart could still forcibly surge outward to replace tendons and maintain complete combat movements until total death.

This somewhat resembled the previously obtained Legacy “Reject Death,” but its manifestation leaned more toward desperate battle.

After selecting it, the resulting appearance would resemble severed limbs continuing to fight while connected by Aether Energy.

Or even energy directly transforming into substitute limbs for battle.

Meanwhile, the other option, 【Deathline Hold】, tempted him equally strongly.

It forcibly reduced all frontal physical and magical damage received by the body by 15%, while any sneak attack attempting to bypass defenses from behind would instantly trigger “instinctive” target locking.

Under this state, Lance’s opportunity attacks against ambushers would gain a direct 50% increase in weak-point detection rate.

Lance carefully weighed the options within his mind for a moment before ultimately selecting 【Deathline Hold】.

The reason for abandoning 【Unyielding Ironwall】 was simple.

While the combat effect of reconnecting severed limbs was undeniably fierce, it overlapped significantly with his existing trump cards.

In comparison, 【Deathline Hold】 fit his current combat system far better.

The permanent frontal damage reduction combined with the toughened skin extracted from monsters could elevate his defense to astonishing levels.

And within the perilous environment of underground dungeons, guarding against attacks from behind was the first law of survival.

Instinctive target locking and counterattack weak-point detection perfectly compensated for the tactical blind spot caused by his lack of rear protection during solo exploration.

After selecting his specialty—

The final attribute closely tied to his class was the Aether Energy currently flowing within the furnace of his heart.

Through the high-temperature tempering of the Source Furnace, class traits and personal Source Essence energy completely merged together, forming high-grade Aether Energy capable of becoming tangible and attaching to weapons.

The exclusive name of Lance’s energy was: Ember Dragon Breath.

While chewing chunks of meat, Lance attempted to mobilize this new power.

He guided a small amount of Aether Energy along his arm and secretly attached it to the wooden spoon in his hand.

Instantly, the surface of the spoon glowed with a layer of silver-white radiance.

However, around the outer edge of that silver glow rolled a dangerous dark-red coloration resembling molten magma.

The special effect of his energy was this:

Using Ember Dragon Breath in combat inflicted astonishing high-temperature damage upon enemies.

Even more terrifying, the dark-red energy would burrow into enemy wounds like a living creature, burning their flesh from the inside out.

Not only would this cause continuous destruction, it would also inflict a partial healing prohibition effect upon the target.

Whether natural physical regeneration or healing through magic, all recovery effects would be drastically reduced by percentage values.

This special effect was incredibly powerful in actual combat.

Against enemies possessing tough vitality or healing abilities, the healing prohibition effect could directly destroy their capacity to fight attrition battles, turning prolonged warfare into one-sided suppression.

Just as Lance was marveling at the terrifying strength of this power—

The wooden spoon, unable to endure the extreme heat, directly turned into a pile of black ash within the air.

The half-spoonful of meat soup it had been supporting immediately splashed across the tabletop.