Chapter 105: Attribute Extremes?

In the following days, the villa echoed with the clanging sounds of construction as the engineering team completed the building and renovations with remarkable speed.

Chu Cheng was far from idle. After spending a day familiarizing himself with the floating city, he applied for a training room to begin practicing his weapon skills.

The training rooms in the Starlight Tower were incomparable to those back at Fifth Middle School—private spaces where one could freely choose opponents, even simulate lord-level bosses. But the best sparring partners were not these lords; they were the specialized weapon skill instructors.

Each instructor excelled in a particular weapon skill, with the highest reaching master level, capable of customizing weapons, armor, and skills.

The best part? It was all free.

Upon learning this, Chu Cheng eagerly threw himself into training.

His primary weapon was a one-handed sword, so he focused solely on mastering that, aiming to quickly elevate himself to the master or even grandmaster level.

Before reaching proficiency, weapon skill improvement was relatively swift; even without his unique advantage, one could reach proficiency in about a year with dedication.

However, advancing beyond proficiency to expert, master, and grandmaster levels was exponentially more difficult, demanding time and effort beyond ordinary comprehension.

Without innate talent, many would never reach master level in their lifetime, let alone grandmaster.

Skill manuals could accelerate progress but only up to the expert level at best.

Moreover, using these manuals had side effects; since the advancement was forced, the foundation was never as solid as self-developed skills, making subsequent progress to master and grandmaster levels slower than normal—or even impossible if the foundation was weak.

After nearly a week of continuous training, Chu Cheng suddenly received a message from assistant instructor Lu Dongrui:

“Student Chu Cheng, please come to the assistant instructor’s office.”

Chu Cheng snapped his fingers, freezing his opponent mid-attack in the void, and promptly replied, “I’m on my way.”

Exiting the training room, he commanded the magical puppet at the door to perform a spell to quickly dry his sweat, changed clothes, and stepped outside.

There was no need to hurry; at the villa district’s teleportation platform, he could instantly transport anywhere within the floating city.

With a spatial shift, he appeared on the sixth floor of the central Mage Tower of the floating city, where the five assistant instructors’ offices were located.

Exiting the teleportation chamber, he noticed four youths around his age all looking his way in the hall.

Chu Cheng paused momentarily, then smiled and nodded in greeting.

Unsurprisingly, they were fellow disciples from the same sect as Yun Dingge.

He took a seat in an empty spot. The boy to his right smiled and nodded, introducing himself:

“I’m Chen Shuang from Yunguan City in Qiongjiang Province.”

“Chu Cheng, from Yuntai City in Tianshui Province,” he replied.

Two others nearby—a boy and a girl—ceased their conversation and introduced themselves in turn:

“Shi Hui, from Diancang City in Yunfan Province.”

“Cai Guangqi, from Tanan City in Leiyuan Province.”

“Yang Chuchu, from Lingfeng City in Leiyuan Province.”

The last two, Cai Guangqi and Yang Chuchu, acted very familiarly with each other and came from the same place; they seemed a couple.

Since it was their first meeting, conversation was minimal—simple introductions and some talk about their hometowns—passing the time idly.

Before long, the office door opened, and a youth emerged as a loud voice called out from inside:

“Chen Shuang!”

Chen Shuang immediately stood and entered the office.

Shi Hui asked the youth who had just come out, “Li Bin, what did the assistant instructor want with us?”

“Nothing much, just to ask about my attribute limits and run a check.”

“What’s your limit then?”

Li Bin looked surprised and said nothing.

Realizing he’d asked a silly question, he gave an embarrassed smile.

After a brief chat, Li Bin excused himself and left.

A short while later, two more freshmen emerged from the teleportation chamber.

About five minutes later, the office door opened again; Chen Shuang came out, and inside, they called for Shi Hui.

Time passed as new students arrived intermittently, each called in for examination one by one.

After Cai Guangqi and Yang Chuchu, it was finally Chu Cheng’s turn.

Entering the office, he saw both assistant instructors Lu Dongrui and Lu Guichen present.

They gestured for him to sit. Lu Dongrui asked:

“Do you know your attribute limits?”

Chu Cheng shook his head.

“No, I’ve never been tested before.”

“Share your attributes with us.”

“Just the primary attributes will do.”

Chu Cheng nodded, summoned his attribute panel, and shared the primary attribute section.

“Hmm.”

“Hmm?”

Lu Dongrui uttered two soft sounds in sequence—the first neutral, the second tinged with surprise and curiosity.

“You’ve allocated so many points in constitution and still haven’t reached the limit?”

“Yes.”

Lu Guichen, who had been taking notes nearby, looked up with equal astonishment, tossed down his quill, and stood with interest.

“Let’s test it and see what your limits are.”

Chu Cheng stood immediately, eager to know his attribute limits.

Attribute limits could be understood as innate aptitude. Each person had a maximum cap for freely allocated points in each primary attribute, referred to as the attribute limit.

These limits fell into three broad tiers: below extraordinary, extraordinary rank, and legendary rank.

Some had constitution limits as low as 100, meaning they couldn’t increase constitution beyond 100 points before breaking through to the extraordinary rank.

Others could reach 200 points before that breakthrough—double the ordinary.

Attribute limits included innate attributes, free attribute points gained per level, permanent attribute boosts from potions, story-related free points, and all permanently effective points.

Equipment bonuses were excluded.

Chu Cheng had no idea what his attribute limits were. Ordinary middle schools couldn’t test this, and the Chu family was a minor clan without such capability.

Yuntai City had several places for testing, but applications took a long time.

Previously, testing attribute limits had little meaning; once you hit the cap, you simply couldn’t allocate more points until breaking through, so the limit revealed itself naturally.

But Chu Cheng had never hit his limit, so he remained unaware of it.

Lu Guichen led him via teleportation to an unknown location inside the Mage Tower, where a massive testing array awaited.

He was instructed to stand on the array. Lu Guichen activated it, and immense magical energy swirled, invisible waves slowly rising in circles.

Once fully activated, invisible, translucent streams of light passed through Chu Cheng’s body.

These rays carried a faint brilliance.

The brilliance gathered above the array, forming a line of numbers that looked somewhat familiar to him.

After a moment, the test concluded. Lu Guichen nodded, holding the test data, then beckoned Chu Cheng over, handing him a tablet and saying:

“Not bad. Take a look.”