Chapter Twenty-Eight: Comprehensive Advancement (Part Two)

And don’t even mention making up for it with extra attribute points. Indeed, some top families possess numerous dungeons, allowing them to harvest a steady supply of free attribute points and skill stones, and can thus support the emergence of a multi-class powerhouse with every class at the highest level. But—how many people can you afford to cultivate this way? Can you keep it up indefinitely?

Beyond attribute points, there are skill points to consider. Double-classing requires double the skill set, which means more skill points are needed to upgrade all those skills. You should know that as you progress, each level grants more attributes, but the demands for attributes and skill points become increasingly outrageous. Once you start down the multi-class path, there’s no turning back; if you invested at the beginning, you have to keep investing until the end.

Only a handful of the most powerful, direct heirs of great houses can afford this; the vast majority simply aren’t qualified. There’s another problem, too: the experience required to level up as a multi-class is not just double, but triple that of a single class. In other words, if you pick up one extra class, you need three times the experience to level up. With two extra classes, the requirement jumps to five times. In theory, there’s no upper limit to how many classes you can take, but...

Imagine pouring in all those resources, yet you only get the ordinary combat strength of two normal classes. If you invested all those extra attribute and skill points into a single class, the resulting power would far surpass what you’d get from just two. That’s why almost no one chooses to multi-class; even among the elite scions of great houses, most stick to one class, with only a rare few attempting more.

“Next, I’ll go practice some skills.”

With his thoughts collected, Chu Cheng closed his status panel and left the house, heading to the school’s training room to work on his weapon skills. Weapon skills can’t be upgraded with skill points; they only have proficiency, which increases slightly with each successful use. Once proficiency reaches 100%, the skill advances to the next level.

Weapon skills aren’t ranked with the usual LV system, but by tiers: Novice, Adept, Expert, Specialist, Master, Grandmaster, and Legendary.

Currently, Chu Cheng has learned three weapon skills: Dagger—Novice, One-Handed Sword—Adept, Dual Wield—Novice.

Weapon skills improve one’s familiarity and combat technique with the weapon; the higher the skill rank, the greater the finesse, and the more the weapon’s potential can be harnessed in battle.

Most martial skills have certain weapon requirements. Sometimes these aren’t explicitly listed in the stats, but they do impact how certain techniques perform. For example, the skill “Frenzy” that Chu Cheng is learning doesn’t specify a weapon type in its description, but tests show that it’s more effective with light weapons. Conversely, using heavy weapons like greatswords or battle axes to activate this skill causes extra stamina consumption—the heavier the weapon, the greater the drain.

Normally, raising weapon proficiency comes from fighting in dungeons, or by sparring with other Descendants, or by paying for a customized sparring partner. Hitting a training dummy doesn’t help, unless you summon monsters with a scroll and fight them. In short, weapon skills can’t be faked—they are honed through genuine combat.

Thanks to his student status, the school provides special training rooms where, for a fee, one can summon monsters for practice. These monsters are drawn from dungeons the school controls and can be customized in both type and level. For humanoid monsters, you can even specify their armor and weapons.

Not wanting to wait in line for the free rooms, Chu Cheng simply paid ten silver coins to rent a high-level room. As soon as he entered, a customization screen appeared before him, allowing him to fine-tune every aspect of his opponent.

“Set level to fifteen, elite template, and as for skills…”

His fingers danced across the panel, quickly finishing the setup.

“Let’s see if this is worth the price.”

This configuration cost him a steep fifteen silver coins, but he considered it worthwhile—the stronger the skills, the better the training.

After payment, a pillar of summoning light descended, and when the glow faded, a level fifteen elite human swordsman appeared before him, with expert-level one-handed swordsmanship.

The swordsman’s template was top-notch, and the equipment was excellent, but the weapons provided were just two level-five plain one-handed swords, severely limiting his offensive power—only fifty-two attack points. After accounting for thirty points absorbed by innate talent, fourteen by his armor, and then factoring in defense, the actual damage barely exceeded five points.

Once the isolation barrier vanished, the swordsman charged at him with twin blades drawn, swift as an arrow.

The clash of steel rang out in rapid succession as the two combatants, both wielding twin swords, instantly locked into a fierce melee.

Chu Cheng hadn’t equipped his opponent with extra skills, nor was he using any himself—only his innate talent was active, which absorbed attacks but did not reflect them.

Relying on his high defense and health regeneration, he endured the onslaught head-on.

This custom opponent’s one-handed sword skill was one level higher than his own—Expert compared to Adept—making him a more skilled, but not overwhelming, adversary. It was the perfect training partner.

As long as he didn’t kill his opponent, he could remain in the room indefinitely.

The total cost of twenty-five silver coins meant he could train as long as he liked… Of course, one can’t stay forever—you’d get hungry—but training for seven or eight hours at a stretch was no problem.

Because the school prohibited entering non-school dungeons during major sessions, Chu Cheng devoted all his time in the following days to improving his weapon skills, spending each day in the training room.

He’d spend twenty-five silver to reserve a deluxe room and an opponent with expert one-handed swordsmanship, training non-stop for seven or eight hours until he was utterly exhausted.

Perhaps because of his focus, his proficiency increased at a remarkable rate—gaining more than ten percent each day.

In less than a week, his skill reached one hundred percent, advancing to Expert, and since he fought with two weapons throughout, his Dual Wield skill also rose to Adept.

Next, he switched weapons, bought two level-five plain daggers, and began training dagger skills.

During this period, he also purchased several other weapon skill scrolls he might use: single-handed axe, gauntlet, firearms, bow, and thrown weapons.

In ten days, he elevated his dagger skill from Novice to Expert, and more than half a month had already passed.

Then, he spent another ten days raising his firearms skill from Novice to Expert.

“This rate of progress is a little ridiculous. Is it possible my golden finger is accelerating things as well?”

By then, twenty-eight days of the month had passed—just under two days remained until the next major session. But Chu Cheng’s mind was not on the class; instead, he was taking inventory of his monthly gains.

In just twenty-eight days, his dagger, one-handed sword, firearms, and dual wield skills had all reached Expert—four weapon skills in total. That was truly extraordinary.

Although in the past he’d been too poor to afford luxury training rooms and customized opponents, he had heard from teachers and classmates that such rapid advancement was unheard of.

Weapon skills are all about diligent practice, and improvements are slow; no one had ever heard of progress at this speed.

Three days from Novice to Adept.

Seven days from Adept to Expert.

“A bit absurd!”

“But I like it!”

Whether or not it was his golden finger speeding things along, it was nothing but a blessing.