The Novel's Sidekick

"Anyway, congratulations on wasting another one."

I could not help but shake my head, looking at the sword. It was merely scrap metal now, and only could be used to cut vegetables—though even at that it won't be that useful.

There goes my 6 dynes. It's already over 30 dynes, and that was only spent to buy the swords. I have already spent over a hundred dynes to buy ingredients to practise high arts. If only money making was so easy. Should I just blackmail people about the secrets I know about them? No, there are still other ways.

"Looks like I need a better weapon far earlier if I want to progress on my sword art," I commented.

Using cheap swords to practise spirit arts is practically inefficient, though it does teach me some lessons about control. If I had Ember with me now, I would have never used it this carefully. Damaging Ember is almost impossible for even a Royal Knight, or Grand Magus. While I have to worry a lot when using these common swords, as my spirit arts damage them quite easily if I am not careful. Well, still being careful, it can only last a day longer.

"That's why I said we should sell the honey," Julies muttered. "It could at least buy you a low-level artifact with at least 15 to 20% reinforcement."

The artifact of this world comes with the percentage figure—it indicates how much boast it could give to spirit force. A normal low-level artifact has 10 to 20% reinforcement with no extra element, while the weapons, Knights like Lorne use are just below the top ones, it gives 80-100% spirit force Reinforcement with some other elements. Though all of it looked pale compared to the sword, I had lost to Lily.

Well, it was an unawakened item, so it does not matter for now. I'll surely take it from her when I have the chance.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "The honey is a far better item to just waste to buy a weapon which I may not use after half a year. Besides, are you taking a couple of drops of honey every day, Juls? You know, it's an excellent item to nourish the body."

"Yes, yes," Julies said, as if he did not understand me. If it was a month ago, they would have sold all the honey and partied like crazy with alcohol and all other stuff, yet now his boss's (me) entire focus was on growth.

I clicked my tongue at the bald fellow. He might not see it, but every day I got to know how useful the honey was from the hunter bees.

_____________

Name: Oscar Emberheart

Bloodline: Unawakened.

Rank: Knight Squire.

Private attributes:

-Strength: C- (Progress: 12/200)

-Agility: C (Progress: 117/500)

-Perception: C (Progress: 46/500)

-Spirit: B- (Progress: 137/2000)

Trait:

-Purgatory (Unique): (Mastery: D-)

Destiny points: 2048

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The mission gave me 28 destiny points after we returned to the mission hall for the check-in, while after that I completed a few more tasks to gain 21 points more. All the missions I took were normal ones. Well, they were mainly to train myself, so it's natural to go from Easy to difficult. However, the points I got from these missions were just some hand's change. Maybe farming points from Elinor would far more productive, unfortunately, the system doesn't work that way.

Completing these few missions, I gained some insights into how the system works.

First, the mission to collect herbs had got me 28 points while the other ones all less than 10. Well, the other ones were similar level missions, but in none of them, I met something like the hunter bees.

So here was the judgement: The destiny points system runs on mostly how others perceive one. If we hide everything about the honey and the lumps from the stings, then possibly we will get fewer points. Instead, I burned hundreds of hunter bees and came with a large container of the honey, proving we have done far better than just collecting a few herbs.

There were a lot of people in the mission hall and academy that saw us coming with the honey, and also, with my messed up face. They did laugh a lot, but one can not ignore that it was a tough accomplishment for a student. That's why the increment in the destiny points.

I even thought about blowing my trumpet all over the starlight city if I ever do something like that again. Though it would embarrass me a lot, I don't mind if I use others to do that in my stead—not to mention the increment in destiny points. I must check out my theory at least once.

Moreover, the more similar missions you do, the fewer points you will get on completions—which was actually easy to grasp. If one gets the same number of destiny points on the same mission again and again, then the power scale of this world would have been just too overpowered.

However, the story of the honey did not just end there. In just seven days, the honey helped me gain 62 points in all four attributes in total. I was not sure how much it would help me until my body would be saturated, but all of it would be worth it. I reckoned it would be 500 to 1000 according to how much effort I put in.

If I drank the honey, and slept soundly, then little good that would do, but if I train while consuming the honey, it will boost the growth exponentially. I would have never got over 30 points with just the training I did. This honey was really a life changer for me. I would certainly look for other items like honey that would work as a catalyst in my growth. The numbers were not ignorable at all; it almost doubled my normal speed, though I trained like crazy in these few days.

"Attention." the instructor said, clapping his palms, asking for everyone's attention. He came before everyone and continued. "The training will end here for today, but I have an announcement to make."

I frowned at the weary instructor. He was a retired Knight that looked after the freshman students when the regular Knight instructors was away, though I could not ignore the weary man before me. He was called Natrim Salan, one of the board members of the Knight department.

"I'm sure all of you know, from this year Grand Magus Adarsh Starlight would take the permanent position as the President of the board and the Academy," Instructor Natrim said and seeing no one was uttering anything, he continued. "Like many other Presidents over the centuries, the new president wishes to make a few changes to the academy, and it is mostly on how the teaching and tests work at the academy are taken.

"President Adarsh did not think the academy is downgrading, at least not the division of Magi, but he would like to speed up the advancement even further. He had presented a lot of plans about what he intended to change and most of them were under process. Now, why I'm speaking all of this to you fellows who are only attending the academy for a couple of weeks . . ."

Natrim stopped and looked for me for a change and a few others that have failed in the annual exam. "Through the new way, President Adarsh was intending, both the department of Knight and Magic will change a lot, and it would be better in some areas, but it will be a lot tougher for a few of you.

"The official announcement would take a couple of weeks to a month to come, but before that, I am telling you about this to make sure you all are ready for it. There is a new demotion law that will be put into action where any student who does not meet a certain goal will be demoted to the class for the Warders or the lesser talents."

The students erupt into protest this time, and I wondered why this change now. The academy was supposed to change, but it would have been from the next year. Was it something to do with the vampire attack, or did Adarsh Starlight find a new lead?

"The opposite is true as well," the instructor continued. "Students from the lesser talent classes will be promoted if they perform better than any of you. Put all of this into your mind and work hard."

Natrim left after that, and I heard the mutter of my underling.

"Looks like I could not get away with presenting empty term papers from now on."

I had the urge to slap the shiny head of Julies, hearing that. Well, with the progress I'm making, I have no fear of getting demoted nor Julies if this fellow works a little hard with the theories, but the same was not true for my other underlings.

Not all of them were geniuses, like Julie or Eran. Actually, not a single one of them was like that. Like they had not even attended today's training, even though I was attending. I put the thoughts of the others away and thought about my own position.

I have to improve Purgatory to at least C if not B within six months. That almost looked like an impossible job. Maybe if I have a lot of evil to burn, then it might be possible. If I cannot, I have to use other ways to stop Yasmine. And then there were other things.

Three things. I need to get my hands on three things before the game begins. Money, a suitable weapon and the ancient Dominion.

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1 Getsuga tenshou: a Bleach reference.

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