GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

"As for your boost from Mana, that can only be increased by increasing the number of skills you have and your Proficiency with all of them. As a Tier o entity, your maximum boost is 100% or 2 in the power formula. That will increase to 200% at tier 1 or 3 in the formula."

"You should not forget skill rank either. They range from common to divine. Each rank will grant you more power."

Then Ragna asked, "Do you understand what I am saying?"

Taylor nodded. "I see what you are saying. I should focus on the acquisition of skills and their proficiency. The proficiency of a single skill affects its power, while the average proficiency of all my skills affects my mana boost."

"You are right about the last part, but not the first. Skills and their proficiency are important, but your base attributes should not be neglected."

"Not only do your attributes account for 25% of the power formula, your total attributes also increase the capacity of your existence. Your total attributes are what is known as your level. So your level determines your capacity."

"You need this capacity to hold skills. For example, common skills take up 5 levels each, while uncommon skills take up 10 levels. Once you run out of space within your existence, you won't be able to accommodate more skills."

Taylor's mouth twitched. He said, "So I can't have unlimited skills. That makes sense. But this also means I have to prioritize my attributes if I want to be able to use more powerful skills."

Ragna nodded in agreement. "You're getting it. And last but not least, level doesn't mean much on its own. Neither does the rank of a skill. You can defeat someone that is of a higher level than you or has a better skill than you as long as you have a better overall power output from your core engine than them. So you can't neglect any part of the formula."

Taylor asked, "You mentioned a Tier 1 entity earlier. What Tier are gods?"

Ragna chuckled and said, "All of you ask this question. Looks like you are all greedy for power."

"Anyway, the lowest god seeds are tier 7 compared to mortals. But the gods you saw earlier are tier 9."

Taylor opened his mouth in shock. Then he said, "That's a long way from tier o."

Ragna agreed. "Indeed, it is."

Taylor said hurriedly, "I think should get back to training then."

Ragna agreed again, "You should."

He began walking towards the third floor. He decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator in light of recent revelations about how much training he needs to do.

As he was walking, he asked something he noticed. "Do skills use both focus and stamina?"

Ragna replied, "Yes, they do. Activating the skill requires focus, while executing it requires stamina. All mental effort requires focus, while every physical effort requires stamina."

"As for Mana, it is free. If you become a god some day, you will have infinite focus and stamina. You will be able to use all the mana you want. But mana would have become too weak for you by then."

He nodded in understanding and said, "So warriors and mages both need focus and stamina." I'm guessing they need more focus, and we fighters need more stamina."

He made that guess based on the fact that he lost 50% of his total stamina after using the dash skill while he only lost 40% of his focus.

Ragna agreed. "You are right. But your situation is wrong. Not only did you use five times the stamina you needed for the skill, you also used too much focus for it. That skill should have only used 10% of your stamina and 5% of your focus at best."

Taylor chuckled, "More and more reason for why I need more training."

Ragna continued, "The average ratio is 3 to 1. Warriors need stamina that is three times their focus, while Mages need focus that is three times their stamina. Mages still need to move if they don't want to become sitting ducks."

Taylor asked more questions and got more answers from Ragna. He soaked them up and then went to train. He had more training points on hand, so he was able to afford the advanced training of sword fighting.

Ragna appeared to teach him the lessons he paid for. He taught him about stances and footwork and how to use them together with the three moves of the basic training. The stances and footwork added variety to his technique.

The lesson was better than the previous ones because not only did Ragna show him how to execute them, Ragna also activated the mana pathways in his body, so he knows how to use his skills in conjunction with the techniques.

He enjoyed the lesson so much that he decided to pay for more. So he spent an extra 100 training points to learn about counterattacking and parrying. It is not that he doesn't know about those things. He knew about them, but they are different now that he has an extra organ within him that he has engaged with the techniques.

He was engrossed in it for another two months. It was so fulfilling that he received a notification for it.

-You have gained the Sword Mastery trait.

The notification created a chime that drew his attention. It brought him out of his focused

exercise.

"Sweet. Let me see how far I have come."

-ATTRIBUTES

NAME: Taylor Thompson.

RACE: HUMAN

CLASS: SWORDMAN

TIER: 0

LEVEL: 20

CONSTITUTION: 3

STRENGTH: 5

VITALITY: 4

SPEED: 5

SPIRIT: 3

MANA: 10%

CLASS PERKS: +10% Bonus Proficiency to all sword fighting skills.

TRAITS:

Sword Mastery: 10% Bonus Proficiency to all sword fighting skills.

SKILLS:

Dash: Common (10%)

Power Strike: Common (15%)

Harden: Common (8%)

STATUS: Excited.

Four months of training and eating special food have increased his level from 15 to 20. It

means he can get another common skill. But he wants to save his level to 25, so that he can pick up an uncommon skill next.