The Strongest Spellblade

”Welcome to a general knowledge lecture, open to students who make it to their final year. I am Professor Kratus and oversee general research into the System on an overarching level. This means looking at large datasets and other complicated factors that go into leveling, classes, skills, and the System itself. Things that can hide in plain sight often reveal themselves.”

There was nobody else here. I was the only one attending the lecture. I guess they were all busy working on skills and didn’t think coming to this open lecture was valuable. My advisor, Melody, had let me know about it.

”Now, since only one person can be bothered to attend, you can ask me any questions you wish for the remainder of the lecture,” Professor Kratus said. Ozy was training with Healer Melon now, not that most people counted pets.

”Thank you, Professor. What do you think the most important thing for me to know about the System is that most people overlook?”

”I see someone probably has a thinking skill of some kind or isn’t stupid. Too many people learn by rote but never think and ask the right questions or even bother to attend important lectures.” He was clearly annoyed that no one else had shown up. ”The most important thing is the System, and the status is hyper-exponential. You know what exponential means?”

”When something is multiplied by itself over and over,” I replied.

”Exactly. Hyper-exponential means that the curve is immense. The bottom of that curve is with Supreme Legends. But analysis of high-level monsters and experience requirements shows the curve is really steep. Impossibly steep. Many people ask about immortality skills or experience-boosting skills.”

I nodded.

”Immortality skills don’t exist. This has been confirmed in every way that a negative can be confirmed. Vitality is the key stat to increasing one’s life. As for experience, it can be increased with soul skills. Ask your question.”

”Aren’t knowledge of soul skills restricted?”

”Of course they are. But that is mainly because of cultural issues and how they were used under the Eldarin Empire. Before that, they were much more widespread. The High Vostner had many soul mages. The problem is that increasing experience increases the chance of mental instability. What is experience?” the Professor asked me, clearly intent on testing the limits of my knowledge.

”Experience is the remnant Mana left behind when a monster or person dies that is absorbed and used to strengthen one’s soul.”

”A textbook answer, but think deeper.”

”Mana carries thoughts and emotions. In fact, many skills become stronger with an emotional component pushed into them, even if it is strongly advised against. This extra Mana can mess a person’s mind up.”

”Exactly. Mana is like water. Each time it is used there is dust cast into the water. When you get experience, the dust is left behind. A strong emotional state when you are near death increases the amount of Mana your soul can take in, as your soul aligns more closely with your body during such events.”

”So, there is no good way to increase experience gain?”

”None that are known. Perhaps a natural treasure will help, like a soul fruit. But those are always in demand and rare for that very reason.”

”What else should I know about the System?”

”Beyond its hyper-exponential nature, I would say that if you wish to grow in power, don’t neglect your physical body. The soul puts tremendous strain on your physical body. While you look like an adventurer, don’t neglect certain stats and allow yourself to become unbalanced. Beyond health risks, it will make increasing your overall power more difficult.”

”Difficult how?”

”It is part of the theory of mind, body, and soul and how they are interlinked. The mind and body can be improved through the System, which imprints changes onto your soul, spreading outwards into both areas. You achieve the most growth when all three are in sync. This has been proven over large datasets and centuries.”

That was good information, the kind the College would charge a lot for.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

”What about Alchemic options to increase one’s strength? Like Mega Elixirs?”

”Alchemy is always pushing the boundaries of what is possible. But I am not an Alchemist. I would advise only that such things are quite dangerous.”

”Any other suggestions?”

”What are your skill group focuses?”

”Weapons, runes, and resistances at the moment.”

”Hmm, similar to the Supreme Legend Elena with the first two and Supreme Legend Blood Gore for the second.” He clearly didn’t know I was her son. ”Spellblade and being very hard to kill. An interesting but extensive combination. Let me think.”

I waited quietly for a minute while the Professor thought things over.

”You already have plans in mind, so I won’t suggest new skills. Runic Mastery and Weapon Mastery would be key along with mastering as many resistance skills as possible. Beyond that, the best synergy or boost you could get would be from Mana control skills and skill control skills. Both would allow you to better use resistance skills and employ runes in combat as support skills.”

”I will keep that in mind long term. What about tracking skills? If someone applied a curse skill to me and I wanted to track them down? Do you know anything?”

”I can tell that isn’t a hypothetical question. What is the tier and name of the curse skill?”

”Experience Siphon, tier 5. It used to be tier 6 until the person who used the skill was killed.”

”And it didn’t break? How troublesome. Probably some nonsense about moving one’s soul about. Don’t do that. That is a great way to lose skills, stats, and become weaker. While you might live longer, you will never get back to your former strength. Once you do something like that, then you are clinging to life, not power.”

I nodded and thought of my father.

”The skill that applied it to you hasn’t changed. I can say that much. The reduction of tier on you is a reduction of the curse that has been applied to you, not the skill from the original caster. That tier is impossible to remove with a System Priest. Even a ritual would be far too dangerous. So, you want to target the caster, which is the bluntest solution.”

”Is there another option?”

”It can be moved or tricked. A curse skill is labeled as a skill by your status and the System, but it isn’t a skill. It is a parasite that feeds off you. The trick is getting it to latch onto something else.”

”That can be done?”

”Not cheap, but you have had it for a while?”

”Yes, since just after I got my status, about a decade,” I replied, and the Professor nodded.

”A blood clone carefully grown, otherwise known as a homunculus, might work, and then you merge your Mana with it. Since it’s just an extension of you, the curse can be moved over using certain methods. With Experience Siphon, we would tempt it with experience. Much easier than other cursed skills that target the body.”

”And how easy is it to create this homunculus? Why hasn’t anyone told me about it? My parents spent a lot of time and money asking about it.”

”Oh, you are Elena’s child. I remember talking to her about this very option. She objected since a homunculus grown with your Mana can be used to target you remotely. It is a huge vulnerability and takes a long time to create.”

”How long?”

”About two decades and it would require constant supervision and applications of skills to ensure it is properly grown. While it could be rushed, for something like a tier 5 curse skill the best homunculus would be needed, which means going slowly, and using up a lot of Mana converting it to your Mana signature to infuse into the homunculus.”

”Could someone be attacked like that? Creating a homunculus?”

”It is possible, but a direct sample of one’s Mana is needed. That isn’t easily collected, and special equipment is needed to keep the Mana isolated. It isn’t something you can do in the dungeon just by meeting someone. If you could afford the cost of such a thing, you could afford assassins or faster methods. Also, against the truly strong, they could resist anything that might be done.”

”How much?”

”Oh, just ten thousand platinum,” he replied. My mind went blank at that amount. ”Or you could pay with a green soul fruit. They have comparable value, not that they are easily priced since the demand is so high and they are so rare. But if one was put up in our exchange, you could easily raise the funds.”

”Ten thousand platinum,” I hesitantly repeated. That amount was massive and I wouldn’t have access to it for a long time. That my mother had given me two green soul fruits hit me hard about how lucky I was having her as a mother.

”I don’t suppose a payment plan is an option?”

”Unfortunately, no. Growing such a homunculus would require round-the-clock supervision for two decades, with skills applied daily to ensure its proper growth. Then all the monster’s cores that would be needed to fuel it with Mana, with quite a bit being lost, altering the Mana to match your exact Mana.”

”Even if I got older or more skills, would my Mana change?”

”Surprisingly no. Oh, but no new classes during that time. That would impact the Mana signature, but skills, even tier 6 would be fine.”

”And it can’t be sped up?”

”Not if you want a 100% surety of removing the curse skill from yourself. If I could reduce the time or price, I would since it would help fund my research, but this kind of thing is rarely done. You can ask anyone, including the Five Star Institute of Healing, for a second opinion. I am not lying.”

”They knew about my curse skill but didn’t suggest this.”

”Because it is ruinously expensive. People only make a homunculus to escape death or use as a proxy in very rare cases. But it often isn’t worthwhile because of the associated risks. So, while an adventurer could leave a homunculus on the surface and it would be linked with their main body, the risk of being attacked through it is too high. The only people who normally use such things are terrorists and criminals to escape their crimes,” he explained.

That lined up with what I knew of the Dark Cabal. I thought back to their offer, but I would not let myself be tempted by such nonsense. Also, it was far too late to take it up anyway, even if I changed my mind.