Chapter 129: Shocking Discovery (2)

A person with an F-Rank Soul Talent who wants to advance to E-Rank, for example, would need to kill 4,000 beasts. At first, he thought that was absolutely ridiculous, and everyone else thought so too.

Who would kill that many beasts just to do that?

Most Rank F players assume that’s something they’ll never do. That’s why most of them stay at the lower levels.

However, what would happen if someone actually killed 4,000 beasts to advance to Rank E?

Short answer: You’d get 40,000 ME.

In other words, a Level 11 Rank E character would have a total of 640 stat points.

They could have 160 stat points in each of their stats—and that’s just at Rank E!

’What the hell is this?’

He swallowed hard and crossed out that pile of numbers for a measly Rank F. ’They must be wrong...’

He did the math again, this time to go faster, using a character with a Rank C Talent.

He made it through Rank F—everything was fine... He made it through Rank E... it didn’t make much sense.

He made it through Rank D... he felt a headache coming on.

He made it through Rank C... and felt like his math had gone haywire.

In Rank C, a person who cleared the entire Rank—which means killing 1,500 beasts—would get 1.5 million ME.

15,000 stat points!

15,000!

He did it with an A-Rank Talent... and nothing made sense.

A person with an A-Rank Soul Talent levels up rapidly, but doesn’t gain the same amount of EM—which is where true statistical power comes from!

At Level 11, Rank E, that person has 15 fewer stat points than a peer at the same level who reached it with a Rank C Talent.

In Ranks E, D, and C, the difference becomes even more extreme.

’What the hell is going on?’ His heart raced, and he couldn’t find a way to calm it down.

What good is it for someone to be Level 100 if they’re going to be thousands of times weaker than a Level 50?

It doesn’t make any sense!

Why would a C-Rank Talent be better than an A-Rank Talent? Not to mention SSS-Rank!

’Am I missing something?’

He tried to recall everything he knew about strengthening and the Path to Ascension.

’An A-Rank Talent couldn’t even reach Level 100, could it?’ he thought.

But suddenly, he frowned.

"No. They can. Beasts aren’t governed by talent ranks or ME acquisition. In fact, beasts only gain stats from leveling up..." he muttered.

"Huh?" John and Erik turned to look at him. "Zaid, are you okay?" they asked.

Zaid looked up at them.

They felt uncomfortable.

"I mean, did something happen?" they asked again.

Zaid nodded...

"I want to ask you something. What were your total stats when you reached Rank E at Level 11?"

They frowned at the question.

Erick was the first to answer. "Adding them all up, I had around 280."

John nodded. "Around 300," he said.

Erick frowned and turned to look at him. "300? Were your base stats that high?"

John shook his head. "No. I don’t think so. I had a 5 in Strength, a 7 in Agility, a 6 in Vitality, and a 4 in Intelligence."

Erick blinked several times, confused. "You had the same total as me, but distributed differently. Why did you have 300 when you advanced to Rank E? Did you get a Stat Stone?"

"Um... no. I think that’s just a myth, to be honest. I’ve never seen one. Have you?"

Erick shook his head. "Me neither..." almost forgetting why he was so confused.

"John was stronger than Erick at Level 11 because his talent is Rank D," Zaid muttered.

"Huh?" Erick and John turned toward him and remembered what they had been discussing just a second ago.

"Why would he be stronger, when his talent is lower than mine?" Erick asked.

"It’s simple," Zaid said. "How many beasts did you have to kill to reach Level 11, with a Rank C Talent?"

Erick thought about it...

But Zaid didn’t give him a chance to think and answered right away. "About 200. How many did John have to kill, being a lower rank than you? Twice as many. 400 beasts."

They both nodded.

"That’s the problem with the lower ranks," they said.

"Problem? Heh, it might seem like a problem—you’re right," said Zaid, but he looked at his paper and circled the section that said "ME."

"But think about how many ME each of them earned when they leveled up... One earned 2,000 ME, enough for 20 stat points. The other earned 4,000 ME... 40 in total. That’s a 20-point difference just in that range—do you see? That’s exactly the number of stat points that separated your strength at that time,"

"..."

"..."

Everyone fell silent. Even Zaid himself was trying to process the information, which defied all logic.

However, it was true that a Rank B beast was far weaker than a Rank B human. That’s why most hunters could take down many of them.

That’s not to say they lacked strength, though. They were capable of fighting back. But if his calculations were correct, how could they possibly fight something that outclassed them by tens of thousands of stat points?

’What is the true strength of these beasts, and where does it come from?’

But even more than that...

’Did... I make a mistake?’

His mind was still trying to process how it was possible for a Rank C Talent to be, technically, superior to a Rank SSS Talent.

’At least in terms of stats, it’s better,’ he thought.

A single discovery made him doubt everything he had believed or seen up to that point.

’My brother wasn’t as physically strong as he should have been either, now that I think about it...’

He had completely overlooked the fact that, in reality, leveling up to Level 100 faster didn’t mean he’d be just as strong as if he’d leveled up more slowly.

But then again, what was the point of that?

’Who on earth came up with this flawed system?’