Chapter 15

[Start of the Second Stage of the Proving Ground]

Everything in this proving ground went silent, but the voice in the head of every entity with wisdom in the Proving Ground continued to ignore the state of all the beings that heard it.

[Releasing level limiter] [Now all entities can access the level above the first lower Rank]

[Access to Personal Attributes, Personal Skills and Personal Traits]

[Removed Trait limiter from monsters] [Monsters can now have more than one trait]

[Monsters can now level up]

[Monsters can locate the nearest humans]

All the humans were filled with both joy for the first part, and despair for the next part.

Now monsters can't just get stronger, which they couldn't do before. They also gained the ability to use more than one Trait,

innate characteristics of himself that can be obtained by leveling up.

Worst of all, they now knew where they were no matter how much they hid, they couldn't hide from them and could only choose to escape or fight.

The monsters on the one hand were euphoric or at least,

only high-ranking ones and variants who understood the difference between before and after reaching the second stage. They could finally level the balance between themselves and those filthy humans, until now they had only been able to let their brothers die at the hands of the humans and not fight them directly,

due to his insufficient strength even being stronger than any of theirs.

The variant and rare monsters using their natural dominance over members of their own race, called out to their brothers and assembled their small armies of hundreds of monsters.

Immediately,

the variant and rare monsters took the lives of his brothers and they barely put up a fight. Due to his natural dominance over his kindred, he was able to keep them from putting up too much resistance.

Rare and variant monsters quickly increased in strength, and many of them called into the system in their mind.

The system of humans and monsters wasn't much different, but the main difference is that they didn't have Stigmata, instead they had Natural abilities and had the ability to awaken Traits more easily than humans.

The overall strength between them and the humans was slightly balanced, so the more time passed,

the strength of the monsters and humans would only grow until one of the two sides falls completely.

As the excitement and despair rapidly grew in this place, a crimson figure was coldly staring at the sky.

On the ground around him, there were countless bones of humans and monsters.

From those bodies crimson flowers grew and seemed to devour the remains of blood and flesh from the corpses.

His strength had already surpassed that of several of the strongest individuals in this testing ground. But he knew that he was not yet strong enough to face all the strongest beings in this place by himself,

he had to get stronger faster so he could devour everything in this cursed place.

She thought instinctively, as the blood flowers that had devoured blood and flesh were eaten by the crimson figure.

The time is still not right.

He thought even after becoming stronger by absorbing the life force of the monsters and humans under his feet.

***

From the human side, the mysterious voice continued.

[The second scenario is about completing certain missions in the shortest time possible]

[Each mission is intended for individuals only,

so it is not necessary to make groups to complete them]

[I wish you all luck, may the blessing of courage be with you]

Gabriel was looking at the sky when the status window appeared in front of his eyes.

—Mission List—

Main Mission: [Survive until stage 3]

Side Mission

[Kill three mid-range entities]

So this is the quest list.

He thought.

The first mission was the most difficult and easy to complete in equal parts, I didn't have to do anything directly, but I had to put my all into surviving until this stage was over.

There was also no estimated time for the start of the third stage.

The first stage took about a week and a half, so the second stage can take the same or even longer.

Anyway, I didn't have to worry about it since it was just surviving, so if I stay alive, it'll be fine.

The side quest instead was more annoying.

Because if it was just killing him it would be easy using his familiars, but he knew it wouldn't be that easy.

I had a gut feeling that even if his kin killed one or just helped him, he wouldn't count towards the quest, which would make it even more difficult for me.

He sighed and checked the status window, a transparent window appeared in front of him.

—Status Window—

Name: Gabriel

Level 9

Attributes: [--] → [Summoner (Common) | Commander (Common)]

Stigma: [Realization]

→Skills: [0]

→ Traits: [0]

I had a small change in my status window. Being that he now had attributes, something that he originally did not have.

The attributes were [summoner] and [Commander].

It wasn't too hard to tell why I got both attributes, being that it was because I had been acting like one by leading his familiars (Though it was just giving them simple orders, but that was essentially what a commander did) and summoning them through his stigma.

"Explain to me the Attributes system" I asked the mysterious voice.

Unlike Stigma's voice, this one was more inorganic and without any emotion.

The voice appeared again.

[Attributes represent notable characteristics of a Regular's personality. Some attributes can manifest as professions and interests that deeply influence a Regular's personality]

[It is also possible to obtain an attribute by constantly repeating an action or doing hard training, but this must be done for very long periods of time until the Regular understands the aspects of said concept until awakening the Attribute]

[Each attribute is rated based on strength and the link you have with that specific attribute]

[Class grades are Common, Rare, Heroic, Mythic, and Legendary]

[If a certain attribute is used often enough, and if a particular situation arises that suits its effects,

the attribute can undergo an attribute evolution, gaining a higher rating and increasing the Regular's strength accordingly]

[A Regular whose attribute evolves can also gain additional associated abilities, or make a pre-existing associated ability stronger]

I nodded. It was a lot of information

but it was quite simple to understand once it was simplified.

I check his attributes.

He first inspected [Commander] since he was the one that caught his attention the most.

[Commander] is at the common level and has no skills, but slightly increased attributes based on intelligence and leadership ability.

Its effects and information were very simple to understand, so he went with [summoner].

[Summoner] just like [Commander] was at the common level and has no skills, but slightly increased attributes based on intelligence and leadership ability.

Both attributes were pretty average,

but he supposed it was because they were at the lowest level. Once they reach [Rare] they should have more differences.

Meanwhile, she already thought about what to do now. She called to the Chloe who had been next to her.

"Did you hear it?" I asked, to which she nodded. She had heard that mysterious voice.

"So you have access to the status window?" I asked curiously.

"Yes master, I have the ability to invoke the status window" she replied without any hesitation.

I told him to show it to me, and he did. So a transparent window appeared in front of her and she showed it to me.

—Status Window—

Name: Chloe

Rank 5

Attributes: [--] → [Sword User (Common) | Loyal Servant (Common)]

Gift: [Apprentice of the Sword]

→Skills: [0]

→ Traits: [0] → [1]

There were some slight differences between the status window of a human and monster

There were Ranks instead of Levels and they had Gifts instead of Stigmata. Other than that everything was similar.

Chloe had [Sword Apprentice], the skill that had originally been given to her. Whereas she had a combat attribute and a general one.

[Sword User] increased proficiency with weapons that are similar to a sword. While [Loyal Servant] made the user of the attribute become stronger by being together with her master.

He also had a trait, but as soon as he saw the name he erased it from his head. It was best to ignore things that could cause problems later.

If she remembered correctly, obtaining traits was easier for a monster than a human. So all of his relatives should have gotten at least one trait, and at best two.

But with the large number of relatives, he would have to do it later.

Anyway, he had already given himself an idea of ​​what possible traits each familiar could obtain, obviously he didn't know the names or effects they could have, but he doubted that an ice user would obtain any trait related to fire.

So I just had to deduce it from its initial features.

For now, he wouldn't worry about it. They had to prepare for what would happen in the future now that stage 2 started.

Things would only get harder in the future and he had to get stronger, faster.

It was with that that the second stage began.