System’s Support

In the training grounds at the back of the dilapidated building…

"997! 998! 999! 1000!"

After doing a thousand push ups to warm up his body, Zen sat on his training mat, satisfied.

As if on cue, the backdoor to the dilapidated building also opened.

"Hmmm? I'm surprised that you're not going crazy over training right now. Is something the matter?"

Arthur, who was happily wiping off the bread crumbs and milk stains in his mouth, asked curiously.

Arthur was surprised because in the past two weeks, Zen would go straight to training whenever he descended on this world.

He even commended Zen's determination and persistence, as well as his focus that did not seem to deteriorate no matter how long and repetitive his training was.

It even got to the point where he would cringe whenever he saw Zen training because it was as if he was a monster in human clothing.

Coupled with Zen's [High-Speed Regeneration] which allowed him to take little to no rest even if he was injured, it really looked as if he was a maniac.

That was why Arthur was surprised to find his student casually sitting on the ground and not crazily training like there was no tomorrow.

'Well on second thought. He really is a maniac. The kind that doesn't have any hope from being saved.'

Zen felt his teacher's gaze which somehow made him a little uncomfortable.

Hearing his teacher's question, Zen thought for a moment and said, "I think I've reached my limit."

"Hm? Why did you say so?" Arthur replied, slightly surprised.

He remembered that this monster of a student grew and improved to the point that it seemed like he had inexhaustible potential.

'What happened?' He silently wondered.

Sorting out his thoughts, Zen felt discouraged.

"I don't know. But even gaining one attribute is taking longer and longer. Is this my limit? Will I only improve through the stat points gained through levelling?"

Arthur felt strange when he heard Zen's words. He seemed to feel that something was amiss.

"Don't worry, the only reason why I insisted for you to stay at level 1 and focus on gaining attributes through practice was to have an advantage in the future. Becoming stronger through levelling doesn't really make much of a difference."

Hearing his teacher's words, Zen felt a little bit better.

Arthur continued, "In fact, levelling is really the main way of becoming stronger since it is the way supported by the system."

"Supported by the system?" Zen asked, confused.

Arthur sat down beside Zen and continued.

"Yes, supported by the system. In fact, did you notice that I said the name of my skill when I saved you from the ghoul?"

Zen nodded, indicating that he remembered that moment.

"Then do you think that I just want to let my opponent know the name of my move? Of course not. The reason everyone who uses the system needs to chant their skill to activate it is to receive the support of the system."

"The support of the system is also the reason why most of the people worked hard in order for their techniques to receive the system's recognition and become a system skill."

After listening for a while, Zen posed a question.

"Why work hard just to receive the support of the system?"

Arthur smiled and replied, "Good question. The reason behind this is because with the system's support, the skill will receive a huge overall enhancement."

"Overall enhancement?"

"Yes. Whether it was the skill's power, speed, damage, and any other aspects of the skill. However, the other importance of receiving the system's support was because it also makes the skill stable."

"A skill without the system's support has a large chance of failing and may possibly even cause a backlash to the user."

"That is why everyone chants the name of their skill even if it was being known by the opponent. Besides, it was also advantageous for them because there are temples and other organizations that wanted their special skills to be known by many, thus attracting others to join their respective organizations."

Zen nodded, feeling enlightened by the words of his teacher.

Looking at Zen who listened patiently without showing any evidence of impatience, Arthur was satisfied. In fact, this was one of the reasons why he liked Zen so much.

Then, he patted Zen on the shoulder and said, "My apologies, it looks like I've strayed away from our topic. Describe what you feel whenever you are training. Let's see if I can help."

Zen shook his head and replied, "Mhm, it's fine. Besides, the information you said will be useful to me in the future."

After a moment, he continued, "As for what I feel… It's just like what I said. I feel like the training just for a point of attributes is getting harder and harder. As if the chasm between each point in attributes is becoming larger."

Hearing this, Arthur touched his chin and said, "Do you feel drained of energy?"

"No, I don't think I ever felt that."

"Then did you ever feel empty whenever you finished training?"

"No… I don't think so. Why did you ask, teacher?"

"Then it means that you still have potential to exhaust. And if you haven't felt anything close to what I said, then it means that you still have a lot of it."

"Then why am I not improving…" Zen asked, confused.