Click!
Zold locked the door from behind and turned on the lights.
After arriving at home, he wanted to test his talent right away.
'Let's test out [Hand of Evolution] then…'
Zold sat down on his bed and reviewed the [Hand of Evolution]'s description.
[Hand of Evolution — The ability to increase certain attributes in the user or anything he touches.]
Unlike his first talent, this talent came with two active skills: [Potential Bringer] and [Evolution Control].
[Potential Bringer — The ability to bring out the user or another person's potential.]
Using evolution points, he could forcefully bring out an awakened person's potential ahead of time.
The more potential he wanted to bring out, the more points needed.
Additionally, the ceiling of the person's potential was also an important factor.
People with higher potential would require more points than those with low potential.
For example, Zold estimated that to bring out even 0.1% of his own potential, it would cost 1000 points.
But for the average awakener, he could probably bring out 10% of their potential with 10 points.
Evolution points weren't easy to obtain. He had to hunt powerful monsters to earn them.
Tier III Beasts were the bare minimum, each kill rewarding him with five evolution points.
'In short, it's useless to me but useful to everybody else…'
Zold pursed his lips.
On the bright side, he could use it to attract other awakeners and assemble his own force.
But the other skill, [Evolution Control], was where the true value of the skill lay.
Using evolution points, he could allocate them to different stats, thus increasing his strength.
He estimated that the increase would be quite substantial.
From the [Hand of Evolution]'s description, a person has five different attributes: Strength, Speed, Defense, Spirit, and Luck.
According to it, a person's overall strength was defined by the combination of these five attributes.
Zold pursed his lips, finding the system to be a bit too simple for his liking.
It was like trying to apply game logic in the real world, completely unreliable.
Regardless, that's not the thing he should focus on.
'The most powerful effect of this skill are two main points!'
The first one was being able to control the increase of one's attributes.
If he went by the [Hand of Evolution]'s system, then ordinarily, Awakeners upon awakening had different starting attributes.
Some awakeners were naturally more powerful than others, while some were naturally faster.
Everyone had their own special attribute, usually manifesting in their talents.
But then, the "problem" arose.
Although it wouldn't be obvious at first, whenever Awakeners ascended a stage, they would notice that most improvements leaned toward their special attribute.
Firstly, the way Awakeners improve their personal strength was through "ascension".
To ascend, one's spiritual energy quality and quantity must reach a certain threshold.
Then, when they reach that threshold, their spiritual energy would evolve, allowing them to go through the process of awakening once more.
When an ordinary person awakens, their physiques would be strengthened and they would gain new powers, right?
But what if an awakened person awakens once more?
These subsequent awakenings were referred to by others as "Ascension".
An awakener's attributes would double, their talents would evolve, gaining new skills, and their lifespans would even be prolonged.
In such a scenario, an Awakener with a strength-based talent would discover their strength attribute to be the one that improves the most every time they ascend.
This was a fundamental law of Awakeners.
The Imperfection Law.
While their special attributes increased rapidly, their other attributes lagged behind.
But…
This law never applied to Zold, even before in his previous life.
This wasn't his focus at all.
What truly mattered was being able to freely increase metaphysical attributes, such as Luck!
This was a very elusive concept!
'Then, the second main point is being able to go above the ceiling!'
An Awakener's attributes were often capped by the stage they were in.
Thus, Awakeners could sometimes only get as much stronger before they eventually have to ascend for them to continue getting stronger.
Even Zold was no exception to this.
But if he could still increase his attributes, regardless of the threshold…
'Then I can get as strong as I want without worrying about the stage restriction.'
Zold thought. Yet instead of making him excited, his face darkened with gloom.
[Hand of Evolution]...
It perfectly eliminated his weaknesses.
Initially, he was worrying about what he should do so he could regain his former strength quickly and improve even further, but this talent answered all his worries.
It was perfect!
It was too perfect!
"Sooner or later, I'll find out what you are…"
Zold muttered coldly.
Brushing his worries aside, Zold looked at his attributes from the [Hand of Evolution]'s evaluation.
—
STRENGTH: 10
SPEED: 10
DEFENSE: 10
SPIRIT: 10
LUCK: 1
EVOLUTION POINTS: 15
—
'As expected…'
Due to [Limitless Potential], Zold's initial attributes all began with 1.
With the exception of Luck, all of his attributes had increased significantly from his trip to the Zoo yesterday.
His first talent's effect made it that every time he grew stronger, the improvement would be equally divided among his main attributes.
This was both a good thing and a bad thing.
Because his gains would be divided every time, it took Zold much longer than the average Awakener to reach his ceiling.
But when he did reach his ceiling, he was a typical Hexagonal Warrior!
"No wonder my progress was quite slow in my previous life…"
Although Zold always theorized this to be the case, only now could he confirm it with certainty.
Regardless, this was a good thing for him.
His main advantage was always his skills and mastery, never his attributes.
This was why he found the [Hand of Evolution] classification of attributes to be too simple.
If strength was solely judged by one's attributes, he would be on the bottom of the fifteen regressors.
"I'll add 1 evolution point to strength."
Zold raised his brows and tested it out.
With a thought, he allocated 1 evolution point to his strength attribute.
—
STRENGTH: 10.25
SPEED: 10.25
DEFENSE: 10.25
SPIRIT: 10.25
LUCK: 1
EVOLUTION POINTS: 14
—
Instead of getting added to strength directly, the evolution point divided itself into the other attributes.
"As expected, Limitless Potential still overrides it."
Zold had a slight smile on his face.
This undoubtedly meant that [Hand of Evolution] was equal to or inferior to [Limitless Potential].
"There's no rush to increase my other attributes, so Luck it is."
With a thought, Zold allocated the remaining evolution points to Luck.
—
STRENGTH: 10.25
SPEED: 10.25
DEFENSE: 10.25
SPIRIT: 10.25
LUCK: 15
EVOLUTION POINTS: 0
—
Since Luck was more of a concept than a tangible attribute, evolution points added to it weren't divided, nor did it receive any divided points.
Zold nodded slightly.
'Looks like Limitless Potential only cares about the attributes that directly affect my strength…'
Strength, speed, and defense were self-explanatory.
But Spirit required some explanation.
It was an important attribute for Awakeners of a special expression path, specifically Sorcerers.
To be precise, Spirit represented the awakener's affinity with magic.
Magic was a rather broad term, but it generally referred to talents and skills that were supernatural in nature.
For example, Zold's elemental skills, such as [Prideful Flame] and [Earthly Movement], were considered magic skills.
'Alright, that's pretty much all of it.'
After finishing his talent testing, Zold put all thoughts of it behind him for the moment.
'What's next…'
Then, he frowned as he remembered something important.
He needed to make a trip to the Lunarian Dark jungle.
There was a Tier III Beast there with a skill he wanted.
In his previous life, he had obtained that skill while he was still struggling as a newly Awakened.
It was no exaggeration to say that after obtaining it, his growth skyrocketed!
It was one of his first "cheat-like" skills.
"I hope Maria does something about this lockdown soon…"
Zold stood up and opened the windows, looking through the glass.
While she was doing the work, he would also need to prepare since this trip was going to be far more dangerous than the one in the Zoo.