How much?
Thirty million valis?
The instant those words left the goddess's lips, Leon's brain crashed.
But the reboot took only seconds. Mental gears already spinning, he ran the numbers at breakneck speed, calculating exactly how far that fortune could launch him.
Thirty million valis equaled thirty chances to break through his potential ceiling.
Of his five Basic Abilities, four of them besides Magic each needed seven breakthroughs to reach 900 or above. That was four times seven: twenty-eight. Magic had a higher base, so it only needed five more to hit the same mark.
Twenty-eight plus five. Thirty-three.
Thirty-three million valis to push every stat's potential past 900.
His expression shifted through several unreadable phases. The silence stretched.
Hephaestus mistook it for dissatisfaction with the price.
"Forty million valis."
"...?"
The goddess's casual correction hit him like an invisible sledgehammer. Thought ceased entirely.
"Let's say forty-five million."
She might as well have been discussing the weather.
"I'm not short on pocket change. For a research specimen this rare, the price should be fair. Don't you agree?"
Leon still hadn't moved. Tsubaki, who knew his financial situation better than anyone, pressed a palm to her face and sighed. The idiot had been completely shell-shocked by her goddess tossing out money like confetti.
"Tch!" She lifted her boot and stomped down hard on his foot.
"OW!" The spike of pain snapped him back to reality like a defibrillator.
His head jerked up toward the goddess, nodding so fast his neck might snap, voice cracking with barely contained excitement. "Forty-five million! Satisfied! Beyond satisfied!"
"Wonderful. A pleasure doing business." Hephaestus inclined her head with a slight smile.
"The pleasure is mine!" Leon's voice trembled.
Business concluded, Hephaestus exchanged a few more words with them both before sweeping back toward headquarters with the same brisk efficiency she'd arrived with. No lingering, no ceremony. The entire forty-five million valis transaction had carried roughly the same weight as buying a loaf of bread.
Leon watched her figure vanish around the corner of the alley, then exhaled like a man surfacing from deep water.
"That's the patron goddess of the Hephaestus Familia for you. The spare change that slips through her fingers could keep me fed for a lifetime."
"Hey! What are you mumbling about over there?" Tsubaki cut through his reverie without mercy. "Deal's done, so get lost. Stop cluttering up my workshop!"
"..."
Leon tucked the check bearing that astronomical figure against his chest with the care of a man handling a newborn, and drifted out of the workshop on feet that barely touched the ground. Tsubaki's shooing rolled off him like water.
"I'll be back for the armor in a few days! See you!"
...
On the walk home, Leon maintained his usual blank expression with iron discipline. Not a flicker of emotion. To anyone watching, he was just another low-level Adventurer heading back from a modest haul in the Dungeon.
The heart hammering against his ribs told a different story.
Only after he stepped through his front gate, locked the door behind him, and stood alone in the absolute privacy of his own space did he let out a long, shaking breath.
He dropped onto the stone bench, grabbed his water cup, and gulped down ice-cold water as if trying to douse a fire in his chest.
Then he pulled up his stat panel.
"Forty-five million. Plus the twelve thousand Excelia I've scraped together since I started adventuring."
"Time to use my personal cheat."
"System, show me your limits!"
"Allocate!"
The dramatic buildup complete, Leon's finger became a blur, hammering the plus icon over and over. His savings and Excelia bar drained like a dam had burst. In moments, the preset targets were done.
Thirty-three million valis and 3,300 Excelia spent. The Basic Abilities column had transformed beyond recognition.
Basic Abilities:Strength: G223 (G223 -> S923)Endurance: G266 (G266 -> S966)Dexterity: G278 (G278 -> S978)Agility: G258 (G258 -> S958)Magic: E411 (E489 -> S989)
Every single stat's potential ceiling had shattered through its former limit and reached S-rank.
The bottleneck was broken. The door to the future stood wide open. His Basic Abilities now had vast room to grow, with a real chance of reaching the peak of the current tier.
Then again, potential was only potential. Not everyone could convert a hundred percent of it into real power.
Realizing seventy to eighty percent already made you a one-in-ten-thousand genius.
The ones who fully realized their potential were monsters. Freaks of nature with off-the-charts talent, insane work ethic, unshakable willpower, and a burning purpose driving every waking moment.
Leon didn't consider himself that type. He had no singular goal worth sacrificing everything for, and his mind didn't bend toward that kind of obsession.
"Good thing I've got the cheat."
"Let's GO!"
He leapt off the bench and punched the sky three times, grinning like a maniac.
"Spent 3,300 Excelia. Roughly 8,600 left in reserve. That'll do for now."
"As for the actual stats..."
He considered it for a moment, then shook his head.
"No point burning the rest of my Excelia and savings on direct stat boosts right now. My abilities are still low enough that training and combat will raise them fast on their own. Add Scholar's Heart on top of that..."
"Once the numbers hit the ceiling and natural growth stalls out, that's when I spend the good stuff to fill in the gaps. Maximum resource efficiency."
"That alone will save an insane amount of money."
Two rounds of experimentation had given him a clear picture of the System's allocation formulas.
Breaking through the potential ceiling cost 100 Excelia and 1,000,000 valis per 100-point increase. Directly raising a stat cost 1 Excelia and 10,000 valis per point.
At his current ability caps, maxing every stat through direct allocation would eat another 3,300 Excelia and 33 million valis.
That kind of expenditure was out of the question.
Excelia and money were his most critical resources. Development Abilities could also be purchased through the System, but at 10,000 Excelia and 100 million valis per level, the price tag made his eyes water.
"Thank god it was Lady Hephaestus I sold to..." Leon shuddered at the alternative. "If I'd taken that blade to some random fence or a Guild appraiser, they'd have picked me clean to the bone."
Knowledge. Connections. Perspective. He understood their weight. Beyond exploring the Dungeon to survive and grow stronger, he'd never slacked on studying.
But he was still a Lv. 1 lower-tier Adventurer. Vast swathes of advanced and hidden knowledge remained far beyond his reach.
"Looks like I need to start hitting up the Babel library and the Guild archives on a regular basis. This whole mess was a wake-up call." The lesson carved itself into his memory.
With the money spent and the massive upgrade secured, the manic energy coursing through him finally settled.
He drained the last of his water, forced the heat in his blood to cool, and went back inside. Spreading his remaining assets across the table, he tallied everything up.
"Drop Items sold for 150,000. Minus 30,000 for armor repairs leaves 120,000."
"Yesterday's income was 6,700. Minus the 5,000 healing fee from Airmid, that's 1,700 valis."
"Previous savings: 1,500 valis."
"Plus the 12 million I kept in reserve after feeding the System..."
"Total assets: 12,123,200 valis."
He turned a coin between his fingers, thinking about next steps.
"Now that I've got magic, my combat style shifts from swordsman to mage. The old short sword's trashed anyway. I've got the staff blueprint and the Great Sacred Tree Branch I picked up by accident, so I'll put aside part of my savings for a custom staff."
Every resource funneled toward combat power.
"Tch. Plans never survive contact with reality."
Commissioning a custom staff hadn't even been on his radar at this stage. Then his finances had exploded overnight and caught him flat-footed.
"With a proper staff, fighting monsters at the same potential tier as a War Shadow would be a different story. My Scorch could Instant Cast for a quick kill. No need for that third-of-a-second charge to boost the damage."
"That settles it. But a custom staff..."
The practical obstacle surfaced, and his face twisted with frustration.
"I still need to find an enchanter. I've got zero connections in that department."
"Ugh... what a pain."
He raked his fingers through his hair until it stood in every direction, irritation mounting.
This was the downside of not belonging to a major Familia.
The established powerhouses had everything: networks, resources, logistical support, veterans mentoring rookies, broadened horizons, classified intelligence. Small Familias couldn't compete on any front.
"Nothing for it. Time to pay Wheat Manor a visit."
"Time to go see that woman."