Ascension: Online

The next morning, we woke up at around 8 AM and immediately set out for the Hunter's Guild. Unfortunately, Ichigo and Horiya were waiting for us at the inn's entrance when we exited. I had been hoping to avoid meeting with them, but it is what it is.

"Yo, Igaras- wait, who is this?" Ichigo frowned upon seeing the adorable little girl known as Aisa - A.R.X.A. in disguise.

"She's… our little sister," I replied.

"Little sister? I never knew you had one," Horiya murmured thoughtfully.

"She's just never been out in public since she's really shy, you see… it took quite a lot of convincing just to get her to try this game out," I said, laughing awkwardly.

As if on cue, Aisa clutched my arm tightly and hid behind me shyly, face red from embarrassment.

Aha… good acting skills, A.R.X.A. She didn't have any actual emotions, but she could show certain reactions should the situation call for it.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Huh… how old is she? Isn't the age requirement 14 or something…?"

"She's the same age as me," I lied. "She's just really short."

"Wait, don't tell me… you and she are twins?" Horiya's eyes widened. "Is her hair dyed or something?"

I nodded. "Yeah… but she acts a lot younger than her real age. As for her hair, yes, it's dyed."

"Oh, that's cool. Well, let's go grab some food first, then head for the Hunter's Guild to do some side quests," Ichigo proposed, before promptly walking away with Horiya. "C'mon."

"Actually… Aisa isn't really comfortable with working with other people, so…" Hina-nee interrupted. "How about you two form a group, and the three of us form our own?"

Ichigo and Horiya exchanged glances, then shrugged. "Sure. But… it's not like we're scary or anything, right?"

I rolled my eyes. Did these two already forget all the evil things they've done to me? Shameless.

"Just go," I said impatiently. Faced with my attitude, the two hurriedly scurried off.

"Kaze-kun, those two are…"

"Quite annoying?"

"Hehe, yeah."

"I agree. One moment they're bullying me, and the next they're acting all buddy-buddy… it's disgusting."

"… You say that, but aren't you the same, human?" Aisa interjected from behind me, still not letting go of my arm. "I have been watching you. You are acting the part on the surface, pretending to be slowly forgiving them, but deep down, you still hate them, correct?"

I snorted. "If they think I'm going to forget all the shit they've done to me over the years that easily… they'll have to think again. The only reason I'm pretending to be forgiving them on the surface is I don't want to cause any unnecessary conflict. Besides… they can be useful as pawns."

"Oh? I am not influencing your mind, yet you have such thoughts?" Aisa mused.

"Only because it's those two," I muttered in frustration. "Anyway… let's find a restaurant to get breakfast at."

"Hehe~" Hina-nee giggled at our interaction.

*****

Once we found a suitable restaurant, we went inside and sat down at the table the waitress led us to. Hina-nee and I sat across from each other while Aisa sat beside me, since it would've been weird if a little girl of her size sat by herself on one end. Hina-nee wasn't very happy about this, but reluctantly agreed anyway.

After placing our orders, I opened up my System and saw that there were new things for me to check in my inventory, but decided to first spend my SP. I hadn't even noticed this last night since I was too busy confronting A.R.X.A. Hina-nee did the same.

"Aisa, which stats do you recommend spending points on?" I asked. Before, she would never have answered this question, but now, after our agreement, she had to.

"… That depends on your combat style, but… for one, the LUC stat is useless, since I am here."

"All the LUC stat does is improve your RNG, right?"

"Yes. However, with me here, no matter how far you improve your LUC stat, it will not save you from the dangerous situations I will put you into."

"What about for me?" Hina-nee asked. "I'm going for an Assassin-type build, so I should max STR, AGI, and DEX, right? But what about the other stats? Do I need to level them up at all?"

"No, if you have already made up your mind to select that as your main class. INT may be helpful, but you should only put SP into that if your STR, AGI, and DEX are all already extremely high," Aisa replied calmly.

"Hm…" I gazed in wonder at my stats. They currently read:

STR: 140

AGI: 120

INT: 60

DEX: 70

MAG: 60

LUC: 15

It seemed that they had passively increased once again. My STR went from 120 to 140, my AGI from 100 to 120, my INT from 49 to 60, my DEX from 50 to 70, and my MAG from 40 to 60, plus my LUC stat which went from 5 to 15, somehow. A total of 101 points increase. Not bad at all. Not bad, but… why did I feel like this was… unnatural? For example, I don't remember doing anything that could've caused my LUC stat to go up…

But even with these stats, I had an incredible amount of SP to spend still since I reached Level 30 in one go - 130, in particular. After some thought, I decided to follow Aisa's advice, not putting any points into LUC. My stats now looked like this:

STR: 160 (Cost: 20 SP)

AGI: 160 (Cost: 40 SP)

INT: 70 (Cost: 10 SP)

DEX: 80 (Cost: 10 SP)

MAG: 110 (Cost: 50 SP)

LUC: 15 (Cost: 0 SP)

"Oh… interesting. An Assassin build, but with a blend of Mage as well," Aisa murmured from beside me as she looked at my hologram.

"Well, since my stats increase passively, I might as well become a hybrid of multiple classes to make the most out of it," I explained." Anyway, these look okay, right?"

"If a hybrid is what you are going for, then yes. However… reminder: check your database."

My eyes widened briefly. "Ah, right… those two pop-ups I dismissed yesterday…"

I moved to switch to the Database tab, but then, I stopped as my eyes landed on something - a tiny string of text, right below my race.

[Realm: Nascent Cultivator]

"Nascent Cultivator…? What is this?"

"Hm?" Hina-nee leaned over to see what I was talking about, but she couldn't see anything due to the angle.

"… Like I said, check your database," Aisa repeated, looking at me in boredom.

I did as told, switching to the Database tab of my System to investigate.

There were four new entries, in order of oldest to newest:

[Combat: Human Kills]

[Killing humans will not grant any XP, but will grant you all of their belongings and arts, contained within an orb that will enter your inventory after you slay them. To unlock this orb and obtain the items and arts inside, you must visit a cryptanalyst, which can be found at any large city.]

"Cryptanalyst?" I raised an eyebrow. I remembered getting an orb out of that woman after killing her. I really wanted to get my hands on what was inside.

"There are no cryptanalysts in Qilian City," Aisa replied. "Better give up on the thought for now, human."

"That's unfortunate," I sighed in disappointment and switched to the next entry.

[World: Cultivation]

[Every 25 levels, starting from Level 25, you will gain a rank in your cultivation, gaining an increase to all six of your stats. The ranks, along with their rewards, are listed below:]

[Level 25 - Nascent Cultivator Realm (+10 to all stats)]

[Level 50 - Core Foundation Realm (+15 to all stats)]

[Level 75 - Soul Master Realm (+20 to all stats)]

[Level 100 - Golden Monarch Realm (+25 to all stats)]

[Level 150 - Holy Emperor Realm (+30 to all stats)]

[Level 200 - Divine Sea Realm (+35 to all stats)]

[Level 250 - Divine Transformation Realm (+40 to all stats)]

[Level 300 - Divine Extremity Realm (+45 to all stats)]

[Level 400 - Saint Realm (+50 to all stats)]

[Level 500 - Nirvana Realm (+60 to all stats)]

It seemed that the reason why my stats' passive increase was more than I had expected was because I reached the 'Nascent Cultivator' realm, thus increasing all of my stats by 10.

I frowned in confusion. "Is this… the cultivation system of this world?"

"Yes," Aisa replied. "There are more ranks, but they will only be revealed to you when the time is right. Unless… you want me to tell you them right now."

I shook my head. "Nah, there's no point. Just this is enough info to keep me thinking for now."

"Cultivation system?" Hina-nee tilted her head in puzzlement, apparently a little sad to be left out of the conversation.

"You'll see yourself when you reach Level 25, Hina-nee," I explained. "Telling you right now would take a while, so…"

"Mm, okay~"

Saying that, she went back to browsing skills on her System to see which one she should get next. I continued reading, switching to the next entry.

[Combat: Skill Cooldowns]

[For every 50 stat levels of the INT stat, all of your active skills will have their cooldown reduced by 10% of their base cooldown. This also applies to the cast times of hidden arts.]

"Huh… ten percent… so in other words… my Vanishing Clouds has a cooldown of only 18 seconds now, and my currently-unlocked hidden arts all had their cast times reduced to 1.8 seconds?"

"Correct. For the record, once you reach 100 INT, they will be reduced by 10% of the base cooldown once again, not the current cooldown."

"That is pretty useful, but is that all the INT stat is good for?" Hina-nee asked, joining our conversation again.

"There are other uses, just not applicable to you two right now. INT will become extremely helpful later on, however, so do not neglect it."

By this time, our food had arrived, so we quickly ate, before heading to the Hunter's Guild to begin a day of farming for XP.