The Game Difficulty
Went Crazy
“Special reward?”
A question appeared in Glen’s eyes.
At that moment, the next system message appeared.
《All stats increase by 2.》
《Lunatic Special Reward》
§ Player Authority
§ Artifact (Epic rank or higher)
§ Unique Latent Ability
《Select one, and the reward included in that category will be granted immediately.》
“Oh? Look at this.”
The corners of Glen’s mouth lifted.
Just moments ago, Glen had been burning everything away and dying, but life suddenly returned to his eyes.
A message he had read in the past flashed through his mind.
《Perk: High Risk, High Return》
“So this is what it meant.”
Feeling delighted, Glen carefully examined the message.
Fatigue ruled his entire body, but he ignored it.
“Hm. It’s good, but it doesn’t say exactly what kind of reward I’ll get.”
Authority, unique latent ability, and an epic-or-higher artifact.
The categories were far too broad to guess the exact rewards.
Still, if he thought about it carefully, the best choice was obvious.
Glen slowly considered the three options.
“First, Player Authority probably means convenience functions like the status window or inventory.”
Aside from the status window, Glen had no other player authorities.
If he gained additional authority, it would certainly help him survive in the world of Gray Eden.
“But it’s not something I desperately need right now.”
Glen let out a deep breath.
Of course, it would be useful to have.
But in his current situation, where his actions were restricted in many ways, there weren’t many chances to actively use player authority.
Mentally crossing out Player Authority, Glen moved on to the next option.
“An epic-rank-or-higher artifact…”
In Gray Eden, just as strength had ranks, artifacts were also divided into seven ranks.
Normal – Advanced – Rare – Hero –
Epic – Legendary – Mythic
Naturally, the higher the rank, the more overwhelming its performance compared to the lower ones.
And the reward offered was epic rank, the third highest.
“If I get a good one, I could gain great power through an artifact. But…”
Artifacts were physical objects.
To use them, he would have no choice but to show them in front of others.
“If I use an artifact no one has ever seen, it’ll obviously raise suspicion.”
On top of that, Glen didn’t even have an inventory, so he couldn’t hide the artifact even if he obtained one.
As long as he remained under the protection of the Wordsworth family, even if he had an inventory, chances to use it freely would be rare.
“This is what they call something that looks good but is useless.”
Shaking his head, Glen looked at the final option.
Unique latent ability.
“To be honest, this was the one I was eyeing from the start.”
Unlike authority, it wasn’t something unnecessary right now, and unlike artifacts, it wasn’t an unreachable prize.
It was an ability granted directly to Glen himself.
A unique latent ability was exactly the kind of “growth-supporting element” Glen wanted.
If he was lucky, he might get an overpowered latent ability like Heretic Inquisitor or Guardian of the Holy Spear.
Of course, Gray Eden supported hundreds of different unique latent abilities.
The chance of getting exactly what he wanted was low.
“But unless my luck is truly terrible, I should get something usable.”
Having made his decision, Glen spoke softly.
“Unique latent ability.”
《Reward selected: Unique Latent Ability》
《Granting Lunatic Special Reward.》
Blue letters began to reorganize.
Glen swallowed his dry saliva.
Soon, the blue light formed new words.
《You have obtained the latent ability “Favor of Blades.”》
“…Huh?!”
Seeing the shimmering blue letters, Glen’s mouth fell open.
“Th-this is real?!”
Favor of Blades was exactly what the name implied—an ability beloved by all bladed weapons in the world.
Any weapon he used, as long as it had an edge, would have its rank raised by one level.
An absurdly powerful latent ability.
“Even with the same weapon, having Favor of Blades is like fighting with a weapon one rank higher.”
Glen knew very well just how good this ability was.
There was a playable character who possessed this latent ability.
Rufus Leventail.
In Rufus’s story introduction, it was easy to see just how broken Favor of Blades was.
After his family fell and he became a slave, Rufus destroyed all of his opponents’ weapons in the slave arena and claimed victory, earning his freedom proudly.
“The scene where he breaks the arena champion’s sword was pretty impressive.”
After that, Rufus walked the path of a Blade Master who ignored all weapon matchups.
And now, the ability that made him a Blade Master—Favor of Blades—belonged to Glen.
Glen nodded in satisfaction.
Soon, a serious light filled his eyes.
“But I can’t just be happy.”
No matter how good the reward was, it was the price for overcoming an extreme situation.
The difficulty itself hadn’t gone down.
“I barely got through this time, but there’s no guarantee I’ll survive the next.”
Just as the message said, Lunatic elements were truly high risk, high return.
If he failed to overcome the risk, he would die.
“To survive, I need to grow faster and stronger than ever. First, I need to solve the holy power and demonic energy problem.”
Strengthening his resolve, Glen pushed himself up.
It was time to retrieve the wolf’s heart and return to the mansion.
“I should deal with this quickly and head back.”
If he stayed out too long, his absence would be discovered.
Then he would have to come up with another believable excuse.
“Avoiding that hassle is only natural.”
Gripping his sword, Glen approached the wolf’s corpse.
The back of the seventeen-year-old boy, turned into rags after a life-or-death battle, looked as weary as a middle-aged man supporting a family.
“…But what do I do about the blood on my clothes?”
After returning to the Wordsworth mansion, Glen entered through the back door just like when he left.
He was anxious someone might spot him, but fortunately, he didn’t run into anyone before reaching his room.
“Ugh…”
