Chapter 178: Upper Grade

"Ahh.. It looks like our famous little guest is back." said Isvel at the Sur camp entrance.

"Famous??" replied Angus.

"Well, I hear a black-haired youngster killing a third-grade combatant in the arena with only fucking [Mana Ball]. The story of your performance has already spread around." said Isvel.

"Well, I was just lucky to find an easy opponent." replied Angus nonchalantly.

"Still, that's a great feat. Maybe I should learn [Mana Ball] from you, dear cousin? Anyway.." Isvel once again turned into chatterbox mode.

Hearing Isvel's rambling, both Angus and Jayna could only roll their eyes while trying to ignore him.

Fortunately, a guard came towards them, saving both Angus and Jayna from Isvel's rambling.

"Excuse me, young master Angus and Lady Jayna. The clan head asked for your presence in his tent." said the guard politely.

"Sure.. then, cousin, I will excuse myself." said Angus before escaping with Jayna from Isvel without waiting for his response.

Arriving at the clan head tent, Angus and Jayna enter without any obstruction from the guard.

"Ahh.. So, you are back, my dear nephew and Lady Jayna. You make quite a reputation around here." said the clan head Jade who looks younger and healthier than their first time meeting.

This is proof that Angus's medication is slowly working. Not only that, the clan head Jade's aura is calmer than before. Before the medication, the clan head Jade looks like an aggressive wounded beast. Now, his aura is calmer, almost like a sleeping dragon.

Angus also notices the changed temperament in his uncle. He didn't know it was because he became more familiar with Angus or because of the medication. Whatever the reason, it is a good thing for both Angus and Jayna.

"I just got lucky, uncle." replied Angus.

"Hahahaha… Humble as always. Anyway, I just got news about the inner area. Apparently, it will be open in a few days. So, make sure you get proper rest during these few days." said uncle Jade.

"Although with your capability, you could easily survive the inner area, there is nothing wrong with being over cautious." added Uncle Jade.

Then, they begin chatting about various things. Uncle Jade suggested that they didn't need to follow the same ceremony to fight in the Battlefield Arena. However, both Angus and Jayna want to test themself and gain more experience.

In the end, Uncle Jade could only reluctantly agree with them. He knows that a raw gem will never show its true value until it gets polished. Both Angus and Jayna are true geniuses that only appear once in a hundred million people.

Because of this, Uncle Jade is quite protective of both of them more than his own child. Especially since he couldn't find the depth of Angus's capability. 

From his experience, he knows that Angus is still hiding his true strength. He feels like Angus is never going all out during all this time.

After chatting for a little miscellaneous stuff, both Angus and Jayna decide to rest in their own tent. Arriving at the tent, Jayna immediately set up her own heavenly bath tools. At the same time, Angus rest owns his own tent.

He decided to check his current status before entering his manual battle system.

Host: Angus Victory

Age: 14 Years Old

MP: 284/358

Heritage chi: ???

Strength: 39 

Dexterity: 39 

Intelligence: 41 

Vitality: 43 

Soul Point: 13

Looking at his status, he couldn't help but sigh. Despite his effort in farming soul points during the last few weeks, he could only increase his strength and dexterity by one. 

The soul points requirement for each stat is so huge that even with his daily gain is not enough. Now, he would get around ten soul points from his automatic battle system, which is insufficient to support his need.

According to his observation, his growth is already incredible, even exceeding his own expectations. However, ever since arriving in this dimension, he feels his current power is never enough.

Now, he could fight a frontal battle with weak third-grade combatants with ease using the assistance of spells. But if he meets a capable fourth-grade combatant in a frontal battle, he still needs to reveal all his power to survive.

There is a massive difference between grade four and grade three. Grade four is also called the realm of specialization since all the people that managed to enter this stage are experts at something. 

Every grade four combatant specializes in something. Be it weapon art, spells, elemental mastery, and many others. 

This is also the reason grade four combatant is very precious and considered as elite. Not everyone could reach this grade without accumulating a lot of experience.

Grade four is also called the border of the upper-grade combatant. Since the requirement of getting into grade four is mastery, many people failed to reach this. Only the one with true talent could overcome these grade-four walls.

Of course, there is a different case where people got external help with potions, legacy, or god's blessing. But, none of them could be compared to the combatant that managed to reach this stage with their own effort.

It's like comparing an amateur wielding a gun and a veteran sharpshooter wielding a gun. They can shoot the gun, but their precision and quality are different, with the latter being more superior.

As for fighting grade five, it is a grade that is already above Angus's current fighting capability. Unless he used forbidden techniques and sacrificed himself, he could not win against them in a frontal battle.

This could only be seen when Angus sparred with the old dwarf Balrug. Although the old dwarf Balrug is very old and retired from the battle, he never used his mana when sparring Angus.

He only used his physical strength to replicate the power of his skill. Angus would immediately be squashed into a meat paste if he used just a little bit of mana. The fifth-grade mana is purer and stronger than grade four.

Furthermore during the spar, Balrug only used 10% of his strength. This is also the reason Balrug sometimes couldn't hold his strength properly when sparring with Angus. Using and controlling too little physical strength is an arduous task.

This shows how ridiculously strong a Fifth-grade combatant is. Moreover, compared to the retired Balrug, the active grade five people are stronger.

Still, grades are also not the indicator of winning and strength. Some races that specialized in combat or physical strength cannot be measured with this. These races are like the beast race, orc race, dwarf race, and many others.

Based on Balrug's explanation, his combat capability was comparable to the grade six combatant before he retired. All of this is thanks to his enormous physical strength.

Balrug already managed to open the third gate of life and has a superior strength than most people. If he is not limited with his age, he may open the fourth gate of life.

Thinking about this, Angus begins to remember the requirement to open his next gate of life. The gate of life is one of the great sources to become stronger faster.

Based on Balrug's explanation, Angus needed to reach his physical limit before opening the second gate of life. Fortunately, he didn't need to melt and reconstruct his own body again through iron and fire to open the next gate.

He could open the gate through meditation. However, he will never enter the gate of life space unless his body is ready. Remembering the gate of life, he also remembers the last word of his inner self before he managed to open the first gate of life.

'Hmm.. What did he mean by that word?' thought Angus.

Shooking his head, Angus cleared some unnecessary thoughts before deciding to enter his manual battle system. Although his mana is not yet fully regenerated, it is already enough for a few easy fights.

Using enhanced [Mana Ball] a few times consumes more mana than he thought. Based on Angus's calculation,  it is like casting three fire-based third circle spells. This is quite wasting mana for mana efficiency, but it didn't fatigue his mind like casting a third circle spell.

Still, using one third circle spell could easily kill the blue-haired man. So, it is not quite practical to use enhanced [Mana Ball] continuously.

However, it also creates a good image towards the audience and people that want to target him. So, it is also not a waste for him.

Entering the manual battle system, Angus decided to train in it rather than accumulate soul points. There are only a few days before the inner area opens. So rather than exhaust himself trying to earn soul points, Angus decided to train his spells.

Like skills, the more he familiarized himself with spells, the more effective he used them in the battle. Furthermore, as he gets more familiar with spells, his casting time will be reduced.

Normally, reducing the casting time of one spell needs a lot of practice and time. However, Angus has an enhanced mind to memorize all his progress when he constructs his spell.

So, he just applies the same calculation when he constructs his spell before adjusting it a little bit. As he got more familiar with adjusting, his casting speed also increased.

As someone who could cast many different elemental spells, Angus knows this is an advantage and could enhance his combat capability.