Chapter 165 Newfound power

‘That should do it,’ Mathew thought once he distributed all the points according to nothing more but his wits.

He could only guess how the system would reward reaching a certain threshold of statistics, he could only assume how the class system worked or even what exactly a level was.

‘I don’t even know why I can’t level up myself,’ the young man thought, gritting his teeth.

And then, without any further hesitation, he confirmed the changes, donating all the spare levels that he had.

‘I don’t feel any discomfort myself,’ Mathew thought as he glanced down at the palms of his hand. ‘Save for Naida, Leila and Daria grew by about the same amount,’ he thought, turning his eyes towards the girls.

Contrary to how the power-up went before, this time no one fainted. No one fell to the ground, unable to control their body for a moment.

At most, every last member of Mathew’s group present on the scene simply tensed up. Their breath stiffened, as their body had to accustom itself to its newfound power.

“Did it work?” Leila was the first one to open her mouth. She turned her eyes to Mathew, looking at him with the sparks of excitement and anxiety dancing around her pupils.

“It did,” Mathew nodded his head and released a deep sigh. “Congratulations, you are now a blademaster,” he announced, gracing the girl with a small, proud smile.

‘I never expected how nice it feels to see someone of your own grow,’ he thought, enjoying this small, warm spot that he discovered in his soul.

“Blademaster?” Leila voiced the word off before looking at her weapons.

She was the only one that requested to keep her machete, even after obtaining a better blade. It all made sense when one would take that factor into account.

“Don’t ask me about it, I don’t know any better than you,” Mathew warned the girl, spreading his arms to physically showcase his powerlessness. “In fact, as it’s a class you appear to be inclined towards, I bet you will have it easier to figure out its quirks.”

“That… makes sense,” the girl admitted. She then pulled out her swords and stared at them for a while.

“Are you two okay?” Mathew asked, leaving Leila to her own devices as he brought his attention to the other girls in his group.

“I’m fine,” Nadia reported. “I will need a moment to get used to the feeling of this body, though,” she then added in a hurried voice as she glanced up at Mathew’s face.

“I need a moment too,” Daria admitted, lowering herself and resting her palms against her knees to support her bent upper body. “It’s not that I feel sick, I…” she hesitated, “I feel strange…” Daria then added, unsure what words to use herself.

“It’s fine,” Mathew nodded his head before slapping his hands together. “Everyone, we are taking fifteen minutes of break,” he announced while hiding his own impatience and uneasiness. “Try to figure out what you are capable of right now and get used to your improved self!”

Mathew didn’t waste any time after his announcement. And the reasons behind his decision were flat-out obvious.

Right now, everyone in his group was in a delicate state where they couldn’t control their strengths and powers. That alone made them weaker than they were before gaining so many levels all at once.

‘Just like a player testing out a new class only to be stuck in an endless list of skills. It’s confusing as hell,’ he thought, scratching the back of his ear as he looked at his own stats.

‘Now that I have an arcane on level hundred, I should get some big power-up, shouldn’t I?’ Mathew thought, only to shake his head and head towards the broken wall.

“Where are you going?” Nadia asked, instantly noticing Mathew’s movements.

“Just to test something out,” the young man replied, trying to hide the awkwardness in his voice.

They never really made up after the last quarrel. And while Mathew hoped to just move on, doing so turned out not to be as easy as he initially expected.

“It would be bad if I damaged this place any further than it already is,” he explained his reasons before sinking into the hole and sliding down the metal ladder inside.

‘Climbing it was such a pain and now I can move down in a matter of seconds,’ Mathew thought, tightening his grasp over the rails once he saw the light coming out from the exit hole.

A mere moment later, Mathew stepped out to the ruins of the fallen wing of the compound.

‘There isn’t enough of them to pose any real threat,’ he thought as he glanced over the situation at the gate. He then looked towards the sun, only to see it slowly inching towards the horizon. ‘We really don’t have time,’ he thought, clenching his teeth as he turned around and moved even further into the ruins.

‘The last time I used it, was before all the leveling up,’ Mathew thought, pulling out a single core and staring it down as it rested on top of his palm. ‘Maybe using it again will give me some clues?’

Mathew was stumped. Not because he lacked the motivation to grow. But because he had no clues as to what this growth exactly entailed.

Sure, improving one’s vitality was a pretty straightforward deal… And yet, Mathew invested his points into Arcane instead of the simple, physical stats.

In a sense, it was a gamble. A gamble that Mathew was desperate to prove it would pay off.

So, unwilling to waste any more time, Mathew squeezed the stone in his hand before smashing it down against the ruins covering the ground.

BOOM!

The mayhem that ensued was on an entirely different level than what would happen before.

The pieces of rubble closest to Mathew simply evaporated, deconstructed by the raw power unleashed by the young man’s attack. Within a meter radius away from Mathew, not even dust remained.

The stones from between a meter and two meters away would fly up and strike like a cannonball against anything that stood in their path. A broken piece of concrete the size of a wardrobe casually slammed into the broken side of the compound, causing quite a few more pieces to fall down while plugging one of the holes at the same time.

Yet, it was the area from two to ten meters away from Mathew that turned into a practical kill zone.

Two meters away from Mathew, the force of his attack would disperse to the point it couldn’t really shoot up several tons’ worth of rubble. Instead, the chaotic mess that ensued would tear apart any and all, indiscriminately.

‘Oh my fucking god,’ Mathew cursed under his breath, awed and shocked at the sight at the same time. ‘Thank god I tested it beforehand,’ he thought, feeling sick at the mere thought of what would happen if his girls ended up caught up in the disaster.

‘But what did I learn from this,’ Mathew asked himself, refusing to allow his terror to triumph over his real purpose. ‘I definitely felt a surge of energy flowing through me,’ he thought, clasping his teeth together as he stretched out his hand, forcing his mind to somehow replicate the feeling.

And then, a part of Mathew’s consciousness separated from his soul. The will to produce a bolt of mana cut its ties with the rest of his mind, turning into a will that then propelled the mana forward from the young man’s hand.

Mathew stood in place with his hand erected, watching at a small hole that his bolt created in several meters long cross-section of a piece of concrete rubble.

“WHAT?!”