Five Basic Abilities formed the engine everything else ran on. Skills determined how far you could go. And Leon had started fully loaded. Three magic slots, seven skills, and a Development Ability at Lv. 1.
The one thorn in his side was the ceiling on his Basic Abilities.
Fortunately, the cheat could solve that problem.
The cost?
Cold, hard cash.
Excelia and money, spent to allocate stat points.
Scholar's Heart and its "effort rewarded" effect let him grind monsters in the Dungeon for Excelia while training his body, picking up loot and other cash equivalents along the way.
Then Proof of Traversal consumed both resources to let him freely distribute points.
Leon's current ability values had already hit his potential cap, the numbers inside the parentheses. Just now, burning 100 Excelia and one million valis, he'd smashed through a ceiling that trapped countless adventurers for life.
"Not bad. The cheat works great. A little pricey, though."
Having tasted the thrill of hacking reality for the first time, Leon's review was mixed.
One casual tap of the button, and a month of savings evaporated overnight. The fifteen hundred valis left in his hand would barely cover tomorrow's food and drinks.
"Worth every coin, though."
"Now for today's bonus prize."
He reached into the inner pocket pressed against his chest and pulled out an old, yellowed sheepskin volume. The hefty tome had a weight to it that demanded attention.
"All this time as an adventurer, and the cheat drops loot for the first time. Didn't even know it could do that."
Genesis Origin. His self-adapting, locally integrated cheat. Beyond the simple status display and potential readouts, there were other functions waiting to be discovered on his own.
Like, for instance, the Drop Treasure Chest: defeating or killing an opponent carried a certain probability of spawning a chest, which could contain just about anything.
He'd only learned about this feature today. In other words, across his entire career as an adventurer, this was the very first chest drop. If he hadn't heard that telltale ding, he never would've known the function existed.
Thank god the chest was only visible to him and his Familia. That, combined with the dead-eyed wage slave expression he always wore on the way home, meant nobody could've read a thing from his face.
He'd known this from the source material long before he ever set foot in the Dungeon: monsters and Evilus psychopaths weren't the only threats down here. Fellow adventurers deserved the most vigilance. Dropping the moral pretense and going full bandit? That was Tuesday. Once you'd signed up for this line of work, your ethical standards got real flexible real fast. Who didn't have a side hustle?
Running back through the sequence of events and his cheat's new trick, Leon shook his head with a rueful sigh. "Drop rate's pretty moving, I'll give it that. But the loot's decent enough."
He glanced at the item name and raised an eyebrow.
Name: Grimoire: Scorch
Origin: Azeroth
Type: Knowledge
Effect: Ultra-short chant magic. Damage is extremely low, but applies an Ignite effect on hit, dealing damage over time. Subsequent fire-element magic attacks against an Ignited target deal increased damage.
Description:Laughable damage. Nothing more than an opener.
The Grimoire. His skill loadout. His own deliberate choice. All three factors aligned, and together they were the reason Leon had chosen to invest in Magic potential. With a kit like his, picking anything other than mage would've been a waste.
...
He pulled out a chair, sat at the desk, and switched on the warm-toned Magic Stone lamp. Both hands placed the old Grimoire on the table with a care that bordered on reverence.
He turned the slightly worn, faded cover. On yellowed pages, black ink laid out the complete knowledge of Scorch. Beyond the core spell, someone had left annotations and insights in the margins, notes from an unknown hand that multiplied the book's value many times over.
Under lamplight, Leon sank into deep focus.
His fingers traced the page corners without thinking. Sometimes his brow furrowed. Sometimes it cleared with a flash of understanding. He lost himself completely in the ocean of magical theory, oblivious to the hours slipping past.
By the time he surfaced, full dark had fallen. Stars dusted the sky, and a cold moon hung high above the treetops. It was his stomach's growl that finally dragged him back.
He glanced at the Magic Stone clock on the wall and reluctantly closed the book.
"So that's what magic feels like. Incredible." He exhaled slowly. "First time I've ever sensed it so clearly. That ocean of Mind inside me, the Magic flowing through my body..."
He raised his right hand, palm up, and recalled the knowledge fresh in his mind. Mimicking the technique exactly, he murmured:
"Scorch."
The word left his lips, and...
Szzz-POP!
A flame no bigger than an oil lamp's wick flickered to life at his fingertip.
Leon's mouth split into a grin. Silent, wide, and utterly delighted.