NOVEL NEXT Chapter 57: {[I AM SPEED (P)(C-)]}
"Anyway," said Sasha. "Head on in and show your friend to the guest room. I will bring some spare clothes up in a bit."
She turned around and sashayed with her plump cheeks swaying hypnotically, yet before she fully disappeared from the hallway, she side-eyed the pair. "Just don't be getting up to anything that kids your age would be doing at night."
With that, she walked away.
Memphis was left furiously blushing, whereas Cassius remained blissfully unaware of his stepmother's slight nuances, taking full advantage of his selective-density protagonist powers.
After making his way to the guest room and giving Memphis a brief rundown, he bid farewell to her, much to her dismay.
Walking to his room, he crossed paths with the mildly glum blonde MILF. However, when she saw him, the glumness vanished as if it were never there to begin with. Yet, instead of starting a conversation like she would normally do, she curtly nodded before hastily breezing past him with a set of feminine nightwear in her hands.
Cassius was a bit puzzled by this interaction but quickly shook his head to clear his mind before retreating into the whitish confines of his room. Afterward, he sat down on his bed in a lotus position and swiped up his system interface, curious to see how far he had come after his first official Gate Raid.
BLING!
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[Name: Idle Evolution System]
[Host: Cassius] - [Lvl 29]
[Title: Advent Devil (C-)]
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[HP: 4360/4360] [MP: 8000]
[FATIGUE: 4]. [AP: 25]
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[STRENGTH: 57] (Juggling vans is possible.)
[AGILITY: 133] (Mach 8. Are you trying to become the red blur?.)
[ENDURANCE: 52] (Your appearance and temperament have really been improving as of late. You should be able to put this stamina to good use soon enough!)
[INTELLIGENCE: 51] (Keep at it and Sage status will be left in the dust, paving way for becoming a Great Sage.)
[PERCEPTION: 54] (Don't do anything perverted with this level of sense… No, seriously…)
[CHARISMA: 26] (Experienced Model-level)
{[Skills:]}
[Shadow Step (A)(D+)(Lvl2)], [Muscularity (P)(D-)(Lvl4], [Slash (A)(E+)(Lvl3], [Sprint (A)(F+)(Lvl2]
[Harden (A)(E+)(Lvl5)], [Extreme Fortitude (P)(D-)(Lvl5)], [Mind Focus (P)(D)(Lvl2)], [Tinker Tools (P)(F+)(Lvl4]..... –[Extend to see more…]
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[P.S. Only skills with high synchrony to the Host will be able to level up and rank up the fastest, even superseding the difference between lower ranks and higher ranks.]
[Do some of that new-gen stuff and try discovering yourself! Just don't dye your hair blue and walk around in a dress! That would signify terrible character development—]
Before the Idle Evolution System could finish its bunch of nonsense, Cassius's voice cut through the air. "I should have a decent amount of Random Skill Boxes saved up from my level-ups, no? Try opening them instead of running your mouth."
[...]
[Rude >£< But a cold and rude personality trait is very much considered good character development…]
[Conflicted…]
"...Can you please stop playing around with me and just open the boxes…?" Cassius was on the verge of begging at this point.
He would just open the boxes himself if he could, but it seemed the Idle Evolution System had predicted this and locked them in the Inventory.
[Hmm… Deep pondering…]
[Very well! And as a reward for playing along, the system has decided to give you an opportunity for greater benefits!]
[You have precisely 300+ Random Skill Boxes of the Copper Minus, Neutral, and Plus Rank. Moreover, you have 50+ Random Skill Boxes of the Bronze Minus, Neutral, and Plus Rank!]
[Would you like to convert them all into a single Silver-Specific Skill Box of the Agility Aspect? (What you receive is still randomized, but it will be within the bounds of Agility.)]
Cassius seriously considered what the system was asking him, but then…
[Offer going once!]
[Offer going twice!]
[Offer going…]
"Fine, just do it!" Cassius bemoaned his fate as one of the pushy Idle Evolution System's victims.
If not for how much power it allowed him to gather, he would…! Haiz…
[Wise choice, dear Host! ^=^]
A lottery board then appeared in front of him, containing thousands of different colored options. Some had names that appeared more imposing than the others, but the clicker didn't seem to discriminate as it danced along the Skill options.
After a while, the clicker came to a gradual crawl. Then, with one final flutter, it landed on a pure black option that held a series of three words in loud white italic lettering. 'I AM SPEED,' it read. The description, even more unusual, went as such:
{[I AM SPEED (P)(C-)]}
[If you thought you were fast before, then just try to move now. The larger the gap between your Agility stat and your other stats, the faster you move.]
[No known upper limits for the skill.]
– [Current Speed Boost: 135%]
The moment this passive Skill was acquired, Cassius felt his body uncontrollably blur. He moved all over the place at an utterly insane speed yet hadn't moved a single inch. It was almost as if the very atoms and molecules that made up his being were struggling to remain in the same point in time as the rest of his existence.
Some time later…
Cassius managed to control his ludicrous speed to a tolerable level, then breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't expected an unexpected and troublesome boon like this one to come from the System's forced decisions, but he was partly glad it did. The other, larger part of himself, however, was uncertain and weary of how this would affect his future.
If he kept enlarging the gap between his Agility stat and the other stats, wouldn't he be able to become so fast that he could potentially lap the whole world several times over…? And that was with the current rank of the Skill, completely excluding what it could become at higher ranks. Which, with his synchrony with the Agility attribute, were rank-ups that were more a matter of time than anything…