Scott felt no discouragement over his defeat.
As a Seventh-Rank Sword Saint, his mind was not so narrow.
Moreover, his old life had been given to him by Grand Duke Lucifiel. Seeing his benefactor's descendant turn out so exceptionally gifted brought him nothing but immense joy.
On the contrary, he felt happy from the bottom of his heart—boundlessly happy. A hearty laugh burst forth from a face usually so solemn, his hands clapping continuously. "A genius... The young master is truly a genius! I knew it! Looks like I wasn't wrong! Hahaha, the Duke has a worthy successor—a worthy successor indeed!"
Facing Scott's excitement, Roland showed little reaction.
He simply wiped down the rapier before placing it back in its rack.
"Thank you for holding back, Uncle Scott."
"No. Whether it is contempt or prejudice, both are fatal flaws for a swordsman. In this match, you won completely." Scott Grier's expression turned serious once more as he twirled his blade in a beautiful flourish before sheathing it, his movements fluid and seamless, just like the man himself.
At the same time, a figure was gazing down at them through a window.
Surprise filled Lucia's eyes, her small mouth slightly agape. Before this, she had never seen Roland fight. As rumors spread over time, even she had begun to doubt whether her brother truly lacked talent. But looking at things today, he certainly had not disgraced the bloodline of the Lucifiel family.
In fact, it was somewhat beyond expectations.
Roland looked up toward the upper floor, his eyes meeting Lucia's just in time.
Then, he silently made a shushing gesture.
After that, another period of time passed, and all of Lucifiel remained calm and peaceful. Meanwhile, Roland spent almost all his time immersed in the ducal mansion's library. Aside from regular mealtimes, he spent virtually the entire day swimming in an ocean of knowledge.
《Chain Reactions Between Attributes》
《On Magic》
《The Essence of Warriors》
...
Along with books like these, there were also low-rank spells that Roland studied altogether. After reading them just once, he could cast them completely—and even refine and perfect them. This feeling of bountiful gain was intoxicating, filling his heart with a profound sense of achievement. Magic was simply too easy.
If anyone else were to learn of his thought, they would surely cough up blood in rage.
For an ordinary person to learn a spell of their own rank, it took at least several days.
And that was merely bare-minimum mastery. Wishing to achieve proficiency without taking a month was sheer delusion—and that was assuming one had above-average affinity for that same element.
It was nothing like Roland, for whom learning magic was as simple as drinking water, mastering everything almost instantly after finishing a read.
On top of that, he could even play around and pull off new tricks.
A wisp of black flame flickered and danced at his fingertips. It was something he had just developed. Unlike ordinary fire, even when standing right next to it, one could feel no temperature whatsoever—neither hot nor cold. Yet, merely looking at it felt exceedingly dangerous, like a black hole capable of swallowing everything.
This was the result of fusing different attributes.
It often produced unexpected effects.
A pitch-black mana crystal appeared in Roland's hand, held between his thumb and middle finger level with his eyes. An evil aura swirled within it, containing mana infected by the Fallen Mother Goddess. It bore a power completely distinct from normal elemental mana—immensely seductive yet laced with malice.
"..."
As a financial investor in the Church of the Fallen Mother Goddess...
In truth, he did not possess any abilities related to the Fallen Mother Goddess, but he had received her blessing and gained a trait. Unless he learned abilities related to her, this trait was virtually no different from a useless one.
【Favor of the Fallen Mother Goddess (Gold): You can more easily contact the Fallen Mother Goddess and gain +1000% innate favorability from her believers. Abilities of the Fallen Mother Goddess system below Eighth-Rank are ineffective against you. Meanwhile, you learn Fallen Mother Goddess system abilities more easily, with a Fallen Mother Goddess system ability affinity of 10 (Maximum), and casting speed/casting efficiency/casting power of Fallen Mother Goddess system abilities +100%.】
In fact, this trait could be considered quite powerful.
At the very least, when facing abilities of the Fallen Mother Goddess path, attacks below Eighth-Rank were completely ineffective against him. In truth, compared to having an affinity of 10, the former was still minor by comparison. Generally speaking, ordinary people possessed only partial affinity for elemental power, and even that was very low.
Most ordinary people had an affinity below 1.
A few with magical talent reached above 1; only upon reaching 1 did one possess the capacity to learn magic. This was also why mages were generally rarer than warriors—and that was assuming a single attribute. Exceptional geniuses might even exceed average values across multiple attributes, or possess even higher affinity for a specific element.
As for Roland—sorry, but he possessed extremely high affinity for all natural elements.
What was even more frightening was that his affinity for every single one was above 8.
Thus, he now had a slight thought: whether he should try learning a few abilities related to the Fallen Mother Goddess. After all, one could never have too many skills.
This would require discussing things more with his old friend, as that person was the true expert. However, at the current stage, Roland was not particularly inclined to contact them.
Most importantly, he wanted to break parts of the original timeline.
The original Roland Morningstar Lucifiel had never learned any abilities of the Fallen Mother Goddess path up until he was sealed. Therefore, the current Roland wanted to give it a try; after all, leaving such talent unused was simply a waste.
Thanks to his talent trait, 【Original Sin · King of Pride · Lucifer】, he was not particularly afraid of the Fallen Mother Goddess laying traps for him. As a true god, he might even be able to pull off plenty of gains from her—just like that taboo ritual earlier, which had netted him two colored traits in one go.
Or perhaps, find a few more taboo tomes.
Learn some taboo magic.
Perform some taboo rituals.
Offer sacrifices to some taboo evil gods.
Reaping massive profits to his heart's content—wouldn't that be magnificent?
Roland pondered. The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Before leaving the ducal mansion to head to the St. Romanvia Imperial Academy, he had to fully arm himself. Not because there was any immediate danger—in the early script, there were very few things capable of posing a threat to him.
Strictly speaking...
There were inherently not many things that could threaten him.
The complete version of the 【Book of Truth】 was one.
Other than that, it was a group of old fogies. After all, he was currently only Fifth-Rank. Although he far surpassed his peers, he still felt somewhat powerless against certain irresistible forces. Take Scott, for example—if the man were to fight Roland to the death, Roland truly would not be able to win.
And going to the imperial capital, such old fogies walked the streets.
It was inevitable that some might set their sights on him.
Especially that old emperor. Among the royal family talents was an ability even more sickening than Eleanor's 【Illusion-Breaking Eye】. Roland really lacked the confidence to pull off schemes without leaving a trace if those old fellows stepped in. Of course, that was assuming those old guys actually made a move, which was an extremely low probability. Furthermore, the academy's principal was no pushover either.
That old geezer was shrewd as could be.
If possible, Roland was even less inclined to deal with him.
Rate on N.U.
