Chapter 30: Need to Put In the Effort

Vivian's explanation made Shien finally understand why they said that his growth rate in every direction was very high.

"Since you could defeat a golem with a 10 level difference under these kind of conditions, that should only be possible if your growth rates are very high in many area right?"

That's what Vivian believes.

It's pretty obvious just thinking about it. With the levels being equivalent, a strength type warrior would definitely end up loosing to a warrior that has strength, defense, and could even use magic, right?

Therefore, if the growth rate is high in all areas, then when they level up, every single area would get a great boost. The total stat gain from someone like that would obviously be much better than someone who only gets a raise in one or two areas.

However, that's all without taking into account the existence of skills and other conditions.

If someone had combat skills and those skills are raised to a certain level, then the situation would obviously be different.

One could say that the level is the hardware, and skills are the software. Only by having both could truly great power be formed.

Thus, only someone with high enough level and skills can be called the strong. Someone who only has the former without the latter is like an idiot with only muscles. Someone with the latter but not the former would be like a sickly genius who could barely do anything. No matter which it was, neither could be said to be something good.

In a word, to calculate a person's true power, one must take into account both level and skills.

(Perhaps, Shien is just the type of person who has overwhelming talent in stat growth, but poor compatibility with learning skills.)

Vivian silently considered it in her mind.

Although, normally speaking, that should be impossible.

After all, as it was already said, just being able to raise one's level to 10 was enough to prove that the person had a certain amount of talent. Logically, no matter how incompetent they were, they should at least be able to learn a few simple skills.

(Just what is going on then?)

Vivian gazed at Shien while deep in thought.

On the other side, Shien was also deep in thought from what Vivian said.

That's because Shien remembered one of the effects of his unique skill – [Heavenly Grace].

Besides the overwhelming effect on skill acquisition and leveling, Shien's [Heavenly Grace] had another effect – [When leveling, all stat increase set to highest value].

Before, Shien didn't know just what this effect meant.

Now, Shien understood.

(This effect is that when I level up, I'll get the highest amount of gains in every single area, huh?)

Be it strength, vitality, magic, or even things like reaction time, etc., every single possible ability will get the highest amount of growth at level up. That's the truth of this effect.

To use Vivian's words, Shien's growth rate in all directions are all the highest possible.

This made Shien once again realize just how much of a cheat he was, which made him even more uncomfortable.

(The bigger this cheat is, the harder it will be for me to keep hidden.)

Shien sighed in his mind.

Suddenly, Shien thought of a different problem.

(So then, just what is the scale used by the Holy Sword's level increase?)

Since how people will grow when they level up depends on each person's potential, talent, and training, then how exactly does the Holy Sword's level increase boost his various different abilities?

And also, just how much does it increase by?

(It couldn't possibly be like the effect of [Heavenly Grace], where it boosts everything by the maximum value, right?)

At the very least, Shien could feel that when he was using the Holy Sword, his magic power didn't increase.

Putting aside which abilities get boosted, based on Shien's current level ups, by the time he managed to reach level 100, it should be stronger than the 100 levels granted by the Holy Sword.

As he thought that, Shien used his own feelings and experience to make a basic estimate.

(The levels granted by the Holy Sword should have equally boosted every stat besides magic.)

As an example.

Say that when Shien himself levels up, every single stat gets a full [10] added.

And what the 100 levels that the Holy Sword grants is [100] equally to every stat besides magic. Calculating it out, it's basically the same as giving Shien an increase of [1] in every stat besides magic power for each level.

In that case, by the time Shien gets to level 100, all his stats should have gotten to [1000], so it's obviously much stronger than the [100] granted by the 100 levels from the Holy Sword.

Of course, that's just an example.

However, based on Shien's own instincts, by the time he finally reached level 100, it would definitely be stronger than the 100 levels granted by the Holy Sword.

Putting everything else aside, just the fact that the Holy Sword doesn't boost magic while Shien himself does get magic increases when he levels up is alread a difference.

(However, the Holy Sword also have other effect, so I can't say that it's worse than my unique skill.)

However, if he tried to put it like that, then there's also the fact that Shien's unique skill has other effects too.

The two both have their own strengths.

However, Shien has both.

(This should be the reason that goddess believes that I have the best chance of defeating the Demon King, right?)

Shien once more grumbled to himself.

Afterwards…

"Alright."

Vivian clapped her hands and called everyone's attention to her.

"Now then, we basically understand Shien's ability now. Even though he's a newbie, I personally think that his potential should be much better than what we thought." Vivian looked towards Diere and the others and asked, "You guys think so too, right?"

Diere, Lumia, and Melika just stayed silent without responding.

"What do you think? Diere?"

Vivian turned to Diere as if she expected that kind of response.

"… Let's continue moving."

Diere didn't give any answer though. After a moment of silence, she ended up coldly giving that kind response and then headed back to the carriage by herself.

"W-Wait a moment!"

"Diere!"

Lumia followed along in a panic, and Melika also hurried to catch up.

The three's obvious show of running away made Vivian helplessly resigned.

Shien on the other hand didn't think much about it, and he also got ready to get back on the carriage.

However, as he passed by Vivian, she said something to him.

"I hope you won't blame them too much." Vivian sighed, "It's not that they hate you. It's because they've experienced some unhappy things before, so they're a bit overly guarded against you is all."

Hearing that, Shien stopped his footsteps.

Then, after a bit of thought, Shien basically understood what had happened.

"A party that assembled this many strikingly beautiful female adventures. It's easy to imagine just how much trouble they have met."

On that matter, Shien could understand too.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep an appropriate distance."

Shien gave Vivian a smile and headed back into the carriage.

Vivian stopped a moment, and then was even more resigned.

"I didn't mean for you to keep your distance..."

Vivian only wanted to imply that if he wanted to get closer to Diere and the others, then he'll need to put in quite the effort first and gain their trust.

Who knew that Shien just unhesitatingly chose to maintain his distance.

"He really is a strange newbie."

Vivian also ended up muttering to herself before getting back in the driver's seat.

The carriage that had stopped for a while once again begun moving. Following the creaking of its wheels, it continued onward.