Brand was confused by the sudden situation. Was this little angel purposely avoiding his question?
"Could you first tell me what Seraphim needed from me?" He insisted that Seraphine answer him first, but he was faced with a hard decline.
She skipped his earlier question and continued with her explanation. "The GHOST system, once installed in your body, completely overhauls your humanity."
"It stretches your limits to the extreme!" She exclaimed.
"What's this 'system' that you mentioned?" Brand seemingly gave up and decided to go along with the flow. "And what's so different about my body?"
Besides his skin changing to cybernetic and his bones becoming metallic, he feels not so different from his original body. The one before meeting the mechanical eye, Seraphim.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Seraphine shook her head and moved her fingers horizontally. "Let's try calling out 'Stat' for your status screen."
"Stat." Brand followed her instruction and muttered.
Suddenly, a holographic status screen appeared in his field of vision, showing detailed information about him.
==============
Status:
Name: Brand
Job: GHOST (Agent of Seraphim)
Level: 1
STR: 20
AGI: 20
INT: 20
==============
"Saw your 'Job' there? You are a proud agent of Seraphim!" Seraphine cheered.
Brand could not reciprocate her excitement, as he thought back to all the suffering he had gone through.
Nevertheless, he still went on, putting understanding the system as his top priority.
"Was the stat high or low?" He asked. He did not have any benchmark to refer to. Hell, he doesn't even know the task entrusted to him.
'Was this enough to carry on the tasks?' This was all he thought when staring at the status screen.
"To give you an idea for reference, Heroes, the humans with the best potential in this world, start with total stat points of 50 at Level 1," Seraphine explained."
That means you are 20% stronger than they are!"
"But that's only when it's Level 1, right?" Brand asked. "How about when leveled up?"
"Each species will gain a different number of stat points when they level up; typically, humans will have 3-5 stat points, but you will have 6." Seraphine continued. "Dragons, the strongest beings in the world, also have 6 stat points for each level up."
Brand nodded while listening, unbothered. All of these were numbers to him; he still hadn't met others yet, so all of these were vague concepts. But he felt reassured that he had the same potential as a dragon.
"Open your skill screen with the 'Skill' command." Seraphine urged.
"Skill." Brand spoke calmly.
A holographic screen similar to the status screen overlays his sight as soon as he speaks.
==============
GHOST Core: Lv. 1
==============
Skills:
1. Debuff Cube - Decrease all the target's stats by 5% for 3 minutes.
2. Might - Increase STR by 25% for 3 minutes.
3. Haste - Increase AGI by 25% for 3 minutes.
4. Clear Mind - Increase INT by 25% for 3 minutes.
==============
"Leveling up GHOST Core was your main focus, as your system upgrades were all connected to it." She explained. "But you need Karma Points for it, which you would gain from the achievement recognized by the world."
"Achievement?" Brand asked.
"For example, saving villagers, defeating monsters, and most importantly, Titles," Seraphine replied. "You could gain a Title when the world recognizes your feat."
"So now, pump your Karma Points to 50 points to upgrade to Level 2!" Seraphine exclaimed. "We can go into detail after that to get you to get the hang of it."
Before Brand could say anything, Seraphine continued.
"Well, last but not least is GHOST mode. Try calling out the keyword 'GHOST'"
Brand followed her instructions and muttered the keyword.
[GHOST Mode activated.]
The text lingered briefly before disappearing and was replaced with a small ghost icon at the bottom right of his iris.
"The small ghost icon indicated that GHOST mode was activated." She explained. "When GHOST mode is on, all your stats would be enhanced by 25%, and you would activate stealth, fading your existence to be undetectable.
"Hmm, that's cool." He muttered, thinking of the application of stealth during combat. "How long would it last?"
"Until the ghost icon disappeared, about 10 seconds." She replied.
"That's so short." Brand thought to himself to take note of the time limit; at least there was some indication that could remind him.
==============
GHOST Mode:
Increase all stats by 25% and activate stealth for 10 seconds.
==============
"That wrapped up our tutorial!" Seraphine exclaimed, feeling excited all of a sudden. "Are you ready?!"
"Ready for…?" Brand was taken aback; the little angel was oddly enthusiastic.
"Ding~" Seraphine rang, and the dark void space disappeared. The scenery of sand dunes returned his vision abruptly.
Brand felt dizzy, as there was no transition for the shifting scenery. However, he had a more serious problem to attend to.
Above the sky was a creature with four legs and wings. The strongest creature in this world.
Dragon.
Brand's vision immediately flared up, and holographic text hovered around the dragon.
[Sand Dragon - Lv 37]
[Growth: Baby Dragon]
The dragon was staring at him with glaring yellow eyes. Its beige scales flickered, and a radiant glow coursed along the veins of its wing.
It was as if the dragon was the embodiment of thunder, illuminating the night sky with its mere presence.
"Here's the opponent of your combat tutorial!" Seraphine shouted with excitement.
Brand's mouth gaped, unable to process the sudden shitstorm thrown at him. "You expected me to fight that?!" He pointed at the dragon.
"Of course not, you have zero chance of fighting it," Seraphine said bluntly, as if she had just heard nonsense.
Was this some sort of joke for her? And did she prepare this dragon to kill him with the excuse of a tutorial?'
"First of all, the Sand Dragon was not prepared deliberately, but by calculated coincidence!" She declared proudly. "Dragons are sensitive to mana, as they were a phenomenon of nature themselves."
"This baby dragon was curious about the disturbance of mana in this region and came to investigate," Seraphine explained.
"The space I set up earlier, hehe." She giggled innocently.
Brand was pulling at his hair in response to her declaration. "What calculated coincidence? You have expected a dragon to come!"
The Sand Dragon seemed displeased with their ongoing banter. It was now looking at them menacingly and spread its wings, charging at Brand.