"Holy shit!"

"Is this even real?"

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief as he stared at the screen in front of him. His heart shook violently and his breathing turned uneven.

Did it really increase on its own?

"Heheheh!"

A giggling echoed in his ears.

"It seems you have finally experienced it darling!"

"Killing monsters isn’t the only way to get stronger. You can train yourself to increase your stats."

A melodious laugh echoed from above. Reigns raised his chin and saw Nyx sitting atop a branch while swaying her legs carefreely. Her purple hair fluttered gently with the wind as she looked down at him with amusement shining in her eyes.

"Nyx, is this even possible?"

"It is and that’s why I told you to take it slow."

She smoothly slid across the branch and jumped down lightly before landing in front of him.

"Darling, leveling up swiftly may seem good now but that’s the worst mistake you can make. Do you know why?"

Reigns slowly shook his head while staring at her seriously.

Nyx pursed her lips slightly before answering.

"It’s rather simple, darling."

"First, most people have their potential tier capped and that makes it hard to level up after they reach that level."

"Second, the higher you go, the harder it becomes to level up and you might stay stuck at the same level for years."

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Reigns spoke with a strange glint in his eyes.

"Then they can simply switch to this method however..."

"However, the higher the stat points, the more difficult it becomes to increase them by training."

Nyx snapped her fingers with a grin.

"Exactly, darling."

"Increasing a stat point at 100 points is a hundred times more difficult than at 10."

"Holy crap!"

"Then doesn’t that mean if someone trains and increases their stats close to 50 before leveling up, he would be..."

His words stopped midway.

It felt ridiculous.

This was completely bullshit.Like a cheat that breaks the game balance.

’Holymoly Crap..’

The absurd realization shook him to the core and he looked at Nyx with absolute horror in his eyes.

’Now it makes sense...’

’The difference between that Level 10 Tundra Wolf and me might not have been just 15 stat points but way more.’

Monsters were born with stronger bodies so their base strength should naturally be much higher than humans.

"Then Nyx, yours... What are your stat points?"

Nyxara only gave him a sneaky smile.

"Sorry darling. If you want, I can even give you my own body but I can’t reveal this to you for now."

Reigns paused while staring at her face carefully. From the regret in her tone, he could tell she was not lying but that can’t be said for the formed part.

’There must be some kind of clause or restriction.’

"Then why didn’t you tell me about this method before?" Reigns complained while narrowing his eyes at her.

Nyx blinked innocently.

"You are accusing me wrongly here, darling. I dragged you to train many times but you always ran away crying."

Crying?

Question marks filled his face.

’Damn you, Reigns!’

’You bloody asshole. If you had trained your body properly, how strong would I be right now?’

There were many powerful families and famous people in the world. If Nyx knew about this, then they should know about it too.

Ah...

Didn’t that mean they were already far ahead of him?

A brutal headache hit Reigns and he immediately stopped thinking about it.

"From now on, I will be training properly but let’s move up the floor first."

They summoned the system and selected the option to proceed to the next floor.

.........

SWISHH!

The moment they landed on the next floor, both of them immediately sank knee-deep into loose quicksand.

"Are you serious right now?" Reigns stared blankly at the desert around him.

"How can our luck be so bad?"

And curse their luck, the moment they arrived, they found themselves sinking into a damned quicksand pit.

"The hell?!"

This was straight-up unlucky.

Anyone who fell into this place could easily suffocate to death while losing half their lifespan.

However, by the grace of God, Reigns had his ultra pro max super ice cold girlfriend with him.

FWOOOSH!

The sand beneath them suddenly gave way completely.

"OH COME ON—"

Both of them instantly started sinking deeper.Reigns flailed wildly while grabbing onto Nyx’s arm.

"Nyx! I’m being consumed by sand!"

Nyx blinked calmly as the sand reached her waist.

"Darling, stop struggling so much."

The more he moved, the faster he sank.

Soon only his upper body remained above the surface.

"Wait—wait—this is actually bad!"

Reigns grabbed Nyx with desperate strength like a drowning man clinging to life.

Unfortunately, that only dragged her down with him.

Nyx slowly looked at him.

"Darling, as much as I love grabbing your hands but if you keep grabbing me I can’t use power without hurting you."

"Ahh...Sorry.."

For a few seconds, both of them remained half-submerged in silence.Then Nyx casually raised one finger.

CRAAACK!

The entire quicksand pit instantly froze solid.

A second later, she punched the frozen sand apart with raw strength and casually climbed out while dragging Reigns behind her like dead luggage.

As Nyx dragged him out from the frozen quicksand, Reigns suddenly noticed countless human skeletons trapped beneath the transparent layers of ice.

Some bones were half-submerged while others still stretched upward like they had desperately tried to crawl out before sinking forever.

A strange chill ran down his spine as a brief sense of deja vu struck him. If Nyx had been even slightly slower, the two of them might have ended up no different from the corpses buried beneath the desert.

Reigns laid flat on the ground breathing heavily.

"..I hate deserts."

Nyx casually waved her finger and the quicksand instantly froze solid.

Reigns followed Nyx as they walked over the frozen quick sand and finally got out of it.

Menace.

She was an absolute menace.

After climbing out, they started walking through the burning desert. Out of all places, Reigns found this one extremely unpleasant and uncomfortable.

The loose shifting sand made every step exhausting while the dry heat burned against his skin mercilessly.

It was literally hell.