The Pathway Of Wisdom-Chapter 27: Pathwalker. Part-3.

Ethan had only seen people who trained all day long and walked the ’path’ of hard work succeed and become ’Pathwalkers.’

Usually, all experienced and powerful knights of the nation had reached Phase 1 after years of hard work, training, and real combat experiences.

Ethan had never met anyone who had ascended without training a single day in their life, so when Alex asked him whether it was possible for non-combatants to become ’Pathwalkers,’ he was not sure about it.

But Alex was able to figure out one thing from Ethan’s explanation of ’Paths.’

’Paths’ are nothing but a person’s road to their goals; thus, it’s highly possible that there might be non-combatant ’Pathwalkers’ in the world too.

After all, not everyone’s dream was to become a strong warrior or combatant; having your physique strengthened was just a side bonus after becoming a ’Pathwalker.’ Alex’s main aim was the possibilities!

If the physique and soul get enhanced, it’s possible for his mind and brain to become powerful too! He can then learn and comprehend things much more easily compared to before!

That’s basically as good as upgrading the old CPU of a computer with a new high-end CPU, thus enhancing its capabilities tremendously!

"Your holiness, ascending to higher phases is not just about physique and power; you also get to learn mysterious powers and skills!"

"For example, I am a paladin; I have dedicated my everything to our benevolent god of wisdom. Thus, when I ascended to phase 1..."

"I awakened abilities that suited the skills of someone who walked the ’Path’ of a ’Paladin’!"

Hearing Ethan’s words, Alex nodded his head and thought to himself,

’The power system of this world is very flexible it seems, and every person is unique with their own skill set that correspond to their inner true self!’

In many other novels and manga that Alex had read, there was a very rigid ’class’-based system where a person could only have skills related to a particular class like swordsman, archer, healer, etc.

But there were no such constraints in this world; you could be anyone and anything you want, and your real true self will govern what your powers will be and how far you will go in the future.

’This world is filled with mysteries and adventures, it seems...’

"By the way, what was that monster we encountered when we were near the valley of sorrows?"

"How are monsters classified? There’s no way that mindless monsters can understand the concept of ’Paths’ and ’Pathwalkers,’ right?"

Ethan nodded at Alex’s question and replied,

"Lord Saint, although I also don’t know what that monster we met that day was, I am quite sure it was likely a ’Mutated Beast’...."

"Just like how our benevolent god bestows us with ’Divine Power’ when we believe in him and pray to him, there also exists a force that favours monsters and beasts a lot..."

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he spoke in a solemn voice.

"Your holiness, there’s a horrific power called ’Miasma,’ which loves making a mockery of life and everything in existence."

"That bizarre power brings miasmic corruption, decay, curses, diseases, and horrific mutations to whoever it touches!"

While talking about ’Miasma,’ Ethan was very solemn, and even Alex could feel that Ethan was afraid of that bizarre power even when talking about it.

"Usually, wild animals and other creatures remain in forests like usual, but sometimes due to a high concentration of miasma in some places or some unnatural phenomena, they get corrupted by miasma."

"That’s when they get turned into monsters and horrific, disfigured creatures... but miasma is not the only source of these creatures..."

"Sometimes, miasmic rifts also appear in some locations and spill out monsters and miasma endlessly!"

"Miasmic rifts and monster tides are the biggest cause of problems in our nation, and hundreds of our knights and soldiers die due to monsters every single year!"

Ethan took a deep sigh and spoke,

"Your holiness, as a paladin I have travelled to many places and I have seen several flourishing towns get reduced to ashes because of those rampaging monsters..."

"This is the reason why our nation is always lacking enough soldiers and knights; more of them die each year than we can train..."

Becoming a Pathwalker was no easy feat; even if you trained your entire life, if you couldn’t get through the ’obstacle’ blocking your ’Path’ forward, or if you couldn’t find your ’Path’ in the first place, then you would never ascend!

Being a ’Pathwalker’ was less about talent and physique and more about your mental and spiritual strength.

Thus, being a ’Pathwalker’ is not for the weak and the cowards, only those who dare to ’walk,’ only those who dare to dream, dare to find their own ’Path’ in life.

’No wonder the original Alex was never able to become strong despite being the son of the royal knight commander Mariel herself!’

Having powerful parents had nothing to do with this! Even if you are born to powerful and talented parents, you can still fail if you yourself are an immature trash!

’Well, thankfully, I am not in a cultivation novel at the very least... otherwise, without a system or a grandpa in the ring, I would just be a random weak and talentless cultivator...’

’No... perhaps my family would have already sold me to some demon cultivator as food the moment they found out I was trash...’ (Disclaimer: No cultivation protagonists were harmed in the making of this Chapter...)

Alex placed his hands on the desk in front of him and asked,

"So, the monsters and beasts are classified by their aura and the concentration and density of miasma in their bodies then?"

Ethan nodded his head at those words.

"Yes, just like how we judge other humans by sensing their aura and life force, the same goes for monsters..."

"Their aura, life force and miasma density determines if we can fight them or not; there are no strict classifications for them, but there are unofficial categories created for them according to how much damage they can do..."

"The categories are ’Beast,’ ’Monster,’ ’Aberration,’ ’Calamity’...."

According to Ethan, ’Beast’ class monsters are those that are common and usually are in groups.

They are the weakest and attack in waves and armies.

’Monster’ class ones are those that are clearly more mutated and powerful, like the one that Alex and Ethan met near the valley of sorrows.

’Aberration’ class monsters are the ones that are highly corrupted and are strong enough to wipe out towns with a single attack!

Usually, you need at least 25-40 knights just to deal with this kind of monster; if there’s a high-level ’Pathwalker,’ then they alone would be enough.

And finally, the ’Calamity’ class monsters that are strong enough to bring disasters and calamities that can topple nations themselves!

When such creatures appear, it’s confirmed that a major-scale monster tide will happen, and tens of thousands of soldiers and knights will be needed to deal with it. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

To kill such a level of monster, you would need powerful ’Pathwalkers,’ or it’s near impossible to deal with them; that’s why they are called walking ’calamities.’