Chapter 11: Hello, Time Traveler

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“Click.” With a soft snap, the final clasp locked into place.

Rehn donned the fine, lightweight leather armor, faint blue arcane light shimmering around it.

The leather had supposedly come from a petrifying giant lizard that belonged to Talia’s own collection. While alive, its hide had been tough enough to withstand ordinary blades.

Under normal circumstances, paladins and warriors preferred heavy armor. Leather armor was favored by lightly equipped classes such as rangers and rogues, since its lightness did not hinder their agile movements.

“This armor is excellent.”

Rehn gently stroked the lizard scales covering the leather, thoroughly pleased with its lightness and resilience.

Forcing himself into armor outside his proper size was an unavoidable compromise, but this was the finest armor he could currently wear. A true suit of plate would crush him beneath its weight.

For pure melee fighters such as paladins and warriors, having armor and having none were two entirely different matters.

Being able to absorb a blow and survive a mistake, rather than having to evade every attack from beginning to end, made an enormous difference in actual combat. It also allowed far more room to adjust one’s tactics.

This was especially true for paladins, tank-like melee fighters who favored trading wounds with their opponents. Without armor, half their effectiveness vanished.

Rehn picked up a fruit knife and lightly drew it across the leather. It left not even a mark. He nodded in satisfaction. It would do.

With enchantments layered over the thick hide of a petrifying lizard, the armor weighed only slightly more than ordinary leather armor while offering protection on par with chain mail. It was still inferior to the extraordinary defenses of a living petrifying giant lizard, but even inferior arrowheads could not easily pierce it.

He could charge recklessly—but only once, and only a little.

As Rehn smiled happily and continued stroking the armor, Talia opened her mouth. A flush briefly colored her cheeks before she finally turned away.

This was not equipment provided by the police station. They were not wealthy enough to possess magical items. It was a private possession of Talia’s from her days as an adventurer. Even though it was a unisex design deliberately made to look worn, it still carried a faint scent of oranges.

She had specially taken it to an enchanter friend who worked as a tailor and had the armor altered in a hurry. Since its original size was considerably larger than Rehn’s, some of the material had been cut away and the rest reshaped. In the end, it was just barely usable.

Rehn noticed none of this little episode. His sense of smell was no sharper than that of a hairless monkey.

“Tch. Pathetic trash with less combat power than five.”

The leather armor was still somewhat too large. Looking at his thin, weak reflection in the mirror, with the fitted armor hanging loosely from his body, Rehn could only mock himself.

Mockery aside, the poor foundation of his body was the most unavoidable reality before him.

“To put it plainly, if we corner that killer directly, there’s a very high chance the entire team will be killed instead.”

Delivering justice required strength. At present, Rehn had none.

His current combat ability was enough to bully a few street thugs, but when facing a true supernatural being, the fatal weakness of his “degenerated species—the hairless monkey” was impossible to ignore.

[Biological Rank: Inferior Stone. Attributes: Strength 2, Constitution 3, Agility 3, Spirit 5. Total: 16.]

[Draconic Transformation: 3%. Awakened Racial Talent: Dragon Eyes—Perceive Reality.]

[Beast Transformation: 2.5%. Awakened Bloodline Ability: Linguistic Comprehension—Understand Human Speech.]

These were the basic capabilities of his body. How should he put it? One only had to compare them to understand...

[Biological Rank: Primordial Stone. Attributes: Strength 4–5, Constitution 5, Agility 3, Spirit unknown.]

[Racial Talent: Four-Chambered Ruminant Stomach—Primordial Stone.]

[Assessment: Judging only by physical hardware, he can beat three of you. Do not try to wear him down. He can breathe, eat, and recover his health.]

This was the information on Belein, the minotaur. Rehn had obtained it naturally through his Dragon Eyes while touching the ancient book at his waist.

These figures were not linear, either. The higher they climbed, the greater the gap became.

This minotaur warrior, who had never undergone a racial leap, possessed at least three times Rehn’s strength. He also had a racial talent that allowed him to recover through breathing.

It was worth mentioning that Rehn’s Dragon Eyes had previously been capable of appraising only himself. His ability to examine others was another result of being possessed by a heroic spirit.

One reason was the enormous increase in his spiritual attributes—his soul and mental power—brought about by the possession. The other was Suul’s powerful soul-heart ability.

[Soul-Heart: Wallbreaker—Gold. Your will is your war hammer. This supernatural power, infused with your will and rage, can ignore an opponent’s defenses to a certain extent.]

This soul-heart ability was extraordinarily powerful. Combined with Rehn’s racial talent, Dragon Eyes, it allowed him to see through an opponent’s basic abilities and racial talents at a glance.

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“This is even worse than being blind...”

Yet, seemingly, nothing had truly changed. Before, everything he looked at had been question marks. Now, everyone he examined was simply a towering monster.

Reality was cruel. It was not that minotaurs were excessively strong, but that Rehn was excessively weak.

[Biological Rank: Silver. Attributes: Strength 10+, Constitution 10+, Agility 12+, Spirit unknown.]

[Known Racial Talents: Blood-Scent—Primordial Stone; Gentle Lightning Phantom Dance—Brass; Blood Frenzy—Silver. Assessment: Keep staring and I will eat you!]

These absurdly powerful figures belonged to Talia, the policewoman who was always hovering around Rehn.

Back when she had been an underground explorer, she could have defeated ten ordinary Rehns with one hand.

Physical hardware was the foundation of everything. In the face of a crushing advantage tenfold or even a hundredfold greater, superior combat technique and class abilities were of little use.

The so-called Primordial Stone rank represented the average adult of a normal beastfolk species in this world. After being converted into numerical values, it was generally below an average of five.

As for someone like Rehn, an “Inferior Stone”—also called a Shattered Stone—such a level was generally found only in the disabled and degenerated species. He was about as strong as a child, with an average barely approaching two.

Talia’s Silver-rank species had undergone at least two stages of evolution. Not only were her physical attributes formidable, she had awakened at least three powerful racial abilities along the way. She also possessed combat methods, class skills, and even soul-heart abilities built around them.

It was said that Talia was the strongest fighter in the three police stations of the Dock District.

Rehn did not believe the serial killer was stronger than her. Otherwise, there would have been no need for him to deliberately avoid the patrol zone under her jurisdiction.

Furthermore, Rehn had noticed from the case files that every crime scene had completely avoided Talia’s patrol area. This might have been the fundamental reason she did not trust the police station. She had originally intended to capture the killer alone.

Yet in the eyes of someone as powerful as Talia, “Rehn at his peak” could kill her effortlessly. She acted like a brainless little fangirl whenever she spoke of him.

Rehn could no longer estimate how powerful Suul truly was. Perhaps the sixth-rank paladin who had possessed him on the first day represented merely the limit of what Rehn’s body could endure.

After all, the Suul in his memories was a gray-haired werewolf who moved like lightning, with physical attributes approaching the mythical tier. Using this battered body of Rehn’s must have been terribly uncomfortable for him.

“Even if it is only for self-preservation, I must gain strength... This may be my chance.”

After using the heroic spirit card to save himself, and after “Suul” had cut down that noble young master, Rehn had been left with no way out. He could not entrust his safety to the generosity and good sense of the nobility.

Even if someone protected him... could they protect him for a lifetime?

He desperately needed to gain the power to defend himself as soon as possible. This might be an opportunity to make purchases with public funds.

More important than money was access to supernatural items—and until now, Rehn had possessed neither.

“I’m still trying to acquire the Cursed Ogre Gauntlets, but... don’t place your hopes too high. Their production is entirely accidental. People normally dare not use cursed items, and even if an alchemist manages to create one, it may be destroyed immediately. I’ve asked my explorer companions to search for them, but it will take time...”

If one’s physical hardware was inadequate, then in this supernatural world, it was possible to make up for it with equipment and magic or divine arts. There were precedents for this.

“Then what about a relic capable of using the Strength of Holiness spell... Right. I understand.”

Seeing the female officer shake her head with her tail drooping, Rehn could only sigh.

This was more or less what he had expected. Everything he had requested was exceedingly rare.

During these final ten days, he would still possess several temporary class levels. The Oathbound Knight was not weak, and with Suul’s combat experience, Rehn would not be entirely without a chance if he could obtain suitable hardware—namely, sufficient basic attributes.

The ordinary methods could not make up for his basic attributes, and racial ascension was not something that could be accomplished in the short term...

But when it came to unorthodox methods, Rehn happened to know several.

The normal form of the Cursed Ogre Gauntlets—the Gauntlets of Giant Strength—was an extremely practical magical item that increased strength. Melee fighters were particularly fond of it, and it was widely applicable.

The materials for items of this kind often included core components such as the arm muscles and bones of creatures possessing tremendous strength.

During the processing performed by alchemists and enchanting craftsmen, there was a certain chance that the resentful spirit of the deceased would curse the item. Thus, the classic Cursed Ogre Gauntlets came into existence.

Ordinary Gauntlets of Giant Strength increased the wearer’s strength on top of their existing attributes.

After being cursed, however, the gauntlets became even more powerful. They directly fixed the wearer’s strength at an ogre’s level.

Rehn estimated that value to be conservatively above twelve—already equivalent to the standard of a third-rank paladin.

The price was that, after prolonged use, the wearer’s arms would genuinely transform into ogre arms. Eventually, even the entire body’s racial characteristics would begin to warp and distort.

To put it bluntly, the wearer would become an ogre descended from the victim.

“As for ordinary Gauntlets of Giant Strength, I may be able to think of something...”

Cursed items were far too rare and usually carried powerful side effects. Requesting one specifically would make acquiring it in the short term extremely difficult.

Talia was already doing remarkably well. The Gauntlets of Giant Strength were precious, high-grade magical items to begin with, while the cursed version was something one could encounter only by sheer luck.

If there were truly no other option, they could post a standing purchase request and wait for fortune to favor them. But there was no time for that now. All they could do was have Talia use her connections and try.

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“No. The amplification is far too weak, and my hands would break.”

Even if the Gauntlets of Giant Strength added one or two points of strength, the practical result would be almost a doubling of his power. Yet Rehn would still remain at the level of someone weaker than a chicken.

Worse, his paper-thin Constitution could not withstand such a sudden surge of force. The result might simply be that the moment he exerted himself, his hands or feet would snap.

Strength-based warriors inevitably possessed excellent constitutions. That was common knowledge in this world. Rehn’s fragile body was his greatest problem at present.

Then why had Suul been so terrifying when he possessed him?

That required mentioning the defining characteristics of the paladin class.

Paladins generally advanced from the pure warrior class. Although they had to divide their attention between martial training, divine arts, and holy power, they still possessed close-combat abilities superior to those of ordinary warriors. They were also renowned for heavy armor and high magic resistance.

The reason was simple. Their divine arts included a whole array of abilities that strengthened the body through divine power.

“Without the Strength of Holiness spell, this really is difficult...”

Rehn was genuinely depressed that he had been unable to obtain such a relic. It was precisely what he needed most at present.

Strength of Holiness was part of the third-circle—or third-rank—divine-art system. It could convert holy power, divine arts, spiritual power, and similar forces into pure physical strength, enhancing both Constitution and magic resistance.

In the early stages of a paladin’s development, this ability was actually rather useless.

Even after strengthening himself, a paladin still could not defeat a pure warrior. Brawling brutes held obvious advantages in both combat technique and physical hardware. The small amount of spiritual and holy power available to a low-level paladin could enhance at most one or two attributes, never enough to produce a qualitative change.

For high-rank paladins, however, it was an indispensable ability. Its amplification could become terrifyingly powerful, giving birth to heavily armored tanks who cultivated both strength and constitution while possessing immense resistance to magic.

Rehn still had as many as seventeen points of temporary spiritual power from Suul’s possession. Once enhanced by Strength of Holiness, the result would be astonishing.

Rehn estimated that Suul had possessed even more power on the first day. Otherwise, he could not have cut down one opponent after another with a single stroke. He had probably infused the blade itself with holy power as well.

Rehn did not know Strength of Holiness. Items capable of using third-circle divine arts were rare and precious. They were known as sacred relics, and in practice, only the churches of true gods possessed the authority to keep them.

To them, neither Talia nor even the entire city’s police force carried enough weight to matter.

Could Rehn borrow one himself? A sacred relic capable of using third-circle divine arts would not be cheap. He could not afford the cost, nor did he have the time to make connections and complete the necessary procedures.

“Strength of Holiness is indispensable to this system...”

The Cursed Gauntlets of Giant Strength, Strength of Holiness, and the paladin’s high resistance formed a classic exploit in the paladin class.

One could obtain strength for free through the cursed gauntlets, then use the paladin’s own high resistance to resist the curse, transforming the malicious curse of “turning into an ogre” into the long-term benefit of “enhancing the strength of one’s arms.”

At Rehn’s current level, however, without the resistance and Constitution granted by Strength of Holiness, he would truly become an ogre before long.

In this world, high-level combat power was built upon complete systems. Within this paladin system—a “high-speed train” for rapid advancement—the divine-art system’s Strength of Holiness was the key.

They might fail to obtain a high-quality pair of Cursed Gauntlets of Giant Strength, but Strength of Holiness was absolutely necessary...

“As expected, I can only try that...”

[The synchronization rate with the first heroic spirit has exceeded 20%. The heroic spirit has acknowledged the host. Dream Tutelage Mode activated. This mode will trigger a series of unknown consequences. Please choose carefully.]

While using the heroic spirit card and gaining strength from it, Rehn also sensed an effect approaching psychological fragmentation.

He did not know whether this was a blessing or a curse... but at present, he seemed to have no choice.

“I’ll activate it tonight.”

If he could not obtain what he needed here, he could only attempt to acquire it from the heroic spirit.

After completing a day’s work, Rehn returned to his residence. He put away his equipment and placed the blade beside his bed.

“Dream Tutelage Mode... activate.”

Touching the unknown ancient book, Rehn gradually drifted into sleep.

That night was dreamless—or perhaps it was one long, endless dream.

Yet just as it began, a somewhat familiar voice gave Rehn an enormous surprise.

“Well, look who’s here. Reincarnator Li Ensou, you’ve arrived?”