The Transmigrated Author

Chapter 35  Broke For Nothing

Valencia's eyelids twitched, drawn by the smell of butter and maple syrup wafting from her plate.

She was about to rejoin the land of the living, and I didn't want to make the situation to awkward so I should just quickly leave. I thought, the chill of dread creeping up my spine.

Jan, who saw Valencia wake up tried to continue what we were talking about earlier.

"So, Rel," he drawled, with a curious look in his eyes, "you gonna leave us hanging on that mana optimization theory? You were about to say something but you stopped?"

Valencia stirred, a soft cough hacking into the silence. Panic clamped down on my throat. Explaining mana optimization with her awake was like juggling nitroglycerin.

I was fidgeting in my seat, searching for an excuse to leave, but nothing came to mind.

Panic gnawed at me. "Uh... um, I forgot something at my dorm I have to leave. Goodbye!"

My hand clenched around the edge of the table, knuckles white. Before anyone could react, I launched myself towards the cafe exit.

Jan's muffled "Wait!" echoed behind me, but I didn't dare look back. My feet pounded on the pavement, fueled by a primal urge to escape.

...

...

...

[Pinnacle Academy Dorm]

Moments later, I collapsed onto my dorm room floor, panting like a hunted animal.

The adrenaline subsided, left a wave of exhaustion and a strange mix of relief and frustration.

This wasn't how I'd planned my day but of course, my luck isn't so lucky.

[You're Speed has increased! 63 >>> 64.2 (1.20+)]

"System," I croaked, the word rasping in my dry throat.

[Yes? Mr. Axel :D]

"What's with the sudden stat points?" I asked, still processing the absurdity of my adrenaline-fueled sprint.

[A minor reward for exceeding physical limitations!]

That is quite confusing, to say that I pushed my physical limitations, but okay, it's always a good feeling to earn more stat points. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Sweat piled onto my forehead and all over my body as the heat rose.

From my head, I could tell how exhausting that run truly was; the students in the male dorm even looked at me like I had left the dryer on.

Upon arriving at my dorm room, I noticed it was still in the same condition as always. I had never taken the time to clean it.

Well, it was nice to be in the same old room that hasn't changed at all in this past week.

It even looked the same as my old apartment back when I was just Axel.

The leftover clothes from the battle arena were scattered all over the floor, and my bow, a prize from Dawnsblade, hung on the wall above my desk.

I guess this dorm room did need a change, and to say that it didn't was an overstatement. It was an empty bedroom; without my bed and desk, there was simply nothing there.

Luckily for me, my earnings from the tournament had just come swooping into my bank account.

The results of the earnings made my mouth drop and had my soul leave my body the moment the 8 digits rolled over my eyes.

[Commonwealth Bank: Axel Saint Rel Laurence]

[Savings: $123.22]

[Income: $46,250,000]

[Spending Account: $45.22]

I'm rich? Me? Rich... Well, there's no mistake that the paper that flew into my face was not a coincidence but a thread of fate leading me to become the richest person alive!

What should I do with this flock of money? Maybe I could use a partial amount to gamble and earn more money, or I could buy my own house to live in, invest in stocks, buy cars, and live a luxurious life!

The urges in my head to leave everything and go to another place on the other side of the country will only make my will stronger to leave.

But I had an idea first. Since I've been sticking to the whole Mk II watch for a while, I'll go out soon to buy a laptop. Oh, and another thing came into my mind as well.

I still don't know what BP does lol...

"System" [Yes? Mr Axel :D]

"What can I do with BP anyway? I have like 685 Battle points but I'm not sure what I could do with them." [Oh! Well, BP can be used to enhance, upgrade, or change any skill set of your abilities! If you want examples, I shall provide them here.]

[If in any choice you want to upgrade your base stats, there is an amount that you use that will scale depending on how much BP you spend and the value of a stat will also be applied if a stat has a higher numerical value than others, such as speed. Speed is much more valued than health in terms of combat.]

[With Special Stats, the numerical value of each stat is multiplied by 2.5x, meaning you would have to spend double the amount of BP depending on how much you want to upgrade a certain stat.]

[Example: Upgrading Luck: 51.08% + 5.00% = 56.08% (BP value 500 BP points per percentage amount: 6,250 BP cost.)

[Each special stat has its value that depends on its current numerical value and the upgrading value.]

[Special Abilities and Abilities will have their own upgrade value, only given that special abilities will have a 2.0x upgrade value, being more expensive than the standard ability. As each ability upgraded will have a cooldown, upgrading means that you have to wait a certain period before the ability can be upgraded again.]

[Creating Abilities and Modifying Abilities: Creating Abilities will have two important factors.]

1. The strength of an ability directly influences the Battle Points (BP) required for its creation. Abilities vary in potency, and as their strength increases, so does the investment of BP. This dynamic ensures users must strategically allocate their BP, making decisions that balance power and resource efficiency.

2. The impact of a certain ability can inherently change the way how a story goes, so if an ability you achieve is greater than the strength of the characters, it can cause the advancement of a plot, scaling in the difficulty of an event that will occur within the story. You are aware of this.

[Modifying abilities is more costly. Depending on how you would want to change an ability, an example will be shown.]

[Example 1. Chosen Ability: Dead Eye [Grade 9] - Function: The ability to enter a state of heightened concentration, enhancing the user's precision and focus. While time doesn't slow down, the user gains acute awareness of their surroundings, allowing for precise aiming and target tracking over a 5 km radius.]

[Additional Modifier: [FIRST TIME ACTIVATION ONLY - Until the duration of a battle is over the modifier will reset.] Activating Dead Eye grants the user increased speed and a brief period of untargetability, allowing for quick repositioning and evading incoming threats during intense battles. (Cost: 500 BP - 1000 BP)]

As the system displayed multiple screens showcasing the examples and functions of what I could do with BP, it became evident that BP held greater value than anything else.

Well, perhaps QP might be equally valuable, but maximizing BP could potentially make me stronger than even the main cast.

Maybe Jan wouldn't have to bear the entire responsibility of saving this novel himself. I could probably be of some use to him but not right now of course.

Still, a question remained... what could I get out of this right now?

Or maybe I could look at potential abilities that I could achieve in the future.

With that in mind, I asked the system a question. "System can I check with your ability creator?" [Sure you can! here you go.]

[> Ability Creator | > Ability Modifer] - [Select which editor you'd like to use.]

DING!

As I selected the ability creator this was like a whole new layer of things unfolding before me and the first 4 abilities came into mind as I typed in the functions of each. [-[Special Ability] - [ Grade: Unapplicable ] World Ender - the ability to stop time itself each second consumes 200 stamina per second.[Cost: 1,000,000 BP]-]

[-[Special Ability] - [ Grade: Unapplicable ] Limitless Healing - The ability to recover from any phenomena that are considered physical or spiritual damage to one's body or soul.[Cost: 1,000,000 BP]-]

[-[Special Ability] - [ Grade: Unapplicable] Absolute Reversal - Any past action that has occurred such as sustaining damage or surprise attacks can revert time 5 minutes earlier. [Cost: 500,000 BP]-]

[-[Special Ability] - [ Grade: Unapplicable] Technique Replication - The ability to perfectly replicate an attack or technique of any target of the user's desire the ability can be performed to work at its peak or however the user wishes to use it. [Cost: 250,000 BP]-]

I wouldn't even bother thinking of how I'm going to reach any of these special abilities let alone achieve 250,000 BP... Why are the expenses always so much?

with 650 BP to spend, I guess there's nothing I could do to get the most out of this so It would be best if I save...

______________