The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

It had to be said. Shien used that one blow very well.

Due to the fact that the weapon in his hands is a normal two-handed sword. It wasn't even a magic weapon, never mind comparing it to the Holy Sword. Plus, due to the fact that he needed to hide many of his skills, Shien made use of a trick and struck the joint where the Golem's kneecap was to break its balance and force it to its knees.

If he was using the holy sword, Shien could have easily ripped the golem to pieces in a single strike.

Even without the Holy Sword, in reality, just with the attack power increase from his maxed out [Two-handed Sword], Shien could have cut the golem in two. If he added the boost from [Limit Evolution], then it would have been even less of an issue.

However, for the sake of not showing too much, Shien held back his strength and purposefully put on an act where he defeated this opponent through a trick.

That way, Shien could hid his many skills while at the same time show enough ability for him to pass the adventurer test.

Thus, following the golem's fall, Shien begun to attack furiously.

"Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!" …

Along with the sound of a number of furious impacts, Shien repeatedly stuck the joint of the golem's knees with great strength, sending debris flying every which way where he stuck.

The fallen golem swung its arms in an attempt to attack Shien, but Shien instead shifted to the golem's back and did not allow those flailing arms to hit him. He continued slashing at the golem's joint and kept it from getting up.

"Boom!"

After who knows how many strikes, the golem's knee was finally smashed to pieces and scattered onto the ground in a pile of pebbles.

The golem which lost a foot dropped onto the groud with a heavy impact.

"Now!"

Shien acted like he was waiting for that moment for a while now and leaped onto the golem's back. Then, he aimed at the golem's head which had fallen to the ground, and with exaggerated motions like he was using all his strength, raised his sword into the air and swung it down in a mighty slash.

"Boom!"

With the sound of an explosive impact, the golem's head was split apart, breaking up into countless fragments.

Just like that, through the situation of "using all his strength," Shien had successfully won against this unlucky golem.

(There shouldn't be any problems this way, right?)

Shien wiped his forehead as if he was wiping of sweat and, while acting like he was exhausted, gave himself a victory sign in the safety of his own mind.

Then, when Shien turned back around to look behind hen, what he saw was instead a number of surprised expressions.

"…… He actually won?"

"Hau…"

"That power…"

Diere, Lumia, and Melika were showing their surprise.

It wasn't just the three of them. Vivian was also showing the same expression.

"I never thought that you would actually win. It looks like you're real power is much higher than I had thought, Shien."

Vivian spoke in a tone full of surprise.

The corner of Shien's mouth twitched at the sight of that scene.

"Um… Was that strange…?" Shien asked Vivian weakly, "Didn't you say that, for me, this golem shouldn't be a dangerous opponent?"

Hearing that, Vivian's face showed a strange expression.

"I did indeed say that, yes." Vivian gave a bitter smile, "Due to the fact that golems are famous for being slow and clumsy demonic beasts, baring cases where the level difference was too high, even newbies should be able to barely dodge the golem's attacks. Since they won't be hit, then of course there wouldn't be any danger, but if you want to defeat it, that too isn't something a newbie adventurer of around level 10 could do."

Hearing that, Shien's expression froze.

Seeing Shien's reaction, Vivian continued on while keeping her strange expression, "When it comes down to it, golems might be clumsy and slow, and they have a hard time hitting their opponents, but due to the fact that their whole body is made of stone and other minerals, their defenses are famously high. To defeat a demonic beast like that, you'd at least need to prepare crushing type weapons like heavy hammer or heavy axe type large weapons. Otherwise, mid ranked magic could work too. However, I've never heard of a case where someone lower leveled cut it down with just a sword you know?"

That is to say, Vivian's goal wasn't for Shien to defeat the golem, but to use this chance to see how Shien would behave under a situation where "he couldn't defeat a demonic beast that was at the same time not a danger to him."

However, the end result was that Shien who had no idea of Vivian's intentions but instead tried to pass Vivian's test via a show of "defeating the demonic beast after much effort."

"Your level is only just 10, and you haven't learned any skills. Plus, your weapon is just a new weapon that you just got. It has no particular advantages beyond its sharpness and it can't even be compared to magic weapons. And yet, under such conditions, you still managed to win against a demonic beast that's both higher level than you and is the type that's particularly hard to beat. With all that in mind, do you really think we won't feel this was strange?"

Vivian's declaration completely crushed Shien's mood.

Seeing Diere, Lumia, and Melika were still looking at him with surprised expressions, and even Vivian's gaze had turned profound, Shien started laughing dryly.

"That is to say, my power is at least passable. I haven't disappointed you, right?"

Shien had no choice but to push forward with the conversation.

"Hn. Although it's unexpected, this is actually a good thing." Vivian gave another deep and meaningful look and continued on, "Since you could beat even a golem that's nearly 10 levels higher than you, you should be able to learn a skill fairly quickly. Or rather, given what you've shown, it's the fact that you don't have any skills that's strange here. However, this also does mean that your growth rates in all direction are quite high right?"

"Growth rates in all directions?" Shien asked, "What does that mean?"

"What? You don't know?" Vivian paused a moment and spoke even more questioningly, "Based on the differences between each person's way of training and natural talent, everyone would end up having different growth rates in various stats. That's common sense, right?"

… Common sense was it?

To Shien, these so called common sense are things that not only have nothing to do with him, but are also the things likeliest to make trouble for thim.

However, Shien did more or less understood what Vivian was trying to convey.

"When a person raises their level, although they'll definitely become more powerful, it's not like that will end up strengthening every part of them." Vivian explained, "When one levels up, based on how they've trained and their own different natural inclinations, the way their power rises will also differ."

For example, if a strength type warrior levels up, their strength value would definitely be what got raised the most.

Following the same reasoning, when a mage levels up, what's first raised is their magic power. As for their physical ability, unless they have purposefully trained it or had natural talent for it, then when they level up, their ability in that realm wouldn't be raised at all.

Thus, the gains everyone gets when they level up are all different.

"Taking me as an example, since I'm a defense type vanguard, when I level up, my endurance and defense gets the most noticeable growth, while my other abilities don't show nearly as noticeable changes." Vivian continued her explanation, "And for someone like Melika, when she levels up, her magic power's increase is the largest. As for her physical abilities, she's no different from a normal girl even now you know?"

That's how it is.