04. Changes

After setting things straight with Albert and Camila, Lucius quickly got to work.

He agreed to Albert's plan to enter the Sanctuary and couldn't afford to slack off.

The Sanctuary was a place only for the extremely talented and capable, and even with a recommendation, he would still have to undergo an exam.

A week had passed since he first came to this world, and Lucius had mostly recovered from his basic weakness.

Standing in front of the mirror, Lucius marveled at the changes in his body over the past week. Despite being in this body for a while, it still took some time to get used to his new appearance.

Ink-black hair that seemed to swallow the light around it, a devilishly handsome face sculpted by the hand of a master artist, and most strikingly, a pair of burning blood-red eyes that carried a gaze that seemed to pierce through a person.

His looks may be deceiving, giving off the image of a charming young man, but his eyes were truly befitting of a man who would later be called a crazy demon.

Lucius tried a few times to smile warmly in the mirror, but with his sharp looks and piercing eyes, any warm smile ended up looking like an arrogant smirk that made someone want to punch him.

Looking at his reflection, which nearly made him want to punch himself, Lucius was left speechless.

What should he say... As befitting for a villain, I guess.

Say whatever you want about the god, but when it came to creating Lucius, he didn't skimp out in any regard.

Fortunately, he made him handsome as well. If that wretched god had asked him to win the hearts of these stunning heroines inside an ugly body, he might as well have hung up his shoes and committed suicide on the spot.

Clenching his fist, Lucius was relieved to feel some power in his arms, no matter how little.

His strength and physical condition right now wouldn't be much worse than an average healthy high schooler, but when compared with the fact that he couldn't even move his arm without exhaustion a few days ago, it was an earth-shattering change. After all, this was a supernatural world with the elements and mana in the air passively nourishing the body. The baseline physical qualities of humans here were slightly higher than those in his past life. In addition to this, the previous Lucius was a completely supernatural individual before.

Even though the vicious poison he consumed had evaporated his physical and magical strength, regaining muscle was always easier than building it. But even after his relentless training and rapid progress, he was still miles away from the previous Lucius.

The original Lucius was an extremely talented magic swordsman with the traits <Sword Master> and <Master of Mana>, greatly befitting his characteristics and an end-game boss in the novel.

In this world, talents were not just vague figures of speech but real, quantifiable characteristics that could be accurately measured and explained.

Take the talent <Sword Master>, for example.

For someone with such a talent, learning anything related to the sword would be as easy as eating and drinking. What could take others years to achieve would take months, if not just a few weeks.

It was the type of talent where one could watch a scene, gain inspiration from it, or directly copy your opponent's moves and integrate them into your own in the heat of battle.

If you heard a story of someone seeing a natural disaster or watching a painting and then going on to create a new sword technique, it was without a doubt a person with the <Sword Master> talent.

Even in the story, there were only a few characters seen with the <Sword Master> talent, with the protagonist, of course, being one of them.

The Sanctuary was the cradle where humanity's brightest and most capable talents would gather.

It was jointly created by all human nations during humanity's darkest days to nurture and train the most capable warriors and heroes who would fearlessly face the overwhelming enemies of the human race.

Although countless years had passed since its founding and the days when humanity was near extinction were long gone, its tradition of only admitting the best and brightest was never broken.

In the original novel, it wasn't hard for Lucius to get into the top class since he had both the strength and talent for it. But now, forget about the top class; he might not even be able to get into the Sanctuary itself!

For Lucius, this was unacceptable.

He must not only enter the Sanctuary but also securely make it into the top class!

As the class of the MC, there were naturally many heroines inside it, and if he was to win their hearts, he must enter that same class as well.

It was impossible to develop his strength and abilities to that level in such a short time. If he was to do it, he could only rely on an outstanding trait, and he knew just how to get one.

It was impossible to rely on the system store and accumulate the required Love Points. It wasn't a matter of lack of effort; it was just unrealistic.

Instead of the system, Lucius would rely on something else to achieve this goal.

After searching his memories in the book for some details, Lucius discarded tasks that were unrealistic for his timeframe or would simply be too far or too tricky for him to achieve at the current moment.

In the end, in order to gain a suitable trait, Lucius would summon a demon!

…..

In a dark underground room of the revolutionary army's new hideout, a group of people could be seen gathered around discussing passionately.

"Young Leader, are you sure you should be doing this?" asked Albert.

"Even though we have dealt with demons many times and often cooperated with them, you should know how terrifying and devious their contracts can be. They are nothing but pitfalls! You already possess a set of exceptional talents, so there is no need to make a deal with demons like a desperate lunatic!"

Hearing this, Lucius just shook his head.

"Uncle Albert, you should know that we can't do that. The Empire, and by extension, the Sanctuary, are our enemies. We have already confirmed that the Empire has planted spies and traitors among us. If someone like Camila were sent for infiltration into the Sanctuary, the risk wouldn't be as high, as only a select few in the Revolutionary Army know the full extent of her talents. However, it would be too dangerous for me. My talents are already widely known throughout the Revolutionary Army, so I could even be identified. No matter how small the risk is, we can't afford to take it!"