As Adrian left the dungeon, he kept thinking about Sophia. The bags under her eyes were enough proof for him to know she wasn't unaffected by his disappearance, unlike Vincent and Clara.
While he wasn't exactly expecting them to mourn his death or disappearance, it didn't look like they were affected by him not being there. It made him wonder if Vincent or Clara had a hand in his killing.
'While Vincent might have a cause, he wasn't aware of my visit to the Ravens,' Adrian thought as he peeked to check if the path was clear. 'Unless... no, Sophia wouldn't tell him about it since I asked her not to.'
Despite thinking so, Adrian didn't appear convinced of his thoughts. But instead of dwelling on the past, he decided to spend his time on something else while searching for shelter to spend the night.
Thankfully, he had plenty of questions to discuss with the system. But demanding answers was going to take a lot of work. The system, or as Nexarians called it, a Blessing, had a mind of its own.
Sometimes, it would behave like your best friend, but in an instant, it could treat you as a stranger. Adrian had never managed to get his head around the fact that a literal screen seemed to have an entire spectrum of emotions embedded within.
'Still, it's worth giving a shot,' Adrian thought as he sat under a tree to analyse the effect of his title while opening his stats page.
As much as Adrian wanted to chat with the system, he also wanted to check his stats after defeating the Minotaur.
---
Name: Adrian Fenrir
Race: Chimaera, Human (former)
Class: Devourer, Analyst (former)
Affiliation: None
Level: 9
Attributes:
- Strength: 39 +20
- Agility: 42 +15
- Precision: 32
- Intelligence: 45
- Magic Affinity: 55
- Defence: 36
- Luck: 15
- Charisma: -32
Current exp: 750/1000
Attribute points: 8
---
At a glance, pretty much everything was the same except strength and agility. Not only did STR and AGI get eight additional points allotted to them as the system had informed Adrian, but his strength and agility were also boosted by his equipment, which comprised solely of the Minotaur's Broadsword.
'A total of 35 additional stat points from one sword, not bad at all.' Adrian mused while scratching his chin. 'But what should I use my attribute points on?'
Usually, Adrian would have dumped all the points to increase his Mana Affinity, as it would allow him to use more magic skills. But considering he only had [Analysis] and [Illusionary Eyes] that consumed mana, doing so won't be wise.
"Improving charisma is out of the question," Adrian quickly scratched that out. "No point in filling a leaking pot."
Instead of mindlessly putting his points into random stats, Adrian reflected on his battle with the Minotaur. He knew what to do when he remembered the Minotaur's strength.
"That bull's blows hit me like a truck- no change that, a bike," Adrian sighed, putting four points into increasing his defence. "Also, my luck is quite shitty, so... might as well improve that a bit."
With that dealt with, Adrian clicked on an adjacent tab marked 'Queries'. He could never open that part in his old life, but he could now use it after his system was upgraded.
At a glance, it looked simple, like an AI chatbot. The page made Adrian feel nostalgic as he used to work with AIs before being summoned to Nexaria, but it wasn't the time or place to get lost in the past.
"Why can I access this section now?"
He asked the system a simple question, and it immediately replied, which was surprising, at least for Adrian.
[An Entity sponsored the page to be opened. Remaining questions for the day: 4]
"Woah... who was it?"
[That information is classified. Remaining questions for the day: 3]
Adrian thought it would be [The Mother Who Loves Her Plants] because she had been the only one helping him so far. But the system didn't show who the sponsor was, so it didn't make sense for it to be someone Adrian already knew.
Besides, he only had three questions remaining, so it was better to use them to get definite answers from the system.
"Why was this section opened now but not before?"
[System responses are expensive. They can't be operated without a Sponsor. Remaining questions for the day: 2]
"Eh?"
Adrian felt a bit puzzled by the way the response was written. It made it seem like the system wasn't sentient, which differed from what the Nexarians had told Adrian and the others.
As much as Adrian wanted to ask the system about what he was thinking, he decided not to. For one, the system might say it's confidential information.
Also, even if it didn't, and someone was controlling the system, they might get suspicious, and who knows what might happen to Adrian then.
'I already had too many enemies; it won't do me any good to gain a new one,' Adrian thought, asking a different question.
"Why wasn't I sponsored earlier? I mean, in my previous life as a human?"
[The User wasn't 'interesting' enough for an Entity to spend money on. Remaining questions for the day: 2]
"..."
Adrian was about to blurt the loudest 'What?' of his life but held himself back as he didn't want the system to think of it as a question. But what the system replied had dealt a blow to Adrian.
Was he only lacking the strength the others had because he was deemed not interesting enough? What kind of bullshit logic was that?
People might expect that the heroes brought into this world would get all the help they need to defeat the monsters.
But these sponsors, who are supposed to help, held back powers from someone just because they didn't find them interesting enough. In what world did it make any sense?
The realisation that he died because someone didn't find him interesting enough weighed heavy on Adrian as he quickly closed the prompts before him.
He didn't want to ask anything stupid in his emotional state... but more importantly, he didn't want to read that sentence again.
"NOT INTERESTING ENOUGH? YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"