### Chapter 5 A Grain of Dust in an Era
When Shaya woke up again, he felt dizzy and lethargic.
The scene of being killed by the Black Mist was still vivid in his mind, and the annoying whispers and soft laughter echoed faintly in his ears.
He looked around and found himself reborn in the secret room he had previously set. The bizarre patterns on the ground resembled upside-down smiling faces, silently mocking him.
Although reincarnation allowed his body and soul to revert to their most perfect state, the pain felt after each death was real. However, after experiencing it too many times over the past decade, Shaya appeared very calm.
Even so, the feeling of being killed by the Black Mist still left a deep impression on him.
But at that moment, he couldn’t afford to dwell on these things; the system prompt that popped up in front of him attracted all his attention.
【Your level has increased from LV.26 to LV.34!】
【Since the experience gained this time exceeded the limit of experience points that can be obtained at once, the excess will be deemed invalid!】
【You have gained 24 free attribute points!】
He blinked, and then his breathing became heavier.
He finally leveled up!
And he had jumped up 8 levels all at once!
Shaya clenched his fists and took a deep breath.
Although he had anticipated such a situation, when the result was right in front of him, he couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of joy.
What surprised him was that this time the increase in experience was measured in levels, a qualitative leap that had never occurred over the past decade. Even after being killed by that cult leader for the first time, he had only barely leveled up by about one level.
After all, the experience points required for the next level would increase exponentially with each level gained.
Following this reasoning, that Extremely Evil Demoness was undoubtedly the strongest existence on the entire continent, possessing the status of a deity without a doubt!
Thinking of this, Shaya felt light-hearted and found his future direction.
It seemed that the gap in strength between the witch and himself was so large that the experience points obtained were beyond the limit, making it the biggest upgrade point in the medium or even long term.
Isn’t this a way to exploit the system?
With such thoughts, Shaya momentarily cast aside the pain of being killed by the Black Mist and looked at the magical matrix on the ground, wanting to perform the ritual again.
“I almost forgot; the most important Phantom Stone powder used in the ritual is all gone.”
Shaya stopped his actions and shook his head.
This powder was incredibly expensive and considered a prohibited item in the Hiren Empire. Each gram was worth its weight in gold, and even he did not have any extra stock.
However, Shaya knew where he could get it, so he chose not to dwell on it and focused his attention on the free attribute points awarded with each level-up.
He opened his character template and fell into thought.
【Name: Shaya Adelaide】
【Level: LV.34】
【Race: Human】
【Age: 16】
【Rank: Squire/Magic Apprentice】
【Stamina: 53】
【Intelligence: 38】
【Charm: 10】
【Luck: 21】
According to the system’s previous description, an average adult male would generally have values around 5 points each, with no significant fluctuations.
The attribute of 【Stamina】 covers a wide range and generally includes endurance, strength, agility, and defense. Thus, allocating points here would result in an all-around physical improvement.
This value also happens to correspond with his current cultivation realm—Squire.
It has been mentioned before that once the system was bound, Shaya could no longer enhance his strength through normal means. No matter whether it was physical training or meditation, the only way to become stronger like others was through leveling up and allocating points.
So when Shaya just reached LV.20 and his 【Stamina】 reached 40 points, the system had popped up the option of 【Do you wish to promote to “Squire”?】.
The general cultivation methods in this world are similar to most RPG games, divided into the Knight path and the Mage path, so “Squire” is not a title or honor, but merely represents the second realm of the Knight path, while the first realm is called “Knight Attendant.”
By analogy, 【Intelligence】 naturally represents the level benchmark of the Mage path, but Shaya usually does not focus on points in this area, so he was still stuck at the initial realm of a Magic Apprentice.
After a moment, Shaya decided to allocate points with a distribution of 14-8-0-2.
Free attribute points are incredibly precious, so Shaya would never waste them on the trivial value of 【Charm】, and even added very little to 【Luck】.
【Would you like to promote to “Sorcerer”?】
“Yes.”
Once 【Intelligence】 reached the promotion standard, the system indeed popped up the option. This is the second realm of the Mage path.
After completing all this, Shaya clenched his fists, feeling a significant enhancement in both his physical and magical power.
The path ahead was clear; the urgent task now was to gather enough Phantom Stone powder for the teleportation ritual. However, even with a way to obtain it, a considerable amount of money was still needed.
“Let’s leave it at that for now.”
Looking at the gray light seeping in through the crack of the door, he spoke softly.
It had been a long night without sleep, and after being killed by the Black Mist, he felt a bit hungry now.
……
Pushing open the door revealed the interior of a regular house.
Shaya climbed up the stairs, closed, and locked the cellar door. Clearly, the secret room was hidden below.
Since this place was only used as a stronghold for the ritual and did not store food, after searching around without finding anything, Shaya chose to go outside.
Crossing the narrow alley, he stepped on the somewhat damp cobblestone road and arrived at Sikke Street. The sun had yet to rise, and the sky was overcast, looking somewhat oppressive.
But for the impoverished commoners in the West District of the Lower City, a new day had already begun.
On both sides of the street, there were disorderly and crowded low and shabby buildings. The surrounding air was somewhat polluted, mixed with various sounds, and there were occasional shouts. People in ragged clothes came and went, numbly striving to make a living, hustling for the next meal for themselves and their families.
Upon closer inspection, one could find countless so-called lower-class people such as laborers, vendors, women, beggars, and drunks, forming the most basic component of this place.
Such phenomena were not uncommon in the four districts of the Lower City and were even becoming a trend.
Since the year 1374 of the New Calendar, when the Round Table Nobility Conference passed the “City Area Demarcation Management Act,” the vast Royal Capital had been divided into “Upper City” and “Lower City” by a wall.
Inside the wall lies the prosperous Royal Capital, while outside the wall is the “loyal” Lower City guarding the Royal Capital.
To better cleanse the city’s appearance, the security departments had driven hundreds of thousands of low-income commoners into the Lower City for residence, and mandated that anyone without complete documentation and valid reasons could not enter the city.
Even if the documentation was in order, a costly fee of ten copper coins per person had to be paid.
In the Lower City, one copper coin could buy a piece of black bran bread, barely enough for a poor family of two to cope with one lunch.
This measure had plunged countless bottom-dwelling citizens, who originally depended on the prosperous industries of the Royal Capital, into the Abyss, cutting off their hope for survival, perhaps merely because some Grand Noble casually remarked during a Round Table meeting that “living alongside lower-class people feels very unsanitary.”
Looking at the oppressive scene in front of him, Shaya silently left.
Although he felt deep sympathy for their situation, to put it bluntly, even Shaya himself was a “Noble Lord” living in the Upper City, about to inherit his father’s title at the age of 16. No matter what he said, he would only be regarded as a cat crying for the rat.
He bought a freshly baked loaf of toast at a bread shop with sparse business on the street corner, stuffed it into a paper bag, and held it under his arm, eating as he walked.
After a while, he noticed a group of people gathered by the roadside, facing away from him, seemingly discussing something.
Initially not intending to join the commotion, but after hearing a heartbreaking, innocent cry, Shaya paused for a moment, then stepped closer.
It was a dirty little alley accompanied by a stinking drain, with makeshift shelters built on both sides, extending into the unseen distance.
The crying was coming from one of the shelters.
Listening quietly to the sighs and discussions around him, Shaya gradually understood the specifics of the situation.
It was a very common impoverished household in the Lower City, with no proper housing, barely making ends meet with the few copper coins earned from the man’s daily work as a dock laborer and the woman’s income from sewing. Even so, they had not given up on living.
But one day, during the搬运 process, an accident happened. The man fell from the cart and was crushed by the wheel at his thigh, enduring the pain for two full days and nights at home before he died.
The sudden collapse of the pillar of the family was undoubtedly a devastating blow for the remaining mother and daughter. Perhaps the still naive little girl did not understand what this meant, but the woman was all too aware that relying on her meager income from mending clothes could barely fill their stomachs.
Thus, like the vast majority of poor women in the Lower City without any support, the woman chose to fall into depravity to survive.
Once, twice, thrice…
In this era without rigorous avoidance measures, each time meant a gamble.
Ironically, after living a life of poverty and misery for decades, only this time did Lady Luck “bestow her favor” upon her.
Having confirmed the symptoms and realizing she was pregnant, the woman did not become hysterical but remained calm, working on her sewing during the day and soliciting customers at night.
After a day’s work, she extravagantly bought a loaf of bread mixed with only a small amount of bran with the copper coins she had earned, happily sharing a meal with her little daughter before falling into a deep sleep.
She never woke up again.
After buying the bread, the woman “conveniently” went to the herbal shop across the street, using the money earned from selling her body to buy a packet of deadly purple pine flower powder to sprinkle on the bread.
Perhaps this is the silent protest of the weak against the era.
For some unknown reason, the little girl, who also ate the bread, did not die. When she woke up and saw the cold corpse, she did not understand what it meant; she simply gently pushed her mother, telling her that she was hungry as usual.
It was only a few minutes ago that she understood the fact, explained by the people around her, that “Mother is sleeping and will never wake up again.”
As Shaya watched the little girl trembling in the cold wind, crying over her mother’s corpse, scenes of the prosperous Upper City and the luxurious lives of its noblemen flashed through his mind.
Pulling the scale of time longer, perhaps in future history books, this measure to divide the Upper and Lower City would only be recorded in a line or two, and historians might even hold a conservative praise for the Round Table Conference’s bill.
But for the little girl’s family of three, as well as for the hundreds of thousands of impoverished people in the Lower City, this was an unexpected disaster.
Shaya couldn’t help but recall a phrase.
A grain of dust in an era, when it falls on an individual, becomes a mountain.
