The two Hell's Swords slice out from my hands, trailing burning arcs through the cold vapor. I feel Veins of Fire open in my chest, pulsing outwards, sending a steady, volcanic current through every channel in my arms and up my wrists.

The hounds hesitate when the swords hang in the air, but I don't give them a chance to scatter. With a snap of my fingers, both blades fly for the nearest Glass Hound.

The first sword catches the hound as it leaps sideways, aiming straight for the neck junction the Grimoire highlighted. The glass splits clean, the hound's head tumbles away, and the rest of the body collapses into shards and dust. The second sword carves low, shearing through the rear leg sheath of another hound. The creature tries to recover, but it stumbles and howls—a warped, brittle noise that echoes off the crystal walls.

That howl is a signal. Every hound pivots toward me, eyes blazing with blue flame. Their pack instincts kick in; three circle wide, two rush from the front, tails arched and ready to strike. I let Veins of Fire surge, pushing a wave of mana through my arms, and call the two Hell's Swords back. The blades curve in midair and spin around me, always keeping the hounds at bay.

Echo Pulse flickers, overlaying the floor with paths—pack movements, weak points, every pulse of mana in the monsters. The Grimoire flashes more flaws for each hound: neck, rear legs, optic veins, exposed core. I send both swords darting for the hounds flanking my left, while I ready Hellspire in my hand.

The first Hell's Sword punches through a hound's exposed core. Mana erupts, the monster crumples. The second slices a tail spike, and the beast loses its balance. I finish it with a blast of Fire Slash as the first Hell's Sword comes back to my hand, shattering its side.

Shards explode across the floor, but the hounds keep coming, trying to box me in, always waiting for the golems to catch up.

The golems start to move—slow at first, then with gathering momentum, every step shaking the glass. Their eyes are locked on me, their fists already rising. I can feel the pressure in the air; their cores burn hotter than anything else in the room.

I refuse to let them surround me. I pick the sparsest part, activate Fire Walk and Flameform Blueprint, pushing my movement Skill to the maximum, and, once I'm almost in range of the Glass Gloem barring my path, I vault and, while in the air, I flick the Hellspire behind its neck.

The golem's head turns, too slow. The spear detonates. A wave of molten glass explodes out and the monster collapses, shattering into the floor with a crash that rattles my teeth.

All those Attributes are really making a difference now.

The next golem tries to flank me, but my levels make the difference. I don't need to be perfect now, not with these stats. Even when I miss the dead center of the flaw, the Hell's Sword still buries deep, breaking the spiral layers, splitting glass until the core is exposed. I ram another Hellspire into the break and, again, let it detonate.

A third golem swings. I dodge with a burst of Fire Walk, keep the blades spinning, then drive both Hell's Swords straight through the golem's exposed leg seam. Glass fractures, splinters, and the monster falters, falling hard. I finish it with a Hellspire and watch the detonation with glee.

I keep moving, never letting up. The last golem is bigger, heavier, its core burning like a forge. I push every drop of Veins of Fire through my arms, call both swords in, and slam them through the seam at its hip. The Grimoire's overlay tells me the joint will give way, and when it does, I send a Hellspire in and force the blast.

…

The last golem crashes down, pieces of reinforced glass scattering across the floor, mana fading from its core.

I stand alone in a room of broken hounds and shattered golems.

Veins of Fire – Level 97 → Level 100

Furnace Core – Level 49 → Level 60

Flameform Blueprint – Level 50 → Level 60

Infernal Thread – Level 60 → Level 70

Architect's Insight – Level 98 → Level 100

Hellspire – Level 74 → Level 90

Echo Pulse – Level 84 → Level 100

Intermediate Strength – Level 1 → Level 20

Intermediate Endurance – Level 1 → Level 20

Bronze Grip – Level 1 → Level 15

Infernal Architect (Platinum) – Level 31 → Level 40

Name: Jacob Cloud

Class: Infernal Architect (Platinum) – Lv. 40

Core Skills:

Hell's Sword – Lv. 100 (Gold – Offensive)

Fire Slash – Lv. 100 (Silver – Offensive)

Fire Shield – Lv. 100 (Silver – Defensive)

Fire Armor – Lv. 100 (Silver – Defensive)

Fire Walk – Lv. 100 (Silver – Movement)

Veins of Fire – Lv. 100 (Gold – Support)

The Grimoire Extraordinaire (Rainbow – Support)

Class Skills:

Furnace Core (Passive) – Lv. 60

Flameform Blueprint (Active) – Lv. 60

Infernal Thread (Passive) – Lv. 70

Ember Keystone (Active) – Lv. 1

Architect's Insight (Passive) – Lv. 100

Hellspire (Active) – Lv. 90

Ignition Array (Active) – Lv. 1

Attributes:

Strength (STR): 70

Dexterity (DEX): 95

Endurance (END): 73

Vitality (VIT): 86

Intelligence (INT): 151

Spirit (SPI): 154

Wisdom (WIS): 121

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Charisma (CHA): 18

Luck (LCK): 10

Unassigned Points: 155

Other Skills:

Minor Cookery Lv. 34 (Iron)

Minor Night Vision Lv. 32 (Iron)

Light Lv. 67 (Bronze)

Pickaxe Mastery Lv. 81 (Bronze)

Minor Mineral Sense Lv. 72 (Bronze)

Mana Pool Lv. 100 (Silver)

Echo Pulse Lv. 100 (Bronze)

Meditation Lv. 65 (Silver)

Bronze Grip Lv. 15 (Bronze)

Intermediate Endurance Lv. 20 (Bronze)

Intermediate Strength Lv. 20 (Silver)

Veins of Fire and Architect's Insight have reached level one hundred. That was, to a degree, expected.

There is something in me that keeps changing the more I fight with the Grimoire. I don't even know how to describe it, exactly, but the fact that Intermediate Strength and Intermediate Endurance have leveled up nineteen times each is not because I dedicated who knows how much attention to them. And I haven't been lifting weights or doing exercises during the fight.

No, what happened is something completely different.

The more I get used to scanning for flaws and fixing my Skills, the more it becomes a matter of second nature to keep making adjustments on the go.

I could feel my body moving slightly wrong, my breathing, the way my energy was being channeled.

And what did I do?

Nothing much, I simply made some adjustments.

It's completely natural for me by now because I have this nagging feeling when a Skill doesn't work properly, and I can't help but try to fix it.

I stare at the system's summary of my growth and the number that matters most right now: one hundred and fifty-five unassigned attribute points. I know this haul could change everything.

I stand in the empty Dungeon chamber and weigh my options.

Once the points go in, they are locked unless I get my hands on a rare respec item, and even then, I'd need a fortune to buy it.

My stats are already monstrous for my level.

That's all thanks to the fact that Infernal Architect is not only a Platinum Class, but it's also some super-rare, super-secret variant. I know that the Attributes I get each level don't sound that impressive, but trust me, Attributes are hard to come by. A normal Class would have half the Attributes of mine.

Infernal Architect distributes seventeen pre-allocated Attributes and five Free Attributes. That's for a grand total of twenty-two.

A decent first Class that gets up to Platinum, which is rare in itself, before it undergoes any evolution, usually doesn't give more than ten Attributes. Fifteen is the realm of geniuses, if what Sir Greyson said is to be believed.

Twenty-two?

That's terrific.

It's probably all thanks to the Rainbow Skill that became part of the core of the Class.

Which reminds me…

The Grimoire has been giving me tips on things that, initially, I thought would be outside its purview, like walls. What if…

It can't, right?

It couldn't be…

"Grimoire, can you tell me which Attributes are defective in my Class at the moment?"

I hear a few weird sound that make me wince, like gears grinding together and breaking, but then, with a pop, I hear something else.

The Grimoire Extraordinaire's Description has been updated.

Previous Effect: You're able to detect all the flaws in any Skill or Item.

Previous Effect: You're able to detect all the flaws in any Skill, Item, and Class.

How?

I have heard before of Skills that mutate slightly because of their user's understanding, but this…

This is great! I smile to myself.

The Grimoire's script flashes across my vision.

[Analyzing current attribute profile…]

[Detecting optimization flaws in active attribute distribution…]

Lines of cold text scroll past, faster than I can read them one by one.

Primary Attribute Flaws:

Strength lags behind Dexterity and Intelligence by a margin that limits the peak output of Hell's Sword and Fire Slash when facing high-density materials or enchanted armor in melee.

Endurance and Vitality are both strong but do not scale together. There is a risk of stamina collapse during extended Skill use if Endurance is left below Vitality and Dexterity.

Intelligence and Spirit are both high. However, Skill efficiency is suffering from diminishing returns, especially above one fifty. The next effective breakpoint for Skill damage and Mana efficiency is at two hundred.

Intelligence at one hundred fifty-one is too low for a Skill breakthrough. Push Intelligence straight to two hundred.

Spirit enhances the ability of your body to sustain a high mana output and the control over that output, and while at one hundred fifty-four is high, focusing too many points on Spirit before raising Intelligence wastes efficiency.

Wisdom improves Mana Regeneration and your Mana reserves, but additional investment is only useful in case of new specific Skill interactions that consume more Mana, which you do not rely on yet.

Secondary Attribute Flaws:

Luck remains unchanged. Chance-based effects from loot, rare Skill drops, and event triggers remain low.

Charisma is not yet relevant for combat.

Minor imbalances between Dexterity and Strength produce wasted effort during rapid movement Skills.

Endurance is high enough for most combat, but you are not yet at the threshold where you can ignore fatigue in prolonged melees.

Luck and Charisma can be completely ignored for now.

[Warning: Core breakthrough threshold for Infernal Architect (Platinum) is not yet achieved.]

[Intelligence at 200 unlocks key Class effects:]

At two hundred Intelligence, the Infernal Architect Class activates its first unique synergy protocol.

All Hell's Sword Set Skills—including Veins of Fire, Hellspire, Fire Slash, Fire Armor, Fire Shield, and Fire Walk—receive a scaling multiplier for both damage and efficiency that does not apply below this threshold.

At this value, Skill evolution chances increase dramatically, and mana cost reductions become permanent for all Class Skills.

Additional effects tied to Grimoire-based optimization, including flaw analysis speed and secondary flaw detection, double in speed and reliability once you cross the two-hundred Intelligence threshold.

Furnace Core and Flameform Blueprint gain access to their first advanced formulae, which are locked out below two hundred Intelligence.

The system detects that your Class was created by fusion with a Rainbow-rank Support Skill. Without maximizing Intelligence, your unique synergy is crippled and your full combat potential remains capped below what the Class can do.

[Recommendation: Prioritize Intelligence to two hundred to unlock the true Infernal Architect path. All other allocations are secondary.]

Suggested Attribute Allocation (by Grimoire's optimal breakthrough protocol):

Intelligence: +49 (raises it to 200, unlocking Class synergy and Skill evolution thresholds) Spirit: +16 (raises Spirit to 170, balancing mana output with the new Intelligence)

Strength: +35 (raises Strength to 105, which brings it over the first threshold, giving you more chances of destroying hard defenses in a physical melee)

Dexterity: +15 (raises Dexterity to 110, keeping up with Strength once it has reached the threshold)

Endurance: +20 (raises Endurance to 93, enough to handle extended Skill use—bring it over the one hundred threshold as soon as your next allocation)

Vitality: +15 (raises Vitality to 101)

Wisdom: +5 (raises Wisdom to 126)

I follow the distribution.

Attributes Updated:

Strength (STR): 70 → 105

Dexterity (DEX): 95 → 110

Endurance (END): 73 → 93

Vitality (VIT): 86 → 101

Intelligence (INT): 151 → 200

Spirit (SPI): 154 → 170

Wisdom (WIS): 121 → 126

Charisma (CHA): 18

Luck (LCK): 10

Unassigned Points: 0

I flex my hands and I realize my grip is stronger, but what really matters is how the mana flows through my body now.

This feels all different, I say, smiling at myself. And now I don't have to fear distributing my Attributes poorly anymore. I can just focus on the fights.

* * *

I spend five minutes on the battlefield. I pick up the loot, and I do not stop looking around the chamber because I cannot believe I survived. Shards crunch under my boots when I walk. The steam thins as I cross the floor. The corpses of the hounds and golems lie in every direction. I see jagged teeth that have rolled near the wall, and I spot cracked cores lying beside broken limbs.

I find several Skill Crystals. I see Glass Arrow and Glass Skin. I pick up more Glass Explosion shards and a few generic Bronze Skill Shards.

Then, I resume my run.

I have the feeling I'm about to stumble on something good, I tell myself. I really wonder how Guildmaster Dorn feels about me clearing this Elite Dungeon all by myself, taking everything it has.

"Oh," I realize. "Grimoire, can you tell me if there's any secret room behind that wall? Actually, let's go back to the first floor. If there's anything hidden, any flaw, I'll find it. This Dungeon will be spotless once I'm done with it."

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