Chapter 172: An undesired mystery is revealed
Vincent agreed with Kazumi. He looked at Ester and then Lupa. Both looked at him with a nervous expression. It was his turn to reveal his stats next.
Vincent placed his hand on the Inspection Gemstone and imagined looking at a reflection of himself in a mirror. The gemstone glowed, and a hologram started forming with lines of information appearing one after the other.
At first, the status window looked normal, but as more and more details started to reveal, the hologram began acting weird with static noise and the window sometimes flickering. Even Gevan thought it was strange.
After all the information was revealed, the window became stable and looked normal without any static noise. As if nothing unusual happened.
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[Name] Vincent Agius
[Race] Human
[Age] 32
[Condition] Healthy
[Traits] Blood Tempered Body Stage One
[Class] Mutation
[Stats] Strength 9 || Agility 8 || Perception 6 || Mana 0
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[Class Mutation]
*Overheat
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[The user has never used the inspection system and ranked. Therefore, a rank will be given.]
[Rank Computing...]
[Assessing overall rating...]
[System rating found a problem. Restarting rating.]
[Assessing overall rating...]
[System rating found a problem. Restarting rating.]
[Assessing overall rating...]
[System rating found a problem. System rating can't continue.]
[Rank for Vincent can't be created. Starting failsafe rating...]
[The applicant Vincent can't be assessed. Therefore, the applicant Vincent will gain Rank E 1 Star as an overall grade.]
.
Kazumi noticed Vincent's stats had increased by a bit. She sighed in relief after seeing how only the Mutation class with one ability appeared on the status window. Their dangerous secret is safe.
[Pfft... so weak. Not only Ester looks stronger, but she is ranked higher than you. Your harem is going to the carrying around here, haha. ]
[...Huh?!!! Wait a moment! Yo-your age! Take a look at your age! Quickly!]
Kazumi exclaimed in utter urgency. She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing.
"..." Vincent looked at the status window as if he saw a ghost. Kazumi was in a similar situation inside his Soul Domain. Vincent mysteriously became thirty-two years old, yet it was barely noticeable as his skin remained young.
Vincent focused his eyes on his age and gasped in shock. He even stood up with a bewildered frown. He couldn't believe his eyes, yet Kazumi saw the same thing. He wasn't hallucinating. It was real.
"Vincent, what's wrong?" Ester asked after watching Vincent jumping from his chair.
"Is there trouble? We fight?" Lupa prepared to fight at any moment.
Gevan worried after watching Vincent act like this and Lupa asking if they were going to fight. He worryingly asked, "What's wrong, Vincent? Is it about your rank? Trust me when I say this problem has never happened before. But it might be because of your strange Bloodline class."
"I... I remember clearly... I can't be mistaken... I should be twenty-five years this year." Vincent sat down. He tried to calm his breathing and relax his agitated self.
"But... but how did my age become thirty-two?" Vincent continued.
Vincent didn't know how he became older so quickly, yet the Book Of Heroes mentioned how he could live for a hundred years before he would get summoned back to Earth.
The first, third, and fourth Heroes should have lived long enough to go back. They were the only ones that didn't die. The other three died, or two at least since Kazumi's soul is still alive.
"Can one of you use the Inspection Gemstone and check if it's working correctly? Then Vincent can try again." Gevan said to Ester and Lupa. He was also perplexed by this situation. Displaying incorrect stats or skills was one thing, but seven years older was something at another level.
"I'll try." Ester and Lupa both said in unison. One after the other, Ester and Lupa had their status window display without any problems. The Inspection Gemstone wasn't broken.
It was now Vincent's turn to try again; however, only the static noise of the flickering didn't show up. His age remained as thirty-two years old.
Gevan felt more confused now. It wasn't broken, nor did the weird malfunction noise. However, Gevan was a person that liked to learn about Bloodline classes.
The difference a Bloodline could bring to a class was always fascinating to him. It's because of this that Gevan seems to be fluent in special Bloodline classes and guess when he sees something for the first time.
Gevan motto is, People are born with a fated class. How one is raised and inherits their parent's fates can one Awaken to what fate prepared.
Gevan had read from the interrogation report how Vincent didn't have a class given to him by fate. Instead, it appeared to save his life. A different fate, a deviated fate he wasn't destined to walk.
"Tell me, Vincent. You only have one skill. Can you tell me about it? What does it do? Its effects? I saw many classes. Maybe I can help." Gevan decided to say.
Gevan was interested in figuring out what the never-seen class was about. 'Maybe it's the problem.' He thought.
"It boosts my power for five minutes and boils the infected blood out of my body. Some of the infected blood mutates onto my hand and hardens like metal." Vincent vaguely explained. He was flustered, surprised, and confused, but he tried to hide his secret for so long that it became second nature.
"Hmm... I heard from Ben how you were with Kass before he passed away. He possessed a Berserker class. One of his abilities was to use his life for power. Can you perhaps show me your Overheat ability?" Gevan seemed to have an idea and wanted to see if what he was thinking was correct.
[Does Gevan have an idea about this mystery? No... wait! Can you ask him if he knows in detail how the Berserker ability works?]
Vincent repeated the question, and similar to Kazumi, he thought Gevan might allow them to figure the answer to this horrifying mystery. Vincent didn't want to die of old age in less than a year.
"Hmm... as far as the Adventurers Guild knows, Berserkers have the ability to burn or, as you said in your situation, boil their blood. Blood is precious, and that is the reason they age quicker. Many say blood is life, and so they burn life."
"A few experts discovered how the cells in the human body die and get replaced by the thousands every day. But what if an ability makes what should happen in a day happen in a minute or in a second." Gevan was going to continue explaining when Vincent once again stood up from his chair and started touching his hair.
Kazumi thought hard and looked at a few past memories until she believed she found the problem. What Kazumi said next might be probably a hundred percent true.
[Your hair started growing very quickly, and your stamina became much better than the average person after Overload took over your body, and you changed to almost a demon and killed Ester.]
[That can also explain why your body shape changed quickly, and you learned Blood Tempered Body at an astounding pace. You cheated, yet the price was steep.]
[Furthermore, if Overload or Overheat makes you grow older, it might not be the case now. Your hair stopped growing as it was before. Did you forget Lupa pouting for not being able to cut your hair for the past three days?]
"I... I now know the reason why I have gotten older. Don't worry about my recent outburst. If my ability makes me grow older, then I will stop using it." Vincent decided where to use his Soul Power points next. To upgrade his Inspection ability until he can monitor his age.
"I'm glad I could help. If something else comes up, ask for me, and I will try to meet if I can." Gevan offered. Then he went to open the door and continued, "I will wait for you outside. It seems you three need to talk."
Gevan then left Vincent, Ester, and Lupa in the room alone. He thought they could need a talk to understand what just happened. Ester and Lupa seemed to be as confused or even more than Vincent, so much that they didn't utter a word.
"Do you know what happened to become seven years older?" Ester immediately asked. Ester looked serious.
"Are you going to die, my mate? Will you leave us alone?" Lupa looked devastated. Tears were about to appear at any moment.
"I can't tell for sure. Kazumi and I think we know the reason. " Vincent stopped and touched his hair while continuing, "I was growing older quickly, and my hair was the only indicator to the mysterious growth. I guess that is why pulling the cart gave me days if not weeks of training progress each day."
"But my mysterious hair growth recently stopped. So Kazumi and I think I might have stopped aging at an alarming rate now since my hair stopped growing." Vincent explained all he and Kazumi figured out.
"If the condition stopped, then... is it when you became, umm, how can I say it... not you?" Ester asked.
[Ester might be up to something. Like she asked, maybe Overload did more than a strong power-up and immortal-like regeneration.]
Vincent touched the Inspection Gemstoned again and, while looking at his stats, said, "You might be right, Ester. But, of course, I hope that ability never activates again. Also, I don't know if Overheat makes me age faster as well."
Vincent withdrew his hand and stood up. He raised his right hand chest high and clenched his fist. Then filled with determination, Vincent said, "I will do my best to upgrade my Inspection ability until I can see my age stat. Then I will monitor my aging progress and decide after on what to do."
"If your hair grows slow, does that mean you will live a long life?" Lupa asked, hoping to receive a positive answer.
Vincent turned around and patted Lupa's head. "Yeah, I won't leave a troublesome wolf all alone for Ester to handle."
"Hey! What do you mean trou... troublesome. I'm a good girl." Lupa pouted.
"Hehe." Ester let a chuckle slip after hearing the words "Troublesome wolf."
"Not you too, sister!" Lupa then crossed her arms and brooded, "I'm a good girl. I'm best girl, Lupa. Humph."
"Fine, fine. " Vincent said with a less worried expression. Lupa singlehandedly changed the tense mood in the room to a lighthearted one.
Later, Vincent, Ester, and Lupa exited the room. They didn't have a sad or surprised expression, but one similar to when they entered the guildhall instead.
"Looks like you three have settled the matter. Well, please follow me to the testing hall." Gevan smiled, turned around, and led them to the next destination along a long hallway.
Shortly, Gevan stopped in front of a large wooden door. He knocked on the door and then entered.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone