My Skills Can Evolve Infinitely in a Game-Like World

[Template Upgrade Opportunity: You can consume this item to upgrade one of your Templates.]

[Reminder: To complete the upgrade, you’ll have to undergo a Trial.]

...

The description was simple, two sentences from start to finish and far less impressive than that of the Ocean’s Wrath skill.

For Aurelius, however, these two sentences were far more exciting than anything else he had seen today.

Templates!

This was the greatest discovery he had made during the Beta Version of the Nova Roma Game.

Or rather, he had finally discovered the true function of his second Template, that of the NPC.

Likewise, he had also learned from the forum that NPCs were divided into different ranks, with each upgrade suspected of providing greater boosts.

Once these two things were brought together, Aurelius’ next course of thought was only natural.

Would using this item to upgrade his NPC Template allow him to advance from a Common NPC to an Elite one?

If that was the case, what benefits would such an upgrade bring him?

Would it be better to upgrade the less impressive but still valuable Player Template?

Countless thoughts raced through Aurelius’ mind. The impulse to consume the reward immediately resurfaced.

Thankfully, he snapped back to reality in time once again.

Upgrading his Templates would clearly be a good thing for him. Yet what this item offered was not an upgrade, but merely an opportunity to upgrade.

Aurelius’ focus slowly shifted toward the reminder.

"A Trial...?" he whispered under his breath, his voice both intrigued and apprehensive.

He couldn’t understand what the term Trial meant, much less what it entailed.

From the fact that the Player Panel had given him an implicit reminder, though, he could tell participating in the Trial was bound to be dangerous.

Perhaps even his life would be in danger.

Disappointment immediately washed over Aurelius.

He knew... he could not afford to consume this item at present.

At the very least, he had to understand what the potential Trial entailed and whether it would place him at risk.

Then, he would have to prepare for it accordingly.

’Even if the Player Panel has been helpful so far, there’s no reason to gamble on whether participating in the Trial will be life-threatening.’

’Although Players regard this world as a game and can infinitely respawn, it’s a real world for me.’

’I only have a single life! I should make sure to keep it!’ Aurelius thought.

With reluctance hidden behind his decisive expression, he forcefully looked away from the System Inventory while dismissing the description in his vision.

As though he wished to empty his mind and forget its contents, he hurriedly went through the rest of the notifications.

Unfortunately, there was nothing else that required his attention.

At most, the prompts were regarding his kills and the EXP he had obtained, interspersed with the rare prompt informing him that he had learned a skill through Arcane Insight.

Aurelius shook his head.

Thankfully, the harvest was far from over just yet.

There was still one thing he had to deal with—something that didn’t stem from the Player Panel, but from the real world.

Aurelius glanced at the System Inventory.

As his mind stirred, several items were retrieved from the space grid, landing on the bed beside him.

Books. Weapons. Ores and extraordinary materials.

All kinds of objects could be seen, though they were all accompanied by the same aura—the aura of monsters.

More precisely, it was the aura of goblins!

This betrayed these objects’ identity.

They were the belongings of the Rank 3 Goblin Warlock, the items they had found after tracking the Goblin Warlock back to his nest.

Because Aurelius had saved her and allowed her to complete her Advancement Ritual, Selene had given them all to him, simply asking him to tell her if he discovered anything useful among them.

’The higher-ranked monsters are indeed different,’ Aurelius sighed when he looked at the well-kept items that could very well belong to a human.

’Who would have thought that the mindless, zombie-like creatures chasing down adventurers were of the same race as the Goblin Warlock?’

’I wonder if he even regards himself as one of them...’

He once again realized the importance of strength.

Many people claimed that intelligence was more important than personal power. But in a world of extraordinary power, the strong were also the intelligent, and vice versa.

It was rare that one would be only one of the two.

Aurelius didn’t dwell on these thoughts for long.

Organizing his mind, his focus was brought back to reality.

He turned toward the items beside him.

The thing that attracted his attention was strangely neither the weapons nor rare materials.

Instead, it was a book.

Black in color and bound in leather made from a type of skin Aurelius failed to recognize, it stood out among the rest of the items.

Its appearance was pristine, while it exuded the strongest goblin aura among them all.

Aurelius instinctively grabbed the book and flipped it open.

Yet while he was expecting to meet a Relic Blueprint, a Potion Recipe, or at least a powerful skill, what met his eyes was something else entirely.

A date, accompanied by several lines of text.

The same structure repeated several times on the page and continued throughout the rest of the book.

Aurelius quickly recognized its identity through this.

The book was a diary!

Although it was truly bizarre that a monster had the time and will to keep a diary, this familiar structure was unmistakable.

Aurelius smiled faintly, imagining the scene of the towering Goblin Warlock sitting in a dimly lit cave and carefully scribbling on a tiny book, outlining the events of the day.

However, his smile soon faded away.

From its very first page, a diary entry caught his attention.

"June 2nd. I’ve come to discover a secret location deep within the mountains. Due to the extremely low temperature, I was unable to get any closer. However, my intuition tells me that whatever lies there is extremely important to me."

"Perhaps this is my opportunity!"

"..."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!