Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

This wasn’t the end.

Just like the last time his swordsmanship broke through to the mastery level—

At the very moment this domineering hand-to-hand combat technique reached Level 4, a brand-new specialty entry also condensed on his retina.

【Through day after day of extreme tempering, you have carved this ferocious martial technique into your very bones. In countless cycles of tearing and reconstruction, you have refined your arms, ultimately breaking the physiological limits of mortals and causing this body to undergo a complete transformation.】

【You have obtained the specialty: Azure Dragon Armament (Both Arms)】

——

Azure Dragon Armament (Both Arms)

Specialty Rank: Excellent/Extraordinary

Prerequisite: 【Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow】 reached LV4 (Mastery)

Specialty Effect: Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow will simultaneously be treated as both an unarmed skill and a weapon skill in system judgment. All your unarmed attacks (including fists, palms, fingers, and claws) will be judged as weapons with sharpness. Unarmed attacks gain an additional 10% physical penetration. When claw strikes or finger thrusts hit unarmored areas, there is a high probability of inflicting the “Rend” status. Your arms gain +1 Natural Base Armor Level.——

Sweat streamed wildly down his face, blurring his vision.

But Lance had no time to wipe it away.

Because his hands were now experiencing the exact same reaction as when he obtained the Stonehide Membrane earlier that afternoon—

Only this time, it was even more unbearable.

He could clearly feel the skin on his arms being violently torn apart in intense pain, then rapidly reconstructed by some mysterious force.

Fortunately, this skin-peeling agony came and went quickly.

When the abnormal sensation completely faded—

Lance reached out and touched his arms, feeling as if he had just completed a molting.

He rubbed hard—and actually peeled off a layer of grayish-white dead skin, just like a snake shedding its outer layer.

Lance quickly walked to the water bucket, washed his hands clean, and then refocused his gaze on the specialty description on the panel.

After carefully reading every line—

He couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath.

This specialty could only be described as brutally powerful.

Worthy of being a top-tier specialty between Excellent and Extraordinary.

Just the first two effects alone solved a major problem for him.

The number of weapon skills required for advancing to the Pale Sentinel had been directly reduced by one.

Because from now on, Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow was no longer just a combat technique—

Under system rules, it was treated as an additional mastered weapon skill.

And what excited him the most was the effect where unarmed attacks were judged as “sharp weapons.”

This meant—

It could perfectly stack with the swordsmanship specialty Trench Rat’s Bite.

Combined together, even in an unarmed state, his thrusting attacks would gain a total of 15% additional physical penetration.

With a single strike, he could pierce a hole even through a wooden stake.

As for the other additional effects, there was no need to elaborate.

The biggest disadvantage of unarmed combat in this world was the lack of defense—it couldn’t contend head-on with monsters wielding sharp claws and fangs.

But now—

His arms directly gained +1 armor.

If stacked with the Stonehide Membrane he had just obtained earlier—

The hardness of his arms was probably already enough to withstand the fangs and claws of some low-level magical creatures.

This greatly increased his margin for error in close combat.

As expected of an extremely rare skill—even the specialty it produced was this unreasonable.

Lance let out a satisfied sigh.

He walked to the steps, picked up the prepared water jug, tilted his head back, and gulped it down rapidly, replenishing the fluids he had just consumed in his intense training.

After setting the jug down—

A burning light flashed in Lance’s eyes.

If Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow already demonstrated such terrifying potential—

Then—

The Dragon-Hunting Breathing Technique, which was even more domineering and extreme at the same level under system judgment—

What kind of heaven-defying specialty would it produce once it broke through to Level 4?

Just thinking about it made his blood boil.

Lance originally intended to continue running the breathing technique in one go—

But suddenly, a violent spasm erupted from deep within his body.

It felt like a dried-up riverbed being forcefully drained—his muscle fibers let out cries of unbearable strain.

His body was issuing a strict warning on its own—

He absolutely could not continue pushing any further.

Lance stopped his movements, panting heavily.

He pressed his hand against his wildly beating heart, feeling it almost burst out of his chest.

His body temperature was frighteningly high.

He immediately realized where the problem lay.

The Stonehide Membrane he extracted earlier today—

Combined with the newly formed Azure Dragon Armament—

These two extremely domineering talents and specialties were, in essence, forced reconstructions of the human body.

The nutritional reserves his body had accumulated through desperate eating over the past days, along with the high-level magical beast jerky he had just consumed—

Had already been completely drained dry by these two rounds of natural armor enhancement.

No matter how strong his willpower was, a deficit on the material level could never be filled by sheer determination.

If he forcibly obtained another specialty involving bodily transformation now, the result would inevitably spiral out of control.

At best, the enhancement process would collapse on the spot, permanently damaging the potential accumulated in this body.

At worst, the extremely starved cells, under Aether stimulation, would undergo horrifying bodily mutations.

That was the most terrifying outcome.

What made him feel a trace of lingering fear was that—

None of the advancement guides he had read in the library mentioned that obtaining specialties consecutively could lead to bodily collapse.

This was entirely his body warning him for self-preservation.

But thinking about it calmly, it made sense.

No one in this world had ever possessed such an absurd growth speed as his.

For a normal person to reach the level of enhancement he achieved today twice—

Even a top-tier genius would require half a year, or even a full year, of gradual refinement.

That extended timeframe provided the body with sufficient adaptation and nutritional recovery windows.

But he—

Had forcibly compressed a year’s worth of transformation into just twenty-four hours.

Such an outrageous leap was indeed extremely exaggerated.

“I still underestimated how much these specialties consume the body’s foundation…”

Lance removed the heavy weighted wrist guards and sighed helplessly.

In this world with its long history—

Individuals capable of such abnormal growth speed that defied common sense—

Aside from the legendary Heroes chosen by fate, there was probably no second person.

Only those Heroes could completely ignore the physiological limits of mortals.

But one had to know—

In the thousands of years since this world’s creation, including records before the historical fracture—

Only three Heroes had ever been born.

That was a privilege granted by the blessing of the Gods.

And him?

Relying solely on a panel, he had forcibly pushed himself onto a growth trajectory comparable to a Hero.

Of course—

Lance knew very well that he couldn’t maintain this terrifying speed forever on the path of professional advancement.

Because once he crossed the threshold of becoming a true Professional—

Strength was no longer something that could be easily stacked through diligence alone.

But Lance wasn’t worried about future bottlenecks.

With the help of the system panel—

His upper limit of growth would only become more terrifying.

Especially after he hunted countless magical creatures and accumulated all those strange Racial Talents onto himself—

He had no doubt—

That by that time—

Even the lofty Gods themselves—

Might become something he could draw his sword against and slay.