Read Novel Full Chapter 453: A Thousand Stat Points???
Chapter 453: A Thousand Stat Points???
The confirmation went through immediately.
The screen flickered once and then the notifications began to appear again.
[Ding. Title Equipped.]
[Ding. Calculating Territory Population.]
[Ding. Excluding deceased individuals.]
[Ding. Excluding external allied settlements.]
[Ding. Confirmed Population Under Direct Authority: 98,000.]
Gabriel’s expression changed slightly.
He did not speak yet. He kept watching.
Another line appeared.
[Ding. Lord Title Effect Activated.]
[Ding. Passive Effect: Every 100 Citizens Grants +1 Attribute Point.]
[Ding. Total Eligible Units: 98,000.]
There was a brief pause, as if the system itself was processing the scale.
Then the final calculation appeared.
[Ding. Attribute Points Earned: +980.]
The room went quiet.
Seraphina, who had been sneakily holding Gabriel without his consent, blinked once. She looked at the screen, then at him, then back again just to be sure she read it correctly.
Gabriel did not move, just as equally speechless.
"...Nine hundred and eighty?" she asked.
"That is only from the eastern territory," he replied, exhaling.
"Geroffrry initially reported three hundred thousand," Gabriel explained. "But that was the combined total of the eastern and northern forces before everything collapsed. The eastern side held less. The northern camp carried the larger share of civilians. That means most of the population was always under their control."
Seraphina tilted her head slightly. "So even after everything that happened here, you still ended up with nearly a hundred thousand."
"Yes."
Gabriel looked back at the number again.
Ninety eight thousand.
That was after casualties. After removing those who never actually belonged to this territory.
That was the clean number.
Which meant this was not an inflated reward.
"How does this even work?"
"It is not a one time reward," Gabriel explained. "It scales with how many people fall under my control."
Seraphina gave a small smile. "So the more you build, the stronger you get. That is a very convenient system."
Gabriel did not answer. He was already opening the stat interface again.
The number had changed.
Completely changed.
[Available SP: 980]
It sat there. A number far larger than anything he had seen before.
Even when he had leveled rapidly, the gains came in portions. Manageable increases. Something he could track step by step.
This was different.
This was one single jump.
Seraphina leaned closer, her voice carrying that familiar teasing tone.
"You were complaining earlier. You said getting over a hundred at once already felt excessive. And now you have nearly a thousand sitting there. I suppose you broke your own record again."
Gabriel let out a short breath.
"This is the first time," he admitted.
He looked at the number again as if expecting it to change.
It did not.
"This is the first time I have received this much at once in both my lives."
There was no excitement in his voice, only disbelief mixed with thought.
"With this alone," he added, "I could push multiple attributes to an entirely new threshold."
Seraphina folded her arms lightly. "You are already strong. If you actually spend those, you might become one of the strongest people in this region."
Gabriel did not deny it. Because the system had already shown him the scale. These were not points earned through combat. Not through extraction. Not gained after risking his life.
They were granted purely because people now lived under his authority.
And that made them far more dangerous.
He did not assign a single one.
Instead, he stared at them with a thoughtful expression.
Seraphina noticed immediately. "You are not using them?"
"Not yet."
That answer came instantly. He closed the allocation panel without hesitation.
"I need to understand something first." He turned slightly, his expression settling back into the calm one she was used to seeing. "Henry. He had access to this same structure. But if his brother ruled the northern camp, then their side had even more citizens."
He paused.
"If I gained nine hundred and eighty from less than a hundred thousand, then the northern Lord would have gained far more over time."
Seraphina did not interrupt.
"That means Henry had access to enormous stat backing," Gabriel said. "Yet he was weak. Undisciplined. Completely reliant on what was handed to him."
Now Seraphina spoke with raised brows, "Because they were handed to him."
"He did not earn them. He did not train with them. He never had to adapt to them."
Power without effort.
Growth without pressure.
A body filled with numbers it never learned how to use.
"That explains the imbalance," Gabriel concluded. "His foundation was artificial."
Seraphina’s lips curved faintly. "And you built yours by fighting for every increase."
Gabriel did not respond to the praise. He was already moving to the next conclusion.
"If that is what Henry looked like with borrowed authority..."
He let the sentence hang.
Because the real question was not about Henry.
It was about the one who gave Henry that position to begin with.
The Lord of the northern camp.
Everything Gabriel had learned so far painted a very different picture.
Organized population control.
Stronger territorial structure.
Higher civilian concentration.
Less internal collapse.
"That man held more people," Gabriel said quietly. "Which means his passive gain would be higher than mine."
Seraphina watched him carefully now. The teasing was gone, her expression becoming serious.
Gabriel reopened the population summary again, reviewing the earlier numbers.
The north had always been the dominant settlement.
If this system rewarded governance directly, then that Lord had been accumulating advantages long before Gabriel even arrived in this game.
And unlike Henry, there was no indication that the northern ruler was incompetent.
Everything suggested the opposite.
A man capable enough to maintain order over the largest surviving population.
A man who understood how to hold power instead of wasting it.
Gabriel rested his hand lightly against the interface screen.
"If he used his authority properly," Gabriel said, "then his stats would not look like Henry’s."
Seraphina nodded. "They would look like yours. Or worse."
Gabriel did not correct her.
Because that was exactly the concern.
A Lord who actually trained.
A Lord who actually fought.
A Lord who actually understood what those numbers meant.
That would not be an inflated noble hiding behind protection.
That would be someone dangerous.
Gabriel finally closed all the windows.
The unassigned 980 stat points remained untouched.
He made no move to distribute them.
He needed to see the northern response first.
Needed to understand whether they even knew what had happened here.
Gabriel stood there for a moment, thinking through timelines. This did not happen in the previous timeline, so it was difficult for him to fully grasp.
If the northern Lord was as competent as the reports suggested, then he would already be investigating.
And if he was not yet aware...
He would be soon.