After visiting the orphanage, Winnie arrived at the church, as though completing a daily task in a mobile game, and stood before the statue of the goddess to pray.

    His arrival, as always, caught the attention of some people in the church, but Winnie didn''t care at all. He couldn''t care less about how they looked at him, what they thought, or what they said.

    "Don’t disturb me while I’m stacking Virtue."

    Two hours of hard work later, Winnie successfully harvested two points of Virtue, bringing his total to 9 points.

    "Very good, very good! Just 21 more points and I’ll evolve!"

    After praying for two hours, Winnie, feeling sore from standing in the same position for so long, stretched his stiff shoulders and glanced at the sun on the mountainside—it was almost evening.

    He had thoroughly enjoyed stacking Virtue, but at this point, he suddenly remembered that he had a duel in two days. He had been so focused on accumulating Virtue that it seemed like he might have disrespected others a little.

    So, Winnie decided to visit the Soul Art shop in the capital to select some common spells.

    Well, in the capital, Winnie’s reputation was good, so even the shopkeeper, who was sitting in a rocking chair reading a newspaper, couldn’t help but sit up when he saw him. The shopkeeper clicked his tongue and frequently cast “respectful” glances in Winnie’s direction, as if the very presence of Winnie made the shop seem more prestigious, and he was unable to stop worrying about his distinguished guest.

    “What the hell is this guy doing here again??”

    The shopkeeper didn’t even know what kind of sin he had committed, to have this guy come into his shop two days in a row.

    If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net, it has been stolen.

    A perfectly fine day ended the moment he saw Winnie.

    By the way, what’s up with this scoundrel? Why is he suddenly interested in Soul Arts? Wasn’t he always dismissive of this stuff before??

    No, more accurately, he used to avoid it completely.

    Winnie had once thought that he hid his insecurities well, but in reality, anyone could see the self-doubt lurking within him.

    However, there was one exception: Winnie remembered that according to the setting, only one race had overall magic resistance—Blessed Angels. But the Aeciphysis family had already fallen to the Dead Bloodline, so magic immunity wasn’t a factor in the game.

    Although armor Soul Arts hadn’t been completely phased out, their decline was undeniable, especially compared to other types of Soul Arts. Only the most mediocre, with no other choice, opted for them, and no one had innovated any new techniques, causing armor Soul Arts to fade from people''s view.

    This Soul Art shop already had an incomplete selection of spells, and due to the unpopularity of armor Soul Arts, the number of available armor-type spells was even fewer, with barely any usable ones.

    But fortunately, each spell had a description of its general effects, so it wasn’t like he was blindly picking based on the names of the spells.

    After scanning around, Winnie noticed that most of the armor-type spells looked useless, or in fact, were utterly useless, like trying to mine gold in a trash heap.

    After considering it, Winnie settled on a spell called Light Armor.

    But when he saw the price, he immediately felt troubled.

    He was out of money.

    Damn.

    Winnie facepalmed—he had been so busy doing good deeds and stacking Virtue that he forgot he was also broke.

    What should he do? Is there a way to make money?

    After thinking it over, the only solution he could come up with was to take on a mission from the Adventurers’ Guild to earn some reward money.

    But this wasn’t a joke. With his reputation, he knew it was impossible to find a team to party up with. Everyone would avoid him as soon as they saw him.

    How could someone who had just acquired a Soul Art handle an Adventurers’ Guild mission alone? Even the simplest one would probably be impossible, right?

    For a moment, even Winnie, the king of ideas, was stumped.

    No, there’s always a way. What if some missions are tasks that only my Soul Art can do?

    ...Got it!