In his previous timeline, Martel never paid much attention to the System due to his depression other than to add stats every time he Leveled Up. He never learned the intricacies which stunted his potential growth during that timeline. This time, Martel was certain to make the most out of his situation.

  [System, open Tutorial,] he thought.

  [Interesting. System, how will increasing Stats through Level Up affect things like natural growth?]

  [That’s useful. As a person exercises, growth becomes harder and requires more effort. If acquired stats do not affect the effort required, then I will not have to focus on natural training and can do both simultaneously. This is important because even those with similar Growth Levels will have roughly the same STR at the same Level due to the limit placed on the amount a Stat can be increased. If I were to fight someone solely with my STR that was the same level and we both maxed out our STR, then our Base Stats and fighting ability would be the biggest factor as required stats be the same. In reality, Growth Level refers to the versatility of a person, not their strength. System, continue the Tutorial.]

  Martel was dumbfounded when he read this, primarily from the Expertise System. He had not read the Tutorial in his previous life, so this information was new to him. Additionally, he did recall that people knew about the Expertise System, but it was rarely utilized due to practicality. For example, a swordsman who focused on high Expertise would always lose to someone who focused on Leveling Up due to the sheer disparity in Stats. As a result, because Leveling was also a lengthy process, most people focused on Leveling as it provided significantly more strength.

  [System, besides grinding Expertise, what increases Expertise leveling speed?]

  Martel was surprised, but then extremely excited. Although he had yet to find out what his INT was, based on the description, his INT should be insanely high as he memorized massive amounts of information with his endemic memory. With his talent, he believed he would be able to reach a high level of Expertise in multiple things which had the potential to boost his Stats.

  Martel was quite surprised by the seemingly infinite number of ways the System could evolve and give him new Features. Besides that, nothing from the third tutorial particularly struck with him.

  [System, list my Talents.] He thought before a screen popped up at him. He looked at the Talents, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. "No wonder the Wand Goddess said my Talent was appropriate when I mentioned I had more than one wife." He muttered to himself.

  [System, show an explanation of my Talents.]

  Martel was thoroughly dumbfounded when he read this. It was no wonder that the goddesses had said his abilities would not have awakened if not for the fact that they were partially opened already. They were simply too powerful! The Devouring Talent meant that he could take a potentially infinite amount of Talents and Abilities while the Harem King Ability meant he could share them with his wives. He was excited beyond belief!

  One of his biggest concerns was the insane effort his wives put in to try and strengthen themselves. They did not wish to be his burden, but his strength. Martel knew full well that their happiness together would be affected by how close they could stand as equals. If he suddenly became all-powerful, their relationship could easily become strained as a gap could form from it. However, this way, they could all obtain many unique abilities, and he wasn’t complaining about the method! Unfortunately, only the Base Stats and not Acquired Stats could be shared, but this only furthered his desire to focus on the Expertise System. He also wondered how he could know or increase the ‘(positive) feelings between partners.’ While he thought this, he noticed that the number of notification messages had increased by one.

  Martel couldn't help but suck in a cold breath. Although the Heaven Defying Eyes was objectively weaker than the Devourer and Harem King combo, its versatility was amazing. He brought out the wine bottle Caroline gave him and used Eyes of Observation. All the unique items in the room had a slight shade of yellow. When Martel thought about finding the wine, the wine bottle suddenly lit up in bright yellow. Then Martel used the Eyes of Analysis on the wine and found that it was spiked as he had expected. It even gave the name the poison used.

  Martel was discouraged when he asked the Help System about a cure for the poison but was only told the type and level of potion to create. With his knowledge of poison, he knew full well that there should be effective antidotes other than generic potions. However, he figured this world's medical knowledge probably also stagnate like technology due to The Invasion and Magic. With this in mind, he went back to the Menu.

  [This would be quite useful for hiding my identity as Status is considered to be similar to a passport. System, show explanation of my Abilities]

  Origin caught Martel's attention as they both explained his tendency for being Abducted as well as his power to give others and himself Abilities. What interested him most was his third lung as the information implied he could incorporate additional elements.

  Martel was extremely surprised when his wives’ Soul Armaments, excluding Shiro's, appeared on the list. With a thought, the Crown of Origin appeared on his head before his mind sank within it. The scene inside had changed from when he last remembered. Previously, it had been a corridor into nothingness with his different Soul Armaments on stands on the side. Now, that was completely gone and replaced with an island with a giant tree in its center. The trunk was carved out, a place for every Soul Armament that Martel owned. He noted that it seemed as if his Soul Armaments were fusing to the tree. The roots of the tree extended along the ground but came up into small square pedestals with eight squares on their edges. Atop the pedestal were his wives Soul Armaments.

  After giving it some thought, he realized that the most likely reason was that he was physically intimate with all of them except for Shiro and Cali. In Cali's case, there was a technique that the two of them would do together where they would partially merge which could also explain why her Soul Armament was present.

  [Since all of the Soul Armaments give passive buffs, will I become stronger by sleeping with more women?] Martel thought before dismissing it. Such an act for such a reason was something he considered to be shallow and pathetic. Sleeping with a woman to increase one's own power instead of it being a side effect was something he abhorred to do.

  The Chain Mail of Spirit Wood also got his attention. Currently, it’s HP/STA Regen buff wasn’t appealing as most recovery spells would be more efficient MP and time-wise. However, when his MP Regen exceeded 15 Per Min, it would become more appealing. If he had full MP, he could freely activate it before fights to ensure his HP/STA was full which would also give him an advantage in non-magic fights. Unfortunately, chain mail wasn’t appropriate for the bedroom.

  [Wait, with all of these Resistance buffs, won't I be near-invincible? System, explain damage calculation.]

  It took a couple of seconds for Martel to processes information, but he understood. The System still followed the normal variables of real-life; it only emulated a game. The numbers were nothing more than a simplified generalization. In other words, these numbers theoretically always existed within him and he was not any more powerful. Perhaps only Stats from Titles as well as those earned from Level Ups and the Expertise System would count towards increasing his strength. Other then that, only the HP would increase his survivability due to its instant healing, but that included everyone in this world. Unfortunately, this meant that the desire to have 100% Resistance making him immune was impossible. With this in mind, he continued to look at the Abilities.

  Martel was a little surprised at the buffs of his Mutated Soul and that none of his utilization of Ki or Ki Manifestations was present, but he understood why they were not there as they were not unique entities, unlike the other abilities.

  [System, show the explanation of my Skills.]

  The only part of the Skills that slightly surprised Martel was the fact that the shield gave him additional Holy Affinity. However, it made sense when he thought about it. Holy Magic referred to healing magic and buffing magic. While the other elements could have buffing skills, Holy Magic was better overall. Additionally, he could directly counteract Curse Magic which included negative statuses and buffs. The Shield Hero was more of a support fighter than an attacker. This was the primary reason why many considered it to be the weakest hero.

  [System, show my Titles.]

  Martel could not help but sigh when he saw the Titles. Aside from a few negligible effects, they did little more than show off deeds or status. He was aware that the name and Title were the only things that could be revealed to other people at will so it could act as a voucher for identity as Titles of royalty or position would be included. The Killing Intent Buff could be useful to scare his foes, but it also reminded him of all the lives he took when he was Shiba thanks to magic. Breaker of Fate was interesting, but LUK was intangible and uncontrolled which made it unreliable.

  Next Martel opened the notifications.

  Martel couldn't help but grin as all the features unlocked were handy utilities. The Networked Infinite Time Stop Inventory would be extremely useful to him, although the limitations did not mean he could abuse it too much. The Call feature was also advantageous as he could easily contact party members secretly when they were otherwise out of range.

  Martel's mouth gaped open. Although he was going to personally do something similar, this Feature would be far more efficient than if he did it himself. Additionally, the information only had to reach himself which freed him from processing and categorizing the information which would be time-consuming and tiring. Although he planned it to be controlled by an AI in the future, it would still be taxing. The Smart Map would automatically take in and display all the information that he could want without needing his input, something that he appreciated. Happy with what the previous notifications, he opened the last one only for his face to become full of heavy lines.

  [Hey, this is quite bad. I'm glad I'm not the one who created this, but it still feels a bit like an invasion of privacy. Oh well, I'll probably end up using it at some point. System, open my Status.]

  Martel surprised at just how thorough his Status was. He was especially worried when he saw that he was suffering from a curse. [System, explain the curse ‘For Love's Sake.’]

  Martel's eyebrow visibly twitched. It seemed that this was the reason why he was so easily kissed against his wishes by those who had earnest feelings for him, and why he had never noticed Morgan peeping. Slightly perturbed, Martel continued to analyze his Status.

  Two other things had caught his attention which was the HP, MP, and DMP Regen, and the Strength Rank and Spell Casting Level. The Regen caught his eye because it was extremely slow compared to a game. From 0, it would take approximately 10 hours for a complete recharge. This meant that conservation and recovery items would be necessary.

  [System, explain Strength Rank and Spell Casting Level]

  [System, explain Spell Level.]

  [Given this explanation, and how slowly MP regenerates, it seems as though the magic of this world will focus upon multiple uses of weaker spells. The Wand of the Fae allows me to cast far higher level magic than others with my Stats, useful for situations that require immediate power spikes or higher levels of magic when I don’t need to care about mana consumption as it is not as efficient. System, explain methods to regenerate HP, MP, and DMP outside of time.]

  Martel couldn't help but nod as this was within his expectations. External forces would be required which would cost time and money to obtain. However, if everything went as planned, money would not be a big problem for long.

  After cracking his neck from spending the last five minutes going through all this information, Martel then turned his attention to Cali as he patiently explained how the System worked and answered any questions she had as he killed time.