It turned out that Soul Burn was a pretty big deal. It was a death sentence and the reason everyone took Stamina so seriously. Apparently, if you fell asleep with Soul Burn, it meant the outcome of your death was already set in stone and you should have never been able to wake up again.
After saying this, the old man went on another shocked overload rollercoaster. He had only thrown water on Grey as a last ditch method, he didn’t expect that Grey had actually been suffering from Soul Burn all this time.
Even those that didn’t fall asleep from milder cases of Soul Burn, though, were forever handicapped. Their Stamina drained much faster than others, using their bodily strength was a nightmare, and even when they managed to activate their Frames, the result was short lasting and far weaker than normal.
It would have been quite the big deal if Grey wasn’t pretty sure he could fix it with some time. Unfortunately, that would require burning up some of his wealth.
It was a good thing he was quite wealthy, then.
It was just too bad the Church had wasted so much of its funds on what were ultimately useless elixirs to him. If they had managed the money better—for example, by just giving it directly to him—the result would have been more pleasing.
"Don’t worry about that, old man, I have a way to fix it. But tell me about this High Tier Holy Knight thing, I’m still waiting."
Edmun shook his head as though he didn’t believe Grey. But then a small light of hope lit his eyes.
Logically, Grey shouldn’t even be awake right now. And having more than one Frame should also be impossible. Did Grey have a super special Relic Grade item or something? Maybe even beyond?
Edmun pressed it down. He was tired of hoping and then having those very same hopes come crashing down around him.
What he needed right now was something tangible.
He sighed and decided to do his duty as a master.
"I was only going to tell you right before you entered, but I guess it doesn’t matter all that much right now. The Holy Knights are divided into Tiers depending on how well they perform in the trials, and those Tiers aren’t arbitrary, they’re reflected directly in the Abilities you can attach to your Frame.
"The Abilities you know of casually now are Holy Shield, Holy Endurance, Holy Blade, Holy Surge, Holy Beacon, and Holy Oath."
In reality, Grey had only ever heard of Holy Shield before. The others he probably came across in battle, but he had never actually heard their names.
"However, these are known as ’Unranked’ Abilities. This is the lowest passing threshold of the Holy Knights, and 90% of those in our city are considered Unranked Holy Knights by virtue of the fact they have these Abilities.
"However, so long as you manage to gain at least one of the True Name Abilities at the lowest tier, you will be a Quasi True Holy Knight. If you manage to get all six, then you would become a Low Tier True Holy Knight. The difference in strength between all three of these stages is enormous."
"So the difference is in the Abilities." Grey nodded.
"Yes. The True Name of Holy Shield is Sacred Bulwark. The True Name of Holy Endurance is Hallowed Endurance. For Holy Blade it is Divine Sever, for Holy Surge it is Wrath Coronation, Holy Beacon’s is Knight’s Vigil, and finally for Holy Oath, it is Swordsworn Ascension."
"We should just stick with the simpler names." Grey suggested much to Edmun’s chagrin.
The old man sighed and waved a hand.
"Once you’ve grasped a True Name, there are still three dividing tiers within. But unlike the jump from Unranked to True, it isn’t just a matter of raw power output, there are tangible differences.
"For example, Sacred Bulwark—."
"Holy Shield."
"—at the lowest tier is just a strong second skin of Holy Energy that reduces physical damage. It blunts physical blows and is resistant to slashes.
"But at its middle tier, the barrier is not only stronger, but it can absorb the energy, dampen it, and even gather it to repel it or use it to fuel an attack."
Grey’s eyes narrowed. That was definitely the ability Terran had been using before he found a way around it. As for "the way", that was just to rain attacks on him until he couldn’t keep up and his energy was giving way.
Grey wasn’t the only one at the end of his rope in that battle, and Terran would have never been willing to go as far as he was.
’Fucking bitch. Rot in hell.’
"At the highest tier, though, Sacred Bulwark is practically a godly ability. There are brief instances of invulnerability that activate to block any attack, spell, or ability, even status effects. Getting the rhythm is difficult, and only the most skilled who’ve reached Core Sync with it can somewhat control when those brief windows of invincibility exist, but it is truly a godly ability, a true blessing of Her Holiness."
"How invincible is invincible?" Grey asked.
"Invincible." Edmun said self-assured.
"Are you sure?"
"The Goddess would never lie."
Grey’s lip twitched. He was probably too excited about finally having a backer back then to realize the old man was such a fanatic.
But then again, staying a virgin your whole life should have been the most obvious signal. There was definitely something wrong with the old knight.
"So if I piss Her Holiness off and time her attack to a moment of invulnerability, I’ll survive?"
Edmun froze. "... Any attack beneath a God."
"So not true invulnerability. Got it."
Maybe feeling provoked, Edmun continued. "Hallowed Endurance’s top tier is also godly. Once per battle, if your Stamina falls to zero, it can be instantly replenished back to full.
"In fact, if the Invulnerability of Sacred Bulwark and the zeroing out of your Stamina through Hallowed Endurance are timed up together, you can also instantly heal yourself of all wounds as though you had never fought a battle at all."
Grey grinned. Now that he could believe.
If the Abilities of a High Tier Knight were this good, then he was going to need to get his hands on that Paladin Trial as quickly as possible.
But first, he needed to build a mech.