Several minutes later...

Chester numbly looked at the trio as they were reading different books in a blur, absorbing knowledge like dry sponges.

Books that would take him a whole day to finish reading were read in minutes by them, and instead of pausing, they continued to read more.

Cindy, who looked at them, couldn't help but ask in wonder.

"Grandpa, how long do you think it would take them to get the Initiate Booky title?"

"At their rate? Soon..." Chester warily said.

"By the way, Mr. McNab, do you gain stats through training?" Sonia asked while reading.

"Y-Yes... not exactly. We obtain them through improving skills." Chester replied.

"Hm... Ah! There we go." Sonia suddenly exclaimed.

"I also got it," Asher said.

"I also," Nidawei added.

"I guessed so..." Chester inwardly sweated, looking at the three before him like monsters.

Most acquired the title by the time they were kids, since it only required them to read a few children's books. Unless they were unfortunate souls, everyone had the title. However, this was the first time he saw someone obtain it within minutes.

Rather, 1,000 comprehension was comparable to the peak of this world. And yet, here they were, three fresh Hell Challengers with such brain capacity. Along with their looks, they were three beautiful monsters.

"No wonder they are Hell Challengers... With such freakish comprehension, how could they not be?!" 

Meanwhile, Asher viewed the new title and skill.

 

 

"Hah... Interesting." Asher rubbed his chin.

Comprehension now changed from 1,000 to 1,000.6... Which was negligible. However, the +6% in reading efficiency was interesting.

"Well... the increase is so-so, but stats are stats." Sonia shrugged.

"The percentage increase in reading efficiency interests me, however. Is it some rule-based power?" Nidawei mused, looking at Chester.

"Yes, miss... it is the rules of the Great Steam God System." Chester nodded.

"Is there a limit to the level of skills?" Asher inquired.

"Knowledge Skills usually have a fixed cap, but the limit for other skills is supposed to be capped at one's maximum level, that is, their difficulty level... but due to you not having levels to begin with, you can likely improve it to lvl 1,000... or even above that. But skill levels increase more slowly as they... Gulp*... grow higher..." Chester gulped once he noticed the weird smiles on the three beautiful monsters.

Of course, this didn't matter to Asher, Sonia, and Nidawei. If they had anything... it was time. And also...

"Mister McNab, I suppose Comprehension improves the rate at which skills are learned, right?" Sonia strangely asked.

"Er... it has varying effects, depending on the skill, but generally yes..." Chester pursed his lips as he looked at the three beautiful monsters with allegedly 100 times more Comprehension than ordinary people.

"They're going to grind their Comprehension even higher, aren't they?" He had this premonition.

And sure enough, they continued their reading spree. Chester had over a hundred books of varying levels, which was already the most in the village, ranging from children's books to some advanced ones, and even a few spicy ones. But the trio read everything, both for the common sense of this world and for skills grinding.

Cindy was made to wait on them, serving them tea while she also began reading a book, infected by the atmosphere. But compared to the trio, her pace was incomparable.

By the time it was late noon, they already finished everything Chester had to offer.

 

 

 

While the Comprehension increase was negligible(For them!), the percentage increase had a visible effect. By the end, they were reading over 60% faster. Also, their Common Language Comprehension(lvl 5) reached (lvl MAX) directly by reading a thick dictionary, which brought a bonus.

 

 

Apparently, mastering knowledge skills gave related titles. While the bonus wasn't much, it was something. And also, Asher and co skipped the usual process of gaining the title, which was to study under a teacher or study through proper teaching material.

On this note, they did gain several related knowledge Titles and skills! Notably, they were Calculus (lvl MAX), Geometry (lvl MAX), and Geography (lvl MAX). This earned them another 3 Comprehension and some barely-useful bonuses through three titles.

Asher looked at his current Comprehension, which was now 1010.2, and nodded to himself.

"In a sitting, we increased our Comprehension by 10 points. A bit low, but it can grow..." Asher muttered to himself.

"To say that so casually... my Comprehension is 23, and I am considered one of the smartest in my village..." The old man muttered, looking at the trio of beautiful monsters with genuine awe and fear.

"Grandpa, am I stupid?" Cindy, for the first time in her life, felt unconfident in her own intelligence. She barely finished half a book by the time the trio finished her grandpa's book collection.

"Don't compare yourself with these Hell Challengers, Cindy. You are a smart, normal kid... And they are just freaks." Chester comforted her, rubbing her head, feeling better that he wasn't the only normal one in the room.

"You're the freak, you damn pervert!" The trio retorted in their minds.

Choosing to ignore the Freak part, Nidawei spoke.

"Thank you very much, Mr. McNab. We really needed this." Sher gently said.

"You paid for it. As long as you don't damage my books, it's fine." Chester shrugged.

"By the way, we need some money. Who can pawn us some items?" Asher asked.

"If it's another one of those silver bullions, then I can trade 2 more kg for 10 pounds. It is a bit of a loss for you, but it is the fairest price we can offer. If you need more, then you can visit the general store, but don't expect much. This is a village, not a town or city. We usually trade in kind here." Chester explained.

"Many thanks!" Sonia smiled.

"Also, where do you recommend staying the night?" Nidawei asked.

"The inn only has communal rooms, so I don't recommend it, especially since you seem to have enough money... and to put it bluntly, you are too beautiful. Some of the desperate men might be unable to resist themselves from harassing you." Chester warily said.

"They can certainly try!" Sonia grinned, patting her gun.

"Now I feel unsafe letting you stay there." Chester pursed his lips.

"You three can stay in Grandpa's house! We have a large master bedroom that can fit the three of you, nice and cozy. And I make darn good homely food!" Cindy smiled and offered.

"Yes, I indeed have such a room for distinguished guests. 7 shillings for a night and breakfast, and half a pound with dinner. Of course, this includes some hot water for washing." Chester also smiled.

"Much appreciated... We want to stay here for the next ten days, if you don't mind. And also, please exchange these." Asher smiled and pulled out 3 more 500g silver ingots.

"Certainly! You are welcome to stay here for as long as you like." Chester's eyes lit up at the unexpected good business.

Half an hour later, after tidying up, the trio had a furnished master bedroom, which had a large double bed and a single bed that could be moved together or separated, and it even had a heating stove... which wouldn't be used since it was currently spring in this world.

Along with it, Asher also received 8 pounds, 35 shillings, and 60 pence.

"So, what's the plan now?" Sonia asked, sitting on the single bed.

Of course, what she was referring to was the training plan. If they wanted to escape this death trap, they had to grow strong enough.

"If we were normal Hell Challengers, we would be worrying about our next meal. But thank goodness we have honey with us." Nidawei smiled as she looked at Asher.

"Yeah. Thank goodness we have Boss with us, having access to his inventory and all. Otherwise, we would be REALLY screwed over." Sonia also had a relieved look.

The thought of being almost naked and vulnerable, without a penny to their name, really made them uncomfortable. Even with their powers, they would have struggled to survive initially, and their safety without guns and armor would be up for question.

"Anyways, we should focus on obtaining fitness-type skills first. From what I understand, when people in this world level up, they gain 10 basic stats for every combat profession they have, which are distributed automatically, depending on their class. That is to say, a lvl 100 on Normal Difficulty would have 100-200 points in every basic stat, and that is without skills, stat-raising drugs, and equipment. Meanwhile, on the high-end, a lvl 1,000 on Nightmare Difficulty will have an average of 10,000+ stat points in every basic stat from leveling up alone. That is already above the peak theoretical power of Reality #3." Asher said.

"Yeah, but those are called Demigods for a reason, Boss. They are the rulers of this world. Even in this village, no one is on Hard Mode. I bet the strongest here is not over lvl 30, or even 20." Sonia pointed out.

"We should be relatively safe here, but I don't want to put all of my faith in strangers," Nidawei added.

"True. In any case, once we improve our fitness to the standard of a lvl 100 Normal Difficulty, we should head to the nearby town and grind Reading for more Comprehension. The more we have, the faster we will grow." Asher said, realizing the true method of improving in this world.

"By the way... we haven't checked our racial skills." Sonia suddenly realized.

"I did already. Nothing special about them, really. Gene-Forged Perfection makes our Appearance reach Max directly, while Extreme Comprehension grants a solid 990 Comprehension. With Ancient Lifespan, we can live up to 20,000 years and with youthful bodies, and the Super Immune System makes us 9,900% more resistant to disease, cancer, toxins, and poisoning. It is basically the limited version of our abilities. As for the sealed parts, they would fully unlock as long as we reach the standard, that is, 200 overall in all basic stats." Nidawei said, pursing her lips.

"Damn system nerfing." Sonia cursed and pouted.

"Then we'd best start training now. For today, Fitness would be best. It can increase the four physical stats and stamina recovery." Asher said.

The other two nodded and got to work.