Chapter 21 - Hunter Han Sungyoon (1) (1/2)
Chapter 21: Hunter Han Sungyoon (1)
「 You have purchased a Return Stone (F). 」
The red stone that I expected suddenly appeared in front of me.
「 Return Stone 」
「 Grade: F- 」
「 An item that can only be bought by challengers who’ve reached the 5th floor. 」
「 It is indestructible and returns the user to their original location when they emit mana into it. 」
「 The user returns to the floor they were originally on in the Tower of Trials. 」
3 days can be short or long depending on how you look at it, but the important part was ‘return.’
‘It doesn’t matter if I can get back to Earth.’
There wasn’t anyone who’d worry about me, but I still wanted to go back.
Who wouldn’t?
The tower controlled everything from what you could wear to what you could eat.
‘I can’t even take a proper shower and all my clothes are tattered now.’
I hid it to the best of my ability with my cloak… but I would pass for a homeless man in this state.
Also—
‘There’s a couple of things I have to take care of there…’
You could call it preparation.
I’d just take care of all the things that could bite me in the ass later.
I mean, there was no real reason to not go back.
Especially if it only cost 500 points to go back.
But I didn’t use the item immediately.
‘I have to check my rewards.’
I couldn’t miss out on things like that.
Ignoring the messages about the points, I looked at the skill I had received as a bonus reward.
「 Skill – Instant Acceleration (D) 」
「 Proficiency – 0% 」
「 Effect – Upon declaring the skill name, one can use mana to temporarily accelerate their body. 」
“It’s my first active skill, not bad.”
Besides the items, I’d never used an active skill before.
Regeneration, resistances, weapon skills, knowledge…
I‘d acquired a lot of skills recently but they were all passive.
‘But active skills can only be activated at the user’s will.’
Kind of like the binding skill that the crossbow challenger Lee Sieon used.
And ‘declaring the skill name’ doesn’t just apply to saying it.
From what I heard, you could use the skill just by thinking about it once you were used to it.
Same case for active innate abilities.
‘Of course, innate abilities could have wildly different activation requirements.’
Instant Acceleration… it had a decent effect with a pretty high base rank.
‘I’ll make sure to incorporate it while I’m training.’
It’d also probably work well with my agility stat.
「 Han Sungyeun 」
「 Strength – 47 」 「 Stamina – 44 」
「 Agility – 48(+5) 」 「 Mana – 32 」
「 Tenacity – 28 」
「 Innate ability – ‘Necromancy (E) 」
「 Skill – See details 」
The stat window quantified exactly how much stronger I had gotten.
‘The skills aren’t even listed out anymore.’
It was probably because I had too many of them, but it was still cool to see.
I couldn’t keep my smirk down at the thought of having too many skills to list out.
Most monsters didn’t increase my stats by much anymore, but I made it work with the sheer quantity.
‘The only thing that needed improvement is the tenacity stat.’
It did increase relatively quickly because of the low base number, but it was still too low compared to my other stats.
It couldn’t even surpass my mana, the lowest stat.
I was decently satisfied as I activated necromancy.
「 Select a soul to absorb from the souls in captivity. 」
「 Number of souls in possession – 4/15 」
「 Player ‘Lee Sieon’ 」
「 Player ‘Lee Jinhoo’ 」
「 Player ‘Im Sangyoon’ 」
「 Goblin King 」
‘I was putting it off, but I have no reason to not absorb the human souls I collected.’
These souls were a part of the rewards that I fought for fair and square.
If I didn’t use them because of my morals?
‘That only debilitates me.’
The only reason I was able to compete with any of these hunters was because of my ‘necromancy.’
To be frank, I was essentially closer to a normal civilian without it.
My impressive stats, and all of those skills…
They were all from my necromancy.
‘I can’t afford to be picky here.’
I proceeded to absorb the souls without hesitation.
‘Maybe I’ll get a skill from one of them if I get lucky.’
It was a possibility, like how I got physical resistance from the doppelganger.
The highly-anticipated message appeared after a couple of seconds.
「 Acquiring one of the skills held by player ‘Lee Jinhoo’. 」
Despite the low odds, another skill absorption message popped up.
I wanted to howl with joy, but the changes in my body came first.
「 Permanently increasing your stats using the souls. 」
「 Strength increased by 5. 」
「 Agility increased by 3. 」
「 Stamina increased by 4. 」
「 Mana increased by 6. 」
「 Tenacity increased by 8. 」
Far more effective than absorbing the goblins.
“Status.”
「 Han Sungyeun 」
「 Strength – 52 」 「 Stamina – 48 」
「 Agility – 51 」 「 Mana – 38 」
「 Tenacity – 36 」
「 Innate ability – ‘Necromancy (E) 」