36 Chapter 35 (1/2)
Jin-Woo picked a pebble up from the ground, and it too disappeared from the sight.
'Can I do that with this, too?'
He got even more curious, so he reached out and touched the shoulder of the dead Hobgoblin, but nothing happened next. It seemed that there definitely was a limit to this skill.
At least, he was now sure of the clothes he wore and the objects held in his hand being affected by the skill.
It happened right then.
[You've exhausted all of your Mana and 'Skill: Stealth' will be deactivated.]
”Eh?”
Suddenly, 'Stealth' came undone.
'But, it has been only a few seconds, though??'
Jin-Woo had been moving his body this way and that, trying to familiarise himself with the state of being cloaked, but after the skill came undone all by itself, he hurriedly summoned the skill list and confirmed the details with a flustered look on his face.
[Skills]
Passive skills:
- (Unknown) Lv. Max
- Tenacity Lv. 1
Active skills:
- Dash Lv. 1
- Intimidation Lv. 1
- Stealth Lv. 1
What he sought was the information on the Stealth skill.
The relevant words quickly floated up before his eyes.
Tti-ring!
[Skill: Stealth Lv. 1]
Active skill.
Mana required to activate: 200
Simultaneously cloaks the body and hides all traces of the skill holder. During its activation, 10 Mana will be spent every second.
He needed 200 Mana to activate, and further 10 would be spent every bloody second?!
”Hah....”
No wonder his MP couldn't hold up.
[MP: 7/548]
His remaining Mana of 7 looked rather pitiful to his eyes.
'It's really all spent up, huh.'
Currently, the maximum amount of Mana he could store was around 550. If he were to activate the Stealth skill once, he'd be able to maintain the cloaked state for around 35 seconds.
But, if he were to use other skills, then he'd not even get the full 35 seconds, either.
'Now that I think about it, even Kahng Tae-Sik cancelled his Stealth pretty quickly, didn't he?'
He didn't do that accidentally, as it turned out.
If a high-ranking Hunter like Kahng Tae-Sik couldn't keep the skill going for long, then it meant that lower-ranked Hunters wouldn't even be able to use it.
”....My Mana is the issue here, huh.”
Until now, he had invested all his Stat points on every Stat other than Intelligence, and not even once did his MP value rise up from doing that.
In other words, he now needed to raise the Intelligence Stat as well....
'I guess it's about time I did that.'
Still, it kind of felt like a waste investing his hard-earned Stat points on a non-combat related Stat just so he could use a skill for a few seconds longer.
'Compared to other Stats, Intelligence just has too low of an efficiency.'
Strength, Stamina, Agility, and Perception.
He had personally felt the effects of those four Stats increasing. As they increased in value, he became physically stronger and stronger.
The only Stat that he couldn't sense any tangible change taking place inside him was this Intelligence, although it had climbed up a bit now.
'I mean, it's now almost four times the value compared to when I was a level 1.'
If he were to really dig around and find the difference, then it'd be his increased MP value. That was all, really.
So, to invest his points on this Stat based only on a single result like that.....
'It's just too wasteful.'
Those points would become his flesh and blood if he were to invest them elsewhere. The only conclusion he could draw here was to continue on with his levelling up until he no longer had to worry about his MP.
Meanwhile, he'd spend his precious Stat points on other, better Stats....
'My Stat points....'
He abruptly recalled that he still had five extra points he got as the reward from the emergency quest.
He pondered for a second or two on whether he should invest that on 'Intelligence', but in the end, he spent 3 points on Strength and the other 2 on Stamina.
[Stats]
Strength: 75
Stamina: 45
Agility: 82
Intelligence: 39
Perception: 69
(Available points to distribute: 0)
Reduction in physical damage: 20%
'As I thought, numbers ending in 5s are the best.'
As a satisfied smile formed on Jin-Woo's face...
RUMBLE....
The earthquake inside the interior of the dungeon became too severe for him to ignore.
'Is it the one hour mark already?'
There was no more time to waste here.
Jin-Woo closed his Status Window. He had been deliberately wasting time, waiting for the Gate to nearly close, but if he stayed here for a second longer, he might get trapped inside, unable to leave forever.
Before leaving, Jin-Woo turned around and swept his gaze around the boss room one more time.
'I extracted all the magic crystals, and....'
Well, it looked like he hadn't missed a thing.
After confirming this fact, he rapidly disappeared down the exit.
RUMBLE...
As if to warn those still inside that the Gate was about to close, the dungeon began shaking even harder than before.
***
With excellent timing, agents from the Association's Investigation Department arrived in front of the Gate. Their eyes grew real round after spotting Jin-Woo leisurely exiting from the Gate as it gradually closed behind him.
”H-Hunter-nim!! Are there any other survivors besides you?”
”No. No one else.”