Shane didn’t even blink.

  So, the upgrade roulette sometimes churned out skills instead of skill potentials, which were added buffs or effects to an already existing skill.

  But seriously?

  He stared at the floating white text.

  [Hit Me Harder!(D-rank)]

  Sure, an increased recovery rate would be helpful. Essential, even. There was only so much he could do about his defense with his crappy F-rank base stats.

  If he couldn’t stop the damage, he’d have to heal through it, just like in his old life.

  But he’d been hoping for something that would boost his attack power. His body could already take a hell of a beating. He was used to fighting while enduring inhuman pain.

  Sighing, he pulled up his status sheet to crunch the numbers.

  “...So they do stack.”

  He found that the 30% recovery rate from [Hit Me Harder!] stacked additively with his [The Family Recipe] buff, which gave him a 10% boost.

  And 10% plus 30% meant a total of 40%.

  So his natural regeneration for Stamina and HP was no 1.4 times faster than an average F-rank.

  “Doesn’t this just mean I’ll be a little harder to kill?”

  And what was up with the name? Who named this skill? The System AI?

  Then again, he couldn’t expect much from a D-rank reward, so Shane quietly accepted the reward.

  As a passive skill, it required the minimal mana to maintain. All he had to do was keep it switched on in the background, just like his [Curse Immunity].

  But then a thought struck him.

  If his [Hit Me Hard!] stacked with [Quick Bind]—his skill potential for [Absorb Wound]—that meant his recovery rate would be 65%.

  Shane’s eyes lit up slightly. The biggest drawback of [Absorb Wound] was that taking the damage often left him with worse wounds than what he initially absorbed.

  But with a 65% boost, he could counter the low rank of the skill.

  He’d just have to level [Hit Me Harder] up until it was as good as his old hyper-regeneration. Well, at least before he died, hopefully.

  [Name: Shane Ashwell]

  Rank: F

  Title: Predator of the Seraphim

  Class: Jack of All Trades

  [Skills]

  Curse Immunity: C-

  Blink: B-

  Skill Copy: C-

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  ?Fireball: C-

  ?New! Hallucination Spore: C-

  Absorb Wound: D

  ?Cheat Death: A killing blow will drop you to a sliver, not a grave. (Charge: 1)

  ?Quick Bind: A stitch in time saves twenty-five percent.

  New! Hit Me Harder: D

  [Weapon: Broken Oath]

  Bloodcraft: B-

  ????????

  [Quirks]

  Chain Smoker: EX

  Mana Hypersensitivity: EX

  Bad Navigator: EX

  Insomnia: EX

  Active Quest: Stop the First Cataclysm!

  Status: Daily Quest Skip Pass active

  Available Skill Points: 3

  Shane smirked at the other new entry under [Skill Copy].

  [Hallucination Spore]

  Though he hadn’t landed the killing blow on the Sacred Roses, his contribution to the kill had been enough to count toward his monster kill, which was the condition to activate [Skill Copy].

  And after hacking away at the roses, the System had awarded him an achievement for “Supporting 500 Monster Kills,” which unlocked a new skill slot.

  This was exactly why he’d bothered running minor dungeons with other hunters all week long. It wasn’t easy to get 500 kills when you weren’t the one doing the heavy lifting.

  With the empty slot available, he had snagged during battle, the Roses’ signature move before heading for the Heaven’s Executioner.

  It was a lower rank than what the roses had previously, as it became a C-minus skill to match the [Skill Copy]’s skill rank. The higher the rank, the stronger an emotion Shane could draw out from people.

  It made the illusions less effective, but this skill was essential to his next plan, so after a short pondering, he invested all three points to [Skill Copy].

  New! Skill Copy: B-

  ? New! Fireball: B-

  ? New! Hallucination Spore: B-

  When [Hallucination Spore] got a letter grade change, its area of effect became as big as a wide room. And with this, anyone that was a B-rank or under, would be affected.

  “And now... the main course.”

  He closed the status window and opened the System notification. It was time to check his reward for stopping an A-rank dungeon breach.

  The 80% Contribution reward.

  He tapped the icon. A small object materialized on his wrist.

  It was a wristwatch.

  [The Wind Treader]

  While equipped, the user’s Movement stat is always a B-rank. The item protects the user’s body from the strain of high-velocity movement.

  (Note: It doesn’t offer protection against collisions.)

  Shane tilted his head slightly, staring at the description.

  “What?”

  Jesus, this was too good to be true. But perhaps it was because he’d never seen a score that high before. This would’ve been useless if he’d been an A-rank or higher, but for an F-rank? This was a miracle. Also a flat stat override was incredibly rare.

  The wristwatch looked deceptively simple, like one of those digital watches people wore for extreme sports.

  Even on its own, a B-rank would have been amazing. But there was more.

  Shane looked down at his feet. His [Mistveil Combat Boots], to be exact.

  The boots multiplied his base Movement stat by 10.

  Until now, that math had been underwhelming. F-rank stats multiplied by 10 was just an E-rank.

  But equipment base stats applied before multipliers.

  A 10-times multiplier on a B-rank stat?

  “I’d be as fast as an average A-rank.”

  As long as he wore both items, he would have the speed of a high-tier superhuman, despite his F-rank body.

  But his good mood couldn’t last.

  Buzz.

  His phone screen, still lying on the bedsheets, suddenly lit up.

  Shane frowned and picked it up. It was a text from an unknown number.

  His blood ran cold.

  “…This bastard.”

  It wasn’t spam. And he didn’t need a contact name to know the sender.

  The arrogance, the casual invasion of privacy... just from reading the content, he knew these were from Luke Hinton, the head of the info guild.

  [Unknown Number]: So what’d you do, stumble on a miracle cure or something?

  [Unknown Number]: In that case, I guess we’re all waiting for our share.

  He’d been prepared for his info to get leaked to Luke eventually. The guy had the resources and skills to do that. But he hadn’t expected it to be this fast.

  His grip on the phone tightened.

  But how the hell does he know I got an Elixir?

  Did he have a skill that could see into another hunter’s inventory? Or see other people’s notifications?

  Shane thought he knew all of Luke’s skills, but since this wasn’t a game anymore, it might be different from his past knowledge.

  He really couldn’t let his guard down for a single second around that guy.

  In his paranoia, Shane completely failed to pick up on the sarcasm in Luke’s message.

  Luke was sitting in his penthouse, annoyed that Shane had vanished without going to a hospital, and was making a dry joke.

  But taunting Shane and flaunting his ability to find personal information also wasn’t Luke’s intent.

  Before Shane could draft a reply, the phone buzzed again.

  Luke had sent another message, and this time, the tone was more serious.

  [Unknown Number]: Did you see the news?