Chapter 94

Chapter 94: A longing(4)

「 Skill ‘Truth-seeker of Blood(B)’ generated. 」

The rank of the skill completed through utilizing the failure was considerably higher than I expected.

‘Truth-seeker of Blood, huh…’

I opened my status window and checked the skill effect right away.

「 Skill – ‘Truth-seeker of Blood(B)’ 」 

「 Proficiency – 0% 」 

「 Effect – Vitality, HP, and Mana can be extracted from the blood of living things, and the user will awaken a powerful blood control ability.」

「 Additional Effect – All the blood that flows out of the user’s body and is consumed is automatically regenerated little by little at regular intervals.」

“…”

The condition where Vitality, HP, and Mana extraction was only possible from a creature I killed had disappeared from the effect.

And on top of that…

‘Blood control ability?’

Just like a vampire, a mysterious ability was also added, so I couldn’t help but look forward to it.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

The blood regeneration ability added as an additional effect had great compatibility with items that consume blood to create shields, such as the Vampire Count’s Old Tailcoat.

Of course, the usefulness of the regeneration ability could only be judged after I actually felt the efficiency of regeneration ability, though.

‘Well, it’s not that bad, I guess.’

Should I say that spending a huge amount of points was somewhat worth it?

I immediately disabled the recovery of the waiting room and inflicted a long wound on my left arm with Heavenly Blood Demonic Sword.

「 Activating the skill ‘Ashen Blood.’ 」

Drip.

At the same time, blood poured down from my left arm, and the Ashen Blood healed the wound.

Seeing the blood flowing down my left arm, I narrowed my eyes and concentrated my mind.

‘Move, move, move…’

It was then.

“Woah.”

Slide.

In an instant, the blood that had flowed down my left arm began to rise upward as though defying gravity.

It didn’t even stop at that level, and blood quickly flowed through my left arm and floated into the air.

“…”

In that state, I got the hang of the ability by controlling the blood that flowed out.

And as soon as I formed a sharp blade with the blood, I let out a laugh and convinced myself.

“This… is truly a powerful ability.”

What if this ability could affect not only the blood that flows out of my body, but also the blood of other living things?

A pleasant chill ran down my spine as I questioned that to myself.

It was the ability to extract Vitality, HP, and Mana from the blood of living things and control the blood without having to kill them.

‘Well, there must be some restrictions, but there would be no other ability as good as this.”

Thanks to Necromancy, the battle against numbers that were originally good would now become stronger thanks to the Truth-seeker of Blood.

And one-on-one fighting, which can be called my weakness, will be made up with this ability.

I realized that the blood restoration ability was quite useful when the battle was a long-term one once I checked it.

“It’s simple, but it’s certainly easy to use, thanks to that.”

Now, I felt like I understood the composition of the Truth-seeker of the Blood, so I turned to another skill.

「Skill – Overgrowth(C-)」 

「Price – 20,000 Point 」 

「Effect – In proportion to the HP stat, all HP regeneration abilities and basic HP are increased by 70%.」 

It’s a shame that it was a skill with no proficiency, but it’s a skill that can be put into use just fine.

‘The fact that it increases your base HP and the HP regeneration ability is quite useful.’

Even more so because the effects were applied in proportion to the HP stats.

Of course, there was a chance that I could make a great ability if I kept trying to combine it while bearing the failure, just like the Truth-seeker of the Blood, but—

‘I can’t afford to spend more points right now.’

Even if I saved enough points to the point where I’d be able to use them abundantly, more than this was impossible.

Not unless there was another skill that I could combine separately. If I randomly combined skills that weren’t even proper, I’d be in trouble.

Even more, I had a history of mixing skills randomly and acquiring a skill that was basically pointless.

It was then—

‘…Come to think of it, it’s not that I don’t have the skills to combine at all.’

Suddenly, I thought of ‘Strengthened Eyes(E-)’, a skill I neglected after combining.

It was a skill with low rank, and the effect was lame, so I didn’t really care about it.

However, since then, I’d gathered enough abilities to attempt the combination, such as ‘Eye of Truth’ or ‘Mind’s Eye’.

“Hm…”

But, to blindly combine the skills, the Eye of Truth and Mind’s Eye were quite valuable.

The Mind’s Eye allows the user to perceive everything around the user, and the Eye of Truth allows the user to see through lies and information.

‘It’s a gamble.’

I knew it.

That this is actually a gamble among gambles that shouldn’t be done.

But at the same time, I was well aware of the value of the success of this combination.

“…”

As I continued to ponder, I suddenly thought of a great idea.

“Shop.”

As soon as I opened the shop window, I went into the skill shop and browsed through the skills that were being sold.

And-.

「Skill: Mind’s Eye(F)」 

「Price: 10,000 Point 」 

「Effect: Perhaps you might start feeling things that you can’t see..」 

“I didn’t expect for this to be here.”

Soon, I was able to find out that the Mind’s Eye was on sale.

‘Of course, the rank was lower than I thought, though…’

In the battle with Namgung hyuk, I figured out its usage while frantically raising the Proficiency of Mind’s Eye.

Even if it was an F- rank skill, I was confident to instantly raise it into a higher-rank skill.

「Activating the innate power ‘Skill Combination.’ 」

I immediately selected Mind’s Eye and Strengthened Eyes and combined them.

Obviously, Mind’s Eye had a higher skill rank, so the Strengthened Eyes was pushed out of the core of Skill Combination

And just like that, the Skill Combination proceeded with Mind’s Eye as the core.

「 Skill combination complete. 」 

「 Skill ‘Mana Eyes(A-)’ generated. 」

The Strengthened Eyes and Mind’s Eye disappeared, and Mana resided in my eyes anew.

‘I think I can tell what kind of ability this is without even having to read the skill description.’

Basically, it can be used like Mind’s Eye, but the ability to detect Mana has been drastically improved.

Should I say that it has mana detection that’s a few times better than the kind that relies on the mana circuit?

Even if I used this as it is, it’s an ability that’s close to the higher tier than the Mind’s Eye skill, but it felt lacking by a step.

Instinct whispered to me like a demon.

That a proper skill would be born only when the Eye of Truth is also combined.

A truly splendid skill, that I wouldn’t be disappointed with.

「Skill ‘Sixth Sense’ is strongly activated.」

As if to support that thought, a phrase that even the Sixth Sense was activated popped up.

Then I activated the Skill Combination, and soon the skill was combined.

「 Skill combination complete. 」

And—

「 A new skill is being generated. 」 

As if that intuition wasn’t wrong, the skill generated afterward was a result beyond my imagination.

***

[Translator – Ramen ]

[Proofreader – DVN-L ]

***

Soon, I opened my eyes wide as I saw the system message that appeared in front of me.

「 Skill ‘Fire Dragon’s Eyes(A+)’ generated. 」

Fire Dragon’s Eyes.

The grand name was one thing; its rank was quite high.

Its rank could be one of the highest among my current skills.

‘To think everything worked out well like this.’

I was able to reach this point thanks to not failing a single Skill Combination.

「Skill – Fire Dragon’s Eyes(A+)」 

「 Proficiency – 0% 」 

「Effect – The power of Fire Dragon dwells in the eyes, allowing the user to see the things that they normally can’t see.」 

「Detailed Effect – Through the Dragon’s Eyes, you can see the information of things, and it becomes possible to determine whether your opponent is lying or not.」 

There were no flaws in the skill effects, and only the strengths were kept intact.

I suppose the only definition that changed is that the power of the Fire Dragon dwells in the eyes.

‘The power of Fire Dragon, huh.’

It was amazing in many ways, but it was difficult to tell the difference only with the changed definition.

‘Still, some things must have changed or improved.’

Since the rank had risen this much, it must be so.

Whatever it may be, there must be some strengths, so I immediately activated the Fire Dragon’s Eyes.

「Activating the skill ‘Fire Dragon’s Eyes(A+)’」

It was none other than to confirm the ability inherited from the Eye of Truth to grasp the information of things.

There may be some changes in this ability or such, so I planned to check it out carefully.

And—

“What in the world is this…?”

Soon I was able to understand the true meaning of the sentence of Fire Dragon’s Eyes that said, ‘Allowing the users to see the things they normally can’t see.’ 

「Heavenly Blood Demonic Sword 」

From an item that was stolen from Kim Seungjun before and had now become my favorite sword.

「…When a user who has reached the level of Sword Flame activates the exclusive effect, Blood Ki, to the maximum, the true ability will be unlocked.」

A phrase that I had never seen before was revealed.

“…”

It was an ability that was practically useless other than by directly checking the item, but…

Now, not only could it completely check the item performance, but it could also check the new phrases.

‘What the…’

I was dumbfounded.

I thought it’d have been slightly enhanced by combining the Mind’s Eye and Eye of Truth.

But I didn’t expect it to evolve into such a useful skill.

And when I opened the item description window directly, not from the skill, it became clearer.

‘The phrase that can be seen through the Fire Dragon’s Eyes doesn’t appear in the item description window.’

Realizing that fact, I then checked all the other items as well.

「The Vampire Count’s Old Tailcoat 」

The hidden phrases were everywhere.

「…When the user consumes blood to form a shield, additional toughness is added to the shield.」

There were miscellaneous facts that I didn’t know well at first.

「 Boots of Swiftness 」

And new phrases were discovered in items I didn’t care much about.

「…When the user applies Mana on the boots, the duration of Instantaneous Acceleration is slightly increased.」

It was also content that would be helpful even a little when used in battle.

Well, other items didn’t really display any special phrase, and it wasn’t at the level that it’d be helpful in battle.

But even so, it was by no means negligible.

“…”

After looking through this and that, I soon realized one thing.

This Fire Dragon’s Eyes was much better than I thought, and its true value hadn’t yet been fully revealed.

The Eye of Truth skill, which wasn’t even used properly, was inherited and strengthened to this point.

How strong would Mind’s Eyes’ inherited abilities have become if I directly checked it in battle?

Reaching that point, I couldn’t help but raise the corners of my lips even if I tried not to.

In the end, instead of thinking about it, I immediately activated the command.

「Will you attempt the trial of the 11th floor?」 

Without considering any other options, I clicked accept to that question.

And soon, I entered the portal that appeared in the center of the waiting room.

「 Entering Tower of Trials floor 11. 」 

「 Difficulty – Hard 」 

「 The objective of the following trial is ‘Proving of the spirit’. 」 

「 We wish the challenger a satisfactory ending to their choice. 」 

The two new skills that have appeared, Truth-seeker of Blood and the Fire Dragon’s Eyes.

I’ll soon be able to see their true value even if I don’t want to know it.

——