I chose Stealth Hunter. Sure, a 15% boost to durability would help a lot… especially since the armor is so busted. I looked down at the chest plate which was broken, along with the hole created from that ice trident attack. However, it was nighttime.

It would be better if I could avoid getting hit as much as possible in general. Especially since I was probably at 25% Qi max. Recovering it wasn’t going to be easy, since the air barely has any Qi.

There was no time to test out the new perk. I needed to move fast to prepare. The guy mentioned some woman’s name, so I know she is near. Not to mention, I highly doubt he came here by himself.

The question now was why did he challenge me alone? If they were near waiting to attack at any moment, then they should have been listening when I beat him and rushed in to try to save his ass.

It was also annoying that I killed him. I wanted to question him about some stuff, but no matter, that just meant I have to survive against his friends, and keep only one alive, then interrogate that one.

Before that, I turned to his corpse which was still pinned to the wall. Let’s do some old-fashioned looting.

Also, he was about the same height as me, only maybe an inch taller. So even if his armor didn’t have that size fit feature… then—

The armor around me started to slightly change size, as if the suit was malfunctioning. Perhaps the ice trident was its last straw.

I removed the armor from me, tossing it to the side like used goods.

Standing in… not my undergarments, I removed his armor off him. What’s with these guys not wearing helmets anyway?

I get the exception because I look cooler. Jokes aside, I think I would have to start using one just to avoid getting sniped.

At least these guys didn’t have Qi rifles. At times like this, I am glad those weapons are expensive as hell. That and they don’t scale with one’s stats.

Anyway, I donned his completely black armor, except the chest plate. It had some sharp edges, but not too much. So it wasn’t edgy, but literally and metaphorically.

Oh. I looked around him where his loot was lying and saw a helmet. Not bad.

I had to let my hair flow straight for the helmet to fit properly. Then I looked at his chest plate.

The issue is… My breast is a damn issue. Unlike my busted armor that had the size fit, I couldn’t put this one on to see if it had the same feature that would be triggered when I had everything on.

So… what was my option…? No idea…

I stomped on the ground in frustration. I also wanted to check on Brenda as soon as possible. With how quiet the ship is… I bet that every other crew he had there is dead.

Maybe he killed them first before targeting us?

Whatever, it was sad that Nack got killed because of us, though. Poor guy.

I turned to look at all the boxes there. Now, Nack… what else did you smuggle?

Before I checked the boxes, I took everything of value that Ben had, including two imbued artifacts.

It sucked I was limited to only two imbued artifacts at my level. Having an extra one would put way too much strain on my body, and to protect me, the capsules around them would cancel out the effects they generate.

Another thing that sucked was, to get the buffs from imbued artifacts, I had to store them in my inventory. After all, how else would I be moving about with those things?

The reason why it sucked was because the buffs/effects from imbued artifacts were weakened in one's inventory.

His war hammer gave a pretty good strength buff, but I didn’t like those weapons and had zero experience using them. But they were good for using against armor, so I took it too.

Now I went to the boxes and broke them open gently. There was a lot of stuff I wasn’t interested in.

Hm… I was feeling a bit weaker and harder to breathe. Weird, must be the mental effects from the last battle.

I moved to different sections, checking each box. And then I came across a box with a gun label.

Holy shit. This Nack guy was a real big deal!

I mean, he did have a very fancy bathtub in his ship, which kind of made sense. But these guys cost like… 665 steel pints. A Qi-powered vehicle at the lowest cost of around 550 steel pints.

To easily understand, a cheap meal at a regular restaurant for a single person would cost maybe 10 bronze pints. The average monthly pay in Terrafall’s capital is… 12 steel pints.

Also, 100 bronze pints equal 1 steel pint.

The reason why a monster-encyclopedia was so cheap (2 bronze pints) was simply because it was given as a loan. You can’t exactly choose to buy one whole. They simply take a cut from your job pay and resources you bring back to sell for you (while taking a cut from that also). But, I technically now own this since they basically put a job for my head.

Anyway, I broke the box open. It was shaped like a sniper rifle. The stock was massive though… there were ventilation holes in it. There must have been where the Qi batteries were stored. I sent them in my inventory. I felt a bit heavier, but not by too much.

I checked the other boxes and found some Qi crystals which appeared to weigh from 1 pound to 30. Holy shit… I took them too. But since these guys had such resources… then could he?

I kept going through the other boxes and came across a treasure, multiple ones actually. Berserk stat enhancers. There were only two small boxes with three in them each. They could boost your stats by up to 100%. That wasn’t the only treasure, it was Sealed tokens.

I picked up three of the sealed tokens. These bad boys have mega-strong skills stored in them. They aren’t allowed on the legal market, though. From what I recall hearing, a group of scientists and engineers created these to basically get rid of the need for Vlandos.

Want to deal with a monster issue? Why call a Vlandos when you have sealed tokens!

They even named themselves, H.O.V. Humans above Vlandos. Anyway, a lot of Vlandos basically forced governments and whatnot to outlaw this stuff and ban the production and those researching It.

We couldn’t let regular ole humans not be dependent on us, now could we? Kekeke.

I watched one of the tokens which was only 4 inches in diameter. It had a phoenix label on it. Hehe… Of course, I put the three into my inventory.

I just hoped that I wasn’t going to get dragged to whoever these products were for. I just knew it had to be extremely wealthy individuals. Just one of these bad buys would cost 4 onyx pints, a single onyx pint was worth 1000 silver pints, at the lowest.

Okay. With that, I took about everything that was of value. It seemed there were only metal ores remaining. I didn’t get any armor.

I turned towards Limdark who had finished devouring Rorsan. Of course, it gained no EXP from it. The reason why I had him eat it was to use the gluttony power-up method.

I opened Limdark’s stats sheet and gazed at the numbers.

Strength: D3

Physical Defense: C2

Agility: F8

Special Defense: D10

Combat Speed: D4

Endurance: D6

Distance speed: E1

Special attack: D10

Senses: C1

Qi Capacity: D10

Hm… Just needed a single extra point to make special attack C1. But, that was just its natural numbers.

Now, for what it gained from consuming Rorsan.

Strength: D5

Physical Defense: C2

Agility: E2

Special Defense: C1

Combat Speed: D7

Endurance: D9

Distance speed: E5

Special attack: C1

Senses: C2

Qi Capacity: C2

Not bad. I guess Rorsan’s physical defense wasn't impressive enough to add to Limdark's.

Also, my gamble paid off since Limdark absorbed some of the stats instead of getting food sick.

I prepared my head to endure the incoming stress and sent him out to secure the safety of Brenda. It didn’t take long to reach. From its vision, she was alive but in disbelief of Nack’s dead body.

I am sorry Brenda. I had to finish what I needed here before I comforted her, and to prepare for the others. Whatever was keeping them back had my gratitude.

Now for that chest plate… Time to do some metalwork.

I retrieved a fire elemental stone, encased in a glass square to prevent it from burning through anything. W

ith the chest plate nearby, I summoned Icekang, who was going to be of primary use.

The presence of two monsters, especially of their caliber, immediately caused me to grunt in pain. It felt as though my head was splitting, but it was bearable.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to use healing because of low Qi, which was a significant disadvantage.

I attempted to move, but suddenly, I lost all sensation in my lower body and collapsed.

What’s this…?

I tore off my shirt and examined the area where the trident had struck me - my stomach. My entire stomach was black, with the area up to my chest being gray. I pulled down my pants and was horrified to see that the black and gray extended down to my knees.

This was… frostbite. When I told him the effect of frostbite was gone, it was obviously me bullshitting. But I was also hoping that would have been the case.

But… I barely felt any numbness or discomfort. The damn frostbite spread so fast and powerful, it removed sensations in a quick process.

“Ha… what the hell…?”

Desperate, I focused my healing on my upper chest, where the frostbite was slowly advancing. It halted its progression, so I focused lower, on the blackened skin, but it had absolutely no effect.

Of course, you can’t heal dead tissue.

If I recall correctly, frostbite kills tissues by causing the water inside and outside the cells to freeze, forming ice crystals, which can lead to the cells bursting. My healing was merely preventing the cells from bursting, but they were still freezing. I didn’t need to explain why that was extremely bad.

With my blood flow already restricted, making me feel faint, this was going to continue until it froze all the cells in my body.

That damn firestone!

I grabbed the firestone with the arm piece, heated it up, and then made it touch my skin. Due to my enhanced skin, it wasn't sticking to the metal, but it was excruciatingly painful.

At least it would work. I used all my armor pieces to essentially barricade the spread of the frostbite. However, there was one issue - it was still spreading. Of course, it would. It was deep in the tissue and from a very powerful skill.

There was just one solution.

I took a deep breath as I prepared to cleave everything from my chest down. But I didn’t have enough Qi to heal something of such magnitude!

My arms trembled, not from the cold, but from fear. 

I am going to die…

Ha… Like this? Damn me.

I see lives like fire. I simply extinguish them, huh… Ironic.

Then I heard footsteps rushing on the deck above me.

“Vernisha?!”

“Huh… Brenda?”

Upon hearing my voice, she paused for a while then jumped down from the hole. She was bleeding all over and had bits of ice on her. She had gone through all those ice stakes. huh.

“Yo…” I said.

“Shit… it’s so dark here.”

Right, leveling up really does enhance your senses.

She saw me and then laid her eyes on my frostbite.

“How… how can I help?!” she asked.

“I don’t know…” I looked away.

“C-can… What if we cut all the frostbite off?”

“That’s about most of my body… If I had more Qi… I could do that.”

She bit her fingernails, thinking hard.

“Can’t you take Qi from your monsters…? I know what I am going to say sounds rude, but… that’s what Darsean cultists do to power themselves, right? So… even if you aren’t one, can’t you use the same power?”

“I… don’t think so. I need it to enter my body to process it.”

An idea popped into my head. Even though I could barely move, most likely due to my blood flow being almost completely restricted, I opened my inventory, raining the Qi crystals down.

“Those… I need you to break them… and then fit them in my mouth.”

Her eyes widened in worry, but she immediately got to work. I also brought out the war hammer. It would have been better to have a monster do it, but shared HP also meant they were close to dying, which is most likely why Brenda came here urgently, seeing Limdark was severely harmed.

She tried to lift the war hammer, but she didn’t have the strength for it. I think it weighed close to 1200 pounds.

“Berserk…” she muttered.

“The boxes here are open, did you get any?” she asked.

I looked at her and then shook my head.

“No.”

It was a lie, because the damage it did to the body and would do to someone of her level would be not simply fatal. It would be so bad that she would feel like she is in hell.

She rushed towards my busted armor and donned it.

Even if it was damaged, it still had some buffs.

Ugh… things were getting dizzy.

She quickly lifted the head of the hammer will all her force. It moved enough off the ground by a couple of inches, then she kicked a small 1-pound Qi crystal under it and dropped the hammer's head on it.

A crack was heard, but it wasn’t enough. She did it three more times until the crystal shattered and became tiny pieces.

She kept that up at quick rates until she had two handfuls of Qi crystal dust.

I couldn’t even say anything.

She opened my mouth and then fit it in. I at least could move my mouth and even if it tasted horrible, I swallowed the Qi crystal dust.

She knew what she had to do now and got my sword as she prepared to slice down. From below my lungs.

Let’s see…

It will most likely be sawing since I know she isn’t strong enough to cut me in one swoop.

But… I was feeling my Qi rising. It was probably at 50%, not enough… then she brought the sword down.

I focused my healing aura on my entire body, even if I lose consciousness, because it’s activated… it should work without me needing to focus.

Everything went black.

…

“Vernisha…”

I was floating naked in a dark space. But the darkness looked so evil. Like it was moving as thick fog.

“Answer me…”

Who voice is that? It sounded like a man’s, but not one I ever heard before.

The atmosphere shook and suddenly below me the air cracked and broke. Like glass shards, they rained down on a throne…?

It was a massive purple throne. Then I saw a person sitting on it. He was a massive man with spider tattoos on his forearms.

Around him were smaller thrones, each one taken but one near him. At each of them, they all had spider tattoos on parts of their body.

Yet… I couldn’t really see their face.

Then the man on the highest throne looked at me. He smiled.

“Here you are… My—“

Then everything faded away instantly, and with a loud gasp, I started to cough as an area with boxes and supplies entered my vision.

My eyes were wet and I couldn’t stop coughing. I noticed Brenda looking at me with tears in her eyes and her hands were covered in frozen blood.

I survived… 

But that dream, whatever, it's not important now.

I looked down. Oh. I was naked but with my clothing over me to cover my privates, but… I didn’t have my legs and I was low on QI. To prevent myself from going into Qi exhaustion, I must have instinctively not fixed my legs.

“Thanks a lot,” I told her. “You saved me.”

Her hands trembled as she muttered,

“I… tried to cut you in one swoop… It didn’t go through the bones. So…. I kept hacking at you…like you were a piece of hard meat. And I just kept doing it! Some blood spurted out, but when I reached your chest area, blood didn’t spurt out! It— it was frozen! I kept doing it until nothing but your chest up remained!”

She looked at her hands in fear.

“I am sorry…” I told her.

She wiped her tears using her sleeve.

“It’s… okay. It doesn’t matter, you are okay. That’s what matters.”

“Yeah, because of you.”

I turned back to look at my legs but suddenly, I felt something hit the boat and it swayed.

“What’s that!” Brenda asked.

“Most likely the guy who killed Nack’s friends. It could be adventurers after me, but I doubt it. It seems they are working for a different cause, similar yet different. In other words, we have to move fast before they sink the boat with us in it.”

She nodded, but looked at my legs.

First, I made Icekang return to my seal to get rid of the strain.

I grabbed the war hammer and turned myself to be able to use my force properly. With that, I hit the 1-meter-long and 30-centimeter-wide crystal with all my force. It shattered and spread far.