Rank up

Immediately, Notifications started popping up on his Status.

[You have chosen the Elusive Branch of the Manipulation Boon. Bestowing Rank-up Rewards.

- Spirit capacity increased by 4.9 times

- Spirit consumption reduced by 20%

- Skill Level up bonus set as 0.8]

[You have received the Twin Prosperity passive skill – Sense has been multiplied by 1.2. You and your Spirit Partner's skills will level up 20% faster. Skills you both possess are 10% more effective in general and 30% more effective when you use them together.]

[You have received the Visual Empathy skill. Effects correlate with your Practical Psychology Innate Skill. Visual Empathy becomes Visions and Whispers – Sense and Willpower has been multiplied by 1.2. You will be able to see the emotions of others in colors or shapes. Occasionally, you will hear the thoughts of others.]

[You have received the Phylactery of Nature skill – Willpower and Stamina multiplied by 1.2. You may pick a natural object and choose to bond with it. The object will not wither, but it's appearance and vitality will be tied to your own well-being. Keep the object close to your body and it will passively regenerate your mana. Additional effects will appear with time.]

[You have received the Draconic Vitality skill – Strength and Stamina multiplied by 1.2. When attacking, you can choose to increase Strength and Stamina by 50%, draining your spirit gradually. The more you are injured in this state, the stronger the effects will be, up to a 100% upon when you will cease to feel pain.]

[You have received the Spirit Absorbing Fog skill – Willpower and Sense multiplied by 1.2. The fog that you control can eat away at the spirit of others, sapping it gradually and regenerating yours. It will also be harder for them to use skills and control their spirit.]

[Bestowing Manipulation – Elusive skills.

Determining subbranch… Two subbranches detected. Mental Manipulation and Vapor. Personality and actions lean towards the former, thus the system chooses Mind-control as the subbranch. Detected inconsistency… Spirit Absorbing Fog cannot be used without a Fog controlling skill. Fog Creation Skill must be bestowed. Five other skills will be of the Mental Manipulation Subbranch.]

[You have received the Fog Creation Skill – Willpower multiplied by 1.2. You will be able to create Fog and control it. Size and resilience will depend on the Spirit Consumed.]

[You have received the Hub of Consciousness skill - Willpower and Intelligence multiplied by 1.2. Allows your consciousness to affect others. An essential skill to Mental Manipulators. All skills of the subbranch will require the activation of this skill.]

[You have received the Mental Inducement skill – Willpower and Intelligence multiplied by 1.2. You will be able to set a living being's mental state to one you desire. Available states: Anger. With each level up, The state cannot remain indefinitely. Cooldown for one target: 1 hour. The skill will fail against users with high Willpower and Intelligence.]

[You have received the Motor-skill Manipulation skill - Willpower and Sense multiplied by 1.2. You will be able to briefly interrupt with a living being's muscles or nerves. Cooldown for one target: 3 minutes]

[You have received the Spirit Burst skill – Willpower multiplied by 1.2. You can now shoot out a part of your spirit as a projectile.]

[You have received the Imperceptible Spirit skill – Sense multiplied by 1.2. Upon activation, others will not be able to sense your spirit. With each two levels, certain skills that could bypass this skill's effects will be affected (such as Spirit Visualizations, Spirit Hearing, etc.)]

Lorn felt overwhelmed with all the new notifications on his screen. But that wasn't all.

[Player-exclusive bonus! You are the first player to Rank-up with six or more bonuses unlocked. The system rewards your efforts. Please choose one of three Growth skills bestowed upon you.]

[Halo of the Leader – Creates the Charisma stat and you will be able to create Parties. Although players and residents can team up and create parties by themselves, your Party will have increased efficiency during hunts (that increase and become more varied with each Rank-up and your Charisma stat), will share 6% of their growth (skill mastery and spirit capacity). Member limit: 4. Once the party is disbanded, you lose half the growth you experienced together and you will not be able to create another party for two weeks.]

[Power Couple – Choose one living being to share your growth with at 20% efficiency. Synergy of the pair will increase through various benefits unlocked through level ups. Synergy and teamwork with other people reduced. Once the bond is severed, you lose half the growth you experienced together and you will not be able to create another bond for a month.]

[Lone Wolf – Your growth is 40% more efficient, reduced by 10% with each living being you're teamed up with. Further levels provide more unique benefits.]

Lorn sighed, reading through the three options. He immediately dismissed the final option. He liked the fantasy of that particular choice, but it was impossible for him to make that choice now. At the very least, he was stuck with Sybil for a long time.

But thinking about it for a bit, the choice was obvious. Lorn picked the Halo of the Leader. Its initial benefits were larger and its penalties were smaller as well. Lorn was sure the other two choices would've offered better effects with more levels, but for the past few days, Lorn thoroughly understood the importance of teams in this world.

No one Hunter could excel at everything. His Status screen was the perfect representation of that.

[Name: Lorn Ashin]

[Title: N/A]

[Spirit Partner - Sybil Plath (E)]

[Health: 100%]

[Spirit (E): 100%]

[Strength: 5.2]

[Dexterity: 3]

[Stamina: 2.6]

[Agility: 3.6]

[Intelligence: 2.2]

[Willpower: 22.1 + 5]

[Sense: 8.5]

[Faith: 0]

[Boon: Enhancement; Manipulation; Specialization]

[Innate skills (generalized): Nimble hands Lv.6; Flexible Body Lv.5; and 25 others.]

[Enchantment Skills: Strengthening Lv.8 Rejuvenation Lv.2; Acrobatic Sense Lv.4; Phylactery of Nature Lv.0; Draconic Vitality Lv.0]

[Manipulation Skills: Point of Gravity Lv.6; Gravitational Pull Lv.4; Spirit Absorbing Fog Lv.0; Fog Creation Lv.0; Hub of Consciousness Lv.0; Mental Inducement Lv.0; Motor-skill Manipulation Lv.0; Spirit Burst Lv.0;

[Specialization Skills: Spirit Visualization Lv.5; Focused Spirit Meditation Lv.8; Probability Alteration Lv.1; Twin Prosperity Lv.0; Unheard Whispers Lv.0; Imperceptible Spirit Lv.0.]

[Immersion: 44%]

Something similar to Sybil's status screen was occurring. His Willpower stat was going through the roof, leaving the rest in the dust. Sure, he could probably hit like a truck with his skills thanks to that, but leave him to do anything else, he would start struggling.

If his huge skills somehow doesn't kill his enemies, he would be in for a world of pain. He wasn't fast enough to run away; he wasn't tough enough to endure the beating, nor he was strong enough to finish the weakened enemies off in a melee.

It was the same story with Sybil. In fact, it was a worse case with her, as she had basically zero skills complementing her Strength and Stamina.

Conversely, Yara was growing up to become a proper tank. Her Spirit Bond ranked up, giving her the essential skills of a tanker: Taunt plus the Toughness stat. She also received two random skills from Adrian's Arsenal, Forged by Fire and Strength in Unity.

The former was a passive skill that made her receive a point in Toughness after receiving a set number of hits; and the latter was a five second team-wide buff that granted quarter of her Toughness and Stamina Stats to the rest of her team. She also received a boost to her Strength and Agility equal to the Toughness and Stamina stats she granted in total.

They were pretty powerful abilities, especially Forged by Fire, as Adrian said that he only received it when he became a C-rank. There was no guessing how sturdy Yara was going to become after receiving the ability as an F-rank.

But even with all that toughness, Yara wasn't going to be able to explore even a quarter of the world alone. She could prolong fights indefinitely, but she would have an extremely hard time finishing them. Most enemies and monsters would run away after realizing they weren't going to be able to kill her.

A balanced team was necessary in the One World.

Without hesitation, Lorn chose Halo of the Leader.

[You have received the Halo of the Leader passive skill – Charisma stat created. Determining the amount… Charisma stat set as 12.]

'Ugh, finally finished…' Lorn sighed.