It was as if the once-dormant portal started stirring again.
The heroines without elemental powers only felt a buzzing in their heads.
But Atreus, who had elemental sensitivity, could feel the electricity he had stored in his body before the battle going wild, as if it was out of his control. It felt like the energy was ready to abandon him, recklessly charging out and dragging him and the enemy to mutual destruction.
Atreus took a deep breath and said, "We need to fall back!"
The group retreated to the main entrance of the underground hall, and Atreus took the opportunity to assess his gains.
Because his natural attributes of [Constitution] and [Strength] had been maxed out and locked, after putting on Kratos' suit, those two stats were 71 and 80, respectively.
He ignored that part.
After defeating a bunch of third-tier zombie heroes, a variety of boosts raised his stats to [Agility 58, Intelligence 34, Perception 45, Willpower 36].
Looking at the numbers alone, Atreus was absolutely a strength-based hero now.
Unfortunately, this was related to the types of enemies he had defeated. His biggest gain this time came from killing three agility-based heroes. Even though Deadshot, Hawkeye, and Captain Boomerang had severely reduced agility due to becoming zombies, Atreus still managed to get over ten points of agility from them.
However, Atreus was more interested in the skills he gained from the various heroes than the boost to his base stats.
From Deadshot, Atreus maxed out his [Basic Gunmanship], unlocking the [max] level. In addition, he received the [Rifle Sharpshooter] and [Rapid Fire Lv4] skills.
Captain Boomerang randomly gave Atreus a [Boomerang Weapon Mastery Lv3].
Bronze Tiger and Copperhead maxed out Atreus's [Basic Combat] skill, and they also gifted him the [Wild Instinct Lv8], which boosted his reflexes, as well as [Beast's Last Stand], which increased melee attributes when his health dropped below 20%.
The criminal duo Punch and Jewelee were utterly useless, only leaving Atreus with some red souls.
Hawkeye maxed out Atreus's [Basic Archery] skill and boosted [Triple Shot] to Lv7, and [Eagle Eye] to Lv3, while also giving him [Aimed Shot Lv5].
Count Vertigo raised Atreus's [Mental Resistance] to Lv10 and [Magic Resistance] to Lv4. He also gave Atreus [Mental Shock Lv3], which could extract terrifying memories from his own mind and send them into the opponent's mental space. If the opponent's mental resistance couldn't handle it, they would suffer injuries and potentially enter [Confused] or [Paralyzed] states.
Most of these skills were standard and not particularly useful to Atreus.
Thankfully, the system thoughtfully introduced a new function.
**[Soul Skill Sharing]:** Since the host has collected over 1,024 Crimson Souls and abandoned more than 69 skills due to incompatibility, this feature has been unlocked. The host can now share existing or unusable skills with blood relatives or soul-bound companions.
**[Note]:** Sharing skills will cause the host's skill level to decrease, and the host must acquire the same skill again through killing to restore it. If the host shares a skill at Lv1, it will be erased. Shared skills can be quickly upgraded for the recipient by the host providing Crimson Souls, limited by the recipient's potential.**
After reading this, Atreus's first thought was—*Is this skill for real?*
On second thought, it wasn't useless but rather a way to make the most out of unwanted skills.
It all depended on how Atreus decided to use it.
Apart from these skills, what pleased Atreus the most was the gift from the **Frost Assassin**, who gave him [Fire Element Control Lv3] and [Fire Element Resistance Lv10!], along with this gem:
**[Energy Absorption]:** The host can absorb surrounding heat and convert it into mana. Conversion efficiency is (Low).
**The host's elemental pool now contains both fire and wind elements, with a maximum capacity of 648 mixed element points.**
Uh, aside from the PTSD-inducing number, the rest seemed fine.
The key point was, now that Atreus could absorb elemental energy on his own, he no longer needed to recharge before a fight.
You know, having to recharge like an electric car before every battle, with that "heroic sacrifice" look on your face, holding a battery the size of a car charger, with wires attached to both ends—can you imagine that?
It numbed him completely!
The first time Louis saw it, even though he was a loyal bodyguard, his face turned pale, and after a long pause, he blurted out, "Boss! It's not worth it! It's really not!"
Later, Louis realized his boss wasn't an ordinary person and gave him a raise to keep quiet.
Even though Atreus got used to it, it was still annoying!
When will charging get faster? Like filling up a gas tank—just a few seconds, and done.
Well, now that he could restore mana on his own, Atreus finally felt like he wasn't stuck on the path of being a one-time-use hero.
As for becoming a noble mage? Atreus thought…
Today was the day!
At that moment, the energy fluctuations near the portal grew even more intense.
Unlike the previous chaotic and wild energy, Atreus sensed that someone adept in magic on the other side of the portal was not content with the failed transmission and was preparing to personally intervene.
Taking a deep breath, Atreus put on his earpiece. "Hey, Tony, how's it going on your end?"
Tony's voice came through: "Almost done."
This time, the chaos in Gotham wouldn't play out like in history.
Due to the fused worlds, if a nuclear fusion reactor exploded in Gotham, it would likely destroy both Gotham and New York, two major cities with millions of people.
Undoubtedly, this would devastate the U.S. economy, possibly plunging it into a wartime state.
In this kind of situation, even special forces wouldn't be enough, so how could Tony just sit back?
After rushing back to New York, he immediately contacted Atreus, a native of Gotham.
Bane had pulled off a brilliant move after stealing the nuclear fusion bomb and the secret equipment from Wayne Enterprises' science department. He used three decoy convoys, but only one truck carried the reactor, while the others were decoys.
For Gotham's police and the National Guard, who lacked intelligence, this tactic was perfect.
If things went south, Bane could remotely detonate the reactor.
But this time, Iron Man was here.
Using his powerful search system, Tony had already located the real reactor.
The only thing giving Tony pause was the remote detonator.
With Batman back in action, however, everything was falling into place.
"Yo, Bat, you sure that gadget of yours will work?" Tony teased over the comms.
"I wouldn't joke about Gotham. It can block the remote signal to the fusion reactor," Batman said, maintaining his usual cool tone, never mentioning his back-breaking encounter with Bane.
"All right! I'll be on time!"
As Batman regained control of some of his equipment, a thunderous rumble echoed from the collapsed sewer entrances across the city.
Batman's large drones, armed with heavy firepower, obliterated the massive rocks trapping the police and special forces.
This deafening noise was as loud as when Bane had caused chaos earlier.
The entire city of Gotham was shaking!
But this time, it signaled that Gotham's forces of justice had finally launched their counterattack!
(End of Chapter)