Zeph stared at his resource pools in the dim light of his shelter, the numbers glowing softly in his peripheral vision like a constant reminder of his limitations.
MP: 20/20
SP: 10/10
The math was brutally simple. Force at D-rank cost 10 MP per activation, which meant he could use it exactly twice for weapon enhancement before being completely tapped out. Body enhancement cost 10 SP per activation, giving him one use before his stamina was exhausted.
'One hundred and twenty seconds of doubled power strikes and one body boost,' he calculated. 'That's my entire combat potential burned in 3 minutes.'
The realization was sobering. His Force skill might be devastatingly powerful, but power without sustainability was just an elaborate way to die when the enhancement wore off and enemies were still standing
But the thing was, he couldn't increase his stats with his PP or SP. He could only raise them by leveling up.
'Rule one of character optimization,' he reminded himself, falling back on gaming wisdom that had served him well in his previous life. 'Don't upgrade what you can't afford to use.'
Upgrading Force to C-rank would push the cost to at least 20 MP per activation. At his current resource levels, that would mean exactly one to no weapon enhancement before he was defenseless.
Worse, if it went higher before he increased his MP pool, the skill would become completely unusable.
'Need to think strategically about this,' he decided. 'Upgrade what I can actually use, ignore what sounds impressive on paper.'
There was one upgrade that made perfect sense: Enhanced Hearing.
Passive skills were the holy grail of character development. No resource costs, no cooldowns, no tactical limitations. Just pure, permanent enhancement that improved every aspect of his capabilities without drawdown.
Zeph focused his intention on his Primordial Architect interface.
'Upgrade Enhanced Hearing from F-rank to E-rank. Cost: 1,000 PP.'
[PRIMORDIAL ARCHITECT ACTIVE]
[Upgrading: Enhanced Hearing (F → E)]
[Cost: 1000 PP]
[Confirmed]
The change was immediate and overwhelming.
Sound exploded into his consciousness like a sensory tsunami. Every whisper of wind through broken concrete became a roar. The distant drip of water echoed like gunshots.
His own heartbeat thundered in his ears like a war drum, drowning out almost everything else.
But beneath the initial chaos, he could detect incredible detail. Footsteps of small creatures moving through the ruins below—not just their presence, but their gait, their approximate size, even their physical state based on the rhythm of their movement.
And heartbeats. Multiple heartbeats within a ten-foot radius, though most belonged to rats and other vermin living in the bridge's structure.
[SKILL: ENHANCED HEARING - RANK E]
[Auditory perception increased by 100%. Heartbeat detection range: 10 feet. Passive ability.]
Zeph pressed his palms against his ears, trying to muffle the overwhelming input while his brain adapted to the new sensory flood. It took several minutes of controlled breathing before he could function normally again, learning to filter relevant sounds from background noise.
'That was just one rank upgrade,' he thought, flexing his fingers as his hearing gradually stabilized. 'But the improvement is substantial. I can hear things moving three floors down in the ruins now.'
The strategic value was obvious. Enhanced hearing would give him advance warning of threats, let him track enemies through walls and obstacles, provide intelligence gathering capabilities that no visual enhancement could match.
Which raised an interesting question: what would D-rank look like?
'The body modification aspect is intriguing,' he reasoned, considering the implications. 'Passive skills seem to actually alter physiology rather than just providing temporary enhancements. If that's the case, there might be adaptation limits I need to consider.'
But the tactical advantage was too valuable to ignore. Enhanced hearing could mean the difference between detecting an ambush and walking into one. Between tracking down targets and losing them in the maze of ruins.
'One more upgrade. Test the limits.'
[PRIMORDIAL ARCHITECT ACTIVE]
[Upgrading: Enhanced Hearing (E → D)]
[Cost: 2500 PP]
[Confirmed]
Pain exploded through his skull like someone had driven railroad spikes through his eardrums.
Zeph bit back a scream as blood began trickling from his ears, the copper taste flooding his mouth as his enhanced auditory system tried to process input it wasn't designed to handle.
Every sound became a weapon, his own breathing was like standing next to a jet engine, his heartbeat like thunder that threatened to shatter his skull from the inside.
He grabbed a cloth from his supplies and tied it around his head, covering his ears in a desperate attempt to muffle the sensory overload. Even through the makeshift protection, the world was almost unbearably loud.
But when the initial agony subsided, the results were extraordinary.
He could hear heartbeats fifty feet away. Not just detect them, but analyze them—stress levels, physical condition, approximate age and size based on rhythm and intensity!
It was shocking how detailed the information he could procure was with just his hearing!
The rats in the lower ruins sounded like they were sitting next to him. Distant conversations became clearly audible even through multiple layers of concrete and steel.
[SKILL: ENHANCED HEARING - RANK D]
[Auditory perception increased by 200%. Heartbeat detection range: 50 feet. Can analyze emotional states through heartbeat patterns. Passive ability.]
'Holy shit,' he thought, then winced as his own internal monologue seemed to echo like a shout. 'This is going to take some getting used to.'
'Also, apparently I'm a masochist now,' he added, wiping fresh blood from his ears. 'Because that was definitely worth the agony, agony I'm already considering the next upgrade.'
But that was enough for now.
The gaming terminology felt appropriate. He'd just experienced what players called "stat shock"—the negative effects of pushing character development beyond safe parameters. His body was adapting to enhancements it hadn't been designed to handle.
'Note to self: passive skills have physical limits. Push too hard, too fast, and you get to cosplay as a torture victim.'
But the strategic value was undeniable. With D-rank Enhanced Hearing, he could monitor a fifty-foot radius for threats, eavesdrop on conversations through walls, track enemies by their heartbeat signatures even when they thought they were hidden.
It was the kind of intelligence-gathering capability that could turn any encounter into an ambush in his favor.
After spending a few hours learning to function with his enhanced senses—and discovering that even thinking too loudly somehow seemed to echo uncomfortably—Zeph turned his attention to his technique mastery options.
Unlike skills, techniques couldn't be upgraded through rank advancement. Instead, they improved through mastery. It was a slow, grinding process that reflected genuine understanding and muscle memory development.
Phantom Step currently sat at 0% mastery, meaning he could execute the basic technique but lacked the refinement that separated novices from experts.
Every 1% of mastery improvement cost 1,000 SP, with a weekly limit of 5% to prevent forced advancement without true comprehension.
'5% mastery improvement,' he decided. 'Maximum weekly investment.'
[PRIMORDIAL ARCHITECT ACTIVE]
[Improving: Phantom Step Mastery (0% → 5%)]
[Cost: 5000 PP]
[Confirmed]
The enhancement was subtle but immediately noticeable. Where before the technique had already begun to feel familiar, now it began to integrate naturally with his movement patterns on an instinctive level.
He understood instinctively how to chain it into attack sequences, when to time the activation for maximum effect, how to use the phantom mirage effect to maximum advantage.
[TECHNIQUE: PHANTOM STEP - 5% MASTERY]
[4-foot dash distance. Creates minor visual distortion during activation. Cost: 1 SP per activation. Understanding: Novice level integration with combat techniques.]
The improvements were significant. The SP cost had dropped from 2 to 1, and the visual distortion effect had become more controllable.
More importantly, he could feel potential applications that hadn't been obvious before—defensive uses, combination attacks, ways to chain multiple activations together.
'Mastery is definitely different from rank upgrades,' he realized, practicing a few test activations. 'This feels like actual skill development rather than just raw power increases.'
But he'd hit the weekly limit. No more technique improvements until his understanding had time to settle and integrate properly. Or if he was fortunate enough to have an enlightenment.
Which left rune upgrades as his final advancement option.
Runes operated on different principles than skills or techniques. Where abilities were learned and practiced, runes were permanent modifications inscribed directly onto the soul.
Upgrading them wasn't about mastery or understanding; it was about fundamentally altering the enhancement's potency.
Which apparently made them much more expensive.
[PRIMORDIAL ARCHITECT ACTIVE]
[Upgrading: Rune of Minor Might (F → E)]
[Cost: 5000 PP]
[Confirmed]
[PRIMORDIAL ARCHITECT ACTIVE]
[Upgrading: Rune of Sturdy Flesh (F → E)]
[Cost: 5000 PP]
[Confirmed]
The transformations were immediate and profound.
Strength flooded through his muscles as the first rune evolved, not just the previous +1 effective stat bonus, but something much more substantial. His grip on Phantom tightened automatically as enhanced power settled into his frame.
The vitality rune's upgrade was even more dramatic. His skin felt tougher, more resilient. His stamina pool expanded noticeably. Even his healing rate seemed to accelerate.
[RUNE: TRUE MIGHT - RANK E]
[Weapon enhancement: 50% impact force. Body enhancement: +10 effective Strength for all applications.]
[RUNE: IRON FLESH - RANK E]
[Equipment enhancement: 50% durability and self-repair rate. Body enhancement: +10 effective Vitality for all applications.]
Zeph stared at the descriptions in amazement. The stat bonuses had jumped from +1 to +10 per rune. It was a massive improvement that fundamentally altered his attribute distribution.
'Why are rune upgrades so much more expensive than skills?' he wondered, checking the costs for further advancement. D-rank runes would cost 10,000 PP each—four times the cost of skill upgrades!
He could only speculate. Maybe runes were harder to modify because they were permanently inscribed on the soul.
Maybe the System treated permanent enhancements as more valuable than temporary abilities. Without formal education about System mechanics, he was working with incomplete information gathered from ruins scavenger gossip.
But the results spoke for themselves. His effective Strength had jumped from 8 to 18. His effective Vitality had gone from 4 to 14!
His Agility, previously his highest attribute at 10, was now his third-highest stat!
'Time to see the full picture,' he thought, pulling up his status window to review the changes.
But before the familiar interface could fully materialize, the air around him began to shimmer with golden light. The status window flickered, then dissolved entirely as massive text appeared in letters that seemed to burn themselves into his vision:
[SYSTEM EVENT INITIATING]
The words pulsed with significance that made his newly enhanced hearing pick up harmonics that shouldn't exist, overtones that suggested vast forces stirring to wakefulness.
Whatever was about to happen, it was big enough to override individual status displays.
And Zeph had the distinct feeling that his quiet night of character optimization was about to become significantly more complicated.