The Talent Collector
Black crouched down by the woman's corpse, his palm hovering for a beat before he pressed it to her cooling skin.
Om~!
A soft flash of white light pulsed beneath his hand.
[Soul Leech successful! Acquired E-rank Talent – Speed Enhancement!]
[Speed Enhancement: Agility-based talent. Doubles your movement speed!]
His breath caught.
Another talent. A good one.
Speed Enhancement wasn't just a boost—it was agility sharpened into a weapon. With this, his agility stat jumped to the equivalent of 22 points—twice the speed of an average adult.
His combat effectiveness surged again, unmistakably.
Without wasting time, Black moved to the fat man's body next. Judging by the stained chef's uniform and stocky frame, he must've been a cook before the world turned.
Black placed his hand on the man's chest.
Om~!
[Soul Leech successful! Acquired F-rank Talent – Enhanced Smell!]
[Enhanced Smell: Heightens olfactory senses tenfold!]
An F-rank. One of the lowest-ranked sensory enhancements. But when the notification popped up, Black's face lit up.
Because for him, this talent was gold.
This grassland was massive—wide open and empty. Corpses could be anywhere. With his nose now dialed up tenfold, he could sniff out the faintest scent of blood and track down bodies with ease.
It wasn't just about hunting corpses. A sharpened nose meant he could pick up the musky stench of predators long before they got close. He could avoid danger, anticipate movement, live longer.
Yeah. This one mattered.
Once he was done scavenging, he turned to cleaning the field.
He recovered the steel blade he'd dropped during the earlier fight. Then picked up the two crude starter knives—belonging to the fallen—and wrapped them up in the fat man's tattered chef uniform. He slung them over his shoulder like a bundle of firewood.
Everything was a resource now. Knives, clothes, bones—he could barter them later.
Only when that was done did he finally check his stats again. His lips tugged into a small, satisfied grin.
In under an hour, both his strength and agility were on par with a full-grown man. And not just that—he'd racked up three talents on top of his SSS-rank Soul Leech.
Officially, the system had him at one-star combat strength. But Black knew better. With those extra talents stacked beneath the surface, his real power pushed into the two-star range—maybe even brushing its limit.
Because the combat power rating only factored in four core stats.
Not talents.
And talents? They changed everything. They were volatile, situational—hard to measure with fixed numbers. That's why the Celestial Will didn't include them in the evaluation.
So sure, their star rating might work for ranking beasts. But humans?
Especially someone like Black, layered in multiple innate powers?
The system couldn't see the full picture.
He closed the stat window.
Then froze.
Something—no, someone—was approaching.
He sniffed, and his eyes narrowed. Blood. A faint trail carried on the breeze, drifting in from the north.
Whatever it was, it was heading straight this way.
An injured beast? That was his first guess. But just then, voices echoed through the brush. Footsteps too—shuffling, uneven.
"Damn it! What rotten luck. We ran into two giant rodents back-to-back."
"We lost one of our guys—just like that."
"Yeah... everyone's hurt. And Lily and Zack... they didn't make it."
"Good thing Harry kept his head. He had us pull back while luring the rat toward the pit."
"Don't jinx it. The other rodent was barely alive when we left. What if it slipped away?"
"We better get back there fast. No way we let someone else claim it!"
"Move!"
The voices grew louder. Closer.
Black's blood ran cold.
They hadn't missed the wounded giant rat. They were coming this way—five of them, by the sound of it.
So the group had originally been seven. Two were dead. Five injured but alive—and clearly pissed off. They'd managed to kite one of the giant rodents into a trap and take it down. But the other had gotten away, limping.
And now they were here to finish the job.
Which meant if they saw him standing over the corpse...
Nope. Not worth it.
Black dropped low and slid into the thick grass. Every movement precise, quiet, practiced. He didn't need this fight.
Didn't want it either.
Besides, he'd already cleaned the battlefield. Took what he needed.
And with Speed Enhancement and his heightened sense of smell?
He vanished into the landscape like mist.
Moments later, angry shouts echoed behind him.
"Who the hell took our kill?!"
"Bastard! Fucking thief!"
Black didn't even look back.
Let them rage. Let them scream. This world didn't reward good men—it buried them.
Out here, if you weren't stealing, you were starving.
Get strong or die. That was the law now.
He kept walking.
Fifteen minutes later, his nose picked up another fresh scent—sharp, coppery. A blood-toothed rabbit. Dead not long ago.
He crouched beside it and activated Soul Leech. Two more points added to his strength stat.
Not bad.
He kept moving. Kept hunting.
In the wide expanse of the novice plains, over 200 teams were out there right now, desperately fighting level 1 beasts.
Black?
He didn't fight at all. He just followed the scent of blood. Harvested corpses. Stole growth.
It was slow. It was sneaky. But it worked.
Three hours slipped by like water.
By then, he'd found over a dozen beasts: blood-toothed rabbits, giant rodents, Ashfang wolves, wild boars, even a venomous Ninefold Viper.
And with that came a realization.
Every beast could only be leeched three times total. First, second, and third extractions all gave 2 stat points each. But after that? Nothing.
Empty corpses.
Blood-toothed rabbits, rodents, wolves, boars—they were all tapped dry now. No use searching for them anymore. Only the Ninefold Viper was still on the list—he'd only found one of those.
Oh—and humans.
Seven more had died during his search. He only reached one in time. From that cold, still body, he drew an F-rank talent: Enhanced Vision.
Not bad, either.
Later, tucked inside a bush, hidden from the open sky, he opened his personal panel.
[Name]: Black
[Level]: 1 (30/100 EXP)
[Strength]: 20
[Agility]: 21
[Endurance]: 18
[Energy]: 30
[Talents]:
• Soul Leech (SSS Rank)
• Titan Might (D Rank)
• Speed Enhancement (E Rank)
• Enhanced Smell (F Rank)
• Enhanced Vision (F Rank)
[Skills]: None
[Combat Power Evaluation]: 2 Stars
Black exhaled slowly, eyes scanning the numbers.
"Two stars... finally."
He leaned back against the tree, a crooked smile on his lips.
That was the official rating. But with everything he had layered under the hood—those talents stacked and compounding—he could probably stand toe-to-toe with a three-star fighter. Maybe even push into four.
He wasn't weak anymore.
He could feel it in his bones now.
If a level 1 beast came at him right now?
He'd rip it apart.