After the many meals came and empty plates left, the food that unceasingly went into my stomach came to a stop.

I was lying on my back staring at the ceiling as I thought about this peace I could really only achieve after having an amazing meal. Worries of the future faded away. The constant anger cooled down, and it felt like a much needed rest period had come

It didn’t last long as Kazuhiko shattered this peace in an instant by loudly flinging the door open. He had left a couple of minutes back to I don’t even know where, and now he came back as noisy as ever

"We’ve had the food, now we ought to have some fun!"

The hunter loudly barged in while bringing more than ten barely dressed women inside the room. I groaned at this sight as I really just wanted to sleep after eating so much today. How did he even get these women in this war zone so quickly anyways?

I rose up and watched the figures pouring into the room. Well, as much as I wanted to rest, I would be a good guest and follow the lead of the host. 𝒃𝒆𝙙𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝙤𝙢

---

Night passed and dawn came. I had woken up and walked out to a small courtyard that had a brightly shining pond with a few fish. I sat down in the courtyard as I enjoyed this environment of calmness.

Early that morning, I was able to get in contact with the people back in the Blessed Empire. Elizabeth was the point of contact, and for some odd reason I felt guilty when I read the huge text update she had sent.

Much of the beasts had been taken care of back in the Empire, with many of the people quickly adapting to the new function they saw on their attribute panels

Kazuhiko had spent an entire hour on this yesterday questioning me if I had anything to do with this, as the change had occurred the moment the dragon fell. I denied everything for the time being and waited to hear again from the mysterious being that was taking its time

The main takeaway for the new

[Skill Combination]

function was that it was extremely useful for veteran hunters. Your proficiency had to first reach 100 for any of the skills you wanted to combine, and they had to have compatibility.

Very few hunters were able to even match the first requirement, not to mention finding two skills compatible with each other. So even after half a day passed since this new function was founded, they still didn’t have much information on it

I thought about the many skills I had that had already reached 100 proficiency as I wanted to start trying for myself, with the lower ranked skills as the first test

I finished reading the huge bubble of a text, with the major thing I had to take note of being the request of my presence back in the empire to be awarded an influential position and many more things

I didn’t become overly excited at this, as I had undergone way too many things these past few weeks that made me have a different outlook on the world.

Life was extremely fleeting. I had watched many people die, and saved countless more, but I still felt that something was missing. Even the anger I felt towards enemies I have yet to ascertain or the revenge the mysterious being had promised didn’t fill whatever was missing

Since there was nothing pressing occuring in the Empire, with the dungeons being taken care of by the high ranking hunters and things on the path to being stabilized, I would stay and tour the places in the United Federation for a bit

I was waiting for the next time I would be back in that blank room with the hexagonal prism, where I would no doubt be getting many answers.

Before jumping into the new function, I pulled out the golden skill book that the dragon had dropped. It was [

Rage of the Thunder Monarch

- Area of effect skill. Extremely condensed lightning decimates an area of 15 meters]

The skill seemed to be even more destructive power than [Volcanic Eruption] because of its lower effect area, but I would still have to test it to be sure. The book turned into particles of light as it flew to my body and the skill appeared in my panel

I looked through the panel to start assessing possible skills to combine.

To start testing the [Skill Combination] function, I wanted to begin with the rank F skills, but I realized that I only learnt 2 after all this time. I had grown so rapidly that I jumped from F to mostly rank D and C skills

This wouldn’t be an issue though, as I had been running around taking down many rank of bosses this past week and collected many skill books in my storage rings.

Even after I gave away a vast majority to the destroyed cities I visited and to the military regiments I came across, I still had many to play with.

I let out the collections of skill books in my storage rings and learnt many skills of lower ranks for the purpose of testing. I had to learn them now and spend some time using them and having them active for their proficiency to rise to 100 before I could begin combining

Then for now, the focus would be placed on the rank D and C skills I already had many of that were at 100 proficiency. None of the rank A skills had reached 100 so far, so I’ll leave those for now. To start it off, I opened the

[Skill Combination]

function and added two obviously non compatible rank D skills

[Rough Skin + Flames of Torment]

When the two skills were placed on the two slots, there was a red color shining out. The combination was not successful. So red showed bad compatibility that would not work

Next up I tried what I thought to be compatible skills, which was [Safeguard + Rough Skin]

The two slots shined a light green, and the green light expanded as the two skills disappeared, a brand new one appearing on my panel

[Armored Skin]

The skill had a brand new color, in contrast to the skills written in white with the blue background of the panel. It had a purple color, with its rank now upgraded to D+ and its proficiency showing

I activated this new skill in wonder and found that the defense provided by it was more than triple what [Safeguard] and [Rough Skin] provided. It was still a lower ranking skill though, so it didn’t drastically change my defenses

Since combining the two of them changed its rank from D to D+, I wondered if combining two D+ skills would give rise to a brand new rank C skill. I didn’t have all that many rank D skills that had already risen to 100 though, so I would have to wait for the new ones I just learnt to reach there

I was about to continue my testing by moving on to rank C skills when an annoying voice broke the peace established in courtyard

"Noah! Let’s grab some breakfast and then go dungeon diving!"

The guy had become overly friendly over this past day had come out early morning with energy that I could in no way match.

It seemed that his excitement stemmed from the fact that he was able to combine two of his rank A skills and produce a powerful rank A+ skill.

Veteran hunters like him who had been dungeon diving for the past months had collected a multitude of skills that fit their class, so they had many options of compatible skills that had reached the required proficiency for combination

Well, when I start combining my own, I should have even more to work with. And I was currently the only hunter holding the most powerful rank S skills.

Kazuhiko had been able to combine two of his skills called [Blade Dance] and [Dominator’s Sword Wave] to bring the result of

[Dominator’s Dance of Death]

I was curious about this rank A+ skill and wanted to test my newly gained skills too, so a dungeon would be perfect right now.

Food came first as I was treated to brand new dishes once again today, with us heading out an hour later.