I stifled a yawn as I lay sprawled across my bed, staring up at the ceiling listlessly, before putting a joint up to my lips and taking a puff, the sour smoke flowing into my mouth and filling my lungs.
I blew the smoke back out in rings, watching them drift away and fade, before sighing as I stared down at my chest...crap, dropped some ash on myself.
Today's the 25th of February, 2169, a few days had passed since my last raid. It was late in the evening right now, I'd just gotten back after getting some training in at the gym.
I didn't have anything to do, so I decided to just relax and get high. After how much stronger I got during that last raid, I'm in no real rush to go on another one, especially with the amount of money I got from the Monster Cores I gathered.
Altogether, I got a little over eighty million Credits, which is super high for a Mid Level raid. It would've been a lot less if it had been a more typical raid, with all the participating Hunters contributing more evenly.
But damn near every Monster Core that Dungeon had to offer went to me since I killed all but a small handful of the Monsters myself...to put it into perspective, eighty million Credits is more or less around the value of what a quarter of a million dollars was worth in my previous era, around the time I died, in the mid-2020s.
After the money was wired to my Credit balance, I began looking at some properties, I'm thinking of buying myself a residence, and after going through several options, I'm leaning towards getting an apartment.
I plan on going for a place with three rooms, there are apartments specially made for Hunters, with reinforced training rooms, they're pretty pricey, but I can afford it.
I've narrowed down several options, and I plan to go check them out over the next few days.
I don't want anything too big or fancy, like a mansion or whatever...it would be pretty cool to own one, but there's no point in having more space than I'd ever need to use, plus it would be a nightmare to clean.
Hey, I clean this place often enough, I just don't tidy it up that much. So long as it's clean, who care if it's a bit messy?
On another note, Charlotte contacted me yesterday and let me know that she might have a way for me to practice using Enrage safely, though she'll need a bit more time to hash out the details and get it sorted out.
When I used Enrage during my fight against the Ogre, that marked the moment when I finally used all thirteen of my Skills.
My Pride Skill, Command, the stronger I become, the more effective it gets, and it's proven useful on several occasions even when it only affects a target for a few seconds or so.
Then, my Greed Skills...first, Treasury, between its storage and the ability to preserve and create copies of most items, I can't understate how damn useful it is.
My second Greed Skill, Appraisal, is plenty useful too, one glance and I know exactly how strong any opponent is.
And then, my most important Skills, the Gluttony pair of Devour and Drain. Without them, I wouldn't be able to keep growing stronger, so I can say with absolutely confidence that they're the most important Skills in my arsenal.
And the stronger I get, the faster those Skills grow, in proportion to my physical growth, so they're slowly but surely becoming increasingly viable options in combat.
Next, there's my Lust Skills. Arouse is pretty useful in battle thanks to the twenty percent boost it gives me, and unlike Enrage, I don't lose control of myself.
Aphrodisia isn't all that effective as a weapon since the effect doesn't last long if resisted, but it's pretty great outside of battle as I discovered a few nights ago, same with Arouse.
My Sloth Skills, Lethargy and Slumber, are pretty useful and effective debuffs, they've come in clutch in a lot of my past battles.
My Wrath Skills, on the other hand, while powerful, are a real pain. Obliterate is kind of a hassle to use with its activation condition, and Enrage is, well...yeah.
And finally, my Envy Skills. Steal was a major reason why I survived the fight against the Greater Demon, and Spite is probably my strongest debuff.
Oh, and of course, there's also Mana Pulse, the one Skill I came up with all on my own, along with the Pulse Bullets I derived from it.
And with my MP so much higher now, I have a lot more flexibility with using my Skills freely, where I had to be more conservative in the past.
After my last conversation in-person with Charlotte, she asked me if I'd be okay with having my Power Level measured.
Since I can see my own Power Level in my stat page, I have no need for external measurement, but since she's stuck to her word about keeping my abilities a secret, I figured there was no harm in letting her take a look. My current stats read:
HP: 378
MP: 405
Strength: 384
Agility: 505
Vitality: 373
Perception: 501
Power Level: 424,300
Potential: 424,300
My stats didn't increase much between before and after my fight against the Ogre...it may have been a stronger Monster, and individually netted me a lot more points than anything else in that Dungeon, but the sheer number of Goblins and Hobgoblins I consumed meant that the weaker Monsters boosted me astronomically higher than the Ogre alone did.
It won't be long before I hit my growth curve with Devour and Drain, my progress is going to slow down once I consume a few more Monsters.
I don't know exactly how much that rate will slow down by, Ai said she won't know until it happens, but she's also pretty certain that it'll be a significant difference.
But it's fine...Devour and Drain have gotten me within sight of the peak of what most Hunters can reach in no time, it's only taken five raids, all Low and Mid Level.
And now, to reach that peak, I'm going to need to work a lot harder. No, not just reach the peak, but to then surpass it...