Players had been so shocked by Henry Stone’s betrayal that they flooded the community forums for days when they reached that part of the story.
-DO NOT bring hank to the anima event. worst mistake of my life.
-Yo wtf
-I’m getting one-shot now (crying emoji)
-okay but why is his monster form kinda hot tho?
-Wait, does Henry keep the gear I gave him if he turns??
-what the hell, devs? what did you do to our boy?
-There has to be a way to turn him back right
There wasn’t. Once a human struck a deal with a Seraph, there was no backing out.
Shane stared down at Henry, which the [Behavior Lock] interpreted into a heavy, unbothered weight of a predator looking at a rat.
The only movement he showed was a very slow, deliberate tilt of the chin. The Lock twisted his actions to scream “arrogance,” but it was just him trying not to freeze up entirely.
Shane currently had no way to defend himself, neither with strength nor words.
In reality, he was only an F-rank, and he couldn’t reveal his actual skillset to counter the subtle accusation because of the Lock. Though the hunters here were average C-ranks, they would be more than enough to tackle him if they ever had the courage or reason to try.
He felt a lurch in his stomach as a cold flush of adrenaline shot from his gut to his fingertips.
Ruining the run right before he was about to get his hands on the reward?
He’d lose his mind.
A flash of bitter amusement crossed his thoughts.
Of course the guy destined to betray humanity was the only one to suspect Shane might be a monster in disguise. It pissed him off that the villain had the moral high ground for some reason right now.
Even if the group was pretending not to notice, the probability that Shane was an anomaly was far higher than a dungeon trap malfunctioning. He could see the gears in their tiny brains starting to click.
The atmosphere grew awkward and heavy. And there was only one logical course of action.
He didn’t say anything.
Silence was a weapon in a psychological standoff. It forced the opponent to fill the void, and usually, the person who spoke first lost.
But he wasn’t worried about Henry Stone.
Since Shane knew when the betrayal would happen, he could just use the guy until then.
He was more concerned about Josh Miller.
Despite his unassuming appearance, his connections with other high rankers and guilds ran deep. And even if he himself was only a C-rank Appraiser, his nephew was an S-rank.
If he spoke the wrong words to the wrong people, Shane would have major factions breathing down his neck.
The last thing he needed was for [Honor Mode] to get any harder than it already was.
Josh’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re reading too much into it, Hunter Stone. That was most definitely a reaction from a purification item. Hunter... Shane here probably had one on him when he stepped on the circle.”
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Shane raised an eybrow.
Interesting.
Since Josh was a skilled Appraiser, he might’ve interpreted the [Curse Immunity] for a disposable charm burning out.
Or, perhaps, greed was clouding the eyes of the genius recruiter. From Shane’s experience, even the brightest minds were easily swayed by emotion.
And this time, Josh’s desire to secure a hidden S-rank would be Shane’s best defense.
His body tried to sag with relief, but the [Behavior Lock] caught the movement instantly. Instead of slumping, it translated the drop into a shrug.
A casual, imperceptible roll of the shoulder that suggested, “Finally, someone with a brain speaks.”
“Oh. I see.”
Henry deflated slightly. Did he look... disappointed?
He must’ve realized that he’d been outranked. Even if he was right about the mechanics of a curse circle, Josh was leagues above him in social status.
Shane felt the tension leave from the rest of the group, too.
No doubt they were all desperate for an excuse to stop being scared, and Josh gave them permission to do just that.
After all, people saw what they wanted to see.
But Shane was still a little confused as to why Henry tried to call him out like that. If he was going to move over to the monster’s side one day, shouldn’t he have been more careful as to not anger a potential, future “ally”?
He had only started playing the game because his friend roped him into it so he never bothered to dig into the backstories of the characters.
B-rank was already rare enough to be considered the top 1% of hunters, but maybe his skills were all C-rank or lower?
Shane couldn’t remember. It was no surprise, since he’d never bothered to look up Henry’s abilities from before he became a villain.
As if the System read his mind, a status window popped into view.
[Name: Henry Stone]
Rank: B (S)
Title: None
Class: Guardian
[Skills]
Sacred Guard: B- (A)
Blessed Shield: A- (S)
Holy Bind: A (S+)
Divine Hammer: B (A+)
…
[Quirk]
Guilt: S+
[Trait]
Indomitable Will
Shane’s eyebrows twitched. What?
Henry was on a whole other level from an average B-ranker.
The guy had the potential to make it into the top 100 rookies, even. The System had two rankings for hunters: one for those who had awakened in the last five years, and another for all Awakened in the country.
Cracking that list basically guaranteed you’ll have a path paved with gold laid in front of you.
And his potential ranks, shown in the parentheses, were even higher.
But that one Quirk seemed to be holding him back.
[Quirk]
Guilt: S+
Guilt? It was a baggage extreme enough to be classified as a Quirk. If only Shane knew the story behind it…
A new pop-up appeared.
[Quirk: Guilt (S+)]
“I don’t deserve to be alive.”
Effect: All stats and skills are lowered by at least one rank.
For a microsecond, his eyes widened.
Shane was struggling with F-rank stats, fighting for every scrap of power, while this NPC was sitting on S-rank potential and suppressing it with feelings?
What a waste.
Still, being able to see NPCs’ full status was going to be handy.
He could probably make a living just doing appraisals if this were the real world, since most [Appraisal] skills only worked on non-humans and even if it did, only showed very limited information.
Shane turned his attention back to the treasure chest in front of him.
The higher the rank of the dungeon, the more fancy and sturdy the chests got. In most hunters’ eyes, this one had to be hiding something incredible.
Its lid was banded with strips of metal that seemed less like decoration and more like an attempt to cage whatever power might have been caged inside. Even the lock had a keyhole shaped into a face with a mouth, seeming ready to bite any hand that tried to force it open.
Pretty standard, in his opinion.
Taking the opportunity, Shane checked his own status window.
Before climbing the mountain, he had done a little experiment to check all the ranks of his remaining skills.
[Blink] started at C+ and [Absorb Wound] at a disappointing D. He had no idea why the starting levels were different, but maybe there was some kind of logic to it.
At its current level, the transfer of damage was imperfect, meaning any injury he absorbed could worsen in the process.
A small papercut he took from a child running past had translated into a bleeding gash on him. Good thing his regeneration was more than enough to fix it by the time he found the event dungeon.
This made the skill useless for anything more than the tiniest cuts. He need to put two or three more points into it before it was truly useful.
[Curse Immunity], on the other hand, had shown him new possibilities.
As a C-minus rank passive, it didn’t consume a lot of mana, making it very efficient. And Celestial class monsters grew more common as the game progressed. This ability was going to be a lifesaver for sure.
A notification blinked at the corner of his vision.
Was the treasure chest finally ready? Could he log out now?
[Achievement Unlocked – Save Five People]
Don’t count your humans before they’re safe.
Reward: Upgrade Roulette x2 spin
