Chapter 372: Level 2.

[

Name: Dante

Species: Human

Threat Level: 2

Baseline Retention: Advanced (75%)

Stats:

Strength: 7

Durability: 27

Agility: 18

Dexterity: 20

Computing Power: 28

Energy: 0

Implants:

Neural Interface Module (C)

Optic Augmentation Module (C)

Diamond Fist (D)

Kinetic Absorption Protective Sub-Layer Generation 15 (C)

RespiraCore Series V (D)

NephroCore Series X (D)

Overmind Cortical Interface Module (B)

Overmind Neural Response Enhancer (B)

]

Dante came to his senses when the screen suddenly popped in front of him. The fog clouding his mind disappeared, and everything suddenly came into focus, as if he had snapped back to attention after spacing out for who knows how long. Once he got a look at his surroundings, that weird state of mind started to make sense.

“Not again…”

Front, back. Left, right. Every direction he looked, the only thing he saw was an endless field of white. He recognized the place despite the lack of any landmarks, which led him to the realization that he was once again wandering the dreamworld.

“I mean, it’s still better than…”

Dante rarely dreams when he sleeps, but when he does, it’s always one of two things—the incident that took his family, or the monster in human form murdering his old crew. The last four years have provided him with ample nightmare fuel, but for some reason, only those two events keep replaying in his mind.

The months he spent on the streets, the people he killed to earn his keep, his time with the Blood Hounds, his early days as a solo merc, none of it left a scar as deep as those two. Though it didn’t make sense at first, when he thought about the one thing those two incidents had in common, he quickly changed his mind.

The snowy fields were a nice change, but even after walking through them several times, he had yet to figure out why his mind decided to conjure them. He theorized that its source was the cold in the operating room of the Workshop, seeing as he dreamed of the snow only when Larry was operating on him. Nevertheless, he found himself unable to accept that reasoning.

“I guess the operation is done…”

Turning his attention back to the screen projected in front of him, Dante looked at the very bottom where the names of his new implant were displayed. Seeing the B beside them brought back the disappointment he felt when Volcan informed him of their grade.

The prototypes that looked like it was going to be Overmind’s best turned out to be a B grade, only one grade higher than the upgraded NIM he already had. Going by the grading system his resident AI created, the MLP and SRE were average. The upgrade would push them to an A grade, but he would have much preferred it if they ended up as an S.

“Guess I have to wait for Suzuka…”

He had ordered something with the same quality as the blue arm she had shown him, so he was hoping to get an S-grade implant soon. Still in a bad mood, he looked up and checked his stats. A moment later, his eyes almost popped off.

“… huh?”

Level 2. He was already a Level 2. Not only that, but his Basic Retention has dropped to 75%. Stunned, Dante looked down at his stats and realized that, with the exception of strength, all of his other attributes received a significant boost. His Agility tripled, his Computing Power quadrupled, and his dexterity quintupled.

The numbers were insane, to say the least. Counting durability, one could say he had the physical capabilities of five people at the very least. That said, his Strength had barely increased, mainly because he had yet to get an implant that affected that aspect.

“Strength, huh?”

In his mind, Dante associated strength with the ability to deal damage. Volcan’s Type 4 was entirely based on physical strength, which was the most basic of the nine Types, and the simplest to understand. Though he rarely used its armor, he had an inkling that they suited him best, especially if combined with the martial arts he practiced.

Unfortunately, Type 4 armors were probably the least compatible with Basic humans. The lower levels come with no protections at all, which results in a different kind of stress applied to the user with each move, adding to the normal strain applied by the armor itself.

Fighting while wearing one of them was like constantly trying to guess which bone was going to snap first. Dante doubted that he would be able to make full use of Type 4, at least not with the body he currently has.

“I guess this is another step…”

Sighing, Dante dismissed the screen and looked at his surroundings once more. He recalled that the last time he was in the snowy lands, something indiscernible appeared on the horizon. It was nowhere to be seen at the moment, which made him wonder if he had walked in a different direction, moving away from it. Then again, he had no proof that the dreams were connected, or if they picked up exactly where the last one stopped.

With no idea where he should go, Dante decided to just walk. It wouldn’t be long before the upgrade began, meaning he would soon lose lucidity and wake up as if not much time had passed.

“I wonder how long it’ll take this time…” Thinking that, as he stared at the horizon to his left, Dante shifted his gaze forward and took a step. Before he could hear the crunch of snow under his feet, raging winds suddenly howled in his ears, and a white curtain was drawn in front of him, blocking his field of sight.

“OH C’MON!!!”

The sky had been clear an instant ago, yet a storm suddenly fell on his head. Expecting dreams to adhere to logic was utterly foolish, but the abrupt change was nevertheless annoying. It wasn’t that cold despite being at the center of a storm. The only problem was the nonexistent visibility, which still bothered him despite knowing that nothing but an endless field of snow awaited him in every direction.

“God fucking damn it!”

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