Lord: Sequence Master

Extraordinary Five Senses LV1: Enhances the hunter's basic five senses to an extreme level, improving spiritual perception, allowing the hunter to freely adjust both their own and a single enemy's five senses, and greatly reducing the negative effects targeting the hunter's senses.

Rosen was highly satisfied with his new skill. His efforts in hunting the Shadow Cats had certainly paid off. With his enhanced senses, his sight, hearing, and smell would now be even more effective for detecting and tracking enemies.

Although taste was of little use for now, touch could slightly improve his artistic abilities. What Rosen valued most, however, was the enhanced spiritual perception. This was a precious skill, universally beneficial to all sequences. Normally, only Sequence 6 hunters could enter the spiritual world with their true body, but with this ability, even those at Sequence 7 could do so with ease.

Moreover, the ability to alter an opponent's senses during combat was particularly powerful. He had already proven how effective blinding the Shadow Cats had been in making them vulnerable to his attacks.

Finally, Rosen tested the last aspect of his new skill, realizing he had underestimated its value. The phrase "reduce negative effects targeting the five senses" was more potent than he had imagined. Flashbangs, poison gas grenades, and noise grenades—all these sensory-disrupting tools would now have a much weaker effect on him. This trait allowed Rosen to remain unfazed by sensory overload, an important advantage in battle.

With his inventory sorted, Rosen found that although he hadn't obtained another piece of source-quality equipment, he had collected several skill crystals. However, at this stage of Sequence 9, he didn't intend to learn any new skills just yet. He knew the Sequence 7 Shadow Cat was still enraged, so provoking it further would be unwise.

In the days that followed, Rosen established a disciplined routine. Every morning, when his mind was sharpest, he worked on his paintings in Masadora. Afternoons were spent practicing his Nen abilities and honing his three hunter skills. In the evenings, he dedicated himself to studying various types of extraordinary creatures.

Understanding one's enemies was key to success, especially for a hunter. While it was impossible to memorize every detail about every extraordinary creature, Rosen aimed to grasp the basics and trusted that his extraordinary skills would later help him recall any additional specifics.

As time passed, Rosen's spiritual strength grew steadily, climbing from seven points to over eight.

Spiritual energy was the foundation of any extraordinary sequence, and even the extraordinary essence was a materialized product of spiritual energy combined with a sequence. As Rosen's spiritual energy increased, so did his overall power.

He realized that his growth in spiritual energy affected him in two key ways: spiritual quantity and spiritual intensity. Spiritual energy could be seen as a reservoir, and as it increased, so did his capacity for using spiritual abilities. For instance, increasing his spiritual energy from one to eight points meant an eightfold increase in his capacity.

On the other hand, spiritual intensity—the potency of his abilities—didn't grow as dramatically. Each additional point of spiritual energy only increased his intensity by 1.1 times. With eight points, his intensity was 1.95 times stronger than at one point. Even at the maximum of 12 points, spiritual intensity would only be 2.85 times stronger.

While this might seem like a modest increase, the real power came from combining spiritual strength with extraordinary skills. For example, Death Blow doubled his damage output. So, a hunter with one point of spiritual energy would deal 200% damage, but with 12 points of spiritual energy, that damage would increase to 570%—nearly three times the output.

Stacking multiple skills could magnify this even further, making a fully developed Sequence 9 hunter far more formidable than a newly initiated one. This explained why a maxed-out Sequence 9 could easily overwhelm a less experienced peer.

Rosen knew that advancing from Sequence 9 to Sequence 8 required more than just maxing out spiritual energy and taking a potion. At least one acquired skill needed to reach Level 2, and if all three skills reached that level, the benefits gained from the advancement would be significantly greater.

However, Rosen's spiritual energy was advancing faster than his skill proficiency. He hadn't even begun working on the skills from his Noble Sequence or Painter Sequence. He worried about hitting a bottleneck—having maxed-out spiritual energy but unrefined skills, potentially delaying his progress to Sequence 8.

While Rosen had originally intended to lie low within the Realm of Deathly Forest, recent events had made him anxious.

One afternoon, while practicing his skills, Rosen noticed a sudden stillness in the realm. He immediately realized that the Black Shark Pirates had likely reopened the realm. Abandoning the Needle-Eye Squirrel he had been toying with, Rosen quickly made his way to the shore.

From the shadows, he saw a whirlpool forming several hundred meters from the coastline. Concealing himself with Shadow Step, Rosen observed as the Black Shark Pirates emerged from the vortex.

Surprisingly, they hadn't brought any new passengers to sacrifice this time. Instead, it seemed the Black Shark Pirates themselves had entered the realm. Two possibilities occurred to Rosen: either the constant losses had damaged the Black Shark's reputation, making it impossible to attract new passengers, or the pirates had finally achieved their goal of breeding the Shadow Cats and were now here to claim their rewards.

Rosen soon realized that the pirates weren't alone. Among them were several ordinary people—their hands bound with ropes. Judging by their attire, they appeared to be sailors, likely captured during a recent pirate raid.

This was significant. Only realms under full control could safely accommodate ordinary people. In unstable realms like this one, transporting ordinary individuals required extraordinary means—either temporarily awakening their dormant spiritual energy or transferring their consciousness through dreams.

Whichever method the Black Shark Pirates had used, bringing these captives into the realm wasn't easy. This could only mean one thing: these captives were essential to the pirates' plan.

(End of Chapter)