Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen felt the transformation of his spiritual energy as it settled into his heart, immediately sensing the changes to the Hunter source, now in the form of a black card.

His Nen ability had leveled up from LV1 to LV2.

Nen Ability LV2: "Able to manipulate one's own life force (Qi), combining it with spiritual energy to generate and control Nen."

Special Trait: "Bestows darkness and nightmare attributes to Nen."

Rosen tested it briefly, and the new special traits from his upgraded Nen ability were impressive. While Nen could naturally acquire attributes like fire or ice through training, adding multiple attributes simultaneously made controlling Nen progressively more difficult.

However, with this transformation, Rosen's Nen automatically acquired two innate attributes—darkness and nightmare—without any additional training.

With a thought, Rosen activated Shadow Step. Now at LV2, this skill saw significant improvements in his stealth abilities, as well as a reduction in its energy consumption. Even the previous limit of two teleports had been lifted—he could now perform multiple teleports in shadows, limited only by his Nen reserves.

Satisfied with the changes to his Nen, Rosen turned his attention to the new innate ability he'd gained upon advancing to Sequence 8 as a Pet Hunter.

Nightmare Shackles LV2: "Able to convert spiritual energy into Nightmare Shackles."

Special Trait: "Nightmare Shackles possess sealing properties."

It took Rosen some time to fully understand this ability. Essentially, the Nightmare Shackles functioned like a special leash for pets. When used to link him and his Nightmare Slime, the shackles allowed them to share not only skills, but also life force and spiritual energy—exactly what he had been hoping for.

Humans were not naturally known for their physical prowess, but Rosen's Nen ability relied heavily on the augmentation provided by life force.

While life force didn't affect the quality of Nen, it significantly increased its quantity. By sharing the Nightmare Slime's vast life force through the Nightmare Shackles, Rosen could potentially amplify his own Nen reserves more than tenfold. Once the Nightmare Slime advanced to Sequence 8, Rosen's Nen output would skyrocket, drastically enhancing the damage output of his Godslayer Crossbow.

The basic function of the Nightmare Shackles was straightforward, but the special trait took longer for Rosen to grasp. When the shackle was attached to someone else's pet, it had two unique effects: the first was to force the target into sleep, making them experience nightmares; the second was to seal the target's supernatural powers.

For the first time, Rosen had acquired a method to capture living supernatural creatures.

The innate ability certainly did not disappoint. It scaled with Sequence level and was a perfect match for him.

Next, Rosen summoned his Godslayer Crossbow, his self-developed Nen ability. When he had first created it at Sequence 9, he had been inexperienced and had set his expectations too high, leading to an underwhelming result. However, now that his Nen ability had reached LV2 and with the ability to share the Nightmare Slime's vast Nen reserves, he could finally tap into the true potential of the Godslayer Crossbow.

Initially, Rosen had thought the crossbow's ability to track enemies was its greatest feature. After all, the idea of bullets that could curve, like in movies, had thrilled him.

But as he gained a deeper understanding of the Hunter sequence, he realized that tracking bullets were redundant. If a direct shot missed an enemy, why would a slower, curving bullet hit its target?

A true hunter relied on overwhelming power and precision for instant kills. If they couldn't land the kill, they would retreat and wait for another opportunity.

In essence, hunters shared some similarities with assassins. While assassins excelled at close-quarters combat and sudden bursts of power, hunters specialized in long-range strikes that eliminated targets before they could react.

A powerful hunter would never engage in close combat, ensuring no one could approach their safety zone.

Rosen gazed at his Godslayer Crossbow, thinking for a long time before finally deciding how to rework this Nen ability.

First, he would give the weapon a morphing ability, with two forms: a sniper mode for long-range attacks and a crossbow mode for close-range combat. The sniper mode would extend the barrel, adding a silencer, maximizing its range and damage output.

From now on, the sniper form would be used for long-range kills, while the crossbow form would be for mid-range or close combat.

While modifying the weapon's shape was simple, enhancing its abilities was far more complex.

Rosen began by removing the auto-targeting feature and then focusing on increasing bullet caliber, improving stealth properties, and enhancing the compression of Nen in each shot. This alone wasn't enough, so he decided to implement a Restriction and Vow on the crossbow.

A Restriction and Vow was a special method in Nen abilities where users placed a limitation on their powers in exchange for a greater strength. The harsher the restriction, the greater the boost in power.

However, violating one's own restrictions came with severe consequences—ranging from losing the ability altogether to even death.

Such restrictions couldn't be chosen lightly, as they had to be something the user was actually capable of fulfilling.

Rosen quickly decided on three restrictions to impose on himself for this ability.

The Godslayer Crossbow could only fire nine bullets per day.

If the bullet missed its target, he would suffer the same amount of damage that would have been inflicted.

If the bullet successfully killed the enemy, his own Nen reserves would immediately drop by 99%.

These three restrictions were brutal.

He would only have nine shots per day, meaning he could only kill a maximum of nine scattered targets. If he missed, he would take the same damage intended for his enemy. However, Rosen imposed this rule knowing that he could transfer the damage he would have received to his Nightmare Slime using the Nightmare Shackles, thus bypassing much of the penalty.

Lastly, the rule about losing 99% of his Nen after a kill had a similar loophole. While his own Nen would be drastically reduced, he could still tap into the Nightmare Slime's vast Nen reserves, ensuring he wouldn't be left defenseless.

These harsh restrictions provided significant strength to his crossbow. Now, each bullet would have 30% increased base damage.

At first glance, this was less than the 100% boost provided by Death Strike, but this 30% was added to the base damage, meaning any additional boosts—like Death Strike—would also be multiplied. Effectively, this could double his overall damage output.

The gun's form modification was complete. Now, Rosen turned his attention to the crossbow form.

The gun was for long-range precision, while the crossbow would excel in rapid-fire, ensuring he could keep up with close-quarters combat.

He improved the firing speed of the crossbow and simplified the production of arrows.

Finally, Rosen turned to enhancing the Hunter's Eye, the true core of the Godslayer Crossbow. Now that his Nen ability had reached LV2, he could finally grant the Hunter's Eye some of the advanced vision techniques he had desired for so long.

In the beginning, Rosen had considered replicating the Sharingan from popular fiction.

Its greatest value lay in its ability to accelerate learning, effectively providing an auto-learning cheat.

Rosen knew he wasn't a natural genius—even with his advantages, he needed outside help.

The Sharingan's ability to observe and copy could give him a crucial edge, allowing him to steal techniques from other supernatural sequences.

Right now, at Sequence 8, he could still learn from Hunter Guild mentors, but what about when he reached Sequence 6 or even Sequence 3? At that point, who would be there to teach him?

He would need to rely on self-study, a daunting task without a natural affinity for learning.

However, as his journey progressed, Rosen had discovered a better option. What he had once coveted in the Sharingan was now second-rate compared to what he could achieve with his current powers.

End of Chapter