At the Cunning Vampire Garrison.

"Ice Field. Multiple Thin Ice!"

Pasasasasak!

Since I had nothing to do other than hunting right now, I immersed myself in hunting the cunning vampires day after day.

Over 100 vampires fell to my attacks of Ice Storm and Pouring Hail reinforced by Ice Field.

At the same time, a message rang.

Was it the message announcing that I had become the predator again?

Fortunately, it wasn't the message.

[You have leveled up.]

Of course, there was another message.

[You have acquired 3 skill points by achieving level 1000.

-You can now learn level 8 skills.]

"Wow!"

Obviously, it wasn't the level 1200 that I was aiming for, but I had no choice but to be happy at the fact that my level had finally reached four digits.

I thought it was good that I visited India.

Although I stayed there for only one week, I obtained a huge EXP since I spent all my time hunting with the help of eight or even twelve herding teams in the Siddarth Guild's level 1200 hunting ground when I was not fighting against the Chinese Hwashin Guild.

Of course, I also acquired an increase in Agility of 1,000 and various other things.

"Check status window."

Anyway, I immediately opened the status window with joy.

[Name: Lumen, Asirante

Level: 1000

Number of kills: 11492, Number of deaths: 0

Title: Only Closed Beta Max Level Achiever and 8 others.

Health: 3,974,000 / 3,974,000

Mana: 2,683,000 / 2,683,000

Strength: 6528 Agility: 6675 Stamina: 27455

Willpower: 17965 Intellect: 33597

Remaining Stat Points: 450

Remaining Skill Points: 3

Traits: IceMan, Mutual Growth, God of Enhancement.]

Perhaps because of my fierce battle with the Hwashin Guild, my number of kills exceeded 10,000. In addition, my agility was now ahead of my strength.

Anyway, after checking the status window, I invested all remaining 450 stat points in intellect.

Then I closed the status window and charged back at the vampires using Blink with zero cooldown, for although I already thought about what to use the 3 skill points on, I had no need to rush and learn them because my current skills were sufficient for this Cunning Vampire Garrison.

So, after hunting again for a while, another message rang.

[The Cunning Vampires have recognized Lumen, Asirante, as a predator.

-The Cunning Vampire do not preemptively attack Lumen, Asirante.]

[Over time, your status as a predator will gradually dissipate and eventually disappear.

-When you hunt other monsters, your predator status will diminish faster.]

Shuuuuuuuung. Shuuuuuuuuuung. Shuuuuuuuuuung. Shuuuuuuuuuung.

As soon as the message rang, all the vampires around me fled using teleport, making me feel very bitter. But this wasn't the first or second time such a thing happened, so I wasn't surprised or angry. Besides, I also felt that it was time that the message about the predator status rang.

At that moment my sister messaged me.

[Super Beauty: Are you there, Juyoung?]

[Lumen: Yeah, I'm here.]

[Super Beauty: Then, can you come to Dad's office?]

[Lumen: Now?]

[Super Beauty: Yeah.]

I checked the time after hearing her request. It was a little past 10 pm at night.

However, calling me at this late hour meant that something unusual was going on, so I replied that I would come immediately.

[Lumen: I'll be there in 5 minutes.]

[Super Beauty: Okay.]

Although I could not finish hunting, I still had 3 skill points, and I had no need to delay using them, so I messaged her I would be there in 5 minutes.

Then I went straight to Kotum Castle, and a message rang when I reached the huge tower in the central square.

[Currently, there are new skills that you can acquire.]

[Currently, there are ice-type skills available that you can upgrade.]

"Search skills!"

I agonized over whether to acquire a new skill or upgrade a skill to level 8.

In particular, I wanted to upgrade the Level 6 Pouring Hail, Level 6 Ice Wave, and Level 7 Ice Storm to level 8, the final level.

However, I decided not to touch them for the time being because of my reality actualization rate.

Naturally, I needed a higher reality actualization rate to use higher level skills.

In other words, if level 6 Pouring Hail requires a 40% reality actualization rate, upgrading it to level 8 might require me to raise my reality actualization rate as high as 60% to use it.

That's why I have not yet upgraded level 5 Ice Rain that is currently consuming 3 skill points.

Anyway, I decided not to upgrade the skills until my reality actualization rate exceeded at least 50-60%, so I started searching for skills. And I found the two skills I had in mind.

[Level 8 Ice Tornado. (Active, 3 skill points required, 45,000,000 golden rings required.

: Creates an ice tornado in a certain area.

: When the user's intellect exceeds a certain value, the Ice Tornado is accompanied by a wind that buffets everything in the surrounding. (The wind strength is affected by the user's intellect level.)

: Only level 8 Ice Tornado exists.]

[Level 8 'Ice Punishment'. (Active, 3 skill points required, 55,000,000 golden rings required.

: Inflicts powerful ice punishment on one target.

: Only level 8 and level 9 Ice Punishment exist.]

In fact, level 8 was the final level.

Of course, the message said level 9 Blizzard and Ice Punishment exist, but there was no one who possessed them except for those who had functional skill accessories to raise the skill level.

In particular, considering that you could acquire higher level skills at level 600, level 800, and level 1,000, it should be possible to acquire level 9 skills at level 1200. But no such message about acquiring level 9 skills rang at level 1200.

My sister who achieved level 1200 by herself confirmed it.

Then, level 1300?

Since I knew no one who had reached level 1300, I didn't know exactly, but there were rumors that somebody had reached a whopping level 1500. Of course, there was a possibility that it was false.

Anyway, my skills reached the final level.

'Hmm. If Blizzard was level 7, then Ice Tornado would be the ultimate AOE skill, but my Blizzard is currently level 9... Besides, I don't have to assign level 8 Ice Tornado to the functional skill ring.'

Assuming that level 8 was the last realistic level for skills, "Ice Tornado" and "Ice Punishment" should be viewed as the ultimate AOE and single target skills respectively.

But I already had level 9 Blizzard, which was virtually the true ultimate AOE skill.

Therefore, I had to worry about it.

In particular, when I looked at my current distribution of single target skills and AOE skills, I certainly had far more AOE skills. My highest level single-target skill was Ice Sphere which was level 6. My other single-target skills like Ice Ball, Ice Bolt, and Multiple Ice Arrow were only level 5. But all my AOE skills ranging from Ice Field, Thing Ice, Ice Rain, Pouring Hail, Ice Wave, Ice Storm were level 5, 6 or 7 and my cherished Blizzard reached even level 9.

So, if I had to choose another skill, it had to be a single-target skill to balance out my skill set, and there was no better single-target skill than Ice Punishment

'Hmm...'