Chapter 14: SSS-Rank Divine Attribute

The quiet inside remained unbroken. The mint flavor from the mineral root slowly faded, leaving a clean coolness in Dante’s throat that pushed back the dry iron dust. Beside him, Yenna kept her chin resting on her knees, her black tail twitching occasionally against the grey floor.

"My valley had three rivers," Yenna said, her voice soft as she stared at the dark mineral ground. "The water was always cold because it came from the mountain peaks. When the system text first appeared in the sky, we thought it was a message from the spirits. We did not know it was an extraction network designed to turn our home into resource levels."

She shifted her gaze to her own fingers, where the smoky dark energy of her mutant class pulsed faintly. "The Radiant Dawn squad told me that non-humans did not have the soul capacity to hold S-Rank attributes. They said my people were born to be porters. For two years, I believed them. I thought my ears and my tail were a mistake made by the system."

Dante did not close his eyes this time. He looked at the jagged mineral pillars across the passage. "The guilds tell you whatever keeps your labor cheap. Marcus used to tell the F-Rank recruits that their work was the foundation of human survival. Then he would cut their potion rations by half to increase the corporate dividend."

He pulled his hands from his hoodie pockets, resting them flat against the grey mineral ledge. "The system does not care about capacity. It only cares about input and output. If you feed it the right variable, it mutates the code regardless of who you are."

As the conversation drifted back into a comfortable stillness, the digital interface inside Dante’s vision hit the midnight marker once again.

12:00 AM.

Ding!

[System Notification: Midnight reached. You receive 1x Free Daily Spin.]

[The Gachapon wheel is initializing its movement...]

The neon wheel spun within his mind, slowing down until the pointer settled onto a low-tier blue slot.

[Spin Complete!]

[You got: ’Minor Telepathy’ (D-Rank Common Utility Technique).]

- Description: Allows the host to transmit short voice phrases to one designated ally within a 10-meter radius. Cost: 5 mana per minute.

A small, transparent crystal bead appeared in the air, dropping into Dante’s palm before dissolving into his skin. It was a standard communication tool used by scout parties to avoid shouting in dark dungeons.

A second later, the golden text of his second system slammed over his vision, deleting the basic parameters.

[System 2: 100x Sovereign Multiplier Triggered!]

[’Minor Telepathy’ (D-Rank) ---> Multiplied by 100x!]

[Calculating Ultimate Transformation... Complete!]

[You got SSS-Rank Divine Attribute: ’Sovereign’s Mental Domain’ (Bound).]

- Description: Your mind is an absolute, unbreachable fortress.

- Effect 1: Total immunity to all mental attacks, illusions, charm effects, and memory alterations.

- Effect 2: ’Shared Mind Matrix’ - Allows the host to establish a permanent, zero-cost mental link with bound subordinates. Subordinates within the matrix receive the host’s total immunity to mental stress and fear.

Dante felt a clarity ripple through his brain. The ambient hum of the tower machinery, which had been a constant background vibration in his ears, was instantly silenced. His mind felt completely solid, like an armored vault.

He turned his head toward Yenna. He did not open his mouth, but his voice echoed directly inside her head, clear and calm.

’Can you hear me?’

Yenna’s black cat ears shot straight up. She looked at Dante, her amber eyes wide with surprise. "Zero? Your voice... it’s inside my thoughts. But I don’t feel any mana activation from you."

’It is a permanent link,’ Dante transmitted mentally, his tone steady. ’As long as you are under my contract, no entity in this tower can manipulate your mind or read your thoughts. The fear you feel from the vanguard ahead—look at it now.’

Yenna paused. She turned her attention inward, looking at the natural anxiety that had been tightening her chest since they arrived at the twentieth-floor gate.

To her amazement, the fear was entirely gone. A crushing sense of stability had anchored itself inside her mind, flowing directly from Dante’s soul signature through the link. The dark purple grid lines of her Fate Wire Mapping became three times sharper in her vision, the shifting text data organizing itself without causing her any brain strain.

She let out a long, slow breath, her tail relaxing completely. For the first time in five years, the heavy, suffocating pressure of the tower felt light.

"It’s completely quiet," Yenna whispered, a small, genuine smile appearing on her face for a split second before she masked it. "The system noise... it stopped buzzing in my ears."

"That is what absolute protection feels like," Dante said aloud, standing up from the mineral ledge. He adjusted his black hoodie, his boots returning to their weightless, silent state. "The rest period is over. Their focus has completely fractured by now."

Yenna stood up right beside him, her claws extending smoothly, dripping with the dark, silent smoke of her assassin class. Her amber eyes no longer held a single trace of doubt. She didn’t look at the massive stone gate ahead with terror anymore; she looked at it like a minor obstacle on a straight path.

"The vanguard’s fire arrays are leaking heavy energy," Yenna reported mentally, her transmission cutting through the link with absolute clarity. "Captain Vance has shifted his front line three times. Their stance is completely broken."

Dante walked up to the gate, his right middle finger humming with the faint purple spark of his hellfire genesis ring.

"Let’s go collect the debt," Dante said.

He shoved his left hand into his pocket, raised his right palm, and pushed the gate wide open.

Dante has shared his new SSS-Rank mental link with Yenna, removing her fear and making her his ultimate, clear-headed assassin support as they step through the gate.