Chapter 372:Increase.

Chapter 372: 372:Increase.

[Tier Three Beast Core Absorption Completed.]

He rested several minutes before continuing.

The road remained quiet, giving Silver time to think. He wondered whether Ravenna had managed to contact his cousin.

She’d said she had which was good, but it also meant Shawn knew Silver was missing.

He grimaced.

"He’s going to lecture me."

Shawn had always been better at making a lecture sound reasonable, which somehow made it worse.

He could already imagine it.

You entered Death Row Valley with a team you barely knew.

You didn’t verify their background properly.

You followed them into an underground colony.

You got betrayed.

Then you stayed behind.

He sighed.

"Actually, I deserve that one."

The headlights swept across another road marker. The distance remained substantial.

Silver continued.

Near midnight, his mental fatigue became dangerous again.

He pulled over, and this time, he chose the Tier Four Ironclaw Burrower core. He hesitated before absorbing it.

Tier Four cores were valuable. Selling it would earn a respectable amount but using it for his own progression was probably better.

He smiled faintly.

"Money isn’t useful if I’m asleep in a ditch."

He began the absorption.

The Tier Four energy was different. He felt pressure spreading through his body; his muscles tightened and his breathing deepened.

Silver remained completely focused. Several minutes became fifteen, then twenty. The core gradually dimmed.

He felt something else happening. His right hand twitched and memories surfaced. He was drawing against moving targets, firing while retreating, shooting through narrow openings and targeting vital body parts.

Silver opened his eyes.

[Phantom Draw Lv3 proficiency has reached maximum threshold.]

He stared, his eyes slowly widening.

"Seriously?"

The system answered.

[Phantom Draw Lv3 has advanced.]

[Phantom Draw Lv4 Acquired.]

He immediately sat straighter and opened the skill information.

[Phantom Draw Lv4]

[Type: Firearm Technique.]

[Effects: Significantly improved draw speed, target acquisition, recoil control and firing stability.]

[Additional Effect: Improved accuracy against rapidly moving targets.]

[Additional Effect: Reduced performance loss while firing from unstable positions.]

Silver read the final line twice.

"Unstable positions."

The system offered no explanation. He thought about how many times he’d fired while running, falling, rolling, being chased or hanging from something.

"Death Row Valley really did train everything the violent way.... makes me wanna come back again just for the sake of it... yeah, that’s a stupid thing to say."

He drew his handgun experimentally.

The difference was immediate. His hand moved almost before he consciously completed the intention.

He stopped, slowly holstered it, then drew again. It was smooth and faster. The weapon aligned naturally with wherever his eyes focused.

Silver smiled.

"That’s useful."

He completed the core absorption and returned to driving.

The next attack happened perhaps thirty minutes later. Spatial Sense detected it first; something moved quickly through the trees.

Silver glanced toward the side mirror.

A beast emerged, then another. Two wolf-like creatures chased the vehicle.

Silver could outrun them, he nearly did, then one accelerated. It moved close enough to strike the rear side of the vehicle.

He lowered the window, handgun coming out.

[Phantom Draw Lv4 Activated.]

The first shot rang through the night.

BANG!

The leading beast stumbled. Surprisingly, he barely felt the recoil from the shot. The second beast continued coming after him despite the first shot. He fired again while keeping the car straight with one hand.

BANG!

The bullet struck the beast’s shoulder and it veered away.

He returned the handgun.

"Definitely useful."

He didn’t stop the car whatsoever as the beasts disappeared behind him.

Silver drove for another hour while his body continued recovering.

Although his mind remained barely functional through sheer determination, periodic absorption and the knowledge that stopping too long would make waking again difficult.

Suddenly, he felt something strange, promoting spatial Sense to activate instinctively.

Silver frowned.

The range seemed wrong. He looked toward the roadside, nothing. He deactivated it, then activated again. The surrounding world appeared inside his awareness.

His eyebrows rose as the range had increased. It wasn’t dramatically yet, but enough that he noticed.

He pulled over again.

"Wait."

He opened his skill panel to find that spatial Sense Level Two was at its threshold.

"Of course."

If Phantom Draw had accumulated experience, Spatial Sense had accumulated far more since he had used it lot. There was probably no skill he’d relied on more.

The notification appeared.

[Spatial Sense Lv2 proficiency has reached maximum threshold.]

He smiled.

"Do it."

[Spatial Sense Lv2 has advanced.]

[Spatial Sense Lv3 Acquired.]

Silver immediately activated it.

[Spatial Sense Lv3 Activated.]

The world changed as it came with a better upgraded view 9f it.

He inhaled sharply.

The radius expanded but that wasn’t the biggest difference. What was new was the level of detail.

Spatial Sense Level Two had shown him shapes and positions, large movements were obvious, smaller movements required concentration, and overlapping signatures could become confusing.

Level Three separated them.

He could distinguish individual trees, branches, rocks, the slope beside the road, and small animals moving beneath vegetation.

He sensed something crawling beneath loose soil several dozen meters away. A bird shifted on a branch. He turned toward it despite being unable to see it through the darkness.

"There you are."

The bird flew as though noticing him but spatial Sense followed.

He smiled.

The mental pressure was lower too but not gone. Using the ability at maximum range would still consume concentration but the ordinary radius felt comfortable.

[Spatial Sense Lv3]

[Detection radius increased.]

[Spatial detail significantly improved.]

[Overlapping signature differentiation improved.]

[Mental strain from standard usage reduced.]

[Dynamic movement tracking improved.]

Silver leaned back, since that one mattered.

Phantom Draw Level Four made him more dangerous. Spatial Sense Level Three made him much harder to surprise.

For a spatial Contractor, information was everything.

Short-Step was only useful if he knew where to move. Space Slash was only useful if he knew where the target would be. Spatial Distortion was only useful if he could understand the attack he was trying to redirect.

He looked at his hands.

Rank Two.

That number was becoming increasingly misleading.

He laughed quietly.

"If someone checks my rank and decides I’m easy prey, I’m going to feel slightly sorry for them."

He deactivated the skill, then reconsidered it. Spatial Sense Level Three used less mental effort under ordinary conditions.

Silver activated it at a reduced radius. The road became far easier to monitor.

He resumed driving.

One o’clock passed... then two.

The encounters remained occasional, nothing remotely comparable to Death Row Valley. A beast crossed the road once, he slowed and allowed it to pass.

Another followed the vehicle for several minutes before losing interest. A group of smaller creatures scattered when the headlights approached.

Silver was grateful since he had no desire for another adventure.