Walking out of the classroom, Auron wiped out the smirk on his face as his violet eyes turned cold and calculating.

  For some reason, his new instructor had seen through his strength,"Had she seen him fight? or was she bluffing? He didn't like either option. "He liked mysteries even less. Whatever the reason, he couldn't afford to be careless. He had at least learned from the Raventors never to trust anyone. You could only trust yourself. And he sure as hell wasn't about to trust some weird instructor he had just met just because she had dropped some cliché lines."

  "But first, he had to confirm something about the recently discovered function of his system: Beast Core Infusion."

  Now, he just had to find a secluded place to test this new function away from prying eyes, and he knew just the place."

  ***

  In a dimly lit room where the sunlight rays were obstructed

  from piercing through by tightly shut windows, a youth sat beside the bed, violet eyes glimmering with excitement, before muttering,"System ?", Following that a cold sterile notification screen popped up in his line of vision displaying his current stats .

  SYSTEM INTERFACE

  Name: Auron Raventor

  Title: Peak Iron Rank Hunter

  Race: Human

  Class: None (Yet)

  Beast Contracts: 0

  Attributes:

  Strength: 7 + 2 (Iron-Rank Bonus) + 25 (Devour) ? 34

  (Your fists are now wrecking balls. Try not to punch walls… or people. Or both.)

  Agility: 26 + 2 ? 28

  You're too fast for your own good. Literally.)

  Intelligence: 8 + 2 ? 10 (Big brain, but still dumb decisions incoming.)

  Charisma: 4 + 2 ? 6 (You're slightly less terrifying. Slightly.)

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Endurance: 6 + 2 ? 8 (You can actually take a hit now. Progress?)

  Luck: 10 + 2 ? 12 (At this rate, the universe is actively favoring you.)

  Unallocated Attribute Points: (0)

  Skills.

  Stone Skin: Skill progression 25.3

  Looking at his attributes closely again, Auron seemed to get the Knack of how this system worked.

  "Based on his previous kills, after he had killed both the Wild Cat and the Procan Python, he received a bonus of two attribute points across all his stats. This led him to believe that every time he killed an Iron-Rank Beast, he could earn two extra attribute points—excluding the option to Devour."

  But still, there was a question that kept bugging him to no end. Was it a one time bonus, like the rats back then where he had killed a rat and gained a full attribute point but in his subsequent rat slaying escapades, each rat he killed only scrounged him up a miserly 0.1 attribute point, was it some sort of hidden mechanism of a first time kill bonus or did his system just not want him to be overpowered, cause if his thoughts were right on point then his power leveling journey had just gotten a bit harder, just a bit.

  Suppressing a shit eating grin that was tugging at his lips, he directed his focus once more on his system panel before issuing another mental command.

  "System analyze the skill contained in the beast core."

  (Analyzing beast core crystal... Please wait.)

  Moments later, rows of familiar text filled his vision.

  (Analysis Complete.

  Beast Core: Procan Python (Peak-Iron Rank).

  Skill: Forged by steel –Modifies the external physiology to resemble scales, allowing the user to passively defend while giving the host a miniscule chance to reflect damage done.

  The chance of reflecting damage is negligible and amount of damage to be reflected back to the attacker cannot exceed user tolerance level.

  [Skill evolution possible.])

  Auron' eyes glinted, while a light of determination shone in them, The skill was all good and honestly? Had massive potential to evolve into a bug level skill.

  He could almost imagine himself, standing in the midst of a cosmic level battlefield, hands behind his back as he looked at the sky at a 45° angle while enemies tried dishing out damage to him only to have their attacks reflect off him coming back to them while he muttered some cliché bullshit,"Aaaarghhh, just the the thought of it alone sent a surge of exhilaration through him, almost making his blood boil."

  "But he already had Stone Skin, which was enough for now. Although it didn't allow reflection of damage yet, who was to say it wouldn't when it evolved again? For now, he had to set his sights first on this new function—his gut told him it was going to be a game-changer."

  Discarding all thoughts of hesitation, Auron retrieved the Procan Python's beast core from his pocket, steeling his resolve, he glanced at the Beast core infusion function before clicking "Yes", This better not hurt or else he was going to start thinking the system had serious masochistic tendencies, but as if reaffirming his thoughts a soul rendering pain engulfed his whole body as his stone skin progression exploded, But Auron wasn't one to back away from pain, especially one that came with massive rewards.

  (Stone skin progression:25.3 > 33.6 > 44.8 > 74.6 ...

  As the skin progression shot up the pain that assaulted him was replaced by a warm lingering sensation that washed over him leaving behind a sensation of unyielding toughness and durability.

  Finally stopping at 85.6)

  "His muscles, which had been subtly developing, began to take form. His abdominal muscles arched, giving off the illusion that they had been sculpted by a master artisan. But what left the greatest impression on him was his new durability. He had a feeling that if he faced the Procan Python again, it wouldn't even be able to scratch him—even if he stood still and let it attack."

  Fascinated, by the surge of power coursing through him, Auron couldn't help but look at the system in a new light, were there any new functions of the system he had yet to unlock? Wait!

  A realisation suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks, what if this wasn't a new function but it was a system function that had been here all along? He just had not yet met the criteria to unlock it, after all it had taken him to find a beast core compatible with his stone skin to be able to funnel it's energy to skill progression, didn't that mean he just had to fulfill some certain criteria before he became one overpowered bastard?