In a way, if Luna ran into two or three Normal Eldritch Entities now, she wouldn’t even need to take a detour. She could just take them out.

Meanwhile, Amelia took out a cherished paintbrush she always carried. It was her Familiar when she got the "Enchant" Talent.

Just like Luna, Amelia’s "Enchant" Talent successfully advanced: "Enchant" → "Rune Master".

[Rune Master: A-Tier Talent, Stage 2. Can engrave Runes on 10 items per day. Mastered Rune types: "Great Fireball (B-Tier)", "Great Purify (B-Tier)", "Exorcism (C-Tier)".]

After gaining her new power, Amelia hugged Kevin excitedly.

Her Talent was already a strategic-level ability, and now it got stronger, so she was just thrilled.

After all, the power of a single Fireball bullet of hers was almost equal to a high-explosive incendiary grenade.

If she engraved the Great Fireball Rune onto a bullet, Kevin himself felt scared of the power it would have.

Plus, the new "Exorcism" Rune Amelia got perfectly solved the problem of everyone being unable to damage ghost-type Eldritch Entities.

The only downside was that ten Enchant uses a day were just too few.

But it didn’t matter. Kevin would step in.

With a 120x reimbursement rate, what Kevin could produce in a day was enough to cover the needs of the whole six-person team.

But for the next ones, Celula, Monchhichi, and Nova wouldn’t be so lucky.

The Familiar that awakened Celula’s Talent was an old radar from a museum.

She went to the radar of an armed helicopter and opened a chest next to it, but what she awakened was a second independent A-Tier Talent: "Wheels of Flame & Wind".

[Wheels of Flame & Wind: A-Tier Talent, Stage 1. Can summon propellers under her feet to glide at low altitude over the sea. Maintaining the glide state will keep draining stamina.]

When Celula found out she got a skill like this, she was about to cry.

Luckily, Monchhichi spotted the true use of this skill, which finally helped Celula accept her new Talent.

On the surface, "Wheels of Flame & Wind" was a movement Talent meant for air gliding.

But if it kicked into an Eldritch Entity, it would be like a power drill hitting a rock. One kick would leave a dent.

Once she understood this, Celula’s mood instantly brightened up.

She was already a dance fan, and being able to dance in the air while damaging enemies made her super excited.

Meanwhile, Monchhichi also awakened another Talent called "Etherealize" during the process.

[Etherealize: A-Tier Talent, Stage 1. When out of combat, staying perfectly still for 30 seconds will activate the Etherealize stealth state, granting immunity to physical damage for 30 minutes.]

Unlike her original "Navigator" Talent, Monchhichi’s "Etherealize" Talent greatly boosted her survival skills.

This way, she could stand calmly on the edge of the battlefield and think up strategies.

Finally, the ability Nova awakened was the most surprising to everyone.

Since her Talent was already at the S-Tier level, it couldn’t advance through chests.

So she just chose to hold Kevin while opening a chest, and awakened the "Dual Cultivator" Talent.

[Dual Cultivator: A-Tier Talent, Stage 1. Having sex with the bonded partner "Kevin" and lasting over one hour will grant each other a random blessing. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

Kevin saw this Talent and was completely stunned.

Because Nova was his "covenant-bearer," after sleeping with him, Nova would get one blessing, while Kevin would get fifteen.

Just thinking about having a bunch of buffs floating over his head made Kevin feel pretty funny.

But who could refuse this kind of all-around buff boost?

Especially when the way to get these buffs was through close contact with Nova.

In the end, Kevin decided not to awaken a new Talent.

Advancing his current three Talents was already a huge hassle.

If he got greedy and took on more, he’d probably struggle to ever reach the peak of Survivors.

Besides, once the other girls advanced their Talents and got stronger, the power would flow back to him through the "Covenant of the Saint." He’d still become a godlike force.

So, Kevin took stock of the resources he had.

He still had around three thousand C-Tier Bloodmist Crystals and nine B-Tier Dragon Form Bloodmist Crystals.

Even though Kevin already had plenty of Summoning Marks to call out Mist Phantoms in all sorts of forms, the strength and number of his summons were still pretty limited.

If he wanted to get stronger, he had to keep devouring Bloodmist Crystals.

According to old legends from his past life, a Survivor could keep eating a thousand of the same kind of Bloodmist Crystals after getting a Summoning Mark to boost its power.

He wasn’t sure if it was true, but Kevin decided to give it a shot. Worst case, he’d just have to waste one Restoration Potion.

So, Kevin got straight to work.

This time, he had Nova help him swallow the potion.

But after devouring tens of thousands of Bloodmist Crystals last time, Kevin had already gotten used to the bitter taste. He didn’t even feel like vomiting this time.

Soon, he woke up thanks to the Restoration Potion.

He stood up and made checking his Summoning Marks his first priority.

The results blew him away.

[Summoning Mark: Elite Blood Mist Phantom (Falcon Form)]

[Summon Count: 5]

[Summoning Mark: Elite Blood Mist Phantom (Skeleton)]

[Summon Count: 4]

[Summoning Mark: Elite Blood Mist Phantom (Serpent Form)]

[Summon Count: 3]

[Summoning Mark: Elite Blood Mist Phantom (Bear Form)]

[Summon Count: 2]

[Summoning Mark: Elite Blood Mist Phantom (Dragon Form)]

[Summon Count: 1]

In total, Kevin could now summon up to fifteen Mist Phantoms at once, and they were all Elite-rank.

Even though the physical damage from Blood Mist Phantoms was pretty limited and they couldn’t shred targets like real beasts, their ghostly traits usually came in handy for special tricks.

With that under his belt, Kevin felt pretty confident about what was to come.

As long as they didn’t run straight into a Commander-rank Eldritch Entity, Kevin and his crew wouldn’t worry about a thing.

Meanwhile, as Kevin and his team were busy getting stronger, Justin bit his teeth and crushed the Eldritch Merchant Summoning Talisman in his hand.

Unlike the black-robed merchant Kevin met, Justin ran into a two-headed Eldritch Entity.

Its left head was a pig’s, and its right head was a bull’s. The thing was covered in heavy muscle, and it sneered, "You’ve got one hour to bring out all your valuable gear. Or I’ll chop you up!"

Justin got angry at the Eldritch merchant’s insult. "Are you here to do business or just rob us?"

"Oh? Haven’t had a human talk to me like that in ages!" The two-headed monster lunged at Justin and went straight for his groin with a kick.

"Dirty move!" Justin dodged just in time.

The monster sidestepped him and grabbed a nearby soldier, tearing him clean in half.

Justin froze at the sight. "You’re insane!"

The monster let out a cold snort. "Listen up, kid. When you ask a merchant a question, everyone around them has to pass a life-or-death test."

"A life-or-death test? Asking questions? I didn’t ask anything." Justin was confused, but Joseph quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Idiot, you just asked if he was here to trade or to rob us. Do you want to get us all killed?" Joseph’s anger kept Justin in check. He shut his mouth and quietly stepped forward to make a trade.

He pulled out two C-Tier gear pieces nobody wanted and handed them to the two-headed Eldritch Entity. "I want to trade for food!"

"Heh, foolish human!" The monster ripped open its own belly. It pulled a scroll straight from its guts and handed the blood-stained scroll to Justin.

Justin forced down his disgust and opened the scroll to read it.

Sure enough, this Eldritch merchant could trade for all sorts of luxury supplies.

Steamed bear paws, steamed lamb, roasted ducks, roasted chicks... they had it all.

Justin stared at the pile of food and asked for a trade.

The result was harsh. One single C-Tier item only got him food for three people.

Justin frowned. "This is way too expensive."

But seeing the two-headed Eldritch Entity eagerly waiting for him to mess up, Justin pinched his nose and accepted the deal.

In the end, he traded two C-Tier items for a French meal for six people.

Still, before finishing, he wanted more info. He flipped through the item list on the scroll.

"Really like I thought. An Eldritch merchant really does have everything. Besides being pricey, there’s no downside," Justin muttered while reading.

Suddenly, he flipped to the very end of the scroll. His eyes locked onto the six A-Tier chests at the bottom of the list.

After seeing that the A-Tier Random Talent Chest, which was limited to one every thirty days, had already been bought, Justin lost his cool.

"Fuck! Who the hell dares to trade for something I was looking at!" Justin was losing his mind with anger.

Ever since the Eldritch invasion, he had awakened the S-Tier Talent "Resonance Amplification" and gained power that went beyond normal humans.

He was hooked on the feeling of becoming a superhuman and craved even more strength.

He didn’t want gear. He didn’t want weapons. He didn’t want Eldritch Artifacts. Justin only wanted a Talent ability that belonged to him.

So, after Kevin took first place on the Day One leaderboard and stole the chance to awaken a new Talent, Justin started targeting him.

Now, another chance to awaken a new Talent got stolen again. Justin finally snapped. "It has to be those two bitches, Amelia and Luna! I’m going to find them!"

Standing inside the cockpit, Bella watched the furious Justin and smirked. "Heh. I was just wondering how to get a reason to meet Kevin. Justin, you really just handed me a perfect present."

She picked up the radio and spoke to the brothers, Joseph and Justin, standing on the deck. "I know where Amelia and Luna are. They’re with Stephanie."