After Moon finished inscribing his third rune skill, he stopped. Nearly two hours had passed.

Three rune skills, two of which were loaded with Thunderclap Raiju, and other loaded with a powerful elemental water attack, sat in his storage ring ready to be used.

Three was enough.

The element of surprise was the biggest advantage these runes offered, and after the first one was revealed, the enemy would be prepared for it.

Stacking more beyond three wouldn’t yield much additional benefit. Besides, if he continued, even Lukas and Frey’s stock of materials would soon run out.

Moon didn’t get up. He remained seated on the rocky ground, this time, his legs crossed, his eyes closed.

His third acupoint had just reached maximum capacity, filled to the brim with spiritual energy accumulated from the relentless hunting of the past day.

It was time to cultivate.

The skill he chose to integrate with the acupoint was Curse.

He had a dual purpose for this. By using Curse as the foundation for his third acupoint, he could simultaneously deepen his understanding of the skill when he had yet to have the skill permanently, while weaving its threads into the acupoint structure.

Two birds with one stone.

The process itself would push his comprehension further, refining the connection between the skill and his spiritual energy at a fundamental level.

Moon turned his focus inward and began to weave.

The process was faster this time. Much faster. His mind understood the layering structure without needing to re-invent the wheel through trial and error.

Where his first acupoint had taken nearly five hours of painstaking work, and his second had taken three, the third was complete in just over an hour.

The threads locked into place. The foundation solidified. The spiritual energy inside the acupoint settled around the Curse skill like water filling a mold.

During the process, Moon’s understanding of the skill deepened considerably. What he had initially thought of as a curse wasn’t truly a curse in the traditional sense.

It was a control mechanism that functioned like a drug in the brain of its victim, altering their mental chemistry to make the goal Moon placed inside them feel like their own natural desire.

The victim didn’t feel controlled. They felt motivated. Driven. As if pursuing Moon’s objective was the most logical, most satisfying thing they could possibly do.

It wasn’t brainwashing through force. It was brainwashing through pleasure.

Moon opened his eyes. He needed to test the results.

Rising to his feet, Moon walked to the edge of a cliff overlooking a deep ravine. A massive wall of rock faced him on the opposite side, weathered and ancient.

He raised his staff and channeled a concentrated elemental attack. Fire, earth, merged into a single blast that streaked across the gap and slammed into the cliff face.

The impact carved a crater several meters deep into the rock. Cracks radiated outward from the point of impact, and chunks of stone the size of his torso crumbled away, tumbling into the ravine below.

Moon studied the damage carefully. He compared it against his memory of similar attacks from days ago.

The difference was not small.

Previously, with two maxed acupoints, his acupoint power had been comparable to a First Star Evolver. Roughly ten standard acupoints worth of output.

Now, with three completed, his power sat at approximately fourteen.

Moon ran the numbers. His first acupoint had provided roughly five standard acupoints worth of power. His second had matched that. But the third had provided four.

The returns were diminishing. Each new acupoint contributed slightly less than the one before it. The leap from zero to one had been transformative. The leap from two to three was still massive, but the rate of growth was slowing.

Four times the normal output per acupoint. Still incredible. But the curve is flattening.

It made sense.

His foundations were built from whole Epic-Rank skills, which gave him an enormous advantage over anyone using fragments.

But even whole skills had a ceiling on how much they could amplify a single acupoint. As his total power climbed, each individual addition became a smaller percentage of the whole.

Moon wasn’t bothered. Four times the standard return was still absurd by any measure. Most Evolvers would sell their souls for a single acupoint that performed at twice the normal level.

He looked out over the ravine, the dust from his attack still settling in the air below.

"My combat power should rival a Second Star Evolver if I use my normal trump cards. When [Life Burn] is used, then it might even rival a third star Evolver..." A grin spread across Moon’s face. "Not bad at all."

Moon got back to hunting immediately. It was the only thing he had been doing for hours before, and he wasn’t about to stop now. There was just under twenty-four hours left until the tournament’s testing phase began. His name was already registered with the direct entry pass Tom had given him, so there was nothing to worry about on that front.

He could pour every remaining minute into two things. Getting stronger and bringing the spirit pavilion down.

As he rode across the island on Mirage, his spirit was hunting independently nearby, Moon turned his attention to his fourth acupoint. It was open and waiting for spiritual energy to accumulate.

For this acupoint, Moon chose Runemaster to be the foundation.

It was one of the most used skills in his arsenal, it fit perfectly into his combat style. Offensive runes, defensive runes, concealment runes, enhancement runes, and now active skill runes. He used them constantly, in nearly every fight, in every preparation, in every trap he laid.

Placing Runemaster as the foundation of an acupoint would amplify every inscription he created, making each rune faster to inscribe, longer lasting, and more potent.

It was also one of his few remaining Epic-Rank skills, which meant the acupoint’s output would match the standard he had set with his first three. He still had enough Epic-Rank skills at his disposal to fill several more acupoints without needing to settle for Rare.

That concern could wait for later.

Moon guided Mirage toward a cluster of beasts the attack had flushed out from the ravine, his sword already in hand.