CHAPTER 143: TIME AFFINITY’S MILESTONE REWARD, ABILITY CHOICE

[5. You will be given a choice between three abilities (not skills) that you will receive after your advancement task (Time Affinity)]

"Oh?" Sam’s eyes widened with surprise, "Pretty good."

Just as he expected, the reward for this affinity wasn’t like the others. It felt unique.

In fact, it reminded him of the [Shadow] affinity’s reward, except there was one key difference.

This time, it wasn’t about gaining new skills. It was about gaining "abilities."

The system even made sure to point that out clearly, these were not skills.

Sam had no idea what the actual difference was between an ability and a skill.

But if the system itself was being this specific, then there was probably a big gap between the two.

Still, he’d find out eventually.

"Time affinity," Sam confirmed without hesitation.

And just like that, the other options vanished instantly.

[Time will make us stronger, and we will surpass any of those before us.]

As that message appeared, a white aura began forming around Sam.

It looked like pure energy, and he felt it start to seep into his body.

His eyes flickered. His entire soul seemed to respond.

And then—

Fwish! Ding!

Three white panels appeared before him.

When he’d picked [Shadow], three black cards had shown up.

But with [Time], it was three floating panels instead.

Apparently, this affinity liked being more direct.

The panels looked cleaner, too, and more detailed than cards.

’Guess that means I can read these fully now.’

Even now, after everything he’d been through in this world, Sam still wasn’t sure what to expect.

It was a game world, after all. And video games always introduced strange mechanics the longer you played.

That rule hadn’t changed.

Sam looked at the three glowing panels, ready to read what they had to offer.

He was finally going to see what an "ability" really meant.

---

[Ability #1: Skill Evolution]

[Evolve one of your "Forsaken" rank skills into its next upgrade right now, instead of waiting for the "Universal Stage".]

---

[Ability #2: Cooldown Breaker]

[Gain the "Cooldown Breaker" passive, allowing you to skip the cooldown of one of your skills once every hour.]

---

[Ability #3: Eye of the Future]

[Gain the "Eye of the Future" passive, allowing you to see what might happen related to you in the close future once per day. It might be about skills, information, enemies, or more.]

---

Sam blinked, staring at the panels.

There were no skills being granted, just as the system said.

But even so, his eyes froze as he read through them carefully.

Wait a second...

"This is way too overpowered?!" he muttered, his voice low and stunned, "Holy shit...?!"

Sure, these weren’t attacks. They weren’t flashy new powers he could instantly activate.

But each of these abilities was absurd in its own way.

"Skill Evolution, Cooldown Breaker, and Eye of the Future..." Sam repeated slowly. "I guess the descriptions are clear enough... but still..."

The first one, [Skill Evolution], caught his attention immediately.

It was strange. What did it mean to evolve a skill? Wasn’t [Forsaken] already the highest rank a skill could be?

That’s what Sam had believed. But the panel made it clear.

It specifically stated that only [Forsaken] rank skills could be evolved further.

And it even mentioned the [Universal Stage] as the normal point when this evolution would happen.

Which meant...

’So skills really can go beyond [Forsaken]...’ Sam thought to himself, grinning. ’I guess that’s why some of those things said this was only the beginning...’

This ability hinted at future stages, ones he hadn’t even reached yet. That alone made it valuable.

Still, he moved on to the next one. This one was simpler, though no less impressive.

"A passive?" Sam said out loud.

It wasn’t a skill. It wasn’t tied to a class, either.

It was a [Passive] ability, something entirely different and new from what he’d seen so far.

Perhaps a new category of its own? Still, its effect was powerful.

Skipping a skill’s cooldown every hour didn’t sound insane at first.

But for someone like Sam...

’Eternal Barrier would get 100 hits instead of 50, huh...’ Sam grinned to himself.

He could already imagine how much chaos that would cause.

Then there was the third ability. And this one, without a doubt, was the strangest of them all.

Eye of the Future. A passive that let him see possible events in the near future once per day.

What kind of events? It could be anything related to him, skills, dangers, information, enemies.

There was no guarantee it would be helpful. But it could just as easily save his life.

Sam spent several minutes thinking.

All three of these were powerful. But they were also so different that it was hard to compare them.

’Guess it doesn’t matter yet,’ he finally decided.

He wasn’t getting any of them now anyway. They would only be available after he completed his [Advancement Task].

"I’ll choose later," he said, closing the panels.

He didn’t head straight to the [Advancement Task] panel next.

Instead, he walked toward the field littered with drops.

"Welp... this is gonna take a while," he muttered, sighing as he looked around.

The monsters he and the [Forsaken Clone] had taken down had all dropped loot.

And not just junk. Most of it was powerful.

Back in the real world, a single one of these items would’ve been worth a fortune.

But...

[For some reason, you have the feeling keeping them for later is a better option.]

Sam nodded at the message. It made sense.

He didn’t really need money anymore. He was operating alone after all.

There was no pressure to sell. So he began collecting everything.

He grabbed [Berserker Teeth], [Fangs of the Abyss], [Abyssal Hammer], and more.

Each item was either [Epic] or [Legendary]. And there were around 200 in total.

He stored every single one inside his [Spatial Inventory], saving them for when the time was right.

Once that was done, he turned back to Varkhaz’s body. The [Forsaken Lord] had dropped two items.

Sam walked over and crouched beside the corpse. He picked up the first item carefully.

---

[Abyssal Eye]

[Rank: Legendary]

[Description: Allows whoever equips this to cast the "Abyss Darkness" skill, transporting their opponent into the "Abyss Domain" and empowering them.]

[Hell-Mode Analysis: The abyss actively rejects us, won’t work on us.

---

’Incredible,’ Sam thought, his eyes wide. ’I bet even people from other races would pay anything for this...’

Items from [Forsaken Lords] were unique as they didn’t respawn.

That meant their gear was one-of-a-kind. Basically priceless.

Sam had sold the loot from the early layers, thinking it was fair. But ever since the fourth layer, he kept almost everything.

He’d only given away [Underworld Flames] from Asmodeus to Chloe. But he still had [Demon Wings] from that same fight.

He also had [Jevil’s Cards] from Jevil. And now he had [Abyssal Eye] from Varkhaz.

He placed the item into his [Spatial Inventory] and turned to the second one.

This one, he knew, would be the artifact.

---

[Heart of the Abyss]

[Rank: Forsaken]

[Description: An item that proves someone has beaten "Varkhaz". Keep it as an artifact. It’s the sixth of the six.]

[Hell-Mode Analysis: Here it is.]

---

’Good.’ Sam grinned as he placed the artifact into his inventory.

With that, he was done. He had stored the loot. He had gathered the artifacts.

And now... It was time. Time to face the [Advancement Task].