[Remote Resurrection: Due to repeated action, the user has proven that his subordinates are capable of carrying out missions without his direct interference. This skill grants the user the ability to use his connection with any subordinate to carry out a [Resurrection] without the need to be physically present. The skill or rank of the subordinate used for the Resurrection is irrelevant, and all newly resurrected subordinates will be completely loyal to the user.]
——
Jason felt a deep excitement rising from his chest once he read through this new skill, and he couldn’t help the amused laugh that escaped! This was freaking amazing! Jason had already been thinking about sending his subordinates into many other gates in the future, but the only thing that had been holding Jason back was the fact that he would still need to be present at the Gate in order to carry out resurrections himself! But with this skill, Jason didn’t need to do any of that! Jason could literally resurrect any number of beasts from anywhere in the world, so long as he had a subordinate present where the beast had been killed!
’I can finally send subordinates into other countries to clear more Gates. This is probably going to be my favorite skill.’
Jason chuckled softly as he finally closed that tab, and he hummed as he looked towards the Artefact that he had gotten. Jason called on the artefact mentally, and a Diamond-Shaped shield that was almost as long as Jason’s body suddenly appeared in front of him. Jason caught the shield, and he looked it over curiously as he activated [Appraisal].
[Appraisal] has been activated
——
Diamond Matrix Shield
Rank: S
Durability: 100%
Boosts: +100% Durability, -20% Agility
Description: A Diamond-infused shield extracted from the corpse of the Diamond Bear Boss. The shield possesses the unique trait [Refraction] that grants it complete invulnerability against all forms of Light-Based Magical Attacks. While holding the shield, the passive effect [Presence Suppression] will be activated, and this will give the wielder a 50% reduction in his presence.
——
Jason hummed in surprise when he read through all the boosts and description! This was actually a really useful weapon! Jason could see that it reduced your agility, but that was understandable, and it didn’t really matter since the shield could grant you a hundred percent boost in durability! The shield was basically telling you that it had been built for tanks that were more focused on taking hits than running away, so that was what it was best for! The description was also really good, and from the last part of the description, Jason could tell that the [Presence Suppression] skill had been built to work together with the [Camouflage] skill. If you activated Camouflage, you would already be nearly undetectable, so pairing it with the [Presence Suppression] would just make it stronger!
But the most impressive skill there was the [Refraction] skill. The ability to withstand all light-based magical attacks was brilliant. And since the system hadn’t mentioned a skill cap, this meant that even if someone fired a light-based attack that was of a higher rank, the shield would probably still refract it just fine!
’This would probably fetch me a couple million dollars in the market, but I wouldn’t mind holding onto it for now. I haven’t run into any light-type user, but I have a feeling my shadow skill would make me weak against Light users. It’ll be good to have something that I can use against them in a fight.’
Jason nodded, and he put the shield into his Alternate Dimension for another time. Once Jason was done with that, he saw that the bears were all done with collecting the crystals from the dead bodies. Jason pet the head of one of the nearest bears, and it licked Jason’s hand and bit down on his finger playfully. That bite would have easily taken the hand off anyone below A Rank, but Jason just laughed it off and scratched it behind the ear as he told it to let go. The bear quickly let go before sitting down obediently, and Jason looked at the dead bodies and crystals. Jason could use [Necrotic Reanimation] on the dead monsters, but he decided not to use it. The monsters weren’t that strong, and they wouldn’t even be useful as common fodder. Instead, Jason decided that he would send them back to the guild so they could process and sell them. There were a lot of military organizations that would be interested in the diamond skins as defensive materials, and the bones and teeth would also be useful, so Jason was sure they’d sell for a lot of money.
Jason finally looked at all the bears, and he had a thought. Shouldn’t he just boost all the Pawn Rank bears to Rook Rank I’s? Jason had about eighty-eight pawns here, but Jason knew that Pawns weren’t very useful, so wouldn’t it be better to just have Rooks instead, so they could gain the five-hundred percent boost in their defense?
’Yeah, I think that’s the best choice right now.’
Jason quickly commanded all the Diamond Bears to come closer, and he did some calculations in his head. He was going to be sending points to upgrade the Workers straight from Pawn Rank II to Rook Rank I, and he was also going to be sending points to the Guards to upgrade them from Pawn Rank III to Rook Rank I. Jason did the maths for how many points he needed to convert and it didn’t take long before Jason told the system to send the points, and the system brought up a prompt.
[Would the user like to convert 188,500 Kill Points to Upgrade Points? Yes/No?]
Jason chose yes, and he watched as the Kill Points were converted and quickly sent over to the subordinates’ tabs. The change was instantaneous! The bears all growled as they began to grow larger! Their skin grew tougher, and their nails and teeth became sharper! The Guards and Workers had only been about half the size of the Boss when they were Pawns, but now that they were also at the same rank, they were all as large as the boss, and Jason smiled as he looked over all the three-meter-tall beasts around him. Jason also saw his mana and stats increase due to the upgrade, and Jason shrugged. It wasn’t a significant change, but every drop of power counted.
Jason looked at the tabs over their heads, and he frowned slightly when he noticed something.
——
[Diamond Bear Guard]
[Rook Rank I]
[Hierarchy Level: 1(0.00%)]
[Subordinate Count: 0/10]
[Upgrade Points: 0/50]
[Upgrade Limit: Bishop Rank III]
[Independent Action: C Rank]
[MP: 3000]
——
’Their Independent Action rank didn’t increase.’
Jason was surprised to see that even though everything else on the guard had increased, its Independent Action was still at C Rank. So this meant that Jason had only increased the beast’s strength by giving it upgrade points, but he didn’t increase its intelligence.
[The Independent Action stat is a measure of how skilled a subordinate is at interpreting and adapting to orders given to it by the king or higher-ranking subordinates. Although the user increased the strength of the subordinates, they are still not capable enough to possess a higher Independent Action ranking. In order to improve their ranking, the user must give them subordinates and put them through either rigorous training or actual battles.]
Jason hummed at the system’s explanation, and he finally decided that he would just work on increasing the rankings. All of Jason’s pawns were already attached to Rooks or Bishops, so there was no one to add as a subordinate for the Diamond Bear, and Jason just told them to go into the Alternate Dimension and train until he got more Pawn Rank subordinates, and the bears happily obeyed as they returned to Jason’s Dimension.