The SSS Ranked Villain's Return-Chapter 65: Massive Main Skill Upgrades

[Eve of Ruin: Rank up available.]

[F -> E]

[Would you like to proceed? Y/N]

Oh? Well, damn— Neraxis’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the Demonic Imps around him combusted into silver flames. Lesser flames spread to every single imp nearby.

The Elite Demonic Imp wasn’t excluded—it too was caught in the range, its body engulfed in similar silver flames.

However, unlike the rest, which were easily devoured and soon killed by the flames, this one somehow shed its skin, throwing the flame-touched flesh to the side.

The others were not as fortunate, and soon, red kill notifications began flooding in.

[25x (E- Ranked Monster) Demonic Imp Slain! Reward: Stigmata 72.26% -> 84.76%]

Neraxis nodded to himself at the large amount of progress and immediately turned toward the Elite Demonic Imp, which had been glaring at him from the side.

Two more seconds. He smirked, readying his sword.

"SCREEEE!" The Demonic Imp suddenly screeched, appearing right before him, its white claws nearing his face.

Just as it was about to reach him, however, Neraxis used Sword Dash, reappearing behind the Elite Demonic Imp, and swiftly slashing vertically, severing one of its arms.

However, he was not finished. With the added momentum, he twisted his body and swiftly used Simple Horizontal Slash, cleaving straight through its neck.

The Elite Demonic Imp dropped to the ground, unable to fight back any further, making Neraxis heave a sigh of relief.

[1x (E Ranked Elite Monster) Demonic Imp Vanguard Slain! Reward: Stigmata 84.76% -> 92.26%]

That nearly went to shit. Thank you, Evangeline, he expressed, before turning to one red notification in particular:

[Would you like to proceed? Y/N]

And without hesitation, he pressed yes.

Immediately, a heap of text appeared before his eyes, but one thing in particular stood out...

[Eve of Ruin {F -> E}]

[Eve of Ruin {E}]*

[Skill Description: Harness the power of Ruin. Some options have been unlocked due to the user being able to use mana.]

—[Skill Effects (1/4): Mark of Decay (Active): Mark a single enemy within a 50-meter radius and inflict the Decaying debuff.

-[Detonate Mark of Decay: Instantly triggers the cumulative damage from the five most powerful attacks inflicted on the marked target while the mark is active. If the mark is detonated, the Decaying debuff ends early.]

- [Mark of Decay Cooldown: 5 minutes.]

- [Detonate Mark Cooldown: 3 -> 2 hours.]

—[(NEW) Skill Effects (2/4): Mark of Destruction (Active)]

[You can mark up to three enemies within a 50-meter radius. Each marked target is inflicted with the Decaying debuff.]

[While the mark is active, all damage dealt to marked targets is increased by 20%.]

- Detonate Mark of Destruction: Instantly triggers the cumulative damage from the five most powerful attacks inflicted on all marked targets. The detonation also applies a secondary explosion, dealing 50% of the total damage dealt to all other enemies within a 15-meter radius.

The mark ends immediately after detonation.

- Mark of Destruction Cooldown: 15 minutes (5 minutes per charge).

- Detonate Cooldown: 6 hours.

—[(NEW) Skill Effects (3/4): Ruinous Aura (Passive): Each strike inflicts the Ruin debuff.]

—[(NEW) Skill Effects (4/4): Affinity Compiler (Special one-time use Active): Attune to your natural affinity.]

—[Debuff - Decaying: Each attack against the target has a low -> moderate chance to remove a beneficial effect and temporarily disable healing. Each attack reduces the target’s movement speed by 2% -> 3% per stack. Stacks up to five times. The debuff lasts as long as the target is being hit; if not hit for more than 30 -> 45 seconds, the debuff vanishes.]

—[(NEW) Debuff - Ruin: Each attack against the target inflicts 1% of their total HP as True Damage.]

Aura of Vulnerability is gone, and three more skill effects were added... very overpowered ones. Neraxis whistled inwardly, not exactly saddened by the missing skill.

The third and fourth skill effects were the most important, however, since one of them gave him an overpowered debuff that dealt 1% True Damage with each strike, bypassing any and all defenses.

While the other gave him an Affinity Compiler, which meant he would likely have a say in which affinity he would gain.

[I don’t mean to ruin your fun, but you should move,] Evangeline suddenly chimed in, earning a puzzled look from him.

However, he soon realized the reason, as the ground below him began crumbling toward where Sarah and the demon were fighting.

From what he could tell, the fight was about to wrap up, as the demon was being pushed back significantly—even losing a limb in the process.

<Good job, Neraxis.> Amara’s voice rang out. <Stand by while she kills that thing.>

"Sure." Neraxis nodded in response, before walking to a safer place, one where the ground would not crumble.

As he did so, he decided to finally check his status. With all these upgrades and the main skill mentioning mana, he had high hopes.

Status.

+-----+

Status

Name: Neraxis Valen

Stigmata: [Fragment of Calamity {92.26%} (Seals Unlocked: 1)]

Age: 16

--Stats:

Rank: F -> F+

Strength: F- -> F

Agility: F- -> F+

Stamina: F -> F+

Intelligence: F+ -> E-

Mana Capacity: F+ -> E-

--Secondary Stats:

Luck: G-

Charm: C-

--Skills:

[Eve of Ruin {E}]

[Swordsmanship {F}]

[Stellar Dominion {A}]

[Minor Reflect {D}]

[Sword Dash {F}]

[Restorative Cut {E}]

[Vampiric Dominion {A}]

[Aegis of Eternity {C}]

--Fragment of Calamity Skill Tree (1/???)

[Simple Horizontal Slash]

+-----+

All my stats have improved. Neraxis couldn’t help but chuckle and soon narrowed his eyes at the demon below.

According to the system, Mark of Destruction, his newest skill effect, was currently off cooldown—which was either a bug or because it was a new skill.

Nonetheless, that gave him the perfect chance to do something he could only dream of doing with his current strength.

Focusing on the demon, he immediately used Mark of Destruction.

A silver orb appeared around it—this time much larger than before, nearly triple the size of its predecessor.

His stunt did not go unnoticed by the demon, which swiftly twisted its head in Neraxis’s direction.

But before it could do anything, Sarah swung her twin blades down, attempting to slice the demon’s arm.

Unlike before, her twin blades went through its arm like butter, thanks to the effects of Neraxis’s Mark of Destruction skill.

"You-!" The demon’s distorted humanoid voice rang out as its eyes darted between Neraxis and the nonchalant Sarah.

In the end, it had no choice but to focus on her instead, since if it went for Neraxis, she would finish it off.

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Even then, the fight was practically over. It had lost both its arms and was now only flailing around, defending with its legs.

Sarah capitalized on that, and when it tried blocking again, her twin blades glowed green. With a swift motion, she swung down, severing both of its feet in one go.

While that was happening, Neraxis noticed something interesting—while she was attacking the demon, his silvery orb was beginning to glow a brighter hue.

It was as if her attacks were adding stacks.

Narrowing his eyes to get a closer look, he saw her slice its torso. At the same time, he noticed that his silver orb had gotten brighter.

She can stack for me? Isn’t that a bit overpowered? he exclaimed with a clear smile, and as Sarah finally stopped playing around, he stepped up, focusing on the silver orb.

Detonate Mark of Destruction.