[Pact Of Self-Sacrifice]

“Extra Skill 【Pact of Self-Sacrifice】…?”

Looking at the newly acquired skill, I couldn’t help but furrow my brow.

Extra Skills were a superior category of skills that possessed far greater power than Normal Skills.

What distinguished them from Unique Skills was that anyone could acquire them by fulfilling certain conditions.

However, I had heard that those conditions were often extremely difficult to fulfill.

In exchange, their capabilities were extraordinary, sometimes even surpassing those of Unique Skills…

“At least, I’ve never heard of an Extra Skill with a name like this before. Just what kind of ability does it have…?”

I decided to examine the description of 【Pact of Self-Sacrifice】.

“This is…!”

An ability that increased my attributes according to the amount of HP I lost through self-inflicted injuries.

It was almost as though everything I had been doing in this dungeon had taken shape as a skill.

“Judging from how things have gone so far, I guess the acquisition condition was ‘inflicting a certain amount of damage upon yourself’…? No wonder I’ve never heard of it before.”

After all, even with Infinite Regeneration, I had only managed to acquire it after completely depleting my HP more than a thousand times.

I doubted there was another adventurer capable of fulfilling those conditions.

“Which means, depending on how you look at it, it’s practically a Unique Skill exclusive to me.”

Either way, this was an incredibly powerful skill.

Compared to Poison Resistance and Sleep Enhancement, it was much more practical in combat.

I figured I should test how it actually worked.

“The activation condition was self-inflicted damage, right?”

Using one of the bone daggers I had crafted, the total number of which had already reached double digits, I slashed deeply into my left arm.

The damage caused my HP to drop from 410 to 369.

Then, immediately afterward—

“Whoa! I can feel power surging through me…!”

With a distinct sensation of newfound strength, I checked my current Status.

Sure enough, all my attributes had increased by 10%, matching the percentage of HP I had lost.

“Haha… This might actually be an incredible skill.”

There were Normal Skills that could temporarily boost attributes, but none could increase every attribute simultaneously, and their boosts were relatively modest.

However, with 【Pact of Self-Sacrifice】, it seemed possible to increase them by as much as 99%.

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to take the risk of losing 99% of my HP… But the more options I have available, the better.”

And that wasn’t all.

At that moment, an idea suddenly occurred to me.

“…That’s right. With this skill’s ability, I might be able to use it to take revenge on that bastard.”

One of the members of 【Guardians of Dawn】 flashed through my mind.

Someone who deserved to experience the despair I had suffered, multiplied many times over.

—Over the past three months, I had grown considerably stronger.

With my current strength, there was almost no chance I would lose to Alto and the others.

Even if they had some secret strategy up their sleeves, my attributes should have been high enough to crush it head-on.

But during those days of repeatedly killing myself and growing stronger, a question had suddenly occurred to me.

Would simply killing them really be enough to fulfill my revenge?

The answer was no.

Not only had they betrayed me, but they had also murdered my precious family for their own selfish reasons.

The hatred that had continued to build within me had already grown far beyond anything that could be satisfied by simply killing them.

That was precisely why the process mattered—how I killed them.

I had to drag them down into the absolute depths of despair, no matter what it took.

“In that respect, this 【Pact of Self-Sacrifice】 is perfect for the job.”

And if I continued repeatedly killing myself at this rate, there was a chance I might acquire even more skills suited to my revenge, just as I had this time.

Having reached that conclusion, I decided to reconsider my plans moving forward.

“Even now, I might already be strong enough to fight not only Alto and the others, but even the Necro Demon on equal footing… But it’s still not enough.”

To truly accomplish my revenge.

I needed overwhelming power and the means to utterly break their spirits.

“I’ll obtain every last bit of it here, in this hell.”

With that new vow firmly in my heart, I plunged my bone dagger into my chest.