My eyes went straight to Agility.
Sitting at D+, my body was certainly lighter than when I first transmigrated, but it still lacked the explosive athleticism I was used to in my past life.
That trial against Furcas made it painfully clear how unforgiving a lack of speed could be.
I tapped the small [+] next to Agility.
[Agility: D+ → C- → C → C+]
[AP: 6 + 6 + 6]
[Cost: 18 AP]
[Confirm Allocation?]
’Six points per upgrade? I thought the cost only went up by one with each new letter rank. Guess C-rank is where things start getting expensive.’
Eighteen points was a lot, but I needed the speed, so I confirmed the allocation.
The side effects kicked in.
It started as pressure in my chest, then spread through my body and down into my legs.
Heat followed, and within seconds, my shirt was sticking to my back.
I could feel something happening around my waist, a strange pressure beneath the skin as the fat there seemed to shrink away little by little.
It wasn’t that painful, but it was very uncomfortable.
Then the heat reached my legs. My thighs and calves started to ache, the muscles twitching and tightening like I’d just finished a brutal workout.
It lasted about twenty seconds before things finally calmed down.
I let go of the desk and took a step.
My feet barely made a sound on the floor. The sluggish way I usually moved in this body was gone.
I was already in the athletic range, well above the average human in terms of speed. The only reason I still felt slower was because my agility in my past life was probably a bit higher.
Talk about blessed genetics.
No wonder I got so many offers to join the track and field team back in college.
’How different do I look now?’
I pulled off my sweaty shirt and walked over to the mirror.
The first thing I noticed was my stomach. Most of the fat was gone, leaving me with an ordinary-looking body.
I wasn’t muscular, but there was now a faint outline of my abs.
My face looked a little different too. My cheeks were less round, and my jawline was more defined.
Name: Raven Park
Level: 4 [110/400 XP]
— Personal Attributes —
Strength: D
Agility: C+
Stamina: D
Intelligence: B+
Charisma: C-
Attribute Points: 2
— Cult Attributes —
Members: 1
Reputation: None
Influence: Extremely low
Loyalty: Committed
Resources: Extremely low
Losing weight bumped my Stamina and Charisma up, and just as I’d assumed, getting healthier improved my Intelligence too. That saved me a bunch of points.
But the physical changes from raising Agility were starting to slow down, so I couldn’t rely on it for free upgrades forever.
I tapped on the Cult Attributes section. The line reading Members: 1 expanded, revealing Lea Han’s name sitting beneath it. I picked her name.
The standard menu shattered into ripples, and several system notifications materialized in front of my face.
[Notification: Cult Synergy Unlocked]
[Detecting Active Cult Member: Lea Han]
[Loyalty Rating: Committed]
The high rating was probably because of her twisted obsession with me. I shouldn’t expect everyone else to rate me that highly.
Before I could digest that, another box popped up.
[Condition Triggered by Your First Recruit’s High Loyalty]
[You may forge a ’Synergy’ with ONE member.]
Effect: Draws a part of the target’s unique nature, granting you a random trait, skill, or attribute boost based on their personal profile.
Constraint 1: Once established, a Synergy Link cannot be changed or canceled for 30 days.
Constraint 2: The target’s Loyalty rating affects the result. Committed is the minimum, while Absolute is the highest.
I read through the conditions twice, making sure I didn’t miss any fine print.
A thirty-day lock-in period was a long time to commit to a single slot, but right now, I only had one cult member anyway.
And despite how unpredictable Lea was, her disturbing fixation on me included, her stats and traits were both rare and well above average.
’What are my options?’
The system offered three randomized pull categories based on her profile: a physical attribute boost, an active combat skill, or one of her innate personal traits.
What I really wanted were her traits.
Limit Breaker.
That was the monstrous trait sitting on her profile, the very reason her growth potential was so terrifying.
"Alright," I said, tapping the confirmation icon. "Establish a link with Lea Han."
[Establishing Synergy with Member: Lea Han...]
[Randomizing Synergy Output...]
’Please give me the trait. Please give me the trait.’
The screen flickered violently, lines of text spinning rapidly before snapping into a single glowing golden message.
[Synergy Link Established!]
[You have acquired the Trait: Limit Breaker (Minor)]
[Description: Artificially triggers an extreme surge of adrenaline. For One Minute, all physical attributes are increased depending on the user’s emotional state.]
[Constraint: Once the duration expires, the user suffers severe physical weakness and exhaustion for 24 hours.]
Finally, things were starting to work in my favor. In a life-or-death situation, a single minute of enhanced physical power was an eternity.
Paired with my one-minute summon, I now had two terrifying trump cards hidden up my sleeve—even if using it meant I would be practically crippled the second the timer ran out.
One member, and she’d already given me a powerful trait. Maybe I should pay more attention to who I recruited instead of just counting heads.
"Not bad," I murmured, closing the system window.
With this power-up, I wasn’t going to that spiritual meeting just to sit quietly in the back.
I was going in like I used to walk into a singles party—confident, shameless, and already looking for my next target.