Lance felt like a weight had suddenly been lifted off his shoulders as he raised his hand and pointed at Jacob, Grace and Sophie with a smile on his face.

"Good job, guys," he said as all three of them smiled back at him in response. A wave of relief washed over his mind as the adrenaline rush finally faded and left behind just that: peace. It wasn't as if they had won anything or found any sort of treasure lying around here in New York; far from it. Still, they'd survived the fight, and Lance had gained a level.

"It wasn't just us," Sophie said, her smile fading. "What was that effect at the end?"

Grace shrugged before she looked away from the remains of the monster—the fire-covered ice ball combined with the mysterious effects had smashed it into a hundred pieces—and into the distance again while Sophie still stared at it intently. After a moment, the blonde girl seemed to accept what had happened though, since she turned away from Lance's group with a nod to herself before moving forward towards another building.

Lance watched her go for a second before following after her himself. He wanted to know more about this mysterious ability—especially whether it could be used on people like he did against monsters--but there wasn't anything he could do about it right now.

"[Assess] doesn't work on it," Jacob said after a moment. "I'm pretty sure my [Assess] skill is decently high level, but I'm returning a blank."

Lance tried his own skill.

[???-level ???]

Okay, that was a dead end. Could he improve Assess?

No, upgrading his attacking abilities was his top priority. He'd seen just now how helpless he was against a monster he couldn't [Mind Attack].

Name : Lance Samson

─ Race : Human

─ Level : 5

─ Class : None

─ HP: 19; Magic: 25; Strength: 18; Agility: 23; Luck: 20

─ Status Points: 4

─ Skills : Speed (S) +4; Perception (P) +1; Assess (P) +1; Stealth (E) +1, Mana Manipulation (M)

─ Skill Points: 5

─ Gear: Leather Jacket; Brown Belt; Black Trousers; Blue Shirt; Gun; Knife; Ring.

─ Special Abilities: [Mindread] (Charge: 60/100): Lance has the ability to read minds. [Presence Detection] (Charge: 82/100): He also can sense the presence of any other person within a ten-foot radius. He can use this skill to spy on people without them knowing. [Mind Attack] (Charge: 9/15): Lance can strike directly at another’s mind using his P stat (enhanced by M stat).

Alright. Last time, boosting Magic had helped increase his Special Abilities menu, but he still didn't know how strong his own abilities were.

Could his power be boosted like that? He hadn't noticed much of a change from boosting his Magic stat, though maybe he just hadn't noticed.

There was more work to be done.