In DIO, users could gain new skills by engaging in certain activities or learning. When it came to those at Rank 9, these ignorant players knew nothing about their skills. In order to improve their skills, they needed the ability to do so rather than merely hard work. For example, the following amount of cultivation was necessary to get to Rank 8 from Rank 9.

Even if they failed, users still earned cultivation points from attempting the Hand Skill. However, they needed to achieve ‘success’ to reach a higher rank. A user’s internal energy must first be circulated through their regular acupoint before being focused on the power to perform the Hand Skill. This process needed to be repeated 100 times without any failure whatsoever. Otherwise, no matter how many times they tried, whether it be 1,000 or 10,000 times, their cultivation points wouldn’t increase.

At Rank 4, Yongno had the following cultivation points.

As a user progressed in rank, more talent was gradually required to level up rather than effort alone. Of course, it wasn’t entirely impossible for users to rank up with an immense amount of work, but this only worked when the individual’s skill was suitable to their current rank. However, if this skill level was insufficient, then it was impossible. However, there was a small problem - this process took a long time. Still, as long as a player had the skill, their rank would eventually improve. However, starting from Rank 5, the advanced level, it became more difficult for users to rank up since they needed to have skill cultivation points for [The Next Level of Mastery].

Whenever users ranked up, their cultivation points, which they earned from perfect successes, were increased by ten times. If someone at Rank 9 performed suitable skills for their rank 100 times, they’d attain Rank 8. However, if they tried to rank up again, they would need to operate the same Hand Skill 1,000 times.

Likewise, if Rank 7 users were looking to rank up, they needed 10,000 perfect successes. Getting to Rank 5 from Rank 6 required 100,000 uses, whereas Rank 5 to Rank 4 demanded a million instances. The next was ten million, a hundred million, a billion, and finally, users would need to successfully cultivate ten billion times if they wanted to achieve the letter ranks such as Master Rank and Rank A.

Yet, that wasn’t all. If users wanted to reach greater heights, they needed a hundred billion successes to achieve Rank AA, followed by a trillion for Rank S and ten trillion for Rank SS. For Rank Ultimate, commonly known as the Grandmaster level of the most perfected skill, users had to experience a hundred trillion instances of successful cultivation, an impossible amount of work.

That was why users calculated the cultivation points for both failed attempts and successful ones to narrowly achieve 100 percent. If they believed they had successfully cultivated their skill, players could check their cultivation points and see if they could acquire [The Next Level of Mastery].

‘The Body Strengthening skill isn’t going higher than Rank 7. What exactly are the criteria for ranking up? Sometimes it ranks up faster than others, and sometimes nothing happens.’

And here was a young man who had never checked his cultivation points, let alone knew of their existence. Of course, that was Mari’s fault since she thought it was unnecessary and never taught him about it, but ironically, this indicated the extent of his talent.

Basically, it was impossible to rank up his skill by only using cultivation points earned through ordinary successes. With Yongno’s Hand Skill alone, it was suitable for his rank, and if he focused and didn’t weaken it, he could only release two or three shots before his internal martial arts were drained. In other words, the skill rank wasn’t something that would eventually rise from usage; users had to actively achieve [The Next Level of Mastery] themselves.

As long as users had the ability, they could easily progress. The required skill cultivation points for [The Next Level of Mastery] were fixed at ten percent, no matter how high the rank. So, if players had a skill that was one rank higher than their current level, they could rank up by performing the skill ten times.

Then, what if someone had a skill that was two levels higher? This allowed them to rank up at an even faster pace. If this skill was equivalent to Rank AA, the player could get to Rank A by performing the skill only nine times. After all, using a skill that was two levels higher than the user would still grant 100 percent of the cultivation points regardless.

‘Ugh, my stamina is running out.’

Yongno recently realized that he could consume Energy to dive longer. In fact, it was unusual to use internal energy rather than holding one’s breath, as those who spent extensive periods underwater generally relied on their Stamina. However, Yongno was unaware of this since he had the special ability, Diving.

In any case, he finally discovered a way to use his excessive Stamina, which consisted of 120 points, including the 70-point bonus from his title. Yongno only had fifteen years’ worth of internal martial arts, but this was such an immense amount of force that swimming couldn’t expend it all.

In real life, Yongno got exhausted after sprinting for twenty seconds, but in DIO, he could continue at this pace for twenty minutes straight. If he was running 100 meters in ten seconds, then whether it be physically or biologically, he wasn’t a normal human anymore. He was a completely different existence, from his DNA to the proteins in his body.

‘In fact, this is just a game regardless of DNA or protein.’

Yongno’s current stats were as follows:

He had successfully increased all of his stats to their limit. Although the maximum capacity for a Level 1 user was 50 points, some stats had been raised to what should’ve only been seen in someone at Level 2. Yet, Yongno also had some stats that were less than 50 points. Regen was increased by one point when a user’s HP and Stamina both increased by three points each. Due to the 50-point limit, Yongno could only earn 30 Stamina points and 30 HP, so his Regen couldn’t go past 40 points.

His Mana Gathering was only 40 points as well. Thankfully, though, he had significantly improved his Mana Gathering and Magic Resistance while performing the Golden Pill Immortal Technique. If users operated or cultivated a special Qi Technique, they could increase these two stats individually, but Yongno didn’t practice that kind of training.

Agility hadn’t hit the stat limit either. It grew as users trained and adapted more to quick movement and extreme combat situations. However, Yongno hadn’t encountered any monsters yet, so he had no chance to increase that stat.

And when it came to luck….

‘Yay, I found another clam!’

Yongno’s luck had improved somewhat, but this wasn’t from anything specific he did. Users couldn’t raise luck points artificially. With this said, was it possible to increase luck by cultivating it constantly? No, since luck was uncontrollable, it fluctuated every day. Sometimes it was high, and other times it was low. If there was a way to develop this stat, only something akin to a blessing from a high priest could work.

DIO players earned 100 bonus points every time they leveled up. Just as their name implied, because these points were a bonus, users could choose to increase one of their stats by 100 points. However, a Level 10 user couldn’t split his 1,000 bonus points to raise one stat by 999 points and put one point into luck. In this game, as a user’s stats increased, they had to consume more bonus points to increase their chosen stat.

When compared to a user with only 50 Strength points, it was much more challenging for a user with 500 points to increase their stat by one. This was because as users approached the latter part of the game, the difficulty of raising their stats rose. Players could progress rapidly when they first started playing, but they couldn’t maintain this speed as they grew stronger.

Due to their varying characteristics, this didn’t apply to the different spiritual powers, but a user’s stats doubled with every 100 points. This meant that they also depleted their points faster. Before a user’s stat was at 100 points, they consumed one bonus point to increase a stat by one. Yet, at around 100 points, two bonus points were needed for one stat point. In other words, the bonus point consumption ratio went from one-to-one, then two-to-one, three-to-one, four-to-one, five-to-one, and so on with every 100 points. If a user earned 1,000 points after reaching Level 10, the Master Level, they would only get around 400 stat points if they focused on a single stat.

Bam!

Yongno struck a huge fish nearby with the Great Strength Vajra Hand. This formidable Hand Skill could leave a clear handprint after hitting a steel plate; thus, after its head was struck, the fish died instantly before it could react.

Yongno was surprised by how massive the fish was. Before, he’d attacked without a second thought since it swam past him, but he didn’t know that it was twice his size.

‘Wow! I truly am 900 meters below the surface. All kinds of weird fish exist! It doesn’t look like a shark or a whale and not even tuna….’

After a moment, the body disappeared, then a pack of fresh fish fillets appeared.

‘Hmm, I’m getting sick of eating fish… and without a spicy dipping sauce.’

Nevertheless, it was still too good to throw away, so Yongno put it in his inventory. Lately, he’d learned that dead animals dissipated into an item after five seconds. Users outside the game knew of this, but Yongno had only noticed it recently.

Mari also told him that if he put a creature in his inventory within ten seconds of its death, he could acquire its entire body and not just part of it. However, this only applied to dead animals and not monsters. As such, this was the best route for users to get as many things as possible from the animals.

However, Yongno didn’t do this since he was merely hunting for food and didn’t need the entire body. Plus, preparing the body to eat was too annoying, and above all….

‘My inventory can hold up to 100 kilograms, so it’s useless to take that whole fish. Besides, that thing seemed like it weighed over 400 kilograms.’

Splash.

Then, another enormous fish swam near him. Of course, it was only natural for a fish to be fast in the water, but it was so unbelievably swift that Yongno turned on the map and checked his location.

‘One thousand meters deep….’

This was a new record. At last, this dive had allowed him to sink to the deepest and darkest parts of the ocean he'd seen so far. The higher water pressure was also another aspect.

‘The water pressure is insane!’

He was talking in a matter-of-fact fashion, but this pressure was actually terrifying. America’s Seawolf-class nuclear power submarine or Russia’s Alpha-class or Sierra-class submarine could dive to depths of up to 600 to 700 meters below sea level, but those were special cases. Other nuclear-powered submarines usually operated at a depth of approximately 400 meters. So, how could a human dive 1,000 meters underwater without any protective gear? Even a submarine with a titanium hull could get crushed if it descended to this depth.

With this in consideration, even if Yongno had internal martial arts, this was still abnormal. If users had to endure the water pressure at this depth, they would need three cycles of a Self-Defense Technique at the least.

‘If I didn’t earn the Water-Friendly skill, I couldn’t dive this far.’

After reaching Rank 3 in Swimming, Yongno gained this skill, allowing him to control water and withstand the cold. Thankfully, he could also manipulate the water within a meter around him and remove the water pressure applied to his body. This acquired cold resistance also meant that he could endure the near subzero temperatures in the deep sea. As a result, it was relatively easy for him to sink to such depths.

Tada!

Suddenly, a giant turtle jumped in front of him. Its shell alone appeared to be wider than three meters.

‘How can a turtle be this big?’

Yongno was bewildered at its gigantic size, but he calmed down after he saw the turtle’s innocent black eyes. Unlike its surprisingly big body, the turtle looked quite cute.

‘Whoa, it’s a sea turtle; I’ve only seen them on TV. There’s a lot of fish in this ocean, but I haven’t seen any turtles, so I thought they don’t live here, but wow! I never expected to see one in the deep sea!’

As he patted the turtle on its head, Yongno recalled the image of sea turtles he had seen on TV programs. In his memories, a turtle held a fish in its mouth, though the latter was larger than the turtle. While Yongno was interested in how the slow sea turtle had caught the fish, the narrator of the show spoke calmly.

“Unlike their cute appearance, sea turtles are wild hunters of the ocean.”

Crunch.

‘AWK?!’

The sea turtle suddenly bit his hand, bewildering Yongno as he tried to shake his hand away. Alas, it didn’t budge due to the turtle’s strong bite force, which also broke several bones in his wrist. Yongno channeled his internal force into his left hand and performed Body Strengthening, then used his other hand to operate the Great Strength Vajra Hand and strike the turtle’s head. However….

WHAM!

‘Why is it so hard?!’

Gold dust clouds were already spreading from his left hand. If Yongno lowered his guard, he could lose his hand forever. He felt threatened by the turtle’s biting force, and he raised his right hand again before changing his mind. Instead, he concentrated his internal force on his left hand and, after a second, made it explode.

BOOM!

When a massive force surged into its throat, the sea turtle released his hand and retreated, but before Yongno could feel relieved, the giant turtle shot toward him.

‘Ugh!’

Yongno crashed into the nearby cliff as his head buzzed. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach, so he used Body Strengthening throughout his entire body before observing the turtle’s movements. The hole in the animal’s stomach seemed to absorb the water, but shortly after, the sea turtle fired itself at Yongno like a huge cannonball.