Kevin saw the info on his screen, and his face twitched with pure excitement.

The Talent from the Mechanic path was the one ability he knew best from his past life.

He never thought that after rebirth, he could get it again, and an even stronger, higher-tier version!

He quickly tapped to open the Talent details.

To his joy, "Mechanical Sovereign" was way stronger than "Iron Heart".

Even though it was just one rank higher, the gap between them was night and day.

In his past life, his A-Tier Talent, "Iron Heart," let him use his own body as the center to build himself a powerful mech suit.

But he had to find both the materials for the armor and the fuel to power it himself.

The only real edge "Iron Heart" gave him was a 100% sync rate with the machine, making the suit move smoother than a real human.

With that suit and tech weapons, Kevin could definitely become a future soldier with strength above normal humans.

But strictly speaking, this Talent wasn’t exactly game-breaking.

"Mechanical Sovereign" had two crazy perks over "Iron Heart".

First, it didn’t need fuel.

Kevin could control any machine directly without using external power.

Second, it worked remotely.

Any machine he built became his mechanical followers, with their own basic brains.

Just with these two things, Kevin could already build and lead a giant army of machines.

The only things holding back its full power were probably resource use and finding blueprints.

Kevin even wondered if the reason the Mechanic path’s Talent got a lower rank was that it usually lacked good counters against spirits and rule-based Eldritch on this cursed sea.

Otherwise, just because of "Mechanical Sovereign"’s army warfare, even other SSS-Tier Talents might not be strong enough to go up against it.

Just then, a string of alerts suddenly chimed in his ears.

[Detected: Covenant-bearer "Luna Cassabreya" obtained "Scale Garb of the Abyssal Sea Serpent" x1, "Tears of the Gorgon" x1, "Bracelet of the Twisted Warlock" x1, "Belt of the Pirate Captain" x1.]

[Beginning reimbursement...]

[Reimbursement rate: 10x...]

[Congratulations! You obtained "Scale Garb of the Abyssal Sea Serpent" x10, "Tears of the Gorgon" x10, "Bracelet of the Twisted Warlock" x10, "Belt of the Pirate Captain" x10.]

[Tears of the Gorgon: C-Tier potion. Lowers Sanity by 20 and Agility by 3 for 10 minutes. Greatly boosts resist to curses, mutations, poison, and mental attacks.]

[Scale Garb of the Abyssal Sea Serpent: C-Tier gear. Lowers Willpower by 1, boosts Agility by 3, and increases health recovery by 50%. While equipped, drains Stamina by 1 every hour.]

[Bracelet of the Twisted Warlock: C-Tier gear. Lowers Strength by 1, boosts Perception by 3, and increases Stamina recovery by 50%. While equipped, drains Sanity by 1 every hour.]

[Belt of the Pirate Captain: C-Tier gear. Lowers Perception by 1, boosts Strength by 3, and increases Sanity recovery by 50%. While equipped, drains HP by 1 every hour.]

Hearing the alerts, Kevin immediately turned his head to look at Luna.

Right then, Luna was holding a few pieces of gear and potions she just traded for, leaning in close to show him off: "Honey, look what I swapped for!"

Kevin felt a burst of sweet perfume wash right into his arms.

He didn’t check the gear right away. Instead, he rewarded Luna with a hot, heavy kiss.

Luna’s face flushed bright red, and a sweet feeling filled her chest.

I knew it. To him, I matter more than all this stuff.

With that thought, she ran her tongue hotly along Kevin’s neck and urged, "Check the gear already."

Kevin smiled and shook his head. "You traded it? It’s yours."

Luna’s eyes went wide. "They’re mine?"

Kevin nodded seriously. "You’re a key member of this crew. You get stronger, so we all survive better."

Luna’s eyes instantly filled with tears. "Kevin, you’re too good. Having you as my man is the biggest blessing I could ask for."

She tugged the hair tie off her wrist and started pulling her hair back.

Kevin’s eye twitched. "Wait. Didn’t we just go at it twice?"

Luna bit her lip, flashing a seductive look. "This time, let’s try the other side. It’s tighter."

[Affection +10]

[Affection +20]

[Affection +30]

One hour later.

Kevin hauled himself off the bed, rubbed his temples, and downed a full bottle of Holy Spring before his stamina finally came back.

That temptress Luna was way too much. If the Holy Spring hadn’t kept him going, he would’ve completely burned out.

Kevin opened his system inventory, materialized the three pieces of gear Luna traded for, and slid them on.

The 「Scale Garb of the Abyssal Sea Serpent」 melted straight into his skin the moment he put it on. It went invisible, leaving zero trace of clothes. Kevin waved his arm and felt a sudden, light agility in his body.

Then he pulled up the status panel and checked his stats.

[Name: Kevin]

[Status: Healthy]

[Strength: 7 (5-1+3)]

[Willpower: 5 (6-1)]

[Agility: 7 (4+3)]

[Constitution: 4]

[Perception: 8 (6-1+3)]

[Sanity: 100/100, -1 per hour, recovery +50%]

[Stamina: 100/100, -1 per hour, recovery +150%]

[HP: 100/100, -1 per hour, recovery +50%]

[Talent: Lance of Condemnation (SSS), Covenant of the Saint (SSS), Mechanical Sovereign (S)]

[Eldritch Artifact: Wraith Revolver (B), Regeneration Source(C), Pirate’s Crystal Skull (C)]

[Gear: Scale Garb of the Abyssal Sea Serpent (C), Bracelet of the Twisted Warlock (C), Belt of the Pirate Captain (C)]

[covenant-bearer: Luna Cassabreya (Bronze), Reimbursement rate 10x]

Kevin glanced at the panel and gave a satisfied nod.

It was only day one since the Eldritch descent, and he’d already snagged three Artifacts, three Talents, and three gear pieces.

In his past life, this was a dream he wouldn’t even dare to have.

He remembered last time, it took him a full month after the descent to get his first C-Tier gear. The first Artifact didn’t show up until three months in.

He had to keep building that lead.

That was the only way he could crush Bella and Joseph the second he ran into them!

Kevin turned his focus back to the stat panel.

Most of his stats beat normal Survivors thanks to the gear, but take that away, and his base numbers were just average.

He needed to bind more covenant-bearers.

Their growth had to feed back into his stats.

Relying only on himself, stat boosts moved way too slow.

Just as he was plotting his next move, the ship lurched hard.

Kevin glanced at the window on instinct and saw the ship was sliding backward.

Realizing something was seriously wrong, he cursed under his breath. "Damn it!"

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The sound of knocking hit the door.

Kevin opened the door and ran right into Amelia.

"Something’s wrong out there. Go check!"

Without a word, Amelia grabbed Kevin and dragged him toward the deck.

The moment they stepped onto the deck, Kevin’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.

The sea was rough and choppy, and the ship was sliding backward toward the terrifying black curtain behind them.

Inside that black curtain, crimson lightning flashed and giant shadowy figures writhed wildly, looking ready to burst out and tear the ship apart any second.

Kevin’s brows knotted together. "This is bad. The mast broke yesterday. We can’t raise sails now, and the current will drag us straight into that black curtain."

Amelia’s voice trembled. "Can we fix it? I can help you put the mast back up."

Kevin looked at the mast snapped in two and sighed. "Putting it up won’t work. The structure is already broken, and the wind will snap it again. We need a new one."

Before he could finish, a system prompt suddenly lit up in his vision...

[Detected mechanical structure: "Sail and Steering Mechanism (Damaged)". Can scan blueprints by touch. Scan time: 120 minutes...]

[Mechanical Structure: Sail and Steering Mechanism]

[Required Parts: Mast, yardarm, rigging lines, pulley blocks...]

[Material Needed: 25kg iron ingots, 100kg timber...]

Kevin’s eyes lit up. "We’ve got a way!"

He looked at Amelia. "No time to explain. Just do exactly what I say."

"Go get Stephanie and Leo right now. Gather all their reward supplies from last night—bread, fresh water, even condoms—and hand everything to Luna. Then tell her to call me on the walkie-talkie."

At that critical moment, even though Amelia was full of questions, she chose to trust Kevin, turned on her heel, and rushed into the cabin.