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Edgar seemed displeased with Homelander.
This was Kevin's guess, derived from his conversation with Edgar.
This was also normal.
Although Homelander's abilities were powerful and he was currently Vought's most perfect Supe, setting that aside, there wasn't a single trait about him that Edgar would like.
Arrogant, conceited, reckless, extremely temperamental, and various other flaws.
Such an existence, if Vought couldn't find someone to replace him, Homelander would probably have been removed from The Seven's captain position long ago.
So, when Edgar believed Kevin had the potential to replace him, he came to talk with Kevin, probing Kevin's intentions.
But in reality, Kevin had no interest in being the captain of The Seven.
As for making money, Kevin was already earning quite a lot, mainly because he often went to the seabed to salvage ancient artifacts and gold, silver, and jewels from shipwrecks to sell.
The card not belonging to Vought had already accumulated tens of millions, and even if he were to leave Vought now and pay a large breach of contract fee, Kevin would still have a good amount of savings.
Kevin no longer placed much importance on his status within The Seven.
The reason he remained in The Seven was that this identity made it convenient to access the plot, and accessing the plot allowed Kevin to gain more skill points.
Kevin had discovered a long time ago that skill points were not only acquired by changing the plot.
Changing the plot was merely for obtaining the most basic skill points; if Kevin could participate in the plot after the changes, he would continuously gain skill points.
In other words, changing and participating were the correct ways to acquire skill points.
Kevin keeping Kimiko with him was itself a part of participating in the plot, and because of this, even though he couldn't change the plot during this period, Kevin gained enough skill points to upgrade Water Manipulation to LV4.
And as for participating in the plot, staying in The Seven was undoubtedly the easiest way to do so.
After all, the entire plot of The Boys revolved around The Boys, The Seven, and Vought.
This was the sole motivation for Kevin to stay there.
If Kevin had another way to gain skill points, he wouldn't necessarily need to stay in The Seven.
"Captain, huh... feels like another hassle..."
Back home, Kevin rubbed his forehead in thought.
Homelander was easy to appease, but not always, and if he discovered someone was lying to him, he would mercilessly kill them, even if it was the person he loved most.
For example, Madelyn.
Although Madelyn had only used Homelander and 'loved' him in a special capacity, it was still one of Homelander's most beloved people.
Yet, upon learning that Madelyn had concealed his son, Homelander killed her without much hesitation.
From this, it could be seen that Homelander himself was an extremely selfish and cruel person.
Appeasement and flattery could only stabilize him for a while.
To stabilize him permanently, one could only be stronger than him.
But Kevin currently didn't have the strength to contend with Homelander; if Homelander were to know at this moment that Kevin might become the new captain of The Seven...
Homelander would probably genuinely harbor murderous intent towards Kevin.
However, speaking of improving strength, Kevin currently had fourteen skill points... no, fifteen skill points, so he could try allocating them.
Through his interactions with Kimiko, Kevin gained two skill points, adding to the twelve skill points he originally obtained from changing the hijacking incident, making it fourteen.
But what Kevin never expected was that today he did nothing but communicate with these survivors and gained a new skill point.
This, on one hand, confirmed Kevin's speculation that participating in the plot after changes was also a part of gaining skill points.
On the other hand, it also gave Kevin more options.
He now planned to establish a 'Victim Assistance Team' specifically to help the characters he saved by changing the plot.
To gain more skill points this way.
However, fifteen skill points were still not enough for Kevin to upgrade one of his LV4 skills, but for job advancement... Kevin could try that.
After all, Kevin really wanted to know what job advancement actually was.
"First, I'll put points into Water Sword, then Water Ball. Hmm... let's try one first..."
Having decided, Kevin looked at the two skill icons behind Water Manipulation, full of complaints, and muttered to himself.
He had always found it strange; since he had Water Manipulation, wasn't it redundant to have something like Water Ball and Water Sword?
So, Kevin had never even looked at these two skills, lacking even the desire to click on them.
Yet, these two skills were mandatory for the 'Job Advancement' path, which made Kevin feel disgusted, unable to decide whether to invest in them or not.
Now that he had plenty of skill points, he could try clicking on them to see what these two skills actually were.
Anyway, lighting up skill points was divided into two steps: one step was allocating skill points, and the other was confirming directly.
If these two skills were not to his liking, and job advancement wasn't as good as imagined, Kevin could completely withdraw the allocated skill points and save them for the next upgrade.
He first clicked on Water Sword, and the number of skill points decreased by one. Then Kevin clicked on Water Sword again, and the number of skill points decreased by one again...
Wait.
Decreased by one!?
Kevin had put two levels into Water Sword without confirming the skill point allocation, then looked at the remaining skill points.
It was thirteen, correct.
He then tentatively put one level into Water Sword, and the number of skill points changed from thirteen to twelve.
This surprised Kevin.
"This skill only needs one point to level up??"
Previous skills required one point for level one, two points for level two, four points for level three, and eight points for level four.
Each time, it was a double increase.
Kevin had originally thought these two skills would be the same, but he didn't expect them to be so skill-point efficient.
"No... no matter how efficient, this skill is still useless, isn't it? It's still a waste of my skill points..."
Although the waste was less than anticipated.
Kevin grumbled inwardly, his hands quickly leveling Water Sword to level three, and also Water Ball to level three.
Of course, he only allocated them and did not truly confirm their use.
Then Kevin realized that he seemed to have misunderstood something.
This Water Sword and Water Ball didn't seem as useless as he had imagined.
Kevin could indeed form swords and balls by manipulating water, that was correct.
But the skills unlocked by skill points were a little different from the Water Swords and Water Balls he formed himself.
Simply put, the skills unlocked by skill points came with enchantments.
If the Water Sword Kevin created could cut through ordinary wood and metal under his control, then the Water Sword created using the skill could cut higher-grade alloys, and it might even be possible to cut through the tough skin of some Supes.
Of course, that would require a higher skill level.
The same was true for Water Ball; the Water Ball Kevin created independently was fine for hitting people, but it might take some effort to smash someone's head open.
However, the Water Ball unlocked by skill points could easily smash a person's skull, and the higher the level, the greater the power.
So...
"This is magic!!!"
Kevin finally understood why there were two seemingly useless skills in the skill tree.
If it was magic, then it was understandable.
Magic, by nature, possessed inexplicable mysterious power.
Kevin, vaguely guessing that these two skills were magic, was a little impatient to click on the 'Job Advancement' skill icon.
Fortunately, the 'Job Advancement' skill icon only required four skill points to light up.
And when Kevin had allocated his skills but not yet confirmed them, three shimmering icons appeared before Kevin's eyes on the skill tree.
The three icons had bases of light green, light blue, and light red, standard primary colors.
The patterns on the three icons were also different.
The light green icon showed a small figure suspended in ocean waves, bare-chested and muscular, like a fighter.
The light blue icon was of a slender figure, wearing a long hooded cloak, holding a long staff taller than the figure, like a magic staff.
The light red icon was a bearded man, simply dressed, holding a thick book, with fish patterns surrounding him.
And Kevin's guess was correct; the three icons represented three professions.
The green icon was for The Deep Fighter, the blue icon was for Ocean Mage, and the red icon was for Messenger of the Sea God.
Among the three icons, only the Ocean Mage icon was currently shimmering.
The Ocean Mage skill tree was connected to Kevin's Water Sword and Water Ball skill icons.
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