While we waited for Douge to awake I started looking through all the notifications that I had waved off. I had gone up another two levels and distributed my stats placing another four into spirit and two more into both strength and intelligence.

  [Level 10]

  [ Stats: Strength 20, Constitution 13, Dexterity 10, Intelligences 20, Wisdom 10, Spirit 12]

  I knew now that spirit directly impacted my ability to penetrate an aura and had decided to bring it up to twenty as soon as possible. According to what Liliandra has told me, manipulating your mana into a tangible shield was the sign of a good adventurer and something that was required for the advancement test from town rank to city rank. I figured spirit might work both ways, giving me a shield of some kind once I had gotten it high enough.

  Other notifications were worthless now that the demon was dead and we were out of that weird transformation; however , a few really stood out to me.

  [Skill Overclock has leveled up. Skill level is now level 2]

  Skill: Overclock level 2. This skill allows you to temporarily increase your native stats allowing for physical and mental abilities to increase beyond your current level. Once this effect ends stat will slowly decrease back down to native level over the course of one hour This skill can be imparted on magical objects allowing for mana to be spent at a dangerous rate. This skill has a twelve hour cool down if used on your self. This skill has a one hour cool down if used on magical objects. Magical object overclocking can now be used while In a physical and mental overclock stat.]

  [ Skill: Aura : Mana stabilization has been removed due to skill Mark of the Void temporary access being removed.]

  [Party interface tab has been removed. All Authorized users will retain authorization however authorized users will be unable to use Interface until Skill:Aura: Mana stabilization has been obtained.]

  I had figured I would lose access to my aura skill but it still sucked I had wanted to check out everyone's stats while I had them in the Party tab I would just have to wait now

  [Skill: Mark Of The Void requirement 1/unknown have been met.]

  [Requirement met: Kill demon.]

  Huh. I thought. That's pretty nice wish it told me what the other requirements were. I groaned as I stood up from the ground, my body sore from the fight. Looking around I saw Liliandra who had decided to meditate sitting in a far corner. I knew she still had emotions to work out and that was something she would need to do herself despite that I still felt the need to go over and comfort her. Sophia was examining everything that the demon dropped. She was currently kneeling over the gear having placed it all out like a body laying down. Walking up to her I could see the troubled look on her face.

  “ What's wrong?” I asked. She held out a sheet of paper for me to grab and when I took it into my hands I immediately dropped it. The texture of human flesh repulsed me.

  “What the fuck.” I exclaimed

  “Read it.” Sophia demanded. I groaned and picked the strip of flesh back up. Carved into it was a message wherever this flesh came from the message was carved into their body and allowed to heal, creating scars. The message was written in the ancient language. My interface helpfully translated it using the tablet in my inventory.

  [ I despise your kind demon. However concessions have been made. You will trap the one who holds the Mark Of Light inside a rift with yourself. They will most likely survive the transformation you will need to finish them off. Once duty is done. You will continue your search for the bearer of the Mark Of The Void. A summoning ritual is currently in place in the slum of Xulun city from there your father will be released.]

  I froze; these were orders to kill someone and to find me

  “ What's this about a bearer of the Mark Of The Light?” I had already figured it was something to do with my skill, perhaps in the opposite but I wasn't sure. Sophia sighed there was sadness behind that long moment before she looked to Douge and then Liliandra.

  She pulled down her pants relieving spandex shorts lifting the left side and revealed a tattoo. The tattoo was an intricate design of a wolf howling up towards the moon. The top of Rocky crag. The wolf had a surprising amount of detail. It was as if I could touch the tattoo and feel the fur. I found myself staring and quickly looked away.

  “This is the Mark Of The Light. It is a sacred Mark gifted to a single person by the goddess Lumia. It grants the wielder. Great power along with an elemental affinity of light.” She quickly redressed her face was blushed. I could feel my own jaw working itself open and closed as I tried to speak but found no words coming out. Finally I managed to speak.

  “ Why show this to me? You have no reason to reveal such a secret.” I said she shook her head in response.

  “ I do. I found out your secret so it was only fair that I show you mine. Do not tell Douge or Liliandra I fear they would change. I know Liliandra is a follower of the church of Lumia and Douge he gets weird around religion.” She said.

  “ What do you mean you found out my secret?” I asked

  “ When you added me as an authorized user to your interface, which I still have no clue what that's about, it looks like some sort of computer screen, but I'll save those questions from you and explain it to the whole group. I digress. There was a notification One that told me my mark has conflicted with the Mark Of The Void. It said do to mark restrictions my Mark Of The Light cannot interact with it.” She found out. I wasn't mad like I felt I should be. I was more happy so I smiled at Sophia with a genuine smile, one of relief. I didn't even know what I felt relieved about.

  “So we are in this together Rin. I must apologize. Also for the hostility I pushed onto you. I'm sure you had heard the rumors that were going around. I was scared they were true that you were a descendant of my grandfather, the founder of Hunst Academy. I had seen you as a threat to my inheritance but I now know you are no threat and why my grandfather has taken an interest in you.” Sophia said.

  “ Good. No, it looks like we have some loot that we can examine.” I motion down to the robes and single sword that lay on the ground. Picked up the sword I examined it with my Interface.

  [ Blade of the Caprid. This weapon has been Mana infused and has gained the Skill. Tongue of the Caprid.]

  [ Skill: tongue of the Caprid. When blood coated this blade the wielder will regain mana to their mana reservoir. Mana gained 5% for 1 ounce.] I let out a long whistle and told Sophia the skill.

  “ You should have it. You are the up front fighter.” I said and she nodded, taking it replacing her current blade I held my hand out and she handed over her old blade that I stored into my inventory.

  “What was that?”

  “ What was what?”

  “ The sword just disappeared.”

  “ Ohh that's my inventory skill. I'll explain that all when Douge wakes up.” I picked up the robe to examine it but it was just a plain robe so I put that into my wardrobe.

  Douge woke up after a few hours despite his injury Sophia had him create a rock wall at the only entrance to the cavern both Sophia and Liliandra worked together to create a ritual that would strengthen the wall and hopefully protect us. I took mental notes and drew the ritual into a notepad on my tablet through my interface. I had decided to make four MREs for everyone. I had figured it would bring up everybody's moods just a little bit to eat some. I wouldn't really say flavorful but something other than oats and cheese.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “ Did you really only buy chicken enchilada MREs for dinner? Where's the variety man.” Douge was chipper for a man who was on death's door not too long ago.

  “ I didn't expect to be eating all of them as soon as I bought them. I figured they'd be something to keep on me for a long time.” I handed Douge his MRE and started working on Sophia's.

  “ How many of those do you have left?” Sophia asked

  “ Forty five I think sixteen breakfasts, sixteen lunches and fourteen dinners now. “ I said as I looked through my inventory to count them.

  “ We will have to ration them since we don't know how big this rift is. We really should share one each.” Sophia said

  “Come on Sophia, we should splurge tonight. Both Rin and Douge got seriously injured and they need their energy to heal.” Liliandra who was drooling at the smell her ears wiggly back and forth. “ Besides, we could probably just eat the monsters in this place and be fine.” All three of us shivered at the thought. But I did find myself wondering how they tasted. Liliandra groaned and started to go on a Link the explanation on how eating monster meat is completely fine. I mostly tuned her out as I got all of our food ready. Apparently there's a popular television show that depicted a man who was betrayed by somebody in his team and fell down a deep dungeon becoming trapped. He had no other option but to eat monster flesh and apparently gained incredible power. Apparently the rest of the show was about a revenge plot against some gods that pulled him to another universe or something like that. With dinner handed out it was time for me to explain my power. I explained everything to them from the Skreen attack all the way to Kenji's discovery in subsequent creation of malice. I even explain to them most of my abilities only leaving out the Mark Of The Void. Sophia noticed but didn't say anything.

  “ Your power makes no sense to me Rin. You clean, you don't have magical abilities. However, I've seen you cast insanely powerful magic spells.” Douge complained.

  “ That's Malice. Kenji and I created this gun with the sole intent to help augment my abilities. There's a lot of moving parts that let me do it. The shells I load into Malice all have words and commands engraved into the brass casings. The element syrup inside is what provides the Mana and the crystals focus it on it. Malice itself as an intricate laying of command words that allow me to form the Mana for my will just from my own imagination. If I run out of these magic bullets, I'm shit out of luck. All in all, it creates a great facsimile of magic.” I explained Douge just stared at me with a blink expression.

  “Yeah sure sounds good man.” I groaned and turned to the two girls.

  “ You two got any questions?”

  “I do.” Liliandra raised her hand like we were in class.” You said you get stat points and can distribute them between six stats. Can you explain what they are and what they do?”

  “ Of course. Strength, Constitution and dexterity I think are pretty obvious. It's very similar to how your elemental affinities can boost one of your attributes. Intelligence, wisdom and spirit are a little different I think. Intelligence seems to have a bearing on my interface and how it identifies things as well as my capacity to learn and memorize. I think it also helped with creating more powerful versions of the spells I'm trying to create, but I'm not sure. Wisdom, I couldn't really tell you I haven't added any points to it and until I do I doubt I'll see a difference in what it does. Spirit seems to act like mana density. I'm pretty sure the higher I can make my spirit the stronger I get against pure forms of mana. I'm hoping if I get it high enough it will give me an ability to mimic that mana shield the demon had.” I said.

  “ This is all very interesting but I think this chicken enchilada has flowed straight through me and I need a bathroom. So I think now it's a perfect time to figure out how we're gonna handle our business.” We all stared at Douge I held up my hands forming my left hand into a one and my right hand into a two.

  “ Two, definitely two.” Douge said Liliandra perked up jump up from where she was sitting.

  “ I got it, Douge. My dad told me to buy this but I thought he was crazy. I did it anyway. That's my dad you know but ooh man it's exciting that I get to use it.” She walked to a far corner away from the man group and pulled a small metal cube out of her dimensional storage bag. She placed it on the ground and pressed a button. Sophia, Douge and I all shared a look.

  “ You seem happy that Douge needs to poop.” I said. The cube slowly unfolded turning itself into a large rectangle standing straight up the walls where all smooth sheet metal with two electric scones on each side. The door had a small hand with a green vacant sign above it.

  “ Of course I am, do you know how much I paid to buy this self cleaning portable bathroom. It was a lot. Now we do need to feed it water crystal and wind crystals but there's a fully functioning toilet, bidet, and shower in there.”

  “ A shower?” I perked up as Douge rushed inside.” I would love to clean this blood off me. Douge hurry up and let me get in there!” I shouted

  Once all four of us had participated in good hygiene practices. We all settled back down in a circle to discuss a watch rotation, none of us felt safe here Sophia had originally proposed two-hour shifts for everybody with Doug going first so he can get a full six hours of sleep with me following second. Liliandra four was opposed to this and suggested that we allow Doug to sleep through the whole night since he was the most injured and that we do three-hour shifts for a total of nine hours. Douge and I both agreed. Sophia seemed visibly upset and we had to give her time to think about it before she actually agreed. The watch schedule was me, then Sophia and then Liliandra. None of us bothered to set up tents. Just opting to set out sleeping bags. Since I had the first shift I pulled out the wardrobe for my inventory and set it down so that it was laying on his back. I sat on the wardrobe pulling out my old laptop and desk lamp from my inventory. I plugged the desk lamp into the laptop to provide light for myself. Liliandra hadn't gone to sleep yet and she decided to join sitting on the wardrobe with me.

  “ What is the lamp for?” She asked. As I pulled out Malice and started to disassemble it looking over every piece for wear and tear.

  “ I'm just doing some basic maintenance on my gun.” I said softly not wanting to wake up Douge or Sophia.” Kenji was worried about using the mana crystals this way. He was very vocal about his concerns on how it might damage the gun. Alverez had assured us that they most likely won't have to worry about that since he got the classification of a relic but. I worry too. I don't want it to break at an inopportune time.” Liliandra nodded hair tail seemed to be swishing back and forth along the wardrobe.

  “ Do you often wonder why we end up in these situations?”

  Liliandra asked me.

  “ I do. I find myself asking how I ended up here and why. It often feels like I'm fighting things a lot stronger than myself as well. That demon was at least City ranked even if it was probably at the bottom. I shouldn't have been able to fight it but my powers gave me the opportunity I needed to survive. Like where only village rank. The more I think about it, the more I'm baffled that Valder would send us on a mission to hunt down a bunch of village rank monsters. That sounds like something for a town ranker or above.” I said. Liliandra chuckled, her laugh was sweet and soft.

  “ You might me Village rank but the rest of us are actually all town rank. I like to think that you're here because the goddess guided you to us.”

  “ You think the goddess put me up against some skreen and took my ability to use magic away as a guide to bring me here?” I scoffed

  “ No, I believe that you would have ended up in our party no matter what. If you never encountered those skreen I guarantee you would have gotten your neural implant removed. Found you had an incredible power that would have led the founder to you and brought you to the academy. However, things don't always go according to the Goddess' plan and so she reacted and gave you this power you have now.” Liliandra smiled

  “. You know I never really took you for the religious type. I'm rather agnostic myself.” I said

  “ It's my culture. As the princess I've been subjected to religious doctrine but I do genuinely believe our goddess Lumia is real. There are stories of her leaving a mark on a trusted hero and wherever that hero goes, prosperity follows.” If I hadn't seen Sophia's own mark and known about my own I would have thought Liliandra was full of shit but now I find myself believing her. There was a long moment of silence as the two of us just sat together. Liliandra was the one who broke the silence.

  “ I wanted to say thank you. I know we haven't been a team for long and we've known each other just as long as we've been a team. But it really meant a lot to me what you said back there.” I tilted my head at Liliandra. I had a feeling on what she meant but I need to be sure.

  “ What do you mean?” I asked

  “ When You stood up to the demon. It was amazing and made me happy to think that you need me.” She paused awkwardly for a moment. “And Douge and Sophia, “ she added.

  “ Of course.” I smiled, "I have come to like you.” I let my words handle as Liliandra blushed. I knew she was misunderstanding my reason for needing them but I didn't correct her. I even chose my words to make her think her version was correct. It left a pit in my gut and I left myself feeling disgusted and angry. Liliandra hesitantly leaned against me falling asleep. The pit grabbed at my insides. It wasn't long before Sophia woke up and came to relieve me. She saw Liliandra leaning against me and just sat down on my other side.

  “ You know you're now trapped there until she wakes up right?” Sophia said “where did this wardrobe come from? It looks like it's from the academy.”

  “I can get out if I want to.” As if to try and prove me wrong Liliandra adjusted so she was laying down arms wrapped around me. I sighed. “ It did come from the academy. Don't worry, Valder was watching me as I put it into my inventory. It didn't say anything so I think it's approved.”

  “Sure. Let me help you so you can go to sleep.”

  Sophia gently removed Liliandra's arms from my waist giving her a large crystal she had found on the ground to cuddle. Once I was free I left saying goodbye to Sophia as I went to bed.