In the middle of the night, after all three of them took turns to Meditate — though mostly Hiina — the group entered the cave again. This time, Hiina used one additional light talisman to illuminate the ceiling as well. They managed to go a bit further than on the last attempt, but the constant harassment from the bats still forced them to back out.

  Seeing how frustrated she got, Zalanir decided to offer advice; otherwise, it would take maybe weeks or months to get deep inside. Even though she was level 46, the highest of the bunch, her combat wasn’t really suited to take on these bats.

  “I remember on the first attempt during the day, we got quite far only scouting in front without getting assaulted by the bats. I am wondering what if we continue like that? Maybe the bats would ignore us? You know, as long as we don’t shove the light into their faces …”

  “I had the same thought. Looks like the light doesn’t help as much as we want. Maybe we could try placing the talisman on the ground instead?” Rafnick added.

  Suddenly, Zalanir tensed up because he picked up a faint sound behind Hiina, like someone or something had just made a heavier step than usual. There was no other sounds after that. Darkness and emptiness were all he could see.

  Zalanir averted his eyes to Rafnick and Hiina, but both of them were acting like normal. But he was sure they weren’t the only one in this cave mouth at the moment. He trusted his ears more than his eyes, and if his ears sent a different signal compared to his eyes, he would listen to the former all the time. However, he didn’t want to alert whoever or whatever was there that he was aware just yet. He needed more info before acting hastily. Could very well be his mistake for being too sensitive. Though he paid extra attention to that direction from now on.

  “You may be right. Let’s try it this time.”

  After an hour, Hiina led the way again. She did exactly what Rafnick suggested, and the result turned out to be great. No bats descended to attack them. Hiina refocused on what was ahead, but her head still looked up from time to time.

  When they made a turn, Zalanir had finally picked up the faint sound again. The mysterious being had made the turn too tight, so the sound echoed into the wall. Zalanir had been paying attention, so there was no way he missed that. Friends or foes? Cultists, likely.

  “Hey, why do I think that we are being observed by something?” Zalanir waited for ten minutes to avoid alerting the follower before voicing his concern. He angled his head up toward the ceiling, hoping that it could be a distraction.

  Hiina stopped in her tracks and rushed past Zalanir. The light talismans flashed in full power, even drawing some bats down. She ignored them at first and just glanced over everything, but then returned to handle them with him and Rafnick. Eventually, Hiina reduced the light to a manageable radius again.

  “There was no one here except us. What makes you think we are being spied on?” The huntress turned toward him.

  “Sorry, perhaps it’s just me being too scared. I just have this feeling that it isn’t just us here.” Zalanir clasped his hands in the front.

  Hiina acted pretty quick then, so the follower must’ve been an expert. If that was the case, and with the fact that they had just been lying in wait, perhaps it was something beyond his ability to handle. Not that he could just pull back alone now. Staying with Hiina and Rafnick might be his best bet at the moment.

  She now moved back to the front and stood in silence. “Let’s rest here until we’re full before moving on again.” She pinned two kunai in both directions and entered meditation right after.

  Zalanir gave her a mental clap. As expected from a huntress, being careful like this wouldn’t hurt. He also took this time to ask Rafnick about the invisible force that he had been trying to figure out.

  “You mean ambient magic?” Rafnick threw a rock to the front and lifted it with … nothing. The rock just floated in the air by itself. “Like this?”

  Zalanir chose to ignore the obvious disdain from the man based on the way he raised his tone at the “magic” word, and the fact that he just showed the force, or ambient magic, off. He needed to learn more from this man, so there was no room for ego here.

  “Can you tell me what it is?”

  “Well, it is the most basic thing. What rock have you been living under, by the way? Ambient magic was like an infinite pool of mana for you to tap into. Whatever you do with your skill, you can do it with ambient magic, though without all the scaling, of course. Otherwise, what would be the reason to learn a skill? Well, the concept is basic, so nothing much to say here. It’s the shaping, or controlling, process that counts. Everyone has different ways of shaping it. For example, right now, the rock is floating because I lifted it up using a pillar under it. Hiina recalled her kunai because she created a thread connecting her fingers and the kunai. The better your sensing and shaping skills are, the more you can do with ambient magic. Though, don’t try to launch a fireball right at the beginning. Try to sense the ambient magic and learn how to interact with it first. As for shaping skill, it is both a basic concept and, at the same time, one of the hardest things to master. I once heard that even some A-grades or gods still learned to refine their technique and understanding of ambient magic. So, don’t beat yourself up too much if you can’t do what you envision.”

  Zalanir didn’t expect to get a whole lecture out of it, but he wouldn’t complain. Never said no to free stuff. Especially considering he even paid money for this similar kind of lesson from Djaxinz back then on leveling and evolution. Still a big scam that he would have the man handled when the time came.

  So, the imaginative hand that he had been using to grab affinity for Adaptability Bolt was actually just him using ambient magic. Maybe yes, maybe no. It was a part of the skill, so hard to tell. Maybe there was some support from the System there to help him with that, as if there wasn’t, he couldn’t even use the skill at all. It would be a failure design from the System if such a hole existed.

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  But back to the topic, wasn’t ambient magic just overpowered? Who cared about the scaling if he could, in theory, pull a meteor from the galaxy and drop it onto the enemy by threading it down from the cosmos? Who could survive that? Another aspect was enhancement. Taking Wind Rush, for example, couldn’t he just permanently apply its effect onto his legs and have it active all the time? Zalanir brought these doubts to the Gymer, but all he received was a big laugh and a scoff “na?ve”.

  What did he miss? The more he thought about it, the more plausible his take was. Maybe there was a limit to what ambient magic could do? Possibly. He would figure it out himself. Even telekinesis was enough of a use case for him to pursue this already. Adding on meteor or other stuff? Chef kiss!

  Zalanir started to tinker around with this new knowledge using the familiar imaginative hand. Rather than grabbing an affinity, he tried to grab a physical rock instead. On the first try, he felt that an earth bolt was ready to fire from his palm. On the tenth try, he still got the same sensation. Looked like it was harder than he thought, but a hard challenge is one that was worth solving. Thus, he practiced until Hiina signaled for them to move again.

  After an hour or so, they got close to the area where Zalanir had spent the bulk of his trapped time inside this cave. Zalanir still walked side by side with Rafnick, but he had also readied himself for what was to come, because he had picked up the sound of footsteps in the front.

  Hiina had been careful as well ever since the talisman guided by the kunai showed the curve on the wall on both sides. She had leaned herself close to the wall and even waited for a couple of minutes, but seemed like the enemies were even more patient than she had given them credit for. Though the moment she put just her left leg into the open field, Zalanir saw her body getting blown behind and slammed into the wall by an explosion hitting her chest.

  So much for her smugness when she led the way back then. Where is all that tracking skill now? Zalanir laughed inside his head. He paid zero attention to her wellbeing. Not just because she managed to catch him spying back then, but her hoity-toity and demanding attitudes were just annoying to deal with. It was like those rich parents wanted him to transform their kids from absolute beginners to be-ready-to-win-some-cups, and when he didn’t manage to do that, they just blatantly filed a complaint, pulled their kids out, and sent them to another training center. What was that all about? He had no idea.

  But to his surprise, instead of rushing to Hiina’s spot, Rafnick also remained where he was. Was he also annoyed with her? In Zalanir’s vision, the man would’ve been there already, and maybe started to guard off the incoming attacks or carried her back. But in reality, he just rested his back against the wall and then … vanished? No, camouflaged, because Zalanir could still vaguely see the man’s wide shoulder. But that was with his prior knowledge of where Rafnick was. Others would absolutely be taken by surprise.

  As for Hiina, after creeping back, she drank what Zalanir had once tasted before: a health potion, then backed off far behind. Zalanir also ran after her. He didn’t want to be left alone to deal with whoever was coming.

  His ears indicated that there were three, no, four of them on his tail. Their tails, actually, since Hiina was ahead of him by about five steps. She didn’t even bother with the talisman plus kunai stuff anymore; instead, she just held onto one and ran. They had already sprinted past two places where they could hide, but she just kept on running. Did she plan to leave the cave altogether?

  Zalanir soon had the answer. At the corner earlier where they stopped, Hiina turned to him, made a shushing gesture, hid behind a rock, and snubbed out the light. Zalanir threw various swears at the annoying woman (they didn’t even leave his mouth) for not waiting for him, but then he focused on finding a good spot for himself.

  From the last time they rested here, as well as before the light went out, he knew that there was a crack to the left that he could make use of. He was an expert in this kind of thing, so it took him no time to settle in. While waiting for the pursuers, he heard some noise coming from Hiina’s direction. Pup. Pup. It was the sound of kunai connecting with the wall and the ground. There was no way he would mistake that. Though what was she doing?

  Soon, the light from two fire torches brightened the place. Peaking out of the crack, Zalanir saw those whom he recognized to be the cultists who they were looking for. That red and black color code was hard to mistake for anyone else.

  When they got closer at the turn, the only woman bent down, avoiding a projectile firing her way from the ground. At the same time, two men on the far right collapsed on the ground. Their screams tore the air and silence apart. A trap?

  “Go!”

  He heard Hiina’s shout coming from her spot. Gritting his teeth, Zalanir dashed out, firing a three-pronged attack with his bolts at a small cultist. To his right, Hiina had also begun her kunai bombardment at the woman who had avoided her trap just now. It was her trap, right? Zalanir was sure it was Hiina’s creation.

  Focusing on his opponent, Zalanir kept firing the bolts, mixing them between sound and earth affinities, but later he switched to air instead of earth, as the enemy wasn’t wearing heavy armor. Air for a better flying speed and extra vagueness would be more ideal.

  The guy did get close to Zalanir eventually, but not before his red wool shirt was shredded into six smaller pieces. Zalanir had actually painted another red color there (this red color was darker), so maybe the guy just wanted to come close to pay for his services? Zalanir had his doubts, because the opponent looked rather angry. And what to do with an angry customer? Humiliated him.

  Zalanir created a rectangle barrier and shoved it forward using his hands. He was sure that this wasn’t the intended usage of Energy Barrier, but whatever, it was better than using it purely for defense. A thought struck him at this very moment: What if he used ambient magic to push instead? Doesn’t it mean he has a mobile plane to do whatever he wants? He quickly noted that on the to-do list in his mind.

  The opponent broke the barrier using his sword, but that was his biggest mistake. Zalanir timed the releasing wave attack, which hit the guy at point blank, with a sound bolt. Taking advantage of the opponent’s short dizziness, Zalanir cast Wind Rush, picked up a rock, and slammed it into the guy’s neck from the back. At this level, Wind Rush was active for merely two seconds, while the cooldown was rather long, but two seconds for a burst of speed were enough.

  He finished the opponent off by taking the staff tucked vertically on his back and whacked the guy on the head. Its material was quite stiff, so using it just to cast Hurukele Whirlwind seemed like a waste. Didn’t he learn how to smash the ball just so that he could do this? The weapon did have quite a bit of scaling with Intelligence and Mystique, after all.

  [Hurukele of the Storm] — Rare: Through unusual means, this staff comes to life when a hurukele perches on a branch and awaits its time. As a favorite daughter of Mother Nature, the hurukele wished for the wind to always be by its side. Weapon damage has minor scaling with Strength and Intelligence, and tiny scaling with Dexterity and Mystique. Grants the [Hurukele Whirlwind] skill.