Hiina was still visibly shuddering, but at least she had calmed down. Despite being a violent woman, seemed like what happened half an hour ago was still too much for her. Zalanir had covered the man’s corpse with bat carcasses; however, her eyes still occasionally darted there.

  “Looks like you know him well?” Zalanir tried his luck, hoping to help her out.

  “He’s my senior when I first joined,” Hiina answered after a pause. “A good guy.”

  “Without him, I think we would be all dead already. How did he get here in the first place, by the way?”

  “I don’t know; maybe he just silently followed us when we left the camp.”

  He thought he was helping, but Hiina’s body was trembling again. Her eyes remained red and hollow.

  “It’s all because of me. If I had set up the ambush correctly, then perhaps he wouldn’t have needed to involve himself in the fight.” Hiina sobbed.

  “Then it would be my fault, because I was the one suggesting the ambush.”

  “Right, it was you. Your fault!” Hiina threw three kunai his way, but none of them hit. Zalanir did startle at the sudden attack and rolled to the side, but after seeing how far away these kunai landed, he settled down because they would never have hit him regardless.

  “It was your fault, and mine as well. Because I agreed to your plan.” Hiina dropped her chin down to her knees with her hands still wrapped around them. “This is a disaster. We lost two members on this supposedly scouting-only mission.” She murmured.

  “Two? How is it … You mean …” Zalanir had thought that Rafnick was similar to him, luring away some of the cultists to fight them separately, but looked like it wasn’t the case. Yeah, the man hadn’t been back for a while now. If he were alive, he could’ve been here already.

  “That Eiselen fried him alive with her lightning.”

  Goose pimpled his arms and shoulders when he recalled the jolt that he had tasted. Even now, searing pain still wrecked his chest. It was just that he had come to familiarize himself with that pain and thus was able to withstand it. If one were constantly in one, then it might mean they had no pain at all. Perhaps tennis injuries had drilled this level of pain tolerance deep into his veins and thus made him extra resistant, because how many times did he actually get to play injury-free? He could count it using his fingers, probably.

  “You are something to have survived not only that, but the curse in the end as well. A defensive mastery? Or a potent defensive skill?” Hiina shooshed using her hands. “No need to tell me. Everyone has their own secrets. Mastery and skills are personal.”

  Zalanir wanted to tell her that it wasn’t a curse, but something related to the soul, but he had no way to tell her how he knew that if asked. He couldn’t just tell her about the dream when he followed Verizss’ia around, learning about his craft of the lantern and subsequently his experience in controlling souls. The green crescent was exactly what the souls were when Verizss’ia unleashed them to fuse into all of his weapons.

  That also probably explained the weird but familiar sensation he got when he touched the top of the summoning altar, as well as when he looked at the crow head of the monster. He couldn’t link that feeling to souls back then because he hadn’t been able to sense them at all, no matter how much he had tried after getting the skill, so he had kinda thought that only until B-grade — as referred to by Djaxinz as the level when one started to interact with their soul realm — could he have anything to do with it. But now that he knew what it was, he looked forward to getting back to the summoning altar to test things out one more time.

  “What exactly was that monster? It was at the same level as Eiselen and Makin, but a lot stronger.”

  “Do all masteries or people of the same level wield the same power? The difference between a genius and a normal person is night and day. The higher the grade, the wilder the rift between them.” Hiina scoffed.

  “But your hunch is correct. That bird isn’t a typical birduomera. If I have to guess, it had to be a special variant summoned using that altar.” Hiina turned her head toward the altar, which stood in the middle of the chamber and a mess of bat carcasses. “They are a cult centering around summoning monsters, after all.”

  “If the summoning monsters are that powerful, doesn’t it mean this ‘hunt’ of yours is impossible? Imagine if they had an army of that.”

  “You think they are cabbages?” She sneered. “Your combat prowess might be good, but your head is just dumb. Study more before asking nonsense questions.”

  Zalanir had no idea why he got that insult all of a sudden, but she had started to meditate, so he couldn’t just wake her up to discuss. If not for the fact that she was being vulnerable after witnessing the death of Makin, he would’ve returned that insult right away. No one could be comfortable getting scolded like that out of nowhere. Though at least she seemed to be better now.

  He also wanted to meditate to heal and safeguard himself from dangers, as his health bar was still flickering and vying for his attention. But inside a dark cave like this, there had to be someone staying guard. Some bats were still lurking among those stalactites on the ceiling. Who knew when they would sweep down and attack them? Even back when he had been trapped in here, he had never rested in this chamber.

  Thinking back, it was a tad ironic that he had killed four humans in such a short span in a random cave like this, but only did it once in about two months staying and battling in a place called a fighting pit. The first time he was here, he had been killing bats only. This time, he still slaughtered bats, but humans were added into the mix as well. What would be next? Battling a god? Committing a genocide? This rate of acceleration was just ultra fast.

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  He had been torn apart by the concept of conscience after killing the Red Nose to the point where he was haunted in his sleep, but now, he was just relieved that he was still standing and breathing. Coming from a place where killing was heavily punished and treated as the greatest sin, he still couldn’t fathom how this world treated the action like one of the legitimate and apparent methods to settle conflict or solve problems. These enforcers were like police, but they talked about hunting a criminal or the cult as if it was one of their three meals per day. And now, he was hoping to get the one as one of them as a backup plan for when he came to Yebin. Just irony all around.

  Shaking his head, Zalanir decided to leave this moral topic as it was. Survivability and his well-being needed to take priority, and thus, maybe killing was something he needed to learn in order to adapt to this new life. Instead of agonizing over it, he pulled the screen up to check on a more fascinating and lighthearted object: a new skill.

  [Mastery: Magical Apprentice] skills available

  Warning: You can delay choosing a new skill only until the next skill offering; otherwise, you lose that skill point.

  Mentally clicking on the notification, Zalanir saw that he had three options this time.

  [Sonic Lance] — Uncommon: Channels for a duration to create a devastating attack (medium scaling with Intelligence) that pierces the enemy defense and destabilizes their wounds (minor scaling with Mystique). The longer the channel, the bigger the impact.

  Essence: 17

  Mana cost: Medium

  [Earth Spike] — Uncommon: Targets an area (minor scaling with Awareness) for a duration (minor scaling with Level) before launching jagged spikes (medium scaling with Intelligence) from the ground to impale foes.

  Essence: 19

  Mana cost: Low

  [Gentle Blows] — Rare: Empowers the next two blows with the power of the wind, increasing their speed (minor scaling with Dexterity) and reach (minor scaling with Awareness). Refreshes itself at no cost as long as you are engaged in melee combat, but will put the skill on a long cooldown (minor scaling with Level) if being inactive for a duration.

  Essence: 23

  Mana cost: Medium

  Besides Hurukele Whirlwind, this was the first time he was offered a rare skill after leveling up. If going by the general rule of thumb — his own interpretative rule of thumb — the higher the rarity, and the higher the essence cost, the better the skill, then it would be logical to pick Gentle Blows here.

  However, the skill was obviously designed for a battlemage who would go into a melee bout with the enemies, and that style wasn’t his. Technically, he did approach both the sword wielder and Eiselen at close range, but that was only because of their wounded state, and that he wanted to finish the fight quickly to avoid giving the enemies time to formulate a plan. Well, technically with the buckshot modification on Adaptability Bolt, he now had even more incentive to operate on the front line, but not at melee range. He would be a low or mid range mage if one went with a battle formation analysis, but not a mage who empowered and swung a weapon like a warrior or barbarian. The skill was like a semi-passive in the sense that once one activated it and stayed engaged, their attacks would always be empowered by the wind. If only it worked for a caster. Zalanir sighed.

  It sucked having to pass that good of a skill, but with his best skills right now being Soul Collection and Lantern of Verizss’ia (even though he had no use for them yet), coupled with how Verizss’ia himself used the item in that dream, it wouldn’t be wise to pursue a battlemage line. Especially not with the 60 essences that Soul Collection had already cost him.

  He didn’t need to be too depressed about it, though, as the other two skills were not bad at all. It was much better than his choices at level 35, where he had to go back and pick Wind Rush because of how bad and uninspiring the other skill choices were. Both Earth Spike and Sonic Lance had their uses depending on the situation.

  Coincidentally, this was a similar reflection of his choice back then between Wind Rush and Muddy Ground — a selection of a single target or an AoE skill.

  Depending on how long it took to set up the area, that would change the usefulness of Earth Spike from good to incredible. Having this as the opening attack in an ambush sounded amazing. This skill would synergize well with Muddy Ground as a two-step combo of locking the enemies up and then letting them have a taste of being skewered. But, well, he had previously passed on Muddy Ground, so that went the dream combo.

  As for Sonic Lance, the skill offered something that he lacked: the ability to deal with fortified enemies. He still remembered how useless he was when going up against the Zerkshi mercenary’s puppet back at the fighting pit. If it wasn’t for Lithma with his piercing spear, then perhaps he would buy the farm and lie his back down there already. Having a tool to deal with heavily armored enemies couldn’t be bad.

  The issue, though, was the channeling requirement. Even with the increased power that came with it, this skill kinda suffered the same issue as Earth Spike in the sense that it needed a setup or specific circumstances to shine. If the channel process took too long, then he would just be a sitting duck for the enemies to pounce on.

  But he would still pick Sonic Lance, not only because it gave him a legitimate chance to deal damage to tough foes, it also reinforce his commitment to the sound affinity, after his first choice in the case of Sound Sense. With how the last two skill offerings giving him no pure energy skill choice, perhaps it was the way the System told him to commit. He pulled up his racial skill again to make sure that there was no conflict.

  [Pure Magical Energy] — Racial unique: Adaptability is the race’s forte. Starts out with no magical attunement and +20 maximum to the Essence Bar.

  The skill only said that he started out with no magical attunement, and the bonus to the Essence Bar was already counted, so not like a commitment to sound affinity would cancel out the second effect. He still had no idea what magical attunement was, so perhaps a devotion to sound affinity would get him there? He quickly noted that down in his mind to find out about that later. Also, another mental note: prioritized a skill that could support Sonic Lance in the future.

  He immediately channeled the skill to see what it was like and was surprised to see an orange light forming above his shoulder. The light kept on growing into a solid half a meter lance. Though during the process, his moving speed was slowing down significantly. It was an invisible force, like gravity, forming around his legs, weighing them down and hindering his movement. Annoying, but seemed like a valid trade-off for the power that came with it. He released it after four seconds, and the skill drilled a solid hole into the ground in front of him.

  Satisfied with the skill, Zalanir turned his attention toward the tower-like altar at the center of the chamber.