I had four skills to evolve. Let’s see what I got. I was particularly interested in Hex; the skill was already so powerful as it was. What would it give me next?

  Reactive reinforcement. Energy absorption. Many little shields. Each option pushed me towards a different direction. One would make the skill more passive. One would tempt me into trading hits. One would demand constant focus and positioning. None of those were bad. But I felt none really fit. Ok, let’s look around; maybe I can make the skill synergise with another, then I’ll choose.

  Longer duration wasn’t inherently bad, but I already killed my enemies faster than my hexes expired. In fact, I didn’t even remember a single one expiring since I got the skill, so maybe the first was a pass. A jumping hex was feeling a bit underwhelming; I already passed up the choice to make my hexes spread more by taking Drain the Accursed before, and that one was far better than this. The last one was more interesting, a personal execution variant, maybe… but I was already doing that. Not that it was something bad in enhancing your strengths, but let’s wait a moment; I had two more skills to check.

  I stopped.

  This one mattered.

  Endurance-based sustain. Aggressive amplification. Or life force transfer at range… but only to allies.

  I stared at that last option longer than I wanted to admit.

  That wasn’t what I was looking for.

  I didn’t want to share vitality. I wanted to take vitality without needing to cast multiple hexes to incapacitate an enemy. If I could hex some enemies, starting to drain them and use the life force to empower my spells or heal, well, not that I wanted to get hurt in the first place, but still... Having to physically touch something that wants to kill you is not a great way of going about this.

  But the system wasn’t offering anything like that.

  Not yet.

  And that bothered me. No, it annoyed me to no end. I even tried to leech my enemies without direct contact, but apparently it wasn’t enough.

  If I accepted an evolution now, was I locking the skill into a direction that would never bend towards what I actually wanted? I was starting to suspect the system didn’t forgive bad planning. It followed intent, at least, so maybe I had to show how the skill I wanted should behave.

  Multi-casting was the last one.

  I followed the same thought process as before. Good options, especially Cognitive Fracture; a headache in exchange for raw output was a good bargain. I felt the pull there, especially in the last option. Push harder. Go faster.

  That path felt familiar.

  I exhaled slowly.

  “No,” I said under my breath.

  I dismissed every prompt without choosing.

  It felt wrong, walking away from immediate power. Like leaving a weapon on the ground in the middle of a war. But the feeling didn’t go away that choosing now would cost me something I couldn’t get back. I needed answers first; if only there was another safe zone nearby...

  Anyway, I needed to see how far I could push my skills as they were before asking for more.

  I looked around. The others were still absorbed in their interfaces, a shine of excitement reflected in their eyes. No one needed me for the moment.

  I stood and waved Melissa over. “Thanks for keeping watch; I can handle this now. Take a break and sort your upgrades too.”

  She hesitated, then nodded and stepped away.

  My mana was already coming back faster than before. I could feel it, steady and warm. The cloak’s enchantment was doing its job, smooth and quiet now that the curse was gone. Worth the trouble. Very worth it.

  I activated Arcane Sense and kept it running.

  The world shifted.

  My teammates registered as pressure and presence rather than shapes. The casters glowed brighter in my awareness while Alya and Marcus were there too, but duller, heavier, and more physical than arcane.

  Quinn was… barely there.

  More like an absence than a presence.

  I opened my eyes.

  He was right behind me, sitting down, focused on his status screen.

  Of course he was.

  Perfect.

  I multi-cast an Arcane Barrier around myself and forced it tight, as close to my body as I could manage.

  It looked terrible.

  The barrier wavered, uneven and unstable, edges flickering in and out of existence. It strained to maintain its shape, intersecting with itself before snapping back into place. Holding it while Arcane Sense was active felt like trying to think two contradictory thoughts at once. A dull ache started behind my eyes.

  Still, it held.

  Barely.

  I clenched my teeth and continued to run. This was the point. If I wanted to stop getting surprised, I needed to do this under pressure.

  Getting clawed in the flank had been bad enough. The pain. The sudden realisation of how close I’d come to dying… What if it clawed me in the neck instead? Would I have been able to get up fast enough and heal myself?

  Probably I would have bled out on the ground. Now that was a sobering thought. I refocused on keeping the barrier stable.

  I glanced down at my clothes.

  My only shirt. The shirt was now ruined, stiff from my own spilt blood, and torn.

  I snorted quietly.

  “We really need a safe zone,” I muttered. “Before, I was forced to traumatise everyone by walking around naked.”

  With the barrier trembling and my senses stretched thin, I stood there and waited.

  If something moved, I’d know.

  And if I didn’t… I’d have to rely on my wobbly barrier… Yea, no, better to keep watch.

  20 chapters ahead!