Lea feels her mind has become clearer. Looking at herself in the mirror, she looks a lot different.

  I look kinda cool... she giggled to herself. Her eyes are now wide open, sharp and intense, and her sclera is now tinged with a bit of redness in them. Her brown hair got a bit darker, too, though she's not sure if that's because of the lighting.

  "How are you feeling, Miss Darkwill?", beside her was another Pathstrider, Aresi, who chose Memory and Judgement, a Rememberancer.

  With her sleepy eyes and soft smile, curly blonde hair covering half of her eyes, she looks quite adorable with that youthful look. She was not a part of the Church of the Three Rings, but an affiliate from a secret society called Memory Garden, which has been around since the tter half of the Third Era, about 600 years ago.

  Along with the Memory Garden, there are many other secret societies that cooperate with the churches. Device V, Crimson Court, MSSH, Sacred Bough, and more.

  Aresi was here to act as Lea's therapist, to see if something was wrong with her. As for Lea herself, she feels fantastic.

  "I feel more complete, as if I just got something I didn't know I needed.", she answered honestly, and she sat down.

  "Very good...", Aresi began writing down in her notebook, her gentle eyes seemed like they were closed, "That's what Pathstriders feel when they become one, this is a completely normal transformation."

  Then Lea remembered the change in her personality. At first, before the tragedy, she was quite headstrong and gentle; after that day, she was depressed for a week straight. But now, her depression and trauma were practically gone, adding fuel to her growing hatred toward the Akasha Monodrama.

  "So, Miss Darkwill, I am quite curious about what powers you received—", she stopped then quickly added, "Ah, don't worry, Memory Garden wants a smooth cooperation with the church, so no information will be leaked by our side."

  Lea looks at her for a moment, then gnces around, "For now, I can sense emotions, especially malice directed at me. And I feel stronger, as if I could beat anyone up. But I feel more... violent."

  She genuinely wants to beat someone blue and bck, giving them the good old left-right goodnight.

  Aresi nodded, "The First Step usually doesn't give powers too out of the ordinary, the Second Step, you'll truly gain extraordinary powers. Ah, Mister Andre Fang is on the Third Step; his current extraordinary power is Command, you experienced that yourself, correct?"

  "Yes..."

  Her body couldn't move at all. Yet that John Doe was able to do just that.

  "I can't offer much help, since we have little information about Malediction. We only have records of the Second Step's powers and nothing above that.", she said, putting her notebook down, "You'll have an ability called Hex, cursing your enemies with things like misfortune or reducing their chances to succeed at anything."

  Thinking about the Steps, Lea remembered that all the members of Argonaut are on the Third Step and are all trying to advance to the Fourth Step. Looking back, from Transfiguration's self-multition and Erudition's requirement of inventing something that can change the era, those are ridiculously difficult. What is so special about the Fourth Step?

  "Do you know anything about the Fourth Step?", she asked.

  Hearing this, Aresi chuckled and teased, "Thinking about the difficult part already?"

  Then she got serious, "The Fourth Step and above is insanely hard, all the Logs we collected emphasize how absurd some of them are. But when comparing to each other, we came up with a conclusion alongside the Numerology Rebirth."

  "Fourth Step, the Present. Fifth Step, the Past. Sixth Step, the Future. They are all reted to the division of time.", the Rememberancer leaned back as she hummed to herself, "For my advancement, I have to turn a famous person into history, and then judge if they are a saint or sinner."

  That means she has to kill a famous person and decide if they are good or evil in the grand scheme of history. The important part is convincing the world that their judgment was right.

  Then Lea had a thought, so she asked, "How do you get more than one Attribute?"

  "When you advance, you can choose another supplementary Path at each Step by chanting the Honorific Title after you feel completed, but most tend to stop at two Paths since you have to incorporate the supplementary Paths into the ritual for the primary one, it gets complicated fairly quickly."

  Aresi smiled, "You should focus on getting used to your powers. It takes time to fully master them; only then can you move on to the next Step."

  Lea nodded, hearing the reasonable advice. She must control her bloodlust or else she will become a danger to everyone.

  "If you don't have any more questions, I'll leave you to the Abyss Hunters.", she picked up her book and walked out.

  After she left, Andre entered the room.

  "Miss Darkwill, how are you feeling? I brought you some refreshment.", he said, pcing a tray of fruit on the table.

  This was his attempt to lower the intensity of her bloodlust, afraid that she would give him a beating.

  "Thank you.", she politely bowed, but her gnce looked too much like a hostile gre.

  His smile stiffened, "You can eat while I expin your duties..."

  He was just trying to be nice...

  Andre wanted to cry, as if he were dealing with a stray cat. But Lea is a traumatized woman hellbent on revenge. In his opinion, it doesn't seem too different.

  Lea simply thought he was a nice and considerate person, simply thinking about her health and accommodating her. She picked up an apple slice and ate it, crispy and not too sweet. She liked it.

  "Now, you can either stay here and be a standby unit or be deployed to watch over an area.", he looked at Lea, who was intensely listening to him. If it were a normal recruit, he wouldn't mind, but her stare was too intense.

  He gulped and continued, "I am a standby Abyss Hunter, meaning that I stay here all day five times a week, oh, but I get to have three days of paid leave a month, which can accumute in a year."

  She simply nodded, eating another slice. Being on standby seems pretty good, except for not doing anything all day, which would be boring.

  Lea considers herself an active person; she would feel uneasy if she didn't have anything to do.

  "For the second thing, you'll be deployed in an area to watch over it. Kinda like an independent investigator. You will need to send in reports every Sunday of what you heard or found, no matter how small. You can involve yourself in secret gatherings and deal with incidents within your capability, though you can still call for support if you deem it is above your pay grade."

  She nodded; it was a simple decision for Lea. She would hunt down any and all malicious Pathstriders, her heart tells her that she would eventually find—

  No!! She rebuted, she almost gave in to Malediction. She cannot kill indiscriminately, yet she must do something to protect the peace...

  As a Peacekeeper, an Order Pathstrider, Andre felt her inner turmoil boiling over. But he kept his mouth shut, not wanting to deal with her outburst.

  Calming herself down, Lea answered, "I would like to be out on the field."

  Andre nodded, "We currently have two areas that need more guarding."

  He pulled out a map from underneath the table, ying it out. It was the map of the city.

  He pointed at two locations, a district next to the slum and an industrial area, a district on the opposite side where the cemetery was close by.

  "The Reve District is a lower to mid-income area, being close to the slum and factories, the air isn't that good. The security there isn't that great, but people can still safely walk outside during the day.", he expined the first location.

  He thought that this area would help Lea temper her vigince, control her Path, and help her advance faster. Andre himself took a year to advance to the Third Step; it was decently fast, but he is stuck in this stage, even though he knew the ritual. The ritual was simply ridiculous, and his current status won't help him at all.

  He moved onto the second location, "The Zand District is safer and has better security, but because this pce is close to the cemetery, Pathstriders reted to death often rob graves and get into conflict with the churches."

  Despite the Renlou Empire having four official religions, Ein city was firmly under the control of the Church of the Three Rings. The advantage is that they avoid conflicts with other churches, but at the same time, they must be stretched thin to cover the entire city.

  Of course, the Abyss Hunter colborates with the government's own mystical department, but those guys will only move if there are reports.

  Lea could see the flimsy bance between the church and the government. Her job is essentially being an informant for the church and the government.

  But she didn't care about that; she cared about which pce she could beat people up frequently. Between the Reve District and the Zand District, if she were at the Second Step, she would no doubt choose the tter, but because she just became a Pathstrider a few hours ago, she decided to py it safe.

  "I will choose the Reve District.", she replied.

  "Good, the staff will handle the paperwork. You'll have an apartment in two days, so I..."

  Andre's voice became smaller; he remembered Lea had nothing left. It was careless of him to say she should pack her things. He almost invited himself to a beating... she was even gring at him with suspicion.

  Lea herself on the other hand, the notion he almost said flew over her head. The gre was still the side effect of Malediction; she had no intention of punching her senior.

  With a cough, he continued, "Ahem, I recommend you get ready to move to the District, maybe scouting out the area first."

  "I will do that.", she nodded.

  "Then that will be all.", he replied.

  Both of them drew three clockwise circles on their chest and prayed.

  "The Three in OneThe Light of Salvation and BanceThey who Reigns over Order."

  "Praise the Lord.", both of them held a reverent expression.

  After the prayer, Lea stood up, her eyes nded on the tray of fruits, "Would you mind if I take this with me? I'm going to rest for the day."

  "Ah, of course, feel free to.", Andre smiled, then his heart dropped as he remembered something.

  "W-Wait!", he stopped Lea, who was about to open the door.

  She looked at him with confusion, tilting her head to the side, "What is it?"

  "I forgot to tell you about your sary!"

  Lea blurted out, "Oh."

  Living in the church for most of her life and being a devotee, she has lived a life close to that of an ascetic. She doesn't get paid for her service, but she also doesn't pay for her food. She hadn't considered the finances she has to manage.

  "Your sary will be ten Drach a month. That's slightly above the income of a middle household.", he expined tensely, "You'll get this month's sary in advance plus a bonus, after that you'll get your paycheck at the end of each month. Ah, you can earn bonuses depending on the value of your reports."

  Lea nodded as she thought about something else.

  "Do I have to pay the electricity and water bills?", she asked.

  "No, no.", Andre shook his head, "That's covered by the church as operational cost."

  She let out a sigh of relief. She has no experience with money, so handling all of that would make her brain hurt.

  Lea would only need to cover her meal cost, and that would be enough. She'll tackle that first.

  "Is there anything else?", she looked at Andre, who flinched slightly.

  "No, you are free to rest.", he sent her away.

  Lea retreated back to the surface with the fruit tray in her hands. She won't eat it all. Instead, she would offer more than half of it to Lady Keter.

  She has no idea what Lady Keter wants; the offerings other members of the Argonauts didn't give her a single clue. So this is testing the water.

  Hopefully, she could get the full Malediction Log, and if possible, hear the Lady of the Library's advice on which Path to supplement Malediction.