Juliet saw Jacob finish the usual pentagram on the ground, what he called the Devilish Essence Distortion Formation to confuse the Charybdes; they had to let them think their kins were still alive to avoid a horde swarming them.

He had to issue a half-hour break after the latest battle. He hadn’t been happy about it at all. In fact, even though he was the weakest, he was still scouring the ground in case any other nightmarish monster had hidden away.

Juliet did not know how it was possible for a human being to focus so much and for so long. Jacob’s concentration on the task at hand was scary. He was icy and laser-focused—no, he had been since they arrived here.

He turned toward Frederick, who was cultivating cross-legged and trying to replenish his Mana. She had felt some contentment mixed with disappointment from Jacob toward Fred.

She immediately knew why. Such was the strength of the Ancestral Bond. She knew how Jacob worked, what made him tick.

Frederick had used up too much Mana at once. He could have killed the 9th stage of the Cockroach realm Charybdis with half what he used. Then, instead of using four Void Spears, he could have done the same with two.

And Juliet was sure Jacob would make him notice that as soon as Frederick had basked long enough in the feelings of victory. Jacob did not want to bum everyone out, but she could feel his urgency, his worry.

“Linda, are you okay?” Juliet saw Jacob’s aunt breathing a bit hard.

“I think I overextended a bit. I’m going to cultivate too, don’t worry, Junior Disciple,” the older and shorter woman said while waving a hand non-committedly.

Junior Disciple?

Juliet was truly confused with the woman’s behavior but decided to ignore it.

She was fine. Her Qi reserves were topped off, and her Mana was rapidly recuperating. Her Hidden Constitution meant that she was like a dynamo: even without cultivating, she would be soon topped off. Jacob had explained how this was a result of the more efficient Meridian configuration.

She created a tiny spark in her right hand and looked through it, hoping to find some comfort. Unfortunately, they were going through a real-life version of Resident Evil; Juliet would have actually preferred to fight zombies compared to the insectile abominations they were facing.

The tiny spark looked puny and powerless, weak.

Like me, Juliet thought.

“Everything’s clean,” Jacob said while wiping some of the sweat from his forehead and coming back to them.

Juliet wanted to ask him if he was okay, but she knew it would not be a good idea. The Ancestral Bond made her so intimate with Jacob that she knew when to avoid him. Sadly, Jacob gave her a crooked smile because he knew what she knew; that was the nature of their bond.

Helena came between them to talk to Jacob. The stupid wh*re had already replenished her own Mana tank.

“Jacob, do you have a percentage on how many Charybdes we killed?”

Everyone’s else ears perked up, even Juliet’s.

“After this battle, something between 10% and 15%.”

Everyone’s gaze immediately turned to stone.

“What?” Helena was dazed, “we just fought so many at once! They were five or six times the number that we have previously fought!”

“Yeah. Those were a little more than 5% of the total.”

“You are not joking,” Helena said with a pale face, “are you?”

He shook his head and gave them a sorry smile.

“When I said that we were going to be resting every six hours to sleep, I was not exaggerating. It’s going to take around thirty hours to kill them off if everything goes well.”

Jacob sat and started cultivating. Juliet looked at everyone else while the reality was finally settling in.

Everyone had thought they had done great so far. She could have read it on their faces. Even Frederick now had a dark visage. They were just starting out, and they had thought they had basically already won.

It was the difference between experienced general and green recruits.

The more Juliet looked at Jacob, the more discomfort she felt.

A sense of dread started creeping up her limbs and penetrating her mind.

She was not up to the task. She was scared out of her wit. She was good at fighting, and even her talent said so. But she wanted to go home, to curl up in a ball under the blankets of her bed.

There were so many things that could go wrong, so many that could blow up their asses. And she didn’t want to have deaths on her because she forgot to execute the right order or to react fast enough. Everyone else seemed much more proficient than her. If she didn’t have the Phoenix’s Fire, she would probably be useless.

There were just so many things—

She felt a hand on her wrist while some tears were coming down her face.

“It’s normal,” Jacob said and just hugged her tight, while Juliet started sobbing almost without knowing why.

…

Jacob had felt it right away. The dread that could cripple people was starting to affect Juliet. He had experienced much of it in his past life, thinking that he would never catch up to his peers, that he would never be strong enough to battle among them and kill off dangerous monsters.

It was a spiral where one would fall lower and lower until even the sun’s rays would seem black. He knew from his own experience that this was a part of Cultivating like any other. He would provide her some comfort, but she needed to grow out of those insecurities independently.

Jacob sighed and decided to show Juliet something.

Yes, Yes. She needed to overcome this on her own, but he couldn’t really stand while watching a kid do this to herself while doing nothing.

Jacob used a function of the Ancestral Bond that he had refused to even think about before now. However, he was starting to reconsider the value of his own past. What had he reincarnated for if he couldn’t even save his loved ones some pain?