Sunny stood outside as the sun began to set. A cold wind blew over the apartment complex, but she seemed unbothered by it.

“Sunny,” Rosemary called out gingerly, a soft smile rested on her motherly face.

When the girl hadn’t responded, Rosemary reached out to tap her shoulder.

“Oh, sorry,” Sunny muttered, becoming aware of her adoptive mother's presence.

“High Mother Evanora has arranged for us to stay in the city tonight. A few more witches from the other branches will also be in attendance.”

“What, why?”

Rosemary’s face seemed to bloom with excitement, “I suppose it isn't too much trouble to say... She’s going to reveal us to the world!”

“You mean–”

“Yes!” Rosemary was unable to contain herself, “For the first time in...– forever! She wants to announce the presence of witches. Of course, we’ll also be in attendance when it happens. Just think of it, we'll finally be able to help.”

“Do you think Casper is in trouble?” Sunny asked offhandedly, an abrupt turn from the original subject.

Rosemary’s enthusiasm waned before she opted for an optimistic point of view. “...I’m sure that if he needed our help he would’ve asked, right? Besides, after being stuck in that ruin, he probably just needs time to himself.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“It’s time for us to depart,” Rusalka interjected, appearing behind the two without notice.

“Ah, yes, right away,” Rosemary replied with a smile, grabbing Sunny's hand, hardly able to contain her glee.

Sunny was the opposite of Rosemary, keeping quiet as she dragged her feet along.

…

“This is fine,” I told myself, adjusting my posture as I sat on the floor.

This faux-fugitive lifestyle wasn’t as uncomfortable as I would have assumed. I bunked in some crappy motel since going back to my apartment was basically leaving myself exposed. I found it was far better than lying on a pile of sand half-dead.

The current value of souls in your possession: 16,500

On a brighter note, the typical class-four was worth 3,000 souls apparently as killing the man who could manifest golden armor increased the net worth. I was 8,500 short of purchasing the Phantom Heart, the spiritual organ which would no doubt increase the strength of my abilities.

In the meantime, I practiced the Breathless Walk, it was an ability that required attention to certain areas.

The most important aspect to using the technique was to control the rate at which my heart beat. I managed to slow it down to 10 beats a minute somewhere around there. The vitality of my blood allowed me to sustain myself without breathing for more than ten minutes, just sitting.

Next was to remain calm, a break in concentration could send me falling downward or ending it too early.

The last was to inhale as deeply as I could. Although the description said that it would last until I took a breath, it felt as if I was running a marathon underwater with weights tied to my ankles when I used it. The more I moved, the harder it was to maintain. So, as of right now, a distance of 10-20 meters was as far as I could go on a single breath. I managed to squeeze out a maximum of three for now, but I would wager the addition of the Phantom Heart would increase all aspects of it.

Settling into a non-physical state caused a numbing chill to drift over my skin. When I opened my eyes, a grey haze covered everything while my own body maintained a pale luminescent glow. When I raised myself up, I felt as light as a feather. My wisp-like movements were slow and airy.

With a bit of effort, I stepped forward, but I made the mistake of using too much force, a product of my growing enthusiasm. The small mistake sent my body zipping forward, out of my room, and into the parking lot. The sudden distortion of my surroundings ruined my concentration and I fell back into physical existence, rolling on the ground to disperse the impact.

“I was too eager,” I muttered when I stopped moving.

As long as my opponent didn't have vision like Alexandra or the Guardian of the proving grounds, I had immense potential for ambushes or surprise attacks as well as greater range of movement.

As I climbed to my feet, feeling cold asphalt underneath my heels, my phone began ringing, displaying an unknown number.

“Hello?” I answered calmly.

[Casper Clay?] Said the man on the other end, he seemed professional enough. For a brief second I wondered if it was New Era, but I ignored that thought.

“Speaking.”

[Although we are still in the process of performing an autopsy on the body recovered from the ruin, we have examined the possessions held by the individual you killed and found they are not dangerous to the general public. The address where you can retrieve them has been emailed, but your lack of response has caused us to reach out personally. If you wish to recover them yourself, they will need to be properly packaged. If you wish for them to be delivered to your residence, you will need to pay the appropriate handling fee–]

“Them? What do you mean by them? What is it exactly?” I hadn't put the guardian in my mind after leaving and the miasmic essence helped keep me from wanting more.

[The artifacts recovered include a single suit of large armor. Although it is damaged in several places, it still holds various enchantments given the ruin energy signature. In addition, we have recovered a great sword that will be delivered along with the armor set, if you wish.]

“Uh, right– Just...” I contemplated what to do before abandoning the thought of retrieving it immediately. “Hold on to it, for now, I’ll come and get it soon.”

[Understood, however, if you wish to sell the items then we will pay–]

I hung up before he could finish his offer, letting out a sigh as I looked around. It was pretty late so there was no one around to witness me fall out of thin air. So, no trouble for now.

I breathed deeply once more and vanished again, aiming to return to my simple motel room this time.

…

The very next morning– er, well, it was still a bit dark to call it morning.

The fact that sleep wouldn’t come as easy as it had before the proving grounds was really hammered into my head. I think only after being exhausted could I rest, if I wasn’t drained of energy, I had a hard time just closing my eyes. A stinging discomfort followed me around whenever I remained idle. So I practiced the Breathless Walk for hours until I got a text from Alexandra.

An image, a location, and a time.

[Confirmed hub for New Era smuggling artifacts out of the country. I’m counting on you to retrieve the info like you said, because if you screw it up they’ll go into hiding. Don't let the fame get to your head, okay?]

I couldn’t help but grin a little as I finished reading it, my innate gift was more than useful for things like this.

'But what does she mean by that last part?' I read it again and wondered if it was a reference to something I was supposed to remember, but I only drew blanks which made me disregard it entirely.

The picture in question was of some tiny factory, a marker of a past age where most industry wasn’t centered around artifacts. It had obviously been repurposed by New Era who saw it as a good place to hide, which was true for the most part. The heart of the city is where eyes were concentrated so small abandoned areas went unnoticed unless the RES around them shot up.

I readied myself for the upcoming conflict, which included eating a frozen meal and drinking some water of questionable quality.

As I thought about New Era I found, as grim as it may be, that killing people with gifts was the easiest way to acquire souls outside of a ruin and likely better than ruins below class-4.

Now, I would never indiscriminately kill whatever gifted person I could find, but New Era really irked me. If I didn't give them a response for threatening my father, I'd be better off just letting them kill me.

With a tinge of anger rising up in me, I stepped outside and shifted into a crow, flying in the direction of the factory.

After binding the crow artifact to my soul, flying for an hour at high-speed wasn’t even worth mentioning. It was more efficient than taking a vehicle, but I did have to worry about getting caught using it in public.

In no time at all, I had arrived at an emptier part of the city. The sole factory stood in relative isolation, but with using Spirit Vision revealed that it was like a hornet’s nest. There were several dozen people with strong life forces inside of the factory, two standing at the front entrance and many more hidden deeper within.

‘Hmm,’ I took stock of the general layout of the factory, landing not too far from it.

There were mostly people with class-three gifts from what I could tell by the vibrancy of their souls. A few class-two’s and class-one’s filled the inside, moving about without rest.

Taking the factory was more than doable after my growth with the Art of Sanguina.

‘Let’s start then.' I approached the front entrance without worrying about being discovered.