First was Swordspear Mastery. Lone didn't really expect to get a new effect at expert rank with this skill since it had developed Pierce at Advanced.

That lack of expectation had proven to be correct, sadly.

Passive Skill: Swordspear Mastery

A sub-skill of the skills, [Sword Mastery] and [Spear Mastery] which is critical for swordspear-users and passively allows for better handling and control over swordspears.

All swordspears used by the host will cut and pierce their targets 60% [+30%] more easily.

Grants the talent [Pierce]. Say the word [Pierce] and the host shall perform a piercing strike with 4 times [up from thrice] the host's maximum force on the desired area.

Cost: 600 SP [-200 SP] to perform the talent [Pierce]. Mastery: Expert Level 1

While a new effect would have been great Lone wasn't complaining since one of his most commonly used abilities, Pierce, had become both more deadly and cheaper to use.

Polearm Mastery was also a bust on the front of new effects.

Passive Skill: Polearm Mastery

A skill that allows the host to wield polearms with a decent level of competence.

All polearms used by the host will pierce and cut their targets 30% [+15%] more easily.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Advanced Level 1

However, while there was no new ability, his skill with his swordspear had increased massively thanks to this father skill.

Lone also had a creeping suspicion that he'd earn a new effect at expert rank which would be far more powerful than Pierce.

It was only a hunch and one that wouldn't be proven for months, maybe years considering how hard to level this skill was. Still, he was looking forward to seeing if he was right or not.

'Would it take decades or centuries for a normal person to advance an overarching skill like that? Fuck, that sounds torturous,' Lone thought. 'At least I have dozens of other skills I can focus on when I hit roadblocks.'

Regardless, he moved on with the skill summary.

Passive Skill: Light-footed A skill that allows the host to passively walk while producing 15% [+10%] less sound. Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 8

A basic raw increase in ability. Lone had expected this since it was just beginner becoming intermediate.

Hamish could still hear him easily no matter how hard he tried to hide but it was clearly becoming a bit of an issue for Breena who was still trying to learn to be as keen as her new teacher was.

Lone's improvements in Light-footed were only serving the better improve Hamish's training of Breena's scouting ability so it was a win-win-win.

Passive Skill: Nausea Resistance

A skill that helps protect the host from nausea.

Reduces the chances that the host will experience nausea in a nauseous situation by 15% [+10%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 8 Passive Skill: Fear Resistance

A skill that helps protect the host from their fear.

Reduces all fear the host experiences by 15% [+10%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 4

'Bog-standard flat-percentage upgrades. Still, better than nothing,' Lone thought as he ran his fingers through Soph's hair. He also gently rubbed the belly of Kyuubi, who was peacefully curled up atop his chest.

She was frequently let out of The Summoning Room when they went to bed during this trip. She didn't seem to mind being alone with her food, litter and snacks but it would feel wrong to imprison her there constantly.

Regardless, both resistance skills were getting far harder to level up now since Lone was only marginally afraid of the dark and the sounds his Basic Regeneration produced were already pretty easy to ignore for him.

He'd need a bigger stimulus to get them to advanced rank and beyond, that was for certain.

Active Skill: Weapon Block

A common skill for non-shield using warriors.

Allows the host to nullify 30% [+15%] of the force of an incoming attack if blocking it with a weapon.

Cost: 3,000 SP [ -1,000 SP] Mastery: Advanced Level 7

This was huge. No new effect was a bit of a bummer, of course, but the massive drop of cost from 4,000 SP to 3,000 SP couldn't be underestimated.

The sheer amount of leeway this seemingly small improvement gave to Lone was enough to increase his defensive power by a good margin.

And on the flip side, Tail Spear's rank-up had improved his explosively offensive capabilities a massive amount.

Racial Skill: Tail Spears

A skill unique to the race of foxkin known as Golden Foxkin.

This skill allows the host to turn their tails into extremely sharp and hard weapons that can easily pierce most Rare-quality items [up from Normal-quality items] or A-ranked beings [up from B-ranked beings].

The skill is usable twice a day [up from once a day], and it lasts for 10-minutes [+5-minutes].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 3

'This really went from being a last-ditch killing move to something way more versatile,' Lone thought.

He had no idea how hard Epic items were but being able to easily injure or even kill A-rankers without needing to rely on Mental Destruction was a great boon in his eyes.

Not only had it become more deadly but its usage limits had also doubled across the board. 'Just how powerful can this skill get when it's at master rank?'

He didn't have the answer to that question but he was still left completely satisfied. 'potentially 20-minutes of raw killing ability. I can't imagine this skill was too useful to the former Golden Foxkin Clan if they only had one to two tails apiece, but to me? A foxkin with nine tails? I'm a walking catastrophe just waiting to happen, heh.'

With his spirits lifted and his mood jovial, Lone closed his eyes and held Soph and Kyuubi closely, allowing himself to fall into sleep's warm embrace.

"Fancy meeting you here..."

Lone groaned as soon as he heard the voice of the person Darkness had chosen to assume. "Really?"

Looking just like Lone's late father, Darkness smiled in confusion. "What? Is there a problem here, son?"

"Well, for a start, he never called me that," Lone replied as he sat down. 'Y'know, I'm really starting to get used to these night visits. They cancel out my nightmares so that's a win if nothing else. Shame I don't get Darkness Corruption Resistance anymore though. I wonder why...'

"What did he call you then?" Darkness asked as it assumed a seated position even though there was no chair beneath it. "I specialise in illusions, not memory delving, sadly. You're very guarded so surface thoughts are all I can peel away, again, sadly."

"Ah, yes, how sad indeed," Lone mocked. "And I'd honestly rather not talk about him. Not a great guy, y'know?"

"And you're a better man than he was, hmm?" Darkness asked teasingly.

Lone scoffed before chuckling lightly. "As if the Primal who forces me to meet with them every-fucking-night just to say a load of nonsense against my will has the right to lecture me on hypocrisy."

Darkness shook its head and wagged a finger at him as a teacher might to a misbehaving child. "Everything with a mind is a hypocrite in one way or another, my friend."

Darkness spun around and assumed the form of Soph. "Secretly frustrated that you're changing so much just to meet the expectations of the one you love yet you were unable to spend just a few short centuries with that very same prior self that you went so far as to split clean in two! Which is it? A love of oneself that is hesitant to change, or a hatred of oneself who should welcome change?"

Another twirl of the heels and the Primal was Breena. "Shocked, horrified, betrayed even that your new masters aren't who they said they were when you haven't even bothered to say what your true status is back at the clan for fear of them judging you for it! Judging others based on their social status but not being forthcoming with your own? For shame!"

Next, it shifted into Hamish's form. "Determined enough to get vengeance for your fallen brothers that you'll willingly kidnap and try to kill a likely innocent man but so weak of heart that you start to question the morality of what it is you intend to do when you arrive at your joint destination. Just a few short weeks of accompanying that very same man to change such a firm mind... One has to question, was it ever even firm in the first place?"

Finally, the ancient being of pure Darkness morphed into Lone and grinned from ear to ear. It approached him with arrogance and swagger.

"Hurt, broken... disturbed. However, unwilling to become the very evil that raised you, lashing out and becoming a source of suffering for all around you just to tame your own bruised ego. Instead, you push through the pain. 'Two chances'. Everyone gets... two chances... I wonder, did King Heidron get his second chance? Will Sir Ardus get his second chance?" Darkness questioned with a knowing smile on its lips. "Will I? Will... you?"

The moans and wails of the children Lone had chosen to spare from a fate worse than death-filled Urd Grun and burrowed deep into his mind.

Lone stared firmly into his own copied eyes and replied with a shaky voice, "You will not break me. My actions and thoughts are not yours to judge just as my body is not yours to possess!"

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Darkness merged with the shadows and disappeared. "We shall see, Lone. We. Shall. See."

Lone's eyelids snapped open violently and his pupils darted around his and Soph's tent before he sighed deeply.

'I'd rather have had normal PTSD nightmares over that shit...' He glanced at the almost 1,000-year-old woman laying by his side and frowned in concern.

'Was... was it telling the truth? Soph doesn't like that I'm getting her to change like by apologising less and trying to be more social? Or did it mean Sophie? Does she dislike that I want her to be nicer?' It would bother him greatly if that was truly the case.

'Breena too... She's hiding who she really is? What does that even mean? Is she really important or something? Her matriarch... Lossa, wasn't it? Is she related to her somehow, maybe? Why would that matter to me?' He lightly shook his head. 'No, it doesn't matter. Everyone has secrets and whatever hers are, they aren't equal to my and Soph's status as otherworlders. She isn't a hypocrite,' Lone decided with confidence.

As for Hamish... well, Lone didn't really care. 'So what if Darkness claimed he's planning to betray us? He's hesitating, isn't he? This is exactly what my second chance policy is for. Besides, he's bound by my contract.'

The second chance policy. That immediately reminded him of the final person Darkness had focused on, himself.

He thought long and hard about the accusation that had been thrown his way.

Long enough that Soph had woken up and was now playing lazily with the still sleeping Kyuubi. Hard enough that he didn't even choose to train in the morning, instead opting to watch Sophie and Breena battling with Hamish.

Later that same day while they were covering the final stretch to Urd Grun, Lone had made a conclusion from all of his pondering. 'The king did get his second chance. I said to his face that I didn't care and that he wouldn't get one but he already did.'

Lone held his chin as he continued that line of thought. 'He got it before I even had this mentality. He wrongly attacked me with his aura instead of ignoring that I had cut off his son's arms as he had done when other participants were seriously wounded but not permanently injured. Nothing short of death would have been permanent for a crown prince, of all people. Money for healing is no issue even with the wasted ruby-gold coins from the auction.'

He tapped the side of his cheek as he continued, 'Not only that but he also imprisoned me. While he had a right to do so somewhat since I did kill his pet hero, he had no right to torture me given my status as an adventurer. Two chances, both gone. If anything, he got three chances, though not by choice. I didn't break my new code on him.'

As for Sir Ardus, Darkness had actually opened Lone's mind by forcing him to think on the matter seriously. 'That Primal fuck is only kind of right. It's only right if I view everything that son of a bitch did as one, singular chance. That asshole had dozens, hundreds even, of chances. If he survived The Seven Deadly Sins' slaughter and we cross paths with him, I'll hear him out if nothing else but he dies that day if he isn't already six feet under. Even if he's become a Primal-worshipping preacher who manages an orphanage. That man will die.'

As if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Lone felt enlightened.

The host has developed the passive skill: Meditation.

"What the actual fuck," Lone exclaimed in sheer disbelief.

Everyone stopped and looked at him. Hamish raised an eyebrow. "Somethin' the matt'r?"

Lone chuckled humourlessly. "I just got the Meditation skill."

"Oh? Congrats," Hamish replied before immediately returning to what he was doing. His interest clearly didn't span that far when it came to Lone's powerful ability to learn from the system.

"Good job, Lone! I knew you could do it," Soph said with a beaming smile spread across her lips.

Lone was happy she had decided not to wear Sophie's helmet since he got to see such a brilliant and honest smile from the woman he loved.

Breena nodded hesitantly. "Uh, um, y-yeah. I'm happy for you."

"Thank you. At least some of us know how to be polite," Lone said loudly and pointedly only to get a grunt in response.

Lone shrugged and pulled up the skill to check its details.

Active Skill: Meditation

A skill that allows the host to reach a place of zen mentally.

The ability to think rationally when upset or angered is passively 5% easier.

Focused thinking while meditating leads to logical conclusions and comprehension of complex matters 5% faster.

Cost: 100 SP per 5-minutes. Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Oh? It's active? Well, right now half of it's passive. Still, I'm so happy I finally got this. Hopefully it helps with the nightmares... if Darkness will let me experience them again,' Lone sighed mentally.

Not long after Lone had gained his new skill, he and the girls were stopped by Hamish who was now wearing a serious expression on his face. He even looked a bit on edge.

"We're only ah few miles away noo." He gestured to a nearby engraved and muralled wall of the Farwind road they were in.

Lone followed him over to it with Soph and Breena at his side.

"Look, goin' in there cocks first willnae lead tae anythin' but complete destruction. Oor destruction. In light o' 'at, ah've ah plan..." the dwarf claimed.