The forest had a warm, humid environment that made one feel like they were breathing through a moist cloth covering their face. Li Mei was used to it but the young man following behind her was wheezing in exhaustion. His stats weren't as high as hers, and he was wearing a bunch of body armor that weighed him down. On top of that he tripped over every single plant, vine, and small root that got in his way!

Otto couldn't have been older than fifteen, his adorable face just barely starting to lose the baby fat of youth - a little bit of roundness lingered on his dimpled cheeks. With a crown of curly golden hair and bright blue eyes, he almost looked like a cherub from those old Italian Renaissance paintings. She wouldn't be surprised to see tiny little feathered wings on his shoulders!

Such an innocent appearance combined with his clumsiness really made her want to bully him. A natural ditzy type!

How charming.

The cloying scent of blood that lingered on his teammates was conspicuously absent in the air around Otto. She noticed beforehand he lacked the Interface's eye-catching red tag that hovered above the others, so Li Mei told Bao to just disarm the boy while they took out the rest. In her heart she felt only relief: she didn't believe she could have killed a kid, even if it was an enemy soldier.

Initially she thought the Interface wanted her to keep him alive for interrogation, until a quick Scan confirmed he was innocent of any crimes. According to the displayed info he'd refused to fire on the civilians even under threat of punishment from his superior officer.

More interesting was the information about his race volunteered by Scan, which was the initial reason she brought him along instead of just letting him go.

-----

[Deva (Unawakened)]

Devas are beings of great power once awakened, born with an instinctive ability to control an elemental force such as wind, fire, or plants. Their instinctive grasp of their element far outshines the power typically displayed by a Core's innate Gift: where someone with a plant Gift could take a few moments to grow a flower from a seed, a plant-type Deva could grow an entire tree over ten meters tall.

However, before awakening they are nearly indistinguishable from humans and the specifics of their bloodline and inborn power will be unknown. The method to awaken the bloodline will only be known by the Deva in question when they approach the apex of Rank 4, and is related to their inner power. If they never reach the peak of Rank 4, they will die as a human.

Devas, Awakened or not, tend to bring good fortune to those who befriend them. Unawakened Devas can sense evil and killing intent from the hearts of those in their close proximity, and can fall ill from exposure to wicked energy.

Awakened Devas have such attuned sensitivity to the presence of evil they can detect if an area has been influenced by malicious energy within the past hundred years.

-----

After seeing him stumble once over his own feet, Li Mei became concerned that if she didn't watch over him the boy wouldn't survive more than five minutes, much less to the apex of Rank 4! Since she was the one who killed his companions, even if they were absolute scum, she had to take responsibility for his life.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the promise of good fortune from befriending him.

Li Mei and Bao led Otto deep into a tree root network, smearing crushed repellent herbs on the tree as they passed. He watched with curiosity but seemed too afraid to ask what they were doing. Eventually the odd trio came to a stop in a natural root cave, and Li Mei dropped some scattered flower petals on the ground before gesturing for the young man to sit. Bao was tasked with keeping watch at the entrance, but the eye on the back of his head stayed fixated on Otto's every move.

"What's your name?" Li Mei asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Thanks to Scan she already had a lot of his information, she just asked out of curiosity to see how honest he'd be.

"Otto." The young man seemed nervous, inching back until he was as far away from her as he could manage in the confined space. Twigs and leaves stuck out of his hair at weird angles, and his face had superficial scratches from passing too close to a particularly affectionate shrubbery. "Just... Just Otto. No family name or nothing." He hesitated, then found a grain of courage. "What... What should I call you?"

"My name's Li Mei. Since you're gonna work for me, just call me Boss." Her eyes sparkled with mischief when Otto sat up straight and nodded, a serious expression on his face. What a good, earnest boy. "How'd you come to work for Oriole as a soldier? You obviously aren't strong."

Otto laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't offended at all by her statement, indicating he was acutely aware of the difference in their abilities, and not recklessly prideful. Li Mei mentally added another point in his favor. "Well, uh. Actually, every so often I guess Oriole does this recruiting thing? They grab up kids aged ten to sixteen who don't have any families or clans or other backing. They offer us food, and shelter, and pay, and training to get stronger! I wasn't found to have any particular talents worth fostering, I'm not super smart or anything, so they threw me into one of the sector's private security teams. I only just finished my basic training regime."

Child soldiers! Li Mei snarled in her heart, but outwardly maintained a calm expression so she wouldn't scare the timid kid across from her with sudden bloodlust. "Why'd they bring a total rookie here?"

At her question, Otto's eyebrows drew together in a deep scowl. "They said it was gonna be a simple field mission, that'd it be easy. Like a camping exercise? Or something to do with teamwork. But then we got here, and there were a lot more combat units than I thought there'd be. Like, everybody in the sector! And we landed in what looked like a normal village, which I thought was weird cuz field training usually happened in the wilderness, right?

"Everyone just started firing on the people in the houses! Captain Don said there was a change in orders and that they were all bad people who wanted to hurt the organization but it just felt wrong all around, none of them had any weapons... Captain Don said they were bad guys, but it just felt like... We were the bad guys..."

Li Mei nodded, cupping her chin in her palm. "I killed your friends, don't you think I'm a bad guy too?"

Otto squinted at her, then quickly shook his head. "No! I mean, they weren't my friends, just my temporary squadmates. And they killed all those people then laughed about it afterwards. I felt like they were scarier than the forest! But Boss doesn't have that creepy feeling they had." He thought for a moment, then added with complete sincerity: "They weren't very nice to me anyway, I wasn't sad when they died."

Resisting the urge to laugh at his straightforward comment, Li Mei pulled out some medicine and started casually treating her wounds while watching the young man from the corner of her eye. "Then, you didn't know that this place belongs to Oriole too?"

"What!" Otto stood up, wincing when he hit his head on a tree root. "What do you mean, Boss?!"

"This whole fight is between two sectors. Your sector was jealous of how much funding this sector got, so they're attacking and stealing the research. The people killed were just civilian farmers. It's pretty common, Oriole sectors fight a lot among themselves."

Poor Otto collapsed, his knees shaking and color draining from his cherubic face. "Just civilians... So I was right, we were... the bad guys..."

Li Mei scooted over and roughly smeared medicinal paste on Otto's scratched face. His nose wrinkled in distaste from both the smell and the faint stinging sensation, but she didn't let him escape treatment. "The world is full of good people who do bad things, and bad people who do good things. There isn't just good people doing good stuff and bad guys being bad, life isn't that honest. It's best if you just figure out your own principles and morals."

Otto nodded, sinking into a glum silence.

After Boss Li finished tending to his own wounds, he wrapped that black scarf around his head again then turned to the Fera. "Alright Bao, we have to move fast, so..."

The Fera, Bao, jumped to his feet and made the most indignant noise Otto ever heard, a disdainful look in the Fera's honey gold eyes. Fera were notorious for being picky about their riders, and it seemed like Bao hadn't taken a shine to the young man at all.

Not wanting to cause any problems, Otto said softly: "I can walk! Or, just... Stay here, I guess. Until you come back? From whatever you're doing..."

Both Bao and Boss Li scoffed, disregarding his suggestion. "You saw how it turned out when he was walking," Boss said to the offended Fera, pointing at Otto's scratched face. "We'll drop him off at the cave where he won't get eaten and then go finish cleaning up the forest ourselves! If we bring him with us it'll be even worse and you know it."

Bao grumbled and snorted while Boss cajoled, until finally the Fera agreed to lug Otto on his back so long as Otto was slung over like a vegetable sack and not actually in a proper riding position. Otto didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Boss Li used copious amounts of tree vines to tie his torso in place, but as soon as the Fera started running he knew why Boss was being so cautious.

Fast!

Super fast!

Running up impossibly tall trees, bouncing along branches the width of city roads, turning sharply to dive without warning hundreds of meters, only to slow his descent by digging sharp curved claws into the closest tree trunk.

Otto's eyes spun, stomach rattling its way up into his throat as he struggled to discern which way was up or down. He didn't even want to think about how Boss was holding on without the vines!

By the time they stopped for the night in a different root cave, Otto felt his brain had been thoroughly scrambled. He knelt by some bushes to empty the contents of his stomach, only to have the Boss drag him back into the roots by the collar of his shirt.

Boss Li produced preserved meat, chopped fruit, and even a blanket for Otto, then curled up next to the watchful Fera after both of them ate a plate of sliced purple fruit each. They fell asleep immediately, leaving the rookie soldier to stare fearfully into the dark night while creatures of all sizes howled and roared in the distance.

Five days later - three days after Otto was safely ensconced at the mountain cave with a pile of books to study and she'd dropped off the loot from battle - Li Mei and Bao sat in the branches above the second group of intruding soldiers. Li Mei's eyes flashed with a faint cyan light as she viewed her stat window with satisfaction.

-----

NAME: Li Mei

RANK: 0 (97%)

HEALTH: 100%

AGE: 13

SPECIES: Human (? ? ?)

JOB: Disciple

CORE: 100%

C.GRADE: A+

C. QUALITY: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

MANA: 1000/1000

M. QUALITY: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

EXP: -6666374

STR: 5 (22.7%)

CON: 5 (20.8%)

DEX: 7 (18.9%)

INT: 9 (1.4%)

WIS: 10

GIFT: [Barrier Lv.1]

TITLES: [Disciple] [Experiment 44] [Illegitimate Child] [Sky Serpent Novice]

TECHNIQUES: [Celestial Crane of the Northern Winds (Novice)] [Hecatoncheires (Novice)]

TRAITS: [Enslavement Bind] [Poison Resistance]

SKILLS: [Archive] [Concealment] [Fera Riding (Natural) Lv.5] [Scan Lv.5] [Sense Lv.3] [Storage Lv.1]

SPELLS: [Barrier (Basic) Lv.1]

-----

Her Core was filled with mana, which had an unexpected effect - a slight chill tinged the air in her vicinity even though she wasn't using the mana circulation technique. It felt refreshing and kept her mind alert.

Even better, she got experience for the kills Bao did! Which meant she could work with allies or use indirect methods and still get full experience.

Nice.

'Trying out Sky Serpent style in combat worked pretty well! I have plenty of mana stored up, this time I'll put more emphasis on practicing magic.' Li Mei thought to herself, tapping her chin as she considered a good strategy.

There were a few limitations on her Barrier spell. No barrier could exceed two meters in total surface height or width, ten centimeters in thickness, and she was limited to three at a time. Her basic spell cost ten mana per meter, mana cost scaling with how big or small the barrier ended up being, and she could only make squares or circles.

Those who formed a Core gained an instinctive grasp of their Gift. But instinct was just instinct and not practical knowledge or experience. Li Mei felt her understanding of the Sky Serpent style deepened more during the few minutes of actual combat than it did for the entire session in the Training Room.

That dummy was a vicious, merciless perfectionist, but it wasn't lethal and didn't want her dead. Psychologically speaking there was a certain lack of pressure, and learning was slow. Facing an enemy with killing intent was a much more valuable experience.

Li Mei paused for a moment, pinching the bridge of her nose. 'A year ago I was a normal unmarried young woman working at a bookstore and learning to cook in her free time, yet now I'm contemplating the benefits of lethal combat and how best to kill my targets.'

Truly, one never knows what the future will hold. The adaptability of human beings was terrifying! She lamented in her heart while her small hands swiftly braided vines to create a rope, whispering her plan to the eagerly expectant Fera shuffling his feet at her side.

"Look, all I'm saying is, if our superiors had any sort of intelligence they'd order us to burn the whole forest down and sift through the ashes!" Barbara complained, voice despondent and lazy even though her posture exuded a tense alertness. The barrel of her rifle didn't drop so much as a single degree toward the forest floor as she swept it from side to side, watching for movement in the nearest shadows.

Captain Mark, who took point chopping away branches and vines with a short machete, couldn't help letting out a soft chuckle. "Ain't up to lowborn peasants like us who ain't even allowed surnames. Silkpants noble scientists want us goin' on foot, we go on foot. Roy, any luck?"

Roy shook his head, enlarging the display so everyone around him could see the data. Bitterness effused both his expression and voice. "No sir. Big ass trees, mean ass beasts, more damn magic herbs than all of us combined could eat in our lifetimes, but no sign of a hidden facility."

"Why is everything ass to you?" Tom asked from his spot in the back of the unit, unable to see the mocking smile on Roy's face.

"You'll understand when you're older, kid."

"Hey, I'm already 43!"

"You are like a little baby. Invite me to your first mid-centennial, Grandfather here will give his cute Junior a nice gift." Ben laughed, mockingly stroking the large mustache on his face.

"I'll gift you my foot up your-"

The team's friendly chatter was interrupted by a faint choked grunt right behind them. Everyone turned and raised their weapons, only to watch as Tom shot upwards into the tree branches, the hat from his head drifting slowly to the ground.

"Open fire!" Captain Mark shouted, firing his rifle upwards, but the rest of his unit was confused.

"Open fire? On what!?"

"Can't even see him anymore..."

"What in the Four Hells..."

To their left came a long, eerie cackle from the darkness. They fired in that direction, only to hear bushes behind them rustling violently.

As one the unit drew together, standing back-to-back in a square so nothing could sneak up on them. Roy put his magitech detecting device away, pulling out a powerful handgun instead.

"One, two, three, four, silly little piggies on the forest floor!" A hoarse singsong voice said before letting out that eerie cackle from before, a reverberating echo wrapping around the soldiers and sending chills down their spines. It seemed to be circling them at a frightening speed, drawing closer and closer with each passing second.

"Prepare for close combat," Captain Mark whispered, putting his rifle away to draw a sword instead. Barbara followed suit, while Roy and Ben both readied their handguns.

"One, two, three, four, brave little piggies out to explore!"

"What's with the counting rhyme?" Ben muttered, his hands shaking as he fired a few potshots into the nearest bushes. "We being hunted by some kid's ghost?"

"The Nursery Nightshade," Barbara laughed nervously. She didn't have any elemental spells, instead coating her blade in a layer of glowing yellow mana that could cut through steel.

"One, two, three, four, bloodstained little piggies don't know what's in store!"'

The voice seemed so close they could reach out and touch it, but between the darkness and the countless plants all around, the soldiers just couldn't catch sight of whatever was hunting them. None of them had ever felt so claustrophobic before, much less in a big open space like a forest. Yet they could feel invisible walls of pressure closing in as sweat dripped down their faces, smothering their desire for lighthearted banter.

"One, two, three, four, murderous little piggies are an eyesore."

Three cyan walls of light appeared between the soldiers at strange angles, pushing them apart and breaking their square formation. A small shadow darted from the nearest tree roots towards Ben, who fired his gun continuously in vain until a rough knife gouged out his throat.

One of the walls vanished in a shower of cyan blue particles, allowing the shadow to leap directly at Roy and shove two more knives into both sides of his neck. Roy managed to fire one lucky shot that nicked the shadow's side as the soldier fell, the bullet ripping out a chunk of flesh.

A small square of cyan light appeared in mid-air only to be destroyed a moment later by the downward slash Barbara aimed at the injured shadow's neck, its brief existence serving its purpose of redirecting the blow off to the side. Wagging a finger as though to mock Barbara's incompetence, the shadow cackled and leapt backwards to avoid an opportunistic strike from Captain Mark.

"One, two, three, four, half the little piggies will move no more!" The shadow chuckled, still using that strange singsong voice to spout its lame rhymes. It pointed at Barbara then Captain Mark, as though trying to choose between them. They didn't notice the big blue walls behind them all vanishing. "Once was four and now is two, will the next little piggy who dies be you?"

Cackling again, the shadow whipped out a pointed metal staff and rushed forward.

Captain Mark and Barbara were both the middle of Rank 1, and their mastery of Oriole's basic Rushing River sword style were Master and Journeyman levels respectively. Both of them had experienced countless skirmishes and combat situations, yet they found themselves flummoxed by the shadow's evasive movements.

It twisted, spun, shimmied and even flipped away from all of their attacks, no matter how aggressive or cunning they tried to be. The few times they thought a strike would go through it was blocked by a cyan blue shield of light, and the shadow's mauve eyes would look at them with an infuriating kind of mocking pity.

Rushing River specialized in brutal continuous assault, overwhelming the enemy with force and relentless fury. Against a slippery opponent who didn't even give them the chance to land one blow, Rushing River was at an extreme disadvantage. Not a single one of their moves ever hit! They had no opportunity to build up the basic combo, much less use the stronger finishing moves.

If it weren't for the bleeding wound on the shadow's side and the many healing burns visible on its small body, the two soldiers might have believed they were fighting a ghost.

Suddenly the shadow jumped at Barbara in the middle of an attack on Captain Mark. Startled, Barbara tried to slash at it with a horizontal strike, but as usual a cyan barrier appeared to block her swing. The shadow landed a foot on the barrier as the force of Barbara's slash pushed it backwards, using the momentum to flip back toward Captain Mark instead.

Its staff pierced his stomach before he could angle his sword to block it, and yet another knife seemed to bloom from the captain's throat. The shadow bounced off Captain Mark's shoulders, kicking him to the ground and leaping away in one fluid movement, mercilessly ripping the staff out of his stomach.

In the skilled hands of the shadow, the staff moved like it was alive. Curving, contorting, weaving through the air like a serpent waiting for a chance to strike. Barbara felt tears spring to her eyes, the smell of blood and death stinging her nose. She screamed, slashing wildly at the shadow without a care for technique or grace. "Why are you doing this?!"

Three cyan walls two meters in height appeared, trapping Barbara in the middle of a sealed triangle too small for her to properly swing the blade with any force. The shadow stood on the other side of the walls, tapping the flat end of its staff against the ground.

"And so the last little piggy does cry, begging and pleading and wondering why." The shadow approached slowly, only to tap its fingers against a barrier. "Silly little piggy, this truth you cannot deny: she who kills must be prepared to die. A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye."

The barriers dissolved into a sparkling shower of cyan particles, and the staff pierced Barbara's throat.