“Certainly.” I agreed, while Sigmir turned to look at Olivia and Rai, who had just entered the cave through the narrowed opening. “We were just talking about it, but I’d be glad to include you.”

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but the Manticores found us yesterday. Sigmir insisted on staying here, until you returned and she mostly sealed off the entrance when one of the Manticores tried to get in. Which leads us to the current situation, they can’t get in without massive efforts that might collapse the whole cave, burying everyone involved but we can’t get out, without being spotted and quickly swarmed and torn to pieces.” Olivia explained, before giving Rai a look, who nodded in turn.

“I’ve been trying to sneak around some, staying in the shadows of the mountains and some clouds, I don’t think they noticed me from up there, but they are there, constantly watching.” he added, his head instinctively turning upwards, as if he had become used to flying predators. I could only nod to acknowledge the troublesome situation. Trying to fight the Manticores out in the open was suicide and they weren’t stupid enough to try digging us out, they didn’t need to. Without an ability to tunnel through the mountain, we weren’t going anywhere and with such an ability, trying to get us within caves would be like fighting me within a labyrinth of ice, pure idiocy. Surrounded by their preferred element, the abilities of a spellcaster went up by an order of magnitude.

Which, in turn, was the obvious solution to our predicament, following the original plan we had laid out before I had managed to get myself killed.

“Now that I’m back, once the sun starts to settle and there are enough shadows around, Lenore and I will try to find another cave, that way we can move during the night. I might be able to conceal us all in the Darkness and I know that Adra has a spell that helps to conceal us from tracking. Hopefully, travelling that way for a few days will allow us to slip their net.” I reiterated our old plan, getting nods of acceptance. But it also made me realise just how dangerous adventuring could be, if we made a single mistake during the night, none of us would survive, even if I’d return to this cave two days later. Unless I decided that a Mundus without Sigmir wasn’t worth returning to. It certainly drove home why amongst locals Adventurers were considered a special breed, respected for their power, feared for the insanity they had to have to acquire it.

“Rai, could you return to your watch, now that the plan is nailed down?” Olivia asked, giving Rai a stern look. It made me frown, the fact that she was almost giving orders. She was the newcomer in the party and while she was the oldest and most experienced of us, that didn’t mean I was letting her run roughshod over my student.

“Morgana, we need to talk.” she began, looking at me with a mix of disapproval and pity in her eyes. It made the feathers in my neck stand up a little and I noticed that Ylva was mirroring me somewhat, her hackles raised. Sigmir and Lenore were less obvious about it, but thanks to the connection between us, I could feel their tension.

“Is that so? I don’t remember having to report to you. Or seek your approval in any way shape or form.” I spat back, a cold anger filling me. If she thought she could direct me, she had something else coming and I had no problem leaving her behind for the Manticores to feed on.

In response to my obvious anger, she raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, some of the disapproval in her eyes fading but the sad pity I had noticed in them was still there.

“I’m not your enemy. Eleutheria wants everyone to walk their own path, unless their path infringes on the paths of others. But that doesn’t mean I can’t feel that you’ve changed, that there’s something about you.” she shook her head, looking a little scared for a moment.

“I can’t really describe it, when you died, I felt something weird and now that I see you, that feeling is still there. It... “ she paused, shaking her head again, staring into space as she was obviously lost for words. “When I pray to Eleutheria, I always have a feeling of peace, even as a curiosity to find out what is at the end of the next road fills me. It is comforting and relaxing. Looking at you now makes me instinctively worried. she explained, struggling to find the right words.

My anger quickly faded, though it didn’t completely vanish. Thinking back, it had to be the effect of my latest Trait, the Mortal Hubris. Getting a trait that boosted all attributes by fifty-percent in limited circumstances had to come with a significant draw-back and it looked like I was being introduced to them now.

“I see.” I nodded, not quite sure how much to tell her. “Would you be willing to tell me if that feeling fades away?” I asked, deciding that for now, I’d just tell her nothing and see if I could mask the effect of that trait, similar to how I could block Observe. Worst case, I would have to spend all my time in the company of others within my Hallow, which would make for a somewhat unpleasant experience. Though, it would likely mean that I’d get myself some hide-out if there was still time at the end of the Beta, after finishing the quest related to the Soul Prison and fully focused on research. If nothing else, that trait would allow me to get much further than I would without it.

Olivia nodded to my question and I tried to look into myself, trying to figure out the best way to hide that new aspect of myself. How to hide something you hadn’t been aware of before? My first step was to cloak myself in shadows, concealing myself within the darkness of the cave. After a few moments, Olivia turned around, waited for a few seconds, and looked again, her eyes focusing on Sigmir first, before darting around the cave. Despite me not having moved away, her eyes slid past me and she shook her head.

“The sensation is gone, but I can’t really perceive you, either.” she said, looking just a little past me. “Not without truly focusing at least.” she added right afterwards and there was a golden shimmer around her eyes and they snapped to me, a frown visible on her face right afterwards.

“Okay, once I see you, the sensation is still there.” she said, the light in her eyes dying down again. As a first step, simple concealment would work, but I didn’t want to be forced into permanent hiding even more than my Outsider-Trait already did, so I focused on the shadows around me again, trying to adapt the concealment. What I needed wasn’t full concealment, merely something to hide myself from Observe and similar skills, but not reactively but constantly.

Thinking back to the times I had been Observed, trying to recall the sensation and the brief moments I had to block it,I changed my cloaking just a little. I didn’t need the full concealment of the shadows, but a partial concealment, Twilight instead of Darkness. As I considered the runes and their relations, I felt my thoughts clear a little and I nodded to myself, having found a solution.

I didn’t need to conceal myself from Light and Sight, those could pass through the cloak. No longer did I hold the rune for Shadow within my mind, but I used the Rune for Twilight, alongside the Rune of Concealment within my mind, pulling the thin blanket of shrouding darkness around my shoulders, like I had with my cloak, marvelling at the ease of it.

“Can you try to Observe me?” I asked Olivia, who agreed with a nod. Moments later, I could feel the sensation of discomfort, as if someone was trying to strip me naked to ogle me, but it never quite reached me, my magic doing its job, like a set of clothes. Just as I was about to rejoice, Olivia’s eyes flashed golden and my defense started to crumble away, forcing me to pull more and more power in. Just as quickly as the crumbling started, it stopped when the light went out in her eyes, my power still gushing out, making me invisible again.

“It worked, somewhat. I might still be able to pierce it, but it would turn into a contest of power, which I think I’d lose. But someone more powerful than me, or with a better-suited skill-set can still see through your new trick.” she assessed, sounding a little proud.

“So my best option would be to never be in a situation where someone like that noticed me to the point of trying to apply extra power? Or do you think there are people who could passively pierce my concealment?” I asked, curious if she would answer despite her discomfort regarding my newly acquired trait.

“Once someone gets powerful enough, they’ll simply ignore your tricks, all of them. But at our level, those who can brush you off that way are rare and few between, unless you come to their attention, you should be fine. Hopefully.” she admitted, to which I nodded. It was just another inconvenience, in a slowly growing list of them.