We hid in a thicket of low bushes. I was waiting for her to say a word, really anything.

But Roana was in her Trance state. She was silent like a corpse.

Her eyes closed, her lips sealed, her chest barely taking in the air; she was immobile, like a statute.

I wondered what in the Abyss her abilities' effect was, but I simply couldn't know; the Trace hadn't said much if not the name and the base effects of her Skills. So, all I had to do was wait, wait, and hope.

I could damn well take out a couple of Gnolls soldiers by surprise if I used my new clock-arm right and made use of the few Stones I had with me. But a Shaman? No, that was out of my reach without a bow and a damn pet.

How in the Abyss did they manage to convince me to go on such a ridiculous quest was beyond my understanding.

Oh, no, I realized what it was. It was trust.

I trusted momma Jane’s judicious decisions; maybe I shouldn’t have.

“Alright,” Roana whispered, taking me out of my reverie, “I believe they’ve lost us.”

“You believe?”

“I’m almost one hundred percent sure of it. Phantoms cannot fake, they are bound to a world of truth, or at least they cannot hide their feelings. If they were trying to bait us, they would not be acting like that?”

“Like what?” I asked, knowing that she could see it since, in her hands, she gripped a Stone, an almost warm stone.

“It’s acting erratically. They usually act like that when they don’t know what to do. When they believe they have failed the mission."

“Good. Do you think he’s heading back? Because we need to get away from here, but we can’t pass too close to them and their damn noses.”

She nodded, “Let’s go.”

The deeper we got into the forest, the fewer sounds of natural life could be heard. And the darker the shadows, the more I could feel the Shade around me grow thicker.

Yes, I had started to grow closer to the Shade ever since I recovered.

I did not know what sort of phenomenon it was, but it was surely tied to what had happened with my survival. I should have died from the damage, but the Shade had protected me by not letting the ice that was keeping my wounds close melt away.

This new feel of the Shade had also increased my ability with it. I was sure.

There was still not enough Shade in the air given the presence of the Sun. However, I could feel that if I breathed deep and launched a Trick Shot, I could have transferred to it without the need of a Stone.

One thing that surely worked was my increased Perception; it slightly expanded, and so did the random occurrence of Synesthesia.

At times I could perceive the sounds from the forest as the animals that produced them, whether I knew them or not, and I had never been so deep inside the forest to enter Gnoll’s territory, so I did not know all the creatures here.

“Do you come here often?” Roana, still dead-serious and intent on not wanting to communicate with me.

“Not often, but I come here to train. Where we are going is an ideal place to train my abilities,” she said.

“Yeah? How so?”

“Because creatures that wander both the realm of the living and that of the dead reside inside of that cave.”

“So, we are going into a lair not only of Titan ranked creatures but Ethereal Titans? Are we going to tame a Ghost of the Night or something?” I hoped she didn't answer positively to my joke.

Creatures like the Gnoll shamans’ Phantom, Ghosts of the Night, and such were called Ethereals. They dwelled in both realms, that of the living and that of the dead. Somebody called the realm of the living Abyss, but really the Church of the Sun wasn't much clear about it.

Some said it was the realm of the dead, and some others said that it was the realm where lost souls and bad people were sent to when they died.

For the first time since the previous day, Roana chuckled. “Yeah, right. Why not share a path of blood with one? What do you say?”

“I don’t know what that is, but I’m happy it was ironic!”

She shook her head, “Stop asking questions; I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Just know that where we’re going, we’ll find Flow creatures even at night. But most importantly, Flow and Shade in harmony.”

“Wow…”

I had heard of places of confluence but just heard, never really gone to one. It was said that Dungeons could develop in places of confluence, but it was impossible to prove. Every known Dungeon was thousands of years old and predated our era.

“The place was a surprise even for me, the first time mom took me there,” she said, “I have no idea how and when she found out, but she has a sort of reverence toward it.”

The more we traveled, the darker the forest got, and in the end, even before twilight, it had become entirely dark around us. I knew I could use Shade freely now.

I could almost say that I felt like a new man.

I felt unbound, free to use the full extent of my powers.

It made me want to train, level up.

It had been too long since I last gained some Soul fractions; I also would have liked to have some Shiny Crystals at hand, but sadly, I didn’t.

I let myself dream of level-ups when around us; enough time had passed by for day to turn into night.

“We’re here,” said Roana, “Just in time.”

In front of us lay a humongous rock construction but short enough to barely reach the forest's canopy; wide enough that it could be compared to the Monolith’s clearing.

A small asymmetrical hole on the face of the wall we were facing communicated that the place was accessible.

Roana’s face was one of enjoyment; she looked at peace. “It’s been so long since I’ve been here… it’s so refreshing.”

I did not really know what she was referring to. However, something about it collided with my feeling of the Shade, as if Shade around there was inconsistent. Maybe it was the fact that, as Ro had said, Flow was present even at this hour inside of the cave.

Anyway, I would soon find out.

“Are you ready to climb?” she said.

“Do we have to?”

“What does that mean? Of course we have to!”

“If you allow me to hold you for a second, we won’t,” I said, trying to give her the most confident smile I could.

“You mean that you will use that new Perk of yours?” So she had indeed read the Tracing I had given her; she had seemed uninterested at first.

However, as I extended my arm, I could see her cringe.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to… do that. Yes, let’s skip ahead and see what you can do,” she tried her best to smile.

However, I could feel her body tremble as I placed my arm around her back.

I would make it instantaneous, not to cause her any more reason to be concerned.

The moment I embraced her, I extracted my new dagger and threw it toward the hole.

With a wave of frost and a small audible crackle of air, we appeared on the edge of the aperture.

I had trained enough to grab the dagger I threw after using the movement Perk in whichever situation; it was just a question of reaction speed and proprioception. And I had had a whole month to get it right.

“Woah…” she said as I let her go. “That was fast; I was not prepared,” Ro chuckled, holding her head, surely to fight the dizziness that followed the transfer. My body had adapted to it; of course, Roana hadn’t; she had never done it before.

I had already tried the maneuver with Harlow during my month of secluded study and healing.

At first, I thought that bringing somebody else with me was not possible; however, thinking about it, I realized that my clothes, my weapons, whatever was directly touching my body came with me when I transferred, why wouldn’t a person? Indeed, when I tried, the feat was successful.

If only I could reproduce it in Flow, too, it would become a massive boon. But I highly doubted it; Skills of this caliber had to balance their strength in a way or another.

For Metal Flow Body, it was the huge Stamina consumption other than the need for Flow and Flow only; for Trick Shot was the limitation to using only Shade and a lot of it

“Follow me,” she was still smiling, “although there’s only one way down, so it’s not like you could lose yourself,” she chuckled at her own joke.

I was sincerely happy that even with just so little, I had managed to make her smile. But it was a long way from making her smile to repay her for what my choice had made her go through.

The cave’s insides were dark, although a dim light emanated from deep inside the descending tunnel. The walls were covered with musk, but the ground portion seemed to be free of it; it was likely that the continuous passage of whatever lived inside the cave did not allow the musk to expand.

I could make us jump again. However, I had to be careful; high Shade exposure could result in getting the Shade-Plague; I was immune to it, but Roana wasn’t; I could not expose her to the same levels of Shade I could sustain.

When we delved deeper inside, the world started to turn bright again. There was enough light coming from the depths of the tunnel that we could almost see as clearly as if there was daylight; the only difference from actual daylight was the slightly green hue it took.

The mist that lightly seeped inside of the tunnel was weirdly greenish too.

“Is this place safe?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Absolutely."

Not entirely content with that answer, I sped up my descent to be the first one that would encounter danger in case something attacked us. I could definitely protect us better than she could, with her pole made of hardwood.

But when finally the cave opened in front of us, I gawked.

The massive underground cave looked as big as the Dump was, and just like it, it had an ecosystem of its own, with walls that grew vegetation, beasts that moved about freely, and a source of water in a pond on the side that was probably replenished from below ground.

At the center of the cave was a huge crater from which the light green haze came out, just as if it was the origin point of the light that illuminated the cave.

“What place is this?” But I did not wait for Ro’s explanation.

My eyes found one of the creatures.

It looked like a young lion with a half-grown mane; it had a see-through body of sickly green.

I immediately had to Track and Trace it.

Young Netherlion, Level 23 (17528/23000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 95%

Agility: Moderate

Constitution: Moderate-High

Strength: Moderate

Focus: Very-Low

Perception: Intermediate

Willpower: Moderate

Strength: Phantasmic State, Claws, Fangs

Weakness: None

Abilities: Phase, Roar

This Flow creature poses no threat to a sapient, but if provoked, it takes on its physical form. The Netherbeasts can phase through matter given their Phantasmic nature. They can live both in the Physical Realm and in the Abyss, and while their connection is good with both, being primarily Flowborn, they prefer to dwell in the Physical Realm.

These creatures evolve to Adult Netherlion at level 25, then evolve once more at levels 50 and 75.

Crystal weight: 0.176kg

I had no idea where to even begin with unloading the amount of information that the whispers of the Soul had just given me.

First, there was an entirely new kind of creature I had no idea existed, the Netherbeasts. Second, I could now see their abilities; but most importantly... the whispers had just confirmed the existence of the Abyss!

I knew it could not just be bullshit, or a mass hallucination, or a belief imposed by the Church of the Sun, but to know that it was actually something real, something sanctioned by the whispers. It cracked my understanding of the world as I knew it.

“Loke, are you okay? You look pale. They are not going to attack us, you know?”

“No… no, it’s not that." They seemed indeed peaceful creatures; the one I had Tracked had just looked at me and yawned.

But I did not reveal what I had just discovered to Roana, I did not want to entangle ourselves in a conversation that could only be sustained by something I saw and she could not.

It would probably be something I would keep to myself; there would surely be someone to talk to about it, someone that knew it for certain, as I now did.

Anyway, the only thing that mattered now was that I wanted to tame one. For Sun's sake, I wanted to tame them all. The amount of experience they would give me would be tremendous.

Even though all the creatures there were of a higher level than my Tamer Sub-Class, which made things harder, the risk would be worth the candle.

Also, it was about damn time I got to understand how leveling up my Sub-Class worked.

I was eager with anticipation.

I only had to decide which one I wanted to tame and find a hidden place to do it so that it would not attract other creatures’ attention.

“Loke,” Roana, by my side, chuckled, “you’re spacing out again.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that, I’m making plans to get a lot of taming experience here, like a whole damn lot.”

“I know, but if you would just focus on me for a while, I could tell you my plans for training both myself and your Sub-Class at the same time."

“Really?”

She nodded.

“These are essentially Phantasms; for a reason or another, my Skills have developed around communicating with Ethereals."

“Alright, what are we waiting for?” Damn, I was already excited by myself. Having the problem of taunting them taken away meant that I could successfully tame more of them, and faster too.

“We need to reach the well first; there is a certain place there; it is like a platform for us to take cover over. Once we reach the light well, we can start calmly with our project."

“Mmh, does having the low ground count as an advantage here? It doesn’t seem that safe.”

“It does here; the creatures don’t get too close to the well, even when they are mad. It’s the place in which the Titan resides.”

“Really? I want to see it.”

There were quite a few Netherbeasts; there were even insects and birds of that kind. How had I managed to never meet one?

Young Nethermantis, Level 18 (1458/18000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 96%

Agility: High

Constitution: Low

Strength: Intermediate

Focus: Moderate

Perception: Intermediate

Willpower: Intermediate

Strength: Phantasmic State, Scythes

Weakness: None

Abilities: Phase, Slash

This Flow creature poses no threat to a sapient, but if provoked, it takes on its physical form. The Netherbeasts can phase through matter given their Phantasmic nature. They can live both in the Physical Realm and in the Abyss, and while their connection is good with both, being primarily Flowborn, they prefer to dwell in the Physical Realm.

These creatures evolve to Flying Nethermantis at level 25.

Crystal weight: 0.121kg

The Nethermantis was just a huge transparent-green mantis. Still, it was incredible.

As we delved through the open stretch of the cave, we noticed that some monsters, upon looking at us, turned from green-transparent creatures into more solid-looking monsters with proper fur, hide, or carapace.

“Just don’t look at them; when they do that, it’s because they are wary of us. Don’t give them any reason to attack, or we will be ganked.”

It wasn’t really an enormous problem since I could always transfer us away, but then my transfer too had its limits.

It drained a good amount of Stamina in the form of coldness. For my body became colder, the more Shade passed through it. Well, the same could be said of anybody using Shade, but my Skill used a lot of Shade.

Anyway, we reached the well without as much as a single problem or attack from the creatures and climbed a couple of meters down to the platform Roana had pointed.

The light coming from the well was too intense for me to distinguish anything clearly, but according to Roana and her Sight, there was an enormous Netherbeast sleeping at the bottom of the not that far away hole; it was a Netherlion, a humongous one.

“Hypothetically speaking, what do you think would happen if I were to Track and Trace it?”

“I don’t know, but just so you know how big the creature I’m talking about is,” she sighed, “think about the Dump’s clock tower,” she said. “Do you have its image in mind?”

“Yeah, pretty big then,” she had yet to finish.

“Alright now, double it both in height and size. That’s what we’re talking about.”

I stood in silence for a bit, then I said, “I think I’m going over there to Tame some creatures; what need do I have of Tracing? None, I guess.”

“Good boy.”

When we were comfortable in our position, she explained what we were about to do.

“So, it’ll go like this. I will go into a Trance. I’ve never told you, but when I’m like that, it’s like I'm… disembodied. I can see myself from a third-person perspective and move around for a few meters in the form of a ghost or something of the likes; I have yet to figure it out.”

“That’s rather… interesting.”

“Yeah, but focus, when I’m in that form, Ethereals can sense me, they will approach me and can even hurt me, but they are not usually that aggressive; they are less wary of other Ethereals than they are of creatures from this Realm.”

I nodded.

“I’ll befriend one and take it over here, where you will be able to start the Taming process, just try to be gentle, okay?”

“I shall try."

“That’s better than nothing,” Roana was satisfied, “okay let’s start, what do you want to tame fir-”

I didn’t even wait for her to finish her questions when I answered with a grin printed on my face, “That Netherlion, right there, the adult one.”

She sighed. “I knew this was not going to be a walk in the park with you…”