Daylight shone on top of Alistar’s pauldrons as he slept by the entrance of the cave.

Roana slept recumbent on his arm while I was obviously awake and could finally have some time to dedicate to the whispers that had been pestering me since the previous night.

I knew the Thermomancer was awake, but she was bound with something handy we had found inside the bags Roana had taken from the dead citizens, Stone-bindings.

Rope imbued with Stone Inscriptions that could help bind Flow-based users, Aisha Mustafa was practically helpless right now. Awake or not, she would be of no threat to us.

You've earned 25247+ 18638 + 16845 + 26354 + 18569 + 19062 + 21589 + 15798 + 25875 + 17589 + 23284 + 16895 + 18208 + 976 (x30) + 791 (x3) + 497 (x5) + 121 (x6) Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next TechnoHunter level: 320.000/320.000

Class TechnoHunter has leveled up to 33. You have gained 1 Attribute point. Where will you invest it?

Soul fractions for next TechnoHunter level: 277.624/330.000

Perception.

Moving on, faster, please, I found myself thinking.

Seeing all those numbers and what they meant didn't really bode well with me. It made me feel... dirty.

I was still furious at myself for my massive blunder.

Sub-Class Tamer has leveled up to 28.

Focus + 1.

Soul fractions for next Tamer level: 1025/28000

It was getting close, my gaze going to the growing cub, definitely not sleeping like the others.

If I managed to get a little time for myself during this period, I would let little Loki fight the small beasts that yesterday had barred our way to the Wide Peaks.

Of course, those were Shadelings, but I knew there were Flowborns of similar kinds during the day around here.

Skill points for Trace II Promotion:

- Trace II Major Perk: 20000/20000

- Trace II Minor Perk: 10000/10000

- Trace II Passive Perk: 3987/5000

It felt weird that the Passive Perk was the last one that would evolve. But in the meantime, I prepared myself for the choosing.

Trace II Major Perk will be promoted. Choose one of the following Perks to be added to it:

Deeper Sight:

See deeper into the whispers of the Soul;

Smell:

Smell the whispers of the Soul;

Taste:

Taste the whispers of the Soul.

I guessed there would be no need to change the route since the pattern was this.

I went with the first option. And was prompted with the other choice right away.

Trace II Minor Perk will be promoted. Choose one of the following Perks to be added to it:

Surer Future sight:

Gauge much more surely the next possible movement of your Tracker’s target.

Multi-Tracking:

Track more than one target at a time.

Untraceable Tracking:

The target of your tracking doesn’t know when they are being tracked.

This time I undoubtedly chose Untraceable Tracking. If I wanted to be a real Night Hunter, I could not hope to alert my next victim every time I marked them as my target.

Form of the Vector's current expertise: Novice Level 8. Expertise for the next Form of the Vector's level: 6528/8000

Form of the Vector had leveled up as well. Almost twice actually, it felt good.

Now, however, I wanted to try my new Tracing ability and see what it was capable of; I tested it on the bow I had stolen from the first Hunter I had killed.

T-2nd Short Bow of Agility

Durability: 99%

Bonus: Strength + 25, Agility + 10, Focus + 5

Flow Capacity: 97%

Strengths: Uncommon Agility Bonus

Weaknesses: None

This Short Bow has been found on the second level of the Tower by Albert Navj. Its current owner is Loke Nightfold.

The bow has been optimized for fast arrow nocking and will shoot arrows that can fly a little faster than normal. It seems to be made in SunBronze and Bloomingwood.

There were the bearer's name and the name of who had found it. I was ready to bet that if that bow was not dropped into a Dungeon but made by someone, it would say the name of the Tinker. Also, now Tracing seemed to also highlight other things connected with Flow, Shade, or their Confluence.

SunBronze and Bloomingwood were both products of Flow, and they were alighted exactly in their peculiar color.

However, one thing was bugging me, how come no one had found out that Logan was the one that made my clock-arm, bow, and arrows, the ones I lost while fighting the slave traders? It was unlikely that nobody in the City had a Trace as high as mine, highly unlikely, really impossible...

Maybe he had a way to hide it? I sincerely didn’t know. We had never spoken about it.

The next target of my Tracing was the Thermomancer. If the Perk told the truth, she would not notice.

Aisha Mustafa, Thermomancer Level 35 (287.950/350.000), Politician Level 34 (260/340.000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 85%

Flow Capacity: 100%

Agility: 10

Constitution: 10

Strength: 10

Focus: 36

Perception: 10

Willpower: 30

Strengths: Focus, Thermal Resistance, Thermodynamics, Willpower

Weaknesses: Agility, Strength

Class Skills: Thermal Resistance III (Constitution), Thermodynamics (Focus), Feel the Flow (Perception), Flow Control (Willpower),

Sub-Class Skills: Bolster (Focus), Interpretation (Perception), Speech (Willpower), Luck of the Draw (Fortune)

Race: Half-Human, Half-Elf

Sex: Female

Height: 169 cm

Weight: 58 kg

Age: 19

Origins: Sundoor

Family: Cyrus Mustafa, Aryawin Szariella

The whispers had changed again...

They seemed to be more, selective; showing connection to Flow, Shade, or their confluence even while using it on another sapient.

If before, I could see only her Skills, now I could even feel what was likely the way in which she could use them.

She had all Skills that could only be used with Flow; even her Luck of the Draw Skill was highlighted that way, probably because it gave her a Flow Fortune Star.

Trace was indeed massive...

Just as her Focus and Willpower were. Politician being an evolved Class of the Leader Sub-Class. Edward the Mayor said that it boosted Focus by one and Willpower by two. I had no idea what the Politician Sub-Class gave since it was the first time I saw somebody have it. However, it likely gave a Bonus along those lines.

Also, probably her Constitution Skill allowed her to Store Flow in her body. It was essential for any magician. But I had never really seen it before.

Yet, that did not matter; now I could see people’s Attributes like a proper clock-Tracer, or close to that. Still, it was incredible by itself. However, Trace still did not show me their Fortune or deeper details, like Bonus Attributes.

Knowing one's target's Attributes was game-changing, but I realized that basic Attributes were not everything for people like Alistar or me. Our powers lay in the Bonuses. I had a lot of mixed Bonuses, and so did he; his Constitution Bonus was out of the roof. Simply incredible. If I had to face someone like Alistar by basing my evaluation only on their Basic Attributes, I was in for a nasty surprise.

I would have to be careful with how I handled my approach on this new and improved Trace.

Anyway, she was indeed a Mage; her Class, Thermomancer, was based on Flow, as Trace highlighted.

She had put everything she had onto Focus. I imagined that with her Bonuses, she could well be over forty, forty-five points of Focus. And yet, she had not managed to take down Duress-empowered Alistar.

I silently sighed at the situation I had put myself into. This girl could be really troublesome, but up until now, we had been lucky.

We had traveled long, crossed the nomad’s desert almost entirely before the Flow-cart’s batteries died, and we had abandoned it by a big rock somewhere a few dozen kilometers from here, then we had ventured for the rest of the brief night.

The monsters forced our hands then, and we hurried even more than we wished while battling a few packs of small creatures; we had been actually fortunate. The previous night's lights in the sky had probably overturned the natural cycle of Shadelings.

I expected to encounter many more problems in the full night on western Wastelands. However, it wasn’t so.

The windy night had likely wholly or partially erased our tracks. I knew some Pathfinder or Scryer might still be able to find us with the smallest clues, but I made sure to drop everything that would give us away, and with a double-check, we left what we would not use in the Flow-cart we abandoned by the rock.

Now we were up in the mountains. We had climbed them during dawn and had found an entirely uninhabited cave facing the desert indirectly.

We would be able to check for incoming people, but they would not see us, not from there. Maybe someone with an especially evolved Far Sight Perk might have, but we would have the advantage all the same. And if push came to shove, we would go deep into the next region.

However, for now, we intended to figure out what to do and rest.

I did not need rest, the night had refilled my Stamina entirely, but the others needed it.

I would give them another couple of hours of sleep; then I’d wake them up.

I needed their opinions. Also, I had to go out hunting; the cub needed to eat, and so did we.

“Why?” Said a sore voice from the deep of the cave. “You’ve likely destroyed everything my father was trying to build. You’ve condemned the nearby villages to ruin. What you did will not be forgotten. There will be retribution, and you know it. If only you had stopped at that first kill, we could have made it look like an incident.”

I did not turn to look at her when I answered. Although I had my hood on, it was too easy to see my face at this distance.

“You give your people too much credit,” I said, caressing an energetic Loki.

“What do you know? You have no idea how much my father is fighting to get--”

I burst out. “Your father can fight all he wants; he is one man. These people’s hate toward us will not be suppressed by a war. I bet that what you call inclusion is nothing more but close surveillance with a little more steps to it. We will never be accepted. I mean, look at me,” I rose the cuff of my hood’s right arm.

“This color, you hate this shade much more than you hate the ashen grey of Elven’s foliage. There is no pact to be made with your people, no truce, no chance.”

“It doesn't work that way, you are wrong; listen, you are just desperate if you had let us--”

“I’ve seen Sunguards laugh while kids were getting mauled by monsters. I’ve seen them deal in slave trading. I’ve seen them slaughter nomads where they stood only because they were nomads. I’ve seen one of you set ablaze an entire group of plagued wayfarers because they dared to come to ask for your help while your people can heal Shade-plague as if it was a cold.

So, believe me when I say that it is you who doesn’t have any idea. Your City corrupts the souls of its citizens. So, whether yesterday night I had stopped my attack or continued, they- you would have used that pretext to kill us all.”

“Slave trading…” she said after having been silent for a while. “If you really are the Night Hunter, then I guess you are the one that killed the slave traders and that corrupted Sunguard.”

“What does it matter to you?”

“My father is looking for you; he wanted to reward you with an honor badge of the City… but after you attacked that nun, and from what the reports say, that Featherland airship, he had to start looking for you to take you into custody.”

I was taken aback by those words, but not only did I not believe the first part, the second part was so dull that I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Take me in custody, right?” I barely managed to hold back a sonorous burst of laughter, not to wake Roana and Star. “You mean, get rid of me. Use fitting words, please; you are insulting my intelligence. I might not be as polished and studied as you are, dear Aisha, but I’m a fairly intelligent person.”

“If you were, you wouldn’t have caused what-” She tried saying before I shot up.

In response, she closed her legs and tried to get as small as she could.

I didn't want to look like a slave trader, the way she reacted hurt me a little, but what could she know? It was a natural reaction.

I took that clue to get out for a bit. “Now shut up, you’ll wake them,” saying, so I left the precincts of the cave to gaze at the desert beyond.

From where I stood, Sundoor was small, but I could still see it, which meant that we were not as far as we thought.

And yet, something that we had luckily not encountered was now our salvation.

The gigantic sand waves moving in the distance were a symbol of something that could be our dread and our lifeline.

Something that big swimming underneath the sands could be nothing else but an Earth-Dragon.

“So they are real. Do you see those, Loki? When you get big enough, you’ll be able to take those creatures down by yourself. For now, however, let’s limit our scope to Sand-imps and lizards, okay?”

“It is high time I started properly training you.”

I decided that once the others woke up, we would start by ascending the peaks, then go our way throughout them as we trained.

“It’s incredible how panic has eaten through those Sundorians offensive abilities,” said Alistar as he returned from doing his needs.

“I’ve jumped five entire levels and got to 26, and I’m this close to Promote Fisher. I can feel it."

“Really? I’ll check how much you’ve got, but what did you unlock with Soldier 25?”

He scoffed, proud of himself, “I’ve finally unlocked my Class Strength Major Perk. It lets me use my spear in a grid pattern and attack everything around me at the same time. I can’t help but think that it’s been influenced by my Intermediate level in Form of the Grid. I can attack everything, whether with a pierce or a slash all around me, and the maximum range is based on mine and my spear’s combined range. It’s damn perfect, I say.”

I had stopped listening after he told me his Form of the Grid’s level.

“Wait… you are already Intermediate level in Forms? What kind of training allowed that!?”

“What?” he shrugged with nonchalance, “I’m just good at it.”

I almost couldn't believe him.

Alistar Migs Soldier Level 26 (22588/26000), Fisher Level 29 (25897/29000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 89%

Agility: 10

Constitution: 30

Strength: 13

Focus: 6

Perception: 15

Willpower: 14

Strengths: Constitution

Weaknesses: Agility, Focus

Class Skills: Duress II (Constitution), Brandish Spear (Strength), Luck of the Draw (Fortune)

Sub-Class Skills: Fisherman Fortitude (Constitution), Follow the Flow (Perception), A Waiting Business (Willpower)

Race: Kobold

Sex: Male

Height: 196 cm

Weight: 103 kg

Age: 18

Origins: Murkstall

Family: Potts Migs, Gudri Migs

I knew about Alistar's Skills. Duress had been boosted by a Dark Crystal, while his Luck of the Draw gave him a Flow Star. Those were shown as being both connected to Flow. It was a good improvement, really.

What wasn't clear was his race; just like in Aisha's Tracing case his race seemed to show a certain connection to whether Flow, Shade or the Confluence.

“One centimeter a month, Alistar. Really? For Sun’s sake!”

“Mmh…” he said, “I hadn’t noticed. Useful, I guess.”

“Anyway, you are damn close to Advance your Sub-Class. I guess a few more monster pulls will suffice. Cheater.”

“Please, guys, headache here.” Intruded Roana. “Too many Commands yesterday. My head feels cold,” she added with a smirk.

“I’ve seen that smirk before! What did you get?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you in front of her, come out."

We followed her, and she whispered it to us.

“Soothsayer has reached twenty-five, and I’ve gained a Major Perk in my Willpower Skill, Relentless. It lets me enter a Stance that allows my Willpower to be counted as Focus. It’s massive, but I have to test quite a few things, like duration, Stamina consumption, etc. Suffice to say; my Commands are going to be effective even on you, Loke,” she said.

“Well, as long as you don’t make me kill myself, you can do whatever you want,” I said, folding my arms.

“She was Abyss scary yesterday,” Alistar convened.

“She was, wasn’t she?”

“Indeed I was,” she said, imitating us and nodding.

“Shouldn’t you say something along the lines of, Hey, I’m here, you know?”

“Why would I say that? I’m right here; you can see me, duh?”

We laughed but then got back into planning mode.

Although she didn’t ask, I Traced her all the same, since now I could do it without having to ask, I simply wouldn’t.

Roana Dowson, Medium Level 28 (13477/26000), Soothsayer Level 25 (1589/25000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 82%

Agility: 10

Constitution: 10

Strength: 10

Focus: 16

Perception: 27

Willpower: 16

Strengths: Perception, Willpower

Weaknesses: Anger, poor defensive abilities

Class Skills: Trance (Focus), Divulge (Perception), Commands (Willpower)

Sub-Class Skills: True Sight (Perception), Relentless (Willpower), Dowsing (Fortune)

Race: Human

Sex: Female

Height: 168 cm

Weight: 54 kg

Age: 19

Origins: Unknown

Family: Jane Varriel, Leafy Tirrell

In her case, too, her race showed still another difference; she was tied to the Confluence.

“The ideal would be to cross the peaks and stay there a few, then descend in a month or so, while things have calmed down,” I said.

Roana convened with me “I doubt Sundoor is going to mobilize their Avian friends to look for one girl, even if a valuable Thermomancer. She’s just an Advanced Class, after all.”

“Isn’t she the daughter of a big shot or something like that?” Alistar asked.

We were planning in front of her, not even bothering to hide our plans; she was powerless all the same.

“Hey! You know I’m right here, right? I can hear you; why don’t you ask me directly!?”

We three shared a look of amusement, then laughed at her reaction.

“See, that’s something you are never going to get from me!” Said a still-laughing Roana.

“Anyway…” added Alistar once he had done with his hissing laughter, “I’m getting kinda hungry. Why don’t we start moving?”

“Then we start; I’ve seen a possible passage over there. Let’s go.”

We were facing a tight passage in the rocks, it soon became dark, but I could see how it was shaped thanks to Synesthesia.

“I can see the wind’s movement, it seems like we wouldn’t fit, but we do. Also, it goes all the way to the other side of the mountain.”

“Hope I won't get stuck. If I do, you are going to pull me out, alright?” Alistar said.

I nodded, amused.

“Please, don’t make me go in there. It’s all Shade; I can’t stand those places!” Said the Half-Elf.

“Oh, come on, your mother is an Elf; she practically lived in dark forests without any form of protection whatsoever! How can a little darkness scare you?”

“It can… the City is always lighted. We all sleep with our lights on; I’ve gotten used to it now."

“Oh yeah, then tell me, big shot, what the hell were you doing down the Dump in full darkness?”

“That’s… not your business."

“She’s not going to be of any use, Loke. We just need her to be our ace in the hole, at least until we really figure out what we will do with her. But the ideas I come up with seem all rather grim,” interjected Roana.

“Yes,” I convened, “We need to ponder this greatly. I mean, she’s seen our faces now; I doubt this hood would be of much help at this distance, no?”

Aisha sighed, but she was behaving rather well to the whole situation.

“Yeah, I’ve seen your face, naturally. What’s with the eyepatch and all?”

“Oh, that?” I lowered my hood and removed the eyepatch, “Courtesy of your corrupted Sunguard.” Then I raised my clock-arm as well, to show her. “This as well.”

She looked taken aback as she saw my face but promptly asked, “The one that had killed the Sunguard already had a clock-arm.”

“Yeah, but at least it was only my forearm; now it’s all of it, see? From the shoulder down. That bastard has done an amazing job at reducing me to a half clock-tech man.”

“Well, you kind of did that to yourself, though,” added Alistar.

“Thank you for your support, friend! Thank you!”

Roana chuckled, “I don’t even recall half of it, with all that drug in my system.”

“You were there?” Aisha asked, turning toward her. But Roana did not answer.

“Of course, she was. We had gone there solely to free her from the slave-traders. We didn’t even know if she was still there, but luckily, she was. I lost a tail to get her back."

Aisha, maybe realizing something, did not ask any further questions.

She let us lead her in the darkness of the cavern until it engulfed us completely.

I hoped we would be able to come out from the other side before long; although I was confident in Shade, there could have been all kinds of monsters waiting for us.

But Roana, who could see even things that were not easily seen, was there with us, and although I could not use my new bow in there, the darkness let me use my powers freely.

We could make it out of here; the danger would likely wait ahead of us.