Blocked as I was, submerged in layers upon layers of rocks, I wondered how I was even still alive.

My legs were broken, and so was my right arm, but they were not only broken, the rocks had crushed them.

I was stuck under them, useless like a broken twig; at least those were good to make a fire. In my state, I wouldn’t even be good for something like that.

Although not completely working, the only thing I could rely upon was my clock-arm, but would it be of any use in this situation?

I knew that I had been bleeding profusely; maybe it had stopped now, and judging by the cold, I felt there were only two possibilities.

Shade had protected me by freezing my body, or I had lost so much blood that I couldn’t feel the warmth anymore.

I didn’t know which of the two would be better at this point.

The air was… well, it was about to run out, that much I knew.

I had to hurry up, but what could I do?

The new Perk? I didn’t even know what it did… unless… unless… I could try to Trace it

I had never really tried but, would it tell me anything?

How would I even start to Trace something I couldn’t see but just knew was there?

I could start by Tracing myself.

Loke Nightfold, TechnoHunter Level 40 (265,508/400,000), Red Tamer Level 34 (106,937/340,000)

Health: 22%

Stamina: 195%

Agility: 15

Constitution: 15

Strength: 16

Focus: 18

Perception: 24

Willpower: 34

Strengths: Mind, Aim, Perception, Willpower

Weaknesses: Clock-arm

Class Skills: Trick Shot III (Agility), Technomantic Body (Constitution), Hunting Tactics (Focus), Trace III (Perception)

Sub-Class Skills: Frenzy (Strength), Return to Nature (Focus), Animal Instincts II (Perception), Together we are One (Willpower)

Race: Human

Sex: Male

Height: 177 cm

Weight: 68 kg

Age: 17

Origins: Unknown, Murkstall

Family: Eleanor Nightfold, Faris Nightfold, Nova Nightfold

The one I had received was a Hunting Tactics Perk, the Major Perk.

Would I be able to Trace whispers?

I knew that I could manipulate them somehow, but they were small things; I simply wished for them to act differently, and they did.

But Tracing the result of a Tracing? I had thought it impossible ever since I unlocked the very Skill. I had tried by Tracing other peoples’ Skills as I stared at them, but it had always failed. Maybe it would be different if I tried it on my own Skills.

So I focused on those words, that concept of Hunting Tactics hanging in front of my vision in dark, smoke-like letters.

If I had known that it was that easy, I would have tried much sooner.

Hunting Tactics (Skill)

Major Perk: While hitting your target’s weak points, your Focus (Basic) doubles. Minor Perk: ★, ☆ Your target’s weak points are partially exposed. Passive Perk: Bonus Focus + 3

It had worked! Incredible!

This would open a whole new world of knowledge for me.

What else could I do with such knowledge?

What if… what if I tried tracing the word Skill?

Skill

An individual’s ability recognized by the High-Humans’ System and bolstered by Flow and Shade. Only seven Skills are recognized by the System per each Class or Sub-Class the individual possesses. Each of the seven Skill is tied to the Attributes that the System recognizes as primary for the making of an individual; they are Agility, Constitution, and Strength for the Physical aspects, which make the individual’s body, and Focus, Perception, and Willpower for the Ethereal aspects which make the individual’s mind. Fortune is left for Shade and Flow to decide.

Then, what if… Focus.

Focus (Attribute)

Focus (Basic): Measure of the individual’s connection with the Ethereal realm. The catalyst for Shade or Flow’s level of density that may permeate the body. It counts toward Stamina, Flow and Shade’s Capacity, and Ethereal Power. Focus acts as the funnel for Flow and Shade. The higher the Focus, the larger the funnel, the more Shade and Flow the individual can draw from the Ethereal realm, and the more their body can withstand in defense. Focus (Bonus): Skill-derived Focus. It acts as a multiplicative factor for incrementing Basic Focus. If not diversely specified, it does not stack with other sources of Focus. Focus (Class Bonus): Hybrid Focus. It acts as Skill-derived Focus until Class absorption, then it becomes Basic Focus. Focus (Augment): Equipment-derived Focus. It works exactly as Basic Focus. Focus (Borrowed): Class Perk derived Focus. It counts as Skill-derived Focus, but it can only get as high as the current maximum Class or Sub-Class level; if higher, only the maximum Class or Sub-Class level will count toward Attribute borrowing.

I gasped for the amount of information.

It was wonderful knowledge to have, incredibly so, but there were so many things I had to Trace now.

I tried focusing on Ethereal Power, but nothing came out. Maybe my Skill level was still too low.

I was regretful, but I could not allow myself to waste any more time, or I would end any air that remained to me. I had to act, and I would have to do it now.

The Perk I had unlocked would double my Basic Focus when I attacked weak points, which meant… pretty much every time.

But I did not need Focus when I attacked with my knife; I only used it when I shot my Shadow arrows.

So I had to get out of this place by conjuring my shadow ammunition.

But… how?

If I conjured a Crystal Blow arrow, I would die. I needed to destroy these rocks, maybe blow them up or… or create so many layers of ice that would dislodge the rocks that were stacked one on top of the other.

Anything else would not work.

Stone Blow arrows would have to be the answer.

I conjured one in my clock-arm’s hand right away.

It was stuck, like every other part of my body, but it was still functioning. I could not pull it out or move it, but I could roughly move my fingers; that much at least I could do. As long as the Crystal inside the arm didn’t degrade, hopefully, it wouldn’t give out now. It was a fresh one.

I wished I could see the product of my conjuring, but I could only know that I was maneuvering it.

It felt as if it had appeared and then got stuck under a rock right away.

Although I couldn’t trigger it by breaking it with an impact, there was another method for triggering it, by violently extracting the arrow shaft.

When I jerked the arrow back with the little maneuverability that I had left in my clock-arm’s hand, it exploded.

Not much happened, but I could feel the mountain of boulders shake.

The freezing cold seeped right to where I was though, I could feel it.

A few more of these explosions and it would become too cold even for me; still, I couldn’t relent, not now.

Also, I felt my arm slightly freer in its movements; it was good, yet still not enough.

Fewer boulders on my clock-arm meant more exposure to the freezing detonation, which would, in turn, mean more damage for it and for me. But I couldn’t care about that, not right now.

I conjured another arrow, it too appeared and got stuck under a boulder as it formed, so I immediately snapped it off.

The following explosion was much more violent, and I could feel many more boulders dislodge from the mountains that had been covering me. For a moment, I even felt the refreshing change of air and a glimmer of light from somewhere. Still, it was just a glimpse of freedom. There was a lot more work to be put into it, and the air kept becoming cold and colder.

My clock-arm was partially free now, although I could feel that the four-fingered hand was slower in its movements, stiffer; likely partially frozen. I would have to free it with the next explosion.

Indeed the next explosion freed it, but the number of boulders falling down had dangerously increased.

For a few moments, I felt my chest about to burst for a sudden pressure piling on top of me. Still, it had been only a boulder rolling somewhere over the ones carefully stacked on top of me that by sheer luck had not utterly crashed my head and chest.

But I could see the light from a little fissure that I had created where my clock-arm had been situated.

I could not turn my head to the side yet; it was stuck. My clock-arm worked was still the only thing I could partially move.

Another explosion, another moment of freedom, another chink of light.

At least there was a little hole for air; feeling the stale air being refreshed was a nostrum. But I could see quite a bit of light from the little hole. I did not recall there being such light in that cave; on the contrary, it was rather dark; what had changed?

I would have to keep digging with my ice explosions and see.

An indefinite number of Stone Blow arrows later, I could feel that a big construct of ice had amassed a few meters from my side.

I was finally able to move my head, most of the boulders that had been crushing my body had been dislodged and rolled down from, but quite a few still remained, and I had no idea how to free my broken legs and arm, how would I do it?

Still, I kept going on, never stopping; I could not wait for the morning to descend.

Whatever the Undead Sand-Wyrm had done had been enough to shatter the entire wall of the cave. It all came crashing down, destroying the Sand-Wyrm’s lair and revealing a massive chasm where before was part of the overhanging that looked on the nomad tribe’s village.

The rain had stopped, and the moon shone brightly, but it would be soon morning; dawn was close. I would have to move, no matter what.

I had gotten the best treatment, protected by the tunnel as I had been, the ruins of the chasm had not fallen on me, only part of the walls of the tunnel; still, it meant that I would have to do a lot of digging to reach the other part of the tunnel, or climb the chasm up, somehow, and reach through the other way.

But first, I had to free myself of this place, and I could finally do it now.

My clock-arm, entirely free, conjured another arrow then, a normal arrow; there was enough space for me now to free myself from what was binding me, or just escape, using my transfer, most probably a combination of both.

I threw the arrow then, and when I felt the tunnel that allowed my passage through the Shade grow as thin as possible, I slipped through it.

I did not know what helped me hold my screams in. If it had been my wariness, my weariness, or something else, but when my crushed body hit the rocks and rolled down the part of the mountain of boulders that had built a small ridge in the Sand-Wyrm’s cave, I fainted, many times in a row.

A few, hopefully, seconds later, I opened my eyes up.

I felt like crap; I felt cold seeping into my bones, and most importantly, I felt stinging pain all over my body, especially my right arm and legs.

I slowly raised my head to look at the state of my body; my neck creaked ominously.

My body… it was in a state which I just… I couldn’t look at it…

The only thing saving me had been the layer of frost that had sealed my wounds shut; how that came to be, though, I could not tell.

Maybe in another life, I had been a magician… I chuckled to myself.

But then I greatly regretted it; my ribs were broken, my limbs were squashed, and I had to thank only… only the… Sun, how fitting, if I was still alive.

When I decided that I had enough of staring at my ruined body, my eyes took in the mountain of ice that had created at the side of the heap of boulders from which I had come out of.

What was I to do, really?

Consume my clock-arm to fix myself, and lose my strongest means of defense, my bow-

My new bow… where was it?

I could feel the quiver behind my back; it was almost indestructible after Harlow had given it a reshape, but the bow? Maybe I had lost it when I stumbled into the tunnel with Nova and Aisha.

Gosh… How I hoped they were alright.

Still, I could not sacrifice my new clock-arm to heal myself, not now. Maybe… maybe there was another thing that would save me.

However, to be sure, I Traced myself, then I did for Technomantic Body.

Technomantic Body (Skill)

Major Perk: Sealed Minor Perk: ★ Use Shade to consume tech-parts attached to implants or non-vital implants to cure or seal wounds that would otherwise heal by themselves. (Regrow bones, skin, muscles, regrown organs that can regenerate and reknit them, fix transfiguration problems) Passive Perk: Constitution bonus increases by 1 for each tech part present on the body (implants). Currently: Bonus Constitution + 7.

Indeed, it would not fix my crushed bones back to how they were before; it would only close my skin around them, probably. I would forever be a cripple.

I needed healing, proper healing, maybe only… only Nova could be able to do it.

But to get to Nova, I had to first get out from there, and I had to do it fast.

I took a big breath to calm myself.

Then I conjured pebbles, easier to throw than arrows, and started flinging them above, toward the edges of the sunken ravine.

Every time I jerked in mid-air to throw a pebble, I fell into an abyss of pain, then once again, when I tumbled on the outside wet, muddy, frozen ground, I blacked out again.

But I was out, I was finally out of that terrible place, and there was not a soul around, not even a creature, not yet at least.

The only thing left for me to do now was… whistle.

There was only one thing I could count on now, my Netherlion, my Loki.

I was shivering when he arrived, my teeth clattering. I had never shivered like that in my life before.

If I felt so cold, then I was in big trouble.

The dawn was almost upon me as well, which meant that there would be less aggressive creatures to worry about, but would Flow help me here, or would my Stamina start depleting?

If I was still alive, it was probably only because my Stamina kept me alive; if that started declining, what was left of my Health would disappear.

Then I felt him, and he brought many whispers with his coming.

Many… I had no idea what my lion had done, but he had likely given it his all.

Loki has earned 127,589 + 131,589 + 89548 + 118,827 + 117,655 + 122,647 + 127,896 + 144,586 + 135,586 + 145,879 + 113,896 Soul Fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 300,000/300,000

Loki has leveled up to 31.

Agility + 2, Constitution + 5, Strength + 3, Focus + 4, Willpower + 2

Loki has earned 1,123,736 Soul Fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 310,000/310,000

Loki has leveled up to 32.

Agility + 1, Constitution + 4, Strength + 3, Perception + 4, Willpower + 4

Loki has earned 813,736 Soul Fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 320,000/320,000

Loki has leveled up to 33.

Agility + 2, Constitution + 6, Strength + 2, Focus + 2, Willpower + 4

Loki has earned 493,736 Soul Fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 330,000/330,000

Loki has leveled up to 34.

Agility + 1, Strength + 1, Focus + 5, Perception + 5, Willpower + 4

Loki has earned 163,736 Soul Fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 163,736/340,000

How many undeads had he killed?

Well, I was happy. The stronger he became, the better it was for us.

Finally, my tall, fluffy, warm lion would be at my side, warming me up, and most importantly, taking me away from this place before the creatures that had been scared away by the massive cave-in started to come back.

Loki reached my side, frantic; he was worried, I could tell.

I raised my arm to caress his head. He would have to wait if he wanted proper cuddles. Still, he deserved them.

When he sat down, I started pulling on his mane to get myself up. He would have to help me, and he did by resisting the pain I was inflicting on him as I pulled on his hair.

But, finally, I was on top of him, and he could carefully get up.

“Nova…” I whispered, hoping he would find her.

I don’t know how he did it, but he knew where to go, or at least he seemed certain as he carefully walked up the mountainside.

I could do nothing else but focus on other details as Loki started walking.

As much as he was carefully trying not to jostle me around, my broken limbs couldn’t help but bounce around a bit, spikes of pain threatening to make me faint again; but I couldn’t allow myself to.

If I had fainted, I would have lost my clock-arm’s grip around his neck; the only thing I could do was keep my attention elsewhere.

Tracing was the only thing that came to mind.

Loke Nightfold, TechnoHunter Level 40 (265,508/400,000), Red Tamer Level 34 (106,937/340,000)

Health: 20%

Stamina: 57%

My status was getting more and more dangerous.

Health (Status)

The measure of an individual’s physical and mental condition. Constitution and Willpower are taken into consideration for calculating it.

It was surprising in more than one way.

In Murkstall, we had always thought that Constitution and Strength would increase our Health, but we were wrong. Willpower factored in with Constitution, which was probably responsible for the many times I was alive while I shouldn’t have. Like the present moment, probably.

I chuckled, and once again, it would have been better if I hadn’t, ouch…

Stamina (Status)

The measure of an individual’s physical or mental ability to sustain effort. Agility and Focus are taken into consideration for calculating it.

Once again, we had been very ignorant… we had always believed that Constitution and Agility were taken into consideration for it… we were so wrong.

However, if we followed this line of thought, what would Strength and Perception entail… but most importantly, what about Fortune?

But I could not think about that, not right now, because when something tackled Loki, I fell down, wailing for the pain.

Fucking wolves… it was the Blessed Hour, and still, they were still moving about.

I was probably the reason for it. Loki’s warmth or Flow concentration had started melting my frozen body; the smell of my blood had called them.

I witnessed Loki fight them, but what could I do? He would certainly kill them all, yet, I would be left uncovered, as he fought with some, others would run around and come finish me up, and in my current state, there was nothing I could do.

Just as I thought about that, a wolf reached around me, biting my already ruined left calf.

I screamed in agony and kept screaming, then I felt the tearing; the pain was indescribable.

I knew then; I had lost it; I had lost my leg.

My only response was that of generating a blow arrow, I didn’t even know what I had conjured, but I threw it with all the power I could muster to the side of the wolf.

It exploded in spikes of ice, killing the wolf on the spot, luckily doing nothing much to me besides perforating my already lost left shin and calf.

By that time, Loki finished his job. In such a small time frame, he had dealt with all the other wolves.

He sat near me and started producing a weird sound; if he still could cry as he did when he was a cub, he would have.

Loke Nightfold, TechnoHunter Level 40 (265,508/400,000), Red Tamer Level 34 (106,937/340,000)

Health: 11%

Stamina: 49%

I was in the worst situation I had ever been in my life, probably worse still than when I had almost died against the Sunguard.

The Shade had saved me back then, but I had made the mistake of staying too close to Loki.

He was a creature of Flow; he had been born and empowered by Dark Crystals. They would melt the ice, cancel Shade’s effects… I should have known. But again, what else would I have possibly done?

I sighed…

Was that how my tormented life was finally going to end?

My only wish was to say goodbye to my sweet little sister, tell her that she had to be strong, that she would have a wonderful life ahead of her, and that she would have to push forward.

My eyes were closing, sealing shut, while Loki sat near me, trying to warm me up, protecting me… Yet he stood up, looking around as if he had heard something.

Wolves to finish the job, of course.

But something else came toward me, something I entirely did not expect.

In front of me appeared an angel, no two angels. They were exactly like the Book of the Sun described them; although one of their eyes was wrong, it gave it that much more charm.

I smiled at them; one looked really like Nova, my Nova.

“You… are… as beautiful… as my… little sister,” I believe I managed to say.

Then everything lit up in Flow, and I drifted off in the Abyss.