My slumber was frequently disturbed.

If it had only been for the cold, then there would have been no problems whatsoever; it wasn’t for that, no.

I felt fine in its embrace. It cradled me, soothed my nerves, almost pampered me, and it was to the cold, to the darkness, to the Shade that I owed my true abilities. I had no idea why it was the Sun; Flow was the one speaking to me, caring for me.

Still, people kept waking me up; they didn’t want me to sleep.

That was why, as I slowly recovered my body heat, Harlow, Nova, Ro, Faruq, and Aisha altered to keep me awake.

By the time I had regained a partial semblance of litheness in my extremities and that I slightly let go of my torpor that, unable to restrain them anymore, I let myself be invaded by the whispers.

You've earned 812 (x219), 655 (x285), 417 (x157), 211 (x280), 106 (x179) Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next TechnoHunter level: 450,000/450,000

Class TechnoHunter has leveled up to 46. You have gained 1 Attribute point. Where will you invest it?

That was, indeed, diminishing return at play. I placed the point into Perception.

You've earned 92,069 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next TechnoHunter level: 92,069/460,000

You've earned 2155 (x64) + 3589 (x39) + 1227 (x19) Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next Red Tamer level: 353,492/410,000

Loki has earned 2155 (x64) + 3589 (x39) + 1227 (x19) Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 400,000/400,000

Loki has reached level 41.

Constitution + 15, Strength + 3

I should have expected his Constitution Attribute to shoot up; he had been suffering against the tech-creature exactly for his lackings. Still, for now, it was good.

Loki has earned 257,940 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 257,940/410,000

Skill points for Frenzy Promotion:

- Frenzy Major Perk: 2000/2000

- Frenzy Minor Perk: 451/1000

- Frenzy Passive Perk: 500/500

That was a lot of progress. The battle of which I had next to no memory must have been exhausting even for him.

Frenzy Major Perk will be promoted. Frenzy duration doubles. Choose one of the following Perks to be added to it:

Fast to raging:

Frenzy triggers when your Pet’s Health reaches the fifty percent mark.

Frenzied juggernaut:

When Frenzy triggers, a layer of clock-tech armor appears around your Pet, doubling its Constitution as well.

Hastened Frenzy:

When Frenzy triggers, your Pet’s Agility doubles as well.

They were all really interesting Perks, none of them situational. They would boost Loki’s pet in every situation.

Since Frenzy’s duration doubled, I could see even Fast to raging being really good for his overall damage output; but I didn’t want to push him into being constantly at such low Health; it didn’t feel right.

Hastened Frenzy and Frenzied juggernaut were both good choices. Yet I already knew that for what I was going, Frenzied juggernaut was the best choice.

Loki did not really depend on his Agility much, given his Phasing and his Fading Dash. He could disappear when Phasing was off-cooldown and attack and escape with Fading Dash.

So Frenzied juggernaut was by far the best upgrade.

It had likely shown itself given his troubles with the tech creatures. But it was clear that a metal armor for him to take advantage of would not only give him a higher defense but a higher attack as well.

Choosing Frenzied juggernaut was a no-brainer for me.

Frenzy Passive Perk will be promoted. Bonus Strength x 2. Choose one of the following Perks to be added to it:

Flow coating:

Flow gathers around your Pet, shielding it from cold, darkness, and Shade.

Agility + 3.

Constitution + 3.

That was another tough choice.

Attribute Bonuses from Passive Perks in general, even those from the Tamer Sub-Class, directly boosted the user, not the pet.

This meant that if I could take one of these two Bonuses, my own might would soar instead of Loki’s. However, I had the feeling that Flow coating would work wonders for him, and it could even add to his Minor Perk Skill unlock.

It saddened me a little, but I couldn’t say no to its usefulness.

I chose Flow coating; then I Traced my Skill.

Frenzy (Skill)

Major Perk: When your pet’s Health is lower than 30%, their Strength is doubled, but their Willpower is halved (lasts 20 seconds). Frenzied Juggernaut: ★ ☆ When Frenzy triggers, a layer of clock-tech armor appears around your Pet, doubling his Constitution as well. Minor Perk: After using Frenzy, your pet’s Health recovers up to 70% over a medium amount of time (1 hour), in the meanwhile, their Strength is halved. Passive Perk: Bonus Strength + 6 Flow Coating: ☆ Flow gathers around your Pet, shielding him from cold, darkness, and Shade.

Lastly, I Traced Loki.

Loki (Adult Golden Netherlion), (Titan), Level 41 (257,940/410,000)

Health: 97%

Stamina: 35%

Agility: 75

Constitution: 100

Strength: 90

Focus: 47

Perception: 50

Willpower: 50

Strength: Bite, Claws, Dash, Phantasmic State, Senses

Weaknesses: None

Abilities: Fading Dash, Ghastly Senses, Phase

As a small layer of Flow coated Loki, making him shine, I opened my eyes, trying to feel for my movements.

My senses were still a mess, especially my hearing, but given that I could feel Roana’s breath, sleeping behind me, likely trying to taw me from my coldness, it was clear that I had not lost it forever.

Nova was instead sleeping in front of me, I touched her hand, and they were not as warm as they usually were. She had likely absorbed a lot of my coldness.

I was still cold, my jaw still trembled a bit, yet I managed to move.

The first one answering to me in the dark environment in which we rested was Loki.

He nudged me with his muzzle, rubbing his beautiful mane in my face.

I slowly rose my hand to caress him; my skin was still a little livid, but not more than it naturally was.

As I looked around, I noticed that we were in a dark metal chamber. Everything there was built with a dark metal, darker than any metal I had seen up until then.

I Traced it.

Orichalcum Alloy

Durability: 1000%

Strengths: Strongest material on Vrael

Weaknesses: None

Not much is known about Orichalcum, but what is truly known is that currently there doesn't exist a method to work it correctly.

Like the Abyss waters, info about the weird alloy was… scarce, to say the least.

Was there a connection among them? It might have as well been.

It wasn’t a puzzle I could solve, so my attention went elsewhere; I needed to find the others, for, at that moment, I saw only Loki and the two sleeping girls near me.

I slowly got up, my muscles creaking.

I needed to take a look at my status.

Loke Nightfold, TechnoHunter Level 46 (92,069/460,000), Red Tamer Level 41 (353,492/410,000)

Health: 61%

Stamina: 53%

I would be fine.

My Stamina regenerating so slowly even though the dark environment and the fact that the Eclipse had flooded the world in Shade meant that I had really gone way overboard.

I couldn’t remember any detail, but I perfectly remembered the call of Shade.

It was so… powerful. It was pulling me in much more strongly than it had done in the past when it became the deciding factor in pushing me into assaulting the Flow-ship. If I had been so close to it then, who knew what could have happened? I might have even assaulted the other Flow-ships just because they were there.

I shook my head, trying to get those thoughts to leave me. I would talk with Vanny; maybe she had answers for what Shade really was.

Right now, though, I had to find the others.

My head rose up to study the gigantic frame of the building in which I found myself.

Even with my Perception, I could not see through that tall darkness, so I fed my eyes with Shade to fuel my Night Sight.

The dark environment illuminated as if there had been daylight, but only for my eyes to see.

The building was tall, much, much taller than anything I had seen up close. The clocktower couldn’t even compare.

The building, tall, metallic, mysterious, seemed to be stairless. If I could see so far up was because not every floor had a pavement, the many floors were only partially paved, the holes in the pavement seemed to follow a spiral-shaped sequence, and they continued on until even my boosted eyesight couldn’t reach.

I had no idea how far we had entered into the Citadel, but I had no idea that these buildings looked so big from up close.

They put the Technodragon to shame, but then, the Colossus, standing as tall as one of those buildings. What kind of madness had created it?

It reminded me of the Primal, whose power the nomads were abusing to give back life over and over again to their undeads.

However, my reverie was of short duration as voices from a nearby chamber, one of many among the dark, empty, and doorless corridor in which I stood, reached me, albeit weakly, given my still poor shape.

“...I don’t think it’s a good idea. It would be better to wait for tomorrow morning to go back,” somebody said.

“I say we should escape at night, mind that we will lose a lot of power if we leave during the day. When we got here, I wasn’t exactly loaded with Stones; the same could be said for Rey,” it was Jamie.

“I think you are speaking shit. Did you see what those guys did? They ventured into the Dungeon! If there is one safe way out, it is through its teleportation ring,” I believed the one who said that was Drick.

Kobolds of his party echoed assent with him.

But, who was he talking about? If Noland’s party was here, and the Kobold party was here as well, who had reached the Dungeon?

When they started arguing, I got sick of waiting for them to get back into the topic, so I joined the room, a glowing Loki following behind me.

“Who entered the Dungeon?” I croaked with my still weak voice.

Everybody was there in that room, though; the rest of my party was there as well: Aisha, Faruq, and my Harlow.

“Loke!” Harlow said, followed by the others, “How do you feel!?”

I shrugged, “I’m getting better as we speak.”

Jamie looked at me, shaking his head.

Drick practically glowed; he seemed to crave me or something.

Giada seemed slightly suspicious of me, while Noland and Rey smiled.

“What a son of a Moon walker you are,” Rey said, as Faruq and Aisha closed in.

I saluted my companions, still a little weak on the knee; when Aisha embraced me, I almost fell to the floor, Faruq helped me up.

Harlow seemed a little scared about touching me as if she would fracture me if she did.

“I’m fine,” I said to them while looking at Harlow. “I’m not going to shatter like a piece of ice, I think.”

“I have never, ever in my life, seen someone survive at seven percent Health and with zero Stamina…” Jamie said.

“How did you do it? Where did you take the… will, the energy to keep on shooting? Trace fails to understand…” Jamie said.

“But before that,” Giada intervened, “why were you even doing all that? We had everything under control; trying to stay out of the way of your explosion was more dangerous than dealing with those droids. They were just droids, for Sun’s sake…”

“I don’t know,” I answered sincerely. “It’s as if Shade itself took control of me; it feels so… good.”

I was honest. It felt… divine.

“I’ve heard of Shade or Flow-related mental instabilities,” Aisha said, “but reducing oneself to the state you were in, without even noticing it? That should not be possible.”

“It was just like when you survived the Sunguard, and they brought you back to me,” said Nova, entering with Roana from the door behind me. Roana nodded, “You were almost just as frozen. Yet still lived, I couldn’t explain it myself.”

I wanted to chuckle and tell her, What? You speak to me now? But maybe it wasn’t the best of times. Instead, I said: “I’m glad you’re speaking with me again.”

Roana shook her head, “Maybe I overdid it a little. Still, getting yourself almost killed is not the best way to make peace with somebody.”

“Indeed, Loke. I’m sick of having to heal you up from almost certain death… it kind of… tears me apart every single time,” Nova said, lowering her head to stare at the pavement.

My Nova. She had grown so much and in such a small time frame. I was sorry I had to let her go through that.

“I’m really sorry… you’ve got an unlucky brother, little monkey.”

“Yeah, all that is good and all, but what is this story about surviving the Sunguard,” Jamie asked.

We paled, sharing a look among each other.

“Hey Jamie, do I have to remind you that you almost got somebody killed?” Noland said, serious for a little.

Then it was Jamie’s time to pale, and Noland turned around to wink at me.

What was going on? It was clear that Rey knew about the fact that I was the Night Hunter, but now Noland knew as well? And why they didn’t want to tell Jamie and Giada given her quizzical look.

I looked at Rey, “You’ve got a bet to respect, Rey,” I said.

“I do? No, I think I don’t.”

“What? Why? You’re no man if you don’t respect your promises,” I said.

He chuckled, “Faruq is going to tell you,” he answered.

For the first time since I had known him, Faruq got angry, “Shut the fuck up,” he said to Rey.

“Faruq?” I asked, shifting my posture toward him, “May I know what is going on?”

“Captain, do you trust me?”

That question took me back.

Did I trust him?

I… I wasn’t the most trustful person in the world; I had to admit at least that much. But I could trust him… I could trust someone such as him.

“I do…”

“Then wait just until we’ve done with this whole ordeal. Then you’ll know everything there is to know; besides, it’s nothing bad, really,” he said, turning back to his normal tone, and shrugging.

After that, we sat in a circle, Loki at our center, shining light on top of us while we waited for something they had brought.

“Where did you get this?” I asked them, biting the bread, then recognizing right away, “This is Harlow’s…”

I turned toward her, “You brought your bread with you?”

She shook her head, “When they got back, they passed through the Hillhouse.”

“We also brought this,” Nova said, removing the bag behind her back and opening it up so that nobody but us could look in it.

She had brought the bag with Dark Crystals.

“That was very smart of you, monkey,” I said.

She raised her eyes to the ceiling, faking annoyance.

“So, how did the Eclipse go for you guys?” I asked, then I turned toward Harlow, “For us, so far, it’s been a breeze, really.”

“We turned the other way around the very moment it started,” Aisha said.

“Yes. Nova started acting up, saying that you would come toward us because you would be worried about her, but then I pointed out that Alistar had gone delving,” Roana added, “in the end, we had to get back, no matter what.”

“So, you know me so well, eh?” I asked Nova with a smirk.

She shrugged, “You’re very easy to read, a bit like me…” then she gave me the tongue.

We shared our short trip, and how it went for them, then I asked them how long I had been out for.

“Since its fourth bell, you’ve been sleeping for almost six hours, but… that’s not very important. For Eclipse or not, there has been a change,” Faruq said.

My brows curled up, “What?”

“Well, as it seems, there are windows, tiny windows on the spire’s last floor. Noland and Rey went to check, and they witnessed Alistar’s party go to the Castle Dungeon; they managed to enter by driving the attention of the creatures away.”

Suddenly, before I could react, Rey took place near us. Stealing a piece of bread and ham, he heavily sat down, munching on our food, and joined the conversation, “This is the deal.”

“Castle Dungeon is composed of five floors and two basement floors,” he turned toward Aisha then, “One starts from the first basement floor, then gets to the second, which leads back up to the first floor. Yet,” he added, waving the piece of ham at as, “nobody goes beyond the first Floor. Passing through the second floor is a bit like going up to the Golden Tower’s ninth floor. We should call for Lester Teriman, and sadly we don’t have a Lester among us. So, after one manages to pass through the first floor, the Dungeon offers you a reward. One of those rewards is always, always a free ticket for being teleported at the only free way to leave the Dungeon.”

“Where does this teleport get you?” Roana asked.

“There is a platform near the borders with the Wide Peaks region. That’s where it leads.”

“How do you know all that if you have never been there?” I asked; it felt weird.

Rey chuckled, “Well, do you remember when my brother said that we had never reached it?”

We nodded, “Well, that was a lie that Logan asked him to tell you. So that you wouldn’t act accordingly after seeing our demonstration of power and,” he took a bite out of the bread, “didn’t do anything stupid.”

We shared a look among ourselves. Then we said it all in a chorus...

“Son of a Moon walker...” Harlow did not hold back either.

Rey instead chuckled at our expenses.

He was about to say something else when he squinted his eyes, his brow arching, and he pointed at me, “You’ve still got some ice on your face, Loke,” he said.

“Where is it?” I said, touching my cheek with my hand.

“Yeah, it’s not coming off like that,” Roana said, “let me do it.”

She licked her thumb, passing the warm finger on my cheek.

Faruq shook his head, “You’re not doing it right, see? It’s not coming away,” he wet his finger too as he neared it to my face.

The situation was amusing until it stopped being so.

Nova grabbed Faruq’s hand, stopping it, surprising us all with her face.

“Don’t… touch him,” she said.

Most of us looked at her weirdly, “That’s too much jealousy even for you, little monkey,” Harlow said with a smile, “shouldn’t I be more jeal-”

“That’s the Shade-plague.”

What?

“That’s… the Shade-plague,” Nova repeated, slowly, darkly.

“Don’t touch him, let me... fix him first,” she added; she was a little creeped out, but so was I; no, so we were all.

Hadn’t I been immune to it all this time?