Thud, thud, thud. Footsteps echoed off the bristling winds, reverberating in Riza’s ears as loud as her pounding heartbeat itself.

Her muscles were tense as she took each step in turn. Each footfall was intentionally placed, feeling out the ground beneath with the tips of her toes before she trusted the step with her whole wait.

The earthen steps were smoothed out, clearly carved. This was no natural formation but the errant cracks and loose pits of dirt, rocks, and even wood did little to make this place feel any safer than scaling a cliff face.

A solid pillar of earth to her right. A gaping abyss to her left. The steps were barely five feet in length, enough to walk on but with little leeway if you lost your footing.

I’m an idiot for doing this. So fucking dangerous. But yet, she carried on walking.

Her mind had settled on a decision. She wasn’t coerced to descend into the maw, ever closer to the bottomless, foggy pit below--she was moving of her own volition.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t regret her decision with every step she took.

The walk was a long one, with numerous steps. The relatively silence, with only the ambient sound being in attendance, gave a feeling of solace to her mind. This place was both tranquil and exhilarating; the absence of action with fear alone providing the excitement.

Such a long staircase. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for something?

What Riza found at the base of the pillar was not what she was expecting when she first saw this crater. Rather than nothing but the sheer walls akin to any skindhole or crater, a plateau had instead been formed out of the ground, jutting out from the wall.

Likewise, a cave had been carved out as well, doubling the surface area of which a camp had been established.

The plateau was a bit strange; the earth was extruded somewhat, hanging about four feet over the abyss below, with intermittent holes in the ground—not wide enough to fall through but big enough for your foot to pass through.

Add to that the strangely primitive, earthen walls with simple spikes, Riza wasn’t quite sure whether to be impressed by the magic that must’ve been used to create the place or be taken aback by the simple technology.

And not just one camp, either. Now that Riza had descended to this level, she could make out corridors carved into the walls of this hole, leading to numerous other plinths around the place.

This wasn’t the camp down here, merely the first one you arrived at.

She didn’t move anywhere as she took everything in but, eventually, her mind rebounded and the memory of what she was supposed to be doing returned.

Although, how exactly I’m going to accomplish that is a different question. All she was told was to report to a man named ‘Hildar’, who was apparently important or something. No other information.

Rather than heading towards the overhangs, she ventured deeper into camp. Walking past a tent, she saw makeshift cots, half-filled with people wearing little armour and either sitting or lying lazily.

After that was more tents, holding barrels, weapon racks, and other assortments.

But the training grounds was where Riza found someone to talk to. They were rather limited, consisting of squared areas for close quarters fighting as well as targets at set distances, presumably for both archers and mages.

A man, standing tall and relatively unarmoured, was watching a group of people, both men and woman, bash their swords against each other.

The fighting wasn’t like drunken or adolescent brawling; each soldier moved with grace, their swords trailing flowing arcs through the air as they pirouetted and twirled, the attacks more flourish than utilitarian.

“What d’ya want?” The man asked, turning around as he saw Riza approach.

The sudden interaction startled her, but she took the remaining few steps closer.

“I’m looking for Hildar,” Riza said, repeating the phrase she had been saying to herself for the past few minutes.

“He’s over there,” The man pointed towards the overhang, where it meet the crater walls and had some shelter hung up. “Tall bloke, fierce helm; can’t miss ‘im.”

Giving her gratitude in what must’ve been an overly formal tone, Riza followed the directions.

There were a mixture of robed people as well as those in armour, either sitting about, training themselves, or lounging on the non-spiky portions of the walls, occasionally looking over them or through the gaps in the floor.

There seemed to be an unusually high number of barrels just left around the place.

The first person she talked to was not Hildar, sadly, but directed her to underneath the area sheltered by a large canvas hanging off the wall. Two large, wooden sticks held it up in place from the ground.

Underneath it sat one man on an uncomfortable wooden chair, sitting at a similarly cheap table, while a woman stood in front of him. She seemed relaxed, posture casual, and wasn’t wearing a helmet—something the rest of the people here were.

And, finally, Hildar. Like she had been told, unmistakable; two large, ram-like horns protruded from the helm, the faceplate forever lowered and painted with a the image of a half-crazed demon on it.

The craftsmanship was so superb, the details so lifelike from a distance, that even approaching the man caused Riza’s nerves to shoot up ever so slightly.

Taking a deep breath, she walked towards them, patiently waiting for the woman to finish talking before introducing herself.

Seeing the new arrival, the woman took a step back, watching curiously, while Hildar leaned over the table to stare deeply into Riza’s eyes, his face impassive but pressuring.

“Erm, Hello,” Riza got out, her mind suddenly blank. “I was-I was told to report to you.” The woman watched, with a smile upon her face, as Riza was making an embarrassment of herself.

“Are you Riza, the Healer?” Hildar asked, voice surprisingly not that deep, although still intimidating.

“Ye-yes, I am.” With Riza’s answer, the man’s face broke out into a wide grin as he suddenly launched up out of his chair and began to walk towards her.

“Excellent! Well, I’ve been told to only keep you here for most of the time. When you’re free, you’re to help out over there in the infirmary tent.” Hildar had walked around and towards Riza, pointing towards the location as she was struck dumb by his sudden change in attitude.

“But, for now, you’ll be watching the walls here. Introduce yourself, get to know who you’ll be working with and what you’ll be doing.

A hand patted her between the shoulder blades, urging her forwards as Riza gathered herself.

She did as she was advised and not before long, found herself hanging limply over the wall as she stared into the fog below, just waiting and watching.

Their duties were rather simply; to keep on eye on the fog to either stop any monsters from ascending or to bring it to everyone’s attention if there was nothing she could do about it.

“So, you worked with Sylan?” A woman besides her spoke, also watching the cloudy depths below. She didn’t seem to mind how quiet or laconic Riza was being while she talked and Riza was thankful for the stimulation.

“Uhuh,” She grunted in affirmation.

“I haven’t gotten to meet him too many times myself—both a blessing and a curse. You wouldn’t happen to know where he’s from?” Before Riza could answer, she launched into another sentence, her talking fast and hard to follow but helping Riza with her comprehension anyway.

“I’ve heard he’s from Taylonn. Used to be a barber as well.”

Why would a barber become a doctor? Seems like a strange transition.

Sure, the information was interesting, but Riza couldn’t say she was too invested in it. Her eyes were half closed as she watched the pure white below, the lack of stimulation beginning to take its toll.

And as her eyes were about to close fully, she opened them sharply, straightening her back somewhat as she stared hard into the unchanging sea of white.

Call of the void? No, but there was an impulse there. She felt compelled to look down, for some reason. Like an itch in the back of her head, Riza needed to address it but couldn’t find it.

And so, it remained. The woman—Riza didn’t even know her name—carried on talking, not noticing her sudden change in demeanour.

Drowning out the incessant chatter, Riza stood up, taking her weight off these walls, and leaned over the side. It was a scary experience, yes, but she only stayed like that for a few seconds, able to get a look at the support immediately beneath her feet.

God; I’m an idiot! Falling backwards, she walked towards the holes in the ground, dropping down to stare through them. She could clearly see the walls of this plateau from here, able to see where they met the fog below.

Nothing there. The compulsion hadn’t left her. In fact, it had only gotten stronger. More refined. The omnipresent feeling had began to consolidate now, giving her a stronger sense of direction rather than just down.

Walking from hole to hole, she followed the vague, intuitive feeling in her head. At some point, she retraced her steps, unable to identify just what she was feeling.

The frustration was starting to eat at her, the itch not being scratched. Riza even rubbed at the back of her head in desperation.

That didn’t help.

By now, people were looking at her strangely, and Riza was starting to take notice. Hyper aware, she awkwardly rose to her feet, the pressure of people’s gazes suddenly overwhelming as she trudged her way back to where she was previously standing, unable to meet anybody’s eyes.

She sank into silence, too embarrassed to do anything.

But still, the feeling remained. For the next few minutes, it shifted around, getting neither stronger nor weaker. She was beginning to not even believe there was a feeling at all, just her misinterpreting signals her body was giving her.

Or completely making it up in her head. Wouldn’t be the first time.

And then, it changed. Drastically. The sudden surge in strength nearly knocked Riza off her feet she was so unprepared for it.

Quickly, like her body was moving instinctually, before rational thought could command it, she fell back to the holes in the ground, dropping quickly and looking out of them.

Not this one. On to the next. No, no, no. She dashed quickly between them, sliding on the ground as she made her way to the final one, the feeling blaring in her head like a nearby siren.

The sensation compounded, as tangible as a headache or migraine at this point, and Riza found herself stuck to this small window, just watching.

And then she saw it. Rocketing up out of the fog like a bullet expelled from the chamber, a demon arose.

It’s claws dug into the earth deeply, long, powerful limbs flinging itself upwards as fast as a cheetah could run on the ground.

It’s ascent was unnaturally swift, gaining terrain far faster than a beast of its size should. Like a bear climbing a tree in seconds, the momentum of its form unsettled Riza.

But the demon itself was scarier than it had any right to be. As soon as her eyes made contact with its eyeless face, she felt herself freeze.

Her heart pounded deeply in her, perspiration sticking to her skin as she watched the thing plow on ahead.

A loose arrow that she saw fly by the demon was what drew her out of that state of mind.

It’s weak. Riza reminded herself. You can kill it.

But it wasn’t close currently; she’d have to wait.

Reaching out with her mind, Riza prepared herself, imagining the whirlpools of essence, hers stronger than ever before.

The passing seconds felt like agony as she forced herself to stare at the alien thing.

And then, it came within forty metres. Without any hesitation, the mental click resounded, the bridge connecting, and the essence flowing out.

All of a sudden, it’s large, powerful body fell limp, slamming against the wall as one paw failed to get a grip. For a second or two, it hung on, the claws on its other hand still dug in.

It didn’t take long before the earth gave way, the weight too much, and almost as fast as it climbed, the body fell, disappearing into the sea from whence it came.

Only when she lost sight of it did Riza release the breath she didn’t know she was holding.

They’re weak.

Another day, another rather uneventful watch.

Although, not entirely uneventful; Riza had been steadily accumulating kills for the past three days, forcibly placing herself in the limelight, though, nobody seemed to mind.

With how lax everyone here was, and how nobody cared if Riza took all the kills for herself, she was starting to suspect that everyone here had hit their level caps; additional kills wouldn’t help them in any way.

She had even been offered a few party invites, pleased that she was now asked to join rather than joining automatically. Of course, she dismissed those, not that the person who offered ever seemed dismayed at such an outcome.

What was interesting was the preternatural feeling that she had. It wasn’t just a fluke the very first day; she had not only experienced it several times afterwards but even the other people she was guarding with seemed to notice her foresight with regard to the monsters.

For some reason, somehow, Riza had gained the ability to sense the monsters without seeing them. A sixth sense, in a way.

And it wasn’t unilaterally perfect either; the feeling was weaker over range, foggy and occluded when the monsters remained in the fog below, and struggled to differentiate between groups of demons.

More than once, she was taken by surprise when one feeling turned out to be two or three monsters. And they weren’t even always in the same place!

She hadn’t figured out whether it was something she could train through practise or a system-derived ability and so had to interact with the interface to improve it. It certainly didn’t show up as a skill, anyway.

Riza did end up asking around about it, though not to very many people. Actually, only to Lefie, the one person she felt like she could trust after the decision she made the other day.

Sadly, this ability of hers was new to Lefie as well, never having experienced or heard of it before. Whether that was because it was actually rare or just an artefact of Lefie’s inexperience and age, Riza didn’t know.

Lefie had her theories, however. For one, she personally noted a distinct increase in her ability to see essence--the green glow whenever Riza used her skills, for instance--as she leveled up.

Whereas, Riza just saw very faint, nearly indistinguishable hues, Lefie saw thick beams, tinting the surroundings like she was looking through stained glass.

What caused this? Lefie didn’t know; like Riza, it wasn’t a distinct skill. However, Lefie did think it was to do with her essence stat, since apart from skills, stats were the only thing that changed with level ups and Lefie hadn’t increased anything but that stat.

Maybe it’s to do with my own stats, then? I've gotten a lot stronger recently with [Knowable Essence] now level 10 and [Well of Essence] level 7.

Name Riza Level 10 Health 100/100 Stamina 42/100 Essence

1064/1064 Power 5 (5) Constitution 5 (5) Endurance 5 (5) Vim 6 (6) Essence

5 (53) Spirit

45 (230) Health Regeneration

100/day Stamina Regeneration

120/day Essence Regeneration

4600/day

She realised something.

The green glow whenever I use [Leech] or cleanse--I didn’t always see that. It only started after I left the caldera. After I took [Well of Essence].

Experimentally, Riza used [Cleanse] on herself, looking at the green glow once more. It’s still faint; I can’t tell if it’s any stronger than before. Perhaps my essence is still too low.

Never-the-less, hypothesis: essence is directly proportional to the ability to see essence.

Assuming that is true, then I’d imagine that the ability to sense essence through an esoteric and hidden sense would, therefore, be proportional to spirit.

That would also explain why the feeling is so much stronger than simply seeing the stuff.

Talking it over with Lefie, she had absolutely no idea what Riza was talking about when it came to feeling essence. She saw it, certainly, but she could never sense it with any other sense apart from her eyes.

Unsurprisingly, her spirit was at 4, where it had always been--a fact Riza couldn’t help but envy somewhat.

Thoughts like these, going back through her memories, were often ways Riza whiled away her time while on watch. She was tempted to slink away from the walls, test how far this feeling extended, but she never did--back during the most recent storm, the sensations were conspicuously absent.

And so, she waited lazily, having nothing to do as she simply stared into nothing. She did think, of course, running numbers through her head and inspecting skills while she did so.

The morning was...boring. There wasn’t really much she could do. Halfway through her shift, Riza was relieved, sent to the infirmary tent were she’d help those she could, mostly with [Cleanse] however.

Even after all the time down here, she still did not know how these injuries originated. Of course, it could’ve been possible that people touched the fog below but they’d have to deliberately go out of their way to do so.

Everyone else just said it was ‘demons’ and left it at that. Curious.

The sky was starting to darken. Riza was sitting on an rickety, old stool, staring up into the nights sky. She was growing tired and weary, but the monsters didn’t rest; they seemed neither nocturnal nor diurnal, frustrating active at any and all time periods.

But that didn’t stop them from relieving people to sleep; there were fewer people guarding this place during the evening and night than there was during the day. In fact, it was getting towards the time where Riza would be allowed to ascend herself.

As she was thinking that, a sudden, thunderous smash dragged her eyes towards one side of the camp.

Shooting onto her feet, muscles tense and ready to fire despite their tiredness, she spotted what made that noise.

Towering above them at seven feet tall, it sat on four legs, pasty white skin, and an eyeless face.

Its hind legs were shorter than the front ones, forcing its arms straight like a gorilla as its huge, bulbous head opened, its massive jaw emitting a piercing howl that forced Riza to cover her ears.

It didn’t help. Stumbling backwards disoriented, she barely registered the large demon, with trickles of white fog releasing from its mouth, as it swept its humongous hand forwards, knocking numerous soldiers off their feet and picking up one.

Riza couldn’t pull her eyes away as she watched the man get eaten whole, the action resembling a pelican or a snake devouring its prey.

Fallen onto her butt, her muscles refused to move as the cold sense of dread crept up through her spine as she stared wide-eyed at the horror in front of her.

More demons crept up from the depths below, flying over the lip and landing onto the plateau before eagerly clawing and biting at the already harried soldiers that were there.

The fog effused from this ape-like demon sank into soldiers skins, causing them to howl out in pain before being ripped apart by a single attack by a demon.

Heart pounding harder than ever, Riza could feel the hard ground beneath her, growing sticky with her sweat. It was stable.

Breathing deeply, reluctantly, she closed her eyes, entering [Meditate] albeit for the briefest of seconds.

Opening them back up, she was in a worse state but lucid. Struggling to get to her feet, knees wobbly, she stared at the battle in front of her.

They’re weak. She told herself over and over and over again, even as her body refused to take a step closer.

She stared once more at her stats, at her essence, before looking back at the large demon.

[Knowable Essence] had levelled up. [Well of Essence] had levelled up. She was stronger than ever--much stronger than the last time she faced something this big.

I can kill them.

Archers were raining fire down on the smaller demons, picking them off even as they fought against soldiers. Mages constantly sent bolts of ice, water, or a weird kind of slow-motion lightning, amongst other projectiles, into the fray.

The demons were falling, but the large one was still standing, spewing out fog in its lazy state.

Tentatively, with as much impetus as she could afford, Riza took one step forwards, the ground feeling like it was shaking beneath her feet.

She took another, and then another, the time between steps growing smaller.

Finally, she stopped, forcing herself to look at the large demon. She swore that if it had eyes, it’d be staring right back at her.

Projectiles were already fired at it, landing but with seemingly minimal impact. It didn’t react, didn’t move. It didn’t even care, the bastion of power that it was.

The sounds were blending together, fading into the background. Shouts and screams, gurgles, arcane whisperings, they all molded into background noise to Riza.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

She was forty metres away.

With as much care and precision as making a house of cards, Riza imagined the whirlpools of power, seeing her diminutive one compared to the ocean before her.

And then, the energy left her in greater droves than ever before. She could feel her muscles burning under the exertion, the clarity and crispness to her whole body assaulting her brain as she watched her essence tick down by the second.

A single, unusually bright, green bridge connected the heart of Riza to this great monster before her.

The first five seconds, there was nothing. By the tenth, the demon had noticed something; its arms were bent, back hunched, and looking smaller than it did before.

But not less powerful.

The final ten seconds were as delicious as they were mesmerising. Its knees buckled, arms struggling to hold itself up as its skin began to sag, becoming looser, like it was dripping off its frame.

The muscles receded, growing smaller as the demon curled up, staggering and then falling.

Suddenly, its body fell limp, unfurling and sliding down and down and down.

Off the side of the plateau.

Riza fell to her knees, breathing hitched and rapid, her heart thundering painfully.

A headache assailed her as her eyes struggled to focus, the ground beneath her both comfortable close and nauseatingly far.

She brought her hand up to her mouth as she heaved, expelling nothing but air over and over again, her body burning with pain and exhaustion.

They’re weak.

Never before coming here did Andreya have the slightest inkling she’d be so busy within the first month. This was meant to be on the outskirts--calm and peaceful.

But two storms and then another greater demon showing up in such quick succession?

She was going to be fully grey by the time she’d leave this place.

Sitting down at her desk, Andreya was still going through the reports. Thankfully, the attack was minimal, and casualties were kept low. Only one of the camps encountered a greater demon last night, and that one just so happened to have the greatest number of people.

The situation reports, she had already flipped through. Now, she was getting onto reports on level ups and level caps. Upsettingly, it seems that there were no new people who benefitted from the greater demon, unlike last time.

She quickly found out why.

Reading through the interview Seer Grandal had conducted with Riza--as requested every three days to keep up with how she was levelling, as her situation was as precarious as it was valuable--she discovered how Riza dealt the killing blow to the greater demon.

Unfortunate but it was her decision to not enforce party restrictions on the girl; the apparent value of [Lone Wolf] for a Healer seemed to outweigh other benefits, in her mind.

Although, now, she was beginning to reconsider; a few more level 15s would undoubtedly be of far greater help than a level 15 Healer would be.

As she read on, her view of the girl began to diminish. Over the past three days of being down there, she had levelled up not once but twice and yet, she hadn’t purchased any skills.

Seer Grandal even confirmed that Riza was aware she had levelled up and could purchase new skills--she just hadn’t.

He had even written down her reasoning: she was required to obtain the skills in a specific order but not by a specific time frame.

Indeed, that complied with her orders. With the authority granted unto her by the Dominion of Skaldur, Andreya could order Riza to obtain those skills but that would be deliberately contradicting previous orders; a show of weak leadership and decision.

She certainly couldn’t do it through implied punishment either; Riza hadn’t actually disobeyed her so any punishment would be unjust and disproportional. There was no doubt Arbitrar Fredern would arrive at such a decision.

This was a problem that, even as she moved onto other topics, nagged at her from the back of her mind. She had to do something, didn’t she?

A missive arrived later that day, delivered straight to her office. Delivered by foot, it was wrapped in a standard envelope but sealed with the emblem of the Dominion and addressed to her.

She opened it, pocketing the wax for later, and read.

It was written by Steward Dartov, currently governing over the quarry in Moya, the neighbouring province.

There were the customary niceties and retellings of recent events, catching up with a colleague almost, but the meat of the letter was what interested her.

And, as she kept reading, Andreya’s mind churned. Perhaps this was a solution to her problem?