Riza awoke blearily, the first few seconds of consciousness being confused about the large lump weighing down her chest. It didn’t take her very long to recognise the mess of brown hair and silently snoozing face, however.

Dave hadn’t woken them which meant nothing must’ve happened during the night--she didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried about that.

She was level 20 now, and had a guaranteed three more levels left for improvement. Each level up gave her 600 essence and 0.7 regenerated per second. That means, by the time she’s level 23, she’d have 9800 essence and around 12 essence regenerating per second.

A fair amount. An incredible amount, even, but still not enough, and she wasn’t aware of anymore skills that would boost her regeneration even further.

Lefie, meanwhile, had multiple directions she could take to grow, though she was more focused in just powering up her damage potential than the general and vague ‘support’ role Riza had.

So, rather than quantity, what about quality? Was there some part of Riza’s skills she wasn’t using to their fullest potential.

Obviously, there was: [Raise Dead]. Summons with their own skills.

Like that, a connection was made in her brain, memories rushing to the forefront of her mind.

Riza brought up her skill trees, her eyes darting to the auspicious skill.

Hidden Skill

Animation skill (5/10)

[Essence Monarch] (1/10)

Gain 2% of each summoned entity's essence regeneration

It was simply unfeasible before, requiring over a hundred levels to break even, but what about now? After all, 20% of her own regeneration was more than 1 essence a second.

Looks like I’ve got some maths to do. Riza looked down at the sleeping girl on her chest and gave a sigh. And it’s all in my head. Great.

To start with, let’s take someone who’s level 12. They start at 1 in all stats and that’s 60 stat points available. All go into spirit for 61 total. Multiply it by 20 and that’s 1220 per day. As a boon, let’s say they take [Source of Spirit] rather than [Lone Wolf]. 1220 becomes 3660.

12 skill points available. I’m not going to calculate [Knowable Essence] so let’s say just [Well of Essence] for now. Multiply by 3 and that’s 10,980 per day. Let’s round and say 11,000.

They’d also have [Maximise Mastery] and [Meditate]. 2 points for [Maximise Mastery+] making it a 4x multiplier while [Meditate] would be a 2x multiplier, a cumulative 8x multiplier.

88,000 a day at that point for a total of 4 skill points. That’s… Think. It’s just a bit of maths… about 1 a second. Probably.

[Essence Monarch] would make that even less, so still a far cry from what’s necessary.

Let’s look at it another way. If I was a summon, I’d regenerate 12 a second at level 23. Each level costs 1 essence per second so, if I’d want to break even all the time regardless of level, I’d need to regenerate an additional 1 essence per second each level I go up, which I’m not even doing right now.

[Touched by Essence] would, however. Multiplies it by 1.5.

Argh! Still doesn’t account for the bitch fucking inefficiency of [Essence Monarch]. Why the fuck is it not 100%. It’s just a kickback.

And, besides, the summon would have to be level 25 for all three boons.

Is it even possible? I’d either need a stupidly high level summon or a bunch of hidden skills and boons I can’t see yet.

Riza groaned in defeat, idly brushing Lefie’s hair to take her mind off the futility of her ambition.

Stop thinking about all these possibilities. I’ve got a skill point now. I’ll use that for something useful.

Hidden skill

[Leech](10/10)

Animation skill (1/10)

[Parasite] (1/10) -Learned

Implant up to 2 parasites in summoned entities. When your health drops to 0, automatically drain all the health from a summoned entity regardless of distance

Cost: 100 es per implanted [Parasite]

Not wanting to disturb the teenager resting on her, Riza wisphered a quick [Message] to her faithful guard, summoning Dave into the room.

He walked right over to them, within arms reach. His skin was cool to the touch, like pliable stone, and disturbed Riza as she tried to ignore it and focus on feeling out her new skill.

In a way, [Parasite] was like a delayed [Leech], so she used that as the basis of her understanding of the essence mechanics involved. She pictured the vortex of essence inside herself, shaping it and combining it into a small globule of condensed energy.

After forming the globule, Riza pushed it into the lifeless body, envisioning it sinking into the swirling pool of essence and latching on like a parasitic symbiote. She felt her essence drain out of her as the [Parasite] took hold.

She was becoming more and more experienced and familiar with essence by the day.

[Parasite] [Level up]

Hidden skill

[Leech](10/10)

Animation skill (1/10)

[Parasite] (2/10) -Learned

Implant up to 4 parasites in summoned entities. When your health drops to 0, automatically drain all the health from a summoned entity regardless of distance

Cost: 200 es

Interesting. Still 100 es per [Parasite]. I think that’s the first skill I’ve found that doesn’t increment upon level up.

I suppose the additional [Parasite]s act as an increase, anyway. I wonder if there’s other skills that function like this?

Lefie’s tired yawn dragged Riza from her thoughts, the girl’s eyes opening slowly and adjusting to light filtering in through the open doorway to the room.

“Good morning?” She said languidly, not having fully came to.

Riza smiled as Lefie pushed herself up and stretched her body, shaking her limbs like a cat that had just come in from the rain.

“Good morning to you, too.”

“What are we doing today? More demon hunting?” Lefie asked, excitement seeping into her words.

Riza looked at Dave and then back to her companion.

“I do believe so.”

Seven signals. Approx seventy metres away. From their strengths, two greaters and five beasts. Travelling in our direction but not a direct line.

Riza focused on what she could sense, the details growing stronger by the day. If she ignored the feeling, it was merely a constant presence on her mind but nothing more; the specifics were only gained once her attention was on deriving data from the variations of feelings.

As it was, currently, the trio were travelling to the next farm, traversing the lower floors of the bunker like thieves in a sewer system. The lack of fog meant reduced encounter rate, expediting their travel.

Even so, that didn’t mean they were devoid of demons to fight, though they hadn’t found any so far today--this would be the first group. A few scatterings of spiders had appeared but never followed by a group of demons. Not entirely unheard of.

“Five beasts and two greaters coming up. How many does [Chain Lightning] hit?” Riza quietly asked.

“Six total.”

“Okay. You’ll handle the beast demons and I’ll take whichever greater demon your lightning doesn’t hit.”

The plan was set so all they did was wait. Dave was a distance away, out of sight to protect his meagre life from extinguishing.

Meagre. Yeah right; he has more health than me! The only thing going for Riza was the [Parasite] currently implanted in the abdomen of her summon, ready to suck all the life out of him and give it all to her.

In a way, it practically doubled her life pool. In a way.

They didn’t have to wait very long, the demons quick on their feet and familiar with the bunker. Once they got into range, and view, Lefie threw the first two balls of lightning, the skill slower and larger than it’s less advanced relative.

The balls crashed into the first demon, stopping it in it’s tracks as the arcs of lightning jumped from body to body, becoming smaller and less bright with each jump

The corridor lit up like an flash bang had been thrown, Riza having to cover her eyes from the momentary brightness. The metallic walls reflected the bright glow, the additional arcs amplifying the light from the attack.

Whines and growls echoed towards the pair as Riza felt her mind connect with the greater demon at the back, [Leech] already beginning it’s drain of resources.

The demons hesitated for a second or two, Lefie throwing a couple more balls of lightning at them, getting her whole body into the attack, when, suddenly, the demons turned and ran.

The beast at the front of the pack was burnt to a singe, dead and unable to move. The next closest ones limped away as fast as they could, while the mostly intact greater demon turned tail faster than Riza could’ve anticipated, rounding corner after corner and making far greater distance than the pair could hope to cover.

The other greater demon, however, attempted the same thing but found it’s legs buckling beneath it’s massive weight, it’s clawed hands digging into the metal tiling and pulling it’s body away from them.

A few more seconds later, the atrophied muscles on the arms fell limp, the demon itself having succumbed to the inevitable.

“They ran away!” Lefie said with the tone of someone who had dropped their ice cream.

Odd. A coincidence or an evolution of their behaviour?

“They were acting strange,” Riza commented. “Hesitation when attacked and then a full group retreat, even on the verge of death.”

Riza brought her hand up to her face, thinking. She sent a quick [Message] to Dave, calling him over to them whilst she attended to Lefie, refilling her depleted essence.

“It’s unlike them. I’ve never heard of demons to run away.”

“It’s happening more often. The humanoid demon made sense; they’re valuable assets. The greater demons, though, are far more common. They even threw ten of them at us in an attempt to deal with us.

“There, the last one ran away because it’d die otherwise. It seemed like self-preservation in the evidence of certain death. Here, they didn’t even try to attack,” Riza said aloud, talking mostly to herself.

“Do you think the demons are scared of us?” Lefie asked as Dave arrived on scene.

“Do beast demons have a survival instinct?” Riza asked Dave, not answering Lefie’s question yet.

“No,” was the answer. It was the same with greater demons, as well. They were like machines, obeying commands at the detriment of their life.

“They were ordered to run away?” Lefie asked, having come to her own conclusion.

“Seems like it. With the ten, the order must’ve been to run away if it seemed the battle was lost. A tactical retreat. Just now, it was to avoid battle all together.”

A connection occurred in her brain.

“They’re avoiding us,” Riza said. Spiders but no demons. They’re being used for the opposite of their purpose.

The question then becomes ‘why’ but the answer is probably the same as why humanoid demons run away; they’re valuable. Greater demons take time while humanoid demons require a rare resource. Neither are easily replenished.

“In that case, I doubt we’ll be ambushed by a group larger than before. If they’re now changing strategy, that could suggest they’re running low on greater demons. We’re weakening them.”

“We have killed a lot,” Lefie said. “Over one a day.”

She’s right. Days, weeks, months, doesn’t matter; we’re killing greater demons faster than they can grow.

Our presence is already having an observable effect here. Riza couldn’t help but smile.

Top floor. Dave was away, luring the next humanoid demon from his station, just like before.

The job went smoothly. The humanoid demon followed Dave away from safety, was ambushed by Riza and Lefie, got raised and implanted with a [Parasite], and was sent back on his way to the farm.

[Level up]

You have gained 10 stat points and 1 skill point

Unfortunately, still no level cap increase. Now at level 21, Riza only had two more levels left to go and with the rate at which they were climbing, by the end of tomorrow, Riza would be 23 and unable to progress further.

As much as she didn’t want it to, that fact caused a little bit of anxiety to grow in her. The ceiling was in sight.

Lefie, meanwhile, had her cap increased to 23, just like Riza’s.

“Did you level up?”

“No,” Lefie shook her head, going on to inform Riza of the cap increase.

“You didn’t level up any of the times you’ve increased your cap, did you?” Riza asked, an idea burgeoning in her mind.

When did my caps increase? The first humanoid, the greater demon in the village, the flying demon on the farm, and the demon in the forest.

With the humanoid, I had reached my previous cap of 15. Two humanoid demons is enough for a level up currently so it’s possible that one back then would’ve been enough but no level up.

And then, with the greater demon, I wasn’t at my cap. I wasn’t at my cap for any of the others, in fact. Neither was Lefie.

Is it a coincidence that a level up and a cap increase have never occurred simultaneously? Or are they mutually exclusive?

Lefie was still a couple of levels lower than Riza but, recently, whenever they were in a fight, she was killing more demons than Riza was. Would that be enough to make them equal?

Riza shook her head. The lack of hard numbers is annoying. Could I have kept track on every demon I killed to work out their ratios for levels? Probably not.

Maybe I’m onto something here though.

When you kill an entity, a check is made: is defeated entity a higher level than your level cap?

If the answer is yes, level cap increases.

If the answer is no, experience is awarded, contributing towards level up.

That suggests a resource is gained whenever an entity is killed which is either converted into a level cap increase or into experience.

My level cap jumped from 15 to 23 whilst Lefie’s jumped from 15 to 21, 22, and then 23. If I killed a level 22, I gained experience from it whilst Lefie’s cap increased. Since she’s killed a level 23 without being level 22 or 21, she could’ve killed the level 23 first and subsequently gained experience instead of increasing her level cap.

You want your cap increase to be the largest jump possible.

[Raise Dead] [Level up]

The skill wasn’t taking as long to level up as Riza thought it might. Dave had been standing by overnight so that was already eight hours in addition to all the other hours he had existed for.

Since Riza could sustain Dave indefinitely, and eight hours was over 100,000 essence, it was a matter of days before the skill could reach level 10.

Level 10 [Raise Dead]. Frankly, the skill level ups did absolutely nothing since the level could never go above 5 but, based on the choices [Animate Critter] had at level 10, there were some interesting implications for [Raise Dead].

For one, the upgraded version would be useless--it’d still be 5--but the passive upgrade seemed downright overpowered. If it worked how Riza thought it would.

20% chance for any entity I kill to be raised into an undead version of itself, costing no essence. Level ups would be possible meaning the skill practically meant 20% chance to get a level 5 zombie with 5 skills and a boon, all for free. Over and over and over again.

When she thought about it, however, it seemed too broken to exist but it was still weird. The lack of effect of level ups, for instance. Did any other skills not improve upon level up.

It took a surprising amount of thinking for Riza to remember another skill that worked that way: cleanse. There were no numbers in it’s skill description and nothing apart from cost changed with each skill level but it’s upgraded version did change, allowing her the option to cure ‘curses’.

There were also skills that simply didn’t do anything once they had reached level 10, like the wells. They were already their final forms, apparently.

Riza didn’t understand. The system was so inconsistent and Lefie couldn’t provide much information either.

She huffed, the group continuing on their way to the next humanoid demon.

They were making quick work of the demons. Eight hours sleep left sixteen hours awake to proceed with their plan, and each humanoid demon only took an hour or two to locate, get to, and kill.

But this didn’t mean they spent the entire day doing that. For one, Riza simply didn’t have the essence regeneration to handle all those humanoid demons. Two, it’d be very suspicious if tens of them all had identical experiences within a short period of time.

So, quite often, there was a fair bit of downtime where both Lefie and Riza developed their skills, buffing themselves up in case everything went south quickly.

For the teenager, [Chain Lightning] had climbed to level 7 whilst [Range Compression] also increased to level 5, taking longer due to it’s higher tier.

Riza, however, didn’t make as much progress. The majority of her essence was being siphoned away to maintain their sleeper agents and Dave so she resigned herself to being a battery for Lefie, refilling her when she ran low and when Riza had the essence to.

However, there was one improvement she could make that she had been avoiding so far. Dave only had three skills in use, but he was level 5; those extra two levels were consuming 2 essence a second whilst giving nothing in return.

Sure, killing him and raising him again at level 3 was easy to do but that wasn’t the problem--she’d have to go through all the effort of teaching him the language and then filling him in on the plan and make sure he didn’t act differently to the other Dave.

One time while they were resting, it dawned upon Riza that maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea: Dave not knowing as much as he did. Whenever anything confidential is concerned, the fewer people that know, the better. Dave was a humanoid demon, liable to have his mind read by eye demons, so making it that Dave didn’t know why he was doing what he was doing was perhaps a smart idea.

Having convinced herself, Riza roped Lefie back into the education of a new and weaker Dave, spending the next hour or so peppering him with their language until he finally responded, followed by giving him strict orders but no other information.

The group fell into a pattern over the next two days, killing humanoid demons and replacing them with life-like replicas whilst exploring the bunker and training up their skills in their downtime.

Two humanoid demons was what it took for Riza to gain another level, reaching the heights of 22.

The groups of demons and greater demons had seemingly become extinct, keeping a fair distance away from Riza with the only contact being the groups of spiders that seemed impervious to whatever reputation the pair had, which was great news; Riza wouldn’t have to worry about seeing in the fog.

Whenever corpses were left in the fog, they tended to decompose rather quickly but in a wholly unnatural way. Rather than simply rotting, it looked more like vaporisation, the one time Riza and Lefie put up with the smell to observe the process.

With five humanoid demons under her thumb, Riza was growing increasingly concerned that level 23 was actually the highest level they reached. With seven killed in total, nothing was higher level, and now at level 22, she only had one more level of growth available to her.

A concern that, she had to admit, made a certain skill very appealing.

Hidden Skill

[Leech](10/10)

[Essential Leech] (1/10)

Choose a living entity. Upon death, drain 0.2 stat points from it's highest stat if possible

Casting Time: 5 secs

Cost: 5000 es

The pair had headed back to the dorms, a location of safety and comfort--although, most locations were safe given the demons' avoidance of them.

Lefie had found some old books, surprisingly intact. She couldn’t read them but many had pictures of some kind--mostly because they seemed to be technical manuals, Riza assessed--so that gained the teen’s interest rapidly.

Anything involving the Ancients was of the utmost fascination to Lefie. The chance to touch this forgotten world of hidden depths appealed to her sense of adventure and mystery. Riza struggled to relate, knowing that whoever the Ancients were, they’d be remarkably similar to humans of any other era. People had always been people.

So, Riza sat back on a bed while Dave and two zombified beast demons kept a guard out. They were all within 100 metres in case Riza needed to [Message] them quickly, and the beasts were also helping to level up [Reanimate].

The previous levels and skills hadn’t felt as important as the next one. At level 18, she had plenty of levels to go, with the confidence there’d be a humanoid demon even higher levelled to kill as well, but now? That confidence was waning and the knowledge that her two, soon-to-be three, skill points were her final ones she could obtain was very real in her mind.

A deep breath. Closing her eyes. This was serious.

Lefie was amazing, currently. Her damage output was spectacularly high, her essence pool decently big, and she had versatile ways to distribute that damage. Her build was focused and effective and more and more being what was carrying the pair of them through this place, even at a lower level.

Riza was aimless and disjointed. Her most effective weapon was [Leech] and that paled in comparison to Lefie. Her summons were weak and mostly just utility. It was disheartening, though she tried her best to not express that. Lefie relied upon her steadfastness and confidence.

It was time to do something broken.

Although not yet level 23, she’d reach that tomorrow, almost certainly. Three humanoid demons should be enough, and that’d consume all the essence she regenerated. The numbers worked out, just barely.

So, thinking in groups of three, what was the most broken thing Riza could do?

She remembered her thoughts from earlier, looking upon the [Animate Critter] choices.

[Animate Critter] has reached level 10.

You can choose to spend a skill point to upgrade the skill or turn the skill into a passive.

[Animate Critter]+

Raise a corpse smaller than yourself into a level 24 zombie

Casting Time: 5 sec

Cost: 14 es/sec

[Animate Critter] (passive)

20% chance after killing an entity for the entity to be raised as a level 0 zombie

She had [Parasite], now. The passive meant she could have tens of [Parasite]s, tens of multiples of her health pool available.

Just one skill point would do that.

How else could a theoretically infinite number of free zombies be abused?

Hidden Skill

Animation skill (5/10)

[Essence Monarch] (1/10)

Gain 2% of each summoned entity's essence regeneration

The system was weird with regeneration. It was the same with zombies and undead and humans; regeneration, for any stat, could never go below 100 per day. A level 0 zombie would still regenerate 100 essence a day.

[Essence Monarch] looked like it’d be 20% at max level. That’s 20 per day for every zombie. Not a lot but over time, as the zombies accumulated, it’d be 100, 1000, 10,000 essence per day. Not insignificant but not massive either.

But still, it was broken. It had no upper limit.

Then, there was [Essential Leech] itself. No upper limit. Infinite stat growth. Bypasses levels entirely. In range of reaching her ceiling, it was appealing.

A damn shame she was in the worst situation for it. They’d be hitting three humanoid demons tomorrow, most probably. Three uses of [Essential Leech].

When maximised to use up all of Riza’s currently available essence, that was 0.368 stat points.

If the cost increased by less than 5000 per level, however, it became more efficient. More skill points for equal cost. If Riza could grind up before putting it into use…

But that prospect was silly. Level 10 would require 12,000,000 essence. Her regeneration per day was only at 900,000 currently. Thirteen days it would take.

What if she didn’t get it that high? 2 hours would bring the skill to level 3. 12 hours for level 4.

12 was too long but 2 was feasible. There, it’d be 0.6 stat points for a maximum of 15,000 essence, Riza presumed based on the levelling pattern of other skills.

By the end of tomorrow, she could have an entire extra stat point.

Again, the limitation was time. Enemies to kill.

Riza shook her head, suddenly realising something.

Why am I just considering humanoid demons? [Animate Critter] and [Parasite] will work on the spiders. [Leech] works on the spiders. Shouldn’t [Essential Leech] work as well?

This changed things. Changed things massively. It was too good a prospect not to take advantage of.

Taking one last, deep breath, Riza purchased [Essential Leech].

Hidden Skill

[Leech](10/10)

[Essential Leech] (1/10) -Learned

Choose a living entity. Upon death, drain 0.2 stat points from it's highest stat if possible

Casting Time: 5 secs

Cost: 5000 es

I have it. It’s mine now. What are the tier 5 skills?

Life

0th Tier

[Heal+] -Learned

Restore 190 health, 2 stamina, 2 essence to a living entity

Cost: 10 es/sec

[Leech](10/10)+ -Learned

Drain 110 points of health from a living entity

40m range

Cost: 10 es/sec

[Cleanse (Passive)] -Learned

You have immunity towards any toxin, disease, or contamination

1st Tier

[Sapping Curse] (1/10)

Prevent a living entity from recovering health for 2 hours

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 5 es

[Animate Critter] (passive) -Learned

20% chance after killing an entity for the entity to be raised as a level 0 zombie

[Life Sense] (1/10)

Scan for either a general or specific form of life

2m radius

Casting Time: 1 m/sec

Cost: 1 es

[Last Words] (1/10)

Extract thoughts from an entity that died within 2 hours

Casting Time: 1 min

Cost: 5 es

Hidden Skill

Requirements: [Heal] (10/10)

[Rejuvenate] (1/10)

Restore 100 points of health and regenerate any wounds to a living entity

Cost: 15 es

2nd Tier

[Reanimate] (5/10) -Learned

Raise a corpse into a level 8 zombie

Casting Time: 1 min

Cost: 18 es/sec

Requirements: [Animate Critter] (5/10)

[Inanimate Life] (1/10)

Bestow the gift of simple life to an inanimate object

Cost: 100 es

[Remnant Memories] (10/10)+ -Learned

Summoned entities are created with a 90% higher level

Cost: 30 es

Hidden skill

[Leech](10/10)

Animation skill (1/10)

[Parasite] (3/10) -Learned

Implant up to 2 parasites in summoned entities. When your health drops to 0, automatically drain all the health from a summoned entity regardless of distance

Cost: 100 es per implanted [Parasite]

3rd Tier

[Resuscitate] (1/10)

Bring an entity that has died within the past 2 minutes back to life

Casting Time: 1 minute

Cost: 1000 es

Requirements: [Rejuvenate] (10/10)

[Amalgam] (1/10)

Combine 3 summoned entities into one entity

Casting Time: 5 min

Cost: 500 es/entity

Requirements: [Heal] (1/10)

[Senescence] (1/10)

Alter the age of something by 2 minutes per second

Cost: 50 es/sec

Requirements: [Rejuvenate] (1/10)

[Raise Dead] (3/10) -Learned

Raise a corpse into an undead version of itself beginning at level 6

Casting Time: 5 min

Cost: 1 es/sec/level

Requirements: [Reanimate] (5/10)

Hidden Skill

Animation skill (5/10)

[Essence Monarch] (1/10)

Gain 2% of each summoned entity's essence regeneration

4th Tier

[Resurrection] (1/10)

Bring an entity that has died within the past 2 day back to life

Casting Time: 1 hour

Cost: 10000 es

Requirements: [Resuscitate] (10/10)

[Chimerical Spawn] (1/10)

Bestow the gift of complex life to an inanimate object

Casting Time: 10 min

Cost: 1000 es

Requirements: [Inanimate Life] (10/10)

[False Life] (1/10)

Raise a corpse into an undead version of itself beginning at level 2

Casting Time: 1 hour

Cost: 2 es/sec/level

Requirements: [Raise Dead] (10/10)

Hidden Skill

[Leech](10/10)

[Essential Leech] (1/10) -Learned

Choose a living entity. Upon death, drain 0.2 stat points from it's highest stat if possible

Casting Time: 5 secs

Cost: 5000 es

5th Tier

Riza stared blankly at the blue box, struggling to comprehend what she was seeing.

Empty. It’s empty.

“Lefie. I need to speak with you. It’s urgent.” She shot out a [Message], the teenager arriving soon after.

She huffed as a hand leaned against the doorway.

“What’s the matter?” She asked, concerned.

“I’ve taken a fourth tier skill,” Riza began, giving Lefie a pointed look, “But there’s no tier 5’s!” She threw her hands, embodying her exasperation.

“What?” She replied, dumbfounded.

“For the life skills, there’s tiers 0 through 5, but only 0 through 4 list any skills! 5 is empty!” Panic was creeping into Riza’s tone.

“That-that can’t be true. Tier 5 skills exist. Tier 6 skills exist!” Lefie said, more confused than anything.

“You said there wasn’t a highest tier. What’s the highest you’ve heard of?”

“6! The Chief had access to them but never took one.”

“What skill tree was it?”

“Spearmanship. It was what he was known for.”

Riza slumped back, unsure what to make of this.

“Maybe there’s hidden skills there?” Lefie posited, voice hopeful.

Hidden skills? Only hidden skills?

“I… I suppose it’s possible. Have you ever heard of a whole tier comprised of hidden skills?”

“No? Spearmanship had regular skills in tier 6 that weren’t hidden.”

The conversation wasn’t helping. Riza ran her hand through her hair, trying to displace her worry with the joy of having very short hair again.

“It’s a dead end. There’s no more improvement to life skills.”

A minute or two passed in silence, Lefie clearly thinking while Riza lamented on the massive disappointment tier 5 was.

“Maybe there’s no room for improvement?” Lefie asked shyly.

Riza gave her a confused look, prompting her to continue:

“You said that you could resurrect someone that had died 280 days ago with a tier 5 skill. That can’t really improved other than increasing how long ago it works, right?”

Riza sat back, her body limp.

How long ago could I resurrect someone? The 280 already factors in [Maximise Mastery]. I suppose [Way of Life] would double that, and way of metamagic would double that again. That’s like three years.

There wouldn’t be anything more I’d want that real fucking [Resurrection]. How can you improve upon that?

What about [False Life]? [Raise Dead] has limitations. At twice the cost, I guess [False Life] doesn’t have those limitations? It’s the ‘final form’ of necromancy skills?

[Essential Leech] is pretty damn strong but there’s multiple ways I can see it change. Skill points, for one. Having it be a constant drain, like [Leech], rather than activating upon death. Maybe you could even drain levels.

That doesn’t seem like the logical endpoint for that branch of skills.

I do only have [Essential Leech] at level 1, though. There might actually be a hidden skill for it.

[Chimerical Spawn] seems like the end point as well; can’t get any more complex than ‘complex life’.

Riza closed her eyes, letting her thoughts wash over her.

Another minute in silence.

I’m in deep. Lefie’s just a child and I’m just a human. I’ll store these thoughts and questions away until we come across someone who can answer them.

She opened her eyes but didn’t move.

I’m at the end of my growth. Level 25 is the plausible max but it could be 23. Same with Lefie. There are no signs of anything stronger that we could possibly kill and even at the max, we’re still too weak in case the demons throw all the strength at us.

We need to start planning to leave.

Her mind was whirring with possibilities. She had spent so long underground she had almost forgotten why they were still there. What was keeping them there.

It was no longer an obstacle.

Riza scooted forwards until her feet were dangling off the side of the bed, looking Lefie in the eyes.

“We won’t be spending much longer down here. We’ll kill three humanoid demons tomorrow to bring me up to level 23. If there’s a level 25, we’ll kill more.

“Afterwards, we’re done with the humanoid demons. Done with everything here. We’ll head back to the entrance where I’ll raise Dave again but at level 5 so he’ll have the [Earth Shape] skill.”

Riza left it there, watching Lefie’s face for a reaction.

The teen seemed almost dumbstruck.

“We’re-we’re really going to leave.” A nod. Lefie took a step back. “It’s actually happening.”