Chronus had established his tower at last. The previous few days of powerlessness made him feel stifled. Now with the feedback from the tower, he could feel a well of power at his fingertips that he can tap into at will. He allowed the power to freely flow through him and exhaled deeply in satisfaction as he indulged in the long lost sensation.

While he enjoyed the feeling of power, Chronus didn’t let his emotions run wild and turn into blind confidence in his strength. He had just taken his first step. He knew he was still weak, far too weak. Arrogance was something he couldn’t afford to possess. One wrong step and everything could be over.

He sought out a target to test his newly acquired abilities on as he traversed the expanse of wasteland bridging the forest to the campsite. Unlike Leopold and Griffin’s crude use of their power where most of the energy is wasted and only some of it is used towards their objective, Chronus had the knowledge of spells, where he could accurately direct his magic energy and achieve targeted results. He soon happened upon the first suitable subject, a wild boar digging into the ground in search of food. Chronus approached the boar from behind a ridge and pointed at it.

“Open wound.”

A wide gash appeared directly on the hide of the boar, soaking its hair in blood. The boar shrieked in pain and turned around wildly, trying to identify its attacker with red eyes. The ferocity of the raging beast was not something Chronus was willing to encounter face to face, and he lowered himself out of the boar’s sight. Looking in all directions and not discovering anything, the beast roared and vented its anger into the ground, gouging out copious amounts of mud.

Chronus was not particularly impressed by the results of the rank 0 spell. While the effect of the spell could bypass armor, the lethality was extremely limited and could only cause blood loss. Its most useful application was distracting the enemy with pain. The only saving grace for it was the low casting cost and short cast time. Examining the energy he had remaining, he could almost use the spell ten more times, and it was recovering at a generous pace.

He moved on to another spell he could cast.

“Curse of Weakness.”

An ominous gray aura descended on the wild boar and sank into it. The boar felt a sense of exhaustion sweep through its body as its strength rapidly drained from its muscles. It slowed its movements and walked around lethargically.

Chronus was satisfied with the effects of this spell. The period of weakness could allow him to do many things to the enemy, from casting more spells on his target to distancing himself from it or even hacking at the target with a weapon. The cost of the spell was equally impressive. Half of his mana had now been depleted, and he was unable to cast it again. It seemed that the curse would have to be used selectively.

Intending to save a reserve of energy for any emergencies, Chronus left the beast he had been politely discussing with and quickly headed towards the direction of the camp. It wouldn’t be good to be too late. As the stone monolith came into view, he could tell something was off at a glance.

A depressed atmosphere hung over the team, who were huddled around a body laying on the ground just outside the shelter. A large part of the body was obstructed from Chronus’ view by the cluster of people, but he already knew who it was. As he neared, more of the body’s features became visible to him. It was Charlene, whose soul Chronus had harvested the previous night.

Her corpse was pale, without a hint of warmth. She was wearing the same dirtied clothes as she had arrived in, and it appeared the body had been carried out of the shelter. Her facial expressions were calm. There was no trace of panic or pain. After all, the poison Chronus used would bring a peaceful death.

Griffin and Emily had their eyes swollen and red from crying. It had been a period of time since they returned to the campsite and found out about Charlene’s unfortunate fate, but they were still sniffling. Edward, Alice, and Kenan were more composed, but carried varying amounts of sadness or dismay. It was impossible for everyone to have the same degree of attachment. The group had only been together for a few days and there was still a sense of distance and alienation between them.

The most noticeable was Leopold. He looked particularly devastated. No longer did he have his cheerful, sunny personality. He was kneeling on the ground, sobbing and confused. The impact of witnessing the death of one of the group had brought Leopold back to reality, and it had profoundly affected him.

He had his head huddled in his arms, ignoring the dirt and muck all over his hands or the snot that he was adding to them. He was oblivious to the presence of the others, withdrawn and wallowing in his own world.

Chronus put on an expression of shock and ran over.

“What happened? How did this happen?” he exclaimed.

Edward slightly spread his hands. “We don’t know the details either. When we arrived, all we saw was Leopold like this,” motioning to Leopold, “and Charlene’s body.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” muttered Leopold, his arms obscuring his face from being seen by others, “I don’t know.”

“It's okay,” Griffin knelt down next to him, “Calm down. Try to take a deep breath.”

Hearing this, Leopold started sobbing even louder.

“Okay, okay. Take a deep breath.”

After a while, Leopold managed to slightly reign in his emotions.

“Can you tell us what happened?” asked Edward. To him, the most important thing was his own safety and the safety of the group. If there was a threat to them, it had to be responded to as soon as possible.

Griffin turned around and glared at Edward. “You don’t have to say anything,” he said to the curled up Leopold, “You can tell us once you’re ready.”

Leopold sniffled, “It was… It was…” He started crying again. Griffin sighed and patted him on the back.

“It was… lunch time. I took out our food.” Leopold took a deep breath and removed his hands from his face, revealing a mess of tears and dirt. His eyes were completely bloodshot.

“I knew eating something would be good for her, because she was sick. But when I went to wake her up…” Leopold broke down again.

“When I went to wake her up, she didn’t respond. I turned her over… I turned her over and she was dead.”

“So there was a problem with her food?” Edward thought out loud. “She said she felt sick right after eating yesterday.”

“That can’t be it. We all ate the same thing, and none of us showed any symptoms,” said Alice.

“Yeah, I’m sure the food was safe. I know all of it was edible, none of it could have been poisonous,” said Kenan.

“Unless someone added poison to her portion?” suggested Griffin, standing up from Leopold’s side.

Edward shook his head. “There’s no reason for any of us to do so. We’re all in this together. One of us dying is a loss for all of us.”

“Could it have been a health problem, like a heart attack?” asked Chronus. The denial of one of the group being the culprit was something he expected.

“It's unlikely. She was a normal middle aged woman with no high risk factors,” said Alice, “A more likely reason is that an incident had occurred earlier, but the effects only showed up until now.”

“Are you suggesting some supernatural ability at work?” asked Edward. Alice nodded her head.

He sighed, “That is the worst case scenario. We don’t know how to guard against that.”

“Do we have to move?” inquired Emily, looking unwilling.

“I don’t know. There is too little we know, either about the supernatural or about the circumstances of her death.”

“I think the best solution is to have more of us build our towers,” said Chronus, “We’ve already gathered a large variety of materials, and there is probably one that you find acceptable. With all of us gaining powers, we will be able to better understand and guard against them.”

“Yes, that is a good suggestion,” said Edward, “I managed to obtain one I find suitable when we were in the mine earlier today. I can build my tower now.”

“Yeah, I already found mine yesterday,” said Kenan happily.

Alice pursed her lips, “I think I can finalize my decision too. I’ll use those transparent crystals from the mine.”

“Chronus, you said you would build your tower today, right?” asked Edward.

“Yes, I already did.”

“That’s great then! Every one of our group will have our towers constructed,” Edward stated, “Let’s first bury Charlene, then we can start using our embryonic tower cores. The best way to honor her death is for all of us to survive this world!”