Jason stared grimly at the recognisable parasites that were littered across the ground. He glanced back, and noticed that some of them had started appearing on the trees too. It has to be them, the people who took that thing’s Class in the dungeon. The situation had gone from bad to worse. Before, he’d been relatively confident at dealing with whatever the monster that was causing this was, now though? He wasn’t sure; he could walk through and kill the boss, but could he deal with a flood of parasites? No.

Now he understood why the wolves were so nervous. He also felt his heartbeat quiver at the sight in front of him. If not for [Fear resistance], he’d be running away as fast as he could. He shook his head. There was nothing he could do apart from eliminating the source of the problem. He started walking again, the wolves, hesitating before following. They had a job to do.

As they travelled, the greenery slowly died, and was replaced with corals, just like in the dungeon. How did these things get here? An image of barnacles acting like nano-bots floated in his mind. Sure, let's go with that. To his dismay, the ground was slowly becoming wet – brackish. Goddammit, more mud? He released a strained chuckle, which quickly died. The group was silent, the only sound was the trickle of water, and crunch of barnacles. His nose started to sting as the smell of salt grew stronger. He blinked as he realised he’d been grinding his teeth together, and he loosened his jaw with some difficulty. Bloody hell, what’s it going to be like if I go to sea? He shivered, and pushed the thought out of his head.

The ground was becoming increasingly uneven. The simple grass transformed into craggly boulders of coral. Kind of like the bottom of the ocean. It was when he was walking between two cliff-like pieces, that he heard a sudden whistle. He only had a brief moment to feel confused, when a sudden piercing pain punched into his head. His world went white, and his thoughts became blank. Somehow, a few thoughts made it through the white noise. Pain – Head – State. He put all of his willpower into focusing on the ability, straining to activate it, when it suddenly clicked. The pain abruptly vanished, but he still couldn’t see. The noise was gone, and he heard a clatter of something falling to the ground. Still blind, he flailed to his feet. The wolves were howling and attacking someone, a person who was screaming in violent rage. He reached a hand up to where the pain had been, and felt around. His fingers almost immediately found a hole in his temple. His heart all but stopped. His thoughts stuttered. He stood there, completely numb to the howls and explosions around him.

A familiar comforting chime broke him out of it.

‘Ding’ [Fear Resistance Lv 13 – Lv 16]

And then he could breathe again. The weight of what had happened, still pressed on him. But now, he could think. How am I alive? He knew he should focus on solving the situation, but this thought kept dragging his attention. Is it Vitality? Is this how it works? Your body can keep becoming damaged, but you will survive regardless? It definitely checked out in this situation. He sucked in a breath, while tracing the wound. What can I do? The first thing that came to mind was how his body had repaired itself in the dungeon, but that had been injuries he’d gotten in his [Phantom State], not out of it. His chest started rising irregularly; he wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t need air or if he was panicking. What else is there? He thought hard, for a moment, before he realised something else about the dungeon. I was given a health potion… do I still have it? He quickly brought his satchel out of the State, along with his hands, and began to rifle through it. After a few minutes, he thought he’d found what he was looking for – two of them in fact. I got a Mana potion too. He shrugged. Now wasn’t the time to be picky. He raised them to his mouth, and paused, realising that he may need to come out of the State for the potions to work. Fuck. He hesitated, before slamming the ability shut and dunking the potions back. Immediately, his head exploded with pain, causing him to spill slightly, but most of it still went in, and he fell to his knees. He tried to focus on his breathing, but the pain and the surging sensation of heat and Mana was too much to bear. He became dimly aware that he was whining, but he was far more distracted by the terrible itching around his head. It was so awful that it soon drowned out the pain, and he had to just kneel there, writhing. Eventually it faded, and he stood up, blinking in the sudden light. He looked around and saw multiple bodies of wolves: burnt, frozen or riddled with arrows.

He looked up, already having an idea of who’d attacked them. Sure enough, the archer and alchemist from earlier were there, shooting and blasting the wolves. He distantly realised that his animal friends weren't showing any signs of retreating, and if he didn’t do anything, they’d all end up dead. His chest burned, and he switched to [Phantom State] before summoning his bone sword. He ran up the hill, running through some of the wolves. As he got closer, the archer noticed him, and her face became incredulous, before twisting into snarl. With bombs going off behind her, She began firing arrows at him, but of course, they simply passed through. She screamed when she saw that her attacks were ineffective, and drew back her bow again; this time it was different, the arrow was shadowy black and becoming thicker by the second. He wasn’t going to risk that, so hoping that he wouldn’t hurt any of the wolves, he sent a [Spacial Strike] at her. When his attack got about halfway, she unleashed hers. The arrow flew towards him, passing through his slash, and breaking apart a little. Nevertheless, it still shot straight towards him, and he tried to dive out the way, succeeding partially, but it still caught his leg. He frowned when he felt no pain, but then gasped as he watched the shadows crawled up him. It wasn’t very strong, but he could feel it slowing him down. It was lucky then, that his attack hadn’t been stopped. He heard a different kind of scream, and he looked up as the bowwoman fell, bleeding profusely. He saw the alchemist pause in tossing another explosive, and quickly turned. The woman was already drinking from a bottle to heal… but the wolves were on her. Her cries were quickly cut off, and the alchemist released their own roar of rage. He saw the Alchemist reaching out as if he could do something, before dropping it defeatedly. His hooded gaze moved to him, and he could feel its searing intensity. The alchemist raised another bomb, and held it as it started spewing smoke. The view quickly became obscured, and he held back from sending a [Spacial Strike], out of fear from harming the pack. The air was heavy with the smell of smoke, and the wolves sneezed as they tried to sniff where the enemy had gone; the alchemist had obviously been prepared.

He groaned, and fell on his bum, before deactivating his State. He tiredly listened to the boom of the bell in his head.

‘Ding’ You have defeated a [Shadow’s Arrow Lv 112]

‘Ding’ You have levelled up. [Phantom Swordsman Lv 82 – Lv 86]

20 Stat points gained

‘Ding’ You have levelled up. [Bone Manipulator Lv 46 – Lv 53]

21 Stat points gained.

‘Ding’ [Bone Manipulation 2nd Tier Lv 1 – Lv 3]

He didn't need to think on where to put his points, they all went straight into Vitality. He clenched his fists, as he slowly realised what exactly had happened. I was shot in the head… He shuddered. That’s another thing to add to the trauma list.

—---

Ilis was getting sick and tired of being thrown around like a bag of grain, but it wasn’t all bad. Her captors were doing what she would describe as ‘professionally panicking’, which meant that they desperately tried multiple things in order to sneak into town, and each one kept failing. She was actually beginning to have a good time. Their growing frustration, even kept behind their stony exteriors, brought a smile to her face. They were all on a time limit though. The horde of monsters was still swarming to the town, and it was only because of the [Town Heart] that they were still alive. The ground for a certain radius around Grenion had become filled with spike pits and moats. It had only slowed the monsters down, not nearly as effective as Danist’s.

She heard a sigh and she tried to look over her shoulder. “It's over, there's no way we can sneak inside. We’re going to have to let her go.”

She heard one of them hiss. “We could just fight our way inside? Or we could try and find out where they’re hiding it right now.”

There was a smack. “Fight our way in? Are you crazy? Who’s gonna defend the town? But, maybe we can get answers instead…”

They were quiet for a moment, before she was suddenly flung to the floor. She looked up and glared at them, giving the one who’d been carrying her extra stink eye. The man pressed a boot to her chest, and pushed her down, before reaching and taking the rag out of her mouth. “Alright girly, we know you and your team have a High-levelled body, where are you keeping it?”

She couldn’t help but tense at his words. Shit, how do they know? Jason? That didn’t seem right, but she didn’t know the man very well. Either way, she had to deal with it. “Fuck off.”

The man sighed, while pulling out a knife and a health potion. “Figured it be like this.” She eyed the blade, while beginning to hum [Flickering Tune] very quietly. It was her only ability from her other Class, she hadn’t been able to create any more. But, it should be enough; it protected her mind from things that would normally overwhelm it.

The man reached down, and suddenly collapsed on top of her. She yelped in surprise, and wriggled to get him off. She rolled him to the side, and her eyes widened. A squad of guardsmen were fighting the captors, but not only that, Juliet was there. The Innkeeper was dancing around knives with slaps and pushes, before a whoomph. Ilis grinned as the man collapsed while clutching his privates. One of the other camouflaged men surrendered almost instantly, and was handcuffed, while the others continued to doggedly fight.

Ilis felt the chains binding her suddenly go slack, and she bursted free from them. The guards weren’t the best, but they had been good enough to free her. Using [Explosive Movements], she blurred to the closest attacker and smashed his head in, brains blowing everywhere while burning to a crisp. She was already moving before the body hit the ground. She jumped towards the next one, the man holding his hands up in surrender; his burnt corpse joined the first one. She looked around and saw there were only two left. She ran at them at full sprint, causing them to immediately begin running away. She slowed down in amusement, as they started fighting through the monsters of the horde, only to be devoured a second later. Since they were all dealt with, she smiled victoriously at the incredible innkeeper. She didn’t hesitate, she hopped over, and went to hu-

“Uh… No, you are absolutely filthy.”

She blinked, and looked down at herself. Sure enough, she was coated in sticky blood and dirt; she didn’t want to imagine what her hair looked like. She nodded, and blew her a kiss instead. The lady smiled warmly. “Come on then, my little hero. We need to prepare to defend the town.”

The guards handcuffed the last captor, which she realised was the one Juliet had kicked. She smirked and followed them inside the town. The guards gave her a nod, and walked their prisoners off to jail, while Juliet pinched her sleeve, dragging her back to the inn. Along the way, people waved, whispered and gave thanks to her. It seemed everyone had heard about what she’d done, and had come out to see. She couldn’t say anything to them, as [Flickering Tune] was still going, and was also the only thing keeping her awake. She trudged after the innkeeper, the ability becoming harder to maintain.

She didn’t realise that she was standing in the hall of the Scandy Singer, until a huge cheer resounded around the room. She looked up, her vision swimming as people toasted her name. She droopily raised a hand, which quickly fell down again. There was a sudden moment of silence as they all glanced at each other, a little nervously.

“What’sss the matter! Nothing to be worried about!”

Their expressions firmed, and a portly man stood up at the back. He put a hand to his chest and began to…sing.

At the rise of dawn, there lies a hut by a creek.

At the rise of dawn, there lies a woman….

She froze as she stared at him, ice rattling down her spine. One by one, more people stood up, and joined in. She couldn’t move, and felt as if she shouldn’t breathe, as their voices raised for a song she’d made when she was but a child.

…Strapping her armour, wrapping her knuckles, and letting loose a tune.

At the peak of the sun, a woman runs into battle…

She started gasping, little breaths to keep her going. Her eyes welled up with tears…

…Blood, fire and ash. They finally recall Yernester.

At the fall of dusk, there is no one left…

She closed her eyes and just listened.

…At the fall of dusk, the woman doesn’t come back.

She didn’t realise she had started singing as well.

At the fall of dusk, the house by the creek awaits.

All of their voices went higher, the noise pounding in her skull.

Night came for Yernester, AND MAY HER GLORY BE REMEMBERED!

They roared the ending, and she started laughing. They all joined in and she opened her eyes to wipe away the flowing water. She bowed to them, before she felt a tug on her hand. She looked to the left and saw Juliet smiling at her. The woman led her away, leaving behind catcalls and whistles. Gently, she was taken into the bathrooms, where she was helped out of her armour, and guided down into the hot soapy water. She was still crying, and too tired to move her body to wash herself. Luckily, Juliet decided to help with that too. A noise chimed in her head, causing her to gasp.

‘Ding’ You have unlocked the Class Ability [Song of Ashes Lv N/A]

Remember the fallen, sing so they may rise from the ashes and protect you once more.