I increased the speed of the flow of the mana in my veins and pushed myself off the ground, jumping after that annoying man. I didn't want to apparate yet, because it would reveal my affinity to all of these other hardened witch hunters. A stranger with a dark affinity chasing after a senile old man wouldn't be a good look, unfortunately.

That meant that I had to strengthen myself to keep up with him instead, which was a slightly better look. Sadly, that also gave the old man plenty of ammunition to laugh at me.

"What are you doing all the way back there? I thought I told you to follow me?", he shouted back at me as he jumped from spire to spire, traversing the chamber in a series of mad dashes.

I did everything I could to keep up with him and copied his movements as best as I could, allowing me to just barely follow him at the heels. He jumped from one of the bird nests at the roof of the chamber to a tunnel that was carved into the rock, with no walkways or platforms leading up to it.

What followed was a race through a winding and twisting tunnel, where I tested my speed against a cackling old man like my life depended on it. Now that we had entered a secluded area, I could start getting a little more creative. I activated my improvised dash that used overloaded mana and shot after him, speeding up.

"Hahaha! Now that's more like it!", the old man cackled back at me.

Over the past few weeks of travel, I had learned how to control my new dash a little better, but it still wasn't reliable in battle. Even now, I still overextended every now and then and lost my footing in the cave, causing me to faceplant.

"It seems you still need to practice before you can keep up with me, youngster!, he shouted manically. This time, I lost my cool.

"Shut up senile old fucker! We'll see who gets there first!"

"Oooooh, I'm so scared!", he joked.

We kept trading taunts as we raced along the tunnel, until it opened up into a larger, natural cavern. We jumped from stalagmite to stalagmite. Slowly, I was getting the hang of my dashing, allowing me to catch up to my rival bit by bit.

"We're nearly there! Time for the final sprint!", he shouted.

Fine. If he wanted a final sprint, he would get one.

I started absorbing mana like crazy, sending overloaded mana into my surroundings, my body gradually breaking down from the pressure. Dark form healed it before the damage became too severe, of course.

I circulated the mana around my legs and feet and made little cyclones of the stuff to propel myself forward when they inevitably collapsed. The extra mana I had reintroduced to my legs kept them from breaking under the small explosions the other mana caused.

This process resulted in me catapulting past the elder person I was racing across the cave.

"Impressive! Can you keep that up?", he taunted.

Unfortunately for him, I could.

"Let's see, old man.", I said, smiling.

He answered my smile with a middle finger and used a skill of his own. His short legs swelled until they looked like massive goat legs, which made impact on the cavern floor, shattering it in the process. The transformation had increased his speed immensely, to the point that we were now neck and neck.

In the distance, I could see a small wooden shack, posted in the middle of the otherwise empty cavern. That had to be our finish line. I had to give it one final push.

I started charging two [Overloaded orb]s in my hands, sucking the black mana that was twisting around me to the palms of my hands.

A few moments later, they were halfway charged. I released them and detonated them by kicking them with the back of my feet, creating two massive shockwaves, shooting me toward my goal. Unfortunately, my opponent had noticed my tactic and had cooked up a trick of his own. His massive, out-of-proportion goat legs started to crack, orange-glowing fractures appearing on them. The heat they exuded reminded me of the heat of Emer's flame. With this new development, the elder made one big leap, which crumbled the rock he had launched himself from, joining me in my flight for the end goal.

We were neck and neck. We had both made just one small miscalculation, however. Neither of us knew how to land like this. At least, I didn't. We were heading head-first for the roof of the shack, too!

Right before we made impact, something strange happened. Our momentum stopped, causing us both to float in the air. I turned my head to look at the old man, who now had one eye glowing purple. He smiled and waved his hand, lowering us both to the ground, right in front of the entrance of the little wooden house on stilts.

He dusted off his dirty robe and cackled.

"Well, you've got guts, kid. I'll give you that much! Now, follow me inside.", he said as he entered the little shack.

Right as I landed on my feet, I was greeted by some good news.

[Aura step](0%)

Tier 3 skill.

Create footholds using an 'Aura' skill. Depending on the 'Aura' used, the skill has a different effect.

Aura: [Overload Aura]

Effect: Footholds explode after each step, allowing for burst movement. The intensity of the explosion can be controlled by the skill holder.

Skill is dependent on any single 'Aura' skill.

Use this skill repeatedly to increase skill progression.

Yes! I pumped my fists in the air. I had finally created my new movement skill! It was already at tier 3, too!

For a moment, I wondered if there were many 'Aura' skills. I had thought of my [Overload skill] as if it existed in a vacuum, and hadn't expected it to be just one variant of a larger chain of skills, but it made sense.

I shook my head and focussed on the current situation. I had time to think about my new skill later. I had just followed a senile old man into an abandoned cave, and was about to enter his house. With a sigh, I accepted my fate and walked up the steps.

I pushed the tarp that served as a front door out of the way and looked inside. The shack was surprisingly neat. I could see all manner of objects and furniture scattered around the single room. A monstrous eyeball that could somehow blink on its own was kept in a jar, while a parrot's skeleton sat, unmoving, in a birdcage hanging from the rafters. Despite all this, there was an odd sense of order among the chaos, and it gave off a homely vibe. Two single-person couches were turned to a fireplace, which the elder was currently looking after by adding a few more logs.

He turned around and welcomed me into his home.

"Take a seat, no need to remain standing! We have some things to discuss, right?"

I nodded wordlessly. I still had no idea who this man was, but there was no reason to refuse. I took a seat on one of the couches, sinking into the soft cushions. After a sprint, this was exactly what I needed.

I let out a sigh of satisfaction and waited for the elder to get seated himself. He came over and gave me a mug with a transparent, steaming drink that smelled sweet and sour simultaneously. Afterward, he sat down with his own mug. As he did so, he finally introduced himself.

"I'm sure that you've figured out who I am by now, but I'll introduce myself anyway. I am Rashid, tier 6 [Bestial empyrean] and the elder in charge of the witch hunters of Roa."

I gasped and regarded him with my mouth wide open, visibly surprised.

Rashid choked while drinking from laughter.

"I see now that you're rather observant when it comes to combat, but the opposite when it comes to everything else, huh. I'm sure even your little friends figured out who I was when we first met...", he said, chuckling.

I reddened. Cerion called me naïve every now and then, but it seemed now that I had never given his claims enough credit. With a bow, I returned the greeting.

"Arthur, tier 2 [Overloading Death Knight]. Nice to meet you, sir."

"Ah yes, your guild master notified me of your circumstances when you first entered the guild, to avoid any future political blowback. Call me Rashid, by the way. Don't worry, I hold no prejudice against your affinity, though I must admit that a sane dark-aligned class holder is a first for me. Well, then again, they say there is a first for everything. In fact, there must be.", he said, slowly droning off.

I ignored his cryptic speech and changed topics when I heard a tangent coming.

"I'm sorry for not recognising you, sir."

"Would you not have cussed me out if you had recognised me?", he asked with a sly tone.

"Uhm... well...", I stuttered. I couldn't in good conscience tell him that I wouldn't have, to be honest.

Noticing my discomfort, the elder laughed out loud.

"I'm liking you more and more by the second! No wonder Andross said you and I were rather alike!"

I took a sip from my drink, to avoid answering.

"I must say, I'm very impressed by your quick progress. Nearly tier 3 just a few months after your awakening! That's not unheard of, but it's certainly rare. Andross keeps rubbing your success in my face, because the headquarters doesn't have any outstanding members your age right now. Thankfully, now that you're here, we won't make a fool out of ourselves at the tournament. As long as you do well, of course...", he gave me the side-eye when he said that last part, causing me to feel cold sweat on my back.

I was confident in winning though, and I made sure to tell him as much.

"I wouldn't be too worried if I was you, sir Rashid.", I said with a confident smirk, which he answered with a sadistic smile.

"Since you've said so, I won't. That being said, your experimental skill still needs some work."

"I know, sir Rashid. It was just something I was experimenting with, but thankfully I got a skill for my efforts after the race."

His eyes widened.

"Oh really? Is it a common one? I might be able to give you some advice, unless it involves dark mana."

"I don't know whether it's common or not, but it's called [Aura step]. It works with one of my other skills to create footholds in the air out of the mana that aura controls."

He rubbed his stubble.

"Hmmm, interesting. I've heard of [Aura step] before, of course. It's a rather common skill among people with any kind of Aura, and is typically tiered up into a flight skill. It will be good for your development to receive such a skill this early. May I ask what your build is centred around? I noticed earlier, but you don't seem to use much of your internal mana, as most warriors do."

I laughed nervously. Warriors used mana stored in their cores to empower their body and use active skills on their weapons or body, exclusively relying on their own mana to do so, which is also called 'internal mana'. Meanwhile, casters usually used the mana inside their core to manipulate the mana in the environment, which was also called 'external mana', or 'ambient mana'. In other words, Warriors relied on internal mana, while casters relied on external mana most of all, though there were exceptions.

"Because of my class, I have a great healing skill that works passively. Because of that, I centred my build around creating overloaded dark mana in my surroundings, which I then use to power the majority of my skills. My healing skill keeps my body from tearing itself apart as I do so."

"Well, that's certainly a unique strategy. If your healing skill can keep up with the increasing amounts of overloaded mana you put out, you will grow to be quite powerful. Doesn't your core suffer immensely from overloading though?"

My eyes widened. I hadn't thought of the fact that the amount of overloaded mana I put out would continue to increase as I tiered up, which might mean [Dark form] might fail to keep up. I would need to find a way to make my body immune to overloading as soon as possible, or at least further increase my resistance. I placed my focus on the conversation again.

"My core is immune to overloading, actually.", I said with a smile.

"Immune?! How?", he shouted surprisedly.

"Well... that's what it says in the skill description...", I murmured.

He squinted his eyes suspiciously.

"That's certainly a powerful core skill. How did you get it?"

"I might have... maybe... accidentally... broken my core?", I said, chuckling nervously.

Rashid's eyes darkened as he prepared to give me the 'talking to' of a lifetime.

Oh dear. Not another one.