My luck lately had been off the charts. I don’t think I had a chart for these things, but on a scale, I would definitely say that my day was going well. The Samurai had chosen to give me the skill jade, I survived the dangerous centipede and even met back up with my good friend Minamoto. Honestly, the last one had almost caused me to shed a tear. Yet, I tempted fate too much because as soon as I had grabbed Minamoto’s hand, my new skill informed me of something I hadn’t expected.

[Do you want to you copy the physique of “Soul-Reaping Willow - Avatar” into one of the Mask of Flesh(F) slots]

For the next couple minutes, I debated on what I should do. Minamoto wasn’t human. Or at least not completely human. What did I want to do about it? Honestly, nothing really. The old Exorcist had been nothing but helpful in my chaotic situation. Still, I kept the screen in my vision, and chose to decide on what to do with my newest skill.

The main problem was if I should copy Minamoto’s stuff like this. I glanced over the idling Samurai behind me. They had just been staring at me interacting with Minamoto with wide, awe-struck eyes. I shook my head, knowing that there was going to be no help there.

Moving my attention back to Minamoto, I found the man moving through the bodies of the Face Stealer Centipedes that were laying in pieces on the floor. When I had first seen such a thing, I hadn’t really thought much about it. The shikigami that Minamoto had given me before had easily killed two massive creatures that might have been on the same level as the centipedes, so it was no surprise that the man himself could easily take care of a group of said creatures.

Still, I found the man digging around in the heads of the centipedes, frowning as he came away with no skill jades to speak of. I swallowed a bit of saliva as I watched him. Was my luck really that good? I had known that I had been insanely lucky with finding so many skill jades lately, but it hadn’t really hit me until I watched Minamoto butcher the centipedes with no gains to speak of.

“Um, do you need some help?” I asked softly, shuffling over to Minamoto to watch as he worked. The Avatar of the Soul-Reaping Willow, whatever that was, turned to me, and for a second, I felt the familiar feeling of my sixth sense activating. I was worried as it had been happening quite a bit recently. Hopefully, it didn’t mean anything bad.

An image of an old, gnarled tree with a smiling face on it appeared in my head. I knew it was Minamoto’s presence as I had seen it before. However, my recent power-up seemed to also upgrade my sixth sense as I could see some more details on it. A short thrill of fear shot through my head as I comprehend what I saw.

The smiling face of the tree had stayed the same, but I could finally see more. On the crown of the tree were millions of leaves; each that blinked and stared back at me through eyes that grew out of their surface. I shivered, and hurriedly moved to the cocoons that hung from the branches. Some shivered and trembled as if there were things trying to break out of them. I shut my eyes, hoping that I hadn’t seen anything too much.

Right, Minamoto is more terrifying than I had thought.

“Don’t look too deeply into it, mister David. Your ability is something that is as useful as it is dangerous. Some people don’t take too kindly to being looked at deeply.” Minamoto said, dragging my thoughts away from what I saw. His face offered a wry smile as if embarrassed more than angry at me.

I rubbed my arms, feeling a bit apologetic. “Sorry.”

“No need. You are still ignorant of many things, but-” he paused, looking at me. “I can see you went through quite a bit.”

“Yeah, it was… a bit.” I said somberly. This experience had really put into perspective just how lucky I was. There were so many things that could have gone wrong but didn’t, and it was only because everything worked out the way they did that I survived.

It showed me that I really was no one special in the grand scheme of things. Sure, I was in another world, I was being taught by some super grandpa, and I had gained strength absurdly fast. Despite all that, just looking at the corpses of the centipedes, the very same one that we had only beaten with luck, proved that I was too weak to really be called special. Too weak to even make decisions on my own.

I had been just cruising through everything, taking the entire experience of being in another world as a sort of entertainment. In a way, it was. Everything was just a way to distract myself. A way to ignore the problems in front of me.

Now though, I felt a bit anxious. How much did I ignore? How much did I screw things up in my efforts to ignore the problems around me? It put things into perspective when I completed Takamori’s promise. I wanted to make something of myself, but how did I even do that? First off, I needed to survive, and to survive I needed to become stronger.

“Hey… So, I got a new skill.” I started talking, looking over the screen detailing Minamoto’s physique. “It can copy someone’s physique, whatever that means, and I think it works through touch. Could I-”

“Mask of Flesh, right? I hadn’t expected you to come out and tell me, but I don’t mind you copying mine. It would probably do you some good, allowing you to use your larger than average soul stat without some special technique.”

I blinked. This had gone better than I thought. Minamoto had basically told me he wasn’t entirely human, and at the same time, told me that it would help me use my elusive soul stat.

Carefully, I pressed the [yes] option, and I felt something pass through me. After I had put the [Mask of Flesh(F)] into my Life Rank F skill slot, I had gained the perception of my new skill like I had for my previous one. It was a physical presence as well, but instead of a gate that I could channel Life Energy through this one was ten motes of light that I felt I could almost hold in my hand.

However, I hadn’t had much luck with grabbing them. They felt almost ethereal, but now I could. Whatever I did by copying Minamoto’s physique had changed a single mote of light, and I knew instinctively that I could use that. The skill activated with a pulse of Life Energy as I felt a constant drain seep into something in my hand.

I stared down and found myself looking at a wooden mask. It was made of planks of white wood with empty slits for eyeholes. The thing was shoddily made, too. Its edges weren’t rounded, forming a rough outline of an oval with right angles jutting out where the planks ended. Small branches extended out from where the temples of the mask would be, creating the illusion of horns, and hanging from those branches were small cocoons held up by green vines.

“Wow, I heard that that skill was freaky, but that is kinda creepy looking.” Wakao, the Samurai who had originally hated my guts, peeked over my shoulder to look at the mask in my hand. I glanced at the man. After we beat the centipede, the man had decided that I was some paragon of luck and military strategy. He seemed completely different after he had attained vengeance for his fallen friends.

I pushed the man away, finding Minamoto already moving down the corridors. The older Exorcist only offered a look over his shoulder to make sure we were behind him before moving on. He moved like a man on a mission, and I quickly got up from looking at the mask in my hand. There was a considerable drain just by having it out, so I dismissed the connection to my skill and I watched as the mask seemed to fall into thin air, disappearing like it had just been dropped into some invisible pocket. I could still feel it; a physical presence at the back of my mind that I could call up at any time.

“I had heard [Mask of Flesh(F)] being a skill rarely used because it was hard to use.” Yasuda limped next to me, being supported by the Exorcist Takamori. He had apparently taken a bad fall when the centipede was thrashing around while we pelted it with all the fire. “The Exorcist of Sleeping Woods probably can help you with it. Though, it is rather amazing to see you talk to him so naturally, leader.”

“Leader?”

“Rather than a leader, I say the Gaijin would wanna be a hero.” Shinohara tapped me on the shoulder, smirking at me. I glared at the man with embarrassment on my cheeks. He wasn’t going to let me live down my comment about wanting to be a protagonist.

Ignoring him, I hurried after Minamoto, fearing that we would lose him. “In any case, we should follow after him in case we lose him.”

“Don’t worry about it, Gaijin.” Shinohara said, falling into step beside me like the rest of the group. They had unconsciously placed me in the middle of them. I remembered Yasuda’s offhand comment about acknowledging me as some sort of leader. It was rather stressful being seen that way, but I was beginning to think that these soldiers needed a leader for something.

“Shittyhara is right,” Wakao said without caring for the cry of annoyance from Shinohara. “The Exorcist of the Sleeping Woods is just trying to complete the dungeon faster. Doesn’t matter if we’re there or not. I doubt we would be any help, though.”

“You forget that the leader is new to dungeons.” Yasuda added, and I gave him a thumbs up in my head. Good job, but quit it with the leader title.

“Yeah, exposition please.” I said. At this point, asking Yasuda to stop wouldn’t work. It would only make the rest of them do it in order to tease me.

“Well, for dungeons that aren’t regulated and formed like this, there is a way and need to destroy them. This is normally done by killing the monster who formed the contract with the god. Those guys are normally found in the center of the dungeon; the most protected place in the dungeon. In any case, destroying the dungeon will send everyone who wasn’t created in it out. Though, this one being used as a trap might change things.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I am guessing dungeons are not usually used as traps.”

“No, this is pretty new.” Yasuda smiled wryly. And that was a terrifying thought. Was this why my luck had been so good? Because suddenly I was embroiled in quite a bit of unexpected situations.

“Wonderful.”

“Are you gonna plan something now, Gaijin?” Wakao chimed in while we walked.

I squinted at him. “I feel like your perception of me is odd.”

Before the man could respond, we reached an empty cave. It was similar to the arena where we fought the Face Stealer Centipede, but instead of an open area we were inside a cave. However, I held my breath when I saw the roof and walls of the cave. All around us were red vines that seemed to dig through the stone walls and snake down the surfaces around us before all joining up in the center of the room. Within the center was a small pedestal made of raised stone. The red vines spiraled around the pedestal and joined together at the top where a pulsing red jar sat at the top.

As if to further add to my unease, my sixth sense activated again. Suddenly, the jar was a bunch of human bodies sloppily stitched together. Their mouths were held open by familiar red vines that pulsed rhythmically like the beat of some massive heart. I gagged as the sight disappeared, and turned away from the jar.

Minamoto was nearby, looking at the jar with more intensity than ever. I could understand it a bit. There was quite a large amount of information that I didn’t know in this world, but I knew that whatever that jar was, it was something unnatural and disgusting.

“Do you guys know what that is?” I asked quietly. The Samurai and Exorcists around me shook their heads, but they seemed to understand that something very wrong was happening.

“This is a sacrificial node.” Minamoto said, glaring at the jar. He held out his hand, and I caught the glimpse of hundreds of ethereal, white branches extending out from behind him. They dug into the mass of bodies, ripping apart the stitches holding them together and dragging the bodies back to Minamoto.

In actuality, the jar crumbled as the red vines started to visibly wither and die. Minamoto turned to us as the cave around us started to crack and shatter. I looked around in a panic but only calmed down a bit when I realized everyone else wasn’t really bothered by what was happening around us.

Minamoto locked eyes with me. “This has become something much more dangerous than I thought. You will need to get a class soon. You’ve fulfilled all the conditions, right?”

“Yeah, but what’s goi-” I was cut off by the sound of shattering glass. Sunlight shone directly in my eyes as the sounds of groaning and cries for help surrounded me. A breeze ran over my skin, and I hadn’t realized just how much I missed it until now.

Minamoto’s voice filtered into my ears. “Keep your wits about you, mister David. We will be moving faster now as the Nurarihyon was not inside, so I worry that Nishimuro will be facing the full force of its Hyakki Yagyo. For now though, you need a class.”