Gabriel held his head with his hands.

"Way worse than usual," he said.

"It wasn't for the trip," said the mayor, as Gabriel massaged his temple. "It's the time factor. It's a little higher than what you could be comfortable with. Here for each regular day, you get ninety-six hours. Twenty-four hours longer than the previous training. It's thus superior to what your current Alacrity can comfortably handle."

"Won't my head explode or something?" The young man asked.

"Only if you blow yourself up, but you'd wake up in reality if you did. I'm confident that you can sustain this increase for as long as it takes. And it will help you get comfortable with the next ideal you have to taint your Mana with… mind and spiritual bending."

"Oh, so I was correct with my list, wasn't...I…" Gabriel trailed off, looking at the spectacle in front of him. The absurd scene unfolding before his very eyes.

Is this hell?

"You were almost entirely correct. Regular Dark Magic focuses on a singular shade of its uses. Anyone who focuses on corruption, for example, can't regularly access the realm of the mind or that of the spirit," the mayor started explaining as he ventured forth, signaling for Gabriel to follow.

But Gabriel did not immediately follow. He was lost, focused on what he saw in front of him.

They were on a battlefield.

In a land of blood-looking and blood-soaked fields, two armies, one composed of Feldurs, humans, orcs, dwarves, and other races he did not know about, battled a much more numerous army of spawns coming from the worst of the nightmares.

Demons of unfathomable ugliness came out of green, circular windows that covered the dark, orange sky.

The battlefield was vast, far wider than anything he had ever laid his eyes upon, movies armies, and epical battles were dwarfed by what was presented in front of him.

In the distance, clouds of dust, explosions of light, and terrifying screeches continuously washed over them. However, they were not affected by them.

Hell, every single one of those soldiers looked strong, real strong, yet the monster tore through their defenses like a hot knife through butter.

"I see you are taken aback by the battlefield. This was more than twenty-seven thousand years ago, though. Don't worry, it's not real."

"You were alive? How old are you?" He asked, taken aback. Liz was hiding behind Gabriel. For the first time, she was terrified.

"Me? Oh no, I wasn't alive back then; regular Feldurs have- had a lifespan of around one-hundred twenty years, not accounting for Attributes and other abilities. This memory is not mine. This memory belonged to the founder of the Old Gods' religion, Vraximon. And my wife's ancestor. This memory was passed down to each adept of the Old Gods. It served as a remembrance of what we needed to fight back, for, without order, we would lose against the Plague."

"The Plague?"

"Them." The mayor pointed at a wave of those creatures, coming right out of one of the green portals, "Those beings, monsters, demons, whatever you want to call them. They were called such, but most of the details are lost. Even my wife did not entirely know much about it. Even she, with her wondrous parentage, was not into the inner circle of the highest members of our orders. She knew only to pass down the Magic, and not much more than that. Most of it is speculation, too unreal to bother both you or myself with."

"Anyway," he continued, "you can fancy yourself by learning about it directly from The Memory. It is interactive. A reconstruction taken from the souls of those who perished in the conflict. Those that you will get to know best, while here, will be those who have lost their lives."

"I'll be talking to the dead? Great Wakan Tanka…"

"Not the dead, dead. You'll be talking with memories of them. The real spirits were those you met during the Dungeon Challenge."

Gabriel nodded. His gaze was still lost in the middle of that carnage.

Most of what happened felt like a blur, but at least some of the less intense actions he could follow with his eyes.

The scene made the best, biggest, and most coordinated fight he had seen, the one he witnessed the day he came to Alter, look like child play. The people on the battlefield were real veterans. Each and every one of them seemed to be as strong if not stronger than the one who had assaulted the mayor's city.

"Come, walk with me. There are things you need to know, and your training needs to start."

Gabriel nodded, waiting for another second to take in the scenery, then he followed.

"As I was saying," the mayor, hands hanging unnaturally still to his side like it was in the Feldurs' style, recommenced his explanation, "the Dark Magic you will learn, encompasses all the fields of the Dark element. Corruption, mind-bending, spirit-bending, and finally, curses and sealing. Here you will train for mind-bending and spirit-bending."

"I guess the third part of the training will focus on curses and sealing," Gabriel said, more than asked.

"No! Did you guess that all by yourself!?" The mayor said with mirth.

Gabriel was taken aback. It seemed that the mayor was starting to adapt to Gabriel's own teases. Yet he smiled at him.

"See what I'm capable of? My guessing power is boundless!"

"Alright, silly one. Time for your training to start, let's reach the center of the land then-"

"Wait right there! I've just come from a three days long, uninterrupted cycle of death and kills. Don't I get a break?" Liz, by his side, nodded vigorously.

"Of course! I always forget your biological needs. Oh, I've found a way to clean your smelly clothes. If you bring them to me, I might-"

"Let me stop you right there. I'll do it myself, don't worry about it."

"Did you? Now, aren't you full of surprises?"

"Indeed, I am."

The next thing Gabriel felt was his aching bones, for staying almost twenty-four hours sleeping on his side. He even felt cold, even if slightly.

Both himself and Liz stretched for a good couple of minutes. Before leaving, they said bye to the enormous statue of the Tyrant in front of them. As it seemed, he grew more and more silent by the days, at least in his physical form.

I don't buy his focusing excuse. Something's up, don't you think so too, Liz?

She turned toward him whipping her tongue and nodding once.

He nodded as well, then yawned. It had been a while since he last did.

Hell, since I last yawned, despite the mental fatigue, we went through? It's been since before we started the jungle training. So it really was that concoction's powers keeping me going… I wonder what kind of mental-spiritual shit he actually did to me. Because I was indeed not really drinking anything.

He put the question aside before catching some sleep; it was time for Gabriel to clean himself up.

As he got to his bag, the first thing he did was remove his soiled pants. He had thankfully gotten used to the smell, but removing them and actually looking at them was disgusting.

So he started with first cleaning himself.

He had recovered thirty-two points of Mana, so he had enough for what he wanted to do.

Gabriel stood still, focusing on that pale sensation of moving his Mana around. He only had a rough feeling of it and could only feel it as it left the pores of his skin. Before that, he felt nothing. As he had already guessed, it could be related to some Perk, blocking the process. He could feel his Energy through the use of Meridians, though. It gave him a vague feeling of heat passing through his body or veins.

So Gabriel let his whole body be enveloped by a thin veil of Mana, noticing that whether it was a hand, an arm, or his spear, he expended the same amount of Mana by enveloping or injecting. The mass and surface did not seem to matter.

Maybe it's related to the… soul of things? He shook his head. I have no idea.

After a second, he could clearly feel the oily substances, the stickiness, and the solid dirt that had accumulated on his body, lose its shapes. They converted into dried-up dust, and he just had to shake it off.

The whole process of cleansing barely cost him one point of Mana because it had taken almost ten full seconds at such a low output.

He felt born anew.

Though it wasn't like a good shower or bath with exfoliation, he felt as clean as he could be. The residual ash on the ground was all the filth that had accumulated for the past couple of weeks.

His gaze turned to the bag.

That's a process that will need much more care.

Careful not to screw it up, Gabriel decided that it was better to get some sleep before attempting anything.

When they got up, they felt born anew. Gabriel checked on his Mana to guess how long they had slept. Twelve hours straight.

He had gone to sleep with twenty-nine points of Mana. Now he had forty-five.

Good, I'll use them all up before the training. Now, on to more important things.

Gabriel sighed.

Liz, you ready?

The lizard stretched, a little bit unnaturally for a lizard, but not being a real one. The man couldn't give it much thought, he just smiled at her.

He studied his soul companion as she got closer to him. She hadn't grown one inch, even with the Affinity boost that Epiphany gave. It seemed that only direct improvements on the stats would make her grow. She stood at three-foot eight, currently. He guessed that before long, she could be as big as him, if not bigger. Wondering how come, even given the, undoubtedly much higher Affinity, that Olive and Brill showed, the salamander wasn't much bigger than her now. Was there a hard cap to it? Or something else?

Liz got up on her hind legs as she loved to do, waiting for him to do his thing. Reclining her head to the side once, he did not make much movement if at all, as if asking: 'Do you need me to do it?'

"I was just admiring you, actually," he said. "I was wondering about how long it will take you before your hind legs are strong enough to hold you up indefinitely. Maybe with the help of some passive Spirit Skill, we might make it easier."

Hearing that, the lizard's mouth opened up in a smile. Lizzy smiled like that. Not having much physical ability to show her teeth after all.

Gabriel ventured to his bag, taking up the Sk'rayr spear first.

He took it in a close to the head grip, to brandish it with as much power as he could. Then with the help of Meridians and his much-improved ability to control he gained during the last three days of his hellish training, he brought it down with a Burst Attack. His forearm, up at the elbow crease, fell to the floor.

Gabriel barely growled before offering the stump to the lizard to drink from.

Her next objective was eating the remains.

He used Helping Hand and finally, waiting for his arm to regrow entirely. It would take him one hour and a half. He cast Analyze on his spear.

Sk’rayr Spear

Status

Bound

Type

Transformable Weapon

Grade

Epic (Upgradable)

Main Category

Lance and Javelin

Sub-Category I

Longbow

Sub-Category II

Scepter

Materials

Adamantite, Midnight Silver, Arcane Spirit (Dormant)

Resources

Mana (Main Category), Energy (Sub-Category I), Spirit (Sub-Category II)

Enchantments

Degraded

Durability

38.816/49.999

"My goodness…"

It's a bow? And a scepter too?

Gabriel turned the spear upside down. Looking at the butt of the weapon. Its weird shape suggested an irregular use if not… If not to be used as a scepter! A scepter doesn't have to stick into things! Wow! But… but it needs to be fed Spirit I guess? How do I provide my Spirit to it?

He kept looking at the, entirely new his eyes now, spear. I wonder if it is ok to call it just a spear anymore.

And yet, a detail escaped him. How was this thing a longbow?

I mean… it does bend… he thought, bending the weapon like a bow. But, shouldn't there be, I don't know, strings attached to it-

String! Laces!

He unraveled the metal laces wrapped around the handle of the spear, carefully studying both them and it.

Now that he took a really good look at it. The central grip was slightly bent to one side. An arrow could fit in there.

But the metal laces? I mean, they should be long enough to be used as a string. Even one would be enough, but… His eyes opened wide.

The laces were indeed different between them.

One of them had two extremities, which looked entirely the same. They were vaguely shaped into a 'U'; he guessed they might attach to the two circular oddities at the bases of both the head and the butt of the Sk'rayr lance.

The second lace, though really a look-alike of the previous one, had different extremities to it. One had a pointy end, the other was jagged, and though unrealistic, it could remind him of an arrow tail.

Holy mother of pepperoni… that's the string… and the other is the arrow. But only one arrow? Fuck me, it needs Recall!

At that point, frustration exploded forth. Gabriel had been really fighting between choosing Analysis and Binding. The first was indispensable, the other really good, but now Recall looked necessary too!

Damn… Gabriel sighed. But it's useless to cry over spilled milk now. It's not like I know how to throw an arrow or inject Energy into it for what matters… Yet even if he said so, a lonely tear descended down his cheek.

After giving up hope, he plopped on the ground, taking out his armor.

Alright, hope at least this one won't backfire on me.

His leather armor was made of two simple pieces, the upper part, hanged tight to his torso, it looked like a sweater, a skin-tight black sweater, the lower part was made by a simple pair of black leather pants.

Once again, as he had entirely forgotten to do before that moment, he Analyzed the armor.

Black Leather skin-suit of the Turtle

Status

Not Bindable

Type

Armor

Grade

Uncommon (Upgradable)

Main Category

Leather Armor

Sub-Category I

Light, skin-tight

Materials

Turtle skin, Light turtle carapace

Resources

None

Resistances

Cut 2

Pierce 2

Element Resistances

Earth, Fire, Water, Wind 1

Durability - Sweater

2.216/2.300

Durability - Trousers

2.031/2.200

Well, incomparable to the spear. But better than nothing, I guess.

Did Olive really pay that much for this? If that's so, how much is the Sk'rayr spear worth?

Gabriel shook his head in disbelief, but soon he went on with his mission.

He started with the sweater. It looked just a little bit sturdier, probably thanks to the upper part, which had an internal denser coating to protect the abdomen. Probably light carapace, as the results of Analyze said.

Bring it to us, Mary!

He proceeded, coating his hand in a thin film of tainted Mana, and ever slowly started passing it over the surface of the sweater's outer face, not too close, to look for changes in the durability of the armor. It made him think of his hand like a steam iron.

Keeping his Mana output as low as possible, he passed his hand over the fabric.

First outside, next inside of it, the presence of runes made him stop before he realized that they were embedded in the fabric itself, only visible for their slight multicolored glow.

While doing so, he felt the filth, and whatever it was that remained, turn into dust at his hand's passage.

Before long, the process had ended. And the sweater was shiny. And what more, it had not lost a single point of durability.

Gabriel let out a sigh of relief.

I can't believe I'm gonna be presentable again! He thought as he prepared to clean his trousers as well.

The process took a bit longer, and he expended roughly twenty-six points of Mana to clean everything, including his bag and pants. He thought that it was a little expensive, but not only would he have to be less careful in the future, once he managed to max his Synchronization with the Dark element, but gaining a little more expertise in the overall process would help in speeding it up, hopefully by a lot.

Gabriel was dressing up when he thought about something. It's not like I can spend a day's worth of Mana to clean up the blood that will gather on my armor. I've got things to do… And his world came shattering on top of him.

Why am I thinking like this is gonna be my new norm? He thought wide-eyed.

Suddenly the thought about killing someone felt just normal; it felt like working.

What have I become?

***

In a fancy looking inn, a dwarf and an elf were in a drinking game. It hadn't exactly started as such, but it had quickly become so once the elf had started complimenting the dwarf's wife a little too much for his liking.

Yet the mood had changed once again when, much later in the night, the inn became devoid of life, if not for the two drunk individuals and one really amused she-orc.

"How could I know? My laddie was always so cheerful, hardworking… her smile so honest…" said the dwarf. His mood switched from downcast to happy without pose while he thought about the girl. After that, he drank another shot.

"You say that? I had a Herald! A Herald under my nose! And I didn't even suspect it! If my queen knew about this, she would let me back in, only to banish me from the kingdom once more…" Varcivald said, downing a shot.

"Ye… ye were banished? Like me?" The dwarf, his eyes suddenly tearing up.

"You were banished too, friend?" Answered Varcivald.

"We are all exiles in here," Garena added, her beautiful muzzle held up by her hands, elbows resting on the counter, as she looked at the drinking game.

Varcivald's gaze switched from Commodo to Garena, then to the inn, turning back to the dwarf once more.

The dwarf drank, the three shots in front of him, shattering the last one on the ground after emptying it, then he dropped down from the stool with a loud "thud," and walked around the table, then he threw his arms around the elf, raising him up in one big hug.

"Wait! The shot- the shot it's falling!" Too late, the shot fell from his hand, splashing on Commodo's head. The dwarf didn't so much as react as he enveloped him into a hug.

After a few seconds, Varcivald's resistance wavered. He let himself go and hugged him back.

Maybe he had finally found people he could count as friends thought their first encounter had been on a much heavier note. Perhaps he could think about leaving that lonely house, so far out of the Cradle.

Loneliness was not something he was happy to fight, and having only children who would grow and soon forget about their teacher was not the most endearing of ideas for the rest of his life. After all, it was known, elves lived a long time, even outside of their magical forests, and sincerely, he had been lonely long enough.