Kara flew around the narrow halls of the armory, ducking and weaving as swords and spears reached for her. Her feet slid across the ground as she pushed her body with Kinetic Mana. It did well to conceal her flight. As hard as she tried, however, she was not able to avoid every attack. Either she was not able to sense it in time, or more frequently, she failed to time her movements with it. The spatial distance of her body in relation to other objects were difficult to track.

She didn’t bother attacking, and only resorted to whacking people with her cane when they really got on her nerves.

She desperately needed the practice, even if it was just against Wolves. In fact, it was because they were Wolves that this was immensely helpful. It allowed her to accumulate to this cursed condition of hers on enemies that were barely noticeable.

Compared to higher levels, they were much harder to fight. Their Life Enforcement was weak, and they were so slow that she could hardly pick up on their Kinetic Mana when they moved. It pushed Kara to the utmost limit to track. Sensing body heat or Life Force signals was much easier, but it would have defeated the purpose of her training. More proficient foes will be able to hide both, but they’ll never be able to hide from air. She needed to master this technique before she met one of them. It was the same for her Siren senses—the sound was one of the first things assassins concealed.

Being here, of course, had bothersome repercussions. The confusion on the general's face she spoke with was clear. Dlar probably thought she was a Tiger, which was the reason why they let her roam freely, but upon hearing she was fighting Wolves their behavior towards her might change.

After all, no sane ranker would waste a Phase. That would lead them to believe she was low-enough level to gain rewards from fighting Wolves.

In terms of the actual Phase, most of the fighting happened in the Second District to control strategic positions that provided extra points, buffs, and increased healing, though none of it mattered in the grand scheme of things. The winner of the Second Phase will be decided by how the faction leaders will force a surrender from the other, not by which faction destroyed the other. The longer the Second Phase went on for the more severe the damage became to the kingdom’s power. Every death on any side would mean that Dlar would become weaker. If half the city dies, the other wouldn’t survive for long.

Besides the waves of monsters The Game brought with it, Dlar couldn’t let themselves fall behind the two neighboring human kingdoms, and there were other races to watch out for, like the neighboring Vandrans or just about any of the Free Tribes. Rounds in which kingdoms were bided against each other were after the 5th Phase, where the kingdoms would be open to each other.

It meant that after this Phase finishes, Dlar will need to pretend they did not spend the better half of a week murdering each other. The Game wasn’t entirely responsible for this type of Phase—the in-fighting in the kingdom caused the main spark. While other kingdoms typically got stronger each time they did well in a Phase, Dlar will come out weaker regardless of who wins.

This likely led to behind the scenes negation in. Most fighting happened in small quarters that allowed a limited amount of direct combat. It made fights last longer and reduced casualties. They fought in alleyways, buildings, and straight-out avoided each other in open fields. Even Kara was told to do her best to avoid killing or maiming her opponents.

This was basically an over-glorified training exercise. Though, of course, there were always some that wanted to earn a bit more, even at the cost of their own team.

Kara had troubles of her own. The constant fighting began to wear down on her body by mid-day, dropping her Mana below a thousand, and it was only getting worse. The Life Force seals she’d woven around her Soul were waning, letting her Mana slip out, while her bones began to melt into her blood. Making more bone to replace the ones she lost wasn’t the problem—the bone itself in her blood interfered with their skill casting.

The total mana cost increase was around 30% currently, and it was only increasing. The fights were within corridors where she had partners to switch positions every so often, but it was not at a rate in which her regeneration could keep up with the enormous cost of Puppeteer, Flesh-Master, and Life Force Conversion. Her Mana sunk at a horrifying rate, and she was not improving as fast as she had hoped.

She would need a couple days of uninterrupted rest to sort through everything.

Even with all of the effort she’d put into this, close combat still seemed impossible. One decent assassin to hide from all her Detection skills was all it took. It was discomforting that she won’t even see her death coming. Embarrassing, really. Not the epic end she’d imagined for herself.

All of those were temporary precautions—the real progress being made was with her Siren Skills.

This environment was a perfect opportunity to learn more about her profession.

Life Siren started with three core skills.

Life Siren

There exists a power source only Siren’s can reach with their voice.

Voice: 100/100 (+5/hour)

Life Siren’s Song

Sing with your Soul for powerful effects to occur to those who are willing to listen. This effect can only occur once every 10 minutes for each individual target.

Songs:

Wrath (30 Voice)

Life Siren’s Lesser Notes

Notes are an extension of your senses.

You may only control three at a time. Creating a Lesser Note requires 50 Siren points.

Life Siren's Web

You can only control Notes that are within 20 meters of you, or if they are connected to a Note that connects to you.

It didn't help that the information was sparse. The skills didn’t even have tags, forcing Kara to find out for herself. The skill descriptions were updated when she figured it out, at least.

Once Kara learned the limits of her Notes, Kara began to test her Siren’s Song. One Note was needed for a single target Song, while all three were needed for an area of effect Song. Each target person must accept the Song, either by forcing them to or by their own choice. No effects happened until then. Even if they did accept, not everyone received beneficiary effects. Those unable to handle it received the Terror status effect. Wrath, when it was successfully, provided offensive buffs that became stronger the more aggressive the target was. Sometimes the targets were especially respondents. One Wrath Song had the rare effect of not dying even when striking 0 HP on the condition that they must deal melee damage every 2 seconds.

The success rate and power degree of buff weren’t predictable. Level, Danger Rank, classes, and races did not seem to be the deciding factor. Kara did get a feel for the person, however. Some she felt were inherently resolved, while others, though physically powerful, seemed to be weak of mind. It wasn’t a stat as much as it was of personality.

In the end, Kara determined that Song effects changed based on personality, while the success rate depended on the mental fortitude of the person.

During her break time, Kara found a room within the building she had been practicing at. With a bit of privacy, Kara moved on to the experimentation phase.

Her previous profession, Grimor Keeper, allowed her to create skills. She lost it, but she neither lost the skills gained nor the knowledge that came from it. The most reliable way to create new skills, simply enough, was to just combine them in creative ways. Her most powerful skills were created this way. Cast a Kinetic Burst inside a Black Hole, send it forward, and when the Black Hole's duration finishes, instead of suction it will release the Kinetic Burst. That was how true magic was created--the combination of skills was where the true power resided. To Kara, the basic skills were only ingredients.

Of course, because of the multi-cast penalty Kara always had, most of her skills were too costly to cast.

With professions, however, there was no such penalty. Both the theory and rules applied here as well. All Kara had to do was prepare in case things went wrong.

Instead of spreading her Notes, Kara tried pushing two Notes together. When that didn’t work, she tried three. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but the Notes just dully combined into a larger Note. Not only was it visibly larger, but the feedback from it was vastly improved. It also had more space inside it.

Well, that was fast. She'd thought this will take days, but all it took was two tri--

You have unlocked all the core skills of the Life Siren Life Siren’s Greater Note

You have learned to concentrate the power of your Notes. Life Siren’s Greater Note has a much greater capacity than a typical Note.

Life Siren’s Soul

Rather than power, you have learned to insert your Soul into your Notes. You may only cast Siren skills in this state. The range is equal to the number of Lesser Notes used to create the Greater Note multiplied by 20 Meters.

If you have encountered an entity with the potential to become a Life Dancer, you will be able to travel towards them up to 15 times of that range.

If you have bonded with a Dancer, you will be able to travel towards them up to 30 times of your typical range. You may travel an additional 10% of that range for each 10 Siren points you use.

That happened automatically—Kara didn’t even think of going inside it. Her Soul was taken out of her cursed body and inserted into the Note.

Her Soul, with all her overabundance of mana, was moved out of her body. She no longer needed to maintain Fleshmaster or Life Force Conversion.

For the first time in a year, Kara did not use a channel a single skill.

Obviously, she panicked.