Alderam and Layla were reaching the Dungeon’s end and even encountered another type of Natural which was a blue strange gigantic insect, Layla struggled to make her spear penetrate them, forcing Alderam to do all the work.

They were just doing a short rest before a room and Alderam caught himself thinking how he felt using the [Water Ball] on those insects Naturals, the feeling was different of how he normally uses his spell gave by a Spell Book.

Abilities gained through books created by [Extractors] have a side effect of making it limited in its uses and impossible of increasing the ability level. This happens because the book forces the knowledge in the head, being especially worse when high-grade abilities are implanted.

Normally you learn a spell by studying its formula, adapting it to your comprehension and body. Despite the side effects, Spell Books and others Ability Books are highly sought by nobles trying to raise their protection.

Thankfully, Alderam had erased the side effects on his body by entering in a trance before fighting Bashaag and it seemed that he was entering once again on that wondrous state which makes to increase abilities to be easier than normal.

He squandered another [Water Ball] and tried to understand how the Mana and runic formula moved inside of his body.

“Mana is everywhere, it is the source of life. There is no entity without Mana. Take all the Mana of someone and they are essentially dead.” Alderam said with his eyes losing the focus and Layla looking at him with worry.

“Mana is a pathway.”

Mana Insight (Common) is now Lvl 2: [The first step to understand the world and its transformation. Increase mana regeneration. The sharing with the Destruction is closer and deeper. +6 to Mind.]

“The rune for water is an inverted triangle. The formula for water spells should be an amalgamation of inverted triangles, ever-changing.”

“The water always flows, even when it looks it isn't.”

“Taking shape only when it is needed.”

Understanding about the magic element, Water, deepened. +1 to Mind.

Water Manipulation (Uncommon) is now Lvl 1: [Arriving at the ‘common’ conclusion of the ability of water to have myriad forms while applying it to your magic itself and discovering your own representation of water on infinite inverted triangles, you gained the ability to control water to some degree and materialize it through Mana. +10 to Mind. +3 to Willpower.]

Calculating new possibilities…

You can now transform your current Job to [Novice Water Mage].

Warning: Specializing to Water Mage will make be impossible to continue on the path of All-Rounder that is the [Novice Mage], able to cast any type of magic.

In contrast, your water abilities will be easier to raise and will receive a boost in all its aspects of 10%.

Wants to proceed?

Yes/No.

“Yes.” Alderam absently said.

You are now a [Novice Water Mage].

Calculating percentage gained by raising skills...

Job: [Novice Water Mage] 33%. +3 to Mind. +2 to Constitution.

Alderam leaving his trance caused by studying the Water Ball, blinked several times to end with the strange displacement he felt. “Layla, although I’m happy for getting more powerful even with the trance forcing me to specialize, do you remember what happened in the last time I got a power-up? It was fairly recent, just some days of difference.” Alderam said without any trace of happiness present on his angular face.

“...Bashaag appeared?” Layla said after also feeling the change in the air after she noticed the truth.

“Exactly, as a blessing befell on me, another disaster came to fix the things. Aren’t you also seeing the pattern here? Principally with your cursed luck that instead of helping you, it always mess with you?”

“But it until now only occurred two times, isn’t too early to assume how the world works?” Layla said more to reassure herself than to convince Alderam.

“I can only hope so, but you can’t be too careful. Let’s slow down our pace.”

Layla nodded and lamented the fact her Job’s requirement wasn’t totally filled yet to have more power at her disposal to protect her safety line.

Before entering the open room, Layla warned Alderam. “I’m sensing six living forms that aren’t Naturals near us, three of them are in the open room probably fighting Naturals and for some reason, the other three are behind them. I don’t understand why those three aren’t near the others.”

“TheY came while I was in trance?” Alderam said.

“Yes, but it has been only fifteen minutes since they entered the room full of Naturals that we were expecting to lure and bait them out of the room one at a time.”

After a whole day of not meeting no one, we are suddenly meeting with six of them and this arrangement… it is fishy, but it isn’t probably for us. There are more chances to it be a trap for the ones fighting the Naturals

“We will advance, but I want you to walk with me near the walls and always hiding behind those carcasses.” Alderam picked one of the insect Natural’s dead bodies and slowly walked to the open room hid behind them.

Layla did her best to follow him and use the bad illumination of the Dungeon to not make too obvious two people were behind the carcasses, using the [Familiar Bond] she sensed Alderam seriousness about this whole situation and didn’t talk after obeying him.

This was a situation more serious that she could understand, or at least it was she thought albeit Alderam knew this situation could only get dangerous if Layla messed up.

At the open room with four exists to it in the cardinal directions, a group of teenagers full of injuries was fighting the very same insect Naturals Layla had a hard time dealing with it.

“Shouldn’t we help them?” Layla quietly asked before being told by Alderam with his eyes to her shut up.

The fight got gradually worse with Layla’s worry only growing.

Those teenagers were likely at the same Rank as Layla and were having problems to deal with Naturals at the same Rank because of their inexperience and bad weapons, Alderam wondered how they got so far in the Dungeon and could only assume those three hidden people were at fault.

Ranks are not absolute, they only represent the raw power we have, being a good way to assess our power. The Gift in some way calculates it using the four main Attributes any being has to have, they are Constitution, Strength, Dexterity, and Mind.

Being of the same Rank should make things pretty even, but two of them are too worried about the girl and this will cause their-

“Fio!” Both guys with swords in hands shouted as the girl with blond hair and a religious symbol on her back accidentally fell down and the Naturals swarmed at her.

Not only the guys tried to come to her rescue, Layla also had tried but was stopped by Alderam who put his hand over her mouth and hugged her waist. “Endure, this is a trap. All of them are doomed to die with us saving them or not.” He whispered to her as Layla thrashed around.

As always you don’t act like a Devil, why must you be so soft-hearted? I will never understand how you can be so gentle even after being tortured by more than two hundred years.

Alderam sometimes envied the naivety of Layla, rarely though.

Fio screamed in forlorn as the Naturals began to eat her part by part just like they did with Layla when she died earlier and the guys couldn't do anything as they wept together with Layla at the pitiful death of the girl. The others Naturals entered in their way and soon enough their fate will also be sealed together with the girl.

And it wasn’t even at the mandibles of the Naturals that it happened, two azure scorching rays of pure magic came from one of the room’s exits and killed everyone on the room, the guys and the Naturals.

“She finally naturally died at the place ordered by our Goddess, it was so hard to endure this little theatre.” A man with clerical low-ranking clothes from the church of Uphion, the Goddess of Magic and Lunacy, said with his superior in tow.

“Indeed, now we just need to take care of the little mice over there.” A woman with the prestige of being a priest with her eyes having divine symbols of Uphion glowing in them, said.

Alderam couldn’t do anything to prevent him receiving a bash from something behind him.

He was thrown into the middle of the room and quickly stood up with blood falling down from his head.

Flustered, he turned to look to his assailant and had to control himself to not immediately throw a [Water Ball] at the assailant, he was now outnumbered and outranked.

How could Layla not… oh, I had shut her up so she couldn’t warn me. It is my fault then.

Alderam was beginning to calm down to assess the situation but it was then that he perceived who was holding Layla by the throat.

It was a slender man holding a staff from Uphion and was clearly another priest, and by Layla’s body slowly becoming motes of light as she cried it was easily seen that the priest had the ability that only High-Priests were supposed to have, he was probably the student of a famous High-Priest and secretly learned with his high talent the most powerful Ability to deal with Devils.

He was using [Soul Purifier] to destroy Layla’s corrupted soul in a way that Alderam wouldn’t be able to ever resurrect her again.

“Today we got ridden of a heretic and also soon of a Devil and its spawn. Today is really a blessed-”

I don’t care.

“It is funny how this stupid Devil and its spawn thought we wouldn’t be able to see them behind some carcasses. We have [Evil Sense]-”

Stop, that woman is the only thing I have remaining-

Something inside of Alderam broke as he saw Layla suddenly smiling at him with tenderness and relief that he wasn’t the one to be grabbed, it was as if she was happy and dying in relief that he wasn’t hurt since his soul could also be destroyed by the priest, it was as if she didn’t have any regret dying in this way despite her dream remaining unaccomplished.

“Take your hands away from her!” It was the first time Alderam showed genuine concern about Layla’s well-being without any ulterior motive with exception of the time they first met.

Familiar Bond (Uncommon) is now Lvl 4 and Ranked Up: [Increase the grow of abilities and you can now sense the location of your Bond. While in the presence of your Bond alive you receive a hidden bonus to your attributes, the stronger you care about your Bond and as the Ability grow the bonus will increase. The bonus is now twice as strong. +4 to Charisma. +4 to Luck.]

Abnormal grow of the Ability detected! Preparing a Trial to investigate its true level when one of the Bond reach Rank D.

And it showed as the [Familiar Bond] went straight to Level 4 from Level 1.

Alderam summoned two [Water Balls] and prepared to launch them at the priest who is destroying Layla’s soul.

The other two members of Uphion’s church saw this and with their better mastery over Magic they quickly used small, less powerful, versions of the attack that killed the Naturals and teenagers earlier to not let Alderam disturb the priest that was concentrating on the [Soul Purifier].

Alderam grunted like an animal as he felt organs that he doesn’t know the name being penetrated but he ignored the pain and launched the [Water Balls] without interruption at the priest holding Layla.

Regan, the one holding Layla, got surprised by the tenacity of the Devil’s spawn and as he was concentrating on [Soul Purifier] he couldn’t use any other Ability or move agilely, this was the reason [Soul Purifier] is normally used only after defeating the Devil. He saw that the [Water Balls] are coming to him only in places the Devil wasn’t covering him so he put the Devil at the front of his vitals to make the Devil’s spawn stop the attacks, since he couldn’t evade them and he knew that a Devil’s spawn cares too much about the Devil to actually hurt it.

It was then that he made the worst mistake of his life, Alderam only cared about negating the [Soul Purifier] and killing him, everything else what out of Alderam’s mind.

Instead of the [Water Balls] have their speed reduced they got even quicker and Alderam altered their trajectory with [Water Manipulation] to guarantee Regan’s death with him hiding behind Layla, Alderam aimed now his spell at Layla’s heart and head.

Regan, full of disbelief, watched the area near his lungs and his own throat behind Layla’s heart and head being perforated by the balls of water, he knew that it was impossible to the novice spell have so much power and only near his death he noted that Alderam without noticing mixed something nefarious within the water.

Regan and Layla dropped dead on the ground, with the priest cursing in his mind how he couldn’t even bark orders about Uphion’s strange hints to his subordinates before dying and Layla happy of being freed from the fate of having her soul destroyed and coming back Alderam’s SP.

Alderam seeing his target dying and feeling Layla’s soul within him, became cool headed again and turned to the others clerics from Uphion’s church whilst the effects of [Familiar Bond] ended.

He knew after calming down that he was lucky that the priest couldn’t use his powers to disrupt the spells and that his weak [Water Ball] wouldn’t work with watchful clerics of the church from the Goddess of Magic and Lunacy.

Alderam ignored the rage and grief shouts coming from the clerics seeing the tenth in the succession line dying and advanced against them, with sword in hands and throwing his dispensable dagger at one of them.

The low-ranking cleric fumbled but was able to use a shield spell with his staff to block the dagger meanwhile the woman priest with a scowl in her beautiful face threw other less concentrated azure rays of light at Alderam that seemed to be the only effective spell of her despite being follower of the Goddess of Magic, maybe the lunacy aspect was at fault here.

Alderam using [Combat Arts] understood the trajectories of the rays and only slightly moved to make all of them miss his vitals and not lose momentum whilst activating [Mana Empowerment].

As more blood poured out of him and him being more lunatic than others followers of the Uphion’s church at the eyes of the low-ranking cleric, he became close enough to use the ability of his sword and take the female priest by surprise by suddenly extending the sword and cutting deep into her body.

“Do something, if I die do you really think a Devil’s spawn will let you unscathed?” The female priest shouted with defiance in her eyes at the low-ranking cleric as she retreated without even wincing at the deep wound in her body and began to finally prepare the powerful version of her rays that killed all Naturals and teenagers earlier.

The low-ranking cleric roared to give him the courage to attack the unguarded Alderam, but it was then that a well-timed [Mana Aura] came from Alderam.

The cleric felt as if staring at his deepest fears as he accidentally looked into Alderam inhuman piercing eyes and had his skin withered in mere moments the [Mana Aura] was activated in its round black form.

Alderam took this chance and without any mercy in his heart, he made a short hop and cleanly decapitated the frightened cleric with the water blade.

The last thing the dead cleric saw with his head spinning in the air was the smirk on the female priest as she fired a charged [Water Soul Beam] at Alderam thanks to him distracting the Devil’s spawn.

Alderam without any fear gazed into the mass of deadly azure light and knew it was impossible to survive it even if he used the low-ranking cleric’s body as a shield.

So before the ray hit him he used everything at his disposal to withstand the spell ranking higher than him.

He used the cleric’s body, his sword, activated [Mana Aura] and even brought enormous quantities of Black Elementals from his SP in hopes the Black Elementals had power enough to shield him since they could be converted to Black Qi which is good at protecting the user’s body.

Alderam’s vision became a pure blue as he got swarmed by the mass of light, the cleric’s body evaporated and his [Mana Aura] shattered, the sword with its magical nature was capable of enduring the blow but received another crack near the one it received against Bashaag.

As his skin burnt and before his clothes could be disintegrated, the Black Elementals finally showed their worth.

The presence of a Divine’s might irritated them and they began to actively fight against it, protecting Alderam’s body in the process but it wasn’t still enough to completely protect him.

Focusing on the Black Elementals he formed an image of a round shield like of the [Mana Aura] surrounding him, thanks to his high Willpower, the attribute responsible by the power of images, and his corrupted soul the Black Elementals obeyed him in a way he never thought to be possible until they actually tried to protect him.

Black Force Manipulation (Primal) is now Lvl 2: [Increase the multiplication of Black Elementals in the [Black Soul]. Impossible to increase it even more before choosing a main element to your Black Force. +10 to Black Force. +30 to Willpower.]

Job: [Novice Water Mage] 62%. +5 to Mind. +5 to Constitution.

Coating himself on the wickedness of the Black Elementals and thinking how Black Qi is capable of healing, he formed a perfect shield capable of withstanding attacks and even auto-repair.

Before the female priest could complete her gasp of surprise at discovering Alderam alive, he used his trained skill from killing Naturals with his throwable dagger which wasn’t good enough to give him an Ability but was enough to deal with a stunned target, and threw his sword right at priest’s breasts.

Alderam’s strength wasn’t that good considering his Rank, so the sword only did a shallow cut, however, it was enough to make the female priest tumble and for the first time show signs of pain.

Alderam dashed towards her and with his sword in hands he twisted it inside of the priest’s body, cutting deeper and constantly stabbing her until she was dead.

He neglected all kinds of pleas coming from the woman and practically tortured her with his hatred and ruthless finally showing up after he almost lost Layla, the last being alive that he can consider a friend.

To confirm the priest was dead he also decapitated her after his frustrations dried out and picked his dagger near the where the low-ranking clerical body should be if it wasn’t destroyed by the ray of light.

We should avoid meeting Uphion’s followers, their mastery over Magic is a bad match-up to me.

And what happened to me earlier? This amount of anger at someone hurting Layla isn’t normal, at least, the bonus I received from the new [Familiar Bond] is quite useful despite we needing to pass a Trial later.

Now I just need to revive Layla and get out-

From beyond the shadows of the only exit of the open room that nobody came out, a giant green segmented tail with a stinger appeared and pierced the side of Alderam’s abdomen.

Alderam coughed blood while being raised in the air by the green stinger and feeling his body being invaded by something that was paralyzing his entire body. So you are the real disaster coming at me after I received a blessing?

The green segmented tail then spun Alderam and threw him to the ground, if he had his health numbered like the Heroes he would be able to see that he had lost more than two-thirds of it thanks to the sudden attack.

Slowly standing up using the sword as a prop, Alderam only had a thought going through his head, I think ‘Bob’ took the idiom, ‘no rest for the wicked’, a little too far. I know I’m the bad guy here, but can’t I even change to more comfortable clothes or eating something before you trying to kill me again?