Chpt. 17) Training on the road

“Just stick it in,” Ford said to Max.

“I don’t want to stick it in. You do it.”

“I’ve already stuck it in mine. Why are you so scared?”

“Because it’s weird!”

“It’s not tha’ weird,” Lilly cut in, “I’ve already stuck it in mine. There’s nothin’ to be scared of.”

“But-”

“Look, if Benet, Morgan, and the guys can stick it in themselves, then so can you,” Ford interrupted Max.

Max fidgeted then said, “Fine, but you stick it in for me. I don’t want to make a mess.”

Ford raised her hands in surrender, “Hey, if you don’t want a mess, have Lilly or Ee stick it in for you. They seem to have magic hands when it comes to this.”

“I’m not going to do that for you,” Ee added next to Ford.

“I’ll do it for you,” Benet volunteered, “I’m great at not making messes with my magic hands.”

“I’ll stick it in for her,” Lilly said firmly, “But you have to stick it in nex’ time.”

“Fine,” Max relented, “Just get it over with and stick it in.”

Lilly grabbed one of the common Goblin cores and pressed it against Max’s Grimoire. The core melted into green goo, creating a stench Ford thought smelled similar to an elder bug, and the Grimoire absorbed the goo quickly. Once every drop of goo was absorbed, the brown Grimoire glowed and shimmered before settling down and looking normal.

Ee slowly clapped sarcastically, “Great. Now everyone is at five percent Grimoire progression. Let’s go,” Ee then stood and began walking north.

Ford sighed and said, “Alright, let’s go. Even I would like to get as far from this forest as possible before Mr. and Mrs.Smith catches up with us.”

“I thought the woman was General Tse,” Morgan pointed out.

“I thought she was single,” Benet admitted a little downcast.

“It’s a joke,” Ford sighed exasperatedly.

“It’s not very funny,” Lilly said.

“It’s very funny. You just don’t know it.”

“STOP TALKING AND WALK!” Ee yelled back to them from far away. Ford jumped and ran off after her, closely followed by everyone else.

***

As they walked, Ford had Morgan appraise the rest of the cores. She had thirty-five common Lazarus beast cores, three rare Griffin cores, twenty-one uncommon Wolpertinger cores, twelve uncommon Warg cores, three rare Goblin king cores, one legendary sun fly core, and a couple thousand common Goblin cores. After that, Ford pulled out one Goblin core at a time and pressed it into her Grimoire. Nineteen cores later and a desire to burn her nose off, she finally maxed out her Grimoire progression and received a notification.

Grimoire progression one-hundred percent, progression from wood to carbon complete. Grimoire progression at zero percent. Ford raised an eyebrow and said, “Finally, progressed my Grimoire! What does it mean to progress the Grimoire?”

“It means it’s easier to cast spells now. You won’t see any powerful changes till high gem levels. Like, Quarts or Jade, and even then, you need a lot of cores,” Ee responded after a long sigh.

Ford nodded and pulled out another Goblin core, “Well, I will get to it then.”

“By the way,” Ee interrupted, “The cores give diminishing progression. The higher your Grimoire, the harder it is to progress with common cores. Plus, the type of core changes the spells your Grimoire has.”

Ford put the Goblin core away, “So what do Goblin cores do?”

“From wood to carbon, nothing. But if you use them from carbon to antarcticite, it’ll weaken ranged spells, but there will be more of them for the same mana cost, for example.”

Ford looked down at her Grimoire, which was now black and red, “So I have to consider what I want my Grimoire to do to my spells and get cores that reflect that path?”

“That is correct. You also won’t be limited to just one type of core. You can use Goblin cores and say stalker cores. That would make ranged attacks more powerful and numerous, but your close-ranged attacks next to worthless.”

Ford pulled out her Lazarus beast cores and fed five of them to her Grimoire, then pulled out one of her Goblin king cores and the three Griffin cores, feeding them to her Grimoire. The combination of smells made her want to gag; it reminded her of a grease trap under the restaurant she worked at in her past life. Then a notification popped up, making her stop abruptly, and Gimble walked into her, knocking her to the ground.

She caught herself before she face-planted and winced at her scraped hands that quickly healed. “Oh, sorry. Are you okay?” Gimble asked, reaching out a hand to help her back up.

Ford took it gratefully and stood, dusting off the dirt, “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks, just noticed that I progressed again.” Grimoire progression one-hundred percent, progression from carbon to antarcticite complete. Grimoire progression at ten percent. Ford looked at the time and noticed that it was almost noon and everyone looked like they were about to drop. “Hey, Ee, let’s find a place to stop and rest a moment.”

She didn’t look back as she nodded and said, “Alright, there’s a safe place up ahead.”

Ford and Gimble jogged up with the rest of them, and within ten minutes, Ee led them to a shallow river with small prickly bushes along the riverbank. Then, she stopped and said, “Alright, eat, drink, and rest. Then we get moving again.” Nobody argued with her as Ford prepared the last of the venison.

As they ate in relative silence, Ford looked over her skills and noticed a slight change to a couple of them. Skill: regeneration: regenerate HP, bones, and limbs; will not regenerate head; twelve HP per second; cost: ten HP per limb; time: instant; level five of five.

Skill: blood weapons: your blood is a weapon; use blood to create swords, spears, daggers, or claymores; requirements: INT: thirty-five, END: forty; cost: eight HP per weapon; level: five of five. Warning: HP will not regenerate past what has been spent.

Ford nodded as she read; it wasn’t a significant change, but it was enough to change the course of a fight. Once she finished eating, Ee took all the bowls and utensils into a shadow. “Thirty minutes. Then we move,” Ee announced as she looked back in the direction we came.

“Heard,” Ford confirmed. She then summoned her Karambits and coated them in her blood and began her blood possession enchantment. Once she finished, Ford realized that she was bored and decided to allocate her skill points. She placed the points into void storage, essence thrower, and essence volley, bringing them to level five.

Skill: void storage: carry anything within a pocket space you create; dimensions: five-by-ten grid; stackable; create five storages; requirement: INT: fifteen, END: fifteen; cost: twenty-five stamina per second per meter per storage; level: five of five.

Skill: essence thrower; shoot a stream of your chosen essence from your hands or a held staff; requirements: INT: thirty-five; fifty mana per second times two per essence; level: five of five.

Skill: essence volley; launch ten spears of essence per second; summon spears within one meter; range: one-hundred meters; requirements: INT: thirty-five; cost: fifty mana per spear per essence plus X mana depending on velocity; level: five of five.

After that, she had nothing left to do, so she waited to head out. Then a thought acquired to her, “Hey, Ee, do you have any way to train agility and strength?”

Ee looked at Ford, nodded, “Yep,” and said nothing else.

Ford cocked her head and waited. When no answer was forthcoming, she said, “Would you care to share that info?”

“No.”

“Why not?!”

“Because we still have twenty-three minutes left.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t tell me what to do?”

Ee thought about that for a moment, “You’re right. I can tell you what to do.”

“Exactly!”

“Shut up and wait for twenty-three…now twenty-two minutes!”

Ford sighed and said, “Tha- that’s not what I meant.”

“I hear a distinct lack of silence.”

Ford looked down, stuck out her lower lip, and looked at Gimble to her left, “Gimble! Ee’s being mean to me!” she said, pointing.

Gimble looked between her and Ee and said, “Uhh, you’re on your own.”

“What!? Just going to abandon me!?”

Farah finished a sip of water from a water skin Ee gave her before the meal and said, “That’s what I would do. You still smell like a pile of shit.”

Ford was taken aback and sniffed herself. She recoiled as the pungent smell entered her nose and said, “Fair enough,” then hopped into the river. The flowing water felt freezing and came up to her knees; she sat on a rock in the river and used it to anchor herself and lay down to let the water wash over her whole body.

“You’re going to get a cold doing that!” Benet said, with no concern in his voice as he stared at her breasts.

“Th-th-that’s a c-c-common m-misconception. C-cold water improves m-mental fortitude, p-pain tolerance, burns belly f-fat, and improves your immune s-system,” Ford said, through chattering teeth and her shivering body.

“Wha’ does tha’ mean?” Lilly asked.

“It improves endurance,” Ford answered immediately.

Gimble and Morgan immediately stood and went into the river with Ford. However, the water went up to Morgan’s waist and above Gimble’s ankles. They both lay down next to her and also shivered. “That’s all it would do for you? Improves endurance?” Max asked.

“And Charisma and maybe intelligence, but I’m not sure,” before Ford finished answering, everyone else was in the river with her, except for Farah and Ee.

***

“Alright, let’s go!” Ee announced as the twenty-two minutes passed for everyone soaking in the water in a flash.

Ford got out of the water and cast essence enforcement with fire and air essences and one stamina. The air around her dried her hair and clothes quickly; once she dried, she hit her thigh and the enforcement dissipated. She turned to look at everyone else and saw Lilly blasting them all with her essence thrower and staff of destruction using air essence. The twins had to hold onto Gimble for dear life so they wouldn’t be blown away.

“That’s enough!” Kii said.

“You’re going to blow us away!!” Mizu finished.

“WHA’!? I CAN’T HEAR YE!” Lilly said, faining deafness.

Ford chuckled and turned to Ee, “So, what’s this agility training you have?”

“Do you have anything that increases agility?” Ee asked.

“Yes.”

“Take it off and put these on,” Ee ordered as she pulled out a simple pair of leather shoes.

Ford shrugged, taking off her speed boots and putting on the leather boots. She then put the speed boots into her void storage. “Okay, what now?”

“Does anybody else want to join in on the strength and agility training?” Ee asked, ignoring Ford. Everyone raised their hands, “Good, take off anything that increases agility and put on these boots,” Ee said, pulling out an arm full of leather boots and one pair big enough for Gimble.

Farah took off her armor boots and greaves and put them into the void storage that she created. Morgan took off his greaves, and Max and Gimble took off their boots, handing them to Gimble, who made a void storage for them.

Besides Ford, Max was the only one who put the boots on. “Why do we have to take off our agility-based gear?” Max asked.

“Having that sort of gear impedes your natural ability to grow. So if you don’t have them, your agility will naturally grow when you run or dodge,” Ee explained, sounding bored. Once everyone stood ready, Ee pointed in the direction they’d been walking and said, “Run.”

Ford took two steps before turning around, “Wait. That’s it, we just-” the rest of what she was about to say got caught in her throat as she saw the sheer, gleeful, evil grin upon Ee’s face.

A massive wall of darkness rose behind her, twenty meters wide and thirty meters tall. Everyone else stopped to look at the wall, and Ee repeated herself, “As I said. Run!”

Ford wasted no time and ran for dear life; everyone else caught on quickly and ran after her. Then her warning skill went off, and she made a quick turn to the right, just barely dodging a massive spear of darkness that hit the ground with enough force to leave a two-meter crater in the ground. Her skill went off again, and she made another sharp turn as a spear flew past her creating another creator in front of her.

“YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE TRAINING US NOT TRYING TO KILL US!!” Ford yelled over comms.

“Training. Killing. All the same in the end,” Ee responded cooly.

“I disagreeAHHH!” Ford responded with a scream as another spear passed her, nearly taking off her head.

“Doesn’t matter. Just keep running till either you’re caught, or we reach our next stopping point.”

“Caught? So these aren’t lethal?” Max asked.

“The spears I’m throwing at you and everyone else aren’t lethal, but the spears I’m throwing at Ford are very lethal.”

“I noticed!” Ford said as a spear flew by and cut her right ear. After that, she formed her helmet around her head to protect her head, at least. The rest of her was exposed, however.

Her warning skill went off again, and she made a sharp left turn, just dodging a spear that cut her shoulder blades. She screamed in pain as her skill went off again; she jumped forward and rolled as a spear impacted the ground behind her. Ford’s shoulder blades healed, and her skill went off; she jumped up, and the warning went off again.

She saw a spear fly underneath her hitting nothing but air, and then another spear struck her right quadriceps and ripped off her leg. She screamed even louder as her vision blurred, and her HP ticked down thirty points at a time. Ford spent the ten HP to grow her leg back a second later and then used blood weapons to create a shield that blocked another spear flying at her.

Ford’s lungs burned as she panted, then another spear impacted her shield and punctured it, stopping a centimeter from her eye. She fell backward, rolled, and continued running. Another spear destroyed her shield a second later, and she dispelled the ability letting her HP fill up.

The ground shook and began to crack a second later, and her mini map filled up with large red dots, “Ee! I think the ground is mad at you!!” another spear flew past Ford’s head, “STOP THROWING THINGS!”

Then several massive monsters slowly rose out of the earth and shook the dirt themselves. Each one looked like a giant tortoise made of rocks, five meters long, tall, and wide; the moss-covered rocks resembled barnacles on their shells. Their heads were flat except for a beak, and their necks extended to at least three meters long. One of them shot out its neck and snapped at Ford. She dived forward, summoning her six swords, turned, and chopped off its head.

The Tortoise dropped dead, and its fallen head caught a spear mid-flight and exploded in a shower of blood, covering Ford. “Seriously!! I just got cleaned!” she yelled at Ee.

“Better keep running, little hare, else the Tortoises will get you!” Ee’s responded as another spear flew past Ford’s head, striking a Tortoise’s shell behind her.

The massive monster turned and glared at her as it slowly turned to attack. “This was a mistake,” Ford said to herself.

“Yeah, you think! Now, let me do the fighting!” Wrath said. Ford ignored her and began fighting the rest of the monsters. The second Tortoise charged at her with the speed of a fish out of water. Ford dodged left, letting a spear pass her as she brought her swords swinging up, decapitating the second Tortoise.

Ford swiftly climbed its shell and launched an essence volley of fire and air essence spears at one hundred meters per second, costing her two-hundred mana per second. The volley of exploding javelins took out two of the other Tortoises quickly. She stopped the spell as her warning went off and jumped off the Tortoise corpse, dodging another one of Ee’s spears. The last three Tortoises decided that she wasn’t worth their time and tried running away at a snail’s pace.

Ford cursed and said, “Oh no, you don’t,” She ran after them, casting essence enforcement with fire and dark essences and five-thousand stamina. Her body crackled with electric power as she ran after them, her stamina recharging just barely keeping up with the amount of physical exertion she was using. She quickly caught up to the first Tortoises and used targeted slaughter inside its shell, killing it. She then did the same thing to the other two Tortoise and dodged five other spears that came at her.

“Good,” Ee said over comms, “Now, we have dinner. I’ll get some of the meat when I pass by. You keep running,” she laughed.

“For how much longer!?” Ford cried.

“Till I say so!”

“NOOOOO!!!”

***

After five hours of running for her life, Ford finally made it to the location they were told to reach. She collapsed on the ground, her lungs burning and her muscles screaming in agony. Despite her protesting body, she forced herself to stand and catch her breath. While she gulped down air, she opened up the Yggdras system to distract herself.

Level up. You have eight ability points and twenty-four skill points to distribute. She blinked as she read the notification, and as tired as she was, Ford just put all the points into her strength stat without thinking. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: antarcticite; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: eighteen. Abilities: STR: thirty-eight plus five; PER: twenty plus ten; END: fifty-two; INT: thirty-five plus ten; AGI: forty-two plus ten; CHR: thirty-two plus ten; LCK: fifteen plus ten; WIS: twenty-six plus ten; SOL: nineteen.

Skills: natural: carry weight: two-hundred fifteen kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. Skills: weapon mastery five/five, crystal heart five/five, blood controller five/five, crystal weapon storage five/five, void storage five/five, crystal battle music two/five, blood weapons five/five, regeneration five/five, embracing pain five/five, psychosis five/five, strategist one/one, party stats five/five, targeted slaughter five/five, self-repair five/five, battle control five/five, essence ball five/five, essence mortar five/five, essence thrower five/five, essence volley five/five, essence manipulation one/one, essence enforcement five/five.

HP: five-hundred seventy-two; STM: five-thousand three-hundred four; MN: eighty-thousand fifty-nine; EXP: one-thousand nine-hundred eighty/five-thousand fifty-six. STM recharge: two-hundred four per second; MN recharge: one-hundred fifty-nine point five per second; Grimoire progression: ten of one-hundred percent. Twenty-four skill points are available.

Ford finished catching her breath and grinned like a madwoman, laughing as her adrenaline rush wore off and her stomach began to ache with hunger. She closed the window and looked around at everyone else, who were all just as tired as she was. “Who…want’s to make dinner?” Ford asked, still panting.

“I will. You all trained hard today. So, rest and eat. Also, here’s the monster cores for the Tortie,” Ee said, in her usual flat voice as she dropped several water skins onto the ground and tossed Ford a loot bag; everyone dove for the water skins as if they were starving animals. Which they almost were starving animals.

After Ford finished catching her breath, she sat on the ground and opened up her activity log. Would you like the summary for today? Yes or no? Yes. Summarizing. Plus eight to strength, one to intelligence, five to agility, and two to charisma. You’ve defeated four level-twenty igneous Tortoise; plus three-thousand seven-hundred fifty-seven EXP. You’ve defeated three level-twenty-two igneous Tortoise; plus two-thousand eight-hundred eighteen.

Ford closed the window and opened up her skill trees. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin. Labor selected. Select class: carrier, farmer, chef, builder, blacksmith, merchant. Carrier selected. Select route: void or speed. Void selected. New skills are available.

Skill: Void stasis: carry living things within a pocket space you create; living beings require mana to stay alive; the larger and more active a being is, the more mana it requires; dimensions: one-by-five grid; stackable; requirements: INT: twenty, WIS: twenty, skill: void storage; cost: X mana per second depending on size plus ten stamina per meter; level: zero of five.

Skill: Void shed: carry anything within a pocket space you create; dimensions: one-by-fifty grid; stackable; requirement: INT: twenty, END: fifteen, skill: void storage; cost: twenty-five stamina per second per meter; level: zero of five. Warning: will replace void storage. Any items within will be lost.

Skill: Void dome: carry living things within a pocket space you create; living beings require mana to stay alive; the larger and more active a being is, the more mana it requires; dimensions: one-by-ten grid; stackable; requirements: INT: twenty-five, WIS: twenty-five, skill: void shed, void stasis; cost: X mana per second depending on size per being plus twenty stamina per meter; level: zero of five. Warning: will replace void stasis. Any items within will be lost.

Skill: Void warehouse: carry any living or non-living item or being within a pocket space you create; living beings require mana to stay alive; dimensions: one-by-two-hundred grid; stackable; requirement: INT: thirty, END: twenty-five, WIS: thirty, skill: void shed, void dome; cost: fifty mana per second per being, plus fifty stamina per second per meter; level: zero of five. Warning: will replace void shed and void dome. Any items within will be lost. No more skills are available.

Ford nodded approvingly at the void warehouse skill and emptied all her items with the help of Gimble. She put one point into all the skills, then five into the void warehouse skill, and received a point refund of eight points from the skills. She then read the level five void warehouse skill.

Skill: Void warehouse: carry any living or non-living item or being within a pocket space you create; living beings require mana to stay alive; dimensions: five-by-five-hundred grid; stackable; create five warehouses; requirement: INT: thirty-five, END: thirty-five, WIS: thirty-five, skill: void shed, void dome; cost: twenty mana per second per being, plus fifty stamina per second per meter per warehouse; level: five of five. Warning: will replace void shed and void dome. Any items within will be lost.

After that, Gimble helped her sort out the items she had into three separate storages, one for cores, equipment, and food. The Tortoise stew was ready to eat by the time they finished, and Ford resolved to use the rest of her skill points after dinner.

***

After the Tortoise stew, which tasted like shit mixed with sugar, but nobody wanted to complain about Ee’s cooking to her face. Then they all got to work setting up camp and finished within a couple of hours. Ford sat around the fire with everyone else and looked through her skill trees again.

Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin. Arch- Sin selected. ‘What the?’Arch- Sin selected. Arch- Sin selected. Ar- Sin selected. Sin selected. Sin selected. ‘What the hell!? I don’t want to look through Sin, though.’ Sin selected. Berserker selected. Skills: blood salvos, boiling blood, berserkers rage. New skills acquired.

Skill: holistic shield: passive ability; if a party member receives a mortal wound, you will receive it instead; requirements: LCK: twenty, END: twenty; cooldown: twenty-four hours; level: zero of five.

Skill: holistic kill: passive ability; if you receive a mortal wound, the one who inflicted the damage will receive it instead; requirements: LCK: twenty-five, END: thirty; cooldown: forty-eight hours; level: zero of five.

Skill: linchpin: passive ability; activate at will; find the weakness in any person or any scenario; be able to identify a person’s level within ten levels higher than you; requirements: PER: twenty-five, LCK: twenty-five, WIS: twenty-five, CHR: thirty; level: zero of five.

Skill: hardshell: harden your skin till it’s stronger than stone; duration: thirty seconds; requirements: STR: forty, END: fifty; cost: one-hundred stamina per second; level: zero of five.

Skill: artificial heart: using a crystal heart to reanimate a dead body or animate an inanimate object; dead bodies will only last twenty-four hours; requirements: INT: thirty, END: thirty, SOL: twenty; cost: five SOL; level: zero of five.

Ford couldn’t help but consider the skills now that she looked at them. The blood salvos, boiling blood, and berserkers rage are all glass cannon skills, severe damage, and risk. The other abilities are support abilities or defensive. Ford spent a long time considering them before finally deciding. She placed two points into blood salvos, boiling blood, and one into berserkers rage, then put five into holistic shield, linchpin, hardshell, and four into holistic kill and read the new skill descriptions.

Skill: blood salvos: using your blood, you randomly create between one to fifty weapons a second that can cause different effects depending on the combination of blood and one other essence; the spell will last as long as you want; requirements: END: fifty, INT: thirty, WIS: thirty, blood essence; cost: ninety-nine present HP, forty-five percent mana, forty-five percent stamina; level: two of five. Warning: HP will not regenerate while active.

Skill: boiling blood: all sources of blood will boil within four meters of you; if the blood is within a living being, the pressure will build enough for them to explode within three minutes; requirements: END: thirty-five, INT: thirty, WIS: thirty, SOL: ten, blood essence; cost: fifty percent HP; level: two of five. Warning: HP will not regenerate while active.

Skill: berserkers rage; increase strength by times ten; increase endurance by one-hundred; increase speed by times five; two-hundred HP per second regeneration; spells cost nothing while berserkers rage is in effect; duration: sixty seconds: requirements: END: sixty, STR: fifty, AGI: forty; cost: ninety-nine percent HP, ninety-nine percent mana, ninety-nine-percent stamina; level: one of one. Warning: HP, MN, and STM will not regenerate for ten minutes after activation.

Skill: holistic shield: passive ability; if a party member receives a mortal wound, you will receive it instead; requirements: LCK: twenty-five, END: forty, blood essence; cooldown: four hours; level: five of five.

Skill: holistic kill: passive ability; if you receive a mortal wound, the one who inflicted the damage will receive it instead; requirements: LCK: twenty-five, END: thirty, blood essence; cooldown: ten hours; level: four of five.

Skill: linchpin: passive ability; activate at will; find the weakness in any person or any scenario; will activate automatically if a significant fault is spotted; be able to identify a person’s level and class; be able to identify the number of skills someone has; be able to identify a person’s stats; requirements: PER: forty, LCK: twenty-five, WIS: forty, CHR: thirty; level: five of five.

Skill: hardshell: harden your skin till it’s stronger than tungsten steel; duration: lasts until the user decides to dispel the skill; requirements: STR: fifty, END: fifty, blood essence; cost: two-hundred stamina per second; level: five of five.

Ford closed out her skill tree and said, “Who wants first watch?”

“First what?” Benet asked.

“First watch. There’s a chance that we might be attacked tonight and every other night. Someone should stay up and keep watch; then we switch off every couple of hours,” Ford explained.

“We’ll take first watch,” Kii and Mizu volunteered.

“I’ll take second,” Lilly volunteered.

“I’ll take third,” Ford volunteered, “That should be all for the night till morning.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Max said as she headed off to her tent and everyone else did the same. Though, Ford went to her tent to meditate and get her SOL leveled up.

***

While within her soul space, Ford noticed that her once vibrant and glowing soul dimmed and pulsed weakly. She then focused on feeding it her memories and emotions from the dungeon. Burning them, and instead of crushing them into a hardball, she tempered her soul into a boiling pond. Even doing that caused her pain, but instead of the feeling of being crushed or stabbed, it felt like she was being boiled alive.

The pond of her soul felt like it was made of lava, and her muscles burned and ached. She breathed through the pain and sent it into her soul like last time, repeating the process as long as she could until her pond looked like a giant boiling lake of lava. Then she fed her soul to just outside her 1body and held it there till the lake was empty and there was nothing left but the dim glowing rock of her soul.

“Well done! You’ve finally managed to make a decent soul and use it to your advantage. Bravo! Bravo!” Wrath said sarcastically.

Ford looked over in the direction the voice was coming from and saw her sitting on a wooden throne that she most likely thought up. “Tch. I don’t need you to patronize me.”

“They all could have died!” Wrath yelled.

Ford was taken aback by the attitude and said, “Who could have? When?”

“Our team in the dungeon. They could have died in the dungeon. We could have taken that dungeon alone without the others, but no, you wanted to bring them along.”

Ford scoffed, “You wanted me to kill them, take their loot, and leave them behind! Now, you’re mad that I had them with me, to begin with because they were in danger!? Make up your mind!”

“OUR mind! Don’t forget that we’re in this skull together!”

“Don’t remind me!”

Wrath curled her lips in frustration and said, “Well, if you need to be strong for once, you know where to find me.” Ford rolled her eyes and left her soul space, pulling up her stat screen, and her jaw dropped as she read the new numbers.