While walking back to the Pavilion, Rakna decided to look over the prompts he had skipped after the fight with Verias and he quickly realized how much it was. Other than the level-up notices, he obviously already knew of the first one, namely, the fact that he had grown his third tail.

However, the changes it brought along were something he hadn’t been able to inspect. He opened his status and then pulled up the descriptions of the two skills concerned.

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Shadow Step (Lv.1): By becoming one with the essence of shadows, your movement speed will increase by 200% for two seconds. If used within the dark, the effect will become 300%.

Regardless, whenever the skills are activated, the user will become concealed by shadows until the duration is over.

Cooldown: 100s (Level 1)

Note: The effect does not influence the root value of the user’s attributes. Keep in mind that the burst of speed granted by the skill does nothing to scale the user’s swiftness.

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True Smell of the Wolf God: The Host gains the ability to recognize auras through smell. Moreover, according to the user’s preference, they will gain the ability to perceive emotions as different scents as long as they are close enough.

Additional Effect: +100% Senses

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‘Shadow Step is the speed burst skill that the nine-tailed cub used against me. As for the Wolf God trait… do I have to consciously activate it?’ Rakna thought and before he even could finish that line of thought, something struck his brain and made him hold his head in pain in the middle of the street.

His sense of smell had suddenly been saturated with scents that he had never smelled before but he could somehow tell which was what without even thinking about, ‘Boredom, anxiety, fear, care, curiosity, happiness, love…’ His headache calmed down as he gradually filtered the scents coming from the people around him.

He managed to get it under control but it still seemed a bit too overwhelming. He reflexively covered his nose although he knew it wouldn’t do anything. ‘Should I keep it deactivated? No… I better get used to it. What better time than now.’

After resolving to it, he rubbed his nose one last time and focused on the rest of the windows. The result of eating Verias was predictable so he quickly jumped to the last ones.

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You have completed a Hidden Quest, Rescue of the Cursed Village.

Found the source of the curse: ✓

Killed the two guardian golems: ✓

Released the victims from the curse: ✗

Killed Asziquol Naberum Verias: ✓

Rewards: 10 Free Points, 1 Skill Point, 50 000 Talys, Skill Card Flash Step, Skill Card Despair Aura, T.8 Healing Pill x3, T.8 Stamina Pill x3, T.8 Mana Pill x3, T.7 Healing Potion, Title Nemesis of the Abyss.

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Nemesis of the Abyss

A designation handed to the worst enemies of the Abyss. The holders of this title are rumored to harbor hatred beyond the understanding of normal folk.

Effects: All of your stats are granted an increase of 5% when fighting a member of the Abyss and your mind will be more susceptible to rage.

Additional Effect: Abyss creatures will fear and despise you.

Note: This is a growth title. The more the holder kills, the stronger the effects.

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‘With this, I have 46.6 attributes points and 2 skill points again. The consumables are a nice bonus and the title is pretty normal overall. Other than its growth potential, it’s not that different from the others. As for the cards… Alexa, where are they? Were they put in my storage?’

[Affirmative. Every physical reward you gain from a Quest will be transferred to your storage. In the case that you don’t have any room or simply don’t have one, the rewards will be put on hold until you choose to claim them manually.]

‘I see. Thanks,’ he replied and opened his Item Box to find them. After filtering them out to the front, he pressed on both of them and opened their description.

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Skill Card: Use it to learn the spontaneous skill ‘Flash Step’.

Requirements: Lv.7 Mana Control, 70 Atr Cap, 90 Agility

Description:

Flash Step is one of the most renowned fast movement skills for both its simplicity and efficacy.

By gathering mana at the sole of your feet, it is possible to dash with near-imperceptible speed within a limited distance. It is a skill that retains its value no matter the strength of the user.

It is akin to short teleportation and is mainly used as means to escape, dodge an attack, or travel at high speed. A variation of its use allows one to stand in mid-air or on surfaces like water.

Step Cost: 2 MP per meter.

Maximum Distance per Step (Level 1): 30 meters. Casting Time (Level 1): 2s

Air Step Cost: 1 MP per min. This may increase based on the kind of location it is used in as well as if the user uses it to kill momentum.

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Skill Card: Use it to learn the cognitive skill ‘Despair Aura’.

Requirements: Any type of coercion skill.

Description:

Despair Aura is a different approach to the regular Aura skill. The latter is used as protection against magic attacks as well as a way to passively display one’s power. Despair Aura takes that second aspect to another level.

As long as it remains active, a continuous wave of ghastly anguish will emanate from the user and made any who dares to stand in their way suffer fear and despair.

The ones affected by the Despair Aura will feel frightened and petrified. Unlike the other sorts of coercion skills, Despair Aura does not only base its potency on the user’s internal forces but also their mental fortitude, determination, intent, and bloodlust.

Cost: None.

Note: This is a passive skill that can be turned on and off at will.

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‘Both of these are really good. Though Flash Step will have to wait. Without my items, my agility isn’t enough to learn it yet. I will have to either assign some of my points or hunt more hearts. As for Despair Aura, I’ll wait before learning it. I don’t think it would be good if I released it in the middle of the street by mistake,’ Rakna thought and arrived at the Pavilion a few minutes later.

Gray hadn’t specified where to meet up but he could only guess as he made his way up the left staircase. When he reached the last step, much to his annoyance, his body was already at its limit.

It had started a dozen minutes prior to separating from Kaelith. His muscles were slowly aching more and more as if they were trying to tell him that he should not be moving.

‘Even after that drug, it’s like this, huh? This crippled state is worse than I thought,’ he grumbled to himself. The worst was that it wasn’t only his body. He also had a headache and in the last few hours, he couldn’t ignore how he would sometimes zone out and lose focus despite his mental grit.

“This is probably what happens when you deplete your psyche,” he muttered and sat down on a couch. Gray didn’t seem to be here yet so he allowed himself to rest a little bit.

While waiting, he took the initiative to pull out his friend list. There was a certain function about it that he hadn’t really noticed until now. Next to each one of the names on the list, there was a piece of extra information concerning their location. This is what Gray had used to track him down.

After inspecting his list, Rakna froze when he saw something next to the names of his group. To be more specific, he could see on which Plateau they currently were in and much to his surprise, the three of them were ahead of him already. Allan was on the Ninth Plateau while Flavia and Nyx were on the Tenth Plateau.

Rakna sat up and pressed on one of their icons to initiate a call. After a few seconds, it picked up and a voice sounded inside his head, “{Rak? Is that you?}”

“Yes.”

“{Cool, I didn’t know you could make voice calls with this,}” Allan replied with a laugh. “{So? Did you finish what you were doing?}”

“I did. Though I didn’t come out of it unscathed. I almost got permanent impairments from what I heard and I will probably have to stay on standby for the next week.”

“{Damn, seriously? What did you do?}”

“I fought a level 99 resurrected mummy.”

“{…I’m not sure how I should react to that. All I know is that you’re in deep shit if you tell that to teach. I don’t know how she’ll react if she learns you risked your life.}”

Rakna snorted. “I’ll let you tell her and Nyx that I will stay on the Fifth Plateau for a while. Now, I wanted to ask you, what happened with you three while I was on my own?”

“{Well, first of all, we made quick work of the First Plateau’s Trials and all skipped to the Fifth. We were separated when that happened but since there was only one Trial, we decided to attempt it and the difficulty was still low enough to pass easily. So, we did it. Though, it seems I wasn’t qualified enough to skip directly to the Tenth Plateau as the girls did.}”

“I see… I recommend you try to get to the Tenth Plateau to rejoin with them but once you’re there, you all should take some time before continuing the Trials. At least, until I arrive.”

“{Yeah, we also realized that. For now, we’re strong enough to skip Plateaus but that will most likely change if we abuse it.}”

Allan was right. For example, Rakna had the necessary ability and strength to bulldoze through the Plateaus very quickly, skipping five plateaus every time he completed the Trials. But although he would be able to quickly conquer the System, he would be neglecting his personal growth.

If they wanted to steadily get stronger and not get overwhelmed at some point, they needed to take their time doing other things like Quests and Dungeons.

“{I’m also taking my time right now. There are two Trials here and I already completed one. The last seems to be a bit tough but it’s nothing I can’t do. In fact, I’m experimenting with my magic a bit. When I looked into it a bit more, I saw that I could do way more than just copying magic.}”

Rakna nodded at that. His discovery of Star Make and Star Monarch was the proof he needed that a magic element could be interpreted and exploited in many different ways. With something like void under his control, Allan had the potential to create very interesting spells.

“{But anyway, I’ll tell the girls about you. Once I get to the Tenth Plateau, we’ll come to visit you. It’s possible for us to come back to the Fifth Plateau, right?}”

“As far as I know, yes. It’s something I haven’t tried yet, however.”

“{Then, see you soon, Rak. For now, I’m doing a Quest. I’ll finish it and complete the last Trial.}”

“Take your time.”

“{Sure. Have a good rest,}” Allan said before hanging the call.

Once he was done catching up, Rakna pulled out one of the two skills cards in his storage. ‘Since the clown isn’t here yet. I might as well learn this one,’ he thought and took a look at the back where the incantation was written.

“[Basking in Corrupted Glory, Thy Anguish Shall Bear the Dread of Death, the Terror and Misery of the Wicked Weakness and Appalling Might. Thou Art Fear’s Grant; Thou Art Despair.]”