After the shocking revelations and lack of that, respectively for the identities of Cliff and his two companions, we decided to go back to our original objective. Although it was a cause of concern to have some of these unknown factors, wasting time at the campsite without any clues left wasn't a brilliant idea.

It had turned into dawn as the soft morning glow lay softly on the now less dense forest. The environment had changed from one where you would have trouble walking through without tripping on the roots to one in which that wouldn't happen unless you're really careless. The dense forest undergrowth had been reduced to a sparse one, where there are occasional shrubs.

This is the habitat for the wolves. The land was uneven with occasional hills and some of caves. Those caves were mostly inhibited by wolves. As the sun spread its warmth across the land, the wolves lazily walked out of their dens, ready to start their hunts. So were we.

We ambushed the wolf as it exit the cave. Aston and Chris had stood on tree branches while I hid within the shadow of a nearby shrub. When the wolf strolled into our kill zone, Aston jumped before Chris did the same. They landed behind the wolf and both of their weapons cut deeply into the wolf's hind. The wolf cried out in agony but it wouldn’t go down so easily. It turned towards the enemies and growled in anger. I appeared from beneath the shrub and backstabbed it. Wounding both of its hind legs in quick consecutive thrust before it even had a chance to react.

The legs that were punctured gave away just as I jumped away from the wolf. The wolf couldn’t even howl in surprise from my attack before both Chris and Aston pounce in again. They continue their fight with the occasional swipes from its claws drawing some blood from Aston who couldn’t dodge in time. I attacked the wolf whenever it wasn’t focusing its attention on me, landing more major wounds each time. The wolf dropped down lifeless within minutes from our constant assault. The fight ended with only minor injuries on our side. I gained decent amount of experiences through the fight, both on actual combat and also experience points to contribute towards my leveling.

We moved on to the next wolf following the same tactic without the ambush. It took more time as we didn't have the element of surprise to land a powerful first strike. The rest of the day was spent on hunting the wolves in a similar method, with our hunting efficiency increasing with each success. We killed off more than fifty wolves by the end of the day only with injuries that could be healed within a short time.

We moved away from the hunting ground and moved back into the dense forest as dusk arrived. Although it wasn't common for wolves to stray from their homes at night, there were still some wandering ones. We could rest easier knowing that there were less chance of needing to fight while we sleep.

After getting a good night's sleep even with rotating shift for lookout duties, they decided to go back to the guild in the city to report the completion of the request. I told them that I would join up to them mid way as I had a side job to do. They gave me somewhat confused looks as they wondered where and what would I be doing. They also wondered how I could catch up back to them when they had a better understanding of the forest. I left them while they remained clueless.

Using my abilities, I dashed through the shadows of the tree line as I saw everything around me. That enabled me to move faster than Chris could within the forest. The action also gained me experiences in the [Shadow Manipulation] tree.

My sight was set on the group of lumberjacks. Although I moved faster than what Chris believed was possible, I still only managed to reach my destination in the dead of night. Chris might have needed two whole days to travel the distances for what took me nearly one to reached. The feat rewarded me with multiple level ups in [Shadow Manipulation], allowing it to reach level 12 and unlocking [Shadow Movement] in the process.

For achieving some mastery in shadow manipulating, you have unlocked [Shadow Movement].

Shadow Movement[Active]

You are now able to walk through shadow as if it is another dimension. As long as two locations are connected by the same shadow, you are able to move to the other location nearly instantly. Cost: 50 mana

With the usage of [Shadow Movement] in mind, I proceeded towards my first target. I had went through the whole area before that and identified each and every single person before setting my mark. The one that I aimed for first was the leader of the lumberjacks. Unlike others who slept in longhouse where it was crowded, he lived in a log cabin of his own. That was one of the main reason I had targeted him; he was isolated.

I observed the surroundings of the cabin for movements. Finding none, I sneaked towards the windows. Although the windows were opened, the opening that was available was too small for a person to fit through. There were crisscrossed patterns on the window to prevent creatures from entering the house yet still allowing air and sunlight to enter.

It wasn't hard to enter as I used [Shadow Movement] to get across the window. It felt different from not having a body. I still had my sense of touch while moving through the shadow, it just felt weaken, like through a layer of water. I appeared inside the house while experiencing this feeling.

The house was made from oak, like what I had saw outside. There were some simple furnitures that were made from other type of trees native to the area too. The room that I was had four chairs placed around a square table. There was also a bookshelf filled with books with covers that had multitude of colors. I couldn't tell what they were about as I didn't understand the written language. There was no other furniture. The decoration was limited to a tall floor vase with flowers placed within it. That gave the room a feeling of simple elegance.

I took a mental note for myself to learn the written language. I could speed that up by spreading my spores to educational institutions. I decided that there were nothing interesting within the room and walked out the door leading to the corridor.

I arrived at the hallway that leads to two other rooms and the entrance of the house. Deciding that I shouldn't be spending so much time on a single person, I went directly towards the bedroom. The bedroom only had a bed and a wardrobe, a simple design like the previous room. It was quite small, having only barely enough walking space left after the bed took up about a third of the room. The window leading out of the house was closed, causing the room to contain an impenetrable darkness. I walked in without a sound and close the door, doing what I came here to achieve.

I focused my newly emitted spores over the sleeping man's head. This time, I inserted the spores through each and every holes on the man's head instead of just the mouth. I hoped that it would reduce the time necessary to contaminate him.

It showed its effectiveness shortly after as the man's face distorted in pain. He opened his eyes wide awake and tried to breath a deep breath to relieve the pain, but it only sped up the contamination. Within seconds from the start of the process, he had already been contaminated.

I loomed over him as he chokes. As a shadow whom he couldn't focus on due to his current pain, I knocked him out by hitting his temple with the blunt side of my dagger. He stopped moving with that single hit. I exited the house the same way I entered, leaving no trace of me having entered the house. Confident that I could cause the intended terror within a short time, I moved on to the next closest house.

The longhouse was built with oak wood like the previous house. It was a lot bigger but also way more crowded than the cabin from before. There were two entrance which stood at opposite ends of the longhouse and I entered it via the previous method. Within it, there was only beds, wardrobes and chests placed in an orderly manner. Each bed had a chest by its feet and a wardrobe to its right to pair them up. There was no decoration at all, giving the room a simple feeling but none of the slight elegance the cabin had.

The various men who were asleep didn't consist of just human. There were a small mixture of other races that could be seen from their physical differences. It didn't matter to me what race they were, they were just channels for me to expand my influence.

I flooded the room with as much spores as I could produce, increasing the density of spores in the air every second. Although it took longer to reach that point as compared to a single target, it still managed to color each and every men in the room with pain on their faces within minutes. It included myself as it wasn't easy to spend exert so much mana constantly. Furthermore, I felt the pain of every men in the room as an effect from my ability. Needless to say, the pain wasn't something a normal human could survive from but I wasn't one in the first place.

I had hidden myself in a corner of the shadow since I started, making it impossible for them to notice my presence. The men were smart enough to still notice that the situation was unnatural even without knowing that I was there. They realised that the air was the cause for their pain and many tried to open the windows. They failed to overcome the pain to do so.

One achieved what others weren't able to; A person who displayed bulging muscles as he struggled against the pain to move closer to the window. I knew that I needed to stop him or my plans would fail. I couldn’t move due to the pain that I was experiencing and could only stare as his hands reached towards the window. I went beyond my limit momentarily and increased the spores output, giving my best effort to direct even more spores towards him. He managed to opened the window before dropping down on to the floor.

I felt anger and disappointment as he had messed up my plan, only to realise a bit late that I had managed to contaminate everyone in the room before fresh air flowed into the room. I escaped outside with [Shadow Movement] the moment I gathered enough mana. That little action drained what minute amount of energy I had left and it took all my willpower to prevent myself from fainting.

I knew that I had to complete my job here as soon as possible or it would become more challenging rapidly. I could only stagger towards my next destination. It took a lot out of me to contaminate the remaining longhouses but I somehow managed to do so without knocking myself out. The people from the first longhouse also didn't managed to warn the other people about my unnatural existence in time.

I sneaked back into the forest as dawn arrives and took a rest before deciding to join back with Chris and Aston. While resting, I took a peep as a conversation unfolded between two lumberjacks that I had infected the night before.

"Damn! I don't know what attacked us last night, but it actually managed to take down Gracia!"

"Haha, calling out her name made me laugh everytime! That sack of muscle which doesn't have the least bit of grace actually having that name."

"Shut up! You're always being so rude towards her, you should stop. She did save us last night by opening the window after all. Even if she had not done that, she still deserves our respect for how much she had helped us over the short stay she have with us. Unless you have a thing for her and wanted to deny it?"

"W-what!? H-how could that be possible!? I'll never fall in love with someone like her!"

"That was unexpected, it was only meant to be a joke. You actually really like her huh?"

"Shut up!"

While listening to the exchange on how that muscle bag was a she, I could only be shocked. I would never expected that to be the case and wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn't checked her status the next moment. After seeing her status, the mystery was finally solved. She is a Valkyrie, a race of battle maiden. That explained why she could do what the others weren't capable of and why she could remained safe from the men even as the sole female in the camp.

The attack on the camp was a good experiences for me. I discovered the existence of Gracie who could last longer than normal people against my spores. I had also gained levels for myself, multiple trees level ups, and most importantly a new group of infected.

StatusName:Cliff Blakesh(???)Title:Sandman(???)Race:Human(Parasite)Gender:Male(???)Level:12(6)Experience:17%(58%)Stats points:10(25)Class:Shadow(Spores Master)Health:140/140Mana:684/684Health regen:1.4/sMana regen:13.6/sStrength:20Intelligence:18(9)Dexterity:39Wisdom:12(57)Vitality:14Willpower:17Attack:31-31Defence:15

Skills

Class Tree

Assassination[Level 29]

-Backstab[Passive]

-Gouge[Active]

-Sneak[Passive]

Shadow Manipulation[Level 17]

-Blend In[Passive]

Spores Controlling [Level 28]

-Spores Emission[Active]

-Spores Detection[Toggle/Passive]

-Spores Identification[Passive]

-Spores Sense[Toggle/Passive]

Other Skills

Information Processing[Unique Passive][450]Additional Bonus

+20% max mana

+1% of max mana to mana regen

There are additional bonuses that you may purchase with your stats point.

StatusName:Gracie StrunrmTitle:Iron MaidenRace:ValkyrieGender:FemaleLevel:15Experience:13%Stats Point:0Class:Weapon MasterHealth:450/450Mana:80/80Health regen:4.5/sMana regen:0.8/sStrength:35(52)Intelligence:10(8)Dexterity:25(30)Wisdom:10(8)Vitality:30(45)Willpower:20(24)Attack:22-65Defence:30

Skills

Class Tree

Sword Proficiency[Level 27]

-Sword Mastery[Passive]

-Shortsword Mastery[Passive]

-Longsword Mastery[Passive]

-Rapier Mastery[Passive]

Shield Proficiency[Level 34]

-Shield Mastery[Passive]

-Buckler Mastery[Passive]

-Kite Mastery[Passive]

-Heather Mastery[Passive]

-Scutum Mastery[Passive]

Blunt Weapon Proficiency[Level 18]

-Blunt Weapon Mastery[Passive]

-Mace Mastery[Passive]

-Club Mastery[Passive]

Polearm Proficiency[Level 9]

-Polearm Mastery[Passive]

-Spear Mastery[Passive]

Racial Skills

One who Battles[Passive]

Effects

Infected(Indefinite)

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Author's Note: There you have it, a female character! Woohoo for muscle bag! Who says that female characters needs to be some beautiful feminine person(not saying that she isn't, that will depends on how good I can describe her)? Gracie will prove you wrong as she can be manlier than manly men! Yeah, you get the idea. She is someone who shows that the MC isn't fully omnipotent (for now, *evil smirks*). She will probably appear again in the future as she joins the team(harem). *cough* I mean, er, it wouldn't go THAT way, other than probably in side stories where I will twist stuff here and there. So there you have it! I'll just not care about keeping it nearly fully(?) serious mode and start to go quirky. Thanks for reading. ;D