They reached the ledge in half an hour. Esopp’s guess turned out to be the correct one and nothing had attacked them on their way there. It meant they had another thirty minutes to rest.

And they needed it.

Four of them: Keynes, Esopp, Serrata and Taker hadn’t taken the stamina potion and upon reaching the ledge, they felt like collapsing with the exception of Esopp who had a passive [Endurance] skill. Those who had taken the potion had over an hour of abundant stamina recovery before, the negative effect of the potion would kick in and they’d lose all their stamina in a few seconds. This had to be the worst potion Wagner had offered to others.

Out of their surviving group, only twelve people continued the journey and fourteen had decided to leave the dominion. Those fourteen were guaranteed no repercussions for their withdrawal.

From Untainted Paradise, apart from Keynes and Esopp, the five elites and one healer stayed. From Artefact Exchange it was two elites, one healer and Serrata.

Keynes and Esopp had encouraged everyone to go as they couldn’t guarantee their survival. Keynes was internally glad that not everyone left though. While he had to be stronger, he’d come to accept that his allies and employees would need strength as well. It saddened him to lose Umber, one of his elites, but the world and the System was designed to favour the strongest and there was nothing he could do about it. Rebelling against reality was the forte of Kazmon’s and Li Bell’s science fiction stories but Keynes didn’t believe the System was capable of granting divine powers that could bring the dead back to life or change the way the System worked.

As the group settled down inside a natural alcove, Keynes immediately started to meditate. Serrata and Taker just lay down to recover their stamina their own way. The rest stood guard until the bonus event began.

Debuff acquired!

The length of the debuff decreased by 25% (Purifying Body effect).

The strength of the debuff decreased by 10% (Purifying Body effect).

Depth of Night (temporary, strong, hidden) debuff

You are less cautious of dangers. Your movements are slowed by 10%.

Keynes jumped to his feet when he heard people collapse.

“The stamina potion’s effect ended,” Esopp said as he rose from where he sat against the wall. Serrata and Taker got to their feet as well. The elite soldier checked his armour, which looked too modern to be a rift drop or even crafted from any exotic materials but Keynes wasn’t going to waste his precious stamina on checking him with his aura.

With the arrival of the debuff, came a sensation of calmness. There was nothing else; no roars, no growls.

Just a tranquil night.

It encouraged them to put aside their worries and take a good night's sleep. If not for the Purifying Body, Keynes would have joined Taker and Serrata as the two were affected the most and returned to where they’d lain.

“I don’t like this,” Esopp said. Keynes realised that the other man wasn’t aware of the Depth of Night debuff. Somehow, only Keynes saw it for what the unnatural lull really was. “It’s too quiet.”

“It’s a debuff. It makes you feel safe.”

Esopp gave him a surprised look then kicked Serrata, in turn, surprising Keynes.

“Get up. It’s not safe. It’s a debuff.”

Luckily, Serrata slowly rose to her feet. Judging by her movements, she wasn’t alarmed by Esopp’s words but she understood what they signified.

The Rulers of the Night arrived shortly after that. They were dark-skinned, rhino-sized reptiles but other than that the monsters came in many different variations, often otherworldly but one thing they had in common - they were silent.

A large lizard and even larger snake came from two sides at the same time.

Using [Night Sight], Keynes didn’t have any issues dispatching the lizard. Esopp and Serrata didn’t fare much worse. As the next wave of monsters came, they realised how weak the creatures of the night were. It looked like they traded off their strength for the powerful debuff that made their prey unaware of the peril.

One hour into the night, Taker got up and reinforced Keynes’s side. Halfway through the night, the rest of the group recovered enough to join the battle. An idea to swap places with those who had been fighting for hours floated but it quickly became clear that others were still under the effect of the Depth of Night debuff and couldn’t be trusted to be left alone.

As the sky started to lit up, the debuff vanished. Suddenly, everyone’s eyes widened in alert as they realised what they’d gone through.

Congratulations!

You have survived the Bonus Event: Rulers of the Night

*

Rewards:

300 dominion points

Random item with dominion affinity

Night Essence

“Are you seeing this?” someone asked.

“I'm bummed that there was no boss,” Serrata complained. Esopp’s brows climbed as he stared with disbelief at the CEO of Artefact Exchange. It wasn’t hard to see where she wasn’t coming from. The rewards seemed generous while the difficulty of the bonus event wasn’t that high. At least to Keynes and Esopp. The others would have died in their peaceful sleep.

Everyone went over their own items. Keynes received a leather helm with 3 points to Mind and an intimidation skill that worked only on dominion monsters. Others received items of similar calibre and to Keynes mild surprise, they looked excited. Even with his memory it was easy to overlook the simple fact of how inaccessible items were to others. Only Serrata and Esopp looked unimpressed.

What’s the deal with the night essence? Keynes asked.

If absorbed it should add 1% toward progress no matter what Level you are. However, your penalties still apply, master.

That isn’t all, is it?

No. Of course not. It is night essence after all and as its name suggests it has night affinity. It has other uses. I can speak only about one of them at this point and it is upgrading skills. As you should be aware by now, you can upgrade skills by cycling essence through them and rebuilding their structure. Night affinity reinforces the night component of night-associated spells.

Would that include [Night Sight]?

Yes.

Impatience took over Keynes and he almost absorbed the essence but Alice stopped him, pointing out that he didn’t know how to cycle essence through skill cores. It was a solid argument; one Keynes couldn’t disagree with.

“I will buy your night essence,” Keynes said to others.

A stunned silence answered him. One of Serrata’s eyebrow rose while Esopp’s gave Keynes a warning look. Yes, knowledge was power. But Keynes understood the concept now. Things he had given away in the past were born out of willingness to help others to grow stronger. However, when the same knowledge could be used against Keynes, the whole idea of sharing, kind of, fell apart.

“Do you know what it's for?” Serrata asked, fishing for information.

The intensity of Esopp’s stare increased, conveying a strong message to Keynes to shut up.

“Maybe.”

Others in the group got interested and were now focused on Keynes.

“Interesting,” Serrata mused. “How much would you pay me for the essence?”

“A Level 4 rift item.”

That caught everyone off-guard. Esopp sighed, realising that his warnings were in vain, which was not true. Keynes wasn’t going to share anything that could jeopardise them or their company.

“A Level 4 rift item?”

He heard the same question repeated from other Artefact Exchange representatives. But their boss was far sharper than any of them and she easily picked up on the fact that the Untainted Paradise’s elites were less surprised.

“So you weren’t joking around about Level 4 rifts,” she added when neither Keynes nor Esopp said anything.

“No. Wagner plans to start selling Level 4 materials once we’re done with the preliminary tests,” Esopp said.

She looked like she wanted to continue the conversation with Esopp but her attention swayed back to Keynes, her blue eyes stabbing him with burning curiosity.

“I will trade you my essence for the information. What’s the use of this essence?,” Serrata said. It was an unexpected offer. Keynes had a vague idea how much a Level 4 rift item would be worth. A real fortune at this stage. He didn’t know if Level 4 items dropped from the dominions or as the reward for placing in the top in the ranking but regardless, it still would make such items almost non-existent in the market. The woman’s offer intrigued him because it was hard to fathom that someone was willing to trade away a fortune for a piece of knowledge.

As Keynes considered it, he pointedly wasn’t looking at Esopp. Eventually, Keynes decided to stick to his current stance.

“I don’t trade information.”

“In this case, I’d keep the essence.”

He nodded to this albeit disappointed but as the two leaders fell silent others in their group sensed their chance.

“Boss, I will take up on your offer,” Taker said, then other four elites and the healer joined him.

People from Artefact Exchange looked sick as they were torn between their loyalty to the company and desire to own a Level 4 item. Serrata turned to her people.

“You’re free to take up on the offer as well,” she told them. “Actually, I urge you to do so.”

Their faces lit up but before anyone could say anything she added, “However, I’d double the price and offer you two such items if you sell the essence to me.”

Esopp snorted then placed a hand on Keynes’s shoulder.

“You’ve been played.”

Keynes frowned. That wasn’t true. He could still bargain. With the Level 4 rift cluster, he could double Serrata’s offer. There was no way she could afford four items per person. Keynes almost said it aloud when Esopp’s eyes caught his attention and Esopp’s words replayed in his mind. Of course, Esopp knew that Keynes could outdo anything the woman was going to offer and yet he made it sound like Keynes already lost the bidding war.

As everyone scattered to mind their own duties, Keynes sat down, leaning against a rock. He was furiously trying to figure out what Esopp had seen that Keynes had missed. He considered asking Esopp but he was currently busy going over the items their people had received for surviving the nightly event.

Once they finished, it was time to plan the next step and Keynes wasn’t any closer to figuring out what his fellow leader meant. If I can’t guess it by the end of the day, I’m going to fly him up and ask!

Esopp was happy to continue the journey. He had plenty of stamina thanks to his passive [Endurance] skill. But he was the only one possessing such a boon unless Serrata was withholding information from them, which was a very real possibility now. On the side note, Keynes made a mental note to ensure that he and every high ranking person in their company absorbed the [Endurance] skill as well. However, he needed to find a way to turn it off at will or he’d never be able to max out some of his attributes again.

After a short debate, they decided to take a longer break to recover. The ledge barely saw any monsters since night ended and was easily defensible in case of an attack.

At noon, the squad was ready to move forward, their next destination was 10 kilometres in the direction of the centre of the dome. They were going to find a small plateau there, hard to access but easy to defend, which was the most important criteria. Beyond that, their camps would be chosen at random as the mountain range veered to the north running away from the centre of the dominion. Esopp’s reasoning behind sticking to the higher altitude was the lower number of monsters.

They followed the ledge until they almost reached the ridge. Esopp’s assumptions were correct as they saw fewer monsters, mostly flying ones that didn’t seem to be interested in them. Keynes used [Flight] to scout around and kill stranglers. He badly needed essence. He hoped he’d be able to level up before the fight with the sub-boss.

As he landed several kilometres from their next camp. He checked on the grassy field that had pricked his spiritual sense while he was flying.

Just be careful, Alice said. My spiritual sight is severely suppressed here. I did not sense the rulers of the night, for that matter.

Keynes understood. Alice had a serious limitation as a scout. She saw the world through spiritual lenses. If something was capable of hiding their spiritual energy like Keynes’s [Spiritual Ghost], she would not see it.

The grass reached to Keynes’s waist and swayed gently tugged by the breeze. The air was lighter here than it’d been at the lower altitude of the dominion. It still carried a note of the dominion’s influence but to a lesser degree.

As he stood and enjoyed the slowly creeping evening, Keynes almost ‘forgot’ where he was. It felt peaceful.

That spooked him.

Is it possible for the dominion to hide a debuff from me? Keynes asked, growing wary of the tranquillity around him. There were no monsters around here. Why?

I do not believe this dominion has a high enough tier, but in general, yes, more than likely.

This didn't make him feel any better.

He turned around and realised that the grass seemed a little denser and higher than a moment ago. In fact, yes, it was…

As he tried to use [Flight] he felt a restriction being placed on his skill then the field exploded like a boiling cauldron and the grass swallowed him.

In a blink of an eye, Keynes was inside a whirlwind of green. And then pain arrived as the grasses’ edges turned dangerously sharp and began to cut Keynes to pieces. He tried to unleash his [Chaos Aura] to destroy the grasses but he found himself unable to access the skill

What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On… He thought, his mind slowly filling with agony. Alice! Where … are … you?

She wasn’t there. Their bond felt muted, distant. And then the distance started to grow. Was he dying? Not a chance! It would be a mockery of death. Killed by animated grasses. Not in a million years. Keynes focused his willpower and pushed against his surroundings with his spiritual aura…

Wait.

Wait.

Pushing his thoughts through overwhelming pain, he arrived at a realisation. This feeling. It felt familiar to Keynes. It felt like when Keynes had used the mind mushrooms! Keynes forced his mind to deny everything he was experiencing even if it felt very real. He didn’t know how long it took him to get free but he eventually did, finding himself back on the field of grass that gently swayed in the breeze. Not a scratch on his body.

It was just an illusion.

Master! You are back. For a moment I feared I lost you.

Yeah. That was strange. He shook off the rest of the fleeting, odd feeling.

But what about the energy he’d felt earlier?