After the trouble we ran into the night before, I had learned a valuable lesson. No Shattered could be underestimated, unless I had Observe’d them and even then, it wasn’t a certain thing. It could very well be that there would eventually be Shattered completely specialised in speed, capable of striking me before I had a chance to react or even those able to obscure their level from me. This was no game and there would be no respawn. I needed to carve that mantra into my soul, so I would never be careless.

In the spirit of vigilance, I decided to first test my new weapon. The Frozen Shuttle, wielded by my Ice Magic without Overflow, worked quite well. While there was still a bit of adjustment, the first Shattered I saw was cut down with two controlled strikes. It had only been level three but I had a feeling that there had been quite a bit of overkill. For now, I wasn’t able to destroy them with one strike, unless I took a risk.

Out of curiosity, I tried that with my next attack, using Overflow to increase the amount of Ice Magic I could channel into the strike, sending the shuttle on a simple, straight trajectory, all my power focused on speeding it up. For a moment, I was enthused by the sheer beauty of it, the shuttle trailed a thin trace of glittering frost behind it, Ice Magic that couldn’t be fully converted discharging into the air. Somehow, the crimson flower that bloomed at the end of that journey only added a somewhat macabre counterpoint without truly harming the beauty of the attack. There was no follow-up strike needed, the shuttle had struck centre mass and pierced through its body, dropping it instantly, as crimson blood splattered out its back.

Curiously, I was somewhat confident that I hadn’t destroyed anything I considered a vital organ in shattered, sure, its heart and lungs were pulp, to say nothing about the destroyed blood vessels but given how resistant Shattered had been to stabbing before, I wouldn’t have assumed that such an attack was enough. And yet, I had received EXP.

The next few Shattered were simply cut down like the first, quick, controlled strikes with the Frozen Shuttle. It was good enough to give me yet another level in my Ice Magic, bringing it to eight, while the repeated use of Darkness Rune Mastery to conceal myself was enough to bring it to seven. It was a highly efficient way to hunt but if I wanted to expand my skills, I wouldn’t be able to use it. Too simple, too efficient, not enough innovation, Ice Magic and Darkness Rune Mastery would continue to grow but at a snail’s pace.

But having a lethal weapon in reserve allowed me some leeway to experiment with the first strike. If the initial attack failed or wasn’t enough to kill, I would always be able to follow up with the shuttle, especially if I used Overflow to boost my ability to channel magic.

Thus, after those initial test subjects, I changed tactics and began to use Rune Magic for my first attack again. My first test was to change the runes in the Rune Pentagon I used, adding the runes for Chill and Blood into the spell, before launching the Hailstone. The result was interesting, the Shattered seemed to slow down quite a bit, making the follow-up attack with my Shuttle trivial. I would have had enough time to cast another Rune Formation but didn’t want to take the risk that the Shattered was faking it. To my surprise, that simple experiment was enough to give me another point in Blood Rune Mastery, bringing it to four, but given just how low the skill was, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

My next experiment was to slowly channel magic into a simple runic formation of one Ice and two Hail runes, concentrating to make the forming Hailstone into a sharp, icicle-like projectile. I needed to create a burst of power at the end, increasing the cost of the spell by almost fifty per cent and the time needed to cast was almost doubled, but in turn, the Icicle-like Hailstone struck the Shattered in the chest, sinking deeply into it and giving me some EXP, along with a crucial point of Ice-Rune Mastery, bringing it to ten.

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A wide smile split my grin at that realisation and a part of me wanted to immediately delve into the Astral River and nail down that Mist-Rune. It had been such a crucial element of my magic on Mundus, giving me access to a wide-ranging, easily spreading physical medium that I could imbue with all sorts of effects. It even had the bonus that it was naturally confusing and hindered sight, making some applications even easier.

But no, I couldn’t go there just yet. Not while it was my prime hunting time and I had more Shattered to destroy, more EXP to gain. I wanted to push Darkness Rune Mastery to ten as well, and that would need some more effort, especially as I had primarily used it to conceal myself.

Though that didn’t mean I had to keep doing that, or only keep doing that, there were more ways to apply my magic than shoot hailstones at enemies, I just needed to be creative.

Given how unsuitable the simple Darkness Rune was as a carrier for ranged attacks, I decided to emulate my first experiment as I sought out another Shattered. This one hadn’t noticed me yet, so I used another rune pentagon, Ice and Hail to provide the Projectile, while two Devour and one Blood Rune would cause the actual damage.

The Hailstone shot across the distance, striking the Shattered in the chest and there was a faint discharge as the power contained within the attack was transmitted to the target. There doubtlessly was some loss of power, or the attack might have outright killed the Shattered but as it was, the Shattered merely sunk to the ground, struggling to rise again.

Grumbling to myself, I focused on my Ice Magic, the Shuttle next to me striking out and piercing into the Shattered’s chest, sending it back to the ground while I gained some EXP.

The test had worked, but it clearly wasn’t there yet. Maybe I should try to create an ambush, infuse a patch of Darkness with a Devour-Blood rune combination before luring a Shattered into it, that might increase my skills faster.

Or there might be an even easier way. More efficient way? Either was fine with me, but it needed a bit of setup and there was some risk involved.

Sneaking towards the next Shattered, I quietly whispered to Silva next to me, asking her to cover me as I acted. She had done so the whole time, but this might be a little more dangerous.

Conjuring a simple Hailstone, like I had done dozens, maybe even hundreds of times since the change, I shot it at the Shattered across the street, only for once, I wasn’t targeting the chest or the head, I was targeting the legs, the knees to be precise.

“I used to be a Traveller like you, but then I took a hailstone to the knee…” I joked under my breath, amusement flowing through my body as the Shattered’s knee was destroyed by my attack, the leg now mostly useless. With no leg to stand on, the Shattered crashed to the ground, while I kept moving the Hailstone, targeting the other knee, destroying that, too, before going for both shoulders. I didn’t manage to destroy them as thoroughly as the knees, but from the looks of it, the Shattered was quite immobilised.

Taking advantage of my opponent’s weakness, I moved up to it, my physical blade in hand. It would deal little damage but, amusingly, that was just what I wanted, I didn’t want to end the Shattered with the blade, I had other plans.

Carving a rune triangle into a squirming target that tried its very best to hurt you was quite a challenge. It was, most likely, the sloppiest and crudest rune carving I had ever done, but it should be enough to channel magic into the formation and that was all I needed.

Runes flared to light, as I used my magic and moments later, the Shattered stilled, the last remaining vitality in its body devoured.

In turn, I was rewarded with some EXP and, more importantly, the message that my Darkness Rune Mastery had gained another point, bringing it to eight. Two more to go, and I was somewhat confident that the direct application would give me another, maybe two points if I brought down a few more Shattered this way. Good enough, if things worked out.

With a plan in mind and a grin on my face, I continued on my way, looking for the stores that would carry what I needed or some Shattered that would allow me to gain more power. Either was fine in my eyes, I just needed to keep going.

Always forward, until I had the power to do as I pleased.