“Make sure you hold on tightly, okay?” said Alissa with notable concern in her voice.

“I know the drill,” replied Ethan from behind her, his left hand firmly holding onto her own, while their right hands carried their respective weapons. “Ready when you are, Alissa.”

“All right, here goes,” she warned him one last time before she activated her skill. “[Walk in the Shadows]”

From an outside perspective, it looked almost as if the shadow beneath Alissa and Ethan’s feet came to life and wrapped around them, before everything vanished without a trace. From Alissa’s perspective, on the other hand, it was almost as if someone applied a monochrome filter to her sight, as the world turned into shades of gray from their previous vibrant colors.

On the other hand, Ethan just felt as if everything around him had suddenly turned pitch-black, and the only thing keeping him comforted was Alissa’s gloved hand grasping his own.

“Follow me,” he heard her say. Within the confines of her shadowy skill, Alissa’s voice seemed to have taken on an odd timbre, an effect that she said also applied to him, or any voice she heard from the outside, for that matter. He couldn’t really tell, as once he fell inside the confines of the skill’s effects, the only thing he could hear was her voice.

The experience would have been positively scary and not a little traumatizing if she had not constantly kept up some chatter just to help assure him that there was someone with him, honestly. In the same way, it was only with her hand tugging him around did he have any idea on which direction he should head towards.

Alissa’s shadow skill wasn’t for the faint of heart, to say the least.

At the moment, their little group – all twelve of them, plus another eleven new youngsters from the Temple Guards and Royal Guards who were there on the off chance that maybe there might still be some possibility of them becoming a [Hero’s Companion] or [Hero’s Associate], and their usual chaperones – were inside another dungeon, a more dangerous ones with enemies that reach past the mid 40s to early 50s in level, as another part of the Kingdom’s effort to powerlevel the heroes.

Where the previous dungeon was a very classical massive cavern complex, the dungeon they were in was more like a specific area of a dense forest. The enemies they had to deal with were also less homogenous in nature, and were instead composed of all sorts of beasts that composed the area’s ecosystem instead. Unlike their previous run, however, they had a notably easier time, despite the increase in enemy levels.

For one, the new classes that the[Hero’s Companions] and [Hero’s Associates] received clearly increased the power they could bring to bear notably, further helped by their relatively even level with the dungeon allowing them to gain good experience and leveling up as well, resulting in more skills and stats for their perusal.

Alissa, Ethan, and Joshua also made full use of their new classes and leveled even faster due to the disparity, gaining a great amount of benefits in their run through the dungeon so far. Both Alissa and Ethan already gained two new skills each, while Joshua had probably gained an extra one, though he still remained taciturn and wasn’t sharing that knowledge. They only guessed since he was pulling off some new tricks with his magic, which he could use somewhat more freely now that he had more mana to fuel it with.

He still dropped out of most fights after a quick – if impressive – barrage due to running out of mana, though.

Unlike the previous dungeon, which had a mid-boss and another boss at the end, which stayed in their respective areas, there were three boss-class monsters in the current dungeon they were in, and each of them roamed freely within areas they considered their territory. Their group had butchered their way through one such creature’s territory in search of it only to find not even a feather from their quarry and instead finding a different boss by accident instead.

That boss – which likely wandered close to its rival’s territory by happenstance – was also the reason why Ethan and Alissa were skulking around within her shadowy skill at the moment.

The two of them would make the first strike on the boss – Alissa’s new skills happened to synergize especially well with the concept of making a first, fatal strike to start a battle – before the rest piled on. The two of them had also already used their group buff skills before they entered into the shadows, which probably wasted a few minutes of the duration but at the same time also allowed Alissa’s [One Small Step] to ramp up to its maximum value as well.

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Either way, nobody thought that the chances of the fighting lasting long enough to exhaust the current duration of their buffs was a likely chance.

While Ethan fumbled around behind her and followed her guidance – the bit where other people who entered her shadowy realm could not perceive anything other than her had been rather unexpected the first time they discovered it, and back then it had been Sir Inolet that volunteered to test it out when she proclaimed herself able to bring someone with her – Alissa set her eyes on the creature that stomped around a small clearing ahead of them.

It was an odd beast that stood not too far ahead of them – though the beast seemed unaware of their presence, but then again even Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond admitted that while she was within her skill, she was difficult for them to notice unless they were specifically looking for her – and stomped around like it owned the place.

The beast was not that large, merely around three meters or so tall from the top of its head down to its hooves, though that was not counting the meter-long horn that sprouted out from the center of its forehead. It only had two legs, which looked rather thick and ungainly, like those of an ungulate’s, but longer, with a long, rather stout, barrel-shaped torso supported by those legs.

Its rather ovine-looking head rested atop a rather short but thick neck, while the other end of its torso terminated in a tail that was at least another two meters long, tapering along its length before ending in an almost delicate-looking three-fingered claw. The creature was covered all over by shaggy fur that was a dirty gray in color, and would have looked rather comical if not for its obvious predatory nature.

The creature, which [Analysis] pegged as a [One-Horned Gumaredgeb Abomination Lvl53], had three eyes, two on the sides of its head, and a third, central eye just underneath its one horn. Its snout was long but also looked almost as if it was split in half, left almost perpetually half-opened, with its long, sinuous tongue slithering around almost like a snake, saliva dripping off its rows upon rows of jagged fangs.

While Alissa had gained quite a few levels from the current dungeon run, she was not in a hurry to test her mettle against the beast, which still had over twenty levels on top of her. The plan was for her to deliver a vicious first strike then to buy time together with Ethan, while the rest of their party would rush to their aid once they did so.

Tangling with the beast for a relatively brief period of time should be within their capabilities, even with the massive level disparity, and besides, worst case, the two of them would just need to [Respawn] anyway.

[Respawn] was honestly the main reason that Ethan was chosen to join her for the task. Given his relatively defensive class, there were many others in the party capable of delivering a more lethal blow, but none of them matched him when it comes to durability, and thus the ability to keep the beast occupied for the time that the rest of their party needed to join in the fight.

That, and the fact that anyone else from their party other than Joshua would not be returning if they got killed.

As for Joshua, he had been out of the question as Alissa’s striking meant her getting within melee range of the beast. If he followed along, he too would be exposed in a position far too close to the beast, which would just likely get him killed rather than do any good for their plannings.

“We’re nearby, ready up,” warned Alissa as they closed within five meters of the beast. Her [Walk in the Shadows] had gained a few levels from the training she had done with it, so the skill now possessed both the duration and the range she needed to close the distance to a target from outside its perception, while bringing someone along with her.

It still remained a rather slow slog when she had to bring someone else with her, though, mostly on account of them being unable to see, hear, or notice anything other than her while within her skill’s confines. Ethan had practiced walking blind while following her guidance since he was the one she brought along most often, but it was still a painstakingly slow walk even so.

“Got it,” replied Ethan from behind her, as he gave her left hand a squeeze for reassurance that he was prepared. “Directions and distance?”

“It will be directly to your front, less than two yards once I bring us out,” replied Alissa as she led Ethan to cover the last of the distance. Her own spear was held firmly in her right hand, the many buffs that she and Ethan used before entering the shadows reinforcing her stats, and her own buff had reached its maximum value by now. “I’ll make the first strike as usual, then you get its attention.”

“Will do,” replied Ethan as he gave her a nod. While Ethan couldn’t see anything, Alissa could see everything that was inside her shadowy realm of sorts even without looking at it. It was an odd feeling, and the sensory feedback gave her a headache at first until she eventually got used to it. “Just gimme the countdown.”

Alissa inwardly wondered if she could use that to fight an enemy by dragging them into her shadowy confines, though so far the process still needed a cooperative target for it to work. Probably when she leveled her skill up some more, she would get that option. Or maybe upon its evolution. Either way it would definitely be a useful tool to have as an option if it came to pass.

“We’re in position,” said Alissa quietly out of habit, though the shadowy dimension they were in isolated them from the outside world. “The beast’s right side is to our front, around six feet away. [Pierce the Heavens], [Grasp the Soul], [The Cold, Hard Truth], [Lies May Please, But it Doesn’t Heal]” said Alissa as she activated all four of her active skills to empower her strike.

Her newer skills, [The Cold, Hard Truth] and [Lies May Please, But it Doesn’t Heal], almost comes as a pair, with the first one making the injuries from her strike bleed far more profusely – it was still only good for one hit due to the low level – while the second greatly reduced the rate at which a foe she struck could heal for period that grew longer as she leveled it. At the moment it only lasted three hours, but that was plenty for a fight.

“[Heavy Blow]” intoned Ethan as he activated his own new offensive skill, which multiplied the weight behind his attack for one blow. The rest of his skills were defensive, and he needed to see the target to properly use them anyway, so they would have to wait until Alissa took them out from within her shadowy realm.

“On three. One… Two… Three!” yelled Alissa as she canceled her skill and send both herself and Ethan out back to the real world, a short distance away from the flank of a very surprised monster.