Jean was once again in front of the nebula of skills, but not all was joy. The possibility of being found didn't allow her to enjoy the experience.

“I'm already level 5, right?”

“[Yes! Restrictions have been lifted.]”

“Perfect! I'm delighted with the increase in Wisdom, so I'll continue to invest in it. On the other hand, I don't enjoy feeling clumsy and slow…”

Strength: 25

Dexterity: 6 (+4)

Agility: 4 (+6)

Toughness: 20

Resistance: 10

Wisdom: 10 (+10)

Intelligence: 1

Willpower: 20

Perception: 3 (+7)

[Your Trader has reached Expert Rank. You can now purchase expert potions and equipment. It greatly increases the chance of obtaining higher-ranked essence coins when transmuting. Allows repairing.]

[You won’t be able to upgrade this skill again before possessing 25 points in Wisdom and level 10.]

“No problem!”

[You have upgraded to Advanced Rank the following skills: Reconstructive Healing and Inventory.]

[You can add advanced effects to Reconstructive Healing. The skill now restores small amounts of stamina when healing. In addition, grants 10% mana consumption reduction and 25% healing improvement.]

[Your Inventory will now reduce the weight of the items stored by 20%. Two quick accesses to items of your preference have been enabled.]

“Great! Set the HP and MP potions!”

[With your new Dexterity, Agility and Perception values, you will be able to add their basic effects to attacks and skills.]

After waking up from the deep sleep of leveling up, she was so weak that even moving her fingers was excruciatingly painful. She had already anticipated feeling bad, but this was far worse than expected. If it hadn't been for the fact that she had slept gripping several corpses, she would inevitably have ended up as one of them.

She focused on recovering, and made several corpses disappear at once, causing the rats that had swarmed in to flee in terror. How long had she slept?

“Run while you still can! You'll be next!”

Now recovered, she found herself in front of a new world of sensations. With 10 in Perception, she perceived many things that had previously gone unnoticed.

She could hear the rats scurrying through the gaps in the walls towards their lairs deep in the rock. Capturing them wasn't going to be as easy as she first thought.

The smells had also amplified. Now she could discern new hints in the air, understanding that the foul smell wasn't just from the infected or the rats. The cold, blue water hid something.

“First things first! I want a potion that cures this shit I'm afflicted with!”

“[It's going to be a bit tricky with only 213 white coins…]”

“I know, but I trust you!”

Jean continued with her ritual, hoping to increase her chances of finding something suitable. The whispers made an early appearance, but it wasn't what she expected. Her efforts had paid off in a different way.

[You have learned Disease Resistance — Basic Rank. Passive Unique Skill.

Allows you to neutralize the effects of diseases and other magical afflictions. The base value is 10% of your base Resistance. Additionally, it increases by 1% per player level. Current value, 6.2%.]

The skill was a great find and a relief. She would never be as sick as she was before, but it wouldn't help her get rid of the corruption any time soon. She would have to improve her Resistance if she wanted to take advantage of it. "I don't plan to wait until I have level 90 and 100 Resistance to be completely immune."

“Wow, I can tell I've improved my Wisdom! I was terrible at mental arithmetic.”

“[We haven't found anything that definitively eliminates corruption, only a provisional remedy.]”

Item: »Minor Remedy«

Details: Potion that neutralizes 60% of the effects of magical afflictions for 30 minutes.

Prize: 66 White essence coins.

“Well, it's a start. Is there a better one?”

“[Yes! At Master Rank.]”

Jean focused on some rats scampering in the distance. She charged towards them, spear in hand. However, after killing only a couple of them, she kept advancing through the tunnel. She did feel more agile and dexterous than before, but the corruption debuffs were a fucking nuisance. “Buy me three of those remedies!”

She killed all the infected she encountered, and recovered to palliate the waste of time it was chasing the rats. She didn't transmute all the corpses; she kept three that she dragged to pile up in the center of the tunnel, near the rats' nests.

After beating them to a pulp with the sledgehammer, she stepped away and hid. She didn't have to wait long; the rats came eagerly to the feast.

She consumed the remedy and equipped the greatsword. Several sweeps to ground level, and she easily finished off 28 rats.

Their agonizing shrieks attracted more infected, three to be precise. However, these looked different. They didn’t stagger in the slightest, and even though their outfits were just as deteriorated as the previous ones, their deformities were tiny in comparison.

The most advanced infected wore heavy armor in the same deplorable condition as the soldier she had encountered earlier. He didn't carry a shield, but rather a slightly rusted greatsword. Next to him was a hooded one. He didn't carry daggers, but a short bow. The third walked behind the other two. He wore a full-length tattered black robe and carried a grotesquely shaped black staff. An amalgam of intertwined bone arms clutching a black gem at its top. The threat level of all of them was normal.

"Where do you come from? From the depths? Maybe I'll venture out to meet a friend of mine! Maybe you know him! He doesn't stink like you. He has a broken foot and arm, and red eyes that I can't wait to gouge out!"

The infected readied their weapons. "So you don't know who I'm talking about... All right then, let’s dance!”

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The warrior charged with his greatsword held high, letting out an unpleasant scream. Earlier, she might have been frightened by the size of the weapon, but her mind was no longer the same as it was an hour ago. She was able to easily find the openings in his movements; mistakes she herself had previously made.

Jean didn't move in the slightest, there was no reason to do so. She equipped her shield and waited for the right timing to deflect the attack. A simple bash with the shield on the side of the blade was enough for the attack to pass a few centimeters away and hit the ground.

A sense of supremacy took over. She needed more of that feeling; she had craved it since her first fight.

She imbued her body with two different colors, red and white. They flashed across her body without blending until they descended to her leg. A frontal kick sent the warrior flying several meters until he crashed into the wall.

The greatsword remained embedded in the ground, and the armor almost fell behind as well. The shape of her foot was marked on his ribs.

“Who says a warrior can't benefit from Wisdom?! Quite an overload, huh?”

Whispers warned her of three attacks, but Jean had gotten ahead of them. She had already heard the bow draw in advance.

She turned with the shield imbued in orange and yellow, dodging the arrow aimed at her head and easily blocking the remaining two, both at her legs. Intuiting the trajectories of each projectile was actually fun.

The warrior was out of play, so she focused on the archer. “I shouldn't play with food.”

She charged towards him in response to his date request, however, he didn't let himself be caught so easily. He kept jumping backwards and shooting at the same time. It was as easy for him to elude her as it was for her to block all the arrows.

The mage on the other hand didn't move at all. All he was doing was pointing his staff at Jean. When she finally understood what for, it was too late. A tide of dark hands emerged from a black magic circle beneath her feet.

She looked down, somewhere between annoyed and excited. “A magic skill!”

She had to get it, but... “Shit! I can't move!”

Jean equipped the bone spear. “Were you jealous that I didn't pay any attention to you? My bad! Here's a little present!”

The spear flew swiftly, leaving a red and yellow trail.

The mage raised his free hand and conjured an ethereal magic barrier, drastically slowing the spear's advance. Even so, the spear hit him squarely in the chest.

“More skills! I can't wait to make them mine!”

Struggling to keep his balance, the mage had no choice but to sink to one knee as the black blood gushed out.

The hands weakened greatly, allowing her to turn around to take care of two arrows from behind. The archer had taken the opportunity to approach the warrior and help him consume several potions. He had even brought his greatsword close to the warrior, although it took him a while to pick it up. The potions didn't seem as immediate as hers.

Jean shuddered at the sight. It was the first time she had seen infected helping each other. Did they possess that kind of awareness? Was it because they were not yet completely consumed? Perhaps there was still something inside them that made them human… “This can't be! I'm killing scum, right?!”

»Infected«

Level 18

Name: Taratmark.

Marks: [Killer], [Thief].

Details: You are unaware of the type of corruption that consumes this player. However, the decline in your attributes left you at the same level as him.

Still consumed by doubt. “Why do they help each other then?!”

The time she wasted hesitating, the mage conjured a new spell. Turning his entire body ethereal, he sped away towards his two companions while the archer covered his retreat with a couple more shots. The spear was left behind, falling to the ground as soon as he transformed.

Jean remained behind the shield, unable to make up her mind until new footsteps surprised her. A fourth enemy was approaching from behind her. An enemy whose footsteps she had never forgotten.

“MOTHERFUCKER! YOU AGAIN?!”

To Jean's surprise, Red Eyes was in perfect condition and his clothes and weapons appeared to be of better quality than before. Even his appearance was different; his body wasn't so withered now. Had he reunited with his master?

The bow straining at her back put her even more between a rock and a hard place. She had to choose between blocking the archer's shots or his deadly daggers. The choice was instantaneous.

She ran towards the archer and hurled her bronze spear at him, leaving a fourfold trail. Red, orange, yellow and white. The spear pierced through his abdomen after dragging him 4 meters.

She imbued her shield with yellow, moving it to protect her neck, but the attack was a feint. Neither the whispers, nor the leather armor, nor hardening her body with mana saved her from the attack.

His new dagger was so sharp that it easily slid between her ribs. If it were not for the fact that she endured the pain and recoiled abruptly, aggravating the cut, it would have gone all the way to her heart.

Jean rapidly closed the wound thanks to her upgraded healing skill imbued in white, and consumed 5 HP potions to finish healing just thinking about it. Not having to open the inventory in the middle of combat was crucial.

Red Eyes didn't recoil from the aura this time, he simply smirked. Was he enjoying her pain? It was possible. Although they acted as an extension of their master, each construct had the soul of a player anchored to his being.

To what extent was his soul controlled? He had run away when the infected never did. Did his instincts prevail or was his master giving him orders from afar? Perhaps he had ordered it to strengthen him. That would explain why he had come back healed and stronger.

The whispers warned her again. She barely had time to turn around to block the arrow.

Jean was stunned. She had knocked out the archer a few seconds before. How was it possible that he was back on his feet?

Everything made sense when she watched him consume one potion after another while the mage cast a healing spell. Although visibly injured, they were all back on their feet.

"If the infected had items, why don't they appear when I defeat them? ... Wait! Maybe that's why some of them give me more money and experience..."

She consumed 4 MP potions, recovering a large amount of her lost mana. She backed up to touch the wall and took a deep breath as they surrounded her.

They were working as a team, had potions and healing magic. The situation was getting out of control. She had to nip it in the bud and do whatever it took to stay alone with Red Eyes. Which one did she focus on first?

The mage pointed at Jean's feet. The black hands emerged briefly before disappearing. He was the only one who hadn't healed yet, and that was taking its toll on him. The black substance ran down his legs, forming a blood pool at his feet. He had no option but to focus on healing.

Red Eyes broke formation in the direction of the archer. He grabbed the bronze spear and made it disappear.

“Hey, you bastard! That's mine!”

Maybe she was in no position to complain. She had done the same with the kunai. “Are you upset? Do you want them back?”

He nodded and equipped the spear, much to Jean's displeasure. They both stared at each other for a while before the second round.

She advanced with the shield held high and threw one of the kunai at Red Eyes. He dodged it easily, but that left the archer behind him unprotected. He was crouched down picking up some of the arrows lying on the ground.

She threw the remaining three kunai imbued with orange and yellow. All three landed on him, but only one hit where she wanted it to. After being hit in the head, he collapsed immobile.

Without missing a beat, Jean charged at the warrior protecting the mage. Of course, without taking her eyes off Red-Eyes. In spite of her divided focus, she was able to block the greatsword that was heading towards his head; whispers were always vigilant.

Believing that he was putting her on the ropes, the warrior attacked two more times, which she parried without any problem. The problem was Red Eyes; he had moved out of her range of vision.

A sudden warning alerted her of an attack from behind. She moved until she was practically glued to the warrior, hindering his angle of attack, and moved around him at top speed, imbued with yellow.

Her bronze spear impacted against the warrior's armor, briefly knocking him off balance. Jean needed no more. She switched to her greatsword and imbued it with red, orange and yellow. One slash was enough to sever his head, which fell more than 5 meters away.

After hearing Red Eyes speeding toward her, she turned around. Shield in one hand and sledgehammer in the other. He was performing an old attack, sliding along the ground.

She dropped to one knee and lowered the shield until it touched the ground. That made things very difficult for the puddle surfer.

As he slid, he curled his legs and used the shield as a springboard. That allowed him to roll away before she grabbed the sledgehammer with both hands. He was a little predictable, but not stupid.

Jean tried to chase after him, but the disgusting black hands emerged again. It was only a 3 meter diameter circle this time, a couple of steps and she would be out. That's what she thought, but taking a single step was a nightmare. This time the mage didn't intend to let her escape; the hands rapidly crawled up to her waist.

She quickly swung the sledgehammer over her head in a full circle and hurled it. The movement and the orange effect provided the necessary momentum to reach him in the torso before he could react. The red effect pushed him against the wall, turning his upper body into mush.

The hands were beginning to fade, but she was still vulnerable. She equipped the shield to face Red Eyes. She expected an attack from either the back or the side, but nothing happened.

He didn't move in the slightest. He stood watching her from a distance, slowly drawing his new short sword and dagger. Both of high quality. He even gestured for her to consume some potions.

“This bastard wants a duel?! Don't underestimate me...!”

»Construct (Minion)«

Level 21

Name: ???

Marks: [Killer], [Weaver]

Details: Warning! This opponent's attributes make him a challenging opponent for you.

Jean could no longer look down on him. If his attributes were higher than before, the spacious tunnel gave him too much of an advantage.

“[We remind you that Challenging means...]”

“I know! ... This was just the warm-up.”