"We only have one goal, Meera," Veridiana stated. "To get you as many levels in as little time as possible. So, for that purpose, we'll focus on your Affinity-based skills. Start with your mirror skills first."

"Understood," Meera replied.

She did as the sorceress asked and began shooting a stream of shards at her using the Mirror Shard Fury skill, which Veridiana quickly dissipated. They continued this dance, with Meera switching up her skills and slowly moving on from her Mirror skills to her Shadow Affinity skills.

The thing about this place was that since there were no windows, it was hard to tell what time of day it was. It could have been night or day, or several days could have passed. If not for the small floating crystals that dimmed as night came on and brightened, signaling daybreak and mimicking the sun's light, they would never know what time it was.

After about half a day of throwing skills at the sorceress, she called for a stop.

"Let's stop and rest for a bit, Meera," Veridiana said.

"What for?" Meera was having too much fun to stop. It was addicting to hear the notification bells ringing in her head.

"To eat, and you're Mana needs time to recover," Veridiana said.

At that point, Meera checked, and she was right. Her Mana was dangerously low—no wonder she was feeling a mild headache.

"Don't you have Mana potions?" Meera asked.

Veridiana paused. "I do, but relying on Mana potions will make you forget the time it takes for your Mana to recover. You need to know that in order to gauge how to pace yourself in a fight."

"It's not forever," Meera countered. "And I need to level up as quickly as possible, you said so yourself. Come on, I don't want to waste time. We don't know when your prophecy might come true and in what form."

Veridiana had a faraway look in her eyes as if she were pondering something. Finally, she said, "Okay, we'll use Mana potions."

After a quick meal and a hearty swig of a Mana potion, Meera was ready to go again, but this time, she didn't want to go one skill at a time.

"Can I use more than one skill at a time?" She asked. "You know, to conserve time. Now that I can use Mana potions, I figure we can capitalize on them."

Veridiana sighed. "The impatience of youth…Sure, Meera."

"I have one request, though. Can you please make a boulder big enough that it would be tough for a Druvis to hold up?" Meera asked.

This request made the sorceress squint her eyes. "Okay, but wouldn't that make it difficult for you to move?"

"I know what I'm doing. Also, one more request—please try to avoid hitting the boulder, or you will have to remake them again and again."

Veridiana looked vary, but she followed through with Meera's requests. A round boulder about as tall as Meera rolled out of the ground. She nodded her thanks to the sorceress, activated Druvis Power, and hefted the boulder on her shoulders.

This was perhaps one of the only times Meera had to exert herself while Druvis Power was activated. She swayed on her knees, which threatened to buckle under the massive weight. She drew a deep breath and activated Smoke Eclipse, filling the area with dark smoke. Even standing this close, the sorceress didn't cough.

What is it with her?

Using her armor's ability, Meera littered the ground with even more tiny mirrors. She activated Mirror Phantom and used half a dozen of the tiny mirrors as a core to make life-like duplicates of herself. She flew out a few of her Chakrams and used Shadow Coating to cover them with shadows.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

She aimed to have all or as many skills as she could active simultaneously. So, she activated Spectral Dominion, formed two shadow warriors, and sent them at the Sovereign. She had already cast a Corrupting Hex at Veridiana, which would poison her whenever she used magic. She also marked her with a Death Mark, increasing the damage Veridiana took if she could damage her in any way.

Meera also activated Bastian's strength to stockpile the damage she received so she could return it in kind. The only skill she could not use was Heaven's Wrath due to a lack of sky and clouds.

She was disappointed, to say the least. For Heaven's Wrath was one of her strongest skills. It was one of the skills that had brought down Tearsfell Prison and helped her kill Erenyx. She wished she could use it and gain a few levels.

There was something else she wanted to try and see if it would work. She tightened her grip on the boulder and used Mirror Step to teleport behind the sorceress. As she expected, the boulder came along with her, which meant that anything she held was also fair game.

"Here I come," Meera said, activating Shroud of Shadows and turning invisible.

"I'm waiting…"

She unleashed her shadow warriors and used Nightstalker Bindings. Three dark, ethereal chains with wisps of shadows dancing off them shot out of Meera's chest to bind the sorceress. But the sorceress clapped so hard that a shockwave reverberated outwards. Most of the smoke dissipated, her shadow warriors were pushed back, along with Meera herself, and her chains nearly broke to pieces.

Despite the pushback, Meera was happy because the sorceress had just used magic, which meant Corrupting Hex had poisoned Veridiana, meaning Meera had just stolen a skill from her.

"Got your skill finally," Meera smirked.

"Is that so?" Veridiana replied, smirking.

"You just used magic, which means my Corrupting Hex damaged you, so I just stole one of your skills."

The sorceress snorted. "Unless Corrupting Hex's effect has changed, you haven't stolen anything, as I didn't use magic."

"What?"

"That's right. That wasn't magic. That was me clapping."

Meera couldn't hide the bewildered look on her face. "You're joking."

"I'm not. My Power stat is so high that it may seem like magic. I thought two days of us sparring would have made that clear." Veridiana stepped towards Meera, the real her and not one of her Phantoms. "In fact, I haven't used a single magical skill since the first time you put the Hex on me."

"This is just not fair," Meera cried. Veridiana opened her mouth to no doubt give some profound lesson, but Meera cut in. "Yes, I know. Life's not fair or that my enemies will not fight fair."

"Right, you are. Now let's get back to it, and no mercy this time."

----------------------------------------

Blood leaked out of one of her nostrils to make a thunderous splash on the stone floor. The splash was not loud in itself, but thanks to the Gem of Echoes, its volume was turned up to max. She stared at it and realized there were some skills she hadn't told Veridiana about, like her Gem of Echoes, nor had she told her about her Soul Bond with Onyx and one other skill.

Seeing her scarlet blood on the dark stone floor made her remember the skill she hadn't mentioned earlier, as she had never intended to use that skill. She had been warned severely against it, but she was with perhaps the greatest magic skill user in all the worlds, so why not get some insight?

"Um, there is one thing I didn't tell you about because I'd been warned not to use it ever again," Meera said.

The sorceress frowned. "Go on."

"It's called Blood Magic. It lets me draw on my life force to—"

Veridiana rushed forward at almost blinding speed and gripped Meera by the shoulders. "Never use that skill! And I mean never, ever. How did you even acquire such an accursed skill?"

"Oh, it's a long story, but basically, this researcher somehow created these crystals, which, when crushed, would grant you a skill. One of those crystals gave me that skill."

Veridiana's eyes darted across the room. She seemed lost in thought. Meera waited quietly, and after a few minutes, the sorceress finally looked at her.

"I don't know how such a feat is possible," Veridiana said. "How could one trap skills in crystals…"

Meera wondered if she should mention that the man responsible was working with Kalrina. But she had a feeling that she might still need the witch to escape, and Meera didn't want her to endure any more torture, especially after what Kalrina had gone through at the hands of Aksha.

"Regardless, Meera, there are some skills that are cursed, and cursed are those who use them," Veridiana said. "This is one such skill. Never use it, or the gods will not take any mercy on you. No matter the circumstances. No matter the role fate has decided for you in the coming days. Do not use that skill. Do you understand me?"

"Okay, I understand," Meera replied. "This is me dusting my hands off it. Never again will I even think about using this skill, even if it will make me stronger."

"It may give you an incredible power for the moment, but the repercussions of such an evil skill will bring you nothing but torment, whether in this life or the next."

"Like I said, I got it. Now, can we continue? This boulder is getting heavy, and I badly want to steal one of your skills. Even If I can't use Blood Magic, I'm sure you have a plethora of powerful non-cursed skills."

Veridiana chuckled. "That I do, but I'm going to make you work for it."