Meera used Vitalize to heal the bloody scratch on her arm. It didn't take long for her arm to be back to normal. Then she looked around quickly, making sure that she was alone and any other wraiths weren't coming after her. She was alone. There was no chill wind, no haunting laughter. She was alone for now, so she pulled up her notifications.
*ding!*
[You have killed 3 Cursed Wraiths – Level 68]
[You have killed 2 Cursed Wraiths – Level 66]
[You have killed a Cursed Wraith – Level 71]
*ding!*
[Congratulation. Image Stealer has reached Level 75. You have been awarded 3 stat points]
[Congratulation. Image Stealer has reached Level 76. You have been awarded 3 stat points]
.
[Congratulation. Image Stealer has reached Level 78. You have been awarded 3 stat points]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Mirror Affinity has reached Level 61. All of your mirror-based attacks will get a 63% boost]
[Congratulations. Mirror Affinity has reached Level 62. All of your mirror-based attacks will get a 64% boost]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Shadow Step has reached Level 17]
[Congratulations. Shadow Step has reached Level 18]
[Congratulations. Shadow Step has reached Level 19]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Mirror's Perceptivity has reached Level 2]
[Congratulations. Mirror's Perceptivity has reached Level 3]
.
.
[Congratulations. Mirror's Perceptivity has reached Level 9]
That was it. None of her other skills leveled up. Even though she had used Mirror Blast and Mirror Shard Barrage, they had not worked. She was a little miffed about it, but it was okay. This cave would only be used to level her class and some general skills at best. Though, she should be able to steal some nice skills from these wraiths.
*ding!*
[Class Ability Activated. You have stolen the general skill Haunting Presence. You project an aura of unsettling and malevolent energy, creating an atmosphere of fear, dread, and unease in your enemies. Would you like to acquire this skill?]
Meera realized why she was unreasonably afeared of the wraiths. Why she ran from the first one and got herself surrounded by a half dozen. It was all because of this skill. She was definitely going to accept this one, seeing as it was a general skill.
*ding!*
[You have acquired the skill Haunting Presence – Level 1]
*ding!*
[Class Ability Activated. You have stolen the skill Shadow Step. Shadow Step – Type: Active. You can instantaneously teleport short distances through shadows...
Meera frowned, but she didn't have to do anything as she quickly got a familiar message saying that she already had this skill and could not acquire it again. It was a good thing as experience got added to Shadow Step. It didn't level up, but every little bit helped.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
*ding!*
[Class Ability Activated. You have stolen the skill Soul Drift. Soul Drift – Type: Active. Your soul can traverse through the ethereal realm and pass through solid objects and barriers, allowing for swift movement. Would you like to acquire this skill?]
Meera's eyes widened at the skill. This would be perfect, more than perfect. It was a skill that could help make reconnaissance a breeze. She could snoop in on her enemies easily. But then her soul was crushed.
[ERROR! You are not dead. Your soul is tethered to your body and cannot leave your body without killing you. You cannot acquire this skill. Hence bonus experience will be added to your main class.]
Meera almost teared up. She was so upset that the rest of the skills didn't matter, even if she got the slow, moving ball of darkness skill. What was the point of showing her such an incredible skill when she could not acquire it? After sighing a few times, she moved on to her next notification.
*ding!*
[Class Ability Activated. You have stolen the skill Phantom Strike. Phantom Strike – Type: Active. You can harness the ethereal essence of your spectral nature, enabling you to move with unparalleled agility and strike your targets with uncanny speed and precision. Would you like to acquire this skill?]
She knew what this skill was. It had left its bloody mark on her arm. She waited a couple of moments, but the system didn't give her an error, so she figured it deemed it okay for her to earn this skill. But despite its good description, she didn't want it. She would have to replace a skill, and there were none that she would like to forgo for this one. If it were Soul Drift, she would have let go of anything.
The following three skills she had stolen were more of the same with another Phantom Strike and two Shadow Steps, which gave it enough of a boost to level up.
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Shadow Step has reached Level 20]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Reflection has reached Level 14]
With all the notifications sorted, she quickly allocated her stat points into Dexterity, Focus, and Endurance and moved inwards deeper into the cave. As she moved, she picked up a rock and made arrows pointing the way out. She hoped the wraiths wouldn't erase them, or she would be stuck here forever until she could actually use Soul Drift.
The chill wind picked up again, and dread began to set in her, which told her the wraiths were nearby. Now that she had killed them and knew what they were like. It was easier to overcome the fear, and of course, the chakram in her hand also bolstered her courage.
Then something shrieked. It was a bone-chilling scream that made Meera freeze. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind, and her heart thundered. She had never been this afraid before. She swallowed and did her best to calm herself down. She took deep breaths, but several moments passed, and she was still paralyzed with fear. Before she could move, they appeared.
There must have been a dozen of them this time, if not more. As one collective organism, they laughed. Sweat dribbled down the side of her face, despite the chill. She quickly Identify'd the wraiths, and it didn't help her fear.
[Cursed Wraith – Level 74]
[Cursed Wraith – Level 75]
[Cursed Wraith – Level 73]
They were all like this. All of them were stronger than the last she had fought, and the worst part was that more were being added to their numbers. There must have been twenty of them by now.
Their haunting laughter died down one by one, and then they all just stared with their deathly, vacant eyes. These wraiths looked like the ones she had fought before—half-decayed, shadowy beings. Meera could almost smell the stench of decay coming off them.
One appeared next to her and slashed her face, and the worst part was she couldn't even open her mouth to scream. She shivered in place as blood dripped from her cut-up face. Thankfully, the wraith missed her eyes. The next slashed out her abdomen. Once again, ruining her armor. Then the next appeared behind her, and Meera clenched her eyes shut, but she could still see it leaving a bloody slash on her back.
She fell forward as a scream escaped her throat. As she lay, she realized two things: she could scream, which meant she could move again, and Mirror's Perceptivity let her see even if her eyes were closed.
The next wraith appeared, hovering over her, ready to add to her bloody scratches. However, she disappeared using Shadow step, appeared behind the spirit, and left three slashes in its back, followed by a decapitation, which made the specter evaporate.
All the sounds in the tunnel died. The wraiths laughed no more. Meera began healing herself as she went for the one that had slashed her face. It held up its arms to protect itself. It was pointless. She almost severed its right arm with one slash and took it off with its second. Just like before, instead of blood, light shone from their wounds. It tried to slash at her with its remaining arm, only for her to teleport behind it and leave a chakram in its back.
She Stepped to the one who was standing bewildered, away from the group. This one had slashed out her back and sent her flying. While at the same time, she recalled her chakram, which did its thing and began to drill through the wraith. The specter screamed and wailed. Its scream distracted the others as she ripped into her new target.
Her chakram ripped the wraith in half and returned to her hand just in time as she shredded the one in front of her to bits. Once that was done, she hated fighting so many of them head-on. She knew she would be overwhelmed. So, she teleported behind the big group and attacked one quickly.
Its screams alerted the others, and they turned to her, but she was done by the time they converged on her. She used Shadow Step and moved to the back of the group again. Her target never saw her coming, but the one beside it did. The wraith left a long scratch all along her arm. She began healing it right away.
She ducked the next blow and left her chakram in its throat. It screamed as it tried to get the chakram out, but whenever it touched it, its hands sizzled. In the meantime, she cut down the wraith she had begun working on. Once she was done, she activated Primal Power and stabbed the spirit with the chakram with two more of her chakrams, and it went down rather quickly.
By then, the rest had converged on her. Some of them disappeared in smoke only to reappear behind her, using Shadow Step. She launched chakrams in every direction and recalled them on the go, and cut down wraith after wraith. It was like there was no end to them. She took many nasty cuts, but thanks to Vitalize, they healed themselves relatively fast, but her Mana was taking a hit, and she needed to conserve it for Shadow Step, so she only healed the painful ones.
Soon, she lost count of how many she had taken down and how many she had otherwise cut open, but the cave was bright as if someone had turned on a massive torch. It was becoming increasingly hard for her to stay one step ahead of them. They left many scratches and slashes on her, to the point that she could not tell what part of her armor was covered in blood and what part was actually red, thanks to the seamstress' intervention.
It doesn't matter, it's only blood. These things are good experience. Have to finish them off.