"You've got that look again," Onyx said. "The same one when you looked at the crystal in my room."
"Because it's even better than what I found in your room." Meera held up the purple crystal. "This will reduce the amount of Mana needed for my magic skills."
"It will?" Onyx exclaimed. "So, this must be the breakthrough the people in my room were talking about."
"It could be." Meera gripped the crystal firmly in her hand. "Time to see how much of an improvement we are talking about here."
She ran her Mana through the crystal as the crystal suggested. It was difficult at first as she had never done this before, but then it worked on instinct almost. The crystal began to glow, washing the room with a purplish light. Onyx backed up a step, which Meera found funny, as he was already dead.
Then, the crystal shattered in her hand into many tiny pieces. A ball of purple light emerged from the pieces, floated upwards slowly, and entered Meera's forehead. She was surprised at herself that she didn't lean away. For a moment, nothing happened, but then Meera gasped, and her eyes snapped open.
The world was painted in a purple hue, and she knew it was coming from her eyes. Then she cried out as a sharp pain shot up in her head. She took a deep breath, but the pain rose again, and this time, it traveled downwards inside her. She screamed some more as her arms shone with a dull purple light.
"Meera, what's happening?" Onyx asked. "Are you okay?"
She fell to her hands and knees as the pain rose. She screamed as it peaked. It was one of the worst pains she had ever felt like she was burning up from the inside. She probably was.
"Meera! Say something?"
Then, the pain began to subside. Slowly, the heat started to cool from a raging fire to a warm feeling, and a few breaths later, she was back to normal. She huffed as she stared at the dusty floor. The burning sensation had subsided, but she still felt the after-effect of it.
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Your Mana channels have been cleansed and purified by Darthin's Essence. All of your Mana based skills will now use a sixth of the Mana required before. You will also need less charge-up time for your skills, and your Mana will recover at twice the rate.]
Meera decided to test it out right now. She used Vitalize to close the small scrapes and cuts that remained, and it used a total of three Mana points to heal all of them, and she had a lot of them. Before this, she had focused only on the major cuts to conserve Mana, but now it seemed she didn't need to. With just three Mana points, all her bruises, scratches, and scrapes, everything just went away.
She literally jumped with joy. "Oh, this is amazing."
"I'm guessing you're no longer in pain."
"No, Onyx, I'm ecstatic."
"What does that mean?"
Meera tilted her head. "Sometimes, I forget you're a horse."
He frowned. "It's not like I can make myself horsier."
She chuckled. "That is true." She looked around and found a clean spot, which was nothing but a corner far away from cages with the dead rats. Then she brought up her notifications. This time, they came up in condensed form like last time.
*ding!*
[You have killed 18 Cursed Wraiths – Level 73 to Level 78]
*ding!*
[Congratulation. Image Stealer has gained 6 levels and has reached Level 96. You have been awarded 18 stat points.]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Mirror Affinity has gained 4 levels and reached Level 74. All of your mirror-based attacks will get a 76% boost.]
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Shadow Step has gained 4 levels and reached Level 43]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Mirror Eagle's Perceptivity has gained 6 levels and reached Level 31]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Tactician's Gaze has gained 3 levels and reached Level 26]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Vitalize has gained 3 levels and reached Level 29]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Absorption has gained 2 levels and reached Level 8]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Haunting Presence has gained 2 levels and reached Level 12]
Given that Meera only used her chakrams to fight, she was happy that she had earned all these levels in these other skills. Once again, she was glad to see how much easier these condensed notifications were.
Next was what she had stolen. She hoped she had earned something new. But she was sorely disappointed. Ultimately, she had stolen five Soul Drifts, three Phantom Strikes, two Haunting Presences, six Spectral Resistances, and two Dreadful Wails.
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Spectral Resistances has gained 2 levels and reached Level 4]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Reflections reached Level 18]
She quickly allotted her stat point into Constitution, Focus, and Perception. Meera sighed. "I gained nothing new this time."
"It's okay," Onyx said. "It's not like you earn new skills every time you level up."
Meera smiled. "Well, it works a little differently for me."
"How so?"
"I'll tell you all about it someday. For now," she yawned mid-sentence. "I want to take a long nap and recover my strength before I have to plunge into the unending horde outside."
"Okay, I'll keep watch and wake you if there is trouble."
"Thanks, Onyx."
----------------------------------------
"We should wake her," said someone who sounded like Shade.
"No, we should not," Cinders shot back. "She's been through enough. Let's let her rest a while longer."
"I agree." Onyx's voice sounded like he was far away, which meant he had escaped the room again.
"She should know of what we've found," Shade countered. "I'm sure she will want to know what we've found. The sooner we get a move on, the faster we can get out of here."
"Those boxes are not going anywhere, and neither are we," Cinders reminded him.
"Oh," the bat groaned. "It's like you don't even want to leave this place."
"Shh!" Cinders snapped. "You'll wake her."
"Not will wake me. I'm up." Meera sat up groggily and held her head in her hands until the world came into focus. It was like waking up too fast from a nice nap, and she needed a few minutes to steady herself.
"Great! You're up!" Shade cried.
"Sorry if we woke you," Cinders said.
"No, it's fine. Feels like I've been sleeping for three days," Meera said as she stretched.
"Well, you're not wrong," Shade said.
"Really! I was out for that long?" Her stomach answered for her by growling.
"You've slept for about half a day," Cinders said. "Given all you had to fight to get here, I'm not surprised. You could've slept longer if not for an impatient bat."
"Yes, each moment we spend here is a danger to us all," Shade said. "What if one of those wraiths go wake up the big bad boss of this cave? Then we're all in trouble. I don't fancy turning into those mindless husks out there or for our passage out here to kick the bucket."
Kick the bucket—another human expression. This made Meera pause as she wondered where a bat had learned it. "Relax, Shade. No one's kicking the bucket any time soon. Now, tell me, what did you find?"
Cinders squeaked and wrinkled her nose. "To be honest, not a lot. There are a total of forty-two rooms in this cavern. There might be more hidden elsewhere, but I highly doubt it, as I've personally seen some of these rooms being built. Of the forty-two, thirty-six were unlocked with their doors wide open, and six were locked. Out of those thirty-six, we found polished boxes like the ones in this room in six of them."
Meera perked up at this. "Were you able to get a peek inside?"
Shade nodded. "Oh, yes, we did. There are crystals in all of them."
Meera was practically drooling at this point. "What sort of crystals were they?"
"That is where we failed," Cinders said. "We don't have the skill that you humans have. I believe it's called Identify."
This made Meera frown. "You don't? None of you do."
They all shook their head, even Onyx from the door.
"I believe that is what separates us animals from humans," Cinders said.
Now that Meera thought about it, it made a lot of sense, seeing as how humans were the de-facto rulers of these worlds. It's our ability to discern different things and figure out their differences that put us on top of the food chain. In this world, the system just put that in quite a literal sense, in the form of a skill.
"Okay, we have to hit twelve rooms in total then," Meera said. "The six with the boxes and the six locked ones."
"Sounds about right."
"Where is the room where the head researcher sleeps?" Meera asked.
Cinders exchanged a worried glance with Shade.
"What? What is it?"
"We don't know," Cinders said. "He could be in any one of the locked rooms."
Meera gulped.
Onyx neighed. "That's not good."
"You got that right," Shade said.
"There's something else that worries me," Meera added. "There's this particular type of wraiths that are invisible. I cannot even see them, and they pop out of nowhere." She raised her naked arm. "The last one would have taken my arm if not for my armor, which, as you can see, I'm sorely lacking."
"Maybe we can help. Maybe our eyes can see what's shrouded from yours," Cinders said. "They are ghosts, after all."
"That could work."
"Or…maybe I can see them," Shade said. "Technically, they are made of the same stuff we are made of."
"That…could work," Meera said. "I mean, it couldn't hurt to try."
"Or it could." Shade, of course.
"Okay, let me find something to eat in my belt, and I have some armor I can replace my tattered one with. Then let's head out and hope we open the big bad researcher's room last."