After my spectacular show of illusion, I escaped the town and run through the opposite side of City Yoentia for ten minutes before finally taking a break, killing the occasional beasts that targeted me despite Charisma as I fought.

I waiting to see if there were any that were trying to follow me still.

For now, it seemed to be none, but better safe than sorry.

Interestingly, I expected Concealment to reduce the monster attacks, but that seemed not to be the case. Either it had to be much higher than five points to allow that … or it didn't work against the beasts. Interesting, but not immediately urgent.

I turned my attention to the box in front of me. I hadn't gone all the trouble for the box itself. It was more of a bonus for my mission to be completed.

I flipped it open, and three types of glow hit my face, white, blue, and red.

A nice bonus, indeed.

My first target was the two red glow. I grabbed and absorbed them immediately, watching as the numbers of my skill went up by one more. Almost as much as the whole crate had triggered during my last attempt, but considering the glow of two red stones was much more intensive than the previous rocks, it didn't surprise me.

[Archery of Destruction (3/X)]

Then, I turned my attention to the two mana stones, each glowing with a beautiful blue intensity. They were too much for me to absorb completely even with my mana reservoirs almost completely empty.

Unless I spent the remaining four free points on Attunement. A dangerous commitment, one that I wasn't entirely sure of. With the speedy discovery of new Stats, I could imagine that four points giving me some unknown advantage at an unpredictable point…

But then, Attunement already proved its worth. I might have been lacking the ability to use magic, but just the casual display of ability through pushing the glow had proved very useful. People's — very understandable — fears against the magic users gave me to leverage that was hard to match with any other skill.

Just like Concealment did.

In the end, I decided to split the difference, assigned two points to Attunement, and left the other two free, in case I managed to discover another convenient target for it.

[-2 Stat Points]

[+2 Attunement]

[Mana {2/45)]

Then, I grabbed the two bright mana stones and drained them. One of them had been completely drained, and the second one had only the slightest glow when I finished filling my reserves.

[+43 Mana]

The remaining small rock, I decided to drop with the blacksmiths to see if they could come up with a way to use it, not that I had great hopes.

Then, I turned my attention to the remaining seven stones, two of each except for one. I touched the first, set and a notification popped.

[Skill Spark Detected: Swordsmanship

Absorb / Ignore]

I chose to ignore rather than absorb. I still remembered just how painful had been to absorb my previous skill, one that I was yet to use. It didn't seem like a smart idea. Not to mention, I had no idea about the true quality, so there was no guarantee that it could even help me in the first place.

Maybe I could check with Zolast to learn more about it.

The second set of stones was the same, though this time about Archery, making it even less tempting. I already had an Archery skill that I didn't dare to use, no need to add another to make things even more complicated.

The third set was more tempting than the previous two.

[Skill Spark Detected: Advanced Spearmanship

Absorb / Ignore]

"I wonder what advanced means," I murmured, annoyed that the System wasn't very descriptive when it came to skills and abilities, especially during acquisition. Still, I didn't dare to absorb it without checking with Zolast — though probably not even then as well.

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Then, I turned my attention to the last one, the solo one … the one that differed in color and shape. Curious, I touched, only to get something slightly different than I had expected.

[Stat Spark Detected: Strength

Absorb / Ignore]

"Not bad," I murmured, this time the temptation to take that even more intense … but once again, the memories of absorbing the Archery skill came to my mind, not just the pain, but the fact that the notification had been a lie.

The risk was too intense.

Instead, I decided to go back, hoping for a quick return … one that didn't seem to be on the cards. Halfway in, I noticed a flash of red at a distance, one that felt rather familiar. Then, it was followed by a distant cry.

I immediately changed my destination in that direction, wanting to observe what was going on. Not because I was filled with a desire to help people, but something a touch more selfish. It was the first time I had seen people using destruction mana since I had that tussle with Toross, followed by an argument with his god …

It was rather important for me to see what was going on.

They weren't too far away, and with my speed, it didn't take long to catch up with the light … only to meet with a sight that reminded me of the fateful day I had to escape from the flying fortress. Two men, each showing varying signs of scales and tentacles reminded me of the look of Toross after his transformation, just to a lesser degree.

They were dragging four people into a nearby cave, all wounded. Three of them were unconscious, and a young woman was barely conscious, begging and praying. She was probably responsible for the earlier cry I had heard, but at this point, lacked the strength to replicate the feat.

The two that were dragging them away with shocking ease, their steps not slowing the slightest, showing their Strength was high, maybe high enough to rival mine. Luckily, they didn't have the Speed to match it, giving me a moment to consider what they were doing before intervening.

As they dragged the four, I noticed they didn't care about their comfort, but they still made a point to avoid particularly sharp rocks and other dangerous objects, which implied that they cared about keeping them alive.

I doubted it was about their desire to keep them safe.

However, as they retreated, I noticed two other things. First, the beasts were not rushing toward them, which was a great difference from the last time I watched the world reach against their presence.

Second, despite the lack of attacking beasts, they were very attentive as they looked around, making sure they weren't observed, but very distinctively, they didn't pay any attention to the sky … which was an interesting choice.

Pity I didn't risk interrogating them. Instead, I rushed forward, approaching them from a blind angle, my magical sword already out, glad that I was still wearing my black cloak.

Ambushing had some benefits. Before they could react, the first one had been already decapitated — which, shockingly, required quite a bit of effort to complete with one slash. A shocking detail considering I was using a high-quality magical weapon, and backed it up with an impressive amount of Strength.

I prepared to attack the second one, but before I could do it, he exploded with a red glow, and his weapon swung toward me, forcing me to take half a step back to dodge his attack. I managed to leave a rapidly-healing wound on his arm, but it was recovering rapidly nonetheless.

Worse, I saw the 'corpse' move, trying to reach his head.

I moved forward, and kicked the head away before turning my attention toward my other opponent. Luckily, his lack of Speed meant I could draw circles around him, and he was too single-minded to do anything but rush directly.

It was clear that the partial transformation hadn't done any favors to their mental faculties.

As I attacked him, I pulled four pills from my pouch, and threw at the half-conscious girl. "Eat one, feed the rest to your family," I ordered even as I continued to attack the transformed man, each second giving me a better understanding of his abilities.

He was strong, and ridiculously tenacious, and even after I had delivered over a hundred deep cuts — which took less than half a minute thanks to my Agility — he was still fighting. Alone, it was not a match for me, and I could even imagine taking several of them in fair combat.

Yet, I trembled as I imagined just a hundred of them attacking a town, fighting against people who lacked the ability to match.

Worse, I thought as I looked at the four they had been dragging away, the memories of Toross converting the servants into those abominations forefront of my mind. I was willing to bet that it was their plan…

I turned to the four, and gave an order, with the full weight of the Charisma behind it, slamming into them. "Run away from here, and never tell anyone what had just happened!"

They dashed away immediately, and I turned my attention to my opponent. Another half a minute, and it finally stopped recovering…

I still cut all their limbs to be safe, curious about the lack of monsters, but after digging a bit more, I found a little silver ornament, one that was glowing red. I put my hand on, and red mana flew into my hands.

[+2 Archery of Destruction]

Another impressive haul, but rather than examining that, I had dashed away, because the moment I absorbed the mana, the device was destroyed, and the beasts rushed into the clearing, ignoring me as they rushed to destroy the bodies.

I retreated, but not completely. Instead, I found a small place half a mile away, and concealed myself carefully, using Charisma just enough to keep the beasts from attacking me.

And, I waited, curious about one last detail. I held my breath, relying on Concealment to lower my presence even further as, five minutes later, I noticed one of the flying carts land. Two armored soldiers landed and killed the beasts with great efficiency.

No other monster came, allowing them to walk toward the remains of the dismembered corpses, a gruesome sight. They talked, but with their helmets on, reading their lips was impossible, and they were too far away for me to listen.

I watched them as one of them further destroyed the remains with a few slashes, the other walking toward the cave. I desperately hoped that he would go down the cave and explore, yet instead, just as he arrived at the entrance, he slashed his sword, and a wave of red mana exploded out, destroying the cave.

The color was enough to confirm their alliance, and the fact that they were erasing the evidence further confirmed it.

Toross and the little band of visitors that arrived weren't the only secret cultists…

"How fun," I whispered.

Like I didn't have enough to do.