While my employees dealt with the aftermath of our self-inflicted explosion, I left the casino behind and rushed out. First, I followed the Night Blades — from a great distance — making sure that they were going back to their headquarters.

However, even at a distance, I could see that the headquarters were being renovated, with multiple mages adding magical wards.

Doubling down rather than pulling back.

Not exactly good news, especially since they seemed to be striking at us.

Meaning, I needed a way to strike back … but do so in a way that would push their attention away.

"It seems that I cannot avoid that experiment for too long," I murmured as I went back to the casino, and delivered some strict orders not to walk out and stay put for a few hours. Then, I stopped by the storage, and picked several bows — some ordinary, some well-made and enhanced, and one actually magical — and several tightly sealed silver boxes before sneaking out of the town.

It was time to experiment on a topic I had been avoiding.

How to use Destruction mana.

Of course, the surprising aggression of the Night Blades wasn't enough to trigger that. I had already been planning to prioritize it since Bertnam's shockingly aggressive visit, and was waiting for the situation to calm down first.

However, that was under the assumption that the Night Blades would pull back and reorganize just like the last time they overplayed their hand. But this time, their plan seemed to be the opposite.

Meaning, I needed a way to strike at them that couldn't be traced back to me … and even better, would be traced back to a very convenient group. And, as an added benefit, it would give me an explosive weapon.

Moreover, I had a feeling that such a weapon might be useful once I visited Bertnam at his mysterious base and met his even more mysterious friends.

First, I had a stop to make.

Rather than rushing toward the wilderness directly, I went to the outpost, easily avoiding the patrols and soon, reaching the building at the center, not even pausing to enjoy the newly added towers, four of them, each in a corner, creating a subtle yet beautiful blue glow.

I found Zolast alone, working on a complicated rune. I waited until he finished the rune before I suppressed the concealment, and his eyes widened. "Don't do that!" he growled, not appreciating my sneaking.

"Think of it as anti-assassination training," I answered. "You need to be more careful."

He grumbled. 'Why are you here?" he asked.

"I need that concealment ward we talked about," I said.

"For destruction mana?" he asked, surprised. "Why the hurry?"

"Let's say our friends are getting a bit restless…" I started, before giving a quick breakdown of the events.

"Oh, they made you blow up your precious casino. They are in trouble," he chuckled even as he grabbed a uniform silver plate from his pouch, and started drawing a complicated rune chain over it.

"Next time, I'll make sure to blow up your kitchen," I said, which earned a threatening gaze. I chuckled. He grumbled.

"Are you sure that's the best way? We might be able to put pressure on them in a different way."

"True, but that'll be the case for a lot of different situations. Every time, we'll have a more convenient solution. Then, I'll face a position where I have to absorb hundreds of points of destruction mana with absolutely no idea how to discharge."

"Not exactly wrong," he accosted quickly. Though, to be fair, this wasn't the first time we had that discussion. He had already delivered all the necessary warnings, and we had already planned the ideal approach.

And, as much as it would have been nice to have him around, the risk of getting caught was too high. Alone, I had a better chance of escaping.

The combination of Speed and Concealment gave me a unique advantage I couldn't easily stretch out, especially since I had enough unassigned stat points to dump in an emergency.

"Don't forget that it'll barely last fifteen minutes once it's activated, and even then, it shouldn't be able to handle more than a few dozen points," he reminded.

"That will have to be enough for the first experiment," I accepted, then looked around. "By the way, make sure to add a few extra detection wards into the defensive structure. I have a bad feeling about the Night Blades. They are not acting as I expected."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

He sighed. "Like we don't have enough to worry about …"

I just shrugged rather than responding. That was the unfortunate truth about crime. Every bit of success brought about more to be worried about.

Furthermore, our current brand of criminal activity was the worst kind from the perspective of the ruling classes. Targeting the rich and the powerful rather than the weak and the downtrodden while poking around their shady plots was a dangerous thing .

Swimming against the current was always the hardest.

"Enough moping," I murmured as I dashed away, once again toward the sea, to the direction I had already depleted somewhat during my earlier fishing trips, stopping on a nice valley I had discovered during my earlier travels. It was nice and concealed with sharp slopes, while also having enough overgrowth to prevent any flier from seeing me.

Yet it was not too sharp to slow me down should the need arose.

I walked around for a minute, setting up the necessary targets and spreading them around the field, then setting up the concealment ward based on Zolast's instructions. "I can't believe I'm doing this," I murmured, unhappy with the necessity.

Destruction mana was an ace.

Unfortunately, this ace was as dangerous as a homemade dynamite made by a drunk bomb maker.

Which was, unfortunately, not a hypothetical scenario but a real memory from my younger days. "I still can't believe I have all my fingers," I said to myself as I grabbed a bow — one of many I had brought for experimentation purposes. "Now, I just need to make sure I still have them at the end of the session."

Rather than triggering the concealment ward, I grabbed the first bow, and started practicing Archery without any Destruction mana, wanting to familiarize myself with the sensation of the skill once again.

I raised the bow and aimed at a tree a hundred yards away. Once again, foreign reflexes intruded as my body moved in concert, easily hitting the target.

"I really hate this," I murmured. The idea of foreign reflexes controlling me was weird, making me feel like a puppet. Luckily, the repeated practice with the young ones had already shown me that overriding the skills was possible — even though that radically limited their usefulness — and Resilience made it even better.

Combined, it gave me the ability to break down the pattern easily.

At least, when it wasn't being empowered by Destruction mana. "Now, let's see how easy it'll be to shout with cursed mana," I said as I activated the concealment ward.

And flipped open one of the silver boxes, revealing a soft red glow. I moved my hand above, and the redness flowed to my hand…

[Archery of Destruction (1/X)]

I slammed the box close immediately after the line appeared, not willing to drain the rock fully. No need to make it more complicated.

I would have loved to spend minutes just focusing on the sensation to make sure everything was in order, but I was operating under limited time. The more I practiced, the better. I took a deep breath, and shot an arrow…

My body moved in a familiar pattern, but this time, accompanied by a flash of red. It followed the edge of the bow, reaching for the arrow just as it was flying away … and the target disintegrated.

"Fuck, it hurts," I growled as I called my self-healing abilities.

[-2 Health]

Self-inflicted damage wasn't exactly good news, but looking at the target, it was hard to say that it was not worth it — though I still needed a detailed checkup from Zolast.

Then, I turned my attention to the other problem: the bow. A couple seconds of lingering red mana was enough to ruin it. Curious, I flooded it with mana, though it took quite a bit to stop the process.

[-12 Mana]

"That's a lot," I murmured. I would probably get better at suppressing the corrosion once I got used to it. Regardless, the potency that was displayed was dangerous, above and beyond my relative inexperience with ordinary mana.

Luckily, that was a problem I had been expecting. I grabbed the next bow, absorbed another point of Destruction mana, and attacked again.

[-2 Health]

[-13 Mana]

Another target was destroyed as I dealt with the aftermath again, but this time, by flooding the bow with my mana on time, I managed to keep the damage to the bow contained.

I repeated the process several times more. Technically, repeating it at the same intensity didn't have much benefits. The skill had the exact same delivery with an eerie precision, leaving a damaged bow and a ruined target behind.

However, I was more interested in the way Destruction mana moved along my body. "I wonder if I could repeat it with ordinary mana," I said as I grabbed a fresh bow and nocked an arrow without observing the movement.

The result was … interesting.

[-1 Mana]

The delivery of the attack was perfect as usual, but the mana aspect didn't go as smoothly. Destruction mana had been able to flow through the structure of the ordinary vitality-enhanced weapons easily but left significant damage.

The normal mana just dissipated before it could even reach the arrow.

After all, there was a reason everybody wanted their own magic weapon.

I repeated the attempt with the only magic bow I had…

[-1 Mana]

With considerably more success. This time, the mana actually managed to reach the arrow, dissipating only when it was halfway to the target.

A failure, perhaps, but still leagues better than my other attempts with the melee weapons. Something to be practiced later, I decided as I continued practicing with my sole skill, slowly increasing the amount of Destruction mana I channeled.

With some interesting conclusions.

At first, even as I increased the amount of Destruction mana I kept absorbed, I wasn't able to control the intensity of the attack, discharging all of it at once with increasing intensity. Only when I reached six points, I was able to control it somewhat, keeping the attacks to five points.

I tried to force using all six, which worked but the attack was actually weaker.

It suggested that there might be better variants as I continued to absorb more mana … but five points were already enough to create a huge pit of crackling red energy.

I didn't want to risk more.

Especially since I wasn't sure just how badly it would impact my body. The amount of Health that was required to suppress the effect didn't increase linearly, but with some extra increase. A two-mana attack required five Health to cure … but a five-mana attack required twenty…

"That's enough for today," I murmured as I moved to the menial part of my plan. I covered the pits that were left by the exploding mana, buried the destroyed and damaged weapons, and doused the remaining flickers of destruction mana.

I would even bury the silver plate that kept the isolation ward active, just in case someone could feel the aftermath — another measure we had discussed beforehand.

Then, I disappeared, happy with the gains from my dangerous training session.