After all that searching, Hazel finally found something worthwhile. According to the panel, this was called a Grimoire Page, and through it, she could learn a new skill. In this case, the Decay skill.

Judging from the name alone, Hazel could tell that this spell was going to be strong. However, it seemed to be more of a status effect or damage over time type of ability. Not that she was complaining, since she still managed to find a spell to learn in the first place. And it was right after reaching her marker.

“So, all I need to do is accept, right?” Hazel muttered, reading the message. “Then, yes.”

Making her decision, Hazel accepted to learn the spell Decay. After doing so, a new message materialized.

[You have learned the “Decay” Spell!]

[Decay spell has been obtained!]

Feeling eager, Hazel mentally pulled up the spell so she could read its information

Rank 1

A skill that allows the caster to deteriorate anything or anyone they wish. By being afflicted with decay, their vessels slowly decompose, withering away until they are nothing but ash and dust. It is a common ability used by witches due to its fast-acting effects. The cooldown is thirty seconds.

“Holy shit…” Hazel’s eyes widened in shock. “I knew this skill would be like this, but reading its description seems a bit unreal.”

To have the ability to rot whatever she wished seemed like a bit jump in power. Then again, this dungeon was a highly difficult one, so it likely followed the concept of High Risk equals high reward. Considering that Hazel’s been risking her life, she felt that this was reasonable. Even if that wasn’t the case, she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Though she was a bit annoyed by the long cooldown time. Unlike Baneful Sickle which only lasted ten seconds, Decay was three times as long. In a fight, Hazel couldn’t afford to waste thirty seconds just to wait and use it again.

Aside from her issue with the timer, she was a little curious about the last statement in its description. “It’s been used by witches? That’s pretty interesting.”

That was the second time witches were mentioned involving a skill. Something about this bugged Hazel, but she had something else to focus on first.

Now that she had learned the skill, it was time to test it out. Since its description said that it worked on both living and non-living things, she should be able to pick something from the shop to use as a guinea pig.

Doing a little more rummaging, Hazel found a piece of plank that seemed like the perfect subject. Holding it firmly in her hand, she used her staff and pointed at it. Then, imagining how decaying works, she cast the spell.

“Decay.”

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Her body swelled with power like before. Then it transferred over to her magic staff and emitted a purple glow at the tip. The violet energy flowed out from the staff and drifted over to the plank, wrapping around it until completely shrouded in purple.

After that, it disappeared, leaving the wooden board like before. But Hazel knew that something happened.

At first, it looked normal, but soon, it started to saturate and lose its color, changing from a dirty brown to an ashen gray. Then, while in her grasp, the plank slowly crumpled into dust, slipping through her hand and floating away before dissipating altogether.

As Hazel witnessed this unfold, she couldn’t help but look a little pale, clearly fearful of the spell she just used. If this is what happened to a piece of wood…what would happen if she used it on a living creature?

Hazel pushed aside the rather morbid thought and brushed her hand against her robe, getting rid of the remaining bits of the decayed plank.

“It’s definitely useful…but the cooldown time was still a bit of an issue.”

Although it was a strong spell, waiting thirty seconds was too much of a hassle when she was in the middle of a fight. Plus, this skill only worked on one enemy at a time, which meant she could only use it on a single enemy every thirty seconds. If Hazel was surrounded by enemies and could only rely on Decay, this would put her at a major disadvantage.

Considering its power, Hazel would likely only use decay on a stronger enemy to weaken them, since making this her main spell wouldn’t work. Thankfully, she had Baneful Sickle. It still had a cooldown, but it was certainly more manageable than Decay.

Aside from the cooldown, this spell was certainly an improvement. And once she increases its rank, it’ll be even more powerful. Plus, once Hazel’s Intelligence and Wisdom stats were high enough, she could most likely spam the spell multiple times without suffering from mana deficiency.

With her new skill in her arsenal, Hazel continued searching through the shop, hoping to find another Grimoire Page to learn another one. Considering she found one, there was a possibility that she could locate a second page. Sadly, after a bit of searching, Hazel couldn’t find another grimoire page.

It was a bit disappointing, but at least she managed to obtain two new skills from her Marker achievement and the page she just found in this shop. However, she was a bit curious about the connection between the two, specifically, why both skills were unexpectedly used by witches.

Hazel reread the description for both skills, just so she wasn’t seeing things, and sure enough, both Decay and Baneful Sickle were skills that were frequently used by witches. That couldn’t be a coincidence, right? She was elated that her spell arsenal increased, but she couldn’t help but feel curious about their connections to witches.

Could Decay be another cursed type of skill like Baneful Sickle? Considering that the plank she experimented on withered to dust in those few short moments, it was possible.

Maybe the shop owner before the Fractured Phenomenon was a witch. It seemed plausible thanks to the evidence with the two spells, but Hazel felt that she was overreaching a bit. Still, she couldn’t get the idea out of her head.

“Maybe there’s more information regarding witches in this shop as well. Couldn’t hurt to look, right?”

With a new objective in mind, Hazel started to look for books related to anything witchy. Whether it was the history of witches, the power of witches, or whatever. As long as she found something involving them, she would be happy.

Sadly, after turning this whole shop upside down in search of such a book, not a single one was found. This both bothered and annoyed Hazel. So she could find skills related to witches, but books involving their history and whatnot were off the table? What a load of crap.

“Agh, whatever,” Hazel groaned, vigorously scratching her head out of irritation. “I’m getting off track, anyway. I need to keep hunting Fractured monsters and level up.”

She couldn’t stay in this shop forever. Not when she had better things to do in the first place. Now that she was level five, she only needed five more levels to get to Level ten so she could take on the Cyclops.

Feeling more or less satisfied with her findings, Hazel made her way to the door and left the magic shop. It was time to get back to the hunt.