Satisfaction, pride, power. Those were all the emotions Kai was feeling after his victory. Of course, he wasn't so egotistical as to let one win get to his head.

Deactivating his transformation with only a small bit of Mana to spare, Kai's adrenaline wore off and all the pain came over him in a tide of agony.

His muscles burned, his arms ached, his body was covered in scratches and he was bleeding profusely. Everything hurt.

Sitting down and leaning back against a different tree as to not have any dead abomination parts drip onto him, Kai closed his eyes as he caught his breath.

The exhilaration had worn off, and looking back Kai realised how stupid that really was. Charging head-first into a fight was akin to trying to kill yourself.

But did he regret his choice?

Absolutely not. Kai was proud of what he did. Himself and Wa'rak had reclaimed the tunnel together, saving who knows how many beast lives in the process.

Even though countless died, and those losses hurt, Kai was proud of the ones he saved. The only strange thing was how Aldred was acting. If the gray wolf is supposed to be The Elder, why do nothing and just watch the beasts die?

Giving Aldred the benefit of the doubt for now, Kai continued to rest. The hard bark did not make for a good pillow, but Kai was too tired to care. Even a slab of obsidian could make a pillow at this point.

The sound of footsteps got closer and closer, but Kai did not bother to open his eyes at the noise. It's only once the footsteps were right beside them he only looked at what was causing them.

Two wolves stood in front of him. One black as night and the other gray as ash.

"Where's the-"

Aldred spoke up, but Kai just pointed to his left. Turning his head, Aldred had his question answered for him at the sight of a lifeless abomination's bottom half hanging limply from the tree.

"I see."

Aldred hummed. The wolf then turned and started walking back into the tunnel. Without bothering to turn around again, he called over his shoulder.

"You did good, Catalyst. Go get some rest."

With that, Aldred made his way back to The Dome. His large, gray body was enveloped by the darkness of the cave.

Wa'rak gave Kai a small nod of approval before following Aldred.

Left to himself, Kai lightly smacked the back of his head against the bark of the tree and sighed.

Fatigue and pain was currently rampaging his body, but he didn't care. He was happy. The last time he was this happy was-

I don't want to think about that.

Even if he didn't want to think about that, there was one thing he wanted to think about after that whole ordeal.

I did kill a lot of abominations... Did I get any levels?

Opening his status screen, Kai was greeted by a line of text he had not expected to see.

You have slain evolved quarter moon abomination: Veiled of The Dark Side

I guess that explains why it was so strong...

The veiled was the second evolved abomination Kai and Wa'rak had killed. They honestly seemed too common to be that special at this point.

If they're meant to be some type of rare abomination, either Kai is extremely lucky or extremely lucky. He couldn't decide which.

All he knew is that he didn't want to fight any more of them.

But when did Kai ever get what he wanted?

Quite a lot, actually.

Level 18 reached

Wow, three levels.

Kai made more levels in the last ten minutes than he did in the last ten days. While that was an extremely good thing, it was also a little sad that he had to raid the tunnel in the first place.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Surprisingly, there was another line of text left on his status. A new line Kai had never seen before, and honestly, he preffered this notification much more than the fact he killed another evolved abomination.

[Nonchalance (uncommon)] -> [Nonchalance (rare)]

I... I upgraded a skill.

For the first time in this dreadful forest, Kai had upgraded a skill. Further boosting the happiness and pride he felt for what he just did, Kai couldn't hold back a pained grin.

Sadly, even though the skill upgraded, its description stayed the same.

Grants an uncanny level of calmness in situations many would find themselves stressing in.

At least it's the one I said I wanted to upgrade first.

That memory seemed like a forever ago. The value Nonchalance had given him so far has been way too good to overlook. The only skill that came even remotely close to its value was Contract of Artemis.

With that idea in his head, Kai opened his status screen to see what skills he had.

Skills: [Strong Mind (Uncommon)] [Nonchalance (rare)] [Lesser Dagger Mastery (common)] [Lesser Identify (common)] [Soulcery (common)] [Soul Sight (uncommon)]

Honestly, even though it seemed like Kai had lots of useful skills, he only really made use of three of them. Those skills being Nonchalance, Soul Sight and Strong Mind.

Of course it's the three uncommon skills.

In all seriousness, the other three skills were completely useless as of now. Kai had long discarded his dagger in favour of his claws, making Lesser Dagger Mastery absolutely useless.

Even if he were to use Life Eater in a fight, Kai was sure the hideous blade was much too long to get the the bonus damage.

Lesser Identify was equally as useless due to the fact that basically everything in the forest was over five levels his current level, meaning he can't identify them anyway.

And Soulcery, the skill wasn't really useless, it's just that Kai hadn't been able to truly experiment with the skill except for the fact he swapped some of his Luck stat with his Dexterity.

There's obviously more to the common skill, that was pretty obvious based on the fact The Ever-changing must have given it to him for a reason.

And that was what Kai was going to focus on once he got back in The Dome.

Groaning, Kai pushed himself off the ground. He threw one last glance at the dead abomination before he made his way back to The Dome.

All he wanted to do was sleep and eat, in fact, he wouldn't even complain about the slop today. No, he was going to savour it. Practicing Soulcery can wait until after he wakes up.

Probably.

That was a problem for a later time after all. His first issue was the journey back while simultaneously not throwing up from the stench and sight of all the dead abominations and moon beasts in the tunnel.

******

Trotting back through the corpse filled cave, Aldred looked nonchalantly down at the bodies of the moon beasts.

The corpses were already starting to rot, the skin peeling off of the dead beasts.

Of course, this was way too quick to be normal.

Looking down at the bodies, Aldred sighed.

At least it worked.

The skin continued to rapidly peel off the beasts, revealing small, intricate lines on their skeletons. The flesh which looked so real melted onto the tunnel floor, giving an almost wooden look to what didn't.

The blue substance which held the flesh to the beasts dripped down onto the tunnel floor right after the rotten flesh, causing Aldred to grimace.

The whole cave was a mess. Gore everywhere and it would take forever to clean up. Even the trail of abomination face along the wall to the forest looked a gruesome sight.

Still, it would have been difficult to clean if you were a normal person or beast.

"Restore"

As soon as the command left Aldred's snout, every corspe, be it abomination or beast flooded with a green light. The corpses regained some vigour and it looked as if they were about to come back to life.

Except only a few moments later, the first corpse shook, followed by another. One by one, all the corpses began to violently shake and shrink.

The corpses continued to shrink and shrink before the gray wolf. With the help of Aldred's healing power, all of the dead bodies were restored to their purest form.

Nothingness.

Leaving the cave spotless, except for a trail of red along the wall, Aldred continued to make his way back to The Dome, thinking about what was to come.

Once back in The Dome, the gray wolf made his way to a certain wooden cabin in the centre.

Entering the door, Aldred spotted a brown-haired man sitting in an armchair by the fire, a common sight for the wolf.

The man had a pale face, his hand trembled around the cup of tea in his hand, the amber liquid threatening to spill at any moment.

"How much Mana do you have left?"

Failure turned his head to look at the wolf who just spoke, he then smiled weakly and answered:

"Enough for now, but I don't know how much longer I can last."

Failure took a sip of the tea and grimaced. The amber liquid dribbled down his chin, scalding him.

A look of weakness appeared in his eyes as he glanced at his one true comrade in this place.

"It's getting worse."

Somberly, Aldred trotted over to beside where Failure was sitting and lied down.

"I know."

Failure chuckled darkly and threw a quick glare down at the wolf.

"You're meant to say you didn't notice, also that I still look great as always."

A small smile tugged on Aldred's lips.

"I know."

Failure relaxed back into the armchair, giving up on trying to drink the tea and just focusing on basking in the heat of the fire. The flickering flames created a beautiful sight, the sight also being reflected in his eyes.

"You really are a character. I remember when I first met, so small and feeble. Ah... how time flies.

Only a few more days and this will all be over..."

Aldred didn't bother to lift his head to look at Failure, he answered while still resting his head on the floor.

"Then we can go home."

Failure smiled softly.

"Ah, yes, home. This forest is a great replica, but it just doesn't have the right feel."

Aldred nodded his furry head.

"I agree. Still, if we fail in this world..."

The wolf didn't even need to finish the sentence for Failure to know what he meant.

"I'm sure it will be fine in the end. It always has and always will be."

Failure then glanced down at Aldred, a hidden emotion deep in his eyes.

"You're my best friend, Aldred. It has been great knowing you."

Aldred's eyelids twitched. The wolf then spoke again, his gruff tone a hint softer.

"Don't... speak like that."

Failure chuckled softly at the wolf's tone. He then sighed and relaxed himself once more.

"So, did Kai realise what we did?"