My seeker class could level again, and I had the XP. I decided to put a bit into strength, but I will need more mana soon as weaving wards will take a lot of mana. Right now, I need a bit more physical power.

Then I killed so many that I could level my Spectral Slayer class as well. I put attributes into wisdom to regenerate my mana faster and be wiser in my choices.

Bonding with Tāwai sometimes feels like a mistake, but then I remember how he has saved my life and fought for me. We are on the same side, but why should he get three skills to my one? He does not need Cleanse Blood when he has Poison Resistance and Stout Heart. Yes, it is like his Heal Wounds and he can use it on others as well as himself, but so could I.

I reject the argument that I don’t need it because of Minor Regeneration. He has no idea how painful that is, whereas Cleanse Blood is easy and only uses mana. It is not fair.

I told him his skills would make him a medic, and all he did was mock me. Can you believe that? Tāwai, the vampire Parrot. Now that he has Cleanse Blood, he should learn the Syphon Blood Skill. The two obviously belong together. Apparently, he is not keen on drinking blood, the wimp.

I deliberately ignore the fact I don’t want to drink blood either. Yuck. I have a little involuntary shudder of revulsion.

The fact that neither of us could learn Blood Manipulation indicates we are not destined for a life saturated in blood, thank the Keeper.

It was well into the night now. I looked around. With the destruction of the bat cave, there shouldn’t be a lot of other predators close.

“Let’s explore a bit,” I whispered to Tāwai.

The three of us went into stealth. I wanted to practice my Shadow Stealth Skill more than my Light Manipulation or Spectral Cloak. I have been thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of various skills ever since Pok got Fire Eyes that could see heat and Myantha got the Smelly Tracker.

Spectral Cloak only hides from light, not either of the other two. Shadow Stealth has the benefit of reducing my body heat a little. It will grow as I level it. That is one of the benefits of shadows.

All skills have strengths and weaknesses, and as we face stronger opponents, they will have a greater range of skills to pierce the weaknesses. It is also like I have a range of Strike skills, and the right one for the right rat was more effective than just using the same one all the time.

This also means that my most valuable skill is Assessing Eyes, and Tāwai’s is his Hunter's Eye.

I looked through my skills and realised I had been neglecting some of them. I had barely used Light Speed since entering the Trial, and that is one of my game-changing skills.

As we moved through the foliage, I let my intuition and pathfinder skills guide me. Tāwai stopped us a couple of times, and I think it was something he heard. I need a sensing skill other than sight, and hearing would have been perfect. Mutter, mutter, mutter. Tāwai is getting too much. I am being too soft.

We moved steadily and then slowed. My Spectral Vision (Heat) shows a large heat signature below us. Nightsight picked it out as a large cat of some sort. It was draped on a branch like it was digesting a meal.

Tāwai silently cocked his head at me as if to say, “Do you want to ambush it?” I nodded and reluctantly put away Lightreaver and Shadowbane and got out Brightlance. I didn’t want to use a spear, but these were the large opponents that Spears were best against.

I used Assessing Eyes, and the cat’s head came up suddenly. It felt me use the skill, shit. Tāwai dive attacked its head, and the cat twisted its body so it partially avoided the attack and got to its feet. Tāwai gave it a short Mocking Call to grab its attention.

I dove off the branch spear first using my Charge Skill and activated Soundless Stun to try to hold it in place. I don’t think Soundless Stun was soundless to it, and it tried to move, so my spear attack struck its flank rather than its heart.

The thing had some sort of tough hide skill, as the spear did not penetrate far, even with the bonus from the Charge Skill. It struck out at me with a back paw, which I had only avoided because of my cat reflexes. The irony was not lost on me.

This monster cat also had cat reflexes, and I was soon furiously defending with my spear and keeping it at bay—just. The spear’s length was what saved me from multiple claw strikes.

Tāwai was striking from the air and usually going for the head. It was bleeding in multiple places now but was not impaired at all. In fact, a claw strike ripped out some feathers from Tāwai’s wing. It was fast and tough, and only his new Acrobatic Flight saved him.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As it had struck at Tāwai, it used the Charge Skill again to stab deep, and I added Bloodletting to the strike. Then, when it swiped at me, I danced back at Light Speed. The two skills were heavy on stamina use, but I had more stamina now than ever before.

I targeted it with Mana Syphon and dropped Nights Embrace to restrict its senses and Umbral Cold to slow it down.

The cat suddenly realised it could not stay on the defensive and pounced at me without warning. I partially deflected with my Basic Spear, but my Rat fur vest was not up to it, and I had claws raking my chest.

I stumbled back. Shit, I am too close to the edge of the branch. I Light Speed back to make some space, as being too close is one of the spear's weaknesses. The cat pounced again, and Tāwai deflected it with a wind Gust and raked it with his claws.

The cat snarled at us and attacked again. Brightlance was a named light-aligned spear, and I thrust in the Basic Spear technique. I fed Cutting Light through the spear, and I ripped a massive cut through the muscle of a paw. The paw was now useless to it, but it was getting desperate, and it pounced again. This time, I was not fast enough, and its jaws caught my thigh and went straight through my leather armour and hog chaps.

It shook me like a toy trying to break me. Tāwai Dived with an Excruciating Screech and took out an eye, and then Rob had his jaws crushing one of its hind legs.

It let my leg go and spun onto Rob. I struck it with the Brightlance and Rainbow Assault. The rainbow colours slammed into the beast one after the other, all amplifying the damage and digging deeper into its flesh. Rob’s poison, Tāwai’s poison, the blood loss, the Umbral Cold and the Radiation damage of Rainbow Assault were too much, and I finished it with a spear to the heart. In a longer fight, stacking the ongoing damage is very powerful.

All three of us immediately went back into full stealth as that fight was loud and bright and may attract other predators.

After about ten minutes, I rose and started harvesting. The fur, teeth, claws, and eyes were all good. Unfortunately, only one eye was left in a harvestable state. It dropped a monster core and health potion and then something useful—a cat fur vest. It was superior to the rat fur, so I happily swapped it out. It was tougher against piercing and slashing damage. It was also better looking.

I checked the core, but there was no skill there. Of course, there wasn’t. Why would I expect a useful skill to drop? The Trial is out to kill you.

“It felt my Apraising Eyes,” I said to Tāwai.

He cocked his head at me in thought. “Can you do that? Can you? Can you?”

“Let me experiment with my Mana Sensing Web. It must be mana-related.” A skill stone with the ability would have been nice, but nooooo. Trials are not there to help you; they are there to kill you, and you have to take everything you can.

I put it on my list of things to learn, along with stopping people from assessing me. There has to be some way to do that.

We drop back into stealth and start hunting again. Then, it flashed in my awareness. When we first came into this trial, we were afraid of the nocturnal predators and made a defensible camp. Now Tāwai, Rob and I are the nocturnal hunters. It shows how far we have grown here. We are certainly not apex hunters, but we can hold our own.

Using my basic spear in a fight is very helpful for levelling it, but again, I neglected the basics. Thrust and Slash should be the staple of the spear, and the higher-cost skills as game changers and finishers. I thought about the spear fight. I didn’t even use the Block Skill much. I should be getting back to basics with Thrust, Slash, and Block. Bloodletting and the stronger skills I need to keep for a longer fight. That is what will let me keep going. The cat was not a long fight, and stacking the damage was good, but if I had spread out those skills, the damage would have lasted longer, and I would still have mana and stamina.

There is a lot I can improve. I never used to be a fighter. I used to be a thief and a performer. I even have the performer profession. Trials change you, and Classes change you. When I get back to civilisation, I am going to carry out a heist just because I can.

I look around at the dark trees. What can I steal here? My Pilferer class has not levelled despite the chests I have found/earned. My Seeker and Slayer classes have been rising. I am level twenty-one with three advanced classes, which is amazing, but it is turning me into a fighter, not a thief.

Maybe it is not. The way we took out the bats was different from a fighter’s way. Fighters always want to test their strength and skills. It was more a sneak thief way, but it didn’t level the Pilferer class. Why not? Maybe it is not a normal fighting class that I have. It is a Slayer Class. Spectral Slayer kills any way it can.

I have plenty of kills to level Spectral Slayer. I just need the XP. I checked and the cat did put me over the needed amount, so I bumped it up again. Intelligence is where I boosted things this time, and next, it will be Agility and Dexterity again.

It takes a whole lot less XP to level Pilferer, but I need to meet the criteria there. Do I need to steal without a lot of killing? Maybe?

What can I steal here? My Seekers Intuition flared. Up and to the left.

It was a long way to the left and up. The sun was rising as we moved, and the shadows reduced. We snuck past a big tree/bear thing that was slow. Taking it on would have been a very long fight for us. We would need a squad with us.

Tāwai poisoned more mosquito monsters. With his Air Manipulation and Gust, he turned his Poison Cloud into more of an aerial spray, which was very effective.

We did get a new skill from the mosquitos. Haemorrhage was very much like my Bloodletting, so I let Tāwai, the medic, learn it. It is actually better than Bloodletting. He knows I get first skill pick for a while.

We found a small nook after that and settled down for a few hour's rest.