Azrael woke, bleary eyed and stared up at the ceiling. His ceiling in his house. A satisfied smile crept onto his face as the realisation sunk in. He was home. And in his own bed. James had crashed at one of the dwarves’ house.

In the living room, Alena was already putting together a breakfast made from leftovers from the feast. He poked them with his cutlery, before taking a small bite. It was edible, a vast improvement from when he’d left. He looked to Alena, who was watching him with expectation.

“Well done.”

Relief and pride blossomed from the soul link and he saw her cheeks slightly blush. He had a feeling she’d practiced a lot while he’d been gone. Though, that wasn’t the only thing she’d apparently kept practicing while he’d been gone.

Drawing on the soul link he summoned Alena’s status.

Status

Name: Alena

Class: Villager (Lv.3), Shadow Scout (Lv. 4),

Spy Master (Lv.2)

HP: 250/250

MP: 240/240

STR: 23

END: 25

DEX: 28

AGI: 19

INT: 24

WIS: 21

Titles:

{Azrael’s Oathbound}, {Silent Hunter}, {Trainer}, {Observer}.

Unique Skills:

[Status], [Shadow Cloak].

Skills:

Dagger Arts (Lv.28), Meditation (Lv.14), Trap Making (Lv.19), Stealth (Lv.24), Housework (Lv.23),

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Leadership (Lv.12), Intimidation (Lv.17), Tracking (Lv.17), Hunter’s Intuition (Lv.6).

In everything that had happened last night he hadn’t gotten a chance to properly appreciate Alena’s growth. Compared to the other villagers, she had had the largest growth in terms of skills, titles and stats. She almost rivalled James - a player - in terms of mana and she’d even gained a unique skill of her own [Shadow Cloak]. Both of those were fairly a monumental feats, especially considering this game's discrimination against the first tier [Villager] class.

He started by looking at her two newest classes, [Shadow Scout] and [Spy Master]. [Shadow Scout] made the most sense. She’d already had the [Scout] class when he’d left. [Shadow Scout] was undoubtably influenced by her unique skill [Shadow Cloak], though whether she’d gotten the skill due to the class or the other way around wasn’t something he could figure out. Since [Scout] was a third tier class, the [Shadow Scout] was almost guaranteed to be a fourth tier class. [Spy Master] on the other hand was a bit of an unknown anomaly.

Azrael wondered whether there was a problem with the system, or whether that was simply the closest representation that it could find for a class. Did Alena get it for stalking prey, or for observing game. Wouldn’t it be [Tracker] then, and not [Spy Master]? Either way it was another class and meant more stats. Due to the name, he guessed that it was most probably either a second or third tier class, with a slim chance of being fourth tier.

In terms of stats Alena was fairly balanced. She had ample strength and endurance, no doubt from hunting in the forest, but her highest stat was undoubtedly her dexterity. [Dagger Arts], [Trap Making] both relied heavily on this stat, as did most likely [Cooking] and [Stealth]. Her magic related stats were also reasonably high, at least higher than most of the other villagers. Due to this he believed that [Shadow Cloak] was most likely a mana reliant skill.

Azrael closed the Status window and looked at Alena.

“What’s [Shadow Cloak]?” He asked. “How does it work?”

Alena paused, momentarily considering. Finally, she stopped what she was doing and tugged at his sleeve.

“I’ll show you. Outside.”

Azrael rose and followed her outside, to just beyond the clearing.

Once there, Alena dropped into [Stealth]. Since he’d been watching her as she’d fallen into [Stealth] it was nowhere near as effective as it could have been. Her high proficiency in the skill offset that somewhat, but their soul-link overwhelmed even that advantage. Alena began to move around and he shut off the soul-link between the two of them, finding it just that slight bit harder to follow her with his gaze. Still, he was aware enough of her position that he would have been able to do damage to her with a [Fire Bullet]. Then, she vanished.

Sure, she’d already been slipping from his perception with [Stealth], but it was as if she had just vanished from existence. There was no trace of her. He could only surmise that she had activated [Shadow Cloak].

Extremely curious, he activated [Mana Sight]. One by one he blocked out the various mana flows, ignoring them. Plant, earth, air, life and water mana. He ignored them all, focusing solely on the pools of shadow mana, as well as antithetical streams of light mana that filtered through the forest canopy. However, upon first glance he could see nothing wrong.

Light mana streamed down, being absorbed by, and absorbing in equal measure, shadow mana. The shadow mana formed viscous pools, sticking to the trees, undersides of leaves and patches of the forest floor. Unable to find Alena, he re-opened their shared soul-link, letting it guide him to her position.

Now, with the soul-link counteracting Alena’s [Stealth], Azrael could pinpoint her general position. A quick blast of [Search] further narrowed down her exact position. [Stealth] and [Shadow Cloak] kept her hidden from his mundane sight and greatly hindered even his magical Skills, but due to now knowing where to look, he knew where to focus on with [Mana Sight].

In one pool of shadow, draped against a tree, shadow mana was actively drawing in light mana. That in itself was not so strange. It was the fact that streamers of light mana warped themselves around the pool of shadow, letting it blend in naturally.

He smiled.

“Found you.”

Disappointment and irritation filtered into their shared link.

‘Cheat’.

Alena dropped her stealth, letting her figure fade back into his conscious thought and view. [Shadow Cloak], however, was still active. The inky drape of unnatural darkness covered most of her form, hiding it from view. The pure darkness amongst the dappled shadows of the forest mad it hard to look at directly and he found his eyes naturally slipping off of it, as his mind tried to ignore the mind-bending illusion. It was even stranger at the edges of the cloak, where shadow and light mana mixed and merged in smoky streamers. It was disconcerting, as if she wasn’t there, but at the same time was.

“Impressive.”

Alena’s fingers flashed.

‘Thank you’

Azrael grinned.

“Now let’s see what else you’ve practiced.”

He tapped her on the shoulder.

“Tag. You’re it.”

Alena responded by drawing her ever-present daggers, but Azrael used a gust of [Wind] to jump backwards. Leaves exploded upwards in the sudden wind and by the time they touched the ground again Azrael had long vanished into the forest, dropping into stealth.

Alena grinned. It was time to hunt.