The hyena’s body convulsed violently as blood gushed from the wound. Its teeth slackened, and with one final, gurgling growl, its struggle waned.
Finally, Sacrifice was triggered. Harrow gasped for breath, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. His bitten arm spasmed in torment, warm blood trickling from the punctures the hyena had left behind. Yet he plunged the obsidian knife into the defeated foe unrelentingly, unable to register that he had already won. Blood cascaded on him, as the lifeless creature melted into shimmering mist.
Harrow lay there momentarily, bathing in warm blood, staring at the canopy above.
[You have slain an Unformed creature: Dire Hyena.]
[Unformed Core: 4/100]
[Plundered: Common Grade Skill Matrix.]
Having gone through the process twice before, Harrow found the pain in his body subsided. Perhaps the other pain dulled it. It didn’t heal the wound, nor could it close the deep bite marks or torn flesh. The bleeding slowed, though it still throbbed horribly.
Harrow sat up, clutching his arm. Setting his jaw, he tore his tunic further to wrap around the wound. Only after binding the cloth tightly did he inspect the glowing crystal left behind by the hyena. It was a red one, smaller, and like the other one, he couldn't tell the difference from a normal gem of the same colour.
[Would you like to assimilate the Skill: Bestial Reflexes (Common)?]
[Y | N]
Harrow accepted it without hesitation. Even though it was the lowest rank, anything was better than nothing. The battle against the beast had proved that.
As the pain in his arm receded to the background, a new wave of agony consumed him. The skill began integrating, and his body writhed on the forest floor. He clenched his teeth and endured. No bile rose this time, much to his relief.
When the pain passed, he pulled up his [Profile].
Skills [3/8]:
Cloak of Night (Elite): +1
Toxin Tolerance (Uncommon): +1
Enhanced Reflexes (Common): +1
After what he had been through, Harrow couldn’t bring himself to smile. Only a sense of relief washed over him--that he was alive. The threat to his life had passed.
Gingerly, he stood and hurried away. Yes, he had gained a new skill—a skill that could help in combat—but that didn't change the fact that he was still injured, and the forest remained teeming with danger.
The ominous sun loomed, unmoving, staring creepily from its position. As the hours passed, its intensity lessened, and a cloak of darkness covered the wilderness. The buzzing of bugs cut through the still air, and their cacophony only rose from there.
Harrow returned to the abandoned farmhouse he had found, carefully avoiding any dangers along the way. The sun now twinkled like a crimson moon, its tainted radiance barely enough to see by. Navigating back to the farmhouse wasn’t difficult, but it took time.
Finally, he decided to work on his skills before even attempting to make a fire.
Activating the skill was easier said than done, though. At least for the first time. Apparently, it was much harder for newly awakened individuals to succeed in their initial attempts unless the skill was physical in nature, like Kash’s [Light Finger].
Harrow’s [Bestial Reflexes] would likely activate easily, and [Toxin Tolerance] would trigger automatically if he ingested anything toxic. It was [Cloak of Night] that worried him. Common rank skills were the easiest. It became a little difficult from Uncommon, while Elite skill's usage of essence made it even more arduous. Ambitious.
But he wouldn’t know unless he tried.
Skills were supposedly like relics, functioning as extensions of the body, though not often as physical manifestations.
As he had done with Duskripper, Harrow concentrated on the skill. He visualised how he wanted it to manifest. He imagined it enveloping his body in tendrils of darkness, weaving together into a cloak. He imagined its form, in its full uncanny glory.
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Something stirred within him. Goosebumps prickled his skin, accompanied by a sudden chill that spread all over his body. Heat rose in his chest to combat the cold. Once again, Harrow felt his core—a swirl of essence, twirling with power. It seemed as solid as it could be in its unformed state, though fragile nonetheless.
As he had hoped, darkness enveloped him—not just as a cloak, but shrouding his entire body, mirroring the night. His form easily blended into the night. Yet the oddest sensation was how detached he felt from the outside world.
The [Cloak of Night] was like a little world of its own, insulating him from external influences.
The cloak of night hides you, empowers you, and restores you.
Harrow couldn't wait to test its empowering effect, but first, he needed to determine how effective it was at restoring him. The skill stopped his wound from bleeding immediately, freezing the blood swiftly. Yet it fell short of proper healing.
True healing skills are rare, he thought with a sigh, a bit disappointed. Especially those capable of instant recovery.
He hoped it would be like Sister Serena’s [Mending], which was merely an uncommon rank skill, yet could heal wounds almost instantly, provided they weren’t too serious. Again, it proved how highly sought-after healing skills were. Awakened individuals with such abilities were protected under the emperor’s decree. They even get a healthy stipend, along with a full scholarship in the awakened academies.
[Cloak of Night] was like a first-aid at best. To abate his disappointment, Harrow tested its other function.
He tested it by sprinting and was surprised by his speed. His lunge hurled him three or four metres into the air, nearly reaching the top of the farmhouse. He could tell that a part of the augmentation came from [Bestial Reflexes], but the majority of it was due to the elite-rank skill.
After running around for a quarter of an hour, Harrow was finally satisfied with his testing. He had expected the skill to deplete his essence quickly, given its rank, but again, he was surprised by how little energy it consumed.
After further usage, he realised it used about as much energy as his common-rank skill.
“Maybe it’s because I can only use it during the night.”
Since the skill didn’t consume much energy, Harrow indulged in more practice, forgetting about making a fire. The cold didn’t affect him with the cloak activated, and it also allowed him to hide from any nocturnal predators if there were any.
An hour into his practice, the divine voice echoed in his ears.
[Cloak of Night (Elite): +2]
A short while later, the voice spoke again, this time for a different skill.
[Bestial Reflexes (Common): +2]
The improvements were the only encouragement he needed. He began practising with his knife, attempting to adapt the sword forms he had learned. To his frustration, he found himself unable to control most of the forms.
No, it wasn't because they were useless with a dagger. It would be less efficient, but still better than nothing. The issue lay in controlling his new strength.
He had a hard time stopping himself if he were to exert most of his power. Harrow knew it wouldn’t help to practise with reduced power. In battle, he would need to use his full strength. So, instead of slowing his movements, he practised without holding back.
His body became a blur of shadows, nearly invisible in the tainted light as he repeated the same forms over and over, calibrating his movements to his augmented power.
[Bestial Reflexes (Common): +3]
[Bestial Reflexes (Common): +4]
A few hours later, Harrow discovered why [Cloak of Night] consumed so little energy. The “restore” mentioned in its description didn’t refer to healing, as he had initially assumed, not entirely, but rather to the restoration of essence. When he wasn’t moving, the skill restored almost as much essence as it consumed. As his mastery over the skill improved, the restoration rate increased further.
[Cloak of Night (Elite): +3]
His progress wasn’t limited to skills alone.
[Unformed Core: 5/100]
At this rate, I might be able to rank up within a couple of weeks, he thought. That would require him to fight more monsters, however. The more ferocious the better. While improving skills did contribute to his core, nothing compared to the tithe of essence harvested from slain beasts.
On that thought, Harrow began to seriously consider hunting monsters right this instance. In a few hours, he wouldn’t be able to use [Cloak of Night], its empowering effect would wane, and he would become easy prey for creatures like the hyena, which almost ended him.
But with the skill, he felt confident he could take down the hyena and perhaps more—even without the aid of Sacrifice.
Looking up at the dimming sun—or moon—Harrow bolted into the wilderness, cursing under his breath. I’ve really gone mad, Solas!
Hunting at night proved easier said than done. The forest buzzed with the noise of nocturnal creatures, the cacophony of insects assaulting his ears from all sides. After a short struggle, Harrow realised he could mute the noise using his elite rank skill--like how it could isolate chilly wind and coldness--though he refrained for obvious reasons.
For half an hour, he searched without much success. He spotted several enormous bats flying overhead but chose not to antagonise them, mulling over the advantage aerial creatures held.
The real issue was visibility. Monsters couldn’t see him in the darkness, and neither could he see them. He wasn’t reckless enough to deactivate his skill and use himself as bait. He was not completely insane.
Wait, bait! he thought suddenly. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?
Without hesitation, Harrow hunted down the aggravating giant bugs in his vicinity. They didn’t yield much essence, but that wasn’t his goal. He didn’t use Sacrifice on them either, instead scattering their scarred bodies across the area and smearing their blood over a two-hundred-metre radius.
The task took longer than he thought. Now, all that remained was to wait and see if his plan would bear fruit.