Coach's voice trembled as he shouted warnings. Hundreds of creatures, some with fur and claws, others slimy and scaled, crept closer with each passing second. Their glowing eyes shone in the flickering torchlight.

Just as Coach feared, the next round of monsters carried disease among them. We outnumbered the first wave of monsters but they carried a dangerous bite, their saliva dripping with a mysterious virus. The sixth wave exhaled an acidic gas that burned our skin and seared our lungs. The twelfth wave carried pustules on their skin that burst upon death, showering us with a caustic ooze that burned and infected our bodies. The waves only seemed to become more dangerous, and now for the twentieth we were faced with a combination of all three threats. We tightened our grips on our weapons and braced ourselves for the battle that lay ahead.

Coach Liv’s voice boomed through the battlefield, “Flamethrowers!” Seth and Sam stepped forward, blasting the little nightmares with fire that burned the bodies before they could reach us. The rest of us retreated for a brief moment of respite, taking advantage of Al’s healing aura that provided a small measure of relief from the pain and toxins that had clogged our minds.

“Melee, attack!” Coach Liv hollered, and we all sprang into action, dispatching any survivors and readying ourselves for the rodent beasts. They were fewer in number than their predecessors but also larger in size, making them harder to take down.

Coach Liv’s voice boomed as he yelled, “Cut the tails!” He had reminded us of this strategy too many times to count, yet it still hadn't sunk in for some of us. The bearman's skin was marred with tiny, red bite marks – a sign of his weakened health from the continual onslaught of poison and disease. He kept insisting he was training his new resistance skills, but we had all guessed that he was shielding us from expending too much of the healer's mana by stubbornly refusing healing for himself.

The next wave approached, about fifty strong in total. I stepped forward and slipped into the shadows, using my Stealth skill to vanish from sight.

The first group of rodents moved past me, four of them together. Then a group of five. I created a long shadow knife and focused on two stragglers. Approaching from behind, I raised my knife and struck in one motion, easily severing the rodent's tail. Before the other one could react, I drove my second blade into its skull before it could even make a sound.

Still unnoticed, I slipped back into Stealth and stalked after the other rodents. Just ahead, I could hear Robin and the others engage with the first four that passed by me, the other group of five quickly approaching them from a different direction. I could hear my friends struggling with just four of the beasts. I wasn’t sure they would survive against the next group of five. I needed to thin the herd and I needed to be careful about it.

With Stealth active, I came alongside one of the two trailing rodents, my footfalls all but silent thanks to my skill and the Muckwalker Boots. The two rodents were close to each other. Close enough for me to take a risk.

I didn’t need anything as large as the Zhanmadao, but something like it would suffice. Taking a shallow breath, I timed my step to match theirs. With one more step, I formed a Flamberge from the shadow and stepped forward in one motion, driving the sword through both tails. The weapon dropped from my hands, dissipating back into black nothingness and reforming into two long knives which I quickly stabbed into the closest rodent’s back, striking the lung with one and guts with the other. I twisted and jerked both blades free and ran as the second of the beasts squealed loudly, drawing the attention of the other three that were in the lead.

I had to make a fast choice of direction to run. I ran toward my allies, taking a couple painful scratches on my arms and legs as I passed the monsters. They might move slowly, but their attacks were swift. Thankfully, they were easy to outpace and I quickly caught up to my allies. Most of the rodents were dead and Coach Liv was quickly cleaning them up.

“Group of four just behind me, one is injured. Two groups of five more coming from the other directions,” I warned as I stabbed a knife into the closest of the rodents left by my group, knocking it off Robin’s shield and giving her a little relief.

Robin grunted in response, bringing her mace down twice in rapid succession, crushing the rodent’s skull. “How many did you already take out?”

“Three,” I answered, breathing heavily. I wasn’t completely out of breath, but I’d certainly exerted myself.

Robin grunted again, though she sounded more approving than before. “You know, that’s kind of impressive considering how much trouble the rest of us are having just killing one . . . not counting Sam or Seth. Those two just aren’t fair to compare to.”

Only three of the rodents made it this far and they only had eyes for me . . . until Robin smacked her mace against her shield, using her taunt to draw the beasts to her. That second they looked away from me, I activated Stealth, fading from view. A couple silent steps and I was behind them again. With their attention on my defender, it was easy for me to pick them off one after another. We moved to help the other half of our team and then on to Coach Liv to finish the clean up.

We got a short five minute break to recover and then the next groups were coming and I was back to ambushing and killing rodents as quickly and efficiently as I could. If I feel the emotion, I might have started to fear just how easy it was to kill the monsters. But I didn’t feel fear. I knew there was a task in front of me that needed to be done.

The eerie silence of the bog was broken by the snarling and howling of horrific beasts as they emerged from the murky depths. I quickly lost count of how many monsters we were facing as their numbers seemed to never end. Our Mancers' fireballs flew through the air with less and less power as their mana levels dropped dangerously low. I felt my body tire with every group that we vanquished, my exhaustion turning my limbs to lead.

I had chased down and killed one of the more elusive monsters when the air suddenly reverberated with thunder, and the ground beneath my boots began to shift and separate. I instinctively ducked into stealth while scanning for a safe place to hide. My gaze quickly fell on a pair of corpses, and with a silent prayer I silently raced towards them and hunkered down between them.

No sooner had I found my hiding place than a great rodent forced its way up from below. Its thick, leathery hide slowly emerged from the bog, and its six massive legs rolled out from its swollen body nearly twice as tall as me. Its fur looked like it had been eaten away in patches, leaving only discoloured streaks of blackened flesh, and pustules filled with pus and eggs lined its back. Maggots crawled in and out of the sores. As it slowly approached, it dragged its thick tail through the muck behind it, leaving a trail of repugnance in its wake. The boss had finally appeared.

The massive creature moved through the bog, and I realised that I had the opportunity I couldn’t have planned for as I projected its path towards my weary teammates. The ground shook as the creature approached, its footsteps making loud splashes as they disturbed shallow pools of water and blood. Its red eyes felt like they were boring into me, and I could feel its rancid breath on my skin as it came within two metres of me. I could see its long tail dragging through the mud and blood, leaving thick smears in its wake.

With one metre to go, I started burning through my remaining mana to form the heaviest Zhanmadao I could. The mana burned as I pushed every last dreg I had into it as I came out of Stealth. The massive heavy blade formed overhead and I strained my muscles as hard as I could, swinging down hard on the boss’ tail, cutting through thick hide, dense muscle, and rock-hard bone, almost severing it in one blow. And yet, it still wasn’t enough. I grunted with effort as I jumped and put my full weight on the weapon, trying to push it the last ten centimetres as the beast began thrashing. I heard pustules popping and knew time was going to quickly run out even as the blade cut six centimetres deeper. My muscles burned, acid, disease, and poison, all running through my body. I jumped again and put all the force I could muster and direct. Finally, the blade slid through the rest of the flesh. The tail landed with a wet plop in the mud as blood sprayed even as I fell into the mud, utterly exhausted. It was all I could do to avoid getting kicked. I heard and smelled pustules popping more rapidly and I knew I needed to run for it. It took a force of will I didn’t know I had to get back on my feet and stumble away.

The beast screamed and thrashed as blood gushed from the beast's weak spot. It spun about, looking for me but not finding me as I buried myself under a small pile of corpses, trying to use Hide and Stealth. I needed them to activate so I could make another attack, but it was harder while the beast was looking for me.

Eventually, the beast huffed and began walking back toward my team only to falter half a dozen steps later. I thought it might have found me but then it whimpered. It stumbled a few more steps then collapsed. Had I just killed it with that one attack? That didn’t seem possible. Even with the tail cut off it should have taken minutes to bleed out. It was then I saw numerous notifications popping up.

Congratulations! You have learned to identify the vulnerabilities in others. The Rare Skill Find Weakness has been added to your skill list.

Congratulations! You have learned to effectively remove limbs from others. The Rare Skill Sever has been added to your skill list.

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Congratulations! Your skill Bleed has improved to Advanced.

Congratulations! Your skill Stealth has improved to Advanced.

Congratulations! Your skill Fighting has improved to Advanced.

Congratulations! Your skill Footwork has improved to Advanced.

Congratulations! Your skill Hiding has improved to Intermediate.

That was a lot of gains and improvement hitting me all at once. It was thrilling to see such gains, so much so that I considered trying to kill more bosses on my own. It was strange sometimes when a new skill was added to my list. Find Weakness for example. The skill was self-explanatory in what it did but not how it worked. From what I was getting from it, it . . . synergized with my Synesthesia skill to help me identify the weak points in a beast or even one of the kin. It didn’t explicitly tell me. It was more . . . instinctual. Just like I instinctively knew Sever worked in almost perfect synergy with Bleed.

And the skill upgrades were fantastic, I could instinctually feel the influence of the improvements on my skills. I understood how to strike at veins and open them wider to draw more blood with my Bleed Skill. There were similar instinctual improvements in the other skills. I also knew it was a long road to move any skill above the Advanced Rank. I might never see any of these skills advance for the rest of my life. I hoped that wasn’t the case, but I couldn’t deny the possibility.

With a tired sigh, I pushed away the corpses and climbed back to my feet and out of the mud. I could still hear fighting and knew I should help.

When I caught up with my team, there was only one boss beast left and it was not long for this world. The tail had already been removed and it was moving sluggishly. Seth and Sam continued pelting it with fire and ice magic from range. Only Robin and Liam moved into melee range and then only to keep it in place. I didn’t even have time to throw a dart before the beast dropped to the ground dead.

I looked around and saw Al working on Coach Liv. The bearman didn’t look good. He had some deep cuts rent through his leather armour that seeped blood. I was more worried about the disease and poison that was no doubt running through him. His face was ashen grey, and not just from dried dirt.

“Teams of two, go clean up the stragglers,” Al barked. “We need our next rewards. Hopefully, one of them will include something to help Coach.”

“Liam, go with Leonardo,” Robin said. “Burion, you’re with me.”

It took almost forty minutes to clean up twelve straggling beasts that were either injured or wandering aimlessly.

When we returned, I quickly set about sending everyone to their chests, hoping for something that would help Coach Liv survive.

“Comrade Robin, this one is yours,” I said at the first of the reward chests.

Robin opened her reward, as hopeful as the rest of us, only to frown when she got a skill stone. With a frown she said, “Regeneration.”

Al glanced over and answered, “It’s a passive self-healing skill. I don’t know if that will save Coach.”

I moved on to the next chest, “Comrade Alphonse, this one is yours.”

Al looked between the chest and Coach Liv, hesitating for a moment before looking to Robin, “I’ll be right back. Hopefully, there is something in there to help Coach.”

Robin nodded.

Al jogged over to the plinth I indicated. He opened the lid and pulled out a single skill stone, it only took a second for him to grin and the stone to crumble into dust. “Cleanse,” he said, hurrying back to Coach and using his new skill, his hands glowing a soothing blue colour.

That was a relief. Cleanse was something we all could have used. As I looked around, I saw the pale faces and sweat drenched foreheads and knew we were all sick. I could smell the orange and green sickness coming out of my own skin. I was almost certain we’d have all died by now if not for the two Resistance skills we received before.

Feeling relief, I put aside the individual reward chests for the moment and moved to the large supply chest in the centre. I opened it and found the usual suspects. I pulled out the safe zone pillar first and drove the spike into the ground then fed it a little mana to activate.

Naturally, that was when Seth just had to open his mouth again. He asked, “What about the rest of the chests?”

“I’ll get to it, let me get the camp set and start cooking the beast meat, okay?” I asked.

Seth glowered and looked ready to press me, but Sam stepped in, “That’s enough, Seth. You need to stop. Your reward will still be there in an hour or ten hours. It’s not going anywhere. But our team needs to rest and to eat. You and I should be trying to meditate.”

Seth reluctantly conceded to his cousin leaving me to get our camp set.

I started the fire over the ashes of our previous fires. Once that was going, I spitted the two beasts the supply chest gave us and set them to cook.

It took about thirty minutes to do all of that and when it was done, I looked for my friend, “Comrade Robin, would you watch these while I get everyone else their rewards? Just turn the spit occasionally if you would.”

Robin smiled and nodded. With that taken care of, I moved back to the ring of plinths. It didn’t take long to direct everyone to their rewards. Everyone got a skill stone. Magic Arrow for Leonardo, Fire Arrow for Sam, Ice Arrow for Seth. Liam got Regeneration, same as Robin.

That left just two reward chests, mine and Coach Liv’s. I looked back first to see the meat was still cooking and Robin was doing an adequate job turning the spit at regular intervals. If the pattern followed, I would get a skill stone, same as everyone else, but mine would probably be related to my Shadow Attunement.

I approached my reward chest. I touched the lock and it came undone with a soft click. I lifted the lid and found two skill stones waiting for me. It seemed it was my turn to get a bonus reward.

I lifted out the first stone and held it in my hand.

Skill Stone – Shadow Caltrops. Would you like to learn the Mystic Skill Shadow Caltrops?

I thought yes and the stone crumbled away.

Congratulations! You’ve learned to turn shadows into small spikey impediments to forward progress. The Mystic Skill Shadow Caltrops has been added to your skill list.

I smiled. It was exactly what I needed. Anything I could do to slow the enemy down was welcome. When cast, the spell would cover a small area of ground with small shadow spikes, meant to injure feet and slow down approaching enemies. Better still, I could move freely among the caltrops and they wouldn’t injure my feet as the caster. I was very pleased by the skill.

I reached into the box and pulled out my second skill stone.

Skill Stone – Shadow Cloak. Would you like to learn The Unsung Hero Skill Shadow Cloak?

What in the name of all the gods and goddesses was a Hero Skill? I’d never heard of such a thing. And just what did a skill called Shadow Cloak do? I was intrigued, but also worried. What if the dean looked at my skills again? Would she see it? Would she think I was a hero? Or would she think I stole the skill from Al? I frowned at that thought and shook my head, Al didn’t have the right attunement for shadow anything. Still, this skill was something I didn’t think I could turn down. I sent the thought of yes and instead of crumbling, another message appeared.

Are you sure you wish to learn this skill? Doing so will remove the skills Hiding and Stealth and prevent you from learning Shadow Stealth and Shadow Hide.

That was . . . worrisome. I depended on my Stealth skill a great deal. It was an important part of my Job. I also didn’t like that this would prevent me from learning Shadow Stealth or Shadow Hide. However, I also knew if I was losing out on those skills, then Shadow Cloak must have had parts of those skills embedded with the skill. I thought yes again and got another message.

Warning! This is a Heroic Skill specific to The Unsung Path and will prevent learning any other Heroic Skill outside of The Unsung Path. Are you certain you wish to proceed?

I frowned at the stone. The Unsung Path. I was sure it was referring to my Achievement, The Unsung. It also suggested that I might be able to choose a different path, not just that of The Unsung. But did I want to be more than The Unsung? Did I want the fame and prestige that would come with being the Hero? I liked being anonymous. I liked lurking in the shadows. I had no problem being The Unsung even if I never took the Job. The answer to all those questions was no. I thought yes again.

Congratulations! You’ve learned to live in the shadows and no longer need to hide or sneak about. When you need them, the shadows will be there for you. The Unsung Hero Skill Shadow Cloak has been added to your skill list.

By the gods! It was a miracle of magic. The knowledge of the skill . . . the things it could do . . . by the gods! It did everything I could ever ask for and more. Stealth and Hide both drained stamina, the former used more than the later, and with the waves taking longer and longer to clear, the stamina drain was getting excessive. That wasn’t to say the mana drain wasn’t also taking its toll. But this skill . . . asked for nothing. It was like I had made some kind of a contract with the nature of shadows. I loved it.

“Uh, Burion,” Robin said cautiously, giving me a strange look. “Are you . . . okay?”

I quirked an eyebrow, surprised she was so close to me. I looked around and saw the rest of my team giving me their own strange looks, and some suspicious looks as well. “I’m fine, why?”

“Uh, you’ve got . . . um . . . it’s uh . . . you’re kind of . . . shadowy,” Robin stammered through her answer.

“You’re covered in Shadows,” Al said, resting near the fire and turning the spit. “New skill?”

It took a moment for me to feel what was happening, to feel how my body reacted to the shadows . . . or rather how the shadows reacted to my will. It was profound and thrilling and I could not wait to try it in combat. It also meant there wasn’t much point in lying, they could all see the effects of the skills. They would all see it at work when I started using it.So, I answered, “Yeah, something called a Shadow Cloak, it’s a passive Stealth magic.” It was mostly true. It was a passive effect, but not one that ate away at my Mana or Stamina.

Robin sagged slightly, looking relieved, then said, “Very nice, but can you . . . uh . . . tone it down? It looks really creepy.”

Al snorted a laugh then tried to hide it. I still glared ineffectually at him. Appearances had to be maintained.

It took the slightest thought for the shadows to retract and when they did, the rest of my team relaxed, though I still got looks of suspicion from Liam and Seth, not that I expected any differently from the two of them.

I had a feeling the next wave of monsters would go much differently. I smiled and went back to cooking for the team.