“You can close that mouth of yours. This is nothing. Just wait till you see some real action.”
Back from her slightly shocked state, Hannah centered herself. After all, punching a large slab of concrete was nothing compared to seeing almost everything cease to move as if frozen in time.
Yet, that only reminded Hannah of other peculiarities that she had witnessed that made no sense.
But just as her mind got curious, it got distracted as well by Lee Ping, when he raised his right hand above his left shoulder and made a motion as if grabbing and pulling something, only, as it turned out, he did grab something because from one moment to the next, the simple outfit of shirt and jeans got replaced by some kind of eastern themed, blue/white colored clothing style with baggy handcuffs and wide trousers at the ankles, thought both the upper and lower parts of the outfit appeared to be a one piece.
Naturally, the bagginess was within limits to not impede movements, but to Hannah, it appeared extremely foreign. The only identifying marks were the few images she had seen in the history books pertaining to the Ancient East before the Western Colonizations reached that part of the world.
There was even a black hat on Lee Ping’s head with two small… hinges on the side of the hat, while the upper part of the hat looked closer to a bag wrapped around the scalp.
“Let's go.” Lee Ping stared at Hannah and went through the hole in the wall. Although, he was not the first to do so, as Henry, the big ginger-haired and armored man had been the first to pass through citing something that she had ignored due to slight shock.
Following Lee Ping, the other Party members followed, with Sandy and Cain taking third and fourth place, while Mira stopped right beside Hannah. “Go! I will enter last.”
Still, a bit rattled, Hannah looked at the black-haired woman and did as bidden to do. However, just as she took a few steps, she turned around and faced Behold with a glare. “Follow me, and if you so much as think of leaving my side, expect punishment. Understood!”
“Be!” Behold echoed in turn and followed his Master, though, since it was still somewhat unused to its current mode of transportation, its speed was left to be desired. Thankfully, as he had demonstrated moments before, he was a quick learner, so it got the motions down relatively fast when moving in just one direction.
Passing through the rather thick gap in the wall, Hannah came to its end before realizing that her Party members were below her, by about a meter in height, because of the rail track used for the subway.
A quick glance left and right, Hannah noted no train, so the only thing of interest became the crumbled stone dust opposite the gap made in the wall. As such, the crumbled stone dust could only have been from the missing wall that had somehow exploded after being shoved into one direction by a punch of all things.
“Stop gawking and come down.” Lee Ping spoke up before pointing in one direction. “We will be going that way”
Not feeling like jumping down, Hannah used the edge of the gap in the wall to climb down slowly. Behold, on the other hand, simply adjusted his floating angle and followed. Mira, simply jumped down beside her Party members. Then, with everybody there, they walked in the pointed direction for a few minutes.
“Strange…” Lee Ping murmured, causing his Party members to glance at him. “By now I should have been hearing the noise from the silver bastards.”
“True.” Henry added. “Sounds should have been echoing through the tunnels even if the action was right at the entrance. Especially the chatter from the insects as they rush at them.” Unsure and a tiny bit more prepared for what could possibly come at them, the Party walked forward. Only, as if it was not meant to be, they arrived at a dead end, though not one made by human hands. Instead, it was an earthen wall blocking their way. “Nevermind. Blast through again? Eh, Party Leader?”
“Probably, just let me quickly check.” Lee Ping answered before rushing to the earthen wall blocking the subway tunnel. There he placed his sensitive ears on the wall to check that he could discover. Unfortunately, as the wall was part of the Emergence, he could not see through it like he could with ordinary materials outside the Shroud. “Alright… I can hear some sounds, and it sounds like many things are passing through. Looks like this is the main tunnel by which the bugs are moving.”
“Should we try the other direction in hopes for the Emergence to have generated another tunnel?” Sandy asked.
“We should at least check just to make sure.” Mira added.
“I'll do it.” Cain spoke up, causing everybody to focus on him. “Am probably the fastest of us. So I will be back in a jiffy now that I have no need to watch my back for any silvies.”
“Go ahead.” Lee Ping allowed. “We will wait here.”
Nodding, Cain turned around, and one moment he was there and the next he was gone.
“He vanished?” Hannah said, with another surprised tone mingling with her usual somewhat placid vocal tone.
“Yea… Sanguine are fast.” Lee Ping commented. “He will be back within seconds.”
“You have mentioned it before.” Hannah remembered. “What is a Sanguine?”
“Vampires, girl.” The answer came, but not from Lee Ping, but from Henry with his somewhat grub voice. “Although, they don't like that term at all, so don't use it in front of them.”
“Why?” Hannah asked, truly curious, because the only thing she knew about vampires was that they were humanoid monsters who drank blood and lived in gothic castles.
“Quite a few reasons.” Mira intervened and explained what she had read about them. “The main one being that a Sanguine is an Awakener while Vampires are still beholden to the Veil, thus are considered Mortals despite their powers and longevity.” Ceasing for a single second, she added one last line. “While there are Vampires aplenty on this Layer of Gaia’s Rift, Sanguine are a rarity since their Race is situated in another. The same Logic applies to our leader here.” That said, Mira pointed at Lee Ping. “Fox-Kin are also a rarity on our Layer since mostly humans live here, hence why the majority of Awakened have Human Shells instead of the other phenotypes.”
Just as Hannah processed the new information, a black figure with a white cloak reappeared.
“No luck. It's either through that wall or drilling a separate entrance.”
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“Guess… Plan A is still in place.” Lee Ping affirmed before turning to the earthen wall blocking them. “I will make a smaller cut this time so we won't be stampeded with bugs.”
With that said, Lee Ping repeated his earlier light show, only this time, his blue/white flames made a rectangular shape before they went into the earthen wall to make another door, however, it was obvious that this time, only one person would be able to pass through at one time.
“Henry. Please.”
“Sure.” The armored man said and nodded. One punch later, an opening was made, only this time, a loud screech reached everybody. “Nice… First Kill. Only thousands more to go… I will go ahead again.”
Crouching slightly to pass through, Hannah heard another screech before she saw Henry’s head through the breach. “It's not too crowded here. Come.”
“Fighters, go.” Lee Ping order.
Sandy and Cain went through, with Cain going first and Sandy second. As a result, more screeches echoed from the other side. “Mira, you go.”
“Alright.”
“Listen, Hannah.” Lee Ping said as he faced her. “Steady your mind and remember the exercises I made you do. When you are on the other side, follow those but do not fire immediately. I will tell you when you have the free shot. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Good, wait for my signal before going through.” With the last command given, Lee Ping went inside the earthen breach and made it to the other side.
Through the opening, she saw him glance left and right before motioning with his left hand for her to come through.
“Remember, do not leave my side.” Hannah advocated to her Summon again and went through with Behold who followed right behind her.
However, what both of them found on the other side was simple chaos, at first glance, with Cain and Sandy killing the hip-sized ants with swords. Sandy with two of them as she chopped every ant in front of her, while Cain expertly injected his white sword, a sword she had not seen him possess moments before, into every ant's brain before slashing once and leaving the ant-shaped Nightmares called Terminid to simply burst apart and flake way as if they had never existed in the first place.
Henry, on the other hand, had not drawn any weapon and simply punched every creature that got too close. A few times, she even saw him grab one by its pincers, or whatever was the closest to him, before throwing it down the tunnel with a grin on his face to hinder some of the incoming flow of ant-shaped Nightmares.
Meanwhile, Behold just stared with shock at witnessing the actions. Not only was it completely new to it, but it made it realize that these bigger versions of its Master could clobber its existence with apparent ease now that he was so small. Yet, even if it possessed its old body, the same would have no doubt occurred. As such, scared for its existence, it found the only solace it could, and that was by inching closer to its Master.
Both Master and Summon were interrupted from their mental paralysis at witnessing combat firsthand by Lee Ping’s voice echoing down the tunnel. “Let one pass through.”
Hearing the order, the three front-line combatants glanced back. “Sure.” Henry replied before grabbing the nearest ant and throwing it closer to Hannah, Mira, and Lee Ping.
Luckily, it landed upside down, so it took it a moment to right itself.
During that moment, Lee Ping addressed Hannah. “Remember what I taught you. Take a stance and shoot the bug.”
Still somewhat shocked, Hannah’s response was delayed. Thankfully, the earlier brief conditioning she had been given by Lee Ping caused her to do just that and take aim at the ant about ten meters away from her. At the same time, her right forefinger went for the gun trigger while another part of her focused on the targeting function of the NTT COLT LM10.
Additionally, Hannah tried to regulate her breathing while in the stance. But just as the corsair aligned itself properly, the ant-like wiggled itself back upright before its antennas realigned themselves at the closest enemy which was the trio before it.
“Shoot!” Lee Ping commanded, yet no shot got fired.
No, despite the obvious, Hannah hesitated for a moment. When she did, during that brief moment of hesitation, the hip-sized ant charged directly at her.
To Hannah, the charge felt as if a mighty car was coming directly at her.
“Shoot!” Lee Ping’s voice echoed again, only this time it was far firmer with the command it carried, and carry it did, as the command seeped into Hannah for a moment causing her to fire without any active influence on her part.
Bang
Alongside the echoing bang sound, the COLT in her hand produced an unfamiliar vibration rattling her hands. It was not strong, but it was somewhat weird as Hannah had not experienced it before. On the other hand, since she had hesitated, the corsair had not been properly aligned with the center mass of the hip-sized ant, so the weirdly glowing shot from her gun only clipped the back carapace of the ant. Yet, even that did enormous damage as the back carapace of the ant exploded sending the ant careening to the left only for the ant to flake away a second later because the Novice Training Tool had been dubbed a COLT for a reason.
Specifically, it stood for Condensed Optimized Lightning Transmitter while the suffix LM 10 stood for Light Magazine and the number ten indicated the maximum load the magazine could hold.
Either way, together with the flaking away of the Nightmare, a distant chime reached Hannah’s awareness.
The moment she focused on the chime, it echoed its purpose.
Users' Spirit has grown! User has earned; 1 D-Coin!
“What… What just happened?” Hannah asked while stunned from too much familiarity reaching her. “What was that chime?”
“Considering your Summon, I imagine a notification about your first kill.” Lee Ping reasoned out. “As for the chime? Well… It's an inherent feature of your D-Card telling you that you have earned your first D-Coin, the currency with which you will trade in the future for Skills, Equipment, Consumables, and more.”
“That said, you hesitated too much, so I had to force you to shoot. Let's try again. ” Lee Ping declared before calling out once more. “Send another one.”
“Gladly.” Henry shouted back and grabbed the nearest ant before throwing it back near Hannah.
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Bang
Users' Spirit has grown! User has earned; 1 D-Coin!
Bang
Users' Spirit has grown! User has earned; 1 D-Coin!
Bang
Users' Spirit has grown! User has earned; 1 D-Coin!
Click Click Click
“Pour one PP into the handle and your gun will recharge.” Lee Ping stated. Hannah did just that, but in the same second, it made her realize that she had a limited number of shots with her gun. “Good. Now that you are not entirely helpless, it's time we move forward. Come.”
With the order given, the backline stepped near the frontline fighters. “We can move forward. Remember the plan, and don't stop till we find a favorable spot to camp in.”
“Finally.” Henry voiced as he grabbed another ant and threw it at its friends.
Right after that, he rushed at the incoming ants before drawing the sword from the sheath on his hip and began actually slaughtering the ants with extreme prejudice. Then when they reached a crossroad in the tunnel, Sandy and Cain rushed out to cover the gaps that had manifested. Hannah and Mira were the next to enter said crossroad while Lee Ping took the last place in case something suddenly jumped at them from behind.
Obviously, since it was a crossroad leading to many tunnels, there was no end to the incoming ant-shaped Nightmares, and with no end to their numbers, the chance to come across the bigger version as it lumbers through a tunnel. Yet, as Hannah stared at it real close and without the magnification effect of her Flow, she had the chance to take in its actual size when compared to her.
Only, as big as it was, for some reason, Hannah felt that the ginger-haired big man was somehow bigger.
Not physically of course, but to her senses he felt bigger.
Then, the next second, Hannah saw his sword grow bigger until it rivaled his own size, and with the new two-handed weapon, he swiftly chopped the giant ant to pieces. Once again, Hannah witnessed a giant ant-shaped Nightmare send its visceral insides around itself before dropping to the ground. Though, now that the monster had not been blasted apart, Hannah noted no flaking away effect occurring to its corpse, as if the giant ant was more real than its smaller siblings.
Unfortunately, for Hannah, she had no time to wonder or even ask why that was so. Instead, Lee Ping called out and the group listened when he pointed to one specific tunnel.
Henry was once again the first to go in, though only after he shrunk his sword back to its normal size. Sandy and Cain followed him, while Mira and Hannah, who had yet to do anything, followed after them. On the other hand, Hannah had seen Lee Ping throw his FoxFire at a few hip-sized ants thus burning them to nothing. But that was all he had done while he used his sharp hearing to examine their next destination.
As for the requirements for the destination? Well, before they had started on this diving experience, it was decided that the chance of a Sub-Boss appearing was much higher wherever the highest concentration of ants would be. So, Lee Ping listened and examined the loudest tunnels before pointing the way.
Like that, the Party had rushed through a few crossroads, but the more they went through, the more they realized that finding their way through the tunnel maze.
During said maze diving, Hannah became somewhat used to the ongoing action.
With that being the case, her attitude shifted to being more and more focused and aware of her surroundings.
When that occurred, it took very little to send her into action with COLT in hand.
Her goal was to practice with the gun-shaped Item of Power. However, since the front-line fighters took care of everything before them, this left her with no choice but to target those who followed them through the tunnels. Unfortunately or fortunately, as they were on the move, Hannah could not target those ants. Instead, it was Lee Ping and Mira who took care of those with Lee Ping naturally burning any ant his FoxFire touched while Mira simply pointed her small stick at an ant and the next moment it was dead due to some kind of small but shimmering light flying from said stick. As such, the only time Hannah managed to shoot anything was when they were stuck at the crossroads while Lee Ping searched for their next destination, and even then, it was only by targeting the distant ones coming at them.
That being the case, Hannah took her time while aiming and shooting, after all, now that she had realized she had a finite amount of ammunition, thanks to her meager Power Point reserve, every shot had to count.
Thankfully, the corsair on her vision helped her with that. Additionally, her COLT was so powerful that even if she failed to hit dead center, as long as she hit somewhere on its body, the ant would die.
At one point, Hannah had imagined herself shooting at the big ants, but after trying once and noticing that one shot would not kill it, she left those to Henry and his big sword.
Then, on the fifth or sixth crossroad, as Hannah forgot to count, Lee Ping finally uttered something that was not indicating a direction. “How is everyone holding up?”
“Am good.” Cain replied instantly.
“I can still go on too.” Sandy added. “However, we should consider taking a break soon.”
“I agree.” Henry commented on the side just as he finished another big ant. “This is getting a bit repetitive for me.”
“I am fine, as well.” Mira informed the Party because she had hardly used anything so far.
“Me too.” Hannah joined, though, it took her a second to note that nobody paid her much attention.
The same occurred for her Behold floated beside her who still unblinkingly stared at the action going on. Nonetheless, if anybody had paid attention to its eye, they would have noticed that it had mostly focused on Henry, especially every time he went against the big ants. And if somebody had been able to understand its tentacular gestures, aside from Hannah who simply ignored it as much as she could, they would have noticed that Behold was in despair from everything its big eye was witnessing it.
“A break is then.” Lee Ping decided. “We will have to go for Plan B, however, since no decent sites have shown so far.”
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Naturally, Hannah had no idea what Plan B was.
Regardless, soon enough she knew what the first step of that plan was, and the idea was to first pick the next tunnel. Then when everybody was inside it, The Fox-Kin called out for Mira, the Caster of the Party to make a big boom behind them, and she did after concentrating on her stick for a few seconds.
Hannah heard the woman’s lips produce sounds that sounded like gibberish to her ears, but the truth was that it could be anything but gibberish because a few seconds into the chant above her stick a tiny flame. A normal red-orange-looking flame before it soon grew and condensed a few times. While that happened, Lee Ping burned any Nightmare coming for them. Then, when the chant was complete, Mira pointed her stick forward and let the ball of condensed fire loose, though it was not at the incoming Nightmares, but at the tunnel ceiling of the opening through which they had just passed.
Just before the condensed ball of fire was let loose, Hannah noticed Lee Ping doing a similar thing, only his did not become a ball of fire, but a blue/white rectangle, similar to a piece of paper upon which Eastern symbols were written. Naturally, the white part of the flame became the paper while the blue became the characters on the paper. Obviously, Hannah knew not what those words referred to, but after the paper/flame rectangle appeared, Lee Ping slapped it just ahead of them into the air.
As such, almost instantaneously, Hannah watched an explosion appear just ten meters in front of her only for a shimmering blue/white wall to appear and hide the view beyond it. What it did not hide, however, was the reverberation of the explosion as it rippled through the earth around them, yet not at them, as if the blue/white flame wall protected them somehow.
Either way, a few seconds after the explosions, Hannah heard many rocks collapsing in on each other as no doubt they successfully blocked the passage through which they had come. It was only after the shimmering flaming…barrier vanished that such a thing was confirmed.
“Nice work, Caster.” Lee Ping complemented before ignoring the havoc they had made to focus on the path ahead. “Continued to the end of this tunnel.”
Order given, order executed.
Nonetheless, when they reached the end of their current tunnel and another crossroad awaited them, Hannah had this unnerving sensation that she was about to be buried who knew how many meters underground, and her premonition turned out to be true.
A similar scenario of a condensed ball of flame and a shimmering flaming barrier appeared and executed their purpose. Only after the consequence of their actions ceased echoing were the sighs’ of relief released from her companions, and maybe herself as well.
“Let's hope that will give us some time to recover.” Not waiting even a second longer, Hannah saw Lee Ping execute a familiar motion before a flask appeared in his right hand, only the contents of said flask went down his gullet just seconds after they manifested. When that was done, Lee Ping simply threw the bottle to the side and repeated the gesture only this time, he threw the bottle right at a flustered Hannah trying her best to catch it. “Drink that.”
Stunned and glaring at Lee Ping for a second, Hannah noted a similar scenario was followed by all of their Party members. Witnessing nothing untoward happening, Hannah drank the drink, the potion, the elixir, or whatever it was called. When she did, she noted the contents evaporating in her stomach and infiltrating her Soul, only, unlike how she imagined at first, the contents rooted themselves to the third layer of her Soul, namely the one dealing with Will and its generated resource Regen.
Obviously, in turn, her Regen affected her Power Point Reserve, all in order to speed up her Power Point generation.
Done feeling out what was happening in her Soul, Hannah centered on what had occurred so far, and now that she was processing it, everything was closer to a blur with how everything was executed.
However, one thing bothered her the most. So Hannah asked while glaring at Lee Ping. “How?”
“Be more specific, girl. How, what?” Lee Ping remarked.
“How… How did you know we would be fine?” Hannah asked.
“Ay… So many things to learn for this one.” A gruff voice interjected into the conversation. Turning around and staring at Henry, Hannah heard him speak. “He is a Stigma User, girl. If he can make something make sense, then it does not matter how something appears or works. It will be as his Logic dictates. It's a Stigma User's greatest advantage but also their biggest flaw since there are numerous ways to counter somebody's Logic.”
“Indeed. Provided that you are not against somebody much higher level than you, Stigma Users are the most versatile Awakeners within a Party.” Mira added before waving her stick from which a tiny light flew out and rooted itself above everybody to shine its illumination at everybody and everything within its range. “Just like you have not noticed that you could see without any light source to feed you information. Makes no sense to you, but to him it does and as such we all could see in this darkness without any trouble.” That said, Mira waved her stick again, and the light vanished, but when it did, Hannah finally understood her words.
Indeed, she did see everything around herself without any problems, though now that she was paying attention, there was a difference between her current vision and the illumination Mira had provided.
Nothing too big, but it was there.
Turning to Lee Ping, Hannah voiced another question. “How?”
“Fox-Kin can see in the dark.” Lee Ping replied, accompanied by a shrug of his shoulders. “It's easy for me to share that capability, plus enhance it somewhat so it rivals normal light conditions.”
“When?” Hannah inquired again.
“Before we entered that building for the first time.” Lee Ping pointed out. “Did you not notice that no switches had been pressed to light the basement?”
Thinking about it real quick, Hannah shook her head.
“Does not surprise me.” Sandy commented. “Many things you failed to witness because you are stuck with the Logic prevailing Gaia’s Veil of Ignorance. Like with me, it will take you a while to unwind those.”
“I… Don't understand. Which Logic?”
“All of them.” Lee Ping retorted. “To be Awakened is to set your own Logic down, your own Rules, by which you choose to exist, such that others have to follow yours instead of theirs when confronting you. The difference between Stigma Users and the other Awakeners is that we get to do so the moment we Awaken, while for others it depends on when they base their following Ability on the Domination Ability Principle. It could be the Second or the Fifth. Even then, it will be a constrained type of Logic, set within the bounds of the Dreams you have awakened or will be awakening.
In your case, your Domination Ability will be all about your Summon, your Dreamon as you call them. However, the difference between you and other Awakeners is that your Grand Dream will require a lot, and I mean a great amount of pondering to not mess up.
I certainly would not look forward to that.”
“Me aside, let's focus on the here and the now.” Lee Ping switched topics. “Are we changing the length of the break?” Glancing at his Party and noting the head shakes, he went on. “Alright. Fifteen minutes it is. How about our tactics? Anything to complain about?”
“Not me.” Cain, the black Sanguine replied. “Everything’s peachy for me.”
“Aside from being somewhat bored?” Henry remarked. “No!”
Sharing a glance between each other, Sandy and Mira shook their heads in unison.
“And you?” Lee Ping asked while staring at Hannah with his black eyes.
“I… Don’t think so.”
“Good.” Nodding, Lee Ping addressed everybody else. “Don't rely solely on the Potion. Try to recover as many resources as you can.”
Almost immediately, as if trying to set an example, he sat down on the rough ground and closed his eyes. Following him, Mira was the first one to sit down, cross her legs, and close her eyes as well. The same happened to Sandy beside her. Henry, on the other hand, simply leaned on the wall while his eyes seemed to watch some distant cloud only without any clouds to be seen deep underground.
The only expectation then became Hannah and Cain.
Of course, that was because Hannah had no idea how to do whatever they were doing.
Cain, on the other hand, beamed a smile at Hannah. But the moment he did, his almost glowing red eyes bored into Hannah. Not out of malice, of that, she was sure. At least as sure as she could be about anything in this new world she found herself in. No, his red eyes seemed to convey curiosity. Only a similar inquisitive feeling bloomed within Hannah. So, she stepped towards the black man with his black clothing and white cloak.
Once beside him, Hannah whispered to not interpret her companions. “You are not doing the same?”
“Don’t need to.” Cain replied back, with a whisper as well, though he did not need to. It did amuse him somewhat. “Let me guess. You want to know what they are doing?” One nod later, he shared what he knew. However, before he did, he proposed a little exchange. “How about this? For every question we ask each other, we get to ask one in return. Naturally, you do not have to answer, but it would be disrespectful. What do you think?”
“I… Ok… But you go first.”
“Ok.” Cain said. “Remember the revelations you received from Soul Prism?” Hearing it mentioned again, Hannah nodded. ”Remember that you are the Ego, the Spark of Life, the barrier between holding your Individuality against the Everything Else.” Nodding once again, thought with a bit more hesitation as there was a lot in there to process. “Well, imagine yourself lowering your guard, your barrier slightly to interact with Everything Else instead of isolating yourself from IT.”
“What!” Hannah almost shouted out. “Is… Is that not dangerous?”
“It is… But it is also rewarding.” Cain explained. “The Commune with Everything Else is… something like an exchange ritual, where you share your Experience with Everything Else in return for raw energy. Meaning, instead of growing your Spark, you use your Experience to recharge it.”
“That's… a good thing, right?”
“Depends on the depth of the Commune, the Experience being shared during it, and the Level of the one doing the Commune.” Cain elaborated. “Higher-leveled Awakeners have bigger reserves, so they need to share more Experience for the equivalent recharge.
Then, there is the factor of Time since that one determines the depth of the Commune. If you have Time for it, the Commune will be shallow but prolonged. If you do not, then the Commune will be deep but brief.
After that, comes the factor of quality vs quantity. Quantity is used for the shallow but prolonged Communes, while quality is used for the deep but short Communes.”
“Experience has quality and quantity?”
“Ah… You don't know this?” Cain added. “It's simple. Experience is a combination of memories and emotions. Longer memories but with fewer emotions involved represent quantity. Shorter memories and strong emotions represent quality.
In our companions' case, since not too many resources have been spent so far, I imagine they are sharing part of what they had gone through while fighting to reach this point of our Raid. So… even if their Commune is brief, they will recover at least part of what had been spent for those shared Experiences.”
“Now… It's my turn. You asked three questions and I have given you three answers.”
“Oh… Ok?”
“My first question will be this one.” Cain said before his red glaring eyes gained in intensity. “How did you achieve S-Rank?”