The entrance to the cave loomed before me, a vast maw that seemed to have been carved out to accommodate the harpies' frequent comings and goings. I morphed into a more amorphous form, clinging to the ceiling and blending in with the roughly worked stone, my colors mirroring the cave's dark tones.

"Wow. Way to make me feel useless in this expedition." Trixie teased before giving a playful wink and disappearing from my sight.

As I approached the opening, I was taken aback by the lack of additional security. It was either a sign of the harpies' arrogance or their underestimation of potential threats. The air was filled with a cacophony of echoing sounds, a bizarre mix of squawks and throaty laughter.

Inside were the two harpies I had seen earlier, along with the pegasus strung up and bled over a crudely shaped stone tub that must have seen much use as it looked permanently stained and caked with leftover blood.

There was also a strung-up body, looking very similar to the ghouls I had fought except hardly emaciated; it was in the process of what looked like regrowing its legs while one of the harpies was busy butchering off his arm. What once might have been a decent robe was now nothing more than a crude toga at best, crusted and layered with long-aged dirt and blood. His eyes seemed hollow and lifeless like he had lost the spark of consciousness. One of the harpies grabbed a filthy stone mug in her talons with unnatural dexterity and, in a practiced motion, fetched some of the unicorn blood and force-fed it to the ghoul.

"Oh shit. It's Mister Gloomy. I wondered what happened to him." Trixie's voice rang in my head.

"They're... Feeding and harvesting him." I replied.

"Trade in some blood for some regrown meat. It's quite clever, although I can't say that looks appetizing; even regrown, it looks half-rotted already."

"He's a ghoul. They're some form of undead. His book mentioned an undead monster that could turn humans."

Trixie snorted a laugh, "Serves the bastard right for locking me up. I was going to complain that I can't get my revenge on him, but it looks like he's spent years being nothing but bird chow."

"I'm surprised he doesn't just kill them. He's a much higher level than them, and I can tell he's not lacking in mana."

"Yeah... That is odd; it's like he's under a compulsion spell, but I can't sense any foreign mana on him at all."

I shuddered at the mere mention of compulsion, and Trixie seemed to pick up on it. Her voice unexpectedly softened, and I could feel almost like a mental hug. "Guess I don't need to explain to you how vile compulsion can be."

Having seen far too many limbs being harvested, I began debuffing the two harpies and the ghoul after they were done. This coincided with them swapping positions, and the other one cut into the ghoul, becoming extremely surprised at how quickly she lobbed off the limb.

"Have you been holding back on the hunts?" The one harpy questioned the other, surprised at the apparent display of strength.

"N-no? The blade just sunk straight through. It's never been like this."

"Really? Strange..." The other responded and grabbed another cleaver before hacking into another limb; it went flying off.

They both squawked in confusion but soon began cackling in delight.

"This will make our job so much easier!"

"Yes!"

Using the unexpected distraction to its full extent, I rapidly formed my spells behind the two as they examined the ghoul and fired the razor-sharp shards of ice again. It seemed Trixie was right about my overkill, as a single spell for each was enough as it pierced their fragile skulls and began to freeze over their bodies. I lowered tendrils and started dragging the bodies upwards.

"Couldn't you have just done that from the start?" Trixie asked.

"Yes, but I wanted the magic practice."

"Ah. Yes, very good, I was testing you. The easy path isn't always the right path."

I would have rolled my eyes if I had any at the poor attempt to sound like a wisened sage. Meanwhile, Trixie appeared visibly and waved a hand directly in front of the ghoul's face, trying to force a reaction, but it simply stared listlessly. She touched him, and I watched her siphon off a tiny amount of his mana before she made a retching sound.

"Well, nothing's wrong with his mana except it reeking of death." She fluttered back to me and siphoned a little from me.

"Cleansing your palate?" I asked.

"Yes. He's truly rotten on the inside and outside, spiritually and physically. On the other hand, yours is pure and has a bounty of flavors... I honestly might be a little addicted to your mana."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"So... What are we going to do with him?" I asked, trying to change the subject away from snacking on my mana.

"Killing him would be a mercy at this point. You might as well take the experience and put it to good use."

While I would gladly accept the offer, I was slightly confused by her not wanting it. "Do you not want to do it? Settle your revenge? Or even party up and share the experience?"

Trixie shook her head, "No... I honestly don't need the experience, and it'll be more useful to you. I won't even gain a single level."

"Well, thanks, I'll gladly take it."

I fired my [Icicle] spell at it, piercing into its head, but unlike the harpies, this wasn't enough to kill it. It still didn't react, merely letting out a long groan as the pierced ice shard began to emanate its freezing ability. The embedded mana in the spell ran out before it even froze its head; clearly, it was resistant to the magical ailment.

I was about to fire more at it, but then I recalled the unicorn horn I still hadn't tried. I dropped to the ground with a wet plop and started to shift my form again, back into my winged hobgoblin form, but this time, I grew a unicorn horn from my forehead. Trixie immediately started laughing.

"You've upgraded from blueblin to blueblicorn." Trixie chuckled over her own bad joke.

"I have to create the part to use it..." I grumbled.

"Could you not just hide it inside yourself? I'm assuming you don't actually have organs and guts and whatnot." Trixie asked.

"Maybe?" I replied curiously. I removed the horn and tried to form it inside myself. However, despite having the horn formed inside, it wouldn't let me borrow the [Enchanted Horn] trait.

"I can make it inside myself, but it's become inert now," I informed her.

"Weird. Does it have to be on your head?"

I easily agreed with the idea, so I formed the horn in my hand and tried borrowing the trait. It worked.

"This works!" I said excitedly and waved the horn around.

"Here's a fun idea, you could pretend it's a wand!" Trixie giggled. "It's still a bit silly, but way better than coming out of your forehead."

I liked that idea. It would give me a good excuse if I wanted to use the trait in disguise. I could also put it on the ends of tendrils if I ever wanted to stab something. Armed with my new trait and boosted spells, I cast a few more [Icicle] spells. I noted that the horn seemed to glow with each spell, and I wondered if that was why I couldn't just keep it hidden inside of me.

I kept casting spells at him, hoping this would be enough to push ice magic over the edge. I had a [Frozen Grasp] going as well. Eventually, his entire form was frozen, and with a final spell, his body shattered into pieces. A stream of notifications flooded through, so I quickly latched up to the ceiling again to read through them safely.

"I just got a flood of notifications... Going to go through them." I explained, then quickly grabbed the ghoul ice chunks with tendrils.

"Hopefully, something good!" Trixie said with a thumbs-up before also disappearing again.

<[Ice Magic LV 5] spell [Glacial Aura] learned.>

"I got ice magic level five!" I told Trixie happily.

"Great! Now you just need to get your last one!"

I quickly went through the spell to familiarize myself with it. The spell modified my mana aura to physically slow enemies within it and also contained a minor freezing ailment.

"Looks like it's a slow and freezing aura," I informed her.

"That's useful; if you cast that spell, you'll better understand what's within or outside your normal mana aura." Trixie said happily, "You should be able to power up the spell to increase its range, but beware that extended range does not include protecting your spells."

"Thanks for the heads up. I didn't realize ice magic would teach me slowing; I thought that was more of a warlock thing?" I questioned.

"There is overlap with some of the spell concepts. Although I believe yours is limited to physical slowing, like making it harder for something to move its joints as if they were slowly freezing up." Trixie explained. "There's a much more powerful slow effect that affects everything; magic, projectiles, or even thoughts!"

"That's... Terrifying."

"Yeah. But don't worry about that; you shouldn't run into advanced magic for a long time."

<12 Trait Points are now available.>

<16 Skill Points are now available.>

<17 Skill Points are now available.>

I smiled at the levels I had gained; I was now over halfway to my next evolution. It was a little disheartening how slowly I was accumulating race levels. I had to hope the dungeon I was doing for my gold promotion would have some decent experience despite being split amongst the party. I quickly looked at the new skill.

<[Magical Subterfuge]

Beguile your magical opponents by concealing your spell constructs from their sight or manipulating them to distort their true intent.

This skill and its levels can be used to achieve these effects alone but to truly utilize either option, it must be paired up with a compatible skill.

Stealth Bonus: [Vanish] (Excellent Efficiency)

Deception Bonus: [Acting] (Poor Efficiency).>

"Holy shit! This skill is amazing!" I exclaimed happily.

"Oh?" Trixie asked curiously.

I extended out a tentacle and displayed the skill to her, as it would take me too long to describe it. I also purchased it immediately.

"Very nice. I suspected you'd get something as soon as we broke through your wall. I used to have this skill, and it's a game-changer." Trixie said with a hint of what I assumed was pride bleeding through the telepathy. "I hope you have skills that are compatible with it to get the bonuses."

"I have both; my stealth says excellent, but my deception says poor," I answered.

"Then lean on the stealth aspect until you find the missing piece; either way, you'll level up the skill."

"Will do."

Emblem Achieved: [Manhunter].>

"Oh wow. An emblem too, today just keeps on giving."

<[Manhunter]

Achieved by killing over fifty humanoids or someone with the [Slayer] emblem.

Deal 20% bonus damage to humanoids and gain a large circumstance bonus in tracking them down.

Equipping this emblem will cause Fear (Lesser) to all humanoids.

The hunter has become the hunted.>

"Well, shit," I muttered.

"What's wrong?"

"It sounds like I've accidentally become an enemy of humanity."

"What?" Trixie asked, sounding genuinely baffled.