[Privilege] [Silent - Appraise]

I stared in horror at the result.

T̸a̶i̴n̸t̶e̷d̶ - Lvl ???

?̷̧̼̤̳͗͊?̸̱͇̘͂̕͜?̴̨̖̘͍̒̀͝?̵̤̬̹͂?̶̫̚͝?̶̬̚͠?̴͖̅̃̅?̵̯̎̈́̾?̷̩͌̕?̴̞́?̵͍͓̹͗͗̚?̸̨̫̝͖͋͠

I saw something new for the first time in centuries.

A Tainted. That wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t some horrifying, rare monster. They simply don’t exist.

When someone first becomes a Watcher, they are given a full briefing on every species in the world, including extinct species, plants, and monsters.

The Tainted… they were something new. Did the System make a new monster, by itself? Did the Architect create a new monster?

As the Tainted started catching up, our wagon jolted as Britt told… told? Told. He told our horses to go faster. He must’ve had a tamer-type {Skill}.

“Shit! Luminas, try to push it back with magic!” Lauren yelled at me.

{Magic} was a passive {Skill} most people had. {Skills} were divided into two types; passive and active. Passive {Skills} allowed someone to learn something or give a permanent, minor boost. Active {Skills} were abilities someone could activate whenever they wanted if certain conditions were fulfilled. While you could earn and select passive {Skills} whenever you wanted, you had to learn how to do an active {Skill} before the System recognized it. While there were theoretically infinite active {Skills}, there were only a few hundred passive {Skills}.

Active {Skills} branched out from passive {Skills}. For example, my {Far-Sight} active {Skill} was a type of light magic based on the {Magic} {Skill}.

The passive {Skill} {Magic} allowed people to learn and use magic. Without it, you can’t cast any magic. I had devoted most of my early life to mastering magic, which was one of my strongest assets. I had learned every known branch of magic and even discovered the particle branch.

The downside of {Magic} was the System limits. There were a few things the System did not allow. Flight, teleportation—anything that imitated a [Privilege]. Additionally, magic was powered by the System, and you could only cast a certain amount of magic before the System stopped you.

Everyone had a certain amount of System Resources. Anything System-related that affects the real world needs System Resources. This included active {Skills}, {Magic}, and magical items. This also meant healing potions grew ineffective if the user ran out of Resources. The amount of System Resources you had grew with your levels. Nobody knew exactly how much System Resources they had, and it fluctuated for each person, even if it always stayed near a certain point. Usually, the System would send you notifications at 50%, 10%, and when you were out.

My eyes locked on Lauren’s, and we both began casting.

I considered my options. The Tainted was catching up, but it was still a good few meters away. I could manipulate the air and form a blade, but I wasn’t too sure how effective that would be. The Tainted looked like a humanoid being, except every inch of it was shrouded in an unnaturally dark shadow, similar to a fire. The light element would probably be most effective on it.

Lauren must have reached the same conclusion, as we both used light magic. While making sure not to overdo it, I made a bunch of needles. If needed, I would immediately drop my disguise as an Elite, but I wouldn’t if I could help it.

Meanwhile, Lauren created a large amount of arrows. Light arrows would do more damage compared to the needles I made but were more expensive overall. It took more System resources.

With a clench of my fist, my needles impaled themselves into the Tainted, and I sat down relieved. Lauren did the same, and the light arrows exploded on contact. I raised an eyebrow.

[Privilege] [Silent - Appraisal]

[Elite] Human - Lvl 326

A human at level 326. Their name is Lauren Voss.

I’d held off on appraising her for a while, as using [Appraise] on someone without their consent is extremely rude.

However, if she was level 326, the amount of arrows Lauren had created would’ve drained most of her Resources. I had a decent grasp on how many Resources someone had, as the increase was usually pretty linear, and I had centuries of experience.

“Exploding light arrows? That’s pretty complicated, and taxing on your Resources. Are you good for any future encounters?”

“Yup, I’ll be fineeee!”

I narrowed my eyes at her. She wouldn’t be “fine”. She at most had 10% of her Resources left after that display. She was either lying or -

A roar interrupted my thoughts. I whipped my head out the back of the wagon, and to my surprise, the Tainted was still alive. It didn’t even look hurt. It was, however, fucking pissed off.

It rushed us, reaching our carriage in an instant. I immediately used magic far above my disguised level to protect us. This was now a life-or-death situation, at least for the others. It wouldn’t matter if Lauren thought I was a low-level. She would be dead. I wouldn’t let anyone die if I could help it.

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I manipulated the air around us, and using a mix of particle and air magic, hardened it as much as I could.

As the Tainted reached out with its shadowy hands, I felt a chill. Something illogical. I was supposed to be one of the strongest beings in the world. I don’t feel “chills”!

The Tainted, apparently much stronger physically than it looked, reached out and flung the wagon and everything inside it. Completely ignoring my barrier. WHAT THE FUCK?

Right before we were flung, I saw the barrier. It was… destroyed? No, not quite. It was more… there was a gap where the Tainted had reached through and just erased the barrier.

I didn’t have any time to think about the barrier though. Despite being strong and seemingly resistant to magic, the Tainted wasn’t smart. It certainly wasn’t intelligent. Instead of rushing in and killing us, it had simply flung our wagon. It flung it extremely hard.

Britt tumbled back into the wagon, as the sudden jerking of the wagon had severed the horse’s head. The reins were now attached to nothing.

Reaching out, I caught him before he could continue out through the back of the wagon. As the momentum nearly brought me outside with him, I used air magic to create a solid barrier at the front and back exits of the wagon, sealing us inside and stopping the insane amounts of air from rushing through.

The Tainted was definitely at least an SS-ranked threat if not higher.

Setting Britt down, I asked them all, “Are you all ok?”

Neither of them responded. They were likely still processing what happened.

The wagon, now above the clouds, finally began descending. To throw us that far…

I looked outside and used a small portion of my Resources to create some extremely focused, strong winds. The wagon slowed down immediately, but it wasn’t enough.

Even though I’d arrested a large portion of its momentum, it still hit the side of a mountain extremely hard. Wherever we were, we were still in the Akurtum Mountain Range.

{Skill}: {Last Stand} activated. You have been fully protected from physical damage.

I had managed to protect myself from debilitating physical damage with my {Skill} {Last Stand}. It would protect me from physical damage of any type, as long as it was potentially lethal.

{Last Stand}

Protect yourself from potentially lethal physical damage. The more damage prevented, the more System Resources used.

The {Skill} wouldn’t work if someone decided to wear me down slowly, as the “potentially lethal damage” was calculated as if I were at full health.

Looking down at the others though, Lauren had snapped out of her shock right before the impact and managed to somewhat protect herself. She had a broken leg, with her right leg’s shin bending backward 90 degrees.

Britt was in much worse shape. He was unconscious and I barely saw him breathing.

“Fuck. Luminas, do you know any healing magic? I only know offensive and defensive magic,” Lauren asked, looking at me.

“I can fully heal him.”

Lauren recoiled in shock. “Fully? He’s nearly dead though, how do you have enough Resources? Especially after what you just did to save all of us?”

Not wanting to answer, I grunted something nonsensical and started scanning Britt.

Healing magic was an extremely complicated and taxing branch of magic. It involved figuring out what was wrong, and where everything should be.

Identifying the life-threatening issues first, I healed his collapsed ribcage and punctured lungs. Then, I began mending his many broken bones.

For an hour straight, I focused on Britt. There was no shortcut to healing magic, except healing potions. They were a cheat from the System. They were also extremely expensive, and we had none.

Lauren simply watched in silence. For the first time after we set out on our trip, she wasn’t smiling.

You are below 50% System Resources.

Healing someone back from near death had drained a decently large portion of my Resources.

I turned and went over to Lauren. “I’ll heal you too, stay still.”

I kneeled over Lauren and focused on her broken leg.

As I forcefully snapped the bone back into place, there was a cracking sound. Lauren winced but didn’t make a sound.

“Let Britt rest. I’ve fully healed him physically, but the mental trauma will last a while.”

Lauren nodded. Then, for the first time after our landing, I looked around.

Our wagon had partially buried itself into the mountainside. We were surrounded by a thick, dense forest, untouched by humans. We were deep inside the Akurtum Mountain Range, and extremely far from civilization.

Looking down, I started rummaging through the pouch on my side, only to stop. We were too far in. This was an uncharted, unmapped area.

Based on where we were launched, I knew the general direction of Chaustein Forest. Theoretically, I could use my [Query] [Privilege] and ask the System anything, but that could be considered abuse. I wasn’t going to risk it yet.

I looked up. “I know the general direction of where we came from. Do you know how to get back?”

Lauren shook her head. “I know about as much as you do. We’re still in the Akurtum Mountain Range, correct?”

“Yes, we are.”

”Then we should get out as soon as possible. Remember the rumor about S-ranked monsters living deep inside? I don’t want to find out if it’s true.”

The S-ranked monsters. To me, they weren’t that much of a problem. However, I preferred to keep my current traveling companions alive. Besides, if I came back alone to the Mercenary’s Guild, this mission would be marked as a failure.

”Let’s go then. We’ve been here for over an hour already, and our impact wasn’t quiet. We might have scared off any lower-ranked monsters, but I don’t want to stick around.”

I went and picked up Britt, removing the condensed barrier of air covering the top exit. The bottom exit was stuck in the dirt, and we wouldn’t be exiting from that.

I climbed to the top and set Britt outside, before offering a hand to Lauren.

“This place… it’s so beautiful…” Lauren whispered in awe.

In the wagon, most of our view had been blocked. This far in, there was no mark of damage caused by humans or other demi-humans. No damage from battles, no trees chopped down.

To our right, a cliff dropped into a valley with a crystal-clear stream in the middle. Surrounded by trees, the scenery was extremely soothing and peaceful.

Until it wasn’t.

Something large had just triggered {Detection}. Something was coming our way.

“We need to go.”