Prometheus stood side by side with his two companions, Zilch and Sayuri. Neither of them had been idle in the past week, as apparently they had developed Soul abilities of their own. The most impressive change happened after the tier-ups, where Zilch had grown to the size of a horse, and Sayuri's bamboo body had obtained a darker color, as well as getting half a meter taller, reaching a bit over two meters. I guess her change wasn't that drastic, but Zilch becoming huge is amazing. Going from dog-sized to horse-sized finally made him unique. Although the General explained how size becomes a problem later on, so he shouldn't push it too much.

The three monsters were in the usual training room, where the training golem resided. Theo had just returned from the last mission, where he had recovered the shuriken-like artifact. He could feel it in his inventory, slowly releasing water from its sides. The scientists also called it the 'Fountain', so I guess it's able to make water out of nowhere?

The General finally entered the room, dropping from the ceiling with a loud crash. The tree monster stood up, reaching just over three meters in height, and walked closer to the shapeshifter.

"Private, good to see you alive. Did you get the artifact?" Asked the General.

"Of course I did. Here it is," Prometheus took out the artifact, and gave it over with his feline paw. He was still in his armored cheetah form, after all.

"Perfect. This should hopefully put some stress on Golden Lake's water reserves." Explained the tree monster while fidgeting with the artifact.

"Can't they make more?" Asked Theo.

"For something of this magnitude? They could, but they won't. If I had to guess, it was made by a specialized tier twelve Technician. The cost of making another one is simply not worth it. The building that this was stored in was trying to amplify its output, as the city was going through many shortages at the same time. Mostly because of your little stunt back during our rescue mission," The General smiled at that last part, reminiscing about Theo's massacre through the Tribulation. "That reminds me, I'll give you a reward for that, later."

"How can shortages exist at all? I mean, farmers can tier up to plant faster, and maybe develop techniques and whatnot, right? And they could also use 'Technicians' to create water sources for everyone. How can any food shortage exist?"

"It's not that simple, Private. You're assuming that every individual needs the same amount of nutrition. That's not the case. As you tier up, your energy consumption will increase exponentially. At tier four, you will need around double the food and water to survive. At tier ten, it's going to be around fifty times. Keep in mind that the Monster Army has various Units dedicated to producing food and water just for the Emperor and his four Nightmares. If that wasn't the case, an entire nation could be supported by a small group of high-tier farmers."

Prometheus nodded, understanding the situation.

"Moving on, me and the Majors have decided to send you on a capture mission. We believe it is time for you to test your new abilities on the battlefield, without our presence. That should speed up your System progress as well. Here is what you'll do..."

The general went on a thirty-minute-long explanation of what they were supposed to do, eventual alternatives, and what they should expect to encounter. A simple Soul-fueled vehicle was their objective. More specifically, the individual inside of it. Zilch was tasked with taking out the external entourage, while Sayuri and Theo had the task of eliminating the bodyguards and safely retrieving the objective.

Am I doing the right thing? Should I escape soon?

He shook his head, focusing on the present.

The Army is the best way to become stronger. They know the best ways, and they have the resources. Until I'm confident that I can protect Arthur and his children, I need to focus exclusively on getting stronger.

"That should be all. Any questions?"

Zilch raised a hand, mentally, and General Espanto nodded at him to continue, "Um, what happens if we, for example, don't manage to capture the target? Or if they, they die?"

A brief stutter escaped the worm's voice.

"The mission will be considered a failure, and appropriate consequences will be enacted. Any questions related to the mission itself?"

The three monsters shook their heads, awaiting further instructions.

"Perfect. We don't have any portals available, so you will have to get there on foot. No, I will not create traveling pods for you. And remember, we won't come to rescue you if the mission goes south. True danger is what will make you stronger. Good luck, soldiers."

With that, the tree monster exited the training chamber, where soon after Major Vine, one of the three Flytrap monsters escorted them out of the fortress and gave them a mental map with their objective. Prometheus studied it closely, calculating that it was ninety-seven kilometers away from their current location.

Fuck. If I could fly, I could reach it in minutes. I can't do that while carrying them, I don't think so.

"Time to move. Follow me."

Theo moved to walk and stopped.

"Actually, you guys haven't shown me your Soul abilities yet. What did you make?"

"You haven't shown us either, Prometheus." Replied Sayuri while crossing her arms.

"Call me Theo, I've been using that nickname for a bit now. Also, you're right, but I can't show you, as I can only use it once a day, and I want to keep it for when we have to capture the target."

"Mhm. I'll also keep it until we arrive at the target." Said Sayuri while shaking her head.

"That's unfair, I want to see your ability! And you don't have any limitations on how many times you can use it per day I bet, so just show it!"

"No," she replied, offering no other chances for Theo to ask again.

Uff, I guess I'll wait until I see it in action with the enemies.

"What about you, Zilch? What's your ability?"

"Oh, me? Well, I, can summon, golems made of earth to fight with me."

"Sounds great, can you show me?" Asked Theo.

"The fact is, that, it would be a bit taxing on my Soul, so I think I should keep it until it's needed."

"Of course," He replied, sighing heavily.

The three monsters walked the gravel path out of the fortress, their feet creating satisfying crunching sounds that complemented the relaxing atmosphere around them. He could smell the fresh air, which he had started loving ever since he arrived in this new world. The air in his laboratory chamber was much staler and less refreshing.

Theo could see Zilch slowly shifting his skin to be more rocky-like, probably to combat the rough ground. The large worm monster took a gray tone for his skin, almost making him look like a moving statue.

"Zilch, have you had any problems after tiering up? With your skin improvements, I mean."

Zilch's head snapped to Theo, like a deer upon flashlights.

"No, no, I didn't see anything wrong. Actually, it has gotten better. I can do it faster, and my skin is more similar to the materials I want to mimic."

"That's good. And you, plant buddy?"

"Same here." Replied Sayuri.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Prometheus continued walking, finding the silence slightly annoying. No, it's not annoying, it's something else...ugly? No, not that. Weird, almost like that wrongness sense I felt with anomalous things. But not quite the same. Is this...awkwardness?

The group silently moved forward, following the simple instructions given to them by the General. The black hole in the sky was just as oppressive as always, creeping Theo out. The fact that the planet he was on was tidally locked to it made it even worse.

I can use this opportunity to check out that 'perfected manufacturing' skill. I should have done that back on the base. Too late now I guess.

Prometheus grabbed a random rock on the ground and held it in his mouth for a moment, observing it. Nothing happened, so he quickly shifted into an ant form, taking around twenty seconds to do so.

Medium-rank Shapeshifting leveled up to lvl 3!

Nice. I guess practice also helps with skills.

Using his mandibles, he bit into the stone, trying to create an arrowhead with it. Incredibly, his incisions and cuts molded the rock to form it exactly how he envisioned it in his mind. No imperfections were present. Just using his mind didn't work. He actually needed to sculpt it, otherwise the skill wouldn't help at all. Other, more complex shapes like gun bullets and small figurines worked just as well, even though the rock should have broken and he would have needed smaller mandibles. The skill let him bypass those limitations.

This is amazing. I might even be able to bring back technology from Earth at this rate. It's not like anything's stopping me, I have the blueprints, the materials, and the skills to do it.

After half an hour of walking, lonely trees sprouted from random spots in the soil, increasing in density the more they proceeded, ending up in a simple forest with blue leaves and grass. Theo quickly took out some blades of grass to study them in detail, as his Soul had asked.

"There we go! Was that so difficult?" said Theo's Soul, which surprised Theo.

"I didn't use [Introspection], why can I talk to you?"

"Hell if I know. My guess is that you only needed to use it once to establish the connection. But that doesn't matter. Study the grass' genes! I want to see why it's blue!"

Theo nodded internally and absorbed the blue grass, studying its genetic composition. Interestingly, the cells in here lack the Chrolophyl that makes leaves green. Instead, it has anthocyanins in their place, making the grass appear blue. It shouldn't work for absorbing energy, and yet, it does. Is it the type of light that the black hole is emitting from the accretion disk?

As always, he sequenced the genome of the grass, which simply meant that he saved all its genes in his database. His two companions looked at him curiously, and Sayuri asked, "What are you doing?"

"Studying how this grass manages to survive while being blue. Where I'm from, grass and leaves are usually green."

"What do you mean 'where I'm from'?"

"I come from another planet, called Earth. And things are very different over there."

Zilch didn't react to the information, but the samurai did. She stopped and looked at him directly.

"Another world," she said slowly.

"Yes? That's what I said."

"Called Earth." She repeated.

"What about it? In this world, individual power makes no sense, and there are so many ways to get stronger, all of which are confusing if you ask me. In comparison to that, why is coming from another world so special?"

Sayuri shook her head, continuing to walk forward.

"Is there a place called 'Japan' where you're from?"

Now it was Theo's turn to stop and look at her straight on, narrowing his ant eyes.

"There used to be, decades ago. Why do you ask? And how do you know about it?"

"It's nothing. Just curious."

Theo sighed and continued walking forward, focusing on grabbing random objects from the ground and trying his Perfected manufacturing skill on them. A stick could easily become a sharp weapon in seconds, and any type of leaf could easily be unwoved into individual fibers, effortlessly. Using particularly strong plant fibers, and a tough stick, he managed to create a primitive axe using a sharpened rock he polished with his mandibles.

"Look at this, guys. What do you think?"

"That's a pretty cool axe, can I try it?" Asked Zilch, who looked at Theo's axe intently.

"How? You don't have arms."

"The Major taught me a cool technique, [Earth manipulation]." Theo noticed the worm's Influence moved to the ground and levitated a mass of dirt, which slowly coalesced into two rudimentary arms. He looks funny, like a weird worm centaur.

"That looks funny. At least you can use tools now." He gave the axe to the worm, who grabbed it with a dirt hand. It didn't have five digits, but it still held onto the handle well enough.

A small chuckle escaped Sayuri's mouth, who quickly silenced it and returned to her serious attitude.

The group kept walking for another hour, without anything noteworthy happening. They rested on the sides of a river to stock up on water, and Prometheus even managed to discover a new use for his Inventory skill. He had just caught a boar-like creature to cook it before an idea had sprung up into his mind. Wait a moment. My inventory won't allow me to put in live cells, but is that the same for bacteria and whatnot?

He had tried putting the boar corpse in his inventory, and it did in fact allow microbes to stay inside it. With a simple thought, he could easily sterilize it by removing all the microbes from his Inventory, effectively making the meat completely safe to eat.

Inventory has leveled up to lvl 4!

The level-up gave him additional space, as well as increased control over what was inside of the pocket dimension.

Could I use it together with Perfected Manufacturing?

Prometheus tried working on a rock inside the inventory, but it did nothing. Unfortunate.

Another hour into the travel, Theo began throwing small rocks at his friends to pass the time. I am so bored. I could literally die from the boredom.

Sayuri stopped dodging his pebbles and raised her left hand. Theo cocked his head at the gesture but continued to walk.

"Stop! There's someone ahead of us."

Prometheus stopped, turning around to realize the horse-sized worm had stopped when the bamboo monster had raised her hand. Was that a gesture to stop?

"Who?" Asked Zilch.

"I don't know. Their Souls are around tier three, with possibly one tier four among them. There's five of them."

How did I not notice them first?

"Follow me."

Sayuri slowly moved out of the path, going into the dense blue woods. Other than the occasional animal sound, the only thing preventing total silence from existing was the slow flutter of leaves. Prometheus, who shifted into the three-meter-tall Goliath shape using the extra biomass, and Zilch slowly followed right behind Sayuri, who crouched down to make as little noise as possible.

In the distance, Theo could finally see them. A group of five people stood around a campfire, happily discussing various topics. They're all smiling and laughing. Why are they so happy? Do they not know how dangerous this world is?

Four of them were men and the last one was a woman. All of them had plate armor, which covered their vitals, as well as helmets by their sides that were simple in design. Sayuri put a hand on the handle of her katana, ready to draw it at any moment.

Zilch suddenly said, through the mental connection, "Can't we go around them? Our mission isn't about fighting these people."

"But that's boring. We should at least try to talk to them." Said Prometheus, feeling his Soul's excitement about talking to new humans.

"Zilch is right. We should try and move around them, this fight isn't necessary."

Prometheus tried his best to come up with an excuse to interact with the humans, but he couldn't find any. He sighed and told the others to move around the five humans, ignoring them completely. He shifted into his Eclipse form, a small Gryphon-like creature with stealth capabilities, and flew back towards the group.

---

Albertus took another portion of the soup, savoring it completely. She really is amazing, He said as he looked at their leader and healer, Cecilia. She had partial plate armor like all of them, for protection. Since she was the highest-tier member between the five of them, she was the leader.

"Okay everyone, time to share our profits." She said while clapping her hands to gather everyone's attention. She took out a satchel from her backpack on the ground, which held many coins inside of it, mainly Moonarites and a couple of Soladites. Moonarites were the lowest currency, mainly used for cheap equipment and food. One hundred of them were the equivalent of one Soladite, which was a good chunk of money, enough to buy a good sword.

"The last bounty paid us ninety Moons, so that's eighteen each." She then went to each of the squad members and distributed the money. Cecilia then took eighteen for herself and put them in her pocket.

"Next-"

"Ceci, I think there's something around here," said Albertus. He was the one with the best senses of the five, so he acted as the scout.

"Monsters?" She asked with a frown, moving immediately to pick up her staff. The others were getting up and equipping their weapons as quickly as possible. They wouldn't lose another member of their squad by being slow. Not again.

Albertus equipped his bow and used his Soul ability, which gave him a mental image of every living being in a certain radius around them, as well as their tier. He had a certain cooldown between each use, so the maps might become obsolete if his targets moved quickly enough.

"Three monsters, all of them tier three. Should we risk it?"

"We've been eating like shit for the past few months, this could be an opportunity," said one of their companions. Tier three Cores did sell for quite a bit, so it wasn't an unreasonable suggestion. The group continued discussing the matter until their leader stopped them.

"No, we follow the Guild's guidelines. A tier three monster should only be approached by either three tier three's or one tier four. We don't have the numbers to go and hunt them down." She said.

"It's not like you could hunt us even if you wanted to," said a voice in the air, which made everyone stand up hurriedly and raise their weapons at the sky. The voice sounded monotone, like from someone who felt no emotions whatsoever. It sounds wrong.

The five adventurers looked around continuously, trying to find the source of the voice. Albertus could finally use his Soul ability once again, and it let him see the small, flying monster above them.

"There!" He shouted, pointing at the spot where the winged monster was going around. He knocked an arrow, ready to shoot.

"Relax, everyone, I'm not here to fight. I'm just checking out what you're all doing. And if you have interesting Soul abilities." The monster chuckled at that last part, which sounded ominous given the voice's tone.

Cecilia stepped forward and said, "What do you want?"

Shit, she's scared. Albertus could hear the fear in Cecilia's voice, which was expected. Monsters that could speak were always dangerous, regardless of their tier. It showed that they were smart. And intelligence was the only thing the Civilized races had over monsters.

"Just tell me what your Soul abilities are. If you answer truthfully, I'll let you live."

Cecilia gulped loudly, and started talking, "I can heal any wounds that I've naturally treated before, as long as I use a specific ritual."

"Ceci! You can't tell him!" Albertus shouted, pointing at the monster.

She looked at him with tearful eyes and whispered, "What's the alternative? Just dying here? If we tell it the truth there's a chance at least."

He wanted to shout at her, to tell her not to give up so easily, but then he remembered her situation at home. She can't take any risks.

He dropped his bow, saying, "I can create a mental map of living beings around me every ten minutes."

The three other members had no soul abilities.

"You had the opportunity to create any soul ability you wanted, and you made one to heal wounds? To sense creatures around you? I don't understand. They're so fucking boring. Either way, I don't want them, so have a nice day!" The monster then flew away into the distance, disappearing from their life. Cecilia sighed, a smile blooming on her face.

Albertus found the smile contagious, as he found himself smiling alongside his companions. They would get to live another day.

---

Prometheus returned to his friends, who were tiredly sitting on the ground. They had disapproved of his little chat with the humans, but the curiosity had gotten the best of him. After I learned that everyone can make whatever Soul ability they want, I feel like I need to study them all! Theo's Soul nodded deeply at his words, sharing in the feeling. The group continued on their travels, arriving at their destination many hours later, around three hours before the Unsafe Hours came. Then, they waited for their target to appear.