[You have slain Fire Pillar Level 27!]
[You have slain Magma Summoner Level 24!]
[You have slain Magma Overlord Level 37!]
[Lifestealer reaches Level 29!]
[You gain two Free Attributes!]
[Lifestealer reaches Level 30!]
[You gain two Free Attributes!]
[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]
[Lifestealer reaches Level 31!]
[You gain two Free Attributes!]
[Lifestealer reaches Level 32!]
[You gain two Free Attributes!]
[Lifestealer reaches Level 33!]
[You gain two Free Attributes!]
[You have absorbed Lv. 24 Magma Summoner Life Force.]
[+97 to your Primary Mana Channel (421/1000 to Level Six)]
[+5 to your Constitution]
[You have absorbed Lv. 27 Fire Pillar Life Force.]
[+165 to your Primary Mana Channel (586/1000 to Level Six)]
[+4 to your Charisma]
[You have absorbed Lv. 37 Magma Overlord Life Force.]
[+650 to your Primary Mana Channel (1000/1000 to Level Six)]
[Primary Mana Channel (236/3000 to Level Seven)]
[+12 to your Intelligence]
[+8 to your Wisdom]
[You have absorbed a Skill from Magma Overlord.]
[You have learned ‘Soul Domain.’]
[Primary Mana Channel has reached Level 6!]
[You have absorbed Skill: Soul Domain]
[Soul Domain has been added to your Skill list]
[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 18!]
[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 19!]
[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 20!]
[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]
[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 21!]
[Magic Funnel reaches Level 13!]
[Eyes of the Abyss reaches Level 18!]
[Eyes of the Abyss reaches Level 19!]
[Eyes of the Abyss reaches Level 20!]
[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]
[You have fed Star Glaive excess Vitality!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 8!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 9!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 10!]
[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 11!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 12!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 13!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 14!]
[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 15!]
[Name: Talia]
[Age: 17]
[Class: Lifestealer Lv. 33]
[Rank: Adept]
[Primary Mana Channel (Water): Level 6 {Flowing}]
[Secondary Mana Channel (Blood): Level 7 {Surging}]
[Secondary Mana Channel (Dark Water): Level 3 {Awakened}]
[Core Skill #1: Blood Siphon Lv. 27]
[Core Skill #2: Hemomancy Lv. 28]
[Core Skill #3: Eyes of the Abyss Lv. 20]
[Auxiliary Skill #1: Missile Swimming Lv. 28]
[Auxiliary Skill #2: Crimson Wisdom Lv. 16]
[Auxiliary Skill #3: Blood Confluence Lv. 18]
[Auxiliary Skill #4: Tailwind Lv. 5]
[Auxiliary Skill #5: Ika Toto - Blood Tide Lv. 18]
[Auxiliary Skill #6: Magic Funnel Lv. 12]
[Auxiliary Skill #7: Soul Domain Lv. 1]
[Form Skill #1: Cursed Form Lv. 5]
[Strength: 40]
[Agility: 7]
[Constitution: 8]
[Intelligence: 13]
[Wisdom: 8]
[Charisma: 37]
[Free Attributes: 10]
[Talent Trees:
Bloodborne Warrior (1)
Carmine Thunder (1)
Sanguine Guardian (1)
Hemomantic Artisan (1)
Crimson Sage (1)
Life Thief (1)
]
[Free Talent Points: 10]
The heat from Maleko's domain finally dissipated as the last of his power was absorbed into Talia's body, which also processed the other kills.
She screamed in a near-ecstasy state and fell to the ground, convulsing.
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The rush of vitality, power, and everything else that she was feeling right now completely overwhelmed her senses. Only after several minutes did her body, which had been shut down by the sensory overload, return to her control.
She stood there, breathing heavily, as Keanu cautiously approached. The blood tendrils from [Ravenous Wounds] had already receded, leaving behind only sludge in place of the corpses of her opponents and the devastated and partially on-fire dockyard around them.
Talia had never felt like that while absorbing a monster, which might have been because monsters used Raw Mana to power themselves, and even Talia could only absorb so much of it. Instead, humans used regular, refined Mana. So, absorbing a monster was to taking a person’s vitality what dirty water was to ambrosia.
“Are you ok?” Keanu asked, maintaining his distance. “Do you need the bindings?”
Talia coughed and shook her head, slowly getting up.
“We need to move,” Keanu said urgently, extending a hand to Talia and helping her up. Someone would have noticed the commotion. Indeed, yells could be heard in the distance even though this was a minor dock. They had chosen it because of its anonymity. The orange glow of the fires Maleko had started was beginning to draw attention.
Talia went to grab her pack from where she’d dropped it earlier, and they hurried toward the vessel. It was a single-mast boat, barely fifteen feet long.
“It’s reinforced,” Keanu explained as they boarded.
As they prepared the vessel, a dark figure made a silent leap from the adjacent dock, landing noiselessly in the stern’s shadow.
Keanu worked quickly raising the sail while Talia pushed them away from the dock with an oar. The small vessel caught the evening breeze, made smoky by the nearby fires, and began carrying them through the waters. They were tense for the better part of two hours, thinking that any Water Rider could have followed them out there. However, as they got further and further from the Water Rider Academy, they realized that no one had followed them.
“Most graduates are out,” Keanu said. “The academy is basically working on a skeleton crew.”
“Right,” Talia frowned. She had heard that even several professors had left to take care of dungeons. “Hopefully it will be just an anomaly of this year,” she said hopefully.
After a while, Keanu gave her a long glance. “What about the consequences for killing Maleko?”
“I don’t want to abuse Professor Iakopo’s protection, but he can take care of Elder Kawena.”
“And what about Maleko’s family?”
Talia shrugged. “I’ll leave them to Professor Iakopo as well.”
“I imagine the man won’t be too happy that you killed the dude without a second thought.”
“Oh, believe me, I had second thoughts,” Talia sighed. “But let me tell you what I just got from the kills.”
She relayed all the notifications she had received, and Keanu’s eyes went wide.
“By the Deep,” the young man said, putting a hand by his temple and dropping the spell that changed his eye color, now sending back Talia’s gaze with eyes that matched the intense blue of hers. “I mean, if it had been me,” Keanu admitted, “I’d be tempted to kill a lot of assholes right now. Those gains are telling.”
Aside from the leveling, which anyone else could have gotten, what really stood out was the amount of attributes and the fact that she had stolen an extremely rare Skill that she could use with her Blood Water. Attributes specifically were very hard to get, and they had always been one of the main reasons Talia’s Blood Siphon and Ravenous Wounds were so broken. It was actually insane to think she had absorbed more than twenty attributes from three kills of boys that hadn’t even graduated. Sure, they had been much stronger than any other second-year students since it included a chosen. But how strong would Talia have grown in a short amount of time if she started killing people at level 40 or level 50? The thought was disconcerting.
More importantly, the advances in her Primary Mana Channel had been insane. She had gotten almost a full level just from the three kills. If she killed a professor or, Deep forbid, an elder, would she just gain a level 8 or level 9 Primary Mana Channel overnight? And what if she killed two or three?
Keanu patted Talia’s shoulder. “Don’t think too much about it before you might want to kill me,” he told her.
Talia tried laughing at the joke, but it came out forced. Perhaps it had been naive of her not to use Ravenous Wounds on a person before, especially a cultist, to try to see how strong it was. She shook her head.
“Well, if other assholes throw themselves in our way, I’ll feel less guilty about having to kill them,” she said.
“I admire your restraint,” Keanu smiled. “Anyway, there are a few things you should know about Aneanui.”
Talia nodded. Keanu told her that Aneanui, the flying city, which she now knew had been founded by a colony of Ao, the people of the sky, was where his people hid.
“So how are we gonna reach it, first of all?” Talia asked.
Keanu took out a compass from his pocket. “This shows the position of Aneanui at all times. Once we’re in range, there is a simple ritual that draws on the city’s Mana reserves that will bring us up.”
“What I wanted to talk about,” Keanu said, “isn’t this. It’s about my people, Talia. There are things you need to know before we go up. You have grown up being disparaged, being treated like a monster. So maybe you will be able to understand better than anyone else the kind of people you will meet there.”
She cocked an eyebrow.
“My people are not children of Kraken Slayers. They never had a moment of respite. Whenever Kaimoro emerged in numbers, they have been slaughtered by the Great Families. It’s because of the knowledge we hold. In fact, if the Great Families knew the kind of things that Professor Tukupa told us, they would definitely kill him too. My people fully believe that the Great Families and all the nobles in the Four Seas are behind the slaughter of my people.”
“Okay?” Talia frowned.
“So they will want you to be aligned to our cause before you get anything out of them.”
“I think that’s reasonable,” Talia said. “I don’t think I like many nobles myself, Keanu. Nami and Lilo being the only exceptions.”
“I’m not sure that my people like the idea of exceptions.”
“Well, they will have to deal with it,” Talia replied. “Plus, I just killed the chosen of the Kanaloa family. That should earn me some points with them, shouldn’t it?”
“It will certainly do,” Keanu nodded pensively.
* * *
Keanu navigated the vessel with Talia’s help for two straight days, getting very little sleep in between. Finally, as he looked into the clear expanse of blue in front of them with the compass open in his hand, he nodded, relieved. “We’re here.”
Talia was happy. They had finally gotten to the destination. Manning the entire vessel with only two people had been quite tiring. Honestly, she almost resented Keanu for its secrecy, but she understood that no one was to be brought to Aneanui, the flying city.
“Well, can we just take off?” She mimicked a flying gesture.
“Pretty much,” Keanu said, taking out a purple stone from his pocket, kissing it, and throwing it in front of the vessel.
Talia frowned at the gesture, but she was so tired that she had no intention of processing whatever weird mechanism would start carrying the boat upward. A few instances later, the water in front of them started bubbling madly and then rising and rising until it formed an almost vertical path upward. An old vertical path leading toward the sparse clouds above.
“What?” Talia said, looking confused at the water. “How is that going to carry us to the city?”
“Grab something,” Keanu said, sitting in front of the helm and clutching the rail behind it tightly.
Talia had barely the time to grab the mast as the water picked up the boat and turned it vertically, slowly lifting it onto the water road that led to the sky.
“Damn you,” Talia said, hugging the mast as her legs started flinging in the air. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I knew it would be fun,” Keanu smiled, his back against the railing, comfortable as he half sat, half lied down while the boat went up.
Talia hung onto the mast, using it as a stool to sit down and gaze upward. This road of water was a thing of beauty. Unlike the Deep, the water was translucent, transparent, and it felt like a dream as the boat inched forward toward the skies.
“Is it normal that the city is not here?”
“You can’t see the city from below,” Keanu said. “It would be too easy to spot.”
Talia, not fully convinced, activated [Eyes of the Abyss], seeing a massive amount of Mana flowing into the water that was carrying them toward wherever the city was hiding. But even with [Eyes of the Abyss], she couldn’t make out much other than a shimmering patch in the sky that seemed to be charged with Mana. From this distance, she couldn’t really make out anything.
She looked back at Keanu with [Eyes of the Abyss] still active and then scrunched her brows. She looked at her glaive on the side of the boat, secured against the railing. Then she made a split-second decision.
Talia jumped from the mast, getting to the side railing where now, through [Eyes of the Abyss], she could make out a clear figure. She swung her fist with all her strength, punching the solar plexus of the intruder.
“Talia, what are you doing?” Keanu shouted, seeing his friend swing wildly at the air, risking going overboard.
But a second later, a sputtering male figure appeared on the boat, previously invisible.
Talia grabbed the railing with one hand and with the other, the robe of the man. “You!” she shouted in a space.
Kehai coughed as he tried recovering from the blow that the girl had just delivered to him. “You are really strong,” he said, wheezing between words.
“What is he doing here?” she shouted, alarmed.
“I don’t know. Should we throw him out?” Talia said, half panicked, not really knowing what to do.
“And let me die here?” Kehai said.
“What were you doing on the boat?” Talia retorted.
“I was following Maleko, and I thought you would have needed help with the battle, which—my bad. I didn’t know you were so terrifying.” He turned and spat a glob of blood into the translucent water below. “Then when I saw you boarding the ship, I thought you would be having a short trip somewhere interesting, and I just wanted to tag along. I didn’t plan to stay hidden for two entire days. But, well, here we are.”
Talia looked at the man’s icy blue eyes, furious. “Keanu, what do we do?”
“Can you deactivate the lift?” Talia asked Keanu.
“No,” Keanu said through gritted teeth.
“Well, we’ll figure it out once we’re above,” Kehai said, sighing. “I’m not gonna create problems. I’ve heard a few interesting things.” He mimicked a key turning around his cheek as if he was locking his mouth.
Talia looked toward Keanu for approval, but Keanu shook his head. “He’s a noble. They will grill him until they find out, and once they do, they will kill him.”
“That’s not ideal,” Kehai replied with a worried face.
“We’re almost there,” Keanu warned both of them.
“You shouldn’t have come here, you idiot,” Talia said, feeling rage coursing through her body. “You arrogant little piece of—”
“Talia,” Keanu interrupted her series of curses. “We’re almost there.”
“You just hide and don’t leave the boat.”
“You heard the man,” Kehai replied.
Talia raised a fist in front of Kehai’s face and then just jumped back on the mast. She looked at the cocky, arrogant young man slowly shimmering out of existence, becoming invisible once again. And once he was gone, she didn’t feel anything. Not even her developed Mana senses could perceive his hidden presence. In fact, if she hadn’t had [Eyes of the Abyss], she would have never noticed that Kehai had somehow boarded the ship.
“We’re about to land,” Keanu said, and Talia turned her eyes upward.
She saw as if a veil had just been lifted slowly. A majestic city, half swallowed by vegetation and the other half in ruin, appeared before them.