“The three things,” Mahar grunted, swiftly dodging the talons of a decaying zombie bird, “I hate the most are long-bearded old men, my ex-girlfriends, and the undead!” With a swift uppercut of his dagger, he eviscerated the zombie bird into two, black blood spurting out of the wound and a few feathers falling off. Judging from the color of the birds’ feathers and their general body parts, they looked to be ravens, albeit slightly larger than normal ones. And slightly more dead.

As the rogue continued dodging the sharp talons, white Body energy, also known as fighter energy, soon covered his entire body, slightly enhancing the speed, strength, and durability of his body. It was a tier two Body spell known as All Body Enhancement.

“Fireball!”

A large ball of fire quickly flew past his head, engulfing a flock of undead birds. The rogue ducked just in time, though he felt the heat of the Fireball as it passed by. “Unicorn-ass! Are you trying to kill me too, Kote? That was totally on purpose.” Mahar screamed in accusation at the mage.

The mage chuckled, his left hand stroking his multi-colored, knotted beard while in his right hand, he held a long arcane staff. “I trust that you would dodge in time. And remind me again, what ex-girlfriends are you even talking about? Do you mean the whores you pay at every city we stop by?”

The typical undead usually had three weaknesses. And those weaknesses were fire, fire, fire, light, and decapitation or enough bodily mutilations that the mana inside the undead could no support them in their unlife.

It was worth noting that fire was the main weakness of the undead, or at least that was what adventurers regarded as the main weakness. There was a running joke among the veteran adventurers experienced with the undead that when asked the question of what to do when faced against undead, they would answer “Fire, fire, fire.”

And if asked, "What if some of the undead are more resistant to fire?” those adventurers would simply reply, “Oh, you just aren’t using enough fire. Use more fire until you drown the undead in a sea of fire.”The concept applied even more so if said undead were birds with flammable feathers.

All around, the sounds of battle raged forth, with fire spells unleashed one after another by the mana users. Flocks upon flocks of undead ravens fell onto the black chamber floor, their corpses simply sinking into the floor the moment they made contact. It was likely that the floor held the same strange magic as the gate.

On the other side of the circular chamber, Princess Thalia, her seven personal deathguards, and scholar Johan formed one group. Another group at a different side of the chamber consisted of the soldiers with their own separate chain of command led by a competent commander by the name of Kazin. The group numbered about sixty soldiers, the largest by far of the groups.

The third group was the eighteen adventurers hired through the connections of Kote and Mahar. As for the fourth and unofficial group, it was artificer Jess by her lonesome. It was simply best to leave that explosion-addict to her own devices. That was the thought of everyone who had experienced battles with her.

Thalia had divided the party into three separate groups for effectiveness, though one group, the group of soldiers, had three times the manpower. She didn’t split the party up into three even groups because soldiers were soldiers and adventurers were adventurers. Birds of a feather worked together much more effectively. She and her personal guards, familiar with one another, were no exception to this. Thalia, of course, was still the main leader of the overall party.

“One of these days, old man,” Mahar screamed once more, “I am going to cut off your beard! We’ll then see who has the last laugh.”

Another adventurer chimed in loudly. “Mahar! How could you even think of doing that to Kote. Don’t you know his beard is the only thing in his old age he can take pride in? It’s the only thing working for him. Nothing below works! It’s why he takes such special care of his beard.”

“I heard that.” Kote glared at the adventurer who said that. “Don’t make me vanish your pride and joy!” The old mage sent out a Firebolt toward the one who made that quip. The Firebolt, in comparison to the first-tier spell Fireball, was far more destructive. The Firebolt spell, in essence, was an arrow-shaped flame with much better penetration and destructive capabilities.

The adventurer hastily dodged at the incoming Firebolt that had been aimed at his crotch.

“Stop trying to kill your teammates, Kote!”

“Oh please. I wasn’t even seriously trying to aim at him. Fact is, that small Firebolt was to warm him up. He looked quite cold.”

Adventurers had always been a boisterous lot. And Mahar and Kote, friends to the princess, were no exceptions. Still, Princess Thalia scowled to herself at their relentless banter. Admittedly, her scowl was more in frustration at the dozens of undead ravens flying near the hundred-foot ceiling of the chamber rather than at the adventurers having their carefree banter in the midst of battle.

Another source of frustration was the scale of the underground tomb. It was far too large with its long winding passageway that led them deeper and deeper underground until they arrived at this chamber. Thalia’s mind boggled at the expenses and the undertaking it must have taken to build the tomb this deep underground on an island.

The spatial and earth magic involved was no joke, or else there was no way such an expansive chamber with its hundred-foot ceiling could be built underground on an island. Thalia could only comfort herself with the thought that the tomb, at least, wasn’t a maze and was lighted by glowstones. She hated mazes with a passion. And if faced with the choice of either battling a horde of undead rabbits or conquering a maze, Thalia would undoubtedly choose the former.

In the tomes deciphered by scholar Johan, they spoke of three circular chambers with the final one holding the sarcophagus of Azul Ragna san’Oblis Xolron. Each of these chambers contained challenges one needed to pass to obtain their treasures. Once one overcame the challenge offered by the chamber, a treasure would appear on the raven-crested dais located in the middle and the gate leading to the next chamber would open.

Toward a side of the chamber, artificer Jess was by her lonesome. No one dared to venture close to her, afraid of the explosions she was causing all around her. With a mad giggle, she threw bombs with her left hand and threw huge Fireballs with the other, scorching undead birds by the dozens. “Partake in these explosions and become my prey! Disintegrate, you foolish undead fowls, for I am the alias of explosions!”

“Ignore her. Ignore her,” Thalia muttered under her breath, wondering why she attracted so many weird followers. It was a sweet relief she had brought only Jess, Mahar, Kote, and Johan. Otherwise, Thalia would have long died of headaches.

She shook her head free of unnecessary thoughts and chanted her favorite mantra, out of mind, out of sight. With a deft hand and channeling her mana, the princess cleaved her longsword into the air at a flock of undead ravens. She shouted out, “Firebolt.”

Her enchanted longsword, acting as a magic conduit for her mana, transformed what should have released a Firebolt from the magic circle into a crescent veil of pure scarlet flames from the arc the weapon traced in the air. With the speed of a loosed arrow, the crescent flames burst out from the weapon, quickly colliding into a flock of undead birds circling above. The flames then exploded outward upon collision.

The strength of her profession, an elemental swordswoman which integrated both Body and elemental spells, quickly showed itself. Her body buffed by the All Body Enhancement spell along with an ongoing channeling of mana into fire spells allowed each graceful swing of her longsword to unleash crescent flames one after another. As to her defensive capabilities, it was covered by the set of enchanted leather armor she wore.

Five minutes soon passed by with no signs of the amount of undead birds decreasing. Hundreds of the ravens had already been slain, yet more and more of them simply kept appearing from the ceiling of the chamber, possibly due to the ceiling holding a portal enchantment.

“Minimize the consumption of your mana! We do not know how long this challenge will last and Esotherial knows what else will come out next,” Thalia yelled out in her strongest mana-infused voice, her command reverberating throughout the chamber. While they had plenty of mana recovery potions to spare, it was still wise to minimize consumption.

Sixty heartbeats soon passed by since the time of her order, each few seconds accompanied by the burnt corpses of undead birds free falling toward the chamber floor. As soon as their corpses touched the black floor, they disappeared in a similar fashion as did the slave girl sacrificed to the gate. The only sign of the massacre of hundreds of ravens was the foul stench lingering in the air and the black blood stains on their equipment.

Mahar cursed as he swiped his dagger at an incoming undead raven. The bird was cleanly cut into two parts, releasing a foul stench and dyeing his dagger with even more black blood. “By Kote’s great beard, just how many of these thrice-damned ravens are there. When will this end? I swear to the gods I will give up eating fowls once this is over! And why can’t this black blood on me magically disappear too?”

“Can you please kindly refrain from using my beard as part of your cursing?” The old mage was angrily wiping his beard free of some blood stains.

Many more complaints aimed at the never-ending wave of ravens resounded out from the adventurers and soldiers. Only Jess, who was throwing Fireballs interspersed with an explosion orb or two, looked to be having fun. That said, she was still reasonable in that she was being conservative with her mana and magic devices, limiting herself to tier two spells or below.

Suddenly, as if on cue to their complaints, the seemingly unceasing flow of undead ravens appearing from the ceiling was cut off. Noticing that no more ravens would join in, some of the adventurers and soldiers cheered. Thalia and her guards, on the other hand, grimly continued to slaughter the remaining ravens.

Several seconds passed by as more ravens were burned or hacked beyond recognition. Finally, when there were only a hundred or so ravens left, they abruptly stopped attacking the humans. The remaining ravens flew high onto the ceiling and congregated into a massive, feathery black ball.

All at once, the croaks of ravens screamed out, surprising everyone below. It was known that the undead felt no pain. Yet why did these ravens sound as if they were in pain?

Three heartbeats passed by accompanying the croaking screams of the ravens. With each passing second, the crescendo of the ravens’ screams became louder and louder in volume. And in the third second, as the crescendo reached its pinnacle, the ball of ravens exploded into a mass of tendons, flesh, bones, blood, and feathers. The mass body parts did not fall to the ground but instead abruptly froze in midair, defying both expectations and gravity.

The juxtaposition of hundreds of decaying raven body parts, especially ones floating in midair, made for a macabre show for the humans below. A moment passed by as Thalia and the rest watched the show in silent horror. The horror soon turned into a sick fascination as the body parts congregated once more. Bones onto bones, tendons onto tendons, flesh onto flesh.

The sharp cracks of raven bones and the meaty slaps of flesh onto flesh being magically stitched together forcefully interrupted their silent horror. Soon, various shapes began to take place. Attached to the spherical mass of body parts in the middle, what looked to be the wings of an undead raven came into fruition. Except these were no mere wings. No, the wings had a wingspan that was more than enough to enfold a dozen humans with room to spare.

A sharp, black beak, its size large enough to comfortably swallow a person whole, jutted into being next. Promptly, more and more parts were being stitched together as the head of the raven came into place, the hollow sockets of its face still lacking eyeballs. The large, hollow sockets made it as if they were staring into two bottomless abysses.

Toward this macabre sight, Thalia was the first to break out of her trance, largely in part thanks to the combination of her quirk [Cool-headed] and [Conviction]. The latter quirk was one she had gained when she had turned level 30. Both the quirks made her more likely to retain her wits and calmness even in the worst of situations. Conviction, the rarer of the quirk, allowed her to stand strong in desperate situations.

Examining the situation, Thalia could tell there was some sort of subtle, hypnotizing magic at work. It was why they were dazedly watching the ongoing creation of this abomination of a raven without even trying to interfere. Thalia needed a catalyst to break the hypnosis, and it would have to be her voice.

Channeling her mana, she infused it into her vocals, casting the tier one Body spell known as Command Voice. “Snap out of it, everyone!” Thalia roared out, her voice breaking the subtle, yet fragile hypnosis that had overcome everyone. The change occurred instantly as all of her companions became wide-eyed and alert with the hypnosis broken.

But it was already too late by then. The raven—no, the abomination stitched together from a hundred of its brethren’ corpses—had already come into existence. Sharp, beady black eyes with a scarlet glow glared at the humans below for their affront, their only crime being that they were living while it was dead. A cunning intelligence gleamed outward from its glowing eyes.

With a loud croak that stunned the ears, the raven dove down into the group of soldiers, its enormous beak catching whole a lone soldier that had not managed to dodge in time. Shaking its head, as if disgusted by the taste, the enormous raven flew back up onto the ceiling before spitting back out the soldier.

The corpse of the soldier free falling from a hundred feet hit the chamber floor with a heavy thud. Except the thudding sound was lighter than it should have been, for there was only the lower half of a human corpse with its entrails spilling out to be found.

“Do not falter! Go into Dispersion formation!” Kazin, the commander of the soldiers, yelled out, amplifying his voice through the use of Command Voice. At once, the soldiers dispersed into what looked like a seemingly chaotic formation. A closer look, however, would reveal even intervals between members of the formation with a divide on both offense and defense.

“Ready your Firebolts and Fireballs!” Kazin commanded.

With a shrieking croak, the raven began to dive down once more from the ceiling toward the closest soldiers.

“Steady, steady!” When the raven reached the halfway point in its dive, Kazin finally called out, “Open fire!”

Thirty fire spells, half of them Fireballs and the other half Firebolts, shot toward the head of the raven abomination. Sensing the danger, the abomination paused mid-dive before protecting its head with its wings, slapping away the barrage of spells. Singed feathers, dripping black blood, and a few bare patches showing burnt flesh were the only signs of harm to its wings.

From behind, another barrage of fire spells mixed with enchanted arrows were shot toward the raven abomination by the twenty adventurers. Simultaneously, Thalia and her deathguards shot their fire spells from yet another side. The two volleys of spells hit their intended target in concert, heavily exploding onto its backside.

More singed feathers and bits of black blood dripped out. Angry at the damage done to it, the raven abomination channeled its mana into its wings. With a furious downward flap, numerous blades of wind exploded outward from multiple tier two magic circles.

The soldiers quick to react swiftly scattered, rolling or jumping away from the spots where the wind blades fell harmlessly against the floor. The slower soldiers to respond, however, had some of their limbs being cut off. Two soldiers, a female and a male, were the slowest in reacting, their bodies being cut into various pieces as a consequence. Their harrowing screams were short-lived as death was quick to take hold of them.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The raven abomination turned toward the group of adventurers, the pests who were harassing it with arrows. Multiple magic spells appeared on its wings once more as they released Wind Blades down onto the adventurers.

The adventurers, being more experience than the soldiers, immediately reacted the moment the magic circles appeared. The adventurers more reliant on Body spells enhanced themselves and avoided the wind blades by dodging. As for the more elemental reliant users, they hid behind defensive spells such as Air Shield, Earth Shield, and Ice Shield.

Inwardly, Thalia cursed at the raven for adding yet more casualties to her already long list of growing casualties. It was made all the worse by the fact that there would be no bodies to bury as the chamber floor absorbed every dead body.

She took a deep breath as a cold calmness draped over her mind. Her tutors had always reminded her to keep at bay her emotions, for they were of little use in battles. Aiming her quirk ability [Analysis] at the raven, she quickly examined the blue screen that popped up.

Name: ???

Type: Undead   (Immortal)

Race: Raven   (Abomination)

Level: ???

Description: An undead abomination of a raven magically stitched together from the sacrifice of a hundred ravens. Despite the size, it still retains the weaknesses of a normal undead raven, albeit more resistant and durable. The eyes, particularly, are its most vulnerable parts. It holds an Air Affinity and can use air spells. Among its favorite air spells is the tier two spell, Wind Blade. Being immortal, it can only be slain in battle and cannot naturally gain Esotherial essence, experience.

Thalia gave a cursory glance over the description, confirming her initial suspicions. The level of the raven abomination, however, was surprising. If her [Analysis] could not tell her the level, it meant that the target of the quirk ability was at least ten levels higher than her.

This meant that the raven was at least level 50. Not that levels were particularly indicative of strength. A low-level human was still stronger than a high-level rabbit or a low-level wyvern being stronger than a high-level human.

The disparities between races simply could not be overcome by levels alone. That being said, levels were still a good measure of relative strength between entities of the same race. The raven, in particular, was an exception to this rule. Being an abomination and an undead, it was far stronger compared to a normal raven of the same level.

Alone, Thalia would be far from a worthy opponent for the raven abomination. But she wasn’t alone. She had about ninety combatants in her party, not including the injured at camp.

And most of all, she had her personal deathguards, all of them having extensively undergone training since they could walk. They had been bred on battles. They were the highest level and strongest members of her party.

“Its level is at least above level 50 and the eyes are its weakness. Aim for that.”

The battle with the raven did not take long, especially with ninety combatants working together, half of them mages of with fire affinities. The adventurers and soldiers were on harassment duty, firing arrows and spells whenever possible to interrupt whatever spells the monster tried to cast.

Being versed with air spells, Thalia and her seven deathguards were on vanguard duty, moving into melee range. Using Wind Walk, a tier two air spell, they created footholds of solidified air underneath their feet, running toward the raven from all cardinal directions. They made swift guerilla attacks with their longswords, seizing every little opening the raven made before retreating just as quickly.

With the relentless air assault from all eight of them combined with the interspersed barrages of fire spells from the ground, the raven became heavily wounded. Black blood dripped profusely from the various cuts on its wings and body. The smell of burnt, rotting flesh filled the chamber, making them gag. Even worse was the smell of undead bile as the gaping hole on its stomach revealed its innards.

“Time to meet your maker, foul abomination!” Standing on a foothold of solidified air, Thalia shouted out a victory roar, attempting to boost the morale of her party.

Working in concert with her guard captain, Thalia raced toward the heavily wounded raven abomination which was barely managing to stay afloat. Dodging the half-hearted wind blades from the raven, Thalia and the guard captain stabbed their longswords into both eyes of the raven.

Shrieking in anger at their audacity, the raven abomination propelled itself backward using Wind Blast, a tier two wind spell. The strong blast of wind created a small divide between the hateful humans and itself as the two humans were forced to sidestep the blast of wind.

A sword still stuck in each eye, the raven abomination shrieked angrily. The weapons had not penetrated deeply enough to kill it instantly. But it was still a fatal wound.

Knowing it was only a matter of time before death would claim the raven abomination a second time, it began gathering its remaining mana. Three large magic circles appeared on the raven abomination, one on each side of its wings and the third on its body.

In the middle of the ten-pointed star inside each of the three magic circles was the rune denoting the element wind while on its perimeters were the modifiers. Thalia instantly recognized the faint modifiers. They belonged to the tier three spell, Wind Nova.

Knowing that it was already too late to forcibly interrupt the raven abomination from casting its spell, Thalia and guard captain Primus mounted a hasty retreat.

Their retreat was just in time too as spherical shaped winds began surrounding the entirety of the raven’s body. Faster and faster, the winds began propagating, stacking on top of one another until there was finally a dense sphere of wind fully encasing the raven abomination. The howling noise of the winds mixed with curses from the humans could be heard as their fire spells and arrows bounced harmlessly off the wind sphere.

Landing on the floor of the chamber, Thalia looked up to see the abomination launch into its final dance, a suicidal dive that would explode the sphere of wind it was encased in. No doubt, its mind was consumed by vengeance as its dive was entirely aimed toward her and the guard captain.

“SPELL SHIELDS UP!” Primus commanded the other six deathguards.

Channeling mana across her body, Thalia covered herself in a layer of defensive air. Likewise, defensive measures from the adventurers and soldiers were being cast as they scurried away from her, who was the main target of the monster. Around her, the seven deathguards had formed a blockade, determined to protect her from harm. And if necessary, with their lives.

Standing at the forefront of their eight-person group, Primus casted a third-tier spell, Earth Shelter, forming a dome of fortified earth around them. Stacked on top of the dome were various layers of elemental shields cast by the other deathguards. Right before the earthen dome fully closed around them, Thalia could see the raven abomination smash into it from above.

The shockwaves of the impact and the explosion of the dense wind sphere releasing shrapnel-like wind blades all around the chamber caused Thalia and her guards who were huddled inside the dome to fall off balance. Shards of earth fell as parts of the dome shattered. The only one holding steady was Primus as he casted another spell to fortify the spell shield. Only when the shaking finally stopped, Primus released his hold on the spell shield, letting the earth dome fall apart seamlessly.

There, in front of their eight-person group, Thalia saw the raven abomination sprawled onto the floor with her sword still stuck inside an eye. No more would its dark eyes glow red with its inhuman hatred for the living.

And curiously enough, perhaps due to its size, it took a few seconds before the corpse of the raven abomination sank into the floor. Its disappearance freed the two swords that had been stuck in its eyes. Thalia moved forward, grasping hold of her fallen weapon on the floor. The sight and smell of the weapon drenched in its black blood made her furrow her eyebrows in disgust.

Victory had been obtained. But there were no cheers. There were only stifled groans of pain.

Amidst the pained groaning, with bated breath, Thalia waited for the treasure chest to appear on top of the raven-crested dais located on the middle of the floor. Her breath was finally released as the chest appeared on the dais along with the disappearance of the raven crest.

Having seen with her own eyes that her quest would not be in vain—Thalia had been afraid the treasures were a lie—her tensed muscles relaxed.

With a sharp focus, Thalia inspected her surroundings and found various injuries on the soldiers and adventurers. Most were light cuts with a few serious lacerations. A quick headcount revealed eighty survivors and left her guilt-ridden. Seven more names to her casualty list. Seven more sins.

Thankfully, the three healers of their party had survived so the people with more serious injuries would have hopes of recovery.

Thalia saw Kazin, the commander of the soldiers, move toward her. He sported a small cut, still bleeding, on his tanned cheek and a few dents on his steel armor.

“Reporting in, Your Highness,” the commander said, saluting with his right fist on his heart. “We have incurred ten casualties on our side. The soldiers now number fifty. As for the injuries, there are seventeen light injuries and four serious injuries. The light injuries are nothing the three healers can’t fix or the soldiers can naturally recover from, but the ones with serious injuries will need at least a week.”

“So the soldiers still able to do combat are only forty-six.”

The commander nodded sternly. “That is correct, Your Highness.”

“On our side, there are only a few light injuries,” the voice of the old mage interrupted. Being the leader of the adventurer faction of the party, Kote needed to make a report to the princess too.

“Nothing some spit and testicular fearlessness can’t fix,” Mahar added, a roguish grin on his face as he scratched at his messy stubble. “I have to say, though. Your guard captain Primus here is a monster in human clothing.”

Her deathguards, being the taciturn lot they were, did not respond to the rogue’s goading. The seven of them only stood behind the princess like shadows.

“We will rest three hours before we move on,” said Thalia. “That will be plenty of time to heal and regenerate our mana.”

“Your will be done.” Commander Kazin calmly saluted once more before turning to leave.

Just a short distance away, Thalia could see her best friend Jess and scholar Johan making their way toward her. A closer look revealed that they were disheveled but unharmed.

Straight away, Jess embraced the princess into a tight hug. Being a good half a head shorter than Thalia, her head was nestled into the modest bosom of the princess.

Scholar Johan coughed lightly in embarrassment. “These old bones are just not what they used to be. To think I would need to stay the furthest back, protected like some chickling.”

“Thanks,” Thalia said, her voice a whisper so soft it was barely heard by Jess. She lightly pushed her best friend away before turning toward the treasure. “Shall we check the treasure out?”

Moving closer toward the raised dais, Thalia could see the exquisite treasure chest that had appeared on top of it. The chest looked to be carved out of the same unknown black material as the gate was.

“This,” Jess gasped. “Can we take this treasure chest with us home?”

Ignoring her best friend’s fervor for the unknown, Thalia tried sensing for any traps. Using her mana sense, she did not sense any suspicious enchantment on the chest. She turned toward mage Kote for confirmation. The old mage, whose mana sense was far more exquisite than hers and with his plethora of experience dealing with dungeon chests, would be a better judge.

“Should be safe, I believe,” Kote affirmed.

Before Thalia could even move to touch the treasure chest, guard captain Primus blocked her. “Apologies for my disrespect, but on the possibility that there could be hidden dangers on the chest, it would be better for one of us to take the risk.” Primus looked toward Septus, the youngest of the princess’ personal deathguard.

Although she didn’t like it, Thalia could only nod in acceptance at his logic. She could only watch on as Septus climbed onto the raised dais and slowly opened the chest. The breath she had been holding in anticipation and perhaps the breaths of many others were finally released as the lid of the chest fully opened and no traps sprung out.

“Well! What’s in there?” An adventurer shouted out from afar, breaking the tension. The anticipation of what the treasure held and of the possible traps had left the adventurer impatient.

Ignoring the outburst, Septus simply commented, “It looks to be an egg, princess.” He then carefully touched the egg, muscles tense and alert for any unseen traps. Fortunately, no such traps were sprung. With egg in hand, Septus jumped down from the dais and returned back to where the princess stood. With a leather-gloved hand, he held the egg out for her to take.

Taking the egg from him and holding it up for her companions to see, Thalia inspected the egg. It was a midnight black egg, perhaps only twice as large as a chicken’s egg.

“How very interesting,” scholar Johan mused. “Eggs with such a black hue are usually only found in places with extremely hot temperatures. Creatures and monsters with an affinity for fire will lay their eggs in hot springs, near magma, or other such locations. For example, the scarlet python will lay its eggs in hot springs, turning the shell of their eggs to a black hue over time.”

He inched closer, sniffing his nose. “No smell emanating from this egg. Perhaps it is a natural color or maybe just odorless.” He turned toward the princess. “More experiments must be done before I can determine the true nature of this egg.”

Thalia could trust the knowledge of the old scholar. The title of Royal Archivist wasn’t just for show. Scholar Johan indeed had the expertise to back up his knowledge. He was, quite possibly, the most knowledgeable man in the kingdom.

“The tests can be done later when we return home,” said Thalia. “For now, we must make haste.” She was worried about her father’s health and a day sooner returning home was a day sooner she could check up on him. She had been out of communication with the kingdom for more than a month now.

Touching the space ring she wore on the index finger of her left hand onto the egg, Thalia channeled her mana into the ring. The egg then disappeared, taken into the spatial storage of the ring. Enchanted with spatial magic, the ring was one of the most expensive piece of equipment she owned, able to hold about 70 cubic feet worth of space.

And if compared to Jess’s backpack which likewise held a spatial enlargement enchantment, the ring was, by far, much more precious. Price went up almost exponentially as the size of the spatial storage increased and as the size of the spatial storage carrier decreased. This was the reason why the ring, being of small size and with a large spatial storage, was worth a princely sum.

“Status.”

Name: Thalia Havenrise

Type: Living   (Mortal)

Race: Human

Level: 42

Age: 23

Health: 95%

Mana: 38%

Title: [Mana User]   [Third Princess of Havenrise Kingdom]   [Scholar]

Talent: [Air Affinity]   [Body Affinity]   [Fast Learner]   [Fire Affinity]   [Memory]   [Water Affinity]

Quirk: [Analysis]   [Conviction]   [Cool-headed]

Surprisingly enough, she had gained two levels from killing all those undead ravens, despite the birds probably only granting a small amount of experience each. Quantity was a quality of its own, after all. That said, the high-level raven abomination was probably the one that gave her most of the required experience. Being the one to deal half of the deathblow, Thalia had gained a majority of the experience.

And while Thalia did not feel much of a difference from gaining a level, she knew that she was a little stronger than before. It was said that one could gain levels by simply living longer or by killing other entities. Whether such entities were living, undead, or such and such did not matter so long as they held consciousness, an awareness of one’s own existence, they would release Esotherial essence upon death.

Upon death, entities would release some amount of Esotherial essence, commonly called experience, depending on their levels. The amount of experience absorbed would depend on the corresponding contribution toward the death.

Her knowledge of levels and experience came from the long standing Esotherial theory from which many other theories subsequently used as a basis. Thalia knew most of these basic theories because of her hunger for knowledge. This hunger, in part, stemmed from her quirk ability [Analysis]. The more knowledge she accrued, the better the ability could show its strength. It was why she had devoutly devoured all types of books since childhood.

Inspecting her mana and health percentage, Thalia found her mana to be too low for her liking. She had casted too many fire and air spells in the battle. No doubt, the percentages of her companions were correspondingly low.

Prompting the status screen to close with her mind, Thalia pulled a small mana potion out of her space ring. Once emptied, the full 100% recovery of mana generally took more or less a fourth of day, depending on the individual and the meditation done. Luckily, they had brought with them plenty of mana recovery potions.

Drinking the mana potion, the princess sat down cross-legged in a meditative pose. Staleness mixed with saltiness along with an overbearing bitterness. As was usual, the taste of the mana potion almost left her gagging. There was no other way about it, for the taste of a low-quality mana potion could not be improved.

Thalia reflected on the battle while moving the energy coursing through her mana vessels. She had been far too hasty in the last moments of battle, making light of the abomination’s durability. It had survived even though she had made sure to stab its eyes, its most vulnerable place. She had let down her guard when she should have made sure to finish the kill properly.

“It’s not your fault, you know,” Jess whispered to her as she sat down beside her.

“But it is.”

Silence soon returned as the survivors went into their respective mediative poses, drinking potions and recovering their mana.