I spent the next week burning that day in my mind.

Resentment. Rage. Self-loathing.

All fuel forging my core to push this weak body towards a boundless goal.

I should have been better.

Those words singed into every second of training. Three days and four nights of canceling skills one after the other without rest desperately trying to unlock any new combination.

“Rest.”

They say to calm the agitation, but I know better than to listen.

“You have done enough.”

Lies! Had I did more? Had I been able to do more then? Then!

“It wasn’t your fault.”

But I was. If I hadn’t. If I were Orc men or Elven women, I could’ve. I would’ve. I should’ve!

But I need to live or else, why else am I here?

Skills. Survival. That’s all I need. Just focus on those skills.

Nothing else matters.

Long ago, I learned that other skills rarely could cancel out one’s own, with the critical point being the timing itself. The over reliance on my [Unique Skill] I deem to be fatal, therefore I try to use it as a last resort rather than a dominant style of combat. The main reason I avoid relying heavily on my [Unique Skill] is that if it were to become unreliable and my other skills would not properly hone, then I would have very limited options. For example, I cannot use my [Unique skill] against grappling or ranged opponents because it does not prevent their attacks.

Or at least not in a way I know of. I have yet to find the timing for either of them, but if I could, then maybe. Besides, if any of the other caught on to the potential of their own [Unique Skill] then I’d find myself at more of a disadvantage.

Luckily, I had the skills I am most confident with equipped entering that zone, but had I not, would I be as capable as I was to assist Hilda, or anyone for that matter, without them?

I will never be the fastest, strongest or even the smartest compared to an Elven woman or Orc Men. I know that truth all too well. However, that’s no excuse for not being the quickest, adept and knowledgeable that I can be at this moment.

Could I have been better prepared?

Where could I improve?

How much more could I have done if I had?

Questions I ask myself after every failed attempt. Out of hundreds of thousands of attempts, they usually end in failure, and there was not much I could do about it. With skills like my ultimate one, the midst of combat is the only efficient way to practice, unfortunately, and in my spare free time before exploration, this is how I spent my days.

To my knowledge, only certain skills have the potential to activate as a [Shadow Skill] but finding the specific conditions and timing for each and every one becomes tedious as well as disheartening after a failed attempt.

Stumbling upon [Baleful Hunt] and [Sinful Stalker] interactions had been a fluke and months of experimenting for [Titan’s Grip] and [Agile Blade] to work properly.

As I mentioned before [Sinful Stalker] can only be a [Shadow Skill] if used at the exact moment I leave the ground, which is easy because of long months of repetition and trivial if not for the conditions of a marked target.

You can only mark targets during the use of a skill under the [Tracking] talent that Brown Widows specializes in. This in itself is not an issue of activation, but the nature of the [Tracking] comprises mostly of different ways to remove one’s presence and certain objects or finding targets, depending on proficiency.

A passive talent that lacks an active component to use except for [Baleful Hunt], the only attacking ability.

Many skills and talents fall under the category of pass—.

“Ah.” I say as the Divine Flames peak from behind the mountains, rewarding me for another’s day’s successful survival. “Dawn.”

Tomorrow, I plan to climb further into the dungeon, so I best make preparations before the divine flames burn out.

Activating a red painite gem, a list of all my available gemstones and skills appears in my vision, allowing me to sort them. Red painite one of the top three rarest gemstones to the Orc men, Elven women and even amongst Hilda’s people. It is impossible to find it in nature, but you can create it using a certain combination of gemstones, prana, and transmutation techniques that I alone have knowledge of. Had I not, I’d be stuck with the kills of those at the lower floors of the labyrinth.

The last will from them I inherited.

I have a moonstone teleportation gem, a jadeite short sword and only one remaining rejuvenation ruby crystal.

Time to restock.

I left the hideout made of large stones. The hideout, made of large stones, used larger ones for support and placed flatter ones on top for cover. The illusion of natural forming rock cairns created from intentionally positioning the entrance to face the cliff side.

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With my current finances, using the moonstone or ruby just to go to town would be a waste that I could not afford to spend. That meant I would travel on foot, a somewhat risky venture, if I were to stumble into an unaligned Orc Man or Elf Woman, not from the town. Beasts and other creatures were manageable with my jadeite blade. However, that requires going on the path that’s out of the wayside.

A long but safe midday journey through the beast forest or a short dangerous flat road.

Halfway through the forest I stumble upon an array of traps lying about and the distinct lack of beasts in said Beast Forest. Detecting traps with my aptly named [Detect] skill was easy enough. However, the most alarming thing was the silence that surrounded me.

It was too quiet, no sounds of a crushed branch or disheveled leaf made by an animal. As calming as it is eerie; I pull out my jadeite blade to ease the tension of this unnerving feeling.

Then I realize it was far too late. The leaves of the forest, the crunch of my steps on dirt and even the wind blowing throughout fell silent.

I’m being watched.

I’m in too deep. That is the only reason this pressure felt so core-wracking. But worst of all, my [Tracking] skill made little sense to anyone near me.

I run. Run as fast as my stamina would allow me to get out of this accursed forest before whatever had its eyes on me acted.

In a matter of minutes, most of the way through the six-hour journey but as hope sweetly tapped my lips was as swiftly bitterness tore it away.

As I am about to exit the forest, a serpent with a cavern entrance of a mouth and stalagmites and stalactite fangs eyes me down. It had already noticed me, glaring with its void like eyes as its Orc Man sized tongue hisses.

Compared to Brown Widows or even the Mother, this monster was in a league of its own.

Frozen in place with my jadeite knife pointed at it, the creature silently slowly slithers towards me. It knew I couldn’t run nor dare dream of fighting it, so it took its time to let fear seep in and seep into my core.

It did.

My legs gave way, dropping my crystals off into the distance and I fell backwards, eyes locked with this monstrosity creeping ever so closer. And closer. Until we were a wand’s length apart.

No escaping. No fighting. I die here.

Just like they had. Perhaps this was fate’s cruelest way of punishing me for that day. The day I abandoned them as fate had abandoned me now.

Had there been sound, it would have been a boom.

A crackling invisible explosion slams into the serpent, erasing its head and leaving half of its body.

Then the sounds of the forest returns.

It was over. The remains of the serpent fell over, shattering into rainbow glass shards, leaving a gigantic sapphire gem.

I couldn’t see who or tell what had happened, but I knew one thing: it’s dead. The best I could make out was that someone had struck the creature with such force that it vaporized it like it was nothing.

Then the silence returns.

Those vigilant eyes pressing on me like the weight of a thousand bodies, but then it disappears as quickly as it appears.

Not waiting for whatever struck the serpent dead to return, I pick up my gems and exit the forest as fast as I could.

I escape and run a respectful distance away from the forest until I stop in the middle of a meadow with only a single path ahead. Just up the mountain path awaits the town of Èze, named after the outsider’s wife’s beauty and charm. From here on, not a single Orc Man, Elf Woman or monster would dare trespass onto this land, making possibly the safest place in the world.

A place for the peaceful and fearless.

One look is more than enough to tell everything. The town rests at the top of a mountain that once belonged to the center continent. Rumors spread that the outsider moved it to this premier location by the sea so that it could serve as a fortified stronghold and home.

After my many visits, I’d have to agree.

The southern forests need no explanation, but with the long stretches of flatlands, meadows leading up to the mountain were a luxury compared to the others.

To the north of the city lies the Abyssal Desert. An unbearable landscape was the place where they moved said mountain from. Heat and exhaustion do not affect Orc Men or Elf Women. However, the drainage of resources is cause for a different type of concern. An empty and vast area spanning over to the next country. However, the cunning creatures who terrorize all over the desert ensure that all who enter can never leave. After being sent to investigate, the platoon of Elf Women with Sacred level detection magic vanished and no one ever heard from them again.

To the east lies the Valley of Ruination. An arduous trek spiked with pillars of purple taaffeite stabbing the sky with its glimmer. Even the durable skin of the Orc Men could not withstand a prick, much fewer wounds coming from these sharp crystals, nor could any spell bypass their absorption capabilities. Be it sacred or sin, they devoured anyone down to the core of the user before one could cast them. Terrifying and yet so beautiful to look at from afar. Before my time, I have read of tales of the time of unification. Before separating, Orc Men and Elf Women unite to wage war against Èze however, it ended in tragedy. Two-thirds of their population fell on the journey towards Èze and a quarter on the attempted to escape.

To the west lies the Ocean’s Calamity. A boundless turbulent sea dressed in whirlpools that make the mountain in front of me dwarf in comparison. To make you cower than the sea beasts that give the oceans its name will. Each one can paint the Divine Flames black with a single leap and swallow shore side beaches in a single gulp. However, not even they compare to the Four-star Admirals of Èze. It is said that to achieve this rank, you alone must slay one of said sea beasts and seen worthy by the Outsider, and only then granted a title corresponding to said creature. Each one a league of their own and fortunately, they never leave town unless traveling with the Outsider’s partner.

By land, sea or air, none lay out of grasp Èze’s domain and the most fearsome of all comes from the man who fathered the Shining Knight Hilda, the Outsider.

I don’t know his name, nor have I ever met him, but stories alone made me wish nothing for that day to never come. An individual that is terrifying is best left alone to their own business, as I kept to my own.

Hours passed since I first began dashing through the meadow, even having to burn through a ruby while on the way to keep my stamina steady. Until finally I am met with a clear divide between flatland and taaffeite lined mountains.

From horizon to horizon and ground to sky, they stood humming and the further I journey down the path ahead, the narrower it became until a single person could travel through. If I had wavered to my left or right, a sharp end would have met me. The significance of “end” could not be at its most vital.

Hours later.

My core reaches its limit. Even at this distance, I feel my internal prana draining away, causing sluggishness to creep all over my body. Luckily my legs had not given way, but at the rate I was moving, it may not matter much longer.

If I hadn’t been so emotional, then I could have done my shopping several days prior when I helped Hilda and now I’m facing the consequences of that outburst.

Poor planning and even poorer execution.

I’m done for.

I collapse to the ground. As sad as it was, I avoided the taaffeite, though at the cost of my vision blurring as a result because of the dirt below.

My naturally low prana meant that I usually restored my energy with rubies throughout this path, but it seems having knowledge of my lack of resources did not correlate to the wisdom of gathering more before coming here.

Is this the end for me? Not at the hands of a beast or enemies, but a miscalculation on my part.

Truly a fitt —