A Capstone Skill. Wichita wouldn’t say she was counting on it to improve her situation, but it would have been kind of nice if it did so. Of course the System went and did the exact opposite thing. What else would it do?

Wichita let out a rather inelegant growl of frustration as she shook her head. Rose looked at her with something painfully close to alarm.

“Oh it’s nothing, I just got an unpleasant notification.” she answered before she could ask the question.

That just seemed to spawn more questions in the girl’s mind.

“What do you mean unpleasant?” Rose demanded. “Did you lose your stats? Why would - “

“I didn’t get a Capstone Skill.” she ground out.

“A what?” Rose blinked.

Wichita took a deep breath. “I just reached Tier 2. The System apparently decided that I did not merit a Capstone Skill despite having a Legend class.”

That was practically what Tier 1 Legend classes were known for. Getting a Capstone Skill early was what gave so many an edge.

“Capstone Skills aren’t usually given at Tier 1 unless you have a Legend class.” she said. “I don’t remember the entire theory behind it, but it has something to do with breaking through a milestone.”

Well apparently she hadn’t broken through well enough.

Rose’s face paled. “So Tully’s the only other one that could get a Skill like that?”

Wichita nodded grimly. “Well we don’t know what rarity your class is, but yes it would seem so. Jace assuredly isn’t getting one until he sheds the [Unworthy] class.”

The girl looked even more nervous. Wichita felt sort of guilty for adding to her troubles.

“Did you sense anything?” she asked.

“No.” Rose shook her head. “Tully pointed out where it is several times, but I just can’t tell. Like there’s nothing there.”

The girl pointed to a particular location in the air, and indeed, there was nothing there. Tully was staring at it like she was seeing something mesmerizing, but she only saw a patch of air.

Wichita sighed. “I don’t know if I should tell you to continue. On one hand you are supposed to be better than me at sensing things. On the other hand, this is, well, it just might be more than you can handle at the moment.”

Rose’s lips thinned. “The thing is too high Tier to practice my Skill on?”

“Perhaps. I simply can’t say what the System is doing.” Wichita answered. “I told you to sense it because there really isn’t much else you can practice on. The more difficult the test, the more likely you will gain a level.”

“I did get one.” Rose nodded. “But it stopped there.”

Wichita stared at her. “So you are level eight then?”

“Nine, actually.” the girl answered, turning to stare at the patch of space again. Well it looked like her first noble was a sincere type. That for some reason was getting levels absurdly fast.

“Did you get no other Skills except your perception one?” she asked.

Rose simply shook her head in response, still staring at the patch of space.”

“That is…unfortunate. I do not know what the System is thinking.” Or why it was doing this. Where was the balance? Why was the System acting so off? Wichita was used to the System targeting her species, but this was something else.

The actions it had taken over the last few days had been barely within its rights, cutting the edge of what was fair. And putting them in danger throughout. The more time she spent here, the more likely it seemed to her that she was being targeted by the System.

The question remained: why? Had the Arcana offended it in some manner during their destruction? Was Veruna’s plan perhaps a threat to it? Perhaps it was the Royal Skill? Wichita did not know the limits of it, though presumably it would not work on every one of her subjects.

Still it was an incredible Skill to have, and synergized with her current class very well. To the point of too well really. The plan was to choose those in miserable conditions, ones that needed a helping hand, and then give it to them. Not a new plan, but it hadn’t been attempted by an Arcana before. The Royal Skill made her plan much more effective. Just about any piece of coal could be transformed into a diamond if she had the right magic. The Royal Skill gave that.

Perhaps that was it.

Rose clutched her head, massaging it as she continued to stare at the patch of space. Jace had curled into a ball again and was rocking himself back and forth. If Wichita could not see the mana running through his body, she would have wondered if he was perhaps asleep. But he wasn’t.

The two of them may not be getting much in the way of results, but they were working hard. So hard that it reminded her of herself when she was younger. Even Tully had been staring at one point in space for far too long. But she could see the girl’s power spreading across her body, nurturing her.

A passive strengthening Skill? That would be in line with what she expected from the class.

[Justice of the Forgotten Queen] was what she had presumed a Legend class was supposed to be. Wichita shoved aside her jealousy and stood up. There was little she could do to help herself.

Stolen novel; please report.

Getting levels would be harder now that she was Tier 2. The higher you climbed in Tiers, the more difficult it became. With the fact that this Tier had double the amount of levels, she could expect to be here for a good long time.

At least a week.

Wichita swallowed as she remembered how little time had passed since she had dueled Leirot. Veruna’s sacrifice seemed to be a lifetime ago, but it probably hadn’t even been a full day since then.

Tier 2 in less than a day. Not the greatest of achievements, especially for a Royal Arcana, but she would take it. Wichita wasn’t good at breaking records anyway. That was Leirot. The only thing she did was try to look like she belonged among her brethren.

A cold, humid wind blew against her face as she turned towards the trees. Wichita did not know why, but she had a feeling that their rest period had come to an end. A sigh tore itself from her, turning into a groan partway through. One battle after another was turning out to be more exhausting than she had expected.

Would it be too much to ask for a break?

Wichita clapped her hands, bringing the others’ attention to her. Well all except Tully. Walking up to her, she gently put her hand on the girl’s shoulder, trying to extract her from her trance. This kind of thing could be dangerous if done improperly.

“Come on, it’s time to go.” she said into her ear. Tully shuddered, shaking her body as if she were a wet dog.

“What happened?” she asked.

The forest answered for her. The trees groaned as they began moving, chasing them off.

“I should have drank water before.” the girl muttered as she stood up, heaving as she did so. Wichita could see the strain on all of them. The three were surviving, but the forest was taxing them.

“Come on.” she said, “The forest has issued a challenge, and we shall answer!”

The fake cheer was met with hesitant smiles and a glare from Jace. The four once again set out on their slow unbothered pace. Wichita still wondered how the humans could be so calm with the trees. If her Heart hadn’t been burning her fears away, then…well it was a good thing it did burn her fears away.

And helped her concentrate. Thinking of other things was not a good idea at the moment.

The hallway’s floor started turning into cobblestones and falling off, looking very similar to the first challenge they had faced.

“Oh, this again.” Rose groaned as she jumped onto one of the larger patches of cobblestones. The four of them separated into different patches, making their own way through. As if the challenge did not even merit worrying about.

To her surprise, it didn’t. Even for her. The new senses, that she really should have paid more attention to, were remarkably good at sensing where the cobblestones would fall. Perhaps they had something to do with Fae magic. The dragons had an ingrained ability to sense Fae magic, something similar to her mana sense. Perhaps she had something similar.

A bird swooped down from the sky, but she barely paid any attention to it. The needle had eaten it long before it got anywhere near her. Jace swatted a bird that came near him, looking at it with distaste as it dissolved in the pool of acid. Tully just had to glare at the birds and they ran away.

Rose though was the most interesting of them. The girl was the fastest, having been the first to step onto a patch of cobblestones and having kept the lead. Wichita was very sure that she could see some pattern to the attacks, and was beating it.

Well, she could not remain behind. Picking up speed, she saw the others do the same. The falling cobblestones simply weren’t a threat anymore. Perhaps the forest had heard her and finally decided to take it easy—no, it hadn’t.

Wichita sighed as the number of birds suddenly increased by a factor of hundred. So many that they now covered most of the sky, and seemed very happy to come down to harass them.

Jace growled as a mass of birds came before him, surely blocking his vision. Wichita was a bit worried, he did not have a mana sense like her. The birds tried to do the same to her, but they weren’t very successful.

For one, she did not rely on seeing to guide herself. For another the birds attacked physically, and well. Pecking at her was a deadly activity. The waste of mana was still annoying, a painful reminder of what had happened.

“Take me into the sky.” she told the needle, and it followed. That was probably more mana efficient. Heck, with the amount of birds they were killing on the way, it was probably getting more mana than it lost.

If only she could do the same. Hmm, she would have to look into building something like that for herself once they got out of the mess. If they got out of this mess.

The thought made her sigh in frustration as she jumped off the needle. The cobblestones had, strangely enough, stopped halfway through the hallway. There was still a way to go before they reached the ‘rest’ area.

Two challenges one after the other? Wichita could only imagine what new horrors the forest would cook up for her. At least her companions weren’t doing that bad.

Tully’s glaring hadn’t worked once the birds had the advantage of numbers, but she was apparently very good at knocking them down. With her feet. The girl was walking on top of the birds, running across them really.

The birds scattered, squawking their disapproval as they tried to run from the menace that was literally riding their heads to her destination. Wichita suppressed a giggle as she turned her attention to Jace. A part of her had been expecting the boy to be having trouble, but he wasn’t.

Jumping from one cobblestone to another with unnatural grace, he was swiping at the birds left and right. How? The boy couldn’t have been able to see what was there around his feet—the birds blocked that quite thoroughly. So how? Wichita stared at it for a few seconds before it clicked to her.

The birds flocked near the next patch of cobblestones in anticipation of him jumping there. And that just told him where to jump. A laugh bubbled out of her as she stared at the third member of their group. The one that had already made her way to join her.

“How did you do it?” she asked, curious.

“The forest challenges us, but it leaves a path.” Rose answered. “The trick is sensing it before the birds get you.”

Wichita smiled as Tully joined them, and Jace soon after. The four of them began to walk towards their next challenge, and she felt strangely calm. Whatever stood against them, they would face. And they would emerge victorious. The forest’s challenges were growing in power, but they were growing too. The challenge was about who grew faster.

The corridor suddenly disappeared into a much wider space, as if they had passed through a portal. Wichita frowned as she looked around, wondering what the forest was up to now. A large blue wall with scales and rippling…muscles…

The calm bled from her mind, replaced with cold fear as she looked at what stood before them.

“Run.” she said, her Heart unable to calm her down. For some reason she was even breathing heavily.

“What?” Rose asked.

“That’s a beast! Turn around and run!” she screamed as the beast began to move in earnest. The other three needed no more reminders as they turned around and ran for their lives. And not a moment too soon as she felt the roar shake her mind, the sound painfully familiar.

The howling beast that she had met before, the one that had iced the snakes. And this time she could sense its power.

Tier—fucking—six.

The fairness was over. The feasting forest had come in its place.