The next two days passed quickly for Alex. They made slow and steady progress, guided by Olivia’s expertise and uncanny ability to read the terrain and move unseen. While he could keep his mana pulled tight to his body, effectively hiding himself from anyone who could see or sense mana, it quickly became apparent to them both that he had no idea how to move quietly.

The first day was spent moving slowly, but not all that deep into the Night from where they would normally hunt. Instead, Olivia spent time teaching Alex how to creep, crawl, and stealth his way through the dead terrain.

Gradually, they pushed deeper and had only seen the Spiral, as they were calling it, for the first time that afternoon. After taking some notes and sketching the route and surrounding terrain, they began the journey back to the colony.

After spending so much time using his skill and full stats to move at super-human speeds, walking felt excruciatingly slow. A few strides ahead of him, Olivia made the hand signal to communicate that there was a group of monsters ahead.

Instantly, both of them slowed their pace further and got lower to the ground. Alex focused on his footfalls and remembered what she’d taught him. Both the placement of his steps and the mechanical movements of the step made all the difference.

It was this that surprised him. He had never known that those with stealth classes would require so much patience. It was an alternating dance between scanning the swampy forest floor to ensure he wasn’t stepping on various kinds of vegetation or fallen sticks, to then scanning his surroundings again. All the while, his ears felt strained to pick up on the movement of the monsters or other potential threats.

Can’t hear anything over the sound of my own heart.

It had also surprised him that there was such an art to sneaking. Each step was supposed to be absorbed more by his thighs than normal. Additionally, every step had to have a very specific weight distribution.

Heel to toe. Heel to toe.

He repeated the saying over and over in his head. After his third step, he looked up to begin scanning his surroundings again, only to see that Olivia had already stopped and was holding up a fist for him to stop as well. When he did, she motioned for them both to get lower to the ground and wait.

Dropping to a crouch, he felt his pulse picking up. It felt so odd to be blind as they were. He didn’t have Valtherion, and Olivia wasn’t using Nox because of how quickly the Night was drawn to the sun magic. This left the two of them reliant on their senses.

Early on, he had been confident they could fight through most packs together, even if they were spotted. But all of that changed earlier that morning as they’d gotten closer and closer to the Spiral. The groups of Night creatures had grown larger, and their levels had continued to increase. The area around the colony was mostly stagnant, and the challenges there were at the point that most of the team could handle a pack or two on their own.

He shuddered at the memory of a huge pack of Nighthounds moving across an open stretch of land to the south of the Spiral. While they’d been in a safe place to view the landscape from an elevated angle, he knew that if they were caught by a pack that large, easily twenty to thirty, it would be a fight for their life.

Olivia’s hand motion drew his attention back, and he slowly moved up beside her. When they were together, she leaned in close to whisper in his ear, “I’m going to move closer and see what we’re dealing with. You stay here and listen out in case I need you. Hopefully, the group is small enough or bedded down, and we can move around them.”

He said nothing, just nodding in response.

She turned on her heel, staying low, and began moving at a steady pace. Her movements seemed fluid and graceful, flowing from one step into the next.

No way in hell I look like that…

Surveying the nearby trees, he selected one that had enough dead branches to hide himself in before climbing it. The act of climbing the tree the mundane way was just another highlight for him, on how comfortable he’d gotten with using his skills or stats for everything.

The climb was still easy with his enhanced stats, and he soon found a reasonably thick branch to perch himself on. His view was limited by the same branches that concealed him, but he knew he'd need to rely more on his hearing anyway.

He scanned the small area of vision that he could, wondering if he could catch a glimpse of his girlfriend. It wasn’t surprising when he saw no sign of her passing.

Alex settled in, aware that it could be a while before she returned. He allowed the second half of his consciousness to stop running through fight scenarios and potential uses for his spell circle. Instead, he removed a special notebook from his bracer. It was just like the other leather notebooks he carried, but he’d used one of the cave plants to dye its cover black, marking it from the others.

One half of his mind began to puzzle out the problem it contained, while the other paid close attention to his surroundings.

The book contained all of his notes and thoughts on the sun elves’ use of his magic. Their application of the ritual portion had been crude, almost a direct copy of some of his notes for an adjusted mana gathering ritual. He’d long since deconstructed it and learned its purpose, even seeing a few ways that he could improve on it, particularly since learning how to incorporate spell nodes. The elves had created a second, convoluted layer of a different ritual over the middle and outer edges of the schematic. At the time, he’d glanced at it and thought it was a smart application of the two rituals to create more stability and allow for it to hold additional runes. Now he knew better. They had over compensated in several ways to increase the stability of the ritual: first was the layered hexagonal pattern within the outer ring; the second was the extreme size of the ritual, and the third needed more testing to determine, but he was certain that the use of the white magical alloy was also there to grant strength to the powerful work of magic.

The true puzzle came from the runes. He’d been able to take accurate notes of the shape of the runes used, and Maelis had even gone as far as to help him identify them—or at least their general meaning.

He thought back on the conversation they’d had.

What do you mean you can’t tell what they are? Weren’t you going on and on about ‘A Rank Rune Magic, Wandering Scholar, Seventh Circle something-or-other?’

“Listen, brat. I know more runes than probably any other rune mage alive. That doesn’t mean that I know every variation of every rune that’s drawn from the First.”

Really? No one knows more than you?

“Not many spend time learning past their specialty. Some will learn for additional context and variation, but even Expert Runemages only learn a dozen or so runes.”

Why, though? They don’t seem that hard to learn.

“You’ve learned only lesser concept runes up to this point. Learning the more advanced runes will prove more challenging. But you’re forgetting something, brat. You’re a weird outlier. Most who use runes need to learn the runes, and then their proper combination and positioning within an enchantment on a certain item.”

Oh, right. And then that pattern and position change per item. I do remember that.

“Well, it should be obvious why they only learn twelve to twenty runes. That already gives them many possibilities for enchantments. They then specialize further by choosing items they want to focus on, learning the proper setup and function of their enchantments on those items.”

But you’re not like that?

“No. That is part of where my title came from. I wandered the wider worlds in search of many runes and their variations. I learned them in order to preserve the knowledge and teach others. Eventually, my goal changed, but I never stopped learning.

“Anyway. I might not know the runes exactly, but I can likely tell you what their general purpose was. When you’ve seen and learned as many runes as I have, certain patterns begin to become recognizable.”

At the time, Alex could hear the pain in the spirit’s voice and decided not to push any further. But he’d been grateful to learn something personal about Maelis.

His mentor had moved on to go over the five runes used in the ritual and shared his best guess as to their purpose. It boiled down to several large concept runes that he wondered if he’d be able to recreate, even if he knew what they were.

The center rune was for Channeling. The next was for Empower, followed by Portal. Of the last two supporting runes, Maelis was certain the first was a Storage rune. The final rune was one that he wasn’t sure of, but the meaning was generally the same, regardless. It was Release, Break, Freedom, or something very nearly the same.

He sighed internally. Even though he had a general idea of the runes, without the setting pattern or the intent that was used by the elves, he didn’t have a hope of recreating the ritual.

Not that I really have a need to. But understanding how to control a Rift by either upgrading, downgrading, or closing it outright would be extremely useful. It could be the thing that helps our world pass the integration.

He thought of the situation outside of the Rift that Edwin had described. Refuges, monsters roaming the land, riots, and rebellions. He wondered how much safer he could make things if he could close Rifts with a single spell and without risking any lives.

Closing the book, Alex knew that even if he couldn’t recreate the ritual, his spell circles had grown stronger, and the elves had given him ideas on progressing things further. They did two things that he hadn’t even tried yet, and he was excited to begin testing them. He was determined to revisit the problem when he had more time and the ability to conduct tests.

A very low clicking sound was enough to alert him that Olivia had returned. Returning to the ground, he joined her in a low crouch and saw the urgent look on her face.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You need to come see this.” With that, she turned and began moving through the trees and up a small rise.

Alex followed her, doing his best to keep up with the increased speed and remain quiet.

We need to get everyone practicing drills to walk like this.

When they rounded the top of the small rise, she motioned for him to stay down and move behind a nearby tree. For the last several paces, he’d been able to hear the sounds of combat and several monsters snarling and growling. Now, with a clear line of sight, he understood why he was hearing the creatures shift from aggressive sounds of domination to whimpering, whining, and deathly quiet.

“Jonathan?” he whispered.

They both watched on as the lone warrior stood in a scene more gruesome than the few that they’d passed through while tracking Olivia. The corpses of at least a dozen monsters lay at his feet, with another four standing hesitantly before him.

There wasn’t a pause or a moment to catch his breath. Jonathan launched himself forward and swung his hatchets — no, those weren’t hatchets. Alex squinted to make sure he was seeing things correctly.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Jesus…”

The Berserker swung down with the full-sized, double-bladed battle axe in his left hand, sinking it several inches into the neck and shoulder of one of the Night beasts. At the same time, he pivoted on his foot and swung the other full-sized battle axe horizontally in his right hand. The movement lopped off a Nighthound’s leg, and as he finished the full rotation, he lashed out with a front kick that sent the beast howling, sliding, and rolling across the rocky ground.

Two more remained, and both lunged at the same time. One sank its teeth into Jonathan’s shoulder, while the other latched onto his hamstring.

Instinctively, Olivia started to step out from behind her tree, prepared to assist, but Alex grabbed her shoulder. “Wait a second,” he said quietly.

While Jonathan was surely in danger, Alex knew how the monsters of the Night liked to play things. His eyes flicked to the left and right.

“I know you want to make sure there isn’t a second wave, but he needs our help. He needs—”

She was brought up short as a yell of rage cut clearly through the air. Sounds of shuffling and labored breathing could be heard just before an audible tearing followed. Jonathan had grabbed the hound attached to the back of his leg and, heedless of his own state, yanked the beast around to his front.

Still holding it by the inky black fur, Jonathan dropped his other axe and grabbed its jaw. With a firm grip, he moved it out to full arm’s length, ignoring the fresh gashes that opened on his arms and chest as the Nighthound thrashed. In a swift motion, he brought the creature to him, leaning his head forward at the same time.

A crack split the air, and it fell unconscious. The final creature stayed latched onto Jonathan’s shoulder, occasionally trying to whip its head back and forth like a dog with a chew toy.

As if he didn’t have a care in the world, Jonathan scooped up both of his weapons and held them in his hand. He paced back and forth twice, completely oblivious to the dire-wolf-sized canine attached to his shoulder.

His focus fell on a twitching corpse, and as he lunged forward to brutalize the already dead monster. This caused the final wolf, still desperately holding onto his shoulder, to slip from behind him to his front.

The ensuing scramble looked like a wrestling match between a red-painted man and a tiger. It boggled the mind to watch the lone human stand after several long moments, surrounded by the black carnage.

There was total silence, and Alex looked on with an open mouth. Jonathan panted, his shoulders visibly rising and falling, before letting out a yell of frustration. A moment later, the muscular human fell to the ground, completely limp.

“Is he dead?” Olivia asked, her voice pulling Alex from his stupor.

“Fuck. I don’t know. Why is he all the way out here by himself?” He checked his mental map and thought about how far out into the Night territory they were. They were well past the spider colony, and it wasn’t normal to see any other humans out this far into the Night. “I’m going to check on him. Watch my back and see if you can’t scout the surrounding area for another wave.”

“On it,” she said, activating her [Stealth] skill and melding into the shadows before his eyes.

Alex stood and activated his movement skill, crossing the distance.

Similar to when he’d found Olivia, Jonathan’s red blood stood out in an unnerving way from the black liquid that covered most of the scene.

He stopped and knelt next to the warrior while removing a potion from his spatial item. Even as he came to a stop and inspected Jonathan up close, he could see the wounds across his torn body visibly sealing themselves.

“Shit. It’s like he has a potion already in him,” Alex said to himself.

Hesitantly, Alex reached out and rolled Jonathan onto his back before tilting his head. Part of him was worried the dangerous man would wake up in another fit of rage without warning, and he truly wasn’t sure how he’d handle the situation.

He poured the potion of healing into his mouth, and Alex knew he should likely do it in smaller or slower doses, but the faster he could get a few arm lengths away from the berserker, the better. Bits of the liquid slid from the sides of his mouth, running down to his ears and short-cropped hair.

Jonathan took several large swallows of the potion before coughing, and only then did Alex roll him onto his side.

Confident that there wasn’t anything else he could do until they got Jon back to Sam, Alex stood and scanned his surroundings. There were still a number of trees in the area near them, granting some coverage from the rest of the forest. Something about being stationary and remaining near the injured man made Alex feel exposed.

He ran through his list of options quickly and dismissed the use of his mirage to aid Olivia in scouting. There wasn’t any point in creating a mobile wall of mana, more likely to draw attention to their location, rather than finding useful information. His mind immediately went to the newest tool in his kit: wards. He’d successfully created a ward already, but quickly dismissed this option as well. They would take too long to set up, and while they were defensively powerful, they were semi-permanent, and he hoped they wouldn’t be exposed like this longer than necessary. He debated moving the unconscious man, but decided against it as well. Olivia would soon provide information on nearby threats, and he knew it would be best to wait to act, rather than act hastily.

He fell back to his tried and true, forming a spell circle over his hand and assuming an athletic stance. Straining his ears, he waited for another few moments before Olivia emerged from the nearby trees on the opposite side from where they’d been hiding.

“It is all clear,” she said in an urgent whisper. She moved in a crouch and knelt next to him, surveying the aftermath of the battle. “How is he doing?”

“He seems to be recovering rapidly. It must be a skill of his,” he responded. Knowing she had his back, he knelt and deposited both of Jon’s axes into his bracer. “We should get him back.”

“Of course,” Olivia whispered again. As she moved, her foot caught on a protruding rock and she recovered smoothly to help him heft the warrior.

Alex mentally thanked the System for its granted Strength. There was an awkward moment as they stared at each other. “Well?” he asked. “You’ve got to lead us out. We need to get moving.”

“Yes, yes.” Olivia turn and began moving to the section of woods she’d emerged from, waving for him to follow.

As he followed her, he scanned their surroundings with his mana sight. Jonathan's body leaked mana naturally, while Olivia's mana was pulled tight to her body like his own. The surrounding forest appeared as a vast void to his left eye, almost completely empty of magical energy.

“Alex?”

The voice caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Olivia looking at him in confusion as he emerged from the other edge of the tree line. His mind stuttered as he looked back and forth between the two of them, both looking identical to both forms of his vision.

It all happened in the span of a few heartbeats. As his mind rapidly caught up to the situation, he threw up both of his hands, causing Jonathan to roll off his shoulders and land on the ground. He extended his left hand and activated his [Spell Storage], creating a precautionary barrier, while flushing his mana through the spell that was still hanging in the air above his right hand.

The bolt of lightning connected with Olivia closest to him, and even as her muscles tensed and she fell to the ground, he lunged forward and punched her hard in the jaw. Despite being knocked unconscious, her form continued to convulse as the magic finished running its course.

He stood, turned, and formed another spell over his hand. Glaring, he held the other up defensively. “Stop.”

She did so.

“What was it you told me while we waited for Edwin?”

“Um, we talked about Nox and the team accepting him. How they follow your lead, and then I wanted to talk about the trees. The hell is going on? Did you make your clone look like me?”

Alex shook his head and relaxed his posture. “No, I think it’s a shadow sect member…”

“Mother fucker,” she said, a dark cloud falling over her features as she moved forward to get a better look. “What do we do with her? How did you know who was who?”

“I think we should take her with us. If we can get some information from her, it could be a huge advantage for the mission. And she seemed off. She was speaking in a weird way, and… well, she tripped.”

His girlfriend raised an eyebrow at him. “She tripped? You just blasted her and punched her in the jaw… because she tripped. What if it had been me?”

He smiled at her guiltily. “When was the last time you tripped? You’ve put so much into your Agility that even other Agility users probably don’t have as much as you at this point. We’ve sparred in this environment, run for our lives, hunted, and snuck around for months now. I’ve never seen you trip.”

Olivia looked around, no doubt wondering if another disguised sect member would appear. “All right, fine. That’s fair. I’ll grab her. Let’s get the hell out of here. There was a pack of monsters to the south. As long as we avoid them, we should be in the clear.” She removed a rope from her spatial pouch and tied up the woman’s hands and feet.

Watching the efficiency with which she tied the knots made Alex realize he wouldn’t have known what he was doing in that situation. He made a mental note to look into knot tying later.

“This way,” Olivia said, throwing the limp woman over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

They moved off at a steady pace, most of their attempt at stealth discarded for the need for speed.

The trip back was uneventful, with the only changes coming from their captive enemy. They regained consciousness during the trek back to the colony and thrashed around on Olivia’s shoulder for several seconds before she hit the ground and received another strike to the head. While this one didn’t knock them unconscious, it did cause them to fall silent and the illusion to shatter around her.

The woman’s true form was a more slight frame than Olivia’s broad, athletic shoulders. She had a sallow face and black hair.

They’d continued the rest of the trip without issue, stopping outside of the tunnel entrance for Alex to search her thoroughly for magical or enchanted items. They took a mundane pouch from her waist and removed two pieces of jewelry that she wore, though both seemed absent of magic. Certain that she didn’t have a spell or enchantments that might lead others to the mana spinner colony, they took her down to their cavern, double-checked the knots, and tied her to a nearby stalagmite.

The rest of the group started asking questions immediately, asking why they had people with them. It only took a few moments for Sarah to recognize Jonathan. She grew concerned, and Sam came to assist in healing immediately.

When the initial shock and frantic explanations were over, they moved to the other side of the cavern to discuss the situation further. At that moment, Sarah was making some painfully good arguments.

“A prisoner?” She pressed.

“Well, I figured she could answer questions about the sects and what the aspects were doing. Insider information would be great, right?”

“What do you plan to do with her if she doesn’t want to answer your questions? That would make her a traitor, after all.”

“I don’t know,” he responded, honestly. “I don’t exactly plan to be nice about asking.” He felt a bit queasy at the thought of pounding on a defenseless person. “I hadn’t really thought about it. Getting here and reassessing was my first goal.”

“And then what, Alex? What if she still doesn’t want to answer your questions?” Sarah’s voice was harsh with disbelief as she looked between him and Mark.

“I really don’t know. I didn’t think about it, but I’m open to advice.”

“You didn’t think about it?” She asked.

“Of course. What sane person thinks about torturing someone?” Alex pressed defensively.

“I did,” Olivia said unapologetically.

Sarah gave her a look of disbelief. “You would torture another person?” Her face contorted as Olivia shrugged.

“These people worship the Night. They hunted me, and as far as we know, are helping to reunite the aspects into a B rank entity. If we can get information from her and avoid danger or traps… I say we do it.”

“Torturing someone doesn’t even work. There have been studies done that show people will say whatever you want to hear,” Sarah said through gritted teeth. The tension in the atmosphere was rising with each exchange, and Alex stepped in.

“Stop. That’s not helping anything. Liv, are you just trying to get a rise out of her?”

Both women seemed put off for a moment and then turned their attention on him.

“Why would you even bring her here?” Sarah asked.

“You know we need this information, and I know you’ve killed these bastards in the past. They hunted you when you were barely awakened. I don’t get why you’re defending this,” Olivia said.

“It’s one thing if they’re chasing you and trying to kill you,” Sarah said. “It’s a totally different thing to tie someone up and brutalize them for information.” Her voice rose, and Alex heard it tremble. “I’ve seen how this sort of thing can affect those who do it. I’m telling you, you don’t want to do it. And you,” she turned to Alex, “don’t want to give the order to do it. You’ll be just as responsible.” With that, she stood and walked from the cavern, preferring to move with her lantern through a different part of the colony to cool off.

Olivia let out a breath and seemed frustrated that she didn’t get to say more while he covered his face and rubbed his forehead.

“I’m going to go check her bindings.”

Left with just Mark, Sam, and Valtherion, Alex looked to his friends. “What do you guys think?”

Sam looked supremely uncomfortable and looked at Mark rather than respond.

“I… I don’t know. This feels like a totally different step. It’s one thing to fight monsters and get stronger. I want to protect you and the team, but this… this seems dark, dude.” He shook his head and looked to where Jonathan recovered and their prisoner sat tied to the vertical rock formation.

Alex agreed and shook his head again in frustration. “I’ll need to think on this more. There might be another way, hell… they might even be willing to cooperate. Either way, we need information. Nox is running out of time, and we need to finalize the plans to attack the Aspect.”

“What about Jonathan?” Sam asked quietly.

“Is he healed?”

“He is, he’s just resting now.”

Alex used his hand to push his hat back and scratch his head. “I don’t know. Him being here just complicates things. We could escort him back to the camp or something.”

“Does he really need an escort?” Mark asked. “From what you and Olivia said, he was out there soloing everything he could get his hands on. Can we bring him with us?”

“Yeah, he’s super strong, right?” Sam added.

“He’s definitely strong… I don’t know. His whole thing is around being a Berserker. I don’t think he’d fit well into the team. Also, what if we have a plan and he’s too raged-out to follow through? I don’t want to risk any of you getting injured.”

“Hmm, that’s a good point. He works on a team normally, doesn’t he?”

Alex’s thoughts flashed back to the attack on the sun elf encampment and how well Jonathan’s team had worked around him. “He does work with a team, but they’ve trained a bunch to know when to get out of his way. It just feels like an unnecessary risk.”

A more recent conversation played at the edge of his mind, and he had an idea begin to form. One that could solve the issue of the captive, allowing him to avoid anything as dark as torture.

“Raaaaaa!”

All three of their heads whipped to the side to see Jonathan standing in tattered clothes. His muscles were beginning to bulge, and spittle flew from his mouth as he flexed his hands. To Alex’s Heavenly Eye, his mana exploded around him and condensed in a tight, red knot just behind his eyes.

Past the enraged Jonathan, he glimpsed a restrained, dark-haired woman smirking at the chaos about to unfold.

Ah, fuck.