Liliana Von Gershenfeld did not know why her biological uncle Basil Von Blodmane had dragged her hundreds of leagues down under the earth after kidnapping her. She did not care to know either. She only cared about getting home and getting revenge. At least her Uncle only put her inside a storage closet in a slave-holding facility and not in a cell.


    Is this about his stupid politics? Despite what she told herself about not caring, Lily was very much trying to figure out just what was going on here. She was well aware of her Uncle’s radical opinions—and it wasn’t like she disagreed! So what was the point of kidnapping her to ‘see the evils of enslavement’ firsthand? And why now?


    So irritating.


    At least nothing was going disastrously wrong yet. That was how Lily consoled herself, as she roamed the back hallways while searching for an excuse for why she was here. Because someone would find her, and ‘my insane uncle deposited me in one of your storage rooms’ wouldn’t work.


    That was another strike against her uncle, Lily decided. You end up having to come up with lies that are more believable than what he’s actually done.


    Turning the corner from one dismal stone corridor to another, she thanked Fate that he hadn’t been so rash this time as to incite something violent.


    Lily flinched as the whole hallway shook. Chips of stone and bits of dust fell from the ceiling as a series of explosions shook the complex somewhere deep below. “Fuck.”


    Lily hastened her pace. She had no idea what he’d done this time—but she did know that she didn’t want to remain anywhere close to it.


    _____


    “Hasta la bye-bye, dumbass!” Zoe cheered as she yanked another prison mook off the ledge and into the yawning abyss below with her blood whip. It was not unlikely that she’d have been less cheerful with killing, had the endeavor not come with delicious levels and skill gains.


    Blood Whip has reached level 10!


    Blood Whip has reached Tier II.


    +5 Acuity, +5 Vitality


    Case in point. She’d also gained three levels overall, bringing her just two away from possibly gaining an early class evolution option. That came with an additional forty-five stat points—in addition to her buffer of sixty-three. Zoe dumped them all into power.


    Power increased to 228!


    Zoe staggered from the shock of the singular stat damn-near doubling. Except rather than stumbling and perhaps falling, her jerky movements sent her rocketing sideways into a wall. Lodtvik turned to look at her—at which point Zoe realized they’d defeated all the opposition in this area. By which she meant Lodtvik had, and she’d taken advantage of it to take a few by surprise.


    “Are you okay there?”


    Zoe coughed. She tried to get control over her diaphragm. Even breathing felt like it had far too much force behind it. Really suffering from success here. But she just gave the soul-eater a thumbs-up. “Yeah, all good here.”


    Lilith popped back into existence as Zoe pulled herself upright, wobbling as she did. “We are very much NOT ‘all good,’ like seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?”


    Zoe paused—both to think and to get her balance sorted out. Do you want an annotated list?


    That might have been the wrong response, but it was also funny. Not that Lilith thought so. “Every time I make peace with being bound to such a blighted moron, you just go and prove why things can always get worse.”


    Zoe exercised her immense wisdom by choosing to take that as a compliment. Anyway, let’s go catch up with Lodtvik.


    She also took the moment to go back over her recent skill gains—even as her newly-empowered muscles launched her across the stone floor. Aside from the levels to rending and mending touch while still in her own cell—and from the tenth level to blood whip just now—she’d gained one more level in rending touch, another two levels in mending touch, a whole five in rejuvenate—and lastly, two in surgeon’s eye.


    Rending Touch has reached level 8!


    Mending Touch has reached level 5!


    Rejuvenate has reached level 6!


    Surgeon’s Eye has reached level 6!


    The increases in rending touch came from simply using it more, while the ones in surgeon’s eye were more meaningful. They were seemingly based on Zoe making a point to understand how she could use it to spot vulnerabilities in her opponents.


    But the bulk of the gains, those in the healing-type skills mending touch and rejuvenate—those came near-exclusively from patching up the guard captain Lodtvik was still using as his personal attack puppet. She didn’t know why her ally was so insistent they keep that specific minion alive—and he was alive, not a type of undead like Zoe first assumed. Her healing wouldn’t work properly otherwise.


    Yes, he was strong as a Rank C—but most of that was lost to the soul-eater doing whatever it was that gave such full control. Zoe had seen the man fight before, and he was a shadow of his former capacity. The main benefit was that he was still sturdier than most, allowing Lodtvik to send him hurtling into the fray, corrupted sword swinging.


    Yes, that was how Lodtvik ended up using the corrupted weapon. Zoe had to admit she was disappointed, no matter how much sense it might make. What was the harm in wielding a corrupted weapon if you weren’t really the one wielding it?


    At least she got to see a corrupted weapon in action.


    He nodded at her as she came up beside him. “Good. I wasn’t going to wait much longer.”


    Yeah yeah. Zoe would have caught up to him anyway. It wasn’t like he was moving through the prison that quickly. He was slowed down a bit by all the people trying to kill him in the way. “Where are we going?”


    Lodtvik pointed at the door where the possessed captain was currently jamming his key through. “We are going out.”


    “Ah.” Zoe nodded. That’s very helpful information. Then she shrugged. It wasn’t like she intended to do anything else. In moments, the door swung outward, just in time to let through a barrage of ranged skills. Zoe grimaced as a dozen different kinds of magic perforated their flesh shield. Said flesh shield stumbled out of the way, having largely served his purpose for the moment.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Zoe rushed over to his prone form as Lodtvik returned fire. This was why she grimaced upon seeing how thoroughly the guard captain got shredded. She was well aware of the drill by now—her job here was to heal him back to fighting condition. At least I can cheat by using some of his own blood.


    The captain had a high natural regeneration. It was useful in concert with the blood-based cost of mending touch, the fact that the skill healed him, and the fact that he was still technically alive and using his own stats and passive skills. Zoe could, on average, fill two-fifths of the cost of healing him with his own blood. Then, he’d regenerate it back in the time between that and the next use of the skill.


    That left Zoe to supply the remaining three-fifths, a cost she was likewise just barely able to recover. Really, it was quite fortunate that Lodtvik’s version of a zombie was technically living.


    Mending Touch has reached level 6!


    About time. Zoe sighed. She wasn’t doing anything special here—just the frequent and intensive activations were pushing her skill levels. But the system wasn’t finished.


    You have leveled up! You are now level 24.


    +15 stat points.


    +1% core progression.


    Zoe smiled at that. Now she was a single level away from getting a class upgrade. Potentially. Also, it meant she had another fifteen stat points to spend. That was always nice.


    “Please do not dump them all into power again, that was fucking moronic.” And, as expected, Lilith had to come in just to be a downer. “Like what happened to that whole thing of keeping a buffer?”


    Zoe had not intended to do that again, because it had been impulsive and she already regretted it. That being said…


    Perception has increased to 135!


    Zoe was very deliberate in how she ignored the unwanted tag-along in her mind as she and the guard captain rose back to their feet. Lodtvik had taken down the last of the nearby opposition with small rocks. Yes, small rocks—aside from spooky, invisible death skills and siccing a mind-controlled juggernaut with a corrupted sword on people, she’d mostly seen him throw small rocks.


    Small rocks became quite deadly when your telekinesis fired them off so fast the air sounded with a sharp crack. What was perhaps more impressive than the pebble death arts themselves was the source. There wasn’t a whole lot of gravel lying around, so the soul-eater just ripped small chunks of stone out of the floor.


    With such powerful telekinetic skills, Zoe couldn’t imagine why he didn’t simply crush their enemies directly.


    “I can imagine many practical reasons. Would you care for a list?”


    Zoe thought about it. Her first instinct was always to dismiss Lilith—but this might be useful. She could always stand to learn more about magic skills and close-combat tactics.


    Lilith explained her theories as they continued following Lodtvik and his puppets. He’d gained a couple more from the last encounter, though he didn’t seem nearly as protective of them. Case in point—he didn’t so much as blink when the first of them was cut down.


    Meanwhile, the captain continued cutting through friend and foe alike with the dark, distorted form of the corrupted blade. Assuming the effect was due to the corruption and not something else—well, Zoe surmised she could visually identify what it looked like now. A dark miasma clung to the edges of the weapon, dark and murky but not leaving a visible trail.


    That wasn’t quite true—there was a faint, shimmering haze it left in its wake, conjuring to mind visions of burnt air and noxious vapors. And where it struck, the murky, distorted weapon left sizzling gashes that bubbled and hissed and in some cases even swelled in tumor-like masses. Nasty stuff. ‘Do not touch’ indeed.


    “First,” Lilith began, “it could just be that he’s found the pebble-shooting to be more efficient than bowling people over. That being said, it could also be something more specific to his own skills. For example, it might not be telekinesis at all.”


    Zoe frowned. What do you mean by that? She eyed Lodtvik as he ripped free two dozen more rocks. She also took the moment to cast rejuvenate on both him and his remaining two minions.


    Rejuvenate has reached level 7!


    She ignored the skill notification to continue paying attention to Lilith. “It could be a force skill, but it could also be stone, for example. Anyway, another possibility is that it’s limited in range. Sometimes manipulation skills are super strong at close-range but have a dramatic and steep fall-off.”


    Zoe considered that. Those were all good ways to look at things in general, and she was glad she’d listened for this one. She ignored the feeling of smug vindication she detected after thinking that. What was far more important were the small ships ahead of them.


    Zoe hadn’t noticed, but they’d been working their way lower and lower through the sprawling complex. At this point the chaos must have spread to cover the entire prison-fortress equally, as there was no longer much variation in where they encountered guards or escapees.


    But now, Zoe realized that they must be on the coast somewhere. Lodtvik and his pet guards got them all the way to a massive and heavy gate on the lowest level—one which led to a sort of underground docks. A cavernous tunnel stretched ahead of them, shrouded in darkness save where a single torch flickered off to one side.


    The docks themselves were lit by just a couple hanging lanterns, and two small craft sat at rest. As for the water, it was exceptionally still. Makes sense, Zoe thought, because it was contained in some sort of—what was the word, grotto?


    With how dark it was, it must either be night—or the tunnel was quite long. Even if it bent to block out the light, she couldn’t see far enough to catch any sort of bend. Her night-vision had increased dramatically with both her stats and Demonic makeover, which meant she could see quite far down its length.


    She also saw why Lodtvik was so insistent on keeping the Rank C guard captain alive. The gate was locked—but he didn’t open it with a key. Rather, the puppet of a man slammed his hand against the bars. Zoe squirmed as an intense tingling shot through both antennae. He must be channeling some kind of magic into the gate.


    Stepping closer and hoping for a better look, Zoe tried to make out what was going on. Her ability to perceive the arcane with her antennae was only good enough to detect that powerful magic was occurring. Or it was right now. Lilith acted like a Demon’s so-called antennae were critical to their style of sorcery and represented a significant magical advantage.


    The magic surged to a crescendo. Tilting her head, Zoe was just able to make out how it raced outward through the network of metal bars like a pulsed wave. Then the gate swung open.


    You have gained the Rank C skill: Manasight!


    Yo! Zoe fist-pumped. That had to be the greatest gain from this whole prison escapade yet. Four levels? Double or triple that in skills increases? All the stats? Yeah, no. This was perfect. The memory of sitting exhausted in the freezing snow, trying to manipulate her own mana into forming a spark, that was still vivid in her mind. Why wouldn’t it be? That was only a couple days ago now, even if the ‘minor soul damage’ she’d suffered was healed up now.


    Zoe had not forgotten her goal of getting a mana manipulation skill and mastering magic. Sight wasn’t manipulation—but this was no doubt a massive milestone. It was a Rank C skill too—which meant it was both rare and really good.


    “Yep,” was all Lilith replied.


    “Hey, Demon-girl! You coming?”


    Zoe’s attention returned to Lodtvik as he stepped onto one of the two craft. “You did me well back there… Do you have any plans for what to do next?”


    Zoe frowned. The smart thing to do would be to get on that boat and get out of here. Lodtvik was both strong and useful, and his company was the majority of the reason she’d made it this far. That being said…


    “Uh, I wouldn’t mind meeting up at some point if you stay around Verdanport? I need to go retrieve my spear though.”


    She hadn’t forgotten the embittered venom strike spear she’d loaned to that wolf-lady, Sasha. Wait—she should also take back the corrupted sword if they were to part ways now. “Oh, yeah, can I have my sword back?”


    The lanky man shrugged. “Sure.” Then the possessed guard captain stumbled towards her, and Zoe pulled it back into her inventory. She made sure not to touch it herself. She’d started to notice how there was a faint necrosis spreading up the Rank C man’s arms despite how often she’d healed him. “Thanks.” Then she turned to head back into the prison. She needed her spear—and this was the most progress she’d gained in one activity yet. Not to mention how quickly it happened.


    Murdering your way through a fortress of Rank E, D, and even a few Rank C enemies did the body and soul well. Lilith giggled at that. Well of course it does!”


    Lodtvik saluted her as he steered his craft out into the still water of the subterranean canal. “I don’t know where I’ll go next—but if you’re going to Verdanport, I have a feeling you won’t be hard to find.” Zoe raised an eyebrow. What did he mean by that? “Good luck finding your spear.”


    “Yeah, see you later too bud,” Zoe laughed. “And thanks.”


    As the strange man started a strangely quiet engine of some sort and pushed off into the dark water, an unexpected system notification flashed before her mind’s eye.


    Quest Update!


    Hidden objective complete!


    Hidden objectives revealed!


    [GET OUT]


    Uh oh, a familiar cultist cut off your head and dropped you in some kind of prison! This is a bad situation—if you’re a guard. And what’s worse than one escapee? A whole lot of them, of course.


    Assist someone in escaping and they’ll surely be grateful. Being nice pays.


    -Rewards-


    > (Free Lodtvik) Elixir of Greater Soul Sight x3 <complete>


    > (Free Sasha) Cloak of the Hunter Forest Animal (Rank E) (Living Item)


    > (Free Liliana) Dubiously Legal Passkeys x3


    That was nice and all but—wait, what? Zoe’s eyes lingered on the last line. Liliana?