Alyssa and Bromisnar arrived just in time for dinner.

Lapia was making a stew with the Uger meat I still had a lot of.

We had a nice, cozy meal all together.

After cleaning my teeth with E'er I relaxed in my seat and cleared my throat to get everyone's attention.

“It has come to my attention that there's a dungeon three days to the north which was once a mine,” I began, looking at each of them. “We could go and have a look. It's abandoned and blocked off.”

“What for?” asked Bonte from across the table.

Lapia turned to the catboy. “After we helped the King, he invited Natasha to a celebratory event which I was thinking we should all attend.”

Yolin groaned.

“It will take place in one or two weeks,” the Elf continued. “Polishing our skills would be good to kill time instead of sitting here and do nothing.”

“Hmm,” Bonte nodded and turned to the Goliath next to him. “We could use the chance to help Thelea catch up in levels.”

I nodded. It was all coming together.

“What kind of monsters are there?” Pokora asked me with a raised eyebrow.

I winced and replied, “Spiders.”

She nodded with a relaxed smile. “Neat.”

What? I stared at her in shock. I see... she's a psychopath.

The rest nodded in understanding without so much as a hint of disgust.

Alyssa nodded and spoke up, “When we returned earlier, the concierge gave me a letter from the Watchers. They need help with Elena.”

I tilted my head. “Why? Did something happen?”

She shook her head. “Nothing serious. I healed her mind so they requested my assistance.”

“I see,” I muttered, looking down at the table. “I'll join you.”

The Luzo nodded and gave me a smile.

“How about we go after you deal with that?” Yolin offered. “Three days going, maybe two days in the dungeon, and then three days back total up to more than a week.”

“Or,” Pokora began, placing a hand on the table and looking around. “You replace your Bhin with higher leveled mounts and we make the trip in a single day, maybe even less. That way we can either stay longer or come back sooner.”

“That, too,” the Oni agreed with a nod. “It would be a nice opportunity to get permanent mounts more suited to your needs.”

Alyssa, Bonte, Bromisnar, and Lapia shared looks and nodded.

I turned to Alyssa. “Did the letter say when they needed you to be there?”

She nodded. “Tomorrow morning,” she replied with a frown.

I giggled at that.

Pokora clapped once and stood up. “Okay, I'll go and prepare for the trip. I need to come up with formations and leader stuff,” she muttered with a sigh.

Nods were shared and we retreated to our respective rooms.

Back in mine, Alyssa got ready to sleep along with Lapia and Yolin. I was laying at the edge of the bed next to Lapia.

“Natasha,” the Elf placed a hand on my shoulder. “Why don't you take this chance to upgrade some skills if you haven't already?”

I nodded, looking her in the eye. “Yeah, I should do that. Got any tips?”

She thought for a second. “Use what you've learned so far,” she advised with a smile. “Don't make rushed decisions, though.”

“Thank you,” I replied and gave her a quick kiss.

“You could upgrade them to kill better and faster,” Yolin supplied from the other side of the bed.

“Take your species into consideration, too,” Alyssa offered in a tired voice. “With how efficiently you absorb E'er, you could ignore the increase in cost.”

“I see,” I muttered, thinking about their tips. “Thanks, girls.”

The three hummed and quieted down.

Lapia waved a hand and turned the light off.

I closed my eyes and went at it.

What should I upgrade? I wondered as I dove into myself.

The section within me that held the knowledge of my skills welcomed me and I glanced at the little patterns surrounding the knowledge of each skill.

Circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles that had spikes, semicircles, and mini squares on the edges occupied my mind's eye.

How about the ones I use the most first, I concluded and focused on Initiation.

Rank 2.

-Initiation, Lvl 50. [Aura] Prepare for battle. You and your mount become connected, entering an advanced battle trance that lowers the success of being dismounted by being aware of your own weaknesses. Your mount may continue to move regardless of your actions, if instructed so. Spends E’er in accordance to the duration you intend to use.

I inspected the skill for a moment and noticed a tendril reached out to my core into the Bond and towards Sonya. That meant that whatever effect I added would influence the Ratnak as well.

She's my mount, I thought. The mount of a Halve. A Protector. What would be appropriate? A Halve is an immovable being who protects the world and keeps balance within. Nature made person, in a way. Well, who am I kidding. Her whimper when Lapia's lightning hit us is still at the back of my mind.

At that, an idea formed in my mind. If I made it so the skill increased Constitution and toughness, it would make her increasingly hard to harm or kill.

It sounded a bit too overpowered, but I had already gone down that path when I integrated a crippling slow to Preparation.

How do I make that work? Do I have a skill that increases stats? I wondered, then it came to me and I turned to the skill in question.

Rank 2.

-Monster Hunter, Lvl 50. [Aura] Face insurmountable odds. Increases status according to the number of enemies you take on for you and your allies by 10%(2 highest stats) per enemy (STR/5)m around you. Enemies must be doing battle with you. Spends E’er in accordance to the duration you intend to use.

It fit like a glove. The conditional of being in battle with enemies was a little troubling in how it exactly worked.

Next, I looked for a skill that increased toughness.

Rank 2.

-Rhongomyniad, Lvl 50. You and your mount target a single enemy and ruthlessly rush to it, increasing your toughness through the process. Your momentum is massively increased the further you advance, breaking traps and demolishing structures in your path. A large amount of E’er is spent to home into your target, making evasion impossible.

Okay, there it is, I cheered myself. Now I have to see what does what and add it to Initiation.

I touched the skills all over the shape while closely inspecting the pattern and the information inside. The skills were branded into my mind, so the understanding was already there. It was a simple process of identifying and applying them.

Monster Hunter had two tendrils that went towards my core and into the Bond. At the same time, it had two different tendrils going towards my stats, where they firmly latched onto strength and dexterity.

Hmm... So my brain analyses reality and the skill reacts to the information? Is the conditional of combat a subconscious perception? Fuck me to the suns... I should have paid more attention in school.

Rhongomyniad had a thin tendril that connected the skill with my stats as well, but it didn't touch constitution the way Monster Hunter's tendril did with the other two stats. Instead, it went around the stat if that makes any fucking sense.

Okay... let's give it a try.

With utmost care, and remembering the way Lapia did hers, I guided two tendrils from Initiation.

One followed the path Monster Hunter's tendril went, but connecting with Strength, Constitution, and going around the stat like Rhongomyniad's. The conditional was the same since I copied the reality-brain-skill feedback cycle to it that Monster Hunter had.

The second tendril followed the path Rhongomyniad and Initiation went after, going through my core and intro the Bond towards Sonya.

I made extra sure to do both at the same time in case the skill settled when I finished the first. It took me a while to do it since a mistake meant living with a botched skill for ten thousand years.

That would be far from ideal.

The threads grew a little erratic sometimes, splitting on their own like strands of hair. I settled with braiding them the way I did my hair to keep them from doing that.

After what felt like hours, I connected the threads to their targets. I did a final check and everything seemed in order so I let it go.

The skill shifted slightly and a few ripples flowed through my insides.

I checked the skill and my figurative eyes widened in stupefaction.

Rank 3.

-Initiation, Lvl 50. [Aura] Prepare for battle. You and your mount become connected, entering an advanced battle trance that lowers the success of being dismounted by being aware of your own weaknesses. Your mount may continue to move regardless of your actions, if instructed so. While in combat, increases your mount's status based on yours: Constitution, Toughness, and Strength by (STR/60)% each. Your mount's weight is tripled. Spends E’er in accordance to the duration you intend to use.

I created a monster! I laughed in my mind. Holy shit!

I checked my status and tried doing the math.

Status
-STR: 5404
-CON: 2702
-INT: 675
-WIS: 675
-DEX: 4053
Health: 54040/54040
Stamina: 13510/13510
E’er: 13500/13500

So... 5404 divided by 60 is... 90% increase?Oh, no. That means...wait... is it times 9 or 0.9? It's percentage so... 100% is 1. Oh, 0.9 then. This is still obscene. Holy shit what did I do? Is this what they mean with E'er reacting differently to Halves? This is absurd! My species is too overpowered! Still, this is so fun!

I did quick multiplications and arrived at a disgusting increase of 4863 for strength, 2431 for constitution, and toughness was still a bit muddy in my mind.

So... would this percentage increase later on? If one day I have ten thousand strength it would be... 166%. Damn. That's sixteen thousand extra strength. I did create a monster!

I was happy with how it turned out. Sonya was super cute so I welcomed making her absurdly strong and resilient.

Plus, the bonus took my base stat into consideration instead of the final total. When I reach ten thousand strength, Monster Hunter will give me one thousand strength per enemy and it won't make a feedback loop with the new version of Initiation.

I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Much to my surprise and relief, it was still dark. I retrieved my pocket watch from my storage and checked the time.

It was three in the morning.

Efficient, indeed, I thought with a satisfied nod. Let's go for another one, I concluded and retrieved the book Lapia gave me in Mountroad, ‘Way of the Warrior, an Analysis of Skill Advancement’ and flipped a few pages looking for Hoplite skills. I came across a few paragraphs about Shielded Thrust which contained advice about shield usage to better protect the user.

It was a shit skill in my opinion, so I decided to improve that one.

Rank 1.

-Shielded Thrust, Lvl 50. You grow familiar with weapons of the spear group, learning techniques to parry, block and redirect attacks with increasing ease. Repetition and practice has taught you how to do so while attacking.

Oddly enough, the skill had no mention about shields despite it being in the very name. I knew how to use a shield but nothing beyond the basics of covering myself with one.

So, I followed the advice on the text.

'Warriors pay too much attention to striking and not enough in defending. The proper way to survive battles is to defend the self, and to hit an opponent only when the optimal moment arises. Why use unneeded force if the strike will be blocked? (...)

The proper shield usage is all about the grip and a flexible wrist. It takes less power to deflect a strike than it does to give one. (...)

A shield should cover one's neck, torso, groin, and the companion to the side of the shield's hand (…).'

It was a bit redundant but it got the point across. I had done as the text advised during my fight at the arena with the exception of slamming Thelea's shields.

I had also used demons' corpses as a shield during my warm stay in Hell so the muscle memory was there, just not branded into my mind as a skill.

Alright, then, I concluded and went into myself.

That time the process was shorter. I added my memories from Hell and my experience so far with protecting myself with an object into the skill while following the advice from the book. Replaying my actions in my mind and paying special attention to how I protected my vitals, I upgraded the skill.

Rank 2.

-Shielded Thrust, Lvl 50. You grow familiar with weapons of the spear group, learning techniques to parry, block and redirect attacks with increasing ease. Repetition and practice has taught you how to do so while attacking. A million years of fighting for survival and using shields -though very rarely, and them being shields is questionable- have given you the knowledge on how to efficiently use them to protect yourself and others based on the skill level.

I stared at the skill for a few seconds.

Well... fuck you too, E'er! I retorted.