Chapter 82

Kali's pov

Late in the day, just before evening, Annika and Nina finally woke up, almost at the same time too. 

"Hello, sleepyheads," I say with a smile when they joined Draka and I at the fire pit,"Did the smell wake you two up?" I asked and turned around a piece of meat that is above the fire on a metal grill grate. It looks a little rough, but it is one of the first things that Draka made and it works, so I am happy with it.

"You two awake long?" Annika asked us after she gave me a kiss as hello and greeted Draka with a wave. 

Both of them already took a bath before they joined us, so they were freshly dressed up, at least Nina was. Annika was still naked and at first I was confused, since I know that Annika does not like to be naked without a reason. With that in mind, I looked her over again and had to laugh at the reason why she was naked.

"Yes, Draka and I have been awake since the morning and Draka even made some useful things." I indicated at the grill grate, happy with it even if it is not perfect.

Looking over Annika's naked body with obvious lust and not a small amount of humor, I asked. "Did you discover a newfound exhibitionist kink since your evolution or did the Amazon race give it to you?"

Nina laughed,"Yes, she decided that her godly body deserves to be viewed by us, lowly mortals."

"I can understand, it would be a crime to take away this view." I told them with my most serious face, but the humor in my eyes betrayed me.

Nina and I kept making jokes like these for a little, but then got stopped by Annika's voice.

"Okay, you two, don't we have some other things to talk about?" Annika calmly said, but she still had a small smile on her face from our actions.

"Okay, we can be serious for a little while at least." Nina spoke for the both of us.

We discussed in length about Annika's Evolution, and the effects it has on her. She luckily did not get something weird like I did, But her Race is very powerful and has the potential to go all the way till Tier-4, meaning she will only evolve in another Race when she is going to turn into a Demi-goddess, also known as Tier-4. Of course, when she turns to Tier-3, she will still get a high increase of Attributes like other people that do evolve, but her race will just stay as Amazon.

Amazon is a race that has high Strength, Endurance, and Vitality. Annika's highest Attributes, and also the ones she has been focusing on, but that is all the info she has about the race since she did not get a convenient info dump into her brain like I did.

"There might be a book about them in the Bounty Store, there are a massive amount of books in there." I suggested when I heard Annika's pain in her voice when she mentioned not knowing about her own race, something I believe is a side effect of the evolution.

I cannot think of my self as a Human anymore, and feel no connection with the race after Evolving to Asera, instead, I feel a deep connection with the Asera race, like I was always born an Asera. Hearing the emotion in Annika's voice reaffirmed my theory that evolving to a different race is not just physical, by also mental and maybe even our soul changed, but that is something I cannot check.

"Good idea, let me check." Annika said with hope for some more info about Amazon, and from the way she smiled after a couple of seconds, she found it.

"Yes, there is one." She said, and a book appeared in her hand in the next second.

The book was small and there was a picture of a gorgeous woman on the front who is sitting on a massive throne with several axes and swords on it. The woman was wounded but even though it was just a picture, I could feel the power of her.

Annika opened the book and frowned,"Fuck." she swore, and it surprised Nina and me, since she almost never swears. Annika never liked swearing without reason.

Nina and I both looked at the open book and saw the unrecognizable letters in the book, making me understand why she swore.

"I can read this for you!" Nina exclaimed in excitement, and it made me mentally facepalm. Of course, she can read it, she has a Skill that is made for this.

'At least Annika forgot about that Skill of hers too.' I consoled myself, while Nina started translating the book for Annika. 

"While you two are doing that, I am going towards the Brola Bear again. I need to see what they are doing, and I also want to purify the Brola Bear, if it is possible." I told them, and gave them the keys for the Veil of Secrecy, which was a purple ball that flew into their bodies.

"These are keys for the Veil of Secrecy that I put up around the entrance. It feels more secure than my Veil of Space, but I don't know if it works against Tier-3." I explained when they were surprised by the purple ball coming at them.

Seeing that Annika wanted to learn more about her Race, I left Nina and Annika there with Draka, who also wanted to know about the Amazon Race.

Of course, I am also interested but I don't need to know everything, just the basics is enough for me. Maybe later, I can take the time to know more, but for now I want to get to the cave again and this time I am not going inside with Veil of Space, instead, I will use Mystery. That actually worked on the Tier-3.

Running through the forest, it took me no time at all to arrive at a safe distance away from the cave with the Brola Bear and {Corrupted}.

Last time, I just ran inside thinking that nothing could stop me, but this time, I will use Morrigan to scout ahead. Morrigan's stealth is different, she can merge with the Spirit World and basically change dimension. It makes her incredible hard to notice, but she cannot interact with the Physical World at all. For scouting, that ability of hers is very useful to scout for the Tier-3 {Corrupted} Orc.

She exited my body and flew towards the cave, going straight for the wall, but before she entered it, she turned blueish and faded from the Physical World. 

I hid myself and looked through her eyes, seeing everything in black and white, I saw several black spots in the cave and a massive white spot in the form of a massive bear.

There are hundreds of {Corrupted} and the Tier-2 {Corrupted} have increased again, from a couple of dozen, to a little more than a hundred but from Morrigan's vision, I could see that a lot of the Tier-2 have the same blackness that makes out their body, but most of them have a noticeable weaker blackness inside them.

The black color is the {Miasma} and the white color is spirit energy. Most intelligent lives have this, but the {Corrupted} don't, even rocks are gray and not totally black like the {Miasma} is.

If I did not feel the orders that the {Miasma} gave to the {Corrupted} Orcs, that I mentally invaded, I would believe that it is an Affinity which counters the Spirit Affinity. But, it obviously has a mind or at least a goal so it cannot be an Affinity, but then again, I don't really know enough about Affinities to create a theory about it.

While I was pondering the {Miasma} again, I also looked around for the Tier-3 {Corrupted}, but it was not in the cave.

'Maybe it left when the amount of Tier-2 increased?' I wondered while also looking for some more time, I might have missed it.

After searching for 10 more minutes, I felt secure in the fact that the Tier-3 is not here, and I could enter with Veil of Space.

With a stretch, I stood up and changed Mystery for Veil of Space and went inside the cave, but with more caution than last time. I don't want the same thing to happen as last time.

Looking inside the cave with my own eyes, there are several more {Corrupted} Humans, and all of them are the ones that look weaker than the others, my Sight of the Primal also tells me that they are around level 50-55. But the level is not everything, they are also much weaker than the other {Corrupted} around here, even compared to some other {Corrupted} that are the same level. 

'Again.' I pondered when I noticed that the {Corrupted} Humans are the weakest type of {Corrupted} that I have seen.

Since I don't know how long the Tier-3 {Corrupted} will stay away, the best action for me is to hit them hard and fast, my usual action but this time, I did not take the time to really look around and instead Flickered towards the closest Ogre.

In the middle of using [Flicker], I pulled out the Spike that I used to kill the previous Ogre. [Flicker] ended above the Ogre's head, at the ceiling, and just like last time, I used gravity to empower my strike downwards towards the Ogre.

The moment my Spike hit the head of the Ogre, I felt a dangerous force counter my attack and the rebound traveled through my body, the Spike was stopped from going further inside the Ogre and I felt my health going down by at least 50%.

"Ahh." I groaned from the sweet pain, but I kept my head on straight. The rebound caused damage to my insides and my arm felt wrong. I had only a split second of time to use [Clean Cut], increasing Critical Damage by 50%!

The spike that was stopped, gained a very slight amount of yellow around it, and sliced straight through the ogre's head. 

Feeling around me, I could see the {Corrupted} react this time, since it took me more time than last time to kill the Ogre.

Knowing that I don't have enough time, I did not go purify the Brola Bear this time, and instead ran as fast as I could towards the exit, while using Mystery, to be sure to be safe.

A {Corrupted} threw some kind of ball at me, but I was already gone before it got close. The feeling that the ball gave me send shivers through my body and made me run even faster.

The moment I was far enough, I collapsed on a tree branch and my vision went black, With my last conscious thought, I Willed myself into a [Trance].