We walked four days north of Skuld’s Hand before coming to our permanent settlement. The environment was the forest again, and we would be sleeping on the cold ground with the branches above our heads. It was eerily quiet at night.

The danger level had risen quickly since separating the squadron into two parties per group. The open flatland wasn’t safe to reside on. At least with trees all around us there was a measure of safety and protection. It also helped that we were downwind of the direction we expected the enemy to appear from.

The protection of the forest was a double-edged sword though. A monster could be upon you without much warning. A bush would rattle and a battle would ensue. Fortunately, this wasn’t a common occurrence.

The wave of beasts had spread out widely and were moving at a leisurely pace. There was no urgency in their behavior, and I almost felt like they were taking a stroll eastward. But for Daron’s prophecy, I would never have thought their intention was to claim the entire North Maledith Continent.

In my spare time, I was of a mind to study both enchanting and runecrafting.

“You should put that on hold, stay in top condition.” When he saw me at work, Lucas, who was the tank from our partner party, made this suggestion.

I didn’t resent his comment as it was the correction decision: my mind was incredibly strained after practice and my MP drained. There wasn’t much else, though, that I could do to cure the boredom that waiting entailed. And I wanted to look at the diagrams and runes within my new book. So I compromised and did a certain amount of studying but not so much as to exhaust me.

Each time I got his former book out, Julian would have a nasty look on his face. I felt he was one step away from begging me to return it to him. The fact that Rhea hadn’t come to see me meant it was okay, at least on my end. There was no telling the punishment he would receive, though.

It wasn’t just us lower level Adventurers who were bored though.

“Do you want to spar?” Alex asked one morning. He was an assassin nearly double my level. It wouldn’t seriously be a sparring session for him, but I welcomed the opportunity for training.

Perhaps after seeing my Phase Step he had taken an interest in me? Perhaps this was a special instruction from Rhea though? There was nothing else to do, and so I went along with the proposal.

“Summon that weapon of yours,” he said. I was hesitant at first, of course. “Just do it. You won’t be able to land a single blow on me anyway.” His simple provocation got me fired up.

I summoned Mana Scythe, but with merely twenty percent of my MP. The goal wasn’t to hurt him anyway, but to mimic real battle.

“Come.” He remained still, like a statue, with his hands behind his back.

Leaning forward, I rushed in his direction. I sliced at him from top to bottom across his shoulder, and for a moment, I hesitated. Before my vision could even react to the fading image in front of me, there was a strong force on my hip.

What I had sliced through was merely a mirage, an afterimage. I couldn’t even turn my head before I was flying sideways through the air. My body didn’t stop rolling until I crashed into a tree trunk.

“You’ll get hurt if you mess around,” Alex said.

My hand reached down and I felt a warm bruise already forming on my hip. He had fucking kicked me hard as shit. His face still had a smug smile, while his hands remained crossed behind his back. This demonstration that he hadn’t even needed to lift a finger didn’t make me mad, but even more determined.

Evidently the assassin could see my intent from my expression, “That’s more like it!” But before I could even register what was happening I went flying again. Alex laughed, “I never said I wouldn’t attack! You were wide open.”

The more I looked at his smile the more a dark desire to hurt him back rose up in me. I felt it. The assassin was enjoying this way too much.

“Are you starting to understand?” he asked. Before his sentence had even finished I reacted. My body moved instinctually with Phase Step.

The tree behind me suddenly had a new boot imprint. He was a dirty son of a bitch. There was a brief moment of surprise on his face, “You’re learning quick; were you expecting me to attack while you were distracted with my talking?”

I was afraid to answer knowing he might kick my head clean off during the response. “No.” I panted. Just waiting and trying to dodge was going to earn me an ass kicking. He stared at me, as if inviting me to attack again, and so I rushed forward.

This time I didn’t hesitate at all, if I managed to cut the assassin in half then it was because of his own hubris. When I was merely two steps away I used Phase Step and slashed out with as much force as I could muster.

There was no response, no resistance at all from my swing. It was obvious he had dodged my strike with ease, also that his boot was coming, and so I used Phase Step again. The strain on my body was immense.

As I did, I swung the scythe backwards without even looking, guessing he was going to kick me in the same place again. There was contact, but not what I was expecting. The Mana Pulsing Rod flew from my hand and Mana Scythe despawned.

Alex had stopped his attack and cleanly kicked the rod from my hand. “Not a bad attempt.” By now I was already heavily panting and he wasn’t even slightly winded. “Let’s stop here,” he added. I couldn’t continue if I wanted to.

The blows from his kicks were heavy and although he was holding back, it was a painful lesson. My MP was already exhausted to a dangerously low level from those few brief exchanges. My eyes were open, at least. He was strong, impossibly strong.

“That was pretty good,” Joy said. Julian didn’t speak but looked like he was having PTSD flashbacks. No doubt he went through an even harsher training after his little stunt.

“Does this happen a lot?” I asked Joy.

“High levels training with lower levels? It does, but they usually don’t actually kick you.” She snickered. I couldn’t help but pull up my robe on the side and look at the dark green bruise. He was ruthless: kicking me there two times, hard enough to send me flying like a doll.

My entire body suddenly chilled as if death was descending upon me. I didn’t hesitate to Phase Step immediately and move backwards several feet. My entire body was drenched with sweat.

“What are you doing?” Joy asked. My eyes scanned the surroundings only to find Lucas, our other tank, staring at me with a devilish grin on his face. He then gave me a huge thumbs up as if impressed.

I had sensed a desire in him to attack me, tangible enough for me to feel the danger. It somehow felt like it was him saying ‘I can train you too. But only if I really intend harm.’

It proved easier for me to react to Lucas’s attempts to catch me by surprise than Alex’s kicks. Lucas noticed it as well, and the training continued without so much as a word. There was danger in his strong feelings and I felt death descend upon me many times over the remainder of the day. Lucas had me on edge, and my own party members looked at me as if at a mad person.

I didn’t complain at all, because I could see that this dangerous game was giving me the best training I could get. At first my intuition was just a hunch to move out of the way, but then I could anticipate the blows. He was slicing across my neck; stabbing into my chest; coming from the right or left.

My ability to react, and react correctly, grew stronger.

On our third day camped in the forest, the mobs started to appear. They arrived not as a wall of monsters, but a sparse scattering of enemies. They were not seeking battle, in fact half of them ignored our existence.

Only those which came right on top of us put up a fight. This intermittent series of manageable fights was incredible training for all of us, but mostly for our low level group.

“Don’t worry about the ones slipping by,” said Lucas, “there are other groups behind us that will pick up the slack.”

Harpy*** LEVEL: 39 BEAST WIND

HP: 78513 MP: 155

STR: 30

AGI: 45

DEX: 25

VIT: 70

INT: 25

A mythological Harpy. Its figure looks like the mix of man, bird, and beast.

Our first real encounter was a harpy, as everything else before it had simply been wandering cannon fodder. There was something incredibly eerie about the harpy’s eyes: an intelligence lurked within. Its human-like features made us all uncomfortable.

Despite the level gap, we were expected to dispatch it. As our instructor had said on assigning us this part of the forest. “There will be no help for you at all; take care of everything yourself.”

I studied every part of the monster’s body carefully. The hands that melded into two beautiful wings; and the feet that morphed into terrible and vicious claws; even the long and sharp tail that twirled around its seductive body. Flying creatures always gave me a bad vibe.

It was a female harpy, with a body that was lean and agile. It had an impressive AGI stat and high intelligence. I had yet to see Julian tank any mob seriously so far and wasn’t sure what to expect with his tanking style.

I would not allow myself to be fooled like before. My position was behind the harpy but I refused to make a move until both Amber and Joy started mounting attacks and building aggro. They noticed my behavior as well, but could only sigh for their own mistake.

Julian was an ass, a cocky ass, but he definitely wasn’t a bad tank. His footwork was impressive and his ability to minimize damage was great. He always managed to lighten every blow by stepping back at the crucial time, or deflecting the attack at just the right angle.

“What are you waiting for?” Julian yelled at me.

I could have yelled a plethora of responses at this moment, an absolute essay of things I was waiting for. Instead, I brandished Mana Scythe and rushed in. But this battle wasn’t as simple as striking from behind and assisting with the accumulation of damage to the monster.

The tail that swerved like a dancing snake had eyes of its own apparently. Every time I lashed out, the blade clashed against the intervention of the harpy’s sharp tail. Not only that, but the tail itself was durable as a piece of steel. Mana Scythe was having trouble leaving any meaningful damage at all.

This was a stalemate of sorts, but at least damage was steadily building on the harpy from Amber and Joy. The fight was turning into something of a tank and spank. At least that’s what I thought, up until it looked at our healer, Rodrigo.

The harpy let out a harmonious song from its throat that quickly developed into an ear-rending shriek. Rodrigo was yelling but no sound came from his mouth. Although he was making the gestures of his class, it was obvious he’d been silenced and could no longer cast spells at all, which meant no heals for Julian.

Julian raised his guard even tighter and put both hands into every block. His job now was to minimize the damage he was taking and make it out alive. He was doing a remarkable job, but it wasn’t only him that needed to be careful.

The harpy darted backwards through the air and separated herself from us. I could no longer stand beside her and found myself side by side with Julian. We needed to get back in melee range, and we tried.

Her wings started to flap and the resulting gale of wind was so strong it stung my face. Julian couldn’t move forward at all. I had a sudden feeling of danger as I sidestepped. It was eerily similar to that from the moth in the hidden jungle.

The harpy was shooting out invisible waves of air blades as sharp as any knife. Rodrigo couldn’t heal either. I felt pleased I’d anticipated trouble and had sidestepped until Joy let out a scream behind me. There was a deep gash along the side of her robe.

There were only Julian and I in front, and he was not large enough to deflect all the magical attacks on his own. In fact, he couldn’t even see the swirling wind. His shield was big enough, and covering enough of his body that it was unlikely he would take any damage.

Amber, who was behind him, was naturally shielded. It was on my side that we had no cover from the battering of these sharp waves of air, and there was only me standing in front of Joy. She would be sliced to bits in moments without my blocking the attack.

I couldn’t step out of the way with a clear conscience, and so I didn’t. The next flap of the harpy’s wings sent another blade in my direction. My senses were screaming danger at me, but the nature wasn’t specific enough. I swatted out my scythe blindly and felt a gash open in my leg.

Not enough!I needed to focus harder, as hard as I concentrated when runecrafting, or enchanting. The surroundings around me started to fade. I couldn’t hear the sound of spells, or attacks, or even the harpy’s woeful cries.

The next blade was coming, and it was like I could feel it. It displaced the air around it so minutely, but that was enough. A slight flutter against my left shoulder told me where it was aimed. I slashed out and deflected the air blade.

I wasn’t seeing the missiles, but I was FEELING them clearly. My senses were in tune with everything around me. It went past that, and I could even feel the origin of the attack in front of me. There was an invisible cyclone of mana just below the harpy’s wings. It swirled with powerful intensity and shot out a blade with every flap.

Julian was still struggling to move forward into the cyclone, and so I needed to instead. My eyes were straining and on my head I felt like my veins were pulsing. I activated Phase Step and appeared directly in front of the harpy.

My Mana Scythe came down, and to the others it probably seemed like I was only slashing air. In reality, I was slashing out at that invisible cyclone of mana. Mana Scythe tore through it and completely shredded the cyclone to pieces.

The pressure on Julian must have disappeared, as finally he was able to move forward to meet the harpy and the two resumed their melee combat. My head was already pounding with pain and I really hoped he could kill it soon.

Against my better judgment, but out of loyalty my group I used Phase Step. My scythe came up like a blur directly into the armpit of the harpy. My goal was simple, to cut off a wing and leave it on the floor. That wasn’t what happened, but the swing was effective enough.

The harpy’s skin was tough, but my strike contained too much force. The arm bone snapped at the armpit and the harpy couldn’t help but crumble to the floor like an injured maiden. Although we’d won, I couldn’t even stay standing and suddenly my vision went dark.

When my vision returned it was Joy’s face looking down at me. The sun was still high in the sky and my eyes squinted from the sudden bright light. There was something soft below my head and I felt with my hand only to realize it was her lap.

“How long was I out?”

“About thirty minutes.”

Enough time at least that the massive pounding in my head had faded. I leaned up and looked around. The harpy was a mess on the floor. I regretted had having being able to use Harvest Soul.

I suddenly felt the blade of death against my neck and had no other choice but to use Phase Step. It was fucking Lucas again, of course. No one but me knew it, and it made me look like an awkward ass.

I couldn’t help but give him a nasty glare. That only made his smile even wider. I was expecting more punishment but instead he mouthed something to me, “You… did… good” I was no expert at reading lips, but that’s what it seemed like.

Current EXP: 83350/103000 LEVEL: 32 Soul Harvester Eternal

HP: 1890/1890 MP: 214/706

STR: 27

AGI: 26

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +5

INT: 55 +24

Available: 0

I took a look at my condition. Everything seemed to be the same until I realized my title was different. Eternal. I was out cold when this change had happened, so I couldn’t be sure if there was any accompanying message. Regardless, it actually sounded sick, and truthfully I was getting bored of seeing Formidable there.

“What’s the situation?” I asked.

From her expression of dismay, Joy seemed to be in shock from my previous action. I realized how it must have looked to her. I had Phase Stepped out of her proximity in a fashion that could easily seem like disgust or revolt. Luckily, she wasn’t the type of person to take things the wrong way. I didn’t even need to explain the situation with Lucas before she answered me in a matter-of-fact way.

“Not much has changed. The occasional mob passes through but it’s been relatively quiet.”

“How’s your leg?” I asked her.

“Rodrigo got unsilenced a minute after the fight and healed it good as new.”

I stood and made my way over to the body of the harpy just to make sure I couldn’t get anything from it. There was no reaction when using Harvest Soul. I had expected as much, though.