Twelve.

Twelve kills.

That was their current record.

At the ninth soulscape day since the start of their training, they had managed to get that far. The thirteenth pursuer, though, like the rest of the batch Gabriel and Liz believed, was a Skill user.

Gabriel's arrow could not manage to penetrate its skin, and he would always answer with a sickle of wind propelled by his blade, removing their right arm.

Every time they were hit, the wind sickle splashed on their chest as well, damaging their lungs. At that point, the other five pursuers brought them down and proceeded to cruelly and slowly kill them.

Gabriel and Liz didn't manage to take their own Life since some Skill always made them freeze like statues.

Gabriel and Liz were now sprawling on the big stone in the middle of the clearing. No trace of the mayor anywhere.

Through trial and repetition, Gabriel and Liz had managed to intervene in the cycle of testing by forcing their will through the second long gap it took from their death to the restart of the stage. By doing so, they could exit the loop, and since it was tied to that particular stone, if they wanted to start it anew, they simply had to climb on it and wish to restart it.

On another note, during the previous period of rest, which marked the tenth real day of passage since they had dropped inside the Turtle Island Challenge, they had discovered that Epiphany was gaining experience. It had even tiered-up even though they had not been using any Mana points to feed it. The thing that was somehow a bit worrying for them. Could they really be using no Mana to train the Skill?

Recalling the only fragment of the Anchor they had access to.

Epiphany has successfully triggered, Element alignment: Dark.

Current synchronization 16.78%

They could see that their synchronization rate grew together with Epiphany's Tier level, which currently was at Tier 2 with a completion rate of 67.8.

Each use of Epiphany equaled a 0.1% of Tier experience.

Epiphany leveling up was inconsequential now, though, because they had learned how to effectively act like the Skill suggested, or at least they felt they had learned to.

Their attack was wild, their combat style wicked. The Kata of the Surge had become their second most used one, following was the Kata of the Tide, while the Kata of the Foam had become their last line of defense.

Though they had not used the Kata of the Surge much, through their continuous battle for survival, they had started figuring out the best application for their forms, and they started building their own style on top of it. Sure, it was far, far from perfect, or probably reliable in other situations, but it was damn effective here, where they needed it.

Where the Kata of the Surge consisted of a slow series of big concentrated attacks, their own style had become a fast series of concatenated medium attacks, a big one, thrown in when the situation required it. They had even created a name for it, hoping that she would not call them silly when they told it to Olive. They had named it The Kata of the Tempest.

Because they saw themselves like a tempest. They employed move that made them think of a rough sea, striking the boats that dared sailing on it with a continuous barrage of waves from medium waves to tsunami size. Though among them, their vision of lightning striking in the sky was clear and captivating too. Their unpredictable nature and their raw but contained speed and power fascinated them.

But it was not the time to think about etymology.

They needed to wreck their brain and think about how to pass the test.

There were six Skills endowed enemies to face simultaneously, and Epiphany suggested the use of their own Skills. The only problem with that was that they had no way of using them. They had tried. The last time they had been able to use them had been in the wasteland with the mayor's house. They had been there only once and hadn't seen the mayor ever since the start of the fourth day. Even his physical Tyrant version had not been very talkative; in fact, he looked very intent on focusing on something else, something clearly not perceivable by them.

We don't feel like asking for his help.

But why are we able to use Epiphany if our other Skills are rendered blocked? What is the trick behind using them? Is there a trick behind using them? Liz? Yeah, I know.

There was no real talking to Liz when they were fused. She was the subconscious, an entity at the back of his head, even though she was there beside him.

They had even started managing to control each other's bodies. It was weird but useful, especially since their perception of each other lessened greatly during a battle, so their perception of the battlefield separated. There had been times in which they even started thinking once again about themselves as single individuals.

Gabriel and Liz had no idea if it was bad or if it was a good thing, like if they were walking the path of multitasking, or in this case, multi-entiting. They chuckled.

They strongly believed that if they had access to their Skills, especially Burst Attack, they would be able to take the bastards on, any time, even all together.

Though it seems a little far fetched, they realized.

Once again, Gabriel got down from the clearing, focusing on training their Katas. It was extremely helpful to calm their minds and, at the same time, channel their anger, sowing it with the first two Katas they cycled through, those of the Foam and the Tide, and harvesting it with those of the Surge and the newly born Tempest.

Gabriel and Liz, which had started forming a Kata of her own, though much unstable but made of strikes natural to a lizard's build and actions capable only for a lizard which could walk on its hind legs, trained for a couple of hours until they felt mentally exhausted.

Only after that, they left the soulscape through sheer power of will.

Gabriel opened his eyes to face the Tyrant. With its massive thighs bulging out of his digitigrade legs, the monster was sitting in what looked like a comfy meditation pose, and he did not spare a glance at the young man.

So they got up and left to do their business.

It was late in the evening, or probably outright night, he didn't really have any way of knowing right anymore, when he woke up. He had to eat. Yet Gabriel would not ask for the Tyrant's help. He would not give him that pleasure.

He reached for his, still messy, and now lurid, for keeping inside of it his dirty suit of leather, bag, and retrieved his shortsword.

He raised his hand and prepared to chop off his own left forearm at elbow height. It was more practical that way.

Casting Epiphany to see if there really was no better option, he staggered from his vision.

What he saw was mind-blowing.

Is that doable? Why the fuck did I not think of that!?

In his Epiphany, his blade was enveloped in a slightly dark shade. It oozed a light bit to the sides.

It was tainted Mana.

He could use Mana. He had to use Mana. He had unlocked a Skill exactly for that, the only Skill he could use.

I thought it would only give me ideas! But this is an idea! And it is perfectly doable!

Gabriel had seen Olive do it every single day. During their training, during their fights, she would release Mana from her hands. It was tainted with her elements, those of Darkness, Water, and Poison. She would cure with it, attack with it, poison her targets, whatever her Skill allowed her to do.

But with his Basic Skill, he had no real restriction over his Magic. The only thing that really gave him a reason to think that he would be able to produce any sort of Magic was… his new Perk, Mana Manipulation; though redundant, it was exactly what he needed.

As he had understood, Basic Skills were wide in scope, made for training, for having a feel of what you could do with them. It stated nowhere they were limited to only doing something.

He had done it with Burst Attack right away, after all. The Skill could be used as a form of attack, but of escape as well, or as a utility.

And Helping Hand? He knew that his targets could be many. He could even cast it on people as a whole or on each of their wounds differently, as long as the caster considered them separated.

Would he be able to cast Built to Fly on other objects then? Who was to say he couldn't? The Skill only stated, "Defy gravity for 1 mana," it didn't even say he had to select a target.

Just for a change and to prove himself that it was possible, Gabriel cast Built to Fly on his bag. And meeting just an ounce of resistance, the bag started floating in the sky.

Gabriel's jaw fell open, and so did Liz's by his side.

They turned to look at each other in the eyes and started laughing and only stopping when the bag started dropping down from a couple of hundreds of meters up.

Shit! The potions!

After certifying their finds, Gabriel started training on what was really the most important of his Skills, Epiphany.

He had 59 Mana points at his disposal and four Mana potions, which were strong enough to completely restore his Mana Pool.

The first thing he did was recreating what he had seen in his vision, forcing Mana to seep inside of the shortsword and turn it into a source of power.

The basic he already knew, he injected Mana inside of his spear daily, before. But he only thought he could do it because of it being a bound object. While in reality, the concept was the same; it revealed much harder.

Plain Mana did nothing other than slowly heating the weapon up, but tainted Mana had it take the characteristic he wanted.

What he lacked, though, was the steps between regular Mana and tainted Mana.

What process did it entail?

Let's think about this correctly. What is the need for Epiphany? It is to give an idea. But what is an idea? A thought? A suggestion? An ideal…? Could it be that? But what should I do then? Think about what concept I want my Mana to express? Isn't that weird-

Something flickered in the Mana endowed shortsword, and he felt a burn in his hand. He let go of it.

The shortsword had overheated.

Gabriel paused. Ok, but why? Why has it overheated? I did not think about fire… I did not think about the fire but… but I did think about metal and what happens if you put a piece of metal over the fire… And it- and it acted exactly like that.

It needs an idea, then. A concept!

Yet Gabriel stopped there. He heard a loud pop and a sudden and intense air displacement.

"I admit that you were fast on the uptake. I didn't imagine someone without any concept of Magic arriving at that conclusion so fast. Good. You might be a worthy Herald after all."

"You were looking at me?"

"Of course, I was. What else is there here," the Tyrant opened his arms wide, signaling the empty place, "if not waiting for my pupil to take his first baby steps?"

"Wow, such an observant daddy."

"Laugh it all you want, but we are necessary to each other. And don't take it too personally. I went through much the same experiences you are. Imagine my wife, you saw how small Feldur females are, imagine her giving through the same experiences you've had. It was the standard back in the days, at least for the Lost One's adepts."

"I don't think I'll be grateful for having gone through the same torture your people put everybody, included women, through, but I accept that if not else… this experience might be beneficial for my survival."

"You had zero fighting experience, did you?" The Tyrant exclaimed more than asked.

Gabriel did not answer.

"I'll give just one piece of advice, choose a concept, and stick with it. At least until we get you through the second step of the training."

"I figured as much. But thanks for showing up, I guess. You seemed really busy these last couple of days, weirdly."

"Keeping up the soulscape, protecting you from contamination, and purifying my internal Mana for you to feed on is not exactly something even someone of my caliber goes through every day. I need concentration for that."

Gabriel nodded after a couple of seconds. If you say so…

"I'll leave you to your training then."

Just like that, and with another pop, the Tyrant disappeared.

He must be really following me closely to guess what I was about to do. Hope he doesn't read minds. That would not be pleasant.

"Are you ready, Liz? We need to work out a concept for our new Magic, whatever that means, so", he said, plopping with his ass on the ground, "let's start brainstorming."

Two intense hours later, all their efforts reduced to a list of properties that their Dark Element inclined Epiphany might sustain. In reality, many things had come to their minds, but most of those were unusable. He thought they were Higher Element Magic or above.

The list, written in blood on the ground, read: corruption, curse/hexing, fear, impairment/weakening, mind tricks, (telekinesis?). Many others had been written, like blood, shadow, death, but they just did not find confirmation from Epiphany.

It was finally time for testing.

The first thing that came to mind was injecting the sword with corruption, hoping that it would not directly affect the sword.

So they picked it up and started focusing on injecting the Mana in it.

It should be simple, right, Liz? Just imagine the qualities I want my Mana to express.

Right away, it was much harder than he thought.

Injecting Mana, before, had been the simplest thing. Injecting Mana tainted with the idea of corruption seemed almost impossible.

The only thing he managed to achieve during the first try was that the sword's handle released a small puff of dark air.

That could be dust for all I know.

"Maybe we are running while we should start walking, Liz."

Gabriel lay back on the ground. He had postponed his hunger and thirst for two hours now, and as soon as he had interrupted his thinking, the feelings came back stronger.

Damn, not now. I need both my hands for this. I can't do this while wincing from pai- my hands… I need… "Of course!" He exclaimed, shooting up.

"I'm starting by injecting the semblance of an idea into a damn sword. I should try and do as Olive did, feel the sensation of it in my hands. Spread it from my palms!"

Liz jumped up, nodding and whipping her tongue about.

Between Epiphany casts and Mana injection, they had already used up roughly fifteen points of Mana. There were still forty-five at his disposal, he didn't have to exactly be careful, but he couldn't just go waste it. It wasn't limitless like in the Tyrant's soulscape.

So he spread his right hand out, palm facing up.

Corruption, corruption… what is corruption? It is a… a change for the worse, walking a path made of bad intention. Damaging someone or the system indirectly or…

As he thought about it, he could feel his Mana seep out of his palm. He could even see some semblance of dark looking energy tainting the air around above his palm. It was indeed working.

Yes! I need to go deeper, though, much deeper.

Corruption could mean many things, and soon he realized that he had to focus on the form he wanted it to take.

The idea of damaging/weakening whatever it came in contact with was soon chosen as the baseline for his ideal. It was easy and direct.

"Yes!" He exclaimed. At the same time, Liz jumped around him like a crazy kangaroo. "That's it!"

It took mere minutes to form a stable and strong form of it. Dark, dim light tainted the air around his whole hand, and it extended around it for roughly four to five inches.

He could feel his Mana continuously seeping out, dispersing in the ambient. A faint smell came with it. He felt he was probably damaging the air, or the bacterias, or whatever existed in the vicinity of his hand.

That display, he checked, consumed 1 Mana per second.

Holy shit, that's a lot. But what if I want to increase the range.

It took mere concentration to notice the difference, though he could feel a certain limit to it, a hard limit. Probably something related to something he was missing.

As the air of effect struggled to double its range, effectively putting great stress on his mind, Gabriel could see his Mana ticking down by one or two points, randomly, yet as it doubled, it ticked down by two points each second.

Twenty seconds went by, and he noticed that he had spent the grand part of his Mana pool. Thirty-six Mana points.

Damn, how much Mana did Olive have to keep her water magic up for so long? Maybe there's something I'm missing about it. And I think its maximum range must be tied to the Skill level.

Yet he was notified by a good enough message from the Anchor, stating that he had…

You have gained:

Epiphany Tier 2 + 36.3%

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Epiphany reaches Tier 3.

New effect: Focus on the veil to gauge its secrets for 1 Mana point. Permanently increases Affinity by 30%.

Good! More Mana regen.

Funny… Gabriel thought, looking back at how much he had gained.

It seemed that triggering the vision from Epiphany gave him 0.01% experience per cast, while directly using a form of Magic gave him 1% per Mana.

Maybe using the vision part counts as training, while the rest is a direct approach to it.

Putting those in the back of his mind, he focused once again on his primary objective, injecting his weapon with his tainted Mana, hoping it did not damage it.

"This is it, Liz. It's the game-changer."

He took the shortsword in hand and trained. Gabriel focused on his new forged ideal of Mana, losing it at first and mastering it once again a few seconds later. It was newly forged, after all.

The whole ordeal didn't take more than four seconds, and soon the whole of the sword looked like his hand, the dark energy spreading out for five inches outward.

It's working! Wait, though, why do I need to have its influence reach so far? Maybe I should focus on lowering the quantity of Mana I inject and-

Abruptly, his train of thoughts broke for two things.

First, his Mana ran out, and second, the shortsword's hilt broke free from the blade, which dropped soundly on the floor.

Gabriel looked at the clearly eroded hilt in his hand.

"Well, shit."