Caesar opened the door. Two pairs of greed-filled eyes leered at the halberd slung over his back.

“Ha-ha, see? Told you the kid would still be here.” An athletic man stared Caesar down, eyes mocking his situation. The other man chuckled.

“Is it time to leave?”

“Obviously. Looks like we’re gonna have to use force, huh?”

“Please wait.” Caesar retrieved his terrarium as a loud sound thumped against his wall. Cracks began appearing – the destruction of his house had begun. He let his fury continue to build and returned to the front door.

The bigger man suddenly slapped his hand down. The glass container fell to the ground and shattered. Its bugs crawled out only to perish from the feet of the leaner man. Caesar’s eyes flashed, and the two were quick to notice.

“Ooh, the kid’s mad! Look at him!”

His wrath urged him to tear both apart, but there were better ways to do it. Reason won over passion, and he shoved past them without retaliating. They continued to heckle him for his impotence as the three boarded a carriage towards the north. He tried his best to ignore them until a better opportunity came.

Free Stat Points: 11 -> 2 -> 0

Strength: 14 -> 17

Agility: 19 -> 25 -> 27

Vitality: 25

Tomb Hippopotamus

Free Stat Points: 2 -> 0

Vitality: 24 -> 26

The Ever-Shifting Faces hovered inside the snow-resistant carriage, next to his head. Its faces grinned and smiled at him in anticipation. His chuckles morphed into creepy laughter, causing his two “guides” to become quiet.

They crossed vast stretches of icy lands and fields of snow, leaving behind the trees for new territory. The journey was remarkably quick. He doubted having a Spectral Warhorse would allow him to flee at the same speeds they were going. Instead of lingering on past regrets, he flipped through his parents’ journals about herbalism and adventuring.

Please take good care of yourself and remember these plants. They may save your life someday!

Level 25 is a big number, son. It gives perks to upgrade your abilities, so watch out for these monsters.

The carriage came to a stop at the foot of a mountain. Caesar leapt off, hugging a bloody green cloak as a black crown formed over his head.

“Something’s not right!” The lean man slipped out a dagger from a side pouch and threw himself over the driver’s seat. Two spectral copies materialized around his weapon. The other man followed, summoning a hammer of earth over his arms. Caesar hurled his cloak forward, and an invisible shockwave boomed forth, stopping them in their tracks.

Red fists whistled through the air, smashing shoulders and crushing bone. The knife assassin screamed. Swift pale jaws clamped around his throat and sailed around to cut down their horses. A black wisp flew out, but Caesar was too immersed to check it. His halberd hummed with catharsis as he launched himself forward. He dodged a halfhearted blow and slipped the point into his enemy’s ribs before cleaving through his head like butter.

[Notice]: Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 22! +2 Free Stat Points

Vitality: 25 -> 27

Leveling had slowed – his summons’ kills helped him much less.

He turned to his Bone Elemental. Shards swirled around its rib-cage as it looked into the distance, skull swiveling from side to side. Caesar looked up at the mountain. It appeared steep and craggy; he didn’t think anyone would try scaling it. His horror must have detected another group of people coming from the snow instead. He stooped down and rifled through their corpses, pulling out an enchanted dagger, two pairs of enchanted boots, and a map.

He summoned his new essence core. But instead of a human, a spherical black wisp with the man’s face appeared. Its status screen was odd.

Essence of Humanity: Uncommon

Rank 2

Skills: Assassination, Daggers, Unarmed, Footwork

What is this? Minor fusion material?

The dagger was lighter and sharper. Meanwhile, both pairs of boots were built for snowy terrain. Caesar slipped them on and studied the map. Details written on the sides pointed out this location as a meeting place. Six faces were drawn on the back of the map. He recognized one of them – a member of the northern noble house’s elite who had gone to clear Starry Forest. He flipped the map back to the front. A path to a dungeon? They must have just scouted this.

He ordered his Flesh Elemental to drag the cart in front of the bloodstains and move the corpses inside. Meanwhile, he plopped down the cloak, hiding the Ever-Shifting Faces under the cart and blending it in with the snow.

As the sounds of movement drew closer, Caesar wiped down his halberd in anticipation. He stepped out with his Flesh Elemental once he heard voices approaching. The first strike slew an excited young man with a bow, happily running to his end. The second struck the shield of a grizzled warrior.

Three corpses exploded suddenly, and bone spikes flew. The Bone Elemental approached the enemy team's flank and sank its fangs into a mage. Lethal shards and spikes plunged into the tendons of another ranger, their accuracy enhanced by Viper Strike. As the other mage fled in panic, a man with a large shield intercepted the horror and shouted at her to attack. An orb of light rose above him, blasting his allies with healing rays.

The Ever-Shifting Faces would not allow them to recover. It announced its presence with a shockwave, dazing the shield bearers and allowing Caesar to slip the point of his halberd into his enemy’s ribs. Three Minor Flesh Elementals burst free from a sudden flesh bubble to chase after their prey. Under the weight of his forces, the shield bearers collapsed.

In but a few moments, eight enemies lay dead on the floor. He beheld his work and smiled. Serves you right. This vendetta would continue for as long as he lived. He marked Arnold’s brother as an enemy as well, who had a good motive to have him killed in private and could provide for the north in return. The pieces clicked together: noble house competition, isolate Arnold, and secure alliances. But there seemed to be another unknown reason why they didn’t just kill him in the north. He shrugged and attributed that to Arnold as well. Perhaps he has a greater chance of success than what everybody else thinks.

Arnold's message from earlier resurfaced in his mind again. Taking a closer look at it revealed the word, “ambush.” Well, thanks.

His temper cooled. Thoughts of the fight floated back into his mind, and he studied his horrors. Fighting with them had revealed a clue about the Presence stat. He ordered them to move around for a bit, then commanded them to use it. They obliged. Their speed increased. He ordered them to attack twice. The first attack from the Flesh Elemental splintered wood from the carriage. The second shattered it.

Presence was a stat amplifier.

But it did not come without a cost. He noticed cracks forming in his Bone Elemental as it moved more quickly. And after the Flesh Elemental’s second strike, scratches appeared on its skin.

He looked over the map. It didn’t look explored, or even scouted. Just a note of the general location of the portal and its status. He searched their bodies for anything of use. Except for an enchanted bow, an enchanted shield, and six more pairs of enchanted snow boots, no other pieces of gear showed up.

He also found a few potions: two of rank one Uncommon haste, three of rank two Uncommon healing, and an additional rank one Uncommon healing. With low risk items and two rank one members, the dungeon was either too easy or the party was geared for a scouting trip.

As they rested, the Ever-Shifting Faces buzzed around the head of the Flesh Elemental, who reached up and hugged the head into its arms. The two played together affectionately. Caesar saw this and thought it a good time to test out the second aspect of Essence Fusion.

He first gathered the corpses into a pile and burst them into some more Minor Flesh Elementals, who then melted into a puddle of unrecognizable flesh below the snow.

Hopefully this will slow down the search.

Then, he recalled the two summons and shoved the Ever-Shifting Faces core into the Flesh Elemental core, hoping for a more humanoid summon to carry the extra loot. The merging was slower, but still succeeded. Something else seemed different about the process, but he couldn’t quite feel it yet.

Fused Doppelganger: Rare

Level 21: 42 Free Stat Points -> 18 Free Stat Points

Ability: Illusory Veil (C) – Rank 2

Facet: Masquerade (C)

Talents: Vigor, Emotion Mimicry, Minor Shapeshifting, Improved Divination Resistance, Quickened Mind

Strength: 12 -> 19

Agility: 12 -> 19

Vitality: 12 -> 19

Magic: 11

Willpower: 12

Presence: 16 -> 19

[Illusory Veil (C)]: An ability that allows the user to produce a localized, area visual hallucination hiding entities inside it from those outside the area. Duration of the hallucination depends on Willpower, with two minutes per stat point. Cooldown of an hour begins after the veil dissipates.

- The illusion may instead be concentrated on oneself for a much shorter duration: two seconds per stat point, granting quick invisibility to the user without affecting their surroundings. Attacking breaks the veil. Cooldown will then be five minutes.

[Masquerade (C)]: A facet that allows the user to change the looks and appearance of up to two other things at a time, maintaining most of their size and shape. Durability of the effects depend on user’s Willpower. Once broken, the effect cannot be reapplied for a day.

[Emotion Mimicry]: A talent that allows the user to mimic specific emotions at any time and grants immunity to the negative effects of emotion-affecting skills and abilities.

[Minor Shapeshifting]: A talent that allows a small amount of shapeshifting, changing looks and appearance but can diverge a little from the user’s original size and shape.

[Quickened Mind]: A talent that passively increases speed of thought, without drawbacks.

Caesar took out his Starflower Dust and fed it to his new summon. Its genderless visage shifted into a mockery of the previous adventurer with the green cloak. A smile too wide to be considered human split open its face. Eyes, large and uncanny, bulged outward. Ears with small faces imprinted on them popped out the sides of its head. He frowned at it.

The Bone Elemental stopped moving and clacked its skull, beckoning him to hide. Caesar squinted up at the sky, spotting three birds flying in circles around the mountaintops. That size… The realization hit him. He dashed behind a rock and lay still.

A guttural roar shattered the silence. The party continued to hide for a long time before finally moving again. Caesar took the chance to fuse the Essence of Humanity into the Doppelganger and filled up the rest of its stats.

Fused Doppelganger: Rare (Fused Uncommon Essence of Humanity)

Talents: … Quickened Mind -> Heightened Learning

[Heightened Learning]: A talent that allows the user to learn faster.

Strength: 20 -> 25

Agility: 20 -> 21 -> 26

Vitality: 20

Magic: 12

Willpower: 13 -> 16

Presence: 20 -> 25

Caesar was keen on having a good humanoid summon. He gave it the enchanted shield and Khopesh of Shattering, then told it to wear clothes and armor to cover up its red skin. It struggled for a little, but eventually got the hang of it. He sighed.

Before the party left to continue following the map, he allowed it to study the corpses to use as fuel for its abilities. It took until dusk before the Doppelganger finally managed to remove all traces of red from its skin. Now looking more like a normal human, it looked up at him and grinned in pride.

Caesar tested its Masquerade ability but failed to look anything like the northern elite team member. He sighed again when his disguise failed to withstand more than a few light blows.

The remaining bones on the snow cracked apart and whirled around the Bone Elemental’s rib-cage, who trailed after the stumbling Doppelganger in curiosity. The roars and giant birds never returned, but he knew to keep a low profile. A few prey animals scattered down the mountain, and the party moved faster. He speared one of them and set up camp.

Caesar taught the Doppelganger about fire. He showed it how the sparks from the Skeleton Mage fell and lit up the campfire. It didn’t quite understand, but that was fine. It made visible progress.

The party traveled on foot for a few more days before the path deviated from snow and up into the mountains. A hidden path revealed itself once he followed the marked landmarks on the map. On the way, he encountered a rank one arctic fox with a pathetic ice ability. Having dealt no damage, it fled in fear. The Doppelganger wanted to chase, but he prevented it from doing so.

The lessons continued.

It took a week from the two carriages’ meeting location to reach the marked dungeon embedded on a rock. By now, the Doppelganger had settled on a familiar form – the green cloaked woman.

“Why are you so fixated on her? Did you kill her?”

His summon cocked its head in confusion and shook its head. It smiled and said, “No memory.”

While Caesar was pleased it had learned to speak, he grew confused over how the minds of his summons functioned. He named her Alta.

Dungeon Detected!

Dilapidated Citadel

[Type]: Field

[Level]: Mid Rank 2