The sensation of a burning axe embedded into her head assailed Dia’s senses as a single, unrecognisable word rolled through the room, the red-hot pain blinding her eyes. The Blue Moon of Wisdom had made a single noise, and her brain had immediately turned into mush.

Without that weird power supporting and controlling them, Dia knew that she would have screamed until her throat tore. Her posture had been completely broken, just like everyone.

Everyone save for Nero, anyway.

Only the Holy Son of the Black God alone continued to stand upright, but even then, Dia could barely make out the slight tilt in his head, which was more than enough for her to tell that he too could not look at the Blue Moon.

Considering the legends, she was half-certain that this façade was something the Blue Moon had put up on purpose. Records of the Moons’ description had survived for a very long time — the Blue Moon was…well, a blue ball with craters…

Dia decided not to think too hard. Maybe something had changed between these records and today. Whatever the case, however, she could tell that the Blue Moon of Wisdom was not too happy about the current turn of events.

A flood of blue light filled the room, and the massive presence weakened. Another word that she couldn’t understand or even make sense of entered her ear, and once again, the impossible sound that was required to enunciate it weighed down on her body.

As she reeled, thousands of whispers flooded the room, and Dia found herself swaying on her feet. Like wind rustling, these whispers debated back and forth in a language she couldn’t understand, and every passing second made her head feel lighter and lighter.

The sound of water droplets falling drowned out those whispers shortly afterwards, before vanishing themselves.

Without warning, the floor that Dia was staring at turned into a reflective surface, and she took in her appearance in silence. Her face was lined with fatigue and fear, emotions she hadn’t even noticed. Was it the stress of facing the Moons? Or was it…in general?

Her reflection turned into glowing specks of light at those words and entered her body, and the rustling wind turned into a word.

The Blue Moon made another sound, and a few thousand spikes stabbed into her head. This time, however, as she endured the pain, Dia could vaguely tell that…

“You’re welcoming us? And that you’re sorry for your current state? And that—” Her parched throat gave way a moment later, and as Dia dropped onto the ground, a soothing wave of power shrouded her body, healing her with the gentle touch of lunar light.

Her mind began to churn once more, stimulated by the gentle touch of the Moon’s power, and more pieces of information floated past her consciousness. It was an apology centred around how they were not immediately brought here when the time came, an apology for making them wait.

Dia straightened her body slowly and snuck a peek at the Blue Moon. The intense image was no longer as devastating to her mind as it was earlier, as though that gentle power and her newfound ability to interpret the incredibly dense language the Blue Moon had used altered her body in some way.

The Blue Moon of Wisdom uttered another sound, and this time, Dia caught the whole meaning…as well as permission for her to talk.

“Everyone,” Dia began, “the Blue Moon of Wisdom is apologetic about how…it failed to teleport us over at the given time, stranding us here. We now have two choices — to return home with only one gift, or to stay here and enjoy another passive skill. In addition, our job scope when staying here will be…”

She glanced at Nero, who raised his head once at the Blue Moon. A moment later, the Holy Son said, “Our job scope here will be to help in base security and to make the place more impregnable.”

Dia nodded. “Thanks. Also, we are to activate the skill that is to be evolved, and that…well, that last one is for me. The Blue Moon of Wisdom cannot raise Mana Control Proficiency to Master rank, so I’ll get a third passive skill instead.”

Schwarz let out a groan. “Got it.”

A small worry flickered through her mind as the others made similar noises. If she were to use either her Sword Fall or Domain of Swords here…wouldn’t it destroy the entire encampment? Fortunately, however, it seemed that the others were already activating their skills, and there seemed to be nothing else going on.

Reassured by this, Dia focused on her Domain of Swords skill and activated it. In that instant, something within her body seemed to stir, something she had never felt up until now. That something rapidly weaved a spiritual structure within her body itself, but before it could be completed, the spiritual structure, which she could vaguely sense, abruptly glowed blue. It was a complicated pattern drawn onto a blue globe, something she’d never seen before.

Similar occurrences happened to the others, and before her eyes, the shimmering spiritual structure began to fold and unfold over and over again. The blue lines turned into a blur of movement.

Without warning, the room shook once more, and a golden dome fell over her, Schwarz and Risti. At the same time, a golden rectangle appeared in her vision.

[Pinnacle modification detected. Preventing records to ensure balance.]

A question mark floated to the forefront of Dia’s mind, but it wasn’t like she could do anything either.

Before her eyes, the spiritual structure that represented Domain of Swords continued to assemble and disassemble over and over again, and Dia forced herself to watch. What exactly was the power that allowed the Blue Moon of Wisdom to reform the spiritual structure of a skill? Could she learn it too? If so, it could very well mean that she could modify her own skills or something.

She narrowed her eyes. Under the golden dome, the whole process felt a little bit illuminated; it was as if the five grand skies — who else could it be, after all — wanted her to understand the concept of modifying skills.

Nodes.

Lines.

And lines with nodes. It seemed quite basic, but now that she had a close look at something that usually was invisible, Dia could tell that these spiritual structures were basically polygons and lines stuck together for some reason. Apparently, the central node — which was actually a perfect sphere— seemed to be the component that served as the conduit for mana. Once enough, the mana would…

A single, garbled word entered her ears once more, and Dia stumbled as another torrent of information flooded her mind. Her vision, stained in a faint red, cleared up a few seconds later, but…

Skills were effectively what happened when sufficient mana travelled through particular arrangements of nodes and lines. The central mana node, when filled up fully, would release mana into the spiritual structure, like an expanding ball of fire. The expanding ball of mana would bounce off the outermost walls the spiritual structure — it was actually a globe with nodes — forcing the expanding ball of mana to shrink as swiftly as it had expanded.

When the ball shrunk down to the size of the central node, the skill would fully activate, translating the arrangement of nodes and lines into an actual effect and—

The blur abruptly ended, and the blue ball of light, which had been rearranged innumerable times, charged into her body. Another flood of pain tore through her body, and Dia’s thoughts cut out as she dropped onto the floor.

[Under the light of the Blue Moon, your skill, Domain of Swords, has changed to Perfect Domain of Swords!]

[Under the blessing of the five grand skies, you have acquired the passive skill, Decompression!]

“Decompression?” Dia got up slowly. “What the heck is that?”

That announcement and the cessation of pain had happened in such close proximity that Dia could tell that they were linked. More importantly, however, was her new skill. While she hadn’t used it much, Dia could actually remember something about the new prefix that had appeared on Domain of Swords.

Not that long ago, when they were still at Daybreak County, Nero had talked about the ‘Perfect’ prefix. While she couldn’t quite remember what it meant, Dia knew that it was definitely something great, and she couldn’t help but look at her status fondly.

However…did this mean that there was no further way for her skill to grow?

It was a bit depressing, seeing as how the only change was a prefix. She wasn’t complaining about the prefix, but did this mean that the Domain of Swords skill was already very close to being…well, perfect?

Shaking her head, she looked at the others. Risti was still covered by the golden dome, while Schwarz was being supported by Farah for some reason. Nero brought up the rear, his eyes staring into the distance.

At the throne, the Blue Moon of Wisdom simply watched on in silence.

The first boon had been dispensed…but the only question Dia had in mind was if the other two would be this painful too.

Anything else could wait.