Lone laid his left palm out flat and then placed his right index and middle fingers atop it like legs. "This is me."

He then controlled his Blood Clone and positioned it about a metre away from his hands. "That is you. When it moves, it'll be your barrier."

Soph nodded in uncertainty. She was following along but she clearly didn't get why Lone was doing this instead of just telling her what it was she had done, exactly.

Lone grinned. He used Bone Armour but only on the two fingers that were representing him. He even made a little shield for his armoured digits.

Next, he controlled his Blood Clone to start spinning as fast as it could. Lone then mentally ordered the crimson-red blob to smash against his fingers.

As soon as they made contact, he moved his fingers in a way to show that he got sent flying. He then made his fingers go limp on the floor before dismissing the Bone Armour.

"So, basically, you entered skill enlightenment - I'm very jealous, by the way - and you then proceeded to hit me with a barrier attack that had all of your MP dumped into it," Lone summarised his little play.

He saw Soph about to open her mouth but he quickly pressed his finger to her lips. "One sec, I'm not done."

He summoned a blank sheet of paper and a quill. Within a few minutes, he had drawn a simple sketch that he thought showed his state as little more than a head and half a torso quite well.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Drawing Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

Lone smiled as he showed the drawing to Soph. "This was me after your attack flung me down the road and knocked me out for a second or two."

Soph gasped as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Hey, no need to be sad," Lone said. "I earned a new skill, Bone Armour went up to master rank, and I got dozens upon dozens of levels spread out across several new skills. But yeah, I get a free pass the next time I accidentally almost kill myself, 'kay?"

"... It wasn't worth it," Soph said as she curled up into herself and hugged her knees. "I'm always going on about your safety, but for me to almost kill you... No skill is worth that."

"Hey!" Lone exclaimed. "I think I'll be the judge of that. Describe the skill to me?"

Soph nodded weakly. "Barrier Maelstrom. It costs 300,000 MP per metre in width it has. It's..."

Lone closed his eyes and visualised the skill in the same way the system would have displayed it while Soph went on with her description.

Unique Subskill: Barrier Maelstrom

A subskill unique to the host Sophie Vladimirovich.

Allows the host to use the Unique skill [Unique Magic: Barrier Magic] to create a collection of barriers that spin in unison in a perfectly circular motion.

The maelstrom can easily cut all Epic-quality items or S-ranked beings.

The maelstrom is unblockable.

Its base width is 1-metre and its base speed is 20-metres per second.

Cost: 500,000 MP to invoke and then an additional 300,000 MP per metre of the maelstrom's width. Mastery: Beginner Level 1

Lone slowly peeled his eyes open. "This is a skill that literally only you could use. It's so fuckin' powerful too... 20-metres per second? That's, like, 40 miles per hour or something. That's insane. And the strength? It's equal to what my Tail Spear could do at advanced rank! Equal! While only being at beginner rank! It ain't a unique subskill for no reason..."

He glanced at Soph only to find her staring at him both curiously and with a massive amount of regret.

"I mean, this right here? This is an army destroyer. This very well may be the strongest skill we have between the two of us. At least for massive fights. It's unblockable but I bet it's easy to dodge at the higher ranks. However, it has no cap on width from the looks of things. With enough MP - and knowing you, as we level you'll get tens of millions - you'd be able to make this thing as wide as a town. Good fuckin' luck dodging then when I bet its speed will only get crazier and crazier as you rank it up," Lone continued.

Soph raised her head over her knees and whispered, "Y-You're not mad?"

"Why would I be?" Lone asked, cocking his head slightly. "What would have pissed me off is if you had killed me. Can you imagine how irate I'd be upon learning you reversed time because you killed me when I could have gotten so many defensive level-ups like I did end up earning? Fuck, just thinking about it is getting me angry. Ah, you also using Minor Time Control to save me from yourself and not, y'know, assassins or the blood mage we're off to hunt would have sucked ass. Sure, we have four months to kill that asshole, but I don't exactly want to spend half of that time waiting for you to be able to use magic again."

Lone nodded to himself. "I want them dead before a month has passed, two at a push. Then we have two or three months to just chill out. You using Minor Time Control would have forced us to be super cautious for a whole two months."

"... You're not gonna call me a hypocrite?" Soph said. "Sophie won't stop shouting at me for giving you a reason to ignore our advice to be more careful."

"Don't be dumb, both of you," Lone sighed. "It was skill enlightenment. I doubt you initially intended to shove over 3,000,000 MP into the maelstrom. Your enlightenment made you do that. Or is that not right?"

"N-No! I would never hit you with anything that I don't think you could handle!" Soph yelled. "A-And if I felt your healing struggle to keep u-up, I'd have dismissed the barriers."

"Right?" Lone smiled. "Will I hang this over your head? Absolutely. Will I ever actually be upset about this or think it is now okay for me to risk my life needlessly? Absolutely not. Stop being so torn up about it. We both benefited a lot, it was unavoidable thanks to the enlightenment, and at the end of the day, I'm alive and in one piece. Now, bed?"

Soph cracked the tiniest of smiles. "I love you."

"And I love you too. Despite my increasing lack of a need for rest, I actually feel exhausted, so get over here and be my bed warmer. In the literal sense, not the sexual one," Lone said with a yawn.

"Hehe... I really am sorry and I really do love you... We both do," Soph repeated.

"I know, I know, I'm amazing," Lone replied.

The look in Soph's eyes changed. "And insufferable, it seems."

Just as soon as Sophie had appeared, she left, allowing the soft glow to return to her expression.

The magically powered ceiling lights of the farwind road that led straight to Krieg Stunfurn flickered as the magic within them faltered.

Not a moment later, that particular bulb went dim. With Krieg Stunfurn having been taken over by a powerful blood mage, examples of the infrastructure failing could be seen for miles around, even in the nearby urds.

It was standard protocol for any settlement within 100 miles of an overrun krieg to evacuate. After all, it took an immense amount of power, smarts, or both, to gain control of the well-guarded kriegs and many fell to the Deep.

Thus, not only was the krieg itself abandoned but so was everything else within 100 miles of it. This made reclamation efforts all that much harder, but it was the safest option.

Regardless, the silent and unused road saw its first visitors in quite some time when four people, all of different species or races, appeared out of nowhere.

"It feels like we've nae moved an inch," Hamish said as he looked around.

Lone nodded. "Once you get used to the disorientation, yeah, it feels like you're standing in place. We're here now though, right?"

Soph nodded. "Yup. Well, if your maps are right. The krieg should be... uh... ten? Y-Yeah, about ten miles that way."

Lone turned in the opposite direction Soph had pointed and started walking when something gripped his soul lightly but threateningly.

"Yup, scripture is flarin' up. Krieg's definitely over there. So, let's set up camp and talk strategy. Even before leaving Krieg Moor I had two pretty solid ideas to kill the blood mage, but with Soph's recent skill gains, we have more options," Lone said.

Breena approached him and extended her hands in his direction. He quickly withdrew some supplies and two tents for her to get busy with.

"T-Thanks," she stuttered before getting to work.

He smiled wryly. Lone rarely got the chance to set up camp himself these days. He assumed this was because Breena felt useful doing it in his and Soph's place.

Lone didn't know if he should put his foot down like Hamish did, insisting he set up his own tent, or if he should continue to allow this. If it made her feel useful, what was the harm?

The issue was if she came to rely on setting up camp to gain any sort of self-worth. That would only be an impediment to any real progress with her.

Regardless, about 20 minutes later, the four of them had a decent camp set up in the middle of the road and began their war meeting.

'I wonder if there's a skill related to setting up camp? If there is, when Breena gets it, would that help or hurt her since she's so fixated on skills?' Lone wondered as he cleared his throat.

"So, my two initial ideas," he said. "They're basically the same but in reverse. I either get Soph to teleport me right next to the mage and I then go all out, trying to kill them in zero-seconds-flat, then slowly work to destroy their army. Or, I work on the army first and try to gain and level Blood Magic Resistance to make my inevitable fight easier with the mage."

Lone tapped his chin thoughtfully. "There are issues with both plans. The mage first is risky because what if they have a really high resistance to magic damage? That'll make them resistant to Mental Destruction. If they are also able to, I dunno, turn their body into blood or something, I doubt I can kill them with Tail Spear easily."

"Ah ken feck all aboot magic," Hamish admitted. "Is 'at possible? Turnin' yer 'ole body intae blood?"

Lone shook his head. "I don't know. I wish I did, but assuming it's possible is wiser than assuming otherwise."

"Aye, aye, yer nae wrong..." Hamish pursed his lips in thought. "An' if ya start killin' the minions first, ye risk alertin' the mage an' makin' them more prepared fae ye, even if ye yerself are getting mere prepared anaw."

Lone nodded. "Exactly. Now, with Soph's new skill... The scripture's binding me didn't forbid me from destroying the krieg entirely in my pursuit of the blood mage's life."

Breena trembled a bit. "Y-You want her t-to attack the city itself?"

"You both saw what Soph's Barrier Maelstrom did to me and the road we tested it in. Who knows what kind of traps the krieg is littered with? I know too little about magic in general, let alone blood magic specifically. It's best to assume anything you think is possible, is, indeed, possible," Lone replied. "The downside is that she'll likely destroy the heirlooms we're tasked with retrieving for the guild, maybe the guild building whose enchantments we need to check up on too, but she could likely wipe out the mage's entire army in one blow and maybe even the mage themselves."

Soph shook her head. "I refuse."

"Why?" Lone asked.

"We'd miss out on so many levels if I got the kills, and you'll have a fit if you don't get a slew of blood magic skills for this mage before killing them," Soph said with a pout.

"I'd much rather we all come out of this alive and intact, but yes, I would also much rather fight the mage, steal all of their skills, then laugh in their face as I snap their neck or something cool like that," Lone admitted.

Soph nodded. "Me and Sophie will only enact Operation Jade Storm of Absolute Destruction if it looks like you're losing. We'll teleport you out, and then bam! Massive maelstrom of doom."

"I fuckin' love you," Lone laughed to which Soph blushed.

"Why..." Hamish stroked his beard contemplatively as he ignored Lone and Soph's antics. "... Why dinnae ye test 'ow capable the mage really is? Safely, ah mean."

"How so?" Lone asked.

"Yer Blood Clone. It can become an actual clone ah ye, aye? Wae the right additional effect?" Hamish asked.

Lone shook his head. "Sadly not. If I recall correctly, it was the fifth known earnable effect of the skill. I can't get it. Do you remember what it needs in order to be earned?"

Dancing around the subject was bothersome, but until he earned the effect himself, he wasn't allowed to talk about it openly with any adventurer not at or above silver plate.

Hamish looked confused before sighing. "Ah, feck... Aha! Ye've unlocked yer racial skill, aye, Breena?" the dwarf asked of the Crimson Foxkin.

Breena nodded her head with worry, as if afraid to disappoint the two men. "Uh, y-yes... W-Why?"

"It's fine, Hamish is being daft. Your racial skill can't affect external objects anyway. Not without some sort of earned new effect at least. That would take years, maybe decades. Not very practical," Lone explained.

"Ah'm just tryna think ah ways tae make this hit operation mere successful," Hamish defended himself.

Lone's thoughts had been brought to his Blood Clone and there they stayed until something clicked. "That could be useful..."

"What could?" Soph said.

"The first earnable effect the guild is aware of for Blood Clone," Lone explained as best as he could without triggering the contract magic that bound him to secrecy regarding the credit slate.

It was a bother that Soph and Breena weren't silver plates yet.

Hamish closed his eyes as if to recall what Lone was referencing before he opened them and grinned. "Aye, wae ah couple ah months tae prepare 'at effect, this'll be the easiest time in history ah C-ranker 'as 'ad tae murder ah triple-S-ranker."

The dwarf then grabbed one of his daggers and cut the tip of his finger open. "Go on then, fox. Try an' control ma blood."