After getting the Star Body elixir’s ingredients, Wolf left for Demon Forest. The Cube of Fusing was crafting, producing a Greater grade healing potion.

If I progressed like last time, I would take two to three weeks to reach the ring of Eleventh Order Demonic Converters. Then it’s another five to six before arriving at the Twelfth Order ones. Perfect Ghost Shroud ought to reduce that at least fivefold, and I don’t know how much the fourth stage of Star Body will improve my speed and power.

Wolf took a deep breath, still standing next to the Spell Formation. He calmed his mind and shook off the nausea caused by the teleportation. With his eyes closed, he circulated Internal Energy inside his body, forming thirteen gentle cyclones and merging them into a single flow. He focused on his hands and feet, creating two to three whirls in each digit.

The tiny currents of Internal Energy joined with the large one in a well-practiced manner, flowing right under the outermost layer of Wolf’s skin.

Perfect. After practicing with Scribing Quills and experimenting with his True Name, Wolf found this bit of mental effort a hair’s width from becoming a subconscious action.

Now for the risky bit. Wolf mobilized Internal Energy in his neck, forming a slow twister. His heart beat like mad, and his forehead grew wet, but other than mounting anxiety, nothing bad happened. Wolf’s skin crawled as Internal Energy caressed his trachea, carotids and jugular, dancing a single fumble from death.

Gods. Wolf swallowed as his lip twisted. It’s like someone’s strangling me softly.

Chills went up Wolf’s spine as the youth tried to calm down. He inhaled slowly. It was hard getting used to the choking sensation, but Wolf tried his best. After several minutes, he settled down.

“Now for the tough bit.” Wolf licked his dry lips and focused. He believed that killing himself while practicing a self-invented technique was the stupidest way to die.

Head should be the easiest. It’s the most spherical body-part. If you learned to handle fingers, you can do the head. Wolf encouraged himself.

You can do it, Master. An abrupt cheer scared the shit out of Wolf. His lips moved, hurting Silver.

I was trying to raise your spirit. There’s no need to curse. A single thoughtless word turned Silver’s gleeful voice into a pathetic whimper.

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Wolf tried to explain himself, forgetting about his nervousness, while Silver grinned in her shell.

I forgive you, Master. Now, finish what you started. Silver sniffled, doing her best impersonation of Anna, or perhaps Mandy.

Unexpectedly, her brief distraction disrupted Wolf’s insecure thoughts, and the youth did as Silver ordered. Strands of Internal Energy twisted around his ear and nasal canals were eerie, but the way the tingly tide slid off the inner side of Wolf’s eyes felt even worse.

Despite the disgusting feeling, Wolf smiled. He’d done it. The only remaining details were his eyeballs. They can’t leak that much aura, can they?

Wolf decided to test it out. He merged the Internal Energy flows in his head and neck with the cyclone which circulated around the rest of his body, then headed out.

In these months Wolf spent in Silver City, new Demonic Beasts repopulated the area he previously emptied. After walking for a kilometer, Wolf sensed a distant seed of hatred. There.

He followed the distinct hostility, stalking the Demonic Beast. The emotion is fuzzy. A small group, three to five monsters.

Wolf stealthily approached his enemies. He closed in on the Demonic Beasts. He was already fifty meters away, but they still made no reaction.

It works. Wolf grinned with mischief in his eyes. He slowed down, making sure he was downwind from his prey. Then, the young True-Namer silently advanced. Forty meters. Thirty, twenty, ten. Wolf carefully shifted the bushes to see his oblivious enemies, then his lip twisted weirdly, and he replaced the shrubbery before leaving.

Dire wolves… Why did it have to be Dire wolves?

Wolf didn’t need to skulk around to find new prey. As he approached that pack, he’d already caught other auras, all of which ignored him, just like the Dire wolves. A dozen minutes later, Wolf snuck up on a Fleshraker Panther sleeping in a tree.

The young True-Namer leisurely neared it until he was ten meters away. However, as soon as he crossed the previously tested limit, Wolf awakened his senses and prepared for an explosion of violence.

Nine meters, seven, five, four… Wolf stood under the tree, and the demonic cat still had its eyes closed.

Should I climb the tree? Three meters away with my eyes unprotected seems safe enough for me to start absorbing the Demonic Beast Monster Cores. Once I block the Internal Energy leakage from my eyes, I think even those old bats wouldn’t be able to sense anything amiss.

After hesitating briefly, Wolf gave up this chance. The result was already excellent. If the Demonic Beast was on the ground, Wolf would’ve pushed his luck further. Climbing a tree and fighting, while taking care not to unleash any aura, seemed unwise.

I must form a habit of acting carefully, expending the least amount of effort. I’m aiming for the third ring of Demonic Converters once I get enough Monster Cores to pay back Smith and advance my Order. As for the rest of my time here, I can’t destroy too many Demonic Converters in the third ring. Maybe four? But then Wolf’s greed sparked. Five, six at most, if I want them to shield us from a sudden Monster Beast migration.

He needed three to advance his Sword-Sage Order. As for the rest, they would be solid capital for Wolf to settle his debts. He bought everything from the Alchemists’ Guild on credit. As for the reparations Wolf got after the trial, he invested the money into Wayde and his marquessate so that the young Duke could create the domain Archibald dreamed of.

Wolf plotted out the optimal course while heading towards the second closest Demonic Beast. His luck was good. This monster was a large monitor lizard, sunbathing and sleeping in a clearing Wolf created months ago by fireballing a tree alongside a bunch of Quill Rats he cremated.

Thanks to his former inelegance, this clearing made a perfect test environment. Wolf approached the monitor lizard from the tail side. The lizard was five meters long. A perfect guinea pig for Wolf to test two things. One was their energy sense’s radius, the other was whether that distance applied to the entirety of Demonic Beast’s body, or just the head. If it was the latter, he could assassinate larger Demonic Beasts with greater ease.

Wolf held Book and approached until he could touch the lizard’s tail. The Demonic Beast shifted and Wolf froze, but the reptile didn’t wake up. Easing up, Wolf assumed an open sword stance, ready for anything, then moved forward.

He reached its hind legs, but the monitor lizard showed no reaction. When Wolf was a step away from its front legs, the Demonic Beast’s eyes snapped open. It howled and turned around before its headless body fell to the ground.

A meter and five centimeters from the brain. Wolf memorized this distance. I won’t be able to fool True-Namers without obscuring my eyes with Ghost Shroud.

Wolf wished to know which organ caught his aura, but he lost interest when he realized the distance was over a meter. When a True-Namer awakened their senses, they’d notice the oddity from several meters away.

That day, Wolf covered a lot of ground before opening a folded space to rest.

I’m five to ten times faster than before now that I can avoid pointless fights. Knowing where your enemies are from a kilometer away is neat, but maintaining Ghost Shroud for hours is a chore. It’s like walking while thinking about every step you take. I wonder whether it will become a reflex after a while?

Master, you’re procrastinating again. Silver’s melodious voice echoed throughout Wolf’s Mind Palace.

She was right, as usual. Wolf tried to busy himself and delay the last step he needed to take to isolate his Internal Energy from the rest of the world.

“I’m getting to it, Silver.” Wolf took several deep breaths before closing his eyes and laying down.

He didn’t know why, but having the ground beneath his head felt reassuring. It was as if he believed that, in case of an accident, his eyes would explode outwards if he maintained a prone position.

Wolf’s eyes didn’t explode. In a container so spherical, the Internal Energy cyclone moved on its own and fused with the flow which filled the rest of Wolf’s skull.

Finally, Ghost Shroud was complete. To reach perfect stealth, Wolf only needed to learn how to stop his thoughts from leaking.