After spending about five days in the tribe catching up with everybody and honing my magical capabilities, I also decided to take a trek out the Dusk Swamps to further my skills. I had wanted to go farther, to this so-called Ebonwoods place, for greater opportunity and danger. I was beginning to become worried that if I stuck to only the low-level places around the tribe, it would slow down or even kill my growth.

  But with the insistence of Mia and her reprimanding me for leaving her for so long, I compromised and promised that I would only go for as long as the Dusk Swamps stretched. I couldn't cheat either and still wander further off seeing as I had no doubt that Mia was vigorously keeping her attention on the connection between to two of us.

  While she couldn't know exactly how far the distance between us was, but she would definitely know if went too far. As such, I had been testing out my new capabilities, skills, and magic, while simultaneously also improving them bit by bit. From since I had gotten home, these were the fruits of my effort.

  The hit my enthusiasm had taken from seeing the stunted growth of my levels had left me a bit down. I did know that a lot of it was contributed by the fact I had been limited to only the relatively low-leveled area of the Dusk Swamps, however, it was obvious to see that the amount of EXP required nowadays was reaching exorbitant amounts.

  I didn't totally cull the population of the Dusk Swamps, but I did my fair share of thinning it. From fighting surprisingly capable monsters of the E and E+ ranks to decimating large swaths of densely populated creatures that reminded me of a lizard-version of the ant's hivemind-like nature. The amount of EXP I had gathered in ten days was nothing to scoff at.

  But still, only two levels.

  My skills did manage to get up there, however. With Greater Puncture, Greater Smell, Blood Conversion, and Blink hitting the level cap, I got seven skill points, bringing my total up to nine. Also practically all of my skill having been pushed up a notch. But there was one skill that eluded me to exactly how I was supposed to level as fast as I did my other skills.

  Stygian Transformation, a skill that would boost my physical power, proved to have a debilitating drawback. Other than just slamming my body with fatigue like a freight train, it took a whole week to reset. Making it a royal pain in the ass to level. I had only managed to activate the skill once again since the first time and was now set to be off cooldown in a few days.

  There was still one thing left, though, which was the latest level increase I had acquired. Blink. Prohibitively hard to increase in level, although I was practically constantly using it, proving that some abilities just are that much harder to level. Some required special or new insight to improve, like that one time with Smell and the stowlers. Other times you just had to push yourself, be under pressure, in immense danger, take your pick. You had to exceed your skill's limits for it to improve.

  I wanted to get Blink to its next advancement, if there was any, before I returned home, at the least. And now on the fifth day of being out here alone, assassinating and terrorizing monsters and creatures alike, I finally got it to level ten. However, I was severely disappointed when I found out that there was no new evolution path for the skill.

  After seeing that this most useful and beloved skill of mine didn't allow for further progress other than in my own mastery and application of the skill, I could only sigh dejectedly. But with this disappointing turn-out, I finally could paint a clearer picture of the skills and their general potentials.

  Skills that generally didn't start off with a 'weak' or 'lesser' affix at the 1st skill tier seemed to all end at the 2nd-tier level cap. Like Smell, Puncture, and now, Blink. However, not all hope was lost. I still had Synergize. A skill that allowed me to create whole new unique and powerful tools, that just might be capable of being further advanced than its parts' own limits.

  Lastly, of the things I had been testing, was Shadow Magic. I hadn't had much time to delve into the intricacies of Shadow Magic and its imprinted runes that followed, but like Blood Magic, I got three new inherent runes. One rune that seemed to allow for the shadows to better hide and camouflage objects or people, a rune that could coalesce the shadows in the vicinity to take tangible and physical form, and lastly, a rune that could eat light.

  -Well, rather it seemed to dim the light of the surroundings, causing the shadows to swallow the light. It didn't really work in wide-open spaces in daylight but was useful in densely enclosed areas like indoors or a thick forest. Anyways, I named the glyphs succinctly, the Concealment Rune, the Coalescent Rune, and the Stygian Rune.

  Since I was done with my little excursion to improve my abilities, it was time to go home. But before I did, I pulled up everything to take stock of what I had accomplished since finding myself in a cavemouth as a fragile mosquito.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  ***

  Flying through the cold dusk air, I breathed in deeply as my powerful wings of shadows cut through the air.

  "There's truly nothing like cruising through the air. To be honest, with my broadened perspective since coming here, reincarnating as a bird doesn't sound too bad either..." - Me

  Closing in on the tribe on the horizon that was lit up by a magnitude of torches, bonfires, and lamps, I let my sense surge out of me, inundating the surroundings far and wide with my scrutiny. It wasn't my presence, just my sense, only others extremely adept in aura control would be able to perceive it.

  But as I flew through the skies, enjoying the picture of all kinds of animals, monsters, and the sea of crimson beacons ahead of me, I noticed something that caused a chilly glint to flicker in my cold eyes.

  "What do so many humans soldiers think they're doing in my tribe's domain?" - Me

  ? Durden Abury ?

  Hiding amongst the foliage, I and thirty other militia scouts staked out the greenskin settlement in the distance, just beyond the treeline. We had no idea why the Ardent family, under the leadership of Colonel Illesandra, had mobilized all the way to the outskirts of the wastelands. Rumors had been going around about what our true purpose here was, such as they were here for an impromptu training expedition, or that we were actually here for some political scheme against the Zephyrous Familia.

  However, it really didn't matter either way as every single Ardent militia soldier were all battle-hardened warriors that had fully dedicated themselves to this prestigious family. They would order, and we would follow.

  We hadn't gotten much debriefing for what we were looking for, just that we had to go through the Glades of Mordria and into the outskirts of the wastelands until we found something, and then report it back. We definitely weren't expecting to find much, the Glades of Mordria having pathetically weak monsters, and the wastelands bordering the lands of Mordria being even more sparsely populated with strong creatures.

  And that was why we had become thoroughly shocked upon seeing a full-blown greenskin settlement, filled with odd red hobgoblins and even orcs. It was truly something unheard of to see on the borders of the wastelands and Mordria. As such, I was currently reporting back to the Colonel herself, Lady Illesandre, about all the strange sightings.

  "Yes, we've been unable to identify any of the red hobgoblins to any of the registered greenskins we know of. If we could obtain one of them alive or their a corpse, we could have sergeant Rakal identify it with his skill. I'm just not confident in sneaking one away without alarm." - Me

  "You said that they numbered at a thousand, at the least. Correct?" - Colonel Illesandre

  With a confident tone, I responded.

  "Affirmative." - Me

  There was a slight pause before she answered, probably consorting another officer.

  "Alright, we will immediately mobilize to eradicate the settlement. Standby until we arrive, and report if anything changes" - Colonel Illesandre

  Suddenly flustered by the command, I stutter slightly.

  "E-excuse me, Colonel. But why are we taking militant action against these greenskins? They haven't even raided beyond the wastelands borders, yet we're taking offensive measures? If the monster society finds out about this, won't there be retaliation?" - Me

  "We aren't using the country's military, and this settlement is so far on the outskirts so it shouldn't provoke too much of a fuss with only our army incursion. But we aren't here to take care of threats such as this little settlement. We're here to aq-" - Colonel Illesandre

  The sound of her voice trailed off, as the terrified stutter of the scout next to him pulled him from concentrating on the short-ranged communication talisman in my hand. Directing my gaze towards where the petrified scout was looking, I only saw two ominous eyes that had swirls of shadows and crimson before everything went dark.

  ***

  Throughout the hidden camp of scouts, a commanding voice could be faintly heard from a small fist-size stone carved with intricate runes. However, the voice was drowned out in the cacophony of screams that echoed of the trees of the forest.

  "Sergeant, what's happening? Sergeant! - Sergeant! Answer me!" - Colonel Illesandre