When Edge Absorbed the spider’s copy of Shadow Step, it filled his avatar’s cup to the brim.

  Nerves alight with the rush that always came when taking another big step down the long road to power, he popped into his central chamber to watch his first Rare skill advance. The small shadow man was shining like the sun, making him easy to spot for a change.

  When the transformation was complete, Shadow Step was stealthier than ever, fading to murk and gloom as Edge’s other avatars cheered the skill on. Meanwhile, his Guide appeared to make the upgrade official.

  The skill Shadow Step has advanced to Rank 3.

  Its mana efficiency has been enhanced.

  Upon reaching Rank 3, you may control the volume of mana the skill consumes, adjusting its output at will.

  “Awesome work, my friend.” He spent a few minutes bonding with his powers, then hopped back into his own skin… only to receive one hell of a jump scare when he saw Lilly’s jubilant face just a few inches away from his own.

  In the excitement of gaining a valuable upgrade, he had forgotten how close the woman was standing.

  “That. Was. Incredible. I’ve never seen anything like your core before—or heard about it for that matter. It’s completely unlike any form of magic I’ve encountered. Do it again, please.”

  Since he still had one charge of Extraction, Edge shrugged and gave into the pleading look in her eyes. Lilly broke into a beaming grin when the chains of oblivion made their final appearance of the day. After looking through his options, he stole a high-rank Uncommon that enhanced the spider’s venom. Its avatar was caustic and burned his mouth as he chewed, but it wasn’t actually toxic.

  When he was done eating and put the experience he’d Absorbed into Conceal, Lilly asked a few probing questions and started furiously recording her observations into a journal she’d pulled out of her pack.

  Edge wanted to try out his new upgrade, but first, he checked in with Sasha and Mel. The women had taken some cuts from the spiders’ blade limbs. But thanks to Warlord’s Mantle and the quality of their armor, nothing was deep, and everyone had managed to avoid being bitten.

  While they tended to their wounds and Lilly muttered to herself, he decided to take rank-three Shadow Step for a test drive. He was keen to find out what it could do, now that he could adjust the skill’s mana expenditure at will.

  Edge wasn’t sure which property of the power would be enhanced when he flared it. Unlike most of his skills, strengthening the main effect didn’t suggest anything out of hand, since becoming “shadowier” didn’t make intuitive sense.

  He shrugged. There’s only one way to find out.

  He ignited his core and activated Shadow Step, watching as the world dimmed to mist and haze. His surroundings fuzzed like they had become insubstantial, although he knew it was his own body that had changed. When he flared the skill, Edge was pleased to discover that spending more mana enhanced the unlisted mass-reduction bonus of his shadow form. When he dialed it up as far as it would go, it reached the point where he was almost weightless.

  When he tried combining it with Leap, he was able to gain considerably more height than normal—further enhancing his mobility. On top of everything else, he seemed more malleable than before, which should help him squeeze through even tighter spaces.

  Better still, when he tried reducing Shadow Step’s expenditure, Edge remained incorporeal, retaining his immunity to physical damage and the pliable properties of his shadow body. The only difference was that the skill no longer decreased his weight or increased his speed at all.

  Not bad. Now I can stay in this form for long stretches at a time without it being prohibitively expensive.

  In equally welcome news, the battle had ranked up Flame Imbuement—the skill that let Sasha coat her shield, spear, and arrows with a layer of searing mana that transferred onto her opponents after landing a solid hit.

  She picked an upgrade that made the flames burn hotter and gain a modest resistance to Disruption, which would help her deal killing blows when they ran into the Claws. Combined with the napalm upgrade she’d chosen for Fire Breathing and the elemental bonus from her core’s ultimate ability, Sasha was able to dish out considerably more damage than most warriors her stage.

  Her fire was extremely distracting and potentially blinding. It could destroy wooden fortifications and create prolific smoke by burning groundcover. Even most stage-two enemies would be in trouble if their head caught on fire, something Edge would strongly prefer not to experience himself.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  The next time he thought to check in with Gauge Depth, he received a pleasant surprise. Apparently, the crew had been climbing steadily all day without doubling back at all, making their fastest vertical progress to date.

  At this rate, we should be out of the biome in another few days. I think we’ve found the route leading to the exit.

  ***

  After another half day spent hiking through a series of pink-crystal caverns, Edge’s crew reentered the main biome of the Deep-Gill Grottos.

  He could smell the endless mushrooms well before they came into view—a pervasive musk he had begun filtering out after smelling it for days on end. Not long after, the hunters ran into a large group of redcaps barring the only way forward. They were harvesting mold from the wall and refused to leave it, even after the crew revealed themselves.

  Since they couldn’t split the beasts up or lure them into a trap, they decided to attack from range and force the shrooms to come to them, whittling down their numbers before the fight began. After an intense battle that left their reservoirs running on fumes, they backtracked to rest at a defensible enclosure they had passed along the way.

  When everyone looked through their updates, Mel discovered that she had finally reached the last cycle of stage one. Better still, since she had laid the groundwork for her advancement before leaving on the expedition, the guardswoman had already cleared the requirements for evolving her Brawler’s core.

  She was looking forward to picking up more attributes per cycle and even more excited about strengthening her ultimate ability—a passive power that increased the damage of her melee attacks.

  Edge was curious to observe the process from the outside. He knew that Skill-Eater’s evolutions were unusual in any number of ways, and this was a good chance to learn some of the details.

  Mel sat down, crossed her legs, and got that distant look in her eyes that meant she was standing inside her inner world. Due to the time dilation, she was going through a lengthy subjective experience, but to the rest of the crew, everything would be over in just a few minutes. By now, he could feel the planet’s magic congealing around her body, flowing through her mana pores and soaking into her core.

  Melenia’s reactor ignited, burning brighter than ever as her core was reforged, enhancing its components while upgrading its traits and abilities. It gave off enough energy that he could feel the heat from here. Edge paid close attention to the fluctuations in her energetic signature, but he couldn’t sense anything nearly as intense as what he had experienced while evolving to stage two.

  When the process was complete, Mel’s presence had intensified—the air of potency that all cored people shared, although he had grown so accustomed to the effect that he barely noticed it anymore.

  While he waited, Edge called up his Guide and checked out his updates.

  You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle up your core. Your new cycle is: 22.

  You have 5 attribute points awaiting allocation.

  Edge put one point into Disruption, which gave him an extra point from his trait after taking the attribute’s base value to 30. He put the other four points into Reflex like he’d planned—to help deal with all the extra Speed from Fear the Season’s passive effect.

  Spending points on Reflex felt like lightning was coursing along his nerves and fast-twitch muscle fibers, bolstering his reaction time on an unconscious level. The boost would make a big difference, though he wanted to invest another cycle into Control before spending points on anything else.

  Not long after, Melenia opened her eyes, cracked her neck, and grinned. “That was fantastic. By the time we get out of here, I should be able to hold my own in a fight with any of the Claws except their elites.”

  Everyone congratulated the warrior on achieving a major milestone, then Edge decided to broach a topic he’d been curious about for some time. It was an intensely personal question, so wasn’t sure if the women would answer. “How far along in your stages are you?” He gestured to Lilly and Sasha. “I just hit cycle twenty-two.”

  “I need another six cycles to hit peak stage-one, then knock out whatever requirement my Flame core needs to evolve,” Sasha replied.

  “I’m about halfway between where you are and the end of stage two,” Lilly added. “Even if we keep fighting like this, it’s going to take a while, and my core can be a pain in the ass as far as its evolution requirements are concerned. I should be able to advance Vortex Shot soon though.”

  The shadowkiller didn’t mention what type of core she had, and Edge didn’t ask. Revealing her cycle along with so many of her skills was already a considerable show of trust, and he had no reason to press the matter. Everyone chimed in with how close each of their skills was to advancing, then they rose to their feet and continued on their way.

  Only a few minutes later, Sense Treasure’s telltale glow let him know something valuable was nearby—brighter than he’d ever seen it before. While Lilly and Sasha stood guard, Edge worked with Mel to dig the resource free from the stone.

  He was surprised to discover that it wasn’t detecting a gemstone or metal deposit this time around, but a fossilized bone. It was the clavicle of a massive beast that had roamed the surface of Ord millions of years before the first human stepped out of a portal. Uncovering the fossil made him wonder how life had evolved on a planet that had been rich in magic from the beginning—unlike Earth, which had gone without magicytes until a few centuries ago.

  Once he met up with the expedition, he decided to ask the resource hunters if they knew more about the subject. Not long after, the duo finished chipping away at the surrounding rock and pulled the fossil free from the wall. Edge didn’t have time to remove the layer of stone encasing it, so he put the whole thing inside his vault to deal with when he had a few hours to spare.

  “I think that bone belonged to a prehistoric Kaiju,” Lilly said.

  “Super interesting. It must have been a total badass,” Mel added as Sasha nodded in appreciation.

  It was a good time to take stock of his inventory, so he stepped into his inner world to view the contents of his Spatial Storage Rune, taking advantage of the time dilation inside his core. He spent a few minutes marveling at all the valuable resources and beast parts he’d picked up since leaving for the Savage Garden—not to mention the equipment and supplies he had purloined from the Claws.

  The chamber still had plenty of room, although Edge had reached the halfway point on the vault’s weight limit. He realized he could sense the mass of his hoard when he focused on it—yet another useful feature of the insanely good core rune.

  He grinned while gazing at his growing pile of treasure. When I get back to Puppet Town, I’m going on one hell of a crafting spree.