I put my hand on Tess's shoulder and squeeze it strongly, giving her a warning not to move at all and not to do anything stupid. I can feel her body tense under my hand as she, too, stares right at the monster's eyes outside the window.

She then does nothing to fight and continues to suppress her mana while staying quiet.

The eye continues to look at us, a milky white blind eye of the undead aberrant deer. There are no eyelids to blink, and the sickly green color slightly lights up the room.

I calm my breathing even further, and even though of the situation we are in, my heart continues to beat calmly. I avert my gaze and just look at the green light that lights up one of the walls.

A few moments later, the light disappears, and I see the monster walking away after I look outside the window. It moves quietly, not even touching the houses near it. This time there are no vibrations as it walks.

A few more minutes pass, and then a massive wave of mana hits us. The monster jumps high in the air and then starts running on it as if it's ground, while small flashes of mana light the surroundings every time its hooves hit the air.

It finally disappears and I let go of Tess, and we continue to hide our mana until the morning when the wind stops and the mist disappears.

"Well, that was something," is the first thing she says, her voice still bearing some tension. "Maybe we should just try to find monsters next time instead of luring them to us?"

Maybe we should just not leave the hideout at all?

"What level do you think it was?" Tess asks.

"150 to 300. I think that's the range for two question marks," I say and explain a bit more when she asks me.

"Interesting. I think I agree with you and I also have a few theories."

"That makes me curious. Do tell," I say as we walk back to our hideout, side by side. The tension is slowly disappearing now that there is a light.

"First, the wind is here either created by the field around the city or used to cancel out any flames that could burn the city. It's probably also partially working during the day, but it's much stronger at night for some reason."

"Oh, that's quite a good theory," did she get that from seeing my flames die out quickly in the wind?

"The second theory is that the mist somehow confuses the monsters and blocks their ability to sense mana, helping people hide during the night. Only really strong pulses of mana allow the monster to detect the source."

"Are you maybe really smart, Tess?"

She laughs shortly as she jumps over the debris, softly landing on her feet. I can see her using some mana to do so, "It's just basic observation."

Not wanting to be left behind, I also add something, "And I think that the version of the story for this floor that the natives told isn't something we should fully trust. Not because they are lying to us, but because it's all just rumors and legends they have."

"Sounds reasonable. The quest objective is to put the saint to rest, which made me think that the saint will be undead, as it says to put to rest instead of killing. That's quite weird," she says.

"But it won't be as simple. It says 'to final rest,' so maybe he or she really became undead, for a while, after dying and then returned back to life? That could explain why the field around the city is still working." While waiting for her answer, a small orb of mana floats in the palm of my arm, and I continue to infuse it with mana.

"That makes me curious about what we'll find in the middle of the city, with hopefully more water and flora. And also, what do you want to do with that Cipher guy?" She looks at me, a slight annoyance flashing through her eyes.

I see, she dislikes the guy as well.

"Let him deal with the natives. If he goes too far, I'll do something about it. And we just need to keep him alive for water," I say, and to be honest, I really wanted to try to learn his water skill, but now?

I reach the point of resistance, and I can't infuse more mana into the orb. So I use [Redistribution], and my mana pushes through that resistance, and wisps of purple and light blue mana start filling the dark blue orb, mixing and swirling inside.

"I'm still amazed at how much mana you can pack into that thing," Tess's voice is curious as she stops and observes the orb floating in the palm of my arm. "Is the orb the best shape for training?"

"Yup, it feels the easiest to use, and it's the simplest to create," I stop pushing mana inside the orb, and currently, it's only half as strong as the one from last night. "But you know, it's getting kind of scary, Tess."

"Oh yeah? Did you realize it only now? How much of your mana did you even use on the one from before?"

"I don't know, maybe 10%?"

Her step falters, and she stops and gives me a long, examining look. "You are not joking," she declares, reading it from my face.

"Why would I lie to you about that..."

She lifts her hand, stopping me from talking. "Nathaniel, my mana stat isn't even at 100. How much is your mana?"

After a quick check, I tell her, "284 and growing."

Another long pause, and then a sigh. "Let's ignore the numbers for now, but the last time you created the orb, it felt like something I would need all my mana to create, yet you said it was only 10%. The numbers don't fit."

"Oh, it's simple. Efficiency. I have multiple skills and passives and even a trait that help me with that."

What do you think I risked my life so many times for? I would be super mad if something like this wasn't the case.

She opens her mouth, pauses, gives it a bit more thought, and then opens it again, "You do you, Nat. Just be careful, okay?"

That's why I like Tess.

"Yup, do you need any help with your skills? Maybe I can offer a bit of advice," I offer, and I believe that. I know that I'm good when it comes to handling mana.

And I'm also curious about her skills, to be honest. Currently, I do not have time to learn from her as I have a lot to go through, but just satisfying my curiosity a bit is enough.

"Well, my main one is [Psychokinesis], and that's something you probably won't be able to help me much with. [Farsight] is growing nicely; I can see really far, and when I put in effort, I can see mana. And by that, I mean the mana around every person that their body leaks."

"Oh, that's quite cool. So it only works with sight, and there isn't any other sense it affects?"

"Yes, only sight, as the name says. Is there anything you're talking about?"

"Yup, you can evolve your skill…" I then explain my past experiences to her. To her, it's a bit of a surprise, but in the end, she agrees that it makes sense.

However, she still doesn't agree with me on one thing. She wants to keep her [Farsight] to only include sight and take it to the extreme. It's not a bad way to go about this, but neither is mine where [Perception] includes multiple senses. But hey, we will see.

"Currently, I'm working on my [Lightning Armor]," As she says it, lightning starts to crackle around her body, the same she used in our fight versus the werewolf. "It boosts my stats and also has defensive capability."

I can see that she is quite happy with the skill, a small smile appearing on her lips as she manipulates the lightning around her body.

I'm not going to lie; it looks pretty as flickers of red and white lightning crack over her body, making her blonde hair stand up slightly and putting some light on her face, lighting up her smile.

I think it fits her.

"Oh, and one more thing, this one is a bit more weird-sounding, [Declaration]."

The moment she says the name, I know it's yet another powerful skill, similar to [Disintegration] or [Manipulation] and probably [Focus].

"So, what does it do?"

"Currently? Nothing, but I'm trying to Declare this javelin to be mine. If I'm right, it will mean I can move it even if it's way out of the range of my [Psychokinesis]," she then shrugs her shoulders.

"Maybe you should think a bit bigger. How about you try to Declare that your wounds are healed? Or Declare that your weapon is much stronger than it is?" That makes her look at me, and I can see thoughts wildly going through her mind.

"Skills with such unclear names usually have a lot of options to be used," I finish. It's something I've given a lot of thought to, and I don't think I'm wrong.

Level 30 for a skill? That sounds like a beginning. I'm sure as time passes, the level-ups will become much harder, and the skill will become much stronger. Even Lissandra's world-ending [Singularity] had to start at level one, and the same goes for the skill named [Dawn] of the man named Tristan, a skill with a quite silly and not dangerous-sounding name that wiped out the life from the surface of an entire planet.

It's already been 10 minutes since we came back to the hideout when I walk up to Lily, who sits near Isabella and Biscuit, two girls happily talking together while the mighty divine beast endures.

When I get to them, Lily looks up with a smile. "Hello!" she says.

"Kitty man!" Isabella shouts, and I silence her with one long look.

"Never mention it again, and I'll let you play with Biscuit one more time," I say.

"Three times!"

"Two."

"Deal!" she giggles and goes back to hugging Biscuit, who looks at me.

Is this disappointment in your eyes? Please forgive me, Biscuit! I'm a weak, weak man.

But anyway, "Lily, you and I, let's go out."

I need to raise her level a bit since it's too low. Going out with just the two of us will attract less attention when we leave the hideout. Doesn't that make sense?

So, Lily, why are you looking at me like that?