Lewis's eye widen when the fractured bubble of space that had been resisting him finally disappeared, revealing a young man lying on the ground, blood pooling beneath him. He was so zoned in on sensing the mana around him that he nearly jumped when someone gasped behind him. He turned to find several people standing directly behind him, all of whom had wide eyes as they stared between him and the now visible man on the ground.
"Make way, let me through." Came a voice, a surprisingly elderly man rushing past as he knelt down next to the bleeding man, placing two fingers to the side of his neck before sighing.
"He's alive." The old man called, before beginning to inspect his injuries, a glow emanating from his hand as he touched the injured person's forehead, his pale skin beginning to regain some of its life as the person began breathing a little deeper, his eyes moving from under his eyelids.
Lewis hid a wince as he finally took a good look at the man, one of his legs twisted an a ninety degree angle and a terrible gash on his side which was responsible for most of the blood pooling beneath him. Lewis wasn't even sure how the man was alive; these sorts of injuries should have been a death sentence, yet the man was stabilizing under the attention of the groups healer.
Scanning the man, Lewis noticed a ring on his hand that radiated the same kind of slippery mana as he had sensed. He had immediately retracted his aura after crushing the illusionary dome so the magical artifact luckily wasn't destroyed. He had learned his lesson about breaking mana items from when he had ruined his obsidian dagger, so he was being careful only to extend his nullfield when he really needed to and to keep it away from everyone else afterward.
"How did you know he was here?" Morris asked, coming up beside him.
"My mana detection is my highest level skill. You should get his ring, by the way. It was the source of the strange hiding ability that was around him." He replied, not wanting to damage the item any more. He could make his arcane nullfield skintight, but directly touching anything with mana in it was a bad idea, so he wouldn't be able to grab it himself, something that was definitely infuriating.
Morris nodded as he did just that, pulling it off the now lightly groaning man. The healer had removed his shirt, revealing his injured body, with not only his bent leg and gaping side, but also evidence of several slashes to his body and arms, attacks that appeared to have been cause by a blade, rather than a wild animal. Fiona was conversing with the elderly healer, asking if the injured man would wake up soon so they could get some information from him, but the healer wasn't sure.
After Morris extracted the ring, Lewis moved back from the scene, letting the other people deal with the situation as he returned his focus to the artifact.
[Ring of the observer - (Rare)
A ring that turns gazes away from the holder as they walk unseen among their foes. Limited duration item 3/10 charges left.]
Skill: Identify has reached level 9
It looks like the old identify skill is starting to show its usefulness after all. Although it's still missing valuable information, like the duration of a single charge of this ring for example. Still, it's better than nothing, and at least doesn't appear to have been broken by my nullfield.
Morris was clearly about to put the ring on when he hesitated, looking up at Lewis.
"You should have this." He said, handing the ring over, but Lewis stopped him.
"Keep it. It's a stealth ring, something that's perfect for you and your fighting style. Besides, I can't use it. My passive skill would only destroy it if I touched it." He explained, smiling as Morris quickly pulled the ring back to his chest, clutching it as if Lewis might crush it at any moment.
"Ah, thanks. This ring seems really powerful." He replied, slipping it onto his finger.
He stroked the ring with one finger, Lewis expecting him to disappear from sight like a certain hobbit at any moment, but the black archer simply nodded to himself.
"It seems the ring is still functional, although I can't activate it. It seems to have some sort of cooldown between activations." He told Lewis, a faint frown on his face as he was visibly disappointed he couldn't immediately turn invisible. But even if it had, he was already able to sense it once before anyway.
It reminded Lewis of Lue's concealment skill that seemed to bend light around him, turning him into a shimmer in the air, although his mana detection was able to see through it. It once more reminded him that his spiritual based abilities seemed far stronger than they should be. The fact that he was able to detect this clearly very powerful artifact that even the system classed as rare--a new feature to his identify skill which had only just appeared--proved that his sensorial skills were abnormal.
But he also noticed that his skills hadn't leveled much until now. His arcane nullfield skill having jumped two levels from that simple act of exerting destroying the rings look-away effect.
So I need to infuse mana into the skill to push it to grow. I guess that makes sense. I've been focused on conserving my mana because of back when Anti-magic mantle blocked my regeneration, but that's no longer the case.
It felt right to him. A way, not only to level his skill but also to feel his spirit like the manual describes. After all, his arcane nullfield was constantly active, radiating from his very body. So perhaps infusing it with mana was the key he was missing to properly sense his spirit.
He was about to do exactly that when he suddenly heard the gasps and moans of the awakening injured man.
Both Morris and Lewis rushed closer as Fiona knelt beside him, snapping her fingers over his head to focus his attention. His eyes flittered open, and he startled as he found a dozen people standing over him, all staring down with apparent curiosity. He jerked, but the movement turned into a wince due to his badly injured body.
"Hey there, stay calm, were friendly. Can you tell me what happened to you?" Fiona asked, focusing his attention as the man clenched his teeth to avoid screaming.
He still seemed in bad shape, but was able to muster enough sense to reply.
"I was attacked..." He began, Fiona nodding along. "By the orcs, right? Don't worry, we're here to stop them." She added, but the man seemed to be confused as he shook his head.
"Not just orcs, human" He croaked, everyone seeming to tense up at his words. Even Fiona stiffened and intensified her gaze on the injured man. It was clear that he had been cut and slashed multiple times, but no-one had thought other humans would be responsible. The man continued with some desperation as he patted his hand.
"He had a ring... We couldn't see him as he cut us down one by one. I got lucky with a wild swing and cut off his fingers, but the orcs arrived next and got everyone else. I barely got away thanks to the ring, but some sort of bore hit me as I was fleeing and broke my leg." He said between breaths.
Everyone had gone silent after hearing his words and their implication.
"You're saying a human is working with the orcs?" Fiona asked, her voice strained.
"I don't know. Maybe. They attacked at the same time. I only know it was a human because he became visible after I slashed his hand. But his eyes... He's a monster. A cold-blooded killer." He wheezed out, blood beginning to appear on his lips as he let out small coughs, the healer telling him to relax and conserve his strength.
Fiona spoke with the volunteers and assigned two people to bring him back to the fortress, so they began constructing a makeshift stretcher. The healer wasn't able to do much more for the guy, having improved his condition with healing magic, but until he got his injuries stitched and bandaged, no amount of the healer's attention would save him from inevitably bleeding out or getting an infection, so the healer stayed with the main group.
"What do you think about this, Fiona?" Morris asked as the man was being carried away, hopefully reaching the fortress without being harmed along the way, but they couldn't really spare the manpower to guaranty it.
"I don't like it. We don't know much about the orcs, but if they are indeed working alongside humans, then they may be far more intelligent than we expected. What worries me more is why someone would attack their own." She replied, her gaze distant as she spoke.
"Crazy people will do crazy things. Murderers are just as likely to appear here as soldiers." Morris replied, shrugging his shoulders as he mindlessly rubbed his new ring.
Fiona noticed his subconscious action as she pointed to the item. "Is that the assassins' ring?" Morris nodding in reply.
"How much do you think such an item is worth?" She wondered, her mind spinning as possibilities swirled, until something dawned on her.
"Say, do you think killing humans rewards more TP?" Fiona asked, Morris looking at her like she was crazy, but she just waved him off.
"I'm not planning to actually do it, I'm just wondering. Killing beasts grants us TP, so what if killing people gives us the TP they had accumulated? Wouldn't that be a great way for the morally corrupt to prey on their own. After all, affording such an item would likely require a lot of points." She explained, Lewis immediately understood as a pit formed in his stomach.
If people could get a bunch of points from killing each other, then why would they bother going and challenging stronger beasts and risk their lives when they could just backstab each other for more profit. And if these are the types of items that can be bought, then even the most honest person might be tempted.
"We cannot share this. Such information would only bring chaos and mistrust. Best keep this among ourselves." Morris hastily said, lowering his voice so as not to alert the others.
"Alright, but we have to keep going now. I don't think lingering in a single spot is wise now that we're within the area the orcs had been sighted." Lewis reminded them, having kept up his mana detection training to spot any unwanted surprises before they got too close. He would have experimented more with his strengthening and controlling his arcane nullfield, but felt a little more on edge after the revelation of a killer likely working with the orcs to divert his focus.
The group continued on their way with significantly more care after that, moving ever deeper but without much idea on their ultimate destination, simply hoping to pick up some sort of trail eventually.
But such a thing didn't occurred.
Even after a few hours, they found no sign of any orcs, only a few wolves and a strange moose with glowing antlers that could produce shockwaves. Which Fiona decapitated after Lewis suppressed its magic with his nullfield, using mana to strengthen it greatly and not giving the creature any chance of resisting the effect. Since Morris would usually fire his arrows at distant targets, he had leveled up to level 9 and Fiona to level 8 when they decided to head back.
They had gone far enough that the maps had all ended, none of the previous hunting parties having ventured so far south; in fact, one of the volunteers was actively documenting the terrain and landmarks as they went. Still, with no sign of any orcs, they figured they must have passed them and decided to return using a different route, fanning out further into the rockier terrain where progress is slower, but the number of hiding places grows exponentially.
The hope was that the kidnapped people were still alive, so logically the orcs must be holding them somewhere. And since they weren't ambushed or able to locate any more victims of the orcs along travels, they had to branch out further into unknown territory in search of answers.
Progress was slow as they made their way back north, now at a considerably slower pace, aiming for higher ground in hopes of spotting some sort of clues, but a couple more hours passed in silence as they continued. At this point, the groups morale had hit rock bottom. Many of them were tired and exhausted, not even increased stats making up for all the physical exertion, many of them not having reached a high level anyway, relying on their already strong bodies from life in a harsh world, having grown up as hunters or farmers.
Even Lewis had began to lose focus, his diligent effort in improving his mana detection granting him yet another level but after a while, he had begun to play around with his arcane nullfield. Growing it and shrinking it at will, as well as infusing mana into his surroundings to increase the potency of the skills effect. He didn't get another level from it, but felt his control over the skill gradually increase, like learning to control a new limb that had been missing your entire life.
But as they skirted between some large stone obelisks on an elevated area of the forest, Fiona suddenly froze, her hold fist raised in a halt motion as she suddenly ducked down. Lewis almost bumped into the woman when she stopped, having began mindlessly following her lead as she clearly had the most patience and experience due to her former job as some sort of peace keeping force are whatever it is she used to do.
Crouching down Lewis and Morris both scanned the area before them, looking in the direction Fiona had pointed. Down below, between the trees, four large and muscular humanoids were walking together, carrying what looked like unconscious people on their shoulders, six in total, one of which looked a lot like a child.