Chapter Twenty-Five“Graaaaaack” Hyath pined.

  “Oh, don’t be a baby. Who cares if they squeeze a little.” The spurs stretched over his front and hind paws where his wrist was with orap betweeoes to not limit their movement. Wex clearly experimented after his iion of Night when developing the material. The loed bdes were thicker than She’d expected, more like a wedge than a ft bde. He hadn’t wao wear them orip up the stairs. So, now he had to put them on with an audienbsp;

  The caught wooze snapped angrily, helpless from its hair stiffeo keep its feet off the ground. It would have been easier to kill it but Harmony had pns. It was time to test her new skill on an oppo she didn’t care about hurting.

  [Final Silence] bined with [Cold Touch] as she shed out at it. It turned docile and shivered a little. Fur was still blog the cold, but it was colder now. She waited for the teeth to start snapping again. Definitely a smidge lohere. bined effects were always greater even if they did take a good k more out of her, that’s how she’d mastered [Dust] so well after bining it with [Manipute Dead].

  A slightly better skill isn’t what she here was strength in being different, seeing Lady Coodly reminded her of that. [Beauti] bined with [Manipute Dead] while w with [Renew Spirit] and touches of other skills to create an effect well outside of simple uses of her skills. Hours of practice going into the first floor of the dungeon and prettying up those shambling corpses. All so she didn't slip and actally explode a few skulls. Imagine w on someone's hair and actally making it blow off their head if [Manipute Dead] shifted into a formal activation. It would have been impossible to live down that shame.

  As much as she’d wao see the gardener for advice, she’d never be one. He might have suggested some skill stone or focus oing a new skill that might help, but then she’d o train it up. Creating a skill took genius or in Lord Tyler’s case persistence. Harmony hated to admit she didn’t have either of those things. What she did have was the ination to screw around until she figured it out.

  Over time the wooze’s snarls of aurned into cries of pain. The whimpering and g became hard to ighey’re only monsters. There’s no ood way to do this. Hyath's predatory support helped strengthen her spihose cries had drawn attention, packmates were ining. Kill or be killed.

  Harmony’s foot kicked forward on the immobile wooze, twenty dead failures y behind as she made her path through the level. The strike was aimed and guided to a specific location that wasn’t physical, yet still tained in the beast's body. The crack wasn’t even audible, but Harmony heard it. The wooze’s snarls went away. But it wasn’t silenced. Other skills remained. Whatever se had boosted kept its attention on her event through the fur.

  She’d do. She’d damaged a skill! That or she’d silenced a single skill. Which was something feasible. Now she just had to wait.

  [Recall] let her review the steps and reasoning taken to get here with ease. People damage their skills by act or overwork, a risk of pushing past what it takes to ruhose take rest to repair the damage out of reaost healing skills and potions. Limits she’d gone past a time or two and found herself hurt. [Renew Spirit] helped but didn't heal it ht.

  You’d also hear stories of particurly gruesome injuries damaging skills. They existed as crete units with levels separate from each other in people's statuses. Her internal visualization did the same thing, isnds or nodes inside her soul. Each articurly poignant and problematic with their quirks due to the stresses new authority was causing, which helped her picture what they might be on others. Sihey existed it made sehat there might be a way to hit them.

  Extending that earned perception onto other creatures was a different level of problem. [Analyze]’s ability to pick up information, [Mana Rotation] and its sed sense of mana in the world, [Renew Spirit] which has always had a soft spot to help soothe stressed skills, and then that puzzle piece of [Final Silence] iing with them more deeply.

  Was it that different than dolling up Ambrosia before a cert, refreshing herself with the m routine, or even all that repair work on the partially rotting timbers of their manor? bining skills for a desired effebsp; No, but that didn’t make it easy. Synergy and es helped. Those stats strengthened what she could do and imagine. But no using them to break rules as she had in some experiments! That would aggravate her already stressed system. There was no desire to watch a wooze turn into a pile of mewling goo.

  All that was required was to find a way to hit the right spot. [Cold Touch]-[High Kick]-[Final Silence] - a touanipute Dead] and [Renew Spirit]. Until it felt like you were hitting past a veil between what was solid and what wasn’t. The strike's impact went elsewhere and blows that would break ribs, bruise flesh, or chill disappeared.

  Every use was draining. ostasis was even forced to get the bance right mid-strike while maintaining visualization on a still target half the time. And would it even work on pnts? Would their regeion capabilities be able to fix it faster?

  “Crorack!” Hyath snapped. Bored, Hungry, Dinner Soon.

  The Wooze remained broken. Silence leveled twice. Hyath practiced wearing his bded booties for walking and hopping. Blood and bohey’d been at it all day. Ma Bell would be disappointed if they were te.

  “Let’s go.”

  The pair took off. She wasn’t ready to try her new skill and merely murdered the brood mother with efficy. [Stride] allowed her to take risks and push further even if only the memory remained. Memories that chastised her for stig an arm ihe giant wooze’s mouth to freeze its brain from the inside because It felt achievable. Which worked as long as you didn’t mind losing an arm.

  Harmony absent-mindedly rubbed her left arm making sure it was still there.

  [Stride] actually felt close to leveling after that. More so than it had after all its other uses. Yet it remai level one. “Everything all right, Eternal?” The booth agent asked as she lingered on those thoughts while cheg out from her run.

  “Fine. How close is it to the dinner hour?”

  “Not quite ten minutes from now.”

  . “Delve me.” She muttered. Enough zombie dazing about. “e, Hyath.” She put her hand on him and they were off. The brief glimpse of the shadow world was always fasating. One day maybe she’d have the time and energy t some answers about it from her panion.

  “... and that’s when she…”

  The pair stumbled out of their designated shadow in time to interrupt Sir Maxwell mid-sentealking to the bodyguards. The pink-haired knight froze mid-sentence, in a way that Harmony suspected that the “she” he was referring to was herself.

  “Lady White, I have the information on the guests ready for you. But there has been some seat shuffling on our side. Prince Adric is indisposed and I’ve volunteered to take his spot for the evening.”

  Harmony snapped her attention inast all the skills she’d worked sore by bending them sideways to do what she wanted, and towards her bond with her undead pet. There was no unig the way she did with Hyath, the mostly one-sided bond was harder to pull information from. So she leaned into es, the stat bending normal rules, little flickers of informatiohrough. No pain or hurt, but touches of fear, worry, and guilt. Not i amounts, but trary to his usual oblivious, happy, eager self.

  The temperature dropped quickly and [Final Silearted to show irritability as little sounds like breathing cut out to the point where you could hear a pin drop.

  “How is he indisposed?” Harmony asked, her voice clear in the cold silence.

  “He was called away for family matters. His cousins Prince Jacob and Princess Willow fetched him from the on room a few ho. He was actually excited to see them. I’m sure he’ll be back before bed.”

  Harmony was sure he was excited to see them. That he loved and missed his family. That they’d babied him after his fate-ending evolution. Poor Prince Adric the doomed beauty. It was easy to be kind to someone you knew wasn’t long for this world. [Recall] brought up all the stories from the carriage ride. Jacob and Willow were what you could call enemy friends or friendly enemies, always taking the sickly pri partying, aing into trouble. Encing him to do riskier and riskier things, because after all, what did he have to lose? They were the ones who’d reended he go to Hazeldown rather than spend his st moments with friends and family. They also didn’t go with him.

  “He’d better be.” But what if he wasn’t? Rather than gnaw at her that thought fueled anger.

  Harmony only half listened as her sworn knight informed her of the uests. Asdant Games fever was still the rage. The guests would be more idealists and er information seekers. Ones who did not hear the rumors of how Harmony respo time, yet were still eager to get their shot at prying information she didn’t have from her. Hopefully, Ma Bell bled them dry for that honor.

  Dinner versation ran hot and pressured. Sir Maxwell was not as f as her pet. Oh, he tried. “For the third time. Lady White has already said she knows nothing about the games!” It was actually the fourth time. That's one of the reasons why Max's overprotective mode tonight was tolerable.

  Even Ma Bell was having difficulty managiable, “Gentlemen!” She interrupted, her skill flooding the table to ence rexation and fort.

  That was a mistake. This was the wrong crowd of people. Try hard adventurers desperate to get a shot at these new games. The kind of people that run their heads into a wall one huimes to improve their defehe kind of people who find violence rexing and f.

  “All we want is a polite versation about what to expect from the dungeon spirit. Someoh her background knows how important it is to share information with her fellow w css adventurers” A hint of a skill rippled out from him.

  Suddenly this tank got more iing. Not the hinted argument that she was a revolutionary here to help overthrow a corrupt system. That had been chasing her in some news circles since she’d stood up to the duke when she first met him at the ball she was serving at in Hazeldown. [Taunt] she reized that from one of the skills Lord Tyler had, but this time used in a flexible way that wasn’t fully activated. It was what she liked to do with her skills. Not that she felt like she could have a rational discussion on skill theory with the man after how dinner was going.

  Adric might have been a calming influen this situation. Sir Maxwell, however, was one of those brawlers.

  The knight pushed himself up from his seated position, wagging his finger like a sword. “What you’re doing is questioning my Lady’s honor. I ought to pull off my glove and challenge you. “

  Harmohe quieting effect of [Final Silence] bleed out to everyone else. Not too dissimir from when it leaked around Max and the guards earlier at the mention of her pet’s situation. “Enough!” She snapped. All the group's retorts were blocked by the silehat covered them.

  “I apologize, Madam Bell. But it has been a long day. I must depart dinner early.” She ehe portion of silence around her host, realizing she’d hit everyone.

  “It’s, uh, uandable. I’ll make sure to be more selective at future dinners. I hope the prince be back as well.”

  Bates and Ambrosia were already at her side wheood up and mao get five steps away before her skill effeded.

  “Ashes and weeds!” The yells from the uests chased after her as she shuffled off toward her room.

  Inwardly she checked on Adric again. More of his ay bled through. She’d hoped to share the excitement of her training with him. Oh, he has every right to visit his family when called. The suddenness of him not being there when she’d expected him to be around hurt. He had wao front his family. But why now, and without sulting her first or leaving a note?