Aldric and Anastasia soon found themselves in a routine. Aldric would use the skill {Create Spectre} until he had expended their reserves of essence, and then they would engage in meditation until they fully recovered.
They had already discovered that Aldric could borrow the essence available to Anastasia which effectively doubles his output of utilising the skill, however this would lead to the both of them being drained entirely.
The feeling of being devoid of essence was not good since it made them lethargic and reduced their capabilities.
Overall this led them to summarise that doing so would leave them vulnerable to others' machinations.
Nonetheless, regarding their current situation, they decided the risks were worth taking.
Aldric had already specially instructed the newly formed Spectres to locate suitable targets among the Marauders under Marcus’s direction, and judging by the constant notifications he was receiving Marcus had been busy.
[You have defeated a mortal human. 1 EXP awarded. You are now 2/10 EXP towards reaching the next level.{2}]
These notifications continued an additional eight times before the one they eagerly anticipated occurred.
[You have defeated a mortal human. 1 EXP rewarded. You are now 10/10 EXP towards reaching the next level. {2}.]
The notification was quickly followed.
[Congratulations you currently have enough experience points to level up. Would you like to progress to level 2?]
Viewing the notification came as no surprise since they were already expecting this.
Nodding their head decisively, they choose to level up.
[Please choose two of the skills you wish to advance. Then select your level advantage.]
The familiar window then popped up, allowing them to view their current abilities. Looking over the abilities they found an option to advance, with it then showing the changes this brings.
[Shadow Step {1} > {2}: You transverse the shadows allowing the user to teleport from one place to another.
*NEW* The energy cost of activating this ability is reduced. The maximum range of this ability will increase from 10m > 15m.
Skill level: {1} > {2} ]
Aldric liked the upgrade and already knew the choice was going to be difficult.
Moving onto his next skill he found the upgrade for {Shadow-Bolt}.
[Shadow-Bolt {1} > {2}: You conjure a condensed ball of negative energy you can launch at will. Physical creatures hit will experience darkness elemental damage.
*NEW* The energy cost of activating this ability is reduced. The purity of negative energy will increase improving power.
Skill level: {1} > {2} ]
Aldric found it another good option though he favoured {Shadow-Step} since it seemed more pragmatic currently.
And finally, the skill he was utilising the most with it being essential to his plans.
[Create Spectre {1 > 2}: Form an apparition from the dark realm, a sinister and cunning being a spectre can possess the chosen target as decreed by its creator…
*NEW* Your spectres host physique is enhanced. The bond between you and spectres is improved. Spectre limit increased: [200 > 210] You unlock a new category of spectre; Baleful Spectre. Born from deep-heated resentment they are natural leaders among their kind. Stronger than their counterparts, they are capable of possessing individuals of similar strength to the user. Baleful Spectre limit [0/3] ]
Eyes widening he found herself grinning at the sight of the improved version of the skill.
It was simply perfect for their needs since the one problem with their plan was that the spectres were currently too weak to possess awakened.
Marcus was able to provide a good summary of the marauder's capabilities. They were two hundred and fifty men strong, most of which were well-trained unawakened mortal soldiers.
They did not find this surprising since even her Father Clayton had a mere few awakened under his command.
Most had perished according to Marcus, yet there was one survivor a turncoat named Harken.
Harken was a typical awakened with an all-around body enhancement. He joined her Father’s elite guard a few months back and was well-trusted among the guardsmen long before that. He was newly awakened and should be similar to them in strength.
Similar to Rat-face now Marcus it felt like fate had given him the perfect target to bolster his forces with an awakened.
It would also allow him to search through the turncoat's head to discover the reasoning behind his betrayal.
With his mind made up, he decided to go with the straightforward choice of advancing {Create Spectre} to Lvl 2 and the next one was {Shadow Step} after he reasoned it was a good escape skill, suiting his nature of remaining in the shadows.
After he had selected his skill advancements, he had to pick an ability from the tree diagram that showed his options. He saw that each of his current skills had a branch extended from them allowing him to see what was next.
The skills further along the tree were hidden and he could not view them since he must not be at a high enough level.
After {Shadow Step} was an ability called {Darkness Shroud} that reduced the likelihood of those discovering his presence, hiding him in a veil of darkness that muted his footsteps and gave off an-aura muting effect.
He was not super interested in such an ability so moved on to the next one.
{Shadow Bolt} branched out to a skill called {Shadow Grasp} that allowed him to create an illusory hand of negative energy that can appear out of the shadows latching onto a desired target and infusing it with negative energy. It can also hold onto objects and seems similar to the spell Mage Hand in dungeons and dragons.
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However, the new skill that came from the same skill tree as {Create Spectre} seemed the more promising.
[Create Nightmare {1}: Unlike Spectres Nightmares are bestial and lack cunning, rather than possess the more intelligent races like humans their preference is beasts and animals. They are fiercely loyal to their creator and although not capable of much independent thought in comparison to spectres will follow orders absolutely. Nightmare limit: [0/50]]
Aldric had already decided to select this skill since he felt it would prove valuable because he wanted to bolster the number of forces available.
He was never going to progress to the level of the marauder leader in the short time frame he possessed.
Therefore he needed to focus on defeating him through overwhelming force which meant the Nightmares who can control beasts may be invaluable.
However, he firstly was going to target the awakened among the marauder ranks. Luckily most of them were early awakened with the two that were not being the marauder leader himself and his primary lieutenant.
According to Marcus the marauder leader was at the very peak of the first stage of awakening, which doesn’t seem much but was considered impressive in this area of the Kingdom since most awakened progressed slowly.
Non-awakened are referred to as mortals and are what most of the population is made up of. The bulk of soldiers belonging to nobles, and mercenary companies are well-trained, competent mortals, with even early stages awakened being the elite showing their value.
According to their memories, the first stage of awakening was known as foundation building. It was when an awakened core had just been formed determining their augmentation.
Usually, this came in many forms such as bolstered speed, strength, or supernatural abilities like manipulating fire.
Every awakened receives a general upgrade in physique with the essence that circulates from their newly formed core in their souls providing a baptism.
This means even a weak awakened would be superior to any mortal.
For a newly awakened to progress they must refine and improve on their foundation.
Most would do this through utilising meditation, with there being many cultivation methods to draw in essence to continuously refine and perfect their core.
This an arduous process since newly awakened would also be required to perfect their new abilities, as there are many directions for an awakened.
For instance, a speed-based awakened could go down a more assassin route, excelling in short bursts, but lacking in confrontation.
Additionally, another path for a speed-gifted awakened is becoming a swordsman who excels in utilising speed.
It may not seem as essential as building the foundation of your core but there is a correlation in the speed of your cultivation if you have a direct mental path of which direction you want to utilise your gift.
Not many understand exactly why but the stage after foundation building, the core refinement stage is formed from solidifying the transparent, faint core formed upon your awakening.
The speed of your cultivation is often improved the more direct, clear the mental path you expect of yourself, thus a speed-specialised swordsman that is pure of heart and dedicated to the sword often finds the refinement of their core improving faster than a directionless individual who is unsure how to utilise their gift.
It is what stumps many to remain as an early stage awakened. Of course, some resources can speed up cultivation, yet these individuals are often weaker than those who progress naturally and eventually meet a bottleneck.
Not that it mattered to Aldric and Anastasia as it was already clear through the system that their means of advancement would not be the norm.
However, judging from how their levels work, they’d estimate that they are currently early foundation staged awakened.
This meant the marauder leader who was at the late stage would be the equivalent of a level nine, far beyond them at the moment.
Yet Aldric and Anastasia had the element of surprise with the marauder's leader unaware of the extent of their abilities.
They on the other hand knew a lot about him from Marcus and knew the only way to deal with him was deception.
Therefore, Aldrics next priority was converting Harken meaning he had to utilise one of his few Baleful Spectre slots yet he knew having a loyal awakened at his service was well worth the trade.
Examining his essence to see if he could afford the expenditure, he estimated it took them over six hours to form the ten basic spectres that had already found hosts.
Having just created a spectre not too long ago he knew that they would have to meditate a while to recover some of the essence before utilising the skill {Create Spectre}.
Therefore, he decided to go over Anastasia's skill selection with her, as their joint soul allowed them to synchronise when they did not want to split off their thoughts like they had been doing.
Anastasia's skills vastly differed from his, and she was already going over the skill selection still undecided compared to him who had a much easier time.
The first was the skill known as {Truth Seeker}.
[Truth Seeker {1} > {2}: You see the truths of this world, you will gain an instinct allowing you to detect deception and untruths told.
*NEW* You can sense emotions such as guilt, anxiety, and concern, nothing remains hidden whilst under the scrutiny of the light.]
Anastasia found the skill to have its uses and would be an asset when they assume their noble identities but at the moment it would not be a priority to enhance.
The next one was one she was confident would be one of her enhancements.
[Healing Touch {1} > {2}: You utilise your essence to form healing energy that can speed up healing and recover any wound as long as you have the energy.
*NEW* The energy cost of activating this ability is reduced. The light energy created is purer, enabling it to better combat poisons, curses or other forms of hostile energy.]
Antastia thought the enhancement was great and had good utility, it would likely be a very important skill in building their noble identity.
And finally viewing the last skill.
[Soul Sight {1} > {2}: You can view energy signatures and auras allowing you to view the nature of souls.
*NEW* It is more difficult for the unseen to escape your detection. You can inspect soul cores allowing you to examine the capabilities of a person within one stage of you.]
Going through the abilities with both their minds, they found the choice a bit more compelling than Aldrics in some cases, with the abilities being less straightforward with more mystique behind them. However, they ended up deciding {Healing Touch} and {Soul Sight}.
A healing skill is always invaluable to have and they had a feeling {Soul Sight} will come in handy to examine the marauder's leaders' full capabilities since even Marcus was only able to give his best estimate.
Anastasia also had to select a brand new skill but found the choice straightforward.
{Truth Seeker} skill tree branched to an offensive skill called {Smite} that dealt light and lightning damage.
It was a skill that dealt damage bonuses based on the conviction of Anastasia herself, so if she felt conviction that an individual was deserving of retribution the more powerful the skill would be yet there is a maximum limit of course and this bonus is costly.
{Healing Touch} progressed to another healing skill called {Regenerate Limbs} which she thought sounded very useful since {Healing Touch} can only close wounds and rapidly speeds up natural healing, a missing limb was something it could not heal so this skill could prove very useful.
Lastly {Soul Sight} progressed to another offensive skill, but an interesting one that targeted the soul; {Piercing Glare} that requires direct eye contact and allows her to directly target an individual's soul core causing an individual to freeze.
From her memories such skills were astonishingly rare among awakened with it being likely the marauder leader had never encountered it before.
Deciding it could be an excellent ace to have she selected {Piercing Glare} thinking it may prove valuable for landing a decisive blow.
{Smite} seemed good but she was too weak currently to confront the marauder leader directly.
She decided it would be best to support utilising her healing skills before using {Piercing Glare} at the right moment.
Now with their advancement sorted it was the perfect time to focus on meditation to recover their essence so they could finally deal with that traitor Harken.
