Andrew Keining, the 16th son of Prince Keining - the ruler of the Keining Principality, exhaled a deep breath of relief as he jogged down the gravel road with his retainers in tow.

  "So it was a gold-silver plate. Thank the Strong," he said. "What more do you know of them, Hesha?"

  The sight mage in his employ, a young woman of only 35 years with a full head of braided brown hair, nodded. "He's a foxkin with nine tails, marred by three awakenings. Blue for Sky, purple for Darkness, and black for something I do not recognise. Not one of the eight Primals at least. He didn't so much as move a single step when incapacitating the Young Master's younger brother and his retainers. The only attacks the gold-silver plate allowed to strike him was Princeling Keith's Mana Severance and a dagger to the neck which barely broke the skin, and yes, I did say allowed. His blood constructs did not disappear, thus the skill maintaining them is born of something unrelated to magic. I also have a clearer picture of the horses and the carriage itself, all of them are steamforged."

  'A foxkin with nine tails. I know of only one such example. Lone Immortus from Milindo. To have a steamforged carriage and two horses, however... That tells a tale of its own. He also was not a gold-silver plate when he disappeared from Milindo,' Andrew thought to himself.

  It would be a disgrace if he wasn't aware of the existence of the catalyst to the overnight extermination of almost all of Milindo's ruling class. That event, even if it happened almost a year ago, had left its scars.

  Even his own father had lost sleep over the worry that some petty injustice in Golden Pass City would lead to Sloth knocking at his own door so he had personally set about ensuring that all adventurers in Golden Pass City were treated fairly were they not already.

  "What are they doing right now, Hesha?" Andrew asked.

  She frowned slightly, clearly drained from so actively using her magic. "It is best if you see for yourself. We are almost within view of the carriage. Suffice to say, Young Master, your brother did not take his humiliating defeat quite as gracefully as perhaps he could have. A final warning, however. Do not act arrogantly whatsoever. I know not of this man's full capabilities, but within the carriage lies a true monster. My sister is known far and wide for her large mana capacity, correct?"

  The 32-year-old fire mage at Andrew's side nodded. "I can feel it too. It's suffocating."

  Hesha nodded. "Indeed. It would be a disgrace to even compare her reserves to that of the foxkin's, but the... thing within that carriage... Calling Helen's MP a drop of water in that person's ocean would be an insult to the ocean."

  Andrew wore a concerned look on his face, as did his other two retainers, Paul and Furdar. 'Foolish brother of mine, just who, or what, have you attacked?'

  Lone sighed. The B-ranker who had what he assumed was a bloodline skill wasn't as cooperative as would have been more ideal.

  The fool had immediately launched himself at Lone as if in some sort of idiotic suicidal attempt to bring him down with him.

  All it took was Lone transmitting the word 'barrier' to Soph for that foolish attempt to end. The girl he'd tripped alongside the rogue woman were both sent off in his place to collect the archer.

  The B-ranker now floated alongside the carriage, surrounded by a jade-green barrier while the archer and male warrior were being carried by the Blood Clone Lone was previously wearing as a cape. It now had the form of a flying carpet of sorts.

  'The other group is jogging towards us and the other mage, not the fire mage, somehow can see us super clearly. You've got a minute or two until we meet them,' Soph warned.

  'Thanks Soph. Love you,' Lone replied as he immediately returned to pulling up skill information.

  A cute giggle entered his mind. 'I love you too!'

  There were two reasons Lone had focused on this skill after using the credit slate to learn of its existence.

  Firstly, it made his Blood Clones significantly more durable and harder to breach when protecting him, and secondly, it was a skill that stacked with Basic Regeneration, making him even more unkillable.

  It was hard to level though, which was the only real downside but being able to create a Blood Clone in his own veins offset that particular limitation somewhat.

  Lone was trying to expand that processing boost to more than just when he was playing chess, to no success yet. Although he knew it was possible thanks to his inquires at the guild's credit slate.

  The new effect would be truly nasty for any mages that can interact with another person's mind.

  Sadly, he had earned the rank up from the forbidden knowledge he'd been exposed to when fighting the low-ranked eldritch horror and that thing couldn't experience pain of any sort from Lone's limited observations.

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  "Sir!" a voice shouted, drawing Lone's attention away from his skills and onto the road where five adventurers avoided his ever-moving steamforged horses. "I cannot thank you enough for your leniency when handling my foolish brother's rash actions."

  Lone silently watched the blonde-haired handsome man who looked around his age but was likely older considering Soph had informed him he was an A-ranker.

  "Follow your brother and his bumbling band of merry chums if you want to talk. I'm busy. I only have six skills left to recheck. You heading to Golden Pass City too? If not, you can fuck off," Lone said curtly.

  A shocked expression appeared on the supposed silver-plated adventurer's face. "Ah, y-yes. We are. We were on our way back from a dungeon expidi-"

  "Didn't ask, don't care. Be quiet and follow along. I am not in the mood for small talk at the moment so be patient while I finish my business," Lone dismissed the man and immediately jumped back into his skills.

  "Of course," the handsome man said, apparently having regained some of his confidence although he and his companions were very wary of the floating B-ranker encapsulated in a Barrier Prison and the two incapacitated men being carried by a blood carpet.

  Bog standard, nothing new whatsoever. Although the boost, as always, was appreciated.

  This skill's percentages made no sense to Lone. 30% was the correct number for advanced rank, of course, but he never had any lingering attachment to the things he had been shown by the eldritch horror.

  He still remembered them clearly when he wanted to due to his memory banks, but there was no obsession or particular attraction.

  Lone refused to believe forbidden knowledge of an eldritch nature was so simple that mere mental defences and recovery could negate the negative effects of learning such information.

  'I'm convinced my soul is being healed somehow. There's no way eldritch knowledge doesn't corrupt one's soul, and there's no way something or someone isn't reversing that damage to me since I can't do that myself yet without using Creation Magic, which I haven't done,' Lone concluded.

  There were three likely suspects, two more probable than the third. Sky, Darkness, and Void. The more important questions right now though, were why and how, not who.

  Perhaps Lone would bring it up with Darkness when he was next summoned to one of Monsieur Librarian's meetings. For now, he pulled up the last three skills that had ranked up over the previous five months as well as his final new skill all at once.

  Nothing new here, but a welcome improvement nonetheless.

  It was nice that the metric of volume had changed from drops to litres, but still, it wasn't a massive amount and his blood wyvern had to be hollow as a consequence.

  The new hardness was a result of both Soph and Hilda's efforts over the last five months. A very concentrated effort, at that.

  The speed, meanwhile, was becoming truly fearsome. In miles-per-hour, it could be a little faster than 24MPH where it currently was and it was only getting faster day by day.

  Small numbers, massive improvements. Thankfully, Lone's body and mind were strong enough to ignore the additional strain that the extra factor of two-point-five brought, and the cost reduction was greatly appreciated.

  Lone had, of course, tried his best to earn this skill the moment he had paid for its information at the guild's credit slate. He always had it active, which helped give him peace of mind.

  Ever since Scott had managed to cut through his skin and muscles so easily despite being so weak, Lone had been on the lookout for skills that would fix that certain issue.

  He still didn't have one for his muscles yet but he would pay for such information soon enough now that his bones, blood, and skin were so durable.

  'I wonder if Lefakern has Oaken Flesh? Probably since he's a Lesher.' There were so many useful skills in this world that he had probably encountered but didn't even know existed.

  Sighing, he turned his head to the handsome blonde A-ranker. "Let's talk now," Lone ordered.

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