Standing farther from the 3 girls, I leaned against the cave wall and pretended to inspect my daggers while listening to their conversation.
"And what are you planning to do?"
"Well, what is there to plan? I'll just kill any monster I come across."
While Alya coughed at Lily's words, Irene let out a snicker and said.
"If only our leader was that simple..!"
Seizing the opportunity to gather more information about their greatest opponent, Alya continued questioning Irene.
"Any plans for the boss mob?"
"How would this competition be if I told you our entire plan? I mean, the boss does give the greatest number of points."
Seeing that any more questioning would be a waste of time, Alya turned to Irene and said.
"Alright, let's go back to hunting."
Turning to face me, Irene said.
"You really wanna get back to him? Come on, we have time to spare; we're probably already ahead."
Although my gaze was still on my daggers, I could still feel someone staring at me, but I couldn't tell if it was Alya or Lily.
Seeing the opportunity for further conversation, Lily asked.
"So Alya, you got invited to the student council as well?"
"Mhm, I plan to accept the invitation."
"Same for me. How about you Irene, thoughts on joining the student council?"
Clearly pissed off by the words "student council," Irene exclaimed.
" *tsk* Why would I want to waste my time doing a bunch of paperwork?"
Lily, ignoring Irene's disgust at the student council, pressed on with the topic.
"So, if you were given the chance, would you join?"
Irene clearly wanted to lie and say that she would say no, but she was smart and realized that no one in the world would deny joining the student council.
Of course, I wasn't technically "in the world," as I originated from another world!
"I guess I would accept if I was invited."
Lily, seeing the bad-tempered Irene admitting defeat, responded.
"You know, I'm pretty sure the president mentioned there was one open spot. Don't get your hopes up, but I can recommend you."
Irene's terrible attitude immediately brightened as she exclaimed.
"CAN YOU!?"
Realizing that both Alya and Lily staring at her, Irene let out a cough and repeated.
"If you would recommend me, I would be grateful."
Though there was a lot of useless stuff mixed into the conversation, I could immediately grasp Lily's intent throughout the entire exchange to get Irene to join the student council.
She wasn't planning to just recommend Irene; she would ensure that Irene got that empty position.
However, could I let that happen?
One of the main incidents that led to Irene's blowup and transformation into an antagonist was not being part of the student council as most of the main cast, except her, was on it, so she felt excluded.
From the student council field trips to events to even the countless hours they spent together doing paperwork, Irene had to watch as all her friends bonded together while she was forced to watch from the sidelines.
I mean, surely, Irene not becoming an antagonist would be a good thing, right? That's probably what Lily thought.
On the other hand, I believe that the world maintains an equilibrium, so if Irene disappears as the antagonist, another one of a similar level or higher level must replace her.
It was far too risky. I would rather go against Irene, as I know all of her abilities and weaknesses, than some new antagonist that I know nothing about.
I might have to call in a favor...
Seeing that the conversation was over, Alya walked back to me to prevent Lily from striking up another conversation with Irene.
All be it, reluctantly, Irene followed Alya while Lily got up from her rock and walked into the right-most pathway.
In silence, our group headed towards the left-most pathway and continued to descend deeper into the cave.
Honestly, the pathway we took in this cave didn't matter as all the pathways pooled into the dungeon's center, where the boss mob was waiting.
Since this dungeon was a Yin dungeon, a reminder of the past, the boss mob was the mythical Minotaur from Greek legends, and the wolves that we were currently farming were the divine messages of the Greek god Apollo.
As we neared the boss room, we were confronted by two wolves instead of one. Since this wolf was closer to the boss mob, they were also much stronger than the previous ones we faced.
This time, Alya seemed to take the situation seriously, as she had immediately commanded.
"Irene, stall the one on the right. Den and I will take care of the left one."
Den? Who the hell is Den?
Letting out an audible sigh, I followed Alya's charge to the left. Stopping a few feet before the wolf, Alya finally pulled out her sword and merged it with one of her contracted spirits, causing her sword to be immediately surrounded by light blue ice.
Rather than using a long or broadsword, Alya used a rapier, which compensated for its lower attack power by being much less heavy, therefore increasing the speed of your swings.
Thrusting her ice-blue rapier forward, Alya aimed right for the wolf's leg; however, the wolf jumped to the right, dodging the blow.
However, Alya seemed to predict this as immediately after, she speedily thrust her rapier straight up, impaling the wolf's bottom while it was mid-jump.
Due to Alya's blow, the wolf landed unstable, giving me an opening. I ran forward with my daggers ready.
Kicking its front-right leg forward, the wolf attempted to hit me; however, I had already activated the dash, so I immediately appeared 10 meters to the left. My target was not its front-right leg but its front-left leg.
Seeing that the right wolf was wounded, Alya left me alone and ran towards Irene, who was struggling to fend off the other wolf with her fireballs.
Seeing that there was no longer a need for a show, I quietly cut my right hand, and my dagger immediately became surrounded by a night-black aura, making the physical dagger no longer visible as the black covered it fully.
In reality, these wolves were probably the best match-up for me, as their greatest strength was their ability to dodge. With my eyes, I could predict their dodges, neutralizing their strength.
Throwing a night slash would cause too much of a commotion, so with my daggers covered in the impenetrable black; I slashed at the wolf's legs.
Instead of stopping there like last time, I jumped off the wolf's ankle, launching me upwards with my daggers' tips facing upwards.
Both my daggers sunk into the bottom of the wolf's tummy, and I hung mid-air while still holding onto my daggers.
After a second, I carefully removed my daggers from its body, causing me to fall to the ground. Glancing at the two spots where I had inflicted damage on the wolf, the night-black aura covering my daggers slowly spread from those wounds up to the wolf's face like a plague.
The wolf's left leg was covered in impenetrable black, which rapidly spread upward to the wolf's back. The wolf's tummy was not much better, as it was now completely covered in the impenetrable black.
This was the second movement of Shadow Arts: Corruption of the Night.
As Irene and Alya's fight with their wolf came to a close, my wolf collapsed to the ground, lifeless, and the night black aura left the wolf's body and returned to my daggers.
From an outsider's perspective, they would be astonished as it would seem the wolf died simply from an injury on its ankle and tummy.
For that sake, I plunged my dagger into the wolf's body a couple more times to make it seem like I struggled to kill the wolf.
After mastering the first elemental slash, I first tested Corruption of the Night on a tree in the forest near our headquarters.
After holding my dagger in the tree for 5 seconds and taking it out, I saw two small holes in a tree made of daggers.
These holes immediately filled with the night-black aura, which slowly spread upwards until it consumed the entire tree.
After the tree's death, the night-black aura returned to my daggers, making the image of the tree visible again. The tree's leaves, previously a fresh green, were withered black, and the trunk had lost all its bark.
It looked like a tree straight from the underworld.
From this, I deduced that Corruption of the Night steals the life force of its opponent by slowly cutting off his vitals until it withers.
The more of the night-black aura you inject into your daggers, the faster the corruption spreads from the wound caused by your daggers.
Of course, this takes a lot of mana; however, the special thing about Corruption of the Night is that you gain the night-black aura back after the Corruption has killed the creature.
You actually don't just gain it back; the night-black aura increases in correlation to the life force of the creature it killed. It doesn't just kill the creature by cutting off its vitals; it directly steals the life force of the creature and uses that life force to make itself more powerful.
In short, the cap of this movement's power is infinite. There is no cap to its power.
Of course, if you fail to kill a creature with the corruption, your progress is reset, but if you never fail to... then this movement is... overpowered, to say the least.
Well, for the first part, it's never happened to me, and I don't plan to let it happen, so I don't know if the only punishment is solely your progress being rest and not something worse...
If the skill is really overpowered, then the punishment for failing with the skill must be insanely terrible to maintain that equilibrium.
For that reason, I must be careful and cautious when using Corruption of the Night, so I can't afford to just spam it on whatever I like.
Having finished early, I observed Alya dealing the final blow to her and Irene's wolf. Her rapier, still surrounded by the blue ice, slowly killed the wolf. Like my corruption, the ice from Alya's rapier remained on the wolf after the sword was removed, causing the wolf to slowly lose energy and slow down due to the ice's influence.
As Alya's ice slowly covered the wolf, Irene threw a fireball right at the Wolf's ice-covered back, causing an elemental explosion of Ice and fire.
The wolf, now completely dry as Irene's fire had melted all the ice, fell lifelessly to the ground, causing a loud thud sound to echo throughout the cave.
Pretending to be exhausted, I limped over to Alya and Irene, who simply glanced once at my wolf's body before moving on into the cave.
Using my enhanced eyesight, I realized that those wolves were the last opponents we faced before reaching the boss mob.
Now, it was only a couple of 100 feet separating us and the Minotaur.
[A/N: 75 powerstones = 1 chap / 1 gift = 1 chap]