Whatever the case, she needed to face one enemy at a time.

  “How long will it take to get there?” Astrid asked the Great No-Eyed One.

  “If you go yourself, around six hours.”

  Even at my speed, it will take six hours? Astrid was amazed at the size of the jungle. If Mount Ire was at the centre, that meant it would take twelve hours or longer to go from one corner to the other.

  “Hm, alright then.” Astrid nodded and stood up.

  “Wait Astrid, you’re going now?” Leena stood up.

  “The sooner I go, the sooner we all go home. Goddess only knows that I need a bath.” Astrid raised her arm and sniffed before recoiling.

  “Besides, even when we find it, what are we meant to do?” Calum asked. Brett and the others nodded in unison.

  Astrid glanced at them and remembered the words of the Great No-Eyed One. Someday, she would need to walk alone. Was that day coming sooner rather than later? Astrid dropped her head.

  Leena moved her chair closer and grabbed her hands. Astrid felt the warmth radiating from her battle-maid’s calloused hands. Looking into her eyes, Leena seemed to understand what she was thinking. She smiled. “What are you worried about?”

  “I’m worried about travelling alone.”

  “You’re wanting to face it alone?” Bellona frowned.

  Brett was about to say something, but stopped himself. As if he understood.

  Leena cupped Astrid’s floating face in her hands. “Astrid. You are destined for more. It was evident when I watched you fight those monsters on the battlefield. You were born for this. So, do as you have always done, go create trouble.” Pulling Astrid closer, Leena planted a kiss on her forehead.

  “Leena.” For what felt like forever, Astrid fought back tears, only for a stray drop to fall.

  She launched herself into Leena’s warm embrace.

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  Astrid flew at high speed; the air would have battered her body if not for the Mind Barrier shielding her.

  Recalling the scene in the dining hall, Astrid felt warmth bubble within her.

  Leena truly was the best sister. She understood Astrid and knew what she had to do to make Leena proud.

  Despite Astrid’s speed, it would still take her six hours to reach the centre of the Eyamos jungle, based on the Great No-Eyed One’s estimate of her current abilities.

  A sense of competitiveness arose within her. Six hours? She would beat that. With a sudden craving for victory, she surged the mana within her right eye and her speed increased.

  Bugs splattered against her Mind Barrier, but she ignored the System notifications from the kills—they weren’t worthy of her attention.

  The rest of the trip was rather boring. Most of the monsters could no longer stand up to her psychic might, the only ones capable of putting up a fight were the kings, but they were dead.

  Sighing at her greatness, she gazed at the rapidly approaching mountain. It had three peaks, two smaller ones on either side of a third, taller one. While the smaller peaks were sharp, the one in the middle looked as if someone had sliced off its peak with a supernatural sword strike.

  A few minutes later Astrid was hovering near the top of the middle mountain. Just as the map had shown, it was hollowed out at the top. A thin layer of hardened lava covered the hole, hiding the main vent of the volcano.

  Steam arose from the layer of rock in the middle. It was active, that much was certain.

  Now how do I get in? Astrid tilted her head and gazed at the thin layer of rock.

  She could rely on her usual method and blow it up, but tampering with an active volcano didn’t sit right with her. What if she activated it somehow and it erupted?

  Her interaction with the psychos had made her aware that the jungle was inhabited by more than simple-minded beasts. It would go against her conscience to damage this world and its inhabitants. Not everyone, or everything here was out to kill her. There were innocents.

  Astrid flew around the mountain looking for an opening, a cave, anything that would allow passage. But there was none.

  Ah screw this. Astrid flew down to the ground and sat with her legs crossed. Sending out her Psych Domain, she closed her eyes to focus on the ground underneath.

  Although she couldn’t connect to matter that wasn't in front of her, she could still see it, thanks to Psych Domain.

  There were a few tunnel systems a good distance below her, but none of them led toward the mountain.

  Astrid also discovered something strange: As soon as the tunnels reached a certain point, they curved and travelled the other way. It was as if whatever had created them was scared by something within the mountain.

  Avemoth. Astrid grinned. I’ll find you.

  With renewed vigour, Astrid flew all around the mountain trying to find an entrance. And finally, she did.

  Astrid sat above a rocky outcrop and sank her mind into the ground as she had been doing for the last two hours. Below her, a large tunnel made its way straight toward the center of the volcano. Millions of specks of matter moved inside the tunnel at high speed. It was either lava or water.

  Astrid entered the tunnel and followed it until it stopped at an enormous pool of water.

  Standing at the pool were a dozen boarlike monsters. They had three horns atop their heads in a triangle formation. Large tusks jutted out of their mouths like reinforced stalagmites.

  Level 156 - Berserking Boar.

  …

  Astrid had her Mind Barrier up, and her scent was locked within it, meaning that a beast that relied on its nose to identify nearby predators would be at an inherent disadvantage.

  Astrid wondered if they were aggressive, though she was almost certain they were. She deactivated her barrier. Their noses twitched, and the next second their heads snapped toward her floating body. Instantly, their eyes turned scarlet red.

  They practically foamed at the mouth at her sudden appearance. Their bodies shook in anticipation and an earthen glow of green mana surrounded their horns, which grew by a couple feet, and then shot straight at Astrid’s vital areas: neck, eyes, skull, heart.

  Astrid formed her barrier in an instant. The mana-infused horns pounded against her Mind Barrier, only to be crushed upon impact. Not a single mark appeared on her shield.

  Smiling, Astrid pulled out the boars’ eyes with a twitch of her psychic mana. Their exploded bodies falling to the ground and Astrid lowered herself to the pool of water.

  Just looking at the water reminded her of the eye Skill she had taken from the Spawn in the Tree King’s domain: Natural Born Swimmer. She sank her mind into her Dominating Sovereign’s Eye and gazed at the collection of eyeballs she had obtained.

  On its own, the correct one floated in front of her. She willed it forward and connected to it, but nothing happened. The connection didn’t form, but a System notification told her why.

  You have exchanged eyes too many times.

  Alright then, there goes that plan. Astrid shrugged. It was just like Titles. There was a limit to the number of times she could change them out.

  Cancelling her storage, she looked at the pool of water again. Well, it didn’t really matter if she couldn’t use the Skill. She didn’t need it, hopefully.

  Astrid flew into the pool. With her Mind Barrier around her, the water couldn’t reach her body.

  Thankfully, she knew the exact length of the tunnel system. If it were much longer, she might not be able to make it. The amount of air within her Mind Barrier was limited.

  If only I could create air. How useful would that be? Astrid giggled as she moved through the cave’s tunnel at high speed. Astrid had no intention of stopping, but the cave’s inhabitants had other ideas.

  The tunnel opened onto a larger passage that was more like a valley, with thousands of holes dug into the walls.

  With Psych Domain, Astrid could tell that each hole was deep enough to be a new tunnel of its own. These tunnels even appeared to join with other cave systems throughout Eyamos. And from within them, countless beady eyes stared at her.

  Come on then. Astrid taunted them, inviting them to attack.

  The fish shot toward her at high speed.

  Goodbye! Astrid’s mind swept out like an apocalyptic wave. She [Crashed] the matter all around her and the monsters vanished in the attack.

  Astrid swept the murky water to the side with Psychokinesis and gazed at her handiwork. Most of the fish had been obliterated, and the few surviving stragglers fled the scene.

  She had no interest in chasing after them. Besides, she could barely fit into the small holes in the wall. The thought of having to squeeze into a pitch-black hole held no appeal for her.

  Astrid continued on her way, expecting the rest of the journey to be fraught with danger— Monsters lurking in every corner of the darkened caves, or ancient traps waiting to skewer her like a meat kebab.

  But that didn’t happen.

  The place was void of life. Astrid didn’t mind. The monsters were just an annoyance to her anyway. Squishing bugs wasn’t fun—she wanted a challenge.

  As she flew through the tunnels, she saw a speck of orange light in the distance. Seconds later, she broke past the light, out of the water tunnels and into an enormous cavern.

  Her eyes widened in surprise.

  An intense heat radiated from the centre of the cavern, causing her to begin perspiring instantly. But that wasn’t what surprised her. It was the… thing in the centre.

  It looked like a hulking rock with etchings all over its surface. It rested, or floated, atop a layer of molten rock. Hot steam billowed from underneath it and reached high up to what Astrid presumed would be the volcano’s opening.

  Because of her Voidbent bones, the heat was already making Astrid uncomfortable. She took a step to the side and cautiously walked around the edge of the cavern. She wanted to get a better look from another angle.

  Was the engraved boulder Avemoth? No way, right? Astrid pondered. According to the Great No-Eyed One, Avemoth was, well, a moth. Never did he say that it was just an unassuming rock.

  On the surface it didn’t match the scary description, but Astrid could feel the raw mana within its body. It was breathtaking.

  She had never encountered such pure mana—apart from her eye, that was.

  Now that she had reached the other side, she squinted. Perhaps because of her unusual Class, she could make out the eyes of the primal beast from the outside.

  The monster was curled up. Was it in a deep sleep? Astrid wondered, but that was as far as her curiosity went. From the System mission, her objective was clear. She had to kill it.

  She willed the psychic mana from her eye and controlled it into her palm. A purple swirling dark energy caused the air to squirm with resistance, but the ball was simply too powerful.

  Astrid aimed it forward and was about to let go of it when the monster’s body unfolded. Its magnificent wings spread out. They glowed a fluorescent red-orange hue, and its eyes shone like molten glass pearls, freshly forged. But to Astrid, they were delicious fruit ripe for the picking.

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  That was her initial thought—before the creature launched a chaotic storm of mana from its majestic body.

  The air was swept away in a vortex. Brought forth by the mana storm, flecks of molten lava beneath battered Astrid’s barrier. It wasn’t damaged, but Astrid could feel the monstrous amount of mana within the monster’s body.

  Level ??? - Avemoth

  Here you are.

  Just from its oppressive aura, she could tell that the monster was going to be her greatest fight yet, and for the first time, apprehension gripped her heart.

  Not knowing whether she could defeat the enemy in front of her felt strange, but she was up for the challenge. There was no way of knowing if she didn’t try.

  Taking a breath, Astrid decided to make the first move.

  She blasted to the side and sent multiple powered [Crashes] to the primal body of Avemoth. Astrid expected the monster to dodge or block them, but the blasts of psychic energy struck its body.

  Trembling, it flapped its wings and a powerful gust surged forth, though it wasn’t enough to move Astrid.

  It’s still stuck in its cocoon. Astrid thought excitedly as she gazed at the monster. It flapped its wings and thrashed from side to side attempting to free itself.

  Astrid knew the importance of the opportunity in front of her. All the apprehension that had gripped her vanished as she sent barrages of Psychokinetic explosions at the creature.

  Astrid wasn’t the only one attacking. Her clone was charging up a dark matter sphere.

  With a [Crash], Astrid blasted the beast's head to the side. Fluorescent orange seeped from the soft flesh on the side of its head. Her attacks seemed to be working.

  As soon as her dark matter sphere was prepared, she fired it straight at the beast’s head. It was still unable to break free from its cocoon, and the sphere’s aim was true. The air surrendered under its might and the destructive void-like qualities of the attack pulled in the wind from its surroundings.

  It was about to strike its target when Avemoth’s eyes glowed a piercing orange. Within a fraction of a second, it curled into a ball, then suddenly expanded. Astrid only now realised that the Avemoth’s wings were far larger than she had thought. They almost reached wall-to-wall.

  Wow, so pretty. No Astrid, focus. Her attack was about to hit.

  A mouth opened within the monster’s chest. There were no teeth, only a heat that boiled forth. Then, it simply ate the dark matter sphere. Gulped it down, energy and all.

  It seemed to squirm in pain, and then an ungodly screech echoed through the cave. Lava seeped from the monster’s ‘mouth’ as its eyes latched onto Astrid’s body.

  Not good. Avemoth summoned lava spikes from its thin wings and shot them forward.

  Astrid shot to the side just in time. Air warped under the speed of the spikes, which penetrated the walls and disappeared deep into the rock.

  Astrid knew that it would be difficult for her barrier to resist such an attack. And given their fire element, her Voidbent armour wouldn’t stand a chance. She would be boiled from the inside.

  Knowing what she had to do, she moved at high speed, ducking and diving away from the molten spikes. Numerous times they scraped by her barrier, shattering it, which only affirmed her worries.

  Astrid and her clone worked in tandem. She moved one way, the clone the other.

  But there was always the chance of a mistake. Astrid relaxed her control of the clone for a millisecond as she narrowly dodged a lava missile. That was enough for Avemoth to act.

  A spike faster than the others penetrated the clone. It only made the monster angrier when it realised it had struck the wrong target. Immediately, its eyes glowed a frightening orange, and it fired another spike.

  Heart sinking, Astrid cast a wide illusion, then popped out her eye. Using Blinking Reposition, she warped to the side, and began attacking once more.

  The battle raged on, but Astrid was beginning to sweat. One tiny mistake and she was dead. The only thing that gave her hope was that her [Crashes] were doing damage.

  Cracks were forming on the beast's wings and body. At first, Astrid focused on the cicada-like wings. But she felt that this was luring her into a false sense of advantage. Surprisingly, the wings were the hardest part of Avemoth. So, she focused on its body, instead.

  Avemoth seemed to have extremely high Intelligence so she didn’t want to risk using Mind Domain without wearing it down first. If she used it now, she risked losing focus. And if she received a mental backlash, her life was over.

  She sent another crash, and the monster’s carapace split. A thick orange liquid seeped out from cracks right above its mouth.

  Avemoth sent out another piercing screech and the earth began to tremble and crack. Astrid once again felt the primordial mana as lava bubbled from cracks in the ground and spat forth in a chaotic spray. It touched Avemoth but seemed to have no effect. It was as if it had been birthed by fire itself.

  The mana thickened until Astrid could see it with her own eyes. But it wasn’t mana—it was a Skill. A force tugged at her shoulders, pulling her body to the ground. Gravity had multiplied.

  Snarling, Astrid surged the mana within one eye to combat the added gravity and sent out the other. And not just her own eyes, but her clone’s too.

  Three clones split out of Astrid’s body. In multiples, they were weaker, but Astrid had no need for fextra damage. She needed manoeuverability now that she could no longer move with as much speed.

  But Avemoth wasn’t finished with its power-up. Through the lava and flames, twenty or so lava spikes emerged from of its wings, directed straight at Astrid.

  A crunching thud resounded through the cave as Avemoth launched the spikes. They were faster than before, and reached Astrid in the blink of an eye, piercing her barriers as if they were made of paper mache.

  Astrid felt a pain in her midsection. She blinked, reappearing at the other side of the cave, and continued her attack, ignoring the wet trickle of blood.

  She was wounded, but by using matter control, Astrid could see everything that was happening within her body. She could tell that that the wound was not serious. But had she moved a fraction of a second later, she would have been killed.

  The Blinking Reposition Skill allowed Astrid to instantly teleport wherever she wanted with the eye as a source—a great asset… except that it used a lot of mana. She could sustain it for a while with her new Class, but the situation wasn’t ideal.

  Avemoth relentlessly shot out more spikes, but that wasn’t the only problem. The heat from the lava spurting from the ground was also proving to be a problem. Astrid felt as if her bones were boiling—channelling her mana felt increasingly strenuous.

  Just as she was about to blink to one of her clone's eyes, a tail emerged from the ground behind Avemoth, and shot toward the eye, skewering it.

  Panicking, Astrid blinked again, teleporting to another clone. As she landed, a spike tore into her shoulder. She hadn’t dared to equip herself with the Voidbent armour, so the spike pierced soft flesh. Her skin sizzled with the heat and the lava against her Voidbent bones made her mind buzz with feverish agony.

 

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