Chapter Eighty-OneGavanting about without protection hours after a rge-scale attack might not be the safest thing to do. And yes, she’d been pnning to do this before the rejection of the princess. And no she wasn’t in a good pce right now. Poisonous authority or stuck-up princess, the reason was a toss-up.

  “Find me something quickly, Hyacinth.”

  The toad sniffed the air and they were off, dipping into the shadows. Hyacinth emerged with his mouth open, allowing the massive toad to cmp his mouth down before he was entirely out of the shadows, and crunch the briar light beetle dead. Harmony’s new skill made his already burdensome hunger worse.

  Three more man-sized beetles roamed about. They’d caught the bugs while they were distracted by prey. Two of them had rays of light pulsing out of their mouths at their favorite food, a weak spirit creature. There were two kinds of carrion feeders who lived around the Deadwoods, those who ate fresh and rotting kills and those who preyed upon the spirits drawn to the area. Harmony kicked off towards the closest insect.

  Tough shells, but [High Kick] could probably pierce it, then she’d have guts on her foot to deal with. A soul strike with a near-full activation of [Cold Touch] should be more than enough as well. Harmony's palm spped the beetle. On the outside the beatle froze stunned, on the inside it writhed in pain. The cold stilled the soul system almost as efficiently as silence, and the force of the blow sent fractures around the container and lightly damaged its skills.

  Hyacinth, the vicious predator he was, at the same time crushed a second one.

  Taking out a bone knife she’d brought for this hunt, Harmony used [Manipute Dead] to peel open some of the armor and finished off the soul-crippled bug. The st one fled.

  “Help Me…” Cried the wounded spirit.

  “Ashes. You.. you can talk.” Most of the ones in the Deadwoods could if they were advanced enough. A weak one was unexpected. Harmony walked down to the damaged undead, Its container was a mess. Holes burnt into it by the briar light beetles’ attack. Some of it looked chewed away. This one didn’t have a body. Instead, it was a spectral creature with four wings. Three since one of them was mostly missing. It was dying as much as something already dead could be. Losing cohesion might be more accurate.

  “Please.” It begged.

  It would be easier to put it out of its mystery [Cim] was looking hungrily at the creature's skills. There was a phasing skill. One that gave it the ability to talk. And another was too badly damaged to use. The beetles had skills too. Phasing was more appealing, but the damn spirit was aware enough to beg.

  [Renew Spirit], [Mend], and [Manipute Dead] reached out to do some spiritual field surgery. If only putting together living bodies was this easy, she could do more than just helpful servant-level healing. That wasn’t to say it was without effort, or screaming from the spirit [Final Silence] dampened that at least.

  “Stay.” She ordered it with a hint of her css. There were three bug corpses to deal with. They had skills reted to bug senses, their light attack, and a weak danger sense. [Cim the Remains of Power], now came the gross part, she shoved her hand into the chewed-up corpse. Thankful, Hyacinth hadn’t swallowed them whole. She grabbed the danger-sensing skill and yanked it out. A hungry part of her wanted to pull it into herself. She resisted as this gave her an opportunity she couldn't refuse.

  Holding it in her hand she walked over to the spirit she was working on. Taking the skill she shoved it into the pce of the broken skill she'd excised. This spirit was simple enough, even Bea was more complex. With [Mend], [Renew Spirit], and [Manipute Dead] she hooked it into the winged spirit's system. She adjusted where she needed it as she felt it slowly incorporate into this spirit. Maybe now it wouldn’t get ambushed.

  One more cast of adjustments and Harmony ended the sound muzzle she’d pced around it. “That’s as good as I can do.”

  “Thank you, great one.”

  “Don’t call me that. I’m Lady White. Now shoo off through the spirit wall. You’ll be safer in Deadwoods proper.”

  The winged spirit dashed off, as though she was scarier than the beetles that nearly ate it.

  “Grrapt?”

  “You know I’m a sucker for wounded animals. Reminded me of one of Ambrosia’s birds, and it could talk. You try saying no to something that said please?”

  “Gwah!”

  “Nevermind, you cold-blooded, bck-hearted, bringer of death. You would have killed it. Someone has to be the sensitive and social partner in this retionship. I’m going to try out that light attack and then you can eat your kills. Sorry about letting them get cold on you.”

  This time [Cim] took the skill she targeted and brought it inside her space. The foreign skill felt alien. Would it feel less that way if it was from something close to a humans?” Once it was secure in the skills pocket that peculiar feeling mostly went away.

  The new skill slipped into that hungering empty space, acting like a filter, barrier, and activation space. Using synergies with whatever she had there would be difficult, possibly impossible. No stacking skills, she could only fit one at a time. A gut feeling from [Awareness] told her it would hurt to pop it out. There was also a sense of decay around it, like if left untended it would fade on its own. [Renew spirit] fixed some of that. And as it settled in she sensed the skills name.

  Reaching out her hand she called upon the skill [Light Shot]. The drain was there as it pulled on her stamina. So, not a mana skill? No, stamina was massaging the skills holding space into action. Well would be, but nothing happened. The flow outward wasn't going to her hands.

  “What the?” With her mouth opening the spirit-damaging beam of light spat out of her mouth.

  “Those damn bugs were spitting it out.” Harmony’s words brought more fshes. This new skill’s effect would st about two minutes. Non Spirit targets should take minor damage, with a stinging paralyzation when hit by it. It made her mouth numb.

  “Gha, Gha, Gha!” Hyacinth ughed.

  Harmony turned to face her familiar. “Oh shut up.”

  Hyacinth yelped as Harmony’s mouth attack fshed into him with her words.

  The numb mouth didn't dull her excitement and she ran through a mental list of possibilities to test out in Nae's Garden. Part of her had hoped that would let her gain permanent power slowly from killing things. That would have been too overpowered that it bordered on fantasy. A silly dream she dropped. Filling [Cims] spot did help alleviate her hunger to the point she wasn't worried she'd become a ravenous flesh or skill-eating monster. This was definitely a good skill to choose. Harmony’s wide grin cast a light in front of her as her teeth glowed brightly.

  “Take us back. Staying out longer could invite trouble.”

  Those ambushers were another problem to deal with. They would still be out there. Her gut and the anger of the authority she'd gained told her so.

  The pair slipped back to Fort Rabble and Harmony tried to sneak back into the girls' bunk.

  “You know it’s not safe out there.” Rose lectured, catching her in the act.

  “Well, I didn’t feel welcome here and had a skill I needed to test out.” Harmony snapped back.

  “Ladies, we have bigger problems.” Thorne lectured them both as she continued on. “Unless you feel we need more team building exercises? You’ve been spared so far Lady White, but now that you’re on the same level as Rosaline, maybe I should reconsider that. “

  That cmmed up the princess quickly.

  Harmony was unperturbed. It would take a lot for Thorne to make her training worse than solo climbing the dungeon every morning and there weren't that many days left until she needed to evolve. Her social and perception skills did manage to keep her in check and not say that out loud. No point in actively trying to give the guild mistress a challenge.

  “I do have some ideas about the bigger problems,” Harmony spoke up.

  “Go on.” Throne encouraged.

  “You and Rose are close enough to the same height and build. How about a little makeover while we chat?”