Soulshadow Tianyou yanked the treasure chest open with all her might. Inside lay a contract and a reddish lump.

“Dodge! Fireball spell!” she gasped, shouting as she scrambled backward.

Soulshadow Tianyou gritted her teeth, her face tightening. A trap—no time to escape. But... wait! A pit lay behind her.

She deliberately fell backward into it, plunging through and slamming her back against a ceramic vase on the first floor’s edge.

“Bang!” The tiny fireball on the second floor exploded. Its blast radius far exceeded its size, engulfing the entire floor in flames.

“Loli Monkey! Ah~ Ouch, ouch, ouch~” Soulshadow Tianyou struggled up, her back burning. She howled worriedly toward the second floor.

“Master, I’m fine! Master, are you okay?” Loli Monkey’s voice echoed from above.

“Good. I’m fine too,” Soulshadow Tianyou replied, checking her HP. The fall had cost her half her health. Lucky thing—if she’d been caught in that Hidden Map fireball blast, she’d be dead.

She chugged a health potion while walking back upstairs. Loli Monkey stood covered in dust, her hair slightly singed and clothes charred at the edges.

Loli Monkey had lost half her HP too, but as long as she lived, it was fixable.

“Loli Monkey, drink this,” Soulshadow Tianyou said, summoning her last health potion.

“I’ve got one! I looted it after killing that Beachcomber,” Loli Monkey chirped, pulling a potion from her pocket.

“Perfect,” Soulshadow Tianyou smiled, pocketing her own potion. She approached the chest.

“Master, hurry! Check the chest—I don’t want to be blown up for nothing!” Loli Monkey hopped excitedly behind her.

“It’s... a skill book,” Soulshadow Tianyou breathed, lifting the contract.

Universal Skill Book [Blink], three-star rarity.

Skill Description: Ignores mass. Instantly teleports three character widths in any direction. Cooldown: 30 minutes.

“The Blink skill!” Soulshadow Tianyou gasped again.

Mystic Box balanced all classes perfectly—no favoritism. Except Hidden Classes: wildly overpowered in one area, but with glaring flaws. At max level or with similar gear, core skills were identical. Unique skills from books decided battles.

Back to Blink. Stealth was the Assassin’s core skill. Paired with backstab and throat slit, Assassins could one-shot squishy mages. But mages countered with evasion and detection skills. If an Assassin missed or failed to hide, a mage’s AOE would wipe them out. Blink was a mage’s ultimate escape—or counter-kill—tool. Normally, only mages learned it, like Stealth for Assassins.

“I snagged a mage’s Blink skill—I’m so lucky!” Soulshadow Tianyou laughed, already plotting uses. This book was universal; anyone could learn it. An Assassin with Blink? Terrifying.

“Master, you’re smiling so sinisterly,” Loli Monkey teased.

“Sinister? This is joy,” Soulshadow Tianyou said, ruffling her hair.

“Master, is it really that good? It’s only three-star,” Loli Monkey asked, tilting her head.

“You’ll see its power later,” Soulshadow Tianyou laughed, ruffling harder. “Let’s move on.”

“Got it!” Loli Monkey saluted playfully.

Soulshadow Tianyou used the Blink skill book. It flared, burned to ashes, and vanished.

...

They left the wooden hut and pressed forward. Rain poured harder. Clear droplets hit the ground, instantly stained pitch-black by filth.

More kneeling humanoid statues lined their path, but fewer corpse-filled boats appeared. The murderous aura thickened. No monsters. No enterable houses.

“Looks like the showdown’s in the road this time,” Soulshadow Tianyou said at the first corner. Across the village, the end came into view.

Why? A dry well straddled the road’s center—blatantly visible, utterly illogical.