“An Engraving? Isn’t that only for complicated magic tech?” Machua asked.

  While the two were talking, Carmine decided to give the ‘Engraving’ a shot. She leapt to the first seal, and after confirming the location of the next one, she jumped to it. She fully expected that she might fall, but she found that the handhold could easily take her weight. So, she continued and soon after she was at the top.

  “An Engraving is essentially magic programmed into an object. But it can be programmed into living beings too. When that is the case, the specific function of the Engraving becomes tied to the body. It becomes as natural as moving your arm and it may even grow as you do.”

  Machua whipped her head to Carmine. “Carmine. That’s what you have, right?”

  “…” Carmine looked away.

  “I’m sure you remember me staring at you when you were healing after Dalan,” Machua began.

  “Blood doesn’t heal people. The most it can do is clot your wounds, it can’t reform into flesh and fill the wound itself. You broke bones, Carmine, and I saw you literally tear a chunk out of your body. And you’re not having any problems.”

  “Yeah, so what? I’ve got a great Engraving that’s all it means,” Carmine spat.

  Machua left it at that and placed the climbing hook. She dropped down the rope for Plue and Rasa, who weren’t as confident as Carmine in jumping from seal to seal. Plue reached the top first and got back to work tracking the criminal. When Rasa reached the top, he walked over to Carmine and whispered an apology.

  “Apologies, Carmine. I didn’t mean to-“

  “Stop saying sorry. You always are. Didn’t I tell you to cut that out on our second mission?” Carmine interrupted without any venom.

  “You did say that, but I believe I told you I’ll continue saying it nonetheless.”

  “Tch. Go explain my Engraving to her,” Carmine shooed him away.

  Rasa nodded. He waited until the squad was ready to move inside the mines, guided by Plue as usual. She had tapped into a network of ants to figure out most of the map’s locations. There was the matter that her Aspect couldn’t help her communicate a certain point, but a certain portion of the mines had very pure mana. It would be impossible for normal insects to survive there, and monstrous insects were too difficult to communicate with.

  Carmine was in front and already had her axes out. If a surprise came their way, she was ready to fight. Plue was guiding the way and Toolbox was with them as well. That left Rasa and Machua trailing behind them.

  “Carmine wanted me to tell you her Engraving,” Rasa said.

  “Machi’s right, she is a softie,” Machua chuckled.

  “Haha. I’m sure that will start to show after a while.”

  The two trudged along a bit before Machua continued. “I thought the spells that S Rank Hunters like Galas uses were just too complicated for me to understand, but now I think I get it. A lot of high level Hunters have Engravings on their body, huh?”

  “To form your own Engraving, specialised entirely for yourself, and to carefully carve it into your body is perhaps one of the most important periods of a Hunter’s life.”

  “And Carmine already has one that’s super strong.” Machua looked to Carmine’s back.

  “… Yes. The way it works is that her body can convert her blood into any other part of her body and vice-versa. Using her mana to produce more blood allows her to regenerate body parts, and whenever she loses them, the body parts dissolve into blood after some time.“

  Machua paused, trying to make some sense of this. “Is she immortal?”

  “No, if she runs out of mana, she cannot produce blood to regenerate with and will die. And I don’t know if she can truly regenerate every part of her body. It may only be meat and bones, but not internal organs and the like. I do know that if she does die in an instant, she wouldn’t be able to regenerate.”

  “Now I’m jealous. If I could do that, I would…” Machua paused. “No, I wouldn’t be throwing myself into danger. It’d still hurt.”

  “Carmine is very used to the pain,” he informed.

  “That’s an understatement. It’s like she doesn’t care what happens to her body.”

  “She truly may not.”

  “Machu,” Plue called quietly. “You have to see this.”

  The mineshaft they had all been traversing was lined with lamps and structural beams, to ensure the mineshaft was well-lit and wouldn’t collapse on itself. The portion Plue had called them to was a broken wall, and inside of it was a large clearing. A large clearing filled with headstones. And at the other side of that large clearing were several individuals, one of which was the man Plue was tracking. They were standing in front of another corridor, one that was shrouded in total darkness.

  “A graveyard in a mine?“ Machua muttered. “Were the miners unable to go home?”

  “Ssh,” Toolbox commanded.

  The squad sat there in silence, listening to the hushed conversation the people had. Luckily for them, the people were careless enough not to set up a sound suppression barrier. All they had to do was enhance their hearing with mana.

  “Boss, I really don’t want to go in there,” one woman said.

  “What’s the problem? Have I not taken care of you all this time? Why are you refusing now?” A man asked in a sinister tone.

  “Dada…” Toolbox whispered, recognising the voice instantly.

  Toolbox moved to rush in, but Rasa held his hand out in front of her. “Some of his men may be loyal to Dwyn. This could compromise your chance to meet him. It’s best if you can meet him alone.”

  “Grr…” Toolbox softly growled.

  Another man spoke this time. “Boss… we’ve never had to capture this kind of monster before.”

  “That’s why I have the Planar Key. I can whisk it away when we take it by surprise. You know that, we’ve done this all the time,” Scias responded.

  “But it was always a sleeping or fainted monster. And now you’re trying to catch one by surprise by using us as bait.”

  “You will not get eaten by that thing. It has gone weeks, maybe months without food. No matter how ravenous its hunger is, it will not be able to muster up the energy to eat you before I catch it,” Scias reminded.

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  “Still. It’s an Egotist. That’s a whole different level of monster than what we’re used to,” one of his men muttered.

  “Just get in there already,” Scias commanded while whacking the back of one of his men with his tail.

  The man launched forward and rolled into the darkness. Scias and his men stood in silence, waiting for the monster, the Egotist, to come out. Machua and the squad did not dare to take their eyes off of the scene. If a terrible monster did come out, they had to be ready to act.

  One second turned into two. Two turned into four. And just when four was about to turn into eight, the sound of shuffling echoed through the graveyard.

  Scias and his men watched as a humanoid figure wrapped in blue bandages shuffled out of the darkness. The blue bandages were tightly wrapped, but some of them extended off of it, floating in the air.

  Its gait was unnatural, as if it had recently discovered it could walk, and the bandages were wrapped so tight that it looked like it lacked any facial features underneath it. It almost looked like a mummy, but it was clear to everyone that what was underneath the bandages wasn’t human.

  “So, it’s true that Egotists are humanoid monsters,” Scias spoke. “I also heard Egotists can speak and think like humans can. Did you eat him already?”

  The Egotist did not answer. Instead, it tilted its head, in what almost seemed like confusion. And then, it moved.

  “Back off!” Scias yelled as his man leapt back.

  The Egotist raised its hand and blue bandage strands shot out from the darkness. The strands shot out at inhuman speeds and reached to grasp anything it could. Some men got caught, as the bandages wrapped themselves around them and dragged them into that dark corridor. Scias however, was able to dodge every strand that came at him.

  The men pulled out their weaponry and struck at the bandages that came near them. Some of them shot at them with their guns and others shot at them with magic, but all to no avail. The bandages were too tough to cut through and too agile, dodging any projectiles. One by one, the men got dragged into the corridor. Scias had managed to dodge all of the strands and had just pulled out a large kukri, when he felt a tug on his tail. One small strand managed to wrap itself around the tip of his tail.

  “Ah, damn,” Scias muttered, as the bandage pulled him into the darkness too.

  “Boss!” One of his men yelled out.

  The Egotist directed the bandages to grasp more and more people. But before it could even raise its hand to point at another, a path of paws formed on the floor. At its endpoint was a large paw seal with 5 claws.

  Toolbox dashed along her path with ferocity. She tapped the seals with such force she cracked the ground beneath her. Finally, she leapt to the paw seal in the sky and thrusted her leg into it. The five claws formed around her foot and she shot forward into the Egotist.

  [Pathway Paw: 5-Claw Kick!]

  “HAAAARGHHHH!” Toolbox yelled.

  The Egotist had commanded its bandages to form a shield around itself. Toolbox’s flying kick had connected with the shield and she was making some effort, but she was beginning to lose momentum.

  Another paw seal with five claws formed in the air. Toolbox spun and had her other leg pass through it, claiming 5 giant claws, and slammed it onto the bandage shield.

  The bandage shield broke apart, and yet another 5 claw seal formed in front of her. This time, Toolbox slammed her hand through it, and it connected with the Egotist.

  “LET HIM GO!”

  [Pathway Paw: 5-Claw Smash!]

  The Egotist flew into the air, back towards the dark corridor that it came from. It stopped its momentum in mid-air by sending its blue bandages to grab the sides of the corridor’s entrance. But Toolbox was right in its face again, with yet another 5-claw paw seal.

  [Pathway Paw: 5-Claw Shred!]

  Toolbox brought her other hand and raked the Egotist right in the chest. The mana claws carved through the Egotist’s chest and tore apart its bandages.

  “HAAAAAH!” Toolbox continued to yell as she moved to rake it again. But there was no paw seal this time. Only faint claws formed over her hand, and it was barely able to scratch it.

  When Toolbox saw that, her instincts told her she had to back off. It was too late though. The Egotist reached its hand back and thrusted its palm forward in the same motion as her 5-Claw Smash. The strike landed directly into Toolbox’s chest and sent her flying back with a sickening crunch.

  Toolbox spewed blood as she soared through the air. She was caught by Carmine, who immediately began sealing her wounds.

  “Toolbox,” Machua called. “Are you okay?”

  “D-dada’s in there…” She pointed to the darkness behind the Egotist. Shortly after, she collapsed.

  The Egotist was still in the same stance it had taken when it hit Toolbox. It slowly returned to a neutral standing stance and held its hand out in curiosity.

  “Her ribs are broken. She’s not fighting anytime soon,” Carmine informed.

  “H-hey, who are you guys?” One of Scias’ men called. They had retreated to the squad’s position and had pulled out weapons.

  “We’re-“ Machua paused, her face turning incredulous. “You.”

  “Wait, you’re-“

  “Tam Neach.”

  “Machua Purin.”

  “You should be in jail,” Machua stated.

  “Never mind that! We have to fight that thing!” Tam pointed at the Egotist, who had been gathering all of its bandages together.

  “Move!” Machua shoved Tam aside and raised her tonfa.

  A bandage strand wrapped itself around her tonfa and Machua released it just in time to avoid getting pulled in.

  When the next ones came, Tam placed his hand on the ground and commanded a chunk of earth to rise up and block them. The strands broke through the earth chunk but were thrown off trajectory and didn’t hit anyone. His mana penetrated the earth, and it told him of the various minerals in the area. A lot of minerals were already stripped out and not useful for a battle, but there was one thing that was in abundance.

  “There’s 36 corpses here!” He shouted.

  “On it! Rise!”

  A female member of Chimaera raised her hand and Death mana surged around it. She slammed it onto the ground and the earth began rumbling. Tam commanded the earth covering the graves to open up so the corpses could rise.

  Slowly, malformed skeletons rose from their almost thousand-year slumber. Many of their bones were fused together and quite a few were already undergoing fossilisation. But they were just intact enough they could serve as body shields. Not that they had much of a body left.

  The fossilising skeletons ran to the Egotist, and it focused its attention on them, leaving everyone else free to act. One member of Chimaera generated a fireball between his hands and prepared to throw it.

  “Wait, wait, wait!” Tam yelled. “If you throw that you could suffocate our guys in there!”

  “You don’t know the boss as well as we do, newbie. They’ll live,” the man responded before tossing the fireball.

  The fireball shot out of his hands and flew through the air. The skeletons all jumped at the Egotist and clasped their bony hands on its bandages. The Egotist easily crushed the skeletons that tried to restrain it, but their job was done. It couldn’t dodge at this point.

  Suddenly, it raised a hand up. But it was not bandages that it was commanding, it was something else.

  The ground rumbled in front of it and a chunk of earth raised into the air. The fireball crashed against the earth shield and burst into flames, obscuring everyone’s vision.

  “Did that thing… just cast magic?” Tam muttered in disbelief.

  Machua sucked in a deep breath. There were many things that separated man from monster. Sentience, the ability to tell right from wrong, their technology, but there was one thing that everyone recognised as set in stone. The one gift that humans held, unique only to them, was the ability to cast magic. To freely manipulate and form mana into any shape, any spell, and release it into the world.

  It is the ability to control and shape mana that distinguishes man from any other life-form. Every being contained mana, mana permeated the very air itself, and yet it was only man who could control it freely. Every other life-form was chained down to what their body could perform. A Blazing Bull would only ever be able to breathe flame or set itself on fire. Without an evolutionary process that would take generations, monsters, animals, and plants would forever be restricted to the magical effects their body could produce.

  But not this one. Not this humanoid monster wrapped in blud bandages Chimaera called an Egotist. It casted an earth shield the same way Tam had earlier.

  A thousand questions pierced everyone’s minds. How? Why? Did it copy my spell? Did we accidentally teach it magic? Did it learn magic by eating people? Is this even a monster anymore? Or is this a human? What the hell… am I looking at?

  The smoke began to clear and a shadowy humanoid could be seen walking through it. Each step shook the earth, almost like it was testing how much it could do. With this new magical ability, perhaps it could cause a mine collapse, or maybe even another landslide.

  Machua worriedly looked at her squad. Rasa had his string gauntlet out and was prepared to play at any moment. Plue seemed to be struggling with something and held her hand behind her neck. And Carmine was still holding Toolbox. Carmine’s eyes were laser-focused on the Egotist. When she noticed she was looking at her, she met her gaze and nudged her head to the exit. She gestured down to the injured Toolbox.

  Machua got what she meant instantly. She didn’t even have her axes out. Carmine wasn’t going to fight with Toolbox so injured. And this Egotist easily surpassed Dalan.

  ‘No… I can’t say if that was the case. But if there’s one thing it has over him. It’s that this is the absolute worst place to fight an Earth Aspected.’

  Earth magic was the absolute best magic to use when underground. Machua wasn't sure if it had an Aspect, but its mana purity and density was so high it didn’t matter. It had no skill, it plunged its mana into the earth and simply told it to move. It was raw power.

  Machua’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the Egotist’s bandages whipping through the air. The bandages were gathering around its arm, increasing the size of its arm with furious speed.

  Nothing had to be said. Everyone turned and ran for the exit. The squad and the remainder of Scias’ men did not dare look back. If that giant fist struck them, they would be turned into a pancake. A collective, meaty, disgusting pancake.

  Almost as if its arm didn’t weigh anything, the Egotist threw its punch. The punch traversed the room in a matter of seconds and crashed into the wall, unable to fit through the entrance. The mine shook and the entrance to the graveyard collapsed.

  The group collectively held their breaths as they watched the rubble. They were just waiting for those horrendous blue bandages to snake their way through the rubble to get them. It was when the first person could no longer hold their breath that they recognised that they were in fact, in the company of strangers. And that one group was a bunch of criminals.

  Without any hesitation, Machua slammed her fist into Tam’s face, instantly sending him into the ground. The rest of his group ran off without him. With an injured person in tow, none of the Galem squad dared to chase after them.

  “That’s just the first one. I’m not done beating you yet. But we’ll have to continue this later.”

  Tam was collapsed on the ground, but still conscious. His eyes looked into Machua’s gaze, but it was what she said next that struck fear into him.

  “At Sterling Snowdrop.”

  ———————————————————————

  The Egotist had discovered many things today. First, was that live humans were tasty. Far tastier than the corpses that the miners used to throw in here. Second, was that it could somehow understand humans. It didn’t fully grasp their language, but after hearing the miners talk to each other for so long, it felt it could vaguely understand them. And third, it felt good to move. Bot move its body, move that almost imperceptible thing that it had always exuded. Mana. Something that used to be so stagnant, moving only in a certain way. It felt good to mould it into something, into a spell.

  The Egotist stood in front of the rubble it had caused. It considered whether it should continue chasing after the group that had run away. That cat was particularly fun, and it wanted to see how she tasted, but it would be annoying to move that fast.

  It was at that moment something jabbed at its back. “Gotcha.”

  In Scias’ hand, and jabbing at the Egotist’s back, was a small sculpture of a lion’s head. The eyes of the lion’s head lit up and the Egotist started shimmering. It turned to act, its bandages shook in the air to attack, but it was too late. The Egotist shimmered away and disappeared.

  The eyes of the lion’s head stopped glowing, prompting Scias to toss it in the air, almost like it was a ball. Scias had a light grin on his face. It was mission accomplished.

  The sound of more shuffling came from within the darkness and shortly after, a few groaning men emerged from within.

  “Urgh… boss… it hurts so much…” one of them groaned.

  “What did I tell you, boys?” Scias asked. “I got it without any of you dying.”

  “Th-thanks boss.”

  “Clear out the rubble. We’ll have to regroup and do a headcount,” Scias ordered.

  His men got to work immediately. They either moved the rubble themselves or used Earth magic. It didn’t take long for the way to be cleared.

  Scias took a step towards the exit, before turning back. He looked back with a casual glance and took a sweeping observation of his men. He ran through their backgrounds one by one in his head, but it just didn’t click.

  So finally, Scias uttered, “I need to ask. Does anyone have a sister or daughter here?”