Deltan and Nocturne were fighting again when Nocturne sent Deltan flying in the air with a magic spell.
Deltan sneered and righted himself. Nocturne had used this move so many times when they were always fighting that he had already learnt how to deal with suddenly flying in the air.
He gracefully flipped in the air, but just when he was about to land, Nocturne used another spell and blew him further back, inwardly snickering.
Deltan let out a shout of outrage, unable to stop himself in time. He flew past the trees and landed headfirst in the water with a loud splash.
Nocturne sniffed when he heard the sounds of spluttering and curses, inwardly feeling smug.
The other three made their way towards Deltan, who had let out sounds of wonder.
What greeted them made them exclaim at the beauty of the place. It was a small lake surrounded by the forest. The sands were black, and the water was so clear it looked like one was floating on air whilst on top of the water. The sand outside of the water was black, the one under it was a pure white, creating a stunning contrast.
Seyton looked at the otherworldly scenery with much surprise. He didn't remember seeing this place in his time of touring Night Tide continent.
"I do not recall any mention of this place in my travels."
Nine's eyebrow crept up. Seyton had informed her of his various and expansive travels over the Night Tide continent when he was just a fledgling Vampire together with his lover. To say he was familiar with every inch of the continent was not a stretch, with the Vampire's long lifespan and Seyton's meticulous personality.
Nine slowly expanded her senses, realizing that the water was special. It was so clear due to the amount of magic contained within it. This was a naturally produced spot by the world that was considered a treasure. The magic within the water blocked out senses, causing any who were unaware to overlook it.
Unless one had a specific threshold of magic power, they would never be able to find it. What Deltan had done was literally stumble upon it by sheer luck. Nine thought about it, thinking upon the various things that had happened once Deltan joined her party.
Without hesitation, Nine purchased a skill from the System, which she hadn't used much of up until now. She felt like it was superfluous, but she would still take advantage of it.
Nine purchased a skill called [Truth], had no descriptions whatsoever. In fact, the entire list of skills in the System's list had no descriptions. All it listed was the skill itself. What you gleaned from it was what you got. The System would provide no answers. There was only one chance to purchase a skill from the System. After that, it would operate without any changes unless something drastic happened. What was considered drastic to the System, she didn't know, nor did she care.
The description was as follows.
[Truth]
[Skill Type: Passive]
[All Truth cannot be hidden.]
It was a very vague description, which she hadn't expected much of in the first place, but her intuition was telling her that this would be useful to her, so she listened to her gut and chose it. She had been putting it off for a while since she never needed anything, but now was as good a time as any.
Nine stopped herself from stumbling as a sudden influx of information filled her head. She closed her eyes as the throbbing behind her eyes got worse, only opening them again when she felt it was manageable.
She reached up and absently patted Nocturne's head, dispelling his worried look. She really couldn't keep much of a distance from him. She didn't know if it was because of the bond or if it was just her own feelings.
She eyed him as his stats suddenly popped into her vision, along with other things that hadn't been there previously. She had been able to see the stats of people previously, but the descriptions had always been vague and without any explanations.
[Nocturne Asher]
[Age: 19]
Nine rapidly scrolled down as she ignored all the superfluous information, eyes landing on something intriguing.
[Willpower: SS+]
[Intelligence: SS]
[Magic Potential: SS+]
[Luck: S]
[Charm: SS+]
Nine raised a brow at this extra information. Intriguing. Although she had expected something like this, she hadn't thought that it would be obtained so easily.
She checked Seyton's status on her board, realizing that it had been updated with more information.
[Seyton Mort]
[Willpower: SS+]
[Intelligence: SS]
[Magic Potential: S]
[Luck: A]
[Charm: S]
Then, she checked Deltan's, who cause her to think of buying the skill in the first place.
[Deltan Destan]
[Willpower: A]
[Intelligence: A]
[Magic Potential: SS]
[Luck: SS++]
[Charm: SS]
Nine gestured for Deltan to come over, who looked at her puzzled, but still climbed out of the water obediently. He stood in front of her, confused when she didn't say anything.
Nine flicked her finger, sending him crashing back into the water with a startled shout. She then made a small circle with her index finger, causing a large wave to crash over Deltan, then sending him swirling in the whirlpool.
This little idiot was the one who had caused everything that happened over the past couple of days. She had been puzzled, seeing an increase in the number of magic beasts, monsters, bandits etc. that they encountered along the way. Of course, they also encountered things that were said to be rather valuable and such.
Deltan's SS++ luck brought both good and bad luck, so much so that she wondered if he would have survived childhood had he not been the Eldest Prince.
Nocturne watched Deltan struggling with a smirk on his face, waving at him from the dry shore. Deltan caught sight of the small smirk on that bastard's face and started swearing. He had corrupted his little brother already! Not good. He had to step up his interference plans.
Deltan conveniently ignored how his little brother had always tortured him even before Nocturne's appearance, choosing to blame everything on him instead.
Seyton sat down next to the shore, taking the chance to take out refreshments (blood packets) from the interspatial bracelet his Master had given him. He passed a packet to his Master before passing one to Nocturne, then taking one for himself.
The three looked at Deltan's struggles as they leisurely sipped on blood.
"Brotheeeeeeer!" Deltan cried, still flailing in the whirlpool. "Save meeeeeeeeee!"
Nine sighed. After more than a year of training, did he still not know how to reflexively use magic to help himself out of his predicament?
Deltan seemed to realize it himself, judging by the way his face became slightly red. After successfully extracting himself from the whirlpool, he let out a shriek as his eyes landed on a spider near him.