Gazing at his reflection, Kai saw how red his face was and coughed into his hand. What was he, some sort of flustered teenager?
...
That was exactly what he was.
It didn't help that Cecelia still had her forehead pressed into his back, making him not want to move, but it also had him slightly worried.
Were you able to hear someone's heartbeat through their back? He knew you could do it from their chest, but wasn't sure about the opposite side of the body. If it was possible, he wondered what would she be thinking right now.
Softly grabbing the mirror and placing it flat on the ground, Kai cleared his throat and slowly stood up.
"I'm, uh... I'm going to go outside for a minute, make sure nothings out there."
To play it safe, he didn't look behind him and reveal how red he was to Cecilia, as soon as he was on his feet he made his way to the flaps of the tent and unzipped them as quickly as he could. As he was doing so, he heard her voice speak to him.
"Oh, OK... I'm going to go to sleep now."
He heard some shuffling after Cecilia stopped speaking, but he did not dare turn around. Instead, he climbed out of the tent and closed the zip behind him.
And after walking to the edge of the cave they were camping inside, Kai let out the breath he was holding as he grabbed onto his knees.
Why the hell was he feeling like this? He hadn't reacted this way whenever Noelle was beating him up, nor when he shared drinks with Sofia. The only time he had felt like this was with Anastasia, but he had been under the mind hex, and what he was feeling now felt a lot more natural.
Did he...
Stopping his current thought, Kai's eyes widened as a notification popped into his mind. Opening it up, he-
Oh no...
Felt his face get even redder as he read the contents of it.
The Ever-changing has graciously granted you a large amount of XP for that heartwarming display and for acquiring a fabulous new hairstyle.
Level 64 reached
Level 65 reached
Skill Selection obtained
Kai stared blankly at the text, feeling his entire body go numb as he began to comprehend just what it actually meant.
The Ever-changing, his so called gracious and benevolent master... Was aware of everything that was going on and hadn't even offered a helping hand?!
Sure Kai knew that The Ever-changing somewhat knew what was going on, considering they had given him extra XP a few times, but he had assumed that was the System rather then The Ever-changing themselves.
But they could see everything?
... They saw all of that?
Feeling his face get redder once more, Kai kicked some of the snow at his feet and looked up at the cloudy sky.
"You are a bastard, you know that. I'm going to get you back for this... one day."
Grumbling to himself and making sure he would never forget the vow he just made, Kai trudged back into the cave and sat on one of the larger rocks.
Resting his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands, Kai sighed to himself and opened up the Skill Selection.
Please select one of the following three Skills
Yeah yeah, he knew the drill by now. At this point, he was near certain he would never be offered another option of four again, but as long as one of the three skills were good he wouldn't mind.
And the first skill offered was... definitely something.
Party-Up (Epic)
Allows the user to form a party with up to 10 people their Soul has influenced. When inside this party, the user is able to distribute the XP gained by anyone inside this party however they want. The creator of this party is able to obtain 20% of the max amount of XP no matter what. When inside this party, all members benefit from a 3% increase to their Mana, Constitution and Stamina.
Scratch this, the skill was downright incredible. If he had possessed this skill when trying to level up Cecilia that whole challenge would have been a breeze.
To put it simply, if Kai were to create a party consisting of himself, Umbra, Petunia and Cecilia, considering they were the only ones who actually needed XP, Remy was more of a morale support. But if he were to do that, he could give Cecilia 40%, Umbra 30%, Petunia 30% and he would still be getting 20% no matter what because of how the skill worked.
Or, if he wanted to be greedy, he could put all 100% into him and actually obtain 120% of the XP, giving him a 20% boost.
It was incredible. It was niche.
It was perfect.
And that was without mentioning the small, but useful, boost to the three stats. More stats were good stats after all.
With this skill, it would make leveling the party up a hell of a lot easier.
Now Kai was wondering why beings in the multiverse even bothered powerleveling in the way he and Cecilia had done so, why didn't they just get someone with this skill to do it?
Wait, looking back at the description he saw why. It only worked on people his Soul had influenced?
He remembered seeing something about that in the description for Soulcery, but he still didn't really know what it meant.
Still, as long as it worked out in his favour, he didn't mind.
The first skill already seemed like the most plausible option.
But then again, Kai hadn't even glanced at the other skills offered yet...
Scrolling downwards, he looked at the second of the three skills offered.
Proficient Sword Mastery (Rare)
Grants the wielder 1.3× damage when wielding sword type weapons. When wielding a sword, wielders Sword Styles damage is increased by 4%. When wielding a sword, wielder benefits from 2% bonus to Mana and HP regeneration.
Ah, who cared about that skill, he would probably end up with it before they reached the peak anyway. Absolutely no reason to pick it.
And the final skill offered wasn't much better. It was a direct increase to Telepathy, but it boosted it right to Rare rarity. Didn't make it much better though, it mainly vastly increased the maximum distance the skill could be used.
So, already knowing which skill he would be picking, Kai grinned as he selected Party-Up.
Once he had chosen the skill, the thought of letting The Ever-changing off the hook entered his mind. It was because of them they had gotten this skill early after all...
Kai snorted. The thought left his mind as quickly as it entered. He was one of the pettiest people alive, of course he would get them back. He still had that feline merchant's rickety table, that was a sign of how petty he was.
... Although he wasn't actually sure what to do with it.
But that was a problem for another day, now, now Kai was going to go back inside the tent and share the good news with everyone.
... While slightly manipulating the details of how he had gained the XP, of course.
*****
Ten more days passed. Days in which the blizzard was starting to slowly become heavier and heavier, the cold getting more and more potent. It wouldn't be long before the group would need updated versions of the Remnant of Ice, otherwise they might just freeze to death.
By now, they were roughly halfway up the mountain, maybe a little less. It meant they were halfway to salvation, halfway to freedom. It was best not to imagine what sort of beasts would be roaming the higher up stages of the peak, it was much more enjoyable to just think about how much they had climbed.
But with those ten days having passed, Kai was acutely aware of another milestone that had come up.
Roughly 75 days had passed since departing FrostVale, meaning they were roughly two and a half months through the five months they had to reach the peak and escape.
... And that was being hopeful. After all, the teleporter up there could have been destroyed millions of years ago and all of this would have been for nothing.
But that was a thought Kai was not focusing on. Instead, he was making use of Soul Sense and watching ahead to scout for any ambushes.
Over the last ten days, he had also gotten a lot of use out of this skill. After humbling himself and learning not to underestimate a single beast that lived on this level of the peak, Kai had managed to kill a few beasts.
And with those few kills, Cecilia had reached level 18, while Umbra managed to reach level 23, both of them obtaining a skill selection.
The skill Umbra obtained was a unique one, a Rare Rarity skill that vastly increased the protection her fur offered, with the trade off being that she took more damage from fire based attacks, which did seem like a worthwhile trade, especially in this environment where any source of fire was practically non-existent.
And the skill Cecilia gained was slightly similar to Kai's own Mana Surge, except instead of boosting her body using Mana, she could overcharge her inventions, increasing their abilities even more in exchange for their weaves destroying themselves at a slightly quicker pace.
Another pretty good skill.
So the group had gotten a little stronger, meaning they had a better shot at the Third Trial. Frosty had already warned them that it would probably be a fighting one, but Kai still had no idea how strong the foe would actually be.
At least they still had some time before... the...
Feeling a strange sense of deja vu as he glanced ahead, Kai suddenly stopped completely, not taking another step forward.
Frowning to himself, he reached out and-
Touched an invisible barrier.
Contrary to his expectations, the group had arrived at the Third Trial.