MC’s POV
My stats kept rising.
[ 1 Spirit]
[ 2 Spirit]
[ 1 Spirit]
The notifications flickered in the corner of my vision.
It took a few hours, but the next ssage finally appeared.
[Shadow Eater: Level 6 → Level 7]
"The skill leveled up twice in one day. Nice."
It really was a trendous growth speed.
Nautilus was the perfect place for farming Spirit as I had expected.
Another window slid open.
[Spirit: 153 ( 0) → 153 ( 200)]
The mont my Spirit stat hit the rank limit again, the dull lethargy that had been clinging to for the past few hours peeled away.
It was like soone had opened a window inside my head.
The pressure vanished, and in its place ca a clear, refreshing sense of focus that made my thoughts feel lighter and sharper at the sa ti.
"Lord of Shadows, now, please start using Harmonic Flow Breathing," Yuna said, drifting into view in front of .
I nodded.
First, I called back my shadow and used Shadow Assimilation.
The faint, familiar sensation of my body growing in size settled in.
Then I sat down on the edge of the bed, crossed my legs, and straightened my back.
I inhaled slowly and started Harmonic Flow Breathing.
Harmonic Flow Breathing to calm the mind.
Mind Amulet to protect the mind.
353 Spirit stat to strengthen the mind.
Thought Pulse Title to detect ntal interference.
Right now, my mind was in the strongest state it had ever been in since I was reborn.
Minutes passed.
I let my breathing settle into a steady rhythm and allowed my thoughts to drift backward over everything that had happened in the past week.
The fights. The ship. The exorcists. The System Church.
Nothing imdiately stood out.
’Nothing of note is really there.’
I let that thought sit.
’But...’
Sothing tugged at the back of my awareness. It was a faint sense you get when you realize you forgot sothing important, but you can’t quite rember what it is.
Then it clicked.
’Why is Yuna stopping from going ho?’
The mont I tried to follow that thought, my mind glitched, and the thought disappeared.
The sa thing happened again when I tried to think about it.
I could "not" realize that sothing weird was going on.
Everything was perfectly normal.
Normal.
Normal.
’Sothing is weird?’ I thought as if it was a question, not a certainty. Certainty would not be allowed here.
Everything was perfectly normal. I could not detect any problems.
Yet, I could now notice that Yuna was stopping from going ho for a reason.
It felt suspicious.
"Sothing" told I was not under a ntal attack. "Sothing" cald , telling everything was normal.
"Sothing" was speaking to from within my mind.
But...
’Even if everything is normal, I need to be suspicious.’
The feeling reminded of sothing else.
The mont I had noticed the Soul Shards after exorcising the Rank 4 Cursed Spirit, the Blackout Priest.
[Fifty million divided by four gives ten million]
It was just math. Perfectly normal. And yet, for so reason, I couldn’t stop repeating it in my head. It didn’t make sense why that specific thought had stuck so hard.
This felt the sa.
’Everything is normal.’
The words repeated in my mind, slow and steady.
’Everything is normal.’
’Everything is normal.’
’Everything is normal.’
’Everything is normal.’
For so reason, I had to keep reminding myself.
As if subconsciously, I was refusing to accept that everything was normal.
I opened my eyes and let out a deep sigh.
Yuna was already there, hovering right in front of my face.
"How do you feel, Lord of Shadows? Did you notice sothing?"
"No. Everything is normal."
Her expression hardened.
"But," I added, "I feel like I should be careful. Do you have any advice?"
Yuna stared at for a second like she couldn’t quite believe what she had just heard.
Her mouth opened, closed, then opened again, like she was trying to decide which reaction to go with.
Then she dropped down onto the bed and pumped her fist into the air.
"Success!"
I blinked. "What?"
"Never mind my reaction. This much is enough," she said, waving a hand dismissively. Her grin didn’t go away, though. "Anyway, you should create so location tracker damping runes."
"Suddenly?" I asked.
"What if soone placed a location tracker on you?"
"That’s not really possible though? Even if soone did place one on , it would be on my body. When I cancel Shadow Assimilation, it gets peeled off with it. And since I keep my shadow in my inventory or in this world, there’s no way they can track ."
For so reason, I found myself strongly against the idea of creating those runes.
"Sothing" told there was no need for them.
"Just do it," Yuna said, her tone turning stern.
In the end, the decision was still mine.
And I didn’t want to do it.
But...
’Everything is normal.’
’Everything is normal.’
’Everything is normal.’
My body moved before I consciously decided anything.
I reached for the tools and started drawing.
I took out the [Contact Lens] I had received as a reward for exorcising the Blackout Priest.
Once I activated them, the world sharpened, zood in, and broke apart into tiny lines and flows of energy that I normally couldn’t see.
Using that view, I started carving microscopic runes directly onto my skin.
The process was slow but not painful.
The runes were designed to dampen any location trackers placed on . Not block them completely, but blur the signal so badly that it would be almost useless.
And since the Estate had a powerful barrier that blocked location trackers, and hid everything, any signal that could escape my runes would be blocked by it in the end.
The runes were small, and almost impossible to notice.
Only sensitive exorcists would be able to see the faint flow of energy if they really focused.
When I was done, I leaned back against the bed and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
Yuna floated in a slow circle around , studying the results.
"Good. That should be enough for now," she said.
I didn’t ask what she ant by "for now."
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