1% Lifesteal

Hydraulic Flex triggered, tightening his muscles and straining against the vines tying him up.

With a tearing sound, he managed to free the upper part of his body, and with a mighty grip, he started removing the vines around his legs, but the creature was nearly upon him, forcing him to jump aside and roll back up to his feet. The monster whirled, preparing to tie him up in vines once more, but the attack struck empty air as he tumbled to the side again, finally setting his legs free.

The monster charged at him again, preparing to swing its claws at him, and this time, he could clearly see the glistening shine of a liquid—likely venom. Gritting his teeth, he focused.

His first star lit up, shining brightly as the essence from within flowed out, and the second star joined it as the guard reached him, doubling the essence output. His leg swung up with a Flowing Strike.

The gorel didn't dodge. Gorels in general had a tendency to not dodge attacks.

Big mistake.

His foot landed on its jaw, slamming its nasty mouth shut, crushing the teeth, cracking the skull, and snapping the neck with the visceral sound of vertebrae popping apart and flesh tearing. As the force of the strike was transferred through his leg, the creature's momentum was completely halted, forcing it to a stop as blood gushed out its eyes and mouth. Not even a whimper came out as the guard dropped lifelessly to the ground.

He followed soon after, unable to stay on his feet. "Fuuuuuu—!" he cursed, holding his hip, which, together with his knee and ankle, hurt like hell from the backlash.

Activating both his stars with Flowing Strike had not been a good idea. Using it in action for the first time was stupid. Given that he used Abyssal Depths, he had to be extra careful to ensure he could handle the force of his attacks. Thankfully, he landed a solid blow, ending the fight before having to face the consequences of his mistake.

Lifesteal flowed into his body, undoing some of the damage. It was enough to let him stand up on his feet, but it left him confused. Even with only 1% Lifesteal, was smashing this creature's head and killing it on the spot really not enough to offset the backlash? That had him worried.

But it was no big deal. Injuries suffered as a consequence of ability use recovered at almost supernatural quality. That was the crutch—Ethereal Mercy—the phenomenon that made using abilities without completely destroying one's body possible.

His combat shoes… They were fine. Other than the smattering of blood on them, they had held firm, withstanding the force of his attack without any hiccups. Good. His decision to splurge extra on them had been a wise one.

His eyes glanced at the body before him. There was no prime vestige anywhere. It would have manifested by that point if it was going to.

He sighed and then looked at the others. The party acted as if nothing had happened, entirely focusing on their fight. For a brief moment, he even thought that they hadn't noticed he was in trouble. However, as their final opponent fell, they instantly turned around, sprinting toward him.

Ah… he thought, finally realizing something. They had noticed. But they focused on ending the fight first.

A wise decision.

As expected of professionals.

"Are you all right!?" Theodore asked, rushing forward. "Don't move! People often get injured without realizing it…" he said, trailing off as he carefully checked his clothing for cuts, tears, or any signs that he was bleeding anywhere.

Once he confirmed what Freddy already knew—that he hadn't gotten struck anywhere—the man closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

Before Freddy could even finish asking himself why the man was doing that, Petra stepped up to the man and slapped the absolute shit out of him. "What the fuck is wrong with you!?" she screamed. "Why didn't you check the trees!?" she demanded, furious at the man's apparent slip-up.

Indeed. With the light affinity, he should have several ocular and scouting abilities. It was his job to ensure that something like this didn't happen.

"I'm sorry," was all the man could say. He looked distressed, and Freddy caught the man glancing at him warily, only to tear his gaze away immediately after meeting his eyes. He must have felt guilty about his error.

"Shit, man…" Robert said, staring at the deviant's corpse and raising an eyebrow. "What the hell did you hit this thing with?"

"Flowing Strike," he eked out with a pained groan. "I landed a pretty good one but put too much weight on my leg," he lied as he prepared to get up. He did not land a good one. In fact, he mistimed it pretty drastically, and the only thing that saved him was the fact that it had two stars of power behind it.

The pain in his leg had significantly subsided, but he was still visibly favoring his other foot. The lifesteal had offset a lot of the damage, which helped hide the extent of the backlash he had suffered.

"Wait," Petra said. "Take it easy." She approached him and placed an arm on the thigh of his injured leg. A soothing pulse entered his body, and he immediately realized what the woman was doing. It was a healing ability.

For any form of long-term healing, the life affinity was vastly superior. But when it came to first aid, water had the upper hand. It could undo internal bleeding with ease and help set things straight.

Although it was rather soothing to the touch, as soon as the ability stopped, the pain returned, utterly undiminished. He pretended he felt great relief and simply endured the pain, acting as if it wasn't a big deal. It was easy to convince them. Nobody there believed he was a two-star, and a normal Flowing Strike should by no means cause an injury as severe as the one he had suffered.

They gathered the bodies in silence. They insisted that he should take it easy this time, but he demanded to carry most of the load, using his "regeneration talent" as an argument for why they didn't need to worry. Ultimately, he ended up carrying the three guards they had taken down.

Although he still felt great pain, it was by no means debilitating.

On their way back, they walked past several other parties. Nobody said anything throughout their journey.

Once they stepped back through the passage, they offloaded the bodies and sat down to wait. The payment for the regular gorels was quickly and easily calculated. They weighed the bodies and assessed the damage to valuable parts. As for the deviant, it was put up for auction on one of the ethernet channels, where it waited for only five minutes. There were numerous individuals whose entire job was to retrieve deviant corpses from such auctions.

He was given a slip. He looked at it and quickly noticed it was a receipt.

The paper listed the number of bodies retrieved, both workers and guards, the average value per kilogram, and had a separate part where it just said, "Deviant x1." In the end, the total payment they received as a party was… 9,100 dollars.

What proceeded was an absolute gutting of that number. First, there was the fifty percent fee.

Jesus Christ… he called internally. But that was the price of delving into "free" public passages.

Then it deducted the ninety percent that went to his party members and, from the sum that remained, five percent for taxes. Apparently, that was it. As a two-star, that was all the taxes he had to pay.

Ultimately, the number at the bottom of his receipt was four hundred and thirty-seven dollars. Before he could think much about it, the others approached him.

"Hey…" Beatrice called. "We talked about it, and as an apology, we'd like to give you the money for the deviant corpse. You've earned it, and it's this idiot's"—she punched Theodore in the arm—"mistake that you had to fight in the first place."

He stared at them, briefly looking at the paper in his hand. Indeed, that was nearly two thousand dollars, but… his eyes yet again flickered to the final amount he would be paid.

Four hundred and thirty-seven dollars… The number bounced around in his head, rolling around like a dirty stone on his tongue as he quietly mouthed the words.

He was conflicted. There was a part of him screaming in elation. By all means, that money had been easy to make. What happened to him with the deviant was an implausible scenario, to the point where he was starting to think he might be genuinely cursed.

And even then, he had walked away without suffering real damage; even his equipment was unscathed.

But there was another part of him. A part that wanted more. A beast who had hungered all his life now drooled liberally as a massive pile of food appeared before its eyes.

"I can't accept that," he said, rejecting them.

Just as they were about to argue, he raised an arm and said, "In return for that mistake, I'd like something else."

They eyed him patiently.

"I would like to repeat this a few more times," he requested. "I've learned much today, and if you could show me around and teach me all you know about delving here, at least until I find a more permanent solution, I'd really appreciate it."

Suddenly, Theodore asked, "How about you join our party?" He seemed a bit too eager.

Freddy laughed at that awkwardly. He had already half-expected to be given an offer like that, so he used the response he'd prepared. "You guys already have a rather balanced composition; adding me would be—"

"Thirty percent," Theodore said, not even blinking.

"Excuse me?"

"If you join us, I'd be willing to pay you thirty percent of all we earn."

That was… an extremely generous offer. To the point where he was sure the man was getting some strange idea. "Listen," he said, "I got pretty lucky dealing with that deviant. I can hardly say that's representative of my—"

"Fifty percent," the man offered. Everyone around him stared at him with wide eyes, but nobody said anything to stop him. They had complete faith in their leader and likely a good reason to believe he was making an educated decision.

Uh-oh, Freddy thought, suddenly keenly aware that the man might not be as misguided as he believed him to be.

Theodore glanced around. "Let's move to the sofas upstairs."

So they did.

Once they sat down, Theodore sat beside him. "I am the leader of our group for several reasons," he said. "The biggest of which is my talent. With a glance at most living creatures, I can see the relative threat they pose as an aura of sorts."

Freddy froze.

The man continued, "When I look at you, I see…" He took a long look at him. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing," he said. "That was why you caught my attention. Usually, those invisible to my talent either have a talent preventing me from perceiving such information or expensive equipment doing the same thing. I don't believe you have either, yet I still can't see what you're worth."

Numerous thoughts spun through his mind, but he simply waited, not showing any of his turbulence outwardly. Thankfully, his face was hidden.

"Now, I would be a liar if I said I knew everything about my talent," the man said. "But I think that the reason why I can't see your worth is because my talent simply can't determine it. You're an unpredictable variable, something that can't be measured through straightforward means. You probably have very situational abilities or thrive under particular circumstances. I've encountered something like that already once before."

That was precisely the case. Under the right circumstances, he could defeat an elite four-star archhuman—an unbelievable feat. But in a straightforward duel? He wasn't even sure whether he could stand up to an average two-star warrior. Hell, he'd probably struggle against elite one-stars with his lack of skill.

"I have some fun theories of who you might be or what you're doing here," the man continued. "But in any case, I have no doubt that you're talented. In fact, I'd bet anything that you're far stronger than any of us. When I say join the party, what I'm really saying is we'll all support you. I'll even sign an NDA if you want to keep your abilities a secret. What do you say?" the man said, keeping firm eye contact as he waited for the answer.

That was a good offer. An excellent one, in fact. But this didn't sit well with him. This man was cunning, ambitious, and decisive. He had been acting with an ulterior motive and, in hindsight, had been trying to get a read on his abilities from the very start.

"I apologize, but I'd like to continue as a helper."

"I see…" Theodore said, sighing. "I've already arranged to have the money for the deviant sent to your account," he added. "So you can't refuse that much." He gave him a cheeky wink.

Freddy laughed at that. "Thank you. I really appreciate it."

"And I want to say sorry again." Theodore sagged. "I promise something like that won't happen next time."

***

Theodore watched Liam Johnson get up and walk away. Rubbing his hands and biting his fist, he sighed. "Do you think he'd agree if I offered seventy percent?" he asked the others.

"What did you see?" Beatrice asked knowingly.

He hadn't lied. He honestly couldn't see the man's aura…

Not until he saw the man fight.

That deviant hadn't been a coincidence. Of course he had seen it. Even camouflaged, that creature couldn't hide its aura from him. But it wasn't like he was trying to kill Liam. The entire time, he had had Piercing Ray and enough essence prepared to intervene in case the man needed saving.

He just wanted to test him. If his hunch was correct, Liam was the son of someone powerful. Many families sent their kids off to fight and make their way up themselves rather than coddling them with unlimited resources and privileges. Getting someone like that on their team, even temporarily, could drastically boost their standing and finances.

At that moment, however… In the second Liam swung his leg to strike the deviant…

He saw it.

The aura.

"Pitch black," he said to the others, feeling tingles running down his spine as he vividly recalled the sight. "It was violent and roiling, like an electrified fire, and it manifested into a large image of a dripping skull peering directly into my soul. I've never seen that happen in my life," he said, whimpering slightly. "We need to get that man on our team. Even if we have to beg him to join."

***

Freddy made his way back to his apartment. When he stepped inside, he quickly regretted having bought so many complex layers of armor. All of it needed to be carefully taken off and washed. Thankfully he had the water affinity—without it, drying his clothes would be a nightmare.

His dinner was a dozen scrambled eggs and white bread, and as soon as he ate, he went to the room, lying on the bed.

Although it had mostly recovered, he still felt hints of pain in his hip. How the hell had that strike hurt him so badly? Even with all the lifesteal… It was concerning. Very concerning. The first thought that came to mind was that it was Abyssal Depths. And he was probably right.

He had already regained the progress he had lost—30% extra weight. That was around the maximum value of stage zero Abyssal Depths. Utilizing that much excess water with Flowing Strike and even using two stars… He had felt it. It was as if a siphon had been directly connected to his essence pool, draining a shocking amount on just that one ability.

The more mass in his body, the more essence Flowing Strike would consume. After all, it had more water to move. He had decided to use Abyssal Depths haphazardly, and the more time passed, the more he began to assume that he had made a mistake.

It was well past the time for him to get his abilities in order. Now that he was properly delving, he needed to know what all he was capable of. Money wouldn't be a problem, either.

It was time to join a training compound.