After going to the bathhouse I brought Ki'rei some food from the cafeteria and when she finished I went to return the bowl, and stand in line to use the device. I was relatively early, so I didn't have to wait long for my turn.

I started by upgrading the monk's 'Mind mastery' since I needed something to fight of their strange skills, and the description I had in my head from the manual, was indicating just that. I maxed it for 11 million points. Then I upgraded my wisdom a hundred times, which I immediately regretted.

It felt like somebody whacked my brain with a stick. Skull-splitting pain, which I endured squinting my eyes, and went straight back to shopping.

With that, I felt confident about my resistance to mind shenanigans, but there was still the boss part. I was sure it wasn't gonna be as bad as it was yesterday since I knew what I needed to be wary of.

I looked through my skills, but there was nothing that looked like would give me a massive advantage. I considered for a moment upgrading my raw abilities, but since I wasn't lacking in speed or strength during the battle, I decided to not do that. Instead, I went with the 'Shadow reach', and increased the level to fifth.

All of it was 22 185 250 points, but it made me feel way more confident. I bought some more food and returned to Ki'rai to prepare for departure. I quickly ate, and we shadow walked to the anchor left on the edge of the swamp.

I started by summoning my shadows, and giving them all the unnecessary equipment to carry, and then went ahead of everybody, to clear a path for us.

The place didn't get any less creepy. It was a perfect spot to shoot a horror movie. The scary, twisted trees, puddles of stinky water, tall grass, heavy, moist air, and chilly atmosphere. Everything was spot on. You only needed to wait for nightfall, and you were ready to go.

'Eyes of the Void' again proved to be an amazing skill, as thanks to it I could feel where to put my feet to not end up in the water all the way to my waist. I couldn't see as any other hunters could exploit this place. It was a terrible spot to hunt, just terrible.

After an hour of travel and multiple skirmishes with lizardmen, I decided to just drop the anchor straight in their settlement, so I wouldn't have to go through this place anymore.

Eventually, I reached the settlement, and Immediately attacked it, because I was frustrated out of my mind. I slaughtered everything that came close enough, while constantly keeping watch on my surroundings, especially focusing on further parts of the village.

Last time the hemomancers didn't come to attack directly but rather attempted to flank me. Now I was fully aware of how strong those creatures were and didn't want to get taken by surprise.

I noticed the crocks approaching from afar, but there were no signs of any other units until I managed to cut my way deeper into the ranks of those giants. Only then I noticed few shadows lurking between the buildings, to get me from the sides. I immediately abandoned the battle, and shadow walked several times to get rid of the bigger threats.

I ended up landing between the group of three and implied one of them on my pudao. Repositioned, and cut off the head of the second one. The third was just a formality, but more were approaching from behind. I needed to be quick with them. Kill before they can even think of doing something.

I cleared one side and proceeded to do the same on the other, luring the crocks all over the place. I used shadow fusion, to increase my tempo because I noticed the mind controllers approaching in the distance. They were marching as a group like they had all the time in the world.

After killing all the hemomancers I quickly finished the last crocks, just in time, as while cutting down the last one, I felt the strange influence over my mind. It was bad, but not as the day before. I still could see more or less properly, had a bit of issue with the balance of my body, and the sounds were also dulled, but I didn't even have to use 'Eyes of the Void' to finish the last group.

Then I went to get Ki'rai and made my shadows work on collecting the score. We used this opportunity to have a little break. I quickly jumped to the town to get us some food.

- How was the battle? - she asked me as I was fighting with a piece of beef jerky.

- Good.

- Tell me about the boss. How did it go yesterday?

So I did tell her, not sparing any details.

- She is a worthy opponent - Ki'rai concluded.

- Maybe. I'm not sure. It feels like she is using tricks to get an advantage in the battle.

- Means don't matter as long as you get what you want - she replied.historical

I was shocked by her words.

- Why do you think that way?

- That's what I've been taught by my masters. The world also works this way, so it has to be right, doesn't it?

- That's wrong Ki'rai. The end doesn't always justify the road you have taken.

- Why?

,m - Because... - I sighed.

I couldn't explain it just out of nowhere, but I knew I was right.

- I'll explain it to you later, ok?

She nodded. I quickly finished the rest of my food, to run away from the conversation I wasn't prepared for, straight to the battle with the boss.

It took some time to get there because I was taking my time, and thinking about how to explain the problem to her.

The view was exactly the same as yesterday. Shallow pit, stone plates on the ground, the pillars, and the altar. The naked lizard woman was lying on it, looking nonchalantly at me. As I approached her, she slowly got up and prepared for the fight.

I rushed, and shadow walked several times to get her before she will manage to cut herself, but she dodged my attack. "It couldn't be that easy", I thought to myself.

She formulated her crystal blades and started attacking. I focused on dodging, looking for an opening, but there wasn't any as she formulated few shards and with them covered all the holes. Her physical defensive capabilities were almost nonexistent to me, which meant I could kill her with one clean shot. The problem was how to create such an opportunity. The answer was pretty obvious. I just needed to pin her down with an overwhelming barrage of slashes.

I activated all of the skills, and just flooded her with multiple swings from every direction, as I kept shadow walking all around her. She broke all the shards from the knives to pieces and tried to defend herself with them, but that was only good enough for few seconds, as I started using 'Shadow reach' completely changing the angles.

The effect was astonishing. I basically chopped her into pieces. She turned to smoke, as a couple of shards hit me, but it didn't matter anymore.

I returned to Ki'rai without a good answer. She wasn't pushing for one, but I knew she is expecting it. I needed some more time to think it through.. We ended up returning to my room in the barracks.