Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Following the talk between Silrat and Skullius, the pre-established journey to the Bryne Family Estate began.

Silrat had seen off the four individuals – Stylla, Setkh, Karrun and Skullius – as they boarded the carriage that swiftly left the city without making any stops.

The journey wouldn't take long as the four would likely be back by the next afternoon at the latest, but what seemed like a casual visit home brewed a lot of tension within the carriage.

Skullius could feel it.

Something was up and this something had to do with Stylla who sat near the open window, gazing outside of it with a melancholic expression.

There were burdens on her mind but no one could tell what they were. She hadn't told anyone. She kept them to herself as she believed she should, though she had been on the cusp of telling one of these troubles of hers to someone in the past few days.

"Now that we have left the great city, would you mind telling us what sparked this little journey home dear sister?" Setkh who sat beside Stylla asked, his face leaning in towards his sibling's in a creepy manner.

The same flirtatious look was on his face with a hint of lust burning in his eyes.

"It's nothing. I just thought we should visit OUR father is all," Stylla replied without shifting her line of sight or flinching at Setkh's disregard for personal boundaries.

At this, Setkh and Karrun gave each other knowing looks, as if they had an inkling of an idea as to what was going on.

This subtle behaviour didn't escape Skullius who sat with Karrun opposite the two siblings.

'Am I the only one who doesn't know what's going on?' he thought.

Perhaps it was best to keep these two under surveillance. Maybe he could get clues too.

Though, given the fact that Stylla had said she could handle it herself last night, the Hybrid Luman decided not to take this too seriously.

After all, he had better things to do.

Skullius closed his eyes and focused deep within himself.

'The answer is Aura...' he thought.

In order to combine skills, he needed Aura, which acted as a binding agent.

Thankfully, Skullius' experiences had lead him to the knowledge that the existence of skills wasn't tied to the core, but the body. If he hadn't known, perhaps there was a different outcome waiting for him in the end.

For now, he decided to test out how this worked and determine the efficiency and limits of it at his level.

He breathed in and out.

Aura was generated by compressing mana in a rhythmic way that was naturally coordinated by the strengthened body when one reached the Advancement Stage. In other words, the body 'told' the core how to compress mana into Aura.

If that weren't the case, beasts, which didn't rise in strength the way humans did, would be able to produce Aura too.

This wasn't simply layering mana over mana.

The experiences of the Advancement and Master Stage experts Skullius had used [Basic Evil Sanction] on were proving very useful right now.

The information derived from this Special skill was usually scattered and hard to sift through which lead Skullius to pack it all in his subconscious mind but now, after taking some time to sort through it all...

'I get it. Generating Aura is similar to how I created the Refinery to my mana core. There is a sequence in which mana must be compressed in order to generate Aura. Attaining a blue core or higher is important for this task it seems. A white one can't handle the stress,' Skullius thought.

'Hmmm. Oh... there's so many different ways in which someone can push themselves into generating Aura faster.'

The bandits the Hybrid Luman had killed had varying experiences with this. Most people weren't aware of the intricacies involved with the process of generating enough Aura. Some were taught while others learned naturally.

For the latter, it wasn't strictly a conscious action. The body slowly taught the mana core how to do it with time.

For Skullius who currently felt like he had devoured tens of years worth of information on the experiences of Advancement Stage experts, reaching the point where lumps of Aura bobbed from his mana core didn't take long.

Only twelve minutes into the journey from the walls of Genhuis, Karrun, Setkh and even Stylla noticed a change around Skullius!

...!

A false light seeped from his body, swimming over him dimly.

Karrun frowned.

'Is that Aura?' he thought while distancing himself, a shiver of disturbance racing through his skin.

The Aura coming from Skullius... was a sickening shade of dark blue that was masquerading as the colour black!

It twirled around his margins as if it was alive before pouncing on Karrun seemingly of its own free will!

...!

Karrun had been about to defend himself when the vicious threat suddenly disappeared, leaving no traces of its existence at all!

What the heck?!

Karrun wondered with just his dark expression.

What kind of Aura was that?!

Skullius kept his eyes closed.

A small smile appeared over his mouth.

'That felt good...' he thought.

He had managed to generate a lump of Aura which surprisingly ran wildly through his mana channels to cover his entire body!

This Aura was very... greedy!

When it saturated his body, he felt a grand surge of power that fuelled the WILLS that had integrated into his soul!

For that brief moment, Skullius felt like... killing everyone here!

Quite random and overly maniacal but... that was how he felt.

At the same time, he felt a false sense of omniscience and clarity had ballooned within him, making him feel like everything was in the palm of his hands!

It felt fleshing good.

But...

'I better be watchful about how I use this. I should have known my Aura wouldn't be ordinary given this body,' Skullius thought rationally, but remained proud of this fact nevertheless.

He retreated into the folds of his mind once more.

This time, he made it a point to practise caution and absolute restraint. He wouldn't let this Aura do what it pleased.

Setkh and Stylla unconsciously looked at each other, both with different opinions over what they had just seen.

This man...

Both of them didn't say anything but within, they had many thoughts.

'For some reason I'm starting to take for granted the fact that I quite literally begged this man to join my Family and participate in the Royale. I really saw him as something special then. And he is...' Stylla thought.

Perhaps she was just used to how much more special Skullius was compared to how she imagined before?

Perhaps.

Back then, Stylla had been choked with doubt after having him sign the contract to join the Family. She had questioned herself if there was truly no one else she could have bought into the Family.

Maybe there was but since her father was cursed, many nobles and allies they had cut off their connections with the Family, especially after realising that his condition was quite serious.

The months that followed were harsh, especially since Setkh had left the Family and everything was left to her to deal with.

All she could do was try to relieve stress and find allies by pretending to be a mercenary with the help of her Uncle Jac. After all, they wouldn't know who she was at first.

Then again, she did tell them her real name.

Such times.

Despite the fondness she felt for Skullius though, there was still what the old man from the tower said.

Setkh on the other hand didn't start reminiscing of events past.

'I feel uneasy. Unlike what Karrun believes... this man has too many secrets. Such unknowns could jeopardise everything...' he thought before withdrawing his gaze while killing the curious glint that had been aglow within his eyes.

At this moment, Skullius' eyes suddenly shot open and he exclaimed, "Stop the carriage!"

The trio riding along him with were perturbed!

What was wrong?

An enemy attack?!

The carriage came to a stop and Skullius opened the door.

"Excuse me, I'll be back in a bit," he said as he dashed out and sped a distance away, leaving everyone dumbfounded.

The Hybrid streaked past a mile's distance quickly, making sure that were was a lot of cover behind him and no settlement in close proximity.

After he was sure that there were no eyes on him, he looked up at the cloudy sky.

'Give me the stuff,' he thought, his message carried across the exclusive connection between him and a certain being hidden high above in the form of a massive dark cloud too far and hidden to be seen.

'Sure,' a reply came, the voice being clear this time as Skullius and Replicus were much nearer to each other, their means of communication – mental – being bolstered!

From the white clouds visible in the sky, a streak of silent Levin dashed, hopping from cloud to cloud before it speedily dived right before Skullius and smashed into the ground!

There was a soft boom and a hiss of dirt sent flying but something was left within the crater created just now, delivered by the Levin.

It was a sack. It was bulged, hinting at its contents openly.

"Heh. [Storm Rider] is more useful than I thought," Skullius said as he picked up the sack and stored it in his storage ring.

'I tell you to stay close, yet you come up with a crazy counter mission to travel all the Belvion Union to hunt bandits immediately after?' Skullius asked Replicus through their link.

'I'm you, you sockethole. I decided to do something productive instead of waiting around for hours. It paid off in the end, didn't it? You need those Plasma coins,' Replicus replied with a scoff at... himself. 𝙛r𝚎𝐞𝑤𝚎𝗯𝗻𝗼𝐯e𝚕.𝒄𝐨𝓂

'Fair point. I'll say it again, this is not something I'll get used to anytime soon. You have to understand. And by the way, how was it? Were these guys difficult to beat?' Skullius asked.

'A little. But Ferex took care of them.'

'I see. Well... Good work, bro. I better get back. Make sure you make a good impression with the new group. Oh and don't forget that thing about the profile,' Skullius reminded.

'I won't forget and I'll do just fine. I'm you, bro.'

The pending mission Skullius had, had been completed by Replicus from the time he separated from Skullius to a few hours ago. He had delivered word to Skullius soon after he reached Genhuis about starting this mission, which is why Skullius had decided to go with Stylla to the Bryne Residence. That way, he could meet up with Replicus on the road and collect the evidence for the completed mission before the two had to split up for a very long time.

It was a shallow reason at face value but there was no way Replicus would come to deliver the package in Genhuis or even send Yuyui for it. The risks were too great.

The Hybrid Luman dashed back to the carriage.

Besides convenience, he was looking forward to going to the Bryne Family Estate for one reason alone.

Apparently, that's where the treasury was according to Stylla. This had been the primary motivation before Skullius scraped it midway when he reconsidered going with Stylla. However, meeting up with Replicus as a motivation was the final push.

Right before Skullius reached the carriage, his senses led him to quickly turn his head to the left as the presence of one... no... tens of powerful creatures registered near him rapidly before... getting sapped away?

...!

That was a creepy feeling!

Skullius literally shivered at the vast number of threats yet he couldn't tell their position anymore. All of them seemed to have been sucked away by something extremely quickly, leaving him alone with gnawing caution.

'What in the world was that?!' Skullius asked himself.

He keenly checked his immediate surroundings but found nothing, which was unsettling for Skullius who trusted his senses.

With even more caution, he retreated back to the carriage with a dark face, turning his head sporadically in an attempt to focus on anything suspicious but there was none.

"What is it?" Stylla noticed his unusual behaviour and asked.

The Hybrid took a few calming breaths.

"It's nothing. Let's go," he said.