[Aura]

The day has gone and the night has come. Darkness descends and light departs.

The creatures of the night have begun to move as monsters and men set out to make the most of the night.

In a cave within the widespread forest whose length doesn't seem to have an end. A woman with long orange hair, fair skin and clad in skin-hugging purple armor could be seen stepping back slowly with her two hands shaking as she grips the hilt of her sword.

Her face crumpled with an expression seeming to have eaten shit.

Her retreat is halted as her back hits the cave wall. With nowhere else to go, she gulps hard and faces her assailant.

"Don't come any closer!" She says, trying to speak with a firm voice as she stalled for time.

But her shaking hands gave her away.

"I'm warning you!" she says with an even louder voice as she grips her sword even harder, her already fair hands become pale.

Yet, her assailant didn't even stop to reply as he approached her.

Her instincts screamed to run away from the devil approaching, but she knew just how futile such a thing would be.

Feeling the killing intent coming off her assailant's body, she changed her tone into a pitiful one within a split second.

"Why are you doing this?!"

"It wasn't my fault?!"

"Please don't kill me, I'll do anything"

At this point, the approaching assailant finally replies as he looks at the girl with a gaze of hate and disdain.

"It wasn't your fault!?" He asks with a questioning tone as his facial expression turns ugly.

Nevertheless, the woman wasn't one to back down so easily, and taking his response as a chance, she continued on.

"It wasn't my fault, I swear!" She says putting emphasis on the swear part, before continuing.

"They was nothing I could do, they forced me to…" when her words reached this point...

"Shut up" the man abruptly cut her off, before holding his chin in a posture as if contemplating, before abruptly raising his head.

"You said you would do anything, is that correct?" he asks the woman.

Seemingly waiting for this chance, the woman replies immediately after.

"Y–Yes, I swear, I'll do anything" she answered with a desperate expression, but she shook when she heard the request.

"Kill yourself" he said bluntly

"W–What do you mean?" She asks while trying to maintain her firm demeanor.

"I said you should sacrifice yourself for me" The man replied, before adding...

"Is there a problem?" He asks with an expressionless face.

At these words, she bit her lip and resigned herself to her fate, before rushing towards her assailant.

"Die!" She shouts with a crazed expression as she slashing her sword in a downward manner, closing the distance between her and him to mere inches.

Her assailant's death seemed to be inevitable to any onlooker that would be there, but as the sword was about to land...

"Khuk!" she said with blood trickling down her mouth as she found her stomach punctured, causing her to fall to the ground.

She died without knowing what killed her.

The man stared at her dead body as essence descended into his, before turning away. When he did, an eye with purple hue could be seen.

Her assailant turned out to be ... Zephyr!

How did this happen? You wish to know? Fine then.

Let's go back a few hours.

…

..

.

Standing in the middle of a forest is Zephyr with the leftover carcass of a leopard that exploded from the inside out. Besides that are rhombus-shaped crystals the size of a thumb.

He stands on guard awaiting an incoming threat.

ROAR!

The threat arrived and turned out to be a black panther the size of a full grown lion.

Zephyr was about to use [Firebolt] when something unexpected happened.

The previously proud panther shrunk low and began to retreat cautiously, with its eyes focused on Zephyr, before turning tail and running away as fast as it could.

This left Zephyr dumbfounded, not knowing what to make of the situation.

"Why did it run?" he asked seemingly no one in particular, but the answer came immediately after.

[I'm not exactly sure, it seems to have seen something I didn't]

"Whew, I guess that works for us" he said with a relieved expression before storing the crystals and carcass.

As he began to move towards the leopard's cave, notifications rang out.

{System To Player Announcement}

{Due to player achieving the 'unprecedented', rewards were revised}

[Player has gained the skill "Inspect"]

[Player has gained the skill "Aura"]

[Player has gained "Assassin boots"]

[Player has gained "Assassin mask"]

[Player has gained "Assassin armour"]

[Player has gained "Serrated blade"]

[All reward items have been sent into your storage space]

"Woah" was the only thing Zephyr's mouth could muster as he looked at the items in his inventory.

Sensing no one in his vicinity, he began to look through the rewards, the first of which were the skills.

Xenon read his thoughts and brought up the information on the skills.

[Inspect E+ (Active)]: Information is power, use this skill to gain it. The higher the difference between the Object and the User, the less the information gained.

[Aura C- (Active)]: With the usage of willpower, manifest mana into the surrounding. It's uses are endless for those who have the potential. It's limited only by your amount of mana and willpower.

"Hmm... what's with this description?" he says as he ruminates on the skill [Aura] before ultimately calling out to Xenon.

"Xenon, can you elaborate on this?" he asked with the reply coming right after.

[Just like it says, using willpower you can use mana in variety of ways]

[Each person has different Aura colors according to their talents and sometimes signify the person's characteristics]

"Ok, let's try It out!" he said as he moved to the side, sat down with his back against a tree and checked the surroundings one last time before closing his eyes.

"Huuu…" he inhaled as his mind began to wander towards cruel memories of his past life.

His heartbeat began to rise at the suffocating feeling when a voice rang out.

[Calm down, these people can't do anything to you, you're stronger now]

"Yes, I'm stronger, I've gotten stronger" he murmured as the images and suffocating feeling gradually begin to fade before completely receding.

"Huuu…" he inhaled once more as his mind became increasingly clear before finding himself in a dark and eerie place.

"Where am I?" He asks in his mind.

[This is your conscience. In it, is your integrated storage space]

[Advancing tiers will allow you to do more things with your conscience]

Zephyr kept silent as he digested the received information.

[Pull yourself together for what's coming next]

"What do you-" when his thoughts reached this point..

"Ahh...Mmm" he suddenly screamed before closing his mouth right after, causing only muffles to be heard.

Strands of transparent black lines spread throughout his body as he felt his bones become more firm.

"Haa.." Zephyr let out a small groan before opening his eyes to a notification.

[Your body has been strengthened with the use of mana]

[Perception +3]

[Dexterity +3]

[Endurance +5]

Zephyr felt ecstatic at this moment before Xenon's voice rang out.

[It seems you're unable to manifest aura for the meantime]

[Well, the results are satisfactory even so]

"Now, let's check the other skill" Zephyr said as he activated [Inspect] on a nearby tree.

It was then...

[Inspect has been integrated into ???]

At this moment, Zephyr's right turned eerily purple.

"Hmm, this again?" Zephyr said as he felt his eye heat up before cooling down.

[Your eyes may have more power than I thought]

"Yeah, I kinda guessed so too" he replied.

"Can you still activate it?"

[No, this is something only you can do]

"How am I supposed to-" Zephyr rebukes sharply before stopping abruptly.

He once again swept through the surroundings with his perception, and with a thought, he brought out the [Serrated blade] into his right hand.

ZOOM!

Without uttering a word he ran towards a certain average sized bush as he motioned his hands, ready to stab the enemy, but he met something completely different or rather... someone.

"Huh..." Zephyr said.

"Huh?" The other party replied after.

His face was a little flustered, before quickly regaining his composure.

"Wh-Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked with his dagger pointed at the other party.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spy on you" the girl answers in a shy tone.

Indeed, instead of a monster, he had found a woman with not-so average beauty, long hair and purple armour.

It was the beginning of another eye-opening event for Zephyr.