That's quite a rude thing to say, Haddy. I just introduced you to the mighty Absolute – a woman with the ability to mess with the system and thousands of years of experience. Yet, you're talking about burning her and asking me a question with such a rude tone?

When I met her in her new form, I showed her the utmost respect, and.... hey, Izzy, what are you doing? Are you seriously going to burn her?

I quickly stand up and disrupt Isabella's mana which has already started turning into flames.

That was close.

"It's creepy!" the little girl complains.

“You can't burn stuff only because they are slightly creepy.” I look at now-silent Lissthaniel – an oval brooch made out of meat, skin, veins, and some hair – the thing is living and slightly pulsating.

Damn, maybe we really should burn... no no! I have to hold myself back.

"There is no need to be so creeped out. Say hello to Lissandra. Some of you have met her on the second floor. An older gray-haired lady who collected so many of us."

Just saying that makes plenty of them remember, and from the looks on their faces, it didn't make them any happier.

So, I quickly give them a short description and warn them multiple times to not come too close to her and never ever touch her. They can learn a thing or two and if they are dumb enough to ignore my warnings they won't last that long anyway.

I leave them to play with Lissandra while I move a bit further from them.

Obviously, Lissandra isn't too happy about all of that and is mostly silent, but I'm sure she will open up! It's nice to make some friends. I'm also sure she will get super annoyed seeing them practice their skills and will offer a rude bit of advice or two.

That's the reason why I took her with me – it's totally not because it would be too annoying to try to hide her, yup, totally not that.

"Are you sure it's safe to have her around?" Tess asks as she moves closer. I can feel her mana constantly monitoring Lissandra even as she talks to me.

"Yeah, I thought it over for the past few days, and I really think she can't do anything drastic. Her mana is low; she is limited by the system and unable to take over our minds or bodies. She can at most attack us." I pause. "She could kill some of us even with as low mana as she has, but I don't think she will do that."

Lissandra and I are similar, and even more so now that her imprint became somehow affected by me.

Obviously, I can't be absolutely sure. I know that I would try to cling to my life even to the point of breaking an agreement we have, but she knows the moment she tries something and I notice it, our deal is off. And she has a really strong impulse to fulfill her mission of giving me coordinates and making me stronger to be able to reach the real Lissandra.

I noticed that in the past few days while talking to her. It's as if the imprint's base is its mission and everything else is secondary, even to the point of changing her behavior.

"Just in case, don't allow anyone to touch her. I'll be the only one moving her. Also, no one is allowed to talk to her one on one; there always needs to be you, or Hadwin present; otherwise, there will be consequences." I say the last part out loud, making sure everyone hears.

"Sophie can talk to Lissandra only when I'm around, okay?" I add and get multiple reactions that I already ignore, and then turn back to Tess.

"Does it sound reasonable?" I ask her, and after a bit of thinking, she nods.

"You don't seem to be affected by her, and everything you said is somewhat logical, so it's fine," Tess says, and both of us fall silent while looking at our group still gathered around the brooch, talking to Lissandra, who barely talks.

"Nathaniel?" another quiet voice sounds as Lily joins me and Tess. Her eyes flick between me and tall, athletic blonde Tess.

"Yup?" Am I not getting super popular? So many people want to talk to me.

"I think I noticed something weird," she pauses and then takes a deep breath, "I think there is some weird healing effect the closer we get to the blue wall," another pause, "it's not strong right now, but I can feel it. It's similar to my skill but weaker."

Oh my, so the natives were right? The closer to the middle of the city, the stronger the healing effect is, and near the absolute middle, it will be to the point of making people immortal?

"It might be the saint's field we heard about, but it's hard to imagine how powerful the saint must be to be able to cover such a big area, even though the effect is weaker at the edges," Tess says.

"Yes! It's super strong, I think. Maybe it's some item? You have a rare javelin from Nathaniel, Tess," for a moment, her eyes glance at me, and the look in her eyes is hard to translate, and she quickly looks back at Tess. "Maybe there is an item with a much higher rarity that is creating the field? I can't imagine her doing that constantly."

"She could be. It wouldn't be that hard for someone of a high level to have a high-rarity passive skill that radiates a healing aura. Or she could have something that constantly drains some of her mana and, with the help of her healing skill, radiates it. It could be an item, it could be a tattoo or a construct. There are plenty of ways."

"Oh..." Lily says only that much.

She seems a bit down, so as I stand up, I compliment Lily for noticing the strengthening healing field closer to the blue wall. She smiles at me brightly while glancing at Tess. It all seems as if she is challenging Tess to say something or trying to show off in front of the older blonde girl.

I keep forgetting, but Lily should be close to eighteen years old. Of course, there are plenty of useless thoughts going through her head.

Having a feeling that she will cause some trouble in the future because of that, I flick her forehead preemptively before leaving her behind with Tess.

I take only a few steps and ignore Natssandra on the ground, stopping in front of the dark-skinned, athletic Maya. She is around 25, isn't she? She surely won't be as childish as others and cause me any problems.

"Tess asked me to give you a few pointers," I point at the small clearing some distance away. "Let's go there."

I notice that she enters her [Focus], which is much lower leveled than mine and possibly with different upgrades. Maya then nods and follows me, and as we walk, I notice that she is getting ready – stretching a bit, warming up her muscles. I can hear her breathing rhythmically as she tries to calm herself down and get ready.

When we finally stop, I notice that Kim is also nearby, and the boy waves at me, smiling apologetically. Behind him, two dipshi… twins are as well, watching, but the two of them avoid my gaze and look everywhere else.

I spend a few seconds staring at them, and in the end, I realize they aren't using [Connection] at all to talk amongst themselves. At least they learned that I don't like it.

Then Lily joined as well, increasing our audience to four people.

Dang it.

For a moment, I just want to send them all away, but all of them are super quiet, barely looking at us and further away from us. They are not even moving and barely breathing, and I don't feel them using mana.

It's almost cute how hard they are trying to not bother me but still want to watch.

"Okay! Fine. Just watch, you little twerps, but remember that it will cost you," I say, and they still do not move, only nod.

I turn to Maya while taking off my jacket. The third floor is still cold, so warm clothes from the system are something all of us have. They are warm but not as comfortable to move in.

After putting the jacket down, I start rolling up the long sleeves of my shirt until they are at my elbows. As I do so, I am once again reminded of the striking white paleness of my left arm, the same paleness Lily's restored left arm has.

I give Maya a bit of time, and she does the same, and soon both of us stand there observing each other.

[Focus], [Armament]. These are two skills both of us have; no one else from the group has them. I didn't give it much thought up until now, but Maya surely started with some nice skills. If it's as we think and we got offered skills that fit us the best, she can become really strong, which is also confirmed by the system throwing her into Hell difficulty.

"Focus more and do not move," I tell her, and she listens, once again without any words. The way her eyes calmly track me looks eery to the point it's almost creepy.

Is this how I look to others when having my [Focus] running nearly constantly?

I stop in front of her and I notice her body twitching, getting ready to spring up anytime and fight back.

"Do not move," I say to her, and finally, a knife forms in my hand, the knife I lift up and start slowly moving the tip towards her neck. I also enter [Focus], and I can see her breathing change; her chest starts moving faster, and the blood pulses vividly as it passes through her veins. She clenches her hand as well, but she is not moving. I reach out and observe her mana and realize that she is moving it through her body, ready to strengthen it at any moment.

"[Focus]," I repeat. I move my hand with the dagger a bit closer and then instead of using it I push her with the other hand. The entire time her eyes were glued to the dagger made of pale blue mana.

"Fuck, how can I [Focus] when you are about to stab me?!" Maya says as she slips out of her skill.

Wow, isn't this really awkward? Wasn't my [Focus] better on the first floor? Tess was right; Maya really needs a bit of help. How the heck can you waste such skill and use it so badly and get so easily scared by the dagger to the point of focusing only on it?

"Okay, change of plans, Kim, get your ass over here," I say.

Kim immediately steps closer, seemingly even happy to be part of it.

"You will take some smaller stones and will be shooting them at Maya while I spar with her. Only avoid her eyes; everything else is fine," I say, and that makes him hesitate a bit. So I add, "Can you do it?"

As if these are magical words, he immediately nods, and I turn back to Maya, the knife in my hand transforming into something looking like a stick.

I guess I will have to give her a bit of a push. I'm sure she will appreciate it... one day.