"It might even be blessed by the Goddess of War, Love, and Harvest," Althea murmured.
She turned toward him. "Isaac, have you ever received a system message from the Goddess?"
"What do you mean?"
"That—" Althea stopped herself and shook her head. "Actually, never mind. It shouldn’t be possible. Sending personal messages is too costly, even for Gods. That’s why they choose Saints or Saintesses."
Isaac didn’t comment.
He wasn’t about to tell her he had received a message before.
He barely understood how the Gods worked.
Revealing something without understanding the implications was dangerous.
"Alright. I’ll start planting the seeds now," he said.
He lifted his hand. Telekinesis spread out in a gentle wave, lifting the Verdant Baitseeds and placing them into the newly purified soil one after another. Then he activated Seed of Providence.
The skill had recently reached Transcendent rank, and the change was obvious.
The moment he used it, Isaac felt a sharp pull on his mana, like something reached into the well inside him. But compared to his reserves, it barely made a dent.
The ground trembled softly.
The seeds sprouted, expanded, and then burst upward like fast-growing vines. Thick stems shot toward the sky. Large petals unfurled in slow, heavy movements.
Giant flowers appeared. They were towering structures with dense, maze-like roots underground. Isaac could feel the roots spreading out in a wide circle, gripping the soil.
He sensed something else too.
A faint trace of pheromones from the roots.
It wasn’t a smell. It was more like a signal, or a chemical pattern in the soil. The flowers above them were giving off something similar, but stronger. Isaac couldn’t be sure because he didn’t have any skills that let him sense airborne particles.
If he knew that being able to detect it at all—without a designated skill—meant his stats had reached a point where even his senses were monstrous, he would have been surprised.
Or maybe he wouldn’t.
He was still getting used to how far he had climbed.
Althea stared up at the blooming forest. "We need to back away now. The Sinkhole Worms come out only when they don’t sense anyone nearby."
Isaac nodded.
The group retreated to a safe distance. Even from afar, the field of giant flowers stood out in the corrupted wilderness like an unnatural oasis.
They waited.
Only ten minutes passed before the ground began to tremble.
At first it was subtle, like distant footsteps. Then the vibrations grew stronger. Soil cracked in several places. The tremors traveled so far and wide that even the dead trees shook.
A portion of the ground suddenly sank.
A massive worm burst upward, throwing dirt everywhere. It was larger than most buildings, with a round mouth lined with thick plates. Four legs supported its heavy body, but it had no eyes at all.
More sunken patches appeared.
Seven more worms followed.
A total of eight.
They surrounded the giant flower forest Isaac had created, attracted to the pheromones radiating from the roots.
Althea’s expression tightened. "How are you planning to kill them? If you use any skill, they’ll detect the mana activation and escape before your attack finishes. And if you rush them directly, one or two might still slip away."
She looked between Isaac, Charlotta, and Overlord Aurora.
"If you want, I can help. With the me, Charlotta and you, we can use pure brute force. We won’t need skills, just speed and strength. It should be enough to kill them before they even think of running."
Isaac watched the worms feast on his flowers. They tore through the plants with disturbing speed. The sight would have made people from his old-world sick.
"It’s fine. I can handle it myself."
Althea seemed ready to argue, but shut her mouth after recalling that Isaac’s performance in the Evolutionary Trial.
Far inside the flower field—
Isaac’s real body and Catherine stood between the giant worms, completely concealed by their stealth.
Despite being surrounded by monsters known for their detection range, not a single worm sensed them.
Catherine walked calmly beside him, watching the worms tear apart the flowers. "Isaac, do you know the weakness of stealth skills?"
"They cancel the moment we attack," he said.
"That’s true for most people."
She nodded.
"But I use multiple skills, some of them are SSS+ rank. Because of that, the usual rules don’t apply. As long as no one with an SSS-rank detection skill is around, no one will sense me. And by extension, they won’t sense you either."
He nodded.
People with S-rank talents were already rare. Those above that were rarer. Someone with multiple SSS-rank detection skills would be practically one of a kind.
That meant Catherine was nearly undetectable.
But it didn’t mean she had no weakness.
Artifacts with strong detection arrays or alarm triggers could still cause trouble for her. That was why she couldn’t openly destroy the Naga tribe in their own territory. They had, just like any sensible species, relics for detection.
But in the wilderness, with nothing but corrupted land and Champion rank monsters?
Catherine was practically a ghost.
"Now, my stealth works perfectly with clones," she said.
"How?" Isaac asked.
She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she reached into her spatial ring and pulled out a sword.
The weapon was sharp, completely black from the hilt to the tip. It didn’t glow or release any aura, but the air around it shifted slightly, as if the blade itself bent space when she moved it.
She raised the sword and swung.
The solid blade extended outward like a whip. Segmented sections broke apart and stretched in a smooth motion. The whip-blade shot through the air and wrapped around the neck of the closest Sinkhole Worm. The sharp segments coiled tight like a cable.
Then the whip-blade extended again and circled the necks of the other worms one after another.
Isaac watched in quiet amazement. The worms didn’t react at all. They kept tearing into the giant flowers he had grown, unaware that a blade had wrapped around them and had already cut into their flesh.
"Perception Lock Distrust," Isaac muttered.
The skill distorted the target’s sense of the user, making them unable to see the target even when they were touching them. But seeing it in action against eight massive monsters was still surprising.
Catherine pointed toward the distant group standing far from the flower field. "Look there."
Isaac followed her gaze.
Overlord Aurora, Princess Althea, and Charlotta stood in their original spot. Isaac’s clone was beside them. Everything looked normal from their perspective.
Except Catherine’s clone was standing among them as well.
"My clone is altering their perception," Catherine said. "Perception Lock Distrust can only hide me and what I personally do, but if my clone uses it, it becomes much more flexible. They can’t see the blood of Sinkhole worms. They can’t see their wounds. As far as they know, nothing is happening."
She wasn’t just hiding herself and Isaac from the Sinkhole Worms.
She was hiding the entire fight.
Altering the perception of two different groups at the same time. Making both sides blind to what was happening right in front of them.
It was the scary part of mind-type skills.
Catherine glanced back at Isaac. "This is how you use clones. Always keep at least two in stealth around you. Even if you don’t plan to attack with them, they provide angles to confuse the enemy and create blind spots."
Her sword vibrated lightly.
A faint hum rolled through the air.
A thin layer of aura formed along the whip-blade. It wasn’t the usual bright or fiery aura Isaac had seen in other sword users. This was dull and dark green, almost muddy in color.
"This is Poison Elemental Sword Aura," Catherine said.
She pulled sharply.
The whip-blade tightened instantly.
Segments buried into the worms’ necks. A massive chunk of flesh tore free as Catherine yanked the blade back. Even then, the worms didn’t respond. They continued eating like nothing happened.
A few seconds passed.
Then the poison spread.
One worm shuddered, its huge body shaking violently. Another dropped to the side, legs twitching. The poison aura burrowed deeper inside them, eating away at their organs.
They died slowly but surely.
From the outside, the group watching had no idea what was going on.
"What...?" Overlord Aurora whispered.
She stepped forward in confusion as the eight giant worms suddenly collapsed for no visible reason. She couldn’t sense any mana activation. She hadn’t seen Isaac move. She didn’t even see wounds.
The bodies looked untouched.
Her breath caught in her throat.
’What kind of skill did he use...?’
She looked at Isaac’s clone with unease.
Althea’s brows were furrowed in the same confusion. She had watched Isaac fight a few days ago during Evolutionary Trial. He was strong, yes, but this looked far beyond what she remembered.
Charlotta gripped her weapon, her knuckles turning pale. She scanned Isaac, who was standing beside them, as if expecting a hidden technique to appear.
But there was nothing.
Isaac wasn’t using any skill they could detect.
Catherine’s perception distortion erased all visual signs of the attack. The blood, the torn flesh, the poisoned wounds. None of it existed in the eyes of the watchers.
The worms looked perfectly normal. They simply fell and died.
Catherine watched their distant reactions and chuckled. "Look at their faces. It’s fun to watch how afraid they get when something that they can’t understand happens."
She turned back to Isaac.
"Alright. Time to clean up. Convert the corpses into Biomass before they rot. No point bringing them along. Their corpses have no value."
Isaac nodded.
He stretched his hand over the corpses and activated the conversion skill.
Heat rippled across the dead worms. Their massive bodies melted down into a thick, dark energy that rose into the air. The Biomass gathered into one place, forming a large swirling cloud.
Isaac flicked his finger.
The biomass shot into his Spatial Ring, the one he carried specifically for storing Biomass.
Once the field was clear, Catherine gestured for him to follow.
"Let’s move out. The red rain will start soon."
They walked away from the field of giant flowers. The air had started to thicken, and the sky above them had taken on a dark, reddish tint.
Isaac looked up. "Is this normal?"
"Yes," Catherine said. "This color shows up an hour before the rain begins. It’s part of why monsters run away. Even without intelligence, they can sense danger."
She checked the gauge on her suit. "Keep an eye on your protection level. If it drops below fifty percent, we turn back immediately. Even if we stay out of the rain, the corrosion in the air will wear the suits down."
Isaac checked his own meter. "Still at full."
"Good." She glanced around the wasteland. "Get ready. You’ll have to fight corrupted monsters soon. This is your first time dealing with them."
Isaac let out a short breath. "Looking forward to it."
Catherine didn’t hide her smile. "Of course you are."
They continued walking. The corrupted land around them was quiet. The earlier tremors from the worms had faded. The ground felt strangely soft underfoot, as if the corruption had seeped into the soil for so long that it changed the texture.
The wind picked up slightly.
Catherine slowed her pace. "It’s going to rain soon. Sight lines are important here. Don’t look directly at the sky when the rain begins."
"Why?"
"It affects people," she said. "Not in a physical way but mentally. The color, the movement, the density. Even trained soldiers sometimes freeze or panic. It’s like a natural suppression effect."
Isaac nodded. "Got it."
They reached a safe distance and stopped.
From here, Isaac could see the horizon. Thick clouds pressed against each other, merging into a solid mass of red. Lightning flickered inside the clouds, except the lightning wasn’t bright. It was dark, like negative light.
The wind carried the smell of iron.
Despite the suit, Isaac felt the hairs on his arms rise.
Catherine checked her wrist again. "Protection level still stable. Good."
She scanned the ground below. "Stay alert. The first wave of corrupted beasts usually appears just before the rain starts."
Isaac stretched his fingers. The movements were steady. "How many should we expect?"
"Depends on the region. Since the worms were here earlier, the area might be emptier than usual." She paused. "But don’t relax too much."