In three hours’ time, Kai and Matilda managed to completely fill their leather sacks.

And even then, there are still more mana ores that they couldn’t bring back with them. A pile of them. From mentally counting the pile, Kai believed there were a few hundred mana ores that they couldn’t bring back.

"Let your summon bring the sacks to the stash," Matilda suggested.

She believed it was better for them to continue cracking the boulders, while Perion was charged to transport the mana ores to the stash. Since Perion could also suppress his presence like Kai using Nigh-phantom, but could carry more, having him handle this task should be fine.

But Kai disagrees.

"No. Let’s find another tree nearby and mark it."

"Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Alright, let’s do that."

Considering the uncharted territory and the dangers around, it’s best for them to spread out their mana ores inside multiple trees. Once they roughly have more than three thousand, then they could pay a visit to them one by one to collect their haul.

That way, if something did happen to the trees, they wouldn’t be entirely screwed.

Kai, Matilda, and Perion continued mining.

No need for them to worry about the amount anymore, since they were going to stash the haul in a nearby tree. Each of them was tasked with cracking open one boulder, making the process effective and efficient.

Growl—!

A rumbling growl reached them.

Another Awakened Monster was nearby, and based on the sound, it was approaching them.

"I’ll get it," Kai dropped the pickaxe and grabbed his scimitar.

It wasn’t the first Awakened Monster to wander close to them—during the three-hour mining session. They took turns dealing with each one that came. Unlike the fish-monsters that they had fought earlier, the Awakened Monsters populating this area were massive boars.

Hulking brutes with tusks of gleaming steel.

Not as strong as the fish-monster, but really noisy to deal with if it didn’t end with one strike.

Matilda learned that earlier as she was forced to run around as more came.

There are a few sounders nearby.

Kai had seen them, so it didn’t come as a surprise when one or two wandered near them.

Like a hunter, Kai stayed on a tree branch with the Nigh-phantom active. His entire body was shrouded in darkness, and even his eyes blended in. He watched the steel-tusked boar approach slowly, sniffing the ground.

Once it was directly under, Kai came down with the scimitar, pointing it down.

He struck viciously directly into its brain and twisted, killing it without it could make a sound.

And without hesitation, he fed the steel-tusked boar to his Primordial Lock.

Kai then opened his status window and saw that the percentage was already at seventy percent. Just thirty more Awakened Monsters to absorb, and he’d be completing his quest. Not that hard if things went on like this.

As soon as the carcass was gone, he made his way back.

It was barely a minute’s stroll at a leisurely pace—half that if he walked with purpose. Not far at all. But somewhere along the way, Kai’s vision began to blur—sharpening and softening in strange, unpredictable waves.

And his breaths... he was panting.

Even though he hadn’t exerted his physique at all, he was panting like he had run a marathon.

"Hmm?" Kai stopped. He raised his wet hand and stared at it with a frown. "What’s going on with me?"

He blinked rapidly, trying to shake the strangeness away.

But he couldn’t.

"Anomaly child..."

Kai snapped his head to the side when he heard someone whispering into his ear.

Nobody was there.

Only the silent ancient trees and still water.

"You think you’re better than us..."

"Son of the Final Night, you’re lucky to be favoured..."

A groan escaped Kai’s lips as the whispers surged—dragging a pulsing agony through his skull like something was trying to break his mind. He dropped to one knee and clamped his hand against his head, fingers digging into his scalp—as though the pressure could somehow help ease the pain.

It couldn’t.

Kai tried to keep his eyes open to make sure nothing was around.

Beyond the beings behind the whispers, Kai was also afraid that some wandering Awakened Monsters would find him in his helpless state and strike. But his vision was betraying him a lot faster now.

The strange blurring and sharpening had worsened.

And the swamp itself seemed to warp along, shifting in ways that shouldn’t be possible.

The tree bark had turned black—not the wet brown it was, but a deep, abyssal black that was drinking the color around it. The murky water followed, darkening to an oily, depthless stain. Then the blur would roll in, and the world returned to normal.

Green moss, grey mud, the familiar damp.

And with another blur, the darker version of the swamp returned.

But it was no longer empty.

Things clung to the trees now, shadows of grotesque shapes and sizes, their forms aren’t even close to anything human. Beneath the black surface of the water, other shapes stirred, rippling without current.

Every one of them was whispering, cursing Kai.

And all of them looked furious at him.

One of them stood apart from the rest, the one on the tree branch across from him. Kai could recognize this thing instantly from its elongated, razor-sharp fingers and the black tongue that coiled and uncoiled from its mouth.

It was the hostile Nightborn he had faced before.

Just that realization alone confirmed what these creatures were—Nightborns.

For some reason, all of them were hostile towards him.

The blur swept in like a mercy, and the normal swamp returned. Kai heaved ragged breaths— his gaze darting through the trees. His vision had steadied, no more sharpening and softening, no more glimpses into that other place. "What was that...?" His voice came out hoarse. "Why are they acting like this to me?"

Kai hadn’t done anything peculiar to the other Nightborns.

Only running from that particular hostile Nightborn.

He doesn’t understand what warrants such hostility from them.

Not to mention, he had been used to being the one going into the House of Night.

This was the first time, at least without his permission, that Nightborns entered the world.

It may have only been an illusion that only he could see, but still, this was unnerving.

Kai scanned his surroundings one last time, then jogged back to Perion and Matilda. As soon as the last boulder had been cracked open, they moved on, searching for another tree hollow to stash the gathered mana ores.

Right now, they should at least have a bit over half of Kai’s weekly quota.

A surprising pace.

They gathered the mana ores faster than anticipated, and it was all because of Perion.

But even then, Kai doesn’t feel ecstatic at all.

It’s good that things are going smoothly, but his mind was still fixed on what happened earlier.

All I’ve done in the House of Night is talk to Noxian, wander around to explore a bit, run away from that damned Nightborn, and then accidentally meet with the Second Daughter of the Primordial Night, Mallory. Is it her? Is she the one behind this?

Kai leaned his hand against a tree bark, contemplating hard.

He really felt uneasy after that happened.

No, that shouldn’t be the case. She doesn’t know who I am. She believed I’m a Nightborn—so I doubt this was her doing. But then what? What made the Nighborns angry at me? It could be the Nightborns on her side, but why are they angry at me?

If those Nightborn were truly sent by Mallory, then that means they already knew he’d been lying about his identity. Mallory knew that he lied to her about being the Hate Ending. So, he wouldn’t even be surprised if she was already on her way to kill him.

But she didn’t.

At least, it doesn’t feel like she was coming for him.

Kai had seen her power firsthand, and he was quite sure she could kill him in an instant if she really wanted to. So—this could not be her Nightborns, either. "I can only ask Noxian about this," He glanced skyward; the sun still held its place. "But it’ll have to wait."

As much as he wanted to use Deep Slumber right now, the swamp isn’t dark enough.

And the night is still far away.

He couldn’t sleep under these circumstances.

"Are you okay?" Matilda held his shoulder, noticing him acting weirdly.

"I’m fine," Kai lied and straightened his back. "Let’s continue."

"You said you don’t mind opening up to me, so cough it up."

"I’m not fine... It’s my bloodline. It’s acting up again, but I could still continue."

Matilda nodded.

It was normal for Supernals to experience supernatural phenomena because of their Patron God. Not to mention, Kai isn’t so simple; she was certain of that already. His Patron God must be a powerful one, so this is normal.

"Just tell me if you need to take a minute," Matilda said.

Kai nodded, but then, he paused.

Ring...

He heard a ringing sound, faint, and he thought he was hallucinating again.

Another Nightborn was messing with him.

But the ringing came again—and this time, Matilda’s head turned. She’d heard it too.

"Do you hear that? It’s like someone is playing with a bell," Matilda muttered. Nothing in this swamp should be able to produce that kind of sharp, high-pitched noise. "It does not sound like weapon clashing."

"Oh, right! It’s the cat!" Kai’s eyes glimmered in excitement. "Let’s go!"

Kai ran towards the ringing direction, followed by Matilda right behind.

Since they were only getting the cat, they left behind their mined mana ores with Perion.

"What’s the importance of this cat, anyway?"

"It’s Professor Evie’s cat. The new group needed a professor to sponsor it, and I might be able to convince her if I rescued her cat."

"You don’t say..."

Just as Professor Evie predicted, the cat, Iris, was deep inside the Fire Swamp.

And there it was—perched on a tree branch, utterly oblivious, batting at a butterfly as though a steel-tusked boar wasn’t waiting below. It didn’t care that death was waiting for it. Kai drew his scimitar and dashed.

One strike dropped the boar, and then he looked up at the cat."

"Iris!" He called. "Get down from there!"

"What are you doing? Are you dumb?" Matilda cackled in disbelief. "Do you think it’s a kid or something? It is a cat. You wrapped up some of the cooked fish-monster meat—right? Give it to me."

Kai handed over the meat he wrapped in cloth for later tonight.

She leaped onto the branch, landing a few feet away—and Iris startled at the sudden arrival. Matilda extended the fish meat—with a soft smile. "Here, kitty, kitty." She inched the offering closer. "Come on. I’ll take you back to mommy."

Instead of coming to her, Iris’ ears dropped back in fear, and it jumped down from the tree.

Kai laughed at the sight, "I think you scared it."

"I can see that. I have eyes," Matilda smacked her lips in displeasure.