As the cart traveled onward, with the Closed Labyrinth visible in the distance, Rebecca finally broke the long silence. "Hey, Luthra, is a Labyrinth just a forest with a bunch of confusing trees, because that doesn’t sound very scary." ’It’s the things living inside them, not the trees themselves,’ he thought, but before he could speak, Lilith’s voice suddenly manifested inside his head. [Luthra, there is a problem.] ’Tch, of course there is.’ [Four hostile signatures are approaching at high speed and will intercept your position in approximately seven minutes, and I have identified them as the Syndicate hunters.] He tightened his grip on the reins, pain shooting through his splinted arms. ’Seven minutes, and I can’t even see them, which is a massive blind spot.’ "Lilith, this is a pain, since I can’t fight what I can’t see, so how do I learn to sense things, and don’t tell me to buy some stupid skill from the shop." [Sensory-type skills are not a matter of simple acquisition, for they are an extension of a hunter’s Path, a fundamental alteration of their soul that allows them to perceive the world beyond the five senses, and you do not have a Path.] "Then how do I get one, right now?" [To forge a skill from zero, without the foundation of a Path, is a volatile and dangerous process, requiring three components: a catalyst, an anchor, and an act of will.] Rebecca tried to get his attention, "Who are you talking to?" He ignored her, continuing his internal conversation. "Explain the components." [The catalyst must be a source of pure, raw mana, with a monster’s core being the most common and effective option, while the anchor is your own body, which must be prepared to withstand the influx of foreign energy, and the act of will is the most critical part, as you must directly interface with the mana core, forcing your consciousness into it and imprinting your desire onto its structure, which is, for all intents and purposes, an attempt to rewrite the very nature of a piece of the world’s power.] ’So I have to shove a magic rock into my head and hope I don’t die, great.’ "What are the risks?" [Pain is a certainty, and the feedback from a failed attempt can result in permanent soul damage, madness, or a complete system collapse, furthermore, the probability of success on a first attempt is statistically low.] "So I just need a core, where is the nearest monster?" [The four hostile signatures that are now three minutes away are each riding D-Rank reptilian mounts, and these mounts possess mana cores.] ’So the solution to my problem is currently running straight at me.’ He pulled the cart to a halt within a small, rocky basin. "what are we doing, I thought we were running away!" "We were, but now we’re getting a new eyeball." A short distance away, Jako pulled his lizard to a stop, prompting Borris to rein in his own mount beside him. "What is it now, Jako, did you lose the scent?" "No, they’ve stopped just ahead, inside that mess of rocks." Misha spoke up from her mount. "Are they stupid? why would they stop?" Borris gave his orders, his voice carrying through the rocky basin, "Hiding in a hole, just like a rat. Jako, you and Misha circle around the west ridge, while Goran and I will go in through the main entrance, and when he runs, you pincushion him with your magic, Misha. I want the man alive, but the kid is fair game." Misha dismounted from her lizard, holding her staff in her hand, "Borris, this is a classic ambush point, so we should be cautious and send in one of the lizards first." "Cautious? We’re four C-Rank hunters against a mana-less blank and a little girl, so if we need to be cautious here, we should just hand in our licenses and become farmers. Now move!" Misha and Jako exchanged a look, then the four hunters left their lizards tethered to a dead tree and moved to their designated positions. From behind a large slab of rock, Luthra watched the four of them split up, his splinted arms a constant ache. "Hey, Luthra," Rebecca whispered from beside him, "there are four of them, and they look really mean. What’s the eyeball plan?" He did not look at her, his eyes remaining fixed on the four D-Rank lizards, "They’re overconfident, so the two big ones will come straight for us while the other two try to flank, and they’ve left their mounts behind, which is our opening." He turned to face her, "I need you to do exactly as I say, with no heroics and no getting angry, so when I give the signal, you run as fast as you can toward the lizards. Understand?" "Run toward them? But the mean guys will be right behind me!" "They won’t be looking at the lizards, they’ll be looking at you, and I will handle the rest. Can you do that for me?" She looked at his splinted arms, and after a moment, she nodded, "Okay, I can do that." The sound of footsteps on gravel signaled the approach of Borris and Goran toward their hiding spot. "Come on out, you little worm! Face us like a man, or are you going to hide behind that kid forever?" ’Alright, Lilith. Get ready.’ He gave Rebecca a single nod, and she burst from behind the rock, running not away from the hunters, but at an angle, directly toward the tethered lizards. "Hah! The little rat is trying to run!" Goran raised his mace. "She’s not getting away!" Borris charged after her. From the ridge above, Misha raised her staff, a ball of energy forming at its tip, "She’s running right into the open! Perfect!" With all of them focused on Rebecca, Luthra moved, uncoiling a length of the chain from his shoulder and gripping it between his splinted hands, then he ran out from his cover, staying low to the ground. As Borris and Goran thundered past, he threw the chain in a low, sweeping toss aimed at their feet. Borris instinctively leaped over the chain, but Goran, his eyes locked on Rebecca, was not as quick, and the chain tangled around his ankles, causing him to fall and hit the ground. "Goran! You clumsy oaf!" Misha, seeing the trap, redirected her spell, and the ball of energy shot from her staff towards Luthra, who was already diving behind another boulder as the energy blast slammed into the spot he had just vacated. Rebecca reached the tethered lizards just as Borris was closing in on her, and as the beasts hissed and snapped, she dodged under a bite, grabbed the rope tethering the lead lizard, and pulled the knot free. The D-Rank monster, suddenly untethered, spun around, its powerful tail whipping through the air and catching Borris square in the chest, launching him backward ten feet where he landed in a heap. From the ridge, Jako cursed, "The little bitch freed one! It’s going nuts!" The freed lizard, now in a frenzy, charged not at the hunters, but at its still-tethered brethren, stabbing one with its horn and sending the other creature into a panic as chaos erupted among them. While the hunters were distracted by the rampaging monsters and the incapacitated Borris, Luthra sprinted from his cover, ignoring the men and locking his eyes on the lizard that had been stabbed. He reached it just as it was trying to stand, jumped onto its back, drove his full weight down, and jammed his knee into the wound on its side, causing the lizard to thrash wildly. [Luthra, the core is located in the creature’s sternum, protected by a thick layer of hide and bone. You will not be able to retrieve it with your bare hands in your current condition.] ’I don’t have time for ’not able’. Make it happen.’ He slid off the creature’s back, grabbed a sharp rock from the ground, and slammed it down onto the lizard’s chest three times, cracking the rock without breaking the hide. Misha saw him, "He is up to something, stop him!" She launched another energy bolt, but Rebecca, seeing it coming, scooped up a handful of gravel and threw it, making Misha flinch for a fraction of a second and causing her aim to go wide. The bolt went past Luthra’s head, charring the rock beside him as he slammed his own rock down again, and this time the creature’s chest cavity cracked open. He dropped the stone, reached into the cavity with his broken hand, and ripped the core free, a D-Rank mana core that was glowing red. ’Got it. Now for the hard part.’ [Catalyst acquired. Anchor confirmed. Host’s will is... questionable. Proceeding with unsanctioned skill forging is not advised. The probability of catastrophic psychic backlash is 88%.] ’Just do it, Lilith.’ He knelt on the ground, jammed the glowing core against his forehead, and pushed his consciousness into it. The lizard’s dying thoughts flooded his mind, a chaos of instinct and pain, but beneath it was the pulse of mana. He ignored the storm, focusing on a single command he tried to force into the energy. A psychic backlash struck him, causing his nose to bleed and his vision to blur. [WARNING! HOST’S NEURAL ACTIVITY IS SPIKING BEYOND SAFE PARAMETERS! SOUL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED! ABORT! ABORT!] He felt his mind beginning to fracture when a small hand grabbed the back of his shirt. "Hey! Get up! They’re coming!" He focused on the sound of Rebecca’s voice and pushed one last time.