Sid POV

  At Sid’s warning, the team dropped into a crouch. It happened with practiced ease, without a second thought. Their movements were quiet, efficient, and familiar.

  “How many?” Varun asked, his voice low. He didn’t bother hiding the excitement in it, the familiar edge of eagerness that surfaced whenever a fight promised growth.

  Sid’s Predator’s Awareness flipped the dynamic in the dungeon. They weren’t prey anymore—they were the hunters. The team mimicked Sid’s actions with every new threat. They observed first. They moved only once they understood the enemy and the terrain.

  Goblins were smaller than most of their foes, so they instinctively scanned upward in unfamiliar terrain. A low crouch exploited this blind spot and kept Sid’s team undetected.

  “I see five goblins. Three wearing armor.” Sid lowered his voice, his gaze sliding past Varun’s crouched figure. He studied the enemy, cataloging every detail he could. Armor. Build. Weapons. Positioning. Each piece mattered. The clearer the picture, the better he could shape their opening move.

  An unarmored goblin scanned the earth. It crouched low, fingers brushing dirt and stones for something specific. Three others stood watch. Their heads remained high, scanning in separate directions for potential threats.

  The fifth goblin drew Sid’s attention the longest. It wore armor and wielded a staff disturbingly similar to his own, eyes glued to the tracker and shifting position whenever the smaller goblin moved. That was not random behavior.

  Sid signaled for the team to inch their way to the closest tree. It wouldn’t provide sufficient cover for everyone, but would suffice until they settled on a plan.

  “I hope we get a healing skill this time.” Varun’s tone was hopeful as he craned his neck toward the goblins’ direction.

  Sid doubted Varun could see anything from here without a perception skill. Still, he let the comment pass.

  “Did they notice us?” Pallavi set her backpack down slowly and shifted her grip on the spear. Her stance was steady, practiced. She reminded Sid of a drawn bow, ready to bring death.

  “No,” Sid said after another careful look. “But they are following us.” The admission stung more than it should have. He should’ve considered the possibility.

  The day’s easy wins went to his head. Since no monster could catch them off guard, the Misty Mountain, notorious for its ambush predators, felt like an easier dungeon out of the nine. Stripped of its lethality, the climb was almost easy.

  The goblins proved him wrong. His skills weren’t absolute, and finding the limits of Predator’s Awareness and Echo Sense on the dungeon’s lowest level was a humbling blow.

  Sid knew better than to ignore the warning. Complacency would be fatal as they climbed higher, where ambush predators were more numerous and far less forgiving.

  “What’s the plan?” Rohan asked, taking deep breaths to calm himself down.

  Sid saw the familiar pattern emerge. Rohan slipped into his role as a follower. He weighed in on the fight-or-flight decision, then immediately stepped back to let someone else take charge.

  “I can drop from above and take out two goblins like last time. Then we’d outnumber them.” Confidence oozed from Varun’s words as he spoke.

  They’d picked off a couple of goblin stragglers earlier that day. Sid spotted them before they sensed the threat. While Sid and Pallavi drew their fire from the front, Varun prowled above, biding his time to strike.

  Varun dropped unannounced, daggers piercing both goblin scalps in one fluid motion. He pulled the blades free as easily as plucking a flower. The goblins fell. It was an impressive feat, if you ignored the mess.

  “The ones in armor are the main issue.” Sid kept peeking around the trunk, tracking the goblins’ movements. “I don’t think you can take out the shaman or the bulky one with a single hit.”

  Mana Shield was a common drop from goblin shamans. If present, the shield would block Varun’s strike. That gave the shaman time to retaliate. He had to test the barrier from a range before closing the distance. Otherwise, an Iceglass Shatter could turn a clean ambush into a disaster.

  The bulky goblin almost certainly possessed Enhanced Endurance. It was an uncommon skill seldom encountered on the first level of Misty Mountain, only dropped by bulky goblin warriors. The skill appeared more frequently among hobgoblins on the second level. It toughened the body against all forms of damage, whether piercing, slashing, blunt, or even magical.

  “Then I take out one goblin and have them chase me,” Varun said after a moment. “You ambush them from cover.”

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  Sid’s lips curled up. He didn’t want followers who waited on him to think. He wanted teammates who could operate independently when needed. People who challenged him intellectually. He didn’t expect to be right every time, but he expected their decisions to be calculated and intentional.

  Varun possessed the skill to contribute, yet every plan he drafted centered on himself. Whether born of a hero complex or a disregard for his allies’ strengths, Sid saw it as a flaw that required fixing.

  Rohan and Pallavi also needed to step up. Sid didn’t want every team decision questioned, but he wanted them to sharpen their critical thinking. Especially regarding team battles.

  Sid took a deep breath before meeting Varun’s gaze. “That’s a good plan. But we don’t have any ranged skills apart from Mana Web. We’ll draw their attention while you strike from above.”

  Sid peeked around the tree again, watching the goblins adjust their direction and follow their trail.

  Without ranged skills, the enemy would need to come much closer to their hiding spots before they could spring the ambush.

  They didn’t have the time to find three separate hiding spots. Rohan and Pallavi lacked proper hiding skills, which meant their presence would be easy to detect if they attempted a coordinated ambush. Goblins were not perceptive, but they were not blind either. A poorly concealed approach would only announce the attack before it began.

  Varun was different.

  If he alone hid among the branches, he could remain unnoticed, provided the goblins were distracted by an attack from the ground. From above, he could strike with precision, delivering a critical hit to remove one goblin before repositioning for another attack. That approach played to his strengths.

  With Agility nearing fifty, Varun was a powerhouse in the making; he only lacked the Perception to match. Had his senses been higher, distractions would have been unnecessary. He could have dismantled a goblin squad alone, picking them off one by one.

  Sid turned to Varun and met his gaze. “Take out the lanky goblin in armor. The one carrying a dagger instead of the staff.” His expression hardened as he spoke, leaving no room for interpretation.

  “Pallavi will focus on the bulky goblin,” Sid continued. “Rohan and I will handle the rest.”

  Varun nodded once, sharp and focused, before climbing the tree they had taken cover behind. He moved, keeping to the side opposite the goblins. By the time he reached the branches, his outline blended with the canopy, his ambush position secured high above.

  Pallavi and Rohan exchanged a glance before nodding as well. They crouched closer behind the trunk, tightening their formation and reducing their visibility beyond the tree’s cover.

  Sid triggered Mist Blend and crawled to another tree. The skill softened his outline to mute his presence. A faint smile formed as he settled into position. He couldn’t wait to test the evolved Veil of the Mind’s Eye in combat.

  The skill grew more potent after evolution, yet the name remained the same, confirming Sid’s long-held suspicion. It was a legacy skill. Bestowed by a god and infused with a fragment of a concept, its divine origin explained why it far outstripped its rank.

  While researching Return to Origin, Sid had studied every skill classification his access allowed. Still, his knowledge remained shallow. Information on Legacy Skills was scarce, mostly rumors. The Federation possessed neither gods nor legacy skills. It was propped up by the twelve Archons, and they were merely demigods.

  Sid watched the approaching goblins, his attention fixed on the shaman. He activated the Veil of the Mind’s Eye and marked the shaman as his target. That was one of the skill’s additional functions. Once marked, the target remained designated even if it left Sid’s field of vision.

  It fixed Sid’s most dangerous flaw. The skill no longer deactivated the moment he lost sight of his target. That weakness caused a leg wound at the camp. He had prioritized addressing this specific flaw before his evolution finally began.

  Things would have been different if Sid had gained Predator’s Awareness and Echo Sense before the evolution. Their combination gave him near-perfect awareness. Now, even if an enemy slipped into the blind spot of Predator’s Awareness, he could still sense them through Echo Sense, provided they stayed within twenty feet of him.

  Even after devaluation, the mark was a significant improvement over the common-rank version of the skill. Once a target was marked, distance was no longer a limiting factor in keeping them under the skill’s influence.

  The mark remained active for a full minute, after which he’d need to sense the enemy again in order to refresh its effect and keep it from fading.

  Sid shifted his focus to the bulky goblin and applied a second mark. That was another benefit of the evolution, allowing him to designate two targets at the same time. If he had gone with a standard skill evolution, this would have been the only upgrade he received. The ability to apply the skill to multiple targets.

  Using a mid-grade natural treasure had granted him two additional abilities. And the second was the real prize. Something which shouldn’t be possible at the uncommon rank.

  Sid lifted a rock. He needed to probe the shaman’s Mana Shield without being noticed. He had to trigger the defense without drawing eyes; a dodge or an interception by the bulky warrior would ruin the play. Once Varun took out the lanky Tier 1, Sid would send the rock flying at the shaman.

  The goblins advanced at a steady pace. When they were about twenty feet away, the tracker halted and took a step back toward the shaman. The formation shifted instantly.

  The bulky warrior moved to the front, while the shaman raised its staff and began releasing mist. The lanky warrior did not advance. Instead, it started circling the group in widening arcs.

  As the mist spread rapidly across the area, a sense of déjà vu settled over Sid.

  “Now!” he called, drawing the attention of the Tier 0 goblins and the lanky Tier 1.

  Pallavi burst from cover, Rohan right behind her.

  The bulky goblin warrior ignored Sid entirely and braced itself to receive Pallavi’s charge.

  This squad’s composition and fighting style mirrored the one that had nearly wiped them out a week earlier. Objectively, this group was stronger, though they lacked the time to set up an ambush.

  A week had passed since that fight. Sid found himself interested in how much they had grown since then.

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