After spending nearly the entire night in a state of absolute stillness and focus in order to recover even the smallest amount of the Myst he had used so far, Liam finally opened his eyes.

The moment he did, he found himself back within the hidden chamber inside the rocky outcrop.

The hollow interior remained dark and quiet, even with the faint traces of moonlight slipping through the narrow crevice that served as the chamber’s entrance. The pale light barely reached beyond the front portion of the cave, leaving most of the interior drowned in shadow.

Liam remained seated for a moment, silent and still.

His crimson eyes shifted toward the crevice ahead of him, gazing quietly at the small visible portion of the night sky beyond it.

’...Ninety percent still isn’t ideal,’ he thought calmly as he slowly rose from his seated position, ’but I can work with it.’

Through hours of intense focus and controlled circulation, Liam had managed to recover another five percent of his Myst reserves, bringing him back up to ninety.

That had been his minimum goal.

Recover five percent at the very least.

And after spending what felt like the entirety of the night motionless within the chamber, he had managed exactly that.

Even so, the process had reminded him just how irritating Myst instability truly was.

Under normal conditions, someone with his reserves and control would have recovered far more than five percent through a full night of meditation and rest. But within Nalim, every attempt at Myst restoration felt like forcing water through clogged veins.

Slow, resistant, and exhausting.

Still, it was better than remaining at eighty-five.

Standing fully now, Liam moved through the chamber slowly while conjuring a small ball of flame into the center of his left palm. The fire illuminated the dark space with a dim orange glow, revealing more of the cave than he had bothered observing earlier.

This time, he took his time examining the chamber properly.

The rough stone walls stretched unevenly around him, their surfaces marked by cracks, weathering, and something else.

Claw marks.

Long ones.

Liam approached the nearest set quietly.

Along portions of the wall, deep scratches carved through the stone itself. The grooves were narrow but forceful, as though some creature had repeatedly dragged sharpened claws against the rock over time.

Liam narrowed his eyes slightly.

At first, the marks appeared to belong to something with three fingers.

But as he continued moving along the chamber walls, studying the patterns more carefully, he noticed the claw formations changing.

Five.

The later marks clearly carried the shape of five claws instead.

’Was there a fight between two demons here?’ Liam wondered inwardly as he stared at the markings.

At first glance, that seemed like the most reasonable explanation.

Two creatures with different anatomies locked in conflict within the chamber.

Yet the more he looked around, the less that explanation satisfied him.

If two demons had truly fought here with enough force to leave claw marks this deep into solid stone, then there should have been visible destruction throughout the chamber itself.

Collapsed rock, broken pillars, or even factured walls.

Something.

Unless the fight had occurred so long ago that time and natural Myst had slowly reshaped the damaged formation back into stability.

But Liam doubted that.

Stepping closer, he reached out and touched one of the deeper claw marks lightly with his fingers.

The texture told him enough immediately.

The damage wasn’t ancient.

Not recent enough to still carry fresh residue or active Myst traces—

But not old either.

Certainly not old enough for the entire cave to naturally reconstruct itself afterward.

Which meant there was another possibility.

One Liam found increasingly believable the longer he examined the chamber.

"...Evolution," Liam muttered quietly.

Whatever creature had once occupied this place may not have been two separate demons at all.

It could have been one.

A demon that had somehow changed over time.

And strangely enough, that possibility only felt more convincing after Liam discovered something else deeper within the chamber.

A few meters away from the claw marks, partially hidden near a lower section of stone, Liam found what looked like a large strip of discarded skin.

He crouched slightly beside it.

The material resembled reptilian shed skin at first glance, similar to how serpents discarded older layers during growth. Yet at the same time, portions of it looked strangely mammalian as well, carrying traces of coarse fur-like texture near the outer edges.

The thing looked unnatural.

Mutated.

Like two biological structures had fused imperfectly together.

’Quite curious to know what this was,’ Liam thought as his eyes studied the pale shredded remains carefully.

Then another thought crossed his mind.

"That aside... I do hope I’m not invading a predator’s shelter."

With everything he had found so far, that possibility became impossible to ignore.

If this chamber truly belonged to a demon, then Liam was effectively trespassing within its territory.

Not that he particularly cared about courtesy.

The issue was inconvenience.

Right now, the last thing Liam wanted was another unnecessary fight.

Especially after the first day he had already endured.

Still, despite the evidence, Liam doubted the chamber currently belonged to an active demon.

Mainly because the cave lacked any lingering concentrated Myst signature tied to a specific creature.

Aside from the discarded skin itself, which only gave off an extremely faint trace once inspected closely, the chamber carried no dominant presence at all.

That meant one of two things.

Either the creature had long abandoned the place—

Or it was dead.

Deciding not to waste further time wondering about it, Liam extinguished the flame in his hand before finally heading toward the crevice entrance.

He squeezed through the narrow stone passage once more before emerging outside into the open air again.

Immediately, cold night air greeted him.

The sky above remained dark, though only barely now. Pale moonlight illuminated portions of the forest and rocky terrain surrounding the outcrop, but the darkness no longer felt absolute.

Dawn was approaching.

"Guess I spent the whole night in there," Liam muttered quietly as he stepped fully out from the crevice and looked around.

His gaze soon shifted upward toward the peak of the rocky formation.

Smoke remained exactly where Liam had left him.

The massive shadow wolf still stood watch from above like a silent guardian, his dark body blending naturally into the surrounding shadows while his glowing eyes scanned the forest below for threats.

Liam looked at him briefly before shifting his attention back toward the forest itself.

The wilderness remained quiet.

But Liam knew better than to mistake that silence for safety.

Demons still roamed out there.

He could feel them faintly through the surrounding Myst currents, some distant and some closer.

All hidden somewhere within the darkness between the trees.

’There’s still roughly an hour and a half before sunrise,’ Liam thought calmly as he studied the faint horizon beyond the forest. ’I can use that time to get some things done while it’s still dark.’

For someone like him, a dark mage, nighttime was close to ideal.

Almost. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The darkness naturally favored him without requiring additional effort. He could move through shadows with ease, blend into dim environments instinctively, and most importantly, navigate the forest without relying heavily on Myst.

Unlike most people, Liam didn’t need illumination to see clearly.

To him, darkness was merely another environment.

Not an obstacle.

And with Smoke’s senses linked to his own, he could scout terrain, detect movement, and track presences across a far larger range without wasting unnecessary Myst.

Meaning this was the perfect time to move.

To hunt.

To gather more medicinal materials.

And perhaps secure additional useful resources before the forest fully awakened with daylight activity.

That was—

Assuming this unstable zone of Nalim didn’t decide to throw another disaster at him out of nowhere.

With that thought in mind, Liam calmly reached up and removed the upper portion of his training attire.

The fabric slid off slowly before he folded it loosely in one hand.

’Need to make sure this doesn’t get dirty in any way,’ he thought as he tossed the clothing carefully back through the crevice into the chamber behind him.

Even though both sleeves had already been torn away and repurposed as bandages, the remaining fabric still held value.

Once cleaned properly, it could serve as future wrapping material for his wound.

And limiting infection mattered far more than preserving appearances.

Now stripped of the outer layer, Liam remained dressed in only a dark sleeveless tank top along with his academy pants and boots.

The cooler night air brushed against his exposed arms and shoulders immediately.

Then he shifted his attention upward toward Smoke once more.

"Time to go hunting," Liam muttered calmly. "You ready?"