"Wha… what's happening?"

I immediately expelled mana again and commanded the raven to switch places with me.

…Still, nothing happened.

Then Aika pinched my hand that held hers, drawing my attention. When I looked at her, she said calmly, "Look over there."

I followed the finger she pointed to a small screen that had appeared at my side:

[One with the Ravens —> Cooldown: 10 Mins.]

[Time left to use exclusive skill again: 8:43.]

"Oh…" I groaned softly, tilting my head as the reality hit: Turns out this was one of those skills that had a cooldown period.

"Aisshh. Bummer."

I let go of Aika's hand with a frown creasing my brow. This skill having a cooldown meant that I had to be strategic with how I used it, as I couldn't just switch any time I wanted.

…Still, it wasn't all that bad. Having this ability to swap places with my ravens was utterly invaluable. Even if it was limited to once every ten minutes, it served as a perfect emergency escape and long-range ambush tool. Plus, as I leveled up the skill, the cool down time would reduce significantly.

I started to look away from the information screen, but right at that moment, Aika took my hand, lacing her fingers between mine. When I snapped my gaze to her, she said with a voice laced with curiosity, "Let me try."

"Huh?" I arched a brow in confusion.

Aika then looked to me and said, "We share the same exclusive skills, right?"

Of course!

That was when the realization hit me. Since we had access to the same skills, that meant she could also use [One with the Ravens] when she wanted. My cooldown did not affect her, and her cooldown would not affect mine.

As she looked to the raven that was still watching us in the distance, I felt a large amount of mana leave my core. In the next instant, we both erupted into a flurry of feathers and just like before, we swapped places with the raven.

Again, just like before, only I appeared where the raven was, as Aika had instantly reverted back to her dormant form during the transfer.

She re-emerged from the tattoo, standing beside me a moment later. The raven on the other side immediately flapped its wings and flew to us. I raised a hand and it landed on my open palm, cawed once, and then its form dissolved like smoke until it was a feather again.

With that detail confirmed, Aika and I then decided to continue exploring the full capabilities of the skill.

After about an hour or so, we discovered a few things about the exclusive skill. The first thing we learned was that the cooldown was strictly applied only to teleportation aspect of the skill. Creating feathers and shaping them into ravens, however, could be done at any time as long as my mana reserves held out.

We tried to test the limits of how many feathers I could create. Since the feathers did not cost a lot of mana, we quickly discovered I could create as many as I desired.

This was really great because it meant that I could keep my feathers at any location that I wanted as markers. I could also instantly change one into a raven at any time to spy on somebody. The good thing was that sharing my vision with a raven cost very little mana, and so the distance at which I could perceive the raven's surroundings was essentially almost limitless.

However, shaping these feathers into actual ravens cost a significantly larger amount of mana. Therefore, we decided that when making ravens, we wouldn't create too many at a time.

The greatest mana consumption came from the teleportation itself. Swapping places with the ravens cost even more mana, and the expenditure was tied directly to distance: the further the raven, the more mana required. If the distance exceeded a certain threshold, the swap became impossible.

This limitation made it clear to us that we really needed to put more effort into expanding my mana core.

…A truly shocking thing we discovered during our experimentation of the skill was that Aika could now also share her vision with me. However, unlike the other ravens, I couldn't control her and could only share her vision when she allowed it.

But that was not all.

Even more surprising, we also discovered that we could swap places, with Aika essentially acting as a mobile target point just like a raven. Moreover, the mana cost required to swap places with Aika was remarkably low. Although I doubted we would use this feature often, it was a good option to have.

By the time we were done playing around with the skill, dawn had passed, and the ethereal hues that had painted the granite were now washed out by the bright morning light.

***

We headed back to the rock shelter where we had breakfast with everyone by the fire while also planning our routes.

When it was time to leave, we set out and resumed our journey down the treeline path.

Along the trail, we encountered a few mountain cats from time to time, but they truly weren't much of a challenge for us. By now, the synergy of the party had grown by leaps and bounds, making it easy for us to not only spot these Grade One creatures long before they drew close, but also deal with them quickly and decisively so we could keep moving.

The full journey down the mountain descent took three grinding days.

When we finally cleared the last of the foothills, the mountain range gave way instantly to the small, arid expanse of the rain shadow desert that lay just before the deeper forests leading to The Puppeteer's Grove.

Stopping at the edge of the foothills a small distance before the desert, we made a camp for the night.

As usual, Ino chopped up a few mountain rabbits, skewered them, and began roasting for a large meal, while the others sat around the fire engaging in witty banter, especially Dion and Julius.

As for me, I lay on the grass some meters from the fire, chewing on a long blade of grass while staring at the star-strewn sky.

For a moment, the night seemed calm and peaceful… until a shrill, desperate cry echoed from the desert.

All of us whipped our heads to the direction where we could hear a boy call out:

"Fire! That's fire, Micheal. Oh, thank goodness…" his voice grew more desperate. "Is there anyone there? Please help us!"

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