Chapter 73
As the hours stretched on, Speedy Rites Ranked up to five, and then six, before its rate of growth finally seemed like it was beginning to slow down. By that point, Empowerment Ritual’s requirement was at fourteen hours—just about what it was when he was only Level eight. And Hellfire Ritual was now at only half an hour, with Demonic Covenant’s being around two and a half. All-in-all, he was very glad to have finally purchased this Skill.
After thinking on it some more, Zeth felt like he may have figured out why Speedy Rites had Ranked up so quickly compared to his other Skills. Judging from what he’d figured out earlier, how Skills like Ritual Nexus Mastery and Vile Focus had Ranked up from him repairing mana fields of his circles as well as just from drawing them, it seemed like they really just improved from him working with mana—and it was likely Speedy Rites was the same.
So then, if the Skill had been unlocked at Level four, it would expect him to be working with Level four amounts of the stuff. But instead, not only did Zeth have a massively higher Shaping Stat, he also already had another Skill that reduced his drawing times in Vile Focus, which likely sped up his Rank progress even more. By now, it’d been a while since Speedy Rites had improved to Rank six, so it seemed like it might start following a more normal trajectory for the latter half of its Ranks, which supported the theory; by now, the Skill would expect him to be stronger, and so it would expect him to be working on these larger, more powerful rituals.
Regardless, the ritual was nearing completion. Astrys had worked alongside Zeth the whole time, carving away to lower the floor so her aura of fear wouldn’t clip people walking above them anymore. They made some idle conversation as they both did their jobs, and Zeth really felt like he was growing more comfortable having her around now. It was nice, really, having someone to talk to instead of always just sinking into Vile Focus’s unconscious work mode to skip the time.
As he was drawing up the last lines of his circle, he thought of something, turning to her and asking, “So, you said you covered your tracks to ensure nobody would be able to trace the destroyed bandit camp back here, right?”
“Yes,” she said.
“What exactly did you do?”
“Other than literally covering any tracks I inadvertently left behind, I primarily did what you suggested, and ransacked their base to make the destruction look as if it were conducted by a monster. Your idea to pay particular attention to their food supplies was a good one, so I broke their containers open and removed a large portion of their food from the area.”
“Oh, good.” Then he frowned. “Wait, you ‘removed’ it? Where’d you put it?”