Containing the explosive force of an incendiary grenade was no easy task, and yet Mark wrapped the entire thing up in a construct as he poured all his remaining energy into it. The scant few seconds before it went off were enough for Jonathan to grab hold of both Sam and himself and cover them in his Aura.

Unfortunately, the inner construct ruptured and the ball of flames consumed the nurse even as he laughed at the top of his lungs.

It continued to travel outward and Sam had already used this time to connect with Mark and reinforce the construct around them.

The flames expanded but were unable to break out of their combined shell. Luckily Marks [Light control] remained outside the construct so it was undisturbed.

However, the three of them were still inside, yet the flames dispersed when they made contact with Jonathan's Aura.

When the explosion had cleared, Mark could see everyone staring in their direction in fear.

Clearly, they couldn't see them, but the nurse had acted out before Mark could get a cloak over them. And seeing as they couldn't stop the tremors running through the ground everyone was on edge.

There were several fighters that had pulled out weapons, spells, and skills in response.

Mark was happy they had reacted so well but it also meant that hiding this would be hard.

Jonathan cursed as he felt the back of his singed T-shirt.

"What the hell was that guy thinking? He's going to have to do better than that if he wants to kill us" he growled.

It was clear that an attack on this level would not hurt any of them, but Sam ground her teeth.

"No, this is what he wanted. A spectacle in our territory. He wanted us to know that he can come at us anytime, anywhere."

Mark grunted and lowered the construct leaving the curtain of light up.

The ground was charred and blackened but even in here, the structure had been made to last.

"Sam, can you go out there and reassure people? We need to clean this up, but I can't leave here, also Jon go see who you can find to help clean this up."

Neither Sam nor Jonathan argued and went along with his plan. Sam stepped out and greeted everyone with a disarming smile, spinning a tale as she went.

"Good evening everyone. My name is Samantha, one of the pillars from the Order of the Sage. What you just saw was indeed an attack by a misguided individual, but not to worry. Our staff are some of the most skilled in the city and shut down the attempt quickly. Rest assured that no harm will come to you."

Because Sam was speaking, she calmed the crowd down in seconds with her cool and collected aura.

Mark immediately agreed with her transparency in this situation. It was obvious that people had seen what had happened, and treating them otherwise would only anger them.

There were a few gasps as people confirmed the attack, but it was dealt with so quickly that none of them had even had a chance to react.

It was only half the story of course, but the fact that Sam could still turn this setback into their strength spoke volumes.

Sam wasn't even halfway through dealing with everyone's questions when Jonathan returned from behind Mark with an entourage of guards and nurses. They carried cleaning supplies and tools, some even moved out to help calm down the patients' families.

Mark saw fires being extinguished and cracks in the tile work being repaired by one of the men Jonathan brought with him. Mark wondered if he'd have to talk to those damned Inscriptionists and have them reinforce the clinic. If this was how things started then he'd need to take further precautions to protect everyone in the future.

As it was he'd already used the item they had given him, but it didn't cover nearly enough ground.

Despite their effort, it didn't solve the main issue at hand and when Sam managed to extract herself from the people's question and the area was mostly repaired, Mark lowered the screen and they left the area.

Willow had arrived shortly after everything had gone down and she took them to one of the internal meeting rooms within the clinic.

"I can't understand how they got this close. Shouldn't our proximity to the tower prevent that," Willow said as she took a file from under her arm and handed it to Mark who opened it to find her proposal almost already complete.

"We're not sure yet but we'll have to first do a sweep of our own people and then I think it might be a good idea to create a small team of unknown members to sweep people regularly," Mark said

Willow nodded as she looked at the others.

"Would you like me to report this to the other pillars, or will you."

Sam shook her head.

"No. it's fine. We're heading back now we'll inform everyone on that side as well. But we have to make sure our people are checked by tonight, please Willow." Sam said with a worrying frown on her face.

Willow nodded curtly and took the documents Mark handed her. He'd made a few minor changes but honestly, everything she had proposed made ample sense.

At the same time, Mark flickered a construct over Willow just to be sure.

She paused when she felt his Prana rush over her, being as skilled as she was he didn't think she'd have missed it.

Willow paused for a second and pursed her lips, but nodded firmly to Mark.

"I'll be on my way now," she said.

Mark felt kind of guilty for checking on her like that, but honestly, the nurse that had met with them had not shown any outward or even inward signs of being a Corrupted.

It was only because all three of them were so sensitive to the energy that they even managed to detect him early.

Had they not, they wouldn't have been able to react in time to his damned suicide attack.

Who was to say someone stronger couldn't completely mask themselves?

The moment she'd left Sam leaned back in the chair and massaged her temples.

"Darn it. I knew this wouldn't be easy, but I didn't expect it to get so complicated the moment we got back"

Mark spun on the chair leaning back

"There's not much we can do personally right now. Willow will set things in motion tonight and we have to trust that the measures are enough for now.

Jonathan had remained standing during the whole talk and came to lean against the desk in front of Sam.

Stolen story; please report.

"We should go fill everyone in on what happened and then it would be smart to get ready for the meeting with the Loyalists tomorrow. Lisa and Nathan might be out of the woods but Patrica is still an unknown."

Sam smiled and looked up at them both.

"There's one other thing to need to talk about with them."

Jonathan's face hardened and he nodded.

"You mean our…changes, don't you," he asked.

Sam shrugged.

"Better they hear from us now than at a point where it's a problem."

Jonathan didn't look happy but Mark snorted at both of them.

"Relax you two. You're acting like there aren't multiple people in the city right now who can't transform into different things. You're severely underestimating them.

Both Sam and Jonathan looked at one another with concerned expressions.

"Comparing a shift into an animal hybrid, and whatever we become seems like a gross oversimplification," Jonathan said dryly.

Mark shrugged.

"You might be right. There are certainly downsides to both your other forms, but even if it were the case that they found it unpleasant, do you think it'd change how they feel about you guys right now?"

Neither answered, but Mark could tell they didn't think that for a second.

Seeing their resolve strengthen he got up and opened the door.

"Then let's go," he said.

After that, the three traveled back to the base and found Ethel and Karter getting ready to work late into the night.

Mark called the other pillars into the same room and lounged at the back while Sam and Jonathan demonstrated their new forms for just a few seconds each.

Gibby had said there had been rumors going on from the workers on shift that day but no one seemed all that shocked.

In fact, karter was more interested in their new tactical abilities, wanting to know their new body limits.

A test for another time, as they were exhausted enough as it was.

Mark had stepped forward after that to explain the insistent at the clinic, which, again, Gibby had already intercepted, but they listened to all the details the three of them gave.

"What the best way to locate these Corrupted people?" Karter asked.

Mark nodded.

"The most surefire way is for someone proficient in Prana to check out the patient's Cv. One can roughly tell by feel and experience but some skills and spells can actively detect it too, though they're rare."

Ethel then insisted that Mark check them all there at once. Which he did and it was no surprise that none of them were Corrupted. Gibby's Cv felt a little too high for his liking. Coming in at around 40%, but it wasn't anything he couldn't fix right away, by absorbing his Corruption.

Once they were done the three of them headed back to their separate rooms to rest. Staying ever vigilant outside the city was its own type of exhausting, and Mark would be lying if he said he hadn't missed his bed.

He spent most of the night in [Meditation] when he'd regained most of his energies and filled his [Animated Minds]. Mark worked on trying to balance the Prana in his core.

He could feel himself reaching the final threshold and any day now he'd had to consolidate his Prana. When that happened what shape his core was in would solidify and either he'd be locked into the system's path or through his efforts, something completely new.

The caretaker had thought the idea a good one. It was a step out of the current mold, but also a step into the unknown.

If Mark messed it up he could stunt or even halt his growth completely and in their current world that would mean death.

So Mark concentrated on moving the pieces of his core, bit by bit. Rearranging and releasing more of his core, working to hold the shape on his own instead of having the system do all the work for him.

It still took a large amount of effort but he was finding that he could keep his core stable on his own for longer and longer periods.

When Mark had exhausted himself completely he took a two-hour nap, waking completely refreshed as he popped his joints and turned to look out the window.

Early morning light was streaming in and Mark took a breath as he sat up. The meeting was not for another couple of hours so he had time to kill. Opening his world inventory, Mark reached in and grabbed the last of his tonics. He'd need to see Joslin to restock soon, but for now, he popped the wax seals and drank down the enhancing syrup.

Source: Tonic of Spirit x 3 (+45 Prana)

Nodding to himself happily Mark paused as he'd forgotten to take a look at his stats for a while.

Bringing up the prompts he was swarmed with system windows.

Rewards: 1x Silver-Rank Chest [Mana]

Roll: Yes/No

78 x Corrupted humanoid cleansed(78)

32 x Corrupted Ordinator cleansed(64)

66 x Corrupted Ghasts cleansed(198)

481 x Corrupted Wights cleansed(962)

16 x Corrupted Huminod(Awakened) cleansed(1600)

System Points awarded 673

Partial exp awarded to (4 users - expand list)(3205)

Partial exp awarded to (Mark Young)3205)

3721/3721

Level up!

+2 Prana, +2 Resistance

3844/3844

Level up!

+2 Prana, +2 Resistance

Congratulations [Animated Mind] has improved!

Mark looked at his prompts but if he factored in his level-ups, the mediation he'd been doing, and the tonics he was drinking, his natural Prana was skyrocketing. This being the case, Mark had a feeling that he was still not ready for whatever was coming. Normally he would split his free attributes between his Mana and Prana but with things the way they were he decided that the only option was to make sure his Prana was as strong as he could make it. Mark then dumped all his remaining free stat points into his Prana.

The jump was quite large and caused the energy in his core to burgeon out into the air. The room's air shifted and became brighter as Mana carried his Prana to every corner.

Finally letting out a breath Mark opened his stat window.

Name: Mark Young (22 - M)

Level: 62

Next level: 1366/3969

Stats:

Resistance

Aura

Mana

Prana

2057 [1400]+ [501]

0 [+40]

346[+85]

1520 (+4 +42 +135 +70)[+170]

Unspent stat points - 0

Corruption value: 100% [+0%] - 100/40.9%??

System Points: 36077.0

Skills: Meditation, Limit release(Physical), Limit release(Mental), Joint casting, Limit release(Spiritual).

Spells: [Regenerative Adaptation][1], Force bolt[18], Prana Pulse[9], Regenerate[9], Draw Corruption[9], Corruption recovery[15], Engrave Mana(Force)[2], Invigorate[13], Cleansing surge[9], Read Memory[2], Mind Spike[4], [Earth Mastery][1], Light Control[7], Bestowal[8], Telekinetic control[3], Benediction[4], Nature control[7], Telepathic link[9], Animated Mind[5], Breath of life[1].

World inventory. Marketplace. Trade.

Finally, Mark turned back to the silver chest he'd gotten from the dungeon. He'd not had a chance to look over it yet and selected 'Yes' to roll it.

The system dinged and Mark's eyes widened at the name

Item acquired: Thoughtful sacrifice (Chest) [Cursed]

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