Chương 119: Chapter 116. Why not to Lie 101

The next two weeks passed in a steady rhythm. Every morning, the army would begin its march, moving through long stretches of road and uneven terrain while keeping a disciplined pace. The hours blurred together after a while, broken only by the occasional commands and the whispers of the warbands. Whenever they stopped to rest in the middle of the day, Rayne would immediately find Casper, and the two of them would move away from the others to train.

What had started as a simple session had now become a routine, one that he followed without fail. Unfortunately, the progress wasn't as fast as he had hoped. No matter how many times he tried, using both [War Pulse] and [Weaver's Protection] at the same time remained difficult. The moment he activated [War Pulse], information flooded his mind all at once. Positions, movements, directions, even small shifts around him, everything came together in a way that was hard to process quickly.

It made focusing on anything else difficult. Trying to pair it with [Weaver's Protection] was already challenging, but combining it with [Death Strike] proved equally worse. He actually managed to use the skill, but with him not being focused, he leaked too much mana in the atmosphere. Although he didn't feel like he was making any progress, Casper told him that he was on the right path.

According to her, this was something that would only improve with time and practice, but even knowing that, Rayne couldn't help the frustration that came with it. Still, it wasn't all bad. If there was one area where he had clearly improved, it was using [Weaver's Protection] on its own. The exercises Casper had taught him had started to show results. They weren't complicated in theory, mostly focused on simple mana manipulation, but they were far harder to execute.

Sometimes, he would try to mix mana into his voice. Other times, he focused on directing mana through specific parts of his body, or holding it in place without letting it disperse. None of it was easy. Trying to do all of that at once was exhausting and often painful, but slowly, it had started to make a difference. His control improved. And with that, [Weaver's Protection] became easier to use. The threads formed faster than before and held stable, though not fast enough to satisfy him yet.

There was still a delay, still moments where it lagged behind his intent, but at least now, he knew he was moving in the right direction. Rayne had also thought about the [Mana Manipulation] skill more than once during this time. If he could gain it, things would likely become much easier, but despite his efforts, it still hadn't appeared. Even so, he felt like he was just on the edge of getting it. He also managed to open another pathway, this time around his right leg.

The process hadn't been hard with all the additional points in Arcane he had gotten out of the dungeon, and it had granted him another point in the stat. Alongside that, he had also spent time experimenting with his [Analysis] skill. He used it whenever he could, observing soldiers, noting how much mana it took for different levels of information, and slowly getting a better sense of how to control its output. It was still expensive to use, especially on mana users.

He wasn't even able to see Casper or Captain Edran's class or level, only their names and that cost him over half of his mana. But at least he had a way to get information without anyone noticing now. It might also get cheaper to use as he increased his mana reserves and levelled up the skill. But Rayne doubted he would be leveling [Analysis] any time soon.

Even with constant use, the mana cost was still too high to rely on it freely, and since he couldn't push it further without draining himself completely, progress felt slow. Despite that, he couldn't deny that he was satisfied with how things had been going. For the first time in a while, he wasn't rushing from one fight to another. There were no monsters to hunt, no dungeon to enter, and no immediate threat forcing him to act.

It gave him space, something he hadn't had in a long time, and he used it to focus on himself. Even so, his mind wasn't completely at ease. The thoughts of the truthsayers and what awaited him in the capital lingered constantly in the back of his mind. At times, they were easy to ignore, especially when he was busy training or marching, but at night, when everything quieted down, they came back stronger. More than once, they kept him awake. Rayne had spent hours going over everything the army knew about him.

Every action, every statement, everything he had shown or said since joining. He tried to think of it from their perspective, imagining the kinds of questions that might be asked. In the end, he was certain of one thing that even Captain Edran had agreed with. Once the truthsayers realized they couldn't punish him harshly for killing Fredrick in self-defense, they would shift their focus elsewhere. They would dig into his time in the army, looking for anything they could use against him.

And because of that, he had to make sure there were no gaps. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Fortunately, for the most part, things were in order. His biggest secrets were safe. No one knew he was an otherworlder, and [Skill Stealer] was something he was confident no one could even begin to guess. Those were the two things that could truly put him in danger, and both of them were well hidden. But there was still one problem.

One small thing that kept coming back to him no matter how much he tried to ignore it—The boosting skill. Back when Casper had first realized he was a spellsword, he had told her that he had a skill that temporarily increased his strength and agility, using that as a cover for his unnatural stats and the way he had moved against the stonefur bears. At the time, it had seemed like the safest lie. But now, things were different. That information had likely made its way into official records.

It wasn't just something said in passing anymore. If the army had documented it, then the truthsayers would know about it as well. It would probably be the first mana skill they assumed he had. If they asked him about it, what was he supposed to say? He couldn't lie about it. If the truthsayers caught even a single inconsistency, they wouldn't stop there. They would dig deeper, question everything else, and that was something he absolutely couldn't afford.

One lie would turn into many, and sooner or later, it would lead them to things he could never explain. The more he thought, the worse the problem became. He kept mulling over it throughout the march. Every time he thought he had found a possible answer, it fell apart the moment he considered it further. In the end, there was only one conclusion to his troubles—He needed that skill to be real. The thought settled in slowly, but once it did, it refused to leave.

If he actually had a boosting skill, then there would be nothing to question. No lies to maintain, no gaps to explain. It would simply become another part of his abilities, and the only way for that to happen was to steal one. At first, the idea felt extreme, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. By the way Casper had accepted his explanation after they had killed the bears without much doubt, it was clear that such skills weren't rare. He confirmed that during their training.

Rayne started asking her more about different types of mana skills, keeping his tone casual, as if it was just curiosity, and what she told him only reinforced his thoughts. Skills that boosted stats or enhanced physical ability were common among spellswords. According to her, nearly half of them had something like that. Most classes provided at least one such skill, especially those focused on combat. That should have been reassuring, but for Rayne, it only made things worse.

His class didn't seem like it would give him anything similar, at least not anytime soon. Which meant that if he wanted one, he still had to steal it. But there was another problem with it. He couldn't just kill someone in the army for it. Even thinking about it felt wrong. Beyond the consequences, which would be immediate and severe, it went against his moral compass. Killing enemies in battle was one thing. Killing his own side for personal gain was something else entirely.

That left only one option—He had to steal the skill from a monster. Rayne had dealt with enough of them over the past few months, but when it came to specific skills, things became uncertain. Goblins, trolls, undead—none of them were the type to have boosting abilities. Maybe trolls will have one, but most of them had been killed by the army with the warlord, and he couldn't move alone to find one.

Hence, when the army stopped at Fort Algar for a day, Rayne took the chance to return to the old library, hoping that the books there might have something useful. He spent hours going through them, scanning through pages, trying to find what he needed. But in the end, it led nowhere. There was information, but not the kind he was looking for. Most of it was basic knowledge, things he already knew or things that didn't help his situation at all, and he couldn't stay in the fort longer than a day.

The army wasn't going to delay their march for his sake, and taking the books with him wasn't an option either. So in the end, Rayne left Fort Algar with nothing new. The same problem followed him to Bricksall. When they reached the city, Rayne had a small hope that he might find something here. He went straight to Mona's bookstore, thinking he might find more books there. But when he got there, the shop was closed. The door was locked with a sign that said the shop had closed.

After asking around, he learnt that Mona had left the town. According to the neighbors, she had moved to her uncle's place in Valers after the news of a necromancer being in the Pascar Plains had spread. Combined with the situation involving deserters that had been officially revealed, many people had chosen to leave, at least until things settled down. Rayne didn't blame them. Still, it meant that his last option in Bricksall was gone. They weren't staying long anyway.

Commander Evans had only stopped the warband in the town to gather supplies for the next part of the journey. It was meant to last them for three weeks, enough to carry them all the way to Haven City. After that, things would be easy. Rayne's warband would take a teleportation array directly to Valers, and that only made the time in between more important. These three weeks were all he had left to solve his problem. With books no longer an option, he changed his approach.

Instead of searching through written knowledge, he started asking questions. He spoke to Casper, Edran, and even Bran about the monsters they might face on the road ahead, making it look like he wanted to be ready against them. They knew the terrain, the routes, and the kinds of creatures that lived along them, and they shared what they knew without much hesitation. Rayne listened carefully, storing every piece of information.

There were smaller creatures near the main road, packs of flesh eaters that preyed on travelers from time to time. Near one Copper town, there were nests of hogoblins and hex spiders. Deeper into the forests, there were even monsters like mana sniffers, spike vultures, and earth mammoths, but they were rare to encounter and never ventured to the main roads. But none of the information helped. No creatures they mentioned seemed like the type to have boosting skills.

Each answer only confirmed what he already feared, and with every passing day, the unease inside him grew stronger. The march continued, the days blending into weeks as they passed through small towns and scattered villages. Rayne kept training, kept preparing, and kept going over everything he might face in front of the truthsayers. But the one thing he needed, the one solution he had settled on, remained out of reach. And then, before he could find an answer, the journey came to an end.

They finally saw the walls of Haven City.

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