Navie and the survivors walked quickly and quietly, avoiding threats. Nikeila hid from them. Her appearance stood out too much. It was better to avoid questions and suspicions. Nikeila acted as a scout, informing Navie of danger and guiding her way.

When they saw the van at the exact place they were told, they all got lively and careless. Stevan rushed forward. He didn't see there was a thenebre inside the car on his right. A hand grabbed his sleeve through the partially opened window.

He screamed in terror. He was unwilling to touch the creature, so he kicked the car door. It was useless. And it only made more noise.

The baby woke up and cried.

Tati tried to calm Vivi down. The people panicked as the thenebre's attention turned to their direction. They urged her to hurry up and stop the baby from crying.

{Shut him up!}

Navie quickly approached Stevan. He gripped her arm and her wound started bleeding. She grimaced in pain.

"Take him off me!"

"Calm down."

She beat the thenebre's arm away with her trusty hammer. She didn't even flinch when she heard the bone cracking.

Stevan was unharmed. The same couldn't be said about the group. All the thenebres nearby heard the disturbance and got closer. Navie instructed them to hurry.

They were close. There was still a chance. They rushed to the van, entering fast.

Nikeila was alert, protecting Navie's retreat. Nikeila was standing on the roof of the van, Pon assisting Navie against the thenebres, who was the last to board.

The van's back door was open, waiting for the girl. She hit the closest thenebre, held the door for support, and got in. The car accelerated and started moving.

Since she couldn't speak out loud with Nikeila, she send a message like she was taught before.

{I did it!}

{Good job!} Nikeila answered. She smiled when she saw the girl safe.

Before Navie could close the door a foot kicked her out. She was suddenly thrown on the street, the thenebres encircling her.

Navie had time to look up and see the perpetrator.

{Navie!}

"No!" Inside the car, a woman's cry was heard. "What are you doing? Stop the car!"

"Don't stop the car! She's bitten! I saw it myself! When you told me to go help her, I saw her arm was bitten! We can't allow her to come with us," a man yelled back. "She also has a strange creature with her! I'm sure it was the cause of all this. She brought that thing into our homes!"

Nikeila jumped onto the roof of a car parked on the side. Pon tried to protect Navie. But the commotion only attracted more thenebres and made them eagerer to eat.

She heard the girl's screams.

She tried to think of something, anything that could help this hopeless situation. But she was powerless. If Navie's infection was more advanced, the thenebres would not prioritize attacking her. There would be an opportunity to escape.

Her presence soon was noticed by the thenebres, they rushed towards her. As she evaded their hands, she was getting farther from Navie. She wouldn't be able to control Pon at this distance. She thought of baiting the thenebres away from the girl. As an efulgen, she was more tempting than a human.

But then the screams were silenced.

She lost her pursuers, ran back, and climbed a tall tree. She was out of mana and Pon shifted into a bracelet.

She watched the thenebres feast on the girl's body. They lost interest when there was no more flesh.

She sat there and stared at the gruesome scene for a long time. Her eyes were empty.

So stupid.

So foolish.

She indulged in the thought of getting revenge on that ungrateful man. But it was meaningless.

The sky brightened. She watched the sunrise.

Why did Navie have to insist on saving them?

She was angry.

The whole efulgen culture was based on aiding each other. It was a familiar concept for Nikeila. She didn’t always agree. Not everyone had the same weight in the scales of her heart. So not anyone was worthy saving. But she knew the world was better when altruism was prevalent.

So the act of helping others shouldn't be rebuked.

Just like protecting oneself.

If Nikeila wasn't there with plans to isolate Navie, when the girl transformed she'd put the group in danger.

They did what they thought was right.

Even though the man was still hateful. Nikeila understood his reasoning.

A window appeared in front of her.

[Task accomplished]

[Saved 10 people unrelated to yourself on the first night of the Conversion: 25/10]

[Rewards: 10 Attribute points ]

[Task accomplished]

[Saved 25 people unrelated to yourself on the first night of the Conversion: 25/25]

[Rewards: Base Key ]

A bitter laugh escaped her small mouth, her fangs showing.

She glanced at the window. She didn't feel like checking her accomplishments and rewards at this moment. As she closed the window, she looked down. The thenebres were still there, gawking at her.

There was no more meaning in staying there.

Nikeila was a little lost. She had no objectives.

She had recorded everything that happened with Navie. This was a function of the Swavira system. In Hilvejor they used it often. Any event could be retrieved at the cost of XP, if the event was witnessed by a person. The older and longer the record, the more XP is needed. Fortunately, she got some XP by unknowingly completing the tasks on the first night of the Conversion.

XP was essential for skills and overall level upgrades. She had no skills for now, but level upgrades were very desirable. At every level up, attribute points were earned. She needed those points. But getting XP in her current situation was difficult.

She thought of Vanchi and Shandra. But she didn't want to see them.

Since they've exchanged ID codes, it allowed her to message them even when they were out of her sight. They were far away so she had to spend more mana to communicate. She sent a brief message and the event record.

She had no energy to ponder the secret tasks, the rewards, or what the Conversion meant.

She had no XP or mana left and had to rest for a day.

She felt like a failure.

Nikeila spent three days wandering.

She got completely used to her quadruped body. She felt that now that her weight was distributed among four limbs instead of two, it was even easier to walk. She was a pro at evading thenebres now. 

And she collected a lot of crystals. She got dirty fast. Every day she had to find a place to take a bath.

Since the first dawn after the fog, there were no more electricity, no phone connection, no Internet, and no water. She saw some people using the map function of their phones, so the satellites were still working, but she didn't think they would for long.

She used her reward from the first day. She had to, or she wouldn't survive. Ten attribute points. Two for stamina, three for agility, and five for mana.

[IDENTITY]

[Nikeila Kas-Tir]

[ID code: 022K3585TN]

[Rank 0]

[Level: 0]

[Order: Water]

[Order Stage: 0 - Detector]

[Class: Guide]

[Class Stage: 0 - Novice]

[Affiliation: None]

[ATTRIBUTES]

[Health: 10/10]

[Mana: 10/15]

[Stamina: 5/5]

[Agility: 8]

[Strength: 3]

[Dexterity: 2]

[Defense: 2]

Belatedly, she noticed her class was different. She was guide now. She didn't know the class could be changed. What about order? Could it change too?

Did Swavira hear her complaining before?

She was familiar with guide skills because of Kaivel. In a peaceful world, it was an excellent class. Because of the class restrictions, in the current situation, she'd rather have some combat abilities.

Each class had restrictions. While guide could have support and production skills, combat skills were off limits. Guard could only have combat and support skills. And lastly, gears could only have production and combat skills.

Her three skill slots were still empty.

In Hilvejor, skills were freely traded. Skills could be copied and turned into skill cards at a high cost. Skills have always been part of their lives, and there were enough skill cards for everyone. But if the other efulgens were like her and had their skills erased, how would they get skill cards?

It couldn’t be brute-forcing a skill, could it? That was the term when the person trying to get a skill without a card by repetitive actions. It was uncommon, but not unheard of. It was a tiresome process that required a lot of patience and persistence. Like wishing to break a wall by punching a spot blindly. There was no way to know if the spot was the weak point or even if the wall would ever break someday. 

There were also cases of creation of new skills while seeking another skill. Though since they were accidental, most of them had questionable usefulness.

Nikeila really didn’t want to go through that suffering.

She sighed. She felt a little unmotivated. She couldn't keep being lethargic. Or she could, but she shouldn't.

Now that Swavira was managing this planet, there would be tasks. The rewards of a completed task were very desirable.

She scrolled through the task list. Currently, the tasks are all very basic and relatively easy. Only grade 1, brass and bronze tiers. Most were to promote helping each other in this chaos. Collecting and distributing supplies. Rescuing people. Finding shelter and sharing it.

Unfortunately, she couldn't succeed in any of them.

She could find partners and do tasks together. But she was reluctant to find companions. She met some humans, but none caught her attention. She avoided them all.

She knew she needed them if she wanted to upgrade her order and class. Efulgen upgraded through cultivation. A trustworthy partner was needed to cultivate. There were methods, though they took longer. Her order was Water. Unfortunately, she found no suitable place for solo cultivation. And she never got results when she tried it in the past.

She was hungry again.

She had to eat the leftovers from stores. Most of the food had already been taken. And she couldn't open some containers. So her options were even more limited.

Maybe she should rethink her reluctance to find someone to feed her.