Hello.

This will be Nights #786 entry. A perplexing event has occurred recently that deserves to be recorded.

My gracious Lady gave me a command that allowed her to connect to a man we just recently observed. It was a peculiar man based on the details we collected. He seemed to have popped out from nowhere and landed in our kingdom, showing an average level of power, and yet catching the eye of the Princess.

We were still matching his characteristics with those of beings across the continent. As for why he caught the eyes of the Princess, I have yet to find out.

It is the continued behavior of the Princess towards this man that continued to make me observe them even more though. Not to even mention how close she seems to be getting to him and allowing him to be that frank with her, lets just take a look at the past few days we spent in the Shadow Dukedom.

After another one of my sisters informed her of another plot hatched by the Royal Wanker, the first thing she did was head to inform that man. She didnt discuss with us or with the Royal Guards on our plan of action.

The plot currently afoot could be potentially dangerous for all of us, so I expected the Princess to come up with one of her grand plans that would allow us to outwit the enemies and arrive back to our castle unharmed. But no such thing occurred. She simply went to discuss it with that man and came out, informing us to continue monitoring from a distance and to be sure that they do not catch on, that we will continue to spend our time in this place for a few days.

This wholly surprised me and made me question the power of that man that made the Princess disregard the power of an EPIC ranked individual. It also made me somewhat down. Did the Lady not need us anymore?

The morning after we found out about the news of the impending attack that was waiting for us as soon as we left this Dukedom, the man disappeared from my detection and didnt appear until the end of the day. I was happy to be back to spending time alone with the Lady as she went about her work here, but was also curious about this man who could escape the perception of someone like me that was trained in this art.

When he reappeared in the evening, he seemed to be in a good mood, and even went as far as to ask the Princess to bring him some ingredients for food he wanted to cook. This was something I never expected, but I acted as instructed and brought in a variety of raw meats and vegetables to work with.

He began cooking while seeming like a complete beginner, but the results were something completely unexpected. There was an appetizing smell in the air stemming from the food he made that Ive never come across before. I couldnt help but overstep my boundaries when I saw the Lady enjoy the delicacies, and shamefully accepted the offered food.

The conclusion? Maybe this man wasnt too bad after all.

A significant amount of time was still spent with the Lady and the Sir talking. I never knew what the two of them spent so much time discussing, as the Lady had already asked me not to snoop in when she was alone with him.

I still had many questions, but I knew the princess was careful in who she confided in, so I will wait until she can come to me again. On our second and third day in the Shadow Dukedom, the same pattern continued to repeat where he disappeared and reappeared, each time he came back seeming much more calm and confident.

I wasnt dumb, and inferred a posible activity that this man was doing everyday was most likely going down the famous [Waterworks] dungeon by himself. I was shocked when I came to this conclusion, as the only people powerful enough to delve into S ranked dungeons alone were either powerful Heroes with Unique Skills or powerful adventures of the next rank

But maybe this would explain some of the many mysteries surrounding him, as well as the unexplainable savory food he has routinely been making. It was now the evening of the third day, and I can already smell that same aroma from before. Ill see if I can continue to overstep my boundaries and receive some more of those delicacies.

Until then.

---

A few days had passed while I continued to dive into my now favorite dungeon, [Waterworks]. The abundant amount of monsters and many floors allowed me to go all out testing the new skills that were already rising nicely. Both the newly combined rank S+ skills had reached the 30s in proficiency, and were taking their time even after I constantly spammed them these past 3 days.

Maybe getting an EPIC ranked skill in a few days was too far fetched, and I might need another week or two as higher ranked skills took their time to rise. The one thing that I found to be helpful to my psyche after the constant grind of skills and killing monsters for so many hours was the new hobby I found myself doing.

I count it as a blessing that I began doing this, as I felt like the only words passing through my mind was just this skill or that skill and which ones were next to combine. This new hobby was me using the skill [Cook] to put a few things together. I wasnt doing anything special, only using my barely passable cooking that I had to learn when I was on my own. Yet the results were exceptional. Well, it was basically the skill doing what it described.

I could confidently say that the things I made while [Cook] was active was one of the best foods I had ever eaten. It beat the food I had when I first arrived in this world by a mile. This made me curious to try out the [Budding Farmer] skill too, as it probably holds even greater surprises.

Aside from finding myself respite from the monotonous grinding so that I dont go crazy, I made new additions with [Skill Combination] and received another 6 rank S skills as well as 3 items after continuously clearing the [Waterworks] dungeon.

The new rank S skills were [Flash- High speed movement that allows you body to automatically evade enemy attacks], [Phoenix Arrow- Your bow momentarily releases inflamed arrows that carry the aura of a phoenix], [Enfeeble- A terrible curse strikes your enemy, reducing their speed, damage, defense, and resistance], [Aura of Belligerence- An aura of war surrounds you and your allies. +200% damage], [Shield Slam- Your shield comes to life, targeting any enemies around you in a flurry of attacks], [Obfuscation- Your presence continues to thin out until the best detection skills cannot observe you]

It was a great addition of powerful skills, where even ones that I doubted I would use like [Shield Slam] and [Phoenix Arrow], I still learnt them anyways.

The newly obtained rank S items were [Viridian Boots], [Legion Armor], and [Dulled Trident]. Besides the trident, I could wear everything else. The new [Legion Armor] went on top of the rank S Veiled Suit with no issues, and the [Viridian Boots] vastly increased my speed. All of these new additions and skills made me confident to stand against the power of an EPIC ranked skill without my life being snuffed in the next second. I would give myself another day before going out to clash with the mercenaries still waiting in ambush outside the snowy roads.