Abyssal Awakening

Wearing the gloves on her hands, Alice followed the instructions and attached the mechanism onto the glove itself. It was a strange mix of metal and wires. There was a cuff around the wrist and small rings around each of the fingers that seemed to help aim the silk.

Not only that, there was also a small section near the base of the glove that housed a red capsule with what seems to be blood inside the container. It reminded Alice of the Abyss Engineering that she had spotted a few times during her stay in the Abyss thus far.

'The instructions said that I can aim where I want the silk to by fired. I wonder how I can do that…' Alice muttered in her own head while reading the instructions.

Grabbing the coil of silk from the pouch, she installed a small bag onto her waist while connecting it to the gloves under her jacket.

Flicking her wrist a few times, it doesn't seem like the silk was going to be fired this way.

Scratching her head in confusion, she flipped the instruction manual over to the other side, yet it still didn't explain much. All it said was to aim towards the location and fire.

The issue was how to make the gloves fire the silk.

Waving her arms around, Alice tried a myriad of different positions to see if the gloves reacted but there was only silence.

"Did Allura give me something faulty?" Alice sighed while reaching towards the chair so that she could sit down.

Suddenly, she felt the coils within the glove spin to life as five strands of silk shot out with hooks on the tip and embedded themselves into the walls before being pulled tight by the mechanism in the gloves.

Widening her eyes, Alice could feel a tugging force against her arm, urging.

Keeping her hand steady, she observed to see what position it was in when the silk fired.

'Wait… I've tried this hand pose before, why didn't it work then?' Alice furrowed her brows in confusion.

Pulling out the hooks from the wall, she flicked her wrist back and watched the silk get pulled back into the gloves.

A small realisation sparked in her mind as she narrowed her eyes to the opposite wall. Flicking her wrist in one swift movement, she aimed her index, middle and thumb towards the wall and watched three strands of silk being shot out.

Pulling back with her hand and grabbing the strands, she watched as the silk was pulled taut.

'So that's how! It's based on how fast I flick my wrist and how many fingers I'm aiming towards the actual target.'

Flicking her wrist back, the silk unhooked itself and returned to the gloves.

A spark of enjoyment flared in Alice's eyes as her interests was piqued by the strangeness of this contraption.

Thinking to herself, she looked towards the table for a pen and started to scribble her own notes into the instruction sheet.

She wanted to figure out what was possible with these gloves, how she could set traps, how strong the silk strands were and the different ways she could use it to her advantage.

With the limitations of her first Sigil, these gloves were possibly the bests weapons that Allura could've gotten her.

All that she needs to do now was to learn how to use these gloves properly.

Reading through the instruction book carefully now that she knows how to fire and retrieve the silk, Alice spent the whole night experimenting with her new weapon.

###

After finishing their meal, Ria had returned to her room without saying anything. At first, she was planning on talking to Alice but changed her mind eventually.

Locking the doors to her room, she sat down on her bed and started to get undressed into her pyjamas.

As she took off pieces of her clothes, the scars that had been carefully hidden away slowly revealed themselves as deep wounds carved into her back revealed their ghastly visage.

Reaching behind her, Ria touched the scarred skin and sat silently.

Closing her eyes, she thought back to the arm wrestle, that moment she felt like she was wrestling against the might of an unstoppable mountain.

If a tavern owner had this much strength, what hope was there for her to fight against the Cult of the Eclipse?

Gritting her teeth, Ria punched her fist against the pillows on her bed and sighed deeply.

"Are three Sigils still not enough? If I rush things Allura and grandfather will be unhappy… But I can't keep staying like this." Ria muttered softly.

Comparted to her usual outgoing nature, she was now much quieter and lacked the explosive aura she usually carries with her.

"No, I can't stay like this."

Opening her eyes, there was a new sense of focus in her gaze.

Standing up, she grabbed a tank top shirt from her luggage before starting some push ups to warm herself up. She wasn't feeling tired at all so she decided to use this time to strengthen her body instead.

As a physical fighter, base strength was key. Abyss Blood and Sigils gave her boosts in strength but that all depends on her own base strength.

The lesson that Allura taught her was such: "As a physical fighter, you have to think about your base strength and the think of external help as multipliers. If your base strength is 1, and the Sigil gives you a multiplier of 2, your new strength is 2. However, if your base strength is let's say 2, your new strength becomes 4.

The higher your base strength, the more benefits you get from getting Sigils and drinking Abyss Blood."

Thus Ria understood that she couldn't slack on improving her base strength. Naturally, there was a limit to how much she wanted to bulk up her muscle mass. Too much and she gives up her natural flexibility, something she prided herself in.

The delicate balance between power, speed and flexibility was something Ria had to keep in balance to become a good physical fighter. All for the future where she hunts down every Cult of the Eclipse member she could get her hands on.

All of her hard work was for that singular dream.

###

Early in the morning, both girls left their room and went to get breakfast. Despite their lack of sleep, they did not seem sleep deprived at all.

In fact, they seemed energetic. There was a glimmer of excitement and eagerness in Alice's eyes as she wore the gloves and tinkered slightly with the mechanisms.

"Seems like you didn't sleep either. I assume you learned something about the gloves?" Ria asked with a chuckle.

"Yep. I learned how to use the silk and how to make traps. The traps I know how to make are a little limited since I don't want to waste silk. If I cut it to separate myself from a trap, I won't be able to use the silk anymore. There are spare hooks but prefer not to waste expensive things." Alice shrugged as Ria glanced at her gloves.

"That's good news then. How confident are you at killing the Kata Charger now then?"

"Hmm… With gloves, poison, knowledge and if I set up trap properly, 80% chance I'm confident. I'm not sure how good the trap will be since it has a sensitive smell. It might know what I plan." Alice admitted.

She had spent most of the night familiarising herself with the gloves and didn't spend any time to think about how she should counter the sensitive sense of smell. Even if she was to camouflage herself with the smells of the surroundings, she would still be discovered.

"80%? For your first proper hunt, that's pretty damn high. I'm not saying confidence is bad but let's hope it doesn't bite you back in the ass." Ria grinned.

"As Allura said, I won't be doing much this time and I'll only watch unless you can't handle it anymore. I'll keep any stray beasts away from the fight so you can hunt the Kata Charger without any worries."

Hearing this, Alice felt reassured as her other concern was what other beasts would be around the area. If there were too many, it will definitely become difficult even with her new weapon.

"The location we'll be travelling to is a place marked as the Inferno Tower Ruins. Apparently, in the days of old, there was a tower built upon a pool of magma that flowed underground. But after a battle, the tower collapsed and the magma flowed to the surface before drying up.

From the reports, there's been a large migration of foreign Abyss Beasts that shouldn't be close to this area and the Kata Charger is one of them." Ria started to explain while the two of them made their way to the stables.

"The Guild is still looking for the answers but the cause is unclear. Last time I reported the situation in the forest, the guild took it very seriously and even sent a party of 4 three Sigil Hunters to investigate the situation.

And I'm telling you all of this is because if something goes wrong and the situation becomes rough for the both of us, we're going to retreat and report it to the Guild okay?" Ria warned with a serious expression.

She still remembers getting eaten by that strange beast who kept singing. One moment she was deep in the forest, the next she was facing its jaws and got swallowed. If not for the fact that she had three Sigils and a physical fighter, she might've not gotten out.

"Okay." Alice nodded her head.

If it gets to a situation where not even Ria could handle it then they would definitely need to run.

After all, Ria was their safety net for now.