[You have killed level 32 E-Rank Tusker]

[You have gained 400 Lives]

The two warriors’ weapons fell from their locked fingers.

Moon was on them in an instant. He slapped restraining runes onto both of their backs before the paralysis wore off. The runes activated, and their bodies went rigid, pinned to the stone beneath them.

Moon stood in the center of the battlefield, staff in hand, and looked over his work.

Moon turned his head toward the spirit. It stood guard near the bodies of the healer, archer, and two mages, its mismatched eyes scanning them with vigilance.

Moon stored the tusked beast’s body in his ring, then grabbed the brute and the tank by the backs of their armor and dragged them across the stone. He placed all six Evolvers next to each other in a row, their bodies lined up against a flat section of rock.

The brute and the tank were the only two still conscious but restrained by his runes. They could only watch as Moon arranged their teammates beside them like he was setting a table.

"W-What are you doing?" The brute spoke.

"W-Why are you attacking us...?"

"Shut up. I’m saving you." Moon said without looking at him. "Don’t disturb my work before I change my mind."

The brute and the tank exchanged a look. Their eyes met, and the same thought passed between them.

’This guy is insane.’

Moon knelt beside the tank first. He raised his hand and paused.

’It’s probably better to make them fall asleep before starting...I don’t want anybody to think I have more than one class.’

"Before saving you, you guys need to sleep." Moon smiled, as he knocked out the remaining two, just like the others.

This was the reason he had evolved Purify to Cleanse. Not for combat, although it would be useful...but rather, for this very moment.

If the woman at the base controlled her followers through some kind of alchemical affliction delivered through those pills, then Cleanse was his answer.

A 25% chance to remove high-tier debuffs and curses, it was not guaranteed to work, even if the chance did activate... but it was still a chance he was willing to gamble.

’Let’s hope this works.’

Moon activated Cleanse.

His eyes stayed fixed on the unconscious tank, watching for any change.

Unfortunately, nothing happened. The man’s injuries began to heal, cuts closing, bruises fading, but that was all. The standard healing effect, nothing more.

’Healing him is waking him up. Let’s see if it worked.’ Moon thought as he watched tank’s eyes begin to flutter open.

"You... What did you d—"

~BAM~

Moon’s staff connected with the back of his head.

"Yeah, it didn’t."

The tank went limp again.

Moon activated Cleanse a second time. The healing entered the man’s body once more but the sign Moon was looking for did not appear...again.

The tank began to move—

~BAM~

Moon did not give up, channeling Cleans for the third time.

Unfortunately, the tank groaned once more.

"Sigh..."

~BAM~

Moon activated Cleanse for the fourth time.

The skill spread across the man’s body.

"That’s it!"

A faint barrier of light began to form around Moon’s body. Thin, translucent, glowing softly before fading into his skin. It lasted only a moment, but Moon saw it, and felt it clearly.

The shield.

’There it is.’

His heart quickened. A 25% chance meant roughly one success every four attempts. Of course, he was more than lucky to have the theoretical math play out perfectly.

The shield’s appearance confirmed everything. Cleanse had identified something inside the tank’s body as a high-tier curse or debuff and it had removed it.

[Cleanse]

[Order: Second]

[Rank: Epic]

[Level: Max]

[Details: Cleanse all standard debuffs; 25% chance to remove high-tier debuffs and curses. Restores a large amount of health on success with lower cool-down. High-tier cleanses grant a shield scaling on a portion of the debuff strength. +300% healing.]

Whatever the woman had been feeding her followers was a curse disguised as an empowerment. It latched onto the body, altered the mind, and created a dependency that the victim couldn’t break on their own.

But Cleanse could break it for them.

Moon looked down at the tank, then at the five others lined up beside him.

He had a lot of work to do.

Moon watched the man’s face contort. The groaning continued, the tank clutching both sides of his skull, his fingers digging into his hair as if trying to claw out whatever was causing the pain.

It lasted several seconds before finally stopping. The man’s hands dropped to his sides as his breathing began to slow down. His eyes, which had been unfocused and glassy since he woke up seemed to regain their vitality too.

The tank looked at his hands. Turned them over. Stared at them as if seeing them for the first time.

"What..." His voice was hoarse. "What happened to me?"

Moon said nothing. He simply watched him.

The tank looked around at the cliff, the boulders, his unconscious teammates lined up beside him. His brow furrowed deeply, and Moon could see the confusion churning behind his eyes as his memories began to resurface.

"I was... I was doing things." He spoke slowly, each word dragged out like he was pulling them from deep water. "Things she told me to do. Hunting people. Bringing them in. I knew it was wrong. I knew what was happening to them. But I couldn’t... I couldn’t stop myself."

His hands began to tremble.

"It was like watching someone else move my body. I could see everything, hear everything, but my thoughts weren’t mine. Every time I tried to resist, this... warmth would rush through me, and the resistance would just melt away. Like it didn’t matter anymore. Like nothing mattered except doing what she wanted."

He looked up at Moon, his eyes red and wet from tears of pain.

"How long? How long has it been?"

"I don’t know." Moon said quietly. "How long do you think?"