Wait, that"s what you were "trembling" about?
I roll my eyes and shake my head before I use many purplish-black tendrils from "Darkness Manipulation" to quickly organize the collateral into three piles: corpses, weapons, and bags of all kinds. I then use [Storage] to put the corpses and weapons away, but pull one of the bloodied bags from the pile to search its contents.
"Yep, it"s just as "Size Up" described. These guys had White Rapture"s signature cult robes and gear, and it looks like they keep their adventurer cards in here, too … it"s just as Eugus and Ms. Zelshen said at the orientation."
One of the things that were mentioned in the lecture was that if adventurers suddenly die for some reason, no matter what rank they were before, all of the cards change from their current colored rank to gray. The gold writing also fades into black like ink as well. Going through some of the adventurers"/cultists" cards, they all turned gray and black after their deaths.
"We"re supposed to report these things to the guild as soon as possible, but …"
"Right, let"s quickly see what we got first after I gather the cards …"
I gathered all of the cards I can get before putting the bags into [Storage] as well, but not before using one of their stored money pouches to keep the cards inside and put it in my pocket. I then [Clean] the whole backlot as well as myself and Nyra before sheathing her. I feel like I just cleaned up a murder scene … or a genocide.
I open the skills list again and check out my newest additions. From what I"m witnessing, I"m starting to question the validity of my LUCK for how good of a break this is.
~~
I"ll try to keep what I found short. First off, "Insightful Mapping" is basically the necessary mechanic in every RPG game, allowing me to view a map only I could see that spans as far as my current mana capacity, 1 kilometer [~3,280 feet or over half a mile] for every 100 of my total MP. At my current level with the total MP being over 10,000, I can expand my range of mapping to an area over 100 kilometers [~328,000 feet or 62 miles].
If that isn"t something by itself, I can combine the functions of certain other skills to see where everything is. People, monsters, maybe even treasure if there"s a skill for that, and then some. If I combine this with the newly acquired "Detect" skill, allowing me to sense the presence of people nearby without relying on magic, something that even overrides the "Stealth" skill, I could see where the inhabitants of the whole city displayed as colored dots on a holographic-like, three-dimensional map. Add my "Size Up" skill in the mix, and I could make out which dots have the "White Rapture Brother" and "White Rapture Sister" t.i.tles that are indicated in a different color. This would make finding the remaining cultists blending in Dondegarm a whole lot more efficient.
My other new skills, "Skill Point Conversion," "Cla.s.s Authority," and "Loyal Accomplice" are also very interesting, but I"ll go over what those are in another time. For now, to minimize detection, I keep my magical aura completely hidden with "Hide Magic" and took an extra measure in hiding my name in another window with "Status Sorting," showing the display in my status as (N/A).
Just as a sort of experiment I take out my new adventurer"s card. When I look at where one"s name is indicated, disturbingly enough, it shows as completely blank, but my cla.s.s and everything else is unchanged.
"Yeah, these identification-changing skills are scary …" I come to that conclusion as I put my card away.
Anyway, add all of those earlier-mentioned skills and "Stealth," I"m practically invisible. With additional preparations set and the backlot cleaned of the events that took place, I get out of it the same way I came in. No one notices me as I step out of the alleyway, just as I predicted, and I make my move to begin my sudden stealth-a.s.sa.s.sination mission. I aim to get the remaining cultists hidden in the city—that I counted 7 when I checked the map, making a total of 65 that were lingering in Dondegarm if I include those that I killed moments ago—eliminated before the feast. There weren"t any others outside of the walls when I expanded the map, so I don"t need to worry about those possibly camping out for the time being.
~~
20 minutes in Raiza"s time later, the mission was a bigger cinch than I thought, save for a couple of difficult hurdles. A few were scouting the area from the rooftops, and with me having my traumatic fear of heights, it was difficult avoiding myself from looking down. I don"t know how much damage I could take from falls even with my high defenses and I"m not planning to experiment on that anytime soon.
Anyway, most of these guys were Thieves, a "Whisper" that"s apparently a promoted cla.s.s from Thief, and a few Archers that took the higher ground for scouting. Despite my fear of heights, taking down the Archers was easy enough as I just threw Nyra at their heads, one-shot killed them, and head up there with [Portal] to gather Nyra and the collateral. My "Throw" skill was certainly helpful in that regard.
I"m not sure if Thieves are able to detect each other when they both have "Stealth" activated, but with mine at a higher level than theirs, I was able to sneak behind and off them quietly. I only kept one alive, the Whisper who goes by Luke.
When I catch him, I take us to the cave where I killed the Toxic Troll with [Portal], a secluded place where no other people would come to interrupt us, and after checking my map, there weren"t any monsters or other living beings in the area.
With the two of us alone and Luke caught off-guard, I first take initiative by casting [Soundproof] and pin him to the ground.
"Gah! W-What"s going on?! Where are—"
Koki!
"Aaaaaaugh!"
I make Luke immobile by breaking all of his limbs, a surprisingly easier feat to achieve now than it was with that other guy during the raid last night. His pained cries for help go unanswered as it bounces around the barrier by the Null Spell while I lock him in place with the tendrils from "Darkness Manipulation." I use Nyra to cut and tear every layer of clothing on him until he"s left in his briefs, completely stripped of his gear, weapons, and the like.
Now defenseless and held against his will, I turn him over to lay on his back. His eyes widen when he sees me after I made a ball of light above me by chanting "Create Light," brightening the cave some. If it"s like "Create Sand" and "Create Water," I thought this might be a fundamental spell for Holy Magic and decided to take a shot at it, producing pleasant results.
"Y-You! The f.u.c.king Demongenerate! How did you—"
"Shut it." I give him a good stomp on one of his broken limbs, eliciting cries of pain as I add weight into it. "Let"s cut to the chase. You may already know who I am, and I know you"re Luke, a violet-ranked adventurer with the Whisper cla.s.s, and a faithful follower of the White Rapture. You will cooperate and tell me what you know about your cult, and if you know what"s good for you, you won"t lie about any information you"ll give me, or there will be severe consequences."
"Like I"d say anything to the likes of you, human traitor!"
My "s.a.d.i.s.tic Smile" grows once more. "We"ll see about that. Now, question one, what is your goal sneaking around in Dondegarm?"
"…"
"Already not cooperating, huh? All right, then." I then take Nyra to slowly and smoothly cut open where one of his arms is broken. Luke screams in agony once more as the wound is bone-deep and draws blood.
Putting on one of my victims" leather gloves and wrapping one of their clean rags over my face to make a surgical mask, I take the fingers and dig them right into his arm, pulling the wound open while he elicits more cries of pain. Bringing the ball of light closer to the open wound, I fiddle around inside until I find the spots that bring the most reaction out of him, his nerve stem and bone. Like a doctor in the middle of an operation, I take Nyra acting as a scalpel to reach down and cut his nerve at a painstakingly slow pace. I keep an eye on his HP that quickly goes down as I"m doing this.
"I"ll talk! I"ll talk! I"m the head of the scout group in charge of reconnaissance!" Luke cries.
"Oh? Is that right? And what were you looking for in your recon?" I ask while I poke the tip of Nyra"s blade onto Luke"s bone.
"To review the status of the city while planning for a counterattack, how to break out our brothers and sisters, and seeking info on you!"
"Aww, I"m touched that you want to get to know me. I prefer to do these things over dinner and a few drinks, but either way, you guys aren"t really my type." I thought I"d make light of this cruel treatment I"m giving him through jokes.
Seems I found the first fan of my comedy routine.
"Question two, will there be others coming?" I ask.
"No …"
"You"re lying~."
Schick!
"Gaaaaaugh!"
I stab Nyra into Luke"s arm, easily going right through his bone and out the other side.
"I-I mean not today! Our group was going to rendezvous with reinforcements to give our reports!" Luke cries out.
"And when will that be?"
"A few nights from now!"
"Hm … I suppose that will do for now. I call to thee, Holy, repair the nerve stem, bring the muscle fibers back into place and close the wounds, Heal."
At my command, a warm glow emanates over Luke"s parted arm and follows my instructions to the point. I look at his HP bar and see that it"s going back up again. Making sure his arm is still broken, what"s left is a scar that would never heal thanks to Nyra"s curse. I see, so the words are more to give the caster better visuals of what they want to do in their spells. It doesn"t need to be all flowery and romantic like a poem, but at the same time, being so specific like this doesn"t make casting spells all that thrilling, in my opinion. If one who specializes in medicine and surgery were to get their hands on some Holy Magic, they might do a better job healing wounds than experienced Priests and Priestesses would.
"Question three, who"s the main leader of your cult? The main head of the White Rapture?"
"… Father."
"Your dad?"
"N-No! That"s just what he goes by! As members of the White Rapture, we"re brothers and sisters that are aiming towards the main goal of a paradise only for humans!"
Ah, I think that kind of reference is also applied to some pastors and bishops of churches back home. Were cults like that, too? "So, you don"t know his name, then?"
"I"ve never even seen his face! The majority of us likely hasn"t, either! It"s said that the only ones who know his true ident.i.ty are his disciples who work with him the closest!"
"I see. Do they each lead a faction of some sort? Do you have someone that represents you?"
"Y-Yes! He goes by Brother Montague! He"s one of the disciples and my superior, as well as Gin"s and Rasholl"s, the guys you reprimanded last night!"
"Montague … and what do you know about him? Cla.s.s? t.i.tles? Jobs like an adventurer? His motives for working with you guys?"
"None of that! All except for wishing our race to be superior and enslaving all others to do our bidding! To build our paradise for us!"
"…" He doesn"t seem to be lying. So, other than his stupid as s.h.i.t ideal, they don"t know jack-squat about him. "Montague" might not even be his real name if he"s keeping his abilities under wraps. The only thing is that he"s Luke"s, Gin"s, and Rasholl"s superior, equal, if not more in strength and power. I only know whether he"s lying or not up to this point because of the new "Intuition" skill I learned ahead of time. It gives me high senses to know whether he"s lying or holding something out on me. One has to be a Thief at a high enough level to be able to learn it, but now that I"m at its maximum level, I can learn anything I want. Same goes for the Mage and Myrmidon skills.
I"m about to call it a day when Nyra speaks.
What are you planning to do?
Curious to see where this is going, I take the bloodied blade and hold it over Luke"s head.
"W-What are you doing? What is that?! Stop! Stop, please—Aaaaaaugh!"
A familiar dark mist emanates from the blade that envelops Luke"s head, and in that moment, with Nyra"s childlike laughter in the background, a life that I"m totally unfamiliar with flashes before my eyes. I have not once remembered experiencing any of these events, yet within these few microseconds, it"s as if I"m seeing everything that happened within the last 2 weeks of this world in a completely different perspective.
One moment in this new life I"m seeing that jumps at me the most is what happened within a half hour ago, a few familiar faces of the Thieves I killed earlier are on each side of me.
"Do we really have to keep out of that fight? Wouldn"t it be better if all of us ganged up on him?"
"We still have a mission to do, Trent. Your skills as Thieves as well as my own being a Whisper are necessary for this task. Besides, that"s more than enough people to handle one human traitor." The one who said that was Luke, but much closer to me like I"m right in his shoes.
"Still, I would"ve killed to see the look on that b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s smug face getting cut and beaten in for betraying his own kin."
"I"m more interested in his female demon posse, specifically that Lizardman girl," Luke says. "Known for being one of the toughest races in the Demon-Kin, their scale hides are definitely the biggest contributors for their high defenses. I know a guy who would pay good money to get their hands on that hide, especially one with such a unique color and sheen like that girl"s."
"You mean in the black market?"
"d.a.m.n, Luke, you really know your way around these things."
"It"s how I"ve gotten this far, boys. Once we know that b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s beaten, I"m going to get that Lizardman girl alone and dismantle her alive. Honestly, if it weren"t for those grotesque lizard parts, she"d be an attractive lady as a human, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s especially seem to be supple … maybe I"ll have my way with her while I have the chance."
"Oh! Let me in on it! I"ve been backed up for a while now."
With that, the "flashback" ends, and I find myself before Luke once more, his face now covered in cold sweat and gasping for breath while Nyra"s mist returns to the blade.
Nyra … what was that?
It seems so surreal, but she was right. It"s like I"ve almost been everywhere Luke"s been within the last 2 weeks and I knew what was going on then. I even got to see his superior, Montague. It"s unfortunate that I couldn"t use "Size Up" to see who and what he really was, but just remembering his face is enough to know who I may deal with in the future.
Still, if there"s one thing that really bugs me though is that some of the traits on his face are eerily familiar. I can"t make out why that is though.
Well, I"ll have to think about it another time.
Can you see my memories like this as well, Nyra? I ask her in my mind.
… I"m going to a.s.sume you"ll do the same with me once I let my guard down, but as long as you"re not planning to try and possess me again, you can look through my memories as well.
That"s why I"m saying it now. Nyra"s in for a big surprise when she sees what I"ve seen and will certainly have a lot of questions the next time I wake up. Not like there"s any way for her to spread it around, but since she"s stuck with me by the hip, I might as well answer whatever she asks when the time comes.
Going back to Luke, however … does he know you invaded his memories?
Good to know …
"W-What just happened? Am I free to go? Why are you looking at me like that?" Luke asks as my "s.a.d.i.s.tic Smile" is now more sinister than when I started, I can only imagine if I see myself right now.
"What was it that you said about my mate? Something about dismantling her alive and having your way with her before selling her scale hide to the black market?"
From how Luke"s face pales while drenched in even more cold sweat, he knows I"m not making this s.h.i.t up.
Nyra, get ready for … what round are we in now?
And so, out of my own sick pleasure and payback for him possibly going after Ume, I maimed and healed his body repeatedly over the next couple of minutes. His painful screams as I cut, stab, heal, and repeat various places on his body are flushed out by Nyra"s noises of ecstasy in my mind, getting myself h.o.r.n.y once more.
I"ll make sure he isn"t too broken to cooperate with the guild once I take him in, I remind myself in between.
By the end of his mutilation, I got "Heal" leveled up to 8, the same level as Ume"s, after experimenting with it some more. Still conscious, I make Luke do one more thing before tying him up with ropes that were in one of my victims" bags and store him in a rucksack.
Now, about my new "Skill Point Conversion" skill, it allows me to put SP into skills and level them up that way instead of putting them to proper practice. This alone tells me that unless someone levels up high enough as a Brawler, they can"t do this on their own, which means I"m basically taking the underhanded cheap way into mastering skills instead of those who would probably take years to do the same.
Since even Ume hasn"t leveled up some to the max yet, I wonder how long it would take and what conditions were necessary to be able to max them out as I put SP into skills like "Heal" and "Pyreball" to them. With how much SP I earned in such a short time, I actually didn"t lose a lot to make leveling up skills to the max possible. When I finished, I learned right then what I could do with those completely mastered skills, and it sort of terrified me. I make a mental note to not make a big show of them out in public in the future.
There are some skills I can"t put SP in to master them, however, and while I have some complaints, I decide to not think much more on it further. From killing the 6 guys before Luke, I leveled up my stats enough to get over LV 500, received an "Underhanded Underdog" t.i.tle, and got the "Cheap Shot" and "Underdog"s Fifth Cla.s.s" skills along with it. With the new Pugilist fighting cla.s.s added to my list, I think I"m satisfied with this much for the time being.
I do some other stuff in my status that I found I can "turn off" some skills and t.i.tles to not make them appear when I open it up to the public, maybe so that there isn"t such a huge wall of text to go over. I can"t do the same with some battle-related skills and t.i.tles, however, maybe because it"s mandatory for others to see like not concealing a weapon? I do recall there are some parts of countries where concealing even a knife is illegal without a license or some other thing. I guess that"s where my "Status Sorting" skill comes in to break the game.
That said, after turning off some of my unusable non-combatant skills and t.i.tles from view and moving a bunch of stuff around, especially most of my maxed-out skills, I come up with this more compressed status window.
~~
Jinma Kotori
Race: D-Human
[New Cla.s.s(es) Added: Pugilist]
Cla.s.s: Brawler [Mage, Thief, Myrmidon, Pugilist (only seen by the user)]
[History: Brawler LV 508, Mage LV 150, Thief LV 150, Myrmidon LV 150, Pugilist LV 95 (only seen by the user)]
[New t.i.tle(s) Achieved: Master of Blaze, Master of Sanct.i.ty, Master of Abyss, Underhanded Underdog]
t.i.tle: Merciless Demon, Loved by the Non-Humane, Natural-Born Brawler, Adventurer (33rd Black), Slave Owner [Ren, Erizora], Master of Blaze, Hydromancer, Atmomancer, Master of Sanct.i.ty, Master of Abyss, [Underhanded Underdog (only seen by the user)]
Equipment: Spider Silk Slacks, Spider Silk Suit Jacket, Spider Silk Shirt, Cursed Misfortune Tanto of Nyra
Stats:
[Sentients killed: 6
LV: 508 (+18K, +9) [150, 150, 150, 95 (+94)]
HP: 3345/11165 [5585 (+180, +90) [+5580]]
MP: 11887/11887 [6190 (+180, +90) [+5697]]
ATK: 14927 [8678 (+180, +109) [+6249]]
DEF: 263180 [7644 (+180, +90) [+5515] X 20]
SP. ATK: 12556 [6879 (+180, +90) [+5677]]
SP. DEF: 256240 [7287 (+180, +90) [+5525] X 20]
AGI: 12694 [6434 (+180, +90) [+6260]]
LUCK: 10 [40 (+1) [+62] X 0.1]
EXP: 47620/50800 (+~500000) [Mage: 5501700 (+168K)/MAX (+~500000); Thief: 5234000 (+18K)/MAX (+~500000); Myrmidon: 2475100 (+18K)/MAX (+~500000); Pugilist: 3600/9500 (+~450100)]
STR RES: FIRE, WATER, STORM, TERRA, HOLY, CURSE
SP: 5875 (-400, -1650, +1210)
[BP: 520 (only seen by the user)]
[TAL: 4 (only seen by the user)]
Ability: Violently Tempting Challenger
Black Charisma
Dragon Scale Defense
Dragon"s Greedy h.o.a.rding
[Alpha Underdog (only seen by the user)]
[Obina"s Champion (only seen by the user)]
~~
Jinma Kotori
[Skill(s) Leveled Up: Hyper Perception MAX LV, Stealth MAX LV, Pyreball MAX LV, Heal MAX LV, Darkness Manipulation MAX LV, Throw MAX LV, Heavy Throw MAX LV, Poison Resistance MAX LV, Fire magic LV 5, Holy Magic LV 5, Curse Magic LV 5,
[New Skill(s) Learned: Deception MAX LV, Intuition MAX LV, Hide Magic*, Underdog"s Fifth Cla.s.s*, Cheap Shot*
Skills:
Pa.s.sive: Vigorous Libido LV 21, Slugger Style LV 7, Merciless Style LV 6, Drunken Style LV 5, Fear Resistance LV 5, Fire Magic LV 5, Holy Magic LV 5, Curse Magic LV 5, Despair Resistance LV 4, Protective Style LV 4, Water Magic LV 3, Storm Magic LV 3, Terra Magic LV 1, Detection*, Insightful Mapping*, Minor Magic Regeneration*, Magic Sense*, Hide Magic*, Adventurer"s Labor*, Climactic Level-Up*, Sweet Spots*, Intimate Touch*, [Size Up LV 6, Underdog Bonus*, Status Sorting*, Skill Point Conversion*, Cla.s.s Authority*, Loyal Accomplice*, Cheap Shot*, Underdog"s Fifth Cla.s.s* (only seen by the user)]
Active: Glare LV 7, s.a.d.i.s.tic Smile LV 7, Demon"s Palm LV 6, Blowback Punch LV 5, Man Killer LV 5, Meditation LV 4, Demon"s Slash LV 4, Mow Down LV 3, Scare*, Taunt*
Spells: Flame Burst LV 3, Water Blast LV 3, Wind Cutter LV 3, Debilitating Defense LV 3, Sluggish Speed LV 3, Baneful Poison LV 3, Pyreball MAX LV, Heal MAX LV