I slip past a large crowd to a hidden dismal alley. According to the old man, his henchmen saw Despair members guiding two figures as I described in this alley. Despair members have a skull scar etched into their arms using a blade when they join the mafia.
I scrutinise the forsaken narrow alley, the air thickens with a pungent blend of decay, dampness, and a stale odour that wavers in my nostrils. Flanked with crumbling walls and grime, the eerie duplicates are just like any other alley in this city. At my feet is a mosaic of discarded debris and unidentified substances. However, nothing looked out of place, and I suspect illusion magic.
My theory was proved correct when I channel mana through the air, something interrupts the flow.
The problem is how I pass the illusion without alerting the caster.
As soon as my mind becomes aware of the illusion, the section at the end of the alley becomes oddly dislodged.
Hm...
I lean against the wall and close my eyes.
There's a technique that Rena used to hide her presence in the early game. It's called "Mana Cloak".
I attempt to coat my skin with mana. In the second step, my breath must match the frequency of mana. The last step, assimilate myself into the surrounding.
----------------------
Skill "Mana Cloak" has been learnt.
----------------------
It is not a skill that erases one's presence but replaces it with a lump of mana. This wouldn't fool the caster but it can buy me some time. Stealth techniques that can hide my existence from magic are too much for my current body.
With all preparation complete, I walk through the wall of illusion.
Two men are directly stationed after the illusion.
"What, who-"
Their head shoots into the sky and I check their corpse, there are skull scars. Good, I am at the right place. I continue threading deeper into the alley.
Putting aside the intricate maze structure, this alley is oddly cleaner than the ones outside. Barely anyone passed here.
I push on and wander the long alley, killing any Despair member I come across until I reach a dead end with a door leading inside a relatively small building that hides behind the tall ones.
"It's locked," I mumble.
...
I dig my fingers into the pure steel and pull the door apart. The hinges and screws burst to the floor.
"W-What the fuck?" A man says. I throw the door at him and decapitate his friend next to him.
*zzzzz*
A thread of mana zaps past me, probably magic communication. It was too fast for me to hijack.
I continue exploring the building. Ahead of the path, I can detect many presences waiting around the corner.
Mana rapidly swirls my sword, I throw a slash through the wall and a bloody mess explodes from the corner.
*BOOOM!!*
The building trembles and dust rains.
"Eugh..." I groan with disgust.
That explosive attack left a distasteful river of blood, a mush of meat, and a deep scar in the wall.
After that poor attempt, I only met several unorthodox low-quality traps that attempt to slow my advance until the very top floor, the last room. Its size contradicts the outlook of the building. It's a tall and spacious auction room with stacking balconies and towering pillars at the corners. A man wearing a white suit stares at me from the end, his identity hidden behind a white mask.
"Welcome, sir Arsto. You can call me K." He says.
Does he know me? But I'm wearing a mask now.
...
Ah...my sword gave my identity away.
"Where are they?" I ask.
K stays silent.
"Figured." I lunge forward with a precise strike to his arm, planning to disable him. However, I felt zero resistance and realised it was air.
!
I quickly duck to avoid a javelin of fire and jump back to dodge another barrage of magic.
"Huff huff..." I look around and can't see him. K is using stealth magic.
...
I stabilise my breathing and grip the sword tightly. In the one moment I detect a spike in mana fluctuation, I counter with a ferocious thrust.
*Ching!*
A sword?
K deflects my blade and throws a gust of wind mixed with gunpowder. K snaps and the gunpowder explodes. I am thrown away and lands on my feet. Not a single scratch on my body aside from burnt clothing.
"You...are durable. As expected."
I click my tongue. He is a magic swordsman.
"Bloody hell, the class I hate the most," I mumble.
I gather my resolve and tap into my inner strength. A terrifying aura pulsates through the arena.
K's eyebrow pulls up with eyes wide open. He is reminded of the fear he felt when he first met the leader of Despair. "T-This cannot be...No way."
Sensing the danger, K quickly cast his strongest spell. Several magic circles of fluctuating colours materialise above, causing the ground to tremble. He unleashes his mystic arsenal of magic and several tornadoes of spiritual nature, fire, water, ice, and wind come crashing like a tsunami.
"Phew..."
It will hurt if that hits me. My mind feels calm and my sight seems sharp. I can see the path to K.
Amid the chaos, I leap through the one small gap in his magic. My speed vastly surpasses K's mental capacity to accept what he saw and cuts an arm off.
"A-ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
He drops back and curls into a ball, grasping his bleeding arm. "Fuck fuck it hurts...fuck!!!!!"
"Phew..." I breathe out one long sigh and glance at K. "Sorry, I need to save my energy for fighting Arctius." I say.
"You...fucking monster. You are not even breathless after what you did?"
I smile. "Calling me a monster...quite ironic isn't it?"
I walk towards K and he crawls back. "S-Stay away..."
His mask falls off, revealing a middle-aged man with blonde eyes.
I firmly grab his shoulder. Purplish dark energy surges in my arm.
"Demonic energy- ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" His cries of agony are that of a banshee. Mucus and tears flow down with eyes shut tight.
"Hah! huff huff huff...how the fuck...are you a demonic human?" K says when I release my hand.
"This is your first and last chance. Where is Arctius and Joana? I will kill you painlessly."
K's pale face locks eyes with me. "T-They...left yesterday, heading for the gate. They plan to travel through the black market owned by Luxurious."(Recap: Luxurious is a merchant group that sells anything, refer to chapter 45, Remnants[2])
"I see." demonic energy rapidly burst out of my arm and seep into K's body.
"W-W-Wait this is not what you promised- ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
His body starts to convulse and pukes blood. Veins pulsate with a dash of purple and blue, and his devastating scream fades as his vocal cords strain.
Finally, splat.
He bursts into abstract art of guts and red.
I wipe the blood off my face with my coat and left without a word.
I slip past a large crowd to a hidden dismal alley. According to the old man, his henchmen saw Despair members guiding two figures as I described in this alley. Despair members have a skull scar etched into their arms using a blade when they join the mafia.
I scrutinise the forsaken narrow alley, the air thickens with a pungent blend of decay, dampness, and a stale odour that wavers in my nostrils. Flanked with crumbling walls and grime, the eerie duplicates are just like any other alley in this city. At my feet is a mosaic of discarded debris and unidentified substances. However, nothing looked out of place, and I suspect illusion magic.
My theory was proved correct when I channel mana through the air, something interrupts the flow.
The problem is how I pass the illusion without alerting the caster.
As soon as my mind becomes aware of the illusion, the section at the end of the alley becomes oddly dislodged.
Hm...
I lean against the wall and close my eyes.
There's a technique that Rena used to hide her presence in the early game. It's called "Mana Cloak".
I attempt to coat my skin with mana. In the second step, my breath must match the frequency of mana. The last step, assimilate myself into the surrounding.
----------------------
Skill "Mana Cloak" has been learnt.
----------------------
It is not a skill that erases one's presence but replaces it with a lump of mana. This wouldn't fool the caster but it can buy me some time. Stealth techniques that can hide my existence from magic are too much for my current body.
With all preparation complete, I walk through the wall of illusion.
Two men are directly stationed after the illusion.
"What, who-"
Their head shoots into the sky and I check their corpse, there are skull scars. Good, I am at the right place. I continue threading deeper into the alley.
Putting aside the intricate maze structure, this alley is oddly cleaner than the ones outside. Barely anyone passed here.
I push on and wander the long alley, killing any Despair member I come across until I reach a dead end with a door leading inside a relatively small building that hides behind the tall ones.
"It's locked," I mumble.
...
I dig my fingers into the pure steel and pull the door apart. The hinges and screws burst to the floor.
"W-What the fuck?" A man says. I throw the door at him and decapitate his friend next to him.
*zzzzz*
A thread of mana zaps past me, probably magic communication. It was too fast for me to hijack.
I continue exploring the building. Ahead of the path, I can detect many presences waiting around the corner.
Mana rapidly swirls my sword, I throw a slash through the wall and a bloody mess explodes from the corner.
*BOOOM!!*
The building trembles and dust rains.
"Eugh..." I groan with disgust.
That explosive attack left a distasteful river of blood, a mush of meat, and a deep scar in the wall.
After that poor attempt, I only met several unorthodox low-quality traps that attempt to slow my advance until the very top floor, the last room. Its size contradicts the outlook of the building. It's a tall and spacious auction room with stacking balconies and towering pillars at the corners. A man wearing a white suit stares at me from the end, his identity hidden behind a white mask.
"Welcome, sir Arsto. You can call me K." He says.
Does he know me? But I'm wearing a mask now.
...
Ah...my sword gave my identity away.
"Where are they?" I ask.
K stays silent.
"Figured." I lunge forward with a precise strike to his arm, planning to disable him. However, I felt zero resistance and realised it was air.
!
I quickly duck to avoid a javelin of fire and jump back to dodge another barrage of magic.
"Huff huff..." I look around and can't see him. K is using stealth magic.
...
I stabilise my breathing and grip the sword tightly. In the one moment I detect a spike in mana fluctuation, I counter with a ferocious thrust.
*Ching!*
A sword?
K deflects my blade and throws a gust of wind mixed with gunpowder. K snaps and the gunpowder explodes. I am thrown away and lands on my feet. Not a single scratch on my body aside from burnt clothing.
"You...are durable. As expected."
I click my tongue. He is a magic swordsman.
"Bloody hell, the class I hate the most," I mumble.
I gather my resolve and tap into my inner strength. A terrifying aura pulsates through the arena.
K's eyebrow pulls up with eyes wide open. He is reminded of the fear he felt when he first met the leader of Despair. "T-This cannot be...No way."
Sensing the danger, K quickly cast his strongest spell. Several magic circles of fluctuating colours materialise above, causing the ground to tremble. He unleashes his mystic arsenal of magic and several tornadoes of spiritual nature, fire, water, ice, and wind come crashing like a tsunami.
"Phew..."
It will hurt if that hits me. My mind feels calm and my sight seems sharp. I can see the path to K.
Amid the chaos, I leap through the one small gap in his magic. My speed vastly surpasses K's mental capacity to accept what he saw and cuts an arm off.
"A-ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
He drops back and curls into a ball, grasping his bleeding arm. "Fuck fuck it hurts...fuck!!!!!"
"Phew..." I breathe out one long sigh and glance at K. "Sorry, I need to save my energy for fighting Arctius." I say.
"You...fucking monster. You are not even breathless after what you did?"
I smile. "Calling me a monster...quite ironic isn't it?"
I walk towards K and he crawls back. "S-Stay away..."
His mask falls off, revealing a middle-aged man with blonde eyes.
I firmly grab his shoulder. Purplish dark energy surges in my arm.
"Demonic energy- ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" His cries of agony are that of a banshee. Mucus and tears flow down with eyes shut tight.
"Hah! huff huff huff...how the fuck...are you a demonic human?" K says when I release my hand.
"This is your first and last chance. Where is Arctius and Joana? I will kill you painlessly."
K's pale face locks eyes with me. "T-They...left yesterday, heading for the gate. They plan to travel through the black market owned by Luxurious."(Recap: Luxurious is a merchant group that sells anything, refer to chapter 45, Remnants[2])
"I see." demonic energy rapidly burst out of my arm and seep into K's body.
"W-W-Wait this is not what you promised- ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
His body starts to convulse and pukes blood. Veins pulsate with a dash of purple and blue, and his devastating scream fades as his vocal cords strain.
Finally, splat.
He bursts into abstract art of guts and red.
I wipe the blood off my face with my coat and left without a word.
