I stood there silently and the ghost to cry for Brooke being innocent, but it didn’t happen.

As if the world wanted me to take in everything that had perspired there, my surrounding s went as silent as a lake, dead in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take note of this change because of my overdriven brain. The chance slowly slipped away from my hands like sand grains, and time which had stopped just to let me think about the possibilities from the powder being found, started moving once again.

I gritted my jaw in anger for thinking that Brooke could kill someone. Slapping my face, I gave the horrid scene one last look before I walked out of the shop.

I stopped at the door and stared at the world which appeared a little different to me; destitute and lonely. It was as if a grey mist had its claws dug deep into our roots and I was finally able to see it.

{Mana sense has risen to lv 9}

The ants staring at me started appearing to me as devils wearing sheep’s clothes. Everyone appeared like opportunists waiting for their time to come and help them attain their agendas.

For reasons unknown, unwanted hate painted my heart black against all of them onlookers, and if it wasn’t for the seniors pat on my shoulder, I truly might have become a mean and vicious ant, similar to everyone else in flesh, blood and mindset.

{Pathogen resistance has risen to 7}

“So, are you having the symptoms too?” Senior asked me and I looked at him in confusion. He also tilted his head, but laughed it off and changed the topic.

“Anyways, so… did you find anything inside the shop, any clue that might lead us to this insane murderer?”

I stared into his dark black eyes hoping to see some kind of resemblance to my own nature, but before I could reach at the decision to whether my findings to the officer or not, he patted my shoulders once again with a smile too professional for a novice like me to understand the motive behind and said, “Don’t worry if you didn’t find anything. The commander will surely send someone capable to the site to check it out, but a shame, this won’t remain our case then.”

He turned his head to look in the direction of the shop, and I saw a glint of sadness appear into his eyes. At the same time my heart decided that someone like him deserved more than just a chance to solve the not so mysterious mystery behind the murders.

I called him and he hurriedly turned around to face me. His face catching up with his old age, his eyes looking lost and sunken, his voice a little softer than usual, he asked me what I wanted and I question him back.

“So what do you think this murder was; a mad spree, a grudge or tactical assault?”

That sharpness once again returned to his eyes and he asked me back, “Why…?”

But I cut him short and urged him to answer my question first. He thought for a second, playing with his beard and then nodded his head, as if gesturing that he was ready.

“I think, our murderer killed the shop keeper in cold blood. No motive, no grudge or tactics leading to something bigger, just your usual plain and old blood thirsty murder.”

I asked him if he had any clues or anything to back up his idea and he replied, “Of course, I have. Who do you think I am?”

But then he looked at the crowd and snorted before saying, “But I won’t be telling them out loud in front of these jackals. I am still sane and…” but as if our overseer demanded the show to pick up pace, both the officers received another message and they turned stiff once again.

I and the crowd looked at them in surprise, as their facial expressions changed from being stiff to astonished, and then to being utterly serious.

Senior gritted his teeth in anger and hatefully stared at me with his slightly redder eyes.

“Let’s go.” He said to e and then started walking toward the crowd. Junior officer saw him walking away from the crime scene and hurriedly followed behind him.

I didn’t stay there idle either and followed behind them, as the crowd stared at us, whispered about us being incompetent and such.

It didn’t take me long to come out of the crowd, but I didn’t saw them waiting for me. They were instead in too much hurry and walking at a rapid pace toward the nursery.

I caught up to them and asked senior what had happened and he shocked me by telling, “There has been another murder.”

To my left, right all around were bodies. Limbless, headless, half eaten, mutilated, murdered, devastated and terror striking bodies of about two dozen novice ants rested without a single face giving peaceful vibes.

Their terror stricken, yelling and broken faces made me understand one thing about the murderer; he didn’t care about who his victims.

I wasn’t feeling sad. I had become numb. I- wasn’t able to get my head around this whole situation. It was as if a whole group of wild animals had run rampart in the room.

I was feeling light headed and my chest felt hot. A pressure was building inside my chest and I wanted to cry, but like I said, I had become numb for some reason.

The style or the method used to kill the victims was similar to the shop keeper’s killer. Though the similarities were there, there were also a lot of dissimilarities.

Like, no kid was missing their eyes.

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The killer was most probably a beast, not someone who held a grudge, or attacked in heat! This was the result of a fast and strong predator filling its stomach. Surely terror was being induced from his acts, but that was just a side effect from his unnecessary savage ways and not his motive.

I didn’t stay for a long time inside the room. Actually, I couldn’t stay inside the room full of dead bodies for a long time.

My conflicting emotions were crying inside my mind to get my shit straight. I was angry and fearful of the thought that the killer could have entered my nursery room and killed everyone I knew, while I was out and this thought was making it hard for me to act.

But I wasn’t alone in this situation. Everyone present had their heads down and all were thinking where this would be leading to and when it would end.

On coming out I saw my senior officer and told him about the powder. But he didn’t react.

And if it wasn’t for his non reaction, I probably wouldn’t have checked my status to see if I had any skills that could help me.

And upon checking it turns out that I only had [Ant sense], [Examine] available, and then there was [Tracking].

I needed to find the murderers at any cost, so I choose to hold onto the last of the straws available rather than abandoning hope, and as if even god wanted to help me find the culprit, tracking evolved as soon as I used it.

{Tracking has risen to lv 10}

[Tracking has reached its maximum level]

And is presenting you with the option to:

Connect the dots or See what can’t be seen.

And the moment I read the available options, I knew salvation had arrived. I opted to choose connecting the dots, because that was what I needed, but my personal guardian’s opinion differed from mine.

*~-----Don’t-----chhh---oose-----the Dooooo-----------tss--~*

“What?”

Though she hadn’t contacted me for a long time until now, but receiving her broken message clearly told me the reason.

Her sweet, but silly and overextended voice made me look away from the situation and onto the options once again.

My mind yelled at me to choose the first option, and I would have too, if it wasn’t for my heart politely asking me to believe in that stupid guardian of mine.

She had helped me once before, and I knew that there was more to the options than what their meanings let out.

Sighing, I decided, “Let’s see, what it is that can’t be seen.” And the sound of angels singing a choir once again sounded in my mind.

*Ting*

[Skill: Mana vision gained]

Mana vision Open your eyes and see, what the world really looks like. Every level increases the amount of information you receive Cost: 1Mp/Min. 

And as if my current ability to see wasn’t enough, the moment I activated mana vision it simply ripped apart everything in front of my eyes and gave me a whole new outlook and a whole new tier of pain.

What were colors, what were shapes, what were waves, everything got colored a new form, given a new shape, a new light.

Even my senior officer sitting in front of me turned into a ball of light with three different colored barriers enclosing him tightly.

But that wasn’t all. Voices, hundreds of voices from different origins and different times assaulted my mind at the same time, as if they were afraid of losing the extended time being allotted to them.

The anger of a dying enemy, the pity of a queen, the love of a lady bug, the lust of a hopper, all of them shredded my old self into a million parts. This wasn’t a sweet new beginning, but a direct assault on my soul threatening to break and eliminate my very own existence. It was as if the various voices wanted to share and then use me, destroy me and possess my body, but thankfully, I had just the right blessing to fight against their assault.

My resistances increased as if the dam holding them had been broken and pushed them out of this sanctuary.

Shocks, pain fear, overwhelm and confusion resistances, Mood influence and Thought influence all of them directly broke through their barriers and directly entered the intermediate realm.

The newly evolved Mood influence and Thought Influence resistance combined with High mental corruption to create a new skill [Stable Mind], which was not just a resistance, but a combined factor against all kind of mental influences.

Stable Mind:

Blocks all kinds of outside influence on your mind.

+ 5% Intelligence and knowledge per level.

{Soul damage resistance has risen from lv 6 to lv 13}

{High Mental Corruption has risen to lv 5}  

{Willpower has risen from lv 16 to lv 20}

But that wasn’t all.

That was just the resistances. Because my body demanded higher willpower and newer skills to hold their own against the sudden attack a dozen new skills appeared out of nowhere to help me.

*Ting*

[Skill: Mana Manipulation gained.]

[Skill: Overload gained.]

Mana Manipulation: Mana is omnipresent and is a formless matter less energy. It secrets are many and such secrets won’t appear without understanding.

[Stat Mana unlocked.]

[Every point in Intelligence gives 2 points in mana. Every 2 points in Wisdom gives 1 point in mana.]

[Intelligence is not calculated, wisdom is not calculated]

[Total Mana remains unchanged.]

Overload You can resist Pain; you don’t fear the danger and nobody can overwhelm you.

Overload allows you to go overboard and make your body works 110% of its maximum ability. +10% Increase in the abilities gained. But the skill level won’t increase without having the same level in pain, overwhelm, and fear resistance. Effect lasts five minutes.

-50% to the overall stats after use.

All the officers present at the scene looked at me in pity, fear and some even in disdain, as they thought my mind had broken after seeing the carnage in the room.

I could hear their thoughts, no it was more like their expressions talked out loud and I could hear and see all of them, even though I was facing the ground.

There was also the voice and emotions of my senior officer mixed in between all that chaos. I could clearly hear his caring voice and feel his trembling emotions, which helped me calm down. 

It took my jumbled mind full ten minute to return back to normal, but most of that time was spent taking in all of the voices and reviewing them. Trying to figure out if there was anything of importance mixed in with them.

The moment I stood back up, my senior bombarded me with hundreds of questions.

“You! What happened? Don’t tell me you have lost your mind too? Is it a disease?” But I didn’t answer him.

I glanced at him, our eyes met and he visibly shuddered seeing the change in my eyes.

“You, how, why… are your eyes blue?”

 I didn’t waste time replying and asked him to follow me, before I started walking.

Having seen what couldn’t otherwise be seen, I knew where we needed to go.

They various voices weren’t all that I heard. There was once specific thought which was the freshest and the most evil of all and I knew that was where our answer lied.

“KILL… EAT… DEVOUER…MOTHER… WANTS… DEATH!”

Although I couldn’t pinpoint the location the thought was coming from, but the eerily glowing patches of powder leading to somewhere deeper into the colony were enough for a start.