Mental Fortress was having all sorts of impacts on Lowe's quality of life. Sure, twenty-four bells was a pretty small sample size from which to draw a conclusion, but he couldn't ignore the fact his day-to-day existence was clearly going through some pretty significant changes since gaining the Skill.

First up, for a passive ability, it was an absolute mana-hog. At a stroke, half of Lowe's available pool was being constantly drawn away to reinforce the massive walls that had sprung up around his mind. Not that he was complaining, of course - even in just a day, he was already experiencing huge benefits from its protection - but without all the recent under-the-table boosts to his Intellect and Wisdom, he wouldn't have a drop to spare for anything else.

Because of said improvements, he'd moved away from partaking of Mylaf's mana's based consumables, but as soon as his MP dipped below 50% that evening, he'd asked her to focus on producing goodies that could help counteract that. It seemed that slurping down on a delightful banana and kiwi smoothie that gave him a flat 1000 mana on demand was thus just going to be a price he'd have to pay.

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered whether Mental Fortress would be - what he was choosing to describe as - a Rank 2 Skill. It wasn't just the insane mana demands - though there was no way anyone sub-Level 60 (or without a pet Legendary consumable producer) could even consider it as an option - but he had yet to come across anything that could so much as a put a dent into its defences.

And that was the second massive change in his life. Because, suddenly, not a single mental Skill in Soar worked on him. None of them. Not the subtle brush of Munchies! from the guy hawking toasted nuts from a cart on the corner of his street. Not the Sinner's Remorse from the bellowing about the benefits of worshipping one god or another from the front of the Celestial Temple. And not the overpowering sense of "look on my works ye worms and despair" that poured from every mighty fucker that passed him on the street. It was a remarkably liberating feeling to suddenly see the world of the Soar without any of the illusions whatsoever.

"Is this how you feel all the time? To be able to see through all the lies?" he asked Arebella, as he escorted her to work the following morning. She had played her face at his White Knight routine but was snuggled happily against his arm as they approached the Tower of Law.

"Not really," she said. "My Skills are all active and need to be focused on a target. From how you describe it, you're pretty much experiencing the unvarnished nature of the world all the time." Arebella stopped and turned to face him. "I imagine it's not actually a lot of fun, right?"

That was kind of an understatement. Standing in the middle of the street, the world roiling around him, it felt like every single citizen of Soar was actively assaulting him. On the plus side, Mental Fortress was levelling up like a hamster in a wheel. On the other, though, it gave him a pretty bleak impression of the rest of humanity. He'd had no idea that the world was such a succession of lies, damned lies and showtunes. But now none of them affected him, it was making everything feel a touch . . . drab.

They continued walking, Lowe trying not to be distracted by all the incidental strikes against his mind pinging off his shields. He was looking forward to catching up Kregg this morning - the goon squad should be picking him up about now - and watching that smug fucker trying to Charm him with his weak-ass little Skills would be pretty entertaining. Although not as much as pushing his teeth down his throat. He hadn't been able to sleep after reading the diary.

"Well, this is me," Arebella said, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. "Unless you think something terrible is going to happen to me between here and my office door?"

Lowe glanced up at the hulking presences of the guarding the entrance to the Tower of Law. He had it on pretty decent authority that they were not to be messed with - although Latham was clear he could take any two of them in a pinch - so he was pretty confident nothing Nuroon-inspired was likely to befall Arebella during work hours.

"Nah, it's alright. I'm happy to leave you in the capable hands of these two. Hel will pick you up, though."

"And you're okay leaving me with someone who can, quite literally, sweep me off my feet?"

"Hey, if you want to trade me in for a spicer model, I won't make a big deal out of it. But you have to let me watch, okay?"

Arebella batted him softly on the arm and started running up the steps. "Don't let anything happen to my best girl, though, you hear? Or you'll have me to answer to," Lowe called to the guards.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

One the , the shorter of the two - although, of course, these things were entirely relative. He was still bigger than most bears - put a sneer on his face and pulsed out a wave of Intimidation. The Skill crashed into Lowe's Mental Fortress and evaporated away to nothing. He gave a cheeky little wink back. This didn't do very much for cross-judiciary relations.

"What the fuck are you winking at?" the said, stepping forward, pushing more Intimidation Lowe's way.

"Jana, this isn't helpful. I work here!" Arebella said, turning around, hands on hips.

"You hear what the lady said, gentlemen. Thus, in respect of her wishes, I won’t be kicking your arses today. But take care of her, do you hear?”

Sighing, Arebella returned to walking up the stairs, muttering under her breath. “As if he needed anything else to make him unjustifiably cocky.”

*

Fortunately, though, Lowe still had people in his life capable of bringing him down to size. His boss, for example. “How did someone as fucking dozy as you end up in a position of responsibility?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Yes, well, apology not fucking accepted.”

“I wasn’t apologising, boss. I was expressing my confusion at all the shouting the minute I walk in the door!.”

“Dozy. Fucker.” Staffen leaned down and retrieved something from under her desk, which she then tossed to Lowe. “Know what that is?”

Lowe caught the transparent bag of something gelatinous and squishy. “Clear evidence as to why I’m never coming to dinner at your house. I mean, what the fuck Commander? Is this your lunch?”

“Hardly. That’s Kelvin Kregg.”

Lowe dropped the bag to the floor, where it landed with a heavy squelch. “I don’t understand.”

“No. And that’s because you are a . . .” Staffen gestured with her hand for Lowe to supply the answer.

“A dozy fucker, boss?”

“Precisely. Because, call me a bluff, old traditionalist, but when one of my Investigators comes into possession of evidence of epic sexual misconduct, I expect him to take care of business properly. After what I've read this morning, no one would care if that fucker had taken a long walk off a short tower, but liquifying him with necrotic slime is the sort of thing to cause comment.”

“What? I didn’t do this, boss!”

Staffen sniffed and leaned back in her chair. “You saying this wasn’t you?”

“Of course not! Since when did I get a reputation for this sort of batshittery?”

Staffen looked at Lowe silently, questing out with First Impression. It wasn’t - strictly speaking - one of her more powerful Skills, but she’d always found it useful when getting a quick read as to whether someone was telling her the truth or not. She frowned as it bounced straight off Lowe. She tried again. “Tell it to me straight, Inspector, did you kill him?"

Even before Lowe emphatically shook his head, Staffen's Skill had failed for a second time. Which was pretty unusual.

A long and successful career as a had given her access to considerable resources - most of which she had reinvested in her build. In fact, one of the reasons why Soar's Mayor had been so keen to recall her to active service after the Commander Cenorth debacle was that - like or hate her - no one could deny Pernille Staffen was a monstrous powerhouse.

Thus, having a Classless Level 25 bat away one of her techniques was fairly noteworthy—and she guessed it gave her an excuse to bring out the big guns.

"Inspector Lowe, do you deny any involvement in the murder of Kelvin Kregg?" she said, triggering Confession is good for the Soul, her Legendary threshold reward from Blurian. Her patron god famously didn't fuck around with niceties, and using this had been known to make hardened Level 50 Juggernauts break down in tears, spilling all their misdemeanours back to being toddlers.

At the very least, the man in front of her should immediately start gibbering. At the worst, he'd probably fully stroke out, but she figured Lowe could take a little stay in the hospital after all the hassle he'd been causing her in the last few days.

That he simply pulled a face and shrugged back at her was . . . unexpected. "Absolutely. He's no good to me dead, is he?!" Lowe bent down and picked up the bag of goo. "Is this really all that was left of him?"

Trying to hide her astonishment at this turn of events, Staffen looked away and shuffled papers around on her desk. "Yep. His front door was open, the place was trashed, blood everywhere, and this was all that lying on his bed. He'd been completely melted."

"Just like the ?"

"I don't know, Inspector Lowe. But it would be simply lovely if you were to get the fuck out of here and ask that sort of question back at the museum. You know, before even more of their fucking staff are murdered?"

Lowe, sensing the dismissal, stood, leaving what remained of Kregg on the arm of his seat. "And you are happy if I push it quite hard with the Director? He was pretty punchy when I last spoke to him."

Staffen fixed Lowe with her best glare - irritated that he barely seemed to quail under its pressure. "Somehow, Inspector, I think you'll cope."

Lowe had barely set foot out of her office, before she was activating a Sending Stone - her own, personal one, not the one Cuckoo House provided - and speaking to someone with whom she had not connected for some time.

"It's me. Yes, sorry. I know it's been a while. Yes. I know. I know. And I'm sorry. But can we put that aside for a moment. I need to run something by you. Can you meet me in the unusual place? Excellent. Yes, I'll make it worth your while. Particularly if you bring everything you have on Essence Transmutation Theory."