***
Kayel was shocked at the recent developments. How could he have made such a miscalculation? This is a mistake that could either cost Eve's life, or Peter's. Only mind-altering magic could take her memories away to keep him safe, but the use of that kind of magic had been outlawed in Kurrenth. It's been considered taboo ever since slave collars were first used by the Ohmal Kingdom.
Even if it was lawful to use that kind of magic, he would never want to.
"Eve. Explain!" Kayel said through gritted teeth. He then said a short incantation, and a gust of wind picked her up off the ground. She was pushed back against a wall away from Peter, while Peter was forced to sit down on his bed.
The strength of this wind was incomprehensible. It was as if the air in the room turned into a giant set of shackles. With his current strength, there was no way Peter could fight a spell of this magnitude. Especially when it was cast by a master of atmospheric magic like Kayel.
"Unbelievable. So this is what magic feels like?" Peter thought. He tried pushing against it slightly, and was able to move a few inches at a time if he pushed with all his strength. His [Magic Resistance] was obviously too low to fight off this kind of power.
Eve on the other hand was as still as a statue. She was obviously completely unable to fight back, and was in even more of a panic now. Her eyes were darting between Kayel and Peter.
"What do you mean?!" She said, "What do I have to explain? The vanguard will find him eventually. If they search his memories, they'll know that I didn't report him!"
Tears were forming in her eyes.
"That's not what I mean!" Kayel yelled at her, "You shouldn't have been able to see his [Mana] if your skill was only learned a few months ago!" He huffed in frustration, "That was my whole purpose for asking you for this personal favour, and not the master cleric leading your class!"
He was angrier than Peter had seen him before. He knew that Kayel was loyal to Adrestia, and although it would be hard, he may even kill Eve if it meant protecting his secret.
"Kayel!" Peter yelled, "Please leave us. Set up a barrier around this room, like the one that the blacksmiths have, so I can talk to her alone with nobody overhearing us. I promise that I can work things out."
Making the room silent to the outside was a good idea no matter what, so Kayel said another incantation. Suddenly a bubble grew in Kayel's hand and spread to cover the whole room.
"Are you certain?" Kayel asked, while clenching his fists "How could you know her well enough to truly control what she'll do?"
"I'm not entirely certain yet, but let me check and see. Afterwards you can determine if she's lying or not and make the final call."
Eve audibly gulped. Her odds were looking worse and worse.
Kayel glared at the two of them, but mostly at Eve. He considered what his next action should be.
"Ughh. Alright. I don't want to hurt her, and I trust your judgement Peter. I'll give you a chance."
He turned around, walked out of the room, and closed the door behind him. Just as the door slid into place, the spell broke and Eve fell from the wall to her knees.
"Why?" She coughed because the pressure on her chest suddenly released, "... Why don't you just kill me?" She asked.
Peter stood up, "Because, you might be a good ally depending on how you answer my questions."
"W-What?! You know what I am! Why would you let me live?" She asked, sounding more confused by the second.
Peter shook his head, "Why would I want to kill you in the first place?"
Eve tilted her head, and stared at Peter like he was an idiot, "You... you don't actually know?"
"Well, there's some differences between me and everyone else. I don't exactly know what the deal with elves is," Peter scratched the back of his head, "All I do know is you're trying to hide that you're an elf, but I haven't told anybody, or even asked about your race yet."
"But... h-how do you not know why you should want me dead? Stories are told to children about the 'Evil' elves," Eve stressed the word evil with sarcasm. She then sighed as she continued, "Posters are everywhere whenever an elf is spotted, asking for their head on a spike! How have you missed all of that over the course of your life?" Eve asked honestly.
"The exact reason is a secret," Peter said, then he began walking towards her.
Eve cowered back towards the wall she was against earlier, and held up her arm to defend herself. But instead of what she thought might happen, her hand was grabbed by Peter to help her to her feet.
He lifted her up entirely with one hand to the point where she was hanging in the air before setting her back down. She almost stumbled as her feet touched the ground, but Peter held one of her shoulders to assist her.
Eve looked down at the ground with an incredible amount of confusion as a few tears finally fell from her eyes. Whether the tears were from relief that he wasn't going to abuse her, or from memories where men had abused her wasn't certain.
He wiped a tear away from her face, and the hand on her shoulder lightened up as if to say he had no intention of forcing her to do anything. Peter's hand looked comically large that close to her small, slender face.
"Tell me exactly why you're hiding your race so badly. Explain it to me as if... umm..." Peter looked to the ceiling in thought, then he looked back at her, "Explain it to me as if I was born only a few days ago. Assume I know nothing at all. No politics, no countries, no governments, no wars. The very beginning."
Her eyes widened and she raised a single eyebrow, "Are you.. *sniff*.. are you making fun of me or something? Is this some sort of unthinkable joke?" Her face was slowly turning angry.
"No!" Peter immediately defended himself, "No this is real. I need you to just ignore how strange this is, and explain the situation to me. Can you do this please? Depending on what you tell me, I may be able to save you. We might be able to figure this out!"
Peter did his best to give her hope, and it seemed to be working. She shook her head, and shrugged her shoulders in defeat.
"Alright. I'll play along with... whatever this is supposed to be, but let's sit," She sat down on the side of Peter's hospital bed, "This may take a bit of time."
Peter smiled, and pulled up one of the chairs in the room to sit in front of her. He figured not being too close would let her be more comfortable.
"Alright. It started thousands of years ago, when the elves first met mankind."
***
Eve's story started on the continent of Aqulin, the home of the elves. Aqulin is a lush continent with many forests, rivers, swamps, and archipelagos dotting the landscape. The continent was largely made up of water magic users, and as a result the elves were in tune with it. The very nature of water is to take the path of least resistance, and nurture the world. The elves took on a lot of water's nature and became a peaceful race with very few true conflicts. Their healers were very advanced in the way of curing diseases, and their farmers were all well educated herbalists. The mix between peace, and nature magic made their lives simple. Even the monsters on Aquline were mostly doscile.
Men first arrived on Aqulin via the vast ocean that covered Athone. They came on an expedition from Ignithul for a mission to find more land, and appropriate it for whatever kingdom was in power at the time. No historian could seem to agree on what empire was in power over that period of time because Ignithul was almost always in a state of conflict, so these soldiers could have been from almost any nation.
When they arrived they were overwhelmed with the beauty of the land. The undiscovered continent was more habitable than any land they had ever seen in their lives. The raw natural resources around every corner could strengthen their kingdom many times over. The first thing they did was send word of the discovery back to their generals. It would take two months for a convoy of ships to arrive to build their first outpost, so the bored men of this expedition decided to adventure into the unknown land.
They almost immediately made contact with a village of elves, but the soldiers of the expedition didn't even realize they were a whole new race. They just figured they were extremely attractive, indigenous humans with longer ears than most. All things considered, it wasn't that far of a stretch to assume so. There were humans with dark skin, humans with thinner eyes, and humans with bright red hair. Were humans with pointed ears really that far fetched of an idea?
In short, the unsuspecting village was completely overrun and every 'person' was taken prisoner. The men of the village who tried to fight back were killed. The ones who didn't, and the children were enslaved to be turned into workers. The women... well...
These men had been through war since they were old enough to hold a sword. The mentality of war is cruel and heartless, so these men reflected it. In a medieval world where might is right, and strength is the only thing that determines whether you live or die, morals and honor mean less than the dust beneath one's feet.
As time went on, the elves were removed from a huge section of previously elvish territory. The peaceful elves had no real experiencef fighting back against the war based human race. All of their time before the humans came was spent on using magic to make crops grow faster, and make life easier on the population. The only section of elves that could fight back were the ones who guarded cities and villages from monsters, but they were sorely lacking.
The king of the elves at that time was named Rydel of house Loraleth. He was only one from a long line of kings that came from house Loraleth, but he was distinguished in the ways of combat. He had slain many strange monsters that threatened the peace of Aqulin, and was incredibly powerful as a result. He had a kind heart, but knew when he heard of the human invasion that it was time to act.
Rydel's first move was to do something no elf king had ever done before: He ordered a division to be made within the elf government specifically for war. Warriors, mages, and assassins were trained. Spells, skills, items, armour, and weapons were all developed by an elf think tank made up of their generation's best and brightest. Elves typically lived for hundreds of years, so these people were wise beyond what humans could imagine. Their skill with magic was second to none.
As the war continued, one huge difference between elves and humans was discovered. Humans could not silently cast magic, where as all elves innately could! The elves took advantage of that racial trait when they created their new war spells.
The advantage seemed like a small one at first, but it wasn't. It was actually an unbelievable advantage when it came to guerilla warfare.
For instance, if a powerful human mage came upon an elf encampment late at night and wanted to destroy it, they would have to channel a large spell. The chant for that spell could take upwards of half an hour to ensure the elves wouldn't survive. While they're casting, the elves could easily hear the mage and put an arrow in his throat to silence him. Typically humans would have to defend their mages from the enemy for the entire duration of the spell's obnoxiously loud chant for the attack to be successful.
Elf mages, on the other hand, could act as individuals. They could approach an enemy fort, channel a spell in total silence for hours, and kill everyone before silently escaping into the night again.
The spells that the elf war mages came up with to take advantage of this trait were devious, and nearly impossible to counter. Some of the more effective combinations for spells became so good at killing humans, that they earned a frightening reputation among Ignithul soldiers.
One such combination was the infamous 'Doom Fog' formation. It was a simple combination of 7 to 10 elf mages. Three mages would cast continuous magic to enshroud a huge area around themselves in ultra thick fog. Another would make all of the elves nearly invisible using a constantly casted spell. Then the rest of the mages would be casting continuous magic to detect all human life within the fog, and telling assassins where they are located.
The result was a slowly rolling fog that nobody could see through. Inside of which the elves would also be invisible while assassinating every unsuspecting or lost human.
The Doom Fog took tens of thousands of human lives. It was widely known that if a fog rolled into your camp, you ran. No exceptions.
When humans tried to mimic this formation, it was easy to pick out any humans casting the fog or invisibility spells because they were extremely loud! A skilled elven archer could listen for the voice, and let an arrow fly to silence it.
With the new army, the elves finally pushed back. They retook miles and miles of land every day, and were almost ready to celebrate a total victory over the humans.
That was until the reinforcements from Ignithul came. Their mages were on a level that the elves of Aqulin had never seen before. Their magic, which was honed by life times of study and war, could call down meteors like missiles and cause volcanoes to rise up out of nowhere. Their attacks came from over thirty kilometers away, and tore a hole straight into the elvish defenses. The elves were nearly helpless against this kind of raw destruction, which could defeat them long before they could approach. Even the landscape of Aqulin was reshaped by this war.
The Doom Fog still caused havoc among the human forces, but if a powerful fire mage was present, then they could unleash a cone of fire that ate everything within the fog. Including any of the elf mages hiding within.
Ignithul's armies ripped into Aqulin once again, and it seemed that nothing could stop them this time. Elves died in droves, as they were cut down like wheat for harvest.
Eve's hands began to shake, and a glisten of sweat beaded on her forehead. Peter could tell the next part of her story was bothering her deeply.
The thing that turned the tide of war back in favour of the native elves was something so sinister, that even the elves wished they never had to use it. Mind manipulation spells.
It started with one elf mage, named Jandar, who snuck into the backlines of the human forces. His family had all been captured, tortured, raped, then killed off. In his rage he gave in to the taboo by adding a mind manipulation spell from his dormant skills list to his active skill list. He cut off the elongated tips of his own ears, and healed them with a mix of weak and strong magic to make them look very human. With the disguise he infliltrated an enemy camp.
The combination of silent casting and mind magic was nefarious. By taking over the mind of a regular foot soldier and causing him to kill their human allies in secret, he leveled up the skill to the point where he could take over one of the ultra powerful mages of the human army. He could walk among anyone and silently control them at all hours of the day. Once he had control of a mage, he forced the single human to wipe out other humans from the back line with their own magic.
The Ignithul soldiers thought some of the men from their army were defecting, so they fought back. Mighty meteors of fire, and raging volcanoes were turned on their own allies. Nobody could be sure who to trust or who to kill. Even after Jandar left the human armies behind there was still infighting betwen confused Ignithul forces.
Jandar was so ashamed and wrought with guilt that he made his way back to the kingdom, and prostrated himself before King Rydel and the elf court, asking to be hanged for his crime.
Rydel was taken aback. He had heard of the chaos among the humans from his general's messages long ago. Who would have thought that the taboo magic would be so effective.
Unfortunately, Jandar could no longer be trusted now that he had that magic at his disposal. He could control anyone, even among the elves, at any time and nobody would know. However, Rydel did not want to lose the advantage the elves had gained. He instead recruited Jandar as the leader of a special task force for the elves called 'the forbidden'. It was made up of a small group of 12 elite elves tasked with protecting Jandar as he ravaged the humans from within their own ranks.
The war was unbelievably simple for the elves from then on. The humans couldn't even sleep at night from wondering what on Athone caused their brothers, whom they had fought with for years, to turn on them. Exhaustion, damaged morale, and having to defend themselves from both the elves and their own allies caused a total breakdown among their chain of command. One by one, the great mages were pushed back to the ocean. Some escaped on boats back to Ignithul, but more than 90% of the invading humans were killed by the mages that Jandar controlled.
The forbidden were so effective that less than one year later, the elves won the war on Aqulin.
In the process, the elite elves that protected Jandar were seduced by the power he displayed. They alll joined him in the use of mind control magic. A team of 13 elves all using silent mind control were an unstoppable force.
King Rydel, having no more enemies on his continent was left with the forbidden, whom he could not trust. The elves, despite being saved by the forbidden, were ashamed that they owed themselves to taboo breakers.
Rydel's last order to the forbidden was to travel to Ignithul, find the kings or leaders who ordered the attack on Aqulin, and kill them. They were never allowed to return to Aqulin even if they succeeded.
Jandar, who was already too twisted by the use of mind magic, refused the order and screamed at the king about the unfairness of the order. He asked why he had to go on a suicide mission to the rotten human lands, and die there among that foolish race.
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Rydel expected such a response. Mind magic isn't a taboo just because of its potential to be abused, it changes a person fundamentally.
You can't invade thousands of minds, all with their own hopes, dreams, memories, political views, and personalities, and expect to not be affected. Jandar was only at the beginning. Outright insanity was all that awaited him.
The king nodded to his guard, who immediately let loose an arrow to Jandar's forehead.
The rest of the forbidden, knowing they would eventually be just as crazy as their now dead leader, decided to go on this last mission. They willingly left for Ignithul and agreed to never return. The 12 forbidden were unleashed on the world.
***
Peter leaned back in his chair with wide eyes.
"So, what did the forbidden do?" he asked.
Eve, with a slightly raw voice from how long she had been telling the story replied, "According to the history we know, the forbidden destroyed nearly all of the governments on Ignithul," -She shrugged- "They couldn't find which individual was responsible for the war, so they killed them all one by one. Ignithul suffered for a thousand years because of it, and Aqulin has been off limits to travel to ever since. The legend of Jandar and the forbidden elves spread due to some humans with high leveled analysing skills found out elves could cast magic silently, and saw the strange behavior of the humans who were with the Forbidden. There were also the 10% of the invaders who survived to tell their stories, and the experimentation on elves that they brought back as prisoners.
Since then, some elves have ventured out of the continent due to wanting to live somewhere new, the need to explore, or just wanting a change. They only found that the entire world hates them. My family was one of those groups of elvish explorers."
Peter considered all the information Eve had given him. Assuming everything she said was the truth, then it makes total sense why elves are not exactly 'adored'. If any of them could stealthily control the minds of people around them, they would be an unbelievable weapon. Even Peter had to admit that just knowing what Eve was capable of made him nervous.
Peter looked her in the eyes and said, "I assume you have no magic pertaining to mind control... right?"
"No! Not even in my dormant skills!" Eve said franticly to defend herself, "I've never even accidentally met the requirements for such a horrific skill. But.. of course I have no real way to prove that. Observational skills that allow you to see other people's skill lists are incredibly rare, and easy to guard against. Skills that let you see other's dormant skills list are unheard of. I'm willing to bet they don't exi--"
Peter scooted towards her and grabbed one of her hands, "It's okay, calm down. I believe you."
"... really?" She looked at him as if he had a second head, "You actually believe that I don't have any ill intentions?"
"I didn't say that," Peter immediately corrected her, "I have no idea what your intentions are. All I do know is that you don't have a 'mind control' magic skill. I'm sorry for having to ask."
Eve's eyes narrowed, "But, why did you have to ask, and how do you know?"
"Because, if you had a skill that could let you just control anyone near you, why aren't I already your mind puppet? Why didn't you take control of Kayel as soon as he attacked you? No. You would have used that skill a while ago if you had it already. As for why I had to ask.. that's gonna be my secret."
Peter smiled cheekily and stood up from the chair to stretch his legs.
"Now that I've memorized the tiny changes in her facial expressions when she tells the truth, I'll always know if she's lying to me or not," He thought to himself.
"I.. I guess that makes sense. How do you know that you're not already my puppet, and I'm making you think that way?" She asked in a bitter-sarcastic tone.
Peter looked down at Eve, who was still sitting on his hospital bed and said "... Let's just say I have a special trait that makes it really hard to manipulate my mind."
He walked over to a table that had a couple medical instruments laying out in a neat order. He scanned through them until he found a sharp scalpel type knife off to the side. It was likely for if the healers here need to remove something from a patient.
"Hey Eve, I know this isn't gonna make much sense to you, but I need to hurt myself just a bit more. You may want to turn around."
"What? What do you mean? Why would yo-- OH GODS!"
Peter proceeded to stab himself in the thigh with the scalpel he found. Just like he did with the arrow the other day. His [Enhanced Recovery] evolution was at 99.99%, and only needed a small bit of coaxing to bring him to the goal of going beyond D+. He watched his H.U.D. and saw that he lost about 15 [Health].
"I have to ask," Peter said with indifference on his face, "What exactly happened to 'the forbidden' after all of that happened? Did they meet bloody ends like Jandar, or did they find some form of peace before insanity overtook them?"
"You imbecile! What on Athone are you thinking by stabbing yourself?! They'll think I tried to hurt you!"
The now standing Eve raced over to his side and immediately began to cast a healing spell. Peter grabbed her hand, and shook his head.
"Just answer the question please. If I need healing, I will ask."
The courteous indifference in his voice, and his calm luminescent eyes, made Eve lose herself for a moment. She was completely still, as if frozen in her panicked state while Peter held her arm.
Finding her baring once again, she yanked free and scowled, "They all died miserably, and insane. Their families had shooed them off of their own home continent, and they had the fragments of a thousand minds screaming at them. There is never is a peaceful ending for men or elves that delve into controlling minds. We don't call it taboo magic for no reason."
Eve's gaze switched back and forth between Peter's eyes, and his wound, then she added, "The elves have been hated ever since. Nobody wastes time killing them if they find one, just in case we silently take over their minds."
He, however, was completely distracted by a brand new set of windows in front of himself.
Evolution [Enhanced Recovery] has risen to C
[Enhanced Recovery] Type: Evolution Increases the natural rate at which your [Health] and [Stamina] recover themselves by 10 per minute. Loss of small sections of flesh, like fingers and toes, will regenerate completely. Scar tissue will only ever last for a few days. Sleep is now 150% more effective at recovering from fatigue.
Recovering your stats naturally or with potions will raise your progress to increasing the Grade of this Evolution. Increasing the Grade of the evolution will enhance the benefits it gives. Grade: C Progress: 0.01%
A wicked huge smile appeared on Peter's face. It looks like new functionality is gained when his evolutions go up a full grade, just like when skills rise a whole tier.
"Very good," Peter said as he pulled the knife out of his leg.
Eve gasped a bit and held her hand over her mouth, but as she looked at the wound she felt something wasn't quite right. There was no blood.
Several seconds passed with both of them staring at Peter's leg. Seemingly right in front of her eyes, the wound closed and left behind no marks at all. The whole process only took just over a minute.
"H-How... How did you do that?" She asked, leaning down to touch the wound on his leg.
The corner of Peter's mouth turned into a smile as he said, "That's just how I am. All natural."
"Hahaha, yeah right. What kind of long lasting potion effect were you under all this time? Kayel's special friend would definitely get the privilege to have such an expensive potion."
"I'm telling you Eve. Any time of the day, any day of the week. That is my recovery speed," Peter said with confidence.
Her eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth to say something else to the effect of 'thinking she was stupid enough to believe that', but Peter interrupted her.
"Say, how have you been hiding all this time? Shouldn't anyone with a decently high tier [Analyze Soul] skill be able to find out what you are?"
Eve closed her mouth, then subconsciously peeked at her right hand. There was a small ornate band on her finger.
Peter honed in on the object by following her eyes, and thought "[Identify]"
Ring of Obscuring - Level requirement: 45 Quality: Exquisite [Obscure Status] Perception +30
"Wow! An exquisite world item!" He exclaimed.
Eve gasped and said, "What?! How could you be capable of seeing my item? What level is your [Appraise] skill? And.... did you just silent cast?!"
Peter leaned back and stroked his chin. He thought to himself, "It seems my skill I use to identify things is much more potent at low tiers than the other identification skills. Hmmm. Also technically yes, I did just silent cast didn't I?"
The H.U.D. function he had from the Equilibrium Construct definitely had a lot of hidden uses. He could see individual icons for all of his active skills: [Identify], [Dash], [Shield Bash], and [Equipment Storage]. Whenever he had any of those skills on his H.U.D. he could activate them with a mental command. If he removed it from the H.U.D., then he could no longer activate it.
The only exception to this was [Shield Bash]. It was grayed out at the moment, but would likely re-enable after he equipped a shield.
"I suppose so," He said with an amused smile, "It's not the same as elvish silent casting, but it's very similar. You don't have to worry about me though. No [Mana] means no mind control spells in my future."
Her eyebrows were scrunched up so tight they looked like a folded accordion. She threw her hands in the air in mock defeat.
Eve finally asked in an exasperated voice, "Who... ARE you?! Maybe even 'what are you?' is a better question."
The question caught Peter off guard. He tilted his head to the side gave the question some serious thought.
After a few seconds he replied.
"What am I? ... Hmm... Literally? A human variant... Mentally? An alien... Spiritually? Blessed and cursed... Physically? I don't think I should tell you yet." -Peter chuckled as he walked towards the door- "But don't accuse me of being more than meets the eye you hypocrite. The level requirement on that world item means you're a lot more than you've decided to say."
Eve was totally lost trying to process the answer he gave. She saw him walk by, and with a hefty sigh she skipped over to follow him.
***
Kayel was patiently meditating just outside the door. Cross legged, and floating about 3 feet off the ground in front of the door like a guard. People passed by cautiously, sometimes greeting him with "Good evening Master!". He would always reply in kind to be polite, but internally he was very distraught.
The nearly invisible ripples in the air covered the door completely. No sound had come out of that room in a while, but Kayel kept a firm lock on Peter's life force to see if any fights broke out.
Eventually he sensed the life of both people inside the room walking to the door, and turned off the atmospheric barrier off with a small chant. Seconds later, the door was unlocked and opened.
Peter looked at Kayel and said, "Sorry for keeping you waiting. Eve and I have worked most of everything out. We have an understanding under 'mutually assured destruction'."
Kayel looked between the two of them sternly, then said to Eve, "Is that true?"
Eve let out a defeated sigh, "I don't have a choice, so yes."
Kayel sensed the air around Eve's body for disturbances. He was so in tune with the air around him, that he could sense an irregular heartbeat that was caused unconsciously by lying. He closed his eyes and felt the air in a bubble around her, but no unnatural changes occurred. She had to be telling the truth.
Peter knew she was telling the truth purely by her facial expressions. He wondered if what he learned from Eve could be applied to everyone. If he could get good enough then he wouldn't need to know people's faces before knowing if they're telling the truth or not. It would be an incredibly handy skill to have.
Kayel looked just as defeated as Eve as he said, "Alright. I believe you, even though I have no idea what was shared between the two of you, it seems that you're not as clean in your background as we thought."
Peter, the only cheery one of the three said, "Fantastic. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some sleep. There's still some experimentation that I need to do with what I've gained today."
He abruptly took off at a fairly high speed, leaving a dumbfounded duo behind.
They stared at his back until he rounded a corner in the direction of his sleeping quarters, then Eve broke the silence.
"Is he always like that?"
"Seems so," Kayel replied, "He has a one track mind."
He then grabbed her shoulder, "Listen to me. He's more important to me than your life. My better judgement is telling me that letting you just walk away is a mistake. Just don't try to run from this outpost. I'll have to keep an eye on you."
Eve audibly gulped in fear, but Kayel let go of her shoulder then began to walk away. She looked at his shrinking figure in confusion.
"But, Peter clearly doesn't feel like you would betray him. He may come off as a bit of a goof, but his intellect is higher than anyone I've ever met. Just don't ever give me a reason to doubt his judgment," He turned to glare at her, "Star student or not, I won't be merciful to you."
He stared for a second or two to make sure she got the message, then turned back and walked away.
She stood in that hallway for a while longer, then weakly fell down to her knees.
"Too many brushes with death for one day..."
***
A few minutes later, Peter approached his room. Several passersby who recognised him said 'Hello' as he walked. He returned the greeting and moved along at his rushed pace. People in the temple were starting to get used to the 7 foot tall man with glowing eyes, so he didn't get as much attention as usual.
Once he entered his room he saw that his supper was on the table as usual. It was the potion enhanced variety.
"If only the cooks knew I'm basically a walking potion at this point," He thought with a strong sense of pride as he sat down at the foot of his bed.
"Status."
|6:21 PM| |Status| |Backlight: [Off]| Name: Peter Valk Kastell Level: 10 Gender: Male Influence: 9 Race: Human Variant Fame: 10 Class: Arbiter Unspent points: 38 Stats Health 550/550 Stamina 400/400 Vitality 25 (25) Endurance 20 (15) Strength 32 (15) Perception 15 (15) Dexterity 20 (20) Processing 20 Karma -100 M. Resistance 10 Evolutions [Enhanced Recovery] Grade: C [Enhanced Durability] Grade: D [Enhanced Energy] Grade: D Traits [Tap to display] Skills [Auto Translate] Transcendent level 10 [Student of a God] Expert level 1 [Identify] Adept level 8 [Soul Drain] Novice level 9 [Evolve] Time until random racial growth path is selected: 69 Hours [Exo-Skeleton] Novice level 7 [Momentum] Adept level 1 [Patience] Adept level 1 [Fervor] Adept level 2 [Toughness] Adept level 1 [Fear Aura] Novice level 7 [Dash] Novice level 4 [Shield Bash] Novice level 5 [Equipment Storage] Preset slots: 1
"Wait... What?! But my armour isn't even activated. How do I still have all of my bonus stats?!"
Peter frantically looked through all of the exact information on his abilities to see what was allowing him to keep these bonuses. Once he got to [Equipment Storage], he began to understand. He read the exact wording out in his mind.
"...While equipment is inside of a preset slot, you may not retain any defensive stats, damage stats, or innate skills from the stored equipment..."
He shook his head side to side and plopped back on his bed. He wiped his face with both hands as he processed this information.
"It doesn't mention the bonus stats that I get from [Exo-Skeleton]... Does that mean that with every inventory slot I get, I can just keep piling on my bonus stats? If I keep my current equipment stored away, then put on another set of armour, will I gain both sets of bonus stats?!"
Peter was totally blown away. If his idea was right: he could wear armour that's way too strong for him due to his [Powerful Soul] trait, then get the most useful benefits for several sets of that superior armour at the same time.
"Who knew unexpected synergy between skills could be so strong? I bet this is due to me having the Arbiter class and Evolver modifier combined. Nobody before me would have tested how the class and modifier specific skills interact with each other."
He made up his mind that first thing in the morning, he would go back to the armoury that Chandi the head blacksmith showed him a couple days ago. He needed to test the theory, and if it turned out to be right he would take full advantage of the situation.
Slowly, by fighting against his excitement he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
***
Somewhere in an unnamed, vast, and white expanse, the viridian orb that represented Peter's soul stood completely alone. It seemed to have grown by multiple sizes size the time Adrestia was here with B67. The semi-circle stand it sat on had grown with it, and even gained some beautiful engravings on the sides.
Multiple plasma bolts seemed to 'feed' the ball's power. It began to eerily hum, and a message appeared above the orb.
Alert: Harbinger request confirmed.
After that alert faded away, B67 appeared and rushed to the Orb. He placed his hand on its surface and closed his eyes.
In his mind, a window appeared.
Harbinger Status Avatar Code: Arbiter001 Universe Code: G3TL33T - Athone [Health]: 100% Influence gained: 9 Level At The Time Of Request: 0 Current Level: 10 Risk Assessment: Maximum Reward Upon Ascendence: !ERROR!
B67 tilted his head to look at the non-existent ceiling and sighed, "Of course he broke this system too. The boy breaks everything he touches!"
By tapping in several key locations on the orb, the 'Harbinger Status' page popped up in front of him. Now that it wasn't just in his mind, he reached out to touch the page. His finger landed on the 'Avatar Code' section.
"I will gladly deal with the consequences if Adrestia disapproves of this. The amount of damage control I've had to deal with over the last week justifies my tiny dose of passive agressiveness," B67 thought to himself as he edited the window. A devilish smirk crossed his face.
When he finished typing, he walked away and silently disappeared. Only the orb with the hovering 'Harbinger Status' remained alone in the room.
Harbinger Status Avatar Code: Unexpected_Disaster Universe Code: G3TL33T - Athone [Health]: 100% Influence gained: 9 Level At The Time Of Request: 0 Current Level: 10 Risk Assessment: Maximum Reward Upon Ascendence: !ERROR!
***