Ever since Braun joined Aegis, his life had only gotten more monotonous.
Wake up, finish his commissions in under an hour, work on one of his covers for thirty minutes, eat breakfast, spar/train, eat lunch, spar/train/work on another project, eat dinner, continue working, and sleep.
For the most part, this was his day whenever there were no super activities going on in the southwestern part of the city, and he wasn’t going to complain about it. He had made rapid progress when it came to his abilities and had greatly sharpened his combat skills to the point that he was almost on par with Nora when it came to pure skill in a couple of weapons and martial arts, displaying the monstrous talent of a genius who dedicated a lot of time into practice.
However, as of late, he had been doing a little bit of mischief outside his regular schedule to work on a skill that would be helpful beyond words once he mastered it.
Braun patiently waited for time to pass as he stared at the house on the opposite street, where a single man lived all alone. He was kind of fat with stubble around his jaw and neck, appearing like a worthless guy you’d see on the internet.
This man, however, met all of Braun’s criteria.
When he saw that no one else would see him, he hurriedly approached the house and walked into the space between the house and the house beside it, arriving in front of a closed window.
This doesn’t pose much of a problem for Braun though, as with a single thread that slipped between the window’s gap, he clicked it open.
He climbed through the window and landed in the house’s kitchen, his footsteps as light as a feather, making no sound.
Braun smiled eerily as he willed his threads to extend out. After constant practice, they could already extend out for tens of meters long, and the distance between the kitchen and the living room was definitely less than that.
Before the fat bloke could even notice it, threads had already wrapped all around his face and body, preventing him from screaming out. Then, with rapid movements, he placed a handkerchief against the man’s face, forcing him to inhale a sleep-inducing powder.
When the fat bloke finally stopped resisting, Braun grinned, lifted him up using his threads, and headed straight for the kitchen where a certain door was inconspicuously placed.
Pushing it open, he saw a dark stairway heading down into the ground, a stairway leading into the house’s basement.
Entering it and locking the door behind him, Braun couldn’t help but feel excited as he could finally begin to practice one of the more basic yet complex applications of his abilities—puppeteering.
While it may be an incredibly easy skill for him to do, and he even expected that he could puppet an unconscious man without much issue, that was just a surface of what he wanted to achieve.
For his plans, puppetering a conscious person, while moving their every muscle, including their eyes opening and closing, their vocal cords producing sound, and such using only threads were going to be much, much harder than just forcibly manipulating a body.
In fact, Braun only had potentially feasible ideas in his head, none of which were guaranteed to work.
Perhaps he could create fine enough threads that could exist underneath a person’s skin without interfering with their appearance and health so that he could manipulate them to his wish, but the sheer complexity of that act is causing him a headache.
On the other hand, perhaps he could toy around with their brain? Or maybe find a way to maneuver their muscles?
It doesn’t matter, that’s something he’ll have to deal with later. For now, all he has to practice is manipulating the man like an actual puppet, with no care for the facial expressions, voice, etc.
…
In the blink of an eye, a few more days passed.
Right now, inside Nuwesca City, a gigantic snake burst out of the ground, causing dirty sewer water to burst out of the hole it slipped through.
In the air, Kaya flapped her wings forward and caused her feathers to shoot out like a hail of bullets.
Citizens watched with wide eyes at the absurdity of events that transpired before them, with a giant snake the size of a house terrorizing the city, with water raging around its serpentine figure and a human with raven-like wings fighting against the giant snake in question.
Giant translucent barriers formed across the city block, blocking the raging water from spreading out and flooding the rest of the city.
The giant snake hissed in anger, causing the water to rise and form giant pillars that were aimed at the winged woman.
She flapped her wings, dodging with ease.
From the distance, a man stood on a floating platform of cards, and with a wave of his hand, hundreds upon hundreds of cards flew out of his sleeves.
The snake widened its eyes upon seeing the scene and hurriedly raised a barrier of water around it, blocking the majority of the cards from hitting it, but plenty still managed to stab into its tough scales.
Tsk, as expected, Level 3 Monsters are a pain to deal with! And it just had to be born inside the sewers!
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Karsen clicked his tongue, but he remained calm and rational. He willed the cards in the distance to orbit around the snake, trapping it in a small enclosure so that it couldn’t rampage around the city.
Although the other teams can arrive as backup, it would only happen when we’re truly defeated. Leaving behind a whole part of the city defenseless is just stupid! Karsen grinned as he saw numerous portals open up around the snake. Besides, we’re not this branch’s only combatants!
A group of humans wielding highly futuristic weapons arrived, aiming strange cannons at the giant snake.
Beams of blue light erupted out of the gigantic weapons, blasting through the snake’s incredibly tough scales and forming minor wounds, but with the constant layer of water surrounding it and its inherent regeneration, all of its wounds rapidly healed while a layer of mist surrounded its figure.
Braun burst out of the sewers amidst the chaos and scaled up a wall using his threads to gain an aerial view of the chaos happening.
A large number of Aegis workforce had already surrounded the perimeter of the fight scene, evacuating all citizens away from the chaos.
In the distance, Terry arrived wearing a pair of golden gauntlets, along with a strange golden crown. As his figure rapidly increased in size, turning into a literal giant standing over five meters in height, his skin became rough and hard, while his gauntlets hummed with power.
Level 2 Artifact Giant’s Crown and Level 2 Artifact Strength Increasing Gauntlets!
Terry rushed forward at breakneck speeds, his steps leaving behind deep indents on the ground.
With a swing of his hand, the gauntlets glowed brightly and the cards orbiting around the giant water-controlling serpentine parted, allowing Terry to deal a devastating blow without fail.
As he watched the fight and helped Aegis’ workers to protect the citizens considering he was practically useless in the fight, Braun noticed in the distance a child standing still, watching with great interest at the ongoing fight.
Because of their attention being grabbed by the fight, they didn’t notice that the building above them had cracks forming, causing rubble to fall down at a rapid pace.
Oh… Braun remained standing still, his eyes cold without any fluctuation in emotions. With the distance between him and the child being a hundred meters away, it would be a pipedream for him to be able to help the kid, and it seemed that he was the only one who had noticed the child in the first place.
This peculiarity, however, didn’t escape his eye, because why didn’t any single one of them, these highly trained workers specifically trained to rescue the city’s citizens, notice the child in the distance?
In addition to that, now that he looked a little bit closer, with the world operating in practically slow motion in his eyes, the child appeared a little… strange. It wasn’t that they were ugly or anything, it’s just that there was an uncanny thing about them as if there was a slight sense of detachment from reality. He even appeared blurry, which is questionable because Braun’s eyesight is in no way defective.
Then, he realized one more thing—the child had no shadow.
Braun’s interest was immediately hooked by this strange phenomenon, but reality soon came, and the rubble smashed against the ground.
As a cloud of dust gathered in the air, Braun inwardly sighed and felt that the strange thing would remain a mystery. He was about to approach the cloud of dust in hopes of gathering more clues to the strange situation when a worker hurriedly approached him holding a suitcase.
“Sir, sir! We have an artifact for you!” they hurriedly said, opening the artifact.
Inside it, Braun saw a tiny orb colored orange, with it releasing a trace of orange gas into the air. Staring at the strange orb, Braun could feel the vast amount of power inside the orb, and greed formed in his heart.
He wasn’t overwhelmed by greed though, and calmly asked, “What’s this?”
“It’s the Level 3 Artifact Corrosive Orb! Its wielder can muster the power of corrosion. Using the orb, you’d be able to cut through the monster’s tough scales!” they hurriedly explained. “Karsen gave this to you since the orb can only extend its power through physical contact which is incompatible with his cards. Only with your threads could its power be utilized!”
“I see…” Braun’s eyes twinkled as he held his breath. He didn’t think that he’d come into contact with Level 3 power so soon, but oh well, might as well get a sense of that realm now rather than later.
As soon as he touched the orb, he felt a strange, alien sensation at the back of his mind just like when he first acquired zenithral power or his superpowers, and felt that he could somehow apply the power of corrosion to his whole body or even his threads.
Getting used to the strange feeling, he grinned and formed spring-like constructs beneath his feet, launching himself into the fray in an instant.
The snake hissed as it raised a barrier of water, blocking Terry’s punch. Karsen willed his cards to cut against the snake’s tough scales but only managed to do minor damage.
Nora and her clones constantly wielded incredibly strong sniper rifles, each capable of killing Level 2 supers in one blow, yet only dealing minor effects on the monster.
Jonas supported the barrier surrounding the snake, enclosing it so that it couldn’t escape, but as soon as he saw Braun’s flying figure, he opened up a small spot that he could fly in through.
Karsen also noticed Braun’s presence and grinned, shouting “The guy’s here! Terry! You know what to do!”
Terry grunted and stomped his feet to the ground, sending another punch, smashing open the barrier of water in front of him.
Braun smiled and flew through the opening, arriving straight at the gigantic serpent. Threads extended out of his hand with an orange, corrosive glow coating each strand.
As soon as he landed on the serpent’s giant body, he slammed his hand against its scales, and the threads pierced through its defense. Just like what he did back then with the armadillo, the threads invaded through the small opening and swiftly destroyed the monster from the inside out, cutting through its flesh and splitting its bones, but he still made sure to keep it alive as per Aegis protocol.
Kill beings that had assimilated crystals only when it is absolutely required to do so. Break that promise, and the Heavenly Promise will do its thing.
Just like that, the monster was defeated.
The monster hung listless on the ground, with threads protruding out of the gaps between its scales. Blood leaked out profusely from its body, and with the last bits of consciousness of it slipping away, the light from its eyes disappeared.
Loud cheers erupted from the Aegis workers as they sighed in relief. Finally, the monster was apprehended.
Fucking hell, Level 3 abilities are just bonkers! Braun sighed in amazement as he stared at the orb in his hand, and it seemed that he was not the only one amazed by the orb, because in the distance, a hooded figure clad in shadows stared at the orb in Braun’s hand with greed in their eyes.
“Soon…” They murmured in a cryptic manner, stepping back once more into the darkness and disappearing from view.
As Braun slowly stood up and wiped away the blood that splattered onto his face, he habitually looked back at the place where he last saw the boy, and widened his eyes.
There he was, standing still with the rubble phasing through his body, akin to the ghost told in myths and legends.
Noticing that the fight had ended, the boy clapped their hands as if they had enjoyed a great show, and swiftly drifted off into the distance.
This, however, was the start of their downfall, because as soon as Braun realized that the boy had strange powers, endless greed surged in his heart, and this greed had no Aegis stopping it from manifesting!
Ghost, eh? Braun smiled devilishly. I supposed it’s been a long time coming. I either gain a power boost or a whole new ability.