The remainder of that night was a rather simple one for Jordan. After desummon all but the one drone that had killed the lady, he had it lead him to her corpse. The kill had been as clean as just a single shot through the head. The intent had been for the drone to effectively go behind the woman and assassinate her from above without her ever knowing. Though when he saw the horrified expression still partially on her dead face, it seemed that she might have actually noticed it, but only after it was already too late.
Next to the freshly deceased body was a whole lot of equipment. Various sets of armor and weapons from what appeared to be a whole mix of Classes. But in addition, there were more than a dozen police officer uniforms. No guns, however, that he could see. Yet it made him glance back at the woman’s face. There were only so many reasons that a bunch of cops was part of the group you got transported here with.
One of which was the most mundane explanation that she and Joey had also been cops themselves. Though considering their behavior with each other and leading him to die, he had a funny reason that it was for a less innocent reason. In any case, Jordan just went ahead and grabbed it all to throw into his own pocket space. After that was done, there was just one thing left for him to do.
Slain Initial Merger detected!
Traits Collected: 1
Titles Collected: 1
Class: Manipulator
Level Upon Death: 3
Grade Upon Death: E
Highest Grade Class Skill: E2
Transmute corpse into an Advancement Crystal?
After confirming the prompt, the body turned into a red gem as expected. However, even at just the first glance, he could tell that something was just a bit different a bit. He pulled another one from his pocket space to directly compare them and make sure it wasn’t just his imagination.
“Huh, no, it’s definitely a bit bigger than the others. Even Hanako’s wasn’t like that, even though I know she should have also reached Level 2 from the Rabbit hunting. Since that’s taken into account from the description before, that might have been why the one-use effect was so… potent,” Jordan mumbled as he trailed off while thinking back to the fiery blast.
After taking a deep breath of the cool air to help clear his head, he mentally pushed past it. But unless Level 3 was some marker to make a difference, it probably wasn’t that. Which left only one other option that made this gem actually distinct from all the rest he’d collected. This lady, Melody, had actually gotten at least one Skill evolved to E2.
Though aside from that, her Class did also give a bit of pause. As far as names for a Class went, Manipulator triggered a pretty big red flag. Did it mean in the sense of manipulating the environment or objects? Or the more concerning idea that his mind went to, people?
Jordan shuddered a bit, and not because of the cold air. He was willing to believe that his reaction to quickly leaving to save the now known to be made-up group had been genuine. That it’d come from his nature as at least a decent person, and as an emotional response to having already lost his own group. Even if they had been all strangers, it still hurt to see the brutal ways the Grass Panther had killed them all, to leave him alone.
However, what if his thoughts and emotions haven’t been fully his own? What if it was the worse scenario of the Manipulator Class actually being one that messed with his mind? It would at least partially explain why his response had been so immediate and unquestioning. At least at first, until a little time had passed and it then almost became painfully obvious that something had been fishy.
He looked down at the unassuming crystal in the palm of his hand. If his slightly paranoid assumption was correct, then there could easily be more people out there with that kind of ability. Hell, even if he was wrong, that could still be the case since there appeared to be all sorts of potential Classes out there.
As far as a list of typically evil powers goes, there’s a reason why mind fuckery usually places pretty high up there, Jordan thought to himself as he put the gem away.
The easiest thing to do would be to simply hope he never encountered any such mind fuckers from here on out. But the smarter thing would be to have a way to defend against it. Though how he was going to go about getting such means, he’d have to figure that out.
With that fairly concerning worry now added to the list of worries on his mind, Jordan took the last set of clothes that had been worn by the now gem-ified corpse. Rolling his shoulders, he opted to just walk back to his base instead of riding the land drone.
His target hadn’t gone that far before getting taken out by the drone, after all, so it wouldn’t take him long to get there by walking. But at least this way, he could take a minute to just keep breathing in the cool air while letting it clear his mind. His intent was just to effectively let the walk act as a calming mental reset, of sorts.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
A short time passed, and Jordan was now back inside his base. He began to repeat the process from before, by first taking the loot dropped by the dead man. Which wasn’t nearly as many items, indicating that Melody had been the one holding onto almost all the stuff they collected.
Slain Initial Merger detected!
Traits Collected: 1
Titles Collected: 1
Class: Rogue
Level Upon Death: 2
Grade Upon Death: E
Highest Grade Class Skill: E2
Transmute corpse into an Advancement Crystal?
Jordan wasn’t surprised to see that Joey had also gotten a Skill to Grade E2. For anyone responsible for the deaths of one or two people, the use of the Advancement Crystal dropped to get a least that much was all but guaranteed. It was just a question of whether one went for the new Skill or the evolution first.
When he went to pick up the crystal, however, Jordan noticed something new that was also odd about it. It was something that he hadn’t been able to notice just earlier, due to how dark it was outside. But now inside his base and under its lighting, he could tell that the color of the gem was also different. He pulled the young woman’s gem along with one of his older ones, and put them together for a direct comparison once more.
Okay, so both of them are a bit bigger and match each other in size. But also, they’re the same difference in color from the other gems, Jordan observed.
The new pair of crystals were just a shade closer to purple than the rest of the red gems. Or would it be more accurate to say that they were closer to violet now? Meh, that particular detail didn’t matter as much as the simple fact that there was a little bit of blue now evenly mixed with the red. So, if that were the case, would getting a new gem whose highest Skill was E3 result in one that’s even bigger and bluer still?
If so, then he would probably one to get a properly accurate measurement of their dimensions. Both this pair and one of his old gems. But that could come either later tonight or even in the morning. Because for now, he needed to prepare for the wildfire that he imagined would soon be spreading this way.
To begin with, Jordan first went over to his Transmuter.
Hello, beautiful. Those two didn’t hurt your pretty… metal? Since I was gone, did they? Jordan cringed as he’d been helpless to stop the thought after it had started. One could only be thankful that he hadn’t chosen to actually say the words aloud for the universe to hear.
Cringe aside, the machine appeared spotless with not even a smudge on its surface in sight. Jordan took some material in the form of spare pieces of wood, and used them to create a rake. Specifically, one that allowed him to cheat the size limit of the slot. Well, maybe not actually cheat-cheat, but just take advantage of the whole point of one kind of tool design.
Foldable items!
Through the almighty power of having just one part of it that allows the item to be folded in half, and snap into place as it is fully extended. As for the actual vital piece that was the folding mechanic itself, Jordan actually also made it out of wood instead of using a bit of metal.
As evidenced by the second door that was still on even after being slammed open, he had figured out that the problem really hadn’t been him. It had actually been the dead wood itself that was crappy, at least at first.
But then when he had made a new batch for which he specifically focused on its structural integrity, the result had been an immediate improvement by leaps and bounds. There would of course remain a limit to the strength of wood versus metal. But as far as day-to-day use went for the things he created, it was a promising bit of progress to make.
With rake now in hand, Jordan stepped outside to begin clearing out all the leaves in the clearing. The less that burned around the immediate vicinity of his base, the better.
He didn’t have the faintest clue on how long it would take the fire to spread the about four miles between him and the river. But just in case, he moved as quickly as he could to get as many leaves as possible into a pile without worrying about the strays he missed. He’d rather get 99% of something done in under 20 minutes, than reach 100% if that meant working for over an hour, as his father would often say.
Once the clearing felt sufficiently… cleared, Jordan put the rake away and went back inside. After securely closing the door behind him, he then went up the ladder to make sure the cover for the roof was put back into place. With those two as the building’s only access points, no smoke should be able to come in for as long as they stayed securely in place.
Jordan was slightly worried about both objects being made from wood. However, if it reached the point where the fire was directly touching either to set them ablaze, then there would already be a big problem as it was. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that point and all he needed to do was just stay inside and wait it out.
But since he wasn’t nearly tired enough to sleep yet and would be sitting indoors anyway, there was at least one productive thing that he could do now. From his pocket space, Jordan pulled out each piece of a particular set of items he’d been holding onto. Using three of them for their one-time effects had been the reason he was still alive, yes. But had he just fully consumed them earlier, things might not even have reached that point in the first place.
With all his Advancement Crystals now placed on one of the base’s tables, he sat down on the chair beside it. He was technically one shy due to being unable to collect the Crab’s until the blaze died out, if the corpse could even be turned into a gem at that point. But for now, he already had more than enough to start using them for their purpose.
It was time to get both another new Skill and an evolution added to his repertoire.