“What? What are you talking about?” I said, trying to stay calm, as he moved up to walk next to me.
“Your heart isn’t beating, you didn’t eat breakfast, and I’m pretty sure that you didn’t actually eat lunch when you left the group earlier.”
My mind raced, trying to figure out how to get out of this conversation without getting in trouble. I hadn’t considered that anyone might notice my lack of heartbeat. I wasn’t sure how this man did. He must have had some kind of skill. I would need to find a way to imitate a heartbeat to prevent situations like this in the future. If some random traveler had noticed, then there would certainly be others. There was always a chance that this ‘random traveler’ was uniquely gifted or powerful, but it was more likely that he just had a certain skill that might also be possessed by many others.
I stared at the man’s face, trying to get some kind of read on him. His face was lean and he had high cheekbones a few days’ worth of stubble. He was wearing a hood, which wasn’t unusual, given the temperature, and a small tuft of black hair was poking out. His yellow eyes stood out to me for their color, but as I looked closer, I noticed that his pupils were not quite circles. They were slightly elongated vertically, like a cat’s…
That explained how he had noticed my heartbeat. He was probably at least part beast-person, and I imagined that beast people probably had enhanced senses. Someone who was part cat would at the very least have better hearing. That could be something I could use against him.
Though there was legally nothing wrong with being a beast-person in Ravel, according to Jacques, they were discriminated against, which was why I was wearing a mask to hide my teeth. He would probably be trying to hide his origins. However, his secret was nothing compared to mine. If I threatened him, he could easily opt for the mutual destruction option and have both our secrets revealed, and he would be relatively fine, while who knew what would happen to me. I would need to stay on his good side. If I antagonized him, things could escalate very quickly.
As I thought about my options, I realized that that moment would actually be a good opportunity to test out some of my skills. [Create Thrall] wasn’t an option, because not only did I not have a way to get any of his blood, if this man reacted anything like Jacques had, the paladins would definitely notice. [Charm], [Persuade] and [Deceive] could be useful though. I activated all 3.
Charm lvl 6
A subtle mental skill that slightly enhances the User’s positive qualities and hides their negative ones in the mind of the target.
Persuade lvl 6
A subtle mental skill that makes the target more open to hearing out the User’s argument or proposal
Deceive lvl 8
A subtle mental skill that causes the User’s lies to appear more believable to the target
“Ah, I should have known that a beast person would notice,” I said calmly.
He flinched. That was good. Though he wasn’t trying very hard to conceal his identity, he still didn’t want me to announce what he was to everyone else. It wouldn’t stop him from revealing my secret to anyone, but it did make him hesitate.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” I lowered my mask and smiled, showing my fangs. “But please don’t ask me any further questions about it. It’s really none of your business.” I raised my mask again.
My skills and actions seemed to be doing their work properly. He stared at me, mouth slightly agape. He looked like he still wanted to ask me questions, but with the new information I had given him, he no longer knew what to ask.
“I assure you that I have perfectly valid reasons for everything, but they are not something I will be revealing to a complete stranger,” I said confidently.
“Oh, uh, ok. Sorry for bothering you.” He bowed his head slightly in apology and slowed his walk so that he fell back behind me.
DING
[Charm] lvl 6 -> lvl 7
[Persuade] lvl 6 -> lvl 7
[Deceive] lvl 8 -> lvl 9
I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the notifications. (I had been making sure to breathe while traveling). The combination of my words and my skills had convinced the cat person not to investigate further. Of course, I knew they would, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t mildly stressful. No doubt he was still curious, but hopefully he wouldn’t bother me again, at least until we got to Bizet, and once there, I would be able to ditch him.
I would need to consider how I would prevent anything like this from happening in the future though. I would need a way to mimic heartbeats. I thought about how I might be able to do that. My body, while dead, was still soft, and didn’t look much different from a normal human’s. That meant I probably still had blood, right? Maybe I could use [Hemokinesis] to manually pump it through my body. The skill said it didn’t work on blood that was still in living creatures, but I wasn’t exactly ‘living’ anymore, so it should work.
I couldn’t test it right then though. If the cat person noticed me experimenting with forcing my heart to beat that could be bad. Hopefully, right now he was coming up with his own answers to his questions. Maybe he was imagining that I was some kind of puppet. That could be bad though, especially if he started to think I was a lich. Or, he might be thinking that I’m wearing some kind of artifact that hid my heartbeat for some reason.
Whatever he was thinking though, my heart suddenly starting to beat, or more likely, my heart suddenly starting to beat sporadically and inconsistently, would cause his suspicion to redouble, and he might start asking me questions, or worse, report me to the paladins. I would have to wait until I got away from him to try anything.
Fortunately, I wouldn’t have to wait long for that. A few minutes after I had gotten rid of the nosy stranger, we finally arrived at Bizet. Bizet was a walled city with a river flowing from east to west through the center. We had left the outskirts of the forest in the morning of that day, but I could see the edge of the tree line off to the west about a mile from the city walls. There was a road running alongside the river towards the forest and on it I saw many groups of people on it, all walking back into the city.
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Originally, I had been planning to bribe the guards not to check my identity, and I was worried about how I would get in without the paladins noticing, but that problem solved itself when the guards let us all in without checking anything. They said that any companions of the paladins were already vouched for by something more trustworthy than any form of identification.
The moment I stepped foot in the city, I gave a quick word of thanks and farewell to the paladins and merchants, and left as quickly as I could to get away from the cat person. The first thing I needed to do was find some place to stay, at least for that night while I figured out how to fake a heartbeat.
I found an inn a few streets away and got a room. It was nothing special, but it was clean, and the door had a lock, so I could be assured of my privacy. Once I had set my things down on the ground, I sat down on the thin mattress and began working on my project.
I started by focusing [Hemokinesis] and [Mana Sense] on my arm. First, I just used Hemokinesis to try to make the blood in my arm vibrate, and I was delighted to feel my whole arm light up with active mana. I kept my blood vibrating, and then carefully tried to move it through the veins. According to what I had seen in my status window, the [Intelligence] stat affected precision and control of magic, and mine was high, so the blood mostly flowed where I wanted it to, but it wasn’t quite perfect. I winced when I felt a miniscule twinge of pain and noticed my HP decrease by 1 on my HUD. It was healed almost instantly due to [Rapid Regeneration], but it did not bode well for the next set of experiments where I would be working on my heart. Or maybe it did. This could be a good opportunity to level [Rapid Regeneration].
As I caused the blood to flow through my arm, it moved the blood in the rest of my body too, though very sluggishly. It felt very strange and slightly uncomfortable to have the blood in my body moving after being still for so long. I let the flow continue for a few more minutes before deactivating [Hemokinesis] to prepare for the next stage of my tests.
I started on my heart the same way, simply using [Hemokinesis] to make the blood around it vibrate so I could feel where it was, before slowly pushing the blood around inside it. It took nearly two hours, and a hundred [HP] lost, but I did eventually get it flowing somewhat normally within my body. It still wasn’t good enough though. Not only did it take most of my concentration to maintain it, but the blood was merely flowing, while the heart was not beating.
I spent the next two hours adding in gradually larger pulses centered around my heart, using [Hemokinesis]. The first one had hurt quite a bit, and had taken a full two dozen [HP] at once, but the next took less, and the one after that even less, and [Rapid Regeneration] had leveled up a few times, so those points were healing off faster and faster. My [MP] consumption was concerning though. By the time I got up to a normal heartbeat, it was more than half gone. I decided that I would continue the skill until I got down to a quarter of my [MP] before taking a break, but I never actually got that low.
As I was sitting in a meditative position, focusing on keeping my heart beating, I heard a ding and suddenly keeping my heart was so easy that I no longer had to focus. I had been ignoring the dings up until that point, since they would have been a distraction, but I made sure to open up this notification, since it was clearly different.
Skill Acquired! [Imitate Life] (Passive skill)
After great effort and much concentration, you have managed to make it appear as though you are alive, despite being dead. This skill will make it much easier.
I focused on [Imitate Life] to see its description in greater detail
Imitate Life lvl 1
A specific use of [Hemokinesis] that evolved into its own skill. This skill will keep your heart beating and your blood pumping, allowing you to pass as living for as long as you have the [MP] to keep it up
[MP] drain: 100/hour
I stared at the window for a moment in disbelief. It was my first time gaining a new skill. I hadn’t realized how easy it was to do that. Barely 6 hours of effort, and I got exactly the skill I needed. Though maybe it was just because it was me doing it. If it were someone else, they probably couldn’t have done it as quickly.
The [MP] drain was a little concerning. [MP] regeneration was equal to [Willpower], so it wasn’t so high that I wouldn’t be able to recover, but it would still nearly triple the amount of time I would need to spend recovering my mana. That would change though. The skill was still only level 1. As if hearing my thoughts, I heard another ding, and the window changed right in front of my eyes
Imitate Life lvl 2
A specific use of [Hemokinesis] that evolved into its own skill. This skill will keep your heart beating and your blood pumping at a constant rate, allowing you to pass as living for as long as you have the [MP] to keep it up. (Upgrades at level 20)
[MP] drain: 95/hour
No longer needing to concentrate on keeping my heart beating, I decided to look at the other notifications I had missed
[Hemokinesis] lvl 5 -> 8
[Rapid Regeneration] lvl 1 -> lvl 4
[Mana Sense] lvl 9 -> lvl 11
Satisfied with my gains, I got up off my bed, grabbed my things once again, and set out. I had only paid for the one night at the inn, planning on paying for more if I ended up needing them, so there was no problem with me just leaving. I wouldn’t need an inn in the future, since I didn’t need to sleep.
*I did, however, take some time to wash myself in one of the private bathing rooms that the inn provided me. I had never really traveled on foot before, so I found it very surprising how dirty the water became. I had to change the water twice to get myself and my clothes to an acceptable standard of cleanliness. There was a convenient clothes drying magical tool in the room, so I was able to dry my freshly cleaned clothes and put them back on. By the time I was done, I was in a very good mood. Not only was I clean again, but [Imitate Life] had gone up two levels during that time.
I stopped at the inn’s front desk on the way out. The girl managing it was doodling on a sheet of paper when I arrived, but quickly got up when she saw me approaching.
“Is there anything I can help you with, ma’am?” she asked with false cheeriness.
“Yes. I was hoping you could direct me to the Temple of Change,” I responded, setting my room key down on the counter.
“Of course. Just turn left out of the inn, take the fourth right, and then the third left and it will be on your right. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you,” I said, flipping her a silver coin. That might have been a bit much for a tip, but it was Jacques’ money, and I could always make more.
Her eyes lit up as she caught it. “You are very welcome. Thank you for staying with us. Come back anytime.”
I did not respond to her as I walked towards the door, but I did smile under my mask.
Outside the inn, the sky was dark, but the streets were well lit by magical lanterns that hung on every corner, and on many of the houses. I walked down the cobbled stone streets, following the receptionist’s directions until I arrived at my destination. As she had said, I couldn’t miss it, though not for the reasons I had been imagining. It looked less like a temple and more like a bank. It was mostly boring and rectangular and made of gray stone, with the only interesting feature being the two large pillars and the arch above the main doorway.
There were two large and intimidating looking men standing on either side of the door. They were clearly guards, but I wasn’t sure if they were the temple’s guards, or the guards of whoever was currently in the temple. They looked more like street thugs than proper guards with their poor posture, dirty clothes, and scarred faces.
I walked up to the temple, and while the guards eyed me, they made no move to stop me. I wondered what they were there for. If they weren’t stopping anyone from entering, even if just to ask about their intent, then all they were doing was frightening off more cowardly potential petitioners.
I pushed open the large wooden doors and entered the temple.