Author: Since I don't think I mentioned this (probably not), I got a lot of stuff going on Tuesdays and Sundays. Those are the days were chapters will most likely not come out if I don't have enough time to finish them.
Thanks for reading.
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It’s been a week since the fall of the Crimson Son’s sect. Rather than a sect, I find these people to be glorified families that are big in number. I can't fathom why they called themselves sects other than to feel more important. The only advantage they truly held was the techniques that they horded during the chaos that ensued the world in the past.
But...after analyzing the techniques from this family and thinking back on the ones I encountered before, subtle similarities are noticed in their fundamentals. It’s like one technique branching off in different directions to meet different requirements. In the end, I figure just gaining the techniques of one family is enough to eventually match up to the others if we improve the faults.
The higher level sects may only have more profoundly established techniques with less problems in its use due to improving how to use them over time. These improvements also make these techniques far more destructive.
This is only a theory for now, but I found nothing to disprove it. There are most likely a few techniques that are far different in other sects, but I need to check the other city to know for sure.
The techniques vary from movement, attack, and support. Support techniques here focus on augmenting attacks to boost effects and were similar to what I use, the most similar being [Magic Clad], except with a lot less versatility. They only focus on a single type of mana, rather than supplementing different types to make different results. One being using earth mana to boost defense.
I actually wanted to try mixing different mana together, but that only led to a lot of problems. With some thought I concluded I need to improve the skills level and my affinities before I attempt again.
My father's family seemed to mostly focus on cladding themselves in fire while bursting around with their explosive movements. Which isn’t all that surprising with how simple they tend to be.
One of the benefits I gained from them is some additional effects I can use for when I use fire mana. That destructive force that made such a large impression on the ground was one of the many uses I found. Except that one was difficult to control and could essentially destroy your arm or leg if done incorrectly. It's not something to be used without such consideration.
As such I decided to learn a skill that is suitable for me to use. I refrained from learning new movement techniques as having to coordinate multiple types of movements would actually hinder me rather than mastering a single type. And the support techniques are already similar to what I already have.
*Ding*
Explosive Strike
Active Skill
Novice Level 1
Description:
Damage your enemies from within as your strikes carry an explosive force that slips into your enemies.
Effects
Attacks are filled with mana.
For every 200 MP, 1% damage is caused within the enemy.
This skill would have been the end of me if my father would have used it when he kicked me in the beginning of our fight. What shocked me the most was when it was learned, I got a prompt to abandon an inferior skill. It's similarity to my [Breaker] skill caused it to be deemed worthless by the system. Thus prompting me to abandon it.
I found this to be interesting, as now I will know if certain techniques from these sects are worth my time or not.
While I was learning my new skill I had the others learn the rest, my sister especially needs them. She only knows some dark magic from her memories. The one she used to sneak up on our father was one of them. Though, as she hasn’t been able to practise in order to stall her awakening, it was difficult for her to perform.
The blade she used was also something she grabbed from the old mans, or rather, the previous heads private home. He seemed to have a habit of showing it off and mentioned it being on display in his house. The blade had an enchantment for piercing through armor so it was pretty decent in my opinion.
There were a few techniques here that my brother and his guards didn’t learn yet so they were pretty beneficial for Shiro and Puerial. The two seemed eager to learn and improve, the desire to continue following me around was blaring from their thoughts. Puerial even wanted to impress her mother when she returned home.
She is already a bit hesitant about the rest of her family after I told her my thoughts after training up her ability to question her surroundings. It was one of her biggest flaws to take things at face value. Now at least she wants to confirm my thoughts by confronting her family head on. I didn’t disprove, as this was a large improvement to how she was when I first met her.
Other than learning the sects techniques, we also liberated the city of all the people controlling it. Criminal organizations, guard stations, and people considered to be upper class were all either enslaved or eliminated. There may have been a few who slipped past our radar, but they wouldn’t hide long as their former colleges hunted them down.
The slave merchants were also pretty generous to relinquish all of their slave collars for this operation and participate in this new change to the city. Slaves that were kidnapped from their homes after some questioning were released as well. If it was possible, they would be returned home in the future or given some work for them to live.
When we enslaved the upper class, the ones who had decent enough morals, for this world anyway, were released with a warning. The rest had their assets seized.
I even spotted the guy who told me to die quietly when I was an infant. Not once was I ever able to find him all this time. He made a wonderful addition to the sanitation department I was starting up with the other members of the upper class. It was funny how he actually realized I was that same infant. I didn’t even tell him, must have remembered my eyes when I glared at him. Such a waste for such good memory.
Once this was done, we had the regular guards learn the basic fighting techniques of my families guards so they will have a better time making regular sweeps around the city. Monster attacks and bandit activity is becoming too frequent as of late.
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The abandoned farms around the area were also added to the patrol schedule. Farmers who were holed up in the slums, even if there weren’t many left, were finally able to return home and get back to work after I discussed the current situation with them.
Even if it's hard labor, they were happy to have their homes back and a safer place to raise their families. Though the losses were not small on their part, as a few of their family members were murdered or enslaved never to be seen again while they were stuck in the slums. The farms themselves were in sorry states as they were looted and barren. But having some crime slaves help them out did wonders for their moral along with some supplies to hold them over.
The previous administration, in this world's version of city hall, that was supposedly running the city was cleared out and put to better use in places I saw fit. Even if they managed the mundane work, most of the power fell onto the sect as they vetoed whatever proposal they didn’t like.
Following my takeover of city hall, many of the citizens started to gather in order to find out what their fates would be. As many of those who were in charge were being enslaved left and right, they were afraid they would soon be next. Though I denied such accusations, many still doubted me. It didn't really matter if they did and didn’t though.
The ones who tried to start a riot or caused various forms of trouble were enslaved as an example, and will be released upon a given time frame.
There were still all sorts of things to do, but it was left to the more competent people among the previous administration to handle. Of course they were tested to see they knew what they were doing. A lot of them merely bribed their way to their positions and didn’t know jack about what their work entailed.
The ones who were left to continue their work were given adequate facilities and time schedules to keep them remotely comfortable. Doing paper work and dealing with the continuous problems of running a city, after all, is very stressful. Finding replacements for them would be far too annoying as well.
It was after this, I felt it time to return to the village. I already sent a small contingent of people to increase their security. One of the farmers also wanted to go, as they had nothing left in Birgen to speak of and wanted to start over. I had no objections and he was welcome to do so.
“Au, this took so long. I want to go back to the village and take a bath.” (Puerial)
“Me too, this place smells bad.” (Shiro)
“Well, are you ready to meet the others Layla?” (Kuro)
“Yea, I can't wait to meet them.” (Layla)
My sister smiled brightly at the thought of meeting everyone for the first time.
As I gazed off into the distance as we began our trip, I recalled when we entered the church to receive her name. After some thought, I decided to take her to the church I got my own and Shiro’s from. But when we got there, I was a bit upset at how far it fell into disrepair. The old priest who used to manage the place as best he could was nowhere in sight. Only the table and items used for the naming ceremony was left in the center of the room.
After looking around for a bit, he was found dead in the back room. Based on how far along his body was left to decompose, he was here for a long time. I had a decent impression of him, enough to give him a proper burial and subtle prayer for him to find fortune in his next life. I would have some of the slaves do some repairs in the building since the place is in serious danger of collapsing.
As I remember the process itself, I ignored the parchment left to the side of the table with instructions. Just like last time, the process was rather quick and she received the name Layla Lux. Shiro then complained about her having two names as well. When I tried to appease her, I was suddenly notified of something unexpected.
*Ding*
All requirements for the advancement of the user’s name has been met.
Names hold many secrets.
Some more than others.
Through its mysterious, one will find truth.
The user Kuro Lux has now been renamed Kuronus Lux
If one were to say I was underwhelmed, than they would be right. But when I selected my name from the status window it now had a small buff to my Dark and Light affinities. It was still only a small buff of 1% to each. But it was still rather interesting.
As my sister was focused on her new name, she only gleamed that something happened on my end. After I mentioned my name advancing, Shiro started pouting. But felt better after I explained it was probably possible for her to advance her name if she met some odd conditions. Though I don't know what the are, Shiro seemed determined to discover it. Puerial also got interested with the idea and the two partnered up to discover how to do it.
As we walked down the road, I reaffirmed my need to grow stronger. Times like this won't last in a world like this. There is much to do if I want to protect those close to me. With all the things I don't know, makes dealing with all this a lot more difficult.
Amare herself revealed that she became aware of the discrepancies after a few things didn’t add up on her end. She appeared on edge about something but wouldn’t tell me what's going on. All she could say was to look back on all the information I receive and consider them either altered to some degree, or completely false in general.
The Dreadlings for one thing appeared to have a false history after listening to what my sister said. How much I know to be true, is unknown. The various information I received from Amare could also be false since it was recorded by the previous gods who managed this world. There is no telling what I’ll have to face in the future, especially with bad info. From now on I’ll have to see things with my own eyes without the aid of prior knowledge.
Looking at the ones following along with smiles on their faces. I can only reaffirm my need to get stronger. My sister has started teaching me what she knows about my race. She hopes that I can gain control over my inborn abilities that I wasn’t aware of. From what I have seen so far, they seem really useful.
As my steps lifted the dirt off the ground, my group continued onwards with joyful laughter between us and the desire to become stronger than ever before. But first, we needed to say our farewells and finish our business with the remaining sect in the area.
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A/N: Thank you for reading.
Don't think the farewell chapter will be simply a lighthearted event.
What’s funny is, I got Kuro’s end name all written down (Shiro and Puerial’s too). It sounds pretty cool in my opinion.