Isaiah
“Excuse me, everyone!” As the illusionary clone of the woman looked at him, Isaiah heard a different voice yell over the sounds of the crowd. “I’m the head of the Kindar Raiders’ invasion force and I have a few things to say!”
Isaiah, Tomin, Ava, and the woman’s illusionary clone all turned to look at the shouting middle-aged man, who looked no different from a native Hiran commoner.
“The inheritance of the Shadow Thief is about to open in a minute and, at that time, anyone can enter. Inside, a fragment of the Shadow Thief’s soul will test your potential. How exactly, we don’t know. So, for those of you thinking of fighting before entering, it is probably a better idea to wait and steal from people trying to leave.”
“Oh. Interesting.” Another clone of the woman appeared right in front of the man and locked eyes with him, the man quickly starting to breathe more quickly, his eyes dilating. Then a couple seconds later she asked, “Now, could you please point to the real leader of the Kindar Raiders?”
The man seemed to come back to himself and he looked horrified. Then, as if compelled, he pointed to a young man closer to the inheritance entrance.
At just that time, however, the ground shook slightly and a wave of dark element mana emanated out from the inheritance entrance.
“Every man for himself!” The young man who’d been pointed at teleported into the inheritance and disappeared. Then Prince Tomin did the same and most of the crowd started charging, Isaiah letting them pass.
“You haven’t answered my question yet.” The illusionary clone of the woman in front of him didn’t leave, even while the other one disappeared. “Did your brother tell you about the sacrifice?”
“Don’t you want to run in as well?” Even Ava and the fake Kindar Raiders leader had run in, leaving only Isaiah and the clone outside.
“I already have. It’s not that big.” The woman smiled at him and then her form changed, becoming a beautiful human woman with slightly elf-like pink eyes. “Why didn’t you?”
“My brother advised me not to.” Isaiah looked at the woman and wondered why she’d changed form, so, seeing as she seemed to want to talk anyway, he just decided to ask. “Why’d you change your appearance?”
“It’s generally seen as more polite to use your actual appearance when trying to recruit someone.” The woman smiled at him. “I can also stop paying the extra mana cost to maintain the changed form. It’s a small amount, but small amounts add up.”
Isaiah just looked at the illusionary clone for several seconds. This was a new experience for him. He’d come to realize over the last year or so that he was powerful and that power was generally desirable. Seeing Camden and Grandma Wilma’s confusion about why the Gale Clan hadn’t supported him more after he’d explained the differences between himself and the other leaders of the invasion forces had been especially eye opening. But this was the first time anyone had tried to recruit him.
Even Prince Tomin had only reached out to him because he was desperate, yet he was pretty sure the woman in front of him was the cause of that desperation.
“Why?”
The woman’s illusionary form laughed. “Do you want the honest answer or the lie?”
Isaiah felt even more confused. “Why would I want a lie?”
The woman just looked at him for several seconds. Then she shook her head. “Yeah, the two of you will get along.” Her expression then changed back to a smile. “To answer your question, though, some people don’t like hard truths. Are you sure you want to know?”
Isaiah nodded.
“Okay then.” The woman made a gesture, indicating his entire body. “First, you’re an A rank talent who’s messed up his cultivation and thus won’t be valued by major forces, allowing what I have to offer to be better than any other offer you’re likely to get.
“Are you aware why most would consider it a bad idea to choose a Legendary grade class like Rapid Spear Guardian at F rank?”
Isaiah felt two different emotions from what she was saying. There was surprise that she knew his class, though it wasn’t that shocking. She’d questioned Omalia and Omalia had been part of the discussion when he’d asked for help in making his choice. The other emotion then was rage, though not directed at the woman in front of him.
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His initial inclination had been to choose the Rare grade Rapid Spearman. Varik had recommended him to choose whatever he liked best of the Rare grade spearman options if he ever had the chance to advance to F rank, but he’d always assumed Rare grade was just the highest grade he’d have the possibility of choosing. So, when Aleron and Ava had enthusiastically recommended him to take one of the three Legendary grade classes he’d been offered, he’d gone along with their advice.
“No.” Isaiah felt worried. “Why was choosing a Legendary grade class a bad idea?”
“Every time you increase your rank, you have to first qualify for a class of a higher grade so you can advance to that class.” The woman’s voice was calm and matter of fact, causing Isaiah to focus back on how she had said ‘most would consider it a bad idea’, not that it was definitely a bad idea. “The higher grade the class, the higher the requirements. But you’re lucky. Your class path won’t require you to kill scarier and scarier enemies in order to advance, but you will have bottlenecks with Laws, stat points, and cultivation techniques.
“These are things my partner and I can help with.”
“Partner?” Isaiah was confused for a second. Then he remembered the Pillar of Conquest the woman in front of him had taken over had been under the control of someone called the Heavenly Spark Soul King, a name that didn’t seem to match the woman.
“Technically, I’m his chamberlain. Do you know what that means?”
Isaiah did and it scared him. He’d seen the woman in front of him trick almost a thousand people to their deaths and, without a combat focused class, she’d managed to escape from him twice. Yet she was someone else’s servant? Just how powerful was the Heavenly Spark Soul King then.
Isaiah nodded.
“Second, you have a combat focused class. My power set is based around trickery, contracts, and charm while my partner is a crafter. We could thus make use of someone who’s specialized in just hitting things and making them die.”
Isaiah felt a little tension leave his body. It seemed the reason the Heavenly Spark Soul King wasn’t in the field was that he was a crafter. But if the Heavenly Spark Soul King was the master of the woman in front of him, it would usually mean he was a better crafter than the woman was a sneaky lying trickster, and that was exciting. The man might be able to make him a spear which could actually withstand his newest Law Larva.
“Finally, and this is the one you might not like, your life experiences make you someone who would be pretty easy to make loyal. Given what you’ve recently learned about your life, you’re liable to latch onto anyone who gives you a purpose and pats you on the back a few times, as your understanding of what you deserve in life is truly poor.”
Isaiah just stared at her for almost half a second, trying to figure out why she would say that. With a little self reflection, however, he realized she was probably right, though less so given his experience with the village. But he couldn’t understand why she would say it out loud, so he decided to ask. “Why would you say that out loud?”
The woman continued to smile. “Think back to point one.”
“Oh.” Then it made sense to Isaiah. The woman was confident she could give him what others couldn’t or wouldn’t, so she didn’t feel the need to trick him. And, by being up front about it, she was trying to earn his trust, even though he knew she was a sneaky lying trickster.
“What would you do if I said no?”
“Hmm.” The woman’s smile became a bit threatening. “It depends on your actions since we last met. If you’ve been living peacefully and only fighting monsters, I’d force you to sign an oath to not interfere with the natives. But, if you’ve been killing natives to gain your levels, I’d kill you.” The woman’s aura flared and Isaiah realized it was almost exactly the same as the true body he’d chased last time, meaning the strength of her actual aura had likely doubled or her clone skill had somehow gotten stronger.
Then the flared aura disappeared and the woman’s smile returned to normal. “But it seems you’ve not only been living peacefully, but among natives you consider yourself close to, so we likely wouldn’t have conflicting desires.”
“What is it you want?” Isaiah was feeling a bit closer to the woman as he realized she would have been angry had he hurt the villagers.
“My partner and I are humans who were reborn as monsters due to dying before an apocalypse style integration on another planet. We want to get home so my partner can see his sister.”
“You’re a monster?” It didn’t make much sense as Isaiah knew all the rules of apocalypse style integrations. “But you activated the pillar.”
“I’m a sneaky trickster specializing in making and breaking bonds.” The woman’s smile grew wider again, showing a little pride. “That includes my bond with the System. I faked myself as a native.”
Isaiah thought for a bit. First, if what the woman said was true, she was scarier than he thought, likely able to break any contract she made. But she’d exposed that ability herself when she didn’t have to and Isaiah knew his head would start to hurt if he tried to figure out if she was trying to trick him.
Instead, then, he focused on the offer. Was it better than what his brother had recommended? “My brother thinks if I made it to the Amoranth Kingdom and this inheritance had been destroyed, they would support me, maybe even get me into a B rank force as an apprentice.”
The illusionary woman nodded and raised three fingers before putting one down. “First, your brother has no way to know you chose a Legendary grade class, so that support would likely be lower than what he’d expect.” She then put down a second finger. “Second, you have no way to get to the Amoranth Kingdom until after 71 years. I’ve already captured all twelve Pillars of Conquest, so my faction will control the only teleportation platform connected to the outside universe, and I wouldn’t allow you to leave unless you were part of my faction. Finally, third—”
The woman’s facial expression changed to show irritation, but he didn’t think it was directed at him. “The inheritance has a more complicated layout than I expected and I need this mind. There’s more to my offer I haven’t been able to get to yet, but let’s talk again later.”
The illusion of the woman then ceased to exist and Isaiah was left there to ponder on his choices.