She knew that any of the options that had been presented to the group, the best one would have to be that the Fathers’ needed mind control by sight. She knew Father Umin wasn’t using mind control by voice, since she remembered that he didn't talk at all when he fucked up Osmen's choice. Next, was sight, and while he had a hood on, she couldn't tell if he actually could see Osmen, since she was closer to him, or if the hood was a fashion statement and he had the radius, and only chose one person to affect.
Or…holy shit. Was I mind controlled and then made to forget the mind control. What if memories were implanted? What if this whole time I'm being mind controlled and I don’t know it? No, I would know it, my skill would have leveled up some, or there would have been some indication, right? Christ, I’m going to go insane with this [Planning] and [Survival] skill combination. Though, if it helped her live, then she would keep them on whenever.
No. She had to avoid the spiral, so she turned on [Fear Resistance] and Tier 6 of [Pain Resistance]. Both of those, in combination with [Deception], turned her into someone even she could have feared. The entirety of her emotions were cut off, and all she could focus on was the task at hand.
She grabbed two cloaks, one black, one brown, and wore them both, pilfered some pieces of sticky fabric she’d made by rubbing sap all over them, and a thick piece of rope that measured about 10 meters, which she wrapped around her hips. Swiped were another pair of sandals, and she tied those to her inner cloak. Last things were: earplugs, a black mask she fashioned out of old nun wear, and her lock picking quills; each were put into her inner cloak pocket.
She was ready. Henra had just locked the door, and walked down the hallway while she hummed a tune all the while.
She activated most of her skills, and then set out, lock-picking the door, and then locking it behind her. She used [Spatial Awareness], [Stealth] and [Prey Sense] to get through most areas. All three in combination made her pretty inconspicuous.
She saw the wagon, led by Baums. Creatures that looked like a mix between horses and long haired buffalos; anatomy of a horse with long buffalo body hair, horns that adorned either side of their head that curled behind and up, and big hooves. Ione noticed a distinct lack of people, which she knew was because the light of day began its transition into darkness, and quickly climbed under the wagon to slot herself in a way that she hoped made sure that her back wouldn't be scraped to shreds on rocks. She tucked her cloaks around her and waited.
Not 10 minutes later, she heard voices that she half-listened to for any important information, but otherwise they remained ignored.
After some disconcerting information about the state of Golden Heights, apparently there was some political unrest because of a shadow group that demanded an end to the war, the wagon started to move. She logged in the new information for later. In the meantime, she was watched for the pathway that led to the holy building, and realized they got there in about 3 minutes, granted, they weren't going fast at all as it took 5 minutes walking to get to the building. As they passed the walkway she untangled herself, tensed, then dropped to the ground. The road was mostly dirt, and she didn’t suffer any serious injuries save for a bump to her elbow, which took away a point of health. She snorted. With swift steps, she went to the forest that was opposite to the church in the aim to find an animal.
As if fate heard her call, she quickly spotted a rabbit-looking creature that was mixed with a deer; medium sized, with the body of a bunny and the feet and antlers of a deer. She quickly swiped it from its left side, subsequently placed the sticky strips over its eyes and then made her way to the church. The deer-thing gave a small whine and she knew what she was doing looked weird. She had the animal in front of her, close to the ground, and moved its body up and down to mimic a walking motion. Ione, with the animal in tow, hurriedly moved to the church's tree line, still inside the forest, and she noticed a light at the top of the tower as she stood away from the right side of the building.
There you are.
She picked up a pebble, and lightly chucked it at the decorated window in an underhanded toss, able to see in the low light. A small clink, and the old man quickly opened the stained glass. Ione saw his face for the first time and he just looked like a regular old man. With his old robes still on, sans hood, he glanced around and she estimated that he was nearly 40 meters away. With a smile, she realized that she had yet to be mind controlled due to not getting a level up and thought that, maybe, his range was shorter.
He closed the window and Ione was ready for the next test. She quickly threw another pebble, a bigger one at the side door, closer to the back of the church and then waited for a bit to take off the strips stuck to the animals eyelids. With her body weirdly contorted, she had angled the animal away from her, and then lightly tapped the flank. It made a weird sound, she couldn’t even begin to describe it other than a weird combo of a chirp and a deer's call. Regardless of the strange noise, it was loud, and it startled with a quick jolt towards the church. Ione slinked further back into the treeline, then waited with bated breath as [Predator Sense] kept an eye on his heart. The father opened the door and stared at the animal, his gaze locked on to the prey, and she tracked his face as the creature came to a stop, turned around in a few circles, then calmly pranced back into the forest, carefree. Its behavior instantly changed again at around 15 meters away from the Father.
Found your radius.
Ione keenly watched, and wondered if he read the mind of the creature, but the man made no move to look at where she was, and he quickly walked back inside as the animal left.
Approximately 20 meter radius with sight based mind control. Fuck yeah.
The white-haired girl waited as the light completely disappeared and in complete darkness, she used [Climbing] to slowly make her way up the tower as quietly as possible.
It was an hour-long wait that she endured when he had refused to go to bed. Ione didn’t know what he was doing, but his behavior almost suggested that he had a good ear, so she didn't want to alert him. It was a slow climb, and soon enough the white-haired girl was just below the window. Another long wait passed before she was confident that the old man was asleep.
With fingers slow and steady, Ione slowly touched the window, and was delighted to see that it didn’t close properly. She secured her mask over her face, and her eyes peeked over the ledge. The old man was lying on a thick mat on the floor, his body covered with a white sheet. What she didn't expect was the sheer amount of mirrors he had all over the place.
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Smart.
As she crawled in, Ione averted her eyes away from him, just in case he had [Prey Sense], and crouched low to the right of him. The sound of snored breaths filled the room, and she decided to loosen the rope from around her waist and put in the earplugs. She poised one hand to slap a makeshift blindfold on him, and the other to hold his throat down, and with incredible speed, she did two things at once; she slapped the hand with the sticky strips down on his eyes, and viciously grabbed his neck to jerk him up on his feet. The old man strained against her hold and she could feel how deep his fingernails dug into her hands, an injury that ticked off three points of health.
She snarled and viciously bonked his head on the wall in an effort to get him to stop and he dropped his arms. The rope around her waist was quickly unwound and she speedily wrapped the rope around the upper portion of the old man’s prone body and then up to around his neck so that she could hold both ends in each hand. She quickly ripped the mirrors off his walls, stood him up, and faced him in a direction opposite to herself. They stood back to back and Ione, in all her fucked glory, slowly dragged him towards her as he swayed left and right.
Maybe the bonk really hurt him.
Their backs met and Ione pushed her arms out, hands still held onto the rope, and started to bend forward. Her tall height made the man’s body go completely flush against hers and it strained him to have his neck placed between her shoulder blades. His body creaked and he started to writhe as the pressure along his throat increased, and the struggle grew until he started violently twitching. Her gaze initially turned downward, she looked up into one of his many mirrors to get a view of what was happening only to see his head, which had completed a full 180 degree turn, directly staring at her.
What the fuck?
Before she could do anything her mind clouded and her grip slackened, but [Mind Control Resistance] kicked in and she briefly broke his concentration. Control over her adversary was offered and she took it to turn his head away and angled it towards the wall as she jumped back first to crush his head and body against the wooden fortification. A ding resounded in her mind as the wall splintered, but she ignored it. With all of her strength, Ione immediately pulled the rope that was around his neck and with an unheard disgusting crack, ripping flesh, and a body that became dead weight, she popped his head off.
Ione wasn't expecting the ease with which she had decapitated him, and his head was flung in a graceful arc over her, blood seeped from the stump, and the droplets caught the moonlight, shimmering. Some landed on her, which was fine because only her outer cloak and mask were affected.
His head made a wet thump as it landed on the wooden floor, and she let his body drift to the ground.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Kill Father Umin
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With mechanical movements, she removed her earplugs, mask, and gracefully laid her bloody cloak on the ground. She easily picked up his body and wrapped him, along with his head and her face covering.
Now, it was time to loot. Ione bet that there were goodies hiding around the church. She quickly checked his body for rings and accessories, but he had nothing.
The room was quickly searched, plenty of trinkets were around, thanks to [Spatial awareness], but there was nothing to tell her which was valuable and which wasn't. She did, however, spot some items under a floorboard in the farthest corner with the aforementioned skill. Her lip slightly curled into a distorted smile.
She quickly wrenched the offending wood out of her way and struck actual gold. She saw a coin bag, a golden pendant of Gostra, some rings, and a journal.
She checked out how much Yora the old man was stacking and while she didn't think he was rich, it was a pretty decent amount. She picked up the pendant of Gostra and a notification popped into her mind
You have picked up {{Pendant of Gostra’s Defense}}
One time use to prevent a death blow
Place in gear? (Must wear item)
That was what she was talking about! She laughed then stored it in her pocket to put in one of her caches.
She picked up one ring. Nothing. She supposed that it was just a regular ring, but she took it with the aim to sell it.
The second ring she had picked up caused a notification to blare in her head.
You have picked up {{Ring of Dimensional Holds}}
A ring that has 5 interdimensional storage slots. Cannot hold living beings
Place in gear? (Must wear item)
She breathed. This was perfect. With a quick gesture she tucked it away into her pouch with the pendant, intent on putting them both in a cache.
When she couldn't find anything else of note, she grabbed the bundled body and made her way outside, the darkness had swooped in, and bathed the forest in black, save for the moonlight that filtered in.
There was a lingering feeling of brief unease about her actions, but with [Fear Resistance], [Pain Resistance] and [Deception], her worries melted away. She quietly whistled as she walked through the forest, adjacent to the road, and soon enough she had arrived back at the orphanage. She was able to sneakily avoid the roaming nuns despite carrying a dead body.
DING! [Stealth] Tier 4 LVL 9-> [Stealth] Tier 5 LVL 1
She supposed it was a feat to do so. Ione gently fished the Father’s head out and placed it at the foot of Vanria’s door and then guided the body to her left as she went to lock-pick the room entrance. With flourish, she soon gained access, and quickly changed the backup pair of nun slippers Ione had stolen, with her own sandals, very gently rolled his body under the sleeping sisters bed, and left the bloody shoes in the room. She also, very carefully, smeared some blood on the money pouch from the Father’s neck stump, transferred the majority of Yora to her cloak pouch, and put the money in Vanria’s dresser. Then Ione hurriedly and quietly exited the nun’s room, without forgetting to lock it. She left the head in the middle of the hallway.
Ione made quick work of the journey to get back to her own domicile and placed her coin in a piece of scrap fabric she had in her trunk. Without further delay, she went back out again to one of her secret caches and placed her stolen items inside, giddy at the thought of being able to use them soon.
~~~~~
Back in her room and back in bed, Ione was breathless. She had reluctantly turned off both [Pain Resistance] and [Fear resistance], with the worry that her emotional state would be volatile, but she was calm. Collected. The opposite of what she thought she could be, and wondered if prolonged periods of using those skills caused some sort of emotional damage. She knew she normally freaked out after killing, but this time there wasn't an inkling as to what she’d done in her emotional state. Regardless, she was thankful that she didn’t have to worry about Umin anymore, and she hoped that framing Vanria would work.
She laid in bed, and smiled with glee, staring at the spiders that stared at her.