The interrogation room was a plain one-room building. It was about the size of a classroom, and only two guards stood guard, making it seem quite cramped.

At the end of the room were four chairs, and a wooden table covered in a white cloth. The room itself was dark, but there was just enough light from the corridor to make out what was happening.

"So you're the trespasser who broke into the castle, huh?" The interrogator asked. He was sitting in one of the chairs. "That's pretty interesting. You managed to go undetected for a whole week."

"Y-Yes! Yes, sir!" I replied. "It was very hard indeed!"

I was trying to look confident, but I sounded incredibly nervous. It probably didn't help that my throat had gone dry again.

The interrogator chuckled. "Well... I guess I can understand that. I doubt you could have done it without being skilled. After all, nobody had ever broken into the castle before."

There were some footsteps approaching us. The other guard entered, and the interrogator rose.

"Right! Let's get started! First, we'll start with the torture!"

The guard grinned and produced a whip. I flinched. It was one of those leather whips; the kind I had seen people use in old movies. It was a little over half as long as my arm, and even though it didn't look particularly sharp, the tip was covered in small spikes.

However, I wasn't too worried about that. I thought I had probably got through their defenses somehow. Now, I just needed to figure out what was going on.

"Alright then! Let's begin!"

The interrogator raised his whip and brought it down sharply, landing a strike across my shoulders. I barely flinched, and even then I only winced for about five seconds before recovering.

I had gotten used to pain. I had gotten used to it more than anything else. There had been a period in my past life where I was unable to move or talk. That was the period of time when the monster had taken over my body. I had been so weak. So powerless. And that had made me want power badly. I had wanted strength. I had wanted power.

That was why I had trained myself. To become strong. To become powerful. To become invincible.

Now, I understood what real power felt like. I had experienced real pain. And that had taught me how to use pain.

"Oh, I forgot to mention this beforehand!" The interrogator laughed. "I've been given permission to use your powers against you. If you resist too much, the guards will take action and remove them. So please... don't resist."

He struck me again, and I winced. My shoulder stung, and I gritted my teeth. The pain was bad enough that it had taken my mind off my sore throat.

This was it; I had to get through this somehow. If I played along with these men for now, I might actually learn something useful.

"Ouch!" I grunted as the whip came down once more.

As always, I had avoided thinking of it as pain. When it had hurt the most during my transformation, I had forced myself not to think about it. Instead, I'd tried to ignore the pain as if it weren't there. Then, at some point, I had stopped feeling anything.

If I did manage to defeat the interrogator and guards, I would still have to deal with the rest of my captors. But the interrogation would be a good warm up to get ready for that fight.

"Hmm..." The interrogator looked at me. "You're not as tough as you look! I was expecting you to put up a little more resistance!"

"N-No, sir," I replied. "The pain is simply not as important to me anymore..."

He continued striking me. Every hit he landed became less painful, until finally, he stopped hitting me altogether.

Then, he stood straight up and stared down at me.

"What?!" I gasped. "Why are you stopping?!"

"Well, I'm not sure if you realized it or not," the interrogator grinned. "But your powers only work on the people of this castle. They don't apply to those outside."

"H-Huh?" I stammered. "I can't do anything to them?"

"Correct!" He responded. "They're just like any other guards in here. They're completely powerless!"

I was a little confused, but I understood. Now, I only had to figure out how to deal with these guys.

I decided to try something. I reached out for the tablecloth, grabbed it, and quickly pulled it towards me. It was a bit of an awkward move, but I had managed it.

I was a bit worried about what they were going to do if I managed to grab one of their weapons. If they took me seriously, I might end up getting attacked by them.

However, thankfully, the guards didn't seem to care about that.

They watched me suspiciously, but then they shrugged their shoulders and went back to whatever else they had been doing.

I had figured they wouldn't go after me, and it seemed I was right. I wondered why, though. Why wouldn't they try to stop me?

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Did they really just accept that I was a threat? Or could it be because they knew about my true strength?

I felt confident that I could have taken one of them on if I had wanted, but maybe the other two guards would try to intervene first. That meant I had to keep the situation under control somehow.

My options were limited to begin with. I needed to think of something I could use as bait to get these men to attack me. However...

"Wooow, cool trick!" A guard suddenly exclaimed.

The man that had been interrogating me turned his attention towards me, and he looked impressed.

That was it! The perfect opportunity to get these men to attack!

I hadn't been able to pull this off in order to fight the guards when we had first met, so I was surprised the guards had accepted me this easily, but I guess it made sense that they would be more understanding of someone who could manipulate objects.

"Thank you." I smiled at the interrogator. "I've never had the chance to show this to anyone before. It's actually quite amazing, isn't it?"

"Hmmm..." The man pondered for a moment. "It does make sense, but...if you were that strong, you probably shouldn't have gotten caught in the first place. What are you even doing here?"

I was a little surprised to hear that. Maybe, despite being the captain, he wasn't that smart?

Oh well. I guess if they weren't going to take me seriously, I could have fun making them act silly.

"Yeah, yeah! We'll talk about that later!" I declared. "Let me give you a small demonstration!"

"Hmmm..." The interrogator frowned for a moment. "That could be fun, but I'd rather get this done first. You'll need to wait here until I finish with the rest of these guards, and then I'll come talk to you again."

"Understood." I nodded politely. "I'll wait here patiently until then."

He was probably going to interrogate the other guards as well. I didn't want to interfere too much, so I decided to stay put.

As I waited, I continued to watch the guards go about their business.

Their lives were dull and boring. All they did was stand there all day long, guarding the castle from intruders.

If I could make them angry enough, I was sure they'd be willing to break their monotonous routine in order to teach me a lesson.

So I started doing some research. The interrogator had just left the room, so I had time on my hands.

I checked every single piece of information that had shown up when I had activated my status recovery. Then, I searched around for more.

Afterwards, I learned a lot of stuff.

I now knew that these men were the Captain and Major of the Third Guard Unit, and that their job was to prevent people from entering the city. In other words, as the name suggested, they guarded the gates. They also served as part of the city militia, but that was something different.

Also, the guardsmen had very specific roles. Each member of the unit had only one task. As the captain and major, their jobs were to oversee the entire operation, and handle anything the unit might face. As for each one of the other guards, they had a specific role assigned to them. Most of them were responsible for patrolling the perimeter of the castle grounds.

That made sense. There were only a few entrances into the castle; otherwise, it would have been easy for an attacker to sneak in.

It was pretty simple to understand. In short, the Third Guard Unit acted as an additional line of defense for the castle.

I also understood that a small number of people lived inside the castle, but the rest of the population stayed outside. I wondered why, though. I wasn't familiar with military or royal life in this world. But I assumed that staying outside the castle would make the soldiers less visible to the people, which would have made it easier for them to live peacefully with everyone else.

In any case, the reason they kept all the people outside was probably that the castle walls provided protection from enemies. In order to reach the castle, someone would have to cross several open fields. Anyone who tried to invade the city would quickly find themselves facing several hundred guardsmen, and they wouldn't last long.

In fact, the reason why the guardsmen were so tough was because the commander, the captain, and the major were the most capable people in the unit. Those three made up roughly two-thirds of the entire unit.

They couldn't afford to have anyone weaker than them in their units.

However, as far as my research went, those three were not the strongest men among the guards. That honor belonged to a man named Aris. He was a big guy, as wide across the shoulders as he was tall. With his thick muscles, he looked like a brawler, and it seemed like he was always fighting. He was also skilled in close combat with weapons, and he had an uncanny ability to hit precise targets even when fighting from horseback, despite the lack of cover.

According to what I'd found out, there were seven members in the Third Guard Unit, and they were all pretty tough. One was a blacksmith that worked on the castle walls, while another specialized in archery. There was even one person who had an incredible level of agility. The rest were all well trained fighters, but none of them were quite as strong as Aris or the others.

All right, so let's think about how we can use that information!

I had no idea what to do, but I had a pretty good feeling that my next move was going to involve my spear. Or maybe I should say, spears.

These guardmen were all about the same height. It might work if I made my spear invisible. After all, that would make it look like it was an extension of my body. Plus, I wouldn't have any trouble moving it around.

But then, there was the problem of durability. The last thing I needed was for my spear to break because it hadn't been prepared properly. Even the slightest scratch on the surface would ruin the illusion. I needed to take extra precautions.

It would take a little longer, but I'd need to find a way to protect the spear head better before trying out my strategy. That, or I'd need to find some other, similar weapon.

I started looking through the weapons shop one more time, but it was useless. I couldn't find anything like the spear I wanted, nor anything I could use as a substitute.

Maybe I should get something else instead? A sword for close combat, or maybe a bow and arrow.

Well, that's not really a problem. I can just go back to my room and practice with whatever I find there. There's no law against using weapons I've acquired off the street.

That said, finding something suitable shouldn't be too hard since I already know where to look. There is one more shop that I haven't stopped by yet…

"Um, sir?"

─ Question: Would you like to buy another weapon?

There was a question mark over the weapon the clerk at the weapons store recommended to me, the dagger. I decided to go ahead and click on it.

─ You have been accepted into the ranks of the Dagger Specialization!

─ Quest Accepted: Dagger Mastery

─ Quest Description: Use your skills to master the dagger.

─ Your quest objective is to acquire ten daggers, equip them, and complete the mission. You must also achieve five ranks in Dagger.

─ Rank 1: Beginner

─ Rank 2: Intermediate

─ Rank 3: Advanced

─ Rank 4: Master

─ Reward: 50,000 experience, +5% damage from daggers, +10% chance to counterattack for daggers, +50,000 exp.

─ End Level Goal: Become a Master and earn a reward!

─ You have reached your end level goal. Congratulations!