Marvel seemed to know a lot about the system stuff. Well, considering she had years to examine the system, and elders helped her way, it was understandable.

“I also got a quest, but it’s a different one than yours,” Marvel said, and somehow managed to show her the details of the quest, shoving the system page of the quest into her head.

[Quest: Apex Predator

You have taken the first step to upgrade your mark, Predator, by defeating an Iron-rank creature when you’re a Copper ranker.

Requirements: Hunt 10 creatures of Iron rank before advancing to Iron. Progress: 1/10

Reward: Mark: Apex Predator.]

“Apex Predator gives a 10% boost to all the primary attributes,” Marvel added promptly. “I know because all three of our guardians have it, though they didn’t get a quest to earn the mark.”

“That’s great!” Shai tried to encourage Marvel with her mental wave, but she failed miserably. Apparently, it wasn’t so easy without the concept of Empathy. “You know, I have a quest for the same mark as well, in which I had to slay ten copper rankers. I’m more than halfway done with it.”

“Apex Predator?” Marvel asked, sounding somewhat bamboozled. “How did you get it so early?”

She sounded rather envious, Well, why wouldn’t she be? After all, their recent experience proved that killing Iron ranker was way harder than copper rankers.

“Well, I accidentally killed a couple of copper rankers, and Grandpa was kind enough to give me the quest. I just need to slay five—” Shai paused to check the exact quest. “—no four more copper ranker to get the mark. The fight with the”

Marvel gave her that odd look again. “That reminds me, you can gain an easy kill with that one, perhaps.” Marvel gestured with her eyes.

Shai followed and found the human boy, hanging on the other side. A deep-seated greed for power overflowed inside her, stirring her power of Hunger. If she wanted, it would be an easy kill. The boy seemed like he was half dead already. Her eyes grew colder, glued to the vulnerable figure that seemed to be asking her to kill him. He would die anyway without anyone’s help, so why not get some benefit out of it?

That was what most people would do. But...

But Shai wasn’t like most people. She had been a weak girl, but her father always taught her to be kinder.

It’s merely copper rankers, Shai thought, surprised at how her mindset changed. I’ll get my chance soon enough.

It was baffling how she saw him as merely a copper ranker now. Well, she was Lvl 22 now. Battling early copper ranker wasn’t even a challenge anymore. Shai had come a long way in these couple of weeks, from dreading copper rankers to pitying them.

No need to kill someone who doesn’t deserve it. That was tricky logic, though. How could Shai tell he doesn’t deserve it, just because he looked as miserable? Because she felt pity for him?

“I’m glad you’re thinking through this,” Marvel added, sensing her chaotic state. “Solace says, it’s easy to lose our way in the path. Establishing some hard rules for ourselves helps in not getting lost.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“I...” Shai didn’t know what to say.

“I understand,” Marvel said, expressing an empathic wave of reassurance. “Also, Shai, you might want to check your emotional state now. I can’t help but suck on them.”

Shai glowered at her.

“I can’t help it,” Marvel complained. “The aura oozing from the depths is already making me deranged. I think that is the reason our kind calls it the Hell Chasm.”

Shai breathed in and out, and with a prompt mental exercise, she fortified her mind.

“So what do we do about that human?”

“I don’t want to kill someone innocent to gain power,” Shai said.

“Great,” Marvel said, already taking the first step. “Let’s kill the human.”

Shai was baffled. “Wait, didn’t you hear what I said?”

“You said you won’t kill innocents, which this human clearly isn’t.”

Marvel’s logic baffled her even more. Her behaviour was innocent, though her claim was likely misguided. “How do you know he isn’t innocent?”

Marvel gave her a look as if it was obvious. “I can give you three reasons and I don’t even know him,” the spider said, lifting one of her appendages. “First, he’s a human, who trespassed our territory. Second, he was sent to the Hell Chasm by my elders, that was already enough of a reason. Lastly, I can feel guilt and misery oozing out of him. Such thick emotions cannot be borne without the guilt of doing something criminal.”

Shai shook her head. Clearly, the empathic spider clan’s metric to judge guilt was more than just a little haphazard.

“I get your points,” she said eventually, “but most of them aren’t valid.”

“Then how about we ask him if he’s guilty or not,” Marvel proposed and started forming a telepathic link with the human.

“Wait, Marvel, it doesn’t work that way.” Before she could finish, Shai could feel another presence in her head.

“Hey, human, are you guilty?” Marvel asked, as if everyone was honest and just.

“Mhhmmm,” the human uttered, clearly not in his right mind with the voice speaking in his head.

“I asked, are you—”

“Marvel, stop it,” Shai said. “You won’t get him this way. Let me do the interrogation.”

Marvel exchanged a look with the human, who finally seemed to open his eyes. She relented. “Fine.”

Shai calmed her mind and concentrated on the human presence in her head. “So, you have awakened, human. Good,” she said, adopting her cocky persona. “The council wants to speak with you.”

“What?!” It wasn’t only the human who spoke, but Marvel joined in the confusion as well.

“What are you talking about?” Marvel transferred privately to Shai. “Council? Of what?”

“Anything,” Shai replied. She didn’t put much thought into it while speaking. “How does the Council of Truth sound?”

Marvel looked at her flatly. How does a spider with eight eyes that glowed like gems make that look?

“No? Then how about justice?” Shai thought for a second to dismiss it. “The Council of Justice has a certain ring to it, but it can burn us with self-righteous rage. Trust me, you would want to stay away from it.”

She had seen people taking themselves too seriously, just because of a badge and uniform. Perhaps she should put more thought into it before speaking nonsense.

“Mhm, excuse me,” said the human captive weakly. He peered into the darkness, but to no avail. He might have [Night Vision] skill, but he didn’t have the essence left in him to activate it. “You’re saying something? Are you still there?”

“We are,” Shai said sternly, returning to the arrogant persona. “We are everywhere.”

In this instance, they were below where the human was hanging. He had no way of noticing them.

“What do you want?!” The young man was unable to keep fear from spilling out into his voice. “I. . .”

“What we want is. . . very simple,” Shai said, racking her mind to come up with something imposing. “All we demand is order. We serve the realm. The Council of Order’s sworn duty is to maintain the balance and order of the realm.”

“I don’t know whether I should be outraged at your audacity or laugh at the human’s gullibility,” Marvel said, her tone was something between miffed and baffled.

“He’s buying that?” Shai was surprised. Perhaps she wasn’t that bad of an actor at all.

“You know there will be some ramifications for falsely personifying the Council of Order, right?”

Shai’s mind whirled. “Wait, something like that actually exists?”

Marvel gave her a look as if she was looking at a maniac.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Shai hissed. “Grandpa already gave us the opportunity to maintain balance, and we did bring order, killing that wyrm. Or is it just that specific group of individuals who have the privilege to bring order?”

“There’s no point arguing with you,” Marvel said, rolling her red eyes almost too humanly. “Hope, the human is guilty in your metric that we don’t have to worry about you running your mouth wild.”