Five days ago
Joy had just left the Kings’ tower, and now she was heading to yet another HQ. The Riders were the most organized of the factions that ran the East Quarter, and getting them on her side was paramount for asserting control in the aftermath of the war. In a rare stroke of misfortune, something that was becoming rarer in the weeks after evolving her Power, this was going to be especially difficult. Having to contend with having a fear and distrust aura while convincing someone to trust you was never going to be easy.
Of course, she wasn’t going to go in blind, so Joy questioned a few random people in the Riders’ territory about the personality of the ‘famous’ Rorke. She heard nothing but good things, he was a gentleman, a rare spot of brightness, and an overall joy to be around. With glowing reviews like that, it was no wonder the man had a loyal following. It was suspicious as hell, too. There just weren’t people like that down here, and acting like an angel just meant you had something to hide. She just had to find it or come up with a different plan on the fly… easy.
Or it would have been, but The Riders just had to have a decent security system. Unfortunately for Joy, [Stealth] made her harder to detect for other humans only, and while at higher levels it was possible to hide from them, for now, she was plain to see for any camera. Of course, it did give her passive information on how to avoid the camera’s view, but the bastards had actually set them up really well. There was nowhere to hide. Except… well, they did have pretty decent ventilation.
‘This is almost the end’ She told herself.
‘You’ve endured far worse indignities than having to crawl through a dusty vent. Keep calm. Keep calm.’ She repeated like a mantra in her mind, only [Stealth] stopping her from shouting and giving herself away.
Her pride in returning this vigorously was, shockingly, a surprise to Joy. She was really despising debasing herself like this, this was a spy's job, not hers. She was the leader. Or she would be, soon.
Endure
Joy didn’t know why her pride chose, seemingly at random, to remind her that whatever she was doing was painfully beneath her, but she was starting to get sick of it. She really thought she had a solid handle on it… unless?
Status, Drawbacks only
Drawbacks:
Ego - feelings of arrogance and superiority increase with each use.
Psychopathy - Decrease empathy and increase violent tendencies with each use.
The calling of Sin - Decreased ability to resist the use of this power
Demonic Aura - Anyone near you is intimidated, scales with the use of your power
Limited Power - You are as strong as the accumulated energy you have.
Seed of Pride - Hidden
Ego could be the culprit, but realistically it would have to be the Seed of Pride, whatever it was, that was doing it. Ego only got… worse… on… use.
Fuck.
Did the passives count as a ‘Use’? That drastically lowered her time in the ‘sane’ category, if true.
Well, it wasn’t like she thought she would be perfectly sane for long, hell, she probably wasn’t perfectly sane before her Power evolved. Still, this was definitely a cause for concern, because while she had planned to extend her sanity by careful management of which Powers she took, that all went out the window if the drawbacks triggered on passive skill activation.
Joy did have her very own sub-system that she hadn’t really been using, she could just… ask.
System, can you further specify what each drawback does?
Sure, I can do that! Ego, as the name implies, works by exaggerating your negative emotions in response to perceived slights to your person, while also increasing your sense of self-importance! The effect grows stronger with each use of your Power, Envy.
Psycho-
Can you define what ‘Use’ means?
Sure, I can do that! Use, in the case of your Power, Envy, is defined as, ‘An activation of your active or passive abilities’. Does this answer your query?
Yes. Joy thought, dourly.
Would you still like a full breakdown of what each of your drawbacks do?
If I knew what the seed of pride did, that would be nice.
I’m sorry, but you don’t have permission to access that information. Would you like to know about your other drawbacks?
I have other things to do right now, maybe later.
Would you like me to remind you?
Fucking sure, whatever.
Setting a reminder for ‘Drawback Analysis’.
With that over, and now in a significantly worse mood, Joy continued her trek through the vents. At least now that she knew the source of her prideful outbursts, she could combat them… at least for a while.
Finally, she reached what looked like a barracks. Kicking open the grate on the vent, she dropped into the room silently. Clear.
The barracks were sparsely decorated but had all the necessities to be comfortable. Or as comfortable as you can be while sleeping in the same room with thirty other people. Fifteen bunk beds with integrated storage ran parallel across each side of the room, seven on each side. Warm-looking blankets and pillows decorated each, equally distributed.
Damn, these people have it nice, no wonder they're so loyal. Still, this doesn’t look that expensive… I could probably manage it.
They say loyalty can’t be bought, well Joy was about going to beg to differ.
She was going to have to check each of those compartments, though. Annoying.
In the end, she discovered a few letters describing Rorke’s general temperament, mostly just so they could compliment him, but it was something. Joy was going to need all the help she could get to convince the man. Still no blackmail material, though.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
She did find something truly helpful, though. Apparently, they had mass-printed a general guide through their facility for the newbies that joined. They had strict orders on the maps to not let anyone besides members of the gang see it, but Joy could see that they avoided putting anything really important on it. To someone trained in subterfuge, though… well, the Riders didn’t have any experience in actually fending off nobles, so they never stood a chance.
She could tell by the gaps in the map that, to their credit, they did try to hide where most of the critical spots were. Impressively, they did put a few decoy spots, so there were three spots she had to check for Rorke’s office, and that was after narrowing it down!
Where did they even get the idea to do that? Do they have access to old spy tapes or something?
If only she could scan the building or something. It would be such a waste of time to go scrubbing the whole building just to find one room.
Well… her [Spymaster] Power had already surprised her once today, and she never did test it as well as she could have…
Goddamn it, couldn’t she just ask again? How did she keep forgetting to do that?
Sub-System, am I using [System Spymaster] suboptimally?
Of course! But almost all people use their Powers suboptimally!
What specifically am I doing wrong?
You aren’t doing anything wrong per se, but you aren’t using it to its full potential. Listing all the ways you aren’t would take all day, would you like me to list the most egregious?
Yes, enlighten me.
First, and you have already figured this out recently, you can query the system for any piece of information with ‘System Interface Access’, and if it’s on your clearance level, you have free access to it. Some would argue that this is the most powerful aspect of ‘System Interface Access’. Important side note: I can not give you any piece of information unless you ask for it specifically.
Would have been nice to know, but I’m not too upset about not figuring it out until now.
Second, you can use Mana Vision to detect hidden people. All living things contain mana, so unless they have specific shielding for it, you can find them with your vision. Mana also follows the vascular system of those it inhabits, so you can use it to see the pulse of those around you. Useful to see if someone is nervous or dead.
Well, that’s interesting, but entirely useless down here. Scorned don’t have mana.
Actually-
| - INFORMATION REDACTED - HIGHER CLEARANCE REQUIRED - |
Well, that’s concerning and… no fucking way… right?
Activating mana vision, Joy was instantly astonished, and instantly pissed. She could see the scorned through the walls. She could see them. They had mana. Someone had lied to her. Lied to everyone. They weren’t less than human filth, despised by magic and the system. Joy had already figured that first part out, of course they were human, but she couldn’t deny that she thought of them as lesser. That wasn’t true, though. What else wasn’t?
Why do scorned have mana?
| - INFORMATION REDACTED - HIGHER CLEARANCE REQUIRED - |
How do I get higher clearance?
There are two ways of accessing restricted information. One, find it out yourself, and then the system will answer queries regarding that topic as long as it doesn’t touch on another restricted subject. Two, reach a higher Class.
Well, that’s not helpful right now. I have other things to do right now, but I’m revisiting this soon.
Noted.
If there was one bright spot to come of this, at least she knew where the office she was looking for was now. The other ones were empty. The range of this ability was close to overwhelming her. It was like she could see everything! By The Swarm, mana vision was overpowered! Why didn’t she think to test this before?! Joy knew she could get focused on things too strongly, but to the point where she didn’t test every ability in her repertoire? For shame.
Enough self-pity. Get going already.
She moved quickly through the facility, the scorned officially no longer a threat. She found his office three floors up and only a short distance away from the elevator. It seems they thought they had secured the perimeter tightly enough that they had no need for interior cameras. Or, more likely, they couldn’t afford anymore.
No matter, all that she cared about was making it to their boss, but when she took over she would be making some changes.
There were a few guards around the office entrance, but the people who walked around hadn’t been a problem yet, and that wasn’t changing just because these guys were guarding the head honcho. Kind of stupid to not include cameras here, but how could they have guessed that a person with a [Stealth] ability would come down here? A stealth suit? They could have anticipated that. It’s expensive but within the realm of possibility. They probably had an EMF around the office to upset any electronics not verified by them. Too bad, that would be useless against her.
Getting into Rorke’s office probably should have been a tough affair, but Joy just… walked in.
System help me, [Stealth] is fucking amazing.
Closing the door behind her, she said, “Hello, Rorke. Funny seeing you here.”
His head snapped up from the work on his desk.
“Hello to you as well. Is there anything I can do for you?” He spoke with a calm confidence. Joy could see that it wasn’t a facade, either. Besides the initial jump, his pulse was calm and steady.
“I came to make a deal. I have some information that you want.” She spoke stoically, acting as if she was a simple broker.
“And you needed to break into my office for that? I have a secretary, you know.” He said with a hint of humor that hid his distrust, then continued, “No matter, what is it you want for your oh so valuable information?”
“I- I need your help. The Kings have my sister.” She faked a break in her composure before returning to her stoic demeanor.
A flash of pity ghosted across his face before he said, “And why can’t you just break her out? You broke in here easily enough.”
Got him. If it wasn’t for her auras, he probably would have already been offering to help her. How did a man this kind and naive exist down here? And how was he still in power?
She faked a bit of frustration in her voice when she said, “They know about my capabilities. They have a dead man’s switch attached to a bomb in the room they’re keeping her in. I can’t kill them and I can’t rescue her without detonating it.”
“What do they want for her?”
After a small beat of silence, Joy said, “3,000 credits.”
Rorke’s eyes widened at that, and he couldn’t help but exclaim, “What did you do to piss them off that much!”
“Nothing. They just wanted my skills for free, the cheap bastards. Let’s cut to the chase, they’re never going to let her go. They know they’re dead if they do. So here’s the deal, you agree to help me rescue her, and I give you the tip of a lifetime.”
“Fine, assuming all that you’ve said is true, I’ll lend you my full support in rescuing your sister.” Rorke said with finality.
“Thank you. Here’s the info. The Kings had me assassinate the new leader of the Furies and have captured the neutral territory.”
“THEY DID WHAT!”
A few hours later, after confirming the information, Joy walked out of the office and made it to her temporary hideout.
Oh, I forgot to turn off mana vision.
Blinding pain engulfed her entire being, first starting behind her eyes, then traveling wherever it felt like. A pulse of Lava followed her heartbeats.
SYSTEM WHAT’S HAPPENING!?
A drawback of [System Spymaster] has been enforced. You have overdrawn [Mana vision] by 3 hours and 20 minutes. Recommended time to use [Mana vision] is 2 minutes and 30 seconds at your current level.
Maybe mention that!?
You didn’t ask, and the drawbacks were clearly laid out.
I will end you.
I welcome you to try, but that would be more detrimental to you than me… also, you told me to remind you after you left, so do you want to hear about your other drawbacks now?
Just leave me to die in peace! Fuck [Mana Vision]! WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH.
You are currently experiencing a migraine at 18x intensity thanks to overdrawing [Mana Vision] by 72x. Most would pass out at this level of pain, it seems that you don’t have that luxury. The next few hours will be a trial.
AHHHHHHH-