The Aspirant’s eyes dilated and shouts of elation erupted immediately when they felt Noe’s skill at work. I had to take some time just to calm them down. Damn, they were kind of hard to deal with even when I didn’t make them eat a cookie. I’ll have to discipline them properly later on.

“What do you want us to do?” a slightly larger individual asked, I could tell that he was doing his best from yelling and bouncing around.

“I was made to believe that your group,” I pointed around, “Are near the bottom of the Restus society.”

That made them frown and curse, but once again, no one could refute my words.

“What I want you to do is simple,” I said again, “I want you to fight your nearest rivals and win. I want you to move up at least one rung of the social ladder, but most importantly, I need to see that you have learned from Bakren’s mistakes. I want you to win, but to bring back your defeated foes here alive.”

I gave everyone one final look, “Can you do that?”

Their answer was unanimous.

The Restus spread out shortly after that. They were a little too eager to test their newfound confidence and I wasn’t about to stop them. And if they bit off more than they could chew? Well, I could just start again, it wasn’t like I invested too much time into this bunch in the first place, there were plenty of other Restus I could brainwash here.

That left me alone with my first failed minion who was still sobbing and crying in the small clay hut. I’ve already given him a piece of cookie to eat, and it wasn’t like I could readily refill my supply of snacks, so it would be a shame to just put him down after investing so much into him. I’ll see if this emotional wreck of a Restus could be somehow salvaged.

I opened the door and saw the bumbling idiot crawl toward me with a crazed desperation in his eyes. No, it wasn’t just that, Bakren seemed to have… mutated somehow? Strange black tendrils were pulsating just beneath his skin, and if I focused a little harder, I could see that his scales were oozing a tiny amount of sludge while its eyes were covered with a thin, yellowy film. The gunk leaking from its skin was kind of reminiscent of the natural oils that a Xollon secretes, now that I thought about it.

Did… did the cookie cause that, Noe? I ate those cookies…

“Do not worry, dear Walter,” Noe’s soothing voice answered, “The inferior Restus are simply not equipped to handle the nourishment that the delicious baked good provides. But you are, my Host. Please enjoy more of the savory treat when you have time. It is good for you.”

My mouth started to salivate as I unconsciously opened up the cookie container and threw one of them into my maw. Like Noe said, these things were pretty good, and it made a pleasant warmth course through my body as it passed through my stomach. I felt my concentration return as my head cleared up, as if I was regaining consciousness after a long, long sleep.

Primary Soul Title: It That Sleeps at the Edge of Dusk (??? Rank)

Progress to Awakening: 13.11% -> 16.18%

“Please! Great One, please!” Bakren's slobbering voice brought me back to reality, “I was wrong! I beg you! Just one more, just let me feel it one more!”

Holy shit what the hell did Noe do to his brain?

I kicked him aside and frowned. This thing’s brain’s completely fried.

Noe, the Emotional Redux skill doesn’t last forever, right? Like giving him another fix of positive emotion’s not a long-term solution?

“Correct, my Host,” she replied, “Its effects will remain for a few hours after usage but will slowly dissipate after that.”

I sighed. So he’s going to return to being a gibbering mess once your skill’s over… great, I guess this one’s a dud. What a waste of a cookie.

“Not necessarily so, my Host,” she continued, “If it is only one individual, Unit Noe can extend the effects of your skill by expending Luck Charges at regular intervals. This can be done as long as the Host is not too far away from the target.”

Still seems like a waste of Charges to me, he’s not exactly stable even when he’s high off your skill.

“That is the wrong way of looking at things, my Host,” Noe explained, “The Restus before you has been greatly enhanced, if he is let loose, others will seek to find out the cause of his changes and exploit it for their own gain. This can greatly accelerate your influence in this city.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

But it will also notify the Admin staff if that happens.

Noe chuckled, “Unit Noe highly doubts that one strange Aspirant will be of much concern for the individuals in charge of this city. And did my Host forget that you have access to the Absolute Luck Skill in addition to your other tools? Please allow this Unit to take brief control of the Host, and I will ensure that you give him instructions that will not be noticed by the Trash Matrix.”

You can take control of my body?

That was slightly concerning…

“In the same way that I do when I utilize any of the system skills,” she replied calmly, “and only with your permission, dear Walter. I seek to aid you to the best of my ability, but I am so very limited without a physical container of my own.”

I nodded, I guess that made sense. I’ve felt Noe control various parts of my body hundreds of times at this point, so I guess this wasn’t anything new. Guess I was worried about nothing.

Alright Noe, send him where you think will be the most beneficial for us.

“Acknowledged, my Host.”

I felt my body go numb as Noe took over. She used all of my feelers to quickly draw out an amazingly detailed map of the Restus city, and it took her almost no time to do so. It was disorienting, but I got used to it quickly.

“Bakren,” she/I said, “I will return some of your might, but you must prove that you are still useful.”

He looked up at her/me with renewed vigor as a portion of his new power returned to him. She/I saw the look of utter joy replace his once-broken form. It was laughable.

“Anything!” he half shouted, corrupt spittle flying everywhere.

“You will need to show the people of Quietus your newfound might,” she/I explained, “But I need to see that you have learned from your prior mistakes. I need to see that you can follow orders.”

Bakren nodded relentlessly, “I can! I will follow them to the tee!”

“Good,” she/I replied, - no, there is no distinction of she or I, just us.

“Good,” we said again as we made circles in the map along with some instructions on the side, “I need you to go to those locations at precisely the time that I have noted.”

Bakren nodded again as he did his best to memorize the information that we gave him.

Noe/I pressed our feeler onto the Restus’ head and sent over a detailed list of the various things that he had to accomplish. We kept the instructions simple, for this species was a simple one. So many species were simple, we have found. All it had to do was create mayhem at the designated locations and we will do the rest.

We made sure that the information was forever burned into his skull, not caring in the slightest that we had burned away other memories in the process. Other parts that made the being who he was. Our minion needed to know just what to do and little else. It only needs to obey our will.

A jolt and we felt the call of oblivion once more…

Primary Soul Title: It That Sleeps at the Edge of Dusk (??? Rank)

Progress to Awakening: 16.18% -> 29.99%

I shook my head. Ugh, and here I thought I was getting used to Noe taking over my body, but clearly, I was wrong. The headache, thankfully, eased up quickly.

“Do you understand what to do?” I asked the stunned Restus.

“Yes…”

“Good,” I nodded, “Then go.”

“I obey…”

Bakren scurried off after that. I’m not sure what Noe did with him, but he was certainly a lot more cooperative than before. I couldn’t complain about how efficient she!

“I strive to provide us with the best outcomes, my Host,” she answered with a small laugh, “You can rely on Unit Noe, you are not alone, dear Walter, never alone.”

Um, thanks, Noe.

That was a strange way to word things. Then again, she has been acting pretty weirdly ever since she finished her upgrade. But once again, I wasn’t the boss of Noe, it was honestly nice to see her grow from the monotonous system to what she was now. Plus, she’s had nothing but my best interests in mind, and I’d probably be dead 100 times over without her helping me out in all the Trials.

“You are welcome, my Host,” Noe answered, “And Unit Noe would like to remind you that you should plan for the next stage of your schemes. I will ensure that your actions here are not noticed.”

Right, I’d almost forgotten that. I took out another cookie and chomped on it, savoring the flavor, and sat down to figure out how to navigate the next stage of my plans.

Let’s get the facts down first. So far, I’ve managed to establish a loose footing in the Restus’ base. I didn’t have to worry about getting found out between Noe and my stack of charms, so I was able to operate more or less freely if I kept things relatively down low. The only problem was the speed of my operations here. I’ve spent about half a day and I didn’t even manage to get a dozen minions. Hopefully, the 10 that left would exponentially increase that speed as more and more Restus come into the fold.

I had other plans for this group, but with so much at stake, I wasn’t comfortable with just relying on one scheme like I’ve done in the past. The consequences for failure weren’t just being set back for a few weeks now. I had to have something else going on concurrently. Relying on too many alien minions to follow my orders was too risky, too many things could go wrong and I couldn’t be everywhere to fix things with Noe’s luck. I needed a contingency plan.

But what would that be? Ideally, I’d like to have a little private chat with the people in charge of organizing the fight between the Restus and the humans. Just a nice, innocent chat with the individuals at the top. That way, I would have loose control over the masses via Bakren’s group, and more direct control over the elite Restus. However, from my scouting earlier, it didn’t appear that any of the Aspirants even knew that a Clan War was around the corner.

No, I could use that to my advantage. There’s bound to be an announcement about the war; the Restus were nocturnal, and I came right when it was time for them to rest. Most likely the Admin here will inform this group when the sun sets and more of the Restus are awake. Seeing how the Aspirants react to this news would be the perfect opportunity to see who’s at the top of the food chain.

My cortex whirled as more and more plans played out; I was replaying each scenario out in my mind and double-checking for any flaws in my reasoning. I saw potential pitfalls that I had to avoid, different possible outcomes from interactions and it took me another half an hour before I was sure enough about what I had to do.

With nothing else to do until the Administration here announced the upcoming clash, I burrowed underneath the ground once more and waited.