Guards roamed within the fence and shined flashlights at each inch of the property, but not constantly. Sirus used his wire to grapple onto the spikes on top of the fence, pulled himself over, and did the same to climb onto the roof.

'This house is so goddamn big; it's a shame I can't steal it or something; this guy doesn't deserve it. I assume he gets paid like a normal hunter, but since he doesn't fight, he doesn't spend much money on armor and weapons.'

He walked around the roof, looking down, using his ability to search for the ether within John's body, eventually finding it on the opposite side of the house.

'Should I smash through the window? It'll be cool, but the guards will come, and I don't want to hurt them. But it's locked, so what should I do?'

After lying on the roof to think of something, he had a solution.

He sent his wire out, reinforced it with mana, and sliced across the corners and edges of the window frame until the underside of the glass was exposed. Once it was, he snuck his wire under, unlocked the window, and climbed inside.

'Well, how the hell does spiritual dominance work?'

He approached the sleeping man and got the usual notification.

[Conditions met: Acquire Human's Ability?

[Yes / No]

[Yes]

[Ether Extracted: Skill]

[Skill: E-Rank Expert Tracker

Marker: Upon physical contact, use mana to place an irremovable marker on a target. A maximum of 5 marked targets can be tracked within 35 kilometers of the Host.

Note: It's not technically stalking. It's diet stalking]

'What a creepy skill, but I guess it fits an investigator. I can't imagine what you can track once this gets to S-rank. But now this guy is unawakened, or at least I assume that's how that works; spiritual Dominance should work.'

Sirus tied him up and gagged him with wire before waking him up, given there wouldn't be a way to tell if he was controlled if he was asleep.

John's eyes fluttered open and widened with fear once he saw Sirus standing over him. Sirus grabbed onto his forehead and, unsure of what else to do, tried to imbue his forehead with mana while thinking, "quiet."

The man became quiet but wasn't sure if he was listening to commands or had his brain broken, so he removed the gag.

Instead of quiet, Sirus thought, "What are you most trying to hide?"

John's mouth moved, but no sound came out.

“Blink twice.”

He blinked twice.

‘I guess it works best for things that don’t involve thinking?’

Spiritual Dominance's influence was not strong, and it showed.

'I guess there's only one thing to try. System?'

A panel appeared before him, and he navigated to skills, then used Skill forge to create two new abilities.

[Skill Forge: Downgrade: D-Rank Spiritual Connection]

[Skill Forge Complete:

[Skill Created: E-Rank Spiritual Communication]

[Skill Created: E-Rank Control]

'That's perfect!'

[Skill: E-Rank Control

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Dominance: Manipulate the minds of any being ranked one grade below Dominance.

Note: Don't be creepy]

'That, I don't think, is strong enough. And there was something else I wanted to try anyway.'

[Grade Shift: Downgrade: D-Rank Clone]

[Grade Shift Complete: E-Rank Clone]

[Grade Shift: Upgrade: E-Rank Control]

[Grade Shift Failed: Insufficient Ether.]

'So while extraction is perfect, grade shift doesn't extract the same amount of ether to upgrade a skill from downgrading it, even if the skills are the same rank. That or upgrading is easier than downgrading.'

Thinking it was useless at that rank, Sirus downgraded Spiritual Communication to F-rank and successfully upgraded Control to D-rank.

[Skill: D-Rank Control

Dominance: Manipulate the minds of any being ranked one grade below Dominance. Inflict hallucination status effect on beings of the same grade as Dominance. Range of 5 meters.

Mind Reader: Upon touch, read beings' memories under the complete effects of Dominance.

Note: Find out what people are saying behind your back!]

'Wasn't expecting the memory ability; that's even better than what I had in mind!'

Sirus sat beside him, pressing his hand to his forehead and focusing his mana outwards. His vision turned black, and once it returned, he found himself floating in a black void. Scenes from John's life passed him by birthdays, breakups, his job: everything that made him who he was. From what Sirus could discern, he hadn't started corrupt but was pressured to be by his superiors and financial concerns. He had been threatened by a high-ranking hero, Ice Breaker, into multiple sweeping events under the rug: Heroes assaulting people, gambling, and failing to stop monsters or save civilians. Sirus recognized Ice Breaker but didn't know most of the people John interviewed, and since John didn't remember their names, he couldn't learn them.

'This is shit. This whole system of heroes is disgusting and entirely concerned about appearances, but nobody knows or looks. Even if I renege from my agreement and give my story to the press, it will be shut down by the hero association. John gave names of those who didn't respond to his threats positively to his superiors, and I assume what happened next wasn't good.'

Sirus was trying to find the names of some of the people John threatened when he got thrust out of the memory void.

'Oh shit, I'm out of mana; bound to happen eventually, but I wanted to find more names. Those memories were so fragmented that nothing could be found out other than how many cases there were of wrongdoing. Why did I ever believe in those people? They were clearer memories; they must've been foggy because he didn't view them as important enough to remember. It's getting close to morning; it seems time goes by faster when in someone else's mind. But before I leave, this man should die. He covered up the deaths of multiple innocent people and was complicit in the deaths of others.'

"Wake up, John."

His eyes fluttered open but remained emotionless, staring into the distance.

"Log into your computer and pull up all files regarding suppressed stories."

"Ok."

He did, and Sirus downloaded all of them onto a flash drive.

"I want you to commit suicide. Fill up your bathtub, get inside, and put a plugged-in toaster. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand. I will commit suicide."

Unsure of how long the mind control would last, Sirus waited outside the bathroom, sitting on the bed, silence drowned out by the water flooding the tub. The noise stopped, followed by a scream and splashing.

Sirus was out the window, then out of the area.

He laid on his bed, not feeling guilty or much of anything, unsure of how to proceed.

[System Notification: Secondary functionality unlocked]

*Absorption complete. Assistant function activated.*

Sirus shot up in bed. A panel had appeared for the first notification, but the second was no different from another voice within his head.

'What the hell? Who are you?'

*I am a fragment of the system. My designated purpose is to guide and assist the highest-leveled awakeners without direct physical aid.*

'What? That doesn't really help me understand too much.'

*I will respond more directly than the system. My functionality is the analysis of the Host and their environment to ensure growth.*

'Who gave you that functionality?'

*I have not been given that information. The delay in this feature of the system is because of the difficulty in absorbing the information of this world independent of the system. My creators wanted to eliminate the chance of the host inferring outside information. Therefore, my knowledge is limited to that of this world.*

'Forgive me for being rude, but can you do something? Like an example of something helpful?'

*You are suffering from a vitamin B12 deficiency. It is recommended that the Host consumes clams or liver alongside a decrease in foods high in sugar. It is recommended that the Host participates in more strength training.*

'What? Really? Strength training sucks, though. But is this all you can do, nag and pester?'

*My observations of human behavior indicate humans are only annoyed by criticism when it is accurate.*

'If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything. By the way, do you have a name?'

*No.*

'Can I call you... Eve?'

*Yes.*

'Wow, a bit lacking in personality, it seems.'

*Yes.*

'Yeah, I guess that follows. What does your analyzing self think should I do next?'

*I am an assistant, not a director.*

'Well, fine. I want to find the group from the Slime Pit to see if they talked to John or were questioned.'

He walked over to the computer and pulled up the files regarding the pit, and found the name of one of the Heroes, the lightning mage Max Millian.