Ren glanced across the woods, checking for any cultists or enemies. There were none, but Ren still crept stealthily in the area, in case he had missed one. Or two. Or three.

He made his way to the temple and stepped inside, still as quiet as he could manage. He stalked over to a small cot which held a preacher.

"When you wake up, you will cause as much chaos and destruction as possible." He whispered into the sleeping form.

Suggestion Failed. Target is currently being influenced.

Ren did not let that deter him, and recasted suggestion after his mana regenerated. It was the third attempt when it succeeded, and he did it another time, just to reinforce it. He immediately began work on the second preacher. When they awoke, they would compel the cultists and fight all they saw, while destroying as much as possible. Or at least, that was the plan.

It took most of the night, but four preachers had been successfully compelled, though one of them had only been compelled once. Ren then headed out, still sneaking, and slit a few cultists throats on the way. Four, to be exact, because, why not? It's free experience.

Ren froze. He could have just killed them all in their sleep. He could not, however, do it right now, as dawn would be breaking through soon, and so would the preachers. Unwilling to get in the crossfire, he reluctantly left and hid himself in the treeline. From carefull observation, the preachers would wake up first, and then they would wake up the cultists. Ren was honestly surprised that there were no night watches. Won't complain, though. Their stupidity was shocking.

And then the first preachers began waking, as the sun rose. They weren't any of the preachers that Ren compelled, so the chaos had yet to begin. Then the first of the compelled awoke. It climbed up from its cot and began compelling cultists to kill everything, periodically releasing blasts and waves of the sickly green energy. It was not alone in its endeavours. Three more began spellslinging though one not as enthusiastic as its brethren. The non compelled began taking on the compelled, and managed to put them down, albeit with severe losses. Two of the enemy preachers had been killed with the compelled preachers, resulting in six dead, not counting the cultists. And then the dead bodies of the compelled exploded.

All in all, it was a good haul. There had originally been fifteen preachers and three hundred cultists such an exact number, but the numbers had been mowed down by Ren's compellation. What made it even better, was that he had gained experience from it! Not much, but because of his mind magic, he got partial credit.

Indirectly killed 53 Cultists (Faceless). Gained 988 experience (5%). Indirectly killed 2 Preachers (Faceless). Gained 64 experience (5%). Total 1,052.

Ren sighed, disappointment bubbling up in him. It wasn't that he didn't get much experience, no, he got a lot, it was just... If I slaughtered them all in their sleep, yeah, I wouldn't be able to kill all of them, but it would still be better than this. I would have killed more, and I would have gotten twice as much experience. Darn it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Level Up! You are now Level 3! You have gained +3 Charisma, +3 Willpower, +1 Strength, +1 Agility, +2 Free Attribute Points. You have gained +1 Free Spell. (Warlock). You have gained +1 Charisma, +1 Agility. (Demi Aeth). You have gained +1 Willpower, +1 Free Attribute Point. (Demi Human). 021/800 experience to next level.

Ren distributed his attributes with two into Willpower and one into Charisma - Ren didn't want to be mind controlled. Only he would do the mentalism.

The next night, however held several problems in store for him. The first, was the patrols. Instead of leaving themselves defenceless, they had placed watches and patrols. Five groups of five, twenty five in total, patrolled the immediate area, making sure no threats got through. A preacher was coordinating them all. With the watches, there were two cultists watching each cardinal direction, totaling at eight. They took shifts of one hour each, both for the patrols and the watches. The latter were driven by another preacher.

It was infuriatingly difficult to find a way to get past both the patrols and watches, when Ren slapped his face, though quietly. The answer had been staring him in the face the entire time, he had even used it before. Disguise. He already was dressed up in cultist robes and mask, it was better quality than anything he had owned before. He was in perfect position for infiltration.

However, there was a small issue. His robes were covered in blood, and he had no way to clean them. While it might be feasible just to collect more from another cultist, it would be made seriously difficult to procure, as of the watches and patrols. And so, he did the most reasonable thing ever. He suggested for a stray cultist expediting in the woods, to give him their clothes. It took a few attempts, and a command to stop them from fleeing to report back to a preacher. All in all, it was simple enough. He then proceeded to clad himself in his stolen robes after ridding himself of the old, bloody ones.

Ren gave himself a look over. He couldn't see his face and back, but from what he could see, his disguise was stable.

Skill learned: Disguise. Improves ability with disguises, correction 1% per level.

Brilliant. Ren felt the form settle into him, feet and posture being subtly altered to improve the disguise. It was very little, but still something.

He killed the cultist he had stolen the clothes from, a woman of about thirty, and dragged the corpse into the nearby brush, not sparing it a single glance.

He did a light jog towards the temple, deciding to enter straight away. It was midday, so the watch was much lighter on their load. Ren sat down, and prepared to plan.