Chapter 81: Return
October 3rd, around 10.00 A.M,
Somewhere in the woods near Riverdale City.
A sudden ripple in space appeared near a tall sycamore tree and formed into a vortex. Then, a male figure walked out from it.
An instant later, the bluish vortex shrunk and soon disappeared from there.
Meanwhile, the male figure straightened his body and looked around. He wore a slightly long black surcoat, black pants, and leather shoes and wore a unique red-gem embedded bracelet.
He had slightly long deep-blue hair, deep-set jade eyes, short eyebrows, fleshy nose, an oval face, and olive skin.
After confirming that no one was nearby, he placed his hand on the trunk and leaned his body against it for the next few seconds.
"Long-distance Teleportation always causes dizziness, lad. You should get used to it from now on." The Holem's Crown said in the same old man's voice.
Meanwhile, Charles nodded his head solemnly and sat down on the soft ground.
After taking 2 minutes of rest, he closed his eyes and activated his [Disguise] skill. After he ranked up the sub-class, he hadn't even used the other skills much, so he thought of using them now.
'With this Disguise skill, I can change my hair color willingly and can even change my facial muscles to an old wrinkled one. Hmm, I can even change my eyes' pupil and iris colors, eyebrows lengths, and so on... Except for my height and my skin tone, I can pretty much change everything and even control my facial emotions.' Charles was deeply astounded inside.
After checking the information, he opened his jade eyes and then glanced at the red gem-embedded bracelet.
'Mr. Runeth, can you change your form into a black cane?' He asked.
The Holem's Crown instantly moved on its own from his hand and soon began to expand.
'As long as it isn't something so complicated like these magic pistols, I can change myself into anything. But don't use me to hit other objects, because I will also feel pain in my soul.' Simultaneously, the Holem's Crown gave a short explanation.
Within seconds, a black-coated cane with a red gem embedded on the handle area appeared in front of Charles's eyes.
Charles silently placed the black cane near the wooden trunk and took out a small mirror from his space ring.
He then stared at his reflection and started using [Disguise] skill to change his smooth skin. His smooth skin started to change within seconds, and soon his face turned into a wrinkled one!
If someone saw his appearance now, they would definitely think that he was an old man!
'What the hell is this?!' Even the Holem's Crown became stunned for a moment and soon blurted out.
"Are you also a [Trickster] Class Mystic? Wait... That explains why you always perceive the upcoming dangers like a [Seer] Class Mystic. This is indeed a big surprise."
Charles didn't say anything and quietly started changing his Iris color from jade to an amber one. Then, he touched his head, and the next instant, his slightly long deep-blue hair started to turn paler and paler and soon formed into a complete white!
"Can the Red Prince identify my appearance now?" He asked in a cold voice.
"No. Moreover, even if he uses some blood to track you now, he won't get any results." The Holem's Crown responded in a mysterious tone.
Upon hearing those words, Charles raised his brows and soon checked his status.
...
[Name: Charles Nightwind
Health Status: Normal (Inflected by Amber's Curse)
Race: Human/???
Rank: 2 (Uncommon)
Main Class: Level 5 Fire Weaver (0/3844)
Sub-class: Level 1 Disguiser (0/759)
Title: Serial Killer (- 20 Percent favorability of Riverdale Citizens)
Health Points: 181/181
Exp: 12,167 Exp
Attributes:
Strength- 16
Dexterity- 18
Constitution- 15
Wisdom-30
Charisma- 12
SP (Skill Points): 60
AP (Attribute points): 0
Class spells:
Fire Wings (Rank-1 spell-
Incinerate (Rank-2 spell- Incomplete)
Flame Body (Rank-1 spell- Completed)
Crimson Robe (Rank-1 spell- Completed)
Burning Thoughts (Rank-1 spell-Completed)
Blue Cure (Rank-1 spell- Completed)
Crimson Steps (Rank-1 spell- Completed)
Sub-class skills:
Magician's Hand- 51
Disguise- 53
Prevision- 54
Unique skills:
Conceal- 50
Dark Vision- 44
Intermediate Dagger Arts- 50
Inspect- 60
Sharpshooting- 30]
...
'Hmm, there are question marks in the race tab now...Yes, I do remember the notification about a change in the race when I ranked up my subclass. Is it similar to genetic modification?' He pondered for a moment and soon turned his gaze towards the skill points.
'How many skill points do I need to spend to reach the second rank-up requirement? 80? Or, 100? This is going to be a huge problem for me.' He frowned.
'If it is 100, then I need around 150 skill points to rank up. Then, there are the unique skills.' He rubbed his chin and fell into deep thoughts.
'From the looks of it, the skills appear to be improving on their own. It must have something to do with my previous actions.' He nodded his head and then shifted his attention towards the spells.
'From now on, I should completely focus on improving my main class and construct the remaining spell models. But to do that, I need a safe place. Moreover, I must find a way to get the 'ritual method' from the Life Church or other third party, and complete the elemental heart ceremony.' He paused for a second and then took out the azure gem he got from the winged man devil's statue.
'Divinity Extractor... Although this gem looks like an awesome treasure, this stone has the 'Will' of a Devil is hidden in it. I need to get rid of this thing before some devil or Red Prince comes after it.' He suddenly thought of the black-haired woman named Rachel, and soon his amber eyes shone.
'From my earlier observation, I can tell that she is not a smart one. Although she appeared powerful, she was easily angered by Anderson earlier and acted impulsively. She also looked more like a blind fanatic. During the morning incident, she didn't even observe her enemy's real strength and rashly attacked them with full power. That indeed ended up as a very big problem. If she hadn't appeared near Red Prince and acted more cautiously, the outcome would have been totally different.' He stopped for a moment and soon shook his head.
'Thinking about that won't bring Eve back. Hmm, that Rachel is my right target. If I manipulated her a bit using sympathy and emotions, I can use her strength to protect me for some time and achieve many things. Moreover, she also knew some information about the Devils and might be interested in this stone.' He nodded his head and soon thought of another problem.
'It's about my 'Unluckyness.' It will act up one way or another, so I need to act quickly and get out of this city once I achieve my goals. These 'Fate' and 'Mind' related skills are unpredictable, so there will be a chance that I might bump into Red Prince, or Saron, or Martin. Last time, I underestimated them too much and was manipulated by them like a fool.
But I do understand a few things about how these 'Fate' skills work. If I'm not wrong, Addie Baker came after me only when I stared at his house for few seconds. At that time, he didn't know my real identity and even asked me about it. From the looks of it, these 'Fate' related skills have some restrictions. With it, finding a disguised person's real identity must very hard. Wait...
It might have something to do with one's thinking. Yes, when I disguised myself as 'Edith,' I almost thought of myself as Edith and even manipulated others to believe it with the help of the 'Mark of Imagination.' But why didn't Eddie revealed my identity to Addie at that time? No, if he had revealed my true identity, there is a possibility that I might found out that something was off about that Mark. So, he must have observed me from the sides.' He nodded his head and prepared another identity for himself.
'Oswald Raven, Eve's father's name. I should take his identity and proceed with my plan.' He made a swift decision.
He then hurriedly stored all of the things into his space ring and then took the handle of the new black cane. Like a real old man, he used the cane and started walking towards Riverdale City's direction.
30 minutes later,
Charles arrived in front of the city gate and entered after giving some Life Church's silver coins to the guard. He then made a few turns and soon arrived in front of the Life Church entrance. After that, he walked on the aisle and soon arrived in front of the Goddess Nira's statue.
Unlike the other day, the temple appeared a little gloomier, and there were only a few nuns and some guests seated on the third pew. Without minding their presence, Charles arrived in front of the Goddess Nira's statue, clapped his hand together, and started to pray.
Once he finished his prayer, he turned around, walked out of the dome-shaped building, and stood in the entrance.
Minutes passed as believers gathered in front of the church one by one, and soon the whole entrance filled with murmurs and whispers.
Charles knew that the reason they were gathered here was to attend Eve's funeral ceremony, so he also mingled with the crowd and waited.
When a believer of Life dies, Life Church members must do a funeral ceremony and then seal their body in a coffin and bury them in the northern cemetery. Although Eve was a foreigner to Riverdale City citizens, the citizens, especially some people from El Street, still consider her as their own family member.
So, her sudden death was a huge shock to the whole street.
Two hours went by, and soon a group of paladins in silver armors carried a coffin from the southern direction and soon placed it at the entrance.
Meanwhile, a blue-robed priestess walked out of the Life Church and placed four candles on each corner of the black wooden coffin. Then, she opened the head panel and looked at the smiling corpse that was placed inside.
The priestess then knelt in front of the coffin and started to sing the funeral song.
A voice filled with sacredness came out from her mouth as she took a vial and poured the holy water on Eve's forehead drop by drop. Simultaneously, her loud voice echoed in the entrance as the believers also joined in the rhythm and sung in unison.
Life Church members believe that death was just an invitation from the Goddess Nira and the ones who died were gifted ones to enter the cycle of reincarnation!
Followers of the Life Goddess believe in eternal life. Thus the church strongly emphasized a positive outcome in death — that the deceased was still alive with themselves.
While death was the separation of the soul (the spiritual dimension) from the body (the physical dimension), they believe that the soul would become once again reborn in this world with a similar physical appearance in another part of the world and continue to live on like eternal life. They believe that the body was merely a cloth. When a person dies, they merely think of it as changing clothes.
In the old man's appearance, Charles sang along with them and searched for someone in the crowd.
After searching for a while, he soon locked his gaze on a black-haired woman and nodded inwardly.
The funeral ritual continued for about another two hours, and all the believers started presenting the deceased with flowers, dresses, and even a few gold coins. Charles also followed others' actions and placed her 'Mother's Wish Bracelet' inside the coffin.
"May you reborn in a good family, my child." He said in an ancient tone and then stared at her with trembling hands.
His action attracted everyone's attention. Not only the priestess, even the black-haired woman and other high-ranked Mystics like Ethan, Hunt, and Charlotte also turned their gaze at him and stared at him in curiosity.
They felt a sense of familiarity upon seeing the old man's face and soon widened their eyes.
They soon looked at Eve's face and instantly thought that this old man must be her father!
Upon seeing his face, the black-haired woman went pale.
She was none other than Rachel, the Head Deacon.
A sense of guilt arose in Rachel's heart as she gripped her fists tighter and swore to kill those three members.
In the meantime, Osward showed a face that was filled with pain, sadness, and anger and then walked away.
On the other hand, a black-haired woman appeared in front of the coffin and placed a red rose flower above Eve's chest.
"I-" She was about to say I'm sorry but soon stopped. She then let out a heavy sigh, turned around, and went in the direction where Amber Street was located.