He's back! That's what the feline woman thought as she saw a white hooded individual walk into her store again. It's only been a day! Does he like me that much?
She was cautious at first, but then grew confident again. After all, whatever happened yesterday was a fluke! An accident. And she was not keen on repeating it. She was just caught off guard. At least, that's what she thought.
As Ran walked in, Ran noticed two things right off the bat.
One, she was wearing a tight, blue, dress today.
Two, she wasn't exaggerated at all! Phew, looking at her body, her breasts were no longer mountains or her waist borderline inhuman. In fact, she was flat-chested! Maybe that's why her chest was drooping so much yesterday-to compensate for her lack of chest weights? Maybe she liked the feeling of chest weights dragging her spine to oblivion!? Sigh… who knows.
And Ran actually liked this version of her better. The one from yesterday was just an alien in his eyes. But such observations also led to other discoveries; ones that he hadn't paid much attention to yesterday.
Like how her ears and tails were actually orange and striped. A characteristic that most suits a tiger. But then, why did she have two extremely fluffy tails? Actually, the tails themselves weren't much feline like. For one, their fluffiness increased the appearance of their size, whereas a tiger's tail would be lean and long. Except her bushy tails were also something fairly recognizable. While the orange and black stripes of tigers masked the tail from immediate recognition, it was fairly certain that those were, indeed, fox tails!
Swish swish.
Ran looked at her tails and also guessed that they were fox tails. A hybrid? That was the only explanation he could think of as he didnt know of any foxes that had tiger patterns or vice versa. Yet, as he looked at the tails swish about, an almost imperceptible aura permeated outside the woman's body.
S**t! She did it again! But wait, why couldn't Ran see anything?
Ran looked at the woman in front of him, but saw no changes to her body whatsoever. Did the illusion short circuit or something? Ran thought. Except, in his mind, he already knew the answer.
He had grown a little stronger. Hmm, Strange. Maybe it was because of the fight yesterday and because he grew a little stronger, this little illusion of hers stopped working. But it also showed how low-leveled such an illusion was, or rather, how little effort she had put into it.
And the funny thing was that this trick of hers didn't work yesterday either! He was completely uninterested in such acts with a complete stranger. Who knew if she had certain diseases that are easily transmittable via a certain kind of physical contact!?
This also surprised the woman a bit. After all, it was an illusion; one targeted at him. So she would know if it did not work. But she put it behind her because she had actually done that so many times that she had instinctively activated the illusion once someone talked to her.
But I digress. Ran directly reached the counter and made eye contact with the woman, though she couldn't see his face and his eyes. Then, he went straight to business by… placing a beast core on the table. Except the way he did so was slightly shady. And the woman was just stunned beyond anything else.
Can you at least tell me what you want to place money right in my face!? the woman thought. Then, a strange and a… dirty thought came to mind.
An extremely dirty one!
F**k! Who do you think he is, you tramp! He's the main character! Ugh, should I just backspace her? Sigh… no, no I need her… for… things.
The woman, who had dirty thoughts in her head, had already come up with several "strategies" to "milk" this man dry! She was a fox, gosh dangit! And so, she vowed to honor her fox ancestors by doing what they did. To-suck-them-dry!
Dry of money…. Haha, not whatever you dirty readers were thinking of.
Except, all of her "plans" were just flushed down the toilet in the next couple of lines.
"I… I need your help. Please!" Ran began pleading to the woman for some odd reason that I definitely don't know about. The woman, however, was not entertained.
"With…" the woman annoyingly gestured with her hands for Ran to speak up. She wanted to know the exact reason for his… behavior; so she can better act to make him feel "better". She had already committed to such "acts" and was ready to serve… as a shop owner! Haha, of course as a shop owner, what else would she be serving!?
"It's… it's Bob!" Ran began banging on the wooden counter hysterically like he had just lost his mother… oh wait…
"Bob and you use mental force so I need your help." Ran nodded his head like she had already agreed. The woman, again, was confused. "Who's Bob?" She instinctively answered. Could he be this man's… partner? Did she need to serve for a party of two!? That was… new.
"Who, Bob? Oh, he's my friend, just that I want to surprise him when we fight again."
Ah… now I see. It seems Ran can even be quite the cunning type. He was just using Bob as a sort of decoy to distract from the fact that he was just using her to get stronger! After all, he was certain he would come across these types of people sooner or later. He did meet Bob randomly as well, so the odds aren't as slim as they might appear to be. But… will she accept?
And the best thing yet is, he didn't lie! He truly wanted to beat Bob earnestly in a fight (considering what happened the last time) and so he merely just put that reason at the forefront. But hidden in plain sight was an underlying reason so great, it will most definitely save his butt at some point in the future!
"Help you to fight… Bob? Like what, you want me to train you?" With raised eyebrows, the woman looked incredulously at Ran. Who does he think he is, the main character!? I've got a mediocre store to run! The woman thought in her head. She couldn't care less about some "nobody" who clearly just wants her to suck him dry! Well, that's what she thought anyway.
But then, like all normal people, she glanced at the moolah and was subsequently stunned. Another rank-5 beast core! F**k, you know what, I'm in!
The woman reached out and immediately shook Rans hand. She looked down on him (cause she was taller) and her instincts went off.
Wee woo, wee woo! This f**ker has the goods!
She could just hear her ancestors call out to her as we speak; loud and clear. Milk… him… dry…
Her eyes sparkled with a greedy light. While she couldn't see his face, she was sure he was a very handsome young man. Otherwise, how could he have so much money!? But it didn't end there.
As he shook her hand in earnest, he said, "ah, right. I've got a beast horde coming up, so I'll need you for like a week at least." Ran looked at his new "employee" and knew they would get along just fine. Totally fine.
The woman, who had heard his words, had a strange look on her face. That's because, didn't this mean he was implying something? Like, oh I don't know, like being paid a single core everyday for the next week!? That much money would be able to buy all of her stores' wares multiple times over! Who cares about some horde of beasts.
***
Looking around the store, we see… nothing? Wait, why is it dark in here!? And why is the front door locked!?
Creak.
Ah? What's this? A small light ray could be seen coming from the edges of the carpet behind the counter. Huala, the carpet was actually just a cover to a trap door of some sort.
Swoosh. A shadow could be seen passing through the light as it flickered through the cracks in the doors frame.
"Sigh, alright. Tell me what you see." Can't believe I'm actually doing this. The woman thought while speaking.
Inside the trap door was actually a basement that was partially filled with boxes of various goods. The bigger than expected basement was dimly lit by two orange light orbs, creating an almost dungeon like atmosphere with all the cobwebs everywhere. She was not a very tidy person.
Ran frowned. How could she be so untidy!?
At the center of the room was a small wooden chair; a white hooded man sat upon it. Usually, this was just used as a stool for organizing goods at high places because apparently, they were twenty feet (or six meters) under the ground; with the basement being around ten to twelve feet (or over three meters) in height.
Except… the woman ended up having to stand up the entire time because Ran had taken the only chair; That ba***rd!
Anyways. First of all, the woman wanted to, you know, actually train him; cause it's her job. Consequently, he told her he could adapt to her manipulation and that it was his power.
She was surprised, but then shrugged. After all, in this world, all sorts of s**t exists and basically anything is possible. Especially since he had used the word adapt. Not resist, but adapt; two different but related things. In fact, she had seen a power similar to this in the past, so there was no issue.
Currently, as Ran sat upon the chair, he observed the room before him.
Originally the room was filled with wooden boxes. The boxes were all colored brown because of the wood. But now, looking at them, Ran could confidently say that they were, in fact, red!
That's right, all the boxes had turned red! Of course, not really, but Rans mind was already being manipulated to a degree that he didn't even know about. While his mind was clear, it was also very hazy. Such a juxtaposition clashed in his mind and he grew dizzy.
It was as if a literal haze surrounded the red boxes, and Ran could see them as well. Of course, seeing a haze surrounding red boxes is shady; except, he couldn't… care… less.
His mind felt a bit fuzzy as he looked around and noticed nothing wrong. He just thought the boxes were always red. Yet, after about two to three minutes, he noticed a shift. Well, it was more of a buzz that surrounded him in a way that slightly warped his vision; disorienting him even further. But even then, it led to a sense of wrongness in him, telling him that whatever he was looking at was wrong.
But, did the illusion care about him? Here, let me answer that for you: No. Still no! Absolutely NOT!
As he continued observing his surroundings, he couldn't see the woman anymore and the red boxes slowly began shifting their form; a slow, yet ever increasing process.
After another minute, Ran began feeling a little nauseous by the scene in front of him; his mind in a state of unstableness. The illusion of the room itself was twisting and turning as a superposition of the original (and true) room layed on top of it.
He looked and observed and surveyed and inspected and scrutinized; but no matter how much he ascertained, he just couldn't make the decision… himself. He couldn't dictate when the illusion would stop; it just would.
For the next minute, his face gradually became pale as the original room clashed with the illusion, slowly gaining its reality back. His body swayed from being a little nauseous. Eventually, after a total of five minutes, something clicked in his very soul and the original hazy view of reality beating the illusion finally won back its original place. His mind became clear as he once again looked around the room.
He saw the woman and the brown boxes.
Sweat trickled from his face and dripped onto the floor as he leaned forward to stand up with a little trouble.
***
The woman looked at the white hooded figure standing before her with a startled expression.
Why? Well, it's quite simple really, I don't know how you people can't figure that out. You see, the question is not why but how!
But I thought she knew about such kinds of powers, I hear you say. Yes, but what startled the woman was not the fact that he could adapt to her manipulation, but how he adapted to it.
Normally, adaptation is used in the context of being able to increasingly be competent in resisting and defending against something successfully.
Except Ran, no… since when did he need to defend!? Never, that is the answer to my rhetorical question.
That's right. The actual reason why the woman was startled was not because he adapted to the manipulation, but because he destroyed it!
Almost like a Demon, he passively and slowly ripped apart the illusion piece by piece! Slowly devouring it before using that experience to increase its capability in attacking! Or counter-attacking if you want to be more specific.
She looked into his black mist-filled hood and tried to peer inside. In the end, she sighed and just shrugged again with a cringey smile. She actually has to train this guy! Then again, with such a power, it would be best to establish a friendly relationship with him, since he had a pretty good chance of going somewhere in the world. And of course, with that strange and creepy noise she heard yesterday, she had no choice but to acknowledge his power; and more importantly, his strangeness.
Yet, in her time of exclamation, she failed to realize it only took five minutes to ruin an illusion he had never even touched upon before. And even to the end, she had failed to realize it.
The white hooded figure decided to rest for four minutes so she just watched him warm his body up with some exercise; only then did she proceed with the next round.
As the manipulation began, Ran felt a little dizzy. He blinked and his surroundings changed without his consent!
Hey, who gave you the consent to change his surroundings!? This is optical harassment! Let me see the… manager!
What? The woman is the manager!? S**t!
But as soon as the illusion of the red boxes encroached upon his very soul, it immediately became slightly unstable. By the time he broke through it, four minutes and thirty seconds had passed. In other words, he had reduced the time needed to destroy the illusion by about a tenth! Now that's not a lot, at least in the grand scheme of things.
And after resting for three minutes, the time he needed to destroy the illusion for the third time was only four minutes.
After resting for two minutes, the time he needed to destroy the illusion for the fourth time was only three minutes.
Resting again for a single minute, he also only needed a single minute to completely wreck the illusion.
Now, not only did he not need to rest, but the illusion was incapable of working on him anymore. As soon as it started, it instantly fizzled out in sadness; which only served the purpose of alerting him of someone's malice towards him. It couldn't even last as long as Ran needed to blink. In other words, the enemy couldn't even use that single moment to commit to a sort of surprise attack.
Not only that, when illusions or usually any kind of mental force power (technique) is used, if the power it is used on exceeds its own, a backlash is bound to happen.
Take for example if someone had telekinesis and they used it to lift something up, if that object exceeds what they can handle by a certain amount, they are going to strain themselves; sometimes heavily, or even to the point of harm. Let alone, if that object somehow fights back. Though if someone just purely resists an illusion, the backlash is severely reduced.
And that's what happened to the woman. It actually isn't that much since Ran didn't purposefully go after her, and the illusion itself was not very complicated. At most, she only felt slightly fatigued (in part because of her strength).
But this only startled the woman even more! After all, Ran was just rank-8. She could clearly see that with her strength and experience. She had intentionally created this illusion for people at his rank.
Yeah, I mean.. changing the color of boxes!? Pfft, don't make me laugh. Such an idiotic illusion would only trick someone of such low level. Plus, boxes? Who would come up with such a stupid, dumb, moronic, ludicrous, and completely senseless illusion? Can that even count as an illusion??
Yet, it took a mere twenty seven and half minutes to ruin the chance of the illusion ever working again! She would have to up the ante to a rank-7 manipulation next.
But…
That was a chapter for another day. Ran had decided he was good for today, especially since he got a little taste of what mental force can do; however small that taste is.
Phew.
Ran took a deep breath as he stood by the front door, peering at the woman in front of him. He stuck out a hand; a smile loomed on his face.
"I never did get your name, did I?"
"Oh! My name is Elana Maxwell. But you can just call me Max!" The woman… Max seemed much more enthusiastic than before as she shook his hand. Her twin tails swished deviously as she smiled "innocently". Hmm, I wonder why…
"Ran. But you can just call me… Ran!" Ran said with a laugh as he began striding outside the door, with a jingle. "Heh, I'll see you tomorrow, but for now I've got a woman to deal with." Ran had muttered that sentence under his breath.
Ran… huh, Max repeated in her head.
Aw s**t, here we go again. First, they say your name in their head… next thing you know, they're watching you bathe through your bathroom window!
***
Ah?
Why are you still here? The scene change marker confused you? Haha, how gullible can you be? Actually, don't answer that. But seriously, the chapter finished already. Get out!!!