"Sure."
I bowed out of the room to see two guards standing by on either side of the staircase. A man and a woman, both with olive skin, black hair, and the same tri-toned armor as Rodin and the guards outside. Though, instead of spears, they were aptly armed with a short sword paired with a slew of daggers.
With a sidestep to a bench placed by the door, I plopped myself down and threw an amiable smile to my supervisors. "May I smoke?"
"You may not." The man bluntly replied.
Shrugging off my losses, I shifted my gaze to peer out the window to my left while I tuned my other senses to the room behind me to hear the Mayor's sternly calm voice.
"Why did you bring him into my office?" He said.
"I felt no hostility from him or his party, Sir." Rodin quickly spat as if he were giving a field report. "And, I felt no mana coming from him. So, I assumed he was the Devil you were praying for."
There was a short period of silence before the Mayor softly asked. "Do you think he can do it?"
"By sundown? No chance!" Rodin laughed. "He may be a platinum Initiate, but he'll struggle. He's too green around the ears to make short work of them."
"I see." Mayor Silas replied after a short pause. "And, why did you attack him?"
"I- I was startled. Sir."
"What's so funny?" Spat the woman to my left.
"I just thought of something a friend said the other day, that's all." I shrugged.
Both of them squinted at me curiously but said or did nothing until Rodin emerged with a disgruntled frown and a crude gesture for me to follow him outside and into the squat hut sitting next to the gate.
The interior of the barracks was nothing more than a large, musty barn filled with chairs, tables, and around a dozen guards that all rose to slap their fists against their chest as we entered. Other than that, there was only a trapdoor leading somewhere below and a few private rooms that I assumed were offices for Rodin and the cleft-chinned axe-wielding young man he approached.
"This is Amun." He threw his arm at me. "Mayor Silas conscripted him to destroy the bandits and I'm to go with him. Keep an eye on his friends outside, and notify Mayor Silas upon our return."
"Yes Sir." The assumed Lieutenant saluted. "When can we expect you back?"
To that, Rodin only turned to me with raised brows.
"Couple of hours." I shrugged. Causing a few chuckles from the crowd that was silenced by a mere glance from Rodin.
"Before that," I added. "I need to ask if any of the bandits were killed during the last raid; and if so, do you have access to any of their gear?"
"Of course!" Rodin proudly boomed and gave a wave to one of his subordinates. "We killed two of the bastards. We keep their gear in a chest, waiting to be recycled."
"Two out of how many?" I curtly asked.
"Around thirty," Rodin grunted. "Around half of them are Initiates like yourself."
I stayed silent until his subordinate returned with a satchel, a pair of gloves, a sword, and some apologetic words about the items being all he could carry.
I silently thanked the runner before Rodin could potentially berate or praise his subordinate and grabbed the pair of gloves, then shifted my gaze to Rodin as I turned for the door. "Let's go."
I heard him suck his teeth behind me and pause before he followed me out the building, down the steps, and past the gate to where the party was waiting.
"Okay, so, this is Rodin." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. "He's coming to watch me kill some bandits. So, we'll be back."
"Bandits?" The princess incredulously asked.
"Yes." I sighed. "Bandits. That was the deal to get you two plots of land here." I gestured to Letta and Giorno, then turned to Rodin. "Now, don't jump."
So saying, I threw the gloves on the floor and opened my shadow to allow Skoll and Hati to trot out from behind me, causing Rodin to hilariously leap back in horror.
Veritably ignoring him, the wolves huddled at my feet to furiously snap their sniffing snouts between the gloves and their shadows for a few long moments while the rest of us and a few of the guards watched with either keen interest or abject horror.
Quite amusingly, Rodin fell within the latter category. His eyes bulged through the shade of his helmet, his hands and feet shook while he gasped through clenched jaws to ask. "What are those?"
"Magical Direwolves." I calmly replied.
"And… what are they doing?"
"Tracking."
After a few more moments, Skoll and Hati simultaneously turned to me with beaming snouts and wagging tails. Prompting me to give the party a departing gesture while I approached Rodin to gently grab his shoulder and say. "Close your eyes."
I felt a cold shudder run down Rodin's spine once I pushed him through the shadows and heard the sharp inhalation of a horrified breath after we emerged in the shade of a large pine tree.
Silently shushing him before he could voice his surprise, I pointed my chin to the left and watched as he slowly turned his neck to see Skoll and Hati hiding behind the brush, snarling at a cave around a hundred meters away.
"Where are we?" Rodin whispered.
"Around ten kilometers northwest and a couple of hundred meters higher up the mountain from Hill Base, near the western face of the mountain."
"Goodness." He gasped in disbelief. "We've traveled this far in an instant."
"Be quiet and look." I pointed to the wood and stone barriers straddling the cave entrance. Behind which, two guards were sitting on expensive chairs, drinking water or most likely ale and shooting the shit with each other.
"Having second thoughts?" Rodin chuckled.
"No." I snorted. "But, I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume you can't see in the dark, can you?"
"No."
"And I'm gonna assume that you're going to follow me into that cave, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Well, here's what's gonna happen." I sighed. "My wolves are going to take care of those sentries. Then, we're going to step into that cave. And you're going to hold off the entrance while I go deeper inside to tend to business."
Any amusement the seasoned captain had disappeared and was replaced with a disgruntled sneer in an instant."How am I supposed to see you fight by the entrance?" He growled.
"You don't need to see the process, only the aftermath." I scoffed. "And this isn't a fight. It's an experiment."
So saying, I sent the mental command to Skoll and Hati, giving them free rein to rear back on their hind legs and lunge down to dip half their bodies into their shadows and lung back out a second later, dragging a pair of writhing, gargling bandits by the neck.
Not wasting any time, I grabbed Rodin by the shoulder, pulling his mortified gaze away from the wolves feasting away to drag him through the shadows.
Stepping out into the cave proper, I pushed Rodin's shuddering flesh away from me. Making him hardly tumble forward, but giving me the space I needed to create and quickly disturb the magnetic field required to turn my simple lightning bolt into a Lightning Dragon.
After charging it for just a moment, I threw my extended finger behind me. Launching a pencil-thin arc of blinding energy into the stone above. Making for an ear-splitting shockwave that blew a storm of dust over the four of us and the rest of the tunnel ahead.
Eventually, the echoes of chaos waned into a melody of cascading rocks. Permeating the dust-caked air with a still silence that seemed more unnerving than the blast itself.
To Rodin, at least. As I could feel his practiced efforts to settle his nerves as he turned about in search of me.
I, however, was meters deeper into the corridor. Reaching into the darkness for the Shadowsteel Reaper and giving Skoll and Hati orders to keep Rodin near the entrance without hurting him.
After meandering through the corridor for a few meters, the browns, silvers, and other colors painted onto the few chairs and odd pieces of furniture started to grow in contrast. Admittedly surprising me quite a bit.
I intended to pick them off one by one in the darkness, but I was more than confident that doing so in the light would prove to be just as easy, so I rounded the corner with my spear resting on my shoulder and an amiable smile plastered on my face.
"FIRE!"
With the initial screams of Skoll and Hati's food and the ear-shattering blast of my spell, I knew the only options the bandits had would be to investigate, flee, or stand fast and prepare for battle.
Naturally, fleeing was out of the question for bandits. At least until they knew they couldn't win. And with the sounds of falling rocks indicating a closed-off entrance, the need to investigate had been all but removed.
Leaving nothing for them to do except fling a volley of spells, arrows, and even cannon fire at me once I rounded the corner.
In turn, I simply continued walking to the center of the room and watched as each arrow, bolt, and most of the spells were pulled off course to impact the wall or other bandits behind me after their attacks crossed my first domain, Gravity Assist.
The attacks that were massless, intangible, or; conversely, too massive to be pulled away in time, were caught in The Expanse. The paper-thin, infinite space that existed a meter away from my body.
The few attacks that did make it through were either blocked by my doppelganger or canceled out by my Void Skin, giving me free rein to survey the lab.
The cave itself was a thirty meters wide natural structure, filled with unnatural things. Enchantments to light and give the place some airflow. Three alcoves, placed suspiciously close to a small pond in the far left corner. A hearth at the center, orbited by mess wagons, tables, and chairs that were bordered by a slew of bedrolls, beds, and other randomized bits of furniture.
Scrying led me to see lavishly decorated private quarters in two of the alcoves while the largest one, in the middle, was made into a sort of office or planning room.
As for the bandits, there were seventeen in the open space and another seven spread between the three rooms beyond. Most of them appeared to be fighters; though, as Rodin said, roughly half of them were throwing the common elemental spells at me.
I, however, had far more important things to do than test the limits of a bunch of weaklings. So, once the main volley was complete, I pulled out a bit of space-time mana to wrap it around my left wrist and activate Chrono Dial, then watched as their movements slowed to a crawl while I casually flicked gravity bullets at the lot of them.
After dialing back up to normal time, the bandits were ripped into the air one by one to be squeezed into a massive moon of screaming flesh. Reducing the cacophony of battle to a melodic rattling of metal-on-stone harmonized with a chorus of curses aimed at me.
"Bring him out," I whispered through the shadows.
"Who the fuck are you!?"
Turning to the alcoves, I saw a particularly burly man covered with scars and mismatched armor flicking his gaze between the floating flesh and the six, similarly matched subordinates rushing me. Filling the cave with a new verse of curses and screams.
They approached in a staggered line. Spread far apart in an attempt to flank me. Dragging swords, shields, axes, and spears behind them while their captain remained at the back.
With my mind, I turned the 'dial' of mana on my wrist counterclockwise, slowing the bandits' movements down to a crawl while I casually approached the closest bandit with a bundle of space-time mana gathered in my right hand.
I stopped a few meters in front of him and dialed back up. Resulting in him taking a belated swing at my palm, reaching for his face.
[Time Splitter: 1 Century of stolen time.]
Upon contact, the relatively young man standing in mid-swing withered into a hunchbacked old man in an instant. Releasing a sharp crack and the metallic clattering of his sword hitting stone into the dank cave. The living fossil followed soon after. Slumping to his knees to clutch his unnaturally bent arm with emitting a hoarse, labored scream.
He was now so weak and so old that I didn't even want to steal his soul. So I filled my spear with death mana, triggering the joint that morphed the weapon into a crude scythe that was only made complete by the solid death mana extending from the blade.
After stabbing him through, the ethereal, wrinkled form of his soul remained impaled on the tip of the blade. A shriveled and decrepit thing that remained so even after it fell to the ground and ran off to toss bedrolls and furniture across the cave as if it were having a tantrum.
From either my death mana, the bandits floating above, or from the sight of seeing their comrade age and die before their eyes, the remaining five assaulters hesitated. For some, their hesitation only lasted a mere moment before they resumed their rushes with newfound vigor.
Paying no mind to the Dial, I pivoted on my heels, spun the Reaper overhead, and sunk the Spectral Blade into the ribs of a bandit attempting to flank me.
Like before, his ethereal visage remained impaled on the tip of the blade while his severed flesh crumpled into a gory mess.
Unlike the poltergeist, however, the bandit's turned soul seemed to be composed of an opaque black gas dissimilar from the darkness I could create.
More so, the wraith drifted towards me after I pulled the spear away and remained behind me as if to cover me while I poured shadow mana into the Reaper's hilt. Elongating it across the width of the cave until it hung above the bandit leader's head.
Despite me using gravity to accelerate the Reaper's descent, the leader rolled out of the way at the last moment.
Sneering, I infused the head with void mana and simultaneously withdrew the shadow mana in the hilt.
Upon its release, the Void Dragon's Claw gouged a deep ravine into the stone as it snapped from the alcoves to my position. Where it assumed its normal length and remained airborne while I turned the Chrono Dial down, pivoted, and lunged to my left. Outpacing the wraith attempting to murder my lab rat without permission.
[Time Splitter: 1.8 centuries of stolen time.]
Throwing my arm back, I sent out a small, conical-shaped domain of shadow to cover my spear to activate the Shadow Authority enchantment and swing it overhead. Severing the now-fragile woman in two and pinning the resulting poltergeist into the stone.
After sweeping my spear out of the stone to toss the poltergeist across the room, I returned to Chrono Dial to its neutral position and approached the wraith with an indignant sneer.
"Stay out of this."
With my mood soured, I turned the Dial down to flick a bullet at the leader. Crushing him into a screaming fetus that remained suspended in the air while I went to work on the others in short order.
"Stand over there and wait for orders." I jerked my head to the left. Prompting the four wraiths to line up in a row in front of the wall.
"You stay there and watch." I spat to the leader. Then pulled twelve bodies from the mass to suspend them in a cloud around me.
One by one, I dragged the screaming balls of live flesh in front of me to touch them with my death mana. Forcing a sense of benevolence onto their souls as they were withdrawn and concentrated around my core.
[Aegis Souls: 50/50]
Once I made use of their souls, I tossed the flesh aside to have my doppelganger loot and store them in my shadow for later use. Then pulled three more rats from the reduced mass of bodies to palm their faces with death mana in turn.
Shortly after making contact with my hand, their flesh grew pale and withered. Their hair became fragile, falling from their follicles. Their muscles atrophied, their bones weakened, and their eyes rolled back into their skulls as a labored last breath escaped their lungs. In return, that energy- that life, came rushing into my spiritual body to form an ethereal heart that thumped alongside my own. Pumping necrotic energy through my physical body that supercharged every cell of my being to far beyond normal limits.
I felt like I could run a dozen marathons. Like I could get hit by a truck and walk away unscathed. It felt like I had artificial red blood cells again. I felt like a superhuman. But, I knew from experience that I was still subject to pain. Which made the next part all the more difficult.
Due to both the pain and the backlash, I've only ever Usurped Strength from one person. Naturally, that turned out to be quite the excruciating process. And the aftereffects of my body holding more strength than it could contain made me apprehensive to try it again.
Usurped life served as the counter to that effect. And though it didn't dull the pain of the process, it did allow me to acclimatize to having my muscle fibers and bones become denser on the spot.
With a deep breath, I activated my spell and palmed the last two rats' faces. Shooting white fire up my hand, through my arm, and into my torso where it bloomed like a supernova. Sending radiant pain through every fiber of my being while they, in turn, were reduced to shriveled vegetables on the brink of organ failure.
In spite of my high pain tolerance, the process was agonizing. The fire and acid in my muscles were akin to the stories that were shared of early-generation exoskeletons being installed in a conscious body. The way my bones felt like they were creaking, cracking, and burning the muscles lining them reminded me of the tales of Saturnian royals and nobles growing new implants, augments, and organs in their bodies in real-time with nanotech. On top of that, it felt like I was undergoing surgery with no anesthesia; or, as if I'd suffered a battlefield wound and was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Bleeding out and waiting for further medical attention.
It was torture. But I held my composure, for the most part. Emitting only a few choking coughs and despaired groans throughout the entire process.
Thankfully, the leader wasn't in any position to have seen my moment of weakness; though, the same couldn't be said for Rodin.
Regardless, I released my spear and a pocket of darkness overhead once recovered, then relaxed the pull of gravity on the leader to unfurl him and position him in front of me.
"Are you angry?" I amiably asked. "Does it upset you to see your comrades die before your eyes?"
He spat in my face. Or tried to, only for my domain to pull the ball of phlegm up and away from my face. "Fuck you, dirty elf!"
"I'm only a half-elf." I snorted, throwing out a quick jab to the throat. Then leaned forward to amiably stare at him until he stopped choking. "Now, answer my question." I slapped him. "Did seeing your comrades die without a fighting chance make you angry?" I punched him. "Does the fact that you'll die the same way make you enraged?" I kicked him. "Are you furious?" I slapped him again. "Do you want to avenge your comrades?"
"LET ME DOWN SO I CAN FUCKIN' KILL YOU!"
"No." I snorted. Then let the Reaper fall from the ceiling like a death trap in an ancient tomb to impale him through the back.
"I'm employing your wrath."
The leader's violent demise resulted in a strange wraith poised on the Spectral Blade's tip. It had a clearly defined head made from the same opaque gas as the other wraiths; only, it was strongly defined to the point that it was an almost solid shape formed in the strong likeness of a crowned skull. A Dread Wraith, according to my Grandpa's necromantic bestiary.
With the 'threats' eliminated, I told the dread wraith to wait with the others while I gave myself a quick post-battle assessment.
With my reserve of stolen souls topped off and my Usurped Life back to the levels it'd been at before, I felt as if I was fully prepared to face any potential challenges I'd come across at the academy.
Naturally, that extended to my Usurped Strength as well. However, many unanswered questions remained in orbit of my understanding of the spell.
After its first usage, my strength had risen to such a level that I was just above the average in comparison to the common man but still below average in comparison to an athlete and weak in comparison to the average adventurer. With the strength of two men added on top of that, I hoped that I was at least into the superhuman realm. But, if the spell was anything like my Abyssal Armor, I still had a fair way to go.
Regardless, the little slip of platinum dispensed by the runed snake updated my quest.
More so, my doppelganger had looted the entire cave and I gained not only a squad of undead to protect Letta and Giorno in my absence, but a platoon of undead to raise at a later time.
In all, the bandits didn't have much. Gold and silver for sure, but I had plenty of that already and wasn't particularly greedy for more. So I placed it in a spatial dimension along with the random furniture and decor to give back to the Mayor. The weapons and armor were kept in my shadow to be kept for the dead while the maps and notes were taken, the food was gathered in a pocked dimension, and every enchantment I laid my eyes on were pried from their housings.
"Are you done?" Rodin groaned.
"Aren't you supposed to be a seasoned veteran?" I laughed. "Don't tell me, dead bodies make you sick?"
"It's not the bodies." He shuddered. "This place. It feels… cursed."
Flicking my eyes between him and the wraith squad lining the wall, I raised my brow in confusion and wondered. 'Can he not see them?' Then shrugged the matter aside to pull a random corpse out of my shadow and throw it between us. "We're almost done." I grinned. "All there's left to do is gather information."
"From who?" Rodin impatiently snorted. "The dead tell no tales."
"To you."