Lorn stood silently as he watched Danton walk out of the town gates. He didn't feel vengeful towards him. He was all too familiar with his type, with Elan sending someone similar every so often.
"Good job," Sybil said from beside him. "Sorry for the method of transport," she added, chuckling.
"It definitely was an experience..."
Lorn remembered soaring through the sky after being launched like a cannonball. The moment was thrilling… except you had to fall back to the ground, eventually.
He always wondered how those people who fall from incredible heights survived. Well, after surviving five similar crashes, he realized it was completely doable. Especially if there were trees to catch your fall, plus with your muscles denser thanks to Strengthening and a shield to protect you from any stray branches. Sure, his skin had a rough time, but with Rejuvenation, those could be mended.
The only thing ruining the flight was the existence of the rogues, who might notice him flying through the air or hear him crashing somewhere. But that problem now lay dead on the ground.
Three swirling bluish orbs floated above their bodies, one much brighter than the other two. Lorn guessed those were their souls. It was much brighter and defined compared to the soul of the clay doll that approached Lorn when he first came to the One World.
A few soulless were staring at it with yearning, but did not dare approach it. The mayor ordered a couple of them to search their bodies, then walked towards Lorn.
"I'm deeply ashamed of my negligence," she said. "I did not think much of it when Jabber came here. If you wanted to join his clan, that was your freedom, but I didn't think he would be so desperate to resort to kidnapping and force."
"It was just unlucky," Lorn said.
"As an apology, please absorb the souls of those three hunters. As you're both human, its effectiveness is reduced, but it should still be worth something, considering they're hunters."
Lorn felt little about the whole ordeal and walked over to the dead bodies. Mutely, he grabbed at the souls and felt them seeping into his spirit. He didn't feel much different when he was absorbing the souls of Jabber's two underlings, just a bit more sated… whatever that meant. But when Jabber's soul entered his, he suddenly felt his body overflowing.
Even without his Spirit Visualization skill, he could almost see it surrounding his body. Moreover, he felt the same euphoria he felt when using Rejuvenation on his arm.
"What?" the mayor's voice broke his daze. "Your spirit's already ready for your next rank?"
"That can't be…" Sybil added. "But he didn't even absorb a single spirit before this?"
Lorn was confused by their reactions.
"What was supposed to happen?"
"You should've been… 12% closer to your next rank up," Sybil said. "2 from the two Endra ranks and 10 from Jabber, who was a D rank. But if I'm not wrong, you received a total of 120…"
"I can only guess that as an Undying, you classify as something different than us," the mayor sighed. "Can you see your status?"
Lorn got the mirror out and looked at the notifications on its bottom.
[Absorbed a mid-grade E-rank Hunter soul. Progress towards your next rank up increased by 16%]
[Absorbed a low-grade E-rank Hunter soul. Progress towards your next rank up increased by 11%]
[Absorbed a mid-grade D-rank Hunter soul. Progress towards your next rank up increased by 144%]
[Ready for rank up. You will receive three out of six possible benefits:
- Spirit capacity will increase by 1.81 times;
- Spirit consumption will reduce by 2%;
- From here on out, each time you level up a skill, you will receive 0.4 of a corresponding stat.
Branching options: Enhancement – Rogue; Manipulation – Gravity.
Please confirm the rank up by saying: 'Rank up'.]
"It does say I'm ready for a rank up."
Lorn then explained the benefits of ranking up and also his options.
"The capacity increase is good, but the consumption and stat increases are the bare minimum," Sybil commented.
"It's natural," the mayor replied. "He barely had any time to practice his spirit usage and level up his skills."
"Wait some time before you rank up," Sybil turned to Lorn. "When you get an E-rank soul, while you become stronger more quickly, your skills will take much longer to level up and you will not be able to make use of the stat multiplication when you receive new skills. By practicing a bit more, the benefits you see on your status will be better as well."
Lorn did not complain. "I think so as well."
Sybil and the mayor nodded at that. They then shared a look between them.
"Sorry, Lorn, give us a few minutes," the mayor said. "In the meantime, why don't you take a bath?"
She arranged for a few soulless to prepare a bath and some new clothes for him. Lorn nodded and spent some time fixing his appearance. He thought about the two's odd reaction and guessed that he probably wasn't supposed to receive such huge gains from the souls of those hunters. Sybil even mentioned that the gains should've been ten times less.
'In the One World, hunters who become stronger by killing humans are rare. Since the gains they get are so small, it's better for them to hunt Possessed or Monsters. But then comes the Undying. Visitors from another world who don't have the penalties that native Hunters must suffer.'
It wasn't hard to see how that would cause problems. Fear of being hunted would lead to Undying being persecuted and stigmatized, and perhaps even killed on sight.
The only thing stopping that from happening was the One Emperor's acceptance of them.
'Well, we're also forbidden from killing them… but I don't think they know that yet.'
As he wondered how to best explain the situation, he soon reunited with the other two on a lunch table.
Sybil was the first to bring up the problem. It was as Lorn expected. It wasn't okay that the Undying could become stronger by killing humans. Lorn explained that he wasn't able to kill them with his own free will. Perhaps as self-defense, but to plan a kill or instigate murder, that was impossible.
Naturally, the two were skeptical of his claims. Lorn made up some bullshit about the One Emperor imposing such bans on the visitors so they would be better accepted here. He added that perhaps he would make an official decree later on. Even if he didn't, after some time, the residents here would realize that the Undying weren't lying.
'Though… that wouldn't stop us from beating, stealing, raping or doing whatever else sin we could imagine…' Lorn sighed.
Eventually, the topic was left behind, and the three talked about different things. It was mostly a continuation of the talk he and Sybil had some time before, about the differences between Earth and the One World. The amount of people who became fascinated by Earth turned two. Lorn tried to ask some stuff about the One World, but the topics regarding that were short-lived.
Lorn eventually gave up and spoke at length about Earth. It felt weird when he thought about it, educating AI about Earth, making it out to be this incredible alternate world. He felt he should've felt stupid. After all, why should he spend his precious time chit-chatting about Earth to NPCs?
But no. The talk felt completely natural.
Lorn left it at that. Immersion was good.
Near the end of the lunch, Lorn casually mentioned his lofty aspirations for the future.
"I think I'm going to try and fulfill the One Emperor's Grand Order."
Sybil looked at him weirdly for a second. Lorn supposed it was natural. Since they were soul-bound, Lorn needed Sybil to go with him on this grand quest, but it would be odd of her to randomly agree to something like this. But Lorn needed this to appeal to the researchers. He elaborated.
"I think it's what we've been sent here to do, anyway. As I've explained, there's someone similar to the One Emperor back in our world, the One Leader. Granted, he's not the omnipotent Ascendant like the One Emperor, but the similarities are there. He is seemingly better at everything than everyone. He makes breakthroughs and new technologies like they're nothing, and he was actually the one to pioneer this trip into your world."
As Lorn was making up this drivel, a part of him felt that this could be the truth as well. Who knows what the One Leader was capable of? Who knows what his origin story was? A pioneer and innovator in anything he graces his presence with, the only thing he hasn't done was show supernatural abilities.
'But… if he was the one to create the skills in this game… wouldn't that count as some form of magic?'
Lorn focused back on the talk. All that, he could think about during his spare time. Now, he needed to convince Sybil. But for the time being, he found no methods that could convince her immediately.
She was the introverted type. Instinctively, she would be against going somewhere far away with another. She was also smart, so it was impossible to fool her into something.
Lorn decided to play the long game.
"I don't know why he would do such a thing, but I know most of the Undying would come to the same conclusion. The resident Hunters of the One World would also retry claiming the throne for themselves. As the Undying can't die, they will be able to gain information on the One Emperor's skills and abilities. I want to pioneer this great undertaking." He turned to Sybil. "I know I'm asking for a lot, but will you accompany me on this journey?"
Sybil looked troubled. Honestly, Lorn would show the same reaction if some random alien he knew for a day came up to him and asked to go kill his emperor. Even if he was indebted to the alien in some shape or form, asking something like that was definitely too much.
"Let me think about it a bit," Sybil replied.
"Of course."
Lorn expected the answer. He wasn't disappointed, though. Since she didn't outright refuse, he still had a chance. Even if she spoke out of politeness, there were still opportunities to change her mind.