Without worry, Terran navigated his way over to his abilities panel. Naturally, he could not simply leave the bodies of 3 dead men in the middle of campus. On his first day, Oliver had made it clear that there were plenty of ways to get away with horrendous things like murder. Still, that didn't mean you could openly kill others without facing any consequences. Thankfully, Terran was not stupid enough to act so recklessly without any semblance of a plan.
However, all that being said, his next few steps would hinge on the description of the blessings he had just fought so fervently to obtain.
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Torus's Might | F Rank (100 AP required to unlock.)
Skills:
1. Bull's Strength (Active.) Temporarily increases user's strength by 20 points. Costs 10 mana points to activate and consumes 2 points of mana per minute while in use.
Sell Price: 25 AP
Hades' Scalpel | E Rank (500 AP required to unlock.)
Skills:
1. Lesser Bone Manipulation (Active.) Create or transform bone out of any tissue that originates from a body. Contact with the target's skin is required. Mana points required are dependent on the scale of manipulation and the target's strength.
Sell Price: 125 AP
Chameleon's Anatomy | D Rank (2,500 AP required to unlock.)
Skills:
1. Chameleon Body (Passive.) Utilize the godly features of a chameleon. Permanently locks away 50 mana points.
Sell Price: 625 AP
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After getting pummeled by the student with the strength blessing, Terran had grown interested in possibly absorbing it. After all, with his regeneration, it would not matter how damaged his body got in the process of using such strength.
Unfortunately, after reading through his new list of blessings, his intrigue faded. "It's not a passive blessing nor is it a percentage increase. What a shame." What did this mean? While it definitely appeared tempting now, it would only be a temporary boost in strength. Why? Sure, it could quintuple his strength right now, but if his strength points ever reached 50, it would only double his strength. What about if his strength hits 100? The blessing would be reduced to a 1.5 multiplier. Slowly this blessing would become irrelevant. Yes, he could upgrade it. But why waste AP and a blessing slot when there were better blessings out there.
Thankfully, the other two blessings did not disappoint. Terran was currently staring at the description of lesser bone manipulation.
"Ha-ha. Looks like this is going to be even easier than I previously thought."
Without hesitation, Terran sold Chameleon Anatomy. Immediately, the blessing disappeared from the abilities page, and with it the chance to ever learn it. In return, his ap balance jumped from the pitiful 100 to a usable amount of 725. A second later, his ability points fell to 225 as he unlocked Hades' Scalpel and with-it lesser bone manipulation.
Terran had nothing against Chameleon Anatomy. Well, that was actually not entirely true. He was unquestionably disgusted by the idea of having such a long tongue. In addition, he did not like the idea that in exchange for such a passive skill, almost a quarter of his mana points would be locked away. Maybe if the passive skill was something like strength, he would be ok, but a long tongue and a poor man's invisibility was a no-deal.
The only reason he had been excited when seeing it was the fact that it was classified as a D rank blessing. Terran was not quite sure why, as in his mind it seemed like a terrible blessing. However, he assumed it had something to do with the fact that its skill was passive. This meant the user could use camouflage indefinitely without running out of mana.
Putting those two aside, the blessing he was truly interested in was Hades' Scalpel. It was evident this was the case as he had learned it immediately. From the second he had seen it in action, he had felt an urge that told him to steal it.
With his connection to Gaia, as a god of life, it might seem odd that Terran was compelled to learn an ability that could be closely associated with death. However, the truth was that life and death were two sides of the same coin. One could not exist without the other.
It was also the first blessing he had come across with a name he recognized. Like Gaia, he recognized Hades as a god, even though he was not familiar with his details. Unfortunately, it was only at D rank right now, but he could always upgrade it.
However, all of this was only half his reasoning for instantly learning it. 3 bodies were lying at his feet, and Terran did not wish to be caught with them. His previous plan was to claim self-defense. After all, it wouldn't have been hard when looking at Ken's fingers. Terran's confidence in this plan came from the event he had experienced with Sophie.
And yet, there were still complications. What if one of the men were backed by a powerful family? After overhearing some of their conversations, it was not an impossibility. On another side, how was he supposed to explain his victory over 3 blessed, all of which had more offensive blessings, while all he had was healing? The federation might get suspicious that he had been hiding a blessing. Of course, these were all unlikely outcomes, but why would he tempt fate when another path had opened up in front of him?
Terran felt a gratifying feeling spread throughout his body as a foreign power slowly morphed to become his own.
New information entered his mind as he became aware of how to manipulate his new skill.
"I wonder if this is a perk of the system. I remember Sophie saying that some blessed didn't even discover their blessings until years after they acquired them. If some aren't even aware of their blessing, I find it hard to believe they'd immediately know how to wield it. Maybe, but the answer does not matter right now. I'll have time to think of all these things later. Right now, I need to clean this mess up." With this thought, Terran willed the second skill of his S rank blessing to activate.
A green angelic aura descended upon the 3 dead bodies as all of their wounds disappeared. Even so, they did not come back to life. Thankfully this was not Terran's goal, as even his healing could not achieve such a thing. The two bone spikes were slowly pushed out of the two skulls. The scene was somewhat reminiscent of Terran's experience with the antler in the wasteland. With all the wounds healing, all of the causes of deaths were soon erased. No one would be able to identify how the 3 died.
The only other problem now was the blood. Each body lay in a pool of it. Only, the blood was not just their own, but also Terran's and Ken's. If he were to successfully cover things up, the last thing he wanted was for his blood to be left at the crime scene. Additionally, his act of healing all the corpses would have only raised further questions with the amount of blood surrounding them.
This was where his new blessing came into play. Terran knelt down next to one of the bodies and placed his hand on the corpse while making sure not to leave any fingerprints.
Immediately, he could sense it. Everything he could affect with his new blessing. He was disappointed to find that vital organs seemed to be off-limits. While not entirely, he could tell that if he wanted to directly affect them it would take a lot more mana. Mana, he simply did not have, at least not yet.
"This will do, this will do just fine."
While vital organs seemed to be off-limits, one thing that was not was the blood that had already been spilled. In fact, it seemed to be even easier to affect. As stated in the description, lesser bone manipulation could only create and manipulate bones out of tissue that was or once was part of a body.
Concentrating intently, the blood surrounding the body was slowly hardening into a sheet of white. As he continued to focus, the sheet of white slowly began to break apart into small particles of dust, until it was so light that it began to be swept away by the light breeze rustling through the trees.
With the smile of someone that had just achieved something great, Terran moved on to the other 3 bodies and repeated the process. Even Ken was not an exception as he wanted to remove the evidence of his involvement. Although differently, he had held off on healing him as he didn't want him to wake up. Ken had passed out from pain before his attack had started, and Terran preferred him knowing as little as possible. Finally, Terran did the same for his own blood. His shirt soon lost its red hue and was immediately replaced by a look as if he had just taken a dive into a silo filled with flour.
Everything was now much cleaner. No wounds could be seen on any of the assailants and not even a drop of blood could be found. Even the drops of blood that Terran had followed into the forest had been dissolved into dust.
As Terran looked around, marveling at his own work, his eye's focused on a small device that was sitting in the middle of the barrier. He had noticed it a long time ago, but he hadn't had the time to look at it in detail. It was a stake with glowing runes illuminating its sides. The only other thing besides the runes was a small green bar that resembled a battery charge.
Terran would be lying if he said he was not extremely interested in this device, but after a moment of thought, he decided to leave it be and not even touch it.
The bone dust was being carried away by the breeze, but there was still quite a bit left. While authorities were far less likely to run it through DNA tests compared to blood, it was still a possibility. That was why he hoped for as little to remain by the time the bodies were discovered. The less there was the less it was likely to be noticed.
With these thoughts in mind, he had decided to leave the device where it was. It seemed like it had enough batteries to last a few days, and it would hopefully prevent the bodies from being discovered until that time.
Terran would have liked to inspect the device. He was not privy to its capabilities, and he was desperate to learn more about inscriptions. So far, his opportunities to interact with such inscriptions were few.
However, he was concerned for two reasons: it was very possible some of his mana could seep into the device, leaving a signature of sorts. Moreover, if he accidentally deactivated it, then the bodies would be found quicker. For these reasons, Terran regrettably left the device in place. It was a shame as such a device most likely cost a small fortune for someone with his economic status.
With everything in place, Terran hoisted Ken over his shoulders and walked off in the direction of their dorm. His only concern was if there were cameras that might have caught any of the events on film, but he trusted that the other party had taken precautions against this.