January 11th, 2022
***
Richter woke up to crashing thunder. He bought two more mana potions for a total of six.
"Status."
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[Name: Richter Maier || Mana: 100%/100% || Level 12: 15% XP || Unused Attribute Points: 9]
[Class: Swordsman (intrinsic)]
[Attributes: Strength: 19 || Agility: 22 || Constitution: 15 || Magic: 18 || Intelligence 13]
[Abilities: Transcendent Bloodlust (innate), Transcendent Sense (innate), Swordsman's Tenacity (passive) || Skills: Sunder]
[4 Copper]
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He closed the page and glanced out the window. Dark clouds were rolling in from the horizon; a soft drizzle coated the streets and shops. He spread his sense out past them. The body was gone. It could disappear for any number of reasons, but his main concern was that they had allies who retrieved it.
His sense retracted back to the Inn. Rio was still sleeping, so he slipped on some clothes to grab breakfast.
On his way down, the squeaky floorboards drew attention from several strangers. Their heads whipped around to his location, staring daggers as he descended. His intuition poked him in the back while grabbing a plate of food.
He decided on a seat near the entrance, feeling paranoid. Red flag after red flag appeared in his mind. None of the strangers had touched a morsel on their plates; all of their hands rested below the tables, and their weapons consisted of strange darts and daggers.
As he ate, strong killing intent flickered from each individual. Seems he was running out of time.
Fortunately, two familiar auras entered his range, heading straight for the Inn. He smiled brightly. A few perceptive strangers picked up on the change and signaled to their comrades. But as the first one moved, the front door swung open — Koga and Reed had arrived.
They scanned the crowd, oblivious to the circumstances, and singled out Richter.
"Ah, Richter!" Reed cheered. They pulled a couple chairs up to the table.
"Wesley mentioned you were staying here. " He glanced at Reed. "Given the weather, we thought it would be best to leave early."
Their words vaguely registered in the back of his mind. Most of his attention was still on the crowd. Their auras had calmed considerably. Seems their plan wouldn't come to fruition for now.
They drew their looks away from him, picking up utensils and digging into cold food. Well, all except for one. A young teenage girl, who gnashed her teeth furiously. At 17 years of age, her immaturity leaked out for a split second.
He recognized the brief feeling — she had an aura just like Daul.
"Yeah that's great," Richter murmured. He turned back to face them.
"How about you two go upstairs and fetch Rio? I wanna finish my meal."
Koga answered for them, "Alright."
He'd picked up on a few oddities after arriving. Whatever was going on, he didn't want any part of it. And sure enough, it was exactly what Richter needed.
His hands fumbled a fork out of his grasp, falling out of sight beneath the tablecloth. He squat down to grab it when a blue potion rolled out of his pocket, resting against a leg of his chair.
He grinned viciously.
[Sunder – 5%]
A black orb formed silently, hidden from view. The bait was set.
He moved the fork back up to his table and walked toward the entrance.
Koga, Reed, and Rio saw his movement from the balcony and followed.
"Is everything alright?"
The three were giving him strange looks but he didn't answer. He was in his own world right now.
Once outside, Richter shuffled around the perimeter of the Inn. He used his judgment to count steps, feeling the connection with his orb fade. He paused after four paces. The connection was at its limit.
***
The young girl stood up and walked to his table, much to the harassment of her acquittances.
"There's nothing special about his table Ceilia. Just relax, we'll avenge your brother...Eventually."
A chorus of chuckles rang out.
'Yeah, right...' Her face turned red.
They didn't give a damn about Daul, let alone her. They were just here because of orders. In the event of a death from an outsider, the three families grouped up. That's how things worked. A small coalition would be formed to track down the enemy.
In her case, the coalition was formed on short notice; comprised of people who were already on Earth.
Seeing another family lose one of their rising talents was comforting. No doubt the dickheads had reported Daul's death to their higher-ups.
She used a sensory skill for safety, breathing a sigh of relief when it came back negative. She reached down to grab the Mana Potion, happy to have a small bit of luck on her side.
But as she reached her hand forward–
–Richter took another step.
BOOM!
The small black orb impacted the wood flooring, blasting splinters in all directions. Ceilia, being so close, was blasted back a foot, suffering significant damage to her organs from the shockwave. Between her internal injuries and the bleeding, she died moments later.
The rest of the group were farther back, shocked but uninjured. The flying pieces of wood bounced off harmlessly due to their moderate Constitution.
This put them in an awkward situation. Technically, they were in charge of her safety. With two Stadz dead in rapid succession, it cast them in a suspicious light.
They all looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Then, they turned to their conspirators, who were still trembling from the scene.
An idea formed in their minds.
"We in agreement?"
"Yes." Several voices said.
They split up and approached the individuals, cornering them. Several new bodies dropped to the floor; it had to be done.
After all, the more people that died in the attack, the easier it'll be to spin the narrative.
***
[Mana Surge – 10%]
Richter put on a burst of speed and bolted down the streets.
The three cycled their own energies and dashed after him.
"What the hell have you done Richter?" Reed panted.
"Now is really not the time for this man."
They weaved in and out of crowds, ignoring the strange looks.
"I refuse to travel with a maniac!" Reed exploded.
Richter could only snort in response. He sent his sense over to Rio, who remained silent.
'If you only knew.' he thought.
"You blew up Pleasure Inn!"
"Quit exaggerating, I blew up like one chair."
'And a person' he thought. Best to leave that detail for later though.
"Just give him the benefit of the doubt for now. We'll hear the story later," Koga added.
"Fine."
Regardless, Richter was surprised. None of the other individuals gave chase.
*ping*
Richter smiled at the notification and ignored it for now. A part of him felt bad for killing someone young enough to be his disciple. And had he believed they were from Earth, things may have turned out different.
Still, control was a big part of his life. If someone was there to cause trouble, he wouldn't just sit back and wait. Richter was the proactive type. Thus, he blew her into the afterlife.
[Mana Surge – 10%]
The group maintained their speed. Coming up was an alley that fed into the forest. The slick roads gave way to damp earth. The three traveled along the outside edge of the forest to reach their meet-up spot. Brent should be waiting for them and having an extra person sounded useful. They kept going, still a good distance from their destination.
***
Tal burst into the hut, a big grin plastered all over his face.
"Haha! Pay up!"
He stomped through the place, taking in the ugly expressions of his friends.
"I knew this would happen. I could feel it, even back then. " He closed his eyes and put a hand on his head, humming deeply.
"It came to me in a vision. It said: 'Tal, you should bet on-"
"Shut up already." A deep voice bellowed.
"Those humans jumped straight into the fire. They better pray to their ancestors for answers, cause I can not think of any."
A small crowd was huddled around a monitor. Tal tried to get a glimpse of what they were looking at.
"The Stadz family is on the decline, Earth should be powerful enough to handle them."
"You have lost track of time again, Tal." the creature sighed.
"Earth has only been awakened for three days."
His jaws clicked together as he processed that.
"Hmm, that is quite bad. Do we have any informants there?"
"That is what we were checking. So far, none of them know anything about this 'Richter' ."
Just then, the contribution page received an update. A new entry had been added.
[Class: Swordsman || Name: Richter [REDACTED] || Level: 12 || Kill: Ceilia Stadz – Level: 17]
[Skill: Sunder]
The group observed this change in stark silence.
They all exhaled at once, thinking the same thing.
'Perhaps they can manage anyway?'
***
A conference was taking place inside a fortified bunker. Three of the most powerful families on their planet were meeting to discuss a recent incident. The room had been divided into thirds, with each section containing dozens of members.
A corpse of a man lay on a table in the center. One of the family heads stepped up and pointed his hand at the body.
[Memory Extraction - 50%]
The moments leading up to Daul's death played in his mind. He felt a flurry of emotions hit him as he watched it. The man stepped back and grabbed a small transparent sphere from his pocket.
[Memory Transfer - 50%]
His subordinate passed a Mana Potion over, revitalizing him.
"This should give you more information, Stadz."
Unbothered by secrecy, Stadz put the memory in front of a projector and let it play. Several members from each family were shocked at the scenes, and for good reason.
The mana projectile Richter cut was well known for being incredibly thin, about 3 inches wide max. But he had managed to catch it on his blade and lock it down until it sheared in two. Only a handful of the family members would even attempt such a thing.
But Stadz didn't care about that. He squinted his eyes, replaying the scene where the black orb appeared from the darkness.
He stood up from both chairs and made for the exit.
"I want Tier two and three family members on that planet immediately."
But the other two family heads weren't so interested in eliminating him anymore.
'What if,' they thought.
Their eyes were glued to the back of the giant man.
'What if we nurture this guy? And use him to eliminate the Stadz family permanently?'
***