"What an interesting guy'
That David guy certainly was a top-notch assassin... Fighting wise at least. I didn't really get to see his assassin skills at their full potential due to it being a cage, but it was an interesting watch.
The horse drawn carriage was trotting along the rocky road, the sky slowing its red, yellow hue to that of a starry night sky. Only the sounds of the horse hooves colliding with the ground, the sounds of the wind, and beaten-up carriage could be heard.
"Well, I guess I went back on what I said as living no witnesses went out of the window" I sighed as I looked up at the sky.
"Then again, killing him would not only be a boring ending to his character arc but also would just be annoying for me" I justified it to myself.
'I can certainly kill but I would rather not do it too much' glancing at a little glitch appearing in my left shoulder.
'It seems killing people makes my condition slightly worse. Not too sure about it yet nor why that is the case. It does line up with what I did previously when I went into a hibernation state.'
One particularity that was noticeable was that killing monsters and animals seems to not cause me to go buggy as it was compared to when I killed a human. My best guess is that it has to link with my scalability power as there needs to be some sort of balance to keep myself alive, I think. That being said, there was little to no damage to me if I found a way to indirectly kill someone.
Which begs another question, what happens to the people who I directly interfere with that does not involve killing? Let's say, a buff perhaps. I don't know but that David guy will surely be a nice test run. I left mask on the ground which will monitor him whenever he uses the buff. Assuming he decides to take it.
'I'll leave it up to chance, it would be nice if I could monitor the drawback of such an exponential increase in power and interference.'
Still, to survive, I need to be wary of my actions.
To what extent? Not sure.
Jolting myself away from my continuous pondering, I looked at the horse who was relaxedly pulling the carriage.
"You are a weird horse you know that right?"
"NEIGHHH!!!" the horse responded as it met my gaze, quickly looking towards the road to continue navigating.
This horse never ran away when everything was happening but merely stood still as its owner was getting jumped.
"Weird. Well thanks for pulling the carriage since It's not like I have commanded a horse before," I voiced happily as I leaned back, barely holding onto the reigns to make it look like I was doing something.
I then lifted up the curtain behind me where I noticed 4 bodies that were 'carefully' placed inside the carriage.
'Well, more like tossed...'
"Man, I should have acted weak." I remarked at the missed opportunity, banging my head against the carriage, the horse flinch at my idiocy.
As I kept hitting my head, I realized blood covering my peripheral vision, a warning quickly being issued.
[WARNING! DAMAGE DETECTED!]
As if lightning struck, I paused and opened my eyes very wide at a sudden idea came to mind.
"THAT'S IT!" I cheered happily as I took out an artifact that was 'gifted' by the young Knight.
"I can kill two birds with one stone! AHAHHAHAHAA!" I chuckled creepily, giving the horse a bad feeling.
Then I heard grunting coming from the back of the carriage.
"Shit. Got to stay quiet." I clasped my mouth shut.
'I got 10 min at most' I thought to myself, putting my plan into action.
***
"Hey Dad, look at this!" cheered a small child, a small blue glow flowing around her body, chilling the air slightly.
In a colossal sized office adorned with books and decorations, stood a small child and her father, bonding as any other family.
"That's great Aubree! You will surely become the pride and joy of the Lightstuar family, " Atticus exclaimed, caressing her small head.
Atticus was a man in his early 30's, known for his radiant platinum hair and physique of man who has trained years in the battlefield. One scar can be seen in his right cheek which is a testament to some of the monster he has fought in his short lifespan.
"Of course, I have to protect my family!" she retorted proudly, puffing her chest out at the praise her father gave her.
"I know you will little one," Atticus smiled. "However, right now, you just need to grow and have fun." He said kneeling down, meeting her gaze with the face of a proud father.
"This is fun! I will get stronger to make Dad proud," She beamed as she ran out of the office, determined to make her dad proud.
Every day, I woke up and practiced my magic, kept reading about its theoretical use, kept applying it to my everyday life.
[Ice prison]
"That's good Aubree. Next time, try to minimize your mana consumption by taking into consideration the size of the prison and strengths of it." Atticus said, looking at the ice prison with a satisfied expression.
I was progressing, albeit fairly slowly but I would say there were little amount of people who could challenge me over the passing years.
Yet...
"That's great mistress!"
"Such beautiful frost magic!"
"Contact Master Atticus, quickly!"
Then, came my younger sister, Winter.
[Ice prison]
[Blizzard prison]
"Simply amazing. Not even considering that you stacked an extra skill, the mana expenditure on the Ice Prison is fairly minimal with little errors to its overall structure and strength. I would even dare say that you have the potential to become as good as the founding Lightstuar." Atticus exclaimed excitedly, having witnessed an impossible scene from someone so young.
"A potential to become S class..." he whispered, while he pondered something.
Everything I did, no matter what, was simply overshadowed by my genius of a sister.
Studies, magic, even looks.
Yet... why?
why?
why?
Why her?
*Crack* The memories were cracking while the sky went from a majestic blue to a hellish red.
Looking forward, I saw Winter looking towards me, a smile strewn across her face.
"Are you okay sis?" she asked innocently.
Glancing down at my chest, blood was gushing out.
A sword piercing my body, being hold by none other than my genius of a sister.
No....
I don't want to die.
A bright light slowly started obscuring my vision.
My sister then turned around, as I was sprawled across the floor.
Please.... not yet.
*Clop-clop*
Jolted awake, I could see I was sweating profusely.
"It was just a dream..." I said clutching my head, feeling an immense amount of pain.
*groan*
As I was lifting myself up, I saw Sylvia to the right.
"Ah..." I pushed off myself to the side.
To the left, I saw Otis and Sylvia also completely unconscious. My mind started racing.
"What happened?"
"Where am I?"
"Was I captured?"
The carriage was completely worn down, signs of battle evident, the carriage making horrible creaking noises, barely holding up on its own.
*pant*
"Who is driving this carriage?"
[Glacier shard] I casted, now having a weapon to fight with.
'I can't die, yet.'
*pant*
'He must be injured. I can take him on." I reassured myself, readying to pounce.
"I am Aubree Lightstuar' I kept repeating.
Slowly approaching the driver's seat, I flung the curtain separating the passengers and driver's seat.
Shard on hand, I quickly went for his neck only to abruptly stop only a centimeter away from his neck.
"You....!!"
There I saw a man, with 3 arrows stuck to his side, and cuts all over his body, blood soaking up his crudely done first aid job. His left arm was limp, his right arm barely holding on to the rein.
He turned around with a smile full of pain, barely having his eyes open.
"Ah so you are finally awake?"
***
'Shit, shit, shit.'
'I thought I had pain nullification,' as I saw all the blood everywhere, feeling an enormous amount of pain.
I'm no stranger to pain but it's not like I've stabbed myself or anything before. I was really relying on the pain nullification to mitigate the self-injuries.
The horse was startled the moment he saw me injuring myself for no apparent reason, not to mention when I also damaged carriage.
Mind you, I avoided the vital areas to not kill myself, but I had to make it look as realistic as possible, so I did harm based on what's believable. I bandaged up just so I wouldn't bleed too much either.
A pretty decent bandaging job if I say so myself.
Only other issue I saw was when I was preparing the scene, it seems I was making a lot of noise alerting everyone in the carriage. Couple scratches there, some arrows over there, some slight damage to the wheels, and some more scuff marks amongst other things I had to prepare. Took longer than expected.
Problem was that I wasn't ready so a little tap with the carriage pipe to the noggin did the job (To the knights of course). Aubree had her own demons to fight, so the noise didn't do anything while Sylvia was just in deep slumber.
What came as a surprise was that the pain nullification as it was canceled the moment I decided to get into the perfect position on the carriage and heard someone waking up. Only then did all of the pain surge like an overflowing dam.
'Do I have damage nullification or not!!! Damn!!!'
'Did I do too much?'
[Warning! Warning! Substantial damage found!]
[Repairing...]
[Repairing...]
[Repair time: 1 Week]
'Well one week doesn't seem so bad' I thought while grimacing.
[Host activated: {Role of the weak}]
[Repair time readjusted]
huh?
[Repair time: 1 month]
'AAAAAAAAAAAHHH' I screamed internally.
The pain increased 4-fold.
Then my arm went limp. More blood started pouring out.
'When the hell did I activate that!?!?!?!?!?!'
*pant*
'Cancel!!!' I said feeling lightheaded.
[Role readjustment while you have substantial damage will result in unforeseen consequences]
[Proceed?]
'NOOOOO!' I immediately responded.
Whatever...' I heaved', just go with the flow, this might have been for the best,' I thought positively attempting to suppress the pain.
*pant*
I heard footsteps slowly creeping up to where I was sitting.
'She wouldn't kill her benefactor...right?'
I immediately felt a cold icy aura next to my neck.
"You....!!"
As I turned around, I was greeted by a beautiful platinum haired maiden and an ice shard to my throat. Her look of surprise evident across her face.
The only thing I could say at the moment was...
"Ah so you are finally awake" with an injured voice and odd smile.