The next day, we ate breakfast and I began meditation again.
I wanted to make some last minute changes to the status magic system I planned to cast on the Enforcers.
As far as I could tell, the Enforcer Aspects gave incredible power but didn't alter my stats in any way.
In fact, the changes seemed to be invisible. I knew for a fact that I was faster, stronger, more durable, and had sharpened senses.
But my stat pool remained more or less the same.
Although...this was actually to my advantage.
Because the others would start at level 1 and still retain their current strength.
Next, there was the issue of gaining exp.
First, I had to understand what happened when someone gained exp. A piece of the soul from slain monsters and...people...was converted into a substance called spectral energy.
This spectral energy was only able to be collected through the use of the status menu's interface.
It awarded the user with 'experience' and helped them grow stronger.
Since everyone had an innate limit on how much of this power their bodies could hold, I would have to adjust everyone's natural limit to the maximum.
Level 150 was the final cap for a mortal body.
This was fine, but Enforcers had immortal bodies.
To figure this out, I had to look at both myself and Isabella.
The conclusion was simple: while our bodies no longer aged and possessed immense power, they were still somewhat mortal.
They could break...they could be damaged...
They could die.
Breaking the level cap of 150 would cause someone to degrade to dust.
I looked further and found a solution, however. If someone had a way of holding the excess power and removing the fragility of the body, it would be possible.
Unfortunately, I had no way of currently doing this...
I would look into it later.
For now, I contacted Iris.
"Hey, Iris. Can you take us to HQ?"
"AAAHHH! Mizik! Just call me! Stop doing that!"
"I don't know how to use the phone yet."
"HAVE RUNE TEACH YOU!"
"I haven't had time. I've been meditating and working."
"I order you to learn how to use the damn phone, Mizik!"
"Fine...I will. But you haven't answered my question."
"Give me a bit and I'll transfer everyone to HQ."
"Thank you."
I sighed and Isabella looked at me strangely.
"Everything alright?" She asked.
"I've been talking to the other Enforcers and Iris using telepathy. Iris demanded that we learn how to use the phones Michael gave us."
"Isn't that...intrusive, Mizik?"
"I guess so...?"
Perhaps I was being a bit too overzealous with my new powers...
I would probably have to tone it down a bit.
Before Iris called for us, I told Rune that we would request her help in learning to use the phones we had received. She agreed and a short while later, we were transported to HQ in Torantis.
* * *
"Is everyone ready?" Iris said.
We all nodded.
Currently, we sat around a table in the meeting room. I was standing at the front.
Iris seemed a tad awkward around Dante, but ultimately remained professional.
"First, can I just ask Mizik to stop talking to us with telepathy?" Michael said.
"I already spoke with him about it. There's no need. He won't do it again. Hopefully..." Iris said while eying me.
"I haven't received any communications from him. Was it not important?" Leiso asked.
"Umm...I don't even know what he wanted. It was like he just wanted to chat. But I was kind of on a date..." Michael said.
"Enough. I get it," Leiso said.
"After getting three very negative responses in a row from Iris, Gavin, and Michael, I thought you probably wouldn't like it if I bothered you either," I said.
Aside from that, it felt wrong to intrude on her privacy. Much more than Michael or Gavin, anyway...or Iris.
After all, Leiso was one of the Enforcers we had spent the most time with. Despite her beating the crap out of us almost every day for three years, we had become great friends. I didn't like the idea of upsetting her.
Leiso shook her head.
"It makes no difference to me. I might have enjoyed a chat, but that's fine... Hm..."
She seemed a bit bothered by it for some reason.
"Well then, can we talk about why we're here?" Dante said.
"Yes. I called this meeting because I want to introduce the status magic system to all of you," I said.
They all looked intrigued.
Good.
"It took some tinkering, but I figured out how to cast status magic on other people. Also, I feel like I've gotten it to a state of near perfection. It should be nothing but a benefit to you all."
"Is this safe? It won't kill us, will it?" Leiso asked.
"No. That shouldn't be a possibility. It will enhance your powers," I said.
"Cool. Any volunteers?" Michael said.
"I will volunteer. I trust that Mizik understands what he's talking about, so I'll gladly take a chance," Leiso said.
She stepped forward and stood at attention.
"I don't have to remove any clothing like what Iris needs for manifestation, do I? If so, this will get awkward very quickly..." Leiso said.
"Umm...no. That won't be necessary. But I have to place my hand above your heart," I said.
"Are you gonna grope her, dude? Nice," Michael said.
After he finished speaking, an iron thorn flew past his face and he fell out of his chair.
"That would be disrespectful. I'm not going to touch her inappropriately."
"Damn pervert! Iris, when can we replace Michael!?" Leiso said angrily.
Iris just sighed.
"Hopefully never...? But as soon as he dies, I guess..."
Leiso cursed under her breath and then turned to me. She stepped forward with her hands behind her back and waited for me to touch her heart.
I placed a finger on her chest just where her heart was and peered into her soul.
I saw a lot of things. I saw the hell that war could truly be...so much death and destruction would drive anyone mad. She had taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the past. Even a few Overlords as well. She was deeply pained by the loss of her husband and family.
But those weren't things I needed to see.
I had a job to do.
I began to quickly recite the words to the spell. Words in a language of magic that not even I understood.
When it was done, Leiso stumbled back and clutched her head in pain.
A moment later, I could see a flash of light in her eyes and she looked in my direction curiously. Not directly at me, though.
"What on Ignitus am I looking at?" She said.
"That is your status menu. Get used to it. By the way, I'm curious...what level are you?" I asked.
"Level 1. What about you?"
"Isabella and I are both level 150. That's the maximum without degrading your body to dust. At least until I figure out how to hold the excess power, that is..."
"This is quite amazing, Mizik. How do I increase my level?" She asked.
"Just kill stuff. That should do it. Why not make the local monster population go extinct or something?" I said.
She nodded and looked at Iris.
"You may go if Mizik is finished. Are you, Mizik?" Iris asked.
"Hold on," I said as I sent Leiso a party invite. She joined and I requested to view her stats. She agreed.
It wasn't what I expected to see, but it would still work.
{Name: Leiso Akali}
{Level: 1/120}
{Class: Iron Tsunami (Enforcer)}
{Hp: Calculating...}
{Mp: N/A}
{P.atk: Calculating...}
{M.atk: Calculating...}
{P.def: Calculating...}
{M.def: Calculating...}
{Acc: Calculating...}
{Eva: Calculating...}
{Spd: Calculating...}
{Passive Abilities: Elemental Aspect: Water
Advanced Aspect: Metal}
It seemed like the status menu was still trying to figure out what her actual stats were.
I might have to keep working on this...
"Can I make a few adjustments?" I asked.
"Sure," Leiso said.
I placed my hand on her heart again and started modifying the status menu to find her actual stats.
What I found bothered me, but it wouldn't be too much of a problem.
"Alright. Leiso, you won't know your full stats until you hit level 150. I need to modify your level limit but that shouldn't cause any issues...I think..."
"You think?" Leiso said curiously.
"Eh...Isabella's level limit was forcibly increased by my unknown skill. She became a bit strange for a while, but she was fine when she had plenty of rest."
"Mizik, I think that was only because my actual level increased so drastically at the time. Leiso's level isn't increasing, just being allowed to go further instead," Isabella said.
I placed my hand on my chin as I considered this.
"Good point. Alright, Leiso. Let's go again."
"Am I a lab mouse now?" She said.
"Hey this is kind of interesting to watch, right?" Michael said.
"Indeed...I admit I am curious..." Carlos said.
This time when I touched Leiso, I removed the level 120 cap on her level and placed it at 150. As soon as I did, Leiso seemed to feel dizzy.
"Ah...that was odd. I feel really...loose all of a sudden..." She said.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Just a bit of dizziness. It should pass soon."
I still wanted to check her and make more adjustments, but ultimately decided not to.
Leiso was still curious about something, though.
"Mizik, is it possible for you to forcibly increase my level?"
"That could cause you some pretty severe issues. Your body has to be able to keep up with the increase in power, so I can't do that. Although, I can increase the rate of spectral energy collected by the status menu as well as the amount of exp it's converted into. This is a particular amount specific to you. You might not level as quickly as someone else, is what I mean."
"Understood. Please make all of the necessary arrangements," Leiso said.
So I placed my finger...once again...over her heart and fixed the system. I also gave her an infinite amount of skill points to toy around with.
Once it was done, she gave me a slight smile.
"Thank you, Mizik. I shall work diligently from here on out to level as quickly as possible. I'll be going now."
After that, Leiso left. Presumably to drive the monster population to extinction.
Then I began working on the others.
I was able to glean information about Michael, Carlos, and even Gavin in the process without having to ask them about themselves.
Michael had a wife and kids at one point but she died sometime after he became an Enforcer. After that, he slowly lost contact with his family until he no longer was able to figure out who was related to him anymore. He very much enjoyed the company of women and often kept a casual relationship with either Attnedants or normal girls.
Despite this, Michael was still very focused on his work and seemed to be extremely lethal on the field of battle. Michael chose to be in relationships because he felt lonely at times without someone nearby. Although he refused to be married.
Gavin was in an almost perpetual state of anger. The anger of having lost his wife, his children, and even some of his best friends to the stupidity of one otherworlder a long time ago. Since then, he hadn't remarried and held a grudge that drove him to work as hard as possible to protect the world from such things. He wasn't happy about being given any form of power from an otherworlder, but Iris ordered him to 'shut his damn mouth and stop being a big baby'.
Lastly, Carlos was an orphan who grew up obsessed with scientific advancement. He was a man of few words and an excellent fighter. He was married at one point, but she never bore children due to her not wanting the children to potentially grow up without a father. This was, of course, because of Carlos' extensive military service record and his deep immersion in scientific work.
The marriage ended when his wife died of sickness while he was away...
Shortly after, Carlos became an Enforcer and vowed to protect the world that his wife loved.
I also learned that Dante had a wife and kids at one point, too. This was before the war caused an invasion of Arcadia and he lost everything. He had been evacuated to an area near Torantis before becoming sick and living on the street.
That was where he first met Iris.
He truly viewed Iris as a motherly figure and had no desire to have any sort of romantic interactions with her.
Since the inventory was connected to the status magic, everyone would have to figure out how to use it on their own time.
Once I was finished, everyone left to go level up and we were sent home to learn about how to use our phones.
Before we spoke to Rune, Isabella grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly over to her.
"Mizik, you haven't fixed my status magic yet, have you?" She said.
"I don't think so. Would you like me to modify yours?" I asked.
She nodded and smiled at me.
I began the normal routine, but I decided to look into the inner workings of her Aspects as well out of curiosity.
I found something that both made me happy and startled me.
Isabella wasn't as fast with movement as a result of The Centurion, but...
Her physical strength was truly monstrous.
It was higher than mine.
Isabella wasn't the best attacker, but I could easily assume from now on that she was able to hit extremely hard even if she wasn't very quick. On top of that, her defense was also amazingly high.
I could probably expect conventional weapons to be useless against her at this point, but I didn't want to test it.
Nevertheless, I modified her status magic and we went to see Rune.
She was waiting in the living room and had our phones ready for us to learn how to use them.
I had a feeling this would take a while, but it would certainly be interesting.
* * *
We spent the next few hours with Rune and got to know her better as well.
Rune and Michael were childhood friends. They were both elated to learn that they had compatibility and truthfully, Rune was chosen to become an Enforcer over Michael. But...
Rune didn't have a high enough compatibility to make the advancement. Instead, Michael was chosen. She didn't hold it against him, however, and they remained great friends even to this day.
Shortly after she awakened her Aspect, she trained with it until she was ready to be assigned.
And she was assigned to be Jallah's personal Attendant on Michael's request. He did this to ensure that she would be well protected. After she worked under Jallah for a while, they fell in love and got married.
The rest was history.
The two of them shared a great love for over three hundred years.
Jallah was apparently a kind man that took care of people as much as possible. It was quite the void for us to fill, actually.
He was like a big brother to everyone. Jallah disappeared two years before we arrived on Ignitus during a scouting mission to Nexus.
No one had seen or heard from him since and Iris could no longer feel his power.
Our arrival in Ulkanos was the final nail in the coffin for Rune. Just being here bothered her and was a constant reminder that Jallah wasn't around anymore.
Despite this, Rune tried very hard to show us respect and worked diligently on our behalf.
Later that night, we sat in our room as usual, and I tried to call Michael.
Not because I liked Michael, but I needed to test out his number...
I still wasn't sure how to operate these damn things.
The phone rang several times but no one answered.
I called again and got the same result.
And they wonder why I use telepathy.
I decided to see what Michael was doing, anyway.
"Hey Michael. Pick up the phone."
"DAMMIT, MIZIK! I'M IN THE SHOWER!"
"Look, you people keep telling me to call. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON'T ANSWER? TELL ME!"
"LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU WEIRDO!"
I decided to test something here.
Since the magic I was able to use was so versatile and theoretically infinite, I wanted to see if I could give Michael a headache.
Now, teleportation was possible and fairly easy over short distances.
But casting magic over exceedingly long distances was very tiring.
Telepathy was simple enough, but the further away someone was, the more difficult it would be to maintain.
I used my magic to create a loud screeching sound that was sure to give Michael a headache.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH! WHAT THE HELL!?"
"IF I CAN'T CALL YOU, THIS IS THE ALTERNATIVE! GET USED TO IT!"
"YOU SON OF A-"
I terminated the communication and hugged Isabella.
She hugged me back and rested her head on my shoulder.
At the same time, I wanted to establish communication with her via telepathy.
"Isabella, try thinking at me."
She looked at me strangely.
"Mizik, is this telepathy? We can just talk normally."
"I want to be able to converse in secret. When we infiltrate Nexus, it might be helpful," I said aloud.
"Can you hear me, Mizik?"
"Yes. Just remember that feeling. We might need to talk to each other without people noticing."
"Got it! By the way...I can talk to you freely here, riiiiiight?"
"If you want...yes..."
"Ehehe...this'll be fun!"
"I'm sure it will be..."
After that, we decided to get ready and sleep.
From here on out, we would be preparing to infiltrate Nexus and destroy the Abyss Engine.