"Raagh!!" The man hesitated no longer and immediately activated his Skill. Midas had already seen this man's ability while casually conversing with him, so he knew what to expect.
'Ishiro, bearer of the Gift of Poison, D Rank. Can release a cloud of gas around him of certain potency and effect that affects the people around him. Also has an ability that allows him to synthesise concentrated drops of poison and have immunity to most poisonous substances found in nature. Not bad… But not good enough,' thought Midas
Midas stepped back while throwing out a stone knife straight into the man's crotch, causing him to scream in pain. Midas needed a gap, and he felt like he finally had it. Midas activated his [Hidden Divinity] and ran in knowing that [Hidden Divinity] had the ability to isolate him from reality for a time.
He ran forwards, taking advantage of the fact that the man is preoccupied with the knife that was skewering his worm. He then landed a blow on the man's throat with his knuckle.
"Kgh!" The man made an involuntary sound while holding his throat, allowing Midas access to the more juicier parts of his body.
Midas then landed two blows on the man. One on his lower ribs, and one on his right close to the man's liver and kidneys. The man keeled forward with a squeal. Midas then sent an overhead kick at the man's temple, knocking the man out and possibly even giving him a brain damage that would be hard to recover from from in more ways than one.
The brown haired girl watched as the large man fell with a *Boosh*. She then watched as Midas took back his knife with a disgusted sneer, wiped the blood off on the side of the man's face, and came toward her and gave her his hoodie.
"Cover yourself up first."
"O-oh… T-thank you!" said the girl, immediately wanting to replace her ruined T Shirt with the hoodie. Seeing the rose on her cheeks get even rosier, Midas gave her some space and went to check on her friends. It turned out that they were unconscious, luckily or unluckily.
"It's okay. Could you tell me what happened?" asked Midas after checking on the girls, who were untouched.
"Okay, so we were walking along towards the Shrine after finding out that the Coalition was hiring people and then we saw a cloud we didn't know what it was so we held our breaths. But then we found out that it was too late. The other girls started fainting and I followed after them."
"Later on, I woke up due to my own Skills and I saw that this guy was carrying us one by one to this secluded place close to the western border. I tried to wake my friends up by shouting, but I failed and I could only heal myself up and wait for an opportunity. But then he came back."
After listening this far, Midas had a glint in his eyes as he observed this girl, unknown to the girl, Midas was hatching plots in secret. The girl continued speaking while fixing up her clothes, saying:
"He was surprised when he found out that I was awake and he said, that because I was so special, he would make me his main wife from now on, and the rest of my friends would be his concubines. He said he was building a harem. I was screaming and screaming, but nobody heard anything because he held my mouth. That was until I bit him, and then managed to scream. I'm guessing that's how you heard me?"
"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry you had to go through that. How long will it take for you to heal up and maybe heal the others?" asked Midas while thinking about how audacious the Japanese guy had been.
That guy must have thought he was some Hentai protagonist.
Midas thought about killing him, but gave up on the idea. Midas was not a good person, but he was definitely not evil either. The man will just have to live while being a eunuch from now on. Midas felt like that was punishment enough.
"Just five more minutes should do for me. The others should take maybe fifteen minutes. So twenty minutes on total," said the girl, to which Midas nodded and said:
"Okay. I'll keep you company here."
The girl nodded and started using a Skill that made her body radiate a holy white colour that made her seem holy and unblemished. Midas admired the girl's beauty while mentally going through her particulars.
|————————————
| Identity Found |
Name: Charlotte Winsley
DOB: 2002/12/12
Sex: Female
Nationality: Great Britain
…
————————————|
'An aspiring Nurse… Someone compassionate and giving. She's the daughter of a politician. No criminal record, no altercations… Absolutely Nothing?' thought Midas in wonder. It was rare to see such a spotless record. Most people have some blemish in their history, something that they would rather not reveal about themselves.
Even Midas was an unemployed University dropout with nothing to his name before he came in. But this woman named Charlotte had an absolutely clean record.
It was either she was incredibly disciplined or someone made her out to be the way. Midas would have to find out which one of those is the Truth.
|————————————
| Index |
—————
Earth Name: Charlotte Winsley
AC: 9,100
Gift: Gift of Regeneration (A Rank)
—————>
| The Gift of Regeneration (A Rank) |
[You have the power to turn back the wheels of time and entropy. You can create what used to be and destroy what never should have been.]
Skills: [Heal(Lv. 2)], [Re/Generate(Lv. 1)], [Partial Immortality(Lv. 1)]
|————————————
| Heal (Lv. 2) |
[You can heal external and internal wounds of yourself and others according to an existence's physical matrix configuration]
[You can restore the Energy levels of others]
————————————|
|————————————
| Re/Generate (Lv. 1) |
[You are able to generate or regenerate all forms of Energies to new states or their previous states, reversing or accelerating Entropy to an extent]
————————————|
|————————————
| Partial Immortality (Lv. 1) |
[As long as a part of the body stays intact, cells can replicate and reform into a new body soon enough.]
————————————|
<—————
Abnormal Conditions and States:
—————>
Nature: Neutral Good
Trait: Empath
Mental: Borderline Personality, Depression
Physical: Congenital Heart defect
<—————
Stats:
Dexterity (Agility, Flexibility) → 1.1
Strength (Speed, Power) → 1.0
Constitution (Endurance, Health) → 4.8
Intelligence (Memory, Reasoning) → 3.1
Charisma (Charm, Persuasion) → 4.2
Wisdom (Intuition, Adaptability) → 2.7
Spirit (Mental State, Character) → 2.8
————————————|
'She can heal people? That is just what I need. Eh? Of course she's fucking Immortal isn't she?' thought Midas incredulously. He couldn't help but envy the woman for her abilities.
"You envy me?" asked Charlotte with some confusion while applying the white lights on her unconscious black haired friend. Midas couldn't help but be shocked at this development. She's an Empath, so she can feel how people feel around her.
Midas did not want her to develop weird misunderstandings about him, so he said, "Yeah, I do. You have the ability to heal your friends. I wish I had that ability. I have a friend too you know, but he got beat up by a bunch of people who were trying to sell him to some guy with a Skill that can enslave people."
"Oh my god? What happened to him?" asked Charlotte with some genuine shock and concern in her voice. Midas' face become remorseful and even some anger creeped into his heart naturally as he said:
"When I found him, they had broken his arms and legs. I carried him away and I tried to do the best I could considering the lack of materials by applying a Splint to all his limbs. He was in so much pain, I just became so angry so I left to go to the Coalition to ask if they could help me arrest that bastard for sending his cronies to beat up Julio… But you know what they said?"
"Sorry, we can't help you because the man you are talking about is an S Ranker of our Coalition," said Midas with some hate. He really hated. He hated the Coalition for being so fake, he hated humans for being so disgusting, but most of all, he hated himself for being incompetent and having no ability to do anything about his pathetic situation.
Charlotte started crying tears while listening to this. She could feel Midas' hate of the Coalition and she even felt that he hated himself. She had just gotten done healing the last of her friends so she immediately stood up and threw herself at Midas and gave him a hug.
"Wha?"
"Shhh… I'm so sorry you feel this way."
"Wait, what are you doing??" said Midas. He was genuinely flustered right now. This girl wasn't trying to make moves on him right?
"I understand how you feel, I've felt it too before. I'm so sorry. So so sorry…" said Charlotte without letting go of Midas. Midas looked at her sobbing on his chest and figured that this may be an attempt at consoling herself after being almost violated.
He let go of all resistance and said, "It's okay. It's not your fault."
"No! Hating anything is never good. Self hatred is the worst form of hatred too. This type of hatred isn't conducive to any progress, but rather will break you emotionally."
"Okay, I get it…" said Midas, exasperated.
"Hey, what's your name?" asked the girl, still not letting go.
"Midas. Midas Mira,"
"Okay, MIdas Mira. I'm Charlotte. Charlotte Winsley. Thank you for saving me before. I owe you, and therefore I will promise you something. I will heal your friend as long as you take me to him."
"Really?" asked Midas dubiously. To which Charlotte nodded.
"Thank you, Charlotte. That would mean so much to me."
"It's okay. But you have to promise me something," said Charlotte before looking up at Midas in an adorable manner. She looked deep in his eyes and said, "Promise not to hate yourself, okay?"
'Fuck!'
That was all Midas could think right now… With a beautiful girl looking up at him like this with tear stains on the sides of her eyes, could any man say no to her?
No, that wasn't the problem.. The problem was the fact that if Midas lied he could get caught out due to his emotional state fluctuation. This woman was practically a mind reader. Midas had to play this cool. Give an answer that was neither definitive nor a lie.
"… I cannot promise you anything like that. But I will promise to work on myself until one day I don't hate what I am anymore."
Charlotte looked in his eyes and sighed. This answer was not what she wanted to hear, but it would have to do.
"Charlotte, who's that?"
Charlotte, realising that one of her friends had gotten up and seen her hugging a man suddenly felt her face grow flush. She then hurriedly let go of Midas and said, "Sorry for attacking you like that." And then turned to her friend and said, "This is Midas, he saved our lives."
"Eh really? Thank you so much for saving us." Said one of the girls with the jet black hair and the goth girl outfit.
"It's totally fine. I was just passing by and when I heard Charlotte's voice I couldn't ignore it."
"Jeez, a smooth talker. No wonder Charlotte attacked you, hihi," said the black haired girl mischievously
"Jasmine!!" said Charlotte with mock anger, prompting giggles from the two girls who were now standing up. The blush on Charlotte's cheeks had now spread to her neck, making her look like a cherry tomato.
"It's okay. She's a really nice girl, I don't mind being attacked by Charlotte," said Midas, to which the two girls looked towards Charlotte while she looked at the floor with embarrassment. Midas felt like he had finally gotten his revenge for the way she pounced on him making him flustered and confused.
"Where's are w—AAHH!" asked one girl, a blonde haired blue eyed one, before she screamed after seeing a body laying on the floor.
"It's okay, he's not dead. Just unconscious," said Charlotte, eliciting sighs of relief from the two girls before one of them, the one named Jasmine, spoke in indignance, saying:
"Tsk. He's lucky he's not dead! How dare he play tricks on us? I should cut off his dick for trying that shit!!"
"Um… Actually, Midas already cut off his thing so…"
The two girls looked at Midas, with one of them taking a step back as if Midas was a pervert while the other giving him a thumbs up like he had just done something worthy of a Nobel Prize. Midas looked at Charlotte, thinking, 'Why don't you explain better?!'
Charlotte ignored Midas' plight asked the girls, "Hey, so are you guys still heading to the Shrine?"
"Yeah. That was where we were going. To formally join the Coalition right?"
"Yeah, that's what we discussed."
"I get that, but things have changed… I don't think we can go anymore."
"Why?"
"Because one of the S Rankers is a dangerous person who has a Gift that he uses to make people his slaves."
Charlotte said this with absolute certainty, causing Midas to look at her differently. She trusted him to that extent? Or maybe she trusted the "vibes" she was getting from Midas. Either way, that really affected Midas. Midas internally shook is head at these thoughts.
At the same time, Midas was thinking up ways to use this nature of hers to become closer to her.
"What??"
"Where did you hear this from?"
Midas stepped up and offered his explanation at this point, saying, "I know what Charlotte is saying may be difficult to believe, but I swear it's true… And I have proof. If you guys could let me, I have a video of me and one of the S Rankers called Gwen Cho having a conversation and in it she says that they will protect Andrew the Slaver."
"Are you serious?"
"I am serious. Actually, the Coalition leaders are not a group of good people… I know for a fact that they are exploiting people in this place, and I also know that they are doing dirty things in the underground like beating and killing people. Even my friend got beat up and almost killed because of them. If I hadn't saved him, he could have gotten enslaved too. Do you really want to join a group like that?"
"Oh my god…"
"No way…"
"I have the proof… Let me send it to you right away," said Midas while swiping at his now materialised Index screen and immediately, the Three women received the same message, saying that Midas Mira wanted to connect with them. They agreed and immediately, Midas sent them two videos.
The first video was his memory from the time he, Julio and Aydin were being chased by Andrew after learning that the Southern Clearing had been occupied. In it, the women could see the men looking for the trio for their Boss and from their conversation they could tell that if they failed, they would be severely punished.
The second video was the conversation with Gwen where Gwen defended Andrew and Frank stepped in to say that that was how the Coalition as a whole would deal with the situation.
Midas watched them watch the videos and saw their faces drop visibly. He told them the back stories of the videos and the relative times of when the events happened. When they found out that Gwen had just said those words an hour ago, they became even more agitated.
"How are your videos so high quality?" asked one of the girls after some time.
"I have a skill that makes my memory very good. So where do you guys want to go now?" asked Midas after explaining himself.
"Wow, I wish I had vision and memory as good as yours. Whenever we tried to send memories, the Video would turn out blurred and grainy."
"We'll follow you. Remember how I said that I would cure your friend? Take me to your friend and I'll do my best."
"Really? Okay. If you guys are comfortable with that, then we can totally go to The Secret Camp."
"Secret Camp?"
"My friends and I, we made a group called The Secret. Anyway we built some cabins in the woods. We even have some emergency food stuff. You'll like it a lot. I'll lead you guys there."
"Okay, let's go Midas!"
Charlotte followed behind Midas with a smile on her face and a blush on her cheeks. At this moment, even she had no idea what she was thinking.