The time Sebastian spent with the lovely girl from the Nightshades had been fruitful.
The now charred corpse told him everything he needed. Nothing that a 'friendly' session couldn't solve.
To be honest, he didn't even need that, but Sebastian just wanted to feel the thrill.
Though, despite the initial excitement of inflicting pain, he found out what he felt wasn't like before.
The session had been… disappointing, to say the least. It wasn't nowhere as close as how it was before he regressed.
After having robbed the woman of anything valuable he could sell to Adrian, Sebastian left the apartment.
What Sebastian discovered were four things: The first was that the leader of the Nightshades was a guy named Liam Taylor, a 0-cored Thespian, currently in Somnium.
Second, he learned the gang comprised around 40 members, which, of course, now were 39. Aside from that, they weren't even that proficient in fighting.
Even their Thespian leader wasn't good at fighting, from a Thespian's point of view, at least, because he was a crafter, specifically, he was an artifact maker.
This was a profession belonging to the Crafter type, which focused on creating items with various effects.
Such an example could be his father's pendant, the same that brought Sebastian to the past.
Those were the items those guys could make, but of course, if his father's pendant had been made by someone, the guy must have been really powerful.
The third and fourth information were less important from a fighting point of view, but more important for his overall goal.
The woman said that she didn't know where their leader kept the money and where their primary base was. However, she told him where to find a lead.
Now, Sebastian was at a crossroads. He could either attack the gang right now, or he could wait and prepare better. Considering the attack would not be at their main headquarters, he needed to be careful as to not reveal his cards.
A primal urge surged within Sebastian, a relentless torrent of primal impulses urging him to sow chaos, to unleash unbridled fury upon his enemies, to revel in the exquisite agony of those who dared stand in his path.
It was a visceral craving, coursing through his veins like molten fire, driving him ever onward with an insatiable hunger for destruction.
With each beat of his heart, the desire to wreak havoc grew stronger, gnawing at his soul with ferocious intensity.
It was as if a dormant beast had been stirred from its slumber, awakening within him a savage thirst for blood that could not be quenched.
Every fiber of his being resonated with the primal call of battle, urging him to abandon reason and embrace the chaos that lay before him.
Sebastian had to find a way to rein his emotions, to stay calm.
For now, he wanted to learn how to do that himself, but if push came to shove, the best thing would be to buy an artifact to do that.
He couldn't always act on impulses, that was dangerous, and now that he didn't have the means to defend himself like in the past, he needed to be careful.
"The problem is that I can't bring the artifact to Somnium."
With these thoughts in mind, Sebastian headed to Adrian, and after having sold his goods to him, getting around 5000 Starcoins, he went back home.
"Seb? Is it you?" Mary asked as she heard the door.
"Yes, mom. I'm home!"
The young man headed back to his room and lied on his bed.
Sebastian thought for a while. Currently, he only had two things at his disposal: his Cinder Blast Spell, and his slightly improved strength. He had three things if he considered his battle experience.
However, he wasn't strong enough to avoid bullets, and this applied to everyone.
Thespians at the 0-tier weren't even strong enough to evade bullets, that was a feat possible only for strong tiered 1 Thespians and higher tiers, and even they could not avoid all kinds of bullets.
There were weapons who could shoot at 213.36 m/s, among the weakest, but there were stronger weapons which even higher tiered thespians could not evade.
Of course, this didn't mean a bullet was able to kill thespians in all cases.
Take a knight, for example. With all his or her defensive skills, it was impossible to kill them.
Bullets were a problem for every Thespian. That was the reason the Four Sacred Clans didn't completely control the world, and the government was still present.
The clans' power over the world was mostly thanks to money, but of course.
Sebastian needed to solve this problem. It was then he had an idea.
The task turned out to be quite simple, much simpler than Sebastian initially thought. His mother was the key.
His mother was an illusionist. She was considered the best of the best when she dwelled in Somnium, destined for even greater heights if she didn't have the responsibility of taking care of her two children.
Manifest illusions. Based on what he knew about Illusionists, their tier 0 skill was called 'Manifest Illusions' and it allowed to summon illusions into reality.
These illusions could manifest items or creatures he the caster had seen in first person. Their lifelikeness depended on the quantity of mana invested in the skill.
However, there was a limitation. While the illusionist could bring forth items and creatures, the power did not extend to creating entire environments.
Despite their convincing appearance, these illusions lacked any influence over the material world.
They could only create confusion, to act as decoys. They couldn't be touched, nor touch anything.
But that was enough.