2 days later Aranea was out of bed, with the help of Mages dedicated to healing Magic she had recovered to full form.
In her case, full form meant struggling to walk.
'I'll get it done soon-!'
Excited, Aranea pushed through dozens of books an hour.
Her research notes were filled with Korean letters, they spoke English in this world, so to hide her notes she used the only other language she knew.
Although her Korean writing skills were subpar, it was better than exposing everything in English.
1 hour.
'Almost-'
2 hours.
'So close!'
4 hours-
'Done!'
Proudly picking up her notes, she read through the letters in glee.
Finally, she finally did it.
It only took a month and a half or so.
Aranea Puppeteering; a Skill created from the combination of Ritualistic Magic, Mana Manipulation, Mana Circuits, and the intricate understanding of Human Anatomy.
From now on Aranea would control her body not through her muscles, but through Mana alone.
With Ritualistic Magic, she created a deal that would exchange the physical damage from the consequences of using her body into pain.
Every 24 hours the damage that was converted into pain would rush in all at once but she could also release the pain slowly across the 24 hours.
This didn't mean her body would become stronger from the Mana, it just meant she could actually use her body now.
All it cost her was...
Sanity.
'Ah, the future me can worry about that-'
Rubbing her hand, Aranea took a deep breath, made some prayers to any Gods out there, and activated her Skill.
All the muscles in her body suddenly fell loose, it felt like she lost complete control over every limb.
Once the sensations were completely lost, the Mana surging through her body began flooding every corner of every cell; a link forged of Mana strings began interconnecting her body.
These strings ran through from the soles of her feet to the top of her head; coalescing and compounding as they dove deeper into her body.
Till finally, the Mana strings took control over every muscle.
Awkwardly raising her hand, Aranea felt her biceps, triceps, forearms, elbow, and every minor muscle and tendon in between contract under the pressure of her Mana.
Then she lowered her arm, absorbing the information into her mind to form a better mental image of her body.
It already rose a level from that small experiment.
Then on, it took her a quarter of an hour to get used to the movement and in that time, her Mana Reservoir was drained by an eighth.
With non-stop usage, she could keep it running for 4 hours.
Doing a couple of stretches, Aranea hopped from one foot to the other.
Then, drawing out the full force of her Agility.
Bang!
A loud sound echoed in her room as a small, drifting, figure sped from one corner to the other; at times their steps reached the ceiling, at others, she could be seen in two locations at once.
This was her max speed.
Aranea then slowly came to a full stop, still, the explosive force of air threw all the items ahead of her into the air.
The remnant strands of wind slithered around her body.
"Hoo..."
Clenching her fist...
'Weak as always, I should also clean up...'
If she tried punching someone at that insane speed then her arm would be ripped from its socket.
When she moved at those fast speeds she had to be careful with every step; one wrong move or landing and her body would go 'splat'.
While Aranea was clenching her fists, the Mana Circles in her body flashed a grim, sticky red.
They were absorbing the impact on her body from .
Once the absorption was complete, the thousands of Mana Circles around her body transferred the transmuted physical damage to the core Mana Circle that commandeered
The 24-hour timer began.
"Here goes nothing."
Mentally preparing herself, Aranea carefully drew out the stored pain.
<...Obtained>
...
...
'...'
...
...
She woke up an hour later; the blood dripping from her nose tainted the ground beneath her.
'...'
It was instant.
'...huh...'
There was no amount of preparation that could have readied her for that.
'...I see.'
The torment was instant, immeasurable; soul-tearing.
It brought forth questions to her mind.
'How did Aranea survive this?'
'How will this Aranea survive this?'
And...
How can I survive the endless assassinations that will come in the future?
She had no answers.
...No.
She had answers.
Aranea simply...
'Haha...'
...didn't want to believe them.
-----
Solace was rare these days.
Luliya stuck to her like a bug and her mother attached herself to Aranea's hip for half the day.
In a way though, Aranea appreciated it.
While the two girls were mainly worried about her mental and physical state after the assassination and constantly comforted her for that; Aranea took the comfort differently.
Her birthday was in 3 days; current date:
September 18th.
It's been 10 days since she unlocked
In these 10 days, she Levelled up to Level 20. Placing all her Stat Points into Mana, Aranea finally increased it from 32 to 40.
It took her a while to get to this point precisely because of
With the increase in Mana, she could keep it running for 9 hours straight.
It was also good to note that most of her movements were done with
Walking without it was impossible, she was like a slug.
It became worse by the day.
[Body Decay] didn't kill her; it just weakened her to the lowest possible state, one where she could remain conscious but be incapable of doing anything but breathing.
But it also meant that because of how weak her body became, any movement would kill her.
The cause?
Her Mana.
The higher her Mana, the more her body decayed.
She'd be lying if she said it was easy.
But!
Here's what kept her going.
'Levelling is fun.'
It was her honest opinion.
As twisted as her reality was; as little as fortune favoured her.
The inner gamer within her could survive.
She made sure of it.
Aranea found something to stabilise herself with.
Anyway.
'It's time to prepare for my birthday party.'
The fifth birthday of any child of nobility was an important one. It was their introduction to noble society and the precursor to their adulthood 10 years later.
It also meant it would last the whole day.
...she'd have to keep her Pupetteering running the whole time.
That's not something she could handle, at least not in her current state.
---
Night of the 18th.
In the main city of the Lethraxus Ducal Family, Moore.
Once the dawn bringer set over the horizon, her two partners bestowed the earth with its lingering grace.
With the arrival of the night, the light of the Ducal Family would set and its dark side would begin to reveal itself.
Duke Lethraxus placed a strict ban on illegal prostitution, even legal prostitution had cumbersome procedures to make sure that the women were doing it of their own free will and weren't doing it for survival.
If it was found that they were doing prostitution to feed their families due to a lack of income, then they'd be banned from work and given a different, less explicit job to procure a living for their children.
The black markets, however, were given free rein.
He let them be, such things were necessary; if you removed one, then another parasite would pop up and removing it would be costly.
Because of this, the organisations running these markets respected his opinion on brothels and prostitution.
This is because, unlike other territories, the Lethraxus territory did not shadow-tax them nor place restrictions on less dangerous goods.
Even forced relocation didn't occur.
It was a thriving territory for black markets.
Duke Lethraxus removed one evil in exchange for another lesser evil.
In his opinion, crimes against women and children were the worst.
He would rather people willingly purchase drugs than have to be forced to watch his citizens be sexually abused.
And Aranea thanked him for it.
Using Mana to forge fake, rocky limbs to make herself seem larger; Aranea strolled through the black markets in a dark cloak.
Conversations ebbed around the dim market.
The louder the conversation, the less experienced the customer was; it was a sign for the others.
It practically screamed 'Exploit them' to the other stalls.
Aranea calmly patrolled the market; Aranea was searching for something specific.
Something that these stalls couldn't provide her with.
But with all these people coming and going, it made it harder to track down her target.
Fortunately, she had
And it didn't take long before:
'Got 'em.'
Before she caught sight of someone walking out of an alleyway with a duffel bag.
Brushing 'shoulders' with the rushing customer, she looked at his diminishing back and then stepped into the alley where he came from.
The road was dark and lonely.
There were no other routes you could take but the path extended for a while like a maze, until, at the end of the path, she spotted a store.
It had a shoddy appearance and the sign above it rattled; it looked like it would fall apart with the softest touch.
But don't let appearances trick you.
'...Phew...'
The Mana emanating from the depths of that store was potent, her high sensitivity to Mana made it even harder for her to endure the suffocation.
'...I found something good.'
Walking to the nigh-broken door which had multiple fresh planks hammered into it-
Ring~
-she rang the doorbell.
A second.
Two.
Twenty.
And at the one-minute mark, Squeak...
The door opened itself, inviting Aranea.
"Come in."
A crisp, voice beckoned her in.
Taking a small, sharp breath, she followed the voice into the unknown.
---
Rattling chains locked their wrists; shackled their ankles; pinned them to a small area extending to the edges of the innards of the tiny store.
There was no face.
There was no mouth.
No ears no nose.
It was a Faceless One.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, young lady?"
'...There was no hiding it from them in the first place.'
The only positive was their inability to see, they would know she was a young lady, but they could never know who.
But the chains, and the fact that they worked this store.
A Faceless One?
It was eerily odd.
But this sight changed Aranea's mind, she decided to take a risk.
"...I think you already know."
The Faceless One stopped wiping the surface of their desk.
"I do?"
"You do."
Placing the rag down in a bucket, the Faceless One picked a small chisel knife and then started carving the table.
The small wood shavings disintegrated with every small cut it made.
"...So I do."
Creak-
A small table slowly dragged itself across the ground, the sound of the groaning wooden panels sent shivers down Aranea's spine.
Stopping in front of Aranea;
"Payment."
The table, it spoke.
Aranea pulled out a small bag of coins from her pocket and lowered it.
The same table slowly retreated into a corner of the room.
And then, the Faceless One spoke again.
This time, however, its voice was grim.
As though it understood the gravity of what was going to occur.
"You will-"
"I know."
But Aranea cut it off.
"...I see. How unfortunate..."
Pulling a small, light suitcase out from below the table, the Faceless One pushed it toward Aranea.
Aranea grabbed its handle, but its hands didn't let go just yet.
And again.
It spoke.
But now, it was heavy.
Sombre.
Then, melancholic.
The void reverberated, echoing the truth.
"...May Fortune grant thee..."
A sharp silence-
"Mercy."
-----
A bloodied rag fizzled into ashes at the tips of her fingers.
The sweat pouring from her body wet the sheets, and Aranea had to clean it again.
She hid some of the products from the suitcase in tomorrow's outfit; she might need them in case of an emergency.
'I can't let my guard down...'
The exhaustion pulled into the station.
'Just how many more assassinations...?'