by Neven Iliev
Still, after interrogating both its mind and body, he was finally convinced. This creature was the culprit behind the Calamity. He wasn’t sure how the simple being eluded his Eyes of Truth earlier though. Actually, being simple-minded was probably why it gave him so much trouble in the first place. Regardless of its mental faculties, this ‘Boxxy’ was guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt. There was simply no other way it could have killed five thousand people in just three months.
Edward was personally familiar with just how high a number that was. He himself was only a Slayer of Humanity and a Slayer of Elfkind, despite having performed assassinations and carrying out raids on criminal hideouts for many decades. That was fine by him though, as he didn’t want to ‘upgrade’ them if at all possible. Perks like that were more trouble than they were worth sometimes. In fact, some of them could be almost as damning as a high Level of Taboo. They were evidence of one’s past actions that would be easily laid bare with a Full Appraisal, regardless of the holder’s wishes.
And yet he’d held off having one done on this mimic until he deemed it was absolutely necessary. After all, a Full Appraisal could only be performed once every twenty-four hours. Guilds could afford to have multiple Scribes on their payroll, but Edward could not risk any of this information leaking out. He only brought one subordinate with him who was capable of performing a Full Appraisal, so he had to be prudent with its usage.
And now that it was done, he would take full advantage of it.
“Zone, does it have any other Perks?”
“Yes, five in total. One unknowable, Arcane Assassin, Butcher of Humanity, Collateral Damage, and Grand Theft Arcana.”
“Wait, no Hero Killer?”
“Negative.”
The Perk in question had no effects beyond marking someone as taking part in slaying a chosen of the Gods. It was one of those troublesome stigmas on one’s Status that could be used as evidence to get them convicted of manslaughter on the spot. This monster not having it was surprising though. Then again, Bernard Samson, the chosen Hero of Teresa, had supposedly been revived by the Goddess almost instantly, so it was possible the Perk was invalidated or the kill ‘didn’t count.’ Edward had never heard of the divines outright reviving a person like that, so it was hard for him to accurately say one way or the other.
Rather than dwell on what was missing, the Spymaster considered what was already there. The Perk that Zone referred to as unknowable was likely something exclusive to monsters, or she would’ve recognized it. Collateral Damage was … to be expected of something that blew up an entire city. Arcane Assassin was something one of his other subordinates possessed and that Perk made sense, considering the Mimic was a Warlock with Stealth. It was likewise possible that one of its unreadable Skills was the Assassination Skill, which Edward also had as part of his Rogue Job. Unfortunately, even if this creature had the same ability, it would have come from its Monster Job and would be incomprehensible to a meathead like Zone.
However, it was the last Perk in that list that piqued his interest the most.
“Grand Theft Arcana?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Zone’s eyes stared off into the distance as she focused her attention on Boxxy’s Status screen that was still in her mind.
“Awarded for taking a dungeon core out of its dungeon,” she reported in the same dull monotone. “Reward is a plus ten to all Attributes. The subject has performed this feat once.”
“Such a thing can happen, huh? I see, so that’s what it was.”
When the Hero, Bernard Samson, described the giant orb thought to be the source of the Calamity, it painted the image of an oversized dungeon core. Edward was no expert on the matter, but general knowledge dictated that the size of those things was directly proportional to the amount of mystical energy they controlled. Therein lay the problem though, as the Litigar Dungeon Complex next to Monotal, which would be the most likely origin of said core, was much too weak to produce one of that size. The place had completely caved in from the blast and was within range of the ever-swirling death cloud, so there was no way to verify if its core was still there.
At least until this monster’s Status had given Edward all the confirmation he needed.
Not that Boxxy had any idea that its deed had been exposed. It was still immensely nervous, however. It had just been through its first and highly unpleasant Appraisal, the thing that it had determined must be avoided at all costs. It was afraid of what would happen to it, of whether this terrifying human and that similarly dressed woman would just kill it off on the spot. Still, it held onto a feeling vaguely resembling hope. They clearly wanted something from it or they would have eliminated it already. It was the same reasoning the Mimic itself had used when it tried to run away with that gnome in tow.
“Interesting,” Edward mused as he tapped his chin. “Very interesting indeed. We’ll have to bring it back to headquarters so Hook can extract the details from it. We might even be able to avoid asking Arcaneum for assistance.”
It seemed Boxxy was right in assuming its life would be spared, at least for the moment. If they were transporting it somewhere else, then that could present it with a good opportunity to escape.
“In the meantime, let’s make sure it doesn’t try to pull anything too clever. Zone, get rid of those two Jobs.”
The Mimic’s head swivelled around to look up at the black-haired woman standing next to it with a panicked stare. Get rid of Jobs? Was such a thing really possible?
“What if the Warlock Job is necessary?” she asked.
“Irrelevant. We just need its memory. Do it.”
Judging from their exchange and the mechanical way that woman was moving her hands towards it, Boxxy quickly concluded that its Jobs were indeed in danger. It felt a type of fear distinctly different than that of death. It was something it hadn’t felt since its connection to its home dungeon was severed – the fear of the unknown. That wasn’t all, though. It also felt anger. Rage, even. How dare these damned humans attempt to separate it from what was rightfully its own? Did they even know how much time, effort, money, and murder it had to go through to get those Jobs to their current state?
Desperate and cornered, it lashed out. A dozen fleshy tendrils sprang forth from its surface and wrapped around the woman’s hands, feet, and neck. Now that it had hold of a hostage, it just needed to –
“Hnng!” it groaned. “Eh? … HNNNNG!”
It tried to spin her around, pin her down and threaten her, but it couldn’t. She didn’t budge a muscle no matter how much it pulled on her limbs. In fact, if anyone was getting pulled in this situation, it was the Mimic whose suspended body leaned closer towards Zone. The monster should have been the heavier one, yet Boxxy felt as if it was trying to pull down a mountain.
At the unexpected assault, Zone had briefly stopped her movements, but she did not appear to mind the interruption. No, that wasn’t quite right. The unfazed way she carried on despite the shapeshifter’s utmost effort made it seem like she didn’t even register its attempts at taking her hostage. As if this monster’s full strength was little more than a bad joke to her. That may actually have been the case, given the tiny smile on her normally expressionless face.
In the end, she placed her hand upon the chest once more, completely unhindered by its attempts at ‘restraining’ her.
“Job Removal: Warlock.”
A trio of previously inert runes etched into the stone floor under the cage lit up in response to her quiet words. A white light flowed forth from them and enveloped Boxxy, drowning out the creature’s senses and assaulting its consciousness.
[Proficiency level decreased. Crystallize Magic is no longer available. INT -10. WIS -10.]
[Proficiency level decreased. Demonology is now Level 5. WIS -2. MNT -2.]
[Proficiency level decreased. Power Overwhelming is no longer available. INT -24.]
[Proficiency level decreased. Summon Familiar is no longer available. INT -14. WIS -7. MNT -7.]
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[Your Warlock Job has been removed. INT -50. MNT -50. END -50.]
It was over in an instant. The stress of having its Skills and Attributes removed all at once rendered the monster unconscious. Its tendrils uncoiled themselves from Zone and hung limply down to the ground. The next time it woke up, it would find that all the knowledge it had regarding magic and demons was now gone, obliterated from its mind as if it was never there.
Well, almost all of it.
“Odd,” said Zone. “Demonology won’t go below Level 5.”
“What? Why not?” Edward asked.
“Unknown.”
“But the Warlock Job and its other Skills were successfully removed?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm …”
Edward had made sure to brush up on his knowledge of Warlocks and their familiars ever since he heard demons were involved in the Monotal case. As such, he was familiar with the Summon Familiar and Demonology Skills and had already deduced his monstrous prisoner was in possession of them during the interview. Exactly why the second of those refused to go away completely was beyond his understanding, but it wasn’t necessarily an issue.
“It’s good enough,” he stated. “Demonology is practically useless on its own anyway.”
The monster would probably retain some knowledge pertaining to demonic rituals and lore, but the Skill’s main function was to upgrade Summon Familiar. Which was no longer in its possession. Not only did it now lack the means to call out its pet demons, but their contracts would be severed as well.
“Do the next one,” he commanded, and Zone complied.
“Job Removal: Artificer.”
[Proficiency level decreased. Explosives Handling is no longer available. DEX -4. WIS -4.]
[Proficiency level decreased. Clockwork Expertise is no longer available. DEX -6. PER -6.]
[Your Artificer Job has been removed. DEX-24. WIS -24. PER -24.]
More untasty notifications flashed inside the Mimic’s mind, but its owner was currently out for the count.
“Done. No abnormalities,” Zone reported.
“Good,” said Edward while staring absentmindedly at the unconscious monster. “Very good indeed. Looks like we’re done here.”
Zone tilted her head. “We are? What about the elf connection?”
“Non-existent. As expected, this entire incident was either a fluke or an accident rather than an elven conspiracy.”
Of course, the Spymaster never quite believed those knife-ears were actually responsible for something like the Calamity of Monotal. He’d kept his mind open to the possibility, but a man of his experience was able to easily sense that the young Hero had been deceived. And while it certainly helped that he caught and spoke with the real perpetrator, he really didn’t need to do that in order to doubt the young man’s words. The testimony still served to pin the blame on the twig-infested nation to the north, but that was a bit divorced from reality.
To begin with, the cowards of the Ishigar Republic to the north would never dare incur the wrath of the Lodrak Empire. Their territory may have been larger than the Empire’s at a glance, but they were far behind when it came to matters of military strength. And while such acts of terrorism were right up their alley, they were far too competent to be responsible for the farce at Monotal. If an agent of theirs was indeed responsible for the Calamity, then there was no way they’d ever allow it to be traced back to them. Elves took their spying and skulking in the shadows very seriously.
Then there was the matter of these supposed perpetrators’ choice of target. Considering the destructive power of the Calamity, hitting a place like Monotal made very little sense. That city had very little strategic or economic value in the grand scheme of things. If they truly had the capability and the intention of wounding the Empire in such a way, then the Republic would have gone after a more valuable region. It made a lot more sense to blow up the royal capital and gouge out the heart of the Empire. It was what Edward would have done in their position.
In fact, that was more or less what he was planning to do to the Republic at this very moment.
“Sir, requesting permission to keep suspect as a pet.”
His subordinate’s bizarre question made Edward’s scheming grind to a halt. The black-haired woman was gently stroking the unconscious Mimic’s imitation wood surface with a tiny smile on her face.
“Really, Zone? This again?”
“Affirmative.”
“Haah. Alright, I’ll bite. Why?”
“I have determined it is quite cute.”
So it was that after all. This problem child always had a twisted sense of aesthetics. It wasn’t the first time she’d made the ludicrous request to keep a murderous monster around as a pet. Normally he might consider it if Zone was a Monster Tamer like her colleague with the codename Bandit, but she wasn’t.
“Also, there is a high chance that it likes me,” she added.
“I highly doubt that. It just tried to take you hostage. That’s not something you normally do to people you like.”
“It did? When?”
“You know, when it wrapped those tentacles around you?”
He wiggled his fingers for emphasis, causing his subordinate to blink her yellow eyes in confusion.
“That wasn’t a hug? But it was so squishy and warm …”
Edward sighed. Did she really not notice? While it was true that the monster had no chance of overpowering her outrageous STR Attribute, that didn’t mean it was being nice. Honestly, how come she was this ignorant even though she was also a ‘Ranker’ like him? It boggled the mind how dense this woman could be sometimes.
“No, Zone, it wasn’t showing affection. It tried to hurt you.”
“I don’t mind. I promise I’ll discipline it. Therefore –”
“Forget it. We’ll be disposing of that thing once Hook is done rooting around in its mind for the Calamity method.”
The man with the codename Hook was another subordinate of Edward’s. His primary Job was a Psionic, a rare occupation from the southern continent that utilized mind-based Skills and Spells in combat. Their Domination magic was powerful and versatile, easily dwarfing a Warlock’s potential for mind-fuckery. The task of sifting through the monster’s memories to get details surrounding the Calamity was child’s play for a Psionic of Hook’s calibre. Granted, such forceful methods usually left the subject a drooling vegetable, but Edward was going to execute the thing once he was done with it anyway.
“…”
His female colleague should’ve known all this, yet she kept staring expectantly at him.
“Don’t give me that pleading look, Zone. You know we can’t risk the truth of the Calamity leaking out.”
The elves destroyed a human city and murdered thousands of humans.
This was the ‘official’ story he’d fed to the immature and hot-blooded Emperor. It wouldn’t be long before that lie was propagated throughout the Empire and spoon-fed to its citizens. With the entire country’s disdain and distrust towards the elves rising, it would be the perfect opportunity to finally engage in open warfare and wipe those twigs off the face of this world. Once that was over, the Empire would be in a position to gobble up or vassalize the remaining nations, securing its dominion over the continent.
Some small part of Edward actually wanted to thank that moronic mimic. Not only did it inadvertently give his country a plausible reason to get the populace to support this war, but it was also going to provide them with a weapon of mass destruction. If the Calamity could be replicated and weaponised, then even world domination would be within the Empire’s grasp.
Or at least, that was the way he would manipulate that juvenile of an Emperor into seeing things. As far as Edward was concerned, all these wars on the horizon were nothing more than a way for him to further his Jobs and Skills. He was so close to achieving a second Rank Up that he could almost taste it, but a man of his position found it difficult to raise the Spy Job and its related S
kills during such peaceful times. He was so close to a Breakthrough, and then he just had to diligently work at becoming a Level 100 Spy, at which point he would achieve his second Rank Up.
Of course, one could argue he should have picked an easier Job to Level Up, but being a Spy gave him benefits beyond Skills and Attributes. To begin with, the Job was a closely guarded secret of the very elves he would use it against. He had no time for such things. Being able to steal it away from them decades ago was what allowed him to become Spymaster in the first place. It was a position of power with many benefits, such as first-rate equipment and information, not to mention the freedom to act as he saw fit.
There was also the benefit that, strictly speaking, Spy was not a combat-oriented Job. It still gained some XP from murdering the ever-living piss out of stuff, but it was the act of infiltration and subterfuge that made it go up in Level to any significant extent. The need and opportunity for such acts would increase tremendously during open warfare, as well as during the months leading up to the ‘official’ start of the campaign. Hopefully enough to allow the Spymaster to obtain his second Level 100 Job
This was Edward’s primary concern, as he was running short on time. Even if his lifespan may have been extended after he Ranked Up into an ascendant, he was already over a century old. His body and mind were both in good enough condition to allow him to remain on active duty, but his time until forced retirement and subsequent death was rapidly running out. However, once he achieved his goals and maxed out his second Job, he would be allowed to Rank Up once more. At that point, he would not only gain another Ultimate Skill but would also evolve into an immortal being that no longer had to fear the passage of time. After that, he would have literally all the time in the world to work on achieving the mythical third and final Rank Up an enlightened could attain.
Until then, however, he had to be prudent, patient, and careful.
“Now go fetch those guardsmen and tell them to drag our friend back to its cell,” he ordered. “Prepare both it and the gnome for transport back to the capital. I want them out of here by tomorrow.”