"Wha-!? Oh, wait...is that you, Kuro?"

Huh?

​​

I looked up at the person who had fallen on top of me...a woman, who looked familiar...

"Oh, Selesa, it's you. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm sure glad to see that you're the person I bumped into. Good thing we made sure to give each other a look at our imposter appearances, huh?" I said with a sigh of relief, getting back on my feet, "So, what are you doing, anyway? I thought I told you to wait a week before snooping around or investigating."

I get it, the reason I hadn't heard any footsteps was because she must have been using Flight to keep her feet off the ground.

"W-well, yeah...but I'm no amateur you know, I can handle myself. And...I wanted to find out about Spell Cards, they keep bringing it up, and-."

"Oh, you can stop pursuing that lead, I'm already on it. Focus on something else. Alright, now go away...it's better if we're not spotted talking to each other. Good luck, pervert."

"Right back at ya, you insufferable pig's testicle floating in a pool of elephant cum!"

...that was even more specific than usual, guess she was feeling repressed with having to play an undercover role and unable to be herself.

Alright, time for me to get back to my room. I think that's enough for today...

...

The next day, Dr Reel was given a new task...Karma research.

They were no longer doing mass human experimentations with Karma, they simply didn't have enough test subjects or expendable pawns to use. But whenever they got a handful of spare subjects, they conducted minor scale experiments. After all, the success rate may be low, but if it actually works, it would increase their firepower significantly.

This experiment had a maximum of five days, with a total of eight test subjects to work on. They were all weak, but they were alive and kept in stable enough condition. Damn it, this is pretty nasty work, but I need to keep a calm face and act normal.

"If I may be so bold, would it not be better to use test subjects that are stronger, to maximize the potential results?" I inquired curiously.

He was less condescending towards me now since I had impressed at the audition and could soon be a part of the Lapdog Elite Squad. Guess he had just been all snappy with me before because the guy I'm posing as must have been pretty incompetent as a lab assistant before I took over his appearance. And since I was performing well in that role, he had less reason to snap at me.

"I suppose it's no surprise that you don't know, the details of the mass Karma experiment that began four years ago, and ended two years ago, are only known to those who were involved. Those with low Mana capacities had a higher chance of succeeding in the experiment, of the six who succeeded in becoming Karma users, only two of them had above average Mana capacities, Sir Sicario and Lady Azeria Folix. As for the other four, Sir Presde Delou, Sir Hacte Routh, Lady Kuua Quels, and Sir Rion Xester, their abilities prior to the experiment were barely comparable to the average Student Adventurer. But maybe it was simply coincidence, after all, according to Sir Xester, the seventh Karma user, the boy from the Rustlands, also seemed to have an above average Mana capacity, which Sir Routh also confirmed to be quite likely. Quite a mystery that one, I would like to dissect him if the chance arises."

Uh...no thanks, I'm good.

Still, most of them had been that weak before? The only one I had fought before was Rion, their number six, and he had absolutely destroyed me while significantly holding back. Of course, that was before I had control over my own Karma, not to mention Vampire Mode. The main difference was that I had time limits while they were using their Karma the whole time.

"Oh, I see, I didn't know that. I heard that most of them volunteered for the experiment?"

"Yes, that is correct. Sir Sicario was a member of the Research Tier at the time, so him volunteering was a surprise, but the others were all pawns. Sir Delou and Lady Quels did not volunteer, they were simply expendable pawns that we selected at the time," He replied, picking up a syringe filled with a black liquid.

They used a certain spell to extract Dark Magic from monsters into a liquid form, and then injected it into the test subjects.

"So, from what monster type was this Dark Magic extracted from?"

"This particular batch was taken from Phoenixes. Take a syringe and inject one of the subjects bit by bit. We shall use two test subjects today, I shall inject one, you shall do the other."

I really didn't want to, but it's not like I had a choice, I can't afford to blow my cover.

"Yes, doctor."

I picked up a syringe and walked over to one of the restrained subjects, a man in his forties. He looked afraid, but his expression also had what looked like resignation in it.

I reluctantly pricked the needle into his shoulder and slowly pressed the syringe, injecting a few drops of Karma into his body. After a few seconds passed...

His eyes rolled back, his expression twisted with pain and blood streamed out of one of his nostrils, his body shuddering and spasming.

"Hm, a relatively minor adverse reaction, that's promising. Inject the same amount at half hour intervals."

"Understood."

...

Nine hours later, the man died, blood pouring out of his mouth, eyes, ears, nose and even his sweat glands. His body was shriveled up and brittle, all his organs were soup.

"How disappointing, yet another failure. Well, the subject is dead, so you may leave for the day," Said Dr Reel, injecting his test subject, a woman. She was bleeding all over, but still alive, though I doubt she would be for much longer.

"Very well, doctor," I replied, putting away the syringe and leaving the room, as he continued to experiment on the woman.

I decided to take the long way around to the exit of the building, looking for any empty labs or trying to eavesdrop in whenever possible. Something like this was pretty low risk, but as a result, was also low reward, you need luck on your side to get any meaningful results.

I wasn't expecting much success like this, but that's when I walked past Lab 24. As I glanced at it, I saw a researcher inside, closing a metal box. Right before she shut it, a familiar red glow had been emanating from inside that box...Blood Crystals? There were only two people inside this lab, the researcher and a lapdog assistant. No one else was around in this corridor right now, and it looked like they were wrapping up for the day...

I quietly backtracked out of their line of sight and further back into the hallway, pulling up my hood and changing my hairstyle, untying the ponytail and covering most of my face with my hair. As the door opened, I walked forward, pretending to be engrossed in some Karma-related notes that I had on me.

The lapdog stepped out first, followed by the researcher, who locked the door and put the key inside a pocket on the left side of her labcoat.

"Make sure to be on time tomorrow morning, is that understood? And I will not excuse sloppy work a second time, get as much rest as you can tonight, lapdog," Ordered the researcher, as they both walked in my direction.

"Y-yes, ma'am, understood."

So, that probably meant that this lab would be vacant tonight, huh...

As they neared me, I acted like I had been completely distracted by the notes in my hand, and then 'tried' to get out of the way, failing and 'accidentally' bumping into the researcher's right side, nearly knocking her down.

"Wha-!? Hey, you, lapdog! Watch where you're-!"

"Please forgive me, doctor, I was reading my notes and failed to pay attention to my surroundings. I shall accept any punishment you wish to inflict on me."

"Tch, just be more careful next time!" She snapped angrily, storming off with her lapdog assistant close on her heels.

Whew, that had been a gamble...I had noticed that the lower tier members that tended to show fear were mainly the ones that got pushed around by the upper tier members, those who act meek and obedient are often allowed to get away with more than the outspoken ones do...to put it simply, taking it upon myself to suggest punishing my own mistakes, resulting in deterring them from wanting to punish me, was a form of reverse psychology.

"That was pretty risky, but...," I mumbled to myself, smirking as I swung her key around in my index finger, "I might have just hit the fucking jackpot! Better hide this."

Yup, when I bumped into her, I made sure to pick her pocket and nab the key. I hid it inside my armor, pushed back and tied up my hair again, pulled down my hood, and calmly made my way to the exit. I passed by Lab 25, which was the only one with no glass wall in the front, and appeared to be the biggest lab in the building.

There was a slight light coming from under the door, meaning someone was probably inside. Definitely not gonna push my luck and try to sneak in. Right as I walked past it...I stopped as I heard what sounded like...a roar? It was extremely stifled and faint, coming from under the door and barely audible...were the walls of this lab soundproofed on the inside? I was pretty curious as to what was going on in there, but I can't afford to take too many risks in quick succession.

I need to keep moving. As I turned the last corner before the exit, not fully paying attention since I was wondering about what I had heard back there, two figures suddenly appeared around it. I reacted as quickly as possible to try and evade them, but couldn't avoid bumping against one of their shoulders.

Was it more researchers-...nope.

It was two Retribution Tier members. One was Rion Xester, the guy I encountered at the end of the Zombie fiasco. The other was a girl, looked around my age, a bit on the short side. She had the Retribution Tier white coat tied around her waist, the black shirt had its sleeves cut off, it was halfway unbuttoned, and she wore a black skirt with black tights underneath.

Most notably, she had a big, fluffy fox tail and perky fox ears, and both the tail and ears were two-toned. And by that, I meant that the right side her tail fur was black while the left was a normal fox-orange, with white fur on the tip, and her right fox ear had black fur while the left one had orange fur. The left side of her hair was the same shade of orange, while the right side was black.

Her hair was cut pretty short, was a little messy and untamed, and framed her face. She had a pale complexion, slender yet busty build, and her right eye pupil was raven black, while her left eye was a mix of orange and red...the top of her pupil was dark red, which faded till the bottom of her pupil was orange. The numbered ring on her finger was...the number two, meaning that she was the second ranked member of the Retribution Tier, Azeria Folix.

Oh, and she was glaring at me.

"My apologies-."

"You almost knocked me over, you little-!" She snapped, forming a fireball in her left hand.

Huh...?

"It's not black?" I blurted out in surprise before I could stop myself.

Her flames were...normal. They seemed to be strong and all, but they weren't black, they were regular orangish-yellow flames.

"Let's all chill out for a sec! You got some real anger issues, Azzy!" Rion intervened with a grin, slapping her on the back and almost knocking her off her feet.

"Wha-!? How long have you been there, Xester!?"

"You're so serious, you can call me by my first name, you know. And...I've been walking next to you for like...half an hour? I was even talking to you, though you didn't respond...I just thought that you were ignoring me as usual, but...you didn't even notice me?"

"...are you serious? I'm...I'm kinda creeped out by that, you were following me for that long?"

"H-hey, you can't call me creepy just because you were lost in your own lil world!"

Huh, they seemed to forgotten about me. Maybe I could sneak away...

"And where do you think you're going, lapdog?" She growled, grabbing onto my shoulder right as a slipped past them.

Damn it, I almost got away too.

"O-oh, uh...I simply did not wish to be a third wheel, Lady Folix, and I thought it would be best if I left you two alone," I replied, a bit shakily...crap, that was bad, I'll have to take a risk, "It appears as though I've offended you, ma'am, I shall humbly accept any punishment that you-."

"Ugh, these fucking spineless lapdogs...get out of my sight, you insignificant little shit," She growled, tossing a fireball at me.

"As you wish," I replied, narrowly avoiding the flames and hurrying towards the exit.

I made it back into the Lapdog Tier area and let out a sigh of relief. I then began making my way to my room, eager to get back and relax. Man, that was stressful...but more importantly, I had successfully nabbed a lab key.

...

That night, around midnight, I snuck out of my room, leaving my robes behind. They were too easy to spot in the dark, I'd have way too much trouble sneaking around. I first slowly cracked open the door of the small attached room, made sure that Clari was asleep, shut it, and then snuck out.

There weren't many people around outside right now, and plenty of shadows for me to walk along. I did feel a bit exposed since I didn't have an all-black outfit right now, but there was nothing I could do about that.

I then got to the gate leading into the Research Tier area, two guards were posted in front of it as usual. They both looked sleepy and weren't paying attention, plus there was no one else around. This should be easy, they were both seated on chairs.

I snuck behind the first one and knocked him out, and then moved towards the other one, after making sure the first one wouldn't slump forward. I then slipped behind the second one, who was absent-mindedly staring up at the moon, and knocked him out swiftly.

Good, neither of them had noticed me before I knocked them out, so they would probably just assume that they'd dozed off. I quietly opened the gate and snuck in, closing it but not fully, leaving it open just a tiny crack so that I'd be able to peer out and see if they were still knocked out after I'm done.

The gate opened directly into the research building, and it was relatively empty right now compared to during the day, but it was still most certainly occupied. I softened my footsteps and made my way through the building as silently as I could, crawling on the ground whenever I passed by an occupied lab, since otherwise they'd be able to see me. An invisibility barrier would have been handy right about now.

I tried out the key on a couple of the other lab doors, in the hope that maybe they used a common key across all the labs...but of course, that turned out to be overly wishful thinking on my part.

Since I had to move silently and stealthily, my pace was pretty slow, it took me over half an hour to get to Lab 24. Once I finally arrived, I took out the key and unlocked it after making sure no one was around.

I entered the room and quietly shut the door, before drawing the curtains shut. I then activated the Light Crystal in the room, there was a sheet in the room, I used it to cover the crystal so that the light would be dimmed a bit. Alright, time to get to work.

Unlike the last lab I investigated, this one wasn't empty, in fact, it was kinda stuffy in here. There were shelves filled with notes, a few metal boxes, a couple of desks overflowing with papers...this could take a while.

I first inspected the metal boxes, they weren't locked, so I opened them...shards of Blood Crystal. There were also a few Spell Cards, probably to trigger the explosions. I decided to take one of the activation cards, it might come in handy, not to mention that if I take one of these back with me, we would have a reference to follow for the remote activation feature.

I then walked over to the desks and began skimming through the notes and papers on them as fast as I could without messing up my efficiency. Most of it was trivial gibberish, but there were some useful information among them.

The maximum range of the remote activation for the activation spell was a hundred meters, nothing would happen if it was out of that range. Interesting.

After going through a heap of useless information, I finally came across more information that was actually useful, inside one of the overflowing drawers. It detailed the creation of Blood Crystals. It was a process that took several decades to complete, involving collecting thousands upon thousands of humans, and then extracting all their blood and Mana using an enclosed barrier spell known as a Blood Barrier.

Usually, when a person dies, their Mana slowly dissipates into the air, but this barrier prevents that, trapping a large pool of blood along with an enormous amount of Mana, and the trapped Mana crystallizes the mass of blood over time, which ranges in the several decades, depending on the number of people sacrificed and the size of the barrier. The batch of Blood Crystals that were used in Goldway took over eighty years to crystallize, and they had used up nearly all of it.

They still had a few shards left, but it was nowhere near enough to take out a whole country like before. And better yet, they currently had no active Blood Barriers, they didn't have even close to the amount of required sacrifices to do so. They were in the process of gathering Platinberg's peasant population for that purpose, but they hadn't begun yet, and considering that it would take several decades to complete, it wasn't an immediate concern.

Alright, I think that's enough for tonight. I've skimmed through most of the notes here, there were still a couple of drawers that I hadn't gone through, but I had already been in this lab for over an hour, better not push my luck.

I made sure to put everything back the way it was, took the sheet off the Light Crystal and deactivated it, before pulling the curtains aside and opening the door, locking it behind me. Hm, what should I do with the key?

Oh, I'll just drop it around the spot where I bumped into the researcher who had been working in this lab, that works.

Now, then, time to sneak out.

It took me a while to make my way to the exit, but I managed to do so without any problems. The gates were as I left them, and the guards were still passed out. I slowly opened the gate and slipped out, shutting it behind me as I did.

I then went to my room, having no trouble staying out of sight.

Well, that was a productive night, and I was now five days into this imposter act. Now, then...it's time to get some sleep...

_____________________________________________

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