《Shovels In Spades》B1: Chapter 78: Shock and Thoughts
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Carefully driving through the city back towards where he left his group members. It was taking a while because he had to navigate through all of the debris, monster corpses and crashed cars from the past few days.
Daz remained silent as the previous Mayor of Waterford looked around nervously. From what Daz could tell, the man hadn't really seen much of the destroyed city thus far beyond the skyscrapers.
This was because the General and his men had secured most of the area immediately surrounding the Military base, making it seem at least slightly normal.
Apparently having mustered up his courage, Mayor Mathers decided to speak. "I must say, it was quite amazing how you managed to convince Greg to give you all of these things."
He looked around at the truck, seemingly trying to find the weapons with his eyes, naturally, to no avail, since they were in Daz's inventory or Heather's truck.
At seeing Daz's lack of reaction or response, his confidence was bolstered. "Naturally, I could have made him do the same. Did you know, his son was only able to work where he did thanks to my recommendations? Then what does he do when this all starts? He refuses every humble request I make! Some people really have no sense of responsibility..."
"Right," Daz replied with his lack of interest clear to see, but the Mayor apparently didn't notice and continued to complain and vent his frustrations to Daz while they weaved through the city's broken landscape.
Daz was fairly focused on driving and on trying to make sure he didn't damage the truck, so it was only now that he had an opportunity to use Higher Identification on the Mayor since they had reached a long straight road that was clear enough for him to split his focus.
Robert Mathers' Status Basic Information Name: Robert Mathers Species: Human Age: 45 Sex: Male Class: Holder of Information Affinity: Unlawful Neutral Description The Mayor of Waterford before the apocalypse. A man constantly treading the line between neutrality and evilness as he only works to benefit himself. Whenever possible, he would break the law to better solidify his power if he could get away with it. Energies Lifeforce: 2,410/2,410 Stamina: 1,000/1,000 Stats Wisdom: 10(12) Intelligence: 10(12) Charisma: 10(12)
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'Interesting...' Daz thought upon seeing the middle-aged man's status. He returned all of his attention to the road before sinking into contemplation about the details of Robert's status screen.
Only two things had Daz's attention, and they were Robert's class and his alignment. For one, he had no idea what the Mayor's class meant. What kind of weapon was it linked to? And his alignment was one that Daz had never seen before.
Previously, he thought that there were only nine different possibilities, those being; Lawful Good, Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Evil, Chaotic Evil. However, now, Daz had encountered someone with the new Unlawful prefix.
What the difference between Unlawful and Chaotic was, Daz didn't exactly know, but he was sure to find out eventually. At the very least, he was happy that the Mayor wasn't evil. From his experience, people could change their attitude quite easily, as shown by himself becoming pure neutral and with Lyle becoming pure good, but thus far, he had yet to see anyone change their base nature.
Daz's train of thoughts was rudely interrupted by a flashing grey screen that appeared in front of him.
Warning! A host has attempted to use the skill, [Lower Identification (C-Rank Higher Tier)], on your status. How much of your status, if any, would you like the reveal to the host [Robert Mathers]?
'Oh? All of it,' Daz instantly replied with no hesitation what-so-ever. He then proceeded to continue to listen to Robert while focusing fully on the road.
It took a few minutes, but Daz could see the shock on Robert's expression regardless of how hard he tried to suppress it. 'Very interesting. Well, at least now he knows that he can't go against me, that is unless he wants to die. I wonder what my description says? Then again, I have no idea how capable he is considering his skill is only C-Ranked compared to my SS-Ranked one...'
"So-so... Daz... don't you have a full first name or at least surname? I'd rather not call someone as young as yourself by a nickname," Robert said as calmly as he could. Naturally, he was scared by what he had seen on Daz's status screen, so he was being a little bit more courteous now.
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"My name is Daz. nothing more and nothing less. Please don't ask again," was Daz's cold response.
Seeing that he didn't want to talk about it, Robert took the social cue and kept quiet. To negate his growing fears, he thought about his daughter who he was supposedly being brought to and a smile couldn't help but surface on his face.
Although it took longer in the truck as opposed to walking thanks to having to avoid any debris on the roads, Daz had finally made it back to his group and the captive soldiers. Heather had already arrived and he could see her staring intently at his truck. Clearly, she was looking for signs of her sister.
As soon as the vehicle stopped, Robert calmly stepped out via the passenger side door and he was immediately hugged by his teenaged daughter.
"I'm so glad you're okay, Daddy! I was so worried you might not have been holding a weapon..." Fiona exclaimed while she cried ever so slightly.
Slowly rubbing the girl's back, Robert replied, "I'm glad you're safe too. If I remember correctly, you were with Senator Bleak's son, Matt, when this all started were you not? Where is he now? Back at the skip site, I presume?"
"Ah..that..well..he..um..." Fiona wasn't sure how to put into words what had happened. Her father was very close to the Senator and she couldn't find the right words to tell him what had happened to Matt.
Luckily or unluckily for her, Daz chose to briefly explain. "I killed that rapist gangster. To think his parents were in a political position. I guess scum is still scum, no matter where it comes from, huh?"
"Absolutely right, Daz!" Robert replied very enthusiastically, confusing everyone present. A few of the more observant people like Ger and Corporal Link had noticed how scared of Daz the Mayor seemed to be.
'Just what did he do to him to make him act like such a kiss-ass?' Ger couldn't help but think.
Daz ignored all of this and approached Heather who was patiently sitting on a chunk of debris with a slightly downcast look.
"She wasn't there, but I'm sure we'll find her, don't worry. So long as she's alive, I'll find her, I promise," Daz said with an uncommonly kind tone to his voice.
"Mmm, thanks, Lord," Heather replied. Daz's eyebrows momentarily twitched upon hearing her new way of addressing him, but he overlooked it since Lyle and Crusher both called him 'Lord', so he was gradually starting to care less and less about it.
Ger walked up to Daz and asked, "What's our relationship with Camp Waterford then? Friendly? I see you got everything from them, so did you persuade them with words or with violence?"
Ger knew what kind of person Daz was by now despite having only spent two days with the young man, and his moral compass didn't care how Daz handled the base so long as his daughters were safe.
"Neither. I blackmailed the General. He's not very happy with me, but for now, I have a noose around his neck, so they're not a threat for the foreseeable future," Daz responded before looking at Corporal Link.
"You're free to go back to the military base. I'm a man of my word," Daz stated. 'So long as it benefits me,' he added in thought.
Sighing with relief, Corporal Link and his men cautiously walked away from the group. Ellie had mixed feelings about everything that had just happened. She felt like she had just witnessed a new side of Daz's personality and she wasn't sure if she liked it. A complex look flashed through her eyes.
Jorden couldn't worship Daz anymore than he already did right now. 'That's my big bro! If I could be like that, then maybe I could have saved my parents... he has total control of the situation... I... I need to try harder!'
Lyle merely nodded his head in approval.
With all of these contrasting and varying thoughts, Daz and his group of eight people loaded up into the two trucks and headed back to Fort Skip. Thankfully, today had been a wildly successful expedition to Camp Waterford.
Daz's main regret was not getting any of the trained soldiers to join his side. He also had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind which told him that he should have handled things differently, but he chose to ignore that voice, why he did this was uncertain.
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