Polymath Redux

Chapter 19//Explaining the Trick

Mordred stood upon a field of flowers littered by the deceased bodies of the knights he had summoned. However, nothing was dead- not truly; the grotesque splashes of crimson blood were not truly blood but plain black ooze, and the bodies were not corpses but carved wooden dolls dressed in steel-plate armour. With a click of his fingers the illusion was lifted. ‘Wooden Legion’, an intermediate-tier Puppeteer skill that did exactly as the name implied and summoned a small army of wooden soldiers. It wasn’t known to be powerful and was utilized mainly by low-level Puppeteer mains to soak up damage. Even still, Mordred limited the power output of these puppets to make sure the experimental samples wouldn’t die, but he had underestimated his own ability to handicap himself.

“Hmm, so that’s how you use Bard skills?” asked Morialia as she floated about her master like a fish swimming in water, and her long black hair fluttered behind like the fins of one too. When it was just the two of them she had let out her more demonic traits as keeping them suppressed all the time took more effort. ‘Walking tires me out,’ she also added. Her single obsidian horn that stuck out on the left side of her forehead also glimmered through the lights piercing the canopy of the forest like a blackened diamond.

“It’s one way to use it anyway,” Mordred replied to her question.

In the game, Bard skills were fancily referred to as ‘pieces’- as in the musical sort- and the song he had used just now was a Master-tier piece known as ‘See what I want you to see’. All targets within the song’s effective range were placed under a powerful hallucinatory trap. In the game this effect was portrayed in the form of bombarding the enemy player with ‘phantom targets’, which were illusions that existed only to the targeted player’s computer screen. On top of that, the secondary effect was a massive reduction of -50% to all stats temporarily. Things worked slightly different in reality than it did in the game, and with the helpful aid of unsuspecting villagers Mordred learnt he had a lot more freedom in how subtly he could influence his victims. The game had limitations for obvious reasons, but with some imagination he could make the afflicted targets see things slightly differently from reality, and he could hold back on the -50% stat penalty too. In this way, he had made Marianne, Graham and Ann believe these wooden dolls were Knights from the Baliazoural Empire.

“Still, it was quite the unexpected harvest,” Morialia commented. “Or perhaps you planned everything out knowing this would happen?”

“Did I know she would regain all her memories at that moment? No,” he shook his head with a dry laugh. “Even I couldn’t have known that would happen. I merely figured awakening her Ego Weapon would lead to something interesting. In the event she didn’t recover her memories I would’ve still seen what Ego Weapons from this world were capable of. Either way, I had something to gain.”

“Is that so? I’ll admit though, it was an enjoyable sight. Especially that girl: ‘Marianne’. She was a lot more capable than I originally gave credit for,” Morialia praised with a mischievous chuckle draped in an ominous undertone. “Give her a few hundred years with proper guidance and she might even become a serious contender for the position of my own lieutenant.” The Demon Lord’s ‘Lieutenants’; there were typically four of them; powerful individuals that directed the Demon Lord’s army. In the game they served as the final bosses of their own respective Raid Dungeons and were actually difficult if the player didn’t know what they were doing. At the very least, Mordred understood she didn’t say such praises lightly.

“Do you want her?” asked Mordred. It was regrettable that it’d take a few hundred years to train her up to that level, but it could serve as an interesting experiment for the long term. Unfortunately, there was the problem of her lifespan. Mordred and Morialia could probably last almost indefinitely provided that they aren’t killed by anything else, but Marianne was a normal Human. At the current time he had no real way of making someone immortal or lengthening their life. Still, he could ‘try’.

Morialia leaned her face closer, “if I said ‘yes’, would you?”

“Come now, I thought you knew me better than that,” Mordred retorted with a mocking scoff. “I wouldn’t just give her to you; no. I’d fabricate a situation where she would have no other choice but to accept you.”

“Specifically?”

“I could wipe out the village and pin the blame on some powerful foe. In that situation, if she wanted revenge, she would have to take your hand to become stronger. Of course, this is just a thought exercise and there are countless other methods to force her.”

“You know, you’re quite scary.”

“This, coming from the Demon Lord who took over half of our previous world?”

“Yeah, but like, that’s because I’m the Demon Lord. Aren’t you supposed to be a Hero or something?”

“Hero? I wonder...” Mordred shook his head. “Still, she used ‘Interesting’ skills,” he commented as he shifted topics. “Enhance Strength, Enhance Defence and Blade Sharpen.” Such skills never existed in the game, but there was a skill with similar effects, or rather a skill with all their effects in one: the Elementary-tier Knight skill known as ‘Combat Stance’. Its effect was enhancing strength, defence, evasion rate, movement speed, attack speed, weapon damage, critical hit damage, and critical rate. Actually, as the Knight class advanced through the skill tree, ‘Combat Stance’ also improved and would grant massive buffs at the end. An endgame Grandmaster-tier ‘Combat Stance’ was truly a disgustingly overpowered buff. In any case, enhancing only one aspect each while continuously consuming mana seemed exceedingly inefficient. If it was to be placed in a tier it would most likely be sub-elementary-tier.

“Hah? I don’t know what you find interesting about such crappy skills,” Morialia shrugged. “More importantly, aren’t you glad your original experiment succeeded? That boy managed to use Flare Acid. It seems skills can be taught to people of this world too.”

“Right, which also means it wasn’t just my imagination when Ann used ‘Assassinate’. Moreover, her Ego Weapon granted the use of ‘Double Assassinate’, and it works exactly the same as it did in our world,” he sounded rather excited as he said so. No surprise, ‘Assassin’ was Mordred’s personal favourite class. Since an Ego Weapon’s special abilities are unique to each weapon, this was a skill that even he did not possess. The gamer part of him was a little jealous, but for the most part he never allowed these emotions to get the better of him. If he acted on his jealousy every time another player with a different Ego Weapon used their special abilities, there’d be no end to it.

That said, he still did want to see what Double Assassinate was capable of. In the game it did as its name implied and doubled the damage of Assassinate, which was an extraordinary buff to that skill. ‘Does it work the same here?’ he wondered. He couldn’t come to a conclusion seeing it only once and used in conjunction with such an incomplete Assassinate, but there was no reason to doubt that it did now that it was known the people in this world could also use the game’s abilities.

“Hey, it’s great that you’re enjoying yourself, but shouldn’t we be getting back to the clinic?” Morialia asked noticing her master lost in deep contemplation. “If we’re not there by the time that girl brings the two wounded, she’d get suspicious.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Mordred agreed. “Let’s return.”

*

*

*

A few hours had passed since Ann- now ‘Petra’- had brought the grievously wounded Marianne and Graham to the clinic for emergency treatment. With the sun now sitting upon an orange sky, the mood at the garrison had similarly mellowed down. That said, while their friends and fellow soldiers were all waiting with bated breaths for the ‘doctor’ to pull a miracle, Mordred and Morialia had been setting around sipping tea. This was because he had already healed them back to full condition the moment their dying bodies were brought into the clinic but he had to at least give off the impression he was working desperately to save them. Therefore, he had the two put to sleep while he staved off time.

“How much longer do we have to stay put?” asked a bored Morialia. As always, she rolled around on the clinic’s bed while stuffing her face with the cookies she had received from the villagers. She let out a lengthy sigh as even these sweets weren’t doing much for her anymore, though she still continued to eat them.

Mordred peered out from the window of the second floor. “I guess this was long enough,” he replied in a tone reminiscent of someone waiting for a cake to finish baking in the oven. He walked over and observed the two figures deeply asleep on the clinic’s beds. He was even kind enough to patch up Marianne’s left arm- on a whim.

Feeling that enough time had been wasted he retreated down to the first floor where eager eyes were waiting for good news. Particularly Captain August stood tall in his large frame but face filled with anxiety like a high school girl before her crush. “Doctor!” he called out. “How are they?”

Mordred pretended to let out a relieved sigh and smiled, “they’ll be just fine. With a bit of rest they should be able to return to duty in a few days,” he reported.

A long, drawn-out sigh of relief escaped from the collective throats of all those that were waiting.

“Thank goodness,” said some members of the garrison.

“I knew the doctor would pull through for us!” another shouted.

“Graham that bastard, I bet he did this because he wanted to skip out on practice,” another joked. There were mixed filling going around, but all of them were glad that they didn’t have to bury their colleagues.

“It was a good thing you brought them back in time,” Mordred told Petra. “Any longer and it was starting to look very grim.”

However, Petra shook her head with a guilty expression. “No, if I had focused on regaining my memories before that, then none of this would’ve happened.”

“Don’t beat yourself up like that,” August interjected as he placed his hand over her shoulders. “There’s no way you could’ve known when your memories would return. Frankly, if it was up to me I’d award you a damn medal. But dammit,” the captain cursed, “to think the Empire’s knights have already infiltrated this far into the country. Just how the hell did they get past the eastern borders?”

“I’m not sure, but you should quickly send a word to the capital about that,” Mordred advised.

“I’ve already sent a letter to them.”

“All we can hope for is they’ll take this seriously.”

“Yeah, but anyway, thank you for everything doctor,” August once more expressed his gratitude.

“I was merely doing my duty. As it is yours to protect the citizens, it is mine to help the wounded and sick. Let us hope we can continue to do so for a very long time.”

“Agreed.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Mordred said to change the topic and turned to Petra. “Ann... I mean, Petra, since you’ve recovered from your amnesia I want to take another look at you. I need to make sure that everything is fine, so when you have the time please come see me.”

“Actually, about that, doctor,” Petra voiced hesitantly. “I’m grateful for all you’ve done for me, but it seems I don’t have the leisure to stay in this village anymore. As soon as I can, I need to return to the capital.”

“Hmm, well I suppose that shouldn’t be too much of a problem considering what you accomplished today. But still, there is a few things I wish to ask you, so could you spare time?”

“Then, if it’s acceptable, I can answer whatever questions you have right now,” Petra offered.

Mordred thought for a second and agreed. “Yes, okay, we can do it right now. Then, please follow me.”

*

*

*

Once night had fallen, Petra took advantage of the darkness to return. Perhaps it was her instincts as an Assassin that preferred such ungodly hours to operate in, but it was a good thing that there were fewer eyes on her. The only people to see her off were Mordred and Morialia.

“Truly, I cannot thank you enough, doctor,” said Petra. “But was answering your questions enough? I told you everything they permitted me to say, but I feel like I owe you a lot more for everything you’ve done.”

“I’m happy you feel that way, but I’m quite satisfied,” Mordred responded with an easy smile. Most of the information he had received previously from the garrison soldiers or the villagers were unreliable at best. Perhaps this was to be expected as they were merely soldiers serving at a distant border village, but it was honestly a letdown. Thus, it had been such a boon to receive such detailed information from a person who had seen the situation with her own eyes. Most of the information he had gotten from Petra may have been public knowledge, but it was enough to draw certain conclusions and formulate plans.

“I’ll probably know when you arrive at the capital, so when that time comes I’ll show you around.”

“Yes, that would be much appreciated.”

With their brief farewells said, Petra walked over to a wide, open area and stretched out her arm. Suddenly a large, dark grey horse emerged from her shadows. It stood almost two-and-a-half metres tall with ghastly red eyes glimmering through the darkness of the night. It stared down at Mordred, examining him closely before backing off docilely. Perhaps it had understood on an instinctual level that he was not an opponent that it could afford to mess with and expect to live.

“How strange, Gaunt-steeds are usually typically aggressive to strangers,” Petra commented.

“Gaunt-steeds? Is it an undead?”

“Yes, they’re exceptionally hard to tame but worth all the effort. They’re much faster than the average horse and don’t require any rest,” she explained as she patted its head. “Well then, doctor, Morialia, once again thank you for everything. I hope to see you at the capital soon.” With those parting words she disappeared into the night with furious gallops.

“I’m surprised you easily let her go,” Morialia noted in a bemused tone.

“Killing someone so close to the First Prince would be rather inconvenient. Not only that, but she has good will towards me and that can later be exploited. There’s no need to rush things in that regard. The problem is with the state of this country; it’s in a much worse condition that I anticipated,” he let out a small, frustrated sigh. “That said, the First Prince seems capable of handling it for a little longer, at least until my end of the board is set.”

“You Humans sure love politics, huh?”

“I do quite enjoy the nuance of the game,” Mordred commented with a sinister laughter. “More importantly, how do you feel about fulfilling your role as the Demon Lord?”