《Enlightened Violence》Chapter 47: Hendrick's Demise
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With Energy Predator out of the way, I might as well check my other gains from the games while I have some free time on my hand.
'I should start with what I gained from killing the Deterrent.'
[Contempt For The Weak: Your contempt for those weaker than you manifests as an unbreakable armor that shields you from the attacks of those at least an entire grade lower than you 24/7]
I couldn't help chuckling at the irony of this perk as I carefully read its information. I suppose it's somewhat fitting that I would receive such a perk as a reward for killing someone countless times more powerful than myself.
At least this way, I would avoid getting killed by some weakling when I'm injured, which happened to Clay Warner, with the said weakling being me, so the irony wasn't lost on me.
Still, I was getting used to this whole kill or be killed mentality more quickly than I'm comfortable with, but I suppose I should consider that as an advantage instead of complaining about it.
Clay Warner was humanity's guardian, a man who did more for the human race than anyone else, and what was the first thing I thought of when I saw him dying? Damn, that's a ton of EXP, just sitting there and waiting for me to reach out and grab it!
I didn't think about helping him. I didn't consider the greater good, merely seeing an opportunity that I went for with no hesitation.
I don't regret what I did, but I can't help thinking about what-ifs, you know? I've always been one to overthink things too much for my own good, even in my past life, and Intuitive Aptitude wasn't helping in that regard, but I digress...,
[Chaos Aura: inflicts random harmful effects when in contact with all creatures, notably damaging if used against creatures of order]
This new ability was somewhat bewildering, especially since Bloodsport unlocked it after absorbing blood from the Deterrent.
Archdemon bloodline, I wonder what the hell that is? And how humanity's hero has some demonic lineage? Not to mention the fact demons actually exist, something I didn't know about beforehand.
And don't even get me started on the creatures of order gibberish. What the hell is that, anyway? Am I playing DND or something?
'I should stop thinking about this nonsense before my overthinking nature goes into hyper-drive.' I shook my head and took out the fang I received after killing that talking snake.
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[Viper King's Fang: A fang with the ability to produce King Venom, as long as you provide it with energy]
Not terribly useful, but I can analyze the venom to produce something similar with my aura and maybe pass it on as a reward later or something.
Now all that's left is to check on the teleportation device and hard light projectors.
[Hard Light Projector (Broken): A device capable of physically projecting light through absorbing natural and artificial light and changing its properties]
[Teleporter (Broken): A device capable of moving solid mass from one area to another in a certain radius by manipulating the density of the space around the target and the desired teleportation location]
The devices are obviously broken as I had dismantled the teleporter myself, and that Technophile guy from the OWR seemed to have done a number on the light projectors.
Still, I should be able to dismantle them and fix them quickly enough by using Intuitive Aptitude, but there is no use in doing that right now, so I'll postpone for later when I have a base of operations.
"That should be all," I lazily murmured, yawning. "Might as well get some shut-eye, while I have the chance..,"
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" I sighed, cursing as I heard a knock on my door's room with my frown. However, my frown eased into a smile as I figured who was knocking after reading their aura.
"Come in," I said, still smiling as little Billy opened the door and walked inside, with the usual goofy smile he wore still on his face.
"Kaden!" Billy exclaimed with a happy grin, causing my smile to become more pronounced.
"What's up, big guy?" I asked as I gestured for Billy to take a seat. "Do you need something?" I added, nodding at the big guy as he took a seat.
"No, Billy doesn't need anything, but...," he hesitantly replied, trailing at the end of his sentence. "Billy remembers when Kaden brought Billy a gift, so...," he added, still hesitant as he retrieved the toy train I gifted him back in the undead city.
"Billy brought Kaden a gift this time!" he exclaimed, his eagerness taking over his hesitation.
"Oh, let's see it then," I remarked with a smile, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
"Here it is!" Billy said with a broad grin as he took out a transparent red sphere with a gold coin inside it. "Billy found the shiny ball after he went out of the big house when the big booms started happening," he added, passing the sphere to me.
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I looked at the sphere and immediately felt two familiar energy signatures, one parent with the other seemingly suppressed, and smiled despite my urge to frown. "Oh, how pretty," I remarked with a smile as I took the sphere from Billy's hand.
"I like it, thanks," I said with an appreciative nod, much to little Billy's joy as he, too, nodded in satisfaction and left without saying anything else.
I watched Billy leave, closing the door behind, and let out the sigh I've been holding back. "This thing has both the game master and the Deterrent's energy in it," I murmured as I immediately stored it in my inventory.
[Hendrick's demise (Sealed): No information available due to being sealed]
'Who the hell is Hendrick?' That was the first thought in my head as I read the information about the sealed golden coin.
'I don't even have the energy to be thinking about this right now.' Shaking my head, I decided that resting takes priority right now, and so I threw myself into the single bed in my room, intending to procrastinate and leave it to my future self to figure out.
...
I felt a refreshing breeze hitting my face and opened my eyes, finding myself standing on the prow of a pirate ship, sailing the sea with two other vassals escorting it.
I frowned in confusion, or at least I tried, but my face muscles did not move as I continued to stare at the horizon, seeing nothing but blue.
I then tried to move, finally giving up as I could not move a muscle again.
'The hell is going on? Is this a dream?'
"The colonists are growing restless, captain Hendrick!" Came a voice from behind me, and my body moved on its own to look at the man, wearing sailor clothes.
"Guyana is still far off, and we're barely nearing the shores of Cuba," the sailor reported in a distressed tone. "At this rate, the colonists are bound to start getting ideas. What should we do?" he asked, pausing as he waited for instructions.
"Those shit-eating land huggers from the Dutch West India Company are only paying us to get these colonists to Guyana," I replied in an anxious voice that wasn't my own, speaking words I did choose.
"So it won't matter if some of'em are missing a limb or two by the time we get there," I remarked with a loud laugh, causing the sailor to smirk, showcasing his yellow teeth as he turned around, heading for the lower deck.
I, no, Hendrick shook his head in amusement at his sailor's eagerness to torture the poor bastards and resumed staring into the horizon, carelessly humming a sea shanty as screams of agony came from the ship's lower deck.
...
An entire week had passed since I found myself in this strange place, only able to think as I watched the world through captain Hendrick's eyes.
And the time passed surprisingly quickly as Hendrick continued to oversee his crew and the colonists they were transporting.
And although some of the colonists and even some of Hendrick's crew tried to start a mutiny against him, they didn't amount to much as most of the ship's crew were avid supporters of Hendrick.
He quickly put down the rebelling crew members and brutally punished the conspiring colonists the same day they wanted to act, as he already knew about their attempted mutiny, but I digress.
"There two unknown ships ahead of, captain!" exclaimed one of the pirates from the top of the crow's nest.
"Oho," Hendrick intoned as he retrieved a spyglass from his coat's inner pocket, extending it and looking through it.
"A two-ship Honduran treasure fleet!" Hendrick exclaimed with an excited grin, causing all pirates to stop in their tracks. "To battle stations, lads!" Hendrick instructed while gesturing with his hand, causing all pirates to move friendly all over the ship.
"A pie has fallen from the sky right into our lab, Lads," Hendrick exclaimed with a grin. "And it'll be rude of us not to snatch it!" he added, grinning even more broadly as the pirates began cheering while retrieving their weapons and preparing the cannons.
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