Aw shiii… I forgot I’m afraid of falling. Cain walked out of the portal and onto the magic circle that served as his footing. He looked down and got slightly dizzy, thus plopping down on the circle. He edited its properties to ignore Athena so that she (the bow) would go through the magic circle unhindered. This allowed Cain to sit with both knees slightly bent and his chest against his thighs comfortably.

—Group chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (68ms)

Rex: …how can you forget you’re afraid of heights?

Cain: Afraid of heights and falling are two different things. The former would still be scared on a plane while the latter wouldn't (unless it's crashing.)

Dresil: Well… if the plane is crashing then everyone would be scared.

Cain: Good point.

Bob: …are you sure you’re scared? There’s not even the slightest trace of fear or even adrenaline in your brain.

Cain: Ye, I learned how to turn those off once I learned spiders detect prey through body heat. Idek if this is right or not, but I’m not taking any chances.

Cain: Since fear and adrenaline would raise my body heat slightly, I just disabled them so it wouldn’t come closer.

Cain: But I still couldn’t go even a meter near the boi and occasionally my heart rate would still increase.

Rex: …yep. There is no possibly way he’s human. I’m not buying it for a second.

Rex: It may be getting repetitive, but do you blame me? How can someone just turn off an emotion like that?!

Cain: :shrug:

Rex: Oh, also. What did you mean by that maid thing earlier? I’m not smart enough to know.

Dresil: Ooh, self-aware today, aren’t we?

Bob: :popcorn:

Cain: I don’t have the connections nor the time to be hiring maids to take care of the lord’s estate so I just left it up to the nobles.

Cain: They will, without a doubt, select maids to send me that are spies. This way they get some peace of mind by keeping an eye on me.

Cain: All I need to do is convert their spies or just make them forget everything about me when they go to report it.

Bob: Interesting… Will you be able to figure out how to do that last part in 3 months?

Cain: Meh, should be enough time.

Dresil: …knowing him, he will probably do it a few days before the maids come.

Rex: It’s not a “due” date, but a “do” date.

Cain: :my_man:

Dresil: :sigh: Men…

Bob: :sigh: Children…

--------------------------

Cain laughed slightly while staring down at the territory. It really is impoverished. There’s not even an outer wall and the residential houses are made of mud and thatch. Oh… this is going to be troublesome. Cain stared at an extravagant and well-maintained building with a wall surrounding it. The poorly built residential houses littered the plots of land outside the wall. This setup was common amongst dictators or poor leaders who centralized the wealth of the land. In other words, greedy lords.

Cain sighed while eyeing what was presumed to be the lord’s mansion. Although it was more akin to a mini-castle. No time like the present I guess. On the bright side: demi-humans. A smirk appeared across his face as he thought the last line. Cain eyed the mini-castle in the distance and did some rough calculations.

—Dms: Cain and Bob— (8ms)

Cain: Can you teleport to areas that I see?

Bob: I can.

Cain: Sweet, I need a portal at the entrance to the inner castle area.

Bob: Understood.

Bob: SRI can do the same too.

Cain: Meh… too lazy to program that right now.

Bob: :shrug:

--------------------------

A portal appeared in front of Cain, on top of the magic circle floor. Cain stood up and walked through it, greeted by guards who pointed their weapons at Cain. He continued walking forward despite their yelling and provocations. When Cain was in range of their weapons, they lashed out with their spears and swords. Cain swiftly took a step forward, appearing behind the guards and chopped their necks.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (25ms)

Rex: …wasn’t that a bit overboard?

Cain: Meh, they committed crimes no human should ever commit.

Rex: …just what exactly did they do?

Cain: Demi-human trafficking, torture, and just about everything else you can imagine.

Cain: One of them even cut the ears off a demi-human child and laughed as they screamed.

Rex:

Dresil:

Rex: Damn…

Cain: Dresil, examine their physical condition and lmk if I need to use more or less force when trying to make someone unconscious with a chop.

Dresil: I don’t think that it’s actually possible to do that. Even if it is, it’s not very reliable.

Cain: Oh… so they must be dead then.

Dresil: That or in a coma

Cain: Noted. You guys can do whatever with them.

--------------------------

Cain continued to walk towards the gates while Rex instantly lit both of the guards bodies on fire, one of which wasn’t knocked out or dead, but merely stunned from the chop. This guard started screaming in pain while being burnt. Rex slowed down the speed at which he was burning, savoring the sounds of this criminal's punishment. Cain paid no mind to it and continued walking as if nothing was happening behind him.

Any guard that came up to Cain instantly fell before him unconscious. Every time someone tried to stop him, he would cut their nerves so they could not move anything below their neck. Some guards fell on their knives or even another guard’s sword. Regardless, Cain kept walking with an eerily cold look.

Cain entered the main lobby area and stopped momentarily. He sent out a pulse of mana that encompassed the entire estate. This pulse was then turned into a disguised magic circle and was used as an extension of Cain’s mana zone. It tagged every living being within the mini-castle and also allowed Cain to perceive every room within the building.

Thus Cain started his beeline towards the lord’s office, where he currently resided in. Each time a maid or guard went up to him, they fell to the floor unconscious. A few minutes passed until Cain reached the doors that led to the office. He pushed them forward and saw an obese middle-aged man with a maid on his lap working on papers.

Both of them instantly lost consciousness, the maid’s head slamming into the desk. Cain walked past the desk, stopping in front of the bookshelf that made up the back wall. There’s some interesting books here. It’s a pity they’re just collecting dust though. Cain ran his fingers along the spines of some books to clear the dust and read their titles.

—Dms: Cain and Bob— (3ms)

Cain: Can you store all of these books in a separate dimension?

Bob: Understood.

--------------------------

Bob emptied out all of the books on the wall, except for one that triggered a secret passageway that split into a torture hall and an escape route. Thankfully there was no victim within the hall. Cain created a temporary task on the magic circle underneath the previous lord’s estate to make everyone except the prisoner underneath the castle unconscious. He then briefly scanned everyone’s memories.

—Dms: Cain and Bob— (13ms)

Cain: Can you deposit all of these people in the throne room?

Bob: All of them?

Cain: Yep. Ironically, the most innocent one is the prisoner.

Bob: Dang… Can’t SRI do this as well though?

Cain: Yep, but not with multiple targets like this. I still need to smooth out the program that automatically adjusts the size of the portal to the target’s specs.

Cain: On normal people, they may have lost a few arm hairs, but with this fatty, he could possibly lose half of his arm.

Bob: Understood.

--------------------------

—Dms: Cain and Rex— (10ms)

Cain: Want to try something cool?

Rex: Oooh, sure.

Cain: Write the message “Get rid of these people for they have committed inhuman crimes. I’ll owe the king one favor as thanks.” in fire after Bob teleports them.

Cain: Don’t forget to put my symbol at the end and you can flare up the message however you want.

Rex: ohohohoh. Hell yeah.

--------------------------

Now that the trash is being taken out, let’s see why this person got locked up. Cain left the office as Bob teleported every staff member to the throne room. He wandered around the castle for a few minutes, looking for the entrance to the prison. ...How the heck did I still manage to get lost even though I have my mana zone here… Cain circled back a few times but only made himself more confused.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob and Rex— (15ms)

Rex: How the hell did you manage to get lost?

Cain: Idek…

Cain: I managed to get lost in Walmart once while circling the section I was looking for…

Rex: :wtf:

Cain: Are the tasks done?

Rex: Yep.

Bob: Indeed.

Cain: Dresil, what was their reaction?

Dresil: Surprise, shock, the usual.

Dresil: They decided to torture them for a few days then execute them.

Cain: Sweet.

--------------------------

—SRI— (442ms)

Cain: Teleport me to the prison beneath this castle.

SRI: Searching for the location…

SRI: Location found (101ms)

SRI: Processing request…

SRI: Request processed (300ms)

SRI: Performing request…

SRI: Request performed (39ms)

--------------------------

A portal appeared at Cain’s waist then revolved around him, forcibly teleporting him to the prison. Cain used this method to prevent the difference in light levels alerting the prisoner of his appearance. Since a portal connects two points in space, it is possible to see where a portal is connected to by looking through it. Likewise, if a bright spot is connected to a cave, the cave will be flooded with light.

Cain drifted along the floors of the dank prison, his steps hardly making any sound. He picked up a fallen guard hat and leftover spear and continued to walk towards the prisoner’s cell. Dresil changed the appearance of Cain’s uniform to match that of the guards that were stationed here. Roughly half a minute of walking occurred until Cain could hear the prisoner’s voice echo off the walls.

“Hello? What’s happening out there? Anyoooooneee?” A soft, alluring female voice called out to the darkness of the prison. Cain walked up to the cells and tapped the bars of the prison with the spear. “It’s just the boys having a minor scuffle. Nothing knew.” Cain said to the female demi-human who sat on the straw within the cell.

The two eyed each other for a moment until Cain turned away and leaned his back against the wall next to the bars. A fox girl? She’s pretty, but I’m more interested in her species’ evolutionary tree… Cain marked her species as “Fox Demi-human” within the tag storage database then created a new folder named “Demi-human.” The fox girl stared suspiciously at the guard, not letting her guard down for a moment.

“So, what are you in for?” Cain broke the awkward silence with his question. “Didn’t your buddies tell you?” The fox demi-human snarled back at him, constantly shifting her position to find a moment to break free from the cell. “Nah, I just came back from leave yesterday. Those guys don’t do anything apart from cheating on their wives and gambling so why would they tell someone like me?” Cain replied, flawlessly making it appear like he was an actual guard stationed here for a while.

“I see… I tried to assassinate the lord yesterday by disguising myself as a maid here.” The demi-human replied while trying to look at Cain to read his reaction. “That asshole? It’s a shame you failed. Why did you fail though?” Cain turned around to face the bars, kneeling down to be at eye level with the fox demi-human.

“And why should I tell you?” She stared into Cain’s eyes as she growled her reply. “C’mon, it’s just the two of us here. We have to pass the time somehow.” Cain stared back into her amethyst eyes. The fox demi-human relaxed a little as she thought over what Cain said. After a moment or two, she sat somewhat comfortably and began her tale.

“I disguised myself as a new maid using my illusion magic and smoothly infiltrated the crew. I waited for roughly a week until I was able to trick the lord into calling me into his bedchambers. He laid helplessly on his bed, captivated by my illusions. I took out the knife I hid in my corset and stabbed his neck.

“There was just too much damn fat and the knife was too small to pierce any arteries, so he screamed for help and I got caught.” The demi-human finished her tale while stroking one of her tails and making it appear she was the one who was wronged.

“...You suck at telling stories. And that’s also the dumbest way to get caught.” Cain replied shortly after. The fox whimpered slightly, “How mean…” Cain just kneeled there wondering what to do with her. After a bit he sighed and asked her, “What’s your name?” The fox momentarily paused her strokes and looked up at Cain.

Did I finally rope him in? I don’t know though… something seems off. She thought to herself while thinking of a fake name. “I’m Aubert.” Cain looked at her as if she were a dumb child. “You suck at coming up with fake names too. What’s your actual name?” The fox was momentarily stunned that Cain saw through her lie. “...Aurora” She hesitated while speaking, trying to figure out Cain’s motives.

Cain tossed his spear and hat off to the side; Dresil changed his clothes to how they were before. The fox stared in awe during his transformation. “I’m Cain, and the new owner of this land.” He said while tossing her the official documents he received earlier. Aurora quickly skimmed through the papers then stared at him in disbelief.

“So… what are you going to do with me?” She spoke up after thoroughly reading the document once more. “That depends. Will you serve me as an aid? I won’t be here for around three months so I need someone to make sure the village heads don’t do anything they’re not supposed to.” Cain replied while using SRI to shift the coordinates of the document from her hands to his.

“You know about the village heads?” She asked, confused as to how this stranger who just came to this land knew about them. “I assumed they existed, you told me that they did.” Aurora sat there and shifted her dumbfounded gaze to the floor, questioning as to why this human is more cunning than a fox.

“What about the other territory that was mentioned in that?” She asked once she recovered from her stupor. “I’ll just leave them be on their own for a few months then take over.” Cain replied, not really concerned with the extra land. “...you know that’s going to cause problems right?” Aurora asked cautiously, trying to gauge whether Cain has abilities or he’s just stupid.

“More than the conflict and discrimination that’ll occur if I forcibly combined a human and a demi-human territory right now?” Cain countered. She nodded her head, mumbling “Fair point.” “So, I just need to make sure this territory doesn’t fail?” Aurora once again confirms the position Cain wants her to take. He simply nodded then waited for her response. A short moment passed as Aurora was thinking over the proposal until she affirmed, “I’ll do it.”

Cain tapped on the bars with his hand, converting them to mana milliseconds after. He then walked away, leaving the dumbfounded Aurora to stare at the gaping hole. Dresil made a neat dress, similar to the one she bought earlier, for Aurora to change into since what she was wearing could hardly be considered a rag.

—SRI— (460ms)

Cain: Create a portal to the entrance of the inner walls.

SRI: Searching for the location…

SRI: Location found (100ms)

SRI: Processing request…

SRI: Request processed (320ms)

SRI: Performing request…

SRI: Request performed (39ms)

--------------------------

Cain waited a few minutes with his back against the wall for her to change clothes. Aurora walked out of the cell then stared blankly at the portal in front of him. “You coming or not?” Cain hollered back. He then entered the portal with Aurora hesitantly following behind him.