Ah, crap… is she going to take an hour to change her clothes? Cain realized his blunder after a few minutes passed yet Natasha had yet to come back out. He sighed and took a few snacks out of the Snack Storage, gorging on them until Natasha came back. After 30 minutes, Cain’s mind started to wander to possible experiments and things to do after this meeting.

An hour after Natasha left to change her clothes, she came back wearing dense, black leather that tightly wrapped around her body. Throwing knives located on her upper thighs, secured with a belt, clinked together as she walked back to her couch. She adjusted the daggers on her waist as she sat, carefully ensuring they didn’t affect her posture. Cain stuffed his food back into the dimension before she sat down.

“I know I said you looked good in modest clothes, but isn’t that a bit too much?” Cain asked while gauging the defense and weapons within her attire. He used his Mana Zone to check his assumptions, learning how to detect what he missed with his eyes. “A woman can never be too careful.” Natasha replied, the corner of her lips slowly rose for a split second, pleased Cain just wasted his question.

“This is a nice dagger you’ve got here.” Cain said while inspecting Natasha’s dagger in his hands. He had used SRI earlier to change the coordinates of the dagger to in front of him. “How… no, when did you take that?” Natasha asked, her hand hovering the empty, latched holster.

“When you said ‘woman.’” Cain replied, teleporting the dagger to her right side, on a vacant spot of the sofa. Natasha stared at the sudden appearance of the dagger, trying to calculate how Cain achieved his previous feats. “How do I test for poison before eating or drinking the suspected item? Don’t leave any details out.” Cain asked his question while yawning slightly.

“There’s the classic silver needle test. Although there are poisons that don’t react to that. The amount of different types of poisons that exist is just too great to determine by one or two tests, even ten wouldn’t be enough in some cases. The best thing you can do is gain some immunity to a very strong poison.

“Then using your mana to detect a reaction between your body and the poison when you consume the suspected item.” Natasha explained everything she knew of, her slight fear of the ambiguity of Cain’s powers unconsciously left her no room to hide anything. Cain scrutinized her body language as she spoke, putting everything through a filter and then analyzing its contents.

Well heck… I guess I’ll just have to monitor each cell for damage due to poison. Hah… the amount of mana that’s going to take though, at least I can include the program to monitor for viruses and diseases while I’m at it. That solves two categories of the plot armor layout… Cain pondered his situation while Natasha took a piece of paper out from her breast pocket and unfolded it.

“What circle are you at?” She asked Cain; he gave her a dumbfounded look. One a scientist would give to someone who asked them “Is free energy real?” “Don’t look at me like that… I know you swore on your mana and answered this last week. These dumb nobles would rather believe that you somehow lied than accept reality though.” Natasha complained about her client’s stupidity.

“Yep, sometimes I wonder if it’s possible to have a negative IQ thanks to them. For the record, I don’t have a circle.” Cain replied while sighing, slightly frustrated. Natasha noted the foreign term “IQ” to be asked about later. “Why did someone of such high status and background take in Jared as a disciple?” Cain asked his next question while staring through Natasha’s violet eyes, his cheek resting on his right hand.

“He was… recommended.. by someone from his party.” Natasha replied, hesitating on the verb used to describe how she met Jared. “Don’t lie, Natasha. If you were ordered to do so, just say so.” Cain responded after skimming through her memories to look for the reason behind her hesitation.

“You… you even know about that. Just, how much do you know?” Natasha’s befuddlement present in her tone, she stared at Cain as if he weren’t human. “I know what everyone else knows.” Cain gave a vague answer that wasn’t necessarily false. “Why did Victoria recommend Jared to be your disciple? As far as I know, they shouldn’t have met yet.” Cain asked his question while purposely exposing a flaw in his information intelligence, thus further confusing Natasha.

“Just… sigh” Natasha took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “Victoria first saw Jared about three years ago during one of her family… outings. She’s liked him since, but due to her family rules she couldn’t just go up to him and openly court each other then get engaged.

“So, she came to me and ordered me to bring him up so that he’d at least survive their tests. I observed him for about 6 months then took him in as my disciple.” Natasha revealed everything then took the moment that Cain used to thoroughly process everything to think of a question that will get him to reveal something.

“It seems I have truly underestimated you and Victoria…” Cain mumbled while monologuing for Rex, I’ll explain everything later, so don’t flame the group chat again. Pun intended. “What is your background?” Natasha asked a few seconds after Cain finished his thoughts. “I have none. Other than above average parents and some amazing siblings, there ain’t much to me or my family.” Cain replied revealing things, yet revealing nothing.

He saw Natasha’s brows furrow in frustration. “You and I both know that I won’t say anything significant as long as there’s a chance of it being sold in the market later.” Cain stated while using the time he spoke to think about his next question, making it appear he had them prepared beforehand. “Why do you serve Victoria?”

“I made a pledge to her father when Victoria was born that I’d protect her to repay his father’s grace.” Natasha spoke, her eyes taking a solemn hue, yet refused to lose their vigilance and ferocity. “What if I swear on my mana not to sell the rest of the information?” Natasha hoped to get some info, even if it could only be passed down to very few people.

“Then it will depend on the question, but I’ll probably answer it.” Cain replied while picking a random number between 1 and 10. “May I take 6 poisons with me to experiment on?” Natasha took six different vials out from her storage ring and tossed them towards Cain. Cain’s mana slowed their descent as they gently landed on his outstretched palm. He placed them into the Flashdrive storage dimension; the current dimension with all of the fragile objects.

“How long did it take you to achieve your power?” Natasha asked once Cain stored the vials away. “It’s been two weeks since I’ve been introduced to mana.” Ah… Did I reveal too much here? Meh, it’ll be revealed later when I do the favor for the pope and I don’t really need to hide this from anyone. Cain realized a potential slip up the moment he spoke. Natasha’s eyes widened in realization.

“Are you the one protecting Victoria from the shadows?” Cain asked while predicting what Rex would ask, No, Rex… I couldn’t just see her tags since it never marked the one who gave the coupon nine days ago and followed Victoria from the sidelines. I guess I could just read her memories, but eh, I’m running out of questions.

“No, I’m not.” Natasha replied, suppressing a microexpression of confusion followed by recognition. Cain caught both, which told him she knew who followed Victoria from the shadows. “I swear on my mana, the following information will not be sold for information.” Natasha’s mana resonated and churned with her words. “How powerful are you?”

“As long as I have mana, anything I want to happen, will happen.” Cain said while raising his palm, displaying each of the 6 elements in a stream rotating around each other to make a circle. Natasha’s calm, guarded composure crumbled before the sight. She clenched her jaw to stop it from quivering. “How do Veronica and Victoria know each other?” Cain asked, dispersing the elements.

“They… they met at a meeting between their families.” Natasha absent mindedly stated, still dazed from seeing Cain’s display. “How much mana do you have?” Cain smirked at the question, having noticed she said “have” and not “can use.” “260ish trillion.” “Trillion…?” Natasha mumbled, once again noting down an unfamiliar term.

“That’s all the questions I have, so I’ll see you later. Thanks for the poisons.” Cain stated while Natasha wrote the term on her notepad. He opened a portal to the campsite and disappeared through it before Natasha could look up; Cain used SRI to move the chair back to its original position. “It’s like he was never here before…” Natasha mumbled once more, then left the room to handle business.

Cain stepped out onto the cracked stone floor; Bob created the portals over his airways moments before he went inside the portal. Dresil unmerged from his clothes and walked off to her usual spot to continue the grind. Cain sat on some mats she laid out then opened the group chat and read through all of Rex’s questions.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (315ms, from Cain’s first message)

Rex: Hahahaha, she’s making you wait now.

Rex: Damn… she looks hotter in her combat suit.

Dresil: …Bob, I think he has the wrong operating system installed

Bob: Agreed. When should we reinstall it?

Dresil: Tomorrow?

Bob: Sounds good. I’ll bring the flashdrives.

Rex: …why does it sound like you’re trying to kill someone?

Dresil: Don’t worry about it.

Rex: :fear:

Rex: Pfffft, negative IQ. Is that even real?

Dresil: There’s someone in this gc who has it.

Rex: Who?

Rex: …oh.

Rex: Ayo, tf? How did you know Victoria recommended Jared?

Rex: Dang, she’s dedicated.

Rex: :Pain: Now we have to wait for him to open the gc

Bob: Nice pun.

Rex: …did this boi really roll a dice in his head?

Dresil: Yep, except it was a random number generator.

Rex: tf…

Rex: Huh? What did he accidentally reveal?

Bob: That he was summoned from a different place.

Rex: …is that not a problem?

Dresil: Not really. The only people he needs to keep things from are the ones who summoned him. The rest are just trivial and will either find out eventually or will perish before they do.

Rex: …I don’t get it, but I’m sure it’ll work out.

Rex: :dafuq:

Rex: Why didn’t you just look to see if she had a tag since the guardian should’ve had a tag when the assassins came to your in.

Rex: …did this boi just answer my question w/o looking at it? Is he a psychic now?

Dresil: Nah, you’re just that simple-minded.

Rex: Can’t deny that, I do only have one mind.

Dresil: Was this Rex’s first dad joke?!

Bob: It seems like it. Good job, Rex!

Rex: …why does that read as if you’re congratulating a baby who just learned to walk?

Dresil: Because we are.

Rex: :ded:

Rex: Dang, Natasha looks like me with that dumbfounded face.

Dresil: Nope, at least Natasha’s is hawt. Yours is just high in degrees and dumb.

Rex: …I’m the Fire Spirit King, so why do I keep getting roasted?

Dresil: Bc you keep setting yourself up for one with every sentence.

Bob: She’s not wrong, I already emptied a bag of popcorn.

Dresil: Pffft, you roast bags of popcorn so we can eat them as we roast you. It’s a complete cycle.

Rex: …:Pain:

Rex: Oooh, finally! Cain left so he’ll open the group chat soon.

Cain: …dang that’s a lot.

Cain: Pffft, nice job Dresil.

Dresil: Thanks, Master. :proud:

Cain: So, me knowing Victoria recommended Jared was just an assumption.

Cain: It was a given Veronica and Victoria knew each other since Veronica recommended Victoria to join the party.

Rex: Huh…?

Dresil: Master, maybe you should sum it all up chronologically.

Cain: True, sec.

Cain: So Victoria saw Jared from afar and took an interest in the boi, thus she ordered Natasha to raise him up so he wouldn’t get butchered by her family rules that assumingly require a duel or for the groom to pass some sort of test.

Cain: This happened 3 years ago, Natasha took him in 2.5 years ago, 6 months after Victoria laid eyes on him.

Cain: 9 or 10 months ago, when the party failed a quest due to injuries, Veronica took this chance to rope Victoria into the same party as Jared. Thus she joined the party a few months later, 6 months ago from the current time.

Cain: Victoria and Veronica have known each other for some time due to their families, so it’s possible Victoria came to the capitol to visit Veronica, and that’s when she saw Jared.

Cain: It can be inferred that Veronica then “coincidentally” ran into Jacob and Jared, when they were taking on quests, to vet Jared.

Cain: The “coincidental” bump ins would’ve occurred during the 6 months Natasha watched over Jared, with Veronica joining the party around the same time Natasha accepted Jared as her disciple.

Cain: Also, it appears Victoria is from some powerful or hidden, ancient family. As she has authority within the capitol yet isn’t known publicly, most likely the latter.

Cain: It’s also possible Natasha passed info to Victoria through Jared by going into one of her “gossiping” moods. She’s not the type of person to give out free info unless she’s close to them.

Dresil: I can confirm what Cain said is the truth. I just checked Veronica and Victoria’s memories.

Rex: Damn…

Bob: I’m surprised Victoria is so invested in Jared.

Cain: Same, I’ve only heard about such a case once. The girl pursued the man for a few years and they ended up married for 60 or so years.

Rex: If Victoria is from an ancient family, doesn’t that mean Veronica’s family ties aren’t simple as well?

Dresil: Wow… Rex used a brain cell.

Bob: Are the icebergs melting?

Cain: :hehe: Yep, Veronica is probably a princess of some sort.

Rex: …aren’t you going to read her memories to confirm?

Cain: Nah, I’ll wait till she tells me on her own.

Rex: Then why did you do the same to Victoria?

Cain: Because we already knew half of it at that point for a fact, and the other half were assumptions.

Cain: Ancient families also tend to be more troublesome than royal families or the like, so I’d rather be fully informed about them.

Rex: …how do you know Veronica isn’t from a hidden family though?

Dresil: That goes against the elves' ethics and pride. They prefer to be recognized, yet they also remain neutral and on the sidelines due to their history and knowledge of the downsides to war.

Dresil: Most elves don’t have the need to scheme either.

Dresil: That’s like asking why humans won’t set aside their greed and work together to solve major problems or simply working with others to enhance both of their profits.

Rex: Huh… I kind of get it.

Bob: Humans are truly ignorant at times.

Cain: Indeed. It’s too simple for them to be led around the nose by their own desires.

Rex: …and you’re excluded?

Cain: Pffft, nah. If anything I’m one of the worst.

Cain: I just manage it so it always works in my benefit, even if the amount is miniscule.

Rex: Crazy bastard…

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

Cain closed the group chat and laughed heartily due to its contents. Since everything happened within less than half a second, the build up of every joke hit him at once. After a minute or so, he focused his thoughts and began his next experiment.