“So. You’re the interloper that thinks he can just barge in here and cut off my people, huh?”

Why would she just show herself like that? Though, I can appreciate a good flair for the dramatics.

“What? Scared speechless? I guess this’ll be easier than I thought. I’ll show you what your petty ideals of heroism are worth!”

It was to this cue that both she and the small collection of people behind her rushed forwards in unison, some admittedly faster than others.

What does she mean scared speechless? She must be able to see through her thralls eyes, else she wouldn’t have known where to send them, and whoever’s in control must know I can’t talk based on my earlier interactions with them. Is this just a poorly informed decoy, then? Presumably not under control because she must have some skill with combat that wouldn’t translate. In essence, I should run. Now.

Reto immediately turned and started sprinting in the opposite direction, hoping to find somewhere they could lose them. However, they turned and looked over their shoulder upon realising the sounds of charging people stopped as soon as they started fleeing. Behind them, their assailant appears to have stopped, stupefied, as if not expecting anyone to actually run from the sword wielding maniac for some reason. Taking the blessing for what it was, they continued to run.

----

The General had detected a mute trespasser over at the south gate, and had his soldiers try to lead them to him for questioning and, presumably, also to be Enlisted. Unfortunately, it seems that not only do they have a passive effect that weakens their connection, but also a much more powerful active version of it as well. Of course, ‘powerful’ is relative. He could never have broken a stronger connection like that of the faux guard and linguists he was having lead him, but against the majority of the town it seems to have been more than enough.

Rather than send the General’s own personal army, he decided to send me after them, due to being his best protégé. He would have probably sent someone else honestly, but there was no-one else too send. He’s so slow to trust really, I don’t know why he hasn’t Enlisted me, but I’m not going to wake a sleeping dragon. Best just to do as he says, it’s gotten me this far, after all!

Apparently too far though. This trespasser, seemingly here to liberate the soldiers given his specialised {Skill} set, ran at the mere sight of me. I guess they don’t make adventurers like they used to, do they? Unfortunately, I’ll have to send my personal soldiers out after him. At the very least I should be able to tell when my soldiers are near based on the passive drain, and sure, my soldiers are plenty strong and all, but any further than a dozen metres from me and I don’t stand a chance at protecting them from the interloper for a reasonable amount of time. I certainly don’t have the relays to re-Enlist them either, by which I mean I don’t have any. That General is so untrustworthy, honestly. When have I ever put even a single foot out of line?

----

With the strangeness of her would be attacker behind them, Reto feels much more free to actually try to think of a plan.

It seems pretty obvious that they don’t want me getting to that ominous building, which I really need a better name for. I’ll just go with Lair. I should be trying to get to the lair then? These people must still need to eat, and whilst I have got this new skill I’m not sure how reliable or effective it is. Not to mention any equipment I might need. I definitely need a change of clothes, for starters. And a rope maybe? Immovable rod? The classics, really.

With a loose plan in mind, and an immediate goal, they moved to the alleys in the hopes of finding some sort of ladder to the top of the buildings. Fortunately, it only took a few attempts to find a house with a window open on the bottom floor. Rather than glass, they just have wooden boards covering them up and, on the first floor anyway, the are placed on the outside. This leaves no ledge with which to climb up unless the window is open, at which point it’s rather simple to continue upwards.

Once they reached the top, it only took a bit of searching to find the lair. The majority of houses seem to be part of a series of concentric circles centred around the square where they first realised the nature of this place. The only difference is where the lair is. Here, there is a break in the circles and a smaller one is made around it, putting it some distance from the buildings.

So, If I go to a ring further out from the centre, then I should be able to get fairly close to the lair, and by then I just have to hope I can either get out, or find the master before anyone finds me. I just hope that they don’t have any way of telling when I’m nearby.

Unfortunately, this route did mean that they would have to get back down and find another way up. Rather than recklessly jumping like last time, they climbed down more carefully because there really was no rush.

As they hit the ground however, they noticed something strange out of the corner of their eye. There seemed to be someone hiding around a corner. The issue is, they don’t seem to be fully aware of where there body was in relation to much of anything, and as a result, their right arm was out. Fortunately, this fact meant that it couldn’t see them as they approached, making it all the easier to get as close as possible.

I don’t know what the range on this mana feeding thing is, but if that bout on the roof was any indication I’ll need to be quite close to have an effect fast enough to counter the influence of this master. Then, I can see if this person has any information they can tell me. It’ll be a struggle if they can’t understand sign language though

Reto flexed their will and, with a startled shout, the control over the person came undone. They looked to be a man, around middle aged though they couldn’t be sure given the unfamiliar territory they were currently in, and he was turning around in a hurry.

Before they could think, Reto had hands desperately clasped over their shoulders, and the panicked face of someone desperate for help in front of them.

“Please! You have to hurry! I don’t know how you freed me but you have to help the others! I was part of a Rouj contingent sent to investigate a slew of disappearances, but we were caught by surprise and caught by these two Outcasts. I have no way to defend against them. Our teams mentalist got killed in the attack, and now if we don’t free my group soon they’ll be completely broken, barely able to make a decision for themselves anymore! If you hurry, it may not be too late, for them or for some of the people that have been captured.”

That’s a lot to take in. So, it seems that this military base really is kept hidden, and has somehow kidnapped enough people to fill it entirely? What was with the market then? I could imagine Ms. Dramatics back there doing that just to, I don’t know, experience a market? I’ve not put much thought into it, I’ll admit.

“Why aren’t you responding? Are you ok? Don’t tell me they got you to!”

Oh. Right. I guess I should respond?

Hesitantly, they nodded their head at him.

“Oh, you’ll truly help us? Thank you. Truly, thank you. If there’s any way I could repay you, just say the word. I swear it!”

I can’t speak, but I appreciate the sentiment. I also didn’t agree to anything, I was just letting him know that I’m alright. *sigh*. I guess I’ll have to get use to that given how much it’s happened already.

The recently freed thrall almost immediately started running toward where there would likely be a gate out of here, based on what they’d seen from the rooftop.

“I’ll go try to call on the Rouj Armada, please hurry and stop this!”

Watching his back, Reto noticed a symbol that seemed to be the head of some sort of bird with a gem in it’s beak. Making note of that, they gave a sigh of resignation.

I suppose I can’t exactly leave these people here, now can I? It’s only right that I deal with those two, though I’m not clear on what I can do given that they likely have superior skills, that can actually be used as well. Heck, Dramatics even has both a sword and armour! At least {Mana Feeding} Can even the playing field. {Mana Feeding}. Just had to turn it back off there.

This time, a way up wasn’t quite as easy to find. They had to take a looping path to find every house that was on the route she wanted to take, until eventually they found one which had a ladder propped up the front of it. Just next the ladder, on the third story, is a toolbox and a window hanging on be a single hinge, both hastily abandoned. Due to their lack of a weapon, Reto decided to tug it off it’s last hinge, though had to resort to prying it off with a hammer.

There! It’s not the best, but it’s the only option I have right now. It’s be great to at least have a hammer or something.

Reto glanced at the hammer currently in their other hand and decided to just take both and not think about it anymore.

From the roof, they couldn’t see much of the thralls, or Dramatics. In order to find them she’d have to be quite a bit higher up, and unfortunately there are no higher buildings except for the lair. They’d have to go into this blind.

Alright. Let’s get this over with then.

Though the bridges were quite thin on account of not actually being bridges, the general construction in this town is high quality enough for them not to break. That doesn’t make balancing any easier, but they don’t go too far across so overall there isn’t a major issue.

After crossing their fourth bridge, Reto started thinking.

How do they make their wood stronger anyway? It probably isn’t whilst it’s, else they wouldn’t be able to carve it. Though, there are a lot of straight lines in the construction and actually no curves at all, so it’s possible that they don’t need to be able to carve it quickly for just straight lines. If it were during the construction, then {Mana Feeding} would probably be able to handle it, but otherwise, it’s sort of hit or miss really.

The only real way to know for sure would be through experimentation, so they sat down by the edge of a bridge and tried to make the area on Mana Feeding as small as possible. It was here that they encountered an unexpected limit, the area it can be shrunk to is limited to around 6m2 in area, at an estimate.

Given that when my range is a circle the people started acting different at around 2m away, then times that by itself and pi would be like 12-ish metres2, probably a bit higher. That means that the area can only be half of that of my default, and the volume probably around a quarter, I would guess. That’s not too much of an issue, although it does limit my maximum draw rate substantially.

Bringing their focus back to the beam that has been on the area of their Mana draining zone for a while, it appears as though it could be more brittle, as much as they know anything about how brittle wood looks. Testing it’s strength is difficult however, as that would require them to be able to break wood normally. This is, unfortunately for them, decidedly not true.

Nonetheless, they continued onward. After almost a half hour of walking they were almost at the ring surrounding the lair, where they were unfortunately stopped by dramatics herself.

“Well, well, well. Look who comes crawling back. What? Found your spine after all? Ha! It’s not gonna matter once I shatter you like the worm you are. Prepare yourself!”

The only thing Reto was thinking as the sword came down on them and they brought the window up was worms don’t shatter, followed by I hope this window was a sturdy one.

Their luck took a turn for the better when the sword sunk itself into the reinforced board of wood, almost all the way through it was. Seeing an opportunity and not wanting to waste it, Reto hurriedly twisted the board, forcing the sword out of Dramatics grip, before throwing it off the side of the building. Still in shock at the sudden turn of events, she was unprepared for the hammer that came up at the side of her head.

Reto fully expected the swing to be dodged, however it seems that being completely disarmed by a window of all things was too much for her to comprehend so suddenly, and thus she was sent plummeting off the side of the building. She impacted the ground with a thud and a sharp scream, before falling completely silent.

Cautiously gazing over the side of the building, Reto saw the woman she was fighting just a second ago in a crumpled heap on the floor and discarded sword cutting halfway through her back. The only reason she didn’t die almost immediately being the fact that the rip of the blade was parallel to the ground, but it wasn’t enough to save her life.

The world froze around them.

No.

[Congratulations!]

Please, no.

[For completing the accomplishment of slaying a Level 9 Spell Sword Mentalist Protégé, you have get to pick One skill!]

Don’t do this to me.

[For completing an accomplishment of hard difficulty or higher, you get to pick One trait, and upgrade One trait!]

I didn’t mean to kill her, honestly. I mean, I suppose I should have thought about keeping her from escaping and hurting anyone. And, I did cause her to fall off a building, but… I didn’t mean to kill her! I swear!

[For completing an accomplishment of uncommon rarity or higher, you get to upgrade one of your skills!]

Please. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Please forgive me.

[For facing a Spell Sword Mentalist Protégé of substantially higher level than you with no real weapons, in her own home base no less, and winning in one blow, you get to pick between three skills, or take a random one suited to your temperament.]

{Improvised Weaponry} – You can take down your enemies with little more than whatever you come across on your way to them. You are never truly without a weapon, even when surrounded by nothing but enemies, you can turn their own weapons against them

{Anti-hero} – You’ve killed people, sure. But only those that deserve it, and you wish you didn’t have to. Can make logical decisions in stressful scenarios, and feel less guilt for the deaths of those that oppose you

{Weaken Material} – Plenty of people can reinforce something, but you have found that you can reverse this effect, make something worse than usual. Use mana to make a material weaker

{Anti-hero}

Without a second thought, Reto chose their skill. Immediately, the gnawing guilt reduced itself, to a level that they felt they could manage, at least for now. And, they could worry about the implications of this skill later.

[You have chosen {Anti-Hero}! Due to the effects of your accomplishments rarity, you can either choose to upgrade this skill, or upgrade another.]

[For your difficult accomplishment, you get to pick between three traits.]

{Army of one} – You have taken on dozens of enemies at once and not just survived but, to some extent, succeeded. Gain increased power, durability, and speed relative to the number of enemies faced

{Duellist} – You beat an opponent that was stronger than you in a fair fight, with no assistance. Gain substantially increased power and speed when facing a single opponent in a fair fight

{Psychic Combatant} – You have fought off psychic control in other people, and resisted compulsions in yourself. You can now turn these defences outwards, as an attack.

[For your difficult accomplishment, you get to upgrade one trait.]

Due to it being the only option, you will upgrade {Adept}

{Adept Mage} – Though you have not yet cast even a single spell, your talent with manipulating mana is still enough for you to become an Adept Mage.

{Adept Tactician} – You were able to formulate a plan of attack that led to the defeat of exactly half of your opponent’s forces. This shows skill enough to become and Adept Tactician.

{Adept Jack} – Though there may be things you are better at than others, you are Adept at everything you are faced with, no matter what it may be.

So much had happened in such an incredibly short time. It feels as though only minutes have passed since they entered that gate, as much as almost an hour has passed. Even the battle against Dramatics was only a few seconds. Surely going against such a strong opponent should have been more difficult?

Mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted, Reto laid on the thin flat space at the top of the roof and slept. Around them, the air seemed to shift, as if something had shoved it’s way into it for just a fraction of a second before leaving just as quickly.

----

“It seems awfully… unlike Viktoria to not immediately respond to any message sent to her, least of all two of them. I sincerely doubt she could have been bested by a single attacker, least of all in only 30 minutes, but I suppose precautions must be made all the same.”

The General often talked to himself, or rather, the people that he has under his sway, unwillingly following his every command. But they can’t talk, some can hardly think, so to himself he talks. Though, his orders are never verbal. It would be frankly unseemly for him to do something so droll out loud, for everyone to hear. Their has hardly been many willing guests here for quite some time, but appearances are important even if only for oneself. That’s what his parents always used to say before… well. No use thinking about that now.

He made a mental command to the closest Soldier to Viktoria’s last known location, seemingly either inside or on the roof of one of the houses surrounding his base. It’s awfully strange for her to be so close, it seems unlikely that she could have let anyone get here with her trying to stop them. She must have been on her way back before losing contact then. A pity, truly, for to get so distracted all the time. Otherwise, he might trust her more.

It’s also a pity that there is no way to communicate with the Soldiers that have been sent out. They tend to lack minds to communicate whilst under his control, and the ones that manage to keep them mustn’t be used for anything of actual importance, lest their prevailing Will be able to mess it up. No. Best to just let them come to me directly. Saves a whole lot of risk, overall. It’s the far safer choice.

----

Reto Mason Mage Adept Lv.2 Health – 5/5 Will – 2/20 Mana – 40/40 Power

Physical – 1.05

Mental – 1.05

Magical – 1.25

Durability

Physical – 1.00

Mental – 1.15

Magical – 1.15

Speed

Physical – 1.05

Mental – 1.20

Magical – 1.25

Skills Traits

{Desolate Survivalism} – {Mana Feeding}

{Adept Mage}

{Anti-hero}