Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Wolf beat the mini boss. Voice had conflicting ideas about EDI, and EDITOR stepped in to harass him. Voice told his mother, and got it fixed. Then he decided to go find EDI.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment and rate!

With Kretchof showing me the way, I quickly made it to EDI’s location. Her people had taken a bigger hit than Wolf’s, and I only sent my fairies to harass her.

EDI had lost half her group. Instead of the 30 people I thought were left, there was only a total of 25 people left, including EDI and Wolf. Alright I can do this. I pumped myself up.

I decided to infiltrate EDI’s group, to better get a grasp on their tactics. Watching from afar was all well and good, but you could gain ten fold information being on the inside. While Sol and Tear had been harassing her group I had them do a bit of recon.

Sol was tasked with not only stopping the healing and light source, but also watching the light mana signatures of the group. After showing my fairy the basic concept, it was quickly grasped.

Sol pointed out one of the group. “That is the person that fit you criteria most. … Are you sure about this master? I can stop their healing while you keep your distance. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

After we got to the group, and Sol pointed out my target, i was bombarded by the worry Sol had for me. I could never get the thing to shut up.

I watched the group fight, after I instructed Kretchof to send a few undead against them. The target acted almost exactly as I predicted he would, given his equipment and stats. He was a high level, but fought in hand to hand combat.

I made sure to watch all of his mannerisms as they continued on their journey. After studying him for over an hour I felt I had a firm enough grasp on him to start the infiltration.

The stats he could hide from me were str, agi, and dex. Those three were usually for finesse type melee fighters. Unarmed combat was included in that.

“Sol. Go near EDI make sure she doesn’t notice. Eli make a tunnel for Sol, then come back to finish the plan.”

Both fairies got to work instantly. We had practiced this a few times with the smaller groups. Of course not enough got past the fire trap to make sure everything was ironed out, but it was the best I could hope for while decreasing the threat to the dungeon as much as possible.

I found that my fairies could absorb 100 mana per second. While absorbing they could only concentrate on a minor task. So I had Sol absorb the mana, while excreting it in a flash. Sol couldn’t directly absorb light mana from people, so we had to wait until the one priest in the group tried to do healing.

Drake and SparrowHawk took care of that. A huge fire ball rolled towards EDI’s group. Guided by SparrowHawk’s wind mana, the fire ball had increased power and accuracy. EDI’s group got into defensive positions right away, but it wasn’t enough. I had Moro throw the enchanted stone into the group.

The stone of course was the undead summoning stone. It absorbed some part of the fireball, but mostly from the priest. The priest began to heal the few wounds as soon as the fire ball had dispersed.

Gotcha!

Sol absorbed the mana, and caused a small amount of light to blind the group. The priest had closed his eyes, so he wouldn’t be blinded, but he still had his mana sucked.

As soon as the light appeared Eli opened up the hole made earlier. One of the members, a man named Rolund fell into it.

Rolund was a tall man. He appeared to be at least half orc. He had lousy armor, but was equipped with a decent set of bladed brass knuckles.

The fall had disoriented the man, and I quickly got to work. Eli wrapped as much earth around the man’s arms and legs as possible, while Golem held the man’s knuckles to the ground through their metal mana.

Tear covered the man’s head in water mana, and Kretchof had the zombies he sent her hold the man down while striking him. The man was many levels higher than me, but with this tactic I was at least able to incapacitate him for a short time.

Of course he was struggling to get free, but I infused my darkness mana into the water mana Tear was using. The water instantly turned into pain inducing water. The screams were muffled by the water, and only bubbles escaped.

I smiled while I watched. This was how my group had allowed me to infiltrate the other groups. We would distract the main group, and steal one of them. Then I we would incapacitate that one, while I did my part.

I used disguise to make myself look exactly like the man. After the man stopped screaming I had Tear remove the water and the skeletons stop hitting him, but kept all of the other restraints on.

I changed myself to look exactly like the man, including the shoddy iron armor he wore. My face, name, even size and shape slowly turned into him. The guise looked perfect after only about ten minutes. It used to take much longer than that, but I had lowered the time.

The difference was I didn’t know the way the man moved, or the way he talked. I could cope with that though. Before starting this whole ‘infiltration game’ thing I had to make sure I would not be suspected by the person’s allies.

I intentionally cut myself, and burned the wound close. By paralyzing part of my body, and adding drinking water with light mana instead of darkness mana, I was able to withstand a large amount of pain.

My wound created a scar, but I received a notice that I could choose to remove the scar once I received the spell ‘remove scar’ or ‘restore body’. I didn’t know either of those, but I could figure it out later.

After changing myself I cut my tongue off, at least a portion of the tip. I sealed the wound with fire mana, and basically drank a gallon of the pain relieving water. I regretted the decision at first, but after that I put the pain and suffering I went through into action.

I couldn’t make my voice sound like someone else, but I could create a wind voice. I instructed Eli to weaken the tunnel as per usual.

After I created a body similar to the man laying on the ground, I harshly woke him up after healing him a bit. He woke up with a shout.

He instantly strained himself against the bindings. Of course I didn’t let him do anything. I cast several weakness buffs on him, and had several undead holding him down.

“Tsk tsk tsk. That won’t do. No, that won’t do at all.” I looked at the man with a gentle smile. His eyes bulged as he saw a copy of himself staring down at him.

“Now you’re going to help me.”

The man spat at me, Tear deflected the spit before it hit. In a rough, almost barbaric voice he shouted, “I’ll never help you! You bastard! Where’s my group! I’ll kill you!”

A vein was bulging on his forehead, and his face was turning red. “LET ME OUT OF THIS!”

All of his noise was deflected back into the small cave using my wind mana.

I sighed as I looked at him. “You WILL help me. Even if you don’t want to. You want to know why?” I smiled an evil grin. “Because your party will think I’m you, until I kill them of course. Hehehe.”

I made the most sinister laugh I could.

“Tch. You bastard. How dare you use my face!” He seemed to notice something while I laughed. “Tongue-less mongrel! You won’t get away with this! You sound nothing like me! You won’t be able to trick anyone!”

I shook my head as I smiled. I changed my wind mana voice, and responded. In a rough, almost barbaric voice I shouted, “You sound nothing like me! You won’t be able to trick anyone!” My voice replication was damn near perfect.

I could make it sound up to 90% identical as another person’s voice after only a bit of talking. Of course I wouldn’t be able to catch every tiny drawl or hitch in their words they had, but the majority would be the same. That was all I could hope for.

Using the mana like this even gave a plus 5 competency bonus while using Con-Artist to impersonate another person. Even if it was for a specific occasion, it was still useful.

“What? You sound like me? How did you do that?” The man sent an angry stare at me. Every word you say just helps me out.

I let the man yell and scream at me for another minute, then ended him with several earth spears. Despite how good armor is, one cannot overcome a dozen spears thrust into their body as they lay on the ground.

After a few seconds, the man’s life quickly receded. In the gruff voice I spoke. “Good, now let’s get to work guys. The other group seems to be just finishing up.”

I pushed myself out of the hole, and looked around to get my bearings. The tunnel Eli had weakened had collapsed, crushing a few of the group. Other than those, undead were attacking, while Drake poured fire on anyone that seemed to be getting a hold on the situation.

Even the people that seemed to be holding up against all of this had no chance. Now that I was here they were doomed.

I dismissed my fairies for the time, and had Kretchof slightly increase the amount of undead attacking us. I decided to try out my new fighting style.

The man had used some sort of martial arts to deal with the undead Kretchof had sent. He stayed in the back until a fight, then went to the middle of the group. I could easily copy those tactics. The only problem is…

The problem was that I didn’t have the combat ability of the man. I could always use my buffs, but my fundamental health was only at 1/20th of the guy I captured. If I couldn’t do something about that, then I couldn’t accurately portray him.

I could always use my permanent buffs, but then I’d have no way to protect myself if they found out who I really was. After thinking for a bit I had decided to chance it.

I could only use a finite amount of permanent buffs at one. I chose to use Damage Immunity, and Movement Enhancer. That would give me at least a bit more of a fighting chance.

Several of the undead that were attacking the group headed my way once I let Kretchof know that I was done stealing Rolund’s identity. I easily dealt with them with the metal knuckles golem had made for me.

They were the same iron Rolund used, but were far less effective. .After all, I had made them myself. There was no way my mana manipulation was as good, or precise, as a master smith. Still, the spiked knuckles were pretty cool to fight with.

I tried to mimic his fighting style, but to little avail. It’s not possible to replicate a true martial artist just by watching them for a bit.

I still managed to kill the undead, not that Kretchof would have let me lose. By concentrating inspect on their weak points, I was easily able to grasp the best positions to attack. Suffice it to say, I quickly dismantled them.

One of the group, TedBear, a burly man with thick hairy arms, and a thick brown beard, approached. “Rolund! Thought ya were dead! Where’d ya go?”

In my new voice modulation, which cost 25 mana a second, I said, “Bastards caught me by surprise. I was hanging back like usual, but the light distracted me for a bit. Son of a bitch attacked me from behind.”

The bearish man nodded his head in understanding. “Well you gotta keep in sight, ya hear?” I nodded my head slightly. Too much exaggeration would give me away instantly.

I started helping the group move the larger rocks to look for survivors. Many of the members were heavily wounded, but breathing. Honestly I was disappointed. I was hoping to kill off more than that.

I did have Eli send a few earth spears into the ones that weren’t near me though. That way I could at least do a bit more damage.

After everyone escaped, EDI had us line up to do a count of casualties. We took some serious damage, but only had a few deaths. I adopted a somber expression as she tallied the info.

After we were done with that, EDI took out a handful of bandages. Seeing that the healing magic didn’t work, she decided it was best to just use them.

You know what? I will just have to convince Wolf I found a way to nullify the bandages.

I contacted Sol inside my mind. Sol go make sure that Wolf’s group can’t heal. Just don’t get caught.

I instantly absorbed the healing enchantment on the bandages. Something odd happened at that moment.

I looked for the mana in the bandages, but it wasn’t there! The update! Technically speaking the bandages were enchanted with my mana. According to the new rules of enchanting, they had an expiration date, or had to consume a total number permanently, until used.

Come to thing of it… Isn’t that basically what happened with me anyway? Then why was there a need for an update.

My eyes went wide for a moment before I concealed it. No way. Did… Did EDITOR just nerf every enchanter BUT me? I didn’t know if it was an oversight, probably not, or intentional, but I had no time to think about it. We were moving out.

I naturally slid to the back of the group. EDI had finished healing the injured with the bandages, although she looked a bit perplexed after seeing how much it took to actually utilize them.

HA! Without my enchantments, those are just some very powerful pieces of healing cloths… Even without my enchants the bandages were still created by me with the utmost precision. They were still a good deal better than other material on the same level.

I was gratified to realize the enchantments Wolf paid for were gone. I got profit, but he got nothing. This is how it should be.

After a few hours of following EDI I realized something.

She must have gotten some mental upgrades with all that knowledge added.

Kretchof couldn’t corral them as much as we wanted. They seemed to chose the direction by using a method which is basically cheating the system.

EDI always walked with one hand on the left wall. It doesn’t matter which hand or wall you do this with, if you do it, unless the maze changes, you will find your way out. That is unless the maze has some sort of hidden exit.

Of course my maze had both. Eli, go seal up a few random passages behind or in front of us. It doesn’t matter which ones. Just make sure the maze is different than a few seconds ago.

Eli complied. Like the little ball of dirt had any choice. Anyway, the infiltration was a success. Nobody suspected a thing. After a while we made it to a boss room.

EDI turned around proudly. “Alright guys! Time to make this ‘boss’ our collective bitch! Let’s go!” Her smiled was almost creepy.

Her personality really had done a 180. She used to be, I don’t know how to put it, I guess I would say she was a little shy, and a little distance.

Now she had no filter, and seemed way too upbeat to be a rational human being. This is EDITOR’s fault. At least before I could have had some sort of alliance with her.

I mentally sighed. Once I got into the group I had questioned what would happen when EDI began talking to me again. The answer surprised me.

Nothing. I no longer felt any emotional attachment to her. I knew this probably indicated some sort of chemical imbalance, or some deficiency in human nature. Either way it didn’t matter.

What mattered was that I could get into my work with 100%. It was nice how easy it was to actually confuse the people about who I was. The requirements I picked were simple. I needed four things.

1. The person has to be a loner type.

If someone were more quiet, and didn’t seem to make friends in the group easily, then it would be harder for others to tell they were acting differently.

2. The person has to have a fighting style that I can replicate.

Rolund didn’t really have a fighting style I could easily imitate, but he was the only one that didn’t use flashy skills I didn’t know how to make. That reason right there basically made him the only choice.

3. He has to have a set power range.

If the person were too powerful, or too weak, then he would be watched more than the other group members. Whether that was to be aided or to seek aid from was irrelevant.

4. The person has to be stupid enough to fall for my trap.

The entire group fell for the diversion, but Rolund was the one that stayed away from everyone when the fighting started. That was because he would push people out of the way to go to the middle, where he could see some action.

Rolund fit those requirements the most, and so became the lucky one to inherit my possession. Since he was more of a loner type I was basically left alone. Except for the mage. The mage seemed to have some kind of grudge. He would heal me last, even though I could just heal myself, and not assist as much in battle.

We entered the large colosseum looking room. Around it were spread several large spider-webs, with bodies dangling from them. The webs went from the ceiling, about forty feet above us, to about four feet from the ground.

On the ground scuttled several hundred bug monsters. The group gasped as they were attacked as soon as they entered the room. While we had been looking at the room, one man was dragged away instantly. Normally he might have been able to keep his balance as the unseen bugs clawed at his feet, but a small concentrated gust of wind to his knees quickly fixed that.

His screams echoed throughout the hall. EDI pulled out her two Sai. “CHARGE! DON’T STOP TILL YOU DROP!”

She dashed forward without waiting. Wow this is nothing like when we were fighting together in the dungeon. I was biding my time before, but I won’t get a better chance than this!

Those thoughts passed my mind as I watched everyone else in the group rush forward. The only ones that didn’t run were me and the magic user.

I whispered in his ear using my wind mana. “Hey priest, I got poisoned can you cure it? One of the bastards got me in the leg.” Blood trickled down a shallow cut I had Golem make when we first entered the room.

He looked at me with utter disdain. “You are the only one that gets hurt this much. You must be a klutz IRL.” He shook his head as he approached. “If this keeps up you will be kicked out of the group. I don’t really think the healing magic will work, but EDI would have my head if I didn’t try.”

He bent down to look at the wound. As soon as his head was right above my knee…

BAM.

I kicked his forehead with all of my might. He stumbled back and gasped. Just as planned, SparrowHawk had been watching for an opportunity.

As soon as the man stumbled, SparrowHawk tripped him in the same manner as I tripped the other man earlier.

He fell with a thud. “What the!? What the fuck do you think you’re doi-“

He was interrupted by a fist to the face. The bladed knuckles wouldn’t do much damage against a warrior, but they did a nice bit against this mage.

I threw a punch at his throat immediately after hitting his face. The spell he started casting was dissolved instantly. He tried to shout for help, but I summoned Tear faster.

Instantly his entire head was surrounded by a large ball of water. I kicked him to force him on his back. The man was grabbing at his throat while drowning.

A wicked smiled spread across my lips as equipped my staff. I took out the blades, and punctured both places the lungs were located. I could have let him die like that, but I didn’t want anyone to get the chance to see it was me.

I sliced his throat neatly, and threw him into the webs. He body wasn’t light enough for it to be no effort, but I could still throw him thanks to my strength.

He landed just a few feet above the end of the web, and was stuck there. His body joined the legion of dead bodies that were just ‘hanging out’.

I laughed at my obvious superior humor. Man I crack myself up sometimes. I smiled and shook my head as I headed towards my next victim. Now that the only mage of the group was out of the way it would be much easier to deal with the group.