Part Twenty-Seven

He looks upset. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t blow up at someone yet. Maybe he’s learning?

“Well since that got dumped on me, you’ll have to excuse me while I go look at my item drops. Please do not disturb me, or I’ll punch you in the face. Gooday.”

Nope, he’s pissed. And why did copy the way Finnél left? Its almost creepy that he did that. Guess I should leave him be for now. Give him some time to cool off after all that. Still, I can’t help but be nervous. Every time he goes off without us, he gets into something ridiculous. Like the time he went to loot a supermarket for soda, only to get chased by a very angry bear monster.

“Sorry about that. I know it’s probably not the best idea to separate the three of you, but it was the only way to keep the peace short of restructuring the whole list. And that might not worked anyway.”

“You don’t have to apologize to us. The lad’s just a tad bit emotional at times. Once he’s calmed down he’ll be fine.”

“That’s good to hear. I wouldn’t want to have him agitated during an important event like this one. Regardless of what the others said or think, I do believe he’s probably one of the strongest here.”

Everyone except the four of them had left the room while they were talking, which was good since someone might even objected to that. Of course only fools would care about something like that, but fools could be found everywhere.

“He can be a little obsessive at times, but we owe him our lives. If we hadn’t met, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Really? Michael did something like that? He doesn’t seem the type to help others.”

“He sure did. He tried to play it off like he had no choice in the matter, but I saw through that. He just couldn’t stand to leave others behind like that.”

“That’s almost adorable.”

“Don’t let him hear that, he’ll go completely haywire.”

“Hehehehehe.”

At some point, the two young women had completely taken over the conversation, leaving the two older men feeling left out.

***

[Protag’s POV]

Someone’s watching me.

It wasn’t a Skill that told me that, but my own intuition. Someone was intently watching me, hiding in the shadows. I wanted to find them, but they’d disappeared almost as soon as I’d noticed them. Whoever it had been was extremely skilled.

The only problem was that I didn’t know why they were watching me. If it was just harmless curiosity, then while it was annoying, it was bearable. But if it wasn’t, then….

I’ll keep an eye out and if they come back, they’ll be in for it. Don’t they know peeping is wrong?

I headed back to my room, for one reason and one reason only. My loot. Alicia might’ve kept me away earlier, but nothing would hold me back now. I hadn’t had time to go through it after I got back from the sabotage mission, so there was sure to be some interesting things inside.

Let’s see what we’ve got here. There’s some more consumables, a whole lotta Combustion Bombs. Some more generic armor drops, a few dozen knives of various Ranks.

Now what’s this?

Gem of Hatred

Rank: Special

Description: A shard of crystallized Grudge. These peculiar gems appear when life forms die in particularly violent or horrible ways. As crystallized Grudge is far more potent, Grudge Mages can draw on the stored energy to use spells they ordinarily couldn’t.

Now this is something. I can feel an intense amount of rage from within it, almost as much as what consumed me when I used Malignant Aura. I don’t think I should use this unless I really, really need to.

That wasn’t all I’d gotten though. There were a few other things of note too.

Boots of Extreme Speed

Rank: C

Effects: Greatly Increases Speed and Agility

Equipment Skills: Sonic Burst

Description: Boots made with the hide of a Sonic Wolf. The wolf’s Essence was extracted before death and imbued into the Boots, granting a portion of the monster’s power.

Oh my goodness! This is amazing! How, what, why did I get this!? I’m a little miffed that it’s a set of boots and not Gauntlets, but I can’t really complain too much. But I have to ask, what is Essence? I’ve never heard of it. Hm.

Well that’s that. There’s nothing else as good as-. Oh wait, I missed these. I thought they were Combustion Bombs, but they’re slightly smaller and have different designs. Smoke Bombs, really? Did the System run out of ideas? Actually, I could use these if I get surrounded. Mind’s Eye should let me see through smoke, so that could be an effective combo.

All in all, it had been a tumultuous day filled with peril, but as I’d gotten through it alive, it had been well worth the effort. While I still wasn’t sure about Grudge Magic, it could easily become something essential to my arsenal.

Well, I had a long day so far and I’ve got night watch again, so I’ll take a nap. Just gotta lock the door and bar it from the inside in case my stalker tries anything. Okay, that’s done. You know, these cots are surprisingly comfortable. I usually have a hard time sleeping, but this is pretty nice….

***

[Sampson’s POV]

“Hey Boss, why’d ya throw that kid unda the bus like that?”

“Simple. That kid's dangerous. He’s the worst kind of reckless. The kind that actually survives. He’ll do just about anything to win and even though it just about kills him, it won’t ever actually kill him.”

After Sampson had deftly led the meeting in the direction he desired, he and his men had gone to one of the larger rooms reserved for them. Michael might’ve been fine with the small room he’d been assigned, but others had discovered that you could request a larger common room for your group.

“He’s a loose cannon, someone who won’t play well with those he doesn’t like. Braddock might be willing to deal with someone like him, but I’m not so kind. It might be different if he calmed down, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

“Aight Boss. Whatever you say. But what about the other two? They’re both pretty strong.”

“Leave ‘em for now. It’s not like we’re trying to headhunt others. We’ll leave them alone and if they want to work with us, we can decide then.”

Sampson was the de-facto leader of his group. They’d been in London when the city fell and he’d used his domineering personality to force people to listen to him. They’d pulled together and used overwhelming numbers to break through the monsters. While only a few had stayed with him, they’d developed an unbreakable bond as brothers-in-arms.

“So, did anyone get anything worth looking at this time?”

It was an unwritten rule that everyone shared their item drops. They were distributed to those who needed them the most or would get the most out of it. Though Sampson usually monopolized the best items for himself, but no one really minded as he was the strongest.

“Eh, not really Boss. Most of it was those disposable armors or consumables. We did get this here ring though. It’s pretty useless, but it at least looks nice.”

Ring of Rage

Rank: C

Effect: Boosts the power of all Berserker Effects,

Equipment Skills: Rage Reverberation,

Description: A ring enchanted with powerful magic that amplifies the power of berserker magic and effects.

To most people, this ring would be useless or even dangerous, but to Sampson, it was the beginning of something amazing.

[Kalia’s POV]

0th Grade Blessing Magic Spell [Grace] – A minor application of Blessing Magic that soothes and strengthens the user. Often the first effect a Blessing Mage will use.

1st Grade Blessing Magic Spell [Bless] – A basic spell that grants a bonus to all Abilities within a certain radius of the caster.

2nd Grade Blessing Magic Spell [Blessed Charge] – A semi-offensive Spell that applies a charge of energy to a weapon. This grants physical weapons the ability to damage ethereal or energy-based beings.

This is ridiculous!!!

Kalia had been trying to work out how Blessing Magic worked for over an hour. While she’d sort of figured out how to manifest [Grace]’s effects, the other two spells had stumped her. This was because she had to actually learn the process of casting the spell, a task much harder than simply learning to cast Magic.

It was so easy for me to use Healing Magic, that I forgot that it’s actually difficult to learn more than one Magic. Even Arcane Grimoire can’t help here. The only thing I can do is to practice over and over. I just hope I can at least use one spell by tomorrow. Maybe I should just focus on [Grace] for now.

The fact that the spell eased her mind certainly helped push her in that direction. She’d been on edge ever since that thing had destroyed London and her nerves were starting to fray. An instinctual fear had been ingrained into her.

The glyphs just won’t come together the way I want them to. And here I was, getting ahead of myself just because I’m a little good at Healing Magic.

It wasn’t actually her fault though. Anyone would have difficulty learning their second type of Magic, it was just that her low self-esteem made her blame herself.

I’m honestly terrified about tomorrow, but I know the others are counting on me. I can’t let them down.