Volume 4 : Ruination

Part 1 : Single-minded Pursuit.

27th of the Red Moon

Subsequent to learning the truth about her quarry, Amare Na Xivia left Blackcrest and headed South. She only took short rests and relied on her unique magical abilities to track the parasite.

For the first six days, she traveled at a fast pace, hell-bent on catching up. Fortunately, ‘Leonis’, his maid, and the zombie were taking the main road, so it wasn’t particularly difficult to find them once Amare was close enough.

However, even with the target in sight, Amare did not recklessly charge in. Now that she knew that her target, the perpetrator behind the Blood Purge, was a parasite, she became overly-cautious and opted for stealth, which wasn’t her forte.

She followed them from what she assumed was a ‘safe’ distance and quietly followed their trail, refusing to let them out of her sight.

The young vampire would hide behind trees or between bushes each time Evelyn would look around or scout the area.

Overall, the stealth part was done marvelously and her target did not seem aware of her presence. Even after the passing of days, Amare’s quarry was seemingly unaware of her, which made her more confident in her abilities.

She only had one chance to strike and defeat all of them. Then again, her objective wasn’t to kill but to catch the parasite alive and then bring him to Marjory.

The vampire’s plan wasn’t flawless and it was hindered by many variables, such as the peculiar talking zombie, the seemingly harmless rabbit, and the maid.

Amare wasn’t able to gauge their strength, which was worrisome enough. Moreover, a parasite wasn’t so easy to catch alive as they were generally elusive and abnormally tenacious.

‘He should be able to use Leonis’ Barrier Magic and the Bloated Murderer’s mist… but there could be more abilities I’m unaware of. I must wait till they separate… or something happens.’

As one of Marjory’s children, Amare was strong. Her magic, which relied on energy unique to her bloodline, was flexible and particularly dominant over the average magic. However, it wasn’t as strong against physically-oriented fighters, which was exactly why she had trouble facing the Faceless Agent alone.

“What a beautiful clear sky. I’m more of a winter guy, but the warm weather is always welcome.”

“Master, have you finally gone insane? As your maid, it pains me to see you behave like this.”

Arthur, grinning from one ear to the other, turned to look at the stoic woman. He chuckled at her remark and stretched his body.

“I wanted to test my new abilities by sparing against you.” He subtly glanced to the side, at a seemingly empty spot between the trees.

“Alas! We got a pretty persistent and awfully clumsy pursuer.”

The maid too, was aware of the not-so-stealthy vampire, but Arthur told her to act oblivious, so she reluctantly did.

Only Mort was unaware and would dumbly stare there, either hungrily eyeing Furball or mumbling incoherently to himself.

“I need to ascertain something first.”

Arthur was feeling threatened, but not by Amare. He felt as if something else was tailing them, something unseen and harboring intense bloodthirst.

Thanks to [Survival Instinct(Passive)], which he had acquired for Randy, Arthur was able to sense any danger lurking around and aimed specifically at him.

From what Vanessa Crimson had told him, Marjory was looking for Rodrick. Logical, and by extension, Amare shouldn’t be after his life.

Yet, his vision would randomly turn red, and it started happening before he spotted the vampire.

“Anyway, with how bad she is at hiding herself, we should be able to lose her once we’re at Smithy Town.”

“Alright.” The maid packed the unfinished food and put it in the magical bag, which Arthur had handed to her.

Retaliating against Amare would be suicidal as they would consequently suffer Marjory’s wrath. So, in more than a way, Arthur’s approach was the best option.

As they were walking down the main dirt road, Arthur slowed his steps and walked next to Evelyn.

“Master, it’s creepy if you’re this close.”

“I was wondering…” He stared at her face then looked down, focusing on the covered area that hid the tattoos.

“No more pain from ‘you-know-what’?”

“...”

“Don’t look away and feign ignorance. I saw the tattoo and I know you worked for some kind of organization of assassins.”

“It’s a past I have long since discarded, Master.”

“It hasn’t discarded you, though. I noticed that you would occasionally have a fever or seem in pain. It’s happening more frequently, too.”

“It’s inconsequential. It will not affect my duties nor limit my fighting faculties.”

“Well, I beg to differ!”

The maid tried to quicken her steps and avoid the conversation but he caught up to her. When she tried to drift to the side, he stretched his arm and, much to her surprise, pulled her ear.

“You’re avoiding me like the plague. Your act is almost comical.”

She gave him a cold stare from the corner of her eyes, “...can you let go?”

“Give me a smile and I will.”

The result was a forced and stiff expression that, in no shape or form, resembled a smile. Still, Arthur let go and sighed.

“I sometimes wonder if you’re a machine.”

“I assure you I’m a fully-functioning human being.”

“Sadly, you’re trying your best to not act like one. Now, returning to the topic at hand, your tattoo… we could look for a way to remove it.”

“I don’t want to remove it, Master. It’s fine as it is, so let’s move past this self-made conundrum.”

As she was stubbornly refusing help, Arthur did not insist. He shrugged and maintained silence as they were closing in on Smithy Town.

Arthur and company were scheduled to arrive at their destination tomorrow morning. It was the last night they were going to spend in the wilds.

‘It’s tasteless.’

Arthur munched on the grass, feeling no difference at all. Obviously, real food was more appetizing, and this little experiment was meant only to test [Insectile Gluttony].

The skill didn’t look that useful, but it could prove the difference between life and death if the food in his possession were to become scarce.

Thankfully, before leaving Blackcrest, he made sure to fill his old bag with all kinds of resources, including food and water.

The possession of the agent went smoothly and he gained half of the stats and all the skills. Furthermore, after becoming a Wither Magick Parasite, he was rewarded with new racial skills.

*TITLE(S) : NONE

NAME : Arthur Bilgart

RACE : Wither Magick Parasite

Lv: 11 (24%)

-

Strength : 222

Intelligence : 114

Agility : 201

Wisdom: 105

Vitality : 179

Dexterity : 165

-

*Skills

Resitances:

Magic Resistance(Passive Lv1)

Poison Resistance(Passive Lv2)

Cold Resistance(Passive Lv1)

Heat Resistance(Passive Lv1)

Disease Resistance(Passive Lv3)

-Others:

Physical Enhancement(Passive Lv8)

Full Moon(Passive-Active)

Mana Control(Passive Lv5)

Long Breath(Passive Lv4)[Fish-type host required]

Possession(Passive LvEX)

Woodworking(Passive Lv2)

First Attack(Passive Lv2)

Culinary Arts(Passive Lv3)

Survival Instinct(Passive)

Keen Eyes(Passive Lv3)

Swift Wings(Passive Lv2)[Bird-type Host required]

Rat Teeth(Passive)[Mammal-type host required]

Warmth(Passive)

Insectile Gluttony(Passive)

Sickening Life(Passive)

Universal Human Language(Passive)

Basic Arman Language(Passive)

Medical Field(Passive Lv4)

Farming(Passive Lv2)

-Weapon Masteries

Knife Mastery(Passive Lv2)

Dual Dagger Mastery(Passive Lv2)

Sword Mastery(Passive Lv7)

Axe Mastery(Passive Lv3)

Spear Mastery(Passive Lv1)

Bow Mastery(Passive Lv1)

-Active abilities:

Vampire Bite(Active Lv10)

Sadistic Torture(Active Lv5)

Blood Succor(Active Lv7)

Corpse Dissection(Active Lv12)

Sanguis(blood) Barrier(Active Lv7)

Tusk Damage(Active Lv3)

Flight, No Fight(Active Lv3)

Exoskeleton Defense(Active Lv2)

The Mist of Decay(Active Lv4)

Wither Touch(Active Lv1)

Enhanced Spell(Active Lv1)

Internal Cry(Active)

Lunar Blade(Active Lv5)

Half a Moon(Active Lv4)

Sword Blast(Active Lv4)*

After possessing the agent, Arthur learned that, instead of providing his real name, the System referred to him as Number 10, which was reasonable since his organization assigned its agent numbers instead of codenames.

In addition to the decent boost in stats, mainly physically-oriented ones, Arthur obtained three new skills from the corpse; Half a Moon - Sword Blast - Lunar Blade.

As someone who prioritized safety first, Arthur wasn’t keen on close-quarter combat, nonetheless, it was better to have such skills as they offered more versatility to his style.

*[Half a Moon(Active Lv4)]: The user will draw energy from his body and manifest a semi-brilliant moon that will unleash an invisible blast within a radius of 35m.

Sword Mastery Lv5 or higher required.*

*[Lunar Blade(Active Lv5)]: The user will draw energy from his sword and conjure a translucent silver moon that will double his stats for 5 seconds and then explode.

Sword Mastery Lv6 or higher required.*

*[Sword Blast(Active Lv4): Unleash a unidirectional sword attack imbued with Mana*.

[Wither Touch(Active Lv1)]: Wither and rot, decay and die, the power to suck the energy or Life Essence of the flora or inanimate objects for a temporary boost in prowess.

[Enhanced Spell(Active Lv1)]: Using the Vortan incantation ‘Far’ha’, the user can empower the next casted spell.

Doubles the required Mana Cost.*

[Infernal Cry(Active)]: Let out a devilish cry that immobilizes all those around you.

The Bloated Murderer’s scarred and hideous face would attract too much attention. As for the agent’s body, it was stored in the magical bag, meant to be used at a later time.

Now that he had become decently strong, Arthur felt safer and more confident in protecting himself.

However, the abnormally high-leveled skills obtained from Latif did make him re-assess his evaluation of the seemingly weak Latif.

Someone like Agent Number 10, who had held his own against the two vampires, only had Sword Mastery at Lv7 yet Latif’s Corpse Dissection was at Lv12.

‘Latif wasn’t strong… how did he kill Rodrick? Even with Mort, it should have been difficult, if not impossible. I don’t think I’m really obtaining everything from the hosts or else it wouldn’t make sense.’

Logically, if he purely followed the numerical values provided by the System, then, after possessing the agent, Arthur should have gained half of his overall prowess. It was the same for the Bloated Murderer too, however, there were inconsistencies.

Not all skills were like [Medical Field], which had flooded his mind with knowledge and the like.

For instance, thanks to [Sword Mastery], Arthur was now able to use swords at a decent level, and this ‘ability’ would be automatically applied when he was holding a sword. Then again, it felt more like borrowed power than anything else.

To be precise, it was like Leonis’ Barrier Magic. Arthur acquired it, but he needed to get accustomed to it and slowly learn how to manipulate it.

He might have gotten the agent’s skills, but it was far-fetched to think he might be able to perform an identical demonstration of the power he had seen in Blackcrest.

Still, through diligent practice and habit, he would be able to integrate those skills into himself.

‘Basically, it’s obtaining the power but… not the naturally-gained experience. It’s like understanding something theoretically yet incapable of applying it practically. Nevertheless, the stats should temporarily help me overcome the discrepancies.’