Part 19 - Running Out of Time

  Liz would’ve loved to have said they had a plan.

  The truth was, they didn’t. Somehow, she, Aegis and Elina had to handle a high level murderer that was stealthily killing citizens by the dozens and had the mentality that came with being willing to murder children.

  “Plan?” Liz glanced at Aegis as she hoped they had a method for taking out a high level murderer without a casualty. The three of them were the types who’d stand out the least in a crowd, so unless they wanted to look threatening, they weren’t even armed, and two of them would show up as non-combat classers regardless.

  “You said he had Wood, Steam and Acid? We can go over how you know them later. It’s a fair bet by levels alone that the killings are a combination of Steam and Acid, right? But that’s the slow, stealthy method. With so many levels, I’m willing to bet that if he dumps a big burst of mana on an Acid skill, he can be a very real threat to any of us. This is still a fairly low severity situation, so I’m assuming he’s only begun killing recently. Thankfully, that should mean he has low class qualities from working as a normal citizen for most of his life.”

  “Sure, so we try to overpower him with higher quality skills and stats, and take him out that way?” Elina offered, but Aegis seemed hesitant.

  “Of course not. We don’t have the proof to say beyond doubt that he’s responsible. We need to find our missing man, and then set a team that is trustworthy on the matter. Every person out scouring the city is currently looking for evidence and trying to find a missing member of an important delegation. I appreciate your candor and insight on this issue, and you’ve likely saved many lives simply putting us—and the authorities—on to this problem.”

  Liz just closed her eyes. Her heart sank as she realized she’d been overeager. Thinking herself to be a genius had somewhat blinded her, making her jump to a conclusion and panic when things began to go wrong. Aegis had over a decade of experience operating as a member of a team of elite soldiers handling a variety of problems. He may have allowed her to take the lead on an issue he wasn’t familiar with, but in the end, handling a threat from a high level classer was beyond her ability and the only person around who had the ability to contain a threat of such magnitude was Sentinel Magic, who had no reason to stray from his job protecting the Senator.

  “In the end, if we find the [Healer] is dead, that’s going to go without being resolved?”

  “By us, that’s correct. By the guards? We’ll see if the locals are so involved that the guard is in their pocket, too.” Aegis gave her a small knowing smirk.

  “I’ll keep an eye on the exits, boss. I’ll send you a present if anything weird happens.” Elina gave Liz a wink before she slipped into the crowds in the direction of a small eatery nearby.

  “You’re going to have to do the same, Fate. First up, wander around and get a rough idea of that basement you found. Anywhere that the walls are close to the sewers, map them out. See if you can sense anyone bound inside. I doubt they’d hide our missing man here, but find out just in case. Act natural, grab some street food. Then we stake the place out until we hear back about which places in town have ties to the killings.” Aegis then melted into the crowds.

  Liz set to work as well, first visiting a stall to buy some skewers that smelled tantalizing. The meat was similar to ground pork, then wrapped in a noodle-like shell that was steamed, then grilled to make a crisp outer layer and juicy interior. The sauce was a bit salty, but complemented the meat perfectly. She realized she hadn’t eaten during their prior break when she was laying Heron Lake’s residents to rest, and it reflected in her appetite.

  Mapping out the building didn’t take her long, but it did result in her finding multiple exits into the sewers, and two separate storerooms hidden in said sewers made her more than slightly convinced she’d been right in her assumptions.

  [Earth Shattering Arts] was a certified cheat-skill. The fact that it allowed her to sense things through the ground was immensely helpful, though the amount of disturbances involved in being in a city would’ve normally overwhelmed her. Her new divine blessing helped organize and reduce the chaos in the information storm, removing the biggest flaw in the skill’s function.

  She linked back up with Aegis quickly and slipped him a note about what she’d seen, and then tailed him discreetly towards the nearest sewer access they could slip into without being seen.

  “Let’s say we find evidence in these storerooms? Then do we hit this guy and leave the investigations to the guards?” Liz hated the idea of leaving a killer free to keep murdering people, especially children. The idea of someone killing the kids she’d been taking care of was finding some small amount of empathy in her heart that she’d long suppressed.

  “I don’t like our odds, and we have another mission and are running out of time. I say we find the evidence, hand it off to someone who can sort the issue out, and then move on.” Aegis gave her a stern look, and Liz had to back down. She just didn’t have the power to take down someone with that big an advantage on her own.

  Aegis lit their path with a subtle Radiance glow as the trio headed into the sewers, and Liz marveled at how clean they were. It was as if the people who handled the areas were properly funded, had the right skills and plenty of levels for the task. A true marvel of what could be achieved when the right cultural values lined up.

  Once they arrived at the first hidden passageway between the shop and the sewer, Liz used her skills to meld the stone door back into the adjacent wall, ruining the passageway to prevent anyone coming up behind them as they investigated the first storeroom.

  By all appearances, the first storeroom held an unbelievable amount of ingredients. It wasn’t much to consider evidence, but she also doubted anyone had obtained a permit to be using the space. Still, it wasn’t the right kind of criminality for their suspicions.

  The second hidden room was a little different. It was better hidden, and Elina didn’t even notice it with her Ice aura skill to sense shifts in heat. There were no seams, and the chamber actually seemed to only be accessible using Earth skills.

  “Interesting. I can get us inside, but it’ll be almost impossible for me to hide the fact we’ve been snooping. I can’t perfectly recall this pattern in the stonework and put it all back like this.” Liz was a little deflated, but Aegis gave her the green light anyway.

  The stone melted away like butter being parted by a hot knife, and the room beyond became fully exposed to their eyes.

  More distressingly, acid flooded out of the room and into the sewer, just thick enough to make breathing difficult, but not bad enough to burn their skin.

  They all managed to narrowly back away, but entering the room was a different question. The acid was not what Liz expected. The room was full of things that should’ve burned away from the exposure, but it all looked fine at a distance. Desks with stacks of paper, shelves with varieties of pouches similar to the ones sold in the shop above, and a whole workshop in one far corner where the old man must’ve been creating his essences.

  They all moved further away and hatched their game plan.

  “The old man must have [Acid Resistance] and other skills to keep people away from his work, meaning the acid is entirely created using his skills. We still don’t have proper evidence without going inside. Taking suggestions for how to continue.” Aegis laid out his observations succinctly, then gave the two of them a chance to contribute, one of his best qualities at times.

  “Can you cover someone with a barrier while they move inside?” Liz posed the first question, implying her suggestion.

  “No mobile shields… yet.” Aegis denied.

  “Then if the acid applies to human flesh, as we assume, then could Elina do anything with her [Ice Manipulation]?”

  Liz nodded, somewhat slowly, and then tried to move an arrow of ice through the acid.

  “No issues there, but with my power and the distances involved, I can’t grab anything very heavy. I’m all about lacerations, not bulky objects or attacks.” Elina saluted them before tapping her chin.

  “Focus on the paperwork. Maybe there’s evidence of a deal, and who the deals were with. Once we have that, we know who to not put in charge when we leave.”

  Liz nodded, then glanced at the rest of the sewers. “I’ll go block off the rest of the secret exits from the shop, yeah?”

  At Aegis’ nod, she slipped off into the tunnels around the shop, annoyed at needing to go up a handful of streets, then cut back to reach the other secret doorway she’d sensed from the street above, thanking her [Arts] for the ability to find her way without any light.

  She wound her way through the tunnels before she finally made it to the thin layer of bricks that separated the furnace room from the sewer, and the slight glow of the heat beyond betrayed the seams between the bricks. Some light sabotage had her work complete in no time.

  Sadly, that’s when things went awry.

  She turned away from her work and heard distant voices headed in her direction. They were too faint to make out, and the sound didn’t echo very well, leading to a garbled mess of noise reaching her Vitality-enhanced ears.

  Even without knowing what was being said, she knew she’d have to hide. Making too many turns in the maze of the sewers—obviously not planned by worshippers of Seira—would have her completely lost, and worse, if the voices were headed to the door she’d just sealed off, then it would cause further issues.

  If things were even worse than that, if the voices were headed towards Aegis and Elina, then the problems would multiply.

  “What do we tell the old codger? The foreign bastard refuses to keep quiet. It’ll ruin us all if we release him.” The voice of a man reached her ears more clearly as they came closer, and the light of a lantern cast light her way as she ducked down a side passage to remain out of sight.

  “I don’t want to kill him, and neither does the old man. We tried to keep this in-house, but it’s beyond what we can do anything about on our own. We just have to come clean and tell him we screwed up.” A second voice replied and gave Liz some confusing thoughts.

  They don’t want to kill the Ranger [Healer]? Then that makes it sound like they aren’t to blame for the killings. It makes no sense at all.

  She began rewriting the story of events in her head again as she slunk back to the hidden workshop, wincing as she heard the men find the sealed off secret doorway she’d just created. She hoped they didn’t have any Earth or Mountain element users that could undo her work, but Earth was an unnervingly common element.

  She focused on the clues they had.

  She was almost certain the killings came from the public bathhouses and their aromatic incenses. Some of the incense was toxic and overexposure could kill people, especially children.

  The creator of the killing substance was almost certainly the [Alchemist] from the shop.

  The town’s [Healers] were also involved, as they’d know if a plague was being erased by their skills or not.

  By what she’d heard just before, the people she’d passed were probably [Healers] concerned for their own reputations over the incident, which made some sense to her, though they’d also said they didn’t want to kill anyone, but thinking of reputation while children died was pretty foul.

  She reached Aegis before she could fully piece together the puzzle.

  “Got a problem. Sealed the doorway, then heard voices. They found the sealed doorway I made, but they’d been talking about our missing [Healer] and mentioned not wanting anyone to get killed.”

  “Lucky for you, Lynx just left from giving an update, and Elina and I went through some of these notes.”

  Elina then piped in excitedly. “The acidic incense was a mistaken creation meant to have been disposed of from the [Alchemist]’s research. The old guy and several unnamed assistants have been helping him research a wide array of fields, including the field of magical conditions caused by various buffs and how healing interacts with them!”

  “My working theory so far is that someone stole the substances being disposed of and found a great method to kill people and make investigators think it was the [Alchemist], while the thief got away with killing people for the levels and potentially for profits.”

  “So the question is: who is our mystery murderer?” Liz filled in the final question.

  “They have to have access to the substance and know which recipe makes what. They also have to have access to set up the incense in the public baths without anyone knowing.”

  Liz held up a hand to stop Aegis.

  “What are the odds this person is wealthy enough to not have to use the public bath houses themselves? Why risk using the same baths where people are getting sick, right?”

  Aegis gave her an uncertain look. “I wouldn’t count on that. If this person is leveling off killing people this way, then they might just be cunning enough to use the public baths just to avoid suspicion. And if they have an Acid class, they probably have [Acid Resistance] themselves. Then they could just act with total immunity to it all.”

  Liz cursed mentally before shrugging.

  “The person in question will have a higher level than you’d expect anyway, right? Wait and see which team reports having lain eyes on an unusually high level person of interest? After that, I can take a look with my blessing and see if they have an Acid class.”

  “Blessing, huh? Of course you have one. It’s hard to trust something I can’t verify with my own eyes, but I’ll roll with it for now. The alternative is to kill the person responsible and check the notification, which gets… messy when you’re wrong.”

  “Right… why do I feel like we keep running back around to square one?” Liz frowned in considerable frustration.

  “We just need to find the [Healer]. Nothing more, nothing less. Take me to the people you heard, then we’ll interrogate them.”

  Liz complied, and Elina remained to guard the acidic research chamber.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Upon their return to the secret entrance, the pair found… nothing.

  “They already left. What now?” Liz grumbled in annoyance, then filed through the information they’d compiled. Of course it wasn’t something simple, was it?

  “We don’t have the means to track anyone, so we just wait for reports from the others. If the pair you heard needed to speak with the [Alchemist] right away, then they probably went to try from street level. Meaning they’ll find the sealed secret exits soon.” Aegis began to jog back to Elina.

  Liz followed, still lost in thought. “What if we negotiate? If the truth is that these people aren’t the real killers, they might want to help take down whoever is the real killer.”

  A calculating silence fell over them as Aegis mulled over the suggestion.

  They didn’t reach a conclusion before they rounded a corner to find Lynx, Elina and an impassive Sentinel Magic in mirage form before them.

  “Boss, we have a bit of a diplomatic problem.” Elina didn’t have her usual cheer around her as she winced in the direction of Magic’s mirage, subtle pressure rolling off the man who seemed to not be used to overt displays of authority.

  Aegis cursed colorfully.

  ~ ~ ~

  Apparently, foreign dignitaries didn’t appreciate having their entourage kidnapped from them. Who could’ve guessed?

  Aegis hadn’t wanted to inform the vampires until they’d already settled the matter, hoping to avoid the Senator and Sentinel’s ire. Instead, they’d obviously been informed by the Ranger team.

  And that was how Aegis, Liz and Elina had been brought to the local [Mayor]’s mansion an hour before sundown. Every human member of the Ranger team was lined up like a firing squad outside the large, ostentatious home. In the shadow of the doorway stood one of the Exterreri envoy’s vampires. The trio entered and found the entire staff of the home lined up in the entryway, all tied up and gagged.

  The entire display put everything into perspective.

  The Exterreri members were pissed, and they weren’t from that town. They didn’t care who lived or died. They’d take down the whole city to find their man.

  They finally entered the open doorway into a large drawing room where the Sentinel, Senator and town leader all sat. Senator Ignatius was sitting silently, while the [Mayor] seemed to be shaking in his seat, cold sweat rolling down his brow despite the tropical heat.

  [Leader - Wind (Lvl 270), Fire (Lvl 225)]

  Liz silently crossed him off their suspect list.

  “I’m glad we’re all here now.” Ignatius’ voice was a low hiss that conveyed his stature as an apex predator in the world, a noise that had Elizabeth stiffening in an instinctual reaction to feeling hunted. She could also tell she wasn’t the only one, and the town [Mayor] paled visibly.

  “Lord Mayor, it has come to my attention that one of my entourage has been abducted within your fair city. I’d like to ask what you know about that.” It was clear there was no question. The demand was absolute.

  “Y-your lordship, I-I don’t know anything! I swear!” The city was clearly run by a sniveling coward, not that Liz could disparage him much, given the pressure, but she at least wouldn’t have stuttered, and she wasn’t even level one hundred.

  “You claim you have no idea what happens in the city you oversee? Triarchus Aegis, please report, if you would?” Liz watched with eagle eyes as the leader of team Iota sucked in a sharp breath. She had to admit, she knew nothing about the Legions of Exterreri, but given their cover story while traveling, it was a bit of an oversight on her part.

  “Senator, upon entering the town, we realized something was unusual about the plague going on. The [Healer] from your entourage confirmed there was no plague cleansed by his skills. Some questioning and poking around led to the discovery that someone has been using a skill-infused acid incense to slowly poison and kill off civilians. I believe that because your [Healer] discovered the lack of a plague, he was targeted and abducted by those responsible.”

  The [Mayor] opened his mouth to speak, but froze solid when the Senator glared at him.

  “Lord Mayor, you want me to believe you had no knowledge and conducted no investigations to learn there was a murderer in your own city?”

  Liz smartly remained silent as the inquiry—or verbal flogging—continued. Instead she began to look over the servants outside the room.

  [Laborer - Water (Lvl 175), Wind (Lvl 163)]

  [Laborer - Fire (Lvl 214), Fire (Lvl 149)]

  [Artisan - Wood (Lvl 386), Wind (Lvl 308)]

  Her eyes skimmed over each of them, boring into the mana senses within each person with her blessing to read their mana signature and class elements.

  The dozen servants each seemed fine, though she had to admit the one who looked like an office worker was oddly much higher level than the [Mayor].

  Finally, she reached the elderly head servant at the end of the hall, and had to bore into him especially hard to read his mana. She’d become familiar with Mirage as an elemental aura enough to know it played tricks on her eyes in subtle ways, like it was laughing at her while blowing raspberries.

  The mana of the head servant was muddled, but once she finally got past the trickery, she realized it was disguising the man’s [Identify].

  [Laborer - Mirage (Lvl 4~5~7), Water (Lvl 697), Acid (Lvl 114)]

  Her blood ran cold as she poked Aegis, then pointed out the man, who then seemed to notice her gesture and narrowed his eyes at her.

  “What? He’s probably a [Butler] and only level 457?” Aegis questioned her, causing her to lean her head toward him and mutter back quietly.

  “I can see his mana. His Second class looks like 697, and he has Acid-type mana in a third class. He must have a skill to hide his second class’s level.”

  “Ahem. Triarchus Aegis, Miss Fate, do you have something to add?”

  Liz cleared her throat and stepped forward. She wouldn’t allow Aegis to take blame for anything she’d sidetracked them into.

  “Senator, I apologize. It was my observation that sidetracked the delegation. However, as [Priestess] and support for your entourage, I must inform you that we found evidence the incense was stolen research waste material stolen by someone and then mixed into the incense rotation used by the public baths. Given the dangerous nature of Acid, the research was contained in a sealed chamber in the sewers. The only people who have the knowledge, access and ability to deflect blame on the [Alchemist] in question would be someone involved in the management of the town. Multiple [Healers] seemed to be involved, so I believe the killer, or thief, also has some sort of leverage to keep them from reporting the lack of plague in the city.”

  Silence filled the room for a long moment, then the Mayor cut in.

  “That’s right! The guards reported a few youths with early [Healer] classes had reported not having any luck curing the plague! I’ve only been in my position for a month. You can’t expect me to be able to handle the whole situation so soon!”

  “Actually, based on the levels of some of your servants, they’re the ones handling the real administrative work in the city, aren’t they?” Liz drove a bus over the man without a hint of hesitation.

  “We are nearly out of time. [Mayor], I do hope you’ll get this situation well in hand before I mention this unpleasant incident to the new Vajra leaders at the event tomorrow night.”

  “Of course, summon the guard commander immediately!” The mayor dove for his lifeline with pathetic eagerness.

  All the same, Liz was ready the moment she heard the sizzling burn of acid from down the hall. She was off like a shot after the man who bolted the moment he heard the pronouncement.

  She could trust Elina and Aegis to help her out, using skills built over multiple days of team training exercises.

  Elina had her cold aura spreading across the exits of the estate by the time Liz reached the first intersection of corridors in the house. The Ice user then called out the direction she felt heat passing through as the killer ran away.

  For someone to look elderly on Pallos either meant they were decades into their life as a fairly normal civilian, or they had over a hundred years and massive Vitality to prolong their lifespan. This elderly worker seemed to be the latter, moving quickly with the stats to show for being a high level classer in his own right.

  Liz had buffs and combat training, as well as a team on her side as she tailed the fleeing murderer into the streets of the city, able to trust her companions with tightening the noose around the criminal’s neck. Every alleyway was blocked by another member of the team as they converged on his escape routes, forcing him to flee towards the docks facing the ocean.

  When she caught him—working her Speed, Magic Power and Control boosting skills to their limits—he was trying to use small gouts of acid to burn his way through a lock to get into the sewers.

  She conjured [Chainmail] as she dove toward him, twisting in the air to bring a roundhouse kick at his shoulders, only to sail through the vacant space as his appearance shimmered, still obfuscating her mana sight with the confusing distortions that made up the Mirage mana itself.

  Still, the sight of Acid mana lashing out towards her was clear as day, and she narrowly dodged to the side as she recovered from her kick.

  More acid came from different directions as Mirage mana spread across the dead-end.

  Liz briefly thought of closing her eyes, but losing sight of the acid attacks would be a major problem. She had to manage both her [Arts] senses and the mana sight at the same time and bank on the blessing to help her to organize the information and process everything in real time during combat. She hadn’t had a chance to test her blessing in training with Aegis yet, but she would have to live with the trial by acid instead.

  Liz had the clear advantage of training and focused boosting skills all directed into her chosen combat style. Her opponent was a lifelong worker, having been a civilian that became a killer.

  Her stat advantage was naturally a disadvantage at the huge level difference. Her month of training with Arlyen and week of training with Iota had honed her battle sense with reckless disregard for her own sanity, though. She'd put herself through hell and it had paid off. She even had her Metal class skills taking the lead in parrying what they could, since she needed her second class to catch up fast.

  She had two options as she dodged combined sprays of Acid and blades of Water, each being mixed together to get her to make a mistake. One option was to take down her opponent, but risk injury to herself. The second was to wait out the man’s mana until he was spent.

  She’d win either way, but they were on a short timeframe, and the patience of Team Iota waiting just beyond the alleyway was likely to wear thin. Aegis having held them back in order to allow Liz a chance to handle a threat he considered low risk to her.

  The truth was, each attack sent her way was a very low risk to her. With her armor and her stone body, she’d be unlikely to actually die from liquid acid attacks. The key difference between the Steam-Acid combination of the [Alchemist] and the Water-Acid combination of the killer being the lethality of an inhaled acidic attack against her particular skills.

  As she continued to dodge and parry the acid spray and test out the slow method, she reflected on her fights since she’d come to Pallos. The dire wolves, the smugglers, the mercenaries who’d sacked Heron Lake and the adventurers who’d robbed the village afterwards. Every fight she’d had was in some manner unfulfilling. She’d come to a revelation about her skills and end the fight without any fanfare.

  She grinned. It was time to change that.

  She ducked under a blade of water and forced her right foot into the stone floor hard.

  The stone cracked at her mercy and a small crater formed as she flexed her will over the broken fragments near her body, launching the projectiles forward in a shower of dust to obscure her movements.

  One step to the left, a twist of her abdomen, and she swept away some droplets of acid with her armored right hand before lashing out with her left hand with a hook, transferred into a left straight as her fist didn’t meet flesh right away.

  The stone dust she’d scattered parted from the force of her strike, the air shuddering from the localized quake of her skill-empowered fury.

  She still didn't have a view of the killer, but she could sense the air temperature plummeting as Elina set the stage for Iota to engage as a unit.

  Liz couldn’t allow them to steal her prey.

  She stomped again, emanating a wave of magic that cleared the dust in the air completely, leaving her face to face with the ball of acid being gathered by her target. She brought her [Elegant Chains] to the fore as they spun and cut the orb of acid to ribbons, her fist right behind the glinting metal as her fingers grasped the man by his sleeve, chains joining in to drag him through his own acid face-first.

  Sadly, she didn’t get to witness any poetic justice as his [Acid Resistance] skill negated the effects. She briefly wanted to pout, but a dangerous classer wasn’t something to be handled with carelessness.

  She plunged her fist into his stomach. “You killed kids.” He coughed up blood.

  She kicked him in the groin. “You power-hungry monster!” She watched his vision falter as he faded at the edge of consciousness from the sudden pain.

  He still fought to get the words out all the same. Tough bastard.

  “For the Justiciary, and the Lord Magister, I would kill every traitor submitting to the Vajra.” Liz sneered in his face as she watched him try to gather his mana into another attack.

  “Monster.” She wrapped her hand around his throat, tightening her grip while staring at him with cold, dead eyes.

  She hadn’t gotten what she wanted from him yet.

  But he was close.

  She eased her grip only slightly as she batted away the forming acid with little care.

  “Please! Spare… me. I… Never meant… to kill any children.”

  She snapped his neck with utter ruthlessness as the team approached her from behind.

  [*ding* You have slain a [Magister’s Agent - [Mirage] lvl 518], [Hard-Working Host - [Water] lvl 397], [The Butler Did It - [Acid] lvl 114]!]

  Liz breathed out a sigh of relief as her levels rolled in, added bonus from [Merciless] working as a slight excuse for tormenting the criminal at the very end.

  “You killed him… and now we can't interrogate him.” Aegis seemed worn out. It had been a long day without rest and it showed on his face. Others seemed pretty green at her method. Elina seemed to be appraising her work thoughtfully.

  “He confessed in his final moments, and he literally has a class dedicated to the murders. Only level 114 in that, so we can assume we caught him early on.” Liz replied.

  “That, and most of the people who died were low level without much Vitality.”

  The sun dipped below the city walls, and Liz realized they were definitely going to be late.

  [*ding* Congratulations! Your class [Acrobatic Templar of Seira] has leveled up from level 94 to level 103!]

  [*ding* You have gained the following stats per level! +30 Free Stats, +60 Dexterity, +50 Vitality, +60 Speed, +30 Mana, +80 Mana Regeneration, +50 Magic Power, +50 Magic Control from your class! +4 Free Stats for being Partially Human, +2 Vitality for being Partially Stone Golem! +1 Vitality from your element!]

  [*ding* Congratulations! Your class [Fate’s Shackles] has leveled up from level 75 to level 91!]

  [*ding* You have gained the following stats per level! +4 Free Stats, +6 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +10 Vitality, +2 Speed, +5 Mana, +5 Mana Regeneration, +4 Magic Power, +4 Magic Control from your class! +4 Free Stats for being Partially Human, +2 Vitality for being Partially Stone Golem! +1 Magic Power from your element!]

  [*ding* [Seira’s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange], [Earth Authority], [Earth Manipulation], [Tenacity of Stone], [Rigid Body], [Earth Shattering Arts], [Mental Partitioning], [Learning] and [Imaginative] have remained capped! 94 -> 103]

  [*ding* [Templar’s Conviction] has leveled up! 48 -> 53]

  She was happy to see the levels really rolling in for the new skill, though she continued to keep the details of the enhancements under wraps. She didn’t trust the team enough with the methods to circumvent her strongest ability to punch above her level.

  [*ding* [Chain Proficiency], [Elegant Chains], [Chain Reinforcement], [Chainmail] and [Fate’s Bonds] have remained capped! 75 -> 91]

  [*ding* [F-L Magic Power] has leveled up! 1 -> 24]

  [*ding* [F-L Speed] has leveled up! 58 -> 72]

  [*ding* [F-L Magic Control] has leveled up! 1 -> 24]

  [*ding* [An Eye for Detail] has leveled up! 76 -> 90]

  [*ding* [Merciless] has leveled up! 1 -> 10]

  [*ding* [F-L Speed] may now be merged with Fate’s Bonds]. Would you like to merge these skills? Y/N]

  She barely hesitated. She’d been using the skill quite a bit to navigate the city that day. Also, she could somewhat confirm her skills were shifting from functioning on Base 10 values towards the Pallos standard of Base 8.

  [*ding* You have unlocked the Class Skill [Fate-Linked Mana]!]

  She had to admit Strength wasn’t likely to ever happen. The pitiful stat was at barely 300 while her other boosted stats were as high as 12,000. She’d been growing in an explosive way with the stacking of her two classes on one another. Even the 1% per level from [Fate’s Bonds] was doubling her divine blue class stats to incredible levels. Barely past level 100—with no skill offering, she noted—and already reaching such high values felt like it was cheating.

  Technically, if she invested her Free Stats into Strength, she would’ve gotten close, but she was saving them for right before she reached her big 128 class-up.

  Finally, as she was catching her breath and the team was covering the body, the vampires and Rangers caught up to them, finally free to move as the sun swiftly set.

  “All done, then? We are out of time. I understand your sense of duty to this country, and so I will not berate you for doing what you could with the time made available to you all. In the future, do not involve my entourage, however. Our missing Ranger will be found soon, and the town leadership will handle the final investigation in our place.” Senator Ignatius gave a soft rebuke of what had happened, and Liz felt bad that Aegis had taken the brunt of that when she felt at fault.

  Regardless, they would need to be on the road very soon and still had a [Healer] to track down.