Villainous 56 Questions

It was the latter half of the twilight hours, feeble starlight failing to pierce the swirling gray mist covering the city like a chilly blanket. The city streets were quiet and somber, the distant glow of lanterns in windows the only sign that the world hadn't been deserted.

Dry gra.s.s crunched underfoot as she circled the house, relying more on her minimap than her actual sense of sight to find her way around obstacles.

Around the back of the house, a large set of banded wooden doors sat open to reveal a narrow stone staircase leading down into the pitch black depths of the earth. Li Mei exhaled a shaky breath then descended into the bas.e.m.e.nt.

Everything from the ceiling to the stairs was covered with the same weird ghost grime that present in the house, but in much thicker layers. Li Mei shuddered with distaste as her feet sank into the grime with a soft squelching sensation.

At least it helped m.u.f.fle the sound of her stupid, heavy boots. When she reached the bottom step, Li Mei crouched low to the ground and examined the room with narrowed eyes.

Once upon a time, the bas.e.m.e.nt served as both a wine and food storage cellar. It was no longer used in such a fashion, as the empty wine racks were wreathed in cobwebs and the storage shelves were laid bare.

A group of figures stood around a table in the back of the bas.e.m.e.nt.

Four men, plus the large cloaked figure she recognized as Keori, all staring eerily at the naked body of a young woman illuminated only by small candles placed by her head and feet. Two of the men were chanting while the other two worked together to weave their refined mana into a single complex pattern spreading in the air over the woman's body like a strange net. From a distance it just looked like a blurred jumble of green and brown light.

Meanwhile, Keori was dipping his grey fingers in a pot of green ink and drawing strange symbols and patterns across the woman's bare, cold flesh.

'Five Rank 0 men and a woman's corpse...' Li Mei scowled, a cyan light flickering across her mauve eyes as she Scanned everyone present. 'Where is this supposed master? Two chanting, two weaving, one drawing... None of them really have the appearance of a leader, so where's the one that supposedly called them here?'

Hoping to catch sight of the hidden master in the shadows, she watched the progress of their spell casting for an entire minute before her lips started twitching. 'Aren't they... A bit... Slow?'

Li Mei controlled a thread of cyan mana one meter long to extend from her Core, emerging effortlessly from the tip of one finger. She tied it into a silly and useless but very pretty knot before pulling back into her Core so as to avoid wasting it. It only took a few seconds, yet for those two weirdos... They each took half a minute to extend a thread of mana no longer than six centimeters!

If not for that, perhaps the ritual would be finished already! She scoffed at their lack of skill, but was grateful for it at the same time.

She crept closer to the group, using the shelves and wine racks as cover while keeping an eye on their spell. The mana threads became clearer as she approached, revealing the intricacies of the spell weaving.

It looked... Wrong.

Not morally or ethically, though as a necromancy ritual it was definitely wrong on both fronts. Her gut feeling, however, pertained to the spell's literal structure. The lines of mana weaving through the air seemed shaky and uneven, with varying thicknesses that were unpleasant to look at. She didn't know what the pattern was supposed to look like, but surely that wasn't it?

Not to mention the aura colors didn't complement each other and clashed instead of blending harmoniously within the spell. That felt important for some reason, but was yet another mystery she couldn't explain the feeling behind. She sneered at the mess of colors and gave a small shake of her head.

Keori finished drawing the patterns on the woman's body. He removed a shiny golden locket from around his neck, an expression of devotion and love in his milky white eyes. He fastened it instead around the woman's slender neck with the pendant resting on her clavicle. Grayish-green mana particles flickered and danced across the locket's engraved surface. "Halfway through the chant. The ritual... Should be progressing well. I bet it looks beautiful, Lessa. Just like you were, and will be again. Soon, beloved. Soon."

Li Mei's eyebrows rose. Cliché creepy words aside... Couldn't he see those ugly mana threads for himself? He didn't even glance up to check!

She extended a thread of mana again. This time, she controlled it to circle around the other side of the bas.e.m.e.nt, pouring more and more mana into the thread to increase its length. It wove around obstacles, then wiggled its way into the faces of each person present.

No response.

Her eyebrows rose high enough to be in danger of disappearing into her hairline.

They couldn't see mana! Even the two casters had no response to her thread.

In that case...

Li Mei grinned.

During her lessons with Faust, he repeatedly stressed the importance of mana control. It was important to have fine control which allowed spells to be cast quickly. Being faster than your opponent by even a second was often the difference between life and death since the basic act of disrupting a spell caused backlash directly proportionate to how much mana they poured into it.

The more mana used beforehand, the more damage they took to their body and Core - in addition to whatever damage they took from the enemy spell used to interrupt in the first place should it hit them. Damage was reduced if the person about to be interrupted was quick enough to draw mana back into their Core as canceling a spell in progress only had minor backlash compared to a blatant interruption.

Interruption, after all, sent the used mana into disarray and scattered it into the winds, so the caster would lose their precious refined mana while they took damage from it and the enemy spell.

Most active battle spells required utilizing atmospheric mana - unrefined mana from the surroundings - while refined mana was only used to guide the effect and stir the atmospheric mana into action. Such atmospheric mana was what caused the backlash of canceling a spell in the first place. Depending on how much of that was gathered into the spell before interruption, the damage from the backlash would be multiplied many times over!

It was really too brutal. If a spell gathered all its atmospheric mana before casting was interrupted, its final backlash damage would be terrifying.

Li Mei briefly spared a thought for the swordsman ghost, the master of the house who was a magic teacher yet utilized martial weaponry so well. Puzzle pieces clicked into place, but she set the notion aside for later pondering.

She pulled most of the thread back, keeping just enough of its length to reach the center of the room from her hiding position. Her mana slithered around the men casting their foul necromantic ritual. Serpentine and beautiful, the cyan thread reared up... And struck right at the spell weaving!

Li Mei cut the thread off the instant it struck, sacrificing the rest of the thread to prevent any foreign mana from traveling back along its length and hitting her Core. Even then, she was still almost too slow.

The spell exploded.

The atmospheric mana it gathered must have been tremendous! Brown and green mana threads glowed bright before they shattered, unleashing a hurricane of slicing wind throughout the entire bas.e.m.e.nt. Shelves and wine racks smashed into splinters. Everyone was blown backward until they hit a wall, pinned in place by the force of escaping mana as it surged toward the exit. The woman's corpse rolled pitifully in the eye of the mana hurricane, twisted and rolled this way and that, the sound of cracking bones piercing the howling winds.

Li Mei's head slammed against the wall, her small body pressed as though pinned by a giant invisible hand. If not for her impressive physique, she would have been knocked unconscious or worse instead of merely dazed with stars in her vision.

Pitifully, the two casters didn't survive the backlash. Their Cores shattered before they even hit the walls, blood and chunks of inner organs pouring freely from their gaping mouths, eyes bursting in their skulls from pressure in their bodies escaping outward. The two who were chanting fared much better in comparison, merely fracturing their skulls as they hit the walls with great force.

Even Keori's large frame wasn't spared from being tossed back like an empty potato sack in a particularly strong breeze. He managed to roll himself into a ball before impact, lessening the damage but still gasping for breath from the pain and force.

Just as the wind died down and everyone collapsed to the ground...

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[Interruption]

★★★

Interrupt the vile necromantic ritual.

(Bonus): Destroy the 3 Ghost Anchors hidden throughout the house. 3/3

Completed!

Reward: 500 EXP, unlocking [Mana Sight]

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[Mana Sight]

You were born with the rare innate ability to perceive mana. Through unknowing practice you've grown from seeing only strong mana particles in your immediate surroundings, to your own mana threads, to even the mana threads of enemies casting spells!

With the unlocking of this genetic trait your ability to see mana increases, both pa.s.sively and actively.

You can now perceive auras by focusing on an object or target, provided the individual in question is not hiding theirs with a skill or spell. Concealment-type skills and spells rarely have any effect on your vision unless it's a high level skill or spell, or used by someone with a higher quality of mana.

Additionally your other senses are enhanced in mana detection, increasing your overall sensitivity to mana. Take caution, as this increases the effect spells have - particularly spells and skills that target the senses. The stronger you are, the more susceptible you become as your senses are further enhanced.

Being able to see auras allows one to determine when someone starts casting a spell, if someone is hiding magitech tools on their body, the location and strength of enchanted items, and much more.

Pouring mana into your eyes grants extra sight and vision-type abilities such as allowing you to view greater distances, scrutinize finer details, break illusions, or even see the unseen.

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[Sense]

Hidden Hostile Detected! Use Mana Sight!

Threat level: Moderate

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After over a year of practice Li Mei refined proficiency in the art of absorbing tooltip information, skimming through and absorbing important information in just a few seconds. Her mauve eyes flickered with a cyan glow, but before she could look around to find the detected enemy she felt tangible dread pressing down on her heart.

Keori stood in the center of the room, cradling the woman's broken corpse with one arm. The other arm extended, reaching toward Li Mei with a fierce grasping motion. Her small body was lifted off the ground and yanked forward by grayish-green mana tendrils that restricted her movement. The color was stronger and brighter than that which lingered in the ghost anchors, or even the mana used to activate the Haunting effect back in the house.

Li Mei struggled to free herself, but no matter how she tried she could do no more than tremble in place from the effort.

Keori's shoulders shook as he gently laid the woman's corpse on the ground. Her body was battered and crooked, limbs twisted at awkward angles. Li Mei's heart ached to see the body in such a state.

The woman did nothing to deserve her fate. According to Scan, she was a student of the Academy and a rather normal young lady.

She was just born under an unlucky star.

"What did you do?" Keori finally spoke, each word drawn out between ragged, pained breaths.

His odd gurgling voice made Li Mei's skin crawl. She glanced at Keori, then at the woman with the locket still around her neck, and her eyebrows rose. She opened her mouth to speak, but in a fit of rage Keori stood and landed a solid slap on her face.

"Years! Years of my life! Preparing, planning, training my helpers! Research, study, sacrifice! All for this moment, and what have you done!? Ruined it! Ruined!"

The tendrils supporting her body in mid-air and preventing her movement didn't stop him from shaking her around like a rag doll or venting frustrations on her figure. Every word he spoke was accompanied by fists rained upon on her limbs and face.

He hit her over and over and over, until his large hands were swollen and his knuckles resembled minced meat dripping with bright red blood. A glimmer of silver made the blood look strange and mercurial, an odd compliment against clammy gray skin.

He was obviously trying to beat her to death, but...

The sense of dread had yet to fade, and a dangerous hostile ent.i.ty still had her pinned as a target. But it wasn't Keori.

The man was really too weak.

She took more damage from the ritual explosion than she did from the beating! He managed to split her lips and make her mouth bleed and her body would sport a few brilliant bruises by the next morning, but even all the hits to the face hadn't managed to break her delicate nose, much less cause any serious damage elsewhere.

Li Mei scoffed and spat out a mouthful of blood. Her b.l.o.o.d.y mocking grin both infuriated and unsettled the already aggressive Keori.

He took a few steps back then extended a hand in a claw-like grasp, and the grayish-green tendrils around her right arm tightened.

KCHA!

A sharp snap followed by a horrific sensation of grinding felt right to the roots of her teeth made Li Mei's stomach churn, waves of dizziness washing over her. By the time the pain hit a few seconds later on the heels of a sharp spike in adrenaline, her skin was pale and clammy and she'd started to sweat.

Her body was incredibly st.u.r.dy. She'd been slammed against - and through - solid rock pillars and metal walls, been slashed by beast claws, shot by rifles...

And had never broken a bone since coming to this world. Not even a small toe! Even when her organs and muscle tissue were weak from a lifetime of malnourishment, her bones remained solid and strong.

How much force did it take to break her arm?

Not to mention, the flow of mana when he gestured for the tentacles to constrict, and the inexplicable feeling of dread...

Li Mei grit her teeth, focusing on the man's milky white gaze to keep from dwelling on the pain in her arm and the nausea in her gut. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and barked out a coa.r.s.e, low laugh. "Idiot."

Keori, panting from exertion and in the middle of repeating the motion toward her left arm, paused.

That was not the reaction he expected.

He'd just beaten a small girl who looked no older than ten, and even crushed her arm into powder with the best offense spell taught to him by his master, and she, in such a desperate situation... Called him an idiot?

His momentary confusion as his mind worked to make sense of the situation gave Li Mei the opening she needed. She raised her eyes to stare at the man's grayish face, cyan mana turning mauve eyes a bright, neon blue.

Meeting Li Mei's calm, steady stare, Keori felt himself shiver.

"You're being used, Keori."

Keori's brow furrowed. His confusion grew more profound. "How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot of things. You're from the Hawaiki Archipelago but came here to be a student at the academy, only to fall in love with your master's wife. Lessa. Sweet Lessa. And now you're trying to bring her back, but it's too bad you're an idiot. Your spell was flawed from the beginning. Those two guys couldn't even keep a uniform thickness in their mana threads."

Beings with intelligence and emotion were so much easier to deal with. Intelligence made them curious creatures. The more she revealed she knew about him, the more he'd be curious as to how she knew. Especially considering her appearance and situation.

A healthy adult male versus a small female child with a broken arm. If he had his guard up against her, she'd really have to give him a round of applause!

Her eyes slid from Keori's confused face up to a point just above his head, heart hammering crazily against her ribs from fear and dread. "I guess you're his new master? The last one didn't turn out so well, you know. Brave choice."

Above Keori's head hovered an octopus-like face, completely invisible until Li Mei activated Mana Sight. Four thick tentacles dangled down around a lamprey-like mouth, small white globular eyes far apart on its face. It had the same gray, oddly damp-looking flesh as Keori. Strange symbols were carved into the exposed flesh of its bare, bulbous head.

Li Mei got a headache trying to stare at the symbols, and kept her gaze on the head's instead. For the first time since the level 5 upgrade, Scan barely had anything to say about a target.

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[Unknown Creature]

Rank 4 (?)

Seems to be using Keori as a conduit to channel its ability through a projection of its will.

The strength as well as the skill required to manipulate and channel mana over long distances indicates the creature is at least Rank 4, but without seeing its physical body nothing else can be ascertained.

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Scan only displayed and saved information potentially obtainable through relatively common means, esoteric and specialized information would not be uncovered without prerequisite knowledge, skills, or spells. An upgrade in the EXP shop could change that, but...

It cost over five million EXP.

Five million!

Ever since clearing her big debt, quests dropped to granting only a few dozen EXP on average. Getting 500 EXP for interrupting the ritual was already a lot more than usual! Five million was a long way off.

Bright grayish-green mana flowed from the head into Keori's body, circled through his puny Core, then out his arms to manipulate the tendrils locking Li Mei in place. When Li Mei looked at it, the head's eyes widened in surprise and the tendrils flexed in response.

Ignoring her pain and fear, Li Mei smirked and arched an eyebrow. "So you wanna tell him about the locket, or should I?"

"What about the locket? What else have you done, you little wretch?!" Keori snarled, reaching both hands toward Li Mei's slender neck.

Then he suddenly stiffened. His entire body trembled, and his glazed eyes rolled back into his skull. He opened his mouth, and out emerged a light voice even more gurgly and moist-sounding than his own, but with an added sibilant hiss. "You... See me."

The hostility in its gaze faded, and the little window indicating a hostile threat vanished from Li Mei's vision. The inexplicable sense of dread that haunted her also disappeared.

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[Sense Upgraded!]

Sense now differentiates between general hostility - such as from predatory or territorial aggression which is not specific in its target nor particularly personal - and killing intent from intelligent beings planning on inflicting pain or death on you.

Killing intent can be felt as a faint pressure or chill when it is weak. When it is strong, it can cause paralysis, minor hallucinations, and even confuse the mind. The bigger the difference in ability between you and the person emitting killing intent, the more powerful it is and the greater the effect it has.

Personally experiencing a vast amount of powerful killing intent has unlocked this feature.

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So that was killing intent! Li Mei shivered. Reading about it in novels and experiencing it for herself were two very different things. She had a greater appreciation for protagonists who powered through the killing intent of their much stronger enemies. 'Such an effective tactic for demoralizing opponents! Maybe I can learn how to do that too...'
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Keori stepped closer, his body jerking and twitching like a marionette being manipulated by a clumsy puppeteer. The tendrils kept Li Mei from shrinking away, tightening their grip and causing the pain in her broken arm to multiply tenfold. She gasped then groaned through clenched teeth, cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.

One of the tentacles hanging from the octopus head extended, glimmering with grayish-green mana, stretching out to poke Li Mei's glabella.

Krka!

Electricity crackled between her brow and the offending appendage, forcing Keori to stagger back.

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[Resisted]

An enemy failed in using a possession-type spell on you.

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The milky white eyes of the octopus head narrowed into thin slits as it retracted its tentacle for a moment, only to stretch it out and tap her glabella again.

Krka!

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[Resisted]

An enemy failed in using a manipulation-type spell on you.

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Krka!

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[Resisted]

An enemy failed in using a reading-type spell on you.

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"All failures? Ah... You are a Seed. How troublesome." The milky white eyes of the octopus widened. "With the presence of a Seed, it seems this game is at an end. What a pity."

The tendrils holding Li Mei released their grasp, turning instead to wrap around Keori and snap his neck with a crisp snap. Seeing Li Mei's frustrated expression as she laid on the ground, clutching her broken arm, the floating octopus head seemed to smile with its milky eyes before it and the mana tendrils disappeared together.

A man with the ambition to raise his love from the grave died just like that.

Li Mei rolled onto her back and let out a short, angry yell. "d.a.m.n it all, I can't interrogate the dead! Was there a need to be so calculative, you sneaky calamari? And what did you mean, calling me a seed? You're a seed! Your whole family are seeds!"

Who was the octopus? What was it? What was it doing with Keori by teaching him necromancy? How did the other guys get caught up in it? Why did it kill Keori rather than let her interrogate it? Her, an apparent child who most would consider harmless and of no consequence? What did it mean by calling her a seed, and how was it troublesome? How did her being a seed end whatever game it was talking about?

Li Mei groaned. More questions than answers, every time!

Then she stood up.

Before worrying about anything else, she had to take care of her arm. She tore open the sleeve of her dress to avoid moving her right arm as much as possible during the examination.

The break itself was a mid-shaft humerus fracture, in the middle of her upper right arm. No protruding bones protruded from the skin, so her bone didn't shatter into fragments when it was broken. There wasn't a large amount of numbness or discoloration below the break, so the chances were slim that a major blood vessel was severed by the injury.

Even though it hurt like h.e.l.l and was swollen to a ridiculous size, Li Mei heaved a sigh of relief. Just a simple stable fracture, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been! Stable mid-shaft humerus fractures were relatively easy to heal and didn't even require surgery since there was no shattering. The bad news was it would take a minimum of 12 weeks to heal under normal circ.u.mstances, and the healing process was obnoxious.

She had to let the broken arm hang limp at her side so the fracture would stay in the correct position for healing. No pillows under the elbow, no resting the arm on a chair or table, no lying flat in bed.

Annoying!

Li Mei sighed, casting a disgusted glance at Keori's dead body. She kicked him for good measure too, before turning to the woman's body. The locket around her neck glimmered with weak grayish-green mana. Above it hovered the tiny image of woman writhing in agony, as tendrils with mouths on the ends slowly devoured her flesh bit by bit. The tendrils were attached to a tadpole with tentacles on its tiny little face, and as the woman was devoured the tadpole's figure grew bigger and more solid.

"Enough of that." Li Mei snorted, converting and dispelling the anchor with little effort. She had to watch the tadpole devouring the poor woman since her Mana Sight was activated, and watching her silent screams for help was painful in itself.

The tiny tadpole seemed to screech as its image shattered, bits and pieces fading into nothing. Meanwhile, the slightly fractured and damaged woman's image sighed with relief, expressing her grat.i.tude through a beautiful smile before she, too, faded.

With that taken care of, Li Mei finished off the two unconscious men since Scan revealed they, too, reeked of innocent blood. "It's much easier when they aren't fighting back," she muttered to herself, shaking her head. "But it's much less satisfying. Ah well..."

Then she mercilessly tore Keori's cloak from his body, using it to gently cover the naked woman's corpse instead. She kicked the sinful men into a pile, separate from their innocent victim, before limping her way out of the bas.e.m.e.nt and back into the house.