Time seemed to slow. Where before I might have called it a persistent trickling stream, at that moment it was a glacial crawl.
Jonathan’s estoc was poised, aimed at Barry’s now exposed head, the tip somehow gleaming a dark blue which extended down along its full length. The feeling my [Aura Master] skill provided me about the man’s full power now showing itself.
He was going for the kill.
I could have just done nothing. It would be simple enough to allow the largest threat to my reign as the most powerful Rift Hunter in the world be taken out right then, and be done with the matter entirely. Taking him out of the equation now, when he was feasibly at his weakest, his level, skills and stats at their lowest, was the best possible time to achieve such a goal.
It would be another step on the staircase towards dominance, taken for me, without my effort needed at all.
The switch in my mind flipped over, and the world changed, stripping away the worries and the fears that kept me uncertain.
Things were clear to me. Barry was an obstacle, but he was also, for the moment at least, an ally. His establishment of Paragon, and the public support at his back were assets that I could leverage and use without having to cultivate it on my own. And having a Legendary Tier Hunter trusting in me, it was worth a massive amount all on its own.
My plan, as it was at the time, necessitated Barry being alive.
And at that point I couldn’t deny that I viewed Barry, at least in part, as a friend.
[Jonathan Staix - Lvl 9 - Marked to Die]
Unleashing the full capability of my massive stats, I stopped holding back. [Blood Manipulation] activated, empowering my muscles to their maximum. My feet pushed down through the white tiles, cracking the concrete beneath it as I rocketed forward, my runeblade appearing in my hand.
Time unfroze.
Blood sprayed across the white floor as a head fell to the ground, eyes wide in shock as though it couldn’t understand how it had been separated from its home. Shouts and gasps filled the area as everyone watching was uncertain of what they saw.
[You have slain Jonathan Staix - Estoc Reaper - Lvl 9
You Have Reached Level 13
Skill Progress; Marked to Die -> Lvl 4 Beginner, Blood Manipulation -> Lvl 4 Beginner
Ability Activated: Soul Usher (F)
Harvesting Soul Essence…
Soul Essence absorbed: 89
Essence to next ability rank: 352/1000
Options available…]
Francis, Huwett and Vasquez all rushed to Jonathan’s headless body, each with weapons drawn or a spell prepared. They arrived too late, only staring at the result of my own handiwork.
“Oh my god, did you see that?”
“Did that guy try to assassinate the Guild Head?”
“That other guy moved so fast, I didn’t even see what happened.”
Murmurs and shouts rang about as I wiped my sword clean and stored in my inventory. I turned around, seeing Barry still bent over, his hand grasping his helmet, and shock written on his face.
Norton arrived seconds later, checking over the Paladin, and of course finding no wounds in need of healing. The large healer glanced at the corpse that still leaked blood onto the floor and only shook his head.
“Assestments are now over for the day. Please leave the facility, we will call you back as needed.” Clara said as she walked towards us from the platform’s staircase, Natalyas and two assistants following in her shadow.
“We need to call the cops!” Someone yelled.
“The proper authorities will be called. We have all your information, if statements need to be made from you, you will be contacted.” She said.
Quickly, everyone was ushered outside in a group. One of the assistants were already on the phone, presumably calling the needed authorities.
“Are you alright?” I asked, looking at Barry.
“Uh, yeah. Thank you, Adam,” he replied after a moment. “I tried activating my bubble, but it was on cooldown. And I was caught off guard completely.”
“I think that was the plan,” I said, looking at the headless body with a frown. “He timed his attack right when he knew your defenses were weakest. He lied about his class, and held back his abilities to make sure we wouldn’t suspect him.”
“If you weren’t here… “ Clara said, trailing off into silence.
My phone beeped at that moment, and I looked down to see I had just received a text from Richard. The timing was perfect, almost suspiciously so. “Excuse me for a moment please.”
‘It went just as you said. After the interview they took some of us to a Tutorial Rift. We just completed it and I managed to earn an Epic Class, Shade Knight, just like you said. We can talk about it more later. Gerard is gathering everyone for a briefing.’ The text read.
Hmm, things went how I expected then. Gerard is recruiting for something. His own guild, maybe? I’ll have to look into that more later.
I thought.
For now…
I slipped my phone back into my packet and walked back to the group. My hand found Barry’s shoulder and I gave him a bit of a shake. “You’re alright man. You’re okay.”
“Yeah, yeah. Well, you just proved I was right in picking you as Deputy-head of the Guild though. I would be dead if you weren’t here,” he said with a nervous chuckle.
“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment of course,” I looked around the room. “This place has cameras right? We might have to explain why I beheaded another person in a few minutes.”
“Riiiight,” Huwett said.
“Natalya, start pulling the camera feeds so we can hand them over. Only the incident, we don’t want anyone seeing the rest of the assessments." Clara spoke up, beginning to give orders. “Francis, Huwett, Vasquez, make sure the others are escorted out safely and set up a defensive perimeter to make sure no one else tries to get in here. Norton, Wait in the main lobby for the cops and stay on standby in case another incident occurs.”
“First ever Rift Hunter murder, this gonna be a shit show,” I sighed.
It was just about midnight by the time I finally was able to get back to my apartment and fall into my couch. As it turned out, detectives were not so keen to piss off and start throwing accusations at people they knew could slay fifteen foot monsters with magical swords. So after getting everyone’s statements, reviewing the camera footage, and taking Jonathan’s body, they left in short order.
It still took hours, but I was practically in the clear.
Which was a problem. The police being fearful of enforcing the law because of Hunter’s abilities is exactly one of the issues that will make the world worse. Powerful corrupt figures already had such leeway in the world, that was just the nature of humans and greed, being paid off to look the other way.
Now it wasn’t money that cast their attention elsewhere, but survival. My sheer presence made them falter, hesitate and cower. Hunters would not be restrained by mere law enforcement, which is why the Rift Hunter Investigatory Coalition was created in a couple months from then. A couple months, not now, letting me walk out of the Paragon Headquarters building as a completely free man.
As I sat on my couch, alone, I knew things might get better, as Barry wanted. But I knew they would get far worse first, unless action was taken to stop it. Those who would stand in the way of humanity working together would mean thousands of preventable deaths. Jonathan wasn’t the last, far from it.
And he gave a crap load of soul essence.
I thought back to the notification, and how much my ability had progressed. Beasts seemed to give essence equal to their level. Uncommon or Boss monsters gave twice their level. But other Hunters seemed to give more, probably ten times based on the numbers I was shown.
And there was still something else to do. I had a choice to make.
[
Consume Stats (Unavailable)
Consume Experience (Available)
Assimilate Skill (Available)
Assimilate Ability (Available)
Dominate Essence (Unavailable)
??? (Unavailable) ]
The maximum amount of stats I could siphon from kills for my current ability’s grade had been reached already. I would have to increase my grade if I wanted to gain more stats. I wasn’t even half way to the needed 1,000 essence for that, so I decided not to worry about it at the time.
I can take their ability, though. Which I couldn’t before. Probably because until now nothing I killed even had an ability to take. Estoc Reaper was the guy’s class title… what ability could I get?
I chose the ability option.
[ Assimilate Ability of Estoc Reaper: Executioner’s Salary? Yes/No?
Assimilation Cost, 2,500 essence, current essence insufficient. ]
God damn, that’s a steep price.
I sighed, and swiped back to the option’s screen.
No new abilities for a while then. Let’s try a skill instead.
[Assimilate Skill of Estoc Reaper:
Options:
Light Step…
Sword Mastery…
Mana Shaping…
Assimilation Cost, 250 essence per level of skill assimilated up to target’s highest level. Grade modifiers apply.]
That was a bit more reasonable, though I could already see how the cost of taking someone’s skill could balloon out of control. Stealing a skill at level ten would cost as much as an ability, let alone one increased beyond beginner grade.
Even with what I had stock-piled, I could only assimilate a skill at level 1. That would still be worth it, if the skill was good enough.
Let’s do it then.
[ Assimilate Skill: Mana Shaping? Yes/No?
New Skill Unlocked (Mana Shaping); Lvl 1 - Beginner
Soul Usher Skill Slots: 1 / 3
Skill: Mana Shaping
Description: Utilize your will to control the flow of mana inside and around your body for offensive and defensive use. Strength of shaping and control rate of mana based on intelligence stat and skill level.]
I smiled to myself as I read through the notifications. Not only had I gained a rather useful skill from Jonathan, despite the high cost, it looked like my Class Ability was a cheat in many more ways than I had realized.
It uses its own skill slots. Perfect.
Aside from class skills, a Hunter seemed to only have 10 free skill slots. Being able to steal skills, and not have to worry about filling my limited slots to boot... My class really was a godsend. I hesitated in thinking Death was actually a god, maybe she was just a metaphysical entity? A sudden consciousness brought about by reality itself? I was getting a headache just thinking about it and set the matter to the side.
I closed my screens and settled into the couch as I thought instead about what my next moves needed to be. Helping Barry and the others build Paragon was one thing, but I needed to also keep an eye on many other things. The government, and its RHI and Colonel Nieve, was one. Finding out more in regards to Clara Reedtz, was another, she was far more powerful than she was letting on, and I needed to know why.
Then there was Lucilla Sinclair and where she had run off to. Nieve said she was forming her own Guild, meaning she too must have entered a Tutorial and emerged with a powerful class of her own. I already knew she would be a formidable Rift Hunter, so I couldn’t let her go unmonitored.
That was only in my own neck of the woods. Other countries and other agencies across the world also had things going on. Their own Guilds, their own corrupt officials, and their own power hungry Rift Hunters, some of which would also end up gaining Legendary Classes of their own. As the events of today proved, I had to be ready for anything.
And to top it off, there was the growing position of my main competition, as it were, for the greatest villain of this whole story. Gerard Davis, the Stormbreath Exarch, Mythic Class Rift Hunter, who just created ‘Inevitability Guild’ and was recruiting people the same as Barry.
One such recruit was the only other person in this world that I would call a friend.
A knock sounded at my door and I quickly moved to open it.
“Hey,” Richard said as I waved him inside. He took a seat in my living room, settling into the couch on the spot I always like to be in, the asshole. “You were right,” he continued when I sat in the chair across from him.
“About which part?”
“Gerard is planning to kill a lot of people.”
1.23: Murder I