Laurakis cast a spell on Oh Chan-seok, who was lying on the floor, plunging him into an eternal illusion and turning him into a sphere through attribute bestowal.
She recalled Alpha and returned to Oh Chan-seok’s house to retrieve him.
“Lord! You’ve come to save me!”
“Ahh, yes. Let’s head back.”
Laura wanted nothing more than to dive into her bed and go home quickly. She had expended all her mana and was extremely fatigued.
“But what about the other people here?”
“Other people?”
At Alpha’s words, she looked around the room. There were several disheveled women sprawled about and several severely beaten men lying unconscious.
Laura looked down at them with an emotionless gaze, as if they were mere objects.
“Come to think of it, you’ve seen my true form. I should tamper with your memories a bit.”
Though memory manipulation was a high-level magic incompatible with her current Chimera body based on the Sage’s Stone, the deeply traumatized state of the victims allowed her to achieve a similar effect through powerful suggestion.
“Illusion”
For a fleeting moment, the victims experienced the sensation of being saved by ‘Dark Knight’ hundreds of times over. They now believed the plausible illusion that ‘Dark Knight’ had defeated Oh Chan-seok, rather than the absurd reality of a Dragon killing him.
“This guy’s trying to die.”
Laura noticed one of the men, who had been severely beaten, covered in bruises, with broken bones that twisted his limbs unnaturally.
It was C-rank Hero, ‘Clean Water.’ He had been savagely beaten by Oh Chan-seok for speaking out of turn.
“Lord, please save this man too, alright?”
With a look of irritation, Laura used ‘Heal’ on the fallen ‘Clean Water.’ A mysterious force enveloped him, setting his bones and fading the bruises.
After taking all necessary measures, she used the home network terminal in Oh Chan-seok’s living room to report the incident to 112, altering her voice slightly.
“That should be enough. Let’s go, Alpha.”
“Understood!”
Laura departed, cradling the now spherical Oh Chan-seok in her arms, with Alpha by her side.
*
I took Laura into a room where she recounted her grand expedition to rescue Alpha with an air of triumph.
“Here’s what happened. Now do you understand how much I suffered?”
Pat pat.
I gently ruffled her hair. Though her face scrunched up involuntarily, it was exactly the reaction I had hoped for.
“Bravo.”
“Remove your hand.”
Ultimately, I stopped ruffling her hair only after getting jabbed in the abdomen by her horn. Her horns seemed to be growing sharper with time.
“Wasn’t it said that this Oh Chan-seok’s skills were Hypnosis and False Insight?”
“Yes, though I’m not exactly sure of the mechanics.”
From what I gathered, hypnosis only worked on those significantly weaker. Hence, A-rank Oh Chan-seok could only use it on C-rank individuals.
“Hypnosis isn’t really my type, but False Insight could be useful.”
It would allow me to verify if my allies were trustworthy and discern the truth of information during critical interrogations.
“Can I kill him? I’d like to obtain his skill.”
“Skill Inheritance” allows the theft of one random skill from the opponent at a 50% chance.
“Of course. Though, I must admit, this isn’t really my style. It feels a bit underhanded, doesn’t it? This is actually how a Dragon I know operates—not my friend, mind you.”
“Is the Dragon’s soul also embedded within the Dragon Heart?”
“That’s right. It’s Black Dragon, Karsyas.”
I placed my hand on my chest.
Thump. Thump.
My heart raced.
“This is truly abnormal, isn’t it, Karsyas-sama?”
No reply came.
“What are you doing? He can’t possibly hear you, can he?”
Laura raised her voice slightly, reproaching me as if she couldn’t comprehend my actions.
“I know.”
“You’re an incomprehensible one.”
I retrieved the ‘Chan-seok Ball’ that Park Hayeon was playing with in the living room, the red gem still visible within it, seemingly in a critical state.
“It’s time for the skill gacha.”
I randomly picked a dagger from a weapon box and plunged it deeply into the sphere. It was tougher than expected but eventually broke. I picked up the gem inside.
A sticky lump of flesh and internal organs emerged from the shattered orb, soon enveloped by a blue flame.
“You, you’re Da…Dark Knight…”
As soon as Oh Chan-seok was freed from the sphere, he attempted to speak but was instantly consumed by flames, reducing to ashes.
————-<Succession>————-
[Strength permanently increased to 052]
[Agility permanently increased to 057]
[Intelligence permanently increased to 051]
[Luck permanently increased to 055]
[Skill ‘False Insight’ acquired]
———————————–
A translucent window appeared before my eyes, displaying the results I had hoped for.
“Status Window.”
————<Status Window>————
◈ Name
n̶̡̡̛̟̠͈͎̟̍͜͝͡͠ulumi̴̳͙͓̞̻̝͇̥͆̋͂̉̕͡͠͠ulį̛̫̖̝͓̮̳͓͆̃̈̈́̈́͆̈̕
◈ Stats
[Strength 487 A]
[Agility 145 A]
[Intelligence 551 C]
[Luck 719 F]
[Overall C]
◈ Skills
[Succession 071 S]
[Dragon Heart — A]
[Telekinesis 887 C]
[Magic Etching — B]
[Polymorph — S]
[Unbounded Light 114 F]
[Lake of Longing 000 B]
[False Insight 211 D]
———————————–
Pure stats-wise, both strength and agility were now A-rank. Considering most Academy students enter at C-rank and only the top students manage to achieve a B-rank in key stats, these were impressive figures.
“False Insight.”
————-<Skill>————-
◈ Name
False Insight
◈ Rank
211 D
◈ Description
Once a day, after activation, this skill allows you to detect lies in the words of others.
The number of daily uses increases with skill proficiency.
(However, in the case of a skill conflict, the more skilled side takes precedence.)
———————————–
What a game-changer.
Though I had never encountered this skill in the original story, contemplating my future plans, it proved highly practical.
Laura and Alpha had truly landed a big catch.
“Thank you.”
While I’m unsure how useful it will be in the fight against the Demon King, it will certainly be valuable until then.
I swept up the ash scattered on the floor with a dustpan and discarded it out the window, the ashes of Oh Chan-seok dispersing into the air.
“Hmm. Do you acknowledge my greatness?”
“By the way, would you care to look at this?”
I pulled out a gemstone we obtained from the ‘Gigantic Forest’ Dragon’s lair in subspace storage.
As soon as it appeared, its immense mana presence was palpable.
“Wow—this isn’t a Dragon Heart, is it? And from a lair, no less?”
“Yes, it’s indeed a Dragon Heart.”
Laura stared at the gemstone with amazement, her eyes nearly popping out. I returned it to the pocket, and she licked her lips.
“Now that we have Dragon Bones and a Dragon Heart, what else do we need?”
“The skin can be substituted with special alloys or chemicals crafted by Earthlings, so I’ll try to acquire those. Tell me your account number and password.”
“Understood. I’ll share them separately.”
If someone unknown called and asked for that information, I would have hung up immediately. Yet, hearing it from Laura in front of me, I felt no qualms about providing it.
“And in your terms, we need all stats to reach S-rank. As I did when creating this body last time, I’ll open a Dungeon and assist you in achieving it.”
“Even Luck?”
“Of course, luck is just as important.”
My luck is currently F-rank. There’s still a long way to go.
‘Come to think of it, wasn’t there a Christmas event with a temporary Luck buff? Damn, I’ve still got a long road ahead. I need to hunt more diligently.’
At the very least, achieving SS-rank Agility this way is beneficial. Originally, it was vaguely referred to as ‘enlightenment,’ implying that eliminating other S-level Awakened was the only option, which was difficult since all except ‘Invincible’ were ‘Inner Circle’ members. This turned out quite fortunate.
‘Invincible is too kind-hearted to kill.’
Still, it would be ideal if we could achieve the liberation of SS-rank in power like strength or intelligence through some form of enlightenment beforehand.
