Chapter 150: Infiltration

When I awoke, it was still dark out. We’d just wandered off once we were kicked out, away from the outpost and just collapsed and fell asleep at some point. So I woke up in pain and face-down in a pile of dirt next to a snoring Erani, drool leaking from her mouth and into a small pool beside her.

Sitting up and glancing around, I saw that we’d collapsed in some bushes off by the road that led up to town, causing quite the picturesque scene of two drunks piled up on the side of the road in the middle of the night. That is, it would have if it weren’t for Ainash, who was standing by us, glowing eyes peering through the dark.

“Father, you are awake!” she said, seeing me get up. “Are you still funny head?”

“What?” I asked.

“You get funny in your mind when you drink the funny drink. Are you still like that?”

“Oh, uh, that’s called being ‘drunk.’ And no, I think I’ve sobered up by now. Just got a killer headache.”

“Okay! Was protecting you and mother while slept.”

“Thanks,” I smiled despite the ache in my head—and my still-injured limbs—and climbed up to my feet, patting her on the head.

“Your leg and arm still hurt?”

“Yeah, but they’re getting a bit better. Give me some time and I’ll be able to walk on my own again.”

“Sorry for not healing you,” she frowned. “Thought could help mother.”

“No, no, even if it couldn’t get her arm back, we needed to stop the bleeding. Don’t apologize. We can still figure something out for her.”

She nodded, and I looked over, trying to find the outpost. Off in the distance, down the road back from where we came, I could see it peering out from between some trees. Checking the time, it was…around five in the morning. So Time Loop had three charges—up from my usual of two, thanks to the Usage Increase.

Those three guards probably should have been asleep by now, so it wouldn’t be difficult to go in there and grab the Spell Crystal, especially since it didn’t really matter if I alerted them, since I’d be going back in time afterward regardless. Part of me wanted to just steal the thing and save myself a Loop, but…it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. No matter how much of an asshole Bon was, Jannin and Poppins seemed fine enough, and they didn’t deserve to be stolen from. Plus, they’d obviously know we were the ones who took it, since we were the only people who they told about the Crystal. And getting arrested for such blatant theft wasn’t exactly how I wanted to introduce myself to this new country.

“I’m gonna go get that Spell Crystal and then use Time Loop, alright?” I told Ainash. “You can just stay here if you want.”

“Okay father. Good luck!”

I nodded and headed out to the outpost, moving quietly so as to not wake them up. On my way there, I considered which Spell—or Spells—I’d Upgrade once I got the Crystal. My three choices were Gravity Well, Ethereal Armor, and Sanguine Bond. Technically, I could take the Crystal and use Time Loop up to three times, with my newfound three uses, but I probably didn’t want to use all of them here. Doing so would just leave me vulnerable for the whole rest of the day. And while I was technically safe now, in the guarded borders of the Barinruth Empire, I still didn’t exactly feel comfortable going with absolutely nothing.

Instead, it would probably be best to just do this once or twice. The Crystal wasn’t going anywhere, after all, so it wouldn’t be a problem to just grab it today and go back, and then some other day come back out here and do it again, and do it a third time on another day, that way I always had at least two uses of Time Loop to go throughout my day with. And it wouldn’t be a waste to just let those usages do nothing by the end of the day, since I needed to get those free Stats with Recycled Loop anyway.

However, I also probably wouldn’t want to wait too long, since it was always possible Jannin would get his Spell to Rank 10 at some point and consume it for the Upgrade. Plus, getting my Spells past their limit so I could start Ranking them again would obviously be better done sooner rather than later.

So I’d just take it once today, another time tomorrow, and a third time the next day. The only question was, which Spells would I Upgrade? Again, it was technically possible that Jannin could use his Crystal at some point, cutting me off from access from it and disallowing me from getting the rest of my Upgrades, so the one I did first would be the only one I actually got for sure. As such, I’d want to get my most important Upgrade today.

Out of Gravity Well, Ethereal Armor, and Sanguine Bond, that was a bit of a tough decision. Gravity Well was a nice option to have, and especially now that we’d be trying to re-integrate with society, it was very useful to have non-lethal means of suppressing someone, which Gravity Well was my only option for. If I just wanted to slow an Unclassed person down or something, Crippling Chill would kill them, and even a single Ray of Frost would have to be aimed very carefully to avoid doing permanent damage. And trying to tackle them would probably be an issue, considering I couldn’t let people damage me or else they’d know my Class. So Gravity Well had a unique use in that case.

Ethereal Armor was obviously extremely important, too. Not only was Light Plate completely busted with its near-fifty percent reduction of my Spell costs, but Dark Plate was integral for me to wear here. It was the only thing keeping my identity safe, after all, and so I obviously needed to keep the Spell active at all times. But that was also presenting an issue with the Spell’s usefulness. After all, for now, I was effectively locked out of using Light Plate since it was what the Demons had seen me wearing—and because it showed my face—meaning all of the Rank-up benefits pertaining to Light Plate wouldn’t do anything. So its integral use to me right now was also kind of an argument against using the Spell Crystal to Upgrade it.

And then there was Sanguine Bond. That was one of my newer Spells, and it was also interesting in the way it Ranked up. Ethereal Armor’s Ranks were all extremely important, since they made all of my Spells so much cheaper, but Sanguine Bond also got effectively cheaper with every Rank, since its Mana gained per second increased. Because of that, it was also a strong contender.

But there were more to these Upgrades than just allowing me to Rank the Spells up again. There was also the main point of them—the Upgrade Choice itself. Being able to add on a whole new functionality to the Spells—or just greatly strengthen an aspect that’s already there—was a very important part of this.

And it was where Index came in to help me choose.

So, which of the three have the most helpful Upgrades? I thought to it as I silently crept toward the stone box housing my treasure.

“Hmm…well, I obviously can’t just tell you what they all are, but I will say they all have some decent options. Gravity Well is probably your least immediately important choice, just because the Spell itself won’t be too useful in your near future with fighting, and it can already do its job just fine when it comes to subduing people who’d die to your other options, but I’m sure you’d already identified that. Between Ethereal Armor and Sanguine Bond, they both have good Upgrade options that can help both in combat and in more urban scenarios.”

Elaborate on that, I thought. Ethereal Armor especially. How does its Upgrade help in non-combat?

“Well…hm. I’ll say it basically has two ‘types’ of Upgrades for this first choice. There are two Upgrade options that fit into what I’ll call ‘type A,’ and one option that fits into ‘type B.’”

And what’s the difference between these two types?

“Type A would be useful for you now, but I don’t think you’d like it later. Just generally considering the way you seem to feel about the Spell, I don’t think you’d want either option. So basically, Ethereal Armor only really has one choice—the type B option. And I do think you’ll like Type B—it provides solid usefulness to the Spell. But I also know you like to have your choices, so you probably won’t appreciate being forced into that.”

But that one last option is good though, right?

“Yeah, yeah, it’s good. It’d be useful now, and useful later.”

Well what about Sanguine Bond? Does it have any options that would hold up to Ethereal Armor’s ‘type B’ option?

“Hmm…it’s kind of difficult to compare the power level of different Upgrade options for two completely different Spells, but I’d say so. It has at least a couple that you’d find useful. And, like I said, there are options that help both in combat and in scenarios where you aren’t trying to kill anyone. At least, some options are like that. Others aren’t.”

That’s always nice. Though…how, exactly, does Sanguine Bond help me when I don’t want to hurt someone? It feels like one of its main functions is to deal damage to people.

“Can’t tell you exactly what they do.”

Hm. You’re not leaving me with much to work with, here. But I guess that, considering what you said…maybe Sanguine Bond is the correct play for now. Not like I won’t ever get to Upgrade my other Spells, anyway.

“Sounds good.”

Now, I thought as I stepped up to the wall of the outpost, can you fly in there and make sure everyone’s asleep? And maybe find exactly where that Spell Crystal is?

“Wow,” Index said with an obvious sarcastic tone, “I feel like my breadth of knowledge is so appreciated.”

It’s your fault for being such an amazing scout.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” it grumbled. A few moments passed, and then it eventually said, “okay, found it.”

Great. Guide me in here. Still can’t really see very well in the dark.

I crept into the outpost, trying not to make a sound so as to not cause any unnecessary complications, and found Jannin, currently passed out on a chair. I snuck my hand into his pocket, fished around for just a second, and…

Found it!

I gripped my fingers around a small marble. Jannin stirred, seeming like he was about to wake up, but that didn’t matter. The job was done. As quickly as I could, I did what I’d done before with the Poison Spell Crystal for Noxious Grasp, pushing my Mana into the object and feeling it tether the ‘soul’ of the Crystal with my Status. Within just a second or two, I could mentally feel that the Crystal had been emptied of its power, with it instead having been dragged into myself. All that was left was to direct that energy to one of the three ‘holes’ it could fit into, and I selected the one I’d decided on already.

Threshold reached. Sanguine Bond XP has reached 355.

Sanguine Bond Rank has increased to 10.

Due to Sanguine Bond Rank reaching 9, it has undergone the following changes:

Mana Cost: From 238 to 298

Health Drain: From 6.21 to 6.52

Stamina Drain: From 7.76 to 8.15

Mana Drain: From 9.31 to 9.78

Health Regeneration: From 1.55 to 1.63

Stamina Regeneration: From 3.11 to 3.27

Mana Regeneration: From 4.65 to 4.88

Sanguine Bond Upgrade has become available.

“What’s…going on…” Jannin muttered, eyes slowly beginning to open. No sense staying in this timeline any longer, so I just went ahead and activated Time Loop.

**********

In the in-between space, I was technically offered options to go upwards of five hours back. But five hours ago, I was drunk and asleep. And even if coming back woke me up, I still kind of needed the rest, so I could at least sober up again. So really, I only wanted to come back to around five or ten minutes ago.

But since I kept all XP earned, it was still smartest to use Time Loop to its maximum potential here. I could just go back to five hours ago and head straight to sleep once again, that way I could reuse those hours for practicing Noxious Grasp in my slumber. So I made my choice, and—

**********

And then I was back, lying in that same bush. And holy shit, I was drunk.

The feeling was unlike any other; I’d gone from stone-cold sober to blasted out my ass in an instant, and it did not feel good. Holy fuck.

I attempted to situate myself on the ground, but my entire sense of direction and where I was had been destroyed by the mixture of Time Loop transporting me into a new body, and that body’s brain being poisoned by copious amounts of alcohol. So instead of moving into a more comfortable position, I twisted my already-broken arm into a horrible spot and groaned in pain.

Then, before I could really even fix it back to be in the position it’d been in, exhaustion overtook me and I promptly passed out.

I awoke in much the same situation I’d awoken in during the previous timeline—that is, lying in a bush with aching limbs and a hangover. For a moment, I forgot I’d already gone back and gotten the Spell Upgrade and was preparing to go and do that, until I checked my Status and saw that I already had it, and was missing a use of Time Loop. At that point, the memories of what’d happened flooded back to me.

“Father, you are awake!” Ainash said in a much familiar way that she did before. “Are you still funny head?”

“No,” I laughed to myself. “I’m not funny head.”

She reached down and helped me get up. “What should do now? Need to get Spell Crystal thing?”

“I already got that, so no need. At this point, we can probably go ahead and travel to that town up the road,” I pointed, and she looked down the road at the set of walls.

“Lots of Humans there?”

“Yeah, there’ll be a bunch. But none of them will be bad guys, so you won’t need to worry.”

“What about mean guys?”

“Mean guys?”

“Last night, you punch Human and said he was not bad guy, just mean guy. Do not kill mean guys, but just hurt them so they not mean anymore.”

“Oh, right,” I nodded, remembering the events more clearly. Bon was being a pretty big asshole, so he kind of deserved a punch. Though I also definitely went too far. “There’ll probably be some mean guys. But you’ll get in trouble if you hurt them, so try not to.”

“You will get me in trouble?”

“No, no…” I stopped to think, trying to figure out how I’d explain the concept of Human government and law enforcement to her. Maybe Erani would be better at that; she seemed to have an easier time translating complex topics like those into thought messages with Ainash. Looking down at her, I saw she was still passed out, seeming like she was resting somewhat peacefully.

“Should wake mother up?”

“Let’s just let her sleep for now,” I said, sitting back down and leaning up against a tree. “It’s still dark, so she could probably use it.”

“Okay!” Ainash sat down too.

“Have you rested at all?”

“Mmm…no, have been protecting you!”

I laughed. “Well it’s my turn now. Lie down and get some sleep, kiddo.”

“I did good job?”

“Yeah, you did a great job. You deserve some rest after everything you did, too.”

“Okay!” She laid down, twilight just barely beginning in the dark sky. Her bright, flaming eyes stared up at me. “Will town be good?”

“What do you mean?”

“Will I…like it?”

“I think you will,” I nodded. “There’ll definitely be some mean guys. And maybe a couple bad guys, even. But I also think there’s a lot of good there. You can think of anything you want, and someone will have made it and they’ll be willing to trade it to you for something, you can find amazing, towering buildings in the sky that’ll blow your mind when you see them, you can feel safe from the walls and the guards…I think you might also be able to make some friends. I’m telling you, there are a lot of good Humans out there.”

“Sounds very interesting!”

“It is. I’m excited to get there too.” I leaned over and rubbed her head, ruffling her already wild hair. “Now get some sleep. You won’t want to be tired the whole trip there.”

“Okay!” And with that, she shut her eyes.

Again, I laughed to myself. What a cute kid. She was totally gonna love that place.

But that was later. For now, I needed to focus, myself, and make that decision for my Spell Upgrade. Sanguine Bond apparently had a few solid options, according to Index, so I was excited to see what they were.

Eagerly awaiting the chance to open up the Upgrade Choice, I closed my eyes and started meditating.