Chapter 134. Monocle of truth

POV: Mad Scientist

"I'm telling you, the right ratio for this potion is a leaf of netherwart, 9 grams of gunpowder, and 2 rabbit's feet. That's how you make a double jump potion! Is it that hard to understand?"

Kids those days don't understand the value of working hard, they only care about bringing back the glory of their ancestors.

*Phew

What's the point of getting back to those times when the System can strike us down once again?

We need to strive to be better than them, not stop at their level.

But I understand their way of thinking, as what they achieved is crazy even by my standards, playing with life, finding new dimensions, make the System itself worry about what they were doing.

I think they're the true reason the System isn't as active as before, whether it's because it used too much power in the Great War and its last bits were used on us, or just doesn't want to interact with us since we failed it, we don't know the answer, but we feel the restriction on us.

I looked at my two students who were intimidated by my yelling, and I could only sigh in disappointment.

"Go back to the library and learn from the books that I gave you since you didn't do it the first time."

"Y-yes Mister Mad-! We're going to leave."

He almost called me the Mad Scientist. It was such a shame that I couldn't make undying totems out of them, since their the only ones that bearly fit my standards.

Also, Ronny was mad when I did that to my last students.

Pha! It was better that way since they destroyed my Soul research with their clumsiness. The best they could do was to lend their soul to a good cause and not mess up my work.

My stomach started to grumble, reminding me that I only ate breakfast today, and the sun was already starting to get down. So I left my lab going toward the kitchen to get something to eat when suddenly stopped upon seeing someone that I didn't like at the end of the hallway.

It was Brutus the traitor, or the Witch as the others call him. I quickly took out a monocle and put it on my right eye.

This wasn't a simple accessory that made me see better, it was an enchanted item that even the System recognized as it occupied the helmet slot.

Once I put it on my eye, suddenly everything around me started to change, there were no more bright colors, only different shades of gray, but there was an exception.

Brutus the traitor had a purple smoke surrounding him, making it very easy to see in contrast with the others. The monocle saw things differently, the Witches were purple, the Piligeres were grey which blended with the other blocks, the Viligers were green, and the monsters were the most interesting ones being black like the night sky, but I could feel that they were connected to another plane, stuck in here to mindlessly roam around the night when they end will inevitably die.

But this wasn't the only function of my monocle, no, the true reason I took it out was for its other ability to see every person's Stats, Skill page, and even inventory.

His stats were normal, but his Skill page was a mess like mine, what I truly wanted to see was his inventory.

He had a few dangerous items, such as an enchanted iron sword, harmful potions, and even some fireworks for some reason.

But whatever he had I was prepared for. I didn't trust a man who betrayed his people twice.

The first time was understandable, sell your people for a good position on our side, while that kind of person tends to have a lot of ambition, it could be worked with.

But the second time was unacceptable, he couldn't do everything himself, so he brought a few more witches of his status. But when he heard that he had to compete against them to get the position, he killed them and offered it to me.

I have been against him ever since then! What stops him from turning against us as he did with his colleagues? I explained that to the general as well, and he seems to be on the same idea as me.

Unfortunately, he gave his word, and he intends to keep it.

Pfaa! Fine by me, I can respect that, but I'll be first to point at him when he'll betray us.

"Hello D-"

"Don't speak like we are friends, Sir Brutus, do you need something from me?"

"I don't understand, I thought my gift was to your liking, you were even smiling."

While I did not like him, the souls of those witches were too good to pass on, so I humbly accepted his gift, unfortunately, my students messed up the experiment, and the General doesn't want to give me other witches.

I could only let out a frustrated sigh.

"What do you need Sir Brutus."

"So formal. I don't need anything from you, I came here with a suggestion."

"I'm listening."

I was not.

"I heard you're looking for a talented apprentice, and I wanted to suggest my son Ellen for that position. He's a talented young man who has a good work ethic, I'm sure he'll be up to any task you put him on."

"I'll think about it."

"Thank you for listening to my request, I'll be leaving since I'm sure a man like you is very busy."

Then he passed me, going on his merry way, and I could only shake my head at his crazy suggestion.

Besides the fact that this was clearly a way to plant a silverfish in my lab, I knew his 'son' already.

While it's been over a decade I still remember him from my last experiment of artificially creating witches.

I knew the System used lighting to punish Witches and a gas to create the Piligers. We manage to reverse engineer the gas, but it has a low chance of transforming a regular villager into a Piliger.

Unfortunately, after that transformation, they lose access to the System, even more badly than the witches. Not only that, but they lose their memories as well.

At least they're very easy to indoctrinate afterward, and that's how we raised our numbers so high in recent years.

My teacher was a true genius finding that. A crazy genius but a genius nonetheless.

It's such a shame that I had to make a Vex out of him otherwise I think he would've killed the whole outpost with his experiments.

Nonetheless, since we could artificially recreate what the System did, why couldn't we recreate the witches?

So I got 10 prisoners and locked them in a cage without a roof in the middle of a storm.

And with the help of a lighting road, the experiment was a success.

Sort of.

Once struck by lightning the Viligers started to catch fire and scream in pain.

We tried to extinguish the flames with water bottles and water buckets but didn't seem to work.

Not even the fire resistance potions seem to stop the process.

In the end, everyone died except for one person.

Ellen.

Later he somehow managed to escape, and the General didn't lend me any more prisoners since 'they're the only people that can craft for us' and 'it has lower chances of success than the Pillgers '.

*Phaa!

How can I make it more efficient if you don't let me refine the method? But he wouldn't budge no matter what, so I had to stop with that project, even though it was a success.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that man once again, and this time joining us willingly.

I think I'm the only one to recognize him, but I didn't point out that fact to the General since I didn't see the need for it.

He already made a mistake with accepting Brutus, what was a smaller mistake besides that.

Unfortunately, my appetite was ruined because of him so I decided to change my destination to the garden to clear my mind.

I walked along the hallway where the guards bowed at me as I passed them.

When I arrived at the garden, the sun washed over me resulting in closing my eyes and enjoying the moment, when I opened my eyes I saw a man walking slowly with a farmer's hat through the garden.

"Hey you, what are you doing?"

The man seemed to finally see me and froze in place, before quickly bowing at me.

"Sir. I'm just a humble gardener!"

He said that while still looking at the ground.

"A gardener you say, where devesion are you from?"

"I'm from the 12th division Sir!"

He was lying, we didn't name our divisions by numbers but instead by names, such as the Soldier's division, the Engendering division, and other names.

Even if the soldiers' decisions made their own, we don't have that many people, 10 devious would be the top we could produce.

So this all pointed one thing.

He was a spy.

I had every right to call the guards and kill him here but I was hesitant.

Besides the man who was still looking at the ground, there was an invisible monster, four blocks tall, and had dark purple fumes around it.

It had similar smoke to the smart Endermans, but more powerful, and I could feel the connection of three dimensions with it.

Also the monster seems to be connected with that man for some reason.

The man in question wasn't simple either, as he had 4 Skills! The stats page didn't know his name which I didn't know was possible, and his inventory was full of dangerous items.

Ender pearls, potions, diamond equipment, obsidian, a crystal and an enchanted compass?

He alone could heavily damage the outpost and I don't think I can take him without some preparations.

Not only that, but the smoke around him was the same color as the monsters, it was even more powerful, and I could feel the connection to four dimensions.

He was a dangerous man.... but such a treasure trove of knowledge.

I must get him into my lab as soon as possible, but how can I convince him to do that without raising his guard?

"Do you still have work for today?"

"No, I was just about to leave actually."

"Perfect, then you can come and help me at my laboratory."

The man started to panic, but still didn't raise his head for some reason.

"But sir, I don't have any experience in that domain!"

"You think you'll work in my lab? I only need you to clean up some stuff, and why do you still have your head down, raised it up so I don't speak with a hat anymore."

"Uhm, I'm afraid I can't do that Sir."

"Why?"

I started to sound irritated, just come into my lab already, why is it so hard?

"Because I'm too ugly."

Ugly? Now I'm truly curios what his face looks like.

"That's for me to judge, now raise your head."

With some hesitation he raised his head, and that made me raise an eyebrow of surprise.

"What's wrong with your face."

The color of the eyes were proof enough for him to be sent straight to jail, but what took me by surprise was the lack of nose, how did that even happened?

"I was born with it sir."

So he doesn't know either.

"Just keep your head down and follow me, don't touch anything I won't let you."

He seems surprised by what I said but still followed me.

I looked at his inventory once again, and saw that he was moving items thorough it, ready to take action at any time which I didn't like.

But I had to be patient, as soon we were in my lab.

My lab was the whole third floor, big enough for me to do my experiments, and mostly used by a select few.

So nobody was suspicious when I brought a person with me, since I was the Head of everything.

"Come with me into my office, I have some papers that I want to throw away. Don't read them as they're confidential. "

This seems to put him on guard but still followed me.

Once he was in my office I could only smile.