22 『Armless Fingers』

Entering through the front doors of the Magician's Guild to E-Rantel, Jack strolled into the lobby with a casual and airy disposition. His eyes would travel along the clean ground and jump from head to head as he surfed the crowd for visual information.

That was when he paused seeing a bald man in a vest with numerous animalistic tattoos all over his body. A bad feeling was going through the back of his mind, either that or he had seen too many action flicks.

Big Bald men were typically the villains, weren't they? Either that or they were wannabe villains or failed at their job. Pursing his lips, he saw Theo standing in front of the man with a small display case.

His eyes narrowed on the red potions in the case. It was clear what was going on here, or at least to him that is what he assumed. He watched as the big man attempted to pull it out of the Guildmaster's arms.

"Hm..." Jack walked towards them, keeping his disposition form changing. He hardly made a sound as he made went to make his appearance behind the man. Only to find two people stepping in his way.

His eyes rested on a man in a green hood and another man in a flashy looking black jacket with gold studs that decorated the outfit like dragon scales. He looked like some sort of bull fighter.

Jack's sights then locked onto Theo who was being lifted off his feet by the box which the bigger man was trying to shake out of his grasp. The moment they locked eyes, he saw the Magician nod with a silent plead for help.

"What're you doing?" Jack asked as he turned his gaze down to the smaller two beings which were standing before him. He could tell there were more of them. In the far corner of the room there was a woman wearing an exotic dancer's dress, she had scimitars in her armament. Then there was a Lich, hiding in the shadows and out of view. By the door he had entered through, there was even a man in armor.

"We're appropriating stolen property! Move along and mind your own business."

"Huh..." Jack stared through them dully before literally back handing the head off of the hooded figure's shoulders. His head would bounce like a ball across the lobby. "I don't know who you are, but stealing my potions from Guild, isn't something I will condone."

In the moment that he was speaking, Malmvist drew his Rose Thorn rapier, a weapon which seemed to be extensively modified through the use of contemporary spells and several deadly poisons. When he went to jab Jack, the tall being just grabbed him by the wrist and swung him around, trapping him against his back.

The dancer's scimitars came flying directly into the matador looking swashbuckler in the studded black and gold jacket. It appeared her weapons were being controlled with some form of telekinesis.

With the weapons lodged into her colleague, he would pull the rapier from the man's hand and throw it like an oversized dart directly into her abdomen. Thanks to its enchantments, the weapon blew a large chunk out of her central mass and she fell to the ground as her spine had been practically disintegrated, leaving her powerless as the deadly toxins took the rest of her body.

Jack then looked to the Lich who was running away, just because of his proximity to as he was making for the door… He was burning as if being burnt by his holy radiance alone. A small grin formed over his lips, reaching out a hand.

『Turn Undead』

The moment he cast this spell, the Lich dropped to the ground, rotten flesh and all; dropping its equipment in the process.

His eyes then shifted towards the night as what appeared to be a very familiar string-like weapon on a hilt came flicking at him. It was a Urumi with a single flexible blade, a weapon from ancient India, something he ironically learned about when researching martial arts a few years ago.

"Dimensional Slash!"

"Most interesting," Jack commented as the regular enhanced attack clashed with an invisible barrier, an effect from his own armor, activating despite the glamour spell still being in effect. "But your attack isn't even close to the real thing. My friend would be very disappointed..."

『Time Stop: Area』

Using this spell, the world as they knew it stood still. Only Jack moved amongst everyone in the Guild building and reached down with the intent to pull a single scimitar from the matador's corpse.

Once he had the weapon in hand, he'd flick the weapon by the hilt directly at the armored man with the whip-like rapier. The Scimitar would fly through the air, spinning like a helicopter blade, before cleaving his head off his head and clambering to the ground itself.

Delayed, the head would slide off of the neck as time would resume, slipping out of the helmet as it rolled on the ground.

"Hm..." Jack turned his head to look towards the large monk-like man who had by now thrown Theo to the ground.

There the man stood triumphantly over the Magic Caster before turning around to see all his comrades unmoving on the ground. Then his eyes rested on Jack, who had single handedly taken out his underlings without a single scratch on him, which ultimately be believed to be impossible.

"Who the hell are you?!"

"I'd like it if you'd remove your hands from my potions, overgrown delinquent." Jack stepped towards him at a casual stride, drawing the Blade of Azrael from his item box and holding it out to the side with the pole arm's shaft along his forearm.

"Where the he… Your potions?" The monk took a step back. Even though hundreds of undead were nothing to him in normal combat, he already knew the creator of these potions had destroyed hundreds of undead with a single spell! "Do you know who you're messing with!?"

"No, but I feel like I'll find out eventually," Jack yawned as his turquoise wings sprouted from his back spread at their full span.

"What..." The Monk stared at the angel as it was coming closer and closer to him. As if giving him the illusion to the chance at running away. "What the hell are you!?" That's when his eyes drifted to the once empty hand which was now extended towards him. A beating heart was in Jack's hand, and as the angel squeezed, pain began to shoot through his chest. "Wai-wait!"

Jack however didn't crush the heart, instead as he was within arms grasp, the heart disappeared and he placed his hand on the monks forehead. "I will now know everything you do," a nonchalant tone escaped his lips before he recited 『Devour』.

Screams of agony as his body contorted, Jack would watch as the Monk who had been terrorizing the Guildmaster eventually shrink down to that of a simple cube of gelatinous goo. Of course before crushing it in his hand.

A sudden rush dopamine levels would make Jack smile blissfully for a few seconds before returning to his stoic exterior. His eyes rested on Theo who was now picking the cracked display case from the ground. Considering he hadn't caught it in the time after the monk supposedly named Zero had dropped it during Jack's attack.

Apparently this man was part of a criminal syndicate, one of which caters to the needs of druggies and the rich, even the slave trade which had been made illegal. "Interesting… I'll write this down for Momon later..."

Jack's eyes centered on the Guildmaster's head as some of his hair was sticking up on end. "You should fix that." He said casually as his wings withdrew into his back.

The Magician was just blankly staring at him for a some long seconds, almost a minute before shaking his head. "Thank you, Graham-san," Theo would hold the display case out for Jack to take.

"Hm?"

"These are the originals you gave us. We were able to derive several hypotheses when it comes to the potion making process. We'd be able to mass produce health potions much easier, for cheaper prices at higher quality than the run of the mill blue potions."

"That's good to know… Adventurers will probably buy them in bulk without having to be high tier."

Theo nodded rapidly at this with a wide smile across his lips. "It's all thanks to these magically imbued potions you gave us! Could you tell us how you made these?"

Jack just stared at him for a few moments before letting out a sigh. "One of the main ingredients have been lost when my country was overrun by Beastmen, it was a unique gold infused with natural magic energy..."

Theo frowned at this hearing him say this. So he had such a background, was all he could think about.

"Such a pity..." Theo said with a light sigh, "Did you not bring any with you?"

"The moment the infused gold leaves the Island, it loses the energy it was imbued with." In a way he was telling the tale of how the Gold from YGGDRASIL which was used to make potions, actually became regular Gold. That was one of the main reasons why he was trying to find an alternative way to craft new potions.

Theo frowned as he could only assume that it was a regional effect of some kind, which would likely explain it, or some sort of special condition that needed to be met.

Jack just shrugged before putting the potions away into his item box, along with the display case.

"Those wings..." Theo looked over Jack's back as they had been withdrawn, out from view. "What were they?" He'd ask curiously, looking up to Jack momentarily, before scanning his back again.

"You showed the master of the Merchant's Guild the potions..." Jack uttered as he looked over Theo. While he was appreciative that the had performed the task as needed, "You are aware that the Eight Fingers have their hands in the banking business, aren't you?"

Theo blinked when his question was answered with another question which was completely irrelevant to what he had asked. Yet it was completely related to the reason why these thugs had come here for the potions in the first place. These potions could be used to heal abnormal statuses, including the effects of Black Dust and various other drugs being sold by the Syndicate to the people from the shadows.

"If they had fallen into their hands, our deal would've been compromised."

Sweat started to form on Theo's forehead. "You're not going to 'devour' me are you?"

Jack just glared through him when he spoke of the spell he had used to devour Zero, the leader of the Six Fingers. "I see you're curious of that spell. Sadly it won't be of any use to you."

Blinking several times when he had said this, Theo didn't know how to take it.

The meaning behind it was simply, he couldn't reach the high enough tier to use such a magic due to the fact that he was a member of the human race.

"Anyways, I must be going. I've been planning to depart for Baharuth Empire shortly. I'll come back to see what your progress is in a few months. Hopefully your untested hypotheses will prove useful."

Taking a step back from Theo, he'd walk towards the body of the very dead corpse of a Lich sprawled out on the floor. When he came up to the body, he leaned down and scooped the Orb of Magical Boost into his item box, along with the Cloak of Fire Protection.

Jack even proceeded to slip the Ring of Deflection off of the Lich's finger and slip it onto his own.

"Hm..." Admiring his new ring, before strolling towards the door. "Don't fail me again," Jack said as he glanced back towards Theo. A panicking expression forming over his lips before he headed out the door, making his way back towards the manor.