Chapter 11

Three days ago, Esecleus met Darius, Vylan's father, for the second time. Their first encounter was not that memorable. The two of them greeted each other and that was it.

Darius is a busy guy, attending meetings, resolving conflicts in his company, and doing the dirty work if needed. He has a special team of hunters hidden among the rising guild, Light's Essence.

"I'm glad that you could make it today, Esecleus."

When Esecleus first entered the building, men in black and wearing shades immediately escorted him to the elevator. Nothing seemed off except for the buttons one of the men clicked, which led them down further when they were already on the ground floor.

He could feel the elevator going down faster than he could imagine. Inside the elevator, none of them spoke. The silence was loud and it did not last that long.

The elevator stops going down. It opened and another set of men in black began to escort Esecleus further into the underground facility.

"Business is booming as always. I honestly thought the manufacturing company was separated from the main office but I guess I was wrong."

They did not respond to his words. The group of six men just kept moving forward with him in the middle of everyone.

He could see workers working their asses for the CEO. If it was not slavery, what is it? Thought Esecleus.

"All of them look sick to me. Are they even sleeping?"

Another door Esecleus has no idea where it leads into came into his view. One of them opened the door and left standing outside.

One after another...

"Another door, huh? How many are there actually?"

"That is the last one."

Upon arriving inside Darius's office, which sits on top of the very top of the 30-floor building, it dawned on Esecleus that he was on the 30th floor right now.

Vigorously, he turned his head back. He caught a glimpse of the path he took before reaching the office. It was the same. The underground facility looks the same, yet they were on the 30th floor.

"Pretty neat, I'd say."

Esecleus does not know what kind of Unique Ability it was or if it was even an ability because Darius must be using sorcery to trick people entering his office.

"Kinda tricky, yeah? It was my son who thought of adding that sorcery just now. And thanks to his ideas, people who are after me all failed to take my life."

Outside his window, the bottom view shows the magnificence of the city. Full of life, cars driving in and out, high-rise buildings had been erected, and the sunset looked as beautiful as ever.

But if you look at the other side of the room, behind Esecleus has a small window near the wooden door.

Three gentle knocks on the door occurred to them. Darius turned to look at the door.

"Come in," he said, eventually sitting down on his swivel chair and offering the empty seat in front of his table.

"Sir, you requested me?"

"Yes, come and sit down."

The lady in her formal suit sat down across Esecleus. They locked eye contact and the lady nodded her head.

"You know why I invited you here, Esecleus, right? It's about my son and his guild. The same guild you were a member of."

Nathalia, the lady Darius called out, stayed silent. She remained in her seat, listening to the conversation.

[Unique Ability Activation: Timestamp]

[Automatically upload your saving point. Mana has been deducted from your gauge and will keep depleting until your Unique Ability has been deactivated.]

It has been five years since Esecleus first learned of his Unique Ability. When he understood how his Unique Ability works, he did not waste a single time. He kept grinding for EXP that can be turned into Mana, which he needed to activate his Unique Ability. In order to have a great source of Mana, Esecleus did not skip a day of hunting monsters, clearing thresholds, and increasing his Mana gauge.

"Where have I seen him before?"

It was Nathalia's first time seeing Esecleus. Even on television or the internet, she has not caught a glimpse of Esecleus. Yet she felt deja vu, seeing Esecleus for the first time.

It was not just Nathalia that felt the same. People, whenever they are around Esecleus, would feel deja vu—like it had happened before but could not quite remember. Like a vivid dream, they had in their sleep and could not recall most of its context.

"And you want to know if I killed your son and the rest of the guild, correct? Well, I did."

Darius did not falter nor had a change in expression. He just silently looked at Nathalia, who has the answer to his silent question.

"It's true, sir. He is not joking."

That was when his serious and collected expression had a turn. His face wrinkled showed how grotesque a man's expression could be when in utter rage.

Esecleus watched as Darius flew into an unstoppable rage. And he just sat there, enjoying how hateful and ugly Darius looked with that kind of grimly grotesque expression.

"Reset."

[Automatically resetting the time and bringing you back to when you save... Reset has been fulfilled.]

Darius asked the same question he asked Esecleus before he saved for his Unique Ability. However, this time, Esecleus answered differently.

"Will you believe me if I told you I didn't do it? Because, honestly, I did not kill everyone. As I stated, the monsters ambushed us, and everyone except for me got buried inside."

The same thing he did earlier happened. He turned to Nathalia and the latter gave a different answer this time.

"None of his words are true. He is lying, sir."

And Darius's reaction was the same. He flew into a rage and threw hands at Esecleus, which he saw coming a mile away.

"You bastard!"

Darius's men barged in with knives and a weapon of their own.

"Kill that murderer!"

"I'd like to enjoy myself a bit but it's a shame that I have to reset... Reset."

[Automatically resetting the time and bringing you back to when you save. Reset had been fulfilled.]

"Let's see how the course of events will change with a different answer this time."

And he was back to the same dialogue Darius just spoke. This time, he glanced at Nathalia, smiling blankly at her with those condescending looks in his eyes.

[Unique Ability II: Ability Tree]

[You have activated your access to the Ability Tree. Displaying all skills you garnered and possessed.]

A variety of Unique Abilities from people and monsters that he fought were displayed in the system's window. There were tons of useless abilities categorized as E-rank skills to abilities considered as S-rank. When one's ability is too good or powerful to possess, the system itself restricts such ability and will only unlock when Esecleus felt the need to activate it.

"It's a pain having to go through all these skills and abilities. Thanks to the sorting and search engine, I don't have to go through everything like I did back when I was naive about this game-like feature."

[The System is always open to communicate with hunter Esecleus. And your suggestions will always be looked upon. We will review features you'd like to add to the System.]

"It was programmed to respond like that whenever I feel thankful for the convenience of the System."

Behind the System's window, Nathalia was waving her hand, trying to bring Esecleus back to reality.

[Ability Tree Activation...]

[Activating your desired ability from your Unique Ability.]

[Voice Output Manipulation]

"As I said, I did not kill the entire Lion's Mane members. We were ambushed by monsters capable of cloaking themselves, and the dungeon suddenly collapsed. Call me a coward for leaving them, but it was Vylan's decision. He wanted someone to tell the tale."

Esecleus was teary-eyed, sniffing repetitively as though he was on the verge of weeping.

For the third time, Darius did the light skin stare on Nathalia with a matching lip bite. Just kidding. He glanced at Nathalia. His eyes asked for answers, so Nathalia answered.

"In all honesty, Esecleus is telling the truth. None of his words was a lie. It all came from the heart and so you shall believe everything he says."

("Blasphemy! Such atrocious lies! Do not believe such cunning acts and words! He is a liar from beyond!")

The second dialogue was the actual words coming from Nathalia's mouth. The first one was the work of Voice Output Manipulation, which will be taking effect for an hour. So, everything that Nathalia will say against Esecleus, of it will turn into sweet lies.

"Is that so..."

Hearing Nathalia's false truth somehow put Darius in a sour mood. He was expecting Nathalia to blurt out the truth about Esecleus slaughtering his guild members, yet it was the other way around.

He felt weak, disheartened at Nathalia's words, and found no one to direct his pent-up anger burning wildly inside him.

"Suddenly, I want to be left alone. Escort Esecleus back, Nathalia."

"I--Is that all?" Hesitantly, Nathalia asked.

"Why? Is there anything we should do? Now that I know the truth."

"Yes, yes! Shouldn't we compensate him for suspecting him of taking down the Lion's Mane guild?"

("Yes, yes! Shouldn't you punish him for killing all of the Lion's Mane guild?")

"I guess, we should. Send him to my secretary. She will know what to do."

And I bet you're eager to know what kind of expression Esecleus is making at the moment as he plays tricks on his enemies.

~