Chapter 44

312.4.67.

The next day started with everyone preparing for the day's events. Since it seemed unavoidable for a fight to break out at any moment, they wanted to make preparations.

For the kids it meant getting stronger as quickly as possible. Peter had the easy part this time as he was already scheduled to see the dying patients.

Sarah planned to tag along because the mortuary was also nearby. The order didn't hold onto corpses for too long but they had too many deaths to hold a burial for each of them individually. Their solution was a weekly burial service where the entire mortuary would be emptied out and its inhabitants taken to the local cemetery. They still had two days until then so there were plenty of corpses for Sarah to work with.

Drake was in a more difficult situation as he need resources to get stronger, unlike the others who either needed people or their own hard work. His part was the most hazardous, since it involved borrowing Rose's keys and raiding as many rooms as possible. The plan was to pick up as much metallic trash, or preferably proper supplies, as they could. Manda would also help out here since he couldn't really do much else.

They would have thirty minutes for the whole operation. That was because the high priest always held a half hour long sermon before lunch and everyone who could walk on their own would attend.

There would also be some people with the patients in case there was an emergency. Thankfully their accomplice, Rose, was among them.

At first everything went according to the plan. Rose let them into the, for lack of a better word, dying room then she tried to distract the other supervisors present. While she was distracted, Drake demonstrated some impressive pick-pocketing skills and took the key out of her pockets without being noticed.

The team of four split up to do their part of the plan. Peter set aside some time for himself to think about who to use his ability on. If he only wanted to get stronger he could have started from those that seemed the most powerful based on their abilities. However, the goal was to save people and if everything went according to plan they could do that without the use of his Absorb.

With that in mind he started with those who seemed the closest to dying. Finding the right patient was a little more time consuming than he hoped it would be but otherwise there seemed to be no problems initially.

[Successfully absorbed class 4 Electricity blessing.]

[Result: STR +0.05, AGI +0.15, MGC +0.04, EXP +40]

[You are affected by Siphon!]

[Siphon has been disabled.]

After numerous repetitive notifications, Peter noticed that his ability no longer worked instantaneously like before but took a few seconds to use. He also started to feel his body losing strength even though he was supposed to be rapidly increasing it.

[Absorb was originally designed for singular use. Repeated usage may result in unknown side effects. Proceed with caution.]

Peter was infuriated after reading the message. Not because of what was in it, it was a perfectly reasonable explanation in hindsight, but because he was informed about a drawback of what he considered his primary ability only after it became a problem.

He couldn't be too mad, however, as he still managed to accomplish his goal even with this setback.

[Level up!]

[Heart of night LV3 unlocked.]

[Your physical attributes are enhanced during night time. Maximum enhancement is 25% of base values.]

[Level: 5]

[Experience: 20/800]

[Strength: 2.90(+0.10)]

[Agility: 3.00(+0.10)]

[Endurance: 2.60(+0.10)]

[Stamina: 3.00(+0.10)]

[Intelligence: 1.00]

[Magic: 1.47]

[Divinity: 0.10]

[Ruler's blessing bonus: All physical attributes +0.10]

[Abilities: Heart of night LV3, Shadow body LV1, Monster in the dark, Divine weaponry, Absorb]

[Patron: Nyx]

There wasn't much time to look at the results as the sermon was about to be over soon and they needed to get out. While making his way towards the hospital ward's entrance he got news that at least one other person was successful in their quest.

[Shared message:]

[You have consumed 1.5 kg of titanium.]

[Result: STR +0.1, END +0.08, MGC +0.03, EXP +30]

[Temporary result: STR +0.5, END +0.4]

[Time left: 35:56:14]

[You have consumed 1.25 kg of steel.]

[Result: STR +0.1, END +0.06, STA +0.09 MGC +0.05, EXP +50]

[Temporary result: STR +0.5, END +0.3, STA +0.45]

[Time left: 35:58:37]

The group of four met up in front of the exit door and waited for Rose to escort them out as officially they were being guided by her. They didn't even get the chance to get bored because Drake decided to pack himself some lunch in the form of a kilogram of mercury. *

While they were looking for something to hide it in, the door started to be slowly opened by someone completely unknown to them.

[Entity class 8]

[Abilities: Smooth skin, Mucus creation]

Being caught red handed wasn't ideal so they had to do something to avoid being seen. Their options were limited as they were standing in a mostly empty corridor. In the heat of the moment Peter could only think of the aggressive solution but it was more than anyone else came up with.

He instructed the others on what to do with the loudest whisper he could produce while running towards the already half opened door.

"Kill the lights and follow me!"

As soon as the lights were off, Peter tried to hide himself then jumped in front of the door and hit whoever was behind it without even looking at them. The hit was inaccurate and nowhere near powerful enough to knock out anyone in the 8th class but it was enough to make them fall backwards and not notice as the four kids rushed out of the room.

Although the momentary crisis was averted they would still be found out, since there weren't many people in the order who had to sneak around like them. There was also a pretty damning piece of evidence against them which was a thick layer of mucus stuck to Peter's hand.

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*(This is a work of fiction. Mercury is poisonous, do not consume it under any circumstances.)