47 Another one... Another one...
Michael climbs into his inn rooms and tumbles onto the floor in exhaustion. After leaving Damerse and Jojin, he'd managed to find another patrol of D'argent gang members loitering around, but, as he was finishing that group off, another appeared and started chasing him through the city.
Were it not for his rune enhanced Agility, he'd have eventually been caught... There were some fast ones intermixed with the reinforcement group, allowing them to follow him across the rooftops. Fortunately, he managed to lose them by cutting a line through the Salhope territory... Even if the D'argent when foaming with rage, they'd retain enough of their senses to not antagonise the Salhope.
After all, while the D'argent might rob and murder you, the Salhope would torture you to death before enslaving your wife and children into a life of humiliation and debasement.
Not only did the D'argent have very agile people among them, they'd also had the forethought to bring ranged weapons, causing Michael to take a couple arrows to his chest... Again, if he didn't have his gambeson, he might've died by now due to blood loss. Thankfully, the armour managed to stop the majority of the arrow's momentum, leaving him with only light wounds. Whatever bows the D'argent were using must've been pretty crap... Or perhaps the distance lowered the force significantly?
Regardless, the death toll this night was around thirty-five people. Add the people from yesterday and Michael had killed around fifty-seven people... A substantial amount considering the fact he was a weaker than average person only a week prior.
After Michael cleans and wraps his wounds, he crawls into bed and summons the Book of Commoners before flipping it open with a large grin. He hadn't enjoyed exercise or exertion before, but now that he was able to see the numeric values of his progress, it was far more enjoyable... Like playing a game in real life.
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Name : Michael Hunt
Rank : Common
Stats :
Strength : 7 > 8
Agility : 10 > 11
Intelligence : 9 > 11
Abilities :
[Gandalfr] : Enables user to utilise any weapon at two ranks above their current proficiency while granting them the knowledge necessary to use them. While wielding a weapon, temporarily gain +100% in all stats.
[Language Comprehension] : Enables user to understand all spoken tongues, and increase the rate of which they learn reading and writing.
[Curse of Silence - (Origin: Matilda)] : Prevents user from speaking, scribing, or making any attempts to reveal restricted information.
Spirits :
Shadow Shaman : Lvl 7 > 14
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Ah. The fruits of his labour. Michael would say that levelling up had been pretty easy thus far, but then he'd be forgetting the fact that he'd almost killed a hundred people so far... One hundred people.
Back on Earth, to kill so many people would have your face plastered across every news station in most of the world. Yet, even with this world having a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the population, no one was really making a big deal out of it yet...
Had any of the city officials noticed the corpses filling their alleyways and streets yet? Or had the D'argent covered up their massive loss of manpower to prevent the other gangs from attacking them?
Additionally, why didn't Michael feel worse for his crimes? He could rationalize his actions all he wanted, but he highly doubted he'd have the same reactions on Earth in a similar situation...
Come to think of it, didn't the runes in the Anime affect Saito in some way?... They made him forget about his family so that he could focus on protecting Louise. Wait, didn't they also increase his affections towards Louise?
Michael furrowed his brows, he wasn't in love with Louise, but he could definitely feel the seeds for it. Was that due to his actual feelings towards her, or the runes?
Logically, this would mean the runes also had an effect on his mentality concerning death and fighting in general. After all, Saito had literally fought to the death against the Albion army, killing thousands as he did so... Not really something you'd expect from a regular Japanese teenager.
Michael shakes his head, he wasn't sure if he should feel thankful for the runes helping him along, or angry at them for manipulating his emotions. Regardless, what's done was done, and now that he was aware of their effect, he'd likely be able to resist whatever compulsions they inflicted him with.
With his thoughts on the matter made up, he flips the pages of the book to the page concerning his Shadow Shaman Spirit.
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Spirit : Shadow Shaman
Level : 14
Abilities :
Carnival Tricks (Rank 3) : Allows user to form ephemeral shapes, creatures, and patterns to amuse, distract, or frighten.
Ether Shock (Rank 4) : Casts a cone of ethereal energy that strikes multiple enemies.
Hex (Rank 4) : Temporarily transforms the target into a harmless chicken.
Shackle (Rank 1) : Magically binds an enemy in ethereal threads while also dealing damage throughout the duration
Serpent Wards (Rank 2) : Summons multiple Serpent Wards to attack any nearby enemies.
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With his massive influx of skill points, he maxed out his Ether Shock and Hex, as they were his most useful spells currently... He also put points in Carnival Tricks and Serpent Wards, leaving only Shackle the one without improvements.
Michael was only really concerned with gathering EXP, so capturing his opponents was counterintuitive at the minimum.
He couldn't help but get excited as he looked at his level however... He'd be able to pick another Spirit soon, so he could barely stop himself from sprinting out of his room and finding more 'EXP sacks'.
Prior to this night, Michael had decided that he needed to lie low for a day or two, with the way the D'argent were reacting to his presence, they'd either go completely underground after tonight or ready an ambush for him. Either way, neither was good for him.
He tosses his book away and lets it dissipate from existence in many bright particles, slouching in his bed with sigh, "Hmm, when I return to Earth, maybe I'll take over a country for myself... Not England... But, maybe Ireland...?"
