Episode 12: What I've Sacrificed

It was quiet. Too quiet. The dorm room should be packed around this time. It was 11.30pm and dorm block A, where I was staying, should be one of the busiest around this time. So I'd been told at least.

I furrowed my brows as I looked around, trying to piece together what was happening. All that came to mind was Samani. Just as I was about to enter my room, my neighbour's door swung open, and Jessica stepped out, clearly in a rush. She jumped from fright when she saw me, trying to open my door and with a confused look aimed at her as she tried to rush off in the middle of the night.

"Where are you going?" I asked, half not caring and half a little interested.

I wanted to sleep. However, if an assassin was out at around this time, then there was only one real answer.

She had been given a job.

"Nowhere... Oh, what the hell... you wouldn't believe me if I said that, would you?" She resigned herself to admitting the truth. She had been given the task of killing Samani. My face crumpled in confusion. "What's Samani done to earn death from you?"

Jessica sighed and responded in a frustrated voice, "I don't even know, I was just told to take him out and hand over his artefact as proof of death."

My eyes lit up at the word 'artefact', and a sneaky idea crossed my mind.

"Wanna play a little game? You want Samani dead... and I want his artefact... how about first to kill him gets the artefact," pointing towards the dorms exit I continued, "Let's make it a race, yeah?"

She mulled over it, I could see the gears turning as she tried to outweigh her job and the fact I, in a sense, wanted to make a sport of killing someone. The Black Household had a reputation that preceded them. If you were marked by the {Black Mark}, a skill that was used by the head of the house, then you were as good as dead, as a matter of fact, the skill altered someones future so that they would meet their end in some kind of way that wasn't old age. I was simply helping out in the job that was already done the moment Samani pissed off some Noble or Royal that decided to contract the Black Household. How he could have done that, I wasn't sure, but knowing Samani, it was a big possibility.

"Alright, fine. As long as the outcome is his death, then... I guess it wouldn't hurt." She finally answered back.

"Great!" In an instant, I was already off, through the exit, and had activated {Fade} and vanished.

I activated {Apply} and let mana run to my legs, letting me leap up onto the roof of a building. Jessica bolted out the dorm a second later, and the race had begun.

Thanks to {Fade}, I didn't have to worry about being spotted. What I did have to worry about, however, were my mana reserves. If my reserves ran out before I reached Samani then I wouldn't have the necessary tools to kill him except with my bare hands, and that was not going to happen since that would leave DNA leading back to me.

I almost felt a little bad for Samani. He was likely unaware that assassins were after him because of something that he'd done. That was almost, however. My greed for a sacrifice outweighed the amount of sympathy I had for him.

I zipped across rooftops, searching hard for any signs of him until I was on the roof of the university's training hall. It was a large building, standing roughly 10 metres high. There was glass in the ceiling to create a skylight for the entire building. Conveniently, there was a latch to one of the glass panels, which must have been a window for the maintenance team.

I climbed through the window and into the hall and onto the metal bars that were at the top of the hall. Down below me, I could see Samani with his gang, and they were smoking. Most likely, some kind of drug, as the smell alone, caused me to feel weezy and lightheaded. I focused, and I recognised the drug.

It was Tantra Rot, a high class and very top secret, military use, drug that gave you a high, not to mention it boosted aggression and increased magical abilities by at least 10 fold, perhaps more depending on the dosage. Now I could see why someone had contracted for his death. He had somehow acquired the means to wreck unpredictable damage to, not just himself, but to everyone around us.

Thankfully, during the time it took me to walk to the dorm room after talking to Jessica and Darius, I'd figured out, thanks to the insight, that the range, power, and charge of {Lightning Bolt} could be altered.

Activating {Lightning Bolt}, I felt electricity course through my fingers and in my palm. I reduced the power and increased the range to compensate for stability.

Then, raising my arm, I aimed carefully at Samani. This wasn't just about the artefact and the race anymore. If he had that drug, he needed to be dealt with as fast as possible.

I unleashed the long bolt of pure electrical power, and in the blink of an eye, it zapped Samani right where his heart was.

The reaction was instant.

The others scrambled around, trying to get away. They, too, had the drug, so I couldn't allow that. I zapped each of their legs, paralysing them. Dropping to the floor, I quickly made sure they were immobilised, then quickly searched Samani for his artefact. I found a small knife, an extravagant one at that. Its hilt was wrapped in a silky embroided wrapping. The blade curved and had a pearlescent shine along it. It seemed to be made of a magically enhanced moonstone. I pocketed the knife and made sure my mana reserves were fine, then walked over to the paralysed boys. I snatched the drugs off them and put them inside the same pocket as the knife. I then took the body, without touching it, and stashed him away before using {Upgrade} to securely lock him away.

The {Fade} skill began to waver, and I needed to get out as fast as possible. I leapt through the window I entered in by and dashed off towards my dorm room. I boosted my mana output to the max, and in a single leap, I cleared 2 buildings and landed inside Dorm block A  through an open window. It was far from elegant, however, as I crashed to the floor and rolled a couple of times. I winced from pain as the dagger stuffed in my pocket stabbed my leg, and I reluctantly pulled it out, now covered with my blood. {Regeneration} began to heal my leg, but i knew my mana would run out before it was fully healed. To help, I deactivated {Fade} and retracted the mana from my other leg.

A few minutes later, Jessica appeared in the window with a sour look, and I gave her a weak thumbs up and an awkward smile. She rolled her eyes and offered me a hand to get up. Taking her hand, I hauled myself up and straightened myself up. "Unlucky," I said quietly.

Jessica gave me a small laugh and punched my arm, "Yeah right. How the hell did you do all that? It was so efficient."

Trying to regain my mana in order to talk properly was a struggle, but after a few seconds, I spoke up again, "When you're trained for this kind of thing... you get good when you do it a lot."

"Oh... I see..." she answered back.

I looked at her and smiled gently, and then said, "Don't let it bother you, I've just... had my fair share of that kind of life..."

Jessica nodded and looked at me. What I saw in her eyes was not what I expected. There was true empathy and a kind of sadness that wasn't just plain old pity. I figured that I needed to spend more time talking to her, getting to know her more. I wasn't thinking about romance or anything. If it led to that, great. If not, I wouldn't be too bothered. She fascinated me. To have such true emotion for someone like me, a true and trained killer. I wanted to know why.

Although, having said that, I couldn't help but notice her beauty again, and I immediately stopped myself and walked to my room. It finally occurred to me that we were neighbours too. I unlocked the door, said my farewells to Jessica, and then headed inside my room.

I quickly locked the door behind me and used {Upgrade}, which strengthened the locks and material of the door, making it able to withstand most middle tier spells.

After securing my room, I slid down the wall. What am I thinking?

My thoughts didn't last long as I heard a knock on my door, followed by a quiet voice. Surprisingly, it was Jessica. "Lough... do you wanna go for a walk?"

I grinned. It was so stupid. I'd grinned like a child. Yet, I was happy to have that question asked to me, so I stood up and opened the door. "Sure, why not."

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The air was cold. It was not too cold, such that you'd be shivering, but cold enough that you'd appreciate the nip of the chill. We walked in silence for a while, walking through the gardens of the university. After a brief moment, we would start a conversation, and it would last a while before some depressing topic like the military or assassinations would come up. It seemed as though I wasn't the only one stuck in a loop of an inescapable past. I hadn't even begun to consider what other professions had in store for them. Especially the assassins I'd worked with before. At least I'd been thrown away, disconnected from the violence and the death. Jessica, however, had to stay and commit the murders and the assassinations. I knew it would slowly eat her up. It does to everyone.

You can be good at your job. At the cost of losing yourself.

You may not like your job. But something still compels you to carry on.

I hadn't thought of this in regards to Jessica. It was so obvious, yet I'd ignored that simple fact, all because I didn't want to see myself in that look.

"I want to know... the truth about your ring. And why did you want Samani's artefact?" She finally asked me.

I grinned, as I'd predicted that this would come up. "The truth is... for every artefact I sacrifice, I gain power." I looked her in the eyes and continued, "But this stays between us. Don't tell anyone. Not your brother. Not the teachers. Not your family. No one. OK?"

She nodded and stared into space. "Gaining power through sacrifice... that's... something. Have you sacrificed it yet?"

I shook my head. "Not yet, I was going to do it tonight until you asked me out." I smiled as I saw her face turn a little red.

"I didn't ask you out! I asked if you wanted to go for a walk." She retorted.

"I know," I replied calmly.

We continued to walk in a loop around the campus, talking, laughing, and enjoying each others company until we arrived back at the dorms at 2am in the morning.

We bid each other farewell, and I entered my room and activated my usual spells to secure the room.

I sat on the bed, and Orebrul finally emerged from the ring in his bubble form. "Someone's getting quite close to his girlfriend," he teased.

"Shut up... she's just a friend." I answered as I pulled out Samani's dagger. Orebrul whistled and inspected the dagger. "This is good quality, I'd say it's around a B-rank, which should give you 1 or 2 Artificial Points," he said.

"How do I even sacrifice it? What am I supposed to do?" I asked with a confused look as I studied the dagger and powered the ring with my mana. The ring brimmed with energy, and I could feel it being drawn towards the dagger.

"Just... I don't know... use a skill and destroy the artefact?" Orebrul offered.

I shrugged and put the dagger down. Stepping a few feet away, I raised my palm and activated {Fireball} and aimed for the dagger. I pushed out with mana and tried to sense the dagger while blasting it with a weak fireball. The dagger absorbed the fire power and glowed an orange colour. I clenched my teeth and used {Lightning Bolt} next and filled the spell with as much mana as possible. This time, however, the bolt of electricity zapped the dagger, and it cracked and shattered into little pieces before it dissipated.

The ring began to warm up, and I felt a change within it. Closing my eyes, I focused and entered the 'Archive', which is what I'd called the space with the paths and skills. As usual, the world zoomed out, and the colours inverted. There was a slight difference in the layout, however. There were 2 hovering balls of blue light that were floating around my head, and I could sense the attraction they had to the {Destruction} path. I closely eyed the skills of the path and looked at my options.

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Path: Destruction

Artificial Points: 2

○ Skill: {Icicle}

○ Skill: {Yellow Flames}

○ Skill: {Blue Lightning}

○ Skill: {Destructive Aura I}

○ Skill: {Elemental Fist}

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I carefully looked at my options. I could choose 2 of the 5 options that were presented to me. I noticed there were no passive skills in the {Destruction} path. It made sense, of course, as most of the destructive spells were offensive and thus needed activating. Although {Destructive Aura I} seemed to be activatable, it looked like more of a defensive spell which I needed right now.

{Destructive Aura I} and {Elemental Fist} were both very tempting skills to acquire at this stage. From this, I guided one of the floating blue orbs to the star titled: {Destructive Aura I}.

The star took the blue orb and all of a sudden it flashed in a bright white light and when it had died down, the star was slowly breathing a gentle orange colour.

As per usual, I felt the knowledge and ability to use the skill flow into my brain and I breathed out with absolute clarity. The skill was more than I could have asked for. To be able to exert a pressure that increased gravity and heightened the likeliness of fear to be experienced by the opponent was incredible. The skill also had a side note:

○ {Destructive Aura I} leads to the possibility of acquiring {Elemental Body} and {Destructive Aura II}

Two new skills had been added to the list of possibilities now. I ignored them, and decided to choose my second skill. The insight flowed into my hippocampus as I applied the same process to the star titled:

{Elemental Fist}

My grin had never left my face through the entire process and it widened even further as I felt the power of these 2 new skills coursing through my veins.

I had finally become stronger. I had sacrificed an artefact, and truly began my journey of sacrifice and power now.

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