Xavier [ X ]

The young lady beneath the tree looked like a fairy from a fairy tale. Her silver hair fell in shimmering waves down her back, her skin was smooth and flawless like that of an angel. She sat in a meditative position, her pastel dress draped gracefully around her, giving her an air of magical beauty. Judging from her face, she should be around 25 years of age.

As if noticing Carla's presence, her eyes, which had been closed, fluttered open and stared deeply into Carla's, making it difficult for Carla to maintain her composure.

"Why are you here Carla?" She asked, her angelic voice carrying a tone of authority and mystery.

Carla immediately fell on her knees and bowed before reporting, "Mistress Liana, one of the slaves is awake."

"Hmm," Liana hummed, as if asking for more details.

Carla gulped nervously, realizing she had only given half the details due to her nervousness. Instantly, she corrected herself and gave the full report, telling her mistress everything that happened.

She began with the report from the guards, moving on to how she observed for herself that the slave had gained his sanity and then ended it with the crucial detail — The dark soul.

Hearing the last part, Liana stood up abruptly from her sitting position.

She grabbed a broom behind the tree and sat on it, before whispering a simple "Float" spell chant.

The broom floated into the air and zoomed out of the room, flying in the direction of the cave that Xavier was in.

Carla ran after her mistress.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the underground structure, Xavier observed his character status, he noticed a lot of changes but he was mostly drawn towards his sub-class.

'Warlock?' He repeated, wondering how that subclass came about.

However, when he saw the bloodline (Nefarious Beast Lord) beneath it. He was even more surprised, none of it made sense to him.

Deciding to keep that aside for now, Xavier moved his eyes up to his main class.

Fortunately, none of his skills were lost and sadly, no new skill was added.

"Reality Change!"

He called out immediately; after witnessing the memories of the original Xavier of this world, he made up his mind to find a way to escape and his means of escape is by changing the reality around him.

[ DING! ]

[ Insufficient Mental Strength ]

[ Note: First-time-use bonus has expired ]

[ ERROR! ]

Seeing the prompts, Xavier turned pale.

"Damnit, how much mental strength is required to activate it," He asked. His tone carrying a strong ense of urgency.

[ DING! ]

[ Level 10 Mental strength required to activate REALITY CHANGE (FF) ]

Xavier stole a glance at his stats once more, his mental strength was only level 1, not even close to level 10

Without wasting time, he asked the system for methods to increase mental strength.

[ DING! ]

[ Providing Methods... ]

[ -By cultivating mana through meditation ]

[ -With Character Hack (NEW): After hacking a character, you can steal 10% of their mental strength.

NOTE: Percentage increases as skill level increases ]

[ -By consuming mana-imbued meals ]

After going through the list of methods, Xavier realized none of it was available to him at the moment.

'Crap!' He cursed inwardly at his unfortunate situation.

But all hopes weren't lost, he still has the character hack and character control skills. If he activates those skills on Carla and the guards, he would be able to get a safe escape. Although not as safe as changing the reality, it would still be better than escaping with none of them.

"I need a solid plan to escape this place. I can't forget the fighting prowess of those cloaked guards I saw in the memories. If I face someone like them, it could be the end for me." Xavier muttered to himself while staring at the ceiling.

He implemented several plans in his head; how he would use Carla and the guards to learn more about this facility, this world and

also about the mysterious characters he saw in the memories, as well as the powers they possess.

While he sought out plans to escape, danger appeared before him in the form of an angelic beauty.

Xavier executed several scenes in his mind, meticulously planning a safe escape from this dreadful facility when suddenly, the face of an angelic beauty appeared above his, her beautiful blue eyes staring down at his in keen observation.

"What the heck!"

Puzzled, Xavier attempted to move back, forgetting he was currently bound to the cold iron bed. He only realized he was still bound when the cold metal straps stopped him from moving.

Xavier quickly turned to observe the angelic beauty above him, only now noticing that she was floating on a broom. When he saw this, the first word that came to his mind was "Witch," but he did not dare say it out loud.

'Who the hell is she?' Xavier wondered.

Liana observed Xavier keenly with her cold eyes that seemed to bore into the core of his being. Every action he took, from his puzzlement at seeing her to the shock in his eyes when he saw the broom, she noted it all.

"You are an odd one," she muttered before looking straight into his eyes.

"Do you remember anything?" she asked.

Xavier shook his head; he didn't understand why, but at that moment, something in him forced him to lie.

"Hmm," Liana hummed in her angelic voice.

"Do you have a name?" she asked, trying to get more clues about his sanity and memories.

"I don't have a name," Xavier lied once again.

Liana squinted her eyes as she frowned, but then a calm smile appeared on her face, "That's better."

'Fuck!' Xavier cussed inwardly. Why was his body forcing him to lie? Was it some sort of intuition protecting him from the unknown? He wondered.

Judging from her words and actions, she didn't seem like the type that would kill him. This relaxed his mind.

'What if I try to hack her character and control her? Maybe she would be of more help than Carla and the guards,' he thought as his mind relaxed and his rationality began to return slowly.

Xavier was so puzzled by her abrupt appearance that he initially forgot the plans he made in his head.

"Character hack," he muttered, his lips barely moving from Liana's perspective.

[Ding!]

[Activating character hack on Level 79 Witch]

[DING! Activation failed! D-Rank Character hack required for this level]

When Xavier saw these prompts, his eyes squinted a bit; he became curious about the character of this lady. Who is she? What is her position in this facility?

The only time his character hack skill failed was when he tried to use it on Phantom during the exchange. Apart from that, he hadn't experienced failure in implementing his character hack skill on others, perhaps because they were humans.

While he was pondering, Carla came running into the facility, gasping for breath. It appeared she had used up all her energy chasing after her mistress.

"Mistress," Carla bent a knee and bowed.

'MISTRESS??!'

Xavier was shocked beyond explanation.

How could this beautiful and pure lady be the mistress of such an evil place?

When he first heard about the character of the mistress, he was expecting an ugly, widowed witch. He never expected the mistress to be someone this young, even younger than Carla, who works for her.

'No wonder the skill failed to activate on her!' he thought.

Liana nodded at Carla's arrival and flew towards her on the broom.

"Carla, this one is a success. Take him to the chamber of blood and cleanse him; we shall proceed with his awakening afterwards," she commanded. Her voice was angelic to the listening but also carried a powerful, authoritative aura.

After giving the orders, she flew out of the room, leaving only Carla and Xavier.