Chapter XX: Truths and Hidden Lies

For those wondering the limits of William's undead raising ability. I will explain by using an equation I devised.

The limit doubles for every soul core he has. Also, it doubles exponentially for every increase in soul rank.

Example: As a Sleeper with 1 soul core ----> he can control only 5 creatures.

If he is a sleeper with 2 soul cores ----> he can control 10 creatures.

If he becomes an awakened with 2 soul cores ----> he can control 100 creatures.

etc.

I hope this clarifies some of the questions you may have. Of course, maintaining an army requires vast essense however that will be discussed at a further point.

Anyways, back to the story.

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"Since we're going to be depending on each other, should we share what abilities and memories we have at our disposal?" Sunny's abrupt suggestion caused silence to reign over the group.

They had just finished eating their food and did their formal introductions towards each other.

William had to admit that Sunless really had a talent for making situations awkward, or maybe it was [Fated] at action - it is really hard to tell sometimes.

Seeing the guarded look Nephis was giving him, Sunny decided to do what he preached as a show of sincerity, "I'll start."

Sunny knew that he had to be careful not to reveal too much to compromise himself or too little to be under suspicion. He had to choose his words carefully.

"My attributes give me an affinity to shadows. I also have a slight

affiliation to divinity. Lastly, I am prone to finding myself in unlikely

situations."

Cassie, who was sitting next to William, whispered into his ear under the cover of darkness, "He is telling the truth."

This earned her a pat on the head from her friend. William was glad that she chose to tell him secretly rather than saying it out loud; it seemed that the advice he gave her on the first day had stuck.

Some things are better kept secret.

Of course, as someone who already knows Sunny's current and future capabilties, William knew that the shorter boy saw their semi-discrete interaction. However, a single cold look was all it took for him to mind his own business.

'Clever guy.'

Thankfully, Nephis didn't have Sunny's darkvision, so she was ignorant of what was happening.

"I'll go next then," Cassie said in her usual soft voice, "I have an affinity for revelations and visions. They are either of the past or future. At least, that's what I think... it only happened a couple of times now."

'So an oracle of sorts?' thought Sunny as he scrutinized the petite girl, 'nothing too dangerous as long as I am careful around her. But what did she tell William? And when did those two become so close? Anyways, does her being able to know the future allow her to change it? Or is it exactly because one knows a future that they inevitably reach it at the end regardless?'

Feeling his head hurting, Sunny decided to avoid this line of thought for now. Instead, he hid his inner turmoil and said in a friendly tone:

"That's a good Ability. Speaking of Abilities: You have already seen mine. My shadow can move independently and explore. It can't affect the material world, but we share sight and hearing. That way, I can spot danger before encountering it. The shadow is fast and stealthy: it can go anywhere and is almost impossible to notice. Oh, I can also see in the dark."

Suddenly, he heard a soft yelp and felt two gazes focus on him. Nephis was looking at him like she was seeing a piece of dog shit on the street while William was giving him a pitying gaze as he shook his head.

Meanwhile, Cassie, who had hid herself behind William's much larger frame, covered her armored chest with her hands and uttered softly, "Pervert!"

"Uh.....What?" Sunny was utterly confused on why he was being labeled a pervert.

"Dude, why do you insist on digging your own grave?"

That was when Nephis's chilling voice came from the darkness and cut him like blades made of ice, "Have you used your ability in the Academy?"

Sunny blinked at the strange question.

"In the academy? Of course I used it," he replied confidently.

He heard William say something weird from the side, "Please God, accept this poor soul in your kingdom of heaven. Amen."

"Wha-" That was all he said before he saw a fair fist coming at him in the dark. Thankfully, he had dark vision. Thus, he was able to narrowly dodge the blow.

"H-Hey, what's the big idea?" he complained to the attacker, Nephis, who was about to gift him a very nasty bruise on his face.

"Perverts don't deserve to live," she said in a scarily monotone voice, "I guess the rumors about you really were true."

"Wait, wait, wait. I swear you are mistaken," he tried to explain the situation, but it seemed that Nephis already had a wholly negative view of him.

Thankfully, before the situation could escalate further, a voice of reason decided to intervene, "Okay, that's enough, you two."

William used his armor to make two bony hands that held onto the Changing Star's arms so that she didn't dish out any more punches.

She tried to break free from the bony restraints, but this was tier 4 Awakened armor. She would be hard pressed to break through it as a Sleeper.

"Now, Nephis, I suggest you go back to your place and avoid laying down vigilante justice. I don't want you to do the nightmare creatures' jobs for them," he said to Nephis in a leveled tone.

Fortunately, it seemed to have an effect as she slowly nodded her head but not before giving the poor outskirts boy a death glare. Seeing her cooperation, the bony hands released their hold over the silver haired girl, and she went back and sat down in her place.

Then, he looked at Sunny, who seemed to be in the process of gathering his breath, "Oh, and Sunny, I would be more careful about my word choice next time, buddy."

The pale boy looked at Nephis, then at William before nodding his head carefully.

"Great, now let's continue where we left off," the living Lich King said as he sat back down next to the blond oracle.

Sunny faked a cough before he continued, "Okay, my ability aside, I have three memories: one is an armor, one is a sword, and one is a really loud bell."

Seeing that it was now her turn, Nephis took a deep breath before speaking, "My attributes give me an affinity to light and fire as well as a strong affiliation with divinity."

Like before, Cassie whispered into her trusted companion's ear in a suspicious tone, "She's hiding two other attributes: Dreamspawn and Nephilim."

William didn't utter a word and only patted her again for her good work. It was truly wonderful to have the oracle on your side. No wonder fate gifted her to Nephis.

"I have two memories," Nephis continued, not knowing that her omission was exposed, "a sword and an armor. The sword is sharp and can defend its wielder slightly against soul attacks while the armor makes me less noticeable to nightmare creatures. As for my ability, well, it can be used to heal."

Sunny's ears twitched upon hearing the Changing Star's choice of words, 'Can, huh? So what is its primary usage?'

He knew that she too was holding her cards just like him, but from what he knew, having a healing ability is extremely helpful.

"You're a healer! That's great! Having a healer among us is going to be extremely helpful," Sunny tried to butter up the Immortal Flame heiress since he saw what she could do with her sword and he didn't want to be at the wrong end of it.

Nephis simply maintained her cool and collected expression, but her gray eyes gave off a different emotion.

'Poor girl,' though the tallest among them, since he knew the price she had to pay to use her ability. In a sense, they were pretty similar to one another in that regard: both were being tortured for being what they were - her, physically, and him, mentally.

Next to him, Cassie let out a sigh since it was now her turn to talk about her abilities.

"It's my turn? Uh... my attributes are nothing special. I guess I have an affinity to revelations and fate. My Ability is like I told you before. It's not very useful. About my Memories, I have four: the bottle, the wooden staff, a golden rope, and this armor. You already know about the bottle since we drank from it after the meal. The staff can create wind. The armor is actually of the Awakened rank... uh, William gave it to me on our second night here. It is pretty durable."

Nephis and Sunny looked at William incredulously but for different reasons.

'He gave her an awakened rank armor just like that?' Sunny thought as his mind began working in the outskirts mode, 'is she offering him something in return? What is their deal?'

Meanwhile, Nephis who knew more about the situation due to her girl talk with Cassie the day before had her suspicions about William lessen by a small amount, 'How nice of him to help her out like that.'

Nephis had seen the worst sides of humanity as she grew up when she was a child; thus, seeing someone act like a decent human being was a nice change of pace to her.

"I used to be a pretty decent fencer," she continued with her voice getting lower, ".....before. Now I can't really fight."

She felt a hand hold onto her small shoulder encouragingly, "Don't be so hard on yourself, Cass. Each of us has our own uses. I told you before that I can fight for the both of us."

This seemed to alleviate the blond girl's mood since she nodded in acceptance.

Then, the eyes of all three of them turned to the final one who was yet to spill his information.

"Best for last, huh? Fine by me. Well, long story short, my attributes allow me to memorize and mimic movements the moment I see them."

This caused the Changing Star's eyes to widen.

"Yeah, sorry, princess, I already memorized your swordsmanship. Pretty beautiful, I have to say."

William didn't have dark vision, so he couldn't see what Sunless was seeing.

'Is... Is she blushing?' The shadow slave was at a loss of words upon seeing the cold and distant Nephis blushing, which was made more prominent due to it contrasting with her ivory skin. 'He just complimented her swordsmanship, so what gives?'

"Anyways, I also don't get fatigued and can heal from most non-lethal injuries faster than the regular person."

This caught the attention of the three other Sleepers who looked at him with varying expressions.

Cassie had an expression that was a mixture of relief and smugness on her face.

Nephis had a thoughtful expression.

Meanwhile, Sunny was very jealous of William's attributes.

"Also, in regards to abilities, I have one that causes anyone who looks at me to see a vision of themselves being killed or die one way or another. It causes them to be stunned for a while. I only tried it on the Carpace Scavengers, so I have no idea how it would affect stronger creatures," William explained his [Mantle of Death] ability.

Sunny paled as he already experienced that ability first hand.

"Is that what you used on the first day at the academy?" inquired the heiress curiously to which William scratched his head shyly.

"Yes, but you see, I wanted to try out my ability but didn't have a suitable target, so when I saw a hall full of people, I said to myself: Why not?"

Then he added in a lower voice that still could be heard, "How could I have known that they would shit and piss themselves."

Then, all four ended up chuckling at the memory; since, let's be perfectly honest, seeing those hoity toity legacy Sleepers have bathroom accidents in public had a form of cathartic effect especially for Sunny and Cassie who were discriminated against by such people.

"Okay, that aside," continued the tall youth as the laughter died down, "I have nine memories in total."

This revelation immediately made the other three silent. It was not particularly strange for an awakened to have several tens of memories in their arsenal, but William was just a Sleeper like them and had been here for only three days, yet he had nine memories.

"I have three weapons, an armor, a locket, a sack, two sea shells, and a necklace."

"How?" asked Sunny incredulously.

"Dunno, I just have good luck, I guess," replied William with a shrug. He remembered how hard it was for Sunny to acquire memories, yet here he was gaining a few memories each day. Of course, his boys were a major cause, but there was no need to bring them into this.

"You also do fight a lot of monsters, William," Cassie added helpfully beside him. "Actually, how many have you killed since we got here?"

This made both Nephis and Sunless look at William expectantly, 'Surely, she must joking.'

Meanwhile, William was thinking deeply, "From the day we got here...I believe the kill count is at twenty-four." (1 fish person + 23 personal Charapace Scavenger kills)

Sunny's eyes widened to the extreme, 'Is this a joke? Is this guy really from the outskirts? Is he even a Sleeper like me? Is he the holder of a Divine Aspect?'

Various questions emerged unanswered inside Sunny's mind. On the other hand, Nephis looked towards the darkness with a calculating glint in her steel-grey eyes. Her evaluation of the white-haired male increased by several folds.

She knew that he was most likely telling the truth since she had personally seen him slay several nightmare creatures even faster than her. Then, this begged the question, where did he come from?

His type of swordsmanship was like none she had ever seen before, even though he tried to not show it's full potential; as the heir to the Immortal Flame clan she could see the power and complexity behind the simple movements he made.

She had to admit that if he tried to attack her as she was now, she would have to use her hidden ace and even then she couldn't guarantee a victory since the silver haired girl was certain that William was not revealing everything about himself either.

No matter how much of a friendly expression he makes, they were, at the end of the day, just strangers pulled together by their circumstances.

"Alright," William's voice caused her to break out of her thoughts, "now that we know aired our respective dirty laundry. How about we hit the hay? I'll take the night guard duty."