Chapter 5

After Lewis had defeated the troll, he was led to yet another office, though this one was fancier and seemed more official looking than the first one. Soon after, a big man with long red hair and an equally long and red beard walked in and sat across from Lewis.

"I've received the reports made about your Post-Evaluation, and I have to say, this is impressive for a young kid like you. Hell, you could probably start raiding up to High D-Rank Dungeons… But, what concerns me is your lack of foundation for your Blessings. You move awkwardly as if it's entirely new to you and you have no real control of them. There's also the fact that you struggled with the backlash of those blessings multiple times throughout the evaluation, and you were injured fairly easily as well." The big man criticized Lewis's performance heavily.

"That's because I don't have control of them. I suffer because I don't know how to use them. I get hurt because I did, just awaken to them. But, I try to use them to the best of my current ability." Lewis replied.

"I know. Right now you can potentially raid High D-Rank, but if I were to be blunt, personally, I think you'd struggle to clear a Mid E-Rank dungeon. But that's right now. You have insane untapped potential, and I really want to see it blossom. The conditions you gave, I can approve of them with some adjustments. A ten year contract with a two year service as a rescue team operative, fifty thousand as a sign on bonus and a hundred thousand annual salary and locked information beyond the Association. The adjustments I want to make is; shorten the contract to five years as a Porter with no rescue team requirements, a sign on bonus of seventy thousand and an annual salary of ninety thousand. This way, you get experience in dungeons as early as next month, since there is an age limit of no younger than thirteen for a porter, this helps get you in immediately. Of course, there will be training here to help you along with your usage of those blessings you have, and while you're still in school I'd like to keep your recruitment secret. All that's left now is to sign the contract and have a list of your blessings written down. Again, this information will never leave this guild, even the Association only needs one to be registered." The man explained in detail.

"As long as I get stronger, then I'll do what I must." Lewis responded.

***

The big man, who Lewis found out was the Guild Master and named Vernon, looked at the list of Blessings Lewis wrote down with the look of pure astonishment.

"There's eleven blessings here, how is that possible? You have them from each Category! I mean, just What kind of child are you? This Hellhound one is also extremely peculiar, especially after you had just fought one so that means you have three Mythological Class Blessings… How absolutely thrilling. I'll choose to have this Garter Snake put down as your 'Blessing' to avoid suspicions. I assume you must have skills, but we don't really need them, so I won't ask for them. Well, Lewis, it's been a pleasure to meet you, and I hope to see you again. I am quite busy normally, so I don't know when the next time I see you will be. From now on though, after school, please report here for training. Ariel will be your instructor and caretaker from now on. Having lost your family and living alone for so many years must have been quite straining for you." Vernon sighed in sympathy. Lewis's face went white.

"W-what did you say?" Lewis stuttered, his heart pounding in his chest.

"It must have been hard losing your family to a maniac like that." Vernon continued.

"Sir, what maniac? When was this? What happened?" Lewis began questioning.

"What do you mean? This happened six years ago didn't it? Cedric the Vulture killed your parents and younger sister during the Amusement Incident, you were the only one he left alive out of the four of you. I think he slaughtered like twenty people there before he vanished without a trace… Are you alright?" Vernon asked Lewis after seeing his pale complexion.

"I think I need to go back home… and uh, pack or… something." Lewis stood up, the sudden and random information that never happened during his last life, shook him up to his core.

"Ah, right. Well, I'll have movers come by and help you. Since I've hired you as a porter, you no longer need to rely on the state to take care of you. The Hephaestus Guild will happily take guardianship of you from now until you graduate from an academy." Vernon stood up and stated, as he walked Lewis out.

***

Lewis stood outside of a cemetery, after receiving the information from Vernon, where his family was apparently buried. Lewis gathered up courage and walked into the cemetery and began looking at the names on the graves. It took roughly an hour before he finally found the family mausoleum for 'Padova'. Inside was decorated with dust, seemingly ignored for years except for a few old boxes towards the end of the mausoleum. Where the boxes were, was where Lewis's parents and younger sister's graves were. The boxes were addressed to the family, signed by Lewis himself. Lewis, being curious and wanting to be around his family, opened the first of the boxes and began looking into the contents. The first being a newspaper clipping of the incident at an amusement park. In the clipping was a circled figure that Lewis had to study real close to bring into focus. Knowing himself well enough, he wouldn't circle something without a reason or purpose. In the background of the police and Adventurers, a man stood staring directly at whomever was taking the picture, his mouth twisted into an evil grin.

"I may not be from this world, but hello Mr. Vulture. Triumphant in your endeavors, you couldn't help but pose for your handiwork, as all true artists do." Lewis set the newspaper to the side and dug around the box some more. Most of the contents in the box were about the killer, the most recent being three years ago. Every photo had the same twisted grinned man posing indistinctly in the background, somehow avoiding detection. A total of twenty seven cases in three years. Twenty seven children were spared, one from each case. Twenty-six girls and one boy, leaving Lewis to speculate on why his sister was killed instead of him.

"The pattern doesn't make sense. My family was killed in a mass spree of killings, each killing over twenty people killed, and only a single child spared. Typically a girl, but I was the only boy to be spared. This box does not contain the information I need so it's most likely in a box I have hidden separated from these. To prevent anyone from figuring out what I knew in order to take care of it myself. But I must have been too busy or I couldn't piece it together at the time." Lewis pondered aloud before moving on to the next box. Inside were notes, notes on the surviving children.

Since all of them were girls, the state placed them in their own dormitory to live together in a nice suburban area near a well renowned Blessed Academy. Whereas Lewis received a small apartment in the slums of the downtown area. There were more photos, but these looked hand taken by a small figure, short in stature. They were of the dorm building itself, but they were grainy and a tad shaky. But there were still circles around the rooms and outside the building. The rooms were specifically designed to prevent any type of break ins or outs and on the outside was a figure, not quite Vulture but it couldn't be ruled out. The notes went into detail about how the dorm was operated and what the names of the staff were. There were no notes on the girls themselves, it was more like the Lewis of this world was building this portfolio to protect these girls, but then he never awakened his blessings, and he must have given up due to the bullying.

"Don't worry too much about me, since I've taken your place, I'll trust your judgment in protecting the children in that dorm. I'll also hunt that Vulture down and slaughter him myself." Lewis placed the box of notes to the side and moved on to the final box. This box was heavy, and seemed to be filled with metal objects from the way the contents clunked as it moved. Opening the box revealed a coded note and two sheathed knives.

[The Twin Daggers of Nemesis: Rival and Balance

Rival- Gives a sense of inferiority in an opponent when wielded, causing them to try and up the user in any activity or action.

Balance- Equals out the opponent or user. Whoever is weaker becomes equal with the other.]

"How mystical, where did these come from?" Lewis mused before grabbing the coded message.

'>=! /]%?<[@>/?] <!)@<(/]) }{^>{< /$ /] >=! ?^( @>>/*. <![![~!<, >-? /$ ?]! %?{< %/}!.'

"Seeing as I didn't write this, I have no clue what it even means, a few things seem to make sense, the at symbol is A, the dollar sign is S, the backward slash is I, but the rest is indecipherable without a good key. Obviously, I'd never leave the key somewhere to be easily found, so this will be most arduous to find." Lewis stuffed the message in his pocket and gathered the boxes up to bring back with him. He glanced at the graves of his family with a look of sadness and pain before he turned away and headed back towards the apartment he now knew the location of due to the information in the boxes.

***

True to Vernon's word, a moving van was waiting outside the apartment, with movers moving Lewis's meager belongings into it. The amount of stuff hardly filled even a third of the van. When Lewis went into the apartment, it was dull and empty, sad and depressing. Lewis checked all over for anything that the him of this world may have left behind, but there was nothing left behind. Instead of staying behind with the unfamiliar apartment, Lewis chose to ride along with the movers to Ariel's place, someone Lewis was certain he had never met.

***

He was wrong, oh so very wrong. The owner of the house that he arrived at, named Ariel, was in fact Blue Bitch. She stood outside waiting for the arrival of the van in a plain t-shirt and a pair of ripped skinny jeans. Her arms were crossed and she had a plain look on her face that was unusual from her normal scowl. When Lewis stepped out of the van, her plain look changed to that of surprise and then guilt as she looked away. Lewis sighed and grabbed the three boxes and walked up to Ariel.

"Where do I take these?" Lewis asked her calmly.

"Uh, I- I can show you." Ariel motioned for Lewis to follow her, so he did. Ariel led him into her mansion, as that's what Lewis considered it as, and brought him up to the third floor.

"You can choose any room you like up here, or you can use the entire floor at your discretion." Ariel stated.

"Why are you suddenly so nice?" Lewis narrowed his eyes, expecting ulterior motives.

"I- I had misjudged you before, I am extremely sorry. Though I trust Joshua's perception, I just couldn't see past you being a mere child, and my behavior showed my thoughts." Ariel apologized immediately.

"I see. Very well, that's logical to have such a view. Not all children are like me though, I am what you would call, a unique case." Lewis dismissed his notions for the moment and accepted the apology. Since she gave him an entire floor for himself, he figured he could at least get along with the woman. The look on Ariel's face changed to that of relief.

"I'll go help the men unload, I'm sure there's more they have to go grab." Ariel smiled and turned to leave.

"No, I've gotten everything I own in the van. No need to help them, they're probably glad they only need to move such a meager amount for whatever they're being paid." Lewis stated in response.

"Really? You brought everything? Surely you mean you only brought what you considered essential, right?" Ariel looked at Lewis with concern and confusion.

"Everything I have bought and own, are essential. Why buy or own things that are not?" Lewis replied with a shrug.

"What clothes do you own? How many?" Ariel began questioning Lewis.

"Enough. Mostly school uniforms and the two outfits given to me today. Enough socks and undergarments to last two weeks while washing clothes every week to avoid dropping to only one pair, as that would be unsanitary and far too lazy." Lewis briefly explained.

"Change of plans, we're going out to get a few items. Meet me downstairs in one hour." Ariel sighed as she gave Lewis instructions.

"Is this mandatory or essential for me to tag along for?" Lewis inquired, greatly hoping for the answer to be a no.

"It is absolutely mandatory for you to be there, and yes, it is very essential." Ariel replied with the answer Lewis was hoping not to hear. Lewis stared at Ariel for a moment, the look on her face was serious enough for Lewis to realize he was going to be going, even against his will.

"I'll be downstairs in exactly one hour then." Lewis complied. Ariel smiled and nodded before walking away.

"Women." Lewis muttered as she disappeared down the stairs.

***

Exactly one hour later, fifteen minutes after the movers finished and left, Lewis waited at the bottom of the stairs for Ariel.

"You so need a new style. Alright, let's go." Ariel stated as she walked down the stairs past Lewis. She had changed into a short black dress with black high heels and a black wig.

"Why all black?" Lewis questioned her style choice once again.

"Because, I like black. I also don't like being recognized outside of guild related work." Ariel replied simply.

"That's fair. Well, where are we going?" Lewis accepted the answer and changed the subject.

"You'll see… Have you ever ridden in a porsche?" Ariel asked in response.

***

Lewis hung on for dear life as he rode with Ariel through the downtown streets and onto the freeway at breakneck speeds, listening to the 3.8L Flat 6 screaming as Ariel pushed the rpm to its limits.

"Do you normally drive this fast?" Lewis asked with his face pale white in fear of wrecking.

"This isn't nearly as fast as I normally drive when I'm alone." Ariel replied.

"How reassuring." Lewis muttered. They zipped through traffic and down an off ramp like they were in a race, Lewis remained on edge the entire time, activating several different blessings unwillingly throughout the terrifying experience. By the time they arrived at whatever their destination was, Lewis had practically given up on surviving and was simply waiting for death again.

"There we go, the best Mall for the Blessed in the world, or really a branch of it. The clothes here are stylish and imbued with enhancements. So you can have the latest style with armor like defense, or magic buffs, ect. So, shall we go in?" Ariel smiled at Lewis. Something about the smile creeped Lewis out.

***

Ariel wasn't wrong when she explained about the luxurious feeling inside the mall. Different sections had different colors, and per each color a corresponding rank requirement had to be met.

"Since I'm a B-Rank, I can go all the way from Blue upto Red. Though today, we will look throughout Blue to Yellow, since you only have roughly a mid D-Rank rating right now. If we're lucky, we'll find weapons while we're here for you." Ariel stated chiperly.

"If I see something I like, then I'll think about it. I have seventy thousand on this card Vernon gave me, so I'm not too terribly worried about prices." Lewis replied.

"I would worry more. Prices here for weapons are at minimum, ten thousand and clothes are typically a minimum of five thousand. So I'll be paying today." Ariel explained. Lewis's eyes widened and his blessing exited incognito mode accidentally.

"No need to be that surprised, it's normal for good quality to be expensive." Ariel laughed at Lewis's reaction to the prices. Ariel motioned for Lewis to follow her into the Green colored area meant for E-Ranks.

"Why did we go directly into the E-Rank section?" Lewis asked, he had reactivated the incognito mode for his blessing, to look normal. Though once he was in the section, he saw many people who looked like they had their blessings on at full show.

"To answer both your spoken and unspoken questions, it's better to go into a lower section to find decent equipment that's not terribly expensive, and typically when you enter a branch of the Mall for Blessed, you'll see adventurers or hunters like them who like to show off their powers or strength. I would suggest you keep doing what you're doing now though. It's useless to show your cards so easily." Ariel did in fact answer the questions Lewis had.

"So what exactly are we doing here?" Lewis changed the topic.

"Clothes, immediately. You look so stiff in that suit, it's suffocating. Hmm, let's see, let's choose this… with this… and those, ooh! I like these as well! What do you think? Doesn't matter, let's get you into these!" As soon as Ariel started picking out clothes, she became an entirely different person. She chose a short sleeve deep purple v-neck shirt with a half black half white stitched smiley face with X's for eyes. With it was a pair of black slim fit jeans, a black hoodie and black and purple canvas shoes.

"Why is everything you like so damn dark?" Lewis asked as she shoved the clothes into his arms and pushed him into a changing room.

"Just put them on, I'll be back with the final bits to enhance the look." Ariel ignored him and ran off.

"Wha-... Seriously! Fuck, fine." Lewis closed the door and started undressing and then dressing. In the mirror, he did have to admire the contrast the clothes gave compared to his body style and his dark hair. He turned around and opened the door, Ariel was nowhere to be seen.

"I wonder if she just ditched me here… Damn, I actually like this outfit… should I just buy it?" Lewis began to mutter to himself when he heard a commotion outside the store's entrance. He was going to ignore until he heard Ariel yelling, then he went to investigate.

"Hey, sir, you can't leave-"

"I'm not stealing these, I'm just stepping right out here, you can keep an eye on me just in case you feel I'm lying." Lewis cut the clerk off politely.

"No, I'll just trust you for now." The clerk sighed and permitted the exit. Lewis nodded and walked out into the common area of the mall. A semi large crowd was gathering in the middle near the Red section, a few men were guarding the crowd from whatever was causing the commotion.

"Leave me alone!" Lewis heard Ariel's voice yell. Lewis immediately began walking towards the crowd and started breaking through.

"There will be no interruptions in Sir Beckans's personal matters." One of the men guarding, shoved Lewis back. This irritated Lewis and he activated the black ant for a brief moment as he sent the man flying past the two in the middle of the crowd. The man crashed into the red section with multiple crashing sounds as he broke through many displays. The man standing in the middle of the circle, holding Ariel's arm tightly, turned and looked at Lewis in surprise and irritation. Lewis waltzed up to Ariel and casually slapped the man's hand away and grabbed Ariel while leading her away.

"Excuse me, but this is a personal matter, please butt out." The man grabbed Lewis's shoulder tightly. Lewis Activated the Jungle Vine Blessing and had both vines slam the man away from him.

"Your personal matter has been concluded. Please find yourself the nearest exit and fuck off, I mean this with full disrespect." Lewis replied coldly and continued walking. The men now stood in front of Lewis and blocked his path.

"I see, so you wish to fight me? Very well, I shall gladly oblige you as you wish." The man stated shortly before Lewis found himself in a wall, the jungle vines were still activated and cushioned the blow instinctively. So there was only the pain from the impact of the man's punch in Lewis's upper left portion of his torso.

[Health Critical, 14% remaining. Internal organs ruptured, left respiratory organ dysfunctional. Recommend Ranking up other blessings to counteract current opponent.]

Instead of replying, only blood came out of Lewis's mouth, that was enough to set his mind straight as he immediately began looking at his list of blessings, figuring out which one would be suitable for him to level up. Ultimately, he decided that the House Centipede was the best option if he wanted to keep up with the insane speed. But he also wanted to try the Manticore as well, but the garter snake was still active, and he had no real way of using either of the blessings.

[Spend 310 CP to Upgrade Jungle Vine to (Legendary Tier)? Jungle Vine (Legendary Tier) Upgrade successful.

Jungle Vine (Legendary Tier)- Adds +77 to CON +56 to INT +30 to MAG. Summon up to 20 Vines to ensnare and attack your opponent in a diameter of fifty meters around you.]

As soon as the vine blessing was activated, the wounds on Lewis's body stitched together with miniature vines, nothing healed, but the pieces of his lungs pulled together and became somewhat functional. The vines around Lewis also increased and slowly, Lewis removed himself from the wall and stood facing the direction of the crowd, which had increased in size.

[Garter Snake (Legendary Tier) Has gained the hidden trait, Jungle Crawler. Affinity with Plant-Type blessings has increased tenfold. 70% chance to bond well with other plant blessings.]

"This system… just wants me to survive at this point. So no matter what blessing I would have chosen, it would have been uncannily beneficial to me." Lewis concluded. It didn't matter to him, he felt refreshed with his newfound power. From the crowd's perspective, his bloodied and scaled figure slightly hunched forward and the numerous vines whipping about around him, made him look like a monster from the dungeons.

"Ooh! So this is what the Hephaestus Guild was hiding! K wanted me to tail some of the members from your guild, particularly Joshua, but who knew my choice to follow you instead would lead me straight to the prize! A dual blessing middle schooler, now that's quite the tasty catch indeed." The man began laughing as he spoke to Ariel.

"You only followed me because you're a fucking creep and you know it. It had nothing to do with your mission." Ariel shoved the man away as she started walking towards Lewis.

"I don't think you quite understand what's going on here Ariel. I'm taking that boy back with me to the Garden. You just stand pretty there for the meantime." The man's eyes flashed and Ariel froze in place, fear gripping her heart. The man's name was Francis Beckans, a blonde haired blue-eyed and fair skinned Nazi descendant. Though that was just speculation based on his personality. His Blessing was a Mythological Class known as a Mara. Its only known abilities are that it instills terrible fear and feeds off of the fear, growing stronger with no limits.

"What say you kiddo? Shall we go back to the Garden together?" Francis held his arms out and smiled creepily.

"Sorry, I don't swing that way." Lewis replied as he began his approach, his sole thought was to kill the man in front of him.

"Oof, rejected. Not that it matters, I'll take you back by force then." Francis shrugged. He pulled a stick from his pocket and sent his magic into it, causing the stick to transform into a great sword made from magic. Lewis's Vines doubled to the full 20 and once Francis was within the 25 meter radius, he had the vines attack from all directions. This succeeded in catching Francis by surprise as one vine penetrated into the meaty portion of his left thigh. The rest were easily fought off and deflected, causing puncture holes in the granite flooring where the vines were deflected to. Francis looked down at the damage and smiled.

"What a powerful plant affinity you must have, to be capable of piercing my divine body and armor like skin. This is quite the lovely surprise you've given to me. Shall I return the favor?" Francis glared at Lewis and his eyes flashed white as he tried to instill fear into Lewis's heart. But Lewis continued to Stare back with reptilian eyes, cold and dead to the world, as if he had already lost everything that mattered.

"Quit staring at me, creep." Lewis snapped as he drew in a deep breath, warmth began building in his abdomen and built its way up until it expelled from his mouth as a torrent of hellfire. Francis blocked the flames with his magic blade, all the while smiling in pure ecstasy.

"I can't take you in now! No! I want to fight you and kill you! But, alas, you're not strong enough right now. So I'll settle this here, and wait until you've reached the pinnacle of your latent abilities." Francis stated as he materialized behind Lewis as soon as the breath ended. Lewis tried to turn around quickly but his vision instantly went black after the last sentence. Francis caught Lewis before he fell and carried him over to Ariel.

"I am no longer interested in finishing my mission. I have a personal agenda I want to see to completion." Francis undid the fear he inflicted upon Ariel and set Lewis down gently next to her. His face was contorted perversely, grossing out most everyone who stuck around for the fight.

"Whatever you sick fuck, just go die already!" Ariel kneeled down and picked Lewis up, carrying him a few steps away from Francis.

"Ah, my dear sweet Ariel… However much I do enjoy our little quips to one another, I must tell you that our love… It can never be, I'm sorry." Francis held his chest and sounded genuine in every word.

"Okay." Ariel replied plainly. Francis snapped his fingers and turned on his heel, walking out of the Mall and leaving the destruction he caused behind him to someone else to clean up.