Chapter 45: Helping Out

As the spin results revealed themselves to Kuroneko, she looked intently at each of them until she saw the final reward.

"T-this?" She tried checking it one more time until she confirmed that it's not a hallucination. "[Ashborn's Inheritance (UR)]? I... I got lucky this time! As expected of the Devil King's Mask!"

""Congratulations~""

""Congratulations, Gokou-san.""

A new status panel suddenly appeared in front of Kuroneko, surprising her. When she saw that the rewards that she got went to an "Inventory" and saw that there's no [Ashborn's Inheritance] in it, she realized that the panel itself is the inheritance.

She gave back the mask as she said, "I'm giving this back to you, Hero of Darkness!"

"Hero... of Darkness? Okay..."

(A/N: A reference to Lucifer, the main lead of Kuroneko's favorite show "Maschera". He also has a white mask that looks similar to Shiro's.)

*****

Some time had passed after Kuroneko got her reward. Touka used hers and got a UR item. Unsurprisingly, it is the [Tyrant's Eye (UR)] and as a result, her left iris is now light gold, just like her younger sister Rikka with her lenses on.

Thanks to the mask that she borrowed, there weren't any much fluctuations that occurred. One of its main domains are seeing through fate, karmic, life, and death lines while its other domain involves bending reality at a certain extent. Shiro concluded this after seeing her starting to form a giant black greatsword out of nowhere.

Fortunately, they were in a game, thus the people here thought that she only took out something from her inventory.

"Is it alright now, Touka-san?"

"Mn... Thanks for the help."

"No problem." Shiro received his mask back as he asked, "How about you, Shinji-kun?"

"Me? I... Your presence alone is enough."

Hearing that, Shiro forced the mask in Shinji's hands. Since there's a certain space between the face and the mask whenever someone wears it, he didn't mind letting others borrow it.

"Shiro-aniki..."

"Don't make a fuss over it. This is the only time you would receive a guaranteed reward, y'know?"

In the end, Shinji relented and wore the plain white mask. It didn't take long before he tore a golden ticket in half. Only he could see the spin results, thus they didn't know if he got something good at first.

He mulled over something for a while before placing the new ability that he got on a free slot in his [Synchronization] tab. The moment he did so, his presence became extremely thin, as if Shinji didn't exist here in the first place.

At first, the others didn't know what had changed, until they realized that Shinji is missing!

"W-where did he go?" Shino was the first one who got startled since he's sitting right beside her moments ago.

"...I'm still here."

Suddenly, they saw Shinji again right after he spoke.

"Mn... Concealment?"

"That's right, Shiro-aniki."

Turns out, what he got from the random spins is an ability called [Pancosmic Loner (UR)]. Simply put, Shinji now has a god-like concealment that is active at all times. Only when he 'cements' his existence into the world by interfering on it would he be noticed by other people.

It's also said in the description that it once worked against a god that created multiple universes (multiverses), a Creator God!

"...It's ironic that I asked you to make friends a day ago." Shiro commented as he thought of his newly-acquired ability that has the word "Loner" in it. Now that he has such concealment, making friends would be more... troublesome.

Just as he was about to disappear from the other's sight, Shinji gave back the mask to Shiro.

"It's alright, Shiro-aniki. I might have one soon... maybe."

"Maybe? Perhaps, you've got one right now?"

"Y-yes?" He replied without much confidence. After all, he never really tried to proactively make friends due to him focusing on being the 'perfect' descendant the Matou House could ever have. Because of this, he never knew much about a normal kid's experience.

In the time Shiro left, he also realized this major shortcoming of his and tried to follow Shiro's advice.

"I wish you good luck." Shiro said, knowing that he might have some troubles regarding this matter.

The group ate the remaining "digital food" that they ordered before they went to their respective inns. However, Shiro and Kuroneko stayed behind due to the latter wanting to talk about something privately. To this, Shiro ordered another pair of drinks with his Cor.

"Kuroneko-san, what is it?"

"It's about the reward that I received before..." She started talking normally, surprising Shiro for a bit. At this moment, she looked like Ruri instead of Queen of Darkness. "A quest window appeared in front of me, telling me to complete it or there will be a penalty quest."

"What do you-I see. Does it involve something physical?"

"How did you know?"

"I recall that you don't have a great stamina, right?"

In the game, all she ever focused on is her WIS and AGI stats to become an agile caster. Sure, she'd put in some points in her STR stat, but it didn't help her much.

"What do you want to learn?"

"It's Reinforcement..."

"You didn't get it as a reward?"

"No. All I got is [Lightning Magecraft], [Thought Acceleration], and [Transmutation]."

During her dungeon runs with Touka, she serves as the supporter. She changes the form of a metal into thin wires before using [Thought Acceleration] to predict her enemy's trajectory. Once it comes closer to them, she imbues the wires with [Lightning Magecraft], making it a fatal combo.

"[Thought Acceleration]... This might be doable." He thought of how Atlas' Alchemists used their signature magecraft [Thought Acceleration] and [Memory Partition] to create seven horrifying superweapons that will be used by mankind in every world-ending scenarios. 'Without its other pair, their magecraft will be greatly weakened, but it'll still work for now.'

"Alright. Get your [Thought Acceleration] ready."

"...It's ready now."

Without a word, he tapped her forehead with his finger before creating a mental link between them. Using that link, he slowly passed on his experiences of using [Reinforcement]. He didn't choose to pass on the full mastery of it due to its sheer amount.

Still, this is the full mastery of [Reinforcement] that we are talking about. This is its final form, something that the humans of Fate Universe achieved when they are at their peak. As to what happened next...

Either magecraft lost its mysteries, Types destroyed Earth, or more world-destroying scenarios occurred. This made Shiro wonder just how Zelretch could manage his psych all this time after knowing these.

After her initial shock, Kuroneko got used to the headache that the memories had brought to her. Using [Thought Acceleration], she could quickly organize them in her mind before the mental link was severed.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes. It couldn't even faze this queen!"

"Glad to hear that. Can you try doing it now?"

Kuroneko responded as mana glowed, [Reinforcement] taking effect in her left arm. It wasn't as skilled as Shiro's usage, but it's already beyond a beginner's mastery. As she turned off her circuits, she looked down with a slight hint of blush appearing in her cheek.

"Thank you... for helping me out."

"No problem. It's nothing much, really."

When she saw him smile once more, an image overlapped with him. That certain someone that helped her whenever she needed it... To this, she only shook her head, thinking of her parting words with him.

She knew that it would end up like that, yet she still held a sliver of hope that it wouldn't. Unfortunately...

"What is it..?" Shiro asked her when he saw her mental state heading towards sadness once more as he looked at her crimson eyes.

"It's nothing..."

*****

A/N: The [Pancosmic Loner (UR)] is Yu Ilhan's special trait that left him alone in Earth for more than 1,000 years. If anyone's asking, it's the protagonist of Everyone Else is a Returnee, a translated novel back in 2016.

Fact #5: Sankta is a race of people in Arknights. They resemble an angel, with them having light wings on their back coupled with their light halo on top of their head. The Sankta are also the most skilled people when it comes to using originum guns. Unlike the guns used by normal mercenaries (which is a modified and downgraded version of Sankta's), theirs pack a huge punch. As in, one shot could obliterate an entire street if their arts are strong enough. However, the difficulty of controlling it is very high as well. The only guns that could match a Sankta's would be the Inquisitor Handcannons of Iberia that could also level an entire street.

Happy Reading~!