witchcraft

"Then please make a portrait of me, then I will judge for myself wether your art is as good as you say it is."

Garfield gave a smile and responded simply.

"Don't worry, just leave it to me. You definitely won't regret it!"

He had a lot of confidence in his modern painting style, and he believed that even if people of this era could draw realistic paintings, they would not be as aesthetically pleasing as his.

The painting tools were already well organized, so he immediately started on his art.

A noble lady with her two servants standing under the blazing noon sun, sweating profusely as they waited for a portrait to be drawn.

Such an eye catching scene drew the attention of the passerbys, and a crowd was soon formed.

"With such an exaggerated fee, he doesn't even provide his customers with shade?"

"Tsk, tsk, rich people have special hobbies,"

"Do you think that his art will be good?"

"No matter how good it is, it is just a painting, it won't be that different from others!"

"Exactly! If it were me, I would definitely get my portrait done at a place that has good customer service."

"If the painting is half as good as that of the old man from the swan boat, I will eat my shoe!"

"How dare you even think of comparing the two?!"

"Haha he just doesn't want to eat his shoe!"

The crowd's murmurs entered Garfield and the lady's ears, but they remained unfazed.

Two hours later.

Even the noble lady who was in the sun was starting to get impatient.

"Are you done yet?" she inquired.

Garfield nodded as he made one last stroke on the painting.

"Yes I am done, please take a look!"

Swoosh!——

An invisible golden halo that could only be seen by one person hiding in the crowd, flashed by and covered the whole crowd of people.

The painting was turned around, and it revealed a picture of a beautiful middle aged woman.

A similarity of at least 70% could be seen, as the painting emphasized all her good features and diminished her blemishes.

"Wow! So pretty!"

The first to react was the little maid that was impatient to leave earlier, and her words woke up the dazed crowd.

As if a starting signal, after her reaction, compliments of all forms started coming from the crowd of onlookers.

"The painting is so good! I told you that this painter has the air of an expert!"

"Bullshit! You said you would eat your shoe if he is half as good as good as Mr Robert."

"Yeah, the artist is clearly better than Mr Robert!"

"Eat the shoe! Eat the shoe!"

"Yes, real men keep their words, eat the shoe!"

"Surround him first, we will make him eat the shoe after we are done appreciating the amazing art."

The noble lady didn't pay much intention to the popcorn eating crowd, her sparkling eyes remained glued on the painting.

"Such a marvelous painting!"

"You were right mister painter, your art is really worth much more than the price you attached to it!"

She was smiling so much that her eyes bent into crescent moons.

"Haha it's nothing impressive, just a little skill."

Garfield replied modestly, but the pride on his face was clear as day, and the sense of superiority was practically oozing out of his pores.

...

[Main task: Destroy the protagonist's halo, and make him a normal world inhabitant.

Progress: 0%]

...

Behind the crowd, there was only one person frowning as he looked at the enthusiastic crowd of people.

'The progress of the task has dropped to zero!'

"Should I throw more dung at him?"

Andrew jokingly muttered to himself, he knew that if he did such a thing he would only be ruining his reputation, and might not affected the protagonist's halo at all.

While he was in thought, he caught sight of his dazed carriage driver admiring the painting at the center of the crowd.

"This kid will definitely steal Mr Robert's business."

Tommy said in a low voice.

He lightly patted him on the shoulder to gain his attention, then patiently inquired.

"Isn't it just a bit better than the paintings from the painting boat? Why are you so dazed?"

"Besides, the lady had to wait 4 times longer than the period of the painting boat, in the sun!"

"Please tell me the advantages you think he has over Mr Robert, who draws people in a comfortable environment of a shaded boat."

Tommy didn't think about it, and he subconsciously responded.

"Well, this kid's paintings are more aesthetically pleasing and ... And... Eh? Hmm.."

Tommy finally came back to his senses.

He looked back to the painting, and he found it more ordinary than the first time he looked at it.

Thinking back to how engrossed he had been, Tommy felt cold sweat dripping down his back.

In his thirty one years of life, he had never undergone such a a ghostly experience, so he couldn't helping asking with some fear and trepidation in his voice.

"Sir, that kid, did he practice some witch craft of some kind?"

Although this was a low level world of martial arts, they were plenty of folklore and myths, witches that tricked humans out of their souls being one.

Andrew lifted an eyebrow in surprise after seeing that Tommy easily "awakened".

'It seems that the crowd isn't being brainwashed.'

He rubbed his chin in thought, then an imaginary light bulb lit up in his head, and he called up Garfield's stats window.

...

[...Golden finger 3 (hidden): forcefully lowering the IQ of people near, around, and/or those that have karmic cause with him.]

...

'So as long as I carefully list the advantages and disadvantages to these people they will stop being affected by the protagonist's halo?'

'If I do that, it will probably increase the task progress, but, after these people leave, other people will come!'

'That is probably what happened yesterday, after I prevented him from finding a place to stay, he turned around and found someone else, and somehow in the process his halo was healed.'

Andrew walled up the system window to check if there was change in the task progress after Tommy "awakened".

...

[...Progress: 3%➝0%]

...

The moment the window popped up, he that the progress was rapidly dropping.

'If I truly want to give a blow to that halo, I will need to do it in large scale, and make sure that almost everyone in the city knows!'

'If everyone in the city has a bad impression of him, no matter how much their IQ is dropped, they won't believe in him, right?'

...

To be continued