Serum

From General Umangot’s vantage point, he could see Dirk enter combat. And despite being so far away, clarity was no issue with a bit of magic and his exceptional eyes. 

And surely, it was a sight to see, even though he couldn’t see some things. 

What exactly did it mean to be built for assassination?

Most thought that assassins would only work in the dark, appearing for but a moment before taking a life and slipping back into the shadows. Their attacks were sharp, swift, lethal, and most importantly, stealthy. 

But in this world, anybody worth assassinating had enough power to protect themselves from danger. This meant that assassins weren’t built as one would typically think. 

General Umangot knew about all types of battle. He stood at the pinnacle of this world’s power hierarchy. He touched on the truths of the world and its inner workings. The knowledge he grasped couldn’t be fathomed by most. And the things he knew about regarding the dark world that slithered within the foundation of every empire would never be glimpsed by anyone who didn’t deserve to know. 

But it seemed that Dirk embodied precisely all those things that nobody should know. 

His lethal style of battle, the inhuman battle sense, and his ability to operate beyond the perception of those around him. 

He could turn any battlefield into a place advantageous for his work. It didn’t matter if it was in broad daylight. 

Everything he did made him the icon of the perfect assassin. In fact, calling him a mere assassin didn’t do justice to his horrifying skill in the art of killing. 

Even with all his knowledge, Umangot couldn't fathom just how scarily good Dirk was at delivering death to his enemies. In fact, he was sure that his only limiter was the power contained within his own body. 

There were a few dozen monsters around the site of the bombardment, and more had begun to make their way over in order to pick away at the corpses like scavengers. The longer the reclamation team was there, the harder things would become as they attracted attention. 

And Dirk didn’t cooperate with any of the groups that fought off the scavengers. Instead, he bounced between the groups, interjecting at just the right moments to either kill a monster or debilitate it to let the group finish it easily. 

His movements were erratic, and since Umangot was so far away, he couldn’t quite keep up with everything he was doing. This was because he seemed to be using a version of Void Walking he had never seen before. He was also lightly using some Stealth technique, obscuring him even further. 

Regardless, Umangot finally understood why this kid had given him such a bad feeling when they first met. 

He was basically the walking incarnation of death. Despite not having the power, he absolutely had the skill necessary in order to kill them. And the only reason he couldn’t kill them was because, without power, skill wasn’t allowed to cross certain boundaries. 

It was a baffling thing to think about. The mere thought of a child like this, not even a fraction of his age, being able to surpass him in any area related to combat was an impossible thought. But, if not for this, General Feller wouldn’t have reacted as harshly as he did. 

It made Dirk an impossible existence. Someone so attuned to battle that, within his power limits, he was untouchable. All he had to do was grow his power, undoing his only shackle, and outright gaining the ability to kill everyone around him. 

Of course, the only saving grace was that power came in many different forms, enough to create a slight gray area at the limits of his power level. This gray area was perhaps the only uncertainty in Dirk’s ability to kill someone. But below that gray area at least, so long you were within his sheer power limit…

Your fate was already sealed. 

After watching Dirk battle for around 15 minutes, the General finally saw the entire team begin their return. Huge wagons full of corpses, now considered materials, were hauled back to the stronghold. 

He sighed while turning away. 

To think that this monstrous young man was also operating with the Vampire Princess Pandora. He knew how cunning she could be. There were no small amount of reports on her doings in regard to the vampire nobility and hostilities with Horizon. She was dangerous for a whole different reason. 

Combine those two together…

Umangot almost groaned. 

“Let’s just hope they leave before making any huge messes.”

……

…

The day consisted of five trips to bombardment zones for reclamation. 

Whenever Dirk headed out and entered battle, he would work on practicing his magic and refining his Rook Class Aura. 

His Void Walking was perhaps his greatest tool for mobility, so he focused on it a lot. Stealth was also important, especially if he would need to escape from strong enemies anytime soon. 

Using these spells and pushing their limits allowed him to glimpse even more comprehensions into the Dark Element. 

But just as importantly, he also worked on his Lightning techniques. 

The main one he focused on was the auxiliary technique he mimicked from those lightning snakes. Now that he had completed Muscle Destruction, Dirk could stream lightning through them without significantly damaging them. 

This didn’t give him a boost in strength. His Anima was responsible for that. Instead, it multiplied his speed and reactions. 

By sending a bolt of lightning through the right muscles and tendons, he could turn his legs into whips and make his punches explosive. He could also swing swords with far more force. 

It was like propelling his body with explosives. This also made it difficult to control, even when dialing the lightning down. But the results were without question. 

If he learned to accurately combine the strength of his Anima with the effects of this lightning technique, he would be able to outright multiply his combat power without actually increasing his overall power level. 

Of course, this was the simple result. But a bit more realistically, Dirk had a long way to go before perfecting this lightning technique. 

It was brutish, a mere fraction of the ability the lightning snakes had displayed. They used it with far more deft and finesse, pulling far more strength out of much less power. It was why they could produce lightning attacks with terrifying explosive power, yet when Dirk let out a lightning attack, it was weak while consuming copious amounts of energy. 

His comprehensions into the Lightning element were shallow at best. After all, he was taught nothing about it at the Academy. He was barely taught anything about the Metal element either. 

This was because these specialties were far too dangerous to be simply taught freely. The Empire would only allow one to utilize those specialties after they had chained you down, that chain being the Military. 

This was what Dirk’s mother had meant when she said that what he had been taught at Asura’s Mountain was still extremely valuable. It wasn’t because the spells or techniques themselves were exceptional, even though they were, but because nobody knew them. 

Dirk learned how to use his Metal element to turn even basic Earth magic into something several times deadlier. His Earth Guard had gained far more strength with the Metal element integrated. And all the Dark techniques opened up a world of exceptional lethality and horrifyingly effective curses. 

And now, his Lightning Element was finally being put to use. Even Asura didn’t have anything for Lightning, and what Horizon had didn’t seem to be in depth. It seemed to be an exceptionally rare specialty. 

But Dirk wasn’t out of luck, because he got something better than anything he could attain from Horizon or even the treasury of the Dark Kingdom. 

He got a gift from a Lightning Dragon, one that contained all sorts of profound details about the element as a whole. There was nowhere better to get something than from the source, after all. 

And not willing to waste it, Dirk had long since been sifting through that lightning crystal Uuvos handed him. Only now though was he finally able to put things into practice. 

There was a long way to go, but even a single battle helped him clarify several details. And with his armor and muscle destruction completed, he could devote much more focus to these things. 

After returning from his first day of work, Dirk and Exos retreated to their residences. 

Pandora also met with them along the way. 

The two parties separated without many words, mainly because Exos was more tired than the thought he would be. He intended to get some early shut eye. 

That left Dirk and Pandora to talk alone. 

She spoke to him in English upon entering their room. 

“Did you make any progress with the crystals?”

“No. General Umangot had his eye on me the entire time I was out there. I’ll work as soon as  he learns to mind his own business.”

Dirk grumbled a bit, making Pandora smile. 

It seemed as if the General thought he was being discrete, but his gaze was too outstanding to Dirk who was sensitive to just about every form of power there was. Because of that gaze, he didn’t intend to do anything that would arouse suspicion. 

Pandora shrugged. 

“That’s fine. We have time. I’ve just about completed the spell, so I’ll deploy it tomorrow. This means monster movements will begin to shift. Stay on your toes, and keep Exos alive.”

“Mm. Speaking of…”

Dirk started setting out platters of food as he relaxed. Obsidius also popped out of his clothes, bouncing around the dining table with childish excitement. It seemed to still be overactive from the day of battle. 

“Exos has some interesting abilities. He’s absolutely deft in combat, and his inventions are capable. From what I saw, his primary weapons of choice are whips. These whips extend from his arms and seem to be anchored to his body augmentations directly, allowing them to take the brunt of the force while attacking. It takes perfect advantage of his abilities and attributes.”

“Well isn’t that interesting? Seems like he isn’t just a scientist.”

“Dwarves do like to fight. I doubt he’s much different. If he’s able to build more augmentations for himself, then he’ll only get stronger. Plus, his magic is rather amazing. He uses Earth magic to control his whips in ways that physics normally wouldn’t allow. They can lengthen significantly beyond their base length. They’re also equipped with blades, allowing them to slice and grapple onto flesh like barbed wire…”

Dirk explained the abilities that Exos displayed in today’s battle. They mostly consisted of Earth magic, but Dirk also mentioned the presence of Metal mana, something he likely saved for stronger attacks or defense. 

A dwarf having the Metal specialization wasn’t rare, so Dirk wasn’t surprised that he had the same specialty. 

Unfortunately though, Exos wasn’t a body refiner, so his ability to forge anything was limited. It was why he outsourced custom products to others for forging. 

On a tangent, Dirk also thought about how Exos had others produce potions for him that allowed him to install the augmentations onto himself and other test subjects like animals. This made him think that with his skill, he could forge things for Exos and Pandora could concoct the potions. Exos would then only need to enchant the augmentations. 

Maybe they could work together since that was the case. Though, if Exos would be taking up residence in the Dark Kingdom’s Capital in order to research more, then that wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t like Dirk and Pandora would just stop traveling to complete their missions. 

He thought it would be interesting though. Forging Augmentations sounded interesting, so Dirk wanted to try. 

“By the way…”

Pandora changed the topic after noting the details about Exos. 

“I did some more digging into the Church’s presence here, and turns out, it's a lot deeper than expected. They’ve stationed a Tier 7 Light Mage here, and those of the Church are basically the exclusive healers for this entire stronghold. So they’re important to the entire population here, making things more complicated should we clash with them.”

“Does that also mean this light mage can sense what you’re doing?”

“No, so long as I’m careful. That’s the only reason I didn’t finish my spell today. I’m reworking it. Regardless, the Key Artifact will come out at my beckon. We just need to prepare to snatch it and get the hell out of here, regardless of how. I’ve also prepared some other spells that should aid us in preventing others from figuring out about our target when the time comes.”

Pandora explained some more of her plan, making Dirk nod. It seemed like a solid plan, but the biggest uncertainty was how they were still underpowered. Despite being as accomplished as she was, Pandora wasn’t a Tier 7, so it was unknown if they could see through her spells or if they wouldn’t notice the Artifact when it emerged. 

They were taking a risk, one that Dirk didn’t like. But they were already behind, emerging into the world only a month after the War started. Then they spent several weeks saving a city and heading to the Haven. 

They were only now working toward an objective. They couldn’t allow other powers to take control of the Artifacts, and the more time passed, the more they would learn about them. It wasn’t impossible that, sometime in the future, they would need to battle higher powers for control of these powerful objects. In that case, the more they took control of, the better their ability to fight for the others. 

Dirk understood this, and because he was deciding to trust Pandora, he was moving forward with the plan. Since he decided to do this, he was all in. Nothing less would be enough to ensure a good outcome.