Chương 268: Chapter 265 - [The Jack of Many Faces]

A man smiled as he downed a drink and made merry with a group of pals that he'd met only a month ago. The building was large and from their outfits, most of the people here were adventurers. Though their gear was often more modern in style than adventurers from Ryan's world. The map nailed to the wall showed that it was a city in the Javeir Kingdom of Sector Eleven. A bold place to put down a city, unthinkable for the world that Ryan had come from. The man that smiled put his dirty boot on a chair.

He sloshed his drink upwards for all to see." Make merry with all who would come, for all ye comers are bastards and bitches to behold!" Half the bar roared with him." Bastards and bitches! No laws and taxes upon us!" To all, it looked like the man was in good cheer. But Ryan felt it. As raucous as the man was, as drunk as he seemed, he was not truly into whatever revelry they were gathering for. The man's eyes was focused, his mind cool, calm and collected.

The King, the demon fairy cultivator and One-Eyed Rick all had their blood boiling with excitement in their skill orbs. This man… had none of it. His eyes weren't quite darting around the room, but his attention was split. Focused on something— someone else. For a brief moment, his eyes flicked over to a woman sitting by a table, arguing with a bartender. And for a moment the man's cold heart skipped a beat. For company? Whoever she was, she stood up and was marching out of the door.

That was when his vision changed. [Aura Sight] The room turned into empty silhouettes and flickering burning flames. They looked like what Ryan saw when he looked within at his own auras. Everyone had a burning flame that signified their auras. Some larger than others, all with different colors that weren't always static. He hadn't even heard of the skill before. It must have been rare in this world too because there were no enchantments to prevent it. [Aura Lock].

Ryan felt the skill latch onto the woman that had just left. She froze, perhaps detecting the intrusion. But the man laughed.

"King Fedderank is nothing but a petty tyrant! It's no wonder everyone's leaving the country!" Another round of cheers at that. The woman scowled and forgot her earlier confusion. She marched out of the bar. The man Ryan was inhabiting, grinned. A true smile this time. Excited. The scene at the bar continued for a couple more minutes. The party talked about inane things and Ryan understood that this city was ruled by a handful of ascendants that had broken away from the squabble in the inner Sectors.

It was somewhat like Sunstone City and Vitalia in The Realm. Anyone could come here and fight the monsters in Sector Eleven and gain achievements that way. A different world, a different history and a different culture. When the woman reached the end of the perimeter of [Aura Lock] the man finally stood up—and spilled a drink on himself.

"Oh my, excuse me. Not acclimatized."

"Hah! Again?"

"You know how it is, us [Warriors] haha! Maybe it's time for me to call it a night." A beautiful woman with green skin and slightly pointy ears leaned over.

"Hey Bilker, need me to carry you home again?"

'Bilker' laughed and shook his head.

"No need, no need. I'm actually looking forward to having a good night's sleep tonight. Maybe next time." The offer for a night from a beautiful lady hadn't even made the man's heart skip a beat.

"Hah! Fair, fair. Have a good night."

'Bilker' drained another glass for the night. The man wiped his mouth and walked somewhat shakily to the entrance. He immediately cut into an alleyway and then threw up. All of it, theater. What the man was really doing, was using [Aura Sight] to see if any souls were nearby. When he was confident nobody was, a mask materialized in his hand. A stone mask, not completely unlike the mask that Ryan wore.

The main difference was that while his was completely white porcelain, the stone mask here had tens of multicolored gems embedded within. It glittered in the low light of the night. The man kissed the mask on the lips, it was cold on the lips. He flipped it around and put it on. And finally, Ryan felt the skill he was here for. He hadn't realized the man even had a class until this moment when the skill was used.

[Class Change: Magebane Assassin] One of the crystals flared as the shadows in the alleyway grew larger. The [Assassin] now stood in place of where 'Bilker' had been. There was a magical camera he had missed as a [Warrior] but he cared little for it. Clearly 'Bilker' was a throwaway identity. It felt… icky. There was no better way to put it. The [Class Change] skill wrapped the [Assassin] class around the man's aura but it felt wrong. Bad class crystals? Where did this guy even get them…?

Before Ryan could figure out the difference, the next skill threw him for a loop. [Class Outfit Change] The enchanted gear that was fit for a mobile [Warrior] shifted into sleek quiet armor that blended into the darkness. Little weaves of magical light snagged onto the magical scrying spell and made the sight of him blur. And he jumped. Too fast. The speed of an ascended [Assassin] blurred as the man ran across the rooftops. The target had gone out of range of [Aura Lock] but he knew the direction.

Everything was in sight as he used [Aura Vision] again and quickly identified the aura he was searching for. It was the perfect hunting tool. Everyone had a distinct aura for themselves and nobody ever defended against it. Ryan felt the man's heartbeat quicken faster and faster. More reckless, he realized. Ryan would have never let a camera catch him but this man did not care, this man was hunting in a city for outlaws and he— Could not wait any longer. The patience had broken like a damn.

The [Magebane Assassin] descended on the fresh ascendant— She twisted out of the way at the last moment. Her staff flickering out as the [Manawave] pulverized three civilians and two adventurers that had been next to her. Movements of a practiced, experienced dragonslayer tier [Mage]. An instant [Manawave] to disrupt anything that was close, then a multiple layered barrier that came quickly afterwards. It would have worked on anyone other than the [Magebane Assassin].

[Manabane Slip] Both armor and skill allowed him to ignore the [Manawave]. He thrust. Schwing. A dripping jagged dagger slipped through the barriers—and the dagger pierced deep into the woman's heart. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Her surprise was met with screams from onlookers. Anyone that had any sense of self-preservation was running in case this fight got out of hand. But the fight was already gone.

Her magic fluttered out from the [Manabane] and poison that was running through the dagger. She just looked shocked, staring at the dagger in her heart, trying to use her mana and realizing she couldn't. The [Assassin] grinned under the stone mask. [Emergency Blink] And both of them were gone. Just like that. Miles and miles away. Far, far from the city, the man ran from the location he had [Blinked] from, paralyzed woman in tow, his dagger still in her heart.

She was alive—stabbed heart or not, ascendants died hard. He quickly arrived at a cave he had prepared ahead of time and a teleportation was ready to take him far, far away. Beyond the reach of anyone that would attempt to pursue. The spatial tunnel collapsed behind him as he appeared in the saferoom the man had prepared. Though it was less of a safe room and more of what Ryan would think of as a badly made horror set. Except all of it was genuine, real dried blood. Ryan's heart sank.

Everything else had been sloppy but that? Only the Passive Tyrant had been known to actively pursue someone through a collapsed spatial tunnel, and that was when she had already been in pursuit. The man finally relaxed and placed the woman on a stone bench that was stained in blood.

"Ah [Grand Archivist], it seems you have found us at last!" The woman eyes went wide when he spoke of her class.

"Yes, someone leaked your class, it's why you're here. Or did you think you were the only one hunting us?" The man laughed as if it were some great joke only he knew. Suddenly, her eyes turned from anger to pure fear. Ryan had never seen someone's face pale so quickly as he did here. She tried to talk but only coughed blood. She threw a mental message instead.

'L-let me go and I will find others for you, a trade—a trade!" When he laughed at her, she lashed out with a pure mental attack.

'My father will not forgive this. You doom yourselves and the Jaim as a whole.' He laughed once again.

"You mean the only ascendant [King] in The Realm? The one that hides behind his walls and has to answer to every other ascendant? Hah! Tell him to bring his best. Jaim city will not bend to anything less. The [Grand Archivist's] eyes widened. Perhaps she too was figuring out that this man and the group he represented did not care about Jaim city at all. In the face of certain death she seemed to find her courage again. She spat out her blood and it splattered all over the stone mask.

It did not change his emotions at the woman in any way shape or form. He just nodded at her.

"This is going to hurt, I do apologize for it." And the man took off his mask. Both the class and the outfit came off at the same time. Ryan saw the reflection of the man's face in the [Grand Archivist's] terrified eyes as she beheld the truth. There was no organization behind the man. The outfit and the class came off like it was nothing and his true face and class came to bear. An ordinary middle-aged human man. Nothing remarkable. A face you would forget the next day because that was his class.

It had swallowed him whole, there was nothing to him but this. [The Jack of Many Faces] smiled at her as her lips trembled. She screamed, for [Archived Skill: Deathsense] felt it. She had so many Epics, it was so dreadfully hard for a non-combat class to hit the tenth realm and hit an Epic class. Such a rare class. She screamed because out of everyone, she knew what was going to happen next. [The Jack of Many Faces] grabbed the dagger in her chest and the jagged edge began to ring—resonate.

[Auric Resonance] + [Conceptual Meditation] If presence was a projection of the soul's achievements, then aura was the projection done in a controlled manner. [The Jack of Many Faces] was making his aura resonate with hers until it matched. Then he pulled the resonating dagger up. The jagged dagger catching onto more than just flesh—it pulled up her aura and with it—the thing that surrounded it—the Trial class. It started to tear. If Ryan could throw up, he would.

[The Jack of Many Faces] was not a master of concepts like the creator of the Trial System. He was more like a self-taught butcher, trying to pull without truly knowing what he was doing. All the while the thing he was tearing apart was still alive and suffering. The woman screamed with blood gurgling out of her mouth. Blood splattered out of her chest as it flew and splattered the cold face. Sometimes her airway was cleared out enough for screams to carry forward, sometimes it was just a gurgle.

It went on as the [Jack] only focused on the aura. Ryan wished he could rip out his own ears—no he wished he could stab the [Jack] a hundred thousand times. After what felt like forever, [The Jack of Many Faces] had a misshapen grey aura with a cracked class surrounding it. If Ryan had thought he had found a backdoor to the Trial System with [Class Change], [The Jack] had already let himself in and started hacking away at everything that was there. The screams were more moans at this point.

Ryan had never heard of a dragonslayer running out of stamina they couldn't even scream before. He was numb as [The Jack] continued with another skill he could never look the same way again. [Aura Crystallization] The ball of aura turned into another glittering crystal. A grey crystal, the same as one of those that had been on the mask. But he wasn't wearing the mask. [The Jack of Many Trades] held it up to the light, then he slowly and lovingly brought it up to his lips. No wait.

As Ryan screamed in his mind and [The Jack of Many Faces] kissed the crystal, the skill activated. [Class Change: Grand Archivist] Ryan felt the skill activate as he felt the class change. This was no class he was suited for, nor was there a neat class organized within the class itself. It had been freshly torn from someone else and he mentally gagged as someone else's aura covered his own. It was like putting on someone's skin… but worse. Oh so worse.

But [The Jack of Many Faces] rejoiced at the concepts, the shift, the change. Ryan was stuck in the body of a monster as it laughed and laughed and felt true joy at the class and the concepts. And to Ryan's surprise, it came with skills and levels. [The Jack's] system screens were visible to him. Skills Learned! [Quick Recall: Spell] (Rare) Level 0 -> 3! [History Repeats Again!] (Epic) Level 0 -> 1! Ryan had to work for the skills he gained, he had to resonate with the class to access a skill… this?

The Trial class still had their skills inside, and as long as he also had her aura—part of her soul then— [Auric Resonance] And flashes of memories ran through his mind. The [Grand Archivist] using a skill, her practicing it… training and talking to her father and mother, skipping in the meadows— Only one of the two people in the body cared about those. Ryan had no idea that even memories could be in there—but of course the [Jack] just focused on one thing. Skills Learned! [Archived Skill] (Epic) Level 0 -> 1!

Another Epic learned. Just like that. The other ascendant was still moaning and coughing up blood. Soul pain did not go away just because you were overloaded. Though [The Jack of Many Faces] cared little for her now. He twirled the stone mask in delight.

"Oh yes, this class will do perfectly. A [Jack] is very much like an [Archivist] after all. We both collect and store things. Don't worry, your class will be very safe with me. He slotted the crystal into a hole in the mask. He put it on and spread his arms and stared up at the cold light in the ceiling. The light hit the gems in the bloody stone mask and each of them reflected beautiful, horrible colors into the cold bloody walls of the room.

Both the woman and Ryan were trapped and forced to watch as the man spun, the lights dancing on the wall. [Class Change: Toughstep Warrior] [Class Change: Quartermaster] [Class Change: Explorer] [Class Change: Blaze Elementalist] … It continued until Ryan was blissfully kicked out. Once again, he sat, dazed, trying to get his bearings. This time trying not to remember the screams, the way the foreign aura had felt over his own. The way the [Jack of Many Faces] reveled in wearing someone else's aura over his own.

Now that [The Aura Tyrant] had been relocated, Ryan's own class crystals were strapped to his chest. They had been custom-fitted with a bit of thin fabric between the crystal and his bare skin. They were digging into his skin now. It's not the same. It wasn't the same, but it was also… too similar. It made him disgusted. With all of his skills, Ryan knew he could do more with them but— that—that was jumping off the edge of the precipice and diving down deeper.

Not in heroics or out of spite but because you were already consumed. If there was someone Ryan had ever wanted to kill more than the Manager, if there ever was someone that he would make suffer — And he snapped out of it. Ryan had stayed too long in that monster's body. He had not expected to have been helplessly stuck in a damned Trial orb but there it was. It had happened before, people often talked about experiencing true evil in the class orbs. He just had not expected it with his [Class Change] skill.

But nothing of that horrific degree. The screams still rang in his ears. His shattersword was in his hand, his other hand was holding a knife. The steel bent under his strength.

"Did you do the same with that world like you did with us? Did you knowingly make him the way he was?" No answer. Then the pop came. Yes. Ryan didn't need the Manager to answer. A talented unusual princess captured and tortured, a free city about to be besieged by a furious King. Chaos again, one where people like [The Jack of Many Faces] would rise. Ryan was silent for some time. He tried to be reasonable.

"Are you forced to do this? No, that's the wrong question. Are you magically or otherwise compelled to act the way you do?" Pop. pop. No. …" So. You just can't help yourself, can you?" … No answer. Who did you blame more? The addict or the drug dealer? No, the Manager was more like a supplier that coldly looked above and tried to find more ways to sell his product. Perhaps the Manager had not been raised in the best of positions but at what point could you use that as defense?

How many worlds had it brought to ruin with its actions? How many people suffered when they didn't need to? Ryan had seen it, the creator wanted more out of the Trial System. He had hoped that his creation would be something more. His shattersword rang in his hand. It had not changed much from the System's upgrades. Its enchantments were already beyond what a realm eight weapon should have. But it did have one skill upgraded. [Minor Aura Imbue] -> [Aura Imbue] It did not do that much.

It just let him wrap the sword in his aura a little better. It was just a little bit better at taking his aura and pushing it forward. He stabbed through the giant skill orb. It tried to swallow him the moment it came into contact with the aura in his sword—but he had extended the blade and cut off the aura from reaching his body. The skill orb warped in confusion as it swallowed only a couple of fragments of his sword while Ryan stayed outside. Ryan held half of the shattersword in his hand.

He knew what to do—he had just seen it work in the skill orb. [Aura Command: Auric Resonance] + [Conceptual Meditation] Stab. The skill orb—the mass of concepts and a memory—shattered. It was never designed as a defensive thing. After all, who would shatter something that was there to train them? The most it could do was absorb whatever touched it to let them experience whatever it had within. Ryan had used his aura to confuse it with his aura and then shattered the concepts in the orb.

Perhaps he hadn't actually destroyed it completely, perhaps the Trial System could recreate it again for someone else. It didn't matter. At the very least, he wouldn't have to look at that orb for the rest of the time he was in here. A hundred and twenty days to master [Class Change]. Two days in real time. Then… possibly stab Pinkie so he could change her class?

He stared at the remaining half of his shattersword and then thought about trying to stab a skyscraper-sized Pinkie and then surviving her wrath when she was fixed. Yeah, this is a really shitty plan. Maybe Grettfield had already solved everything and there was nothing to worry about?