Lake woke up later in the evening of the same day.
After washing up, he sat at his desk as he began to go over everything that happened last night.
The first thing he checked was his status screen.
Strength = 11.53 -> 11.60
Agility = 8.49 -> 8.60
Stamina = 10.26 -> 10.30
Mana Strength = 3.01 -> 3.99
Mana Capacity = 4.30 -> 5.54
Looking at the leap in stats, Lake didn’t feel particularly excited.
After absorbing all the mana and constantly expending it inside the mana storm, he expected at least this much of an increase.
His physical stats increased along with his magical stats as his body was nourished by the mana.
Lake guessed that his Fitness Index lied somewhere around the peak of Low Tier Martial Warrior if he were to use body strengthening.
His Mana Strength was currently close to 4. Lake estimated that he would need an Index of 10 in order to advance to Martial Warrior.
With his current rate of advancement, he estimated that it would take him around two to three weeks to reach it.
After going over his stats, he checked his remaining RP Points.
[RP Points = 2432.633]
He had gained a thousand from completing the quest and another thousand from absorbing the fate of the woman from Prestige.
He also gained another reward he had yet to touch yet after absorbing her fate.
[1x Chance to obtain a random technique.]
[Does the host wish to draw a random technique now?]
Lake didn’t wait around since he didn’t have anymore pressing matters to deal with at the moment.
[Understood. Generating a random technique...]
[Three Random Techniques have been successfully generated. Host is allowed to choose one of the following:]
Skill Type - Mid Tier Life Skill.
Description - With this skill, the Host can memorize and perfectly replicate any melodies after hearing it once.
Skill Type - Low Tier Supernatural Skill
Description - This skill allows the Host to establish a limited empathic connection with anyone, enabling them to understand basic emotions and intentions.
[Flowing Water Stance]
Skill Type - Low Tier Martial Technique
Description - The Flowing Water Stance allows one to move gracefully like water, enhancing their fluidity in combat and enabling them to redirect an opponent’s attacks.
Lake was surprised by the system’s prompt.
He didn’t expect that the chance to choose a technique would be given to him.
He thought the system was being quite generous, however, after reading through all the techniques, he quickly changed his mind.
’Why do they all... suck?’
Lake felt disappointed after reading through all the skills.
He initially expected to get something more powerful but he only got useless and weak skills.
Lake couldn’t see himself using Melodic Memory any time in the future. Although it may come in handy if he ever had to mimic a creature or person’s voice, he could roughly do the same with regular low tier magic.
Kinship, may have been worthwhile if it allowed him to telepathically communicate with a creature instead of empathically.
The last skill, Flowing Water Stance may sound powerful, but Lake could mostly replicate the effects of the technique just using his Weapon Master skill that he hadn’t even upgraded to the max level.
In the end, Lake sighed and chose Kinship.
Although its use was limited, it was still better than the other two skills which Lake didn’t even know if he would ever need.
After confirming his choice, Lake felt a small change in his senses. He couldn’t quite describe it and would need to test it out before he could figure out how to apply it efficiently.
Opening the quest panel, Lake looked at the other piece of information he had gathered.
[Quest name - Remnant of Corruption]
[Quest Description - Track down the remnant of corruption and completely eradicate it.]
[Reward - 10,000 RP points]
It was a simple quest yet it held an ominous message.
After Lake had absorbed the fate of the woman, he got the prompt saying that the Remnant of Corruption had already escaped.
Lake didn’t have time to think about the meaning of the message then, but now that he did, he noticed an important detail.
When the woman had died, the moldy appearance of her fate had melted into a black mist that had escaped into the air.
Lake originally thought that it was just a strange phenomenon that happened after the woman had died, but after reading the system quest message, he understood something.
Whatever the Remnant of Corruption was, it was something that attached itself to the woman’s fate.
After its "host" had died, it fled the scene.
Lake wasn’t sure why the Remnant of Corruption could attach itself to people’s fate or what effect it had on a person, but Lake understood that it couldn’t be anything good.
He knew this by simply understanding its name, Corruption. Whatever it was, it was something that corrupted others and that couldn’t mean anything good.
With another sigh, Lake stopped thinking about it.
The quest seems way too dangerous of a target for him to pursue right now.
His combat power could only be best described as Peak Martial Warrior, yet from what Lake could see, his opponents were at least at the level of a Martial Master, and quite possibly even higher.
If he wanted to complete this quest, he would first need to grow stronger, and he could do that by completing his other quest.
"I wonder how those kids are doing?"
"I’ve been gone for three days and the academy didn’t have any major events in that time so the kids in the training program should have made some progress, right?"
Lake thought about his training program. It was originally made for the sake of completing the quest in preparation of whatever disaster was to occur one year from then, but now that Lake had decided to make Prestige his enemy, he felt that he should put in some more effort into it.
"It’s only 4 PM, classes should have just ended. I should probably check up on everyone’s progress."
As Lake got up and was prepared to head outside however, he suddenly got a pop up message on his wristwatch.
Lake saw Kate sitting on a bench outside the dormitories.
Walking closer, he sat beside her.
Kate was the first one to speak.
"It was... okay." Lake spoke after a short moment of contemplation.
Although there were a few hiccups along the way, everything went mostly as plan so describing it as okay felt like the best description.
"Is that so? What did you hunt?"
"A few Rank Two Lizards and Rank One Dogs."
After she asked her questions Kate fell into silence again.
Lake was currently looking along the path and didn’t seem as if he was particularly paying attention to Kate.
If anyone was nearby, they would think that the current situation was awkward but neither Kate nor Lake seemed to mind.
After hesitating for a bit, Kate took a deep breath before looking at Lake who was hunched forward with his chin resting on his hand.
"What happened last night? And what was with the message?"
Seeing that Kate was finally asking what she wanted to know, Lake sat up properly before leaning back on the bench.
"It’s exactly what you think."
"I was at the theater on the night of the attack."
Kate was slightly startled at Lake’s straightforwardness.
"Then you and The King...?"
Lake answered honestly.
He knew it would be pointless to hide it from Kate as among everyone, she had the biggest piece of evidence that he was there that night and the highest likelihood of connecting the dots.
However, just because she had a suspicion, didn’t mean that she was any less surprised.
Lake could see that her face was slightly flushed in excitement but she was trying to prevent it from showing.
"W-Why are you telling me this?"
Lake smiled lightly, "What? Are you not interested in recruiting someone capable of controlling monsters?"
"I didn’t say that I wasn’t."
Kate spoke with a content smile.
She knew that if Lake was willing to tell her this much it meant that he was willing to work with the Blackheart Guild.
If she could truly secure such a powerful Hunter such as The King, it would be a great help to her when she eventually inherited the guild.
"Alright, enough with the beating around the bush. I know you enough to know that you wouldn’t be telling me this if you didn’t want something."
Lake smiled. He always liked talking to Kate because it was so simple. She always understood what he wanted.
Hearing Lake’s words, Kate went into thought.
She roughly understood what Lake meant by "shield" but she didn’t quite know why he wanted it.
Lake seemed to understand her confusion and answered before she could ask.
"Right now too many guilds are out there looking for me and after last night, I can’t say for sure that I didn’t leave behind any evidence. After a while, it wouldn’t be surprising if they found out who I was. However, right now, I don’t have any intention of dealing with any of that. I’m already busy juggling my current schedule and wouldn’t appreciate any unwanted problems getting in my way."
Kate’s eyes widened slightly but quickly went back to normal. Her mouth twitched a little.
"So you just want to use the Blackheart Guild to shield you from the other guilds?"
Lake didn’t say anything but Kate understood it as a silent agreement.
She was hoping he was willing to join for a more proper reason but she knew this was more in line with his personality.
After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he used the reputation of her family and guild to his advantage.
She helplessly sighed before thinking about it for a bit.
"...For how long? I hope you know I won’t be able to shield you forever."
"Naturally, I know." Lake rolled his eyes.
"One year. I just need one year to train in the academy uninterrupted."
Hearing Lake’s proposal, Kate didn’t immediately agree.
She sat silently as she looked along the path.
After a while, she turned back to Lake.
Seeing Lake’s relaxed attitude, Kate suddenly remembered something.
"If we count the message from last time, doesn’t that mean I completed all three of your favors?"
"Hm? I guess it does." Lake also just realized that he had used up all his favors.
He was hoping to get something more out of the last favor but after thinking it through, he didn’t think it was that much of a waste.
He managed to discover a hidden danger he wasn’t aware of and a thousand RP and a free, albeit useless, skill.
At that point Lake thought of something before asking Kate.
"What about you and everyone else? What happened to the training event while I was gone?"
At his question, Kate visibly froze up for a moment.
"About that... I think it would be better if you just saw it for yourself."
Lake acted slightly surprised by her reaction but he already knew the answer.