Chapter 33: Truly starting in a city
-So what is this about? Asked Aki while drinking coffee. -ahhh, I just can't function without one of these in the morning. He said before offering some to the man and woman in front of him.
-No, thank you. Dryly said the man.
-My body reacts badly to stimulants, so I shall decline. Said the woman with monochromatic eyes.
-I am sorry, I didn't know. Anyway, did a murder or terrorist act happen to have a truth teller and a space magician come to my house at this time in the morning. And just so you know, if I intended to attack, I'd do so to the people waiting to intercept me outside.
-It is as you say. This morning, Magus Gvon was found dead in his office by one of his servants. The autopsy says he was killed by a negatively attuned non registered spell, by a non registered assassin who was able to trespass every surveillance and barrier in the property. Does any of that ring a bell? Asked the space magician who looked tired.
-Many. Mostly from histories though. I do know some people able to do exactly that, myself included, but Bea would leave some kind of message no one would forget and Cleo would explode the whole place because she lacks patience or torture the man in a fast-forward space for days for seemingly no reason. I didn't kill any humans yesterday nor today. Is that enough? Aki said with patience and humor.
-Did you kill anything yesterday or today? Asked the truth teller.
-Mostly microscopic and non intelligent life, but a resentful ghost appeared on my basement while I was looking around the state and claimed to be the owner. He attacked me when I tried talking, so I forcefully banished his soul. Does that count?
-No. I just have one more question. How did you know Magus Gvon was human? Asked the woman. Though she didn't get the expected reaction from Aki. He just looked confusedly at her and explained.
-Because I was raised in a human community with no other intelligent life forms around, so I just directly say "human" when I think of "person". Isn't it the same for every otherworlder?
And so the investigation team went out without having found a single clue that Aki did indeed kill the man.
He did kill the man though. It's just that he didn't consider the guy he killed as human or something that could be categorized as part of "anyone", so he didn't really tell a single lie.
Asking if he had been the reason why said man had turned into a corpse would simply result in him truthfully saying "No".
Mostly because he temporarily sealed his own memory, but if they had asked instead if he had been involved in the reason for such and he hadn't done so, he could still consider it as an event unrelated to himself that happened because destiny wanted it to and he had no choice, so it would also be the truth to say no.
Very hypocritical, right? Tell that to the people who can do that without magically hypnotising themselves in the mirror. Or can look perfectly normal while hypnotized.
Of course, the old geezers working in the country know of such trick, they just didn't expect Aki to know of it or were simply probing without expecting anything. The opinions differed.
The hero of magic didn't really think the politicians would so easily find a scapegoat to try and assassinate Aki, but he had not doubts about the real situation and continued to practice.
He didn't expect Aki to already be watching him. Who in hell would look around randomly for slightly strange feedback in the underground? Worse, they'd need to somehow open this subspace and not be noticed.
Truthfully Aki couldn't do the second part, but hell if he couldn't look something with a similar feedback and get inside with the physical realm version.
He didn't even have to ask Cleo for help, since the place was the deepest level of the country's library, to which Aki had access till the one before the mentioned.
It only took a little ritual for Aki to summon a demon that could go through the magical lock and give him feedback to what the hero was doing.
That also meant partial access to all the content in that room, but Aki always had full access to it. You think Cleo didn't have the same idea as him?
She fucking copied EVERY book!
She was too lazy to order a copy of the books in the other floors though, so when Aki brought Guilda into the room he actually had a hard time choosing what to read.
The champion of blood was still forced into reading a mountain of books though. From force magic to blood magic, there were just too many subjects which Aki couldn't help her for the simple reason of lack of precise information. We can't forget about his lack of patience and hability to teach others though.
-When you finish call me and I will teach you about abyssal magic, abysmal magic, void magic and hell magic. Yeah, that won't happen for at least one or two months though. He said with a sadistic smile. From her point of view only though.
-I get the non elemental and corrupt books, even necromancy and light magic, but why am I studying every freaking element? She cried.
-Because you are the only freaking one with an adaptability to attacks so huge! If you learn more you will be indestructible by any means except complete vaporization. He explained before flicking a finger in her forehead and going back to what he was doing.
This whole conversation was being monitored, of course, but do you really think Aki would so easily admit to knowing so many illegal or never heard of before magic?
…
-I can't translate shit! Said the hero of magic to the men looking around. -How did he even get a freaking working cell phone?! He screamed.
-Is it really impossible even with translation magic? Asked a magister who understood how shocked the man in front of him was after seeing Aki tell Guilda to talk to him through "Bob" translator in his phone instead of talking.
-The origins and the big time gap between each language makes it so that the spell has no idea how to translate it. You'd need one of those things to translate russian to portuguese and back and forth. Me having a high understanding of english was already considered very good back home, and with studying mandarin as well I never thought I'd find a language problem after learning that spell. He explained after calming down.
Soul-web is so much more reliable than internet, you can find a nerd willing to work for you at a low price more than ten times faster!
-We shall look into "portuguese" and "russian" in out world records then. Proceed to check what books that men wants to read and double check who had those before. Stay alert for the chance to brainwash him if it comes, but remember the country comes first!
…
Back home Guilda and their newest addition, Andrea, the assassin, were having a bout while Aki trained with Elizabeth.
-You sure that's the best way to raise Homunculi's level? Asked Mina with a strange look on her face as Aki healed the silver haired and pale looking girl.
Silver hair, red eyes, a doll like figure and voice, yet she didn't look pretty at all while spasming with her eyes bloodshot and veins visible under her skin.
-I mean, the effect ends after about two hours and it's not like she didn't agree to it after I explained that it would be pain worse than she would get to experience unless fighting someone specialized in torture. She does have pain resistance at level 12, so she should know what it would be like to do the training. He explained while still healing her.
It had been fifteen minutes and his mana had already hit rock bottom from the spam heals he kept casting.
Granted, it wasn't the most effective way to do it, but he really wanted the second stage of healing magic, which gives a boost to your body's natural healing capability.
Any normal healer would get +1% to their health and stamina regeneration. Aki would get four times that, and possibly more after he had another class evolution. Plus 40% effect to all healing spells.
It wasn't for nothing that healers were considered VERY precious by the whole world. If groomed correctly, a level 200 pure healer would be able to keep man alive during a battle even if their heart was pierced or their heads blown out depending of their timing.
That's how valuable they are. Imagine Aki doing something like that while supporting Guilda. It's a broken game I tell you.
Why do you think Shinji had such slow training speed with all his heroic cheats? He needed someone to keep him alive no matter what, and if the person was any more powerful than the guy who could kill Guilda in one strike, then he would need two times more monsters to kill every twenty levels of difference even if the guy was just watching from afar. The system has rules to be followed after all, and trains are a nono.
Why did Aki and Guilda get normal XP while at Cleo's house them? They actually got a lot less than normal, but that was because of their advantages that allowed than to ignore levels and reduced the targets treat.
You really thought Cleo would save someone who couldn't even kill opponents they had huge advantages over? Get out. Granted they got hurt a lot, but still.
-Fucking did it! He said while throwing his arms to the sky. -Now I can also get enchanting to the next level and not have to stay continuously healing her so… his excitement died when he was getting to the end. She wasn't the only one who would be going through a hellish training.
After some very intense beating by Bea, who teleported over on Aki's request, this is the result.
[General: Healing magic II - Lv 1
Indicates your degree of mastery in using magic to heal.
2° stage: Your talent and perseverance in the art of healing has changed your body. +1% (4% after bonuses) to your health and Stamina regeneration. 10% (40% after bonuses) more effect to all healing (this effect does not escalate with leve).]
[General: Enchanting II - Lv 1
Indicates your degree of mastery in infusing magic.
2° stage: Your talent and perseverance have granted you great knowledge and experience. 10% (40% after bonuses) more effectiveness to any spell (this effect does not escalate with leve).]
[General: X magic II - Lv 1
Indicates your degree of mastery in using lighting magic.
2° stage: Your talent and perseverance have led you to great knowledge and experience. Your affinity to X is elevated to another level. 10% (40% after bonuses) more effective to all X spells and techniques (this effect does not escalate with leve).]
X equaling lightning in this case. Not thunder. The thingy about affinity made sure of that.
There are more versions of one skills than you can imagine, really.
There's no difference besides power in this one though. Even with the name suggesting otherwise, it is not about using sound or light, but electricity.
While the normal level/power distribution might make not seem so, affinities can make a huge difference. Keeping to the example, it could be like the difference between a negatively charged and a positively charged lightning bolt, aka ten times the power. That'd be between the first and last and you'd be hard pressed to find someone so weak in any element but still alive, that'd be too unbalanced.
Though you'd be hard pressed to find constant example of such, even a difference of fifty percent more power is huge, imagine it when compared with a specialized class' bonuses.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone