BXBX NOVEL Chapter 65: Attached Flesh?
There are more out there, of course! But all of them clearly know their worth. They\'re heavyweights, VVIP, and are not shy to flaunt their status. Cedric however, was way different than them, that\'s why they\'re having a difficult time believing it.
Hell, Arishem himself only had a Lv.7 System Authority, and he only achieved that after amassing so many contribution points. The two he\'s with only reached Lv.5 and that took them decades to reach it.
Cedric on the other hand wasn\'t all too surprised that Arishem knew of this. He was already half expecting him to know. He might not know the guy but he could at least tell that he\'s an important figure amongst the authorities.
"You know, I\'m actually surprised that you didn\'t check it out yourself. I thought that you would since...you know..." Arishem trailed off.
He was expecting that Cedric would take this personally because of what happened to Harold and the RMC.
"Like I said, I only felt a sinister presence." Cedric shrugged. "Briefly, at that. I initially didn\'t think of telling you but my instinct told me to do so. Plus, I was preoccupied when it happened so..."
In truth, Cedric could\'ve interfered, yes. He had the means to do so, after all. But really...he couldn\'t just say that he didn\'t want to be cockblocked now could he?
Plus, it\'s not yet time for him to take the center stage. Yes, he could\'ve moved stealthily but doing that carries the risk of exposure to the wrong people and he didn\'t want that...not yet at least.
"Anyways, here\'s what happened..." Arishem then proceeded to tell him everything that occurred last night in that operation.
Cedric listened closely and took note of a few important bits of details like the issue with the 12 Zodiac Saints, the ideologies of the cultists, etc.
"...however, despite talking a whole bunch that night, the female cultist we captured was adamant about keeping quiet. While that\'s understandable, it\'s annoying. We used all manner of ways to make her talk but only a few were effective."
"We discovered that she\'s keeping more information from us. Actually, we confirmed it. That said, none of the methods that worked were able to get that information out of her."
"Her colleagues were also tight-lipped and it\'s fucking annoying." Arishem continued.
"Hmm, so that\'s why there\'s a lot of movements since this morning. I\'m guessing that you sent teams to scour the city for more hidden camps?" Cedric casually asked as if he hadn\'t just revealed the fact that he could sense the teams of supposed assassins moving around the city.
"Ha! I knew you would notice." Arishem cackled, "Be honest with me brat, how far do your senses reach?"
"A kilometer and a half...more or less. The more details I want to see, the more burdensome it feels."
His visitors gaped at him. Cedric merely shrugged to show that he was cool with it. He did this to convince them that he was lying. He could sense everything going on in this city if he tried hard enough, but he didn\'t want to reveal that information just yet.
But he also didn\'t want to outright lie to them, that wouldn\'t be a wise move against them. So, he chose to control the flow of information they\'d know about him. This way, everyone would be satisfied.
"Geez. And you\'re only what? Tier 2 Lv.1?" Arishem snorted at the absurdity, "Makes me wonder how the hell you got stuck in the RMC with senses like that."
"Hey!" Cedric feigned offense to that. "I was young and uneducated when I got there, okay? Plus, I lost my parents as soon as I awakened. The grief and desperation clouded my mind and that stunted my growth. That\'s why it took me some time. Plus, what\'s the use of sensing it if I\'m not fast or strong enough to react?
That\'s mainly the reason why I was stuck there for a long time."
"Well, now that you\'re over that, it\'s no wonder Acala granted you a Lv.8 System Authority." One of Arishem\'s companions commented.
They\'re still reeling at the reveal of his spying distance, by the way. A kilometer and a half at only Tier 2 was insane, and judging by what he said, he has control over how detailed that can get.
They couldn\'t think of anybody who had this sort of range. Plus, he\'s only at Tier 2 at this point! If Cedric were to be given room to grow, his range would become increasingly terrifying!
These poor guys though...if only they knew how much Cedric downplayed the might of his field of senses...
"Alright, Kid. I\'ll come clean here." Arishem leaned forward. "We\'re here because we need your help. So far, the squads we sent haven\'t been successful with their search. Given that you were the one who revealed their presence to me, I would like you to help us search for them."
"Just so you know, I\'m not forcing you to do this. We\'re in no position to do that. We are aware of the possible risks of your identity being exposed. But we\'re running out of options here."
"We only have limited options to use in the first place, mostly because we can\'t do this in broad daylight. That\'s why we\'re...outsourcing. Yeah, let\'s go with that. But again, we aren\'t forcing you to do anything. If you don\'t want to, it\'s fine. I promise that nobody will find trouble with you because you refused to help."
Cedric went silent for a bit. He was weighing his options right now. Thanks to his accelerated thoughts, however, he didn\'t make them wait for his decision for long.
"I could offer limited help I guess." Cedric mused, "I mean, I was the one that tipped you, so in a way, I\'m also responsible for this. But please understand that I don\'t want many eyes on me yet, so I won\'t be accompanying you."
"Valid and understandable," Arishem replied. "But my question is, how would you help?"
"Well, for starters, I\'d go around the city. Visit some places here and there while keeping an eye out for any signs of the cult. If I sense some, I\'d point you towards them. I\'d prefer to go alone of course, since it\'s safer that way."
"Understood."
"Also..." Cedric brought out his 『Symbol Master\'s Quill』, a tool he used to draw symbols.
He then took out a bronze plate and carved a symbol on it in front of his visitors. He ended up making five carvings of the same symbol that only he understood.
"This is something I invented recently. I called it the \'Mind Passage Rune\'. In simple terms, it provides direct passage to the psyche of the person the rune is attached to. It\'s effective up to Tier 5 according to my estimates but...I haven\'t tested it on anybody before, so it \'might\' fail. The worst outcome of failure is, of course, the death of the target."
"Still, if you run out of options...maybe you can try that? Up to you, though."
Arishem accepted the runes with a solemn expression. Inwardly, he couldn\'t help but think that this kid was just too full of surprises.
He had never seen this rune before, and that\'s to be expected since Cedric did say he invented it. That said, he had his fair share of experience regarding symbols and he could tell the quality of these things. Inwardly, he was already at least 70% confident that these things would work.
"Hmm?"
Arishem looked up and saw that, out of nowhere, Cedric hummed strangely and frowned. He then looked outside of his window as if he noticed something they didn\'t.
The old man and his companions tried to unfold their senses to see what he was looking for but they failed to notice anything.
"What\'s wrong?" Arishem asked.
"My neighbor\'s in danger, I think. There\'s a foul presence attached to her. I don\'t know if it\'s connected with the cult though." Cedric murmured while standing up.
Still, that was enough to greatly alarm his visitors because they didn\'t notice anything at all. Just a reminder, they\'re assassins and they\'re always on guard. The fact that they didn\'t sense anything wrong yet Cedric did, was greatly alarming.
Cedric then moved at an impressive speed. It wasn\'t too fast for the trio but clearly fast enough for a supposed Tier 2.
It wasn\'t long before the four of them were now standing over Erica, whom Cedric had just seen earlier.
The trio looked at the girl and was inwardly shocked when they saw her face. They knew who she was but now\'s not the time for that.
In a surprising burst of speed, Cedric placed runes all over Erica\'s body. When he was done, the runes lit up and it revealed something that made them all shiver in disgust.
It was a pulsing flesh of eyes and mouth attached to Erica\'s upper body.
"Now, what the in the ever-loving fuck are you?" Cedric muttered in disgust.