Lone: The Wanderer

Book 3: Chapter 67: Spicy Scent and Deceit

'Take a left. Now go up those stairs in front of you. There, that door on your right. We are in there,' Sophie relayed.

'Thanks,' Lone replied just as he pushed open the door and entered the lobby area of Master Mezro'nan's tower.

He'd never actually seen Lady Carnation before so this was a first for him. The woman was sitting across from Sophie and Master Mezro'nan. The former has a scowl on her perfectly beautiful face while the latter was curled up on a sofa with a nervous but excited glint in his eye.

Lady Carnaration had a soft face with gentle eyes and a kind expression. Her hair was bright purple and was about a metre long save for her fringe which was perfectly straight and only covered her forehead. She was wearing a typical sundress, as was normal given the time of year.

"Ah, you must be the infamous Immortus the Immortal. It's a pleasu-" The bewitchingly gorgeous and voluptuous woman's smile cracked as pain flashed across her face.

Lone had nodded at first as he took a seat next to Sophie when he had felt some sort of effect trying its best to penetrate his Puzzle Locked Mind.

The moment he had detected her magic's attempt to worm its way into his mind he had resisted with all of his might unlike the times he had helped Stoner Heeth open the locks to renew his scripture magic bindings.

As soon as he had forced his locks to fight against the intruder instead of just harmlessly preventing its entry, it collapsed explosively and Lady Carnation stopped her greeting to wince. Of course, Lone had also earned a skill and a new magic affinity at the same time.

Since Lady Carnation seemed to be reeling and still collecting herself, Lone took a moment to go over his recent notification log, including the skill he earned from helping Scott and the magic he had obtained from master Mezro'nan.

The host has developed the passive skill: Basic First Aid Mastery.

Passive Skill: Basic First Aid Mastery

The most simple and most common of all non-magic-related healing skills.

Allows the host to examine, disinfect, and bandage, physical wounds 5% more effectively.

Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'Garbage but if it earns an effect to make the healing of the one being treated actually go faster, that would be very nice,' Lone thought.

The host has developed the active body fortification magic skill: Regenerative Stimulation.

Active Body Fortification Magic Skill: Regenerative Stimulation

A standard application of the body fortification magic school where the caster amplifies the body's natural healing capabilities by infusing them with the core principles of body fortification magic.

Boosts the healing of the targeted wound by 2x. Limit: 1 wound per cast.

Cost:4,000 MP Mastery:Beginner Level 1

Congratulations! The host has developed an affinity for Body Fortification Magic.

'Sounds simple enough. I wonder if I can make it so it heals bodies instead of wounds? Would that be an evolved version of the skill or could I do it by healing a wound on every single part of a body? Would be easy enough to test, I suppose,' Lone surmised. 'I also wonder what the freeform magic looks like for this affinity. It's a kind of abstract concept, body fortification.'

He glanced at the X-ranked woman who was gripping her head in pain. 'Yeah, you keep writhing, you bitch. Let's see what you tried to use to mess with my and Sofia's minds, huh?'

The host has developed the active flower magic skill: Scent of Spice.

Active Flower Magic Skill: Scent of Spice

An advanced application of the flower magic school where the caster uses the unique capricious scent of a purple carnation to muddle others' views on those they are interacting with.

She smiled at him. "Well, first there was a massive pulse and then a much smaller one. I'm led to believe these were not caused by one aura but two. I could sense the source of these pulses ever since it happened but then you appeared, and how strange. Now I can suddenly sense two sources, one being yourself. You see, my kind is very sensitive to auras, among other things," she said suggestively. "Seeing you now... You are a B-ranker, correct?"

'I wonder if I can make a request of Monsieur Librarian? I could use a compendium of all of the species and races of Altros, both living and extinct to learn what what are capable of. I have no idea if she's bullshitting here or not.' Lone nodded. "That's right."

"Your aura tells a different story, though I'm sure you're already aware of that," Lady Carnation said with a smile.

He was, indeed, aware of such. Soph had told him that when her B-ranked ability to detect auras looked at him, he gave her the feeling he was a low S-ranker, but at the same time, even if she felt it was wrong, her aura was certain he was a B-ranker upon very close observations.

His stats in general had always been well above what was normal for his rank but thanks to Scott's Beginner Booster, his aura was also beyond its actual rank. To be fair, the same observations could be made of Scott. He was like a mini Lone in that regard.

"Forgive me if you consider this to be a breach of privacy, but I investigated what your aura felt like right after you had sparred with Prince Keining. I only did this because I assumed myself to be stronger than you, but now... well, now I'm not so sure. Anyway, The results were that your aura was that of a typical B-ranker," Lady Carnation explained. "Both of yours were, but now, yours is that of a low S-rankers while Sofia's remains the same."

"Do not refer to me so casually. We ended Olberic Chase's life for making a pass at us. Do not think it beneath us to do the same to you for your attempted mind invasion. We do not care if it was an unintended effect of your species or not," Sophie stated, her voice as cold as ice.

Lady Carnation looked a bit afraid but something about her expression felt off to Lone. It was... false. Almost as if she was unconcerned by the threat that had very good receipts to back up its legitimacy.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 5.

'I can barely tell anything is wrong with a pretty fuckin' rare skill that's at expert rank. Come on, Oppressive Gaze. I know it usually takes me weeks to months to earn additional effects, but I could really use one right now,' Lone pleaded, hopeful the skill would answer him. It didn't.

"And what? You're interested in the method I used to make my aura so much more powerful than it should be?" Lone asked, crossing his arms as he did.

The X-ranked sentient flower that had assumed the form of a human nodded happily. "Indeed. I'm more than happy to pay for the information. I scoured the credit slate at The Adventurer's Guild and while there are a few skills that can boost the power of one's aura, there were no records of anything that could so dramatically transform an aura like what has happened to yours."

'So she's at least a silver plate and so is Master Mezro'nan since she didn't have to censor herself. She's such a snake though. How did she pass the personality test? Are the rules different for X-rankers, or does whatever she's using to bypass Oppressive Gaze and almost bypass Enhanced Vision work on the truth cube thingamajig used in promotion tests for silver and above?' Lone thought in concern.

If someone as deceitful as her could join the true ranks of adventurers then who else was capable and why hadn't stronger people who can detect stuff like this stepped in yet to resolve that?

He turned to Master Mezro'nan. "What are your thoughts on all of this?"

"I think it isss ridiculousss," he replied pointedly. "I have been hounded almossst every day of the lassst two moon cyclesss for thisss nonsssenssse? What disssressspectful behaviour from a fellow X-ranker. If it wasss a ssserious matter, I would be more forgiving. While thisss city may ressspect ssstrength above all else, the manner in which you acquire it isss alssso important, asss well asss how you flaunt it."

"Please don't twist things," Lady Carnation said. "You have refused to meet with me, that is why I visited so frequently. How was I to convey this is what I desired when you didn't allow me to do so?"

The two X-rankers began talking, going back and forth over who was the most immature of the two while Lone sent a telepathic message to Sophie.

'We need to kill her. She's too interested in Scott's unique skill. She tried to brainwash both of us. She lied about the brainwashing in a way that was basically undetectable to Enhanced Vision and completely invisible to Oppressive Gaze. I also need the stats from her and we both need the levels. Do you think we can win if we jump her right now?' he asked.

'Her mana is twice the size of your boosted amount, so she has about 2,000,000. The X-ranker princessling that Soph is always keeping an eye on is right outside of the tower. We think she is ready to help us. She appeared next to nothing in a palace training room reserved for the prince, said a few words of little import, then made for this location. We think the prince is here and can evade our Mana Sensing now. If she, the lizard, ourself, and you assault her, victory is guaranteed. We are not so sure if she chooses to not participate. We also do not know if we can win if Master Mezro'nan doesn't go for the kill as soon as we both do,' Sophie analysed and conveyed.

'Princessling Seres? Interesting... I can't feel her aura at all. She is a sneaky one. Maybe a potential tutor for Breena?' Lone was getting ahead of himself. 'I feel confident. I don't think Mental Destruction will do anything given the rank difference and her being a magic flower. She's likely resistant to magic damage. Hmm... Before we commit to anything though, I need to check something. You can never be too careful with X-rankers.'

'Okay,' Soph replied simply. 'But... Hmm... It is hard to see. Very, very hard to see, but we have been focusing on it for a while now. There is a flower shaped clump of mana on her lower back that makes no sense. It feels out of place, as if it does not belong to her. It may be important or it may be nothing, we know not.'

He nodded mentally. 'She's a flower. And we've dealt with an annoying X-ranker before who had a clone. That could be an ejector seat or some sort of connection allowing her to control the clone if it is one. I dunno. Too many possible skills, too few I know the details of.'

'Indeed. Both the dwarven assassin and Guildmaster Brux. You even have your own cloning skill with Blood Clone. Do what you think is best, we shall support you,' Sophie replied.

"Let me interrupt here," Lone said, stopping Master Mezro'nan mid-retort. "Is this your main body, Lady Carnation, or did you choose to visit via a proxy, clone, or whatever else instead?"

She might lie in her answer but hopefully Enhanced Vision would catch any imperfections in her wording or her body language as it had done so twice already during this annoying interaction.