Bro, I'm not an Undead!

"Uh..." the young man opened his eyes with a grown.

He found himself feeling incredibly heavy, his cosmetic flesh weighing him down like... heavy weights.

He lay on the cold floor of a small room that had plain dark walls which made it clear that he was a captive.

As he looked at himself, he saw that nothing had changed, much to his relief.

He had simply been dumped here after he went unconscious.

Skullius looked ahead and saw not another wall but closely stacked iron bars that restricted both entry and exit. They had a silver lustre with glowing runes on their surfaces that whispered of mystery.

"Great," he said to himself as he tried to stand.

The tumultuous pain he had felt before had stopped and now, he could see everything without the mysterious divide.

'That damn woman!' Skullius remembered who had caused this whole ordeal that he was now left with.

A full 17% in Doom Factor 2.

How had she been able to see the young girl that always seemed to appear whenever he was assaulted by soul damage anyway?

That was different from an actual occurrence in his life, right?

Skullius was under the impression that Diviners could only see his actions in the real world. Not memories or illusions he experienced.

Perhaps that was a wrong view.

'Could she have accessed my soul and seen the girl from there? HNGH!' Skullius grumbled in rage.

Is this what his victims felt like when he used [Basic Evil Invasion] on them?

If it was... that still didn't mean he would stop using the skill. What he had experienced was too much of an invasion, regardless of how hypocritical that sounded.

The Discount Human sat up straight and checked the full condition of his body.

Fortunately, he could manipulate mana freely now contrary to his expectations. His white core surged and coughed up gusts of mana without any problems.

'I guess I'm not that much of a threat that they would cut off my mana. And sure enough, I guess against that old man alone...' Skullius said while thinking of Terian in his head.

Indeed. A battle between him and that guy probably wouldn't last even ten seconds.

'What now, though? Are they just going to keep me here forever?' Skullius thought.

Suddenly, a set of footsteps echoed from outside the room and soon, a familiar face emerged with a sly smile on its face.

"I never would have figured that you were that much of a menace, kid," the individual behind the bars said.

When Skullius saw this individual, he sighed helplessly.

"Jac..."

The burly man still donned his large armour as he went on to lean against the walls and looked down at Skullius who sat down in his cage through the iron bars.

Skullius walked over to the bars to talk to Jac at closer proximity but he suddenly felt all his strength leave his body the closer he got to the bars.

THUD!

The Discount Human fell flat on his face in shock, not knowing what had hit him. He glared at Jac from his low position while gnashing his teeth.

"Woo, there. This isn't a simple cell you're stuck in. You'll lose your strength because of the runes etched on these bars, you know. I don't know the full story behind you but if you look at me like that I might just label you a serial killer for real."

"Like I care what you call me," Skullius said as he turned his face to the side.

"Come on, don't say that. I put in some effort to really figure if it was you they were talking about, you know? It really hurt me when I had to tell them you had returned from your mission."

At first, Skullius didn't fully take in what Jac said but he then turned to the man who kept his sly smile.

"What?" he asked with a disgruntled expression.

"Oh. You were under the impression that you were not under suspicion already? I see. Their acting must have been convincing then."

Skullius frowned.

What was this man trying to say?

Those guys already had some evidence that tied him as the one who burnt the library before this?

"Apparently, your identity as the new Mage and as the only living suspect who witnessed the main details of the incident at the Collge of the Esteemed clashed, causing Silrat and the city lord to investigate you. Naturally, as the one who did the evaluation for your application, I was interrogated on your abilities without being told the full context along with anyone else who had seen you in action. A certain redhead you know was also interrogated the moment she returned."

"Stylla?!" Skullius exclaimed.

"Bingo!"

Dammit! Stylla had seen the [Revenant Flames 0f Ecstasy] multiple times. That was probably the only thing that his identity as the Mage and as the unknown criminal shared!

Naturally, Stylla would have described his abilities to Terian and Damilla as without them telling her that he was being suspected of a crime, she didn't think it was a bad thing to share his strength and promote him.

"Great.." Skullius beat himself up.

It didn't seem like the mini-council arranged for him was made to simply punish him from the start, but to verify if it really was him.

Now Skullius understood why Damilla was so extra.

She probably already believed that he did it after questioning everyone they did.

"My poor little girl had even dropped off some coin for you as your share for the whole party up. I'd hate to be in your shoes right," Jac said as he tossed a coin pouch up and down.

Another set of footsteps echoed, with another face that Skullius was familiar with appearing.

It was Silrat.

He wore a slight smile as always, a he then went on to signal for Jac to leave, the bulky man turning to walk away.

"I'm glad you seem to be more alive than dead. I reckoned taking so much soul damage would be exceedingly painful but you're powering through it without much of a problem," Silrat said while his eyes roamed all over Skullius.

"..."

The Discount Human rendered no response as he simply kept looking at the man with rage-filled eyes.

"I understand that you are not happy with your current circumstances but believe me, they are much better than the alternatives. I arranged this set-up in order to keep you close. I see value in a man like you. If you play your cards right, I can help you walk away scot-free, with a charge of course."

"And I'm supposed to believe you after what you just put me through?" Skullius asked as he squirmed backwards, with the more distance he put between himself and the bars granting him more of his strength back.

"Believe it or not, I had a different perspective but Erkus and those Energy Formers have a righteous standard about them cultivated by their positions as the Capital service. Chivalry, honour, profound morals and such. I have to play along with my meagre position. I am different. I follow profit and gains. That's what a mercenary does, is it not? If this organisation was based on benevolence alone it wouldn't have lasted this long."

Skullius thought through the man's words.

When Skullius thought about Jac, he didn't see a kind soul, to be honest.

As an example of a mercenary, Jac was outstanding.

Silrat's words made sense but Skullius' will of distrust forced him to not be swayed so easily.

"You have a few lives lost to your name and an entire College that will want to wring your neck for the damage you caused. If I had let Erkus have you, you'd be in a rather precarious situation. Perhaps the most pressing thing I should mention is that while you're being exempt from Divining right now, it will be brought up again if you refuse to comply. To that end, I think you should work with me as I will rely on no such means other than diplomatic dialogue. At the very least give me some more detail to work with, after all, your account is still incomplete."

Silrat had had a long discussion with Erkus about giving him up to the custody of the Guilds Association and he would get more information from the Mage.

Skullius remained silent for a while.

His thoughts whirled as he considered these words from all angles of thought.

In all truth, spilling the beans would probably be a double-edged sword. Equal proportions of either effect could happen.

However, when he thought about Damilla going all psycho with her Divination on him again...

He already intended on sharing this half-lie half-truth anyway.

"What would you like to know?"

Silrat grinned.

"For starters. You mentioned the curse that follows you and that peculiar creature that appears. Please describe what it does in detail."