As I stood up in front of the rocks, I had no intention of hiding my capabilities – especially since my physical limits didn't have anything particularly impressive. I was fit for a sixty-year-old, and Vitality increased my potential to a degree, but neither fact was unknown to them.I lifted rock after rock, until I settled on one that was about eighty pounds, struggling to lift it as I repeated, but the endurance given to me by Vitality helped significantly to repeat the action. Occasionally, I glanced at them, but they were distracted by their own little argument, too far away from me to hear.Not that I needed to, as Toross' juvenile actions were rather obvious, while Falael reacted with increasing hostility.Their lack of attention further confirmed that they didn't expect anything to happen. I was happy to play along with their assumption just in case — especially if I could undersell the effect."Now, start running," Falael ordered, once again weighted with ch

The most painful headache that I had ever felt hit me, enough to push me to my knees, making me feel like my brain was being scrambled. Yet, even as I did so, I could feel that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The familiar feeling of resilience helped me to blunt the impact. Since it was Resilience that was keeping me conscious, I decided to fake unconsciousness once more, even when I felt Toross grabbing and lifting me with one hand, dragging me like I weighed nothing. "What a weakling," Toross said even as he dragged me away. Falael chuckled. "What do you expect. It's his first time absorbing a skill, and he doesn't have any stat to actually help him absorb the information faster. With a skill stone with that high purity, it'll be shocking if he could wake up before we could arrive at the Capital." "What about the indoctrination, then," Toross asked. "Won't they be angry if he's not willing to do his mission?" "Don

I waited until the servants disappear to stand up, grabbing an empty crate to lift it to my face. A simple way to conceal, but effective. I walked forward confidently.It was one thing that most people misunderstood about disguise and infiltration, thinking that it required detailed makeup, carefully-designed credentials, and weeks of observation. Was those useful, certainly, especially when infiltrating high-value locations, carefully guarded.But walking through the corridors filled with servants, all I needed was to walk around with confidence and hurry, a loose excuse to walk around all I needed. I moved forward.Technically, the safest thing was to hide in one of the storage rooms, waiting to see if they would limit their search to upstairs, or if they would actually realize I was with servants. There, even if the worst happened, I would just change from one group to another — and there was no guarantee they would be looking to harm me.Maybe they would even tre

I was tempted to level up as I dashed in the opposite direction of the beast horde, only to take a sharp turn at the first opportunity, circling as much as the complicated corridors allowed.Corridors that I could remember more sharply than I expected, considering most of my attention was focused on trying to track the smell of the stables and the location of the other servants rather than just the layout.Memory stat was proving its worth.I moved as fast as I could manage as I listened to the sounds of combat, which was showing signs of spreading, more and more servants letting out crazed cries, begging for various aspects of Riven Fang for power and blood.It didn't make me feel any better about the sole skill I had in my possession. That Riven Fang title was clearly not good news.I only spent a second feeling bad about it. Ultimately, I needed to get away safely from whatever was going on, which was a challenge enough.Unfortunately, there was only one p

The moment I was forced to accept the promotion, a sense of … pulling appeared, emanating from me. The azure stones that were floating around me were impacted by that change immediately. Glowing strings appeared on them, and connected with me, far faster than I could even attempt to dodge, but even as the glow started to flow into my body, there was no sense of damage.I tried to stand up, but my body didn't listen to me.That was not the only energy that flowed to me. A second later, another bolt of red energy slammed against the top side of the vehicle, but rather than starting to corrode the metal as I had expected, it turned into a red mist, one that flooded toward me. It was slower than the azure strings of energy.But I failed to dodge it, lacking the ability to move in the first place.I prepared myself for a disaster, one that could be developed into an intense explosion of pain, one that might prove my end.The red energy entered my body obediently.