Chapter 42 - MISCHIEF

'What do you want to be?' Lord Shadow asks. Thousand Face smirked and he said

'I would like to be an ally. That would be good for me.' Sofia on the other hand is not smiling and looks at Azief meaningfully.

In this team they are equal so, Azief looks at her, looking for permission, looking for approval and understanding and she just nodded and he understand.

Sofia will follow his decision. Then, since Sofia has agreed, he quickly made his decision. Further probing is needed.

'Well, you don't think it's going to be easy wouldn't you? Not to mention, you are a little bit tasteless for my palate.' Azief said to Thousand Face.

The fact that this man in front of him can sometime become someone who would mutilate people face is not something that would instill security and trust on people.

The man face stiffen but he could understand the reluctance.

'I know it's not going to be easy…but I can give you something. Give and take,that would be acceptable, right?'

'What could you give us? You are weaker than both of us combined, you certainly don't have any allies and I doubt you have anything that would persuade us to let you join us. So, what can you give us?' Sofia asks from the back.

For a moment there is only silence but Thousand Face is not flustered by her demands. Azief on the other hand is thinking about something else.

He believes that the man in front of him holds other secret. He is too confident of himself Azief mused.

He is either an idiot…or he has a card under his sleeve. An ace in the hole.

Badge is inside the forest killing a few apes and snakes. Apparently in this forest there is a lot of crawling animals and slithering animals while the trees is full with apes.

Sometimes the wind would blow and they could feel the soothing cool it brought with it. Thousand Face then calmly said the one thing he could offer the duo, the only thing that could tempt them.

'Information.' He said

Azief smiles. Sofia looks at Azief and he nodded so Sofia back off from attacking Thousand Face anymore.

'I mean, that's what you want right? Information. Since you are not surprised I have information, did you deduce how I get the information too?'

Azief then explain

'You are an invisible man in a stronghold fill with people who are below your level. If even my divine consciousness could not detect you, how could those idiots could realize you were there? You have a unique opportunity to roam in there, freely' Azief said.

'This means that you know I was there before, right?'

'You could say that. You were there when I was threatening the guards. Did you know that I put on that show for you?'

Thousand Face smiles bitterly.

'I'm flattered.' He said.

'But unnecessary.' He then added.

'Well, I just want you to see the risk of picking up a fight with me.' Azief said. Both of them look at each other, each one sizing each other. Then sighing, Thousand Face said

'But why now? '

'What why now?' Azief said pretending not to know

'Why now, you are asking me to reveal myself. If you knew I was there since the beginning why didn't just bust me out?' he ask

'Oh, that? I wanted to confirm your motive and at the same time I know that you are inferior to me both in numbers and strength. In other words, I determine you were not a liable threats for my plan. Anyway, I thought you had information?' Azief said, clearly he is impatient for the information that Thousand Face had.

'I do.'

'What information could you offer?' Sofia asked from the back.

She also wanted to know many things about this new world, and even though Thousand Face might be lying but it's easy enough to know if he lied and in his situation he would be hard-pressed to lie to the only ally he could have.

'What do you want to know?' Thousand Face is smiling with a hint of superiority

'Surprise me' Azief said.

'You have been following us, for a couple of days, hears each and every one of our conversation, heard our plans and objective. What do you think I want to know?' Azief said with an inquisitive look at Thousand Face

'Is this a test?' he asked

'Well, consider it a test then, if that makes it easier.'

'Hmmm…what about the barrier. Yes, I will tell you about the barrier. And the pillars too' He said

'What about it?' Azief said. Clearly even though he is the superior one in terms of level, he still didn't have any credible information about his own evolution.

It's not like he hasn't tried to scour the World Orb shop but the amounts of stuff in the World Orb shops amounts in millions of stuff so when he searched for something he always use the categories and even that still put it at very enormous amounts of stuff to shuffle and search.

Some are restricted and coloured in gray. Some are too expensive.

So any information about pillars is appreciated and precious at least this early moment of this game.

'As you obviously could see, and surmise from the barrier, the barrier would only open for the Chosen One'

'Yes, I know that. What about it?' Azief ask

'Each person who chooses the Unique Class will have their own task. Certain people had to kill beast but there are other task that requires other skills in play. For example, my quest involves me to transform and gain information from 50 people without anyone recognizing who I was. In this kind of task, there is no barrier like-construction to prevent others entering or leaving since my work involves with humans and not beast or zombies or monsters. And I have no time limit either but I can drop the Unique Class if I don't want to. It is lucky that I found a group and then I use my transformation skills to gain information. But to those who got hunting quest or monster killing quest usually they would have a time limit and usually their attack and defense are very powerful and their items too. Like you have your unique attire, I have mine too. After all, if I have to find a new attire every time I transform to another face, it would be quite a chore wouldn't it?' Thousand Face explained.

Azief nodded.

'But what I know about your kind of quest is that the moment you enter the barrier, the barrier would break and then, all hell break loose. It gives you the chance to team up. But considering that monster is not up to par with your level it would be an easy job for you to kill it, right? That's what you think right?' he asks Azief

Azief nodded.

'Then you are wrong. The monster would adjust its strength to equal you. This is why the easiest way to get a Unique Class is quickly defeating the monster when you are level 10. At this time the beast is not that smart or strong and you will have no problem defeating it using your class items. Usually to gain your kind of level, you had to kill the beast first before having the true power of a Chosen. For example, Odin. After he became a Chosen, he quickly rose to level 30. You on the other hand, level up to 30 before killing the monster which means that even without having the full skill of a Chosen you have managed to become this strong. Which mean the monster would be as equally strong. But, you can handle it right?' Thousand Face said, looking at Azief.

Azief nodded. Even though the monster would be as equally as strong as him, it's not really a disadvantage.

After all the EXP gain would also be big and it's not like he couldn't team up with other when the barrier broke.

Using his strength and Sofia long distance attack even though this task look a little bit hard than expected but it's not going to be so hard that he wouldn't be able to handle it.

On the other hand he is pretty confident that he could still win. After all his Shadow Lord items is not weak either.

'The barrier would break after I enter? Hmmm. That is good information. Anything else you would like to inform me?'

'The Pillars.'

'What about it?' Azief asked.

'The pillars is much more than just a stats, it is also the measurement for proficiency.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean for example, life skill has proficiency level but an active or passive skill doesn't have one, right?'

'Yes.'

'When you upgrade an active skill or a passive skill, it will either increase your attack power, your defense, your range of effectiveness, or the duration of the effect or sometime even the decrease use of your spirit or energy. But it does not increase your mastery over the skills but the pillars help with that. For example' he said and he blows his breath to the cup of water he is sipping and suddenly the water began freezing.

But then the ice broke. Azief looks at Thousand Face inquisitively

'I have ice pillar.' He explained

'That was not a skill. That was the effect of the pillar. The pillar represents comprehension and mastery.' He said and Azief is shocked. He didn't know about this.

'What use of skills then if you could just use pillars to offset the skills?' Sofia asked.

'No, that is not what I mean. It increases mastery…for example, if I have ice related skill, I could still use that skill without having the corresponding pillars. But having a pillar that corresponds with your skill does not only increase your mastery of the skill but also reduce the consumption of your energy. Imagine me, with a powerful ice skill combined with a maxed out pillar of ice. You could only imagine the destruction I could wrought or the control over my own skill'

'This is another piece of good information. Anything else?' Thousand Face nodded and then he tell the duo about another thing he has learned.

'The pillars are different for every class. What I mean with this statement is that each class can only access certain pillars. For me my pillars would be different from you at least my main ones. The basic pillars are that of our stats. For example, pillars of strength, stamina endurance and all of that. The other basic pillars are the five elements. The class pillars depend on the type of your class and then there is the rare pillars which could be obtained by eating pills or monsters meat or by some other methods. Rare pillars are extremely helpful and powerful thus which makes it harder to get it. For example, something like of a Dark Knight would have pillars that are related to his class. Classes also determine the type of pillars you could access.'

Hearing this Azief and Sofia nodded and is processing this information inside their head. Thousand Face looks at their expression and then he asked.

'So, what now?' He asked.

'What?'

'Am I an ally?'

'How do you get all this information? Azief asked. Hearing this Thousand Face smirked.

'You don't show me all the card in your sleeve right, Lord Shadow? Why should I show you mine?'

'What if I force you? I am stronger than you, you know?' Azief said confidently

'Would you believe me if I say, I could disappear right now and you could never catch me? You might be stronger than me, but in stealth and sneak attack you are not my match. My class is not strong or imposing like your class but that doesn't mean I don't have certain capabilities. I did manage to shake off 500 people from my tail. Imagine how easy if only two people are chasing after me. You are strong but I could disappear as a mist if I want to. It will be hard guarding against me, if you don't know when I'm about to strike.'

'Is that a threat?' Sofia asks.

'It is. And I hope I don't have to act on it. I'm proposing an alliance. A mutual benefit partnership. I'm not trying to make an enemy out of you. But don't mistake my generosity as my weakness.' Thousand Face said.

Sofia was about to say something else but Azief looks at her and shakes his head and Sofia hold her tongue.

Azief just smile and then he got up. Slowly he approaches Thousand Face.

'What is your name?'

'Thousand Face.'

'Not that name. The name with which I could call you. Calling you Thousand Face looks pretentious. I want it to be short and easy to say. You don't have to give me your real name. Just another nickname I could call you with.'

Thousand Face nodded. To be honest the reason why his name is Thousand Face is quite funny but he doesn't want to share that story with this duo.

'Call me….'and he chuckle a bit before saying a name that crossed his mind.

'Call me…Loki.'

And then extending his hand Lord Shadow shakes Loki hand and he said.

'My name is Lord Shadow. It is a pleasure to meet you, Loki.'

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