227 (II)

Borrow

At the head of the trio was a blonde boy that seemed vaguely well-built for a mage. But his fists were clenched, and he had a snarl on his face. The other two with him were twin dark-haired, burly boys that reminded Shiv of bulldogs.

Shiv scoffed. Hired muscle looks the same, even on the campus of an academy.

As the three pursuers shoved other students aside, Shiv carefully slipped his Essentials of Anatomy textbook into his other hand as he tried to decide what he wanted to do. Meanwhile, the pigtailed girl squeezed through the crowd behind him, desperate to flee. Part of Shiv wanted to simply keep going, to avoid getting embroiled in someone else's matters. But another bit of him was curious, and frankly didn't like the way this was looking for the girl.

The trio of boys passed him by, and Shiv decided to stalk them. His other mercury strand went the other direction, slithering back toward the lobby to lead him toward his cookbook. Shiv wasn't going to follow it. Not until later. If he had to, he'd go back to the book dimensional and simply request directional aid once more. It wasn't a big deal. It wouldn't take that much of his time. But he had a feeling that if no one intervened for that girl up ahead, things might get pretty dire for her.

Me and my busybody ass. Shiv grimaced. Wonder if this counts as System-favored shenanigans or if this academy is simply a mess.

The pursuit went on for a while. The girl kept squeezing between other students, but the trio was closing fast. They shoved people aside without care, ignoring their cries of outrage. Shiv, meanwhile, lurked close behind.

After a few minutes of following along, he found himself leaving the first floor, following the trio up a set of long and wide stairs. Each step glinted with crystalline brilliance, and they were decorated with arrowheads as well. These steps told him that they were entering the second floor, where a few of the "practice and experimentation pock-dims" were. Shiv wasn't sure what one of the on-campus pocket dimensions looked like, so he might just be hitting two birds with one stone.

If he could test his magic here, he might just be spending a bit more time than expected at this library.

"Bah," Helix scoffed from within his cape. "You already have a homunculus, me, and all of the Tutorial. What good could a rudimentary child's playpen do for your Biomancy?"

"I don't know, so let's find out," Shiv replied. The second floor was quite unlike the first. It was far sparser, and though there were rooms filled with books, they were all gated behind magical wards and guarded by other book dimensionals. Suddenly, Shiv felt a lurching sensation in his gut, and he realized that the entire building was being uprooted. No, it was rising up in the air—flying.

Looks like we're airborne again. Probably repositions itself every few hours on campus, Shiv thought. Should take a closer look at its schedule, see if it lands near my dorm or wherever. Doesn't matter that much, considering how fast I can get around, but might draw a bit too much attention.

He ignored the gated rooms for now and continued tracking the trio. He'd lost track of them amidst a series of turns, but with how few students there were on this floor, and his Voidmantid's armor's pheromonal tracking abilities, they were out of sight, but not beyond the reach of his awareness. Shiv followed their scents. They reeked of ink, late-night incense, and, strangely, lavender. The cheap kind of lavender one smelled when passing by certain undignified establishments back on Blackedge—that kind that cost a week's wages and ended with you getting a funny patch on your genitals.

Farsight 83 84

As he finally navigated his way out of a mess of hallways, he found himself standing at the end of a long, wide hall with doors running along the side. But the doors weren't things sculpted from matter. Rather, they were dimensional portals, and the trail left by his quarry ended here, through the second doorway away from Shiv.

He walked through the veil of black static without a care.

As soon as he got to the other side, the cries of seagulls and the whistle of an ocean breeze washed over him. Blinking, Shiv found himself standing on golden sands surrounded by dense foliage, except for one part of the area. A path had been carved open to his right. The vegetation had been trampled, and there seemed to be a gap burned into the sides of a few trees, leaving semicircular wounds carved into the trunks.

"Someone used Pyromancy here," Shiv noted. And with that, his mind conjured images of a group of students launching fireballs at the fleeing girl. That changed things. That moved things a bit closer to attempted murder. Shiv hated murderers. Well, murderers who weren't him. He always had a good reason for killing all the people he did.

After scouting the area for a second, Shiv caught sight of his elusive targets. They glinted in the far left of his vision, faint life signatures flickering a few hundred meters away. He closed in on them, moving quietly through the air, carrying himself using his Shapeless Tides. Shiv didn't bother smashing through any more of the leaves or crunching any branches; he wanted to observe and eavesdrop before deciding what he wanted to do.

As he got to the edge of the tropical foliage, he peered out between two large, looping petals and found the three students quartering the pigtailed girl. A wall of turbulent water was being elevated behind her. She tried to flee past the surf into the ocean itself, but one of the trio called upon their Hydromancy and blockaded her from escaping. This place is probably for Hydromancers to test their magic. Worked against the girl here.

He used his Farsight to examine the scene, and his heart skipped a beat. He realized one of them was carrying a book—the exact cookbook he had abandoned to involve himself in this business. A Traveler's Guide to Wondrous Flavors and Wonderful Places.

The System smiles upon the Deathless today, Shiv thought. There came a sudden whipping noise in the air, and Shiv realized the pigtail girl was swinging a small pocket knife around. It looked like it was for peeling fruit rather than any kind of combat, and the way she waved it about spoke much of her combat prowess as well. The tall, blonde boy laughed at her, and Shiv strained his hearing, trying to pick things up as the winds kicked up again.

"I warned you," the blonde boy said. "Didn't I warn you?" He looked to his two companions and gestured at the girl. "I told you that if you kept our secrets, we could be friends. I could make things worth your while. I also told you that if you were going to be a fucking snitch, then terrible things might happen. You snitched, and now look where we are. Unwise, Vanessa. Very unwise."

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He shook his head, and the girl clenched her teeth. "It was my invention! Why do you even want it? You're already from a noble household. You don't need the money!"

"It was a group project, Vanessa." The noble boy sighed. "So much me, me, me. Besides, who gave you the funding for the materials?"

"And who did all the work?" the girl almost screamed. "I didn't need your help. In fact, you were n-no help at all! I could have finished it on my own! It would have taken longer, but at least I wouldn't have to deal with you. You didn't do anything to help, so why should you get credit now?"

And suddenly, the blonde-haired boy didn't seem so amused anymore. He started clenching and unclenching his fists. "I… didn't do anything. I see. Well, Vanessa, to me it looks like I'm doing something right now." He took a step forward, and then another. "Tell you what, Vanessa, I think I'm going to take that knife from you, and THEN I'M GONNA FUCKING—"

Shiv heard enough. This was a waste of time. And that boy was a waste of skin. Not curious anymore, System. Just annoyed. At least they left me a prize.

The Deathless stopped time. And to his satisfaction, there was no temporal warding here. The academy's protections didn't extend into these pockets. That's good to know, Shiv thought to himself. If I have to fight someone again, a pocket dimension like this could be perfect. Oh, the Forest of Alloy might work too. Maybe I should see if I can get the Crafters to set up some kind of pocket arena inside my cape. Maybe I can throw it on the ground, yank an enemy in, and keep the damage contained. That's a cool idea.

Inspiration came from the weirdest places.

First thing Shiv did was snatch the cooking book away from one of the blonde boy's minions. He threw it in his cape as he considered how badly he wanted to hurt these shits. Just beating the piss out of them probably won't do anything for long. I might put them in the hospital for a while, but that just means I might end up treating them later tonight when I check in for my first Medic-301 class.

He regarded the pigtail girl once more, seeing the desperate, scared look on her face. Yeah, main point is to get them to stop bothering her. So, we escalate. We make sure they know the consequences of doing anything stupid.

Psycho-Cartography hummed in agreement.

Shiv lashed out with his mana hydra and wrapped both of the goons. He cracked their paltry Magical Resistance and then pinched their necks until the blood stopped flowing. At the same time, he did the same to the ringleader of this stupid circus, blurring forward and putting him in a chokehold from behind. Three seconds passed. Shiv gave it two more seconds before he finally let go. His temporal shell cracked a bit, but rushing wasn't an option. Killing was easy; inducing unconsciousness required a gentle touch.

When he felt the time was right, he yanked each of his victims into his grasp and dragged them back through the bushes. He resumed time, and the last thing he saw of that pigtailed girl was her standing there, alone before a plunging wave. The water crashed down behind her, and she let out a surprised cry, whipping her head around in confusion.

Shiv shook his head. That one really needs to develop some kind of combat-related skill. Or make some strong friends.

He got back to the portal leading to this pocket dimension, and here, he decided to finish with the trio.

He threw all three of his new victims onto the sand. After that, he drew his Last Morsel and decided to leave a few messages on their body. They let out groans of pain as he sliced into them, but he made sure the markings weren't that deep. After that, he stripped them of all their belongings. Shiv was happy to find a heavy pouch filled with mithril coins carried by the blonde boy. The other two had a few coins each, but nothing more than that. He took all their potions, focus crystals, weapons, and satchels from them as well. Then, he seized their pointed hats—and the sword cane he found on one of the boys.

With that done, Shiv regarded his handiwork with a smirk. He carved a simple promise onto each one of the unconscious boys, one ominous and plain in intent: "Go for the pigtailed girl again, and I'll take something from you every night, starting with your cocks, and working my way up from there. Pieces will be returned in installments afterward."

"There," Shiv said, clapping his hands together. "If they do anything after this, they're genuinely stupid, and I'll have to hurt them more. And that'll be that… Hm. Something's missing. Ah, shit. I got it."

***

"AGHHH! AHHH! HELP! WHAT THE FUCK!" a boy of noble birth wailed in the lobby of Pentax Hold. He was sobbing, rubbing at the bloody text carved into his torso. His pupils were dilated, his eyes were wide with terror, and he looked like he was suffering from a psychotic break. The two boys with him weren't doing much better, covering their privates and whimpering as their fellow students gawked at them.

Some covered their faces and blushed at the sudden appearance of the bloodied, nude trio. Others called for Biomancers or school security to intervene. Everyone was looking at them, and few noticed the unassuming Marcus Unblood slip away, whistling a tune, indifferent to the carnage, two books hidden in his cape, and another good deed done.

"Someone call a Biomancer!" Shiv heard an elven mage shout as she sprinted past him.

The Deathless just chuckled. "Sorry, friend, my Medic-301 shift doesn't start until later."

As he pushed through the front door, he saw a few students landing nearby. They touched down with grace and were generally unaware of the shitshow they were about to walk into. One of them descended on a griffin, and in the next moment, the shed-sized beast quickly turned into a winged house cat.

"Damn," Shiv commented. "That's incredible."

"Thank you." The bot Rider giggled as it hit the ground graciously. Its can-shaped head projected a smiley face at Shiv. "It took a lot of training for her to figure out how to do that."

Though the library was in flight, it projected a translucent set of descending stairs, and Shiv walked down, humming a jaunty tune to himself with all his library books in tow. He was getting a bit of a kick out of this, jumping unfortunate bastards who deserved it, and then ruining their day without them knowing why filled him with the kind of pleasure that bordered on the perverse.

"Right. Gotta go to office hours for Culin E-333 first after. But you know what, System? I think I can handle this. Throw more of these encounters at me. I'll feed you. I see what you're doing. Little chips of strife you're dragging into me, having me resolve. I'll do it. Just chipping away. I won't start a big bloody brawl if you don't."

As he spoke those words to the sky, he felt a shift in the air, and something told him he might just find a way to make it here without losing his cover for quite a while.

And then he started worrying if he was getting a bit too hopeful.

"You know, Insul," Helix said, "your penchant for heroics might leave you exposed to danger yourself someday. This was more of a trial than it needed to be."

"Not the way I'd see it," Shiv replied.

"Oh, and how would you see it?"

"Dominance," Shiv said plainly. "Some of these students and nobles do what they want, and then I do what I want in return. Might before philosophy, isn't that what your boss believes? Well. I believe in hurting bastards. I believe pieces of shit should eat shit. And I'm meaner than them. I'm stronger. And if they do something stupid, I'll be the consequence they never see coming. For no other reason other than I want to and because I can."

The orc fell silent after that, but then he gave an accepting huff. "Well, just be sure to guard yourself. It wouldn't do to find yourself inconvenienced by someone else's weakness."

"I'll inconvenience myself whenever I want," Shiv replied with a grin. "Why the fuck else be a Pathbearer?"