33 (II)

Mask

“I cannot believe you,” the Young Lord said, shaking his head. “I cannot believe—”

“Wait! Shiv! That one!” Uva said, pointing.

“This one?” Shiv asked, propping up the corpse. Soft skin, blond hair, delicate features…

Adam looked like he was about to let loose a torrent of complaints but found himself stunned by the face. “Broken Moon, that one does look pretty good.”

“You got him in the throat too.” Shiv grinned, shaking the body as if it was a small doll. “Nothing wrong with his face at all.” The Deathless’s smile dimmed as he looked down. “But, uh, I think he has more venereal diseases than all the other slavers put together. Hope those don’t carry over.”

“It says semblance,” Uva said. “Not hijack body. I think you’re fine. I hope so. The mask best pray to the Composer you are fine. I will accept nothing otherwise.”

“Gods, she’s so hot,” Shiv muttered to Adam under his breath.

Adam fought the urge to gag. The Young Lord then looked at the chosen slaver. “Well, you did it, Shiv. You found a body that… I’m starting to feel bad for killing this one.”

“He’s still a slaver,” Uva said, narrowing her eyes.

“Yes, but why, considering he had a face like that?”

Uva squinted at the slaver, and then smiled as she looked at Shiv. “Hm. People have varying preferences. Some like the soft and supple. Some prefer those with a bit more strength and vigor.”

Adam closed his eyes. “Shiv. Take the damn slaver’s face before I turn my bow on myself.”

Shiv stared down at the slaver’s face for a few seconds. Once more, the notification appeared.

Kill him and take his face to claim his semblance and steal a skill.

Claim target’s semblance?

Shiv acknowledged the request, and a change took place. The slaver’s face combusted at the same time Shiv’s mask ignited. He cursed and pulled off his helmet. Adam’s eyes widened and Uva cursed—blasting Shiv in the face with a spray of Cryomancy. The Deathless reeled. The flames spread across both his and the slaver’s bodies.

“Shiv!” Uva cried, eyes wide with worry. She shaped another Cryomancy spell, but he held out a hand, halting her.

“It doesn’t hurt at all,” Shiv said, surprised himself. “Actually, I can’t feel anything.” The slaver dissolved into embers and ashes. Embers and ashes that swirled around Shiv and started reassembling around him, mote by mote.

Uva bit her lip in worry but held herself in check. Adam took a step back, and then another, as if fearful the Deathless might explode. Valor did the opposite: he drifted closer as Shiv reformed—but ultimately, not as himself. Shiv stood a perfect replica of the slaver he had just incinerated, changed seemingly in height, mass, and appearance.

Uva’s eyes flashed briefly—and so did Valor’s. Both of them shared a look.

“Your Path has changed too, and your skills… I can see most of them with my Analyze Skill,” Uva breathed.

“Not his, though,” Valor said. “The dead slaver’s. Shiv seems to have taken more than the poor fool’s face—he’s taken a slice of his soul as well.”

Shiv called upon his status from the System and found himself surprised. His own sheet came up first, but beneath it was another one, bearing another name and another Path…

Name: Tanner “Shiv” Lowe [True]

Age: 18

Race: Human

Path:

Deathless

Feats [1/1]:

He Who Rises From Ash Eternal (Unique) – Allows the Pathbearer to quickly learn new Skills and advance existing Skills through repeated deaths.

Skills:

Marksmanship 11 (Common)

Baking 9 (Common)

Intimidation 18 (Common)

Barter 10 (Common)

Alchemy 2 (Common)

Engineering 1 (Common)

Cooking 23 (Initiate)

Knife Proficiency 29 (Initiate)

Grappling Proficiency 40 (Initiate)

Stealth 21 (Initiate)

Striking Proficiency 21 (Initiate)

Pyromancy 6 (Initiate)

Spear Proficiency 10 (Initiate)

Parry 32 (Initiate)

Biomancy 45 (Initiate)

Disease Resistance 8 (Initiate)

Awareness 10 (Initiate)

Practical Metabiology 13 (Initiate)

Psychomancy 6 (Initiate)

Silver Tongue 4 (Adept)

Might of Mass 71 (Adept)

Diamond Shell 80 (Adept)

Foreshadowing 13 (Adept)

Momentum Core 65 (Master)

Vitality Drain 9 (Legendary)

Revenant 5 (Unique)

Blessings:

Song of the Vigilant – Allows the Pathbearer to maintain absolute focus while the song is active. The song will expand out from the Pathbearer for one hundred meters and reveal all that is hidden.

Curses:

None

Name: Mark Speeirson [Perfect Semblance]

Age: 27

Race: Human (Abyssal)

Path: Guardian

Feats [0/1]:

None

Skills:

Survival 14 (Common)

Sling Proficiency 11 (Common)

Physicality 29 (Initiate)

Intimidation 20 (Common)

Singing 18 (Common)

Armorsmithing 7 (Common)

Toughness 42 (Initiate)

Bulwark of Iron 61 (Adept)

Blade Whirlwind 51 (Adept)

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Blessings:

None

Curses:

Light-Damned – The Pathbearer burns physically, mentally, and spiritually when exposed to true sunlight on the surface.

But the System wasn’t done with its notifications yet.

Choose skill to steal

Adept Slots: (0/1)

Initiate Slots: (0/2)

Shiv blinked. He assumed Skill Thief would allow him to take some levels from the dead slaver or something. This made Shiv consider between his highest two choices. Bulwark of Iron sounded interesting, and the corpse had a shield on it, so it must’ve been something to do with that. Problem was, Shiv was already practically a walking fortress, and he didn’t want more durability, he wanted someone to break through his Toughness and kill him for more levels. That, paired with the fact that he lacked a truly Adept-Tier Weapon Skill of his own made him focus on Blade Whirlwind.

Steal Blade Whirlwind for Adept-Skill Thief?

After a moment’s hesitation, he confirmed his choice. And then a searing pain passed through Shiv’s brain. He let out a hiss as he clutched his head. “Agh, burns!”

Uva flinched. “Shiv! Take it off!”

“No, no, I’m just stealing a skill.”

Another second later, the burning subsided, and Shiv checked his status sheets again. To his surprise, he realized that the Blade Whirlwind Skill now appeared on his own sheet as well. Memories poured into his mind, of him slashing and stabbing other boys in a dark alley, of him surviving his duels because he was more vicious, more aggressive… But these weren’t his memories, these were from the slaver—Mark Speeirson. This was the only Adept-Tier Skill he had back then, and it allowed him to attack in all directions around himself when he swung his weapon, becoming like a whirlwind of blades in a tight alley…

“Well, that’s much more than I was expecting,” Shiv muttered. “I thought it was just going to give me a level or two. But no… I just stole an entire Adept-Tier Skill from the dead guy.”

“You… This is vile,” Adam said, vibrating with outrage. “The Quest gave you this and the cape as a reward? Why?”

“Do you want the mask now?” Shiv asked. “Because if your answer is yes, my answer is no, and it’s too late. I’m keeping this thing.” He chuckled. “I actually got an Adept Weapon Skill now.”

“If you speak another word, I will tackle you into the corpse pit,” Adam growled.

“You mean break your shoulder on me?”

“No,” Adam said, walking forward with a grin. Shiv suddenly realized that Adam was taller than him, larger than him… Oh, right, I’m stealing the dead guy’s full appearance. The Young Lord gripped Shiv by his collar—wrapping his finger around the leather armor the slaver wore. “You seem to be smaller than you used to be.” He shoved. But Shiv didn’t move. Adam frowned. He tried again. And then tried pushing with both hands.

Shiv remained in place. Like a pillar. Except he was small, short, and blonde now.

“Why?” Adam growled. “Damn you, System, why couldn’t you let me have this?”

The Deathless found himself focusing on another problem. “Valor might be right. This is only a slice of the guy’s soul. Enough to fool an Analyze Skill but… I don’t remember doing any surviving. Or singing. I don’t actually have those skills. I only have Blade Whirlwind now.”

Adam gave up trying to move Shiv, letting out an annoyed breath. “So. You can only keep one Adept-Tier Skill?”

Shiv called up his Skill Thief options.

Choose skill to steal

Adept Slots: (1/1)

Blade Whirlwind 51

Initiate Slots: (0/2)

“Yep,” Shiv said. “Slot’s filled. I also can’t take any of his Initiate Skills, even though the slot is empty. It seems that I can only extract one skill from one body.”

“Ah, a modified exo-mind Enchantment,” Valor said with interest. “The System has favored you greatly to deliver this unto you. It allows you to bear another’s experiences along with a near perfect disguise.”

“Near perfect?” Shiv said. “It says Perfect Semblance.”

“Correct. But not absolute, no? You need Absolute Semblance to hide from someone truly. You can be perfect, but a god’s will exceeds the world, and even a Heroic Pathbearer can shake the fabric of existence.”

“So. Still have to be careful.” Shiv nodded. He tried a few more things. The first was dismissing his Perfect Semblance. To his pleasure, he could quickly dispel and call upon his new form with his thoughts. “Three seconds to change.” He then took off his mask, and his form dispelled again—and the Blade Whirlwind Skill was gone from his mind as well. “Okay. So. It’s in the mask. Thing’s pretty useful. I don’t think it can burn multiple faces at once, but it lives up to a mask born from a bunch of melted assassins.”

Adam was practically pouting by this point. So Shiv spited him further by handing the mask to Uva. “Here. Try it.”

“Really, Shiv?” Adam said.

Uva accepted the mask from Shiv with a slight smile. As she put it on, she assumed the form of the slaver in a rush of flame, and Shiv nodded. “That’s just weird,” he said, shaking his head. “How does it feel for you?”

“Like I’m still wearing a mask,” Uva said. Yet, now she had the slaver’s voice. Shiv blinked. “What?” she asked.

“You sound like the slaver.”

“You sounded like him too.”

“Huh,” Shiv said. “Didn’t seem that way to me. I just sounded like myself.”

“Probably an effect of the mind-shield,” Uva theorized. And then quickly pulled the mask off. The Perfect Semblance broke around her in a burst of embers. “That Enchantments giving me a headache. The mind-shield pinches my mana field something hard.”

“Ah. I probably didn’t feel it as bad because my Psychomancy’s weaker.” He took the mask back from her and studied it appreciatively. Right now, it just seemed like a bronze mask disfigured by a mana bomb. But once he put it on, it was like sliding into a new skin. “Wish I could take someone’s appearance or skills without needing to kill them. But I guess it needs to burn a person’s soul or vitality or something to do this. It lets me access their entire status too.”

“Quite potent. And fitting. You were bound for the gate, and the System desires conflict. So, it has gifted you the potential means to fan the flames of chaos.”

“Yes. Like giving a hawk the means to lurk among… Well, I won’t call them pigeons.” Adam considered a metaphor. “A hawk lurking among crows.”

“Is everything a hawk or hunter metaphor with you?” Shiv asked.

Adam sneered. “Consult lesson one.”

Shiv chuckled. “Asshole. Well. This has been productive. Shame none of them could kill me.”

“Shiv.” Uva frowned.

“What? I want more Diamond Shell. Say, is the cave biter still around?”

Uva squinted at him in exasperation. “Shiv. No. Leave the poor thing alone.”

“What?”

“You’re going to see if you can fight it or ask it to eat you or something. Anything that might be fatal and dangerous.”

“I’m just curious about how it is. And I wouldn’t be against fighting a mountain-sized monster if it gives me a reason.”

“Shiv,” Uva said, starting to lose her patience.

“It—it could just sit on me?”

“And what would that do?” Adam asked. “Unless its body is Tougher than yours, you’ll just end up inside it like a diamond nail.”

Shiv sighed. “Dying used to be easy and constant.”

“Aw, now you will have to toil and struggle to improve more like the rest of us,” Uva said, rubbing his back almost mockingly. Then she kissed him on the cheek, and that made things feel a bit better.

“Shiv. Sometimes, being around you makes me feel like I’m having a stroke.” Adam sighed.

“Well, Adam, if you die, I promise not to steal your face and pretend to be you before stealing everything your family owns.”

Adam almost gagged. “And just because you said that, I am willing myself to be functionally immortal.” He shook his head and looked down into mass grave two and at all the bodies still lying around. “Well. I suppose you might as well flay the rest of them and leave their faces hanging from the trees or something.”

“What?” Shiv said. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why? For psychological effect. They’ll send a scouting party and discover a forest of flayed corpses with skins swaying in the air. Rangers from the Kingdom of Lone Star use this technique to dissuade the orcs from raiding their lands every summer.”

“I guess,” Shiv said. “Just seems gratuitous by this point…”

“Really? This is where you draw the line? Here? After literally making armor out of your old corpses?”

“That’s just economical,” Shiv defended.

“And now I am the one who suspects she’s having a fever dream,” Uva deadpanned. “You have enough bodies, Shiv. You’re sinking into the soil.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

“Uva. They’re slavers.” Adam spat into mass grave two. “They were selling children. They don’t deserve good dreams.”

The Umbral Psychomancer opened her mouth to argue, and then sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Shiv. Flay five and let us return to camp. The stench is starting to cling to me, and I need to bathe.”

Shiv grunted as he looked at her. “What a coincidence. Me too.”

“Oh?” Uva feigned surprise. “How surprising. But I might know a place in these woods…”

Adam looked pained. “How are you two flirting next to a mass grave?”

“The seeds of love can bloom even from corpses.” Valor bobbed, doing the closest thing he could to a nod.

The Young Lord just groaned. “Well. We have a way to keep close to the bloody gate now. Or at least one of us does…”

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