Chapter 72: Expect the Worst

Two days passed at the outpost, the commanders keeping us there just in case there was another follow up attack. 

And there was, but it was hardly a threat. A few thousand monsters that were wiped out in half a day. 

After that, the other Magisterium squad was sent out with a dozen other soldiers to go hunt the commanding entity. Once they came back with its head, we were allowed to go back to base. 

The day after we did so, packing what little supplies we had left and making the drive back. 

The next couple days after that were uneventful. All the other squads, Elite and regular alike, were sent out on constant missions. Many of them were hunting missions, some of them were reinforcement missions to other outposts. 

We were allowed to recuperate before getting sent out on regular patrols. Unlike at Calatrop base, each patrol had three vehicles of soldiers. If we were ever ambushed, we would always have a fighting chance unless some freakish enemy suddenly appeared. 

And during all the downtime we had, I simply worked on what I needed to. 

Whether that was practicing my shooting, working on my advancement formation, or training my Telepathy. 

Umara was very receptive to my telepathy, willing to train it with me. And at first she had some issues with it. I could tell that she got anxious with the level of interconnectedness and I decided to break the connection a few times. After all, I was reading her thoughts, and to a certain extent, she couldn’t stop me. Her own Aura wasn’t strong enough to directly counter mine and she didn’t have enough Psyka within her mind to block me out forcefully. 

She had to learn how to compartmentalize her thoughts, how to hide certain things by simply refusing to acknowledge a thought. There were a lot of mind games to play and, thankfully, I was able to guide her through a lot of it. 

After all, with my Psyka and Spark, my mind was freakishly amazing. It simply wasn’t the mind of a human anymore. 

With faster speed of thought and a better memory, the sheer amount of information going through my head at any given time was several times higher than before. And I had discovered a lot about myself over time, especially about how to micromanage my mind. 

I pulled on these experiences and helped Umara. Because to some extent, learning how to counter mind reading would be valuable. 

There were all kinds of magic in this world, like the lie detector spell Duchess Talerria used on me. If the day came where someone tried to use one on us, then it would be valuable to know how to prevent it from gaining anything. Because unless it directly extracted memories or information, those spells could attain nothing but the subjective opinion we gave it. It was the difference between reality and someone’s own truth. They weren’t always the same. 

But it was clear that Umara would need some time to get there, because she definitely wasn’t right now. 

There were some thoughts that leaked, ones that I was able to pick up on and ones that embarrassed her greatly. Some of it was rather radical, and a lot of it was sexual. 

I ignored it, pretending that I couldn’t read all her thoughts clearly even though my ability grew by the day. It eased her mind, but there were times that she slipped up and I had to cut the connection to give her space to collect herself. 

I learned a lot about her over the course of just a few days. To put it lightly, I had no need whatsoever to doubt the integrity of our relationship. If anything, she made it seem like I was going too slow, but both of us knew that we couldn’t move forward so recklessly. 

I might be able to read some of her thoughts in the moment, but her impressions and subconscious leanings were still a mystery. That would take time to solidify and bring forward, and doing something extreme just because of a fleeting thought could flip those same thoughts very quickly. 

I had to learn to navigate the intricacies of the mind if I were to try and use my powers of the mind better. Practicing with Umara taught me far more than just how to tune into her thoughts better. It gave me access to the mind of another person, a source of profound insights into the nature of the human psyche. 

The notion to let Vetsmon and Feiden in on this crossed my mind as well, but for now I decided to keep it private. Not because I didn’t trust them, but simply because keeping this a secret power between Umara and I made our relationship feel more special, which she liked. Once I got much better at it, I could use it in a more practical way with the others. For now, it remained an intimate bond with my girlfriend. 

Not that it also wasn’t practical. My Aura was honed massively in the short time since I discovered Telepathy. Whereas before I could sense the emotions of others, I could now sense them with far greater detail. It was the difference between sensing anger and knowing who or what it was directed toward. 

It was a step below directly reading thoughts with a cursory glance. Not only that, but I could sense how the mind connected with the rest of someone’s body. 

I had tuned into this feeling while watching Vetsmon and Feiden spar one day. I knew where they would move around a second before they actually did. However, because they moved so quickly in the mere span of a single second, I sensed the entire backlog of actions within that second. 

And the only reason it was only a second was because of the amount of movements. Things changed dynamically, and an action Feiden was planning to make two seconds ago could change. If anything, a single second of prediction was the best case and might only apply to the things they wanted to do, and that could change depending on the actions of their opponent.

Reliably, it was only about half a second in advance where their movements would almost always fall according to my predictions because changing their actions within that tiny span was incredibly difficult if they were already committed. 

Not only that, but when I tried to predict the movements of them both, although things became far more complex, I was able to understand them better and increase the accuracy of my predictions. 

Naturally, this led to me understanding certain things about how knights fought and the differences between their combat styles and techniques. How they held their spears, the way Vetsmon shifted his weight around his shield, the way Feiden directed his momentum between the ground and the tip of his spear, and how their center of gravity shifted constantly. 

It was a lot to take in and I could only begin to do something so crazy because of the power of my mind. But it was clear that it was still beyond me to some extent. I couldn’t see the flow of battle and wouldn’t be able to predict who won. It would take more observation over months in order to get a grasp, and that was only on those two. For another person, I would have to start from scratch. 

It was a good thing that my memory was getting better. I couldn’t imagine trying to work with such a fast mind if I just forgot everything the next second. 

As for how this worked with beasts, I wasn’t entirely sure. I would need time out in the field to get some data. At least for people though, it worked pretty well. 

What was especially great was how I could sense all the gazes around me, and sense whenever someone directed hostility at me. 

Whether it was silent judgment or outright hatred, I could sense it all, and it came rather frequently. 

I could now easily tell who it came from, and it was always a noble, Elite or otherwise. Or maybe one of their goons, of which there were many. 

But I could tell that they were always too tired to do anything. It was clear that the Puppet Master was working them pretty hard, constantly sending them on missions and keeping them off my back. 

Couldn’t be mad if you didn’t have the energy to. 

Every since our conversation that day, I hadn’t had a single altercation. I kept to myself and my squad, simply doing as I was asked and refraining from being social. 

Still. I couldn’t help but feel that something was brewing in the background. So in order to try and hone in on that feeling, I had to change my thought process and look at things differently. 

To the rest of the noble class, Umara was an extremely valuable asset to acquire. She was the daughter of Duchess Talerria who herself had access to one of the largest markets in the kingdom. Her city was an economic power in and of itself, and as its leader, she wielded massive amounts of money and influence. 

Marrying her daughter was like snatching a golden ticket. You would gain access to not just the Duchess, but to her markets and her connections. Unless you had nothing, you would gain immeasurably. 

Even other Dukes would feel the prosperity. If it were anyone else below that level, they would be elevated to a whole new level. Even a royal child would gain access to a huge sponsor. 

And here I was, taking Umara for myself. And I wasn’t even in the position to gain much of anything from her. Sure, she had money to spend, but even if I were willing to take advantage of that, the monetary gains couldn’t come close to the financial gains of an entire business being given wings by the deep connections her mother held in the palm of her hand. 

So Umara was being completely wasted on someone like me. In the eyes of nobles, there was very little reason not to get rid of me. They simply had too much to gain. 

The only reason they weren’t killing me outright was likely because of optics. It was clear that Umara liked me a lot, so getting on her bad side would only ruin the chances of other suitors. 

If I had to guess, they were waiting for our little fling to fade out. Once Umara was no longer interested in messing around with her boy toy, they could kill me without consequence. 

That would take time. How much time, though, was the big question. 

The Puppet Master stated that as soon as I entered the military, my issues with nobility would dissipate. I could only assume that touching the soldiers of the Kingdom’s military was taboo. So they would have to find other means besides assassinating me, but that would also make it far more difficult for me to die so easily. 

So then they had 7 months until the time I left the Magisterium. Would they kill me within that time?

If Umara never looked like she was losing interest in me, then there would still be consequences for killing me. But that still didn’t outweigh the benefits. Sooner or later she would get over my death and they would have their way. 

So at what point would they become desperate? And by then, what measures would they take to kill me?

Perhaps they would have one of their children do it. Just maybe, that swordsman, Ponteck Gulliard, was my biggest threat. As the strongest Elite, son of a Duke, and one of Umara’s suitors, he had every reason to kill me and enough backing to get away with it. So either I had to be extra wary of his blade, or he would find someone else to kill me and take the fall so he could swoop in later on. 

There were 7 months left for everyone to get stronger. Maxwell believed I could hit Authority 5 before then. And maybe I would have to, for my own sake. 

For now, I didn’t believe there was any reason to be concerned about those around me. It was still too early. They wanted Umara, or more specifically wanted me gone, but doing anything right now would cost them more than if they just waited. They probably didn’t believe Umara was actually serious about me. I was nothing more than a commoner leeching off of her wealth, a parasite trying to bite off more than I could chew. 

I was scum in their eyes, that much was clear. I had a pretty good grasp on how the topmost echelons lived their lives and viewed those underneath them. Duchess Talerria was an exception to that. She was turning out to be very wise and open minded, raising a daughter with good taste and a smart head on her shoulders. 

But the others weren’t like that. I couldn’t assume the best until they proved it. So every noble was to be treated as if they looked down on everything and everyone below them. I had to expect the worst. 

But they also weren’t stupid. They had mind boggling power but they knew when and how to use it. If I wanted to keep myself safe, I needed to accumulate as much as I could, lay low for as long as possible, but keep an eye on everyone around me. Through the malice of nobles I would be able to gauge when they were reaching their limit. 

What I would do when the bell tolled would be decided at that time. 

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