After a long few hours of practice, William collapsed onto the park bench, completely exhausted, and no skill was gained due to his damn attribute; though the experience he got was more than worth it.
'Huh, I almost forgot, I got a title from beating that King dude, didn't I?'
[Title: King's Saviour]
[Details: As an unvirtuously greedy person who "saved" the righteous king, you now possess an aura that makes people around you more willing to assist you.]
'It's alright.'
After a brief break of staring at the early morning sky, he'd receive a video call via the Library; it was Fei Kangzhen.
'Technology is truly incredible!'
William would accept the call and see a disgruntled Fei Kangzhen in his parent's home.
"Hey boss, I'm calling to tell you about something."
"How was your day with your parents?"
"How...did yo-
"Don't worry about it, carry on."
Fei Kangzhen would pause for a moment before continuing.
"Well, when I was visiting my parents, we were attacked by a group of verifiers. We were able to take care of them, but it seems that we might be being targeted."
William would listen closely, recalling an old conversation he had with Kaelus.
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June 16th, 2030. After the end of the Cataclysmic War.
Kaelus would be lecturing a younger William about the geography and politics of the world.
"William, before you decide on your first novel to enter, it's important to understand the dynamics at play in our world. After the third World War and the formation of the Verification Bureau and their council, which include the heads of all major organizations in the world, righteous and evil, the world gained a form of order, something never heard of before for the past 5 years."
"However, that doesn't mean there aren't any troublemakers around!"
Kaelus would smile sinisterly.
"Organizations like the Genesis Brigade and Various demonic sects are the ones most active around these parts, you'll probably encounter them in the future Will. Whatever you do, do not fight them unless absolutely necessary."
"Remember, in this world, everyone is stupidly powerful, and everyone is stupidly smart."
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William would sigh.
"Did you examine their belongings? Any insignia or accessories of any kind we can use to locate their affiliation?"
Fei Kangzhen would calmly reply and show a strange looking badge on the screen, it was a circle with twelve pillars attached all around it and coloured brown.
"Yes we did. They all have badges, all made out of some kind of earthy mineral, super tough. I don't think they're part of the heavenly sinner sect. Likely a third party."
William would nod.
"Well, bring those badges back when you come back to base."
He'd disconnect from the call.
Coincidentally, at this moment, he'd receive a text message via the Library from Li Jiaojie.
-Hey..boss. I think I need to take a break for a little while. Also, I believe some group of people kidnapped almost an entire elementary school's worth of children, it's sickening..I'll be back at the watchtower as soon as possible today.
-Li Jiaojie, is your sister doing alright?
He didn't reply.
As he closed the Library screen, William would yawn and stretch. It was still dark out so he could do some exploring.
He made sure to take in the view of the entire area, to set up his Insight skill in the event of an attack.
After a while of walking, he thought he heard a voice in the shadows.
[Seek has been activated.]
William's eyes turned pitch black as his irises became as white as snow.
"Hello there."
He heard a woman's voice swearing softly, before hearing a bullet fire from behind him.
Thankfully, Xiao Wei caught the bullet and time and spit it back at the shooter, who was clad in light armor, protecting him from that situation.
'Assassins?'
William would form blades out of Ingenuity that coated his arms, like energy swords. Before imbuing them with Bane of Existence.
Due to the unique properties of Ingenuity, it served as a better medium for Bane of Existence than William's body.
William would dash towards the woman in front of him, leaving Xiao Wei to deal with the person behind.
The assassin leapt behind in retreat, clearly not wishing to engage with William directly. She would snap her fingers, before the nearby vegetation and plants started converging onto William, binding him with roots and such.
[Author's Note has been activated!]
[Status: Reader of Nature]
'Interesting...'
The sound of vines and roots being cut would be heard as William effortlessly cut free from his restraints using his blades.
The assassin didn't react as suddenly William was struck from the side by another masked person.
'The person from earlier?'
William attempted to leverage the distance between them to get a clean swipe at them, however somehow they managed to get far enough to dodge it.
[Insight has been activated.]
William got a three dimensional viewing of the area around them at ground level, allowing him to see the world like he was playing a video game, in third person.
'I see, theres a total of 5 assassins, Xiao Wei is busy fighting one of them, so that leaves 4 for me to deal with. Damn...I really messed up didn't I.'
William would slice in the air in front of him, concentrating Bane of Existence along the edge to create a wave of destruction.
The assassins near him leapt up into the air, sensing that getting hit by that move likely spelled death for them.
They then began alternating attacks, as dark chains wrapped around William's body, freezing his movements partially, another would summon vines and roots to restrain him even more to create an opportunity for the next assassin to use their core ability and cut through William.
However, before this plan came to fruition William was already aware of all of their positions, so he used Ingenuity to form a bouquet of hands in the air to halt their attacks, ending concentration on the blades in the process, or atleast get in the way of them. Then, he focused on maintaining them and diverting another portion of his brainpower to something else.
[Record: The Odyssey: Chaos Edition, has manifested itself into reality.]
In an instant, a torrent of light would surround William, blinding anyone who looked in his direction temporarily.
William used the few seconds he had before they recovered to sever the chains on him using Ingenuity blades with Bane infused that he conjured, before using solar flames to burn the vines and roots around him.
Then, he'd end his concentration on the Ingenuity hands.
'Sheesh, daylight savings time came early.'
By this time, the assassins had begun to recover, with one on each direction he could go.
Suddenly, he felt the Ingenuity shift, as if splitting perfectly.
*Shhhngggg*
William's right arm fell off like it had never been on him in the first place, painless and instant.
'What the f*ck...'
As all the feeling in his right arm left him, so did the blood. As a stream of crimson liquid started to pour out from his stump.
William would smile and use a mixture of Blessing of the Sun's healing abilities with a concentrated piece of flame to cauterize the wound and heal it at the same time. Sealing it shut, before summoning an arm out of Ingenuity to continue the fight.
He'd stare at the assassin who had just dealt a critical blow to him, she was masked but her long hair looked like a river of shadows that were seeping into the night sky.
It was now that he noticed that one of the assassins, the one that hadn't made a move yet had left the range of his vision, likely to call for backup.
William could see himself losing this battle. Xiao Wei was also too far and busy to initiate a fusion, however this sparked an idea in his mind, a nostalgic one.
Instantly, an orb of destruction appeared in front of William's eyes, he used his left arm and pointed it at the assassin in front of him shaping his hand like a pistol. Before summoning a similarly shaped but smaller orb out of fire behind it, firing the fire orb into the Orb of Destruction.
"Bang."
The orb of destruction boosted by the bursting pressure of the fire orb flew with an explosive speed, creating a massive cataclysmic explosion that nearly defeaned William and the surrounding verifiers.
It started off small, before expanding exponentially and created a small crater where the assassin was. However, they managed to survive and avoid most of the damage by cutting through it, only losing a major part of their abdomen from it.
'"The Reader of Cutting I presume? You could be a good chef! Oh wait that's not-
While William was busy defending himself in front of the live streaming cameras, the assassin got close and punched him extremely hard in the stomach, sending him reeling back from the sheer physical force.
'What the hell is her strength stat? That hurt more than the King's punches, god....'
Still processing what just happened, his neck was then enshrouded in chains by the assassin from before. Slowly crushing his windpipe.
William, struggling to breathe, would attempt to conjure more Blades of Ingenuity to cut himself free, when suddenly all the Ingenuity particles in the area were blown away, as if a hurricane had appeared in the area, he'd try to hold onto a few, however those too were wrestled out of his control from an outside force, leaving the only bit left under his hold the bit that formed his right arm currently.
'Ahhhhhh, I want to go home...'