Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A day later.

"Father..."

"Don't start doubting your decision now, son. I for one accept it wholeheartedly."

"...Yes, father," Rudric Piyece said as he disembarked from the carriage and faced the mansion a short distance away.

His heart was pounding.

Conflict was strangling his morality and his well established values, not to mention his pride.

The six guards standing on both his and father's sides...

What would they think after hearing what the two were about to do right now?

Rudric gulped.

His father was the first to take a step in the direction of the mansion.

The Kinn Residence in Genhuis City.

Following Rudric's 'win' in his match against Vali Kinn in the first round of the Preliminaries, his father had nagged him about what the woman had told him before she surrendered the round to him.

The words had been hard to say as Rudric hadn't known what his father would think back then.

For him personally...

Gulp.

That had been an immensely wonderful proposition that Vali had given him.

He could hardly believe it even now.

He still wondered why Vali surrendered the round as it was completely unnecessary but that was a separate issue.

What mattered, was that he was here to finalise this thing.

Rudric's thoughts distracted him enough to where he did not even see the passage of time, him and his entourage already at the mansion doors where a woman dressed in a long white dress greeted them and opened the door.

The woman gave a short bow before another came to lead them all inside.

Soon after, the group had arrived in a lavish, neat lounge with thick couches and... questionable paintings hung on the walls.

Within it, the shapely figure of Vali could be seen seated with one leg over the other on a couch that was much too big to simply be called such, yet it was.

The woman wore a short dress that revealed her tantalising thighs, leaving her calves and dainty feet to be seen by all who wished.

Rudric and his father tried to resist but both, with expert level swipe vision, saw all they needed to in fractions of time and collectively swallowed lumps of saliva.

"You may sit, gentlemen," Vali Kinn said with a sweet smile.

Rudric and his father did so.

"I assume your presence here means you have decided to accept my offer?" the Head of the Kinn Family asked.

Rudric looked at his father first before gazing at Vali with struggling eyes.

"Yes. Yes, we accept," he said with a determined gaze.

Vali smiled in contentment.

"Good," she said as she snapped her fingers, one of the women on standby walking towards the table between Vali and the guests with a sheet of paper that she placed on the piece of wooden furniture.

After doing so, this woman dressed humbly like the rest other than Vali, remained in this position with an expressionless face.

Rudric for a moment swallowed her whole with his eyes. Despite the long dress she wore, meant to cover her figure, he could see her voluptuous figure when she pressed her hands against her thighs through the dress!

Seriously, this woman rivalled Vali in proportions!

After a brief moment, Rudric tore himself from her and looked at the sheet of paper before him with a breath.

"Now..." Vali said as she leaned in from her seat, "...if you just sign this, resigning the Piyece Family to become a subsidiary under the Kinn Family, Eosa here, my dear sister, will be yours to do whatever you wish."

***

~~~

EXP : 500/500

Twelfth Task : Absorb 1,000 pieces of darkness - (1000/1000)

Sub Task : Create your own Precept of Light - (Completed)

~~~

"Phew..." Skullius breathed out.

He had finally completed his Twelfth Task.

Both the main and Sub Tasks had turned out to not be as hard as he had thought they were before, which was great.

The Hybrid Luman had absorbed the darkness from the nine members of Kenno's band that he had taken, killing them afterwards to present their heads to Bull and the others.

With that, he had felt another settlement of weight in his body but since it wasn't that much, he went on to the complete the main Task to see if there would be a reaction afterwards of some kind that gave him clues as to why he was piling on weight as he absorbed the darkness.

There was not.

Oh well.

Following the completion, a surge of energy much stronger than the one he had felt when he was at the Foundation Stage ran through his body.

The value of the five stat points he earned for each stat he had, had increased.

"I can only hope the next few Tasks are not too demanding but that's wishful thinking," Skullius thought aloud as he walked through the streets of Genhuis City with the sun drowning behind the horizon behind him.

He had managed to return to the city after one day of travelling, leaving him more than enough time to prepare for the Premium Age Royale matches tomorrow.

Maybe he would be next to stand on the platform.

He wasn't opposed to it.

After walking for a little more than six minutes, suddenly, from the side, Skullius saw three Capital Order Knights rushing into a large, fancy eatery.

Several seconds later, a man with a terrified expression leapt out of a window from the topmost floor of this building – sixth floor – and upon reaching the ground, his body exploded with mana as he shot away at full speed, knocking away innocent people on the crowded roads!

Screams and shrieks were heard as the man trampled over some people in his escape.

'Hmmm?' Skullius was intrigued.

This man was definitely an Advancement Stage expert. Somewhere at the peak of that Stage.

What had he done?

What was this commotion about?

Shockingly, one of the Capital Order Knights zipped out of the eatery like a bolt of lightning, his figure catching up to man who had rushed away before he could cover a fifty meter distance!

Naturally, the normal civilians couldn't see this, but the man was tackled brutality, his leg bending the other way and before he could even think to scream, a fist bashed his head into the ground while he was still airborne!

The man was knocked out instantly.

The Capital Order Knight then released a powerful pressure that made everyone pay attention to him and stop moving erratically before announcing..

"Attention please. Everyone remain calm and move away from the area. An important investigation is currently taking place."

Skullius had seen similar scenarios occurring ever since he came to Genhuis City – Knights suddenly dropping in on a random place unannounced and catching individuals who attempted to escape.

The Hybrid Luman had come to realise that these campaigns were largely sponsored by the work of the Diviners within the lean towers that rose above most buildings in the city.

Many forms of heinous crimes committed by some really bad individuals were exposed, the Capital Service being tipped off at the Diviners' discretion.

This always served as a reminder to Skullius that this could easily be him being apprehended if he didn't play his cards right.

Tsk.

Damn you Red Rage.

As the civilians left the area as ordered, Skullius also went his way.

Before he returned to the Bryne Residence, he wanted to go and quickly collect what he had earned from the Temple.

Surely, his efforts, not just the ones in Evic would be rewarded right? He had acted quickly goddammit!

With hurried steps, Skullius rushed towards his destination.

He took deep breaths on the way.

Asides from worrying that somehow whatever he was given wouldn't work, he was also concerned about something else.

There was another reason besides urgency that caused him to not go to Evic to talk to Anara personally.

UNCoddled.

There were three main factors that Skullius had discovered that determined how it functioned.

There was the actual contribution that someone made to help him – the object of interest.

There was also their level of strength.

Now, Skullius wasn't sure how UNCoddled would treat Anara if he told the Grand Priest that he contributed pretty heftily in Evic as from the way he left things, the Paladin Champion looked at him very favourably.

He would likely sprinkle in some good stuff to help Skullius a bit more which was... deadly.

However, Skullius had been thinking.

What if distance also affected UNCoddled – his proximity from the person who was helping him!

So far, all the people who had been affected by UNCoddled had been close to him when they died.

What if someone did it from a distance?

Somanda wasn't a god.

Maybe the curse wouldn't strangle someone if they were far enough.

Come to think of it, maybe this is why the Grinning Jester Fox back then...

This was a theory.

Even if Anara died though, he was counting on Oliviana, Bull and the others.

"Oh well. We'll find out soon enough," Skullius said as he reached the Temple.