HP: The Arcane Thief

The harvest this time was quite good. Since the situation wasn't life threatening but just extremely high-difficulty, it stimulated him into pushing himself and trying out something new.

Though it was really a pain, but it paid off in the end, as now he has gotten new skills thanks to that.

First of all, [Puppeteering]. He had gotten this when he tried to make the make-shift harness to bind and control the dragon. Of course, he had only made a basic one in the beginning using his existing knowledge of knots. Though it was by no means enough to control the dragon, it was still at least enough to unlock the puppeteering skill on account of his high dexterity and existence knowledge from [Trap Setting].

Upon reaching significant mastery in this skill, he can control not only puppets, but also living beings by transmitting magic through special magic-conducting strings once they are bound.

The power the manipulate strings, and by extension, things connected to those strings? That can be extremely overpowered. It just has a few downsides, like the strings needing to be made beforehand using complicated time-consuming processes, and, of course, they are still just strings. They can be cut down.

'Let's try it out.'

Axel took out some left over string from last night.

[Puppeteering]

At once, the strings rose up, as if having life of their own and started moving around. Axel tossed his knife into the air and moved the strings to stick the knife.

But… that was all he could do for now. The strings couldn't hold onto the weight of the knife, and thus, the knife slowly sank to the ground.

Axel frowned. That should not have happened. But, he instantly realized the problem. 'The strings…'

These were Akiko's strings, which, though were excellent conductors of electricity, but the same couldn't be said for their magical conductivity.

Axel couldn't properly control them since his magic wasn't being properly transmitted through them. He will need special strings made from the methods given in the skill information to get some results. The more mana conduction, the more difficulty he will face at making those strings.

Axel moved on to the next skill, [Taming].

When he tried making the dragons listen to his command, it didn't exactly work, but it did indeed make them enter a mindless state, in which even the Kraken couldn't control them.

That was all he had needed too since he was then able to control their movement through the strings. Doing even that much was an extremely difficult task, and it was, fortunately, enough to help him unlock the skill [Taming].

'Ah, this is the stuff,' said sighed in satisfaction.

This skill gives him all sorts of knowledge and techniques to make living beings submit to his will. The methods can range from simple psychological stuff to slow mind corruption to instant control. For Axel, who has been using the primitive and crude means like contracts to do exactly that, this is like heaven sent. Of course, for now he only had the basic stuff unlocked, so he'll have to train it to get to the real stuff, but still, this skill is going to be useful.

And lastly, the special skill [Mana Strings].

!!!

As soon as Axel checked the skill information, all the sleepiness was gone as he sobered up.

Since this is a special skill given by the system, its tier is much higher than the previous two skills he unlocked. Axel has noticed that, though the system doesn't show it, but there is a clear tier difference in most of the skills.

Most of the skills he unlocks are simple in the beginning, providing little to no benefits, but they do start to become more and more powerful as he trains them.

On the other hand, there are some skills, that are clearly on a different level, right from the very beginning. Like most of the special skills given by the system. These skills are useful and powerful right from the start, and only get better as the proficiency increases. Axel has found that while it is really difficult to increase the proficiency of these skills, they need a lot of difficult training and resources, but the benefits they give are well worth it.

And [Mana Strings], Axel felt, was a skill that clearly belonged to this category. He can tell just by the quality of magical knowledge that is crammed in his right in the beginning stage of this skill.

The requirements of this skill are crazy, needing a lot of dexterity and magic control. Axel felt that he would have had a lot of difficulty using it if he had gotten it before training [Zen Focus].

But, as difficult as it is, its uses far outweigh the difficulties.

'Here we go.'

[Zen Focus]

[Mana Strings]

A string of blue coloured magic emerged from Axel's finger. This was a durable mana string. Its uses? Well, for one, it is extremely durable. He can bind anything using these and won't have to worry about them breaking as long as the magic lasts or as long as he can continue supplying magic. Other than that...

[True Invisibility]

[Lightning Affinity]

The string turned invisible and crackling sounds of electricity could be heard. Yep, he can cast any magic through them. But, most importantly.

[Puppeteering]

This time, when Axel tossed the knife into the air, he easily caught it using the string and was able to easily wield it.

This was what he found the best. [Mana Strings] itself is not a skill that focus much on the movement of the strings. But, this synergizes perfectly with [Puppeteering]. also overcoming the string related short comings of puppeteering.

Right now, the skill proficiency was low, the string dispersed after a while. But Axel was not discouraged. In his mind he could already see the myriad of possibilities unlocking.

'Hm?'

While Axel found that while he was still geeking over his skills, it was almost reporting time for today's training. So, after taking a bath, he went out. One thing to be noticed about Kyrin's bases is that both of them weren't too big from inside, and furnished with a high-end interior.

He found everyone in the dining room, having breakfast. Kyrin had dark circles underher eyes as she languidly sipped a cup of steaming hot beverage. Akiko seemed to be getting home treatment, having Japanese food with chopsticks and all while Estris was daintily eating her breakfast with a mini trident(Fork). The old gentleman who seemed to be the bulter was serving the food.

Upon seeing him, the sleepiness seemed to vanish from Kyrin's eyes as she glared daggers at him.

"Morning. You okay boss?"

Kyrin raised her eyebrows in incredulity.

Morning blasted, lying mastered, and the sheer audacity of this bastard.

Her nostrils flared. "Am I still your boss? You didn't even bother mentioning what you did yesterday."

"What happened? We toured, had fun, and ended it early when a minor distraction occurred. I didn't know I had to report that," said Axel, sitting beside Akiko and picking up bowl and chopsticks.

Bang!

Kyrin slammed her mug, spilling more than half of it. "Minor distraction? You call that a minor distraction?"

"Uh… yeah? Don't worry. I handled it quickly. I did ask the dude who seemed in charge, and he said I was good to go. I don't think it was a big deal," replied Axel, as Akiko served him breakfast using her chopsticks.

To be honest, compared to other times when he has either gotten seriously injured, or overdrew his limits, this time, when he didn't even have to use all of his cards, let alone limit break, and coming out of it only with minor injuries, it seems like a walk in a park.

"Oh, so it wasn't a big deal, huh?"

Kyrin's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Well, due to handling this 'minor distraction' of yours, you've suddenly become the center of attention throughout the Kingdom. Last night the higher ups had a meeting in which they talked about you half the time! You tell me if that is not a big deal!"

Kyrin seemed to want to tear her hair out. "And you also didn't think to tell me?!" She asked, turning to Akiko.

?? Akiko, who was happily eating her breakfast, suddenly blinked her eyes at Kyrin as she stopped chewing. She then just turned her head to the side and continued chewing. Her message was clear: Leave me out of this.

Looking at her cuteness, Karin didn't know how to be angry at her. Thus, she turned her anger back on Axel.

"Fortunately, you got away with it this time." She shook her head. "I am your superior. Would it have killed you to give me a heads up so that I at least know what to expect?"

Axel rolled his eyes. "No, but it wouldn't have ended with just that, would it? You'd have had a hundred more questions. Besides, if I have to report every time I get into trouble, trust me, there would be too many reports."

"Hm." Akiko also gave her assent while eating. That was indeed true, looking at Axel's past record.

"So, you're on HIS side now." Darkness began oozing out of Kyrin. But before she exploded, Estris decided it was time to intervene before a world war started.

"I think, what the boss is trying to say is that this is not a small matter, Axel." she said, trying to mediate the situation. Estris projected a screen in the air that showed the video of what happened last night. She scrolled down to show the statistics and reactions of the public.

Then she showed the top social and media platforms, and all of them had the same video on the top of the Rising Tides lists.

"Your previous trial was still a small matter. But that is no longer the case now. You've suddenly become the center of attention throughout the kingdom. And attention can often be a double edged sword. Your actions were too arbitrary this time, you were not following any protocols, and you left without properly reporting your merits."

In this Kingdom, attention can be a double edged sword. Fortunately, this time Axel somehow didn't ruffle many feathers with his actions so the situation is easy to handle. But in case certain people had decided they didn't want him rising, things would have been different.

Axel knew exactly what Estris was talking about, and he knew that even Kyrin was annoyed half out the bad things that could have happened. In the end, he sighed. "Alright, alright, I'll stop pretending to be dumb in front of you two, okay?"

"To be honest, I did know something like this would happen. I do know what I did was a big deal. And I did in fact do it with ulterior motives while calculating the effects and not out of the kindness of my heart."

Kyrin's and Estris's mouths were left open upon hearing that.

"So, let's analyze my actions for a moment. Option 1: I could have run away, but you know that would have gotten me nothing, and I would have been mocked if the word got spread.

Option 2: I could have followed the protocol and tried helping out in limited capacity while trying to get permission to act. There would have been a huge number of casualties, and since someone needs to take responsibility, I could have been among scapegoats.

These two options are shit. So of course I had to go with option 3: Doing everything on my own to save the day.

Once I began exterminating creatures, I still had options. I could have let some escape into the city, gotten 'injured', or I could have just quit after it seemed that things were under control. But. I chose to do everything by myself.

Why? I have already broken protocol and gone this far. Might as well take all the credit so that no one can later belittle my achievements.

So now, I have saved the day. What do I do? Go report my actions? It would annoy a lot of people if I cockily say I did everything on my own being a 16 year old outsider while your people didn't do shit.. So, I just pretended I didn't care about the credit, while stealing the bracelet of the guy who had been recording everything on my way back. After coming out, I uploaded the clip and dumped the bracelet. That's about it.

Now…." Axel titled his head. "Is there anything I could have done better? If yes, I will report my actions to you in future."

Axel had to let them know that he was not dumb, lest these two would keep trying to restrict his movements. Plus, these two were so stuck up to mind if he wasn't morally upright. As long as they're on the same side, it's all good.

"...." Kyrin and Estris looked at Axel as if looking at him for the first time, What a lying, manipulative, sleazy bastard!

Kyrin blinked. Then she turned to Akiko. "Aki, are you looking at this guy?"

Akiko nodded, smiling. "Isn't he awesome?"

Kyrin deeply regretted letting this girl go to Hogwarts. She has been corrupted.

On the other hand, Estris's eyes were shining. "You will go far," she said, giving him a nod.

Kyrin didn't want to admit that there was nothing Axel could have done better, so she got up. "Alright, it's time. Everyone to the training room."

The training room turned out to be the most spacious of all places in the base. And Axel could tell there were a lot of features similar to the Royal Academy training room with various equipment, weapons, and machinery.

"So, what are we going to be doing?" Asked Axel as the four of them stood in the open space in the center.

Kyrin now had a serious expression on her face, much more professional than when Axel saw her teach as a Sensei in Hogwarts. "What's the Black ops division's job? In fact, the answer also relates to what the rest of the relic wielders and a lot of other forces have been doing all this time."

Kyrin began stretching. "I will answer. But first you have to prove your worthiness. This division has no place for weaklings. Furthermore, we'll be going through life and death situations. So it is important that we gauge each other's abilities.," she said, cracking her knuckles while looking at Axel. "Now, I've tested Akiko several times in the past. So it's your turn now."

Axel clicked his tongue. He knew it was coming. But he still wanted to avoid it if possible. "Did you not watch the trial and yesterday's video?"

Kyrin rolled her eyes. "That trial was for two-star level soldiers. Tell me how many stars I offered you again? You have to show more than that to pass here. As for yesterday's video? I didn't see anything that can be used in direct combat."

Axel couldn't deny that. Maybe he shouldn't have held back so much after all. He sighed. "Alright, but must we do this? There are other ways to find out, right?"

"Nope." Kyrin shook her head, grinning. "From my abundant experience and high authority, I can confidently conclude that this is the best method."

...