"What's the number of skills you can see?"
"T-twenty s-seven."
"Twenty what now?"
Evan nodded to himself, having confirmed that she could obviously see his mimicked skills, while tuning out the strange gazes he was receiving.
**BAMM!!!
The boy's, along with everyone else's reaction was instantly redirected to the scene of one of the B-rank adventurers being slammed on the ground by a gigantic energy limb construct, courtesy of the high demon of Pride.
"Just kill him, already."
They heard those ominous words, seconds before Greed's great sword slashed down towards the surprised adventurer's neck, only to be stopped about 30 cm away by the hand of a displeased Alok.
"Stand down, Greed.
The idiot should have learnt his lesson."
Pride spoke as she cleaned the back of her palm with a handkerchief that she burnt to ashes immediately after.
"...What on Aidos, happened?"
Evan's question was answered by a nearby dumbstruck adventurer who said it looked like the person Greed had almost killed was hitting on Pride, despite the demon's obvious disinterest.
In the end, he had activated some kind of skill and tried to touch her hand, actually succeeding a second before Pride retaliated with her still active unique skill.
'Why's it still active? Was she on guard against the worst-case scenario of having to fight the guild master?'
Evan thought to himself as he saw Alok surprisingly not take the issue any further, instead scolding the adventurer in question.
"He has a bad record of hitting on women everywhere he goes, and he doesn't know when to quit so he always ends up pissing them off.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHe even has a title that makes the opposite gender inherently dislike him, no matter what he does."
The adventurer with the appraisal skill filled Evan in on the reason for the Alok's reaction, with the boy appraising the man to see said title.
"Abhorred by females?
Is this guy ever gonna be able to get married in the future?"
While Evan felt pity for him, it was only momentary, as he remembered the demonic hand member on the floor and turned to Eliza.
"Can you heal this guy?"
"Dude. I'm the party's support, meant to be healing my party members, not my party members AND the people they leave half dead."
The battle priestess grumbled and activated her breath of life skill once more, before muttering something about lacking magic power to heal him completely.
"Can you make an exception and give her a B-rank guild card already?"
"She needs to be level 200 for that."
"But she can kill level 200's already, and she's got a recommendation letter."
Evan tried to get Eliza an early B rank promotion, only to be interrupted by the vice guild master who came to inform him that more than 10 people were captured trying to sneak into the dungeon, with three others escaping.
"That's three of their organization's members on the loose in your city, you know?"
The young hero sighed in exasperation as he walked up to the unconscious Ulmoch, activating his blessing of destruction and coating his finger in its aura.
The second he did that, Alok instantly reacted, pulling the Viscount and the Knight Captain behind him while rousing his magic power.
Seeing this reaction, Evan's eyes narrowed momentarily.
"The look of confusion in your eyes tells me that you don't know what this is, yet your reaction shows you perceive how much of a threat it is.
So, the senses of a grandmaster are sharp enough to realise that this isn't just any aura, huh?
Thanks for the intel."
Nodding to himself, the boy crouched beside Ulmoch's body and poked his shoulder, with his finger penetrating his flesh and piercing through the man's bone like tofu.
"Silencing magic please."
Following Evan's words, was a sharp piercing scream, that the citizens of Osto were saved from hearing thanks to the mages guild leader's quick reaction.
"A poke to the soul, the best way to wake an unconscious person up."
"You do realise that there are millions of other ways you could have done that."
"I know."
Replying to Pride's words, Evan deactivated his skill and avoided the mouthful of blood that Ulmoch randomly coughed up.
"Backlash from his contracted demon's death."
"Oh..."
The boy just poured a healing potion down Ulmoch's open mouth, resulting in the man choking uncontrollably for a few moments.
After which, he shot a hateful glare towards Evan, an attitude that the young hero did not like at all.
"GUK!"
Evan abruptly grabbed his neck and activated the blessing of destruction, letting the aura cover everything from his shoulder to his wrist.
Seeing this, Ulmoch's gaze changed to one of fear, as he remembered the amount of pain he felt when Evan stabbed him with that red aura stabbed him earlier.
"Now then, you are a servant of the 'Seventh Finger' are you not?"
"..."
Seeing Ulmoch's silence and unwilling expression, Evan's brows raised in slight surprise as he asked.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"You really want to go down this route?"
The aura of destruction slowly started spreading below his wrist, slowly reaching his palm but Ulmoch grit his teeth and remained silent.
A look of remembrance flashed across Evan's eyes, with an evil grin spreading on his face as he asked with an amused voice.
"AH!
Maybe you aren't a servant of the 'Seventh', but a servant of the 'Eighth finger'..."
The moment those words left his mouth, Ulmoch's reaction was quite...explosive.
"NO WAY IN HELL AM I A SERVANT OF THAT NECROPHILIAC BASTARD!!!"
However, the moment he saw the look of mirth on Evan's face, he realised he'd been had.
"Got Ya."
Deactivating the aura of destruction, Evan stood upright while chuckling, before explaining to the confused people around him.
"The 'Seventh' and 'Eighth' fingers of the demonic hand hate each other's guts, and that hatred spreads to their subordinates.
I already knew that Ulmoch was a subordinate of the 'Seventh', but I just wanted to get a reaction out of him by saying he was a subordinate of the 'Eighth'.
It really has been a while since I last saw this reaction, almost two years now."
Evan spoke with a sigh, reminiscing about the fight to defeat the Seventh finger in the game as he casually rose his leg in the air and stomped down right in the middle of his knee and ankle.
"AAAAHHHHH!!"
The man screamed for the nth time today as his tibia bone was broken into a lot more than just two pieces, with Evan's cold gaze landing on his body, followed by the young hero's emotionless voice.
"Next time, I'd use this;"
He rose his leg once more and coated it with the aura of destruction, before continuing his statement.
"So, start talking, now."
Ulmoch didn't hesitate to talk. He was very compliant, answering all of Evan's questions.
However, the answers he gave were bombshells that caused the jaws of Evan, as well as everyone else who heard, to drop in shock.