Author’s Corner: Due to so reader comnts, I went back and rewrote Chapter 49 in order to organize the information a bit more neatly. There isn’t really any new information in the chapter, so you only have to go back to take another look if you want to! With that taken care of, enjoy the chapter!
Being locked up in the interrogation room like this was both a blessing and a curse. It was a curse because obviously, the police suspected that I was the ‘Gar’ killer they were looking for. However, it was a blessing because this ant that I didn’t need to take Faraday into my grove anymore! I hadn’t realized until after the fact, but if I had sent him in there, he would have undoubtedly run into Yang. I did not even want to imagine what kind of things would happen after that.
Shuddering at the narrowly avoided disaster of misunderstandings, I got to work on refining a Seed of Wind. For now, I would just be making it low quality, and then work on making it a higher quality when I had more ti. I had at least an hour and a half to do this, most likely. And it was the easiest one to make in my current situation.
Closing my eyes, I focused on drawing in the wind mana around to create the elental seed. Naturally, they did not have any thods yet to prevent magic use in the prison, but I’m sure they would in a couple more days at most, once their officers got to the point where they could do it. Until then, however, there was nothing stopping from working on the thod to stop monsters from spawning.
At least, there wasn’t until a ringing voice entered my ear. “Look at the little birdy, lost and alone, trapped in its cage. Such gifts you have, yet wasted. Such potential, unfulfilled.”
“Uh… John?” After the voice rang out, Celeste appeared near . “What was that?”
“Sound… Looks like he’s got the Sound Affinity, too. I had actually been interested in that one originally…”
“Oh? The little birdy knows his stuff. He knows what I am, what I can do. But the little birdy is trapped in his little cage. All alone with nobody to help.” The voice rang out again, and I tried to focus on it. It was obviously a male voice, but the tones seed like a dozen people overlapped so I couldn’t identify it. “Did birdy get my ssage? Did he see the writing on the wall?”
Glancing around curiously, I saw that under the cara in the room, red liquid was dripping out. Blood… He’s probably killed soone to write this.
As the blood dripped down the wall, it began flowing in patterns, forming letters. “Lives remaining: 10.”
The ssage confused for a little while, but I had the feeling that he was wanting to play a ga of life and death with , for so strange reason. Maybe it was because I was a druid? “Why are you doing this? What could you possibly gain?”
“Why, experience of course. The world is a ga, I am rely a player.” The voice called out to after I questioned it. “It’s not long now before what has happened will co to pass. Before the end, let’s play one last ga. Hide and seek, what do you say? I’ll hide, and you co find . But be quick, or the boys in blue will be the ones to lose.”
I grimaced at that, using a quick application of tal Manipulation to break the handcuffs and open the door to the room, before using Wind Manipulation to amplify my voice. “Sobody get in here!”
I could hear the voice cackling as it withdrew, though the writing on the wall remained. A pair of officers soon ran in with their guns unholstered. “What did you--!” They paused as they saw the writing on the wall.
“He’s close.” I said to them, and one nodded to his partner, who ran off down the hall.
“What happened?” The one remaining asked. Naturally, I checked him with my Aura Sight, and was relieved that I was not left alone with the killer. I began explaining what had just occurred, including the voice and what I was doing when it arrived. When the officer saw the broken handcuffs, he grumbled under his breath.
With a slight sigh, I fixed the handcuffs using the sa magic that broke them. “You need magic defenses, otherwise people like could walk out whenever they wanted. He’s picked out ten people, and it sounds like they’re all cops. I don’t know how he chooses, but he has.”
At that point, the other officer ca back, and whispered sothing to him. The one that had been staying here had his eyes widened and he looked at . “Co with .” Naturally, I was inclined to follow the people with guns who were walking towards their own deaths. They led to a much larger room, with several desks manned by other cops. “Folks, we’ve lost contact with the chief. His ho AI reported that he never got back ho, and tracking his car showed it abandoned a few blocks away. Matthews and Johnson, I want you two to check it out.”
Of the two that responded, one was surprisingly not human. For the most part, he looked human, but his head was a bit taller, and his eyes were pitch black. Out of all the officers here, I could count the nonhuman ones on one hand. Thinking for a mont, I looked to the officer that had taken charge. After confirming once again that he, and everybody else in this room, was clear of the Blood Affinity, I tried to get his attention.
“What is it?” He glared over at .
“I’d check the roof. The blood on the wall…” I didn’t get the chance to finish speaking before his eyes went wide again, and he sent soone to investigate the roof as well. Even if the druid’s mana control was excellent, there had to be a range. At least, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to control the flow of water that detailed from more than a few dozen ters. And the easiest way to make it flow like that would be if the blood ca from a higher source, such as the roof.
Once the people were all dispatched, the leading officer looked to . “Okay, kid. What can you tell us about druids that we don’t already know?”
Thinking about it, I shook my head. “All I know is that he has at least seven elents all above 5%. Fire, water, wind, earth, light, blood, and now sound. He should also have Nature Magic, but that’s all I can tell you. Each druid is different from any other. I can tell you that his control range shouldn’t be able to exceed twenty ters, unless he knows tricks I don’t. He probably also has Divination, which would have let him hear what I was saying in the interrogation room.”
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“Wouldn’t sound have done that?” The officer asked. I swear, eventually I’ll get his na.
“Not unless he was in an adjacent room. He’d need to be able to extend his Mana Sense to with enough detail that he could feel the sound mana I released. And, if he did that, I should have been able to sense his mana.” I did my best to explain to the person who more than likely hasn’t even set foot inside the ga.
“So, what does Nature Magic do?”
“It is a magic that lets you control and replicate the effects of plants and animals. Alchemy can be replicated with Nature Magic, but it can also be used for my own shapeshifting. He probably uses it for poisons. And I’m guessing you’ve figured out how he chooses his victims…”
The man gave a cold glare, but a mont later, the officer he had sent off to check the roof returned. “It’s a blood ss up there, Monte.”
Ah, so his na is Monte. I nodded slightly as the ‘new chief’ grumbled. “Dammit.” He then looked at . “You said that you can read a person’s affinities by looking at them?”
“That’s right. I’ve already checked everyone in the room. One of you looks to be a druid in training, but not with the Blood Affinity. My guess is he was going to be the one to create your anti-monster zone.”
Officer Monte glanced over to the person who I had noticed to have druid affinities without needing to point him out. “What level are you now?”
“Just.. just twelve, sir.” The officer responded, looking over to .
I decided to ask first. “You don’t have your grove yet, right?” I could see that his Light and Fire Affinities were just below 5% with Celeste’s help, so he shouldn’t have it established yet.
“No.. Not yet.”
I gave a sigh and decided to throw him a bone. “You should hurry up and get it. Once you do, you can bring items over with it.” I had the feeling that I was going to regret doing this, but I pulled my companion bracelet out of my grove. Blue lights stretched out from my chest and went onto my wrist as the item ford. “That includes your companion bracelet. If you have that with you, and get the Identify software, you should be able to read affinities.”
The man gave a surprised nod as Officer Monte turned to look at . “You can bring items out of the ga?”
I nodded to him. “Items, animals, even people. Anything in the grove can be transferred over.”
“Then why doesn’t the inventory transfer?”
I had been wondering that myself, but Celeste provided with a theory. “According to my companion, people are born with the power to have an inventory. It is linked with their body. However, the grove is embedded into their aura on an undetectable level. Since our auras essentially cross back and forth, so does the grove.”
Officer Monte seed to consider that for a mont, and then gave the unnad druid officer(coincidentally Officer Forest) the next few days off to finish his grove. Likely, he was planning to use the grove as a ans of smuggling weapons out of the ga. Not the worst idea, and precisely why I pulled out my bracelet, rather than one of my own weapons.
Around this ti, the two officers that went to check on the late chief’s car returned. Before they even spoke, I could tell from their expressions what happened. Thankfully, Monte could too, because he didn’t ask them to report. He simply looked at and sighed. “Alright, whether I like it or not, you’ve beco a part of this. Your information is useful, and the Gar will likely lash out if we send you back. He only targets people that don’t play NeoLife, so more than likely you are safe. However, the people around you aren’t.”
I thought about it, and if he only targeted people that didn’t play… “There are only ten officers that don’t play the ga, aren’t there?” He nodded his head slightly. “He might not be strong enough to kill like this if the person has a level in the double digits. If that’s the case, he just picks out the people that couldn’t have possibly leveled up yet… Then again, from how he talked, he seed to be at least a little insane, I think..”
“The worst ones are never really crazy. Everyone just thinks they are.” Officer Monte looked out towards the others. “Faraday, I want you to have Haverson called back in. He’s our highest level diviner right now, and we need the help. Hulett,” he turned to look at briefly. “Do you have any thods of stopping the attacks?”
“I’ve got one that could work, as long as he hasn’t practiced the Void Affinity. But it would only work if the target is near . Though, the easiest way is to just have the ten people log in to the ga and level up a couple tis.”
He shook his head firmly at that idea. “Not an option. We’ve been specifically ordered to keep a batch of people out of the ga, including the chief of police. That way, if sothing big ca up that was caused by the ga, we’d have people unaffected.”
I had to admit that his reasoning was solid, but the scream that tore through the building a few monts later made really wish it wasn’t.
Quest Accepted!It's All Just a Ga
Rank ★★☆ Investigation
So people just can't handle the pressure. So people go mad. Find the one that's killing in the na of a ga before you reach your own Ga Over.
Ti Limit: The rest of your life.
Rewards: Increased familiarity with the Oakland Police Departnt, 2 Levels, Hidden Skill
Failure: Everyone you know dies.
I really did not want to be part of this quest, if I could avoid it...
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