An Unborn Hero

Achievement unlocked: [Curiosity].

Curiosity (Uncommon)
Not all answers can be looked up in a book or acquired from a master. Sometimes, you have to accept that nobody knows. But while you accepted that, you didn't let it stop you, and worked it out for yourself instead. Provides improved memory and a 30% bonus to reading speed.

"That's an interesting bonus compared to my other achievements," thought Mystery, now safely back in the womb, "but I'm not sure I worked anything out. I already knew how magical girls work. Although... I have to admit that they aren't behaving like they should. What sort of magical girls experiment on themselves?"

She frowned metaphorically.

"Why not, though? Surely it's helpful to know exactly how strong you are. Like, if some villain tosses a car at you, do you catch it, or dodge? You'd need to know if you were capable of catching it, or you might just get squished. Aren't they being sensible? Hmm... Fair enough. Maybe I did learn something. And levelled up all of my major skills while I was at it. And I could read numbers! I'll get the hang of their language eventually. Need to practise more with [Light] if I want any hope of speaking it, though."

Alas, [Light] was for, well, producing light. Even fully mastered, it lacked the nuance required for replicating the complex patterns she needed. Which wasn't to say her efforts were for nothing.

ding
For your efforts to achieve the impossible, [Light] advances to level 7.
You have learnt to produce two colours at once, upgrading [Light] with [Heterochrome]. Level cap of [Light] increased by 10.
For discovering a new aspect of the spell, [Light] advances to level 8.

Mystery's departure had caused an abrupt end to the experimentation, so the trio left their shed and rejoined the gang outside, which had doubled in quantity at some point. Even more soldiers were standing around looking official, in their worn but well-maintained armour. Even twenty weren't close to sufficient to keep watch around the full perimeter of the farm, but Hayedalf had gone some way towards solving the problem by defining a new, inner secure line, encompassing only their home and outbuildings. The outer fields were still warded, but left without a permanent manned guard.

"I'm under house arrest again, aren't I?" murmured Kellela.

"Not at all," answered the [Lieutenant], who had excellent hearing. "This level of security is only required while you remain close to the forest. Although, given the assassin that snuck into your home last night, I'm of the opinion that letting you leave unguarded would be foolish."

Kellela sighed, not having intended to be overheard, and being understanding of the situation. It was annoying, for sure, but she couldn't deny the [Hero] was important, and being a personal recipient of the [Hero's Party Member] achievement, she had no room to deny the theory that Mystery was indeed everything that was claimed.

"I understand. At least let me know if my presence here helps. Is monster activity elsewhere along the border dropping? And speaking of that assassin, why is he still here?"

He was indeed still present. The magical bindings from the ward had expired, but he had been immobilised by more conventional means and had a thick hood over his head. And, thank goodness, had finally been given something for his modesty, even if it was only a towel.

"It's too soon to say, but we'll be sure to let you know. And your husband has been trying to analyse the mark his masters branded him with. He thinks it's more of a curse than an enchantment, and as luck would have it, headquarters saw fit to send over a healer that can not only cast [Purify], but who has the [Curse Breaker] sub-skill for it. He thinks that between the pair of them, they can safely get him to talk."

"Well, that's good news. Hopefully, they can..."

The world went white.

Back in the womb, Mystery's [Light] winked out.

"Huh? What's going on? All of Mum's mana just froze up. Does she not want me using it? I suppose I don't need to for [Light]; it's just kind of automatic while I'm in here, and I wasn't thinking about it."

[Sense Sound] went wild. The purple waves of screaming. The brown flashes of metal clanging against metal. A white thump, as Kellela hit the floor.

"I don't think that was Mum..." thought Mystery. "Another attack? Dammit; I'm not nearly recovered enough to be heading back outside, but I guess I've got no choice..."

A [Merchant of Death] sat in an austere office, dealing with paperwork. Paperwork was an equal-opportunities torture, and applied as much to criminals as it did to the [King]. Or at least, to the good criminals, and this [Merchant of Death] would certainly count himself amongst that number. He was currently dealing with records of which guards had been bribed, which plausibly could be bribed, and those who were deemed incorruptible—a subset who each had extra notes on particularly vulnerable family members in case some pressure needed to be exerted. There was far too much information to keep in one person's head, and it all needed organisation.

Karn's Vigil seemed like a poor base for such operations, which was the main reason it made such a good base. Had a layman on the street been asked how they would go about setting up an assassins' guild, they would probably make noises about nobles and the cut-throat world of politics. They might suggest setting up in the slums of the capital, or another large city, where there would be plentiful clientele.

The [Merchant of Death] was not such a layman. Not only would the capital have increased competition, but when nobles vanished or died unexpectedly, people noticed. Not in the 'oh, that's funny' way, but in the 'battering down the door of every property in a block in the hopes of finding a lead' way.

And yes, the offered pay was good, but the actual pay was lacking. Extracting gold from a noble was harder than extracting blood from a rock. Always refusing to pay in full beforehand, then making excuses about how the job had been messed up, or simply a flat out refusal to pay with no excuses and a provocation to come and do something about it, which would only end with two dead nobles, a heavier investigation and still no pay.

No. Gold in hand was better than empty promises of favours and future work, and it was amazing what a mere baker would pay to remove a competitor. And how much time would the town guard spare investigating the unexpected death of a lowly baker?

Even more lucrative were the adventurers. Whether their daily occupation of bloodshed and death made them less inhibited, or if they were all just plain psychopaths, he didn't know, but they were a constant source of work. One party wanted another offed for 'stealing' a mission the first party wanted. One guy was trying to arrange a harem party, and put out hits on male party members of any girl he had his eye on. One girl arranged for the disappearance of every man in the guild who got too handsy, coincidentally taking out the harem-guy in the process.

Even better was the way adventurers left the town on a daily basis. A missing baker might not attract much attention, but an adventuring party failing to return from the forest wouldn't attract any. It was assumed to be just another death due to monsters. But that wasn't the biggest advantage.

He had no idea how, but he'd noted that anyone who committed five murders would find royal guards turning up at the fifth murder scene. Five was the figure required for [Murderer II], and his assumption was that they had some way of identifying the location in which the [Murderer II] achievement was earned. However, an adventurer had murdered an entire five person party out in the forest, and no-one had noticed. Careful investigation had revealed they were his first kills, and hence had certainly earned the achievement. Whatever method they were using didn't seem to work if the murders were committed outside of the kingdom's borders. The [Merchant of Death] had decided there and then that Karn's Vigil was the perfect place to set up shop.

Keeping a low profile was the key. Hiding their existence entirely was a fool's errand. The trick was to give the appearance of incompetence and ensure no-one thought them worth tracking down. Ensuring that his employees all earned their [Murderer] achievements outside of the kingdom helped maintain the impression of ineptitude, and ensured no-one thought them worth expunging.

His latest contract had broken that rule, and he was not happy about it.

It had seemed so simple at first. A request for the death of a farmer and his wife. Out of town, with increased monster activity keeping the roads quiet. It could have been months before anyone even noticed they were missing, and once they were... well, everyone knew monster activity was above average right now. A rookie had requested the mission, and he'd happily granted the request.

The rookie had never returned.

And then their client had brought in more information. The rookie had been captured. The targets had powerful magical defences. The garrison had sent them a platoon of guards.

That last point had been reason to instantly abort. If they warranted guards, they were too high profile. Even the failed attempt was too much of a risk. He'd tried to chase his client out of his office.

And then she'd calmly pointed out that the 'farmer' was actually a [Master Enchanter].

The [Merchant of Death] had started making his escape plans then and there. The tattoo he placed on his employees had been a gift from a foreign spy. It had been a mutually beneficial arrangement; he had surety that his personal involvement was never exposed, as well as the way it instilled a low level of magical loyalty in the recipients, and the spy had someone whittling down Flinel's adventurer numbers, ensuring that the increasing monster activity caused more damage to the rival kingdom than might otherwise have occurred, weakening them on the global stage. But no-one had claimed the magical tattoo was perfect. It wasn't outright mind control, nor was it completely irremovable. His strategy relied on no-one wanting to put the effort in.

A [Master Enchanter] who had been personally targeted by his organisation? The [Merchant of Death] was damn certain he would put the effort in. He needed to assume he had mere hours until his secrets were exposed.

And so he'd enacted his escape plan. He sent every employee he had to finish the contract, having accepted payment from the client, including a good amount extra as compensation for the original incomplete information. With the extra information provided about their target, and a relaxation of the request to include only the wife and not the [Master Enchanter], he didn't doubt they'd succeed, but he didn't expect them to get away, either. The town guard would tie up those loose ends for him. He'd added the payment to his already substantial sack of gold, and now he was dealing with the final loose end; paperwork.

In this case, 'dealing' with it involved tossing it into a fire.

With the last of the incriminating evidence burnt up, he calmly left his office, locked up, and made his way to the public carriage stop. Foregoing the teleporter would be a major pain in the arse, literally, but there was no way he could sneak a bag of gold coins through it.

Mystery burst out into the daylight, and beheld a scene of violence. Half a dozen guards were protectively surrounding Kellela's rigid body, her eyes frozen open and unmoving. More guards were battling a group of people in black armour. They were obviously targeting Kellela, while the guards fought to defend her. Platus was at the forefront, swinging his axe with a violence he hadn't shown even against the bone wasps.

Mystery soon saw why; Rose was on the floor in the same condition as Kellela, Melody and a white-haired girl standing over her. The white-haired girl spoke and Melody sagged with relief, before the girl stood and started chanting, firing white balls at the battling guards. Each one that hit caused wounds to close and heal, and the soldiers fought back harder, battling effectively as a cohesive unit.

Their attackers were being pushed back, enemy after enemy falling to the blades of the guards. They would win. A few of the soldiers were on the floor, frozen like Rose and Kellela, but all looked healthy through [Sense Vitality]. Mystery guessed some sort of paralysis skill.

It was actually an item. Taking the advice of their client to heart, and wanting to close down his operations, he'd loaded his team up with any number of enchanted devices that could disable Kellela before she had a chance to use the transformation magic he'd been warned about. An incomprehensible decision from a financial viewpoint—together, the supplies he'd provided cost twice the price he was being paid for the job—but for the sake of emptying his premises, it worked perfectly well.

And he really had emptied the premises. Other items useful for covert assassination were included in the bundle, which was how an assassin had curved around the defences unseen and was approaching Kellela from behind.

ding
For spotting a partially hidden soul, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 28.

Unseen by all except for Mystery. Their equipment even attempted to mask their souls, but was insufficient to fool her wide selection of sub-skills, the dull flashes of colour with each step they took being what had alerted her to their position. Unlike regular hearing, [Sense Sound] was excellent at picking up on the exact source of a noise, and if anything, quieter noises were easier to localise since they generated smaller flashes. The assassin's skills, working to muffle his footsteps, acted against him.

"What do I do? The guards can't see him! If I flash a light, will that be enough? The guards aren't going to attack empty space just because I flash a light at them. I'm more likely to just distract them. I guess it'll have to be my only other spell again."

Mystery dived back towards Kellela, drawing up her mana. It behaved like tar, taking far longer than it should have done to gather what she needed, but she got there in the end and cast [Magical Girl Transformation].

The spell fizzled, failing to hook into Kellela's frozen mana.

Redirecting at Rose failed just as badly.

Panicking at the way the assassin was almost on top of her, Mystery looked around wildly for an alternative target. Melody was standing protectively over the frozen Rose, and was certainly an option. Her hair was a rather boring brown, completely lacking in protagonist vibe, but Mystery could work with it given the emergency.

Or a better option was the white-haired girl, and Mystery found a design popping into her head almost effortlessly. Jasper White, whose holy magic would burn away all evils. But... what was the point? Whoever she transformed, what difference would it make while the assassin was still invisible? She needed to alert the defenders to his presence, rather than increase their fighting strength.

"Wait..." thought Mystery, recalling the exact wording of her spell's description. "There is something I can do."

She turned away from the defenders and redirected her cast of [Magical Girl Transformation] straight at the hidden assassin.

Spoiler

μ̵̼͉̐υ̴̡̽̿σ̷̭͓̃̀τ̸͉̤̾̆ή̶͎̱͌ρ̸̤͕̏̿ι̷̬̾͜ό̸͈ (Human)
Age: -8 months
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (28/80)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
>> Sense Light (C)
>> Sense Sound (C)
>> Pierce Illusions (U)
>> Sense Miasma (R)
- Astral Projection (U) (19/60)
>> Sure Navigation (U)
>> Uncontainable (U)
>> Tether of Will (L)
- Robust (C) (18/40)
>> Hardened Soul (R)
>> Secured Mana (U)
>> Pain Tolerance (C)
- Stealth (C) (3/20)
>> Camouflage Vitality (R)
- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (12/20)
>> Age Correction (R)
- Light (C) (8/20)
>> Heterochrome (U)
- Increased Attributes (C) (7/20)
>> Mana Storage (U)
Achievements:
- Early Bloomer II (R)
- First Skill (C)
- Apprentice (C)
- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)
- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)
- Astral Explorer I (R)
- First Spell (C)
- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)
- Spell Forger (R)
- Demon Slayer I (R)
- Monster Slayer I (C)
- Curiosity (U)

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