The Psychomancer - Chapter 5

Back in his tent, Bork was sitting in the middle of the tent while sharpening his knife with a hostile attitude.

“Now… I’ve tolerated your ridiculous charade for long enough, now speak.” Bork didn’t really feel any good with how things had progressed.

Even though he made the decision to bring Walter to his tent, the result was his argument with Dio. And although he snapped in the heat of the moment, during such crucial times of their operation, it was generally not a good thing to create any form of strife within their group.

Before Walter had the chance to speak, Bork continued to caution him with a warning, “Keep in mind that the moment I find out that you’re lying, this knife will be stuck somewhere in your body one way or another.”

“Why are you in such bad mood all the time? Don’t worry, you can take my information as you like, but…” Walter slurred a bit and continued.

“In my opinion if you handle it perfectly, you’d really become the saviour of the group.” He concluded.

“…What is it?” Bork’s ears perked up a bit at Walter’s words, which of course Walter noticed.

Walter concluded during their previous short exchange that the man in front of him was a combination of inferiority complex and bloated ego.

‘He could definitely benefit with some therapy.’

“Well, it’s regarding your Freedom Troupe, you see. Ah, by the way, do I just call you lieutenant or…?”

“Whatever you want… What about my Troupe!? *STAB*” Bork asked while stabbing the knife in his hand into the small table in front of him.

“Does this Troupe has any new recruit recently, probably a couple weeks or couple months back?” Walter continued to ask.

“Are you going to tell me the information or you just want to converse! Should I just kill you right here?” Bork emphasized that he will not tolerate anymore nonsense.

“Hey, this is relevant! And I want you to promise me one thing before I share the information.” Walter raised his index finger upward as a gesture.

“Hoo… Do you think you’re in any position to…”

“Of course I am, I want you to promise that you’ll let me go if my information happen to be of help to you. Or did you think that I’m giving you the information because I love your group so much?”

Bork’s veins popped back up on his face, he didn’t know why but he felt that he’d die early if he continued to talk with this guy.

“Fine! But if the next sentence coming out of your mouth is not that information, I’ll be sure to slice you up starting with that mouth of yours!!” Bork replied.

Of course Bork himself didn’t take much of this to heart, he’d be more suspicious if the guy providing the information had no demand whatsoever.

What he didn’t know was that even Walter didn’t take this promise to heart.

“There’re traitors among your Troupe members.”

“What?” Bork was dumbfounded.

“…”

“…”

The room fell silent for a couple seconds. After a while, the silence was broken by the sound of Bork standing up with a face that said he had enough of this idiocy.

“Were you always this impatient? Do you want to kill me now or do you want to listen to my proof?” Walter felt that this guy was truly not fit to be a leader.

Even though following and believing what he said previously would be ridiculous for anyone, what kind of leader wouldn’t ascertain the authenticity of his previous suspicions just because he couldn’t control his temper.

“…I overheard two of your members talking of sabotaging your operation during my stay at this lovely place. That is also where I first heard about your ‘big operation’ this time around.”

Bork once again felt that he couldn’t quite keep up with the pace of the guy in front of him, he was just about to stab his throat when the guy kept on babbling on what he thought was nonsense.

“Rrrraaaagh! *SLAM*” Bork slammed the small table until it cracks all over before taking in a mouthful of breath.

“FINE! Bring me to those supposed traitors right now! The moment you can’t prove your words, I’ll finally be able to flay you clean.” He pointed his knife at Walter while licking his lips at the end of his sentence.

“Did you hear anything I said?? I said I overheard them talking about sabotaging your operation. How am I supposed to prove it if we went and confront them now?”

“But!” Walter put up his index finger to interrupt Bork’s thought process. By this moment he already knew that if he delayed any explanation, Bork’s temper wouldn’t be able to be cooled before he’s dead.

“What I overheard was them saying they’ll execute their plan today… Understand?”

“…” Bork went silent and thought for a bit, Walter’s previous interruption had stopped his raising temper and his next words made him rethink Walter’s point.

“So if something goes wrong today, that’ll be your proof, is that it?” Bork asked maintaining his calm.

“But the problem with this, you lunatic… If we let everything go as you said, how does this information helped me in any way?” The lieutenant continued, “As I understand it, our deal is, if your information happen to be of help to me. Then and only then will I let you go free, right?”

If the plan was to let the saboteurs execute their plan. Then there wouldn’t be any difference between knowing this information or not.

From Bork’s point of view, Walter is betting his life on his information being correct, so when he said that someone will sabotage the operation today, he gave himself a time limit on his life. This is why Bork had no other way but to give him the benefit of the doubt. As unwilling as he was to believe it.

“Not true.” Walter replied, “The difference will be made clear by 2 points mr. Lieutenant. Number 1, you’ll be ready.” He once again, pulled up his index finger.

“Number 2.” Walter then raised his middle finger following the first one, “No matter who these two traitors are, they have successfully infiltrated your Troupe. How likely is it that they would willingly blow their cover together with the sabotage plan?”

“…” Bork considered the two points seriously.

“My guess is, they’ll do it without exposing their identity. What I suggest, is for us to wait patiently for some anomaly to happen, and we’ll be ready for response at moments notice. When we’re out, I’ll help you identify the two people.” Walter finished his explanation and put down his tied up hands.

“And, if it so happens that nothing will be happening today, you may kill me at your convenience.” Walter took the initiative to walk slowly to the side of the tent and sat cross-legged while closing his eyes as if trying to sleep.

Bork was left standing still with his large knife slightly raised at Walter’s previous standing location. He was not a very smart guy, he kept reiterating what Walter had said in his mind while trying to consider if there were any loophole in his plan that would let him escape Bork’s grasp before the day ended.

‘His plan made sense… And as irritating as he is, he did put his life on the line the whole time. The only downside is that I have to be the one keeping an eye on him for a whole day, I really want to kill him!’ Bork thought deeply.

‘Damn! A traitor… Really!? Who the hell…’ As Bork thought back to the whole thing, everything felt ridiculous.

Of course it’d be easier for him to just not believe the whole thing, but even if he didn’t, he still needed to do this as a precaution because there’s nothing to lose in doing so.

The only problem is that he will struggle with his mental state between believing in his Troupe and doubting them the whole time he waited for the day to end.

‘Forget it! This lunatic was speaking nonsense. When night comes, I’ll get to kill him and get this whole thing over with.’ He finally decided to believe in his people. Recent events may have shown him that the people of the Troupe didn’t respect nor follow him, but they were still on the same side as opposed to the crazy guy in front of him.

***

To the side, unbeknownst to Bork who was still contemplating, Walter had shown a series of serious and complicated expressions as opposed to his previous calm and collected demeanor when confronting Bork.

In his defense, the things he had discovered was the most bizzare discovery of all throughout the whole ordeal of him arriving in this foreign world.

‘I had no choice but to believe that I am in another world while seeing the getup of the people around, but this…’ Walter almost mumbled.

[Mind Mastery Lv.2]

Mental Capacity 39.3%

MENTALITY 3.0

[Skills]

Mind Mastery Lv.1 – Mind Gaze

Mind Mastery Lv.2 – Compliance

[Mind Mastery]

Mind Mastery is an Ability System granted to one that fulfilled the basic requirements to become a Psychomancer.

The user of Mind Mastery Ability System can improve their mentality beyond ones’ limitation and unlock the mystery of the mind.

[Mental Capacity]

The value parameter of the user’s mental capacity. One’s mental capacity decreases whenever one does any activity that strains the mind, and increases overtime whenever one rests or doing specialized activity that restores the mind.

Most of the Mind Mastery Ability System’s active skills strain the user’s mind upon usage.

[MENTALITY]

Indicates the mental strength of the user. The stronger the user’s mentality, the closer the user is in advancing through the Mind Mastery Ability System.

1.0 is the average Mentality of a normal healthy adult.

[Ability System]

Ability System is an established structure of strengthening system that grants individuals who obtained it a way of advancing through one specific ‘path’ beyond ones’ limit.

It usually manifests in the form of quantifiable parameters or stats relating to the ‘path’ that can be accessed by the user.

[Mind Gaze]

A passive Mind Skill that developed a new sensory capability aside from the basic five senses of the owner. The new sense is capable of perceiving the emotions of the surrounding living organisms that is capable of feelings or basic level of thinking.

The clarity, efficacy, and range of this sensing ability can be improved through training. This skill doesn’t actively consume Mental Capacity.

[Compliance]

A Mind Skill that enforce the will of the user in the form of verbal commands. The execution of said commands is fully dependent on the target’s understanding of the verbal commands spoken by the user.

This skill consumes the Mental Capacity of the users upon activation. The cost of each activation varies depending on the targets’ number, Mentality, and willingness.

CAUTION 1: The skill’s effect won’t be enforced to the target if the target believe the command to be physically impossible. (e.g. commanding a human to fly)

CAUTION 2: If the target’s Mentality is higher or stronger than the user of the skill, the command will backfire towards the user.

CAUTION 3: In the case of command without any definite time of completion (e.g. don’t move!). The target will be bound by the command as long as the user supports the activation with his/her Mental Capacity.

Walter had been pondering on the stats that appeared whenever he focused his consciousness ever since he first awoken in this world.

When he finally tried to inquire an explanation to this in his mind rather than trying to deduce the meaning himself. A bulk of new informations seemed to have injected themselves directly into his mind that made him felt a sudden dizziness.

Walter started to breath heavily as he felt the headache of what he assumed was because of the sudden decrease of Mental Capacity.

‘Haah… Haah… Unreal…!’

After some time had passed, as Walter finished organizing and assimilating himself with the information he got in his mind, he quickly covered up his conditions and glanced towards Bork’s direction.

‘Phew…’ He felt lucky that his seemingly exaggerated movements and expressions weren’t discovered as Bork himself was dazedly gazing towards the slit on the tent’s wall.

‘Damn… With these crazy powers I shouldn’t need to go through all the troubles of crafting this plan to get out!’ He felt his hardwork had gone down the drain when he found out that he had in his hand a more efficient method of escape.

‘But well… This [Mind Gaze] must be why I was able to perceive more clearly Bork’s previous outburst back when I was asking to be let out.’

It was quite a bizarre and foreign feelings to Walter, usually he perceived the fluctuations of his target’s emotions through their breathings, expressions, and speeches. But ever since he talked to Bork, he can feel Bork’s changing emotions transferred to him almost telepathically without him needing to focus on Bork, especially when he indirectly questioned his leadership or mentioned the Troupe’s captain.

‘And the next one…’ Walter’s expressions turned unsightly once more.

‘[Compliance]… It’s like a cheat that every con man in the world wishes to have, but…’ Walter knew very well the consequences of being too used to such a skill.

After all, it was like a powered-up and magical version of the skills and tricks a con artist uses.

When ones got too used to having someone moving the way they want them to and getting everybody to believe the words coming out of their mouth, they’ll reach a point where actual connection between themselves and real people becomes impossible.

Normal people will feel like puppets and people in the same line of work won’t be able to trust or be trusted by.

‘…And the end point is isolation in the truest sense of the word.’ Walter breathed out a long breath of exhaustion that he hadn’t felt ever since he woke up in this world.

Just as he was about to reminisce and go into a state of trance, a loud voice suddenly sounded as some guy flapped aside the tent’s entrance and entered half a step before alerting Bork.

“Lieutenant! Emergency! The hostages…” The man shouted.

At this news, the lieutenant’s eyes grew fierce as if he wanted to stab into the man’s eyes.