A pit opened inside of Logan's stomach, his heart racing, his mouth dry. No wonder he'd thought he'd forgotten something. Mia had been fucking with his mind all along, supressing his natural suspicion that something about her had been FUBAR. Not only that, but her jewelry had managed to hide her hidden name, a feat he hadn't thought possible.

As far as he'd been aware, if you leveled up [Identify] enough, you could always view each person's hidden name. There was no option to hide it! If there was, you bet your ass he would have changed his by now. Logan's level was a problem, since people would automatically be on alert, but it was his asshole System 'Idiot' name that gave him the most trouble due to the Silverdagger Clan's bounty.

Mia had managed to get a hold of a necklace that let her hide both her level, characteristics, and hidden name, giving her a serious advantage. That meant that he no longer had to be on the lookout just for stealth classes, he had to be on the lookout for jewelry.

Logan gnashed his teeth and clenched his fists as he stared at Mia through the invisible forcefield. He'd been in the presence of 'Damsel Fuck You' this whole time.

Initially, he'd been excited at the prospect of meeting another high ranker, but that was before he'd learned that their safe haven complex wasn't a safe haven after all. Damsel was the leader, the one that required low level users to join. He no longer believed anything else.

She was the one joining these fighting parties and taking advantage of the draftees. Hell, she'd stayed back the whole time, reading her damn book and letting Logan handle the blob. By doing that, she'd put everyone in danger, including Jax, who'd died inside of the oozing monster.

So, she was selfish.

She was a killer.

And she'd fucked with Logan. His mouth went brittle as he thought of how defenceless he'd been, following her around like a duckling, convinced that she could shit sparkles and piss out angels. He'd like to say that by this time in his life, he knew his taste in women, and a creepy as shit woman like her was decidedly not it. In a way, she'd assaulted him. If he hadn't brushed off her initial mental manipulation, she could have forced him to do anything, and he would have gone along with a smile.

More than any other skill, in the wrong hands, mental manipulation had potentially serious, creepy consequences. Mia had done all that, lured him to this prison, for what? Either she was like Matt with a screw loose, or she thought of nothing but power.

Either way, Logan had had enough of this shit; enough of dealing with people who only cared about themselves and took advantage of everyone else. Just thinking about it funneled anger into his bones; rage so strong and pure that it could only come from one source. There was no Cursed Rope feeding it.

It was all Logan.

Logan inched closer to the invisible barrier, scrunching his nose as he glared. "What's your plan, then? Why trap me here and not kill me?"

Mia gave Charlie a dry look, that same sarcastic look his ex-girlfriend, Erin, used to give Logan when he said something out of touch with her friend's social cues. That 'is he for real' look that did nothing but try to make someone feel bad. Logan had always thought it said more about you than it did about the other person. Judgmental. Narrow-minded.

Logan liked to give people the benefit of the doubt… but with Mia, it was difficult to put himself in her shoes. Back on Okanagan Lake, if he'd encountered someone his level, he would have been wary as fuck, but he never would have tried to capture them without cause. What cause had he given her to do this? Other than try to help?

There was only one explanation.

She wanted the bounty.

"You're E grade and you don't know how mind manipulation works? When I saw your level, I never would have imagined that I could overwhelm you to that extent." She snorted. "Maybe there was a reason that you gave yourself that name."

Lachlan tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips. "What name?"

The look Mia shot Lachlan made him blanch and retreat, his breathing turning jagged.

She took in his reaction with a quirk of her mouth. "His hidden name, draftee. But we've got a problem. You're way too assertive for someone who should be on his knees, begging for mercy."

Lachlan swallowed. "Why would I…"

Voss inched back, averting his face, his injured hand cradled against his chest. He darted one quick, guilty looking glance at Logan, and then took another step back as if he wanted to disappear into the wall of the building behind him. Logan didn't blame him. After Logan had killed the blob, Voss had leveled up ten times, but he was no match for Mia or Charlie. All he could do was survive. Trying to save Lachlan and Logan at this point would be suicide.

"Why would you beg?" said Mia. "So that I don't torture you before I kill you, of course. We were going to kill you anyway. What a waste of space! But then you did what you did, being a do-gooder, someone who tried to save a man who's in E grade. Know your place! People like you don't belong here, understand? It creates conflict and stirs up trouble."

They were talking about killing Lachlan.

Logan pummeled the wall. The forcefield flashed and then turned invisible again. "Don't touch him!"

Charlie ignored him. "Do you want me to take care of it?"

Mia ran her index finger over her lower lip and pressed the tip of her finger against her teeth. "I'd like to see him beg first."

Sweat trailed down Lachlan's neck, drenching the collar of his dress-shirt, his skin clammy and pale. "I did nothing to deserve that. Just because you grew powerful doesn't make you a god. Imagine yourself in my shoes. Would you like it if someone took advantage of you for their own selfish needs?"

"But I'm not in your shoes, draftee. I'd never be in your shoes. See, when you were hiding and cowering in your home, I was out there getting shit done. You have no one to blame for your own sorry state but yourself."

Lachlan's face was full of sorrow. "There's good in this world. You have power which could make you into a role model for everyone else. You can help restore justice, prevent anarchy. Charlie is looking to you to lead. Show us what a good leader does."

Mia stared.

And then stared some more. "Oh my god, enough."

Logan had one second to comprehend Mia flicking her finger, like snapping her fingers only with less effort, before she forced something metal to fling through the air like a bullet, flying directly at Lachlan's head.

Lachlan tried to retreat, he even managed to take a step back, but then Mia flicked her fingers once again. Instead of retreating, Lachlan rushed towards the incoming projectile. She'd forced him to move against his will.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The mental manipulation skill.

There was a sick, slick sound, and a spray of blood. Lachlan's eyes flared wide open, before he gurgled, gasping like he was breathing through tissue paper.

Then with a lurch, he dropped to the ground.

Dead.

With a metal ringing noise, something clanged to the asphalt, spinning, before falling to the side.

A quarter.

Holy shit. With a flick of her finger, Mia had turned spare change into a weapon and sent the quarter directly through Lachlan's head.

"Why did you do that?" spat Logan. He found it difficult to look away from Lachlan's body. Although he hadn't known him long, Logan had liked him. He'd wanted to help him.

Unlike Mia, it said something about Lachlan's character that he'd tried to help Logan. Mia hadn't understood; and it was likely that someone like her would never understand, but Lachlan had been right. If the high rankers became role models and didn't let shit stand, society could return to normal, with rules and regulations.

But if the people in the high ranks were nothing but XP harvesters, people with no moral compass, society would devolve into chaos. Anyone could kill for power.

Logan had never thought himself as an idealistic man, and being the one forced into that role was so far away from his wheelhouse that it was laughable, but fuck, he might be in the unique situation where he was the only one close to his level who was sane. If his experience in the trial dungeon was truly the boon he thought it was, the only people who were close to his level were those who had slaughtered the hell out of other people.

In addition to the Save Humanity Quest, would he be forced to police these unhinged power-hungry jerks? He didn't want it. That wasn't Logan.

He'd never asked for this.

But the evidence was right in front of him.

Lachlan was dead.

If he didn't do it, then who would?

Mia shrugged her shoulders. "Because I could. Did you listen to what I had to say to that fat old man? He was a waste of space. Someone like him doesn't belong in this world anymore, preaching all this do-gooder crap. I've had enough! Don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about. You didn't get to be level 161 by singing peace and kumbaya. In fact, you had to have done something despicable to deserve a bounty. KarmaCoin? I could give a shit, but that skill ring and resurrection crystal intrigue me. So sorry, not sorry, mate! You should have left when you had a chance. You don't invade another person's territory!"

Logan looked up from the sight of Lachlan's body and pinned her with a look. Throughout these last two weeks, he'd encountered monster after monster, had dealt with death and had been forced to make horrible choices. But Mia was a whole different breed. Forget the murderers at the cabin. Mia killed indiscriminately, but she also had the ability to take advantage of people who were vulnerable to mental manipulation skills. Forcing them to go towards danger, or to walk into prisons like Logan.

Who knew how many people she'd killed? People who'd gone to her complex, hoping for sanctuary, but instead tricked by a stealth class and a necklace?

Logan felt his muscles quivering in tension, his pulse speeding as he clawed at the invisible barrier. He wanted to reach through that wall and strangle her to death, force that quarter through her skull the same way she'd done to Lachlan.

But the problem was, he was stuck inside of this mini cell with no way to escape. And yet… it didn't make any sense. Mia wanted to kill him for the bounty reward, that was undeniable, but why bother trapping him in an array? If she wanted to kill him, why hadn't she forced him to remain standing in place while she cut him down?

Mia ran her hand over her chin again, her look considering as she studied him, scanning him from top to bottom, her eyes lingering on his armour.

"What do you want to try first?" asked Charlie.

"Your bush knife. We might get lucky. His constitution attribute must be pathetic to be that vulnerable, so I might be able to cut off his head before he regains awareness."

Logan parted his mouth. For a second, he doubted what he'd heard, but no, she really was talking about cutting off his head while he stood in front of her.

Charlie removed his knife from his thigh strap. It was ten inches long and five inches across, the flat edge gleaming. Not System sourced, but it looked sharp to the touch.

Logan retreated as far as he could until his back touched the other invisible barrier. With a blink, he removed a fistful of sand from his spatial collar and reformed his facemask and faceplate. Then he trimmed his armour plates and transformed his suit back into his more versatile armour.

He'd created the other version to withstand the blob's acid, but it wasn't suitable for fighting. Then with another blink, he reformed his talons by taking out a handful of diamond dust and carving sharp, hooked edges. He could use his sword, but the prison wasn't big enough and it would become cumbersome.

Mia took in his armour and talons with a curious quirk of her eyebrow. "Interesting skill. He either has a spatial storage pouch or his skill allows him to utilize sand to form a suit."

Charlie grunted and his eyes gleamed. "Could have good loot."

"The bounty is the loot, Charlie. He's a walking gold mine." She raised her voice. "Sorry to say, though, mate, you just went to all that effort for nothing."

Logan felt a trickling of unease; a justified feeling when Mia smiled and crooned, "Take off the suit."

This time, he knew it was coming and was aware of the skill, which let him bite his lip and concentrate. Like hell would he—

"Take off the suit," she crooned again. Even though he knew what was happening, there was nothing he could do; he could feel Mia's will seeping into his mind like trickling frost. There was no changing the weather, no stopping the frost. Logan's fists twitched, his mouth in a grimace, but then as if he'd flipped a switch, Logan's perception of the situation shifted.

Huh.

He didn't know why he was wearing armour. The weather was hot and humid, and Mia would protect him from danger. Mia was everything that was good in the world.

She would let no harm come to him. All he had to do was obey. She would never lead him astray.

Looking down, Logan used [Mimicry Armour] to collapse his armour, letting the sandstone dissolve so that sand pooled at his feet.

"That's right," said Mia. "The knife, Charlie."

Mia was everything, everything that was good, she would—

Something flashed in front of him, and a whistle of wind caressed his face right as… as….

What?

With a gasp, Logan stared at the knife sticking out of his shoulder. And just like that, awareness trickled in, and he understood.

Mia had used her skill to manipulate him once again, overpowering him and forcing him to collapse his armour and stand in place while she sent Charlie's knife flying towards his unprotected throat. A slight shift in Logan's stance had managed to send it flying for his shoulder, but even vulnerable, Logan had leveled up so much and [Regenerate] had come so far that the knife had hardly traveled an inch before it had come to a dead stop.

Mia hadn't tried to kill him out in the street because she hadn't known his strengths. She'd trapped him in this box so that she could force him to stand in place while she subjected him to torture. If he brushed off the attack, he couldn't escape, letting her try once again. All in the pursuit of figuring out how to kill him.

What was next? Guns?

Logan pulled Charlie's knife from his shoulder and then with a blink and a glare, threw it inside of his spatial storage collar. That fucker, Charlie, wasn't getting it back.

Mia thought she had Logan all figured out. To her, a low constitution attribute meant not just vulnerability to mind attacks, but physical attacks as well. She'd neglected to realize that [Regenerate] took care of that problem. It was way overpowered and beyond anything you could get with a high constitution attribute.

But Mia had also made a mistake.

He hadn't come to awareness and fought off her mind manipulation skill because she'd stopped, no, he'd regained control because of the pain. [Idiot's Paradox] deadened his pain, and a knife sticking into his flesh was barely a pinch, but it had been enough to jar him to awareness. It was possible it was just a coincidence, and the next time, an injury wouldn't bring him back, but there was only one way to test it.

Pain.

Logan was no stranger to pain. A normal person would avoid it like the plague, but Logan wasn't normal. He'd subjected himself to the torture of the perception trial, and after experiencing sloughed off skin, what was a little pain in the scheme of things?

So he had a way forward, something that might let him fight off the effects of her skill, but the question was whether he should reveal it. He was still stuck inside of this box with no way out, and if he hurt himself in front of her, she'd know that he could fight back against her most powerful skill.

No, it made sense to hide the fact that he'd figured this out and pretend to be clueless. Mia could hurt him all she wanted, but with [Regenerate], he should heal with no lasting effects.

But at the same time, he wasn't going to stand idly by without doing something. Rage was simmering inside of his stomach like a boiling pot with an exploding lid. She'd killed Lachlan, she'd get what was coming to her, but there was one thing he might be able to do. One thing that would make him feel better.

He might be shit out of luck, but he hadn't tested this back in Pied's Kingdom in front of Lara's cell. It just might work. Logan knew that he couldn't portal out of here, but he'd used his spatial storage collar as a weapon in the past. He could will out whatever he wanted and deposit it further away.

And hell, he had a mountain of dirt inside of his collar.

A mountain.

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