Chapter 3: Ruined Plot

He jogged forward prudently in the alleyway while taking note of other peculiarities, but abruptly set aside all his thoughts as the movement ahead subsided, it seemed that the person ahead had discovered him. In the darkness of the alley with a person hiding behind the trashcan to his left, hesitation finally made its way to his mind, but he peeked regardless and was immediately met with the quick reflexes of the person hiding as a knife brushed past him while he retracted his head.

With equally quick reflexes, his hand shot up in an attempt to slash at the outstretched left hand. The beggar noticed from the corner of his eyes that it was simply a spoon, so he simply flexed his muscles to brace for impact, but to his surprise, the spoon cut a deep mark across the front of his hand, eliciting a hoarse cry.

Maximus swiftly delivered a powerful punch to the beggar's wrist, causing him to release the knife from his already weakened grip. However, instead of retrieving the weapon, he decisively slid it backwards. With determination in his eyes, he directed a precise and forceful thrust toward the growling beggar's throat with bare hands, giving him a quick death. Oddly enough, a sense of hunger hit him suddenly but he had to ignore it for now.

The whole ordeal only took about three to four seconds, during which, the person who was discreetly following dropped all his pretenses and ran towards him, just in time to witness Maximus killing the beggar. He quickly looked at the knife a meter away and thought,

'I was only tasked with trailing this brat but since such a good opportunity has arisen, should I finish him off instead? Who knows I might get a promotion or some extra rewards. I've heard that the client is especially generous.'

Acting quickly, he picked up the knife and faced the brat who had already turned to him. Oddly though, he had a slight smirk on his face, bringing about an unsettling feeling in him.

Lunging forward, Maximus brandished his spoon while he readied his left hand for the opponent's assault. Instantly, the opponent similarly lunged his knife towards his liver while shielding from the spoon with the other.

Maximus simply held out his left hand as if attempting to hold the incoming knife, this created a gap in the opponent's defense due to him being joyful about Maximus attempting to hold his knife. It couldn't be any better for him if the brat injured himself, it would only make the subsequent fight easier.

Maximus on the other hand, wanted to quickly get out of the current situation in case the person behind the scenes noticed his absence and sent people after him. So instead of limiting the damage to his hand, Maximus flicked the spoon when he showed a gap in his defense and stabbed it towards the heart.

At the same time when the knife and spoon each reached their destination, the person noticed that brat holding his knife like it was some rolling pin, with not a hint of blood coating his hands. To his astonishment though, he looked downwards with dying breath to see the harmless spoon drawing forth crimson red blood directly from his heart like a sharp knife.

*BADUMP*

The corpse fell backwards as Maximus stood there taking short breaths. The reason he had not picked up the knife was because bending would be detrimental in a fight as it would provide ample time for the beggar to reverse the scales. So instead of picking it up, he applied 'blunt' on the knife when he made contact with it through his leg and slid it backwards to tempt his pursuer.

If he had escaped or notified the people behind him it would have been troublesome but by removing the potential middleman it brought him enough time to plan what to do. But the feeling of hunger had now intensified despite already having dinner not long ago. This hunger felt like it came from deep within his soul instead of stomach.

Hesitantly though, he opened his mouth and simply inhaled. Horrifyingly, he watched wide eyed as wisps of gray smoke leave the two corpses and head towards his mouth. Already having an inkling of what's happening, he watched as the smoke entered his mouth and the feeling of hunger disappeared, replacing its place was the great feeling of fullness as a set of memories appeared in his mind.

'Were those the souls of these people? This should probably be my third ability right?'

But he couldn't loiter here any longer to try and see what the third ability was, or what the memories were. He cleaned the spoon with their clothes and made his way towards the nearest police department instead of his home.

This time no one intercepted him as he successfully reached the police department and explained what happened to him, lodging a complaint. Of course, he omitted details about his ability and attributed his win to his quick thinking and higher reflexes. After getting confirmation that no action would be taken against him after confirming their identity, he quickly left. The only reason he bothered going to the police was to put a layer of protection on himself from the killer.

*****

Simultaneously, as the officer diligently typed the report on his computer, in a grand mansion nestled amidst the rugged slopes of a mountain situated in the wilderness to the east of the city, a distinguished middle-aged man with vibrant blue hair sat atop a regal throne positioned on an elevated platform. The butler, standing faithfully by his side, presented him with the latest information, to which the man attentively attended. With a commanding presence, he directed his attention toward one of the young individuals standing nearby and addressed,

"Aaron, the person you wanted to steal the property from has escaped and even notified the authorities. It is best that you put a halt to your actions and switch targets lest you alert the rulers of this land. We've already decided that it might take years to begin carving a portion of this land for ourselves so there is no need for haste. Make sure you rest a little before resuming your activities."

The young man, who had similarly blue hair, although of a lighter shade, grit his teeth as he nodded without uttering a word. Rest a little? He was simply being detained for a while before he could make any moves again. On the contrary if he had acquired that land it would've been a great merit on his part.

*****

"Sigh"

Maximus heaved a heavy sigh as he settled into the comfort of his sofa. He had gotten a call sometime ago that the police had already cracked down on the gang which the two corpses belonged to. It eased his mind somewhat as he could now ponder about the rest of the things.

He had already stored 'blunt' and 'sharp' back into himself and kept the final slot empty. While he was battling today though, he noticed he couldn't apply or extract a prominent property without touching the said object and he also couldn't apply or extract twice on the same object.

Finally, he inspected the set of memories. It was simply a page, with a heading of 'Augmented Spectralization Scripture', and a couple dozen lines on it. Just as he was done reading it, he felt a 'pull' and a miraculous change occurred in his body as his vision shifted from the view of his living room to absolute darkness.

Up ahead, an empty space lit up in front of him as wisps of gray smoke approached what looked like two gene strands and simply stayed still. Maximus felt that one strand gave off a feeling of Probability Manipulation while the other of Reality Manipulation. He chose the one of reality manipulation and watched as the gray smoke entered that gene strand, lighting it up in the process.

The place then returned to absolute darkness. Suddenly, Maximus recalled the lines on the page and recited it as the place lit up again, with wisps of gray smoke entering the chosen gene strand. He continued it until he could no longer feel that fullness within him, when he was done, the vision shifted again as it changed back to showing his living room. He instantly felt his Reality Manipulation had changed a little but it wasn't big enough to result in any substantial change of its inherent rules of application.

'So that Scripture helps in upgrading abilities? and this Scripture came from my third ability? Or is it something every supernatural being has but can't access due to them not having a soul-related ability? This is kind of confusing.'

His third ability felt a little different though. If he had to use an analogy to describe it, his first two abilities were simply a one storey fully functional building with all the necessities inside. While his third ability, which he still wasn't sure what it was, felt like an already made maybe a hundred storey building but it was devoid of any functions or even basic necessities. When he ate the souls — the gray wisps of smokes — of the assailants, it felt as if a few floors of the building had regained their functionality.

It was a little confusing but it seemed he would have to make do with it. Feeling a little weary after fighting, and adhering to his body's natural cycle, he finally settled into the confines of his comfortable bed.