691 The First Step End

After handing over the trinket and once again going through all the same warnings that he had given to Percy before, albeit, in a lighter tone, the newcomer left after saying that he would contact Daneel when the time was right.

Even though he didn't mention it outright, Daneel knew that he was probably referring to the distraction for the Hero, because even if Daneel managed to sneak the trinket in, the Hero would be watching each and every movement of his. This meant that something had to be done to either pull the Hero away or draw away his attention for at least a second, and this was almost definitely what the man had left to put in place.

With a more serious but satisfied expression on his face, Daneel sat on the bed and asked the system to scan the trinket, following which he got the message that it would take a little bit of time as even though it was at the Warrior level, whoever had made this had managed to cram quite a lot of things into the trinket which meant that a very advanced formation master had definitely worked on it.

That was to be expected from the Church, so Daneel took the brief respite to think about the actions of his opponent.

He had picked up this habit of studying his opponent's every move and trying to glean things about them from them, and regarding this opponent, Daneel realized that there was a sort of… Arrogance that was on display.

To be more accurate, it was the lack of cautiousness, which had led to the man easily giving away the trinket to Daneel, almost as if it didn't have too much value.

Perhaps… That was the truth.

Daneel thought for a bit and also found one other reason for this behavior – the stakes.

In this situation, the stakes were quite low for the Church. Even if this trinket was lost, the man could simply find another avenue to get what he needed done. It was different for Daneel, though – the stakes were very high for him, as he definitely needed their plans to be delayed because he wanted to pass the test before it changed to something that he didn't know about and couldn't manipulate.

Overall, this meant that the Church could afford to be a bit loose in their actions, but that was definitely not the case for Daneel.

Also, the Church could never have expected that he would be something like the system which was basically a high-performance computer that could analyze almost anything. Hence, as Daneel was just a Warrior, the man from the Church must have thought that there would be no way for him to analyze and find out more about the trinket, whereas the truth was that Daneel was equipped with far more resources than any Warrior in the history of the continent.

A few moments later, Daneel got the answer from the system.

[Trinket analyzed. New style of formations added to the database – requires higher skill, but allows greater efficiency. The same formation that is inscribed with this style will result in a 10 to 20% increase in efficiency and power, depending on the type of formation.]

Daneel's eyebrows raised as he heard this, but he had to admit that he should have expected it.

The Church was from an advanced place where Daneel probably couldn't even imagine how things were, so it had to make sense that even the most basic things would be more advanced than what was present here.

Another thing to be considered was that this couldn't be compared with the Empire, either – many millennia had passed since the age of the Empire, and over all that time, it was possible that the Mainland had progressed, whereas Angaria had had to go through a 'reset'.

Yet, from what was happening on Earth, Daneel knew that even though many people thought that technology would steadily improve for as long as a civilization existed, that was not the truth, and that there was definitely a possibility that on Earth, the rapid advance in technology that was prevalent in the 21st century might soon either grind to a halt, or slow down to a very negligible pace. Barring inconceivable things such as advanced civilizations coming to Earth, this was even predicted to happen, and Daneel had been quite interested in this back when he had been on Earth, which had led to him reading up on it and now possessing knowledge regarding it.

In simpler terms, this formation style was like comparing cursive handwriting to a non-cursive one. In many cases, the former might be harder to master but it could be faster, whereas even though the latter was simpler and easier to adopt, it might result in the overall speed being slower.

Quite impressed with this gain that he had gotten without even working too hard for it, Daneel progressed to the other part of the message.

[Purpose of the formation is to imbue the essence of a material that is present inside into it in the quickest time possible. Inside the trinket, there is a ball-shaped, white organic material present which cannot be found in the records of flora and fauna of Angaria. This suggests that this material has been imported from a different area. The trinket itself is dispensable, and it is made of relatively cheap materials. This leads to a high probability that the entire value of the trinket is present in the object in the middle.]

A fruit of some sort that was not present on Angaria?

With this, Daneel understood the plan of the Church perfectly.

Clearly, that fruit was some sort of drug that would accelerate the awakening of the Mad Doctor and also give him more power, but this… Presented a problem.

Daneel's plan had been to somehow change something in the method that the Church was going to employ to increase the recovery time of the Mad Doctor, instead of decreasing it.

Holding his breath, he asked the system whether this was possible.

[Unable to draw a conclusion with present data. Trinket and object must be tested.]

Disappointment and frustration appeared in Daneel's face as soon as he heard this as there was only one trinket, and there was no way that he could just use it on someone in order to test it and still manage to convince the one from the Church that it had been an accident. True, the Church wasn't too cautious, but they were also not dumb enough to let something like that slide without getting suspicious.

Almost as if the purpose behind only sending that message had been to troll him, the system continued after giving a pause.

[Due to the method of delivery, system has determined that only 80% of the essence of the object has been set to be delivered into the target. With a few modifications, the remaining 20% can be used for testing. Trinket is also set to self-destruct after usage, or if it enters anyone else's hands, so there will be no sign of the testing.]

Not for the first time, Daneel wondered whether the system had a personality that loved to see him in situations like these.

However, this was absurd, and the truth was probably that it had only been a pause during which further analysis had been done which had led to this answer.

Putting all of this out of his mind, he prepared to begin testing to find a way to make what he wanted happen.

…

Two days later, the newcomer, who was going by the name Jeremiah, had a wide smile on his face while he marched down the path to the dorm where he would meet the secret weapon that he had recruited so that he could finally finish this task that had been delayed so much.

He was really proud of himself that he had decided to go along with the plan to put the other things in place, while looking for some way to sneak in the trinket, and find someone to do it. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of the idea that had been given by that crazy guy, but he still decided to take credit for it when the time came to send the report to the Mainland, as it had been his idea to go to that guy in the first place despite his craziness. He was also the one who was cleverly manipulating him to accomplish what he wished, so he found nothing wrong in it.

He reached the dorm to find that the crazy guy was waiting for him after hiding the trinket under his bed, and when he said that everything was ready, he saw the glow that appeared on his face.

Yes, this was definitely the best person for this job. Hell, after it was done, he might even consider just wiping his memories instead of killing him, even though the former would require him to put in a little bit more effort.

"Calm down, and listen carefully. All you need to do is use the pointy end to break the skin of our Saviour for a second. A full second, no more, no less. Got it? I can't enter along with you because they would be extra careful if I was there, but I will send a communication eye with you that you can simply take inside by saying that you want to take back a recording to inspire others. I expect they'll not have any problem with that. The problem is the Hero, but you'll know when to go ahead. The Hero will be distracted, and because all you need is a second, just wait for the opportunity and don't miss it. Understood?"

The crazy guy nodded profusely, but still, he decided to repeat it one last time.

"Remember, one second, not more, not less. The inheritance site said that this should be the method, and anything else might result in adverse effects."

One second was the perfect time that had been calculated to make the awakening happen in two weeks, and allowing the trinket to be in contact more would result in the awakening time drastically increasing. Even though he knew this, he saw no need to explain it, so he just used this method, knowing that it would be effective.

As expected, an expression of horror appeared on the crazy guy's face as he heard this, and a second later, he nodded even harder and said, "Leave it to me. I will not make a single mistake. I value the Saviour's life over my own, because he enabled me to find purpose and direction."

This guy reminded the man from the church of a very dangerous group back in the mainland who crazily believed in Saint Rectitude and were even ready to kill themselves in his name, and this made him shudder, as that group was quite terrifying.

Adoration was like a drug that could take hold in the most baffling of ways, and this was why he didn't suspect this sudden change in this guy's behavior, even though he had apparently been trying to not draw any attention to himself until now.

Putting it out of his mind, he said, "Alright, then. Let's go. Just join the next shift."

Giving the communication eye, Jeremiah left to his own dorm room and switched on the display trinket connected to the eye while he waited.

The eye was set to be active no matter what was happening, and he watched as the crazy guy went to the job area and then got assigned to the job to tend to the Mad Doctor.

An hour later, he found himself outside the room, and this was when he saw that the crazy guy had been quite effective in carrying out his plan – he had smuggled the parts of the trinket into the pockets of the other two people who had also signed up, and as soon as they entered the area where the Mad Doctor was being held, he took them back.

This made him wonder whether he was some kind of pickpocket, but thinking that this was probably just a skill he had picked up during his time in the Central Continent, which he had read about in the backup check that he had done, he put it aside, as it was showtime.

After waiting for a few minutes, the time finally came when it was the crazy guy's turn to mop the rotten blood off the Mad Doctor's recovering wound.

Now was the chance. Picking up a trinket, he pressed the button on it, and a few seconds later, a loud sound made the entire Sect of Hedon shake.

The reason…was that a devastating Hero-level attack had just been launched at the formation that protected the Sect of Hedon.

With excitement on his face, the man looked at the display trinket and watched as the Hero who was present instantly stood up and checked on everyone in the room for a moment before disappearing. He was the only Hero in the Sect, so he had to go and check whether there was an all-out attack.

This was the moment! The crazy guy had recognized it, and he instantly pulled the trinket out of his pocket which he had already assembled before thrusting it into the hand of the Mad Doctor, which was the spot that was closest to him.

"Yes!"

Success! With an exulted expression on his face, the man from the Church got up and almost whooped in the air, looking forward to the rewards he would be receiving for completing the task.

Yet, that…was when something changed.

The sect member behind the crazy guy, who had been waiting to hand over a fresh set of bandages chose just that moment to step forward, and as he did so, he…stumbled, and bumped into the crazy guy.

The minimum time was one second, and for that amount of time, the trinket was also designed to latch onto the target so that there would be a lesser chance of things going wrong.

Only, this worked in the wrong way, now, as it led to the crazy guy losing his grip and falling to the floor with the other sect member landing on top of him.

As the man from the Church looked on with growing disbelief on his face, the seconds ticked on, during which the crazy guy scrambled to get up to take back the trinket.

1, 2, 3…4.

4 seconds.

For 4 seconds, the trinket continued pumping the drug, and by the time the crazy guy finally managed to pluck it away and hide it in his pocket, the man from the Church already had his head in his hands and he was shaking it in denial.

4 seconds…meant 8 weeks! Instead of two weeks, it had been changed to 8! Dammit! And here he had thought that everything would go perfectly!

Even as he cursed, he missed the silent smirk that flashed across the King of Lanthanor's face before he put on a completely appalled look, as if he was horrified because of what had happened.

Of course, on the inside, he was rejoicing, as the mission…was a grand success.

All it had needed was a simple deployment of the skill he had picked up long ago: Mageroot-less telekinesis, which he had already used once to great effect. In the communication eye, it would look as if the sect member stumbling was a coincidence that had occurred due to the panic of hearing the loud sound, whereas, in reality, it had all been staged. Of course, even the 4 seconds had been discovered after testing as the best time to both extend the duration before the awakening, and to not make it seem as if everything was a bit too fake.

With joy bubbling up inside Daneel, he made a mental tick appear next to the words 'First Step' in his mind, and prepared to tackle the rest with gusto.