Wade's phone vibrated in Bael's hands. He'd been holding onto it last, and following the instructions the mortal had given him about pressing the X button whenever those boxes began to take over the screen, he closed the prompts as he had the past hour.

  The phone vibrated again. And again. And again. Play was insistent, constantly spamming the same text over and over.

  But Wade never noticed, and Bael couldn't read english, or else he'd have taken this far more seriously.

  "Leon… that was the name of the other humans you came here with?" Medy asked. "He looks pretty friendly."

  Leon continued his jog forward, one hand raised up giving a hand sign that Wade recognized as… Nathir? The sign slaves gave one another for greetings.

  Eri clicked his teeth a few times, laughing at the absurdity. But he waved back, this time using the Earth human version of that hand sign - an actual wave back and forth.

  Leon didn't return that, but kept jogging forward.

  From what Wade could tell, he wasn't infected with Blackrot, so he'd been able to avoid all the bugs everywhere this whole time.

  Probably meant the group was close to Zakka if Leon was coming out to greet them. Although he couldn't see Illy anywhere. Maybe she was still in the city and sent him down here?

  Could be to grind up experience, Leon had that sword boon that could let him hit like a truck and do quite a lot of good stuff combat-wise. The pair would likely be scrambling for any kind of quest they could get to get five coins in order to lock that puppy in.

  Wade could respect the min-maxing going on here, maybe his influence has rubbed off on the pair.

  The phone kept buzzing in Bael's hand, the texts flying over it faster than he could press the X button. "Mortal, something seems off with your tablet." Everything about this was insanity already, but this was a change in the pattern Bael felt odd.

  Leon approached closer, now only a few dozen feet away. "Greetings fellow slave and a productive shift for us both." He called out, in pure Nathir.

  Eri clicked his jaw twice, then started scanning around for danger. That was the greeting slaves had to give one another when in the presence of a Nathir. When there wasn't a Nathir around, slaves had different shorthand way of saying hi that was more friendly.

  The skeleton slowly drew the Nathir Greatsword out, skull looking left and right. When there wasn't a Nathir obviously around, and a slave still greeted another like so, that was a warning that they were being watched in some way and to be careful on what they said or did.

  Wade's blessing of language equally translated that context, but he couldn't quite understand why Leon was doing a Nathir sign for danger rather than saying it out in english.

  "You okay Leon? What's going on over there?" He called out as Leon kept his jog at the same speed. "Wave once if there's a danger around us, or twice if we're fine!"

  Leon didn't wave. He just kept jogging at them. Like he hadn't understood english? Or not heard it?

  "Wade, the tablet is broken." Bael said. "I cannot see anything on it anymore, only this unstopping box with words in your language. Something feels wrong that this is happening right when your friend reappears."

  He tilted the phone to Wade's view and what Wade saw were only two words.

  NOT LEON

  Wade's head calculated everything in a second.

  Leon was wearing armor and gear. Enchanted gear given the glow on some of it.

  Enchanted gear couldn't be used without mana. The user had to directly channel their attuned mana into the gear and then keep it flowing.

  Leon had only experienced mana a single time, from a mana crystal he ate. He'd heard from Wade the technical details on how mana could be trained with. But nothing more.

  So either he had learned how to master mana manipulation in under a few hours while on Azdrial… or this wasn't Leon.

  Play was basically an amoral sociopath, but every time she'd advised something it had been correct, in so far as it concerned making him stronger.

  And the last piece of knowledge clicked in place the moment Wade considered: If this wasn't Leon, then who was it?

  The shapeshifter. The doppelg?nger. The challenge mode difficulty assassin hunting him down.

  It took Leon's form.

  "ERI! ENEMY!" Wade called out, pointing straight at Not-Leon with his left, already grabbing his Glock out with his other hand.

  Not-Leon appeared startled by the aggressive response. "Panic is for the weak. Fear not. You will perform your tasks well!" The words came out in pure Nathir again.

  And Eri recognized it. Because the skeleton saw red and instantly lunged forward for a swing.

  'You will perform your tasks well!'

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  Despite translating to just six words in English, those two compound Nathir phrases carried a ton of cultural weight.

  The information slammed into Wade's head.

  It had some kind of complicated hierarchy where it was said by Kneebenders. Human slaves who bent the knee to the Nathir and ratted against the rest of their own. Usually granted positions of power by their overlords.

  And those two words were something they'd often tell other slaves, especially when a Nathir was nearby. Almost like boot kissing.

  All this flashed through his head in under a second, a series of leaps of logic that were both understandable and almost overwhelming.

  What Wade knew for certain - this was language used by human traitors.

  No slave would ever joke with words a Kneebender would use.

  The shapeshifter seemed to understand its cover was blown somehow. Wade saw confusion in the creature's gait. Then a head crack to the side with a slight one-shoulder shrug.

  Nathir body language meant to convey displeasure and annoyance. Like a tut or an angry sigh, only… more Nathir, since it held anger and condescension built in. And usually meant there would be pain inflicted in the next instant. And done by the Nathir slavemasters themselves. Slaves didn't do that gesture.

  Not-Leon bent down, and leapt up. Sword fully glowing with enchanted runes.

  Eri equally leaped into the air, his greatsword arching into a cleave to swat Not-Leon down.

  But in the assassin's hand, Wade clearly saw something appear out of thin air.

  "Identify!" Wade hissed out as fast as he could, Glock already aiming with two hands. Whatever this was, the System had a hand in all this, so Wade needed to fight fire with fire.

  It turned out to be a great call.

  First, he could see the System didn't give him any kind of real info on the assassin.

  Level 4 Player - 100%

  He pushed that info aside for now or the implications on if the assassin really was a Player or that the nametag took on Leon's own stats. What mattered now was identifying whatever Not-Leon had just summoned in his hand.

  Strong Lure (System Quality)

  Wade had no idea what that was, but given the name it couldn't be good.

  Not-Leon chucked it straight at the group.

  Wade was almost about to dodge roll out of the way, except he realized the throw wasn't directly at him, nor his friends here.

  It was going to miss them all and instead land further behind him.

  So Wade focused on aiming instead, relying on his additional agility stat point to carry him to victory here.

  He pressed down on the trigger, once, twice, three times.

  The first round went wide as Wade adjusted for recoil and trajectory, but the second and third caused a blue spark just ahead of Not-Leon. Whether it connected or not, Wade couldn't tell.

  What he could tell is that he failed to do any damage thus far:

  Level 4 Player - 100%

  The lure thing hit the ground behind them and began to beep like a grenade.

  "Weaklings deserve death." Not-Leon hissed out in pure Nathir.

  Yeah, absolutely not Leon. Wade wasn't sure what the hell the Nathir language had to do with the assassin sent by the goddamn System itself, but he didn't have time to consider anything.

  Eri collided against the assassin's glowing blade with a hit of the Nathir greatsword. Which turned out terrible, because Not-Leon revealed another metaphorical hand:

  The clash in midair ended with Eri sent flying backwards as soon as their swords touched and Wade recognized why: The knockback effect Leon carried from the very first round.

  Not-Leon applied it somehow, and it had done exactly what it should have done to Eri.

  The assassin landed on the muddy ground ahead, swiftly drawing down into a crouch, all while sheathing his blade into his scabbard, holding the pose.

  For a moment, Wade thought he was frozen for some odd reason.

  And then his head snapped into gear. If Not-Leon had the original knockback Boon, then that meant he also had Leon's current boon.

  The dangerous one.

  Swordmaster (Exceptional) - Increased strength and dexterity while having a sword equipped in your main hand. Damage dealt by swords is greatly increased.

  Which meant damage against anything. Including the Nathir greatsword Eri held against Not-Leon's own. So not only had the knockback rattled Eri's weapon, it had additional increased damage, likely multiplied by whatever enchantments the demonic sword was currently powered with.

  And as for why Not-Leon was now crouched to the ground, holding still, Wade realized the moment he heard Eri's greatsword start to crack, from the very point of impact the two blades had hit one another:

  (Uncommon upgrade) - Damage dealt by your weapon is increased if you halt all motion for a minimum of one second after dealing damage with your sword. Damage increases the longer you remain still up to five seconds.

  Two seconds passed. Eri rolled back up on his feet, skull looking down at his sword as he saw the crack on his blade continue to spread downwards. As if the blade was still under stress, still having some kind of invisible force applied into it.

  Damage increasing.

  Three seconds.

  Eri charged forward as fast as he could, mud flying backwards off his boots with each step.

  Wade aimed the Glock and opened fire as well that the easy stationary target. And realized what was going on with his weapon missing the shots.

  (Exceptional upgrade) - Gain a passive master-rank field of control.

  Blue sparks came out of Not-Leon's field of control. He was manipulating the mana that far ahead of him into a massive invisible drill, deflecting bullets off of it. Like a combination of a thick multi-feet layer of water that would soak up the impact, while equally deflecting it off to the side.

  Whatever was left of the bullets either crushed itself up like they would be fired into water, or bits of metal would fly off target past Not-Leon, trails of blue mana lit up behind the metal shards like tracer shots.

  Not-Leon remained crouched, unmoving, hand on the hilt of the demonic blade, all while the sword remained sheathed.

  Four seconds. Eri's greatsword cracked in half, the top part of the blade falling down midway through his own lunge forward.

  Not-Leon opened his eyes, fully aware of the enemy within his field of control.

  He drew the blade and sliced forward out of the sheathe, the inscriptions on the blade glowing bright blue in charged mana.

  (Rare upgrade) - Qi Strike: While drawing your sword out of its sheath and attacking, your attack gains a wide area of effect at the end of your movement.

  His attack slashed through the air, dealing no damage. But he didn't need to do damage. All he needed was to make it an 'attack.'

  He froze midway, sword extended out. Attack complete.

  The gust of strikes exploded outwards all around him, slicing through the air in every direction, quite a few hitting Eri right as the skeleton ran into range.

  The damage wasn't as significant as Wade had feared. He saw Eri's health go down by about 12%.

  The problem was that this gust equally had another effect on hit: The knockback.

  Eri was launched backwards again, rolling into the ground, sliding on the mud as his hands tried to dig in and hold himself back.

  The assassin rose up on his feet, eyes looking directly at Wade. "You never had a chance, weakling. The old one demanded your death. It is done."

  Something else came into the assassin's hand.

  Identify.

  Teleportation Scroll (System Quality)

  "Fear not, I will follow behind to deliver death myself. Once you are too feeble to even properly beg for death." Not-Leon's hand reached out, as if pointing the scroll at Wade directly.

  The assassin grinned in a manner that could only be described as outright psychopathic. Unhinged. And victorious.

  "It. Will. Be. Trivial."