Envy

[ Status:

Name: Amalric Remus

Titles: Summoner of ???

Race: Human

Mana: 80/80

Strength - 4

Agility - 5

Endurance - 3

Intelligence - 10 ]

Embarrassed by his status, Ric decided to further embarrass himself.. 'What's the average status of a summoner system?' Ric inquired with a deflated expression.

[ The average status of a summoner is

Mana: 100/100

Strength - 13

Agility - 15

Endurance - 10

Intelligence - ?? ]

Thinking about how weak he was, Ric felt discouraged, he assumed that the guards were slightly above average of a summoner. Ric strengthened his resolve, if he was to escape he couldn't afford to be weak willed.

'Hey system are you able to show me someone else's stats?'

[ Yes host, would you life for me to show you the status of the people with you? ]

'Yes show them..'

[ Reed - D class Guard - Strength>20 - Agility>18 - Endurance>16 - Intelligence>?? - Alive

Benjamin - D class Guard - Strength>22 - Agility>17 - Endurance>18 - Intelligence>?? - Dead

Greg - D class Guard - Strength>19 - Agility>20 - Endurance>16 - Intelligence>?? - Dead

Cisco - E class summoner/pilot - Strength>14 - Agility>13 - Endurance>12 - Intelligence>?? - Alive

Timon - F class summoner/pilot - Strength>7 - Agility>10 - Endurance>5 - Intelligence>?? - Alive ]

Looking at the status sheet, Ric got a slight understanding of his opponents, though he was weaker than even the F class pilot, he found a way to stay positive under the pressure, he also pondered how the guard "Reed" was able to take on the two other guards when the three of them almost had the same stats.

He noticed that the remaining guard kept on looking outside the window, as if getting impatient, he also noticed a while back that they've seemed to change directions, earlier the sun was following behind them, now it was by their right.. wherever they were going it was surely not going in the direction he was supposed to go.. Ric grew anxious, wondering how much time he has left before he could not escape any longer.

Ric questioned the system 'System.. whatever you have up your sleeve, you'd better let it out now..'

[ Your wish is my command host, scanning sin spectrum.. updating status sheet.. ]

[ Status:

Name: Amalric Remus

Titles: Summoner of Envy

Race: Human

Mana: 80/80 > 120/120

Strength - 4 > 8

Agility - 5 > 10

Endurance - 3 > 6

Intelligence - 10 ]

Without warning, Ric felt a warm sensation spreading in his veins, starting from his toes up to his head, he could feel his muscles tense up and his mana felt much clearer.

Looking at the new status sheet, Ric marveled of how easy it was to attain more power, he theorized that as he gets stronger the more it gets harder to get stronger, puzzled about his summoning which he never had contact with till now, Ric asked the system what Envy meant with an eye-brow raised mentally.

[ Host the system has scanned your sin spectrum, a data of your greatest and smallest sin, from the data collected, it seems that envy has been your most frequent and biggest sin hence summoning ENVY ]

With the answer of the system, Ric looked back on his life, given that he was always outshined by other people, even his brother.. no.. especially his brother, he always wanted to be like him.. even more than him, Ric concurred that maybe envy truly was his biggest sin, but that didn't matter to him right now, right now what he wanted to know was how this summoning of his would aid him in his escape.

[ The summoning of Envy has only two abilities, Power mimicry - As the title suggests, it mimics the power of anyone of your choice. Shapeshifting - It allows the host to take on numerous forms of their choice. The host may only choose one ski, due to the circumstances the host is under, I recommend choosing Power mimicry for a more battle-oriented situation ]

'Is there a limit to how much I can mimic then system?' Ric questioned

[ Like all abilities, this power also has its limits host, for one it can mimic the power of an individual with a time limit, you may mimic more than more than one power but it will take toll on the time limit that you can use those powers, if you do mimic more than one power then you cannot use the powers at the same time, let me give an example, you decide to mimic two powers which is the most you can do with your current strength, those two powers will be halved into a 5 minute usage at your current strength, if you choose to mimic only one then you may use that power for 10 whole minutes, understand dear host? ]

'Yes I understand very very clearly.. would it be possible to use mimicked power for an indefinite amount and multiple ones at that in the future?'

[ Yes host, aslong as you get stronger, the limits on your abilities would also start to dampen, when that happens the system would reboot and update again, bringing additional unknown rewards once you have completely mastered your current summon right now ]

Delighted with the news that he had just received, Ric came to the most logical decision and picked Power mimicry

[ Power mimicry has been selected - would you like to activate it now? Note that once you activate it, the extraction would need to be fully at 100% before you can utilize the power you have chosen to mimic, if you wish to speed up the process, you need to physically touch the target ]

'Before I copy anyone's power, could you show me the right the summons of the people here? Would I also be able to copy the powers of the deceased?'

[ Yes right away host,

Reed - summon> Green class shadow serpent

Benjamin - summon> White class earth golem

Greg - summon> Blue class wind peacock

Cisco - summon> White class winged stallion

Timon - summon> White class fire ant

And regarding your other question, you are also able to copy the powers of dead, even the abilities of other creatures ]

Now that he had a look on their summons, Ric had a rough idea on how the treacherous guard Reed was able to defeat the other two guards on his own, from his knowledge, Ric could recall that summoning and skills of each individual were also graded starting from the weakest, white, blue came after white and green after blue which was followed by orange, red - the class grade of his brother's summon, purple, and finally gold.

Ric could remember how much their stepfather educated them of how much a big of a difference summoning grades have, even if by only one level. A grade of a summon could measure a person's potential just by color, a red grade would normally be owned by an A rank adventurer and a color of Green would normally be owned by a D rank adventurer, only ever reaching C rank with a higher mana capacity.

Without hesitation, Ric chose to copy Reed's summon 'Alright system, start extracting Reed's summon Green class shadow serpent and Cisco's white class winged stallion'

[ The white class winged stallion would be perfect for an escape but I don't recommend the Green class shadow serpent host ]

'Why's that?' Ric asked

[ Well the Green class shadow serpent is mostly used for assassinations, restraint, and stealth. According to my data, our opponent probably used a restraining skill to get advantage on the oblivious guards, with my detection skill, it seems that his summoning is already watching your very move ]

'Well alright.. it doesn't sound as bad as to me, seems powerful enough to help me escape right?'

[ For an escape? Undoubtedly.. but do you really think that you could use his own summoning on the same level as him especially when you can't utilize it as freely as he can? Like I told you earlier host, mimicry has its own limits, time, range, and although you can fully copy the summon, you wouldn't be able to fully copy the skills of them using their summons.. well atleast you can copy one skill from them, and in your case, you're probably thinking of copying his restraining skill aren't you ]

Amazed by how much the system could deduce in a short amount of time with so very little information, compared to himself who just thought that he, a weakling would be able to go up against and escape a D class guard with tons of experience. Ric questioned the system on what he should copy instead of the shadow serpent.

[ I would recommend the White class fire ant host, I'm sure you know that a shadow is just a branch of darkness, except that unlike a natural void of darkness, a shadow is weak during the day, that also applies to the shadow serpent, and when fighting fire ants? Tiny creatures that produce explosive blinding light of fire? Yes, it is a a lower grade than a green class summon, but even then... a shadows weakness against light... against fire is still a hard fact, furthermore the shadow serpent is an assassin and stealth type of summoning which means it naturally has weak defense ]

Ric evaluated his decisions, he thought earlier that if he could restrain the guard he would be able to escape no problem, but after hearing what the system said, he ultimately chose to copy the White class fire ant and the White class winged stallion, although he was troubled about the extraction time with the two abilities, especially when he couldn't physically contact both of the pilots, Ric put faith on the system and instructed it to start extracting the two summons.

[ Starting extraction of White class winged stallion and fire ant: Estimated time - 40 minutes

1%... ]

With that, Ric had no choice but to wait out till he has finished copying the two abilities completely, coming back to his senses he has only noticed now how much time has gone by, he remembered leaving their castle early morning, then he took a nap with that weird and creepy dream of his, then waking up to see that nasty sight, conversing with system till now where he could see the sun had just passed its peak.

He wondered if the dream itself had anything to do with the system, planning on interrogating the system with more questions later on.. if he lives that is, Ric continued to observe the guard right Infront of him, he had an average face, above average build yet he could tell that he had more fat than muscles, that kind smile that could trick anyone, and metal chest-plate and shoulder-pads, he wore a T-shirt underneath yet scars from the past still showed, he could feel it.. earlier Ric couldn't feel the bloodlust coming off from the guard but whatever it was the system did to him, it was definitely working.

Ric's mind started wonder, he thought of the outcomes of his escape, he could sense that no matter what happens, someone was going to die.. he just doesn't know if it was him or the guard.., he still has so many goals and dreams he thought.

He made a vow, Ric clenched his fist so hard it started to tremble, he bit his lips which made it bleed... a vow that no matter what happens, he was the one to leave this coming battle alive!

Reed's pov:

I never was one of those geniuses.. my life wasn't as hard when I was just a youngster, well that changed too like many things in my life. I was born in a low class family, it was just me, my mother, and my father yet we were happy.. so happy.. until my father left us.. taking every last of our wealth and joy along with him.

My mother worked day and night with different jobs just to provide for me, to pay our bills, but I didn't understand much back then so I complained and throwed tantrums when I wanted to see that bastard of a father I had.. I made it harder for my mother.. yet she didn't give up.

I grew up and started to understand, so I started to help my mother, but eventually my mother met a rich man.. and they married, I supported them with all my heart, my mother could finally rest..

A few years passed and I turned 15, I wanted to go to academy of Epoch and I did, leaving my mother behind just like how my father did, at my 3rd year in the academy I was informed that my mother had fallen under a terrible illness, with haste I went back home and their she was.. laying on a bed.

I started noticing tension between my mother and my stepfather, confronting my stepfather, he told me I was just probably misinterpreting his worries for my mother's health as something negative, I brush it'd off.. but the tension kept on rising and I just couldn't understand why, I was preparing on asking my mother until.. I saw bruises on her legs, her back, when she was being changed once.. everything immediately clicked, the tension.. the bruises.. the only thing I could feel was anger and the only thing I could think of was revenge..

I killed my stepfather.. and it didn't feel better in any way! I pulled some strings from the connections I made in the academy and was thrown inside imprisonment for only 3 years, my mother visited me every sunday.. but she would tear up and break down every time she would see me, I talked about it with a psychologist... who informed me that my own mother probably see's me as a reminder of how she was beaten, and how she let her own child suffer for it.. I couldn't accept that so I avoided her, no longer meeting up with her every sunday.

3 years in prison passed, met different people with different stories, didn't garner too much attention and I kept it that way, I got out.. when I met my mother, I met her under the same house and situation we were in when my father left.. and a three year old girl along with her.

Turns out my mother was pregnant with the child of the man I killed.. my mother didn't get any help and even a small amount of wealth wasn't left with her because of my mistake..

I could see the tiredness inside her eyes, her hair already grey and her face wrinkled.. the mother I so dearly love suffered so much and the only thing she asked from me was to take care of my sister, and I promised her I would.

I got a job as a guard.. grew my reputation and changed my contract under a new household, the Remus's, they were wealthy and powerful.. and kind, until their decline, alot of people working for them left, I almost did too, they lowered our pay and with my sister and mother's life on the line.. I had to do leave.. the day I was supposed to resign was also the day my mother became sick again.. her age could not take the circumstances we were under anymore.. the stress took its toll, I approached the Remus with the hope of receiving help and.. they gave it to me..

The house Remus offered to pay all my mother's bills in the hospital, unfortunately after a few months.. she left this world. Me and my sister was left alone in this world, I ultimately decided to not leave the Remus household for a debt that would never be repaid except with loyalty.

Years passed and my sister eventually reached the age of 15, she dreamed like I did.. wanting to join the academy at Feohtere with the hopes of becoming an adventurer, I didn't have the ability to pay for the education yet I promised my mother.. so I sent her there.

A year later, the young lord, Ric Remus was also to join the academy at Feohtere, a few weeks before that I was approached by a mysterious person who enticed me with them paying for my sisters education in full in exchange for... kidnapping lord Ric!

I was left with a decision that would change me and my sisters life, this isn't even supposed to be a decision... the house Remus has always been kind to my family... yet here I am, torn between the choices that I have... shameful yes... but I personally know that kindness would only get you so far..

I chose... the decision irreversable. The pilots were also paid by the mysterious person to help me deliver lord Ric at the meet-up point, I've already killed two of my fellow guards and there is no going back... I'm doing this for my sister.. all for my sister!

Whatever happens.. it happens, I could feel something weird from lord Ric.. something I've never felt before, the feeling of despair... my despair...