[Bonus chapter] - Hunting

According to the stolen files, Max Millian's patrol area was lower Manhattan on the weekend, so Sirus set off to find him. His job was to run around trying to find pits, so this wasn't a hindrance.

'Damn, is he not going to show up? It's not a meeting, but he is rude not to show his face. Might as well check out the shops around here.'

A few independent blacksmiths and alchemist shops were nearby, specializing in custom orders. As many abilities had conditional uses and characteristics, creating tailored armor was important for many. Additionally, Heroes made more money the more popular they were, so creating remarkable and unique armor was necessary for some. Guilds and conglomerates sold armor en masse, but the quality was lower but cheaper.

Sirus went through the different blacksmiths to find a suitable armor style.

'Wow, I was expecting to be able to use my appraisal ability to find some hidden gem, but all this stuff looks really picked over.'

*You are at fault for having such high expectations after shopping for 10 minutes.*

'Why don't you ever be nice?'

[Item Appraisal: D-Rank Cold Steel Chestplate

Function:

30% increase in defense

10% increase to constitution

15% increase in Fire and Ice resistance

Durability: 300/300]

'You know, my defense isn't that great; maybe I should extract the ether from some of these armors.'

*That's stealing. If you were to extract the abilities of these tools, you would be stealing.*

'I wasn't actually going to do it; I was just thinking about it. Plus, it would be super obvious when someone bought it, and I don't want people looking into me.'

*Awakener detected within 15 meters*

'Will you stop with that? You'll find awakeners when you go to the awakener shopping mall; you don't need to tell me every time someone comes into the range of detection.'

Sirus glanced at the entrance, noticing the man detected was Max Millian.

'Belay that order.'

"Shopkeep! I've got armor to sell if you're interested."

The stout man looked away from his polished and walked to the counter.

"Whatcha got?"

"D-Rank Iron plate armor. Lightweight and durable."

Sirus watched the two talk about the armor, then the price, and walked over to see for himself. The armorsmith was a B-rank, which wasn't too surprising; independent producers tended to be on the higher end of the rank scale.

"15K"

"16"

"15 and a half?"

"You've got a deal!"

When Sirus walked over to the counter, the two men shook hands and prepared to make a transaction.

"This man is scamming you."

"Huh?"

"Excuse me?"

"That armor is about to break from corrosion. I assume you're an electricity type awakener?"

"Yes, what does that have to do with it?"

"Electrolysis is when an electric current creates a chemical reaction. In the case of metals, electrolysis can accelerate the effects of corrosion. I assume you've passed massive amounts of electricity through this armor, then covered it up once you realized the damage you've done."

"What the hell are you talking about? This has nothing to do with you."

"No, but I would rather not have idiots trick people."

"You're quite interesting; why do you think your opinion is better than the blacksmiths?"

"Intuition."

"Are you serious? Are you a blacksmith?"

"No."

"Then how the hell do you know what you're talking about?"

*He's right. You have no idea what you're talking about; I was the one who told you there was an issue.*

'Would you rather I say the voice in my head told me so?'

*Yes, do that. Thank you for giving me the credit I deserve.*

'I was being sarcastic; my credibility would be lost if I said that.'

*Unimportant.*

"How about the blacksmith gives it a strong hit in the center of it, and if it breaks, I'll buy it off you at market price."

"I'm not doing that; I doubt you can afford this nice armor!"

Sirus pushed him to the side, enhanced his fist with mana, and slammed it into the center plate, shattering it.

"See? Told you so."

"That proves nothing; you could have an armor-penetrating ability."

Sirus pulled out his shiny new I.D. card, identifying him as a mana body-strengthening type.

"Anything else?"

Sirus smirked, and surprisingly to him, so did Max.

"Well, it seems clear you're right that armor is defective. I'm a hero, so I go on patrol a lot, so buying and reselling armor is something we do to alleviate boredom. I will go have strong words with the blacksmith I purchased this from. I guess I'll see you later."

*There is an 83% chance that man is lying*

'Thanks, Sherlock.'

The blacksmith behind the counter did a shallow bow towards Sirus.

"Thank you very much. I had suspected it, but saying something to the heroes can sometimes cause more trouble than it's worth. If you want to buy anything, I'll give you a 10% discount, and if you're willing to buy something from one of my apprentices, I'll sell it at cost."

"Really? I think I'll take you up on that offer! I want to do a custom job for a black battle suit with loops like a zipline harness. My primary weapon is wire, so having loops that I could use to swing on would be the goal."

"So you want to be black spiderman?"

"That...Yes... I guess."

"Sounds like a fun project. Any other details?"

"I want it to be full-body, except above the neck, hands, and feet. Black, with blue lightning embossing. Flexibility over strength."

"That's all possible. Budget?"

Sirus had 10k in the bank after he bought the car, but after receiving the money for the monster corpses, he was at 25k.

"20k."

"That will get you a D-rank armor ready nine days from today."

"That sounds good to me. I'm a little surprised it's that fast, though."

"Tailoring and sewing materials are much faster than actual blacksmithing."

The two continued a bit more small talk, and Sirus took his measurements and went into the bathroom.

'What do you think? Is this different enough?'

*Yes, your current appearance as a young girl is not similar to a 22-year-old man.*

'Then let's go beat the bastards.'

Sirus could see the traces of ether just beyond the entrance to the shop, the same ones Max's group had, 3 E-rank and 1 D-rank. He went out the back entrance, grabbed trash cans, tossed them around, making as much noise as possible, then ran to the store's entrance.

"Excuse me, are you guys heroes? Can you please help? There's someone dangerous back there?"

"Of course, we'd be happy to help!"

The four ran into the alley the girl had run out of but couldn't find anyone.

"Excuse me, Miss, but could you describe what the person looked like? Maybe we could ...look... for...them."

Sirus stood in the alley, once again shifting his appearance. He grew from 1.5 meters to 2.5 and turned into a monster. He turned completely black, including his eyes, and his arms grew disproportionately long compared to his body.

"Oh fuck, is that a mimic?"

"We need to kill it before it disappears!"

"Come here! I'm going to eat you! I'm bigger than you; I'm higher in the food chain! Get in my bellie!"

'Control: Freeze'

The 3 C-ranks froze in place, dropping their weapons to the ground.

"What the hell did you do? Mimics don't have mental abilities!"

Sirus ran at him, and he was taken down quickly, him being a mage and in a state of fear.

'That was surprisingly painless.'

*Please do not take pride in beating those weaker than you.*

'Whatever.'

"You three, climb the fire escape up to the roof."

Max was knocked out, so he carried him to the roof.

"Sit."

Sirus extracted all their abilities to be safe and then went through their memories, one after the next.

'I can't take all their abilities, or at least I can't go around taking all the hero's abilities. No matter how shitty of people they are, they still destroy pits, and until I can find a way to get around that fact, there still needs to be heroes. Two of the E-rankers seem fine. Like the go with the flow, just following-orders type. If they can be in a better environment, they will be better people, and they haven't done anything that bad so far. But these two don't deserve their abilities. I saw them harassing other students together, especially women. They wanted to assault me for proving them to be scammers, which they often do.'

Sirus wiped all their memories of the past day and put them into a trance, ordering them to go to their homes and only become functionally conscious again once they did so.

'This control skill is amazing; why should I bother with the others?'

*Control is a mental-based attack. People with stronger wills can resist, even if the rank of control is higher than their own. It is an unreliable attack skill. Additionally, it requires eye contact for maximum effect, has no direct or defense capabilities, and will not work against summoned creatures. It is recommended you have more well-rounded skills.*

'Whatever, you're just annoyed because it was easy. But it was fun. I feel like I made a difference. I've felt so shit because the people that I have always dreamt of being are so disappointing. But now I feel like I've made it a little better. I have the power to make a change, and I am responsible for doing so. I can't expect heroes to be perfect saviors and be lazy pieces of shit myself. But I need a way to hide my identity and to make heroes feel like they will be held accountable. Some sort of Judgement.'