Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

Chapter 213: Chapter 213: Is This Guy Planning to Pull Off Something Big?

After eating breakfast and helping his sister with her hair, Lloyd arrived early at the Eighteenth District.

[Ding~ Madness Value +50]

Exiting the subway station, he saw that Weiya wasn’t waiting for him today. He felt a pang of disappointment, yet it was mixed with a hint of relief.

’After all, I snuck into another pretty girl’s room last night, holding and caressing her. It’d definitely be awkward to face Weiya first thing in the morning.’

"Meow..."

The kitten poked its furry head out of his pocket. When it didn’t find Weiya, it looked disappointed too.

"It’s okay. Mama will be back next week."

Lloyd comforted it, scratching its head.

With Weiya not by his side, Lloyd felt the absence of something warm in his hand as he walked. He subconsciously slipped his hand into his pocket, and his fingertips brushed against the Saint Statue.

In an instant, he felt a pair of hands eagerly grasp his own. Their fingers laced tightly with his, as if afraid he would pull away.

The hands were soft and smooth. They lacked the powerful feeling of Weiya’s but possessed a unique gentleness.

’Was this what they call seizing an opportunity when someone’s vulnerable?’

Lloyd didn’t dare to dwell on it and decided to quicken his pace toward Tower Nine.

But the moment he picked up his pace, he felt a tug on his hand, silently asking him to slow down.

Left with no choice, Lloyd slowed his steps, matching the leisurely pace he usually kept when strolling with Weiya, and ambled his way to the entrance of Tower Nine.

Only then did he feel the hand gently release his. He had apparently passed the test.

Whew...

Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief and, wasting no time, threw himself into the work of fighting Demons.

[Ding~ Madness Value +300]

[Ding~ Madness Value +300]

...

[Ding~ Madness Value +2000]

After dealing with today’s five Demons and collecting his "Three-Day Check-in" bonus for analyzing the Unknown Fragment, he was not far from earning his next attribute point.

Lloyd cleaned up the scene and hurried back to his office. He let the kitten perch on top of his head to sunbathe, then took out a large stack of blank paper and began to write and sketch furiously.

These were the patterns of the Orbits in Elolo’s room, which he had forced himself to memorize the night before.

After he finished drawing all the complex patterns, Lloyd rubbed his chin, recalling the knowledge Balderes had shared with him the day before. Pencil in hand, he began pointing at different spots on the papers.

’Hmm... according to Balderes, the node we’re looking for... could be here, or here. It has to be one of these two. Hmm... and these two spots correspond to... the dressing table and the wardrobe in her room, right?’

’And this one here and this one over here, under the bed and behind the door, are probably for alarms and anti-tampering measures. That lines up pretty well with Balderes’s deductions...’

’That Balderes is really something else. He’s never even seen the real thing, yet his deductions are this accurate. As expected of the brilliant young man I’ve got my eye on!’

After Lloyd finished his review, a notification popped up on his panel:

[Ding~ Sufficient Knowledge Fragments acquired. Skill leveled up: Orbital Control (Twist) LV3 → LV4]

The skill upgrade didn’t come as a surprise. He had already acquired several skill fragments during his discussion with Balderes the day before. Combined with his review of the Orbits in Elolo’s room, leveling up was a natural outcome.

The specific improvements were also predictable, focusing on large-scale and array-type Orbits. This would allow Lloyd to skip hands-on practice and precisely deploy the large-scale Orbit he now understood so well, preventing any waste.

The power of the [Orbital Control] skill lay in two key aspects: "time-saving" and "precision."

Without it, for a large-scale Orbit this complex and precise, it would be easy to make mistakes during the actual setup, no matter how well one understood the theory. The leap from theory, to practice, to perfect execution was an unavoidably long one.

However, the set of Orbits in the room was only one part of a complete array. Even if he replicated it perfectly, its only effect would be "suppression"; it didn’t possess any other, more complex functions yet.

To completely master the entire array, he would likely need to do a lot more intensive studying.

Fortunately, this wasn’t Lloyd’s main goal. Both his personal level-up and the skill upgrade were just byproducts of his mission to rescue Elolo. He wasn’t in it for the rewards; he just chalked it up to good karma.

After sorting out his notes on the Orbit, Lloyd went to ask for time off from the Judge who was temporarily filling in for Weiya.

The man agreed as readily as ever, even adding kindly:

"From now on, as long as you’ve finished your executions for the day, the rest of your time is your own. No need to report to me... And if you need help finding materials, don’t hesitate to ask. You’re carrying the hopes of our entire Eighteenth District now, after all."

"Right, I’ll do my best!"

Lloyd nodded emphatically.

Speaking of the temporary replacement, the Judge had the appearance of a gentle, refined scholar—he looked more like a teacher than even the Chief Judge did.

But Lloyd remembered that during the confrontation with the people from the Saint’s Grace Court, this was the man who had jumped onto a table and let loose a string of profanities. It was a non-stop barrage of curses and vulgarities that had enraged their opponents to the point they almost started a physical fight.

’So, you can’t judge an Extraordinary Being by their cover. Only a simple and honest young man like me is truly the same on the inside as I am on the outside.’

After that little bit of self-congratulation, Lloyd took the subway to the club, ducked into the basement, and took out the batch of materials he had redeemed from the Dream Theater the day before.

He needed to set up a "Corrosion Orbit," or what could also be called a "Decryption Orbit."

It was a new creation Balderes had shared with him yesterday. It didn’t have a formal name yet, but Balderes had thumped his chest and guaranteed it would work, saying he had tested it repeatedly. He had also made Lloyd swear an oath in the name of the "Venerable" never to reveal it to anyone.

Lloyd had no intention of leaking the other man’s invention, so he raised his hand and swore the oath without any hesitation.

Afterward, he vaguely sensed some kind of change within himself. It was indistinct, impossible to describe. It almost felt like an illusion.

’Is it because swearing an oath to myself is just too weird?’

In any case, relying on the powerful learning ability granted by his high Cognition, Lloyd mastered Balderes’s new invention with relative ease.

The specific effect of this "Corrosion Orbit" was akin to dripping a low-concentration acid onto a lock. It would make the lock’s core slowly turn brittle and soft, until it could be picked open with a simple wire.

The process would be slow, especially against such a complex, large-scale Orbit, but it was extremely covert. It was unlikely to be discovered and wouldn’t even interfere with the Orbit’s daily functions.

All in all, it was an incredibly powerful and practical new invention. It did, however, raise a question in Lloyd’s mind: why would a promising young artisan like Balderes be researching such a... sensitive and peculiar type of Orbit?

’And he’d even tested it multiple times?’

’He doesn’t moonlight as a locksmith, does he?’

Lloyd didn’t dwell on it for too long. Following the plan he and Balderes had agreed on, he began the process of miniaturizing the Orbit and making it portable.

But now he faced a problem: how was he going to get the other materials needed to set up the Orbit into Elolo’s room?

Lloyd’s [Infiltration] ability allowed him to bring his Spiritual Power and inspiration with him, but a physical item like a Storage Bag definitely couldn’t come along.

So, the method he came up with was to use the trading function of their symposium, sending the items into Elolo’s room via that chessboard.

But once the items were inside, Lloyd, being non-corporeal, wouldn’t be able to touch them. Therefore, he had to prepare the miniaturized Corrosion Orbit beforehand so that it would activate the moment it entered the room.

This was where a key material Lloyd had redeemed yesterday came into play: the [Disappearing Canvas].

This "canvas" was actually a type of paper specially processed using mystical arts. It could be used like a normal canvas, but once a certain amount of Spiritual Power was injected into it, it would automatically decompose and dissolve after a set period, eventually evaporating completely into the air and leaving behind only a faint, unusual odor.

Due to this special property, the canvas was typically used for writing secret letters or passing confidential information. The idea of using it to host an Orbit was something only a mind like Balderes’s could conjure up.

’This is why I feel like that guy’s line of research is a little... off,’ Lloyd thought.

’He definitely didn’t come up with these methods on the fly. He must be planning to pull off something big, right? It just so happens that this time, it’s being applied to Elolo’s rescue?’

Not dwelling on it, Lloyd took several other materials and mixed them into a unique ink. Then, on the [Disappearing Canvas], he began to sketch, laying out the miniaturized Corrosion Orbit.

About half an hour later, the first Corrosion Orbit was complete.

Lloyd decided to test it. He injected a small amount of Spiritual Power into the canvas—just enough to make it start dissolving in about ten minutes. He then backed away to a safe distance and used his inspiration to monitor the Orbit’s operation.

When the Orbit activated, he felt his inspiration touch a sticky, slightly stinging power.

He quickly activated the additional effect of [Orbital Control]: remote manipulation via pre-placed Marks.

He found a glass test tube nearby and used his Spiritual Power to place a temporary Mark on it, similar to the one he had left in the belly of Evelor’s Hammerhead Shark Puppet.

Next, he directed the Corrosion Orbit to take effect on the location of the Mark, and then began to wait patiently.

About ten minutes later, the timer on the [Disappearing Canvas] ran out, and it began to decompose and dissolve.

And as for the unlucky glass test tube, several small, melted holes now marred its surface.

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