+50,000 affection points.

+30,000 fate points.

[Novem love: 30%>>>> 60%]

'That many points?' I'm surprised.

[The more lascivious the action, the more affection points.]

'That's good to know.' A strategy was already forming in my head to extract as many points as possible.

The kiss came to an end as I drew away from a befuddled Novem, her eyes glazed over and a small, almost imperceptible blush stained her pale cheeks. Her breathing was agitated, and I took a moment to appreciate Novem's beauty as she looked at me with almost longing eyes.

A desire welled up inside me to see that face more often, I was tempted to kiss her again, but now is not the moment. However, that I had taken the first step, this would be very easy, we just had to get out of here, and I would make Novem mine, all it took was a little patience.

"Why?" Novem asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Her words caused me to tilt my head, earning an angry hiss from Apophis, who nearly fell over, but I half-apologized and focused on Novem. "Why what, Novem?"

"W-why do you kiss me, young master? You are, I mean, I am an assassin, and if your future fiancée finds out about our relationship, she may agree, but it is unlikely because-" Novem spoke quickly, and I had to stop her because I couldn't understand her.

It was amusing to see her in this light, but we didn't have time to discuss nobility and commoners.

I took a step forward and cupped her face with both hands, looking her in the eyes, "Novem," I said, a little smile on my face, "I want you, which is why I kissed you, nothing more, nothing less. Don't worry about the rest; we'll work it out when the time comes." When I let go of her, she nodded. "First and foremost, let's kill some guards." I finished.

Looking down at the floor, Novem straightened up and smoothed out the non-existent wrinkles in her clothes. "I'm sorry, Young Master, and you're correct; this is not the time for that." When she looked up, the expressionless Novem was back.

"Are we going to kill humans then?" Apophis asked mentally with some urgency in her voice.

With a slight smile, I stroked Apophis' head with my hand. "Yes." I said this while looking at Novem, and when she gave me a conflicted look but didn't say anything, I nodded gratefully. "All right, we'll continue with the plan."

I was grateful Novem followed my instructions, but I wouldn't dismiss her concern, because fighting someone above your purity level is almost always a sure death if you don't have an ace up your sleeve, such as a bloodline or a special weapon. So, with that in mind, I went to the system store and looked for something that could serve as another trump card if the situation demanded it with the points I had now.

[Potentiating pill.

Description: Increases the senses, agility and strength of the consumer for 5 minutes to double their base state (not cumulative).

Cost: 10,000 affection points].

I found exactly what I was looking for right away. I bought it without hesitation, not caring if Novem noticed the vial of pills appear out of nowhere in my hand; I believe I could trust her enough to reveal a little more of my powers.

"Whether you believe it or not, this will increase my power," I stated this before clarifying, "It's not any drug, you can check it out if you want Novem." I handed her the vial.

"How...?" Novem started, but quickly shook her head. "No problem, Young Master; I'll do as you command." She gave a nod. With a cough, she straightened up. "Then..."

"Yes, it's time." I lowered the wind barrier and nodded. "Apophis, you go first, and we'll come when the first two are dead." After that, I opened the pill and popped it into my mouth without swallowing it. It was preferable to be prepared and able to take it quickly if necessary, rather than wasting time opening the bottle and swallowing it.

"Kay." Apophis said simply, slipping off my neck and onto the ground. Her little figure was cute enough as she meandered across the floor, but the way her eyes glowed sinisterly red and her figure began to blend into the background until she vanished was quite creepy.

I hid for a few seconds, not risking seeing what was going on because they could detect me, but when I heard the clink of a gun falling to the ground, followed by a dull thud, I knew it was time to attack. I jumped out of my hiding spot and watched as a man writhed on the ground clutching his neck, unable to breathe. Novem dragged a woman into the shadows and in less than a second she was on the surface, overwhelming another guard.

Another guard collapsed, clutching his neck, and the last one appeared to be about to assist his partner, who was fighting Novem, but changed his mind when he saw me approaching at high speed.

As soon as his hand moved, I dodged to the right, and an arrow flew right past me, hissing and dripping with black slime. By the way the man became flustered and jumped backwards, knocking several arrows from his quiver, I quickly realized that Apophis had poisoned the most capable fighters.

Regardless, he quickly fired another arrow, this time more powerful and faster. I dodged faster, and before he fired his third arrow, I fired my own stone projectiles to distract him until I could get close enough.

I was sure the man wanted to jump back, but Novem was right behind him, and even though Novem was fighting with his partner, the man had only one arm and looked like he would faint from lack of blood at any moment, so he had no choice but to stand still and stop shooting arrows to face me, which was exactly what I wanted.

 

I stopped running because I was close to him but at a safe distance, and he charged at me in desperation at a speed that exceeded my own, but thanks to my training with Novem, I knew what to do. I quickly erected a wall of blue fire in front of me, along with a quicksand-filled ground, as a distraction, and then closed my eyes. When I opened my eyeslids, there were many small stone projectiles shaking due to the speed with which they were spinning, ready to rain down on the man who was going through my defenses like paper.

The projectiles cut through the air as I fired them; in my vision, it was all a blur, but the man squinted and covered his eyes as he advanced.

When my attack hit, there was a cloud of dust, but I didn't wait to see the outcome; instead, I jumped to the side, and the arrow that went through the cloud of dust exploded against the hallway ceiling.

I smiled internally because I expected it, but to my disappointment, I had not yet reached purity level 7 in this fight. Although he was stronger than me, I could tell he was a long-distance fighter who was severely hampered by being alone and without cover from his teammates. Simply put, it was a challenge, but not one that compelled me to break down the barrier that was keeping me out. I exhaled a sigh. It was only a matter of defeating him and gradually progressing to the next level.

My dismay was interrupted by a frontal charge from a bloodied and angry man; I began backing up again to begin dodging, but was surprised to see the man in question open his eyes wide and fall to his knees on the ground, his nose dripping black liquid.

More surprising, he gritted his teeth, awkwardly raised a hand to his neck, and grabbed something solid in the air. I was perplexed, but when Apophis' invisibility vanished, I realized she had been apprehended.

"Damn it." Said the man under his breath and began to cumulate magic in his hand.

Before the man could kill my pet, I charged forward and slashed his shoulder with a wind blade. His arm was severed, and the man collapsed, crying black tears.

Apophis yanked free of the severed hand and scowled at the man lying on the ground before rearing up like a king cobra and striking again. "Satisfactory." Apophis said this while biting the man repeatedly despite the fact that he was already dead. "My teeth hurt, but this feels good," she said.

It was strangely amusing to see her do that. "Good job, Apophis."

"Thank you."

I chuckled to myself and turned my gaze away from Apophis. Novem was finishing the fight quickly, and she had no injuries, so everything was fine. After ensuring that everything was in order, I spit the power up pill into my hand and tucked it away. It was unsanitary, but that didn't bother me because survival is unsanitary after all.

Apophis crawled over to me, rose on her tiny body, and stared at me for a few moments. "Hey," she said almost timidly. "May I bite you?" she inquired.

I stiffened. "No."

"I'm not going to inject you with poison because my teeth hurt, but biting that guy felt good. May I?" She made puppy dog eyes. Or so I guess.

I weighed the pros and cons for a moment, but I could see in her eyes that her anger was growing with each passing second, and all I could do was sigh. This was a problem I had to solve, and I didn't want to awaken the sin of anger in her, so I sighed and pointed my finger. "Only once."

She shuddered with delight. "Thank you," she said as she lunged at my thumb, biting and sucking like a baby with her viberon. Then she fell asleep, dangling her body only supported by her teeth piercing my skin, which hurt.

Raising my eyebrows to apophis, I shook my hand a little and she just swayed without waking up, her little horn making her look a little cute as she snored, and to my dismay I just shook my head and let her be. "What a nuisance." I exhaled a sigh.

Novem finally approached me. "Your bond is powerful, Young Master." Novem acknowledged.

'Very powerful'

I put my thoughts aside and beckoned Novem with the hand that didn't have Apophis dangling from my finger. "Let's keep moving."

We moved quickly through the winding corridors, but something caught our eye: instead of guards milling around, there were now civilians carrying silver trays of food among the guards.

This immediately caused me to connect some threads, but I couldn't believe my good fortune, or perhaps my bad fortune; I didn't know what to make of it.

Because there were so many people, we took refuge in the shadow dimension, but that didn't make me feel any better; I swear there was a pair of eyes watching me somewhere. The only good news was that there were now fewer guards and more people dressed in suits carring food. I'm not going to lie, I was tempted to eat some of that fish because I was starving, but I sighed and we just kept going until we found some sort of room.

We went inside because it was empty, and I noticed a large glass window. I grimaced as soon as I saw the other side.

"Young master, it appears that they are in the midst of an auction." Novem observed the theater-like setting with many people seated at various tables.

"I know." I said dryly, looking at each person with 'character information,' and what I saw were many nobles from our kingdom and the elven kingdom, as well as their bodyguards.

I couldn't help but want to slap myself in the face when I saw the number of bodyguards and their power levels; to think I wanted to come here with Charlotte; just thinking about what would have happened makes my blood run cold.

I sighed and turned to look at Novem, who was squinting at the crowd. "There are personal guards even more powerful than you."

I remembered the names as best I could; the golden animal masks couldn't save them. Later, I'd clean up the nobles who had taken part in this, but we couldn't do much more without risking too much. Something inside of me had already given up on Lena, knowing that I could always catch her once I got out of here, though it left a bad taste in my mouth. I shook my head, refusing to think about it any longer.

"Let's move."

I ignored the background laughter and the presenter's voice as he boasted about the quality of tonight's products as we walked silently towards the emergency teleportation stone marked on the map.

I stifled my rage; I'd never been so frustrated in my life. I felt powerless, as if I had no control over the situation, and I despised it.

I need to have control of the situation.

I need… control…

"Young master.”

Novem's concerned voice jolted me out of my reverie. When I looked up, I saw that she was holding my shoulders to prevent me from going any further; I had apparently been walking on autopilot all the way to the teleportation stone marked on the map.

ISighed. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get out of here."

Novem tightened her grip on my shoulders as she shook her head. "He's here."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Here?" However, just as I was about to peek down the hallway, Novem stopped me.

"It's too dangerous, Young Master." She said this while nervously scanning the corridor. "We have to find a different way out."

“Let me think of something.” I said.

"Young master." Novem's voice became solemn. "Hide here-"

In frustration, I groaned and wiped my hands across my face, cutting her off in her suicidal rant. "Novem!" In rage, I growled through my teeth. "You say something stupid again, and I'll jump on the enemies myself, got it?"

Novem had the foresight to blush and appear embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Young Master, I can't help myself; it's part of my training."

I shook my head. "It's okay." I said before continuing. "Trust me, there is another way." I sighed, then lifted my hand and shook the sleeping snake; she swayed but didn't seem to want to wake up. "Apophis."

"Nnggh"

"If you follow my plan, you'll be able to bite a lot of people."

She let go of my thumb and seemed surprisingly animated. "I'm in!"

I nodded and put a weak wind barrier over us. "Okay, the plan is."