Meticulously Smart

I was woken up to my subordinates hiss of pain. It seems like his shoulder still hurts. It also seems like he was avoiding me too. I tried to use a military massage technique on his shoulder, but he quickly moved away.

Could it be because his filthy smell is gone? He would always approach me then, but now he seemed almost terrified.

I could only guess that he used his awful smell as a defense mechanism. Was it a physical or mental defense? I decided not to pursue the matter. I could only hope he lets go of this fixation to become of better use to me.

After I bought breakfast for us, I heard Tengu knock on the door.

"I got you the things you asked you bastard. Now can you finally tell me how your 'stand' works?!", he asked very impatiently.

"Well first, here's the blueprints for the weapon I want the blacksmith you found. And could you let my subordinate into your academy?", I said.

"Uhh, I could probably get him in with a recommendation. But what is this weird weapon?", he said while looking at the blueprints.

"Well it relates to my true intentions. I believe that 'gravity' took me here for a reason. My true intention is to cre-", as I was talking, I was interrupted by a knock on the door.

We looked at each other before quietly opening the door. I signaled him to open the door as I hid behind the door.

I heard a familiar voice, but I couldn't remember exactly where I heard it from.

"Hello, is this where 'Valentine Funny' is living?", a familiar female voice said.

"Well what could you beautiful girls be looking for a man with such a ridiculous and horrible name?", he asked, probably laughing at the fact that he could insult me in front of me. He also said 'girl(s)'.

"We just want to talk and ask him some questions. This girl had lost her memories and friends, but the last thing she remembered was going with Funny. I also have some personal questions I wish to ask him.", she explained.

Yang?! I thought I took her memories away?! Unless the token only took away the memories of her being the cave! This could explain why it didn't completely suck out the qi of the sword. Dammit! But who was the girl that was actually talking?

"Well I dunno anything about that. I never met this guy in my life", Tengu said with a perfect poker face.

"Really? I asked the receptionist and she said the guy lived here. Unless of course you're covering for some reason", she said accusingly.

"Are you actually accusing me of lying? Well from your clothes I can tell you're only an outer disciple of our academy. So why would I, an upper senior disciple, have a reason to lie to you", he said with a small hint of a threat in his voice.

He was implying that he was in a higher class to threaten them if they pushed him further. It seems like that got his message across.

"Curse you! Lets go Hua", she said angrily. She was about to go, until she glanced at her side. She saw a glance of me through the door!

She immediately entered the room and turned to me.

"So you were actually hiding here!", she said angrily.

"You better get out of here before I 'convince' you", Tengu threatened.

Yang also barged into the room. She grabbed a hold of my arm and said, "Please just tell me what happened when we entered the cave! I-I just want to know what happened to my body guard!", she pleaded.

I was going to answer her, but then I felt something wrong. I felt something slide into my arm. With this imminent feeling of dread I pushed her away.

"Tengu! Stand your guard we're being attacked by the cultists!", I warned him.

"Wait what!? I knew these girls were trouble!"

Before I could correct him, I felt a horrible itch on my arm. I instantly pulled up my sleeve. And I saw red circles all around my arm. The skin was scaly and peeling off too, and it was spreading quickly! I couldn't risk anything so I summoned D4C to cut off my forearm. I heard Yang scream in shock.

"What are you doing!?", yelled the girl, who by now I realized was the first person I told my name to.

"The enemy used Yang as a means to attack me! Nobody can get close to Yang!" I warned.

We all noticed that my arm was now completely relieved of it's skin, and it was dried up. It had this weird mixture of puss and rotting flesh, but the thing that mostly grabbed my attention was the mushrooms growing out of it!

"Look at those mushrooms! This is an attack by the Fungus faction!", yelled Tengu. I quickly went to the door to use D4C, until I heard my subordinate yell at me.

"Don't go into the door! There's mushrooms planted in the door knob! It's the same mushroom that the acid guy used on me!", he yelled with all his fragile throat could handle.

The moment I jumped away, the doorknob exploded into an acidic mess.

"What the hell is going on here!", yelled Yang utterly confused.

"Does it matter!? All you need to know is that we're being attacked!"yelled back Tengu.

I was about to summon a blanket, but then I realized that the inventory ring was on my chopped off arm.

"Quick throw me a blanket for the bed!", I told the kid urgently.

The moment he grabbed on to it, it exploded into acid! Fortunately, Tengu had enough cultivation to easily grab on to him before a drop of acid landed on him.

"Damn that was close! But how the heck are they putting these acid bombs into these items?", Tengu questioned.

I quickly thought of an idea. I decided to grab onto one of the pillows. I would use the acid to teleport instead. I was too surprised the first time to actually realize that I could've used D4C with the acid.

When I touched it, it didn't change. I noticed that it was hard in certain places. I removed the pillows cover only to discover black mold! I quickly threw the pillow away. I've heard of this mold years ago from a doctor when I was still in the military! The thing that terrified me was that the mold released a visible gas out of it.

"We have to hurry and get out of this room! Those types of mold release a poisonous spore!", I quickly ordered as I started running to the door. I stopped at the door and used D4C to rip the floor of the hotel. I then jumped over the hole the acid made, but when I got outside of the hotel room, acid started exploding from the ceiling!

I used the floor to block the acid enough to dodge it. I only dodged it slightly though, as D4C couldn't properly protect me with one arm. Everyone else followed me quickly, making sure to dodge the acid.

The girl who was with Yang started to cough severely. She was turning red and looked disoriented. Fortunately, everyone else wasn't as affected, and she was the biggest nuisance.

"W-what's happening to her?!", Yang screamed.

The moment she screamed the walls on both sides of the hallways started to form black mold! The opponent truly was skilled. They predicted almost all our movements. We're completely surrounded by the mold's gas.

"Well it looks like it's my time to shine!", Tengu said boastfully.

He held his arms up to his sides and slowly brought them together. He was using the qi to compress the air around him. He circulated the qi into a cyclone and finally released. The cyclone of air pushed all the mold of the walls, and it kept going until it pushed a hole through the end of the hallway!

"What are you idiots standing there? Let's go before the rest of it catches us!", he said.

We all jumped out of the hole in the wall and landed safely into the ground.

"What was that?!", Yang screamed.

Before anyone could say anything, I took one of the huge rocks from the wall Tengu exploded, and threw them on top of Tengu, the child, and myself. I used D4C to teleport us away from the scene. I also decided to make a pit stop into another universe to get a new arm.

I knew that it's hypocritical of me to run when I decided to stay and fight the first assassin from the Fungus faction, but I had to take this chance to hide from the enemy's sights. The enemy could plant mold and acidic mushrooms into objects. If I returned they would surely be prepared.

Unfortunately for them, I now knew what type of person they were. They were calculative, and wouldn't attack unless they fully knew my capabilities. I believe they might've done this attack to test Tengu's abilities.

Once an enemy fully knew their opponents abilities they held a severe advantage, even if they're weaker. The only question I have is why did they show their abilities to me if there was a chance I would have escaped? Why not send another assassin to test Tengu?

I still didn't know who my opponent was, but they were clearly observing my movements carefully. This opponent was truly extraordinary!