Gas

Arthur still stood over the kneeling man who had just now pissed himself, 'Am I really that terrifying?'

To answer Ferio's question Arthur said, "If you would explain what an overseer is I would be able to give you an answer on whether or not I am one?"

Ferio took a couple of minutes to come to his senses and his attitude once again changed to one full of politeness, "Of course, I'll explain young lord, an overseer is just as the name suggests. It is a person from the other side who watches over us to make sure nothing big happens that would threaten the empire."

Arthur had a thoughtful expression on his face, "by the other side you mean across the wall?"

"Indeed my lord," Ferio responded full of certainty.

Arthur began to understand more but continued with his questions, "how does one become an overseer? Who is the one that watches specifically over you? And what makes an overseer so noteworthy?"

Ferio who had never heard such a stupid question began to question the identity of the person in front of him.

Everyone knew about the overseers. It was like the first thing children were taught as soon as they understood words. It didn't matter if you were a noble or a prostitute it was all common knowledge.

The only explanation that Ferio could come up with was that the young man was a bastard of a noble and was probably thrown out and not given an education from his parents.

Believing this Ferio saw a dim light at the end of the tunnel where he, his family, and his friends would be able to survive. All he had to do was suck up to the man.

Diligently Ferio answered Arthur's questions, "little information is known on how someone becomes an overseer but there is an old rumor that there is a special school that teaches students all kinds of different skills. One of which is to be an overseer."

Arthur pondered on this, "then do you know where this school is?"

Ferio felt his heart melt and the dim light sizzled out as he answered truthfully, "I- I don't know." Lowing his head, Ferio prepared for his body to no longer be attached to his neck. But to his surprise, the young man didn't seem to care all that much.

"Is that why overseers are so important? Simply because they go to a fancy school?"

Ferio quickly recovered and raised his head to respond, "that's only part of it, again it's only a rumor of there being a school. But the real strength behind an overseer is their gifts."

"Gifts?" Arthur repeated.

"Yes gifts, some say you were born with it, while others say that they go to bed just like any other day and wake up with a gift."

"What are these gifts?"

"Is a special power, a person only gets one and they are categorized from F rank through S rank. F being the worst and S being the strongest capable of altering the nation. The only person to be S rank is the emperor himself."

"The emperor is an S rank?"

"That's what everyone says but the truth is no one has actually seen him use his gift. I personally think it's a lie made up to keep everyone in order. Or it's a subordinate of the emperor who had the S rank gift, not the emperor."

"That's quite the theory. Okay, now what about the overseer here?"

"The overseer of this region is named Liec and he is one of the high-tier overseers when it comes to strength. However, he has an extremely low consideration of the law. He won't interfere in anyone's business unless it directly falls under his orders."

"What exactly are his orders?"

"Anything that might bring harm to the nation. Generally, it's a broad terminology and many overseers take advantage of it and needlessly arrest anyone. But Liec doesn't care for murder, prostitution, drugs, or anything like that. What he does care about is people illegally crossing the wall, planning to assassinate an important figure or anything of a big scale."

"Then he isn't much of a worry?"

"That's correct unless you plan to do something crazy like killing the emperor."

"One last question do you know what Liec's gift is?"

"Of course, everyone knows, he goes around flaunting his gift. Liec gets off on knowing he is superior to others. His gift is the ability to release gas!"

"Huh, he has the power to fart?"

"What? No, no, he can create gases from thin air. Each of them has a different effect on a person's body. One of them can make others fall in love with him, another makes him seem like the devil and his enemies become terrified. Liec has multiple of these gases that can kill a person in their sleep, paralyze them for life, or wipe out an entire city. He is not someone to mess with."

"Alright, I think I understand everything now, thanks for your help."

"Of course-"

Walking deeper into the slums of the outskirts Arthur left behind his first of many slaughters to come.

Back in the bar, Arthur was enjoying his drink to level up a gift he had stolen from an unsuspecting victim.

It turned out that Ferio was telling the truth about people randomly waking up with gifts.

One seemingly random day while walking down the alleyway Arthur passed by a couple who had a young boy. He often passed by this family on his daily route but on that specific day he came to a stop.

When he looked at the status screen of the boy a gift appeared.

Poison immunity.

A better gift couldn't have appeared and Arthur was served it on a golden platter.

He made quick work of slaying the family and stealing the gift.

Arthur questioned whether gifts were the same as abilities and if he would be able to steal them but thankfully he could.

But what Arthur didn't know at the time was how different they truly were.