Silas could not help but blink as he saw his status screen, however, his eyes were drawn to three specific indicators that confused him.
Race: ???
Core: Solid-Topaz
Affinities: Darkness
Why was his race unknown? What the hell happened to make such a thing occur. He remembered what the screens had said before he had been sent into a rampage, but why did his race change.
The screen had told him that all his bloodlines would be set to 100% due to the awakening of his volition flame. Sure, he had a rough idea of what a volition flame was, but since it wasn’t something he had researched on Earth, his understanding of it wasn’t as high as he would have liked it to be.
However, after looking at the list of his bloodlines and their percentages, the only thing that seemed to have changed was the percentage next to “Mistwalker”.
He assumed it was because he had killed many of them when he had blacked out in the misty forest. However, there was no way that a 5% change would have such a large impact on his race, right?
Silas couldn’t understand it. He was confused. No, he was beyond confused. Maybe the awakening had done something to him? Maybe those blackouts on Earth were due to his volition flame too?
What is a volition flame, really? Was it the reason he discovered the life equation in the first place? Or was it a catalyst that brought him closer to the discovery of the life equation… Closer than any human before him.
“Kid? Are you going to go in?” A voice asked from behind him.
Silas looked up and realized he was already in front of Archie’s office.
Looking back at the man who was talking to him, Silas smiled, but when he realized who was standing behind him, he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.
‘Hmm… He seems familiar.’ Silas thought while looking at the young man behind him.
He was no older than 20 years of age, however, there was one thing that stood out about him.
‘And why the hell is he so handsome. Leave some women for the rest of us!’ Silas inwardly screamed.
Sure, at that moment he still hadn’t hit puberty, so his interest in women and relationships in general was quite low, but he had to think about the future generation! What would happen if this man were to go into the dating world, huh? He would steal all the women!
He looked like the average harem isekai protagonist, and for some reason, that very thing was making Silas really angry.
“Oh, sorry about that. I was just daydreaming. Next thing I knew, I was over here.” Silas smiled, yet the man could the corner of Silas’ mouth twitching.
“Are you okay? Your mother seems to be twitching.” The mean leaned closer with a kind smile on his face.
‘Get away from me you beautiful bastard!’ Silas slapped his hand away and walked into Archie’s room before slamming the door behind him.
“Oh! Silas! Finally! Where have you been. I might be elected any day now and I need you around to take the Judgement seat.” Archie complained.
Archie was sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
Before him was a gorgeous woman with silky ginger hair that flowed down her back like a waterfall of orange, while her eyes glowed with a green radiance, similar to Silas’, but not quite the same.
Looking at Archie, Silas narrowed his eyes in annoyance before looking at the second guest in the room.
“Am i interrupting something?” Silas asked while crossing his arms.
“No. Of course not. You’re always welcome in here.” Archie smiled while Life’s face became beet red.
“Wanna come take a seat?” Archie ignored Life’s reaction and went to sit on the larger seat. offering the seat he was previously sitting on to Silas.
Silas quickly walked over to the seat and sat down opposite Life.
She was still burning bright red for a reason Silas could not understand, but he didn’t really care.
‘Do I trust her?’ Silas asked himself while looking her in the eye.
Of course, he couldn’t trust her. In reality, in all of the darkless organization, there was no one he could trust. Everyone had their own agendas and goals, and that was a simple truth he could get behind.
Pulling his hood back, Silas revealed his jet-black hair that naturally fell on his face.
“Oh? You removed your white hair… Why? Did you go see your parents? I told you not to do that. It’s extremely dangerous, not only for you, but for them too. What if the Skylarks find out your alive and kidnap your family to use them against you? They know that you killed the commande-“
“Calm down. I didn’t go to see my parents.” Silas cut him off.
“Okay… Good. I’m assuming you want the serum to turn your hair white again.” Archie asked.
“Yeah.” Silas smiled. However, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of suspicion toward the situation. Archie had every right to ask him how he made his hair black again, but for some reason, he didn’t.
Maybe the new serum will be poison? Wait no, that wouldn’t make sense. They needed him alive. Plus, from how everyone seemed to describe Archie, he could have killed him in less than a second if he really wanted to. There was no need for mind games and poison, not that any of them would have worked on Silas.
“If you’re as cautious as I was when I was in your place, you’re probably asking yourself why I haven’t asked about what happened and how you did it.”
“Read my mind.” Silass awkwardly chuckled.
“Silas… The thing you have to realize about this world you’ve entered is that… Everyone has a secret. Everyone is keeping something from you. Everyone had a goal, and they’d throw you under the bus if you stood in the way of the goal. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Silas replied with a nod.
However, just as Silas nodded, he couldn’t help but stare Life from the corner of his eyes. At Archie’s words, she seemed to be looking at the ground, her eyes not daring to look away from the spot she was staring at.
‘Everyone has secrets…’ Silas inwardly repeated before looking back at Archie and taking the serum out of his hands and gulping it down.
————
Having returned to having white hair, Silas shook his hair a little before checking out the length of it.
“A little longer than last time. Do you want me to give you a haircut?” Archie asked.
“No need. I think I like it this way.” Silas smiled.
So far, he had been gelling it back, but now he just wanted to flow down his face. Plus, it wasn’t actually that long, only reaching up to his eyes. Even Lochras had longer hair than what Silas currently had.
“Hmm.” Silas looked at life and wondered if she knew anything about what volition flames were. However, after thinking for a moment, he decided it was better if he didn’t ask her… Or at least not yet. He didn’t trust her, or any of them for that fact.
He needed to make sure that they were trustworthy before telling them something that could be detrimental to him.
“What’s wrong?” Archie asked.
“Well, it’s just that we were attacked by a bunch of assassins on the way back from our mission.” Silas explained.
“Really? How many?”
“20? Give or take.” Silas lied through his teeth.
“How strong?”
“All of them were equal to a beast with a dull-amethyst core. Though, one of them was a little stronger than that. They killed most of my teammates and only left one alive.” Silas explained
“So, they were all around the gold rank.”
“What?”
“You know… Gold.”
“What the hell is that.” Silas asked with visible confusion.
“You… You don’t know what a gold rank is?” Life asked with even more confusion.
“Did you not go to school?” Archie asked.
“Of course I didn’t! I’m not even 7 yet!” Silas shouted in reply.
“Oh my god.” Life rubbed the bridge of her nose while Archie simply gawked.
“Okay… Uhm, the metal rankings are using by most kingdoms and continents of Gilea… Hell, even the demons use them. Anyway, if you’re a gold rank, that means you’re about the same level as an amethyst core.
The metal rankings don’t really mean anything by themselves, unlike the core rankings.
They are assigned by the kingdom or empire you’re in to indicate how strong you are without using the core stages. If you go to the mercenary hall, you can ask one of the receptionists for the card that tells you what rank you are and how the rankings work.” Archie explained
‘Ah… That explains that poster I saw the last time I was there.’ Silas thought before looking at Archie again and asking the question on his mind.
————-
[A/N: I’m sorry this chapter is longer than usual. I ran out of time writing through it, but I’ll make it up by releasing two chapters in the next hour or two. Again, really sorry about this. I know some of you don’t like it when the chapters go on for too long and would rather me split it into two.]