Yugioh Card Summoner

And so, the day of the finals arrived. Not that I really cared. Rudevik was sadly done in yesterday, so my favorite fighter was no longer in the tournament.

But I did have a reason to be in the stadium. Even outside of enjoying the pre-game show. Wendy got me the permission to appraise people at my own leisure, saying that they couldn’t stop me even if they tried. I just needed to report if I found anything overly suspicious.

Luckily I didn’t need to appraise everyone one by one. With Janina’s help, we made a Soul Magic spell that can combine with the Appraisal skill to form basically a skill search spell. Or in this case, title search. We named it Soul Skill-Search. Would have named it Soul Search, but that is already a spell. One that locates nearby souls.

It can only be done if you have both Soul Magic and Appraisal, or if you are skilled enough to imitate Appraisal with pure magic. So basically if you are Janina. Because when Alice tried Janina’s version of the spell, she instantly gained the Appraisal skill.

And no, it can’t be used as a shortcut for gaining the skill. Alice could cast the spell because of her unique-racial skill. You’d need a skill like hers to be able to cast it. Or stupid amounts of magic knowledge, which most likely would result in you getting a skill like Magical Girl.

But yeah. Armed with our new spell, Alice and I scanned the audience. We could run over everyone with just a few casts of the spell, so it took us no time at all.

And in total, we found three people who had the Power Structure title.

One was Power Structure 7-E-411. One was Power Structure 7-E-412. And the third was Power Structure 6-U-90.

Based on the numbers, E-411 and 412 likely came here together, even if they aren’t seated anywhere near each other. But the 6-U-90 is something separate.

I made sure I did a detailed Appraisal for each of them, finding out that the two 7-E were weak. ... okay, subjective. They were level 22. The skills they had were Enhanced Vision and Enhanced Hearing, one had Sword Technique, while the other had Spear Technique. Both also had Mana Control and Flickering Step.

Nothing crazy, but still an interesting set of skills. Especially since Enhanced Vision and Enhanced Hearing are racial skills, and neither of them is of a race that has access to those racial skills.

That means they were given them artificially. I think skill orbs could do that, maybe. But more likely the Power Structure skill, or that Magical Elves unique skill, allowed the States to give them those skills.

The 6-U-90 on the other hand was a lot more interesting. Because he was an honorary Baron of Narra Kingdom. I know because I acquired the Kingdom's tax records and the name matches. No, he doesn't have a title telling his rank like I do. But somehow the States must have gotten to him and either brainwashed him or just otherwise got him on their side.

I made sure to note down the names of all of these people, and with Numeron Code’s invisibility and intangibility combo, I got a really nice up close image of them. I compiled all of that into a report and sent it to Wendy, hopefully getting an arrest warrant for all three.

---

Getting the warrants for the two randoms didn’t take long at all, as in just 30 minutes, Wendy texted me the permission to take them in, adding that she also had informed the captain of security for the event. Sadly I couldn’t just go and snag them from the audience, but I can keep an eye on them. And now that I know who they are, I can easily find them with Soul Search.

The noble was a bit more difficult, as a warrant for him would need to be signed by a high ranked noble in Narra Kingdom. Luckily we had phones, so just after the second semi-finals, we got the permission to take him in as well.

Sadly we didn’t get the chance for it until after the finals. The winner of the tournament was a Narra Kingdom S-ranker. He was a twin-sword user, focusing a lot on speed and hitting weak points. Likely because his usual weapons simply wouldn’t cut giant S-ranks unless he does. He also used throwing daggers, as well as tools such as paralytic poisons.

It might seem underhanded, but it is what is effective against people, so he does him. And admittedly our Damage Bracelets made his poisons much less effective than they should be.

But anyway. Let’s get to us actually taking in these people. I personally went after the noble, while Alice and Wilma took in 412 and Unika and Lua took in 411. Yes, backed by the event security.

The two 400s were quickly subdued by Alice and Lua’s magics, both putting their target to sleep. Alice with her unique-racial, and Lua with Blood Magic.

The noble tried to talk his way out of it, but against a warrant signed by King Narra, he had no choice but to surrender. Well he could have tried to fight, but he only had one servant with him, and they clearly didn’t want to fight. And his own level is all of 16, so he didn’t stand a chance.

We brought him into the headquarters of the city’s guard, while the other two were taken to a different building.

---

“So.” I began the questioning. Yes, they allowed me to question him. “How did you acquire the title Power Structure 6-U-90?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” He answered with a straight face. “I simply woke up with it in my Status one day.”

Despite his poker face, none of us believed him.

I wasn’t the only one here. Sage Ian and the ever so mysterious cat-girl Ula were also with me. And no, I’m not telling you what Ula does for her work. She does the Ula job.

“Second question. Do you know what that title means? And do you know where it originates from?” I asked.

“I have no idea.” He answered.

“And you never questioned why you have this title? Never even attempted to find out why you have it or if it does something?”

“I was planning to do so during my stay here. I simply didn’t have the time.”

“No time to send a letter to the Sage’s tower?” I asked. “You must know they have the best library in any of the Kingdoms. If anyone would find out, it would be them.”

“As I said, I didn’t have the time.”

“No time for a simple letter?” I asked. “I will acknowledge that the tower might not have responded during your stay here, but we would have gotten back to you eventually.”

“... what does a low rank like you know anyway?” He asked.

“... we are both barons, you moron. But that is a good point. I really shouldn’t be one. Laura, do me a favor and open up my status.” I spoke up.

What Laura brought up was a fake version of my status. It showed me being level 232, didn’t have some of my skills, and was otherwise just a much slimmed down version. It still had the big, publicly known skills. It also showed me with just Advanced System Support, not Perfect. And it hid skills and titles related to demons, just to avoid me having to explain all of that.

“As you may notice, I’m a great sage. So yes, I would know.” I pointed out. “So, want to tell me why you didn’t question your mysterious title? Or should I answer that question with my theory?”

“I have already answered your question.” He told me.

“So theory time it is.” I decided. “Laura, image from the parliament, please.” I said, as Laura brought up one of my memories on the System screen, showing the US parliament building. She then began to overlay appraisal results of the people onto the ‘screenshot’.

“Do you notice anything?” I asked him, as Laura highlighted their titles. “And do you perhaps know where this is?”

“... I do notice they each seem to have a Power Structure title.” The noble said, and for the first time, there was some minor emotions in his voice. He sounded quite disappointed. Maybe he thought he was special having it or something.

“At least you spotted that. So, any clue where this is?”

“... I don’t know.” He said, bringing his voice back to an even level.

“Well, this happens to be the parliament building of the United States.” I told him.

“...” As I said that, his face twisted for just a moment, but he quickly regained his poker face.

“So. Want to tell me how you acquired a title that originates from the United States?” I asked. “Or should I let Ula scratch you up a bit.”

“I do know how to torture people.” Ula added.

And for absolutely no reason, I’m not surprised she knows. Fricking spy assassin. I need some.

Oh right. I have two. Einar and Eline can quite literally sneak into most places with their skills, and can most definitely kill someone. Not that I’ve ever asked them to, but they probably would if I did.

Though if I need someone dead, I won’t send one of those two. I’ll just do it myself as I don’t want it on their conscious.

“So. How about you make this easy for us and tell us how you got the title. And tell us what you have to do to make up for having it.” I asked.

“...” Sadly, my ‘friend’ didn’t want to answer.

“Have it your way then.”

If he isn’t going to talk, I’ll just ask his memories. But before I could get to that, I got some info from Alice and Unika.

The two of them had been observing the interrogation of the 400s, so both of them had seen as the two spies had their eyes glow for a bit, before they died. Or to be more precise, killed themselves.

They apparently had a poison capsule hidden in their mouths, and after not talking, their eyes began to flow and they bit into it and soon died, the glow fading from their eyes.

Lua cleared the poison and resurrected them, but when Alice appraised them afterwards, they no longer had the Power Structure title.

“Interesting.” I said, mostly to myself. “Did you know that your Power Structure friends just killed themselves?”

“... what?” He asked, being quite convincingly confused. Or being actually confused. “I didn’t have any…”

“Not even these two?” I asked, bringing up the pictures I used for their wanted posters. Okay, we didn’t make posters for them. Didn’t have the time. I also added their appraisal results.

“... I don’t know them.” He said.

“Understandable. But since you are being difficult, it is time I do the heavy handed thing.” I said. “Ian. Ula. Please step a bit closer so I can bring you in as well.” I requested the two others. Ula went along with it immediately, but Ian seemed to question me. “Trust me, it is nothing bad. For us at least.”

He then also approached, so I took all four of us into the Memory Palace.

---

There, things became simple. I tied our subject down with Dark Chain, and began skimming his memories. I specifically searched for anything that related to his Power Structure title.

Soon enough we had a memory.

It was a couple months ago, when an elf visited the man in his small manor. And no, it wasn’t Power Structure 1 elf. Sadly I can’t appraise a memory, so I don’t know who they really are.

They offered the man a higher ranked position if they joined the United States, and in return, all the man had to do was spy on the finals of the adventuring tournament.

Our honorary baron instantly agreed, which changed the tune of the conversation. Because the elves eyes soon began to glow, and their voice changed, almost like someone possessed them. Which likely happened, as the elf placed his hand on the man’s forehead, giving him the Power Structure title.

After that, the elf returned to normal and handed the man a stone, one that looked similar to the magic stone the PS1 elf spoke to, and told him to speak his reports to that stone.

With that, the elf left his manor.

I skimmed his memories further, but outside of him talking to the stone, there was nothing. Not that it really mattered, as we had this guy dead to rights on treason, so he likely won’t survive for all that much longer.

And clearly Power Structure has some sort of possession aspect to it. I don’t know if it was the original holder of Power Structure that possessed the elf, or if it was just someone higher in rank, but either way, the fact that it can be done, and that someone who isn’t the originator can spread it, is terrifying.

I think the only potential weakness is that it might have to be the originator taking control of one of the ‘blessed’. But that is only if they need to be the one taking control. It is fully possible someone with only a single number can take control of a person underneath them and spread the curse.

I know it technically isn’t one, but it does feel like that. And while death does seem to be a way to get rid of it, it might be because the other two died while being possessed that they were released from the Power Structure.