Chapter 98: Princely cloak

’Foli-folia... foli what?’

Miles gave up trying to pronounce it halfway through. He’d never bothered learning any languages besides English.

’I’ll stick with [Delusion] then.’

Even though the name had changed, it still responded when he mentally called out to the ability, so there were no issues there.

Speaking of issues, the others finally reacted to Grimm’s outburst behind. Ryan’s voice came first.

"What is it? What happened, Grimm?"

Miles snuck a glance behind to find the confused boy sitting upright on his thermal blanket. He grasped slowly at the air in front of his face, his confusion only deepening each time his hand met nothing.

He stumbled over a reply to Ryan.

"There... there was this thing."

"Thing?"

"Yeah, it was... I don’t know, it was on my face, where did it go?"

Mia raised a brow at him.

"There was nothing there, Grimm. You just woke up screaming and grasping the air in front of you. I thought something actually happened to you."

"It did, I’m not lying, there was..."

He trailed off, eyes widening slightly as realization dawned on him. His lips curled into a sneer and he glared directly at Brandon.

"What’re you looking at me for? I’ve been sitting here the whole time. I have better things to do than waste time messing with you."

His retort did little to ease Grimm’s glare; if anything, it looked like it only stoked his suspicions more.

They both stared each other down, letting the tension simmer. Right as Miles was considering saying something to stop it from reaching a boiling pitch, Ryan stepped in.

"It’s probably just a dream, alright. No need to butt heads over it. We’ve all been under pressure for so long, it’s understandable to have them."

He lowered his hands placatingly towards both of them. They glared at each other for a moment longer before slowly backing down.

Mia let out an amused snort at the sight, very quickly earning a disapproving look from Ryan for her troubles.

Meanwhile, Miles, the actual mastermind behind all of it, scratched the back of his neck and focused entirely on the screen before him, trying to steer his mind away from the mess he’d created.

[Upgrades]

[EGO: Little prince by the sea Lv2(0/1000)]

[Skills: Folie à deux(Unique) Lv2(0/1000), Cold Resistance(Common) Lv1(0/100)]

Focusing on the new name made it expand.

[Folie à deux (Unique) Lv2(0/1000): Truly, what is the world, but a mirror of our minds.]

Annoyingly, the description still remained the same as last time even with the new name.

’Gaia sure loves being vague.’

Still, it wasn’t like he was completely clueless now. That little episode with Grimm was enough of an indicator.

’I can affect other people now.’

This was it. Not exactly an offensive skill he could use to take others out, but it was still a skill he found incredibly useful. Perhaps even much more than a straight-up offensive skill.

The only downside was that using it seemed to cost much more than just deluding himself. A single starfish had been enough to shock his mind. Although he suspected that wasn’t his limit yet, it couldn’t be too far off from it.

He focused on the name again. It didn’t mean much to him, not all of it. Although he barely knew a lick of French, he could still recognize the numbers.

’Deux means two. Two something then.’

If he were to build off the logic from [Delusion], then that would suggest he could influence two people now.

’Two different people? Or just myself and another. Hmm...’

He manipulated the formless appendage again, and felt it respond almost instantly.

Closing his eyes, he furrowed his brows a bit.

It was somewhat difficult continuously picturing the appendage as formless, so he tried changing his mental image of it to a string. Its vague form responded to his thoughts, collapsing into a string.

It was still invisible, but he could sense more clearly now where it began and where it ended.

One he could easily stretch and manipulate around.

He extended it towards Grimm again, extra careful this time. Once again the boy didn’t notice anything strange, and the string attached to some unknown part of him.

Tamping down the urge to try imagining anything again, he focused on splitting the string into two. It didn’t budge.

’Guess it can only affect one person.’

He broke the connection, drawing the string back into himself.

He’d almost taken a step away from the machine when he suddenly remembered something.

He focused on his EGO.

[EGO: Little prince by the sea.]

[Little prince by the sea: Self-exiled from the rest of the world, he claims a quiet shore by the sea as his own tiny kingdom. Oh dearest little prince, when shall you return to that beautiful sea? Oh lonesome prince, when shall you drown in it?]

[Effects]

[Awakened EGO: Standard for all Users, backlash and costs of all skills reduced.]

[Princely cloak(Vestige): Delicate hands of a long-forgotten soul did clasp this garment on the shoulders of a once happy prince. It is a remnant of better times.]

[Unlocked at level 3.]

[Unlocked at level 4.]

[Unlocked at level 5.]

He brought up the vestige’s description.

[Description: A black blanket capable of resizing itself to fit the user. Provides protection once worn. Can be summoned at will (Unlocked).]

’It’s finally unlocked.’

It had previously been locked because he didn’t have a level two skill.

Miles stared at its description, then scratched his head, a bit puzzled.

’Do I just summon...’

The moment he thought of summoning it, a shift occurred. From behind, he could hear the others gasping.

Black, soft scribbles slowly appeared around him, one after the other, overlapping each other deliberately, like an artist’s delicate shading. It soon formed an almost cloudy layer of scribbles around him.

Once the last stroke appeared, the layer collapsed in on itself. Miles felt something soft land on his shoulders, gently wrapping itself around him.

He looked down to find a coat of a vivid, shifting black hue wrapped around him. Its edges clasped together at the top of his chest in a neat overhand knot.