Chapter 144: I Believe in Me

“You heard me,” I said as I pulled the chaos seed from my satchel. “I will use both. Why settle for one when I can use two?”

“While I can’t see your level, I can see you haven’t advanced your class yet. You can’t fit two items in a single upgrade slot,” Vitek answered.

“I know that. And you’re right, I haven’t. But you are wrong in assuming I only have one upgrade slot.”

Vitek stared at me, mouth slightly open, before he slowly shook his head. “You’re telling me your [Disguise] skill has two upgrade slots?”

I walked up to one of the zwotokapka flowers and gently pulled it out of the earth. “Yeah. All my skills have two upgrade slots.”

His eyes grew even larger. “All your… All your skills have two upgrade slots?”

“Yup.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I figured you had to be special when the Church of Stvora put that unparalleled bounty on your head. But then I saw you and the… and now this. They really sent you here to free us, didn’t they?”

“Hah! I was sent here by one man, and one man alone. And he didn’t send me here to free you, he sent me here to die. Unfortunately for him, that’s not going to happen. Once I’m done here, I’m going to take his head and hang it from my belt. You’re right that I’m going to free you, though. I’m going to free you because the Church tried to kill me. And they also tried to kill Kasia! Can you believe that? So yeah. They all have to die now as well. Can’t have people trying to kill me or Kasia. So there will be a lot of killing, which will coincidentally result in a lot of people being free, but it’s not why I’m here.”

He lowered his hand and gave me a faint smile. “If that’s what you must tell yourself to keep going. I understand. You’re like an angel of retribution.”

“Call me whatever you want. Or just call me Hecate.” I activated my wings. “Though I suppose I could pass for an angel.”

“Woah. You really are an angel.”

“Not really, but I’ll take it.”

He pointed at Bogumir. “What’s his story? How come he can talk?”

“This little guy?” I patted his head.

“Fuck off,” Bogumir spat.

“Oh, come on. Don’t pretend you don’t like it.” I turned my attention back to Vitek. “Anyway, he also tried to kill me. Didn’t go so well for him. Usually doesn’t. Only Bogumir here is apparently not that easy to kill, and I shrunk him down before I realized he was still alive. An honest mistake. At the end of the day, I’m glad I didn’t kill him. We’re basically best friends now. Well, not really, cause Kasia is my best friend. But I do consider Bogumir a friend. He has a good heart, even though he’d never admit it. Okay, maybe he doesn’t have a heart now, but metaphorically speaking he has a big heart. He’s a pretty good guy if you ignore all the complaining. Which is hard to do because he complains a lot. I don’t hold it against him, though, cause he’s just a head. Complaining is all he has left. It’s his only joy in life.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Bogumir asked.

I nodded. “See? Complaining and swearing. It’s all he does. But he means well. The Church also did him wrong and he hasn’t gotten over that betrayal. It’s alright Bogey, we’re here for ya, buddy. We’ll get you through this.”

“You’re the one putting me through this!”

I shook my head. “One day we will teach him accountability as well. One day he will accept that he is responsible for his own life. Once he has reached acceptance, he will be open to growth. Then he can walk his own path with confidence, instead of being stuck in one place, never moving forward. Okay, well, maybe not walk, because he has no legs anymore. And maybe he won’t be moving forward either. He probably won’t be moving at all. I don’t know. We’ll figure something out. Maybe we’ll attach him to a bird so he can fly around. What I’m trying to say is: everything will be fine.”

“I don’t… I don’t. What the fuck,” Bogumir muttered.

“Right,” Vitek said. “I’m not sure I was able to follow your story, but it seems like you care a lot about Bogumir. Or don’t. Either way thanks, I think?”

“You’re very welcome,” I said cheerfully, proud of our blossoming friendship that I was sure would last a lifetime. “Healthy relationships are built on clear communication and mutual understanding, right, Bogumir?”

Bogumir let out a low groan.

Vitek looked between the two of us then shook his head and laughed.

“Alright,” I said. “Now let’s get to upgrading my skill.”

I opened the System and navigated to [Disguise Self].

[Disguise Self]

Type: Active

Ever felt like your face just wasn’t doing you any favors? Now it doesn’t have to be your face! Just try to remember who you actually are.

Disguise yourself as a person you have seen before. Low upkeep.

Since I already had the flower in my hand, it made sense to offer that first.

[Disguise Self - Upgrade Preview]

Offering: [Zwotokapka - Flower]

Offering: [Empty]

Resulting Modifiers:

This skill is now significantly more effective. Those attempting to see through your disguise are more likely to feel a sense of calm when they look at you. Perception checks against your disguise have a higher chance to fail during sundown.

Yeah. That was a solid upgrade. The transparency of the flowers probably made them harder to spot during sundown as well. Their scent was calming. The upgrades made sense. Would have been nice if it added some kind of toggle to smell like strawberry-vanilla, but I wasn’t complaining. The upgrade would be good.

I added the chaos seed to the other upgrade slot.

[Disguise Self - Upgrade Preview]

Offering: [Zwotokapka - Flower]

Offering: [Chaos Seed]

Resulting Modifiers:

This skill is now extremely effective. Those attempting to see through your disguise are more likely to feel a sense of calm when they look at you, though there is a chance they may experience an intense sense of dread instead. Perception checks against your disguise have a higher chance to fail during sundown.

Your disguise may subtly shift to match the expectations of the observer, meaning two people who have observed you may see different things.

There is a rare chance that people looking at you may occasionally, momentarily, see your face as a cluster of blooming flowers or a void of absolute darkness. This may lead them to question their own sanity.

There is a rare chance that people looking at you will smell the faint scent of the zwotokapka flower.

There is a rare chance that objects you touch are affected by your disguise.

+23 Chaos. Scales with level.

May have other effects not listed in description. Effects are subject to change.

“I see what you meant about the chaos seed,” I said.

While it took the skill from “significantly more effective” to “extremely effective” it did have some things that gave me pause. Giving someone a sense of dread may be the opposite of what I want. It could also be exactly what I needed, depending on the situation. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to choose the effect. The way it was written made it appear that calm was the likeliest, which was probably for the best.

The disguise shifting based on expectations was good in theory, but if there were ten people and they all saw me differently, wouldn’t they figure out I was using a disguise? Why was that in here? Seemed like the perfect way to get me spotted and killed. If it was just one person it would be very good, though.

Seeing my face as a bunch of flowers was a bunch of bullshit. The chance may be rare, but seriously?

As for the scent smelling, that didn’t excite me either. I was the one who wanted to smell the flowers! Would it work if I looked in the mirror? That would increase its usefulness by 100%.

I wasn’t sure what to think about affecting objects. What would that even mean? If I touched a mug would it look like my head? Would it look like a bouquet of flowers? Sometimes the System was so vague with its descriptions it actually raised more questions than it answered.

I also wasn’t sure if increasing my Chaos stat was a good thing or a bad thing. Things were already pretty chaotic without having invested in it. It probably was a bad thing.

May have other effects not listed in description. Effects are subject to change.

Right. It probably has a bunch of hidden effects that may end up biting me in the ass. And to make matters worse, effects are subject to change. What the hell? Did that mean that if I took this upgrade it might have different effects tomorrow? Were the benefits worth the risks?

I regretted I left Vasil behind to take care of the town. That had been pretty dumb of me. It probably would have been smart to discuss this with him. Buuut, I was a grown woman. I could make my own decisions. I also didn’t feel like waiting to discuss it with him. I’d make this decision myself. I could do this. I believe in me.

So what would be the smartest thing to do here? If I were me, what would I choose?