Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 66: Slickthieves

Whatever this thing was, Cedric was certain that it was a parasite...

Focusing his senses on it, he noticed that the thing was attached to Erica and was siphoning something off of her.

This is the part where the skill ?Demon Lore? reveals its brilliance. Because it gives Cedric unrestricted access to Acala's Book of Demons, and through that, he learns about everything he needs to know about this thing...

"It's a 'Slickthief' - a type of demonic parasite that devours longevity from their host." Cedric commented.

"They discharge fluids that cause insomnia and lethargy to their host, they also evolved in a way that made them almost impervious to sensing abilities, allowing them to feed freely on the people they're attached to. The downside is that their siphoning strength was slow and it would take them a long time before they completely drain their chosen hosts." Arishem added, looking extremely solemn.

"While that might be a downside to them, it's another agony for their host. The fact that they stay mostly invisible and siphon slowly, prolongs the agony and downfall of their host, leaving them unaware of how they died." Arishem continued. "I'm surprised that you know about them though."

"What's puzzling for me is that...how come this thing's here?" Cedric deflected the topic to a more important point. "As far as I'm aware, these could only be found on the Black Lands. Was it the cult that brought them here?"

The Black Lands is a term for the continents that Humanity lost to demons since the invasion. Due to so much corruption, almost all life had vanished from those lands and they were slowly terraformed into places where Demons could thrive.

"It's very unlikely that the cult used these because if they did, they'd be the first victims of these things. Slickthieves don't possess enough intelligence to differentiate Human camps. In their eyes, we're all the same, food." Arishem replied.

"B-Boss! We should bring her to a nearby Isolation Zone and invite an Exorcist! The longer this goes, the harder it will be to remove this thing from her and her team!"

'Her team?' Cedric inwardly noted those words because now's not the time to pry on that. Erica's suffering and she needs help, ASAP.

"I'm pretty sure I can remove this thing from her. That's if you'd let me of course." Cedric offered, catching the attention of the trio.

He was shooting his shot here. He had never done something like this before but he really wanted to try. However, there is a possibility that they would refuse since they seem to know who Erica is...yes, he caught on that earlier.

"How long would it take you?" Arishem asked despite his and his companion's obvious skepticism.

"No more than 15 minutes," Cedric replied.

He didn't miss the way the trio's eyes widened before Arishem replied: "We'll give you an hour. If after that the thing is still attached to her, we're bringing her back with us. She can't afford to lose more of longevity."

"Deal."

Cedric didn't say more, instead, he started preparing for his operation.

Granted, there wasn't much preparation needed. He will mostly rely on Symbols to solve this, curing Erica the way a Scribe would.

He already laid the foundation earlier when drew runes all over Erica's body to reveal the existence of this thing. With that, all he needed was to carve at least a few hundred more Symbols in a correct pattern and he would be able to accomplish what he wanted.

Carving that many Symbols within that time frame might sound challenging to the ears, and that's because it is, but it's by no means impossible. Ultimately, it depends on the skill and expertise of the Scribe. And although Cedric hasn't leveled up his Sub-Class to the max, he has practiced enough to confidently declare that he's an expert by now.

The trio watched as Cedric masterfully carved rune after rune on Erica's body using his quill. Arishem who had little knowledge of Symbols could tell that Cedric hadn't made a mistake so far.

It astonished him greatly to see how much this kid grew in a span of a few months. The memory of Cedric being guarded from everyone the moment he stepped foot in this city still remained fresh in his memory, yet not even a year passed since then and Cedric had already grown so much that he was almost a completely different person.

In his stupor, he didn't notice that Cedric already finished his task. Only when he heard the sharp screech of the Slickthief that he return to reality.

Cedric certainly worked fast. He said that he could do it within 15 minutes but it only took him five to succeed. When the Slickthief tried to escape or attach itself to another host, Cedric once again displayed his brilliance and captured the thing...alive.

One had to know, that the difficulty of catching 'Slickthives' alive was just as difficult as finding a needle on a haystack. Slickthieves had a nasty habit of killing themselves and their host the moment they were exposed.

The parasite should've killed itself the moment it was exposed but Cedric made a pre-emptive move against that because he had predicted it even before knowing what the creature was. He did it the moment he began carving runes on Erica's body.

Using several metal plates filled with hundreds of symbols, Cedric sealed the Slickthief alive. It was doing its best to escape its prison but was too weak to do so.

"Amazing..." one of Arishem's companions uttered in pure awe at the skill Cedric displayed.

"You caught Slickthief alive." The other muttered, "But why not kill it instead?"

"Research," Cedric replied as he held up the prison to the fake sunlight. "I'm leaving this to you to submit to the researchers. I could imagine that samples like this rarely come by so, you can have it. Who knows? Maybe someone out there could develop a way to combat these things more effectively."

Cedric then passed the live sample to Arishem for safekeeping. The trio were speechless at his foresight. That said, Cedric wasn't done proving his skills just yet.

Within the next 15 minutes or so, he busied himself creating more array disks. He made as much as he possibly could before presenting them to Arishem once more.

"Here. You said something about 'her team' earlier, these are for them. I can't imagine that only she got one."

"The blue ones are for you to use to diagnose them if they caught the parasite. Attach it without alerting them of its uses. The seal will make them unconscious while paralyzing the parasite, preventing it from self-destructing. That's if they have them."

"The red ones are for those who have been confirmed to have them. Attach it to them. The seal will not only release them from the parasite's hold, but it will also seal the Slickthieves just like how I did it to the one I caught just now. Meaning more samples for your researchers. If you need more, just send me a message and I'll make more."

Arishem counted at least 10 pairs of seals Cedric made on the fly. The fact that it only took him 15 minutes, more or less, to make them was already insane to the old man. He could also tell that each one was created just as well as he did the rest.

Now, it's even more understandable why Acala favors this young man so much.

"Thank you. You might not know this yet but you just did our government a huge favor by saving her, and her team should it be confirmed that they too caught the same parasites." Arishem stated.

"Ah, I knew she wasn't a simple woman." Cedric chuckled. "She's way too 'disciplined' compared to the rest. But well...here, she's just my neighbor so don't sweat it too much."

"Though I'd prefer it if you could minimize my presence in your reports." Cedric requested. "I'm not yet ready to face the music head-on if you catch my drift."

"We will do our best." Arishem readily agreed.

Compared to the amount of favors Cedric would be doing for them, this much in exchange was practically nothing. His Lv.8 System Authority will stop those who would try to pry dead in their tracks. As for the others, Arishem would deal with it.

"Well, since we're done here, I guess I'd start roaming the city tomorrow morning." Cedric declared. "I'd imagine that you three would be busy from here on out, though. I will give Arishem updates from time to time. Hopefully, we can catch all of them to free this city."

"I'll be expecting from you then. Thank you for helping us." Arishem replied.

After saying that, the trio didn't waste any time and left to return to their base.

Once they were outside Cedric's field of senses, Arishem sent a mental message to his companions:

'You witnessed his skills up close and personal. I don't think I need to remind you but just in case, I still will. Do not, by any means, try to antagonize him. We will protect his identity until the day comes that he's ready to 'face the music', are we clear on this?'

'Loud and clear, Boss.' The other two replied with a determined expression.