novelThe First Step 1
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The Shapeshifter bloodline.
Daneel had only said that he would be taking the Path of the Cockroach in front of his Sovereigns as he had wanted to see their reactions. Of course, in reality, his plan had been to choose this and find some way to overcome its weaknesses so that he could use the powers of the Cockroach, and the only other reason he hadn't spelled that out was that although he was confident that he could accomplish it, he hadn't wanted to talk about it until he did so.
Ever since Daneel had heard about it, it had completely captivated his entire mind, and it had even shaped the whole image he had regarding what a'perfect' Bloodline was. In fact, unconsciously, he had even begun to think that this was the peak that no one could even dream of - to be able to mimic any bloodline that one wished, instead of being restricted to one, which would lead to one having some or the other drawback.
How amazing would it be to be able to be a Dragon at one moment, with the ability to melt anything with its blazing flames, and then instantly transforming to an Ice Shark that would not be tied down by the vulnerability that Dragons had towards ice?
There were many, many more examples, and just the idea of making his own path by'fixing' this bloodline really appealed to Daneel, as it symbolized what he had done on this continent so far. He prided himself on the fact that he had made his own unique way, and accomplishing this would be him continuing on that route, as he wouldn't be just taking his pick among the strongest Paths and Bloodlines that had been passed down.
Any way he saw it, this was the Bloodline that he saw himself having in the future, and he was ready to do anything that was necessary to obtain it.
True, there were all kinds of obstacles, but he was excited to tackle them.
Yet, before all that, he first had to ensure that the recovery of the Mad Doctor would be pushed back by quite a bit.
So, to fulfill this first step of his plan, Daneel walked out of the room, full of expectations and eagerness.
Yet... It couldn't be helped that he was walking into one of the most boring parts of any plan- surveillance.
It was a consolation that the system was the one which did most of the work, which made Daneel admire the patience of spies back on Earth who had to undertake this kind of task in harsh conditions day in and day out, at times even starving themselves and letting their body go numb as they couldn't move and give away that position.
The newcomer, whose identity the Church was using to infiltrate the Sect of Hedon had to be followed, as Daneel needed to eavesdrop on one of the conversations that he would definitely have in order to recruit someone to do his dirty work to awaken the Mad Doctor. This was so that he could find out the method that was going to be used, in order to form a plan to delay him.
Daneel adopted a very cautious method - he had no idea what kind of spells the man might have up around him, and he didn't want to risk exposing himself. Thus, he had the system use very basic spells to keep a track on the man, and for two days, all he did was move around the sect while being in a set radius from the newcomer while doing various things to occupy himself. He didn't waste time, though - he focused on a few aspects of his own that he had neglected recently, namely, his Paragon powers, Paragon constructs and how he could incorporate these skills of his into the future plan that he had made for himself.
2 days was the deadline that Daneel had set for himself, as after that, it would be too risky to continue depending on the possibility of a breakthrough in eavesdropping on the man. If he found nothing in two days, he had decided that he would rather be proactive, and as he had obtained nothing productive, Daneel began thinking about what else he could do.
If he couldn't eavesdrop, then he simply had to be part of the conversation.
And that meant... luring the Church into trying to recruit him.
This meant that Daneel had to take on a character that would be very appealing for the Church, and so, with this objective in mind, he began going around the sect, as his present identity was a bit too unappealing for this project.
This guy was just a bit too low-key, and he was also not very talented. There were a few ideas that Daneel had that he could have used even with this identity, but before that, he wanted to see what else he could find.
The problem was that he had a feeling that no matter what method he chose, it would be pretty risky for the identity of the person he was going to use, and he didn't want to condemn someone who hadn't done anything wrong, per se, in his life, except being a bully, to death.
The Sect of Hedon was a sect which focused on one's desires, after all, and this meant that there were actually quite a lot of interesting characters.
For example, there was one guy who was known for gaining pleasure in seeing his opponent in pain, and no one dared to get into a fight with him. Even when he engaged in duels with those stronger than him, he would use all kinds of underhanded moves such as even getting spices from the kitchen and using them to blind his opponents to win and then enjoy seeing them as they winced when their blood flowed out from all the wounds that he would inflict upon them.
What kind of a serial killer would this guy turn into when he became a Champion? Daneel could tell that if he was allowed to continue, and if he did breakthrough, he would become a second Mad Doctor, and it was very possible that he might even be madder than the first.
There was another whose desire was women, and he had a strange devilish beauty that gave him the ability to make almost any woman fall for him. There were rumors that the Heroes of the sect had checked whether this was some kind of Path that he had made for himself, but apparently, the results were inconclusive. All of this would have been fine, but the problem was that he found some kind of joy in going after the women who were most involved with his opponents, and using his charm to make them fall for him in order to make his foes unstable during combat. He was famous for winning many duels in this way.
All of these characters were... 'interesting', for sure, but none of them stood out as someone whom Daneel would be able to use. The former was an option as it wouldn't be too bad to send him to his death, but he was also known to be mentally unstable, and Daneel wasn't sure whether he could pull off that kind of character.
Finally, after searching for a bit more, Daneel found a candidate who fit his brief.
Ideally, he was looking for someone who was smart, as any organization would look for that kind of person when recruiting for an important job.
His name was Vance, and in fact, he was one of the quietest individuals in the sect.
At least, that was the impression that he had painstakingly made for himself as he wanted to use it to hide the truth that he was actually the one behind one of the largest rings of extortion in the entire Sect.
Under him were all kinds of people - cooks, cleaners, newcomers, experts, and he paid them all handsomely.
What he paid them for... Was information.
The kind of information that would kill people if it got out.
The whole reason Daneel had even found out about him was that there was news that recently, one of the sect members had been hauled away by sect officials on suspicion that he was going to look for the Church to join them.
This was, of course, the thing that was scorned upon the most in all of the Big Four, and initially, Daneel had thought that this might be someone who had been contacted by that person from the Church.
Yet, on further thought, that hasn't seemed possible as that guy from the Church was using that strange contraption to keep the mouths of those he contacted shut. He definitely would not be stupid enough to allow this kind of information to leak, and because he was still going around freely, Daneel concluded that they weren't connected.
A few whispers had led him to the truth that the one who had exposed this was Vance, who had tried to extort a lot of money out of him.
The one in question had not thought that it would be possible for anyone to find proof, but contrary to what he had expected, after he rejected the offer from Vance, proof was instantly found against him and he found sect officials knocking on his door.
What was worse is that he had no proof against Vance, and even though he tried blaming him during questioning, all they had been able to do was bring Vance in for questioning and then let him go as there was nothing conclusive.
Vance had alleged that this was because of their rivalry, and he had even created proof to that end.
Daneel had to say that he was quite impressed by this guy, as he appreciated people with cunning minds like these. Yet, what he really didn't like was that being a part of the Sect, he was giving an option to a potential traitor to continue down that path without immediately alerting everyone he could. True, from the perspective of that guy, it would seem as if he should only care about himself, and even though Daneel understood this, he found himself gravitating towards choosing him for his project.
After thinking for a bit and realising that if this was only one incident that had been exposed and that there might be many more that he didn't know about which might be much worse, Daneel made his choice, and that night, he approached Vance's dorm like a silent snake in the bushes stalking its prey.
He knocked on the door, and as soon as it opened, it was all over.
Using a trinket similar to the one he had used during the Legacy Battle, Vance, the infamous information king, came under his control.
As the man was only a Warrior, it was a piece of cake to go through his memories, and Daneel soon found that he had been right.
There were 16 instances in total where Vance had allowed people to hide information that had resulted in the deaths of others for monetary benefits. In one, he had even taken a contract of sorts to hide the information that a specific spot in a forest had a hidden formation that had been laid down by someone, and this had led to a group being massacred, as the contractor had had an enmity with one of those in that group.
One statement perfectly summed up Vance - he was someone who would do anything for money, and as Daneel went further and further back in his memory, he found out why.
Vance had been born in extreme poverty, and there had been times when he had had to starve for days, begging on the streets of his village, until he had been recruited by chance due to his potential.
This didn't justify him being responsible for the deaths of over 40 Humans and 12 Warriors, though.
Well, no matter how this was going to go, Vance was going to be Daneel's identity.
Looking around the room and finding none of the wealth that the guy was supposed to have accumulated, Daneel checked his memories again and and found that Vance had also been smart enough to use a hiding spot outside the sect to store of his ill-begotten assets. f𝚛𝐞𝚎𝘄𝒆𝚋𝐧oѵ𝑒𝚕 - 🅽🅽novel
Well, that was where his first stop was going to be, as he would have to use those Ker Gems.
He had no information regarding what the Church was doing, so he was short on time. Hence, he began the plan he had already made without any further ado.
Busying himself completely, he prepared to go all out, and what he was going to do... would definitely create a stir in the sect that would definitely not go unnoticed by the Church, and this was exactly what Daneel was going for.
...
Two days later, the newcomer who was responsible for Percy blinding himself was going down the central path of the Sect with a neutral expression on his face while grumbling inside his mind due to the many troubles that he had had to face since coming here.
Yet, his thoughts paused when he heard two people talking between themselves.
"Hey, did you hear about that new association? They're actually giving out money to those who join!"
"Ya, the Mad Doctor Association, right? I was just on my way to check it out... let's go together!"
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