Hazenoki, another reincarnated sorcerer, knew he messed up big time. He didn't intervene, seeing the strength of the girl, even though Reggie is his ally.
He is not surprised when the foreign sorceress exorcised Reggie, but when he felt paralysed after she talked, he felt fear and tried to use his cursed technique, but failed.
"You should have run when you still had the chance instead of peeking, Iori Hazenoki."
He can sense a few strings holding him in his place. His body involuntarily walked on its own.
Lucy controlled Hazenoki like a puppet to bring him out from his hiding spot.
'I can't absorb power without transforming them into puppets'
She didn't even bother transforming Hazenoki into a puppet; she knew the Marionnese change spell wouldn't work.
After all, this is the guy whose technique is to blow up his body parts; he actively does it and regenerates his body. His willpower is beyond human mentality.
She thought as she held her hand out from where the strings had come out.
"Time for some experiments."
Lucy took Hazenoki to Reggie's liar.
There, she tried something else. Keeping Hazenoki's body still. Lucy's hand transformed into a black octopus tentacle, the tentacle crawled into Hazenoki's mouth, who could only watch and dread in fear.
He can't even determine what kind of monstrousity he's dealing with. He want to scream but he has no mouth.
Lucy's tentacle held the cursed object. She took it out while pumping the positive energy into Hazenoki's original owner to keep him alive in case he dies when extracting the cursed object.
Her soul sensing is extremely high compared to ordinary humans or even sorcerers. She could easily divide the cursed object from the human body.
Lucy could read the memories of the cursed object. She 'influenced' the cursed object to the point that the memories became chaotic, fighting the influenced memories.
"Now, if I consume this object, will the system take it as power? "
All of Lucy's power comes from the system. She wanted to test what happens if she has power from outside the system.
Lucy absorbed Hazenoki's cursed object. Since she's a monster now. She can feel and control the change that is happening from the Hazenoki's cursed object.
His cursed energy mixed with hers increased her cursed energy reserves, and then, a new imprint appeared in her 'mind', but since she doesn't have an actual brain, it didn't manifest immediately.
'This is different. When I got Reggie Star's power. I didn't have these types of limitations. I can use Reggie Star's technique even without a brain'
She manifested a brain inside her head. Hazenoki's cursed technique appeared to her. Hazenoki's influenced memories occupied her brain, but she simply destroyed most of her brain except for the part that contains the cursed technique.
She channeled the cursed energy through the technique, and she could feel her flesh.
She ripped two fingers, although as a [Monster], she detached them, unlike Hazenoki, who is a human and needs to rip the flesh. Even when the fingers are separated from her, she can still feel their presence.
She threw one finger, which caused a mini fiery explosion like a dynamite.
She channeled positive energy into the cursed technique, when she threw the finger, there was an explosion again, but this time .... It's an icy one. And it didn't 'explode' per se, it froze the area, and she felt an impact.
Even after using the cursed technique, the system didn't recognise the power.
'New observation, the system is not exactly giving me the same powers of the 'characters'. At least, not with the same input, but the output remains the same.'
"Ah~, the ever-increasing mysteries of the system. At least, it is somewhat engaging."
Since she has gained the innate cursed technique. She no longer has any use for Hazenoki's cursed object. Lucy turned the object into a puppet and absorbed the cursed energy, increasing her cursed energy reserves even more.
However, the system didn't recognise the power. She can still use the 'Explosive flesh' cursed technique.
[Lucy Evans Colony 1 Points 10]
"Oh, that's great news. As for you guys,"
She summoned and waved her wand. 5 simple metal puppets appeared.
Two of them held the bodies of the people who were still alive but unconscious.
Lucy escorted them out of the colony with the three puppets as guards.
Being alone, Lucy spat the cursed object out and destroyed it.
"Now then..."
Lucy's chest opened up, inside it there are a bunch of papers. She took a stack out.
"I should have used them as soon as I got them."
She burned the receipts, and soon she gained knowledge about more than 100 languages.
"How is my Japanese now? Oh! That's so much better!" Before, her Japanese was awkward due to a strong accent, even though she had the knowledge, but now, she can speak like a native.
Not just this, she has gained mastery of 100+ languages. Although they are major ones. But there are more than 7000 languages in the world.
"Reggie's technique is incredible!"
As she's mesmerized by the Contractual re-creation technique. A sudden thought struck her mind.
Lucy took her mobile out and she downloaded the classes for Ventriloquism and knitting. Since this is Reggie's lair, he had a printer lying there to prepare for battle. She used it to download the receipts for learning classes.
Burning the receipts, Lucy gained the knowledge and training experience of ventriloquism and knitting.
[Mission 1: Learn ventriloquism(completed)]
[Reward: 5% Assimilation.
Would you like to receive it?]
[Mission 2: learn Knitting (completed)]
[Reward: 15% Assimilation.
Would you like to receive it?]
Mentally accepting the rewards, Lucy gained a sudden increase in her magic power as a third line manifested on her face, she hid the mark with shapeshifting. Along with that, Lucy got all the knowledge about magic, including basic spells.
Although magic spells are great. Lucy felt it could not hold a candle to Contractual re-creation. It is just that versatile. Granted, only in a setting like the modern day.
"I'm progressing too fast, completely opposite to the time it took me in level 0."
[Name: Lucy Evans Potter
Level: 1+
World: Low
Templates: [Reggie Star] [Abel Walker]
New Draw(s): 1
Missions: 1]
"Oh? I can level up."
Lucy wanted to press the level-up button, but she didn't want to lose the contractual re-creation just yet.
"There's no harm in seeing what the mission is."
When she clicked the level-up button. The mission popped up.
[Please choose the next ascension]
[Chaos Witch] [Politician]
"Well, that's new."
Lucy was perplexed by the choice. There are no clues or descriptions of what those terms mean. For all she knew, [politician] could literally mean just being a leader.
But, she could see that being a chaotic being is not in her best interest.
'If I go by namesake. For [monster], I had to howl at the moon, and like a monster, I have abilities. Since [Chaos witch] has 'chaos' and 'witch' in it, it sounds powerful, but also, like the name, it might be a pain. What if I go towards [politician]? The name means I might even have an easy mission.'
She chose [Politician], but it gave a warning.
[Warning: [Chaos witch] is an existing path, while [Politician] is a potential new path, where there might be a dead end at Level 6 or even before it. Do you wish to continue with [Politician]?]
"Existing path? A new one? And what's a dead end? "
Even newer questions popped up to Lucy, but she knew she wouldn't be getting answers. And sure enough, there are no answers. The system didn't reply.
Lucy still decided to go towards [politician], as her mind is ringing some inexplicable alarm bells thinking about [Chaos witch], it's not a logical one, but a mystical one. That's enough for her to confirm whatever, [Chaos witch] path is, she shouldn't take it.
The leveling up mission popped.
[Level 2 Ascension Ritual: Pull the metaphorical strings, at least behind a small event. The result should have a strong impact on reality or lives. The stronger the impact, the higher the potential.
Warning: the result of this mission will determine the potential of this new path. This mission will be completed when the host declares that she has completed it. Then, the further path will be evaluated depending on the impact. The host should at least impact two lives as a minimum limit, and there is no upper limit.]
"Okay... That's not a simple mission, but also the perfect mission for this world."
New plans begin to emerge in her mind. She decided to see what happens.
"Who are you? What did you do to Reggie?"
Just then, a woman with scorpion-like hair appeared along with a young man in a black sorcerer's dress.
"I exorcised him."
"Really?" Remi was confused.
"Reggie?"
Megumi Fushigoro, who followed Remi in search of Higuruma, understood he was walking into a trap.
Not to mention, the unsettling feeling of seeing the foreign sorceress in front of him, who is giving out a tremendous cursed energy from her aura.
He immediately summoned his sword from the shadow, but he froze in his spot, as if paralyzed.
Remi was also paralyzed on the spot.
"You can't defeat me. Besides, I'm not here to fight."
Megumi felt his mouth free, and he asked, "Then, why have you killed this 'Reggie'?"
"He's a reincarnated sorcerer who is gathering forces. Although the true reason I killed him is that he initiated the intent to kill first... Just like you"
Megumi finally saw fine strings attached to him; they are extremely thin to the point of being invisible, but he understood he couldn't defeat her if he impulsively attacked her.
"Let's just talk then."
"Good, but before that, Marrioness change," Lucy went towards the paralyzed Remi and touched her forehead.
Remi is transformed into a puppet. Her flesh was replaced by wood slowly.
"Hey! I thought you won't kill unless you are attacked"
Megumi asked in horror, thinking he will be next. He also didn't sense any change in her cursed energy, meaning she has excellent control over it. At least, that's his theory.
"I'm not killing her. I can transform her back into a human. I'm simply turning her into my puppet. See, even my points remained the same. Oh my~ I never introduced myself, I am Lucy Evans. "
He saw the name on the list and sure enough, she still only has 10 points. Next, he could once again control his limbs.