Reincarnated Hero System

"Start talking, now."

"Sadly, I have reached the limits of what I'm allowed to say. I'd rather not be ganged up upon by the laws of Time and Causality…those two are a very nasty Combo.

Last time I messed with Causality, I lost levels."

Evan rubbed his shoulders lightly and shivered involuntarily as he remembered when he lost some levels after attempting to tell Patricia about his Unique Skill years ago.

This then dragged up Arlan's memories that had to do with the man suffering from Causality after breaking some Universal Laws and having his Path to Transcendence interfered with greatly.

"Both of you should know by now that he's not going to say anything more."

Eliza was the one who bailed him from the grip of the two siblings, applying a bit of light healing on him to deal with some scratches that were still on his body due to Leviah's potent demonic energy.

She then turned towards Leviah, looking at the older woman in silence for a moment before asking.

"Mind telling me why you copied my appearance earlier? I'm just curious."

Leviah found the mere sight of Eliza strangely 'calming', scrutinizing the girl and quickly discerning the reason to be the 'cool' sensation her life-attributed aura gave someone.

"You're the one who was the closest to him ever since you lot entered this dungeon."

"You were watching us since we entered the dungeon?"

"I wasn't."

The High Demon lightly tapped her foot on the ground and Dandeyr and Kolvar's bodies were suddenly coated in a thin layer of dark red light. They were both on guard at first, but then they realised that the light was simply just light; nothing was hidden in it.

"I happen to be unlucky enough to sense the presence of everything above a certain existence level that comes into this Dungeon."

Pointing to Kolvar, she continued.

"Even more so if they've reached this floor before. I certainly would not forget the energy signature of someone who beat a Level 600 Cockatrice to death with just his right hand while his left hand was half-petrified."

As she said that, all eyes turned towards Kolvar with gazes that seemed to ask if she was telling the truth.

"What? I didn't know it was a Cockatrice so it got my left hand."

"I'm pretty sure she wasn't talking about the part where you didn't know it was a cockatrice."

Dandeyr facepalmed lightly as he spoke, remembering Kolvar's younger and 'wilder' years.

'So that's why he came back with a stone arm that day…'

While Dandeyr was discovering the answer to his 90-year-old question, Evan spoke up while gesturing to Leviah.

"Dear Miss Leviah over here can sense that precisely because she's the Dungeon Master. I'm guessing what made her take further note of us was the part where we went from Floor 2 to Floor 100 in a minute."

Leviah turned to Evan with a glare, and just when Greed was about to move in to stop her in case she wanted to fight, she looked towards Pride and spoke.

"I think I understand why you dislike having people calling you by your actual name. Hearing him say that irritates me."

She turned to Evan and told him not to address her as 'Leviah', but our resident Hero had zero intentions of abiding by her words.

"Oh no, it's sticking.

It's a Bonus if it annoys you every time I do it."

Seeing Leviah's cold glare and Evan's impish grin, Eliza felt that despite their earlier fight being a convoluted plot by Evan and Pride, she felt that Evan truly had an inherent 'dislike' for Leviah.

'Maybe Dislike is too much. It's kind of like a 'mild annoyance' or something…'

In Leviah's case, it wasn't 'Evan' as a person that she hated. She'd only known about the boy's existence for less than an hour.

What she hated were his 'Mystic Eyes', because they once belonged to the person who had sealed her in this Dungeon for centuries.

'Pride said something about them being 'Alike'.

She also called them a 'Copycat' and a 'Thief'.'

Eliza had been with Evan long enough to figure out what his Mystic Eyes did, even if he had not explicitly told her, so she knew that he had the ability to 'Copy' people's skills.

'I don't know the conditions for it though…'

When she coupled this up with Pride's desire to know of Leviah's 'current skillset', and her calling Leviah a 'Thief', it didn't take her long to figure out what Leviah's power—her Idiosyncrasy—was.

While Pride's ability 'Made the Reality Around Her Seem Like A Lie', and Greed could 'Absorb People's Stats as If They Were His Own from The Start', Leviah's ability allowed her to 'Plunder People's Skills and Techniques Because They Should Have Been Hers'.

Envious Plundering.

She was the reason why the 'Depths of Nature's Jealously' was the way it was, and not because of some random Ancient Spirit.

In the same way that Pride's influence had caused the 'Graveyard of the Arrogant' to grant challengers the 'Arrogance' Status effect that messed with their heads, Leviah's influence was the reason why the 'Depths of Nature's Jealousy' deprived people of Skills Temporarily.

However, Leviah's ability also had its constraints. The Laws of the Universe always balanced things out, after all.

For each target of her ability, she was limited to taking only 'One Skill'. So even If the person had over 200 skills, she could only take one.

Secondly, as stated earlier, her Idiosyncrasy required her to KILL her target before it could work. Very much unlike Evan's where he could copy skills and magic from the user while they were still alive, and conversely, could not do the same if they were dead.

Third, if she used her ability on a Target, she gained 0 EXP from them.

So, each time she killed someone, she had to choose between taking EXP or taking a skill. She could not have the best of both worlds.

Her current level which sat at 556 showed that she had chosen the EXP option quite a lot.

Lastly, she and Evan shared the same demerit of having a limit on how many skills they could possess.

While Evan's skill used the 'Eyes as the Window to the Soul' and 'Copied' the rune on the Target's soul, Leviah ripped the rune off and stuck it on hers with her own ability.

She could do this since she had a very Strong Soul, due to being a High Demon and a Deadly Sin.

But there was a limit to this.

While Eliza wondered about the conditions for Leviah's 'Skill Stealing', Evan began pulling out foldable chairs from his inventory and setting them down. Pride took a seat on one of the chairs and pulled out her book to continue reading, while Evan set up a table at the centre of the Boss Room, with two chairs opposite each other on it.

He then pulled out an artifact that isolated sound and placed it on the table, before taking a seat and gesturing towards the other one opposite him.

"Take a seat, Leviah. Let's get on with the main reason why I came here."

Leviah was silent after Evan spoke, but at Greed's urging, she sat down opposite Evan, her sour mood clearly obvious from her expression.

Taking a seat, Eliza questioned Evan's intentions.

"Do you plan to have her join our party?"

Not just her, but everyone else present assumed that was Evan's reason for coming to this place. However, the boy's answer wasn't exactly as they imagined.

"Yes, and No."

"Huh? What's this about me joining you lot?"

"Like I just said, you would not be. Well, officially at least."

Evan placed both hands on the table after he spoke, looking Leviah right in the eyes as he continued.

"I'd like you to work for me, Leviah.

To be more specific, I need you to undertake some tasks which would greatly aid my plans for Tarse. Kill a few Fallen Celestial Deities, Mess up some of the Demonic Hand's Energy Siphoning points…stuff like that."

His words evoked reactions of surprise, especially for Kolvar who knew of the existence of the 'Fallen Celestial Deities'. Even Pride whose attention was on her novel had dropped the book and turned her gaze to Evan.

As for Leviah, she didn't really care who these Celestials were, nor did she care about whatever the 'Demonic Hand' was doing. Most importantly;

"Why in Gozon should I do anything you say?"

This was the main issue here; Leviah had zero reasons to listen to Evan. Regardless of whether he was going to release the seal that kept her trapped in this Boss Room or not.

The High Demon looked at Evan with a raised brow, waiting for his answer to her question as she tapped her fingers on the table impatiently.

"Why you should listen to me, huh?"

Evan leaned back on his seat and kept his gaze locked with Leviah's as he replied.

"Gluttony's Location."

The moment those two words escaped his lips, Leviah's eyes lit up with an eerie red glow.