I landed smoothly on the grass in the courtyard and pulled back my chains with practiced ease.
There was no need to continue entangling with the mysterious person. The silence magic wouldn't last long—while single-target silence magic does have a longer duration than group silence magic, even with my restrictions lifted, I still couldn't perform at full capacity.
Actually, before I pulled back my chains, the mysterious person had already broken free from their restraints. Since they were skilled in [Stealth], it wasn't surprising they could escape control type spells.
The mysterious person wore a blue-green cloak, with a lowered hood concealing their face. The earlier movements had been too vigorous, causing a strand of bright silver hair to fall from under the hood. That dazzling silver rivaled even the cascading moonlight, but I was in no mood to admire or appreciate beauty right now.
I used my [Detection] skill to confirm there was no fourth person in the mansion—no possibility of a diversionary tactic.
"Well then, it's time for cleanup."
I pinched the hem of my maid dress with my fingertips and curtsied elegantly.
—Let's finish this quickly. Five seconds should do it.
Before The Eternal Pacificus launched, many players had questions about the game's settings, with one of the biggest points of contention being the developers' clear statement that the game had no traditional class system.
Warriors, mages, assassins, priests... the familiar class divisions from online games had been completely scrapped by the developers. While players praised the high degree of freedom, they were also curious about *The Eternal Pacificus*'s actual combat content. Without classes, what would the combat system be like?
Amid intense discussion and considerable skepticism, *The Eternal Pacificus* launched and delivered results that satisfied most players.
Let me give you an example: Fireball.
This is essentially the most common skill for mage classes in any game—magic that projects flames in spherical form. In some online games it's a low-level skill, in others it's mid-level, but the methods for learning it are typically reaching a certain level or using skill books.
From a logical standpoint, all adventurers (players) in The Eternal Pacificus who possess magical talent are qualified to learn Fireball, but the method for learning it in this game is quite different.
Fireball naturally requires fire. You open the [Magic] skill, find the fire element projection branch, and learn it to "Mastery" level. Then in the [Magic] skill tree, find the arcane trajectory branch to ensure the fireball's range and that it won't dissipate mid-flight—this needs to be learned to "Proficient" level. Finally, in the [Archery] skill tree, learn the shooting branch to "Novice" level.
[Magic] Fire Element Projection (Mastery) + [Magic] Arcane Trajectory (Proficient) + [Archery] Shooting (Novice) = Fireball. This formula would be created, and all combat magic can be deduced similarly. However, the game developers designed hundreds of skills, each with countless branches. Most cleverly, many daily-life skills aren't useless for combat magic—they might even be essential keys for learning combat magic.
Some players discovered that after learning Fireball and then learning the disassembly branch of the [Repair] skill to proficient level, they could manually detonate the fireball mid-trajectory.
Taking my [Spatial Transfer] as an example, the skill synthesis formula actually includes a [Geography] component.
[Geography] Coordinate Positioning (Master)—this skill branch is a necessary condition for learning Spatial Transfer. Without learning it, you can never acquire Spatial Transfer. Mindlessly learning combat skills has limits; many advanced skills require support from daily-life skills.
Under such a diverse foundation of skill combinations, a unique and wonderful combat system emerged.
You might be able to deduce from equipment that someone is a warrior, but you'll never be able to guess what strange and exotic skills that warrior has learned.
As the saying goes, "You can never have too many skills." Having reached max level in countless skills and branches, I possess an impressive skill library. I have more than one top-tier magic like [Spatial Transfer], though my lack of a master limits my output.
"—Verweile doch (Stay a while)!" (TN: Quote from German writer Johann Goethe’s “Faust.”)
To balance high-level magic, some top-tier spells require mandatory incantations to activate.
With the brief chant complete, the world shrouded in darkness transformed into manga-like gray and white before my eyes, and the caught-off-guard mysterious person became completely motionless.
[Time Stop]—advanced magic that freezes time in a regional area for 3 seconds. The time differential between inside and outside the area automatically repairs and synchronizes when the skill duration ends. In my normal state, I couldn't even achieve a 1-second freeze with time-stopping magic, but with my current restriction release, I could stop time for about 1.5 seconds.
Against a lightly armored enemy, 1.5 seconds was enough time to decide victory or defeat.
Using chains to fling the mysterious person served two purposes: to lure them to the courtyard where they wouldn't disturb Lily, and to test whether the mysterious person was wearing heavy armor.
During the frozen second, I had more than enough time to close the distance to the mysterious person.
No armor protection meant they didn't have the requirements to defend against this move.
Drawing close to the mysterious person, I placed my right hand on their left chest—right over their heart.
Huh...? A soft sensation...?
The time-stopping magic was fleeting. I didn't have time to think further and released the close-range lethal skill without hesitation—a fusion of lightning element and medical skills:
"[Cardiac Arrest]!"