I Hate Systems

Every human was born different. And as they grow through society, through the influences of everything around them, they begin to develop a set of preconceived notions, thought processes, biases, logic, etc.

Even though this streamlined their mind, it also meant that anything not belonging to these 'lines' fell through their mental grasp, leading to what was known as blind spots, things or ideas they glossed over naturally, having never pondered in such a direction or entertained such a train of thought.

As Compass Carburettor relied upon Pilkan's brain, the way thoughts were processed here was the method that Pilkan's brain was trained for through repeated practice over his entire life. And hence, the moment he became a Human Invoker, his train of thought led to him thinking that all enemies—humans—must be killed to harvest their Mental Fragments.

After all, the target of Human Invokers were humans. As a result, the moment Compass Carburettor took control, even though he was the sailor steering the ship, the engineering of the ship meant that it could only sail on certain routes.

That was what led to him killing Fowma, Heela, and Runka. If it was the original Compass Carburettor here, things would have proceeded differently.

And right as he was about to kill Duketace, Compass Carburettor finally realised what was up, stopping himself from killing the other party.

"This isn't my way." He calmed himself, thinking over things as what Hazen would have done if in his situation. After all, Hazen was the expert in this situation.

By relying upon that experience, Compass Carburettor took his sweet time, working things through as he first obtained a clearer grasp of his abilities.

Currently, he was only different from an Inferior Human Invoker in two points: The mist, and his ability to instantly create any tool he desired.

The case was the same for the Invoked Spirit too as he could shape it freely as he pleased. Though, as the Nascent Soul was created using a Human Invoker Crystal, the final product should still be a human.

Only the size could be varied, if he obtained the Mental Fragments necessary to build a bigger human Invoked Spirit.

These two advantages alone would allow him to trump enemies stronger than himself, as he had even killed Runka, a Superior Human Invoker, a veteran among the Stage. It was an ambush and wasn't a head-on battle, but it still proved that given the right circumstances, he could easily kill a Superior Invoker.

The mysterious mist had become his power. And, as long as he consumed enough Mental Strength, he could replenish its expended reserves. Though, replenishing Mental Strength wasn't easy.

Mental Strength was as the name implied, the power of the mind. It wasn't generated by thoughts though, as that was Mental Energy.

The ability of someone to focus on a task for extended durations. That was Mental Strength. And, using it would mean one would be mentally exhausted rather quickly. Moreover, unlike Mental Energy which was stable, Mental Strength was an unstable power.

The best example was performance under stress!

Suppose an athlete was able to run a hundred metres in ten seconds in the training grounds, maintaining this consistent average for many months. One day, he is made to compete against an Olympic athlete in front of a hundred thousand people whose raucous cheers rattled the surroundings.

This was his first time there, having to run alongside athletes way faster than him, able to complete a hundred metres at least 0.3 seconds before him.

The pressure would build up in his mind, causing his confidence level to plummet. And, when they actually run following that, he would perform more poorly than his usual, going beyond ten seconds.

The reason was that due to the pressure, he was mentally exhausted before the race even began. And hence, his mind wasn't able to fully harness his body's potential, resulting in his below-average performance.

This was how Mental Strength worked. If the Invoker was calm and collected, to make the Invoked Spirit run a hundred metres, suppose a hundred units of Mental Strength were consumed.

But if they were flustered, they might consume two hundred or more units of Mental Strength for the same action. And depending on their level of fluster, this value would only spike.

So, to recover Mental Strength, the best way was to relax the body and heal the mind. Taking a deep sleep was the fastest way to recover Mental Strength, of course only having their fill.

Therefore, if Compass Carburettor wished to recover his Mental Strength the fastest to replenish the mist in his Dreamland, he would need to sleep for a good few days and eat plenty during this time. That was how long it took for Mental Strength to recover to its full capacity.

Of course, he didn't have that much time in his hands, and hence, he had to rely upon something else as he willed his Invoked Spirit to take action, causing it to create a net that it threw with all its strength, trapping Duketace before he realised.

It was easy to trap him in a location where he didn't have any means to evade or take cover. Following that, Compass Carburettor rode his horse and made his way towards the pale-faced Duketace, smiling as he spoke before the other party could say anything, "Don't worry, I've already killed the assassins dispatched to kill you."

"W-What?" Duketace was shocked before he made eye contact with Pilkan, shuddering for some reason, shouting in alarm, "W-Who are you? You're not Pilkan!"

He had dealt with Pilkan on numerous occasions, for Pilkan's family were his subordinates. Therefore, a glance was all he needed to see that the Pilkan before him wasn't the one from his memories.

"You needn't concern yourself with that." Compass Carburettor smiled before crouching forth to make eye contact with the other party, saying calmly, as if deciding Duketace's fate, "Why don't you begin talking about your family?"

"Say, using my name to your advantage, you've helped yourself to plenty of treasures from the Lan Clan's treasury, right?"

His eyes curled up a little, taking out medicine that he force-fed Duketace, "Why don't you begin talking now? I'm sure there's a lot you can say to me."