"There's no point in lying, I know you're much stronger than J-Rank...your Aura is far too intense for that. It's also a rather unusual Aura, I've never seen an Aura with such a deep purple hue before," She mused in fascination.
My Aura's purple? That's cool, I guess. It matches my eyes.
More importantly, I might be screwed here.
"Well, I..."
"Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to reveal all your secrets to me, I just want to know what's going on at the surface level. It's in your best interest to cooperate...as a Hunter, you aren't going to find too many more valuable allies than me here in Sanctuary Theta," She remarked, before leaning back in her seat as she waited for me to answer.
Yeah...not seeing a way out of this one.
"Fuck it, fine. Yeah, I can get stronger.
I'll reveal the very basics of my abilities, but I'm sure as hell not going into as much detail as I did with Ariella.
"Oh, my...interesting, so that's what they look like. I see, so the more you use them, the stronger you become. What a fascinating power. You could eventually become completely unstoppable, assuming you can keep growing more powerful endlessly," She mused with a gleam in her eyes.
I'll keep the fact that I do have an upper limit to myself, she doesn't need to know that.
"Yeah, that's part of the reason why I'd like to keep it to myself for now. I'd rather not draw any unwanted attention to myself or have people trying to take advantage of me."
"Ah, I get it, you want to keep it under wraps until you're powerful enough that most people wouldn't be able to mess with you, is that right? Of course, that's easier said than done, a number of people have already noticed, after all.
And the more raids you go on, the more people will notice. At the very least, passing yourself off as a J-Rank would be next to impossible at your current level," She stated bluntly.
"Uh-huh, I realized as much. Figured it was worth a shot, at least to buy myself a bit more time," I sighed in response.
"Well, had your last raid been a more ordinary Mid Level Dungeon, you likely could have kept up the facade a bit longer. On a related note, I must ask, how exactly did you trick our detection devices?" She inquired curiously.
I really don't want to reveal Desecrator. At this point, I think my best course of action is to just be direct.
"I'd rather keep that to myself."
"Oh, well, that's disappointing. Okay, then...when exactly did you realize that you could grow more powerful?"
"From the start. I could sort of instinctively tell, it's hard to explain. Also, I didn't develop Devour and Drain just by experimenting with my Mana, it was also an instinctive thing. Though, actually manifesting them was pretty tricky," I lied, keeping myself calm as I maintained a straight face.
If my previous lies have been seen through, I'll just have to come up with new ones.
I'll give her a mix of truths and lies, and if I refuse to answer a few questions, that could help convince her that everything I do answer, I'm doing so truthfully.
"Yes, that makes sense. It's hard to imagine creating such complex Magical techniques entirely from scratch. I also heard about the new Skill you used during the last raid, I believe you call it Mana Pulse?"
I did chant it out loud a few times while using it, the others must have heard me say it.
"That one, I did actually create from scratch. Granted, it's a pretty simple technique."
"And also highly effective, from what I heard. You significantly weakened the Greater Demon with it, didn't you? Ah, and speaking of which...who actually killed the Greater Demon?" She responded, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"Well, I did play a more significant role in defeating her than I said I did, but Ariella still did most of the work. My blade broke pretty much at the start of that fight, so I didn't get too close to the Demon."
"I see. Then, how exactly did you contribute?"
"I have a few other Skills. I'd rather not get into specifics, but they work like debuffs. I used those to weaken the Demon and give Ariella openings to strike, and I also landed a couple more Mana Pulses," I explained.
I mean, I did do all that, so technically, that response wasn't a lie.
"Debuffs, huh? Those are supposed to be exclusive to Enchanters...usually, even with Arcane Magic, there's always a common denominator in a Hunters Spells or Skills, something that ties them together.
For instance, all Elemental Mages cast Spells of their specific element, they don't have any Magical abilities unrelated to that. But you, between Devour and Drain, Mana Pulse, and now debuffs, I can't see a common denominator linking those abilities. Is that all, or is there more you can do?" She inquired curiously.
It'd be easy to lie, but what she said earlier was right, she'd be a pretty valuable ally to have. At the very least, I should avoid getting on her bad side.
"I do...but I'd prefer to keep them to myself for now," I replied with a sheepish smile.
"That's a shame, but even having confirmation that you do possess even more abilities is encouraging, so I won't press you further.
Now, then, Kaivel Intrix, let's get down to business...before long, your ability to grow more powerful beyond your initial Potential will become known, it's all but inevitable.
The only way to avoid that would be to quit being a Hunter, and I have a sneaking suspicion that you won't be doing that."
"Yeah, I can confirm that," I nodded.
"Right. Once everyone knows about you, the Guilds will come clamoring after you. And you want to get as strong as possible before it comes to that.
The fastest way to accomplish that is to participate in at least Mid Level raids, as many as possible, before your powers become public knowledge.
But since you're currently registered as a J-Rank, it'll be hard to get accepted by parties tackling anything higher than Low Level raids."
"I'm aware."
"So, here's my offer. The Union will help assign you to Mid Level raids on a consistent basis, as well as High Level ones, whenever they're available. In short, we'll help you get stronger while hiding your true power.
We can have those who do know about your situation sign non-disclosure agreements, to ensure that no one will leak it before you're ready to reveal it.
We'll add you to parties where you won't have to worry about hiding your powers, we have a number of affiliated Hunters that are trustworthy and able to keep a secret. So...what do you say?"