"This is still… the first Heroic Spirit I've ever encountered with two Noble Phantasms."
Shane couldn't help feeling a little regretful.
If he'd known it would be like this, he shouldn't have rushed straight into examining the Noble Phantasms first. He should have saved that surprise as the main course and enjoyed it last.
But regretting it now was pointless.
To get a clearer feel for the limits of Jack the Ripper's abilities, Shane simply closed his eyes as he walked.
"Presence… Concealment."
With the release of the true name, a tattered black hooded cloak, as if woven from fog itself, silently settled over his body.
Bzzz—
The instant the cloak wrapped around him, Shane's presence as a living person was erased from the space around them as though someone had taken an eraser to reality itself.
Erza, who had been walking beside him, suddenly froze, and Flowing Water appeared in her right hand almost on instinct.
"Hm? Shane?"
Like an alert lioness, she whipped her head around—only to find that the person who had been right there a moment ago had completely vanished.
"Where did he go?"
Not just her—even Mira and Ultear, both sharp in their own ways, were startled and stopped to look around.
"It's fine."
"I'm here."
A calm voice abruptly came from the empty air beside them.
Only then did everyone realize that Shane had been standing in the exact same spot the entire time.
They had simply, instinctively, overlooked his existence—like ignoring a stone by the roadside, or a speck of dust in the air.
"What a terrifying stealth ability…"
Ultear's pupils contracted slightly as she looked at the black-robed figure slowly becoming visible again.
"This is a new ability? The killer's?"
Shane didn't answer directly. He lowered his gaze slightly and focused on the Book of Heroes in his mind.
[Presence Concealment: A+]
"So it really is completely different from that half-baked version I had before."
Shane nodded inwardly.
Now that he had fully uncovered the true name, this class skill of Assassin had finally shown its proper terrifying potential.
In a fully concealed state, as long as he didn't take the initiative to attack or reveal killing intent, even an S-Class mage like Erza—with that overwhelming instinct of hers—could barely detect him at all.
"Compared to before, when I'd get discovered the second I got too close… this is a qualitative leap."
And beyond that core skill—
perhaps because Jack was a "modern Heroic Spirit," with a legend that had spread widely in countless versions—
even though her mystery was weaker than that of older heroes, and the ranks of her individual abilities were generally not especially high, the sheer number of abilities she possessed was remarkable.
She had a total of four extra personal skills.
[Surgery: E]
"Hah…"
The moment he saw this one, Shane couldn't help laughing.
This skill existed only because, historically, Jack's methods had been clean and the removal of the victims' organs had seemed oddly "professional," leading London police and newspapers at the time to suspect the killer had some anatomical knowledge.
That widespread public assumption had ultimately sublimated into this vague, half-true ability.
"There really is some extra knowledge in my head now about human anatomy and surgical cutting…"
Feeling those inexplicable fragments of memory, Shane's mouth twitched.
But at this level of expertise… if he were actually asked to perform surgery to save someone…
he'd probably end up force-feeding magic into the body and forcibly stitching shredded flesh back together, creating something more like a patchwork rag doll than proper healing.
"Well, it is medicine from over a hundred years ago. Expecting precision would be unrealistic."
Still, as for this kind of brutal treatment philosophy of if they don't die, the procedure was a success—
Shane decisively chose to shelve it.
If someone just had ordinary injuries, mages in this world could often recover through sheer constitution anyway.
And if they were seriously hurt…
then honestly, it was still far more reliable to go find the Master's old acquaintance, that old woman Porlyusica who hated humans.
As for the other C-rank skill, Mental Pollution, that one was even more extreme—and even less practical.
"..."
Reading its description, Shane couldn't help frowning.
This was the first passive skill he had encountered that came with such a severe side effect.
While it did offer some defense against mental interference—meaning even a mage skilled in mental manipulation wouldn't easily be able to invade his mind—
that wasn't because his精神 was particularly strong.
It came from the "alien nature" of Jack's own mental structure.
"Because Jack is a collection of tens of thousands of vengeful infant spirits, her thought process is fundamentally different from a normal human's."
"When it comes to human ethics and morality, it's not that she refuses to follow them—it's that she literally cannot understand them."
As a result, anyone who tried to connect to her mind would be hit by the shrieking cries and endless despair of those tens of thousands of infant souls and driven insane.
Shane only focused his attention lightly on the skill—
"Uwaaah—"
"Mommy… it hurts…"
—and immediately, the sound of countless children crying faintly echoed through his mind, and a burst of sharp pain and mental confusion struck his brain.
He didn't doubt for a second that if he maintained that state for too long, his mind would inevitably deteriorate and twist.
And after paying that steep a price, what did he get in return?
Essentially just a cheap, downgraded version of Lancer's Eternal Arms Mastery in the form of "mental stillness"?
"That's way too niche."
Shane sighed.
Fortunately, he didn't need to maintain this state constantly the way a true Heroic Spirit would.
Even in daily life, if he only needed to summon the dagger to hide his dragon aura, then keeping it at the shallow "not yet fully deciphered true name" level would be enough—there'd be no need to risk Mental Pollution.
"If I weren't calling the Heroic Spirit's power onto myself, but instead actually summoned Jack as a separate being… she probably wouldn't be capable of normal communication at all, would she?"
Shane thought about that with a trace of sadness.
A mind that incomplete, fragile as blank paper—someone with malicious intent could almost inevitably manipulate her through the twisted bond of "mother" and turn her into nothing more than a killing machine.
And that child would probably accept it gladly.
"..."
Shane shook his head, driving off the gloom.
He shifted his attention to the remaining two abilities.
These next ones were obviously much more usable.
[Murder on a Misty Night: A]
"This must have been sublimated from the legend that Jack's victims were often killed when they were completely off guard, right?"
Shane guessed.
As the symbol of "unknown terror in the night," when Shane possessed this skill and was either operating at night or within Dark Misty Metropolis, any assassination attempt he made would receive an enormous boost in judgment.
"It doesn't just make it hard for the target to notice the killing intent approaching."
"More importantly… at the exact instant he launches the sneak attack, it forcibly lowers the opponent's Luck or Instinct, turning that surprise strike into something that is 'certain to succeed.'"
In simpler terms—
this was an ability that guaranteed first strike.
On the surface, the effect looked simple.
But in actual battle, it was lethally dangerous.
"Because it links perfectly into Jack's Noble Phantasms."
Shane's eyes lit up.
Presence Concealment for perfect infiltration.
Dark Misty Metropolis to create home-field advantage and rob the enemy of sight.
Murder on a Misty Night to guarantee that the ambush succeeds.
And then Maria the Ripper, which, once the conditions are met, ignores defense and kills in a single blow.
"Concealment, initiative, guaranteed hit, defense penetration…"
If that full combo landed on anyone who didn't understand Assassin's background, they'd probably die without even knowing what had happened.
"As expected of an Assassin… really severe on humans, huh."
Shane muttered, now thoroughly satisfied with what he had gained.
With the relaxed satisfaction of someone about to enjoy dessert after a good meal, he casually turned his attention to Jack's final skill.
[Information Erasure: B]
And yet—
the moment he saw the full description of that skill, his previously casual eyes flew wide open.
"This?"
Shane stopped walking dead in his tracks, his breathing even growing a little faster.
"Why does she have… a bugged ability this unfair?"
~~~
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