He didn't need to tell me twice, so I fled, running down the stairs, which were now easily visible with the defensive wall gone. The de-limbed fox-kin was swearing his head off, but didn't seem to have any way of stopping me. The other couple of guards looked conflicted, and novice empath was picking up pure existential terror, but it wasn't entirely directed at me. A small amount of it was, though, or I'd have thought they were worried about what Mru'walyn would do to them for letting me go. Frankly, I had no fricking clue what was up with the fox-kin, and I really wanted to go back to pretending they didn't exist. Every time they tried to catch me, things went horribly wrong for them. Why couldn't they just learn to leave me alone?

Once I was a good distance down the stairs, I slowed back down, not wanting to fall as the air turned stale and rotten. It was a shame I hadn't had a disease nullification evolution as part of that batch, but repeated blight infections presumably didn't count as repeated achievements. I'd need to find some other nasty diseases to die of.

Back when I'd first been sent here, my status was only two words long, but now it was getting rather silly.

Name: Katie

Primary class: Princess of undying laughter (level 7)

- Class skills -

Trigger respawn

Item box {Enhanced}

Mapping

Appraisal

Resistance focus {Enhanced}

Fast travel

Secondary class: Aberrant monster tamer (Level 2)

Improved silk

{Empty} [+]

{locked}

{locked}

{locked}

- Combat skills -

Unarmed dabbler: Level 5

Proficient dodger: Level 17

Spear proficiency: Level 16

Proficient blocker: Level 19

Dagger proficiency: Level 15

Sword proficiency: Level 18

Proficient parrier: Level 11

- Resistance skills -

Friend of fear

Pain immunity: Level 32

Poison immunity: Level 32

Corrosion nullification: Level 29

Disease nullification: Level 30

Mind magic nullification: Level 22

Heat tolerance: Level 5

Light tolerance: Level 4

Cold resistance: Level 20

Curse resistance: Level 19

Soul magic resistance: Level 13

Spatial magic tolerance: Level 2

- Crafting skills -

Improvisational artisan: Level 14

Artistry: Level 4

Mining: Level 4

- Scouting skills -

Novice stealth: Level 10

Sense presence: Level 9

Novice empath: Level 7

- Magic skills -

Sense mana: Level 7

Bend mana: Level 5

Another class and a few more resistance skills, and it wasn't even going to fit into my vision. Free of the fox-kin, what class skill should I pick next?

Stronger poison: Increase the potency of your body's poisons.

Hypnotic aroma: Your bodily fluids gain a mild version of the hypnotic abilities of the angelica vorax.

Exoskeleton: Develop a chitin exoskeleton to provide additional protection.

Luminance: Your body glows with a toggleable soft white light.

Festering wounds: Wounds you inflict with your own nails, claws and teeth become diseased with blight-like symptoms.

Extra limbs: Grow an additional pair of clawed limbs.

Mana metabolism: You can metabolise ambient mana, slightly reducing the need for physical food and water.

As with my first class, a pair of new skills and upgrades for the old ones. But no. None of the above. Most of the things there had negative effects; I didn't want to be accidentally poisoning friendlies, or turning into any more of a monster than I already was. Those that didn't, like mana metabolism, just weren't particularly powerful. Extra limbs sounded nice, but I'd prefer fingers to claws, and trying to explain extra arms away if I kept them when I got back to Earth sounded all the wrong sorts of fun.

It was time for an experiment. What happened if I didn't pick a skill until my next level-up? Could I pick both new skills? Would both skills be at the upgraded power level? The upgrades mattered less now that I knew I'd eventually be able to enhance them, but that was still a long time away. More interesting were the new skills; not only the two new ones I'd get at my next level, but also any extras I happened to pick up from befriending new monsters. All the skills I'd been offered were obviously influenced by one of the four monster relationships that had been listed when I picked the class.

At the bottom of the staircase, I crept towards the shrine, and sense presence showed there was still someone there. At the moment, I really didn't want to die, because the respawn was too much of a risk. Facing my zombie twin again was likely to result in death. Reaching my zombie twin was likely to result in death. If I killed the one guarding this shrine, how long until Mru'walyn noticed, and sent a replacement? Could he send a replacement? Given how badly their population had been decimated, he couldn't have an unlimited supply of underlings.

I continued on until I reached the adjacent room. Sense presence told me that the mage was on the other side of the wall, right up against it. That was irritating... How was I supposed to sneak up behind him?

Someone had cleared all the zombies out of the area, but all four walls were still open. It was a pity I couldn't make invisible threads like the spider queen, or I'd web up an entrance and goad him. What else could I do? I could see light crystals of theirs set into every alcove, so I couldn't blind him by targeting the light. I could maybe toss a spider claw or something to make a noise, and hope he went to investigate, but that would put him on guard and reduce my chance of sneaking up on him.

Did the fox-kin need to pee ever? Could I wait for him to answer a call of nature, or drop his guard for some food or drink? Did they even sleep? I didn't want to sit around waiting for ages. I also couldn't discount the possibility of there being more than one guard, but the other being too weak for sense presence to register.

I looped around the room and looked through each entrance, hidden by the dark torches, while I could see in perfectly well. There was indeed only one of them. Sense mana told me he was carrying a number of magical items, but not what they were. It was a pity I couldn't control the shrine barrier, like everyone seemed to think I could. It was also a pity I had no ranged weapons. Without the aid of skills, I couldn't just throw something sharp at him and expect it to harm him.

...Wait. It had been a while since I got my spear skill, but didn't it say that they 'at a pinch can even be thrown'? I'd even done so once before, in the heat of the moment when fighting the flying eldritch starfish. I retrieved the spear I'd stolen from Si'janrii and gave it a few hefts, and found that I did intuitively know how to grip and throw it, and that he was within my range. So, my plan would be to throw the spear, then run for it. If it hit him, great. If it didn't, I'd return to the room behind him and hope he walked far enough from the wall for me to backstab him.

I tossed the spear and ran, my silk foot-wraps doing a great job of keeping my steps silent. I saw the reflections of a flash from behind me, but no squelchy noises or screams. Drat, he must have shielded himself somehow.

Another burst of light came from behind, this time red, and accompanied by a dry heat. I was lucky I'd run as soon as I'd thrown it.

"A guard's spear? Seriously? You're still trying to stop us, knowing full well it will lead to your end?"

Oh, that was interesting. He thought it was a guard that threw it, rather than me? And they were still convinced that not newborn-ifying me would lead to all of their deaths? Or 'end', as he slightly oddly put it.

Throwing the spear, despite being an obvious attack, had turned out far better than a suspicious noise. He apparently didn't think much of the guards, because he confidently strode forward towards the area he'd blasted with his flame attack, giving me the opportunity to sneak behind him. I retrieved my blighted sword and thrust it through his heart. Or at least, where my heart was. It wasn't as if I was an expert on fox monster anatomy. As long as I hit something important, all was well.

I'd apparently hit something important, because he gurgled for a few seconds, then flopped forward, dead.

Evolution conditions met: Novice stealth ranks up to proficient stealth

Why let your enemies know you're coming? Honour is a pointless weight worn only by soon-to-be-dead fools, or the precious few strong enough to bear it. Many a mighty warrior has been brought down by an unseen dagger from behind. In your case, it was a mighty mage and an unseen sword, but the principle is the same, earning you this rank up from novice to proficient. This skill will aid you in remaining unseen, unheard and undetected, whether that's for the purposes of wielding the dagger or hiding from one.

That was kinda cool. A proper, skilfully conducted assassination. Maybe I should have taken that assassin class after all?

The skill upgrade added 'undetected' to the list of effects. Did that mean it would help me hide from esoteric senses, like my sense presence skill? That would be a handy addition, but I wouldn't want to rely on it without knowing the size of the effect.

Now, how long until anyone notices he's gone missing and sends a replacement? Could I just camp out around here and assassinate the mages one by one until they run out? Probably not; if I failed to catch one by surprise, or Mru'walyn came in person, I'd be screwed. Best to launch a raid on the throne room now, respawn if I have to, hopefully before any replacements arrive, and then get the heck off this floor.

Given the multiple mana signatures on the corpse, I first stripped it of everything I could detect, before shoving the whole thing into my item box. No point leaving evidence behind. My spear was thankfully still intact, laying safely in a corner of the shrine room, presumably deflected by whatever released the first flash of light, so I boxed up that too, before hitting my looted goods with appraisal.

Necklace of shielding

This item will automatically deploy a shield to protect from any surprise attack. Can only activate once every 24 hours.

Oh, so he hadn't blocked my spear at all. Thank goodness, or my backstab would have been deflected instead... I dodged a bullet there. It had a sky blue gem in a golden setting, held on a thin golden chain. The necklace went around my neck, under my armour. Shame the results didn't tell me how long was left on the recharge, or even that it was recharging. Presumably, I'd need to enhance my appraisal skill to get the full details.

Ring of attention

This item aids in focus and concentration, as well as tripling the amount of time that the wearer can operate without suffering sleep deprivation.

So that was how he was stood staring at the statue for ages? It was just a plain, unadorned silver band. I wouldn't have much use for it, but it went on my finger regardless.

Mana tracker

Locates any traces of the registered mana signature within a medium radius.

So that's what they were using to track me the first time. Why hadn't they used it since? How large was a medium radius? How did I change the registered signature? It went into my item box, since I had no immediate use for it.

Warping steel dagger of paralysis

This plain steel dagger has been enchanted by a master, inflicting a powerful paralysis curse on its target even when blocked. It will also warp itself and a small surrounding region of space to a preset destination on strike.

Attack rating: 20

A better dagger than my spider claws, but given the warp enchantment, not one I could actually use. That went into my item box too.

Bracer of spatial fixation

This item has been enchanted to prevent any form of teleportation.

Now that was an interesting one. I couldn't even put it into my item box. It simply wouldn't vanish. I put it around my own wrist for now, because it would defend against one half of the daggers they kept trying to stick me with, but from the description, it couldn't be disabled. Would it block fast travel too? Any spatial magic I wanted to work on me?

Presumably, the first mage to dagger me on respawn had been wearing one of these too, and my improvised sword stab had broken it. Hah. That would have been pure luck, if so. A necklace of shielding, too? I suppose that wouldn't have activated because I hadn't surprise attacked him. He was the one who rammed his wrist down onto a sword. Nothing to do with me at all. I wasn't even holding it.

With the loot sorted, I made my way towards the throne room while pondering my strategy. Perhaps I'd dismissed that dagger too quickly. If the teleportation wouldn't affect me, and it didn't actually need to pierce the armour to take effect, all I needed to do was tap the animated armour with it, and Mru'walyn would get an instant, heavily blighted surprise package. Would the paralysis work on it when it had no muscles to paralyse? I really hoped not.