I stood up, pushing the chair back and covering my startled movement with a curtsy.

“Of course, please come in. My name’s Katherine.” Felicia returned my curtsey and moved over to the bookshelf.

“Paige said I should meet you to show that not all adventurers are villainous cutthroats,” she said. “But I really just wanted some time to study the Herbarium.”

“You’re an adventurer?” I asked. Of course she was, this library was for members. She didn’t look like one though, she was dressed in a simple dress… like me. OK brain, feel free to turn on any time now.

“Yes, I’m just starting out as a Witch,” she replied. “Paige said you were an apprentice, but you must be almost ready to move to your Level 3 profession? Have you decided what you’re going to be?”

Why would she think that? Oh, right, because I’m older than her. “I, uh, haven’t decided yet. Some sort of mage?” We both sat down at the table with our books. “What are you hoping to be?”

“Oh, a Healer,” she said.

“Right… so what does a Witch do, as an adventurer?” I asked. Like me, she didn’t seem the type to wander around killing monsters.

“Witches don’t have a particular role in a party, if thats what you’re asking.” she said. “I have some useful skills like poultice making, but I don’t have the equipment yet to make herbal brews.” I nodded like I knew what she was talking about.

“So are you going into the dungeon?”

“Sometimes, but not on my own, I’ve a friend, Kyle who’s a Warrior that comes with me. Most of the time I do Gather requests in the nearby woods. It's much safer, as long as your not out after dark.”

I made a face. “I don’t have the Gather skill, it seemed like a requirement for those quests.”

“Pretty much,” she nodded. “You can find the right herbs with Identify, but it's much faster with Gather. It's an easy skill to unlock though, you just need to pick plants until you get it.”

“I’m short on skill points though, I mean, I have the points, but there are some skills I’m saving them for. I’m not sure if Gather or Hunt will be as useful once I’m a mage.”

“I know what you mean, theres a few Witch skill unlocks that I haven’t purchased. Like S- Singing.” She blushed for some reason. “It would be really nice to be able to Sing, but there are so many important skills to get first.”

“Singing is a skill?” I blurted. Of course singing is a skill, why wouldn’t it be?

“Of course,” she said, looking a little puzzled. “It's useful for Bards, but for anyone else it's just for fun.”

“Right. Of course,” I said, trying to make like I’d just forgotten something obvious. [Deceive] and [Conversation] can’t save me when I insist on asking stupid questions…

“So, what are you doing for adventure work?” Felicia asked.

“I’ve been going to the dungeon for lizards.” I said with a grimace.

“On your own? Thats dangerous!” she said. I shrugged.

“I’m just going a little way in.”

“Thats not a guarantee of safety you know. The Ilan lizards hang out in the rock walls, but if you leave enough corpses around they’ll come out to eat them.”

“Thats… good to know, but I didn’t have any problems with them last time.” I considered. I thought I could take an Ilan lizard. They weren’t supposed to be that bad a threat. They were good for XP, but bad for cash rewards, so I hadn’t looked for them before. Now that I was looking at 1000 XP for the next level, I thought they might be worth another look.

“Is that the difference that having all your ability points makes?” she asked. What was she…oh. She must think that I’ve had Level 2 for 10 years now, and have actually got the full 250 points for second level.

“I guess? I don’t think my stats are that much higher than yours though. I’m just impatient.” I thought for a moment. How to put this… “I… had a sheltered existence until recently, and never got the chance to gain XP. Now that I do, I’m willing to take some risks to get to where I want.”

“I see,” Felicia said, nodding. “Thats very… determined.”

“Thats- I don’t think it's that special.” I said. “I’m sure lots of adventurers are willing to take risks.”

“Maybe, but I haven’t been,” she sighed. “Would you be willing to team up with me?”

“To go into the dungeon?” I asked, and she nodded. “Um…” If I take her, I can’t go invisible…

“Please?” she said. “I’ve got a bladed skill, and I do have Hunting. I can skin what we catch-” I held up my hand.

“OK- I mean, alright. Can we meet here tomorrow at…” How did they refer to time again? “…eighth bell? Tomorrow?”

“Sure thing!” Felicia grinned, exited.

“Well, I’ve got more reading to do before I get going, and you were here for that book so…”

“Right! I’ll leave you alone for now.”

We both went back to reading. An hour went by before I got the notification that [Scribe] had gone up, at which point I took my leave and told Felicia that I’d see her tomorrow.

Right, time to start my exercise plan. It wasn’t going to be much of a long term plan, I had to get as much done today before Felicia started hanging out with me to see me act like an idiot. First thing was to jog to the dungeon. That went pretty well. The path was empty again, and even with a [Run] skill of only one, jogging was far easier than I remembered it being.

On entering the dungeon, I saw smoke rising up to the fake ceiling. Someone else must be in here? They were on the other side of the river though, so I didn’t change my plans. Turning invisible again, I turned right, and made my way along the cliff that marked the edge of the room. There were supposed to be caves here, with the bigger types of lizard. Despite that, the first lizard I saw was another skink. I was an old hand at killing these by now, though I hadn’t managed to kill one in a single hit yet.

This time though, instead of draining the corpse, I threw it closer to the wall. It was a good throw too, landing near some dark openings that I thought were caves.

[Thrown] skill unlocked.

Oh what, on the first try?

I didn’t have hunting, but the idea behind baiting animals to come out wasn’t complex. I felt like I should be hiding the bushes, but instead I just stood quietly nearby, invisible. How long am I going to have stand here though, I wondered.

Not too long as it turned out. A bigger lizard poked his head out of a cave and looked around carefully. He was about a metre long, grey-brown and mean looking.

Identification: Ilan Lizard (male) - Threat 3

As I held my breath, he slowly crept out of the cave, seized the bait.. and started dragging it back to the cave. Wait, that didn’t work for me. You can’t eat outdoors? Thinking quickly, I cast a quick static image of a bigger lizard between him and his hole. It can’t have been terribly convincing, what with it not moving and having no smell, but it startled my victim, who dropped his meal and jumped back. Right into the real threat.

You have inflicted 32 damage!

He thrashed around under my blade, his tail smashing against my side.

You have taken 5 damage!

He was strong! Stronger than me, I think, but I had a knife. I stabbed down again.

You have inflicted 34 damage!

He still wasn’t dead! He’d gotten turned around so he could bite me now, but he missed, jaws snapping too close to me for comfort. I swung again.

You have inflicted 37 damage!

For killing a Ilan Lizard, you have earned 60 XP

Yes! Ow! Ow ow ow! This time I didn’t get my damage healed by my level going up. It hurt! I didn’t seem to be bleeding, but still. I stared at the corpse, trying to decide what to do next. Ilan skin wasn’t worth much, apparently, and this corpse was much bigger than a Skinks. Should I just leave it here? I heard a noise.

Two noises. I looked to one side and saw another lizard crawling into the open.

Identification: Idnul Lizard (male) - Threat 2

On my other side, was… another lizard.

Identification: Idnul Lizard (male) - Threat 2

Idnul’s were smaller and redder than Ilan lizards, which was as far as my zoology went. More concerning was that I was sort of trapped between them. I still had the option of fleeing into the brush, or closer to the Ilan caves, but that wasn’t appealing. They weren’t as big a threat as a Ilan lizard, but there were two of them, and I was injured already.

They approached warily, and I took a step towards the caves. Both of them reacted, moving their heads around warily. Can they see me? Smell me? Maybe it was a the blood on the knife they could smell - Ilan lizards had much more blood than a skink, and it seemed to stink more too.

If I was going to fight, I wanted to do it one on one… thinking quickly, I cast [Unseen Sound], making a dog’s growl come from behind the second lizard. When it's head whipped around looking for the threat, I lunged at the first.

It sensed me coming somehow, but not enough to evade me.

You have inflicted 38 damage!

Like the others, it twisted around, trying to bite the unseen thing stabbing it, but I backed off in time to avoid it. Time for another stab!

You have inflicted 38 damage!

For killing a Idnul Lizard, you have earned 20 XP

You have taken 17 damage!

Argh! The other lizard had come up and bitten me while I was distracted. I stabbed down at it, slashing it as it tried to get away

You have inflicted 32 damage!

We both backed away. This time I was bleeding, I could feeling going down my leg. The lizard was casting about, trying to find me, but it seemed to be narrowing down my position. I moved in, ready to finish this fight. It sensed me coming, but it couldn’t dodge in time.

You have inflicted 29 damage!

For killing a Idnul Lizard, you have earned 20 XP

[Weapon Mastery: Small Bladed] Level 3 acquired through use

For gaining a skill level you have been awarded 1 XP

Forget profiting from these corpses, I had to get out of here. I headed back towards the entrance. Once I had gotten a little distance, I made a makeshift bandage from a strip of my petticoat and bandaged my wound, but after that I didn’t stop moving until I was out of the dungeon.

Once I was out, I stopped for a rest, and to take a look at my wound. It didn’t look… too bad? It seemed deep, but it wasn’t bleeding too badly. I should get someone to look at it. Would it get infected? Probably, it was an animal bite after all. Recalling an option from my first night, I brought up the development menu.

[Disease Resistant]: You are more resistant to disease of all types. (4 points) (Upgradeable)

Well, thanks helpful help files. How much more resistant? And what does upgradable mean? There was another option:

[Immunity to Disease]: You are immune to all diseases (12 points)

I only had 8 points to spend. Still, it seemed like a good idea. Diseases could get pretty terrible. I bought [Disease Resistant] and watched as the cost of [Immunity to Disease] went to 8 points. So thats what it meant. I dismissed the menu and started limping back to town.

I ran into Felicia at the guild, and she offered to treat my wounds. I gratefully accepted and we went back to my room, as I’d have to take my dress off for her to look at my side.

“How much do I owe you for this?” I asked as she looked at my injury.

“Don’t be silly!” she said. “We’re party members now, aren’t we?”

“I guess so, thanks.”

Felicia mixed up two different poultices and applied one to each wound. “These should make it heal up twice as fast as normal. It’d be three times if you rested up properly, but you’re working tonight, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” Felicia nodded.

“I don’t recommend it, but adventurers often have to keep going when they’re injured, so it's good practice? I put something in the leg poultice that should help with the pain.”

“Thanks again,” I said gratefully. I had not been looking forward to tonight.

“Do you… do you still want to go out tomorrow?” Felicia asked hesitantly. “Or did you want to heal first?”

“I’m not going to let this stop me,” I said confidently. “Today was a good reminder of how dangerous delving solo is, but tomorrow we’ll be a team.”

Felicia smiled, relived. “I’m glad you said that,” she said. “What you said before, about how impatient you were… well it was inspiring.”

“Oh come on,” I said, embarrassed. “It wasn’t anything special.”

“It was,” she insisted. “I want to follow your example, become high-levelled and become a great Healer.”

“I’m sure you will.” I reassured her. “And as to that… theres something I should have mentioned.”

“What?”

“Just before I got these, I levelled. You’re partnered with an Illusionist now.”

“What? Wow, congratulations!” Felicia seemed beside herself. “Why an Illusionist?”

“I’m not sure… partly because it's Charisma based? Also I like the idea of tricking monsters more than burning them to death.”

Felicia made a face. “Yeah, I’ve never seen a Fireball in action, but I hear it can get pretty ugly. You’ve still gotta kill the monsters though.”

“A knife is cleaner,” I said, and to my surprise I meant it. Maybe it was the skill, but I was finding it surprising easy to stick a knife in monsters.

“I guess? Oh, that would pair well with Kyle… when he gets back.”

“Where is he?” I asked.

“Oh that idiot,” she said with an exasperated grimace. “We were gathering Galcan newts in the river… were you warned about the iridescent ones?”

“Yeah, they’re poison- I mean venomous.”

“Poisonous too, if you were tempted to have snack,” she smiled. “Well, we had antidotes, but Kyle got bitten and didn’t tell me.”

“Why not?”

“Because. He’s. An. Idiot.” Felicia said through pursed lips. “He wanted to prove his strength or some… stupid… boy… thing.”

I laughed. “He’s alright though?”

She sighed. “Luckily, we were almost back to the entrance when he collapsed. I gave him the antidote at once of course, but a lot of damage had been done. We barely made it back to my Master’s house.”

“Master?”

“Master Oliver, the town Healer.” she said. “He’s been training me up until now. Kyle needs special care so he’s going to be there for another week.” Suddenly, she grinned. “I made Master promise to give Kyle the worst tasting potion every day and tell him it was required for healing.”

I laughed again. “I’d better remember to stay on your good side!”

“It was for his own good!” Felicia protested. “He needs to learn not to do that again!”

Felicia didn’t stay much longer. I promised her I’d rest until sunset and that I’d see her tomorrow, and then she left. It was a relief to know I wouldn’t have to hide my Illusions from her any more. Just some of them. At level 3, it made sense for me to be an ordinary illusionist, but not the advanced type. Of course, I wasn’t level 3 yet, but that would come. How much I could tell the Guild was still up in the air though. If they knew I could cast illusions, they might start looking out for them.

Time for some skill training. Two nights ago, I’d gotten [Calculate] from scratching some numbers in the dirt, but I knew a lot more mathematics than that. [Calculate] was really useful, allowing me to perform arithmetic much more quickly and easily than I could before, but at Level 2 it only worked on numbers up to 4 digits. With my quill and ink from yesterday, I took two random 9 digit numbers and added them together, making sure to write them out in the Latorran notation first. I got the notification when I wrote out the answer in Latorran.

Competency displayed with [Calculate], Level 4 awarded

For gaining a skill level you have been awarded 2 XP

Nice, but I’m not done yet.

I wrote out some power series, demonstrating how to raise two to the second power and third and so on. I wrote out Pythagoras’s theorem, and then worked an example. I wrote down a set of numbers in Latorran, then calculated the average, then the variance of the set. I moved on to trigonometry, [Memorise] helping me with remembering the formulas from high school. Calculus, at least some simple examples. It took all afternoon, but eventually the System relented.

Competency displayed with [Advanced Mathematics], Level 2 awarded

For gaining a skill level you have been awarded 2 XP

I grinned in triumph. I’m not sure why it was important to me to have my skills recognised, but it definitely was. And now I could calculate the Cosine for any angle in my head. I’m not sure if that would come in useful anytime soon, but it was a nice skill. A good way to spend an afternoon. There was still some time before I had to go to work, so I thought about spells.

Today had shown me that [Simple Invisibility] wasn’t completely effective against animals, as they could still smell me. There were a couple of options for dealing with that. First of, there was a variant of Invisibility that worked only on scent. Only 10 points. I could get that, and cast both it and [Simple Invisibility]. And the mana one. That meant casting 3 spells, and an upkeep of 7 an hour. That was still less than my regeneration, and it wasn’t like I was going to be casting this in combat.

Another option was [Improved Invisibility] for 20 points. That covered both scent and sound. Yes, there was [Silence] spell, but it was 15 points. Adding that to option one would take the upkeep to 10 points vs 4 for [Improved Invisibility]

There was also an invisibility spell I could cast on others for 20 points, but that didn’t help with my immediate problem as it just provided coverage for sight. If I was willing to wait until the next skill level though, I could get [Greater Invisibility] for 30 points which could be cast on a group, and covered all the senses, including Mana. Did I want to wait for the better spell? It seemed like a good idea - I’d have to hide the other invisibility spells from Felicia anyway. Which did beg the question of why I was teaming up with her. The answer was that soloing was better for levelling, but teaming up was better for money, and I needed both. Also allies.

I’ll wait, I decided, and headed out for work.

Working that night, I picked up a skill levels in [Conversation], [Memorise] and [Run]. The last was a surprise, but I guess I was running back and forth between tables. In the morning I got another notification:

You have healed 6 points of HP

[Body Development] Level 2 acquired through use

For gaining a skill level you have been awarded 1 XP

Alright! Even ignoring the healing, I’d gained more HP than I’d lost yesterday, so overall I was still up. I washed, put on my [Disguise] and headed out. I was meeting Felicia at the Guild, and she hadn’t arrived when I got there. Paige was busy, so I examined the jobs board, and pointedly ignored Reynard. What am I going to do about him? It was tempting to just comply with his demands, whatever they were, but I was sure that wasn’t going to be the end of it. Committing some sort of crime on his behalf would just give him more of a hold on me.

Wait a minute. This was an intrigue, wasn’t it? I’d been thinking that unlocking [Intrigue] would come in later, when I was rich and powerful and dealing with nobility all day. But here I was, still dirt poor, and some guy was trying to blackmail me. I almost bought the skill right then, but a thought stopped me. Would a skill make a difference? He was level 5, doubtless with much higher stats than me. If he had… 5 Charisma and just 1 Intrigue, he’d have a 25 skill total, totally overwhelming my Level 2 and 9 Charisma. And that was just the minimum, if he’d just bought the skill. If he’d been using it for any amount of time, he’d have level 2…

But did he have it? He had more skill points than me, but he would have bought a lot of weapon skills… and hunting and other outdoor skills. Would he even have had a chance to unlock it? It certainly wouldn’t be on the Ranger skill list. Without it, his level would mean nothing, multiplied by zero. It was worth a shot.

[Intrigue] Level 1 purchased

For gaining a skill level you have been awarded 1 XP

Everything became clear.

Reynard didn’t have [Intrigue]. If he had, he wouldn’t have approached me at the Green Tanner. Too many witnesses, and he was clearly acting out of character. That mistake might cost the both of us dearly. It would have been better to take me aside when I was at the Guild. That he hadn’t suggested he was mainly worried about witnesses in the Guild. Paired with his remark about ‘nothing I hadn’t done already’, he was definitely going to ask me to cover up lying on the Truthstone. I’d have to ask Paige about what they used the Truthstone for, since I doubted he wanted to lie about his registration. In the meantime…

I glanced over the tables below, and I could identify Reynard’s clique. They’d all looked like bandits before… and they still looked that way. But now I could see how they related, how Reynard was the central figure down there. There were a few disinterested drinkers, but just about everyone was either hoping to gain favour, out of favour, or had rejected Reynard’s overtures.

So Reynard has a posse. That wasn’t a surprise, he’d brought two of them the other night. I didn’t see either of them drinking right now though… which meant they were somewhere else? Working?

I kept watching, teasing out the finer details of the group. I was looking for someone who was in Reynard’s group but wasn’t being well treated. Someone out of favour.. there were a few candidates, but just then Felicia walked in the door.

“Ready to go, partner?” she asked. For a second, I just blinked at her.

Whoa. That had been a rush. [Intrigue] had just… taken over my thinking there for a bit. Recovering, I smiled and joined Felicia in heading out, but the in the back of my mind, [Intrigue] was still racing. That had been a crazy risk, cheating the Truthstone like that. They had to have illusionist protocols, it had just been blind luck that they didn’t use them in my case. I should have-

OK OK, shut up, [Intrigue]. Doing other stuff now. I managed to focus on what Felicia was saying.

“Were there any supplies you wanted to pick up before we left?”

“Probably? I don’t have much in the way of supplies.” I glance enviously at her satchel. It was packed with stuff. She wouldn’t be carrying any lizards home in that. Instead she had some sacks tied to the outside, like some kind of organised person.

“What do you have?”

“I’ve got this satchel, and… this knife.”

Felicia sighed. “You really have led a sheltered life haven’t you? Come on.”

She took me to the market. I got a canteen made of hardened (boiled?) lizard leather, a first aid kit (‘for when I’m not around’) and something called a mess kit, which was a cup and bowl combination that fit into each other, with some space to hold some collapsable cutlery. There was some ‘utility rope’, which was a three metre length of rope with an eyelet at one end and a hook on the other. It was used a lot by adventurers for various purposes. The hook fit through the eyelet, so you could feed it through for a lariat, or hook it on to the eyelet for a fixed loop. Or if you had two, you could connect them. I picked up two sacks, and some leather strings to tie them to my satchel with. Along with a few extra strings, because they seemed like they’d come in handy.

Seeing as it was just a day trip, we didn’t get a lantern or a bedroll. But I did get a flint and steel - Felicia promised to show me how to use it. It wasn’t actually included in any skill apparently. That pretty much took care of my funds. I did manage to [Bargain] effectively which impressed Felicia and made me feel a little better about being educated by a teenager. We also got some lunch - bread and cheese and a hardboiled egg. I should use [Memorise] on every cooking show I’ve ever watched. I’d make a fortune selling Gordon Ramsey’s recipes in this world! I put it on my to-do list.

Shopping complete, we headed off to the dungeon, and to adventure!