There were no direct roads or paths leading to the stone building that Winter sought out, but nonetheless it stood out like a sore thumb amongst the trees of the forest; He didn’t have to travel far before spotting it. As quietly as possible, he scouted the exterior from all directions to get a lay of the land. The building wasn’t very big, less than 5 by 5 meters Winter estimated. It had no windows and a singular wooden door.

After confirming no sounds were coming from the structure and the coast appeared clear save for the wild critters of the forest wandering about, Winter approached the structure. When he reached the door he put his ear up to it to listen inside. He could hear a quiet shifting movement coming from within.

He took a deep breath and opened his inventory, making sure he was ready with his best equipment on. He tightly fastened a copper shield to his left hand, clenched his fists, then slowly pushed the door open to reveal the interior of the small stone building.

To the right and left of the door were small stacks of firewood cut up and ready to be used, but on the far end was a woman wearing torn, ragged clothing. She was chained up to the wall by manacles on both wrists, forcing her arms to remain spread wide, the manacles and chains bolted to the wall behind her, she had her head down facing the door, her long tattered brown hair draped over her eyes. [Tinsel - Level 3]. She looked up to see who had entered the building, her face illuminated by a torch hooked onto the wall dangerously close to her face.

“Wh-who are you?” She asked in a weakened voice. Winter walked forward quickly. Without answering he began examining her condition - she seemed unharmed, no injuries and her health appeared to be full, but she looked famished.

“I’m a friend of Farlian. Are you his wife?” He asked, to which she smiled.

“Y-yes.”

“Are there keys anywhere?” Winter asked, she nodded and motioned to a small crate in the corner with a few objects on it, one of which was a singular iron key, one was a rolled up parchment, and the last was a corkless vial. The moment he looked at the vial, a message popped up in front of him.

Quest Complete! Return to Priestess Clara

“Doesn’t even require me to save you.” Winter shook his head to himself, wondering how many other possible outcomes a quest like this might have. He grabbed all three items from the crate and put all but the key in his inventory, then unlocked the manacles on her wrists. “Here.” He pulled out a rockjaw steak, and she bit into it without hesitation. She had a look of gratitude for a moment, but as she turned to the doorway her expression morphed into fear. Winter turned as well to see a hooded figure standing there in the doorway.

“And who might you be? A dog of Kalmoore, or perhaps the puppet of a false god?” He spoke in a menacing tone as Tinsel cowered behind Winter. Winter lifted his shield up cautiously. Unlike the boars and rockjaws, he had no idea what to expect from this enemy or how strong it might be. The light around them began to suddenly dim, even the sunlight that was shining through the doorway waned, as if something was sucking it out of the air.

“H-he uses shadow magic, don’t leave the light!” Tinsel shouted in panic as she yanked the torch off the wall hook and held it close. The torch’s flame was still flickering but its light was spreading like that of a small candle, and in those few moments the hooded figure seemingly disappeared.

Winter glanced around to try to see where he had gone but the room had become dark. He could hear a whooshing sound of movement through the shadows, but no footsteps, and it seemed to move around behind them. Then, at the threshold of the torch light, he saw a misty, human shaped shadow lunge forward out of the darkness with a dagger in its hand, thrusting it towards the back of an unaware Tinsel. He lifted his shield up behind Tinsel’s head just barely in time to block a dagger from striking her in the back as the blade slid off the side of his shield and went wide, activating Brace simultaneously.

You take 12 Piercing Damage.

The yellow flash from Brace was enough to illuminate the misty form of the cloaked man as he retreated from the failed attack back into the shadows of the dark room. Winter was surprised that the damage wasn’t higher, but he wasn't about to complain.

As the cloaked figure moved, the whooshing wind-like sound resumed. His body seemed to morph into a mist, no longer corporeal, and Winter recognized immediately that fighting inside this dark building was a death sentence.

“Run, make for the doorway!” Winter shouted as he grabbed the torch from Tinsel’s hand. The two rushed forward towards the exit, and while running Winter caught a glimpse of the shadowy form moving into the light of the torch from the right side of the room. Winter stretched out his shield again in the nick of time to block another dagger strike on Tinsel, and in that moment Tinsel passed through the threshold of the doorway into the sunlight. Winter turned back to look into the room and stood in the doorway with the torch.

“You’re not teleporting right? It’s some sort of movement skill that only works when there isn’t any light present. I read about something like that. That means you can’t use it to get through this doorway as long as I’m holding the torch here.” Winter shouted at the formless man within. As he shouted this, Tinsel stopped running to look back at Winter worriedly.

“Go, run back to Orm, tell Priestess Clara everything you know.” Winter instructed. Tinsel nodded and ran off into the forest.

“I can’t have her ruining our plans. She knows too much. Move, so that I may kill her.” The voice growled angrily as it shifted back into a human form, his silhouette barely visible inside the dark building.

“T-thats fine.” Winter took a fighting stance. “If she dies, that's it for her, but I’ll be fine.” Winter spoke defiantly.

“So be it.” The figure grinned. Lunging forward with two daggers drawn, he began striking Winter’s shield.

You take 4 points of piercing damage.

You take 3 points of piercing damage.

You take 4 points of piercing damage.

You take 2 points of piercing damage.

“Of course…” Winter had a realization. “Creatures that attack slow will hit big, but fast attackers with low damage are really weak against shield users right? As long as I can brace all of your attacks? Which, to be fair, it is a bit hard, but...” Winter said as he timed his shield movements to coincide with the dagger strikes of the cloaked man.

“Will you shut up and fight back?” The man shouted at him in frustration. “Thought If you’re planning on just being a pincushion, I’m fine with that. I’ll admit, your shield skills are above average, but how long can you keep that up?” He continued stabbing furiously, to the point where he was hitting Winter’s shield on purpose, focusing on it with the hopes of breaking Winter's defense. His focus was only interrupted by a chewing sound, causing him to stop and look overtop of the shield.

He saw Winter was holding the torch under his right armpit while using his right hand to eat a steak.

“You’re eating lunch while we’re fighting?” The cloaked man shouted in pure rage.

“Well yeah, you’re draining so much stamina -” Winter replied with his mouthful, stuffing an entire rockjaw steak in, then pulling another from his inventory.

“Just how much do you want to underestimate me!?” The man raged. He waved his daggers away from the torch into the darkness, and when he brought them back near the light they had become engulfed in a shadowy mist.

You take 12 points of Shadow damage.

You take 11 points of Shadow damage.

“Shit. Shadow daggers not good. Need light, need light.” Winter frantically tried to wave the torch towards the daggers to cancel the effect, but they were moving too quickly in the now pitch black storage house. Then an idea suddenly popped into Winter’s head. This was a firewood storage house. Firewood. Torch.

Instead of using the torch to try and cancel the shadow on his daggers, he thrust it into the stack of dry firewood to the right of the door. It took a few seconds to catch fire, but once it did it began to spread quickly.

“Really not the best choice of hideouts.” Winter commented with his mouth full of steak once more. “Minor Heal!” He cast, restoring his health back up a bit.

“Insolent Priest!” The cloaked figure roared as he unleashed another flurry of blows on Winter’s shield, who went back to steak eating and using Brace. By now Tinsel was long gone and Winter thought it’d be safe to try and run, but a notification popped up to deter him.

Level Up!: Shield Mastery has reached level 17!

Level Up!: Leather Armor Proficiency has reached level 12!

“I’m getting Shield Mastery experience again! And it’s a lot! Hey, what level are you?” Winter asked excitedly as the fire inside the small structure began to blaze out of control.

“He’s level 15.” A voice answered from behind Winter. He glanced back to see Herilon standing there, his greatsword drawn, and he had a strange glass monocle sitting over his right eye emitting a blue light, which faded a moment after Winter looked at him. “Guild leader said she got a warning that a building within my territory was on fire. You mind explaining what you’re doing, Winter?” Herilon asked.

"How'd you find me so fast?" Winter asked, to which Herilon pointed at the billowing pillar of smoke rising up above the treeline. "Oh... I’m a- it’s a quest. I was looking for the person poisoning Orm, it’s this guy. He uses shadow magic, so, y’know, fire.” Winter replied between mouthfuls of steak, healing himself, and blocking attacks.

“Oh, in that case, great work. I’ll take it up from here.” Herilon took a few steps forward while raising his oversized greatsword into a striking position.

“Ah- wait, hang on. This guy’s really good skill experience.” Winter protested, causing Herilon to stop and look at him confused.

“Y’know, I was wondering. How’s a level 5 player surviving so many hits from a level 15 Shadow Assassin NPC?” Herilon asked rhetorically, Winter didn’t answer. “I can see you’re using Brace really well. Not many players can handle bracing fast dagger attacks so consistently, but still... You started playing what, like, a week ago? And you spent most of that time dying to a boar. Something's weird here.” Herilon began pacing behind Winter, making him uneasy, but he couldn't watch what Herilon was doing, he had to pay attention to the dagger strikes to Brace them properly.

There was a sudden flash of blue light behind Winter, he glanced back once more to see a beam of blue magical energy radiating from a wand that Herilon had pulled from his inventory, the beam connecting directly to Winter.

“Hey, what the heck are you doing?” Winter shouted at him.

“Relax, it's just a wand of identification.” Herilon said this as he fidgeted around with an item card that appeared in front of his interface containing all of Winter’s statistics and skills.

“Shit.” Winter sighed, he knew what was coming next.

“What the heck is Pacifism -” Herilon said as he clicked on Winter’s pacifism skill to read it, and in an instant his jaw dropped wide open in disbelief. There was an awkward silence between them, filled only by the sound of the vulgar threats and dagger attacks of the Shadow Assassin, who was very unhappy with being ignored.

“You cheeky little bastard.” Herilon had a nasty grin grow over his face. “The whole world thinks you’re some hopeless noob who can’t kill a boar. This is what you were doing? How’d you learn about this, did Makaroth tell you?”

“I’ve got nothing to do with Makaroth. He doesn’t know about it, in fact no one really does, except me, and now you.” Winter replied anxiously.

“Oh this is gold. So, you had to die a lot to get it? Eirene, I guess it only works for divine classes. Dang, that rules me out.” Herilon began pacing back and forth again while thinking on it.

“Any chance you'll keep it to yourself?” Winter asked as politely as he could.

“What I don’t get is why you’re keeping it hidden in the first place. You could clear up your name in an instant if everyone knew this is what you were doing. You’d be famous. Again...”

“I’d be famous for being Makaroth’s son, not because of the skill. I don’t want anything to do with that guy.” Winter replied.

“Ahhhh, I see. So that’s how it is.” Herilon stopped pacing, it was clear he was enjoying his position of power over Winter, all the while Winter was struggling to multitask blocking attacks, eating steak, and talking with Herilon. “It’s kind of hard to level up without being able to attack anything though, isn’t it? I mean eventually that guy will take you out. It’s not like you’re going to exhaust him, he has ten thousand stamina.”

“How do you know that?” Winter asked, to which Herilon tapped his eyeglass.

“Arcanist's Eye, it’s an intermediate level enchanted item, let’s you see the statistics of monsters that are lower level than you.” Herilon replied.

“Well, ten thousand is nothing.” Winter faked confidence.

“Pfft, yeah right. How much steak did you bring?” Herilon raised an eyebrow as he put away his sword and crossed his arms. Winter didn’t reply to this, he had no doubt that eventually he’d need to run from this assassin, ask for help, or die, but as he was thinking his, he felt a burning sensation in his throat all too familiar to him, and his stamina dropped a large chunk suddenly. He coughed painfully as the smoke from the flames billowing out of the building through the doorway became too much to handle, he couldn’t breath and was forced to turn his head and take in fresh air from outside to stop the suffocation effect. Another lightbulb flicked on in his head.

“How about we make a bet.” Winter suggested as more level up notifications appeared for Shield Mastery and Leather Armor Proficiency - they were going up incredibly fast. “If I can defeat this Shadow Assassin, you won’t tell anyone about my skill.”

“Hmmm.” Herilon thought about it for a moment. “I’m starting to like you, Winter. I definitely got the wrong first impression about you…” He put a finger to his chin. “Alright, deal. I’ll need to tell my guild leader about it, but I’ll make sure she keeps it between us. But only if you can defeat that Assassin.” Winter grinned, eying the bright flames and thick smoke built up inside the stone building.

As long as Winter could hold his ground, the Shadow Assassin had a chance of also suffering the suffocation effect. His only concern was whether or not it would still be considered not attacking. Sure enough, after a minute longer of dagger attacks, the Shadow Assassin began coughing profusely.

“There you are, we’ve been looking all over for you!” A familiar voice shouted from behind him. Winter turned to see Keldan, Swiftstar, and two other players, named Rocknight and Vriflow, all approaching from the distance. They were all about 2 levels higher from when Winter had last seen them. Winter let out an audible groan

"How did you guys fi-" Winter didn't even get the sentence out, all four pointed at the giant pillar of smoke. "Oh, yeah." He mumbled in defeat.

“Looks like he still has his bodyguard.” Swiftstar commented, motioning towards Herilon who glared back at them.

“These your pals, Winter?” Herilon asked.

“No.” Winter replied coldly.

“Hey hey, we respect the Night Hunters. We’ve learned from our mistakes. We won’t start any more fighting within Orm, but, we're not exactly in Orm right now, and we’ve got a bone to pick with Winter.” Keldan’s speaking was overly dramatic, so much so that Winter could tell he was live streaming again without needing to turn and see the icon.

“Be that as it may, I just made a bet with this little guy, I’d prefer you not interrupt it.” Herilon gently patted the hilt of his greatsword.

“What kind of bet?” Swiftstar asked, the four of them walking close enough now to see the level 15 Shadow Assassin fighting for his life inside the small firewood house. It looked unusually cruel, so much that Winter might’ve felt bad about it if the assassin hadn’t been continuously threatening to rip out Tinsel’s throat and make Winter eat it in between his attacks.

“Winter says he can beat that level 15 Shadow Assassin without attacking it.” Herilon shrugged.

“Are you mental?” Vriflow, an elven female wielding a scepter and shield, commented. She had straight long red hair, wore black and blue mail armor, and stood behind the others a few meters back.

“Being Makaroth’s son has gotten to your head, huh? Did you forget that you couldn’t even kill a boar? How’s a level 5 going to beat a level 15?” Keldan shouted, partially directed at Winter, partially at his audience. As he said this, the Shadow Assassin collapsed on the ground.

Shadow Assassin defeated!

Congratulations, you have reached level 6!: 3 attribute points available, +51 health, +21 mana!

Level Up!: Shield Mastery has reached level 21!

Level Up!: Leather Armor Proficiency has reached level 15!

Level Up!: Minor Heal has reached level 13!

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Constitution

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Spirit

A small grey orb rolled out of the assassins body, cracking open to reveal a black cloak. Winter bent down to pick it up before frantically navigating to his skill list to see if Pacifism was still there. To his relief, it was.

"This game's a bit twisted." He mumbled to himself as he stepped away from the blazing building, glad to be free from breathing in the smokey air. As he turned around he saw all five of them staring at him, eyes wide, jaws dropped, including Herilon. “So uh, deal’s a deal, right?”