As I lay on the ground of the thieves’ store room, tightly wrapped up by one notably tipsy bartender, I realized that I had no idea what to do.

Do I even want to steal this scepter at this point? Nadja said they’re helping people with it, and I’m going to feel like shit if she brings me down here and I repay her by stealing from her.

A series of bangs on the thick, iron door made it clear that I was out of time. Despite the door’s decent soundproofing, it failed to block the subsequent shouts from the guards behind it. I tried to gently pull myself from Nadja, but to no avail.

“Nadja! Open the gods damned door! Fiery hells, how did she manage to lock the door from the inside in the first place? Go run for help — I think we can take her, but I don’t know.”

The door was locked from the inside? I sure as hell hadn’t done that. It was an unbelievably lucky break though; I was hardly in a battle-ready position if this devolved into a fight. The fact that more thieves would soon be on the way, though, was harrowing. I was fairly certain the two guards could have taken me. Having to somehow escape from even more than that struck me as a losing endeavor.

Still not bothering to extricate herself from me, Nadja furrowed her brows deeply before muttering under her breath. “Right when it was getting good, too…” She lifted her head towards the door, this time shouting at full force. “Tem! What the fuck are you talking about, and why are you banging on the gods damn-”

I was, at that point, fairly certain that things couldn’t get any more chaotic. What could possibly one-up how strange the night had become?

Of course, however, I was wrong.

Right as I began to more forcefully pull myself from underneath Nadja, it appeared, hovering at the far end of our row of shelves.

A cloud of blue mana.

Is that… Before I could even shout a warning, it surged forward, closing the distance to us in a heartbeat.

The spell dropped, and the mana resolved into a familiar cloaked figure holding a pair of daggers.

The Shadow? What… What? What the fuck is happening right now? How di-

In one swift motion, the Shadow brought the pommel of their dagger smashing down in Nadja’s head. She immediately went limp.

In a fit of nerves, I scrambled out from under her, expecting to receive the same treatment as Nadja any moment now. Instead, the rogue simply turned to me, face hidden beneath a mask of shadows.

“I’ll help you escape, but I’d prefer if they didn’t know I was here.” The voice was a man’s, low and gravelly.

What? “Sorry, what the hell is going on? Aren’t you the one who stole this damn rod in the first place? Why are you helping me? And how’d you even get in here in the first place? And did you really have to knock out Nadja?” She’s going to be so pissed when she wakes up, isn’t she?

He angled his head over to the door before tilting it to the side. Repeated shouts and the steady thuds of fist against metal reverberated through the room. “Really the time for this? I followed you in while you were blindfolded. The rest can wait: I have to chase after the one who went for help, or you’ll be royally screwed. I’m going to release the locking spell now.”

Damn. I had felt someone was watching me while I was blindfolded, but I’d just assumed it was Nadja. None of that answered the “why” of it all, but perhaps the man was right. Some things could wait.

Apparently, however, some things could not wait. The Shadow reactivated his invisibility before moving to the door, and I barely managed to squeak out a protest before a puff of mana escaped his hand. It moved into the keyhole of the door, and there was an audible click as the door unlocked.

“Try not to lose, yeah?” The door slammed open, and right as Temrin jumped in, the Shadow slipped past him, leaving me with one passed-out bartender and one incredibly angry thief.

“YOU!” boomed Temrin. He caught sight of the motionless Nadja behind me, his face twisting into a furious rictus. Without sparing time for further words, he leapt at me.

It was all I could do to fish out the knife from my inventory before he was on me. Unfortunately, it appeared that I’d brought a knife to a knife fight, and I wasn’t particularly good at knife fights.

Dammit. Couldn’t have given me just two more seconds to pull the spear out?

Even within the first exchange, things went very poorly for me. While I seemed to have a very slight speed advantage, the Thief’s dagger-work far surpassed mine, and I was left with a nasty cut on my forearm.

You are bleeding! Lose 1 health per two seconds until bleeding stops.

I winced at the sting of the wound and sent out a return strike, but Temrin’s off-hand shot out like a snake, reaching towards my hand with an eerie sort of accuracy.

Pilfer Weapon

Reach out and attempt to disarm your opponent by stealing their weapon. Accuracy increases based on Dexterity and is lowered by your opponent’s weapon skill.

I wasn’t sure quite how, but the skill’s description suddenly jumped into my head. Being aware of what was happening, however, did not save me from the skill’s effects. With my laughable weapon skills, Temrin deftly wrested control of the knife from me, fully disarming me. He released a throaty laugh as the blade slid into his hand.

This feels… bad.

“Nope!” Having no qualms about seeming weak or dishonorable, I jumped and started running from him.

He let loose a curse, trailing behind me. In most rooms of this size, the ploy wouldn’t have worked, as it was far too small to really run. With the rows of shelves creating narrow passages, however, I was able to dart between them, forcing him to chase me.

Right as I reached the end of one row of shelves and ducked behind the next, I hastily threw my hand into my dimensional pouch, pulling out my only other weapon.

The spear was at once both unwieldy and ideal. It scraped against the ceiling as I took it out, and trying to turn with it was out of the question. As Temrin rounded the bend, however, he suddenly discovered that he was losing quite badly when it came to reach. In the narrow confines, he had no hope of getting past the weapon either.

See, this is why I like spears. Keeps the bad guys far away.

Instead of jabbing forward, though, I cautiously moved backwards. I didn’t know if his skill had some sort of cooldown on it, but if he managed to steal my spear too, I had few illusions about how the rest of the fight would end up.

Wasn’t one of the big selling points of this class supposed to be soulbinding equipment? How’s this all work? Go-go soul-bind! Soul-bind spear! I tried to visualize what I wanted to happen, making the spear bound to me.

Much to my surprise, a prompt popped directly into my brain, thankfully skipping the usual visuals that would have messed me up.

You are in possession of a weapon. Would you like to soul bind it?

“Yes!” I mentally screamed at it. I didn’t know exactly how the process worked, but that was a problem for later.

For a split second, the spear glowed blue and hummed with concentrated mana, and then it was over. I suddenly knew that I could summon the weapon at will.

Putting my new skill to the test, I finally stopped backing away and went in for a lunging stab at Temrin’s leg. My foresight quickly proved to have been warranted as he slid to the side and grabbed the haft of the spear. Even knowing it might happen and tightening my grip, I still proved to be unable to keep hold of the spear, and he viciously pulled it from me before throwing it aside.

A victorious smirk donned his lips as he caught sight of me fully weaponless.

Right up until the spear popped back into existence in my hands.

“Are you fucking kidding m-”

I used his moment of hesitation to jab forward, cutting his words short. I pressed the advantage now, and despite being less skilled than him, with no room to maneuver, he was forced to backpedal from even fairly clumsy attacks. With his evidently high Dexterity combined with my low weapon skills, I didn’t manage to land anything, but he wouldn’t be getting in range of me any time soon either.

Of the two of us, however, I was the one in worse shape. Instead of recklessly continuing my assault, I jumped back, disengaging and buying myself time to cast Minor Healing. The cut he’d given me earlier disappeared alongside my bleeding debuff.

“Blood and piss. Of course she’s got a damned healing spell.” With his one trick countered and his reach lower than mine, he eyed me more warily, not opting to attack. As far as he knew, his companion was fetching help, which meant that even if I wouldn’t bleed out, every moment he stalled was one step closer to victory.

I wasn’t sure if he was wrong, either. I had no idea if the Shadow would be successful, or if I could really trust him in the first place.

Is there a better way out of this? I feel like with the better reach, there’s a solid chance I can win this, but is that actually the goal? Maybe I could hobble him a little, but I’m not actually trying to gut Temrin, am I?

I liked to think that I was a practical person in the end. If it really came to it, I’d be capable of doing what I had to to stay alive, even if I had to do something… unsavory. But I knew this guy. We’d grabbed drinks together. He was a friend of Nadja’s. In all honesty, I wasn’t even sure I could blame him for trying to knife the shit out of me right now.

Wasn’t there a big suit of armor in here on the wall? My mind raced back to everything I’d read about my class, settling on one possible skill that could help me.

I risked a glance backwards, and sure enough, the store room sported a full-on set of plate armor, identical to the sets I’d seen on some of the palace guards. Far-fetched though my idea may have been, I opted to inch towards the armor. Temrin moved slowly in step with me, letting me back myself against the wall.

When my back brushed up against the metal, I pictured myself binding to the armor. Much as had happened last time, a prompt popped up.

You are in possession of a suit of armor. Would you like to soulbind it?

Amazing. I couldn’t keep myself from sighing a breath of relief as I accepted the prompt.

Apparently realizing something was amiss, Temrin took the opportunity to rush forward. Eschewing his earlier cautious and probing strikes, he committed fully, sliding under a clumsy thrust I sent out and getting right up against me. The dagger in his hand flew forward, ready to sink into my side.

Right as I was about to be the not-so-proud owner of a gaping flesh wound, however, the suit of plate on the armor stand suddenly vanished, reappearing on me a moment later. Temrin’s dagger bounced ineffectually off the thick metal, leaving him standing there, locked in place with a stunned expression.

With his dagger largely nullified as a threat and him so close to me, only one thought came to mind.

This feels… kind of cheap? Well, whatever.

Covered from head to toe in plate mail, I reached out and grabbed the man before he could disengage.

Then, after dismissing my spear, I tackled him to the ground.

The plate armor was ill-fitting, and as we connected with the floor, I took a bit of damage from the metal smashing into me, but of the two of us, the Thief was far worse for wear.

In fact, belatedly, I realized that while Temrin was about as fast as I was, he was far, far weaker. Evidently, he’d been shoving most of his points into Dexterity, whereas I was much more well-rounded.

He cursed and struggled and squirmed and writhed, but with my Strength and the weight of the armor on top of him, he was firmly pinned.

Ugh. I don’t suppose he’d just yield, would he? Probably would bolt off the moment I let him up. Okay, I’m not going to feel great about this one, but…

“Um. Hey Temrin. Really sorry about this. I’m doubting I’m your favorite person right now, but when you wake up, can you let Nadja know I’m sorry? I really did think of her as a friend, and-”

He erupted into a litany of curses and threats, shouting over me.

Well. Kind of fair.

And then, I choked him out.

Sorry Tem.

After he was well and truly out of it, I dismissed the bulky armor, and it disappeared. A rather long host of notifications awaited me, but it didn’t quite seem like a time for reading.

Strangely, for all the physical exertion I’d just performed, I was still feeling pretty decent. Energetic, even. That was good, because I was ready to sprint out of here as fast as I could. I grabbed my knife back and threw the scepter into my inventory before making for the door, turning around one last time to see Temrin and Nadja’s prone forms.

Well. Everyone in their 20s has a few experiences like this, right? You live and you learn. Sorry Nadja. And Temrin, I guess. Hope you two don’t get in any big trouble for this.

Right as I was about to leave, I caught sight of a thick tome by the door, resting on one of the shelves. It glowed faintly under my Mana Sense.

Feels like a bad idea to stay and loot the place when reinforcements might show up any moment… but one little book can’t hurt too much, can it?

I hastily shoved the book into my pouch and ran from the room.

Despite having been blindfolded on the way in, the trap doors and entrances were only made to be hidden from one direction, and I easily navigated my way back to the main bar. When I arrived there, two figures greeted me.

One of them lay unconscious on the ground, while the second hung in a cloud of blue mana.

“Nice. Took you kind of long for a low-ranking thief, but good job, I guess.” The Shadow of Ftheran turned to me, expression unreadable behind his veil of darkness. “You just make your way to the palace now. I’ll trail behind you in case anyone shows signs of pursuit.”

I frowned. “Do I… Do I ever get an explanation for what the fuck is going on with you, or no?” A weird shadowy thief who stole national artifacts randomly showing up to help me steal back something that he’d already stolen was the kind of the thing I wanted some more details on.

He shrugged. “Perhaps.” And with that, he dropped out of invisibility and sprinted off.

“Okay… well. That was kind of dramatic.”

Guess there’s really only one thing to do, then.

Leaving the unconscious bodies behind me, I stepped out of the bar and began running for the palace.