Sadly the day was waning and the library would close soon so we had to leave. Safrah decided to rent the room for the next month to give Vivi some space to read. I could use it as well of course but as an intern at Riggard’s workshop I could use the craftsman’s reading booth as well. Lihan told me there were a few apprentices that visited regularly. Maybe I would join them at some point.

We returned to Safrah’s house, the dwarf chatting with Vivi about carving tools. I paid them little attention, thinking about my plans instead. I was going to work at an artificer’s shop for the next month and learn how to make my own heating artefact. Basically a portable stove. Would that really be so easy? Sure, I made the supersensory matrix but that was just shifting around aspects within an object and forcing them to obey my will. The dwarves artificing sounded much more like programming but with a physical object. I had seen code in my previous life but I had never understood it. Sure, there were numbers and words that somehow made sense on their own but how they interacted, I had no clue.

That was only the first of my problems. I was confident I could somehow figure out the details of crafting. What I was much more worried about was spending a lot of time with dwarves I knew nothing about and wanted nothing to do with. Safrah was alright. She had helped me without much prompting and was being very friendly with Vivi as well. I had no issues with her. A big part of that, I realized, was when we met. I came to the town expecting to extort or steal a healing potion from someone. She gave me an easier and much safer way to accomplish my goal but I had no reason not to apply force if necessary.

Now, with these dwarves? I could not just resort to violence. Well, technically I could but… I did not want to. I liked the town and spending time without worrying constantly about finding a safe place to rest and Safrah and the easy way to get things I wanted and could not make myself and the library… I did not want to jeopardize the dwarves hospitality. I was also pretty confident I could not use force against the guard captain. Sure, I could probably kill him. I was an [Assassin], after all. But that would not help me. He was one of the biggest faces in town. If I harmed him, I would not be welcome here.

In short, I had to deal with people. I had no way out other than giving up on the offer to learn about dwarven artificing from a respected master. And I would have to put up with any problems that might arrive. Could I prepare myself? Sure, I could delay my internship another day or two and spy on the workshop. That would give me an idea of who worked there. It would also be impolite towards Riggard and only tell me about how they interacted with each other, not how they did with an outsider. Wait. That was it, right? I just had to not be an outsider. And I knew just how. My most disregarded Skill, [Mingling]. I could just pretend to be a dwarf. As stupid as that sounded just after I thought it, I had successfully fooled the monkeys. Sure, this would be much more difficult, but I only had to keep it up towards the other dwarves. There was no need to deceive Riggard himself.

Now, how would I go about that? I would have to hide most of my body. Clothing would be stupid. Hindering my movements in such a way was just plain wrong. But I had my shadows. I could surely form them into some sort of cloak. As I had formed that thought, I already felt the darkness seep out of my feathers. Black swathes fell only to stop just before hitting the ground. More and more they build up until I was finally completely shrouded. Well, almost. My head was covered with a hood having an opening in front. It was pulled low as to hide my beak and feathers but someone could see through if they tried. I noticed my hearing was slightly dampened by the shadows but some fiddling around let me quickly figure out how to adjust it. Just like my sight, I was able to easily let it go through the darkness.

The next step was shaping the blanket into an actual cloak. I pulled it a little tighter in some places and widened it in others. I also added fake sleeves filled with fake arms and fake gloved hands sticking out. Sure, they were a little weak to actually pass as a humanoid’s hands, but they did the job. In front of my chest, I made sure to create a line of buttons as if holding the ‘cloak’ together. It reached almost all the way to the floor so I did not have to add boots beneath. My Skill still told me something was wrong and after a few steps, I realized. I had to adjust my walking posture. Rather than the usual waddling of my butt, I had to keep my upper body mostly straight like a dwarf would. There was one more thing to consider. Did I want to appear as a dwarf or some other small humanoid? The answer was pretty simple. The only other small humanoids I knew were goblins. I was mostly guessing but I assumed they did not get along too well with the dwarves. So I had to add ears on top of my head.

The fluffy appendages were something very important in dwarf culture. I could not go without them. However, it proved difficult to get their movement right. The ears of dwarves were expressive. They flicked back and forth and to the side, laid down or were pulled back. They had a wide range of motion. Mimicking all that realistically would take me some time.

We had just entered Safrah’s kitchen when I had the basic shape down. The dwarf turned around and gave me a confused look.

“Who?”

Hoot, I answered.

“Oh. Wow. That looks… interesting?”

She was clearly a little distraught. Most likely the pure black cloak was looking a little unfamiliar, if not dangerous. Vivi walked up curiously and gave me a sniff. She tilted her head and bent down a little to look into my hood. Then she gave me a nod.

“Still Fio”, she sent.

I nodded back.

“Always Fio”, I answered.

Safrah’s ears made some weird motions. One was standing up and turned towards me while the other was half laid-back and turned away. I mimicked the position with my own shadow ears. That only confused her more. The laid-back ear stood straight and swivelled around facing front and back in quick repetition. This was some good exercise. Mimicking her movements allowed me to practice keeping the shadows together while rapidly changing position. It also showed me how little attention I had paid dwarven ears until now. They were so expressive. Were orks and goblins the same and had I just ignored it? I would have to be more attentive.

At some point, Safrah simple decided to ignore what I was doing and turned to the pantry.

“I’ll make some food, Vivi. You still don’t want any, Fio?”

I sent a quick “No” and made my way upstairs. A quick snack from my storage and then it was time to get out into town again. Obviously to observe more dwarves. I had only this night to figure out how to do it.

The way I went about it was pretty simple. I moved across the roofs and whenever some dwarves were talking in the street below looked down and memorized every detail. Simultaneously, I had the shadows on top of my head active and mimicking the motions as best I could.

There were far more dwarves outside than I expected. Safrah had told me how the quarry was worked every day. The stone magically regrew, probably from a powerful terra node though nobody had ever found it. It was stopped by a line of magical pavement but there was no profit in letting it sit for a day while everyone rested. Instead, the houses for the temporary workers set up a schedule ending up with some dwarves being on their day off on any given day. Still, most of those who would have to get up early tomorrow were out tonight as well. There was no other way to explain the masses of drinking men. And women. I had expected there to be far fewer women but it was almost fifty-fifty out on the streets. Just looking at the gear, the miners were still more men than women but that was at most a sixty-forty ratio.

Interestingly enough the women had slightly different expressions in their ear-motions than the men. Usually, you would expect some sort of diminutive behaviour, trying to look cute and approachable with the occasional girl standing out to grab what she wants. Judging from actions alone, the dwarves were much different. The women were forward and daring in their actions, seeking physical contact, not just with the same gender. The men sometimes had to push them back. Looking at the ears, though, painted a very different picture. A very ‘normal’ picture. Every push and contact was accompanied by drawn back ears, no matter how confident a face they tried to make. The men either had their ears perked up and facing forward, which would invite more activities from their approacher, or hold them away which would do the opposite.

I saw the dwarves act rough and rowdy with each other as humans at a party could never do but if I only looked at the ears, they were just the same. With one difference. There was one word that could silence a room and bring calculating smiles to every dwarves’ face. Challenge. I heard it a few times. “I challenge you to a drinking contest” was the most common, but strength and eating fought for a close second. Some were about who could mine more stone the coming day or who could carve the better figure. There was even one who challenged someone to a contest of cooking. Every time that word fell, the surroundings focused their attention on the contenders. As soon as the objective was settled, bets would start flowing all around. There was never a question of accepting. The contenders always knew they would fight it out. Though, a real fight was extremely rare. I only saw two guards challenge each other to a sparring match once. They made sure to use wooden swords and not to hit the other’s head or throat.

This seemed to be the most important thing to a dwarf. Even more than their clan. I knew they could move from one clan to another or even become clan-less without being shunned but I never saw a shred of hesitation when it came to challenges. They would prove who was better at their chosen discipline and then shake on it and move on. No bad blood. It was a beautiful system really.

While watching, I noticed my shadow-cloak-ears were finally acting in form. They simply reacted to my emotions without me putting in much effort. It would still take some practice to get them to work against my actual emotions and portray what I wanted to convey but this much was fine for now. I had my disguise and with this, I would hopefully be able to work in Riggard’s workshop without being discomforted by swarming people I did not care about. Just then, something I had not seen in a while happened. I got a system notification.

~ding~ Congratulations! For learning the detailed behaviour of a new race you have earned experience. There is more yet to gain.

~ding~ You have reached level 26. Attribute Point allocated. 1 Attribute Point awarded.

Huh. That was an interesting message. There is more yet to gain? Did that mean I could get more experience if I understood the dwarves even better? Something for later. I checked on my Status and noticed I had gained a point in Dexterity. The other one I put into Wisdom. The added control was more important for both my shadow cloak and the work I would start doing tomorrow. I also saw [Mingling] had finally levelled up. Now only my newest Skill [Winged Death] had yet to reach the first Breakpoint.

Species: Sgiathan Dorcha Owl (adult)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy, Beast Core (unique)

Level: 26

Class: [Assassin lvl 54], -

Strength: 21

Constitution: 16

Dexterity: 26

Perception: 26

Intelligence: 36

Wisdom: 37

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 5], [Preening lvl 4], [Owl Stomach lvl 5], [Soundless Flight lvl 4]

Offensive: [Solid Grip lvl 4], [Intimidating Screech lvl 4], [Owl’s Shadow lvl 6], [Aerial Combat lvl 4]

General:

[Maths lvl 4], [Hidden Identify lvl 5]

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 5], [Surprise Attack lvl 4], [Mingling lvl 4], [Eldritch Shift lvl 5], [Winged Death lvl 3]