Freya held her breath as the first drop of liquid rolled down the glass tube. She had been trying for the last hour to fix her distiller. Clean, distilled water improved the quality of many potions, so she often prepared it in large quantities. However, her large distiller had been destroyed in her workshop. Luckily, her smaller backup was still in one piece. Unluckily, it was cheaply made and worked worse with every use.

Distillers were one of the few pieces of wizard-made technology she used to make potions. The runes inscribed down the length of the condenser–the glass that ran between the original flask and the receiving flask–cooled the glass. This allowed the vapor from the boiling undistilled liquid to condense and drip into the receiving flask. That was the idea at least. Freya suspected her distiller was nothing more than a water boiler. The runes weren’t cooling the vapor enough to condense the water, and it was escaping instead.

She glanced at the time in the upper corner of her vision.

Damn, Nightscythe will be coming soon. I’m only going to have one vial full by then.

Over the last day, she had been busy making potions. She had used up all her distilled water, so she wanted to finish by making more for next time. It was something good to have on hand if she ever needed to make a specific rare potion she didn’t have stockpiled.

Frowning at the wizard-made tool, she thought to herself, I should have bought one while I was in Blue Cliff City. Oh well, I could just fast-travel there again.

Freya watched another droplet slowly slide down the glass. The game was really useful for traveling. A merchant would love to have a Player Card. Not only for the fast-travel feature but also the game’s inventory function.

Forget the demoniclasts, I wouldn’t be surprised if a greedy merchant would kill for a Player Card, Freya thought gloomily.

So far, it seemed only demoniclasts knew about Player Cards, but Freya shuddered to think if everyone knew killing players could get them a nice reward. This would be terrible not only for game players but probably every living person. Since non-players had no surefire way of knowing who held a Player Card, Freya feared a bloody future of indiscriminate killing.

Beep!

Freya jumped at the notification.

[Nightscythe: Good news!]

[Nightscythe: I talked to a guy that has misidentify]

[Nightscythe: Are you free?]

Shaking away her thoughts, Freya invited Nightscythe to meet her at her inn room. Her prediction that she would have a vial of water by his arrival was incorrect; she only had a few drips. Annoyed, she blew out the flame under the boiling water and resolved to buy a new distiller. There was probably a crack in the glass, a loose connection, or a scratch in the runes.

Knock, knock

Freya squinted at the door. Only a few seconds ago she sent Nightscythe a reply. She opened the door and found the blue-haired rogue smiling.

“Were you right outside the entire time?” Freya asked coldly.

“Oh, well, er, I left the game here, so this is the spot I came back to.”

“Just knock then next time.”

Freya couldn’t understand why he had bothered to type out DMs while standing right outside her door. The messaging system was one of the things about the game she could do without. Sure, it was useful to send information from far distances, but she felt the game players overused it.

Letting Nightscyhte come in, Freya cleaned up a spot for them to sit. Like last time, Nightscythe was fascinated by her shaman equipment. When he saw the distiller, he exclaimed, “Wow, this looks like something out of my chemistry class!”

After explaining how he failed his high school chemistry class, Nightscythe finally got to his main point.

“I confirmed with another player it’s possible to use Misidentify to pretend to be an NPC. As long as you don’t choose an odd NPC class, it actually doesn’t take a high skill level. However, it will be difficult to fool anyone with a high perception.”

Freya rapped her fingers against the table. “That should be okay. I imagine even if the demoniclasts know about attribute points, they’d probably put them into strength, not perception.”

Nightscythe bobbed his head in agreement, “Pretending to change your class is actually quite easy. It’s changing your perceived level that’s hard. At level sixteen, your level might be a little suspicious, but maybe for a prospective demoniclast, it will be okay.”

“Hm, I’d like to arouse as little suspicion as possible. How hard is it to level Misidentify?”

“Well, first, let’s worry if you can get the skill in the first place. The guy I talked to was a rogue. I couldn’t find any martial artists that have it, but your class is kind of rare anyway.”

Nightscythe opened his inventory and took out a book. He handed it to Freya. She ran her fingers over the cover that had the simple title: {Misidentify}

“You sure you don’t want me to pay you for it?” Freya asked.

“I wasn’t planning on learning it. And I still owe you.”

She thanked him again. After asking a few more questions, there was nothing left to do but open the skill book. Her hand trembled as she hovered over the cover. She only had twenty-four hours to learn the skill before the book would disappear. If she couldn’t successfully activate the skill with the help of the skill book, it was unlikely she would be able to learn it at all.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the book.