Skills available to job: Silent Lurker

Tier 2 – Active: Slip Step – Category: Martial Arts – Quickly evade with superhuman movements befitting an assassin.

Tier 3 – Active: Expanded Awareness – Category: State of Mind – Focus your mind on sensory inputs to become aware of more in a single instant.

Tier 2 – Passive: Disappear – Category: State of Mind – Regulate your body and your mind to become harder to perceive when staying still.

Tier 1 – Meta: Bleed – Category: Enhancement Magic – The wounds you inflict will bleed more than usual.

Skills available to job: Breaker

Tier 2 – Passive: Sure Footed – Category: Martial Arts – Keep a steady footing while moving quickly.

Tier 2 – Meta: Channeling Control – Category: Channeling Magic – Control the output of Channeling skills within a certain range.

Tier 1 – Meta: Crippling Blow – Category: Martial Arts – Weaken your enemy’s resistance with a heavy blow.

Tier 2 – Meta: Damage Control – Category: Martial Arts – Control the focus and spread of the damage dealt by your attacks to a certain area.

Allen laid back on the stiff couch as he looked over the list of available skills. There wasn’t much that was new, but at the same time, everything was a good choice. He immediately put three of his eight remaining points into Expanded Awareness since it was the highest tier being offered. Then, after a moment of thought, Allen put three more points into Sure Footed, also bringing it to tier five with a free tier along the way.

His last two points went into Crippling Blow and Damage Control. Both of those skills were, in his opinion, the better way to achieve more damage. Bleed only worked on things that bled in the first place and Channeling Control would probably only let him decrease the power of his attacks at such a low tier.

Skill: Expanded Awareness

Focus your mind on sensory inputs to become aware of more in a single instant.

Category: State of Mind – Type: Active – Tier 5 Max

Effects: Increase your perception by 500% for a single instant. Any information that you perceive through any means will be filed into your consciousness. Overuse will cause extreme mental strain.

Cost: 100 SP

Skill: Sure Footed

Keep a steady footing while moving quickly.

Category: Martial Arts – Type: Passive – Tier 5 Max

Effects: Friction between your feet and the ground increases by 200%; does not apply when balance will be lost. Your balance while moving increases by 100%; you are less likely to fall over.

Cost: 10 SP/s while in action.

Skill: Crippling Blow

Weaken your enemy’s resistance with a heavy blow.

Category: Martial Arts – Type: Meta – Tier 1

Effects: Take more than 80% of an enemy’s HP in a single attack to disable 10% of their resistance. Duration proportional to the difference in level between you and the target; max of 1s.

Cost: +50% SP use per attack

Skill: Damage Control

Control the focus and spread of the damage dealt by your attacks to a certain area.

Category: Martial Arts – Type: Meta – Tier 2

Effects: Focus the damage from your attacks onto a smaller point or cause it to diffuse onto a larger area.

Cost: None

Allen swept his still-soppy dirty blonde hair back. It was as smooth as silk after using conditioner. He smirked at himself. “And I wear a mask looking like this!” he chastised himself.

Christopher seemed to still be in the process of going through his points and the women were in another room. With nobody to talk to, Allen decided to lay down on the couch and close his eyes. It wasn’t long before his exhaustion resurfaced, and he fell asleep. Unfortunately, Allen dreamt of Ghouls and damp caves instead of something comforting like psychologically tormenting his foes.

He awoke in the morning to the sight of Ty looming over him like a giant, eclipsing the rays of sunshine coming through the window behind him. Allen groaned and sat up. He glanced around the room, finding Christopher in his wheelchair and ready to leave. Amelia and Camila were present as well, both watching him with bored looks. Camila looked a bit hungover, but her stats were probably high enough to deal with the brunt of any drinking.

Her emotional state was a different story. Stability only went so far.

“Why didn’t anyone wake me up until now?” Alen thought. “What?” he asked, a hint of passive aggressiveness sneaking into his voice. He pushed off the couch and raked his hair back again. It was a little stiff after drying in place, but he managed to get it to do its thing.

“We’re leaving.” Amelia said stiffly.

“Indeed, Ty wanted to check in on Kenneth before we leave this town,” Christopher began. Allen’s eyebrows pinched together. “I went through the stuff you got off his body and I was able to narrow down our search somewhat.”

The professor held out some of the notes that had been taken from Kenneth’s inventory. Allen hadn’t bothered to read anything since he didn’t care, but he figured there would have been some information pertaining to whatever group Kenneth may have been a part of.

“I don’t want to deal with stupid bandits,” Allen thought with a scowl. “Let the guard deal with them once their bureaucracy gets around to it. I shouldn’t have given them the papers.”

“Then we’ll sell everything we don’t need in town, other than the Dark Gems. Those will probably get a better price in the capital or somewhere away from the dungeon that makes them.”

Allen grunted affirmatively before shifted his attention to Ty. He drew his lips into a thin line and glared up at the man. “Why do you need to ‘check in’ with Kenneth? What are you and a band of vultures and bandits going to chat about?” he asked.

Ty visibly swallowed back his hesitation. “I need to know for certain that he’s the kind of person you say he is. I need the closure.”

Allen smirked, then he chuckled out loud and palmed his forehead. “That…” he began, “is exactly the kind of doubt they operate on. You’re lucky Kenneth’s an idiot and below our level. Had he been a professional vulture with actual skill, he would have easily killed you and stolen all your shit.” Allen shook his head. “Honestly, are you some kind of Saint?... Princess maybe?”

To his credit, Ty kept a level expression while Allen talked down to him. He took a deep breath when Allen was finished, staring down at the Assassin as he spoke. “I am a Knight of the Silverburn Empire, Seventh of the Wall.”

Allen was silent for a moment, his mouth hanging open. Then he snorted. “I would have respected you more if you had just called yourself a Princess.”

Ty clenched his jaw as his rigid façade began to break down. Christopher stepped, or rather, rolled in before the man could say anything. “That’s enough,” he began. He turned and gave Allen a look. “We’ve already decided. If you’re so sure about what kind of person Kenneth is, then you shouldn’t need to get so bent of shape about confirming your suspicions.”

“What a waste of time,” Allen thought, yet he had just woken up and didn’t have the energy to fight back about it. “Fine I’m not arguing about this,” he said. “I don’t care as long as you don’t try to ‘make him change’ or ‘see the light of holy righteousness’ or whatever.”

“We’ll see,” Ty said, leaving it at that.

Allen sighed, but he followed everyone else out of the inn and into the street. It was just as populated as the day before, with people milling about and doing their work. It was already around ten in the morning, so everyone was either at their stalls, in their shops, or at work. Those that could be seen walking around were either guards, merchants, or adventurers.

Allen stepped aside as a magicarriage slowly weaved its way through the middle of the highly populated main street, sputtering a little. Its magic powered steam engine let off concentrated mana vapor that made Christopher’s face visibly wrinkle despite the lack of actual smell.

“Incomplete mana combustion; it’s a piece of junk,” the professor said absently as he noticed Allen’s look.

Allen shrugged as he stepped back into the street, a machine golem filling in next to him. He didn’t bother sparing it a glance, the golem was only brainlessly doing its assigned task. That being carrying a heavy box above its head with four sturdy metal arms.

“I did consider taking the Artificer class at one point,” Allen thought. He wasn’t seriously considering it though; it was just a thought he had every now and then when he was feeling bored. He had long since concluded that being an Artificer would be more boring on its own.

They soon arrived at the central guard station first with Christopher’s guidance. There, they immediately went to the board near the front of the building that typically had postings about missing persons, monster sightings, bandits and criminal bounties, and other such things.

Allen glanced over some of the papers listed on the board.

“Razorcats spotted in the Sylvan Forest ‘eh. That’s their natural habitat though.” The monster sightings didn’t really interest him that much. The Adventurer’s Guild typically had better hunting quests. Of course, Allen had no interest in being an adventurer. He also had no interest in catching petty thieves and criminals with the Mercenary’s Guild, so he skimmed over the bounties as well.

“…Over a dozen missing persons in the nearby village of Silt Valley; population under two-hundred. The possibility of Reapers hasn’t been ruled out.” Allen narrowed his eyes at the notice. “Small villages do often get attacked by Reaper monsters… that would explain why they don’t respawn… but—”

“Ah, I think this is it,” Christopher said, pointing at a notice near the center of the board. He held up one of the papers Allen had gotten from Kenneth’s inventory. It was a service contract with two seals stamped in wax at the bottom, one of which noticeably matched a sketch on the post on the board.

Allen read the guard station’s post. “Foreign travelling merchant company, Lanthinus Inc., has been reported selling illegal contraband in ESF territory. Do not engage in business with this company and do not approach their encampments. One such encampment has been spotted a kilometer off the Northern Intercity road to the East at the fifty-fifth kilometer mark.” Allen smirked as he finished reading the notice. “Yeah, that sounds exactly like a cover for a group of bandits and vultures.”

“Only if you’re being cynical,” Ty retorted. “Contraband could be anything.”

“Hah! You’re right about that.”

Ty frowned, but he didn’t respond.

“Um, so like, what are we doing now?” Camila asked, flippantly gesturing with the caramel spice macchiato she had bought on their walk.

Christopher returned the contract to his inventory and swiveled around. “Well,” he began with a grin, “we’re going to see if the Lanthinus company is open for business.”