Reysha ducked under the wooden blade, cackling as she danced back into the darkness of the maze. Her fellow student set after her, swinging his weapon wildly. She took one measured step backwards, then another one, always remaining out of reach and moving up the shallow steps of the corridor. Eventually, her opponent overstepped, stumbling over one of the stairs and falling forwards. He would have caught himself, had Reysha not kicked one of his feet at that moment.

Painfully, the young Rogue hit the ground. He held onto the wooden weapon, until Reysha pried it from him with a few skilled grabs. “Ya made this too easy, boy,” Reysha told the student and booped him on the nose. For once it wasn’t just an insult, as her enemy was just a sixteen-year-old in the early stages of his training. By experience alone, Reysha vastly outclassed him. The advantages of her Levels and Noir had made the entire fight a one-sided affair from the start. Only the weapon had complicated things mildly.

“Shut it!” the young Rogue barked back with every bit the impotent rage of a man with a chip on his shoulder.

“Nah,” Reysha denied outright and bonked his head softly with the weapon in her right hand. “Ya gotta get better if ya want this supreme redhead to not make fun of ya, boy.”

He growled and tried to grab her foot to do something. Instead, he hissed in pain when his wrist got stabbed at with the rounded tip of the mock weapon. “Fuck you, bitch.”

“Oooh?” Reysha’s grin turned dangerous and she grabbed the student by the collar. While Apexus was the muscle of their party, the Rogue was far from weak. Swinging the variety of weapons she kept in her arsenal, especially the pickaxe, had given her a considerable boost in strength. Lifting the young man up with one arm should have still been too much. Yet, the young man found himself pressed against the wall. Reysha tilted her head slowly. The light of a distant torch reflected in her cat-like eyes. Wood clattered on the ground, dropped in favour of the sharper weapon – her claws. “Wanna repeat that, deadbeat?”

He did not, and so Reysha let go.

Taking a slow breath, Reysha exorcised her annoyance. It wasn’t like her to be that pissed about a simple insult and she didn’t plan to make a habit out of it either. Looking down at her left hand, she wiggled the fingers around. The demonic nature of the arm was still hidden. When she was agitated, it liked to break out in increasingly obvious ways. It had its benefits, longer and sharper claws, as well as an increase in strength that vastly outperformed her other arm.

An impressed whistle came from the darkness to their left. The young man was surprised and turned his head. Reysha swiped away a pebble flying at her from the right. “Come on, Mai, I’ve learned that basic trick already!” she said, focusing her eyes on the presence she had previously been unable to grasp.

“It’s to keep your senses sharp,” answered the Rogue teacher. The Stealth was still active, making it difficult to really see the woman. If Reysha averted her eyes, it felt like she would be unable to find Mai again. Even while she stared, paying attention to her was like trying to hold a block of wet soap in a clenched fist.

That feeling vanished suddenly, like a candle flame extinguished between two fingers, and Mai’s form became clear. Today, she looked like a wood elf with deep brown skin and white hair. Her eyes were of sparkling gold, the pupils shaped like that of a goat. She stood at only 1,60 metres tall. Her figure was quite curvaceous.

“Did your husband want something to grab onto today?” Reysha asked.

“Perhaps. Agrio,” Mai turned to the young one. “You really need to work on your patience if you want to stay in this line of work. A Rogue is marked by their ability to stay their hand until the opportunity to strike comes.”

“Reysha curses all the time when she’s fighting!” the young man pushed back.

“Yeah, because I’m good,” Reysha mocked with a giant grin on her face.

“Her mistakes aren’t what you should replicate. Go into the dark chamber and mix some poisons. That should calm you down,” Mai instructed and waved her finger at Reysha. “We too should talk.”

“Sure thing,” the redhead agreed. They left the wooden dagger lying in the corridor. It would serve as a nice improvisation opportunity for whoever used this segment of the labyrinth to spar next.

The Rogue school, if it could even be called that, was a windowless block of stone. Much of it was filled with nonsensical corridors that went in circles, using stairs, plateaus, and simple holes to transfer between layers, which weren’t necessarily properly aligned when taken room by room. Torches were placed differently every day by the teachers, transforming the landscape ever so slightly. Even when one had learned about all of the nooks and crannies, different light levels could majorly change what areas could be considered safe and secure. Parts of the floor could be tilted, certain stairs changed in their elevation. All of these small changes were enough to prevent anyone from getting overly used to the environment.

Between those corridors were proper rooms. Some, such as the studying hall, were public knowledge and easily accessible. Others one had to be told about or find for themselves. The first test of any aspiring Rogue was to find one of these secret rooms on their own. It could be an intimidating procedure, particularly because the regular activities still went on. Glass clacked, weapons collided, and hushed voices echoed through the corridors, all part of the Rogue’s training.

Reysha wasn’t a novice, so none of that had made an impression on her when she waltzed in. In Mai’s own words, the tiger girl was the oddest new arrival she had ever had. Not only had the tiger girl made her way through with absolute ease, the secret room she had found had been the headteacher’s very own office. She wasn’t the first in either category to do these things, but she was the first to do it while actually having the Skills of a novice.

They were making their way to Mai’s office now. It was a thoroughly unpleasant trip. The entrance led through a shaft barely broad enough for Reysha, who was about average in broadness for a woman her size. That trip was nothing for claustrophobes. It wasn’t something for people who were pain avoidant either. The shape was specifically designed so that one had to dislocate their joints at several stages to advance. Without a Rogue’s ability to do both that and the relocating magically, the trip was fundamentally impossible.

Reysha had found the shaft by luck, seen that it was incredibly difficult, and thrown caution to the wind. The pain was not negligible, but she had been through worse. Mai on the other hand made it through easily, since she could make her bones flexible.

They both emerged in an orderly office that appeared like it belonged somewhere else entirely. Magical light illuminated the wood-covered walls. The polished marble floor was inlaid with golden runes. Bookshelves contained school documents and personal trinkets. At one wall stood a little bed, used for naps. In the centre of it all was a large desk and three chairs. The most comfortable one was right behind the desk, the other two in front of it. Mai headed for the former, Reysha for one of the latter.

Once she sat, Mai turned her head around in front of Reysha, as if she was looking in a mirror. “Tell me honestly, do you think my nose is too broad?”

“I think your rack is too small,” Reysha responded jokingly.

“Hmm,” Mai hummed and looked down. She wore a black bodysuit, conforming perfectly to her luscious curves. Under Reysha’s eyes, her boobs grew a cup size larger. Bouncing a little bit in her chair, the teacher made her chest jiggle around. “I guess my hubby will have fun with those.”

“I would,” Reysha said and greedily raised her hands.

“How about you seduce that little kobold friend of yours, if you want to grope something sizable?” Mai admonished and then leaned back. She was one of the teachers who Maltos had confided in unconditionally and Reysha, happy to have someone to chat with during training hours, had spilled the beans on more of her social life. The demon arm had been included in both stories. “Enough about the simple pleasures, we actually have something important to discuss: we need to decide how to continue your training.”

“I think you should teach me how to stab stuff better,” Reysha jokingly suggested.

“Listen here, young woman, this is serious,” Mai returned, fully engaged in her teacher role now. Buckling in, Reysha kept quiet. She knew the following lecture would only grow longer if she said something unwanted. “I empathise with your position quite a bit. I made mistakes that killed thousands down the line too, although in less spectacular ways than summoning an Unreavs class demon. My blade found politicians, nobles, and princesses, destabilizing an already precarious empire. I did it all for profit, you did it out of revenge, both are short-sighted goals. We are best advised remembering our mistakes, so we appreciate better how long-term planning benefits us.”

“You’re right,” Reysha conceded with a self-aware sigh. As little as she needed most of it, the final sentence rang true. “So, what is this about?”

“Rogues are among the most divergent Classes,” Mai told her pupil. “We can vary our approach to combat a lot more than practically everyone else. All Classes that flow down from the Rogue focus on remaining stealthy and fleet footed, but how we balance those aspects, and the choice of weaponry, make each of us different. I’m an Infiltrator,” she gestured at herself, “as you know, I specialized in taking out key targets, using Stealth and my Reshape Body Art. These are most useful when taking out human targets. I don’t think that is proper for you to learn.”

Reysha got what the goal of this lecture was, “You want me to plan what I focus on training?”

Mai nodded strongly. “I don’t need to train you in the basics, you have those down. Your bladework is a lot better than your Skills. Still, you’re better than the other novices I have to work with, so we can skip on the basic Martial Art training and ask ourselves directly where you want to go from here. Truth of the world is that you can’t learn everything. You only have so many hours in a day and you have to rest sometimes.”

Sitting where she was quietly, Reysha considered the question for a few moments. It did pull her in practically every direction. She definitely wanted to be a better combatant in dungeons. It would also be useful if she got better at being stealthy, so she could take out key targets while Apexus held the frontline. Utilities like poison and smoke bombs could also be neat inside dungeons. Learning how to be a better assassin would be nice to eventually stab Apotho in his villainous back.

Unable to come to a definitive conclusion, she asked, “Could you give me like two or three examples of what you would think would work for me?”

“I think there are two viable paths for you… really, if I’m being honest, there’s only one, but the second could also work,” Mai stood up and her presence turned slippery again. “You could lean heavier into the stealth aspect of our Class. Your group is missing a way to reliably deal with targets outside the range of your Monk-initiate, so it would be beneficial. There is a problem though.” Mai made her way to one of the shelves. Before Reysha could know what she had picked up, the fact that it was in her hand made it impossible to identify. “You have fantastic intuition and you can pay attention. I believe you’d be very effective at stalking an enemy. I don’t think you’d have the patience to wait, potentially for hours, for the right opportunity to strike.”

“I could learn, maybe,” Reysha responded.

“I believe you could, it just doesn’t strike me as your natural inclination. I think it would work better for you to keep your Sneak and Stealth at a moderate level. Use it to engage your opponents from a beneficial position, rather than get the perfect opportunity to take them out in one strike.” Mai moved back to the table. Her Stealth was switched off again, and Reysha found the tip of a blade in front of her nose. “More of ‘stay in the flow’ kind of fighting style than assassination.”

“Sounds like me,” Reysha said, cross-eying the weapon. “Do you need to give me that advice at the literal tip of a blade though?”

“It’s a demonstration weapon,” Mai said and pulled it back. The blade was long and sleek, a silvery-white double-edge surrounded the pitch-black spine. Runes were inlaid with gold into it. The haft was made from a red-brown wood and the guard was only a minimalistic piece that prevented the hand from slipping up on accident.

“That’s way too impressive to be a demonstration weapon.”

“I suppose you are correct in that sense,” the teacher conceded and turned the rapier-like blade to smoothly clean some dirt under her fingernails. “You’ll be training your Sneak Skill with the rest of the students. Focusing on getting your Sneak to Stealth would take too much effort, if we’re to focus on your personal combat ability. Instead, we will spend the majority of our time together training Martial Arts, specifically Weapon Skills.” The symbols along the spine lit up. “This is a Runeblade, a weapon specifically forged to be used with certain Weapon Skills. They are incredibly rare and sought after. On the field, having one tailored to your specific Skillset is invaluable for a learned Martial Artist.”

Mai swung the blade around. The air parted with an odd, wavering sound around it and a sheen of energy extended past the edges. “That looks rad!” Reysha declared.

“It’s useful,” the teacher chuckled and let the energy ebb away. “Specifically, for us. The Martial Art you just saw is called Edge, for obvious reasons.” Raising a finger, the Infiltrator showed the same, blue energy now surrounding the digit. “As a Martial Art, it works by sending ki into your joints and extending it outwards in a thin, sharp layer. Mastering Edge turns any area near joints into a potential weapon. Obviously, hands are the easiest and most useful, since there are so many joints right next to each other. Turning anything into a Weapon Art means you treat the weapon you hold as an extension of your body. Not all weapons are useful for all Weapon Arts. Manoeuvrability isn’t the only reason why Rogues prefer short weapons like daggers. Martial Arts based on joints, as we use them, are the most difficult to maintain through a long conduit. Bones have it the easiest, hence why you often see Warriors use warhammers or spears.”

Reysha nodded along. “Okay, so I start with learning Edge and then I have to practice that on a weapon?”

“Normally that’s how it would go, yes, but that’s why I showed you this.” Mai tossed the Runeblade into the air and caught it again at the tip, presenting the heft to Reysha. “This weapon has three Martial Arts inscribed into it: Edge, Spellslice, and Ki-Poison. You can imagine what Spellslice does. Ki-Poison inserts a fraction of your ki into someone else, disturbing their mana flow. You can learn all three effectively by using the Runeblade to feel the correct ‘shape’ of the mana flow, then you use that same mana flow in your body, and then you try with regular weapons. The extra step makes it easier.”

“Sounds neat,” Reysha grinned. “So you’re teaching me how to better stab shit after all.”

Mai rolled her eyes, “You could put it like that.”