“Restoring your arm? That is advanced magic, but it's been made readily available and affordable in recent years. It's a simple condition to agree to....as for the magic books...”Vincent studied Locke's determined expression, “How about this...I will work with the Bolarius mages college to procure Sigil Scrolls. Then I can reward you with a single Sigil Scroll for each successful assassination.”

“What is a Sigil Scroll?”

“Mages read these to learn the symbol and uses for a single Sigil. It is more affordable that way.”

Hell yeah! I am in desperate need of additional sigils. The primary shaping sigils I currently have are too straightforward in what they do. It would be nice to have more tricks up my sleeve. As long as Vincent doesn't send me on a suicide mission there should be no problem obtaining the reward.

“Alright I agree to your terms,” Locke stood up and held out his hand for a shake.

Vincent returned the handshake. “I am glad we were able to come to an agreement.” Then tightened his grip enough for Locke to wince in pain. “I will only say this once, DO...NOT...FUCK...ME....got it?

Locke nodded and then Vincent released his grip and smiled. “It's funny though we were going to heal your arm anyways, you will understand why later.”

What?

Vincent stood in the doorway and stopped. “Learning more advanced magic? I wouldn't have expected you to be a mage, interesting. Hang tight here, I'll have my men escort you to the guest room. Get some sleep, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

The day passed by without anything noteworthy happening. Locke was currently inside a room with Vincent and a priest who was in charge of healing his arm.

She walked over and touched Locke's chest. A bright light emanated from her hands as the priest cast a spell. The entire process of regrowing his arm was an interesting one. It was slow and grotesque looking as it regrew from the inside and out starting with the bones. There was no pain during all of this, but there was that tingly feeling like his arm was asleep. Once the spell was finished and his arm was fully grown that feeling went away.

Midway through the spell cast Locke had to swap his free enhancement from perception to endurance or else he might have actually hurled. He had learned today that there was a downside from having too much perception, seeing these kinds of details more vividly was not pleasant. It wasn't as if the player couldn't control it though. The perception stat only seemed to take effect when you are really focusing on something. However, in this case Locke couldn't help but focus on the grotesque scene in front of his eyes.

The priest loudly exhaled while also looking quite exhausted. She bowed to Vincent and walked out of the room. Locke of course thanked her before she left.

Finally got my arm back! Once my inventory is cleared up I might stop boosting strength and switch to endurance/agility. With 38 endurance there should be little risk of losing a limb. I can always swap it to strength for the finishing blow or something.

“You look quite satisfied with the result.”

Locke did some stretches with his left arm. “Absolutely, okay what's next?”

“The main reason we had to regrow your arm is that we need to hide your identity. Rumors would start to spread if The Shifting Coin sees you out on the streets already. These rumors would just complicate things more than they already are.”

“Makes sense, I doubt there are many people missing an arm running around, there is just one problem.”

Vincent interrupted Locke “We know full well you chosen have a way to view peoples names, the assassins guild has a way around that.” Vincent handed a ring over to Locke. “Here put this on.”

Ring of Disguise Self

Material Grade - B

Material Tier - 4

Type – Ring

Durability – 30/30

Enhancement – Disguise Clothing Self, Disguise name, Soul binding, Cursed

Locke viewed the enchantments individually to see what they did.

Disguise Clothing Self - Alters the appearance of the wearer to a hooded figure with a mask. This illusion prevents the wearer from being recognized.

Disguise Name – Prevents other players from being able to identify the wearer's name. Resistant to scans that are deployed to see player information.

Soul Binding - Once the user's mana is injected into this ring it cannot be used by anyone else.

Cursed – This item's enchantment will wear out over time. The ring cannot be removed, if removed by unorthodox means the item will shatter.

There is no craftsmanship rating on jewelry as they add no defensive properties from the material itself. From what Locke understood the material grade and tier will determine its capacity to hold stronger enchantments. He put the ring on but didn't notice any change.

While Locke was inspecting himself with a confused look Vincent spoke up “The enchantment is working, it's an illusion that the wearer cannot see. Also, this ring will only last for a week at most and cannot be taken off. These rings are a specialty belonging to the assassins guild, they cannot have someone like you running off with one.”

It's interesting that they chose an enhancement rather than just giving out clothing for a disguise....I guess it has the added benefit of not being easily removed by the enemy. They wouldn't see the ring being worn making it hard to identify the source of the illusion....Them needing to replace my arm seems excessively cautious because if this hides my name, players will just assume I am an NPC. A one armed assassin NPC isn't out of the question as long as I didn't use the same weapon. Wait no.....when I kill them they will respawn due to the death penalty not triggering in PVP. That wouldn't happen with an NPC.

Vincent walked up to Locke and touched his chest removing the inventory restrictions. “You are now officially working for us through a verbal alternate punishment contract. With this in place, you will have fewer criminal restrictions allowing us to bypass some of God's punishment rules. One benefit is we no longer need to restrict your inventory, the other is you can move freely throughout the city under light supervision. If you attempt to leave this city without prior instruction to do so will result in a large bounty on your head and banishment. Do you understand?”

“Yes, question though can I turn this disguise off? Sounds like I cannot remove this ring.”

“Not without removing the ring, the assassins are in charge of that. However, I cannot have you remove it for a week at least. Remember I don't want you seen to prevent rumors.”

“Right right....is there a place I can store the contents of my inventory in this guild? Or maybe have you sell them for me? This disguise would make it awfully difficult to unload all these goblin weapons I have brought with me.”

“Is there a lot?”

Locke opened his inventory to double check. “Fifty seven weapons total, eleven of which are from hobgoblin's.”

Vincent whistled, “Not bad, we would be happy to sell those for a ten percent cut of the profits.”

A ten percent cut isn't that bad. There is also a chance that the selling price might be higher when a guard does it compared to me who has no reputation at all. I was planning to use the money to heal my arm, but since they did it for free it's basically all profit at this point.....sure fuck it, why not.

“You have yourself a deal.”

“Speaking of weapons. This might be extra cautious of me but don't use that large weapon I heard of in the reports. The disguise will not hide it.”

“I wasn't planning on it.“

It might reduce my combat capabilities slightly to not use it, but I am still deadly without it. Especially now that I have my arm back. The weapon draws too much attention and could be tied to my identity once they notice I am a player.

The captain nodded. There was some hope that Vincent would offer an alternative weapon, but it appears that wasn't going to be the case. He didn't want to be the one to ask in this case as he didn't want to lower his potential reward. Locke wanted magic, not weapons at this point.

They went over the plans in more detail before Locke was blindfolded and moved over to the Orsov assassins guild. Clearly, they didn't want non-members to know where their hideouts were. Once Locke arrived he was introduced to the chosen assassin named Wolf. The man was wearing a disguise ring same as Locke which meant his in game name was most likely different.

Several hours passed with a meeting between two senior assassins, Vincent, Wolf, and Locke. The gameplan was figured out and set to happen tonight. He was blindfolded again before being sent out on his first mission. Locke was now waiting patiently in a back alleyway. He no longer had a crazy cache of weapons on him allowing both his boosts to be freely used. Currently, they were both set to perception to make sure nobody crept up on him unnoticed.

There was very little interaction Locke had with Wolf so far. The man gave off a similar vibe that the senior assassins gave off. The shrouded chosen was either very good at his job or very into roleplay. He was able to bring up very strong arguments during the meeting making him a key contributor and definitely not someone on the sidelines. The NPC's even listened to what he had to say which showed their faith in him.

As expected of someone who already has enough reputation for key NPC's to recognize him......I knew he wouldn't be ordinary....never expected this though.

“You ready?” a nearby voice sounded out.

Startled, Locke jumped into a defensive posture. Wolf was looking down at him from atop a large crate.

How did I not notice him with 63 perception.....this guy is the real deal.

Locke couldn't understand, it wasn't as if perception this high was useless. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The amount information that he could pick up from his surroundings was nothing short of impressive. He was positive the Second Brain is the only reason that the experience wasn't destructive to his mind. The smallest of sounds were loud and clear, the tiniest specs of dirt were vivid as long as he was focusing on either of them. Granted his focus was quite spread out in this case, but still to make basically no sound at all was impressive.

“Did your guild locate the three of them?” Locke asked.

Wolf pointed southwest. “Yes, they are seated at a bar not far from here.”

“Lead the way.”