I looked at Rashid questioningly.

“How did they find out so fast? I only intended to reveal my affinity for the tournament itself!”

“It was inevitable, wasn’t it? You started traveling with young Cerion not too long ago. Of course, they would be interested in you. The guild stalled their movements for as long as possible, but the nature of investigative classes makes it so that there are no true secrets among those of the lower tier. I recommend tiering up and getting some skills to intervene with information gathering eventually, most tier 5s and 6s have one or two of those on their status page.”

I sighed. This wasn’t how I had expected things to go. Losing control over the narrative was a disadvantage, though not an unsalvageable one.

“How are the reactions to this reveal?”

“Reactions? Well, I’m not sure. It’s not like the other factions will share their thoughts with us.”

“No, I mean like… the church. Don’t they hate people with my affinity even more than our guild?”

Don’t worry about them, I cleared up your situation when you first joined. By now, most of those old bastards have recovered from their aneurysm.”

I sputtered.

“I, uh… don’t believe it’s a good idea to address them like that, elder.”

“Hah! I’ll address them how I like! Now, onto more pleasant matters. I heard you broke your sword on a quest recently?”

“Yes, I did, though I’m not sure why you would describe that as a pleasant matter… I was going to order a new one from the guild’s own blacksmiths after this meeting.”, I said snarkily.

Elder Rashid stood up excitedly and started waving his hands around like the salespeople I was used to seeing in Reito.

“Because I have just the solution for you! For the small price of indentured servitude to the guild, I will provide you with this!”, he said, pulling out a small wooden stick, the length of my palm.

I sighed and decided to humor him, thinking I could get this over with more quickly if I went along with his eccentricities.

“What is it, Elder?”, I said, tiredly.

“A sharpened pencil! Not… the item I was going to offer you, however. Hold on, I should have it laying around here somewhere.”

He turned back to his chest from earlier and chucked the pencil inside, kneeling to rummage through it again. He pulled out item after item and threw them behind him. A dagger, a candle, a book, an oven mitt and even the pencil he had chucked in just a moment earlier.

Eventually, he ducked down and started to pull something out of the small chest, which I was now convinced was a spatial item. There was simply no way to store a dinner table in a 30 by 40-centimeter chest. He slowly pulled his hand out of the chest, revealing the pommel of a sword handle. As he pulled out the rest of the item, the sword attached to the handle became fully visible. It was a greatsword.

It was larger and longer than my previous sword, though not as long as a zweihander, for example. It was completely black, with an ornate handle and 3 black gems studded on the extremities of the pommel and guard.

He presented it to me with both hands, giving me a view of the sword in its full glory.

Rashid gave me a shit-eating grin. He knew I wouldn’t be able to resist a weapon like this.

“So… about that indentured servitude… how long were you thinking?”

The elder burst out laughing and pushed the sword in my hand.

“That was just a joke! I’m lending you this weapon. If you do well and reach the finals in the singles tournament, you can keep it.”

“But this is a dark-aligned sword! You can’t use it anyway!”, I protested.

He shushed me.

“My sword, my decision. Anyway, go ahead and bond with it, if you like. I retrieved a greatsword from my personal collection instead of a bastard sword-like your previous weapon, because your instructor Doran believed it would suit your style better.”

It was true that I tended to use my bastard sword with a two-handed grip, almost never using it with one hand. I didn’t have a shield, nor did I need one, so it made sense that I didn’t.

With a mental command, I bonded with the sword.

[Fallen knight’s blackblade]

Tier 4 greatsword.

Property: Ageless.

This weapon was recovered from a slain [Death Knight]. Its origins are unknown, though it has grown beyond its original form by virtue of the fallen knight that wielded it for centuries, gaining the property [Ageless].

“What the hell does ‘ageless’ mean?”

“It means that the sword won’t rust or break down due to age. That might seem pretty useless at first, but considering that you’ll save minutes every day because you won’t need to clean your weapon, it’s rather useful. Think of all those minutes adding up over a lifetime! Think of those minutes adding up over my lifetime! That’s more than… twelve minutes!”

I nodded and sighed.

“It is more than twelve minutes, yes. Anyway, why does it say that a [Death Knight] wielded this? Are there other people with a class like mine?”, I asked, full of hope.

“No, not at all.”, he replied jovially, “I got this one from an undead [Death Knight] controlled by an old necromancer. It’s a pretty good weapon. Sharp, durable and very dark mana conductive!”

I nodded and thanked him for lending it to me. This weapon made for great motivation, at least. Tier 4 weapons were rare and expensive, getting one for free on top of a possible tournament victory would be the dream.

With that done, I finished my lemon tea, in hope that the old man would finally release me from his company.

Instead, he got even more excited.

“Now that the boring stuff is done and over with, how about checking out my rare rock collection?”

“Rare rocks? Gems? Yes please!”, I answered. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all…

"I found this one near my front door! I think it broke off of a stalagmite! This one comes from one of the hallways of the headquarters. I think it might be a dried-up piece of a turd laid by the ever-elusive yellow kangaroo! Oh, this one here is a treasure! I found a cat playing with it in the slums up above!"

I sighed and rubbed my temples. It turned out that his rare rock collection was made up of random rocks he found here and there, as well as the occasional beast turd. I should have expected something like this. He had been talking for nearly two hours now!

Still, to Rashid’s credit, he remembered where each and every rock came from, no matter how mundane the story. That, or he was making shit up as he went. Now that I thought about it again, it was probably the latter.

“Listen, Elder. I really must go now. I want to show off the sword to my friends, and I still need to eat.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so! Here, I have a letter for you. Read it in private. Until next time, off you trot.”, he said as he handed me a letter and waved me away.

My mouth hung open in shock. I had never expected him to let me go so easily.

The letter seemed to be rather ordinary, though a red mark of some kind kept the envelope closed. Focusing on the here and now, I ran off before he could change his mind and returned the way we came, all the way to the large chamber where the attendants and clerks were located.

I headed up to the desk and inquired about where my room was located. A kind attendant led me down a series of hallways, to a stone room that was carved into the rock. Once inside, I found Doran, Cerion and Micheal sitting around a table, playing some card games. When they heard me enter, they gestured for me to join them. I sat down and grabbed some cards to join their game.

“So how did it go?”, Cerion asked. From his question, I guessed that Rashid had been correct in saying that my companions had found out his identity rather quickly.

“It went well. Here, Rashid gave me this list with a short description of all the seeded participants.”

“Thanks, but I don’t need it. My father’s attendant already gave me one when we were in Reito.”

I stared at him enviously.

“And you didn’t think to share it with me?”, I asked him in an accusatory tone.

“I was pretty sure the guild would give you one anyway, not to mention that you would have just worried to much about the addition of your own name.”, he said, as he played a 10, the highest card in the card-game maniles, which he had kept hidden until the end of the hand.

I looked at Doran angrily, who had only lost a 7 to Cerion’s play.

“You’re counting cards, aren’t you?”, I accused him.

“Hypothetically, if I was counting cards, it would not be an infraction on the rules of maniles. Hypothetically, of course.”, he countered. Cerion laughed at his response, while Michael laughed along, not really knowing what was so funny.

I scoffed and put the cards down in frustration.

“You guys have fun, I still need to read something. Elder Rashid gave me a letter earlier. It’s probably from my uncle.”

I walked over to one of the doors that separated the bedrooms from the living room of our little apartment.

“Let me know if we got the dungeon, yeah? I haven’t heard back from my dad.”, Cerion shouted after me.

“Sure thing!”, I replied.

This was the big reveal. Hopefully, we got a proper leveling spot.

Slightly nervous, I sat on the bed and opened the envelope, pulling out the letter.

Dear Arthur

It is good to finally hear from you. When you didn’t contact me after your awakening, I figured you had received a class that wasn’t much use in battle and decided to take over your parents’ bakery, which would have been an honorable occupation regardless.

I am happy to hear that your wish for a powerful class was fulfilled, albeit with some complications. Had you contacted me and shared your troubles, I probably could have used my connections to get you admitted to the Royal academy anyway, but I must admit that your recent political manoeuvres have made your position in the kingdom much more stable. The difference between one and three separate tier 6 class holders as backing is large, after all, especially in a country that only has eleven tier 6s in the first place.

Despite this, I feel like I disappointed you. I should have told you of my position within the Royal faction earlier. Your parents didn’t want me to involve you in politics without your consent, which was why you had to hear about it from outside sources. I am sorry. I failed in my duties as your uncle. I hope we can meet in the future to clear up matters between us.

On another matter, both Duke Rass and Elder Rashid of the witch hunters’ guild have contacted me about gaining access to a tier 3 dungeon for you and Cerion, to get a few more levels. I have brought this matter to the king’s attention, who has agreed as a measure to strengthen the budding alliance between our different factions. He has deigned to grant you access to the tier 3 [City of tears] dungeon, located on the outskirts of the capital, near the military base.

Tomorrow morning, some of my subordinates will come to pick you and Cerion Rass up and escort you to the dungeon. To reach level 50, I believe it is within your best interest to pack camping gear and to stay in the dungeon for the duration of one week, until the tournament starts. I hope to meet you after your dungeon run.

Best regards,

Captain of the Royal Guard, Royal Savior, your uncle,

Robart

I jumped upright in excitement and called out to Cerion.

“We got it! We got the dungeon!”