“Hello, mister guard. May I ask for directions to the Adventurers Guild? We’re thinking about taking on a job.” Nicholas asked as he approached a local town guard. The guard was walking between assignments, rushing to get to his position in the shade. His standard leather armor was designed for protection against bandits, but it offered little to ward off the sun’s rays. He could feel his internal heat rising and let out his frustration on the two townsfolk that approached him.

“Ha! A peasant like you? Good luck with that.” Guardsman Oliver said with an over-emphasized scoff. As a town guard, Oliver was incredibly blessed. He had a proper education and came from lesser nobles. Unfortunately, he was far from the first position for succession. As a result, Oliver took his position as an officer in the guard and hoped to climb the ranks. Peasants, like the two before him, were nuisances at best. They weren’t worth his time.

“Thank you, sir. Can you please point the way?” Rex said with a forced smile. He was irritated to be spoken to in such a way but moved past it. The guard only spoke the truth. Rex and Nicholas were both peasants. Any job within the guild would certainly end in their demise. People of their status never broke out of that realm. Anyone would think the two were foolish to try otherwise.

While the conversation was going on, Xander approached the guard from the rear. He took extreme caution and concentrated on masking his steps. The target was in his sights. It was exciting, to say the least. Xander had never utilized his skill [Forgettable] in such a way. He’d always wanted to play a thief class, and his two partners encouraged the shift from a damage-focused assassin class. His hand trembled as it reached out for the coin purse fastened to the guard’s hip.

“Sure. If you go this pa-Ah! What are you doing?!” Guardsman Oliver shouted when something touched his rear. He immediately stepped away and readied his spear. Anger radiated from him when noticed that it was a petty commoner who tried to rob him.

“Welp. We’re done for.” Xander thought to himself. He hadn’t moved. He was frozen in place out of fear. The bag of coins still sat in his hand. His odd way of thinking resulted in a strategy to avoid notice by not moving in the slightest. Even his breathing stopped for an uncomfortable amount of time. Both Nicholas and Rex were shocked at the failure, though it was somewhat expected. The two regained their composure and prepared for the fallback plan.

“You better have a good explanation for reaching into the pocket of a-” Guardsman Oliver shouted before the two peasants from earlier interrupted him. They stepped ahead and blocked sight of Xander. Both wore concerned looks as they executed Xander’s escape.

“Sir. I believe you were going to show us to the Adventurers Guild?” Nicholas asked with a quizzical look. He pretended that nothing strange happened and resumed the conversation from earlier. Hopefully, something good would happen if enough time passed without the two parties seeing each other.

“Yeah. Is something wrong?” Rex added to Nicholas’s initial question. He gestures to the spear pointed at them before raising his arms. The false surrender was enough to shake the guard. He was intending to arrest the would-be thief, but these peasants were in the way. Were they in on the attempt?

“What are they doing?!” Xander thought to himself. He held his head in his arms and crouched down further. If he had the power to disappear, he would have. Regret started to creep into his mind. Why did he let the other two talk him into this? He could have been a simple assassin class that attacked enemies from the rear while they focused on the rest of the team. Instead, he and his two companions were about to be locked away for an undisclosed amount of time. Everything piled onto Xander’s psyche until the three men heard a voice.

“NOTICE. [QUIET COMMONER] HAS ACQUIRED THE SKILL [STEALTH I]. [SMART PEASANT] AND [BRAVE PEASANT] HAVE ACQUIRED THE SKILLS [LYING PROFICIENCY I].”

“What there was-” Guardsman Oliver tried to say but was interrupted. Some invisible force stopped his thoughts. Even the ending of his sentence was muted. Time seemed to slow for the man as Genesis intervened with its verdict.

“SKILLS [STEALTH I] AND [FORGETTABLE] ACTIVATED. SKILLS SUCCESSFUL.”

“There was?” Nicholas asked, continuing the conversation between the guard and himself. He kept trying to reign in the topic, but the guard was nothing if not distracted. Nicholas took a step forward and looked him in the eyes to demand attention.

“Nothing. Never mind. Just go down the path and take a right at the fountain.” Guardsman Oliver replied, finally answering the question. It had taken several minutes to answer the simplest question. Why was that? Oliver tried to remember but couldn’t. Instead, he shook his head and pointed to where the peasants needed to go.

“Thank you!” Rex said with glee. He grabbed Nicholas by the arm and pulled him down the street. The two walked quite a distance before arriving at the fountain. They looked around and found a familiar building, the Adventurers Guild.

Xander approached the duo from behind and out of breath. He knew the skills worked, and the guard shouldn’t have suspected anything. After wasting a minute in disbelief, he had to chase after his friend who left him.

“Guys, that was amazing! We could make a killing like this!” Xander exclaimed before silencing himself. It probably wasn’t the best idea to proclaim theft in broad daylight, especially if the victim was a guard.

“What?” Rex asked. He turned around with a confused expression like he didn’t know what was going on.

“Well…Maybe you two don’t want to be thieves. I guess there are better ways to earn money.” Xander said, retracting his previous thought. Stealing would have been an excellent way to make money. If the team moved to a bigger city, they could earn a fortune while gaining useful skills. The only problem was the ethics of such a plan. Xander was fine with this course of action, but his partners may have been too honorable to do that.

“I don’t understand,” Nicholas said. He also had a look of confusion, but it wasn’t clear why. Was he confused by Xander wanting the whole team to become thieves? Was it about the morality of stealing from others? Or, was it because of something else?

“What do you mean you don’t understand? We could- Oh. Oh no.” Xander stammered as his thoughts caught up to him. It suddenly dawned on him what happened. His partners weren’t confused about ethics. They were confused for an entirely different reason, so he hung his head in shame.

“SKILL [FORGETTABLE] HAS LEVELED UP.”