— Aster —

Final rules for getting caught during a mission. Any Shadow caught outside of the guild during a mission, except in times of emergency, is subject to imprisonment, execution, and having all their belongings plundered and removed.

If the Shadow is exposed by a bounty hunter half of the belongings will go to them, the other will be subject to the treasury.

Finally, see below for the following restrictions for the new Shadow Cat.

Stipulations

1. Shadows are free but upon capture will be forced to give up everything, once this is done they will receive immunity for 24 hours.

2. The Associated guild is required to pay a fee based on the number of successful missions.

3. Words are not allowed to be taught or explained to a Shadow until they reach the level of 5 and must ask about them in order to be taught how to use the skills.

4. Shadows will be at the beck and call of the crown in times of war.

5. Shadows guild must be able to provide shelter for all Shadows guild members as we are fair.

6. Knowledge of the guild must remain secret or given in rumor or riddle to those who wish to join.

I looked back up at our receptionist Delilah with an almost disgusted face "Are you fucking kidding me?!?"

She looked down and away "We all learned this at some point but for many, it is already too late."

I just left my mouth open.

After re-reading the decree many more times I sighed and finally asked.

"So who teaches the Words?"

I arrived at the Words master in the guild. Outside the door, there was a tube-like item that kind of reminded me of a barber pole with the number five on it. When I approached the door the pole lit up and the door opened. Inside was a harried-looking man sitting behind a desk eating a sandwich.

"Sit. Sit." he gestured to the seat in front of him.

I sat down and asked, "So can I learn about words?"

"Proof that you can enter the door as it is level locked shows that you can." as he continued to eat

“So ..." he stopped me by holding up his hand

"Look this is my lunch break, let me finish my sandwich then we can talk."

"Fine."

It didn't take long for the man to finish his sandwich but I was still annoyed at this whole mess.

"Ok, so how much do you know so far?"

It took a moment for me to realize he was speaking due to the fact he started so abruptly.

"Well, I know just a little that it is based on belief and that I have to believe in what the skill is supposed to do."

"That is pretty much it.”

"Is that all?!" I asked incredulously

He looked at me like I was dumb "Of course not there is a lot more to it."

"So what is it?"

He took a minute and decided "Well let’s just start from the beginning."

"Skills are based on their owner’s belief in the Word. We only receive one word every five levels, but this does not limit oneself to one action for instance a person with fire as a skill could use it in an obvious way to start a fire, throw a fireball, or something a little off, like shoot an arrow, or everything in between. A word can be dissected in a multitude of ways. This is why you never want to give away what words you have as it will give them an idea of what you can do and what you can't.”

"But isn't one word very limited?"

"Actually, it is very open to interpretation giving it a lot of power. Now let me continue."

I nodded my head.

"Thank you. Now you might be wondering about what your instructor said when he said he didn't know how to use the Words and that they might be passive."

"He lied to us?"

"Actually no.”

I tilted my head in confusion

"See he didn't know how to use your word and each word actually does tend to have a passive effect as with whatever they subconsciously think about the word. So using fire as an example again he might be fireproof to a degree. Now the final part about passive skills, they are actually more based on the belief of the world around you."

"What does that mean?"

"If the world suddenly all believed the word for fire meant cold it would change what the word does."

"That makes no sense if a word means something it means something.”

"True but if someone believes it means something else it can change how things work but it is almost impossible to go against the belief of the world."

"Ok, so I can make any number of skills as long as they are based on my belief in the word?"

"Technically yes. But it takes time as first you have to believe you can use the skill; 2 you have to focus enough energy to use the word; three you have to believe it is possible no matter what, and four have enough energy to use it since the skills literally are bending the world around you."

“Got it.”

"…and that’s it"

"That’s it?"

"Yup that’s it."

"No training or anything"

"How are we supposed to do that?"

"I don’t know. Meditation exercises?"

"That’s just for mages to channel the energy of the world through them, see we don't have anything more because we can't influence belief and you probably won’t tell us your words cause that would be dumb."

"The Royal decree?"

"The royal decree."

I stared slack jaw at the teacher "Seriously?"

"Yeah"

"When do I get to learn about the next one?"

"Twenty"

"Twenty?! And what is it about"

"Can't say also I’m not that instructor, it's like the world is designed to oust us with our lack of knowledge huh"

"How many royal decrees against us are there?"

"Just 1 we can't even learn till we level to a certain extent."

"What level?"

"Twenty is your next one after that I can't say"

"Why?"

"Simply put it’s so that we don’t become too strong also it’s a form of training for you newbies"

I was dumbfounded by this. They don’t want us to learn anything.

I left just because I needed to get away from this and had an important question to ask my blacksmith teacher. I was shaken by the new information. I knew Shadows weren’t liked but I had no idea the extent of it. I was lost in thought as I made my way to my master's forge.

Eventually, I made it to my master's forge.

"Here to use the forge?" Master asked as I was walking in.

"Yes, and I also had some questions".

"Questions huh...Alright, ask."

"How do I forge with monster parts?"

"Depends what your blacksmith level and this lesson cost a gold."

"A GOLD!?!?!?!"

"Yeah, what did you expect? Each lesson has a price."

"But I don't have two weeks to sleep."

"It’s not one of those lessons, it's more of the cost of information," she then pulled out a book. "This is what you'll be buying."

"Fine why do you need to know my level?"

"Not high enough huh"

"No, I’m fifteen."

"Fifteen! You must be naturally talented to move up so quickly.”

I just shrugged. I had to be good at something.

She looked me over in disbelief “Then you should have been back a while ago to get these books." She then pulled out two similar books. "The first is the beginner's guide to monster smithing that you should have gotten at five, this one is advanced monster smithing that you should have gotten at 10 and this one is also one you get at fifteen monster alloy smithing"

"How much?"

"Well each book comes with a quick demonstration from me and I'm supposed to guide you through the first ones so for the first book one gold the other two are two gold each."

This was an outrageous amount for these skills "How much are they normally."

"Well normally they're about twenty-five silvers each but because I have my own personal skills it’s a lot more. So even if you went somewhere else the books wouldn't be as good."

I had an internal debate about whether to purchase them or not. After a few minutes, I decided.

"Fine." and pulled out the money.

I would bore you on the entire process but let’s make it simple. It’s a lot like skills, depending on the smith’s belief and the world’s belief on the materials used in conjunction with each other. An example of this would be a fire monster's skin will add fire resistance or amplify fire damage. It is much more complicated than this but this is the backbone of monster smithing. Once the instruction finished I began to smith. Our smithing was different in that as we sang.

Ding ting tang

Ding ting tang

Ding ting tang

fwoosh crackle crackle

Ding ting tang

Ding ting tang

Ding ting tang

"Ding ting tang my hammer sings. The fires burn and heat.”

“I find my sword burning red. From the earth’s fire it speaks.”

“With a roar and a cackle the fire speaks, my hammer sings."

"Ding ting tang is what I see.”

“Ding ting tang is my song. I mold and set the metal of the earth."

“Ding ting tang."

“Ding ting tang."

"sssssssssss is the final line of my hammers song and with that, the song is done my world is quiet and all I hear is crackle.". Smithing was like crafting a spell we speak and guide our mana through the metal. We guide our intent, we strengthen our own beliefs, making the product stronger. We are the Word Smiths creating magic from the mundane. It was how our work was different. Slowly, I pulled the drakes dirk out of the oil to view it, as an info screen appeared.

High Steel Dirk

Skill: Blue Fire

Made from High Steel and the scales of an elite drake.

Special property of High Steel. Highly conductive of mana.

Finally, I think I have this down. It’s only been three days and I placed the new dirk on a pile of six dirks all with different steel, side effect was they all had a blue hue to it due to the mixture of blue drake scales.

The song of the blacksmith came as I molded my weapon. The song changes with each action and each item. I use the song to guide my hammer as I mold a square of steel, but now I turn to the song of the drakes and mold a queenly meal. I take my gem and begin my song of magic and might to mold a sword that will grow. Ok I know it sounds crazy but as I sing these songs they bring out the true spirit of the material. No matter how weird they are. I let the music guide my hand and smash and sing the song. Then I began taking out the heart of the queen and began my smith's song.

Ding ting tang

Ding ting tang

Ding ting tang

Ding ting crunch

“The maiden comes.”

Ding ting tang

Ding ting tang

“A new birth begins.”

Ding ting tang

“Pure as the soul.”

Ding ting tang

Crunch tang ting

“Crackle her heart burns in the fires of life.”

“The green of that now shows in her heart now comes once more.”

“Pure as one is the life now bestowed.”

“To begin the sword will sing *schwing* and take the souls of those who wronged.”

Ding ting tang

“3 times will you live.”

“3 times will you know.”

“3 times will you find your place by the one you know.”

“He will teach you once the word is done.”

“Find your heart to know thineself and you will never be lost again.”

Ting Ding sssssssssssssss

The song of the sword has ended and here I hold in my hand the weapon to be held by my friend.

Sword of the Righteous hero

Unbound

Skill: 3 slots available

Made from mythril and the heart of a drake queen.

Special property of mythril able to cut and block mana.

I had broken the heart into four pieces one was put into the blade and three were put into the handle of the weapon to serve as the gems. I had focused as much as I was able to believe these gems would be blanks. Surprisingly it worked, actually, why wouldn’t it work? I knew it would so why wouldn’t it?

Now how do I get James to use this? It's only an ok sword but it has insane potential and this sword while strong was not as strong as most swords currently. He’ll probably never believe me how strong it could become if I told him I made it or even if I bought it. He would just think it was ok then the sword would just be mediocre.

I need to give it to him in a way he would believe it was strong with a deep mystery... but how?

After finishing the sword I came up with my plan to give and get him to use the sword. If anyone can use this damn thing to its full potential it would be James. He can't know I made this. How am I supposed to explain how I made a queen drake sword when I supposedly didn't even hurt a single one and died? Also, how am I going to explain the mythril? Who knew those tiles were made of mythril. I used about ten of them to make the sword. And still had five left. Might make my own dagger.

He'll get suspicious of me which is weird. He was never the paranoid type. Ever since he finished warrior training he seemed edgy towards everyone. I don't want to get his suspicions up.

Looking at my inventory I scanned and noticed my mask, I got a while back at the ball.

That could work but I think I need to make a new one. Looking at the rest of my materials. I think I have enough leftover drake materials for one mask.

I began to work. Using my masters specialized smithing skills for the delicate I made a beautiful half mask for my face that was reminiscent of the cat form. With blue and gold coiling wrapping around the mask that almost seemed to move. Which gave me the idea to fix cloth to parts of the mask. In the end, it gave the mask an ethereal otherworldly look.

When I examined it I noticed it had an empty skill slot I had used some small pieces of the heart at the corners of the mask Seems like I got something nice out of it. Looks like I need to bind this one to myself as well.

Just making the mask took three full days.

Only enough time to give James the sword now how am I going to give him the sword? I know I'll attack him and slip away like a ghost he'll definitely use it then. He likes that mysterious stuff.

The time came as I found James. I was about to jump down before I spoke. 'Falling’ I began to fall away from myself. I used my scarf to create a black cloud. It is such an odd feeling but I focused on my goal and called out “hhHelloO”

James looked all around. My voice sounded so weird to even to me as though it was coming from both far away and close at the same time. I jumped down and spoke again “hhHelloO”

He didn’t see me come from above but I let the darkness fall always as I walked towards him. He looked panicked. When I saw him stumble for his sword “Faster” I moved like a blur towards him at a speed I could barely control. I went to place the sword into his hands accidentally slicing his hands as I handed it to him.

"FfFor the one wWhoO will lead us into the LlighTt." My voice seemed to flow away and sounded distorted as though the pitch came from another plane. I was fascinated with it, it was hard to think in this state. I wanted to run free. Without waiting for James to realize what happened. Rounding the corner I drained the light around me, expelling small motes of light, and made it back to the roof. Ran across the roofs till morning until the joy faded. After confirming the coast was clear I removed my mask slowly remembering what I did. What the blight does that even mean? Why am I trying to be cryptic? I began to berate myself. That is stupid. It will never work. He’ll take one look and never use it.