The table rose at an agonizing speed. Arlyth didn’t know what to do, she felt the need to flee. Anything could come up from that secret entrance, she wasn’t certain that she could count on dying to get out of here. Worst case, whoever or whatever came up from there could imprison her. Her mental strength had been one of her strong suites throughout life but she wasn’t sure she could handle torture.

She watched the table for another 30 seconds in stunned indecision, it was about half open at this point. Quickly scrambling to her feet, Arlyth decided her best option was to get out of here. She didn’t want to be around to find out what came out of a trap door inside a dusty office in a jail cell run by zombie guards. She opened the door and quickly took a cursory glance outside.

Looking at where she had left Milo, she saw that he was no longer there. Feeling that it wasn’t a pressing issue in her current predicament she quickly scurried out the door and into the door with the stairs. She ran as fast as she could, silently cursing her stats being reset as she was used to having at least 50 in the physical stat from before.

After climbing for a minute, she saw she was approaching a room; she slowed, not wanting to burst into an even worse situation. Arlyth knew that she was extremely outclassed in this situation, city guards were often level 50+. She had gotten lucky that Milo was such a low level after breaking out of her cell, it made her wonder if they put the new recruits on prisoner duty.

Proceeding up the steps at a quiet but hurried pace, she saw that she was inside some sort of warehouse. She had emerged in the corner of the building. The building was long, with a high ceiling. The ceiling was about 20 feet high, with the width being the same while the length doubled that at 40’. It is rectangle shaped. Looking around she saw that it was just a plain building made out of white bricks to match the rest of the city.

There were boxes stacked intermittently around the building and not much else that she could see from where she had emerged. She could see a big door to her left at the end of the long building with normal sized doors with small square windows lining the adjacent wall. She got into a crouch and approached the doors as quietly as she could.

Approaching the first door she slowly lifted herself up to look into the window. The room looked to be a locker room of some sort, it had cubbies lined in 2 rows and she saw clothes inside of a few of them, she couldn’t see anyone inside the room but her vision wasn’t the best through the small window. Deciding that her fire engine red hair was a dead give away for anyone looking for her, she slowly opened the door and snuck into the room.

She slowly closed the door behind her making sure to make as little noise as possible. She almost fell in shock when a prompt randomly appeared.

[N-N-New Skill Gained!]

[Stealth: Rank - D]

This ability allows sneaky bastards like you to blend into the shadows just a little bit more.

Usage - Sneaking makes you harder to detect by 10%, this effect will increase as skill rank increases.

As soon as she finished reading the prompt she heard a muffled “God damn it” accompanied by the mental feeling of being facepalmed. After the weird feeling of her own body mimicking a feeling she didn’t induce, Arlyth spoke internally, “Kye… you okay?”

Kye sighed, “Sorry kid, EX got through on that one. He seems to be keeping a close eye on you at the moment, probably due to this experiment of his just taking off. I was just frustrated and that’s why you heard and felt me facepalm.” After an awkwardly long pause Kye spoke again “Oh! I should’ve probably told you but since I’m not a physical being and you are my physical body, whatever I do, you’ll feel!”

Arlyth knew she had to get used to Kye being there but the idea that they could make her feel random things sent a chill up her spine. “It’s okay, just maybe try to warn me of these things before I feel like I just slapped myself in the face? Although I’m glad that my body doesn’t actually mimic what you’re doing, that’d be weird.”

As if they felt the need to show off, she felt a mental thumbs up from Kye which sent another chill through her body. Shaking herself free of the feeling she took a tentative step away from the door, Arlyth turned around to see a middle aged half undressed human male staring at her with wide eyes.

Arlyth stared back, quickly analyzing this newest appearance.

[Gizmo Sov]

Level: 15

Health: 350

Mana: 100

Highest Skill Group: Physical

They stared at each other for about a minute before they spoke in unison, “who are you!?” Arlyth knew she didn’t put on the prettiest of visages right now, still in starter rags that had blood on them. She decided she needed to take the lead on this. “I mean you no harm!” Arlyth stated in a hushed voice. “Please just don’t raise any alarms.” She raised her hands up with palms facing towards Gizmo to help sell her feelings.

Gizmo cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at her, he stared at her fire red hair, then her pointed ears. In a shocked voice he said “Are you a… sanguine? This can’t be, the city hasn’t seen any of your kind in millennia.”

Arlyth sighed, hating everything about this damn race the AI had stuck her in. Relaxing a little after she realized the man didn’t spew any insults her way, she locked eyes with Gizmo. “I am. I’m also in a bit of a hairy situation, it’s a long story and I don’t think I have the time to explain it right now, I just need to get out of the city for the time being. I’ve heard about what happened in this city all that time ago, I’m not one of those elves. I was in an unfortunate accident and woke up in this body.”

Arlyth noticed that Gizmo seemed startled by her forwardness, feeling as if this could be a potentially good thing. She watched his facial expressions closely, as the man spent a few seconds deciding what to do, he spoke. “I live on the edge of town, I don’t know about getting you past the gate guards, but I could potentially help you get close at least. My family moved here recently so we don’t hold the same contempt for the Sanguines as most folk do.”

Arlyth chuckled to herself as she watched the man, feeling a little too wound up from the day's events she let out a small joke. “We just met Gizmo, you’re already inviting me over when you’re half dressed?”

Watching as the man visibly flushed, Arlyth laughed again. She needed this small moment of respite, even if it was at the cost of this stranger's humility.

Gizmo stammered while quickly pulling his pants on, then said “I-i-it’s not like that! I just want to help, someone helped me long ago when I was in need and I feel now is my chance to repay that.”

With a satisfied grin, Arlyth nodded and asked “Do you think your co-workers would mind if I took some clothes? I feel awfully vulnerable in these rags.”

Still flushed with pink cheeks the man shook his head, “Just don’t go overboard, we all keep extras here in case of any mishaps. But hurry, we need to get going as it’s quittin’ time soon. I’ll go outside and wait while you get dressed.”

Quickly rummaging through the lockers Arlyth was able to find a passable set of white commoners pants and shirt with a matching hair wrap so that she could hide her hair that might as well be a beacon for her. She also chose to hide her weapon under the pants, she wanted it available if needed but not out in the open. Looking over at a mirror in the corner of the room above a sink, she felt satisfied in her disguise as her features were very human-like, without the pointy ears and red hair. She whispered to herself, “Let's do this.”