*a month later*

"That would be enough for today. Thank you, Solin."

"Not a problem, Bones. You're getting better! Won't be long until you will be able to keep up with me!"

Bones nodded and turned to leave, "I'll head inside first, later."

"Later man!"

Bones went inside and back into his room like a brooding teenager, where he spent most of his time last month. After the bout and talk he had with Silva a month ago, Bones decided to put leveling his class on hold and devoted all his time into advancing his mana sense, vision and manipulation. His devotion bore fruit two weeks ago as his mana sense and mana vision advanced to next rank. Their upgrade wasn't any different than his Bone Manipulation, but the prompt he got from the system after he upgraded both skills was.

Mana Sense upgraded to Advanced

Mana Vision upgraded to Advanced

Synergy detected

Fusion possible

Fuse Mana Sense and Mana Vision into a new skill: Omnipresent Perception?

Yes/No

It did what both advanced skills did with a slightly increased effect and let him, for the first time, taste food and regular drinks and even recognize smells. It wasn't an acute sense of taste and smell but it would get as real as possible with levels in a skill. His vision was also upgraded, enabling him to see farther and the color scheme went from grayscale to bleak colors.

Since that day two weeks ago, he's been sparring with Solin on a daily basis. Solin also took this as an opportunity to improve his basics and the spars helped him a great deal.

Not long after Bones left, Silva walked into the courtyard where Solin was sitting cross legged and meditating. Silva didn't interrupt his meditation but waited patiently by his side. Ten minutes later, Solin stood up and stretched.

"Finished?" Silva asked. Solin, startled, spun around. "Silva! I didn't even notice you! Are you sure you don't want to change your class? You'd be great at sneaking at people!"

"How rude! Anyway, how's his progress?" asked Silva, referring to Bones.

Solin smirked and answered. "He is progressing fast with his new perception ability, or is it a sensory ability? Regardless, he can accurately follow my movements now and even react to most of them whereas just a month ago, he couldn't keep up with what he was perceiving, sensing?"

"That's good to hear. What about you, Solin?"

Solin nodded his head and answered. "Sparing against an opponent without any vital points can be challenging for an assassin. It forced me to change my usual attack patterns and modify my combos. It did ease fighting against mages. I even scored a win in the arena against Morem yesterday!"

"Oh? That talented young one? Asked Silva to which Solin nodded in confirmation.

Silva turned to the door, Solin following his gaze as Bones opened the door to the courtyard. "Silva, there you are!"

"Greeting Bones, I'm sorry we haven't seen each other lately. I've been busy running errands."

Bones waves his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I've been busy myself. Do you have some time now? I have a matter to discuss with you."

"Of course, I'll be right with you."

Bones nodded and went back inside. Silva turned to Solin.

"Solin, are you free tonight? I may have a job for you." Solin nodded and Silva added "We'll talk later."

He turned and walked back inside to find Bones. Inside a private booth, Bones awaited with drinks. "Oh? Are we drinking today?" Silva asked as he approached the table.

Bones glanced at drinks on the table before answering. "I'm afraid not. I won't take much of your time Silva, I just wanted to tell you I'll be leaving for a while. I have some business to take care of back in Stonefalls."

Silva stared at Bones for a moment before sitting down and taking a gulp of his drink before letting out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry to hear that you'll be leaving us so soon. When will you leave?"

Bones chuckled a bit before responding. "You made it sound like I'm not coming back! It'll take a month, two at most. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

"You never know with people Bones. Some come back and some leave for good. I guess we could have a drink or two before you leave?"

*chuckle* "Sure. Just a drink or two though!"

"Silva?"

"SILVA?" shouted Tiv

"Whzat what?" blurted out Silva, lifting his head up from the table and squinting his eyes. The presence of light, hurting his eyes. "Tiv? What time is it?"

*chuckles* "Past noon sunshine! Bones really did a number on you?!"

"Bones? Where is he? Is he still here?" Silva asked, wiping the unruly drool around his dry mouth.

"No, he left early in the morning. Said not to wake you up. How was last night?"

*groan* "Had a couple of drinks."

"Really? Just a couple?" teased Tiv. "So, Bones left huh? Did you plan to send someone to look out for him? I'm free for some time, I could…"

"Stop, stop, no Tiv, he won't be the new toy for you to play with. You broke your last one! Besides, with his new perception ability, it might not be possible to completely avoid detection."

"I'm not sure what toy you're referring to? Honestly, let me go get you a coffee." Tiv scurried off, sensing there might be a lecture coming.

Silva just followed her walking away and groaned at the pounding headache. It's been decades since he got drunk. It's been decades since he had someone to get drunk with. Not really fair playing a drinking game against someone that can't get drunk.

Bones had a lot to think about for the past month. After one of the bouts with Solin, he was deluged with one piece of information of interest, regarding a certain duo. Solin said that the elf assassin under Guntar, Trevak, was stronger than him. Bone could at best, draw a tie against Solin. What was I thinking back then, searching for Trevak and Guntar after finding out Vol was dead. According to Solin, Guntar is even stronger and would advance to silver rank soon.

After I deal with the dwarves in Stonefalls, I'll take the opportunity to clear the 2nd dungeon and advance a class. I was wrong. I was not as strong as I thought I was. I just had weak foes.

Reprimanding himself for his foolishness, Bones continued jogging toward Stonefalls. He quickly passed through the Northpoint watchpost and went around the mountains on his return. His return trip required less time even though he was traveling a longer distance.

It was mid day when he reached the smithy and found the merry dwarves sitting at the front, playing cards. He approached the two, who were too immersed into the game to notice him arriving. He took off his mask and flipped his hood back, revealing the skull. “Greetings Hem, Darsumi.”

They threw him a sideway glance, but continued playing. “Dar, there be a skull standing there.” Hem spoke in-between throwing cards on the table. “I noticed Hem. I don't think it's just a skull. There should be the rest of it too! Think it’s here to attack us?” added Darsumi, a tinge of mockery in his tone.

“Who knows with the lot! Haven’t seen one since…hm?” Hem stopped playing, the wheels in his head started turning. He placed his cards down at the table in front of him and turned to Bones who was standing a few meters away, with his arms crossed.

“Jones! Yer a few days late! Thought you might not be coming back at all! Be a shame if all the gold stayed wit me ye know?!” Hem smiled, his gold tooth reflecting light as he stood up from the table and approached, extending his arm in greetings. “I was busy, but I knew you would keep my gold safe. Wouldn’t you?” Bones replied, teasing the dwarf.

*cough* “Of course, of course!” exclaimed Hem, sweating a little. “Greetings again, Mr. Jones? Was it?” Darsumi said as he approached and greeted Bones. “Greetings Darsumi, Bones is fine.”

“Bones? I see. Bit on the nose, no?” Darsumi asked and chuckled, not prying further.

“Come, let’s go inside. Boney then?” Hem asked, to which Bones reluctantly nodded, then followed them inside.

Darsumi and Bones sat by the table in the kitchen while Hem went to the other room and into the safe where Bones' gold was kept in a storage ring. Returning, he placed the ring on the table. Bones looked over the ring in front of him for a bit before asking the obvious question.

"Hem, might I ask you something."

"Ye?"

"Was it necessary to store gold in a ring, and then a ring in the safe?"

Shrugging his shoulder and going over the kitchen cabinets, he took out a bottle and three glasses. "Better safe than lost."

"Right. Well, I'll take the gold and leave the ring, I don't need it. I take it you took your share?"

"We already took our share. Are you sure you don't need the ring?" Darsumi asked.

"He sure Dar! I'll gladly keep the ring." Hem quickly added, stuffing the ring in his pocket. He gave Bones a wide grin, showing his golden teeth again and started pouring them drinks. "I take it you won't leave us immediately?"

"I can stay. Isn't it a bit early to be drinking though?" asked Bones.

"Early?" questioned Hem, giving Darsumi a look. "We haven't really stopped drinking so no, we're fine! Anyway, last time you handed us the stones, you said we would talk about the rest of them. So…"

"Relax Hem." said Bones and asked Hem to pass him the storage ring. Hem took the ring out and passed it to Bones who, upon receiving the ring, deposited the rest of the raw mana stones. With the exchange done, they took to drinking till late in the night.

Bones had to admit, the two dwarves were merry company and were totally unbothered by his presence. He found out why when they started sharing stories about their adventuring days. Both dwarves were part of the adventurer party called Ruff Miners. Silly name, though Bones, but kept it to himself. They spent their younger days clubbing undead on a daily basis and Bones learnt more about the Desolate Lands from their stories. A land he would definitely have to visit sometime in the future.

Both dwarves were silver rank and Bones had no reason to doubt them, as he failed to see their levels. They didn't go into details as to how they ended up here of all places and how they were "exchanging" the raw mana stones. Only thing they did disclose was that they still had connections from their younger days. Hem was a variant warrior class, some kind of enforcer and a master smith, which now outleveled his main class. Apparently he had a shop in the capital once and was a renown smith for some time, until real big shots came and ran his business down. He settled here in Stonefalls and does his smithing in his leisure time. Bones was sure there was more to the story, but he didn't pry.

Darsumi was something else! A rogue variant class named Blade Dancer and Bones had a rough time imagining a stoic looking, long bearded dwarf, gracefully and swiftly dancing between his foes, drawing blood. As for his profession, he didn't go into details but Bones figured he was some sort of smuggler.

They also knew Guntar, to Bones surprise and they mentioned they had some dealings with him a couple of years ago but their relationship didn't go beyond that single instance. Bones confirmed that Guntar was in the capital and learned that he works under some subordinate of Dominos. He frowned at the mention of the ascendant's name. Everything is becoming more complicated then he wants or needs it to be. Maybe I should avoid Guntar and his associates in the future. It would be a smart thing to do…

"Can you tell me more about Trevak? His right-hand man I presume?" asked Bones.

"Sure, it's good to know your enemies." replied Dar, grinning.

"Come in", Rayne replied at the knocking on the doors. Woman in official administrator attire opened the door and entered his office.

"Sir, I'm bringing you a weekly report you requested on the activities of an adventurer named…Bones."

Rayne motioned for the administrator to come closer. "Good! Tell me."

"Sir, if you would just open the report…"

Rayne raised an eyebrow and cocked his head as if to say, "well?"

*sigh* Reluctantly, the woman accepted she was going to have to summarize the whole report to her superior given the look he was throwing her way.

"During the past month, adventurer Bones was seen visiting different shops, restaurants and bars, also visiting numerous monumental sites, parks and squares, mostly around The Tower."

"Sightseeing?" interjected Rayne, a bit puzzled. Woman shrugged, "it seems that way sir."

"Any unusual activities?" asked Rayne.

"There was an incident, about a week ago."

"Yes? What happened?"

"Bones has apparently, on numerous occasions, practiced his mana sense in crowded areas. Normal people and less mana sensitive adventurers didn't notice, but an altercation happened when there was a higher level adventurer in a crowd."

"So what happened, a fight broke out?" Rayne asked, showing interest in the altercation.

"Adventurer Bones apologized for stepping out of his boundaries and the altercation ended with a silver rank leaving."

Rayne stayed quiet, then sighed, leaning against his chair. He was hoping to find something, anything on Bones or if he had any connections to Guntar or the Hounds.

"Sir, there was an additional note written regarding an altercation."

"Oh?"

"The scout that was following Bones at that time found the ending to an altercation to be somewhat odd, so he made a note in his report saying that the silver rank adventurer was looking to start a fight but when he approached Bones he paused, as if frozen, for a few seconds. They were looking at each other and then Bones excused himself. The other adventurer murmured something incoherent and left." finishing her report, the administrator stood there and waited for further instructions.