The blue ranks were standing in the middle of the training field. Vence stood in front of them, supporting his weight with a thin white cane. Behind him stood a group of knights. One of the knights resembled him. Oddly, he was wearing a thick black blindfold tied around his eyes preventing him from seeing.

Vence’s sharp eyes watched the group of fifty blue ranks that were arranged into five rows of ten children in ascending order.

“Good afternoon blue ranks. Some of you that are more attentive surely saw me this morning next to the Baron. My name is Vence. I will be in charge of Dexterity training for the blue ranks as well as unarmed sparring sessions.” He said in a bored tone, strongly contrasting with the powerful voice of the drill master they had to endure this morning.

“My son has already explained to you which skills and classes are available to you all. I will teach you the skills that all of you are required to learn before the end of the month. If you are not capable of learning them you will be demoted to green ranks regardless of your other achievements.” He continued while constantly scanning the children.

“Those skills are: [Basic Sleight of Hand], [Basic Hand to Hand Combat.], [Basic Knife combat] and [Basic Knife Throwing] or the equivalent skills. Any questions?”

A tall lean lad ranked seventh amongst the children raised his hand.

“Speak.” Vence pointed at the boy.

“I would like to choose a class that uses spears. Why would I need those skills?”

Without skipping a beat Vence threw a small wooden stick at the boy. He didn’t have a chance to dodge and the stick hit him right into the chest. It didn’t cause any harm to the boy it simply bounced off his shirt and fell on the ground.

“How far away am I away from you boy?”

“About 5 meters Sir.”

“Your spear would probably be around 2 meters long. Before you could get to me your heart would have been pierced with a knife. Now pick up that stick and bring it to me.” Vence said and pointed at the stick.

The boy ranked seventh bent down to reach for the stick the second his finger’s made a contact with the stick his hand started to feel numb. He picked up the stick and before he managed to take a step he fell to the ground.

All of the children became shocked. The ones closer to him wanted to help him up but Vence stopped them.

“Don’t touch him! He is paralysed, the stick was covered in very weak paralytic poison he should wake up in a few minutes… Lesson one. Never touch your enemies’ weapons. No matter how harmless it looks. It might be coated in poison, cursed, enchanted or even alive. That is why fighting intelligent enemies like humans is always far more dangerous and complicated than fighting monsters. You have to learn all of the skills I have mentioned to learn how to fight dirty and be able to use everything to your advantage in a real fight, that is the only way you will have a chance at survival. Now, is any other greenhorn going to share their brilliant questions with me and waste my time or are you ready to begin!?” Vence’s loud metallic voice sent shivers down everyone’s spine.

‘That was way too excessive. He even asked whether we have any questions…’ Veric looked around and saw the fear in some of the children’s eyes. The image of one of them being poisoned out of the blue shocked them and made them realise that this place is definitely not as kind as they have imagined it to be based on the morning speech they received from the baron. All of the children remained silent, none wanted to end up like the tall boy ranked seventh.

“Good, I see that you learn quite quickly, now those of you who are ambidextrous raise your hands.”

Out of 50 children, only 5 raised their hands. All of them did it reluctantly not wanting to stand out.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, how disappointing. Now those of you who are right-handed stand on my right and those who are left-handed stand on my left. The ambidextrous will come with me.”

Veric was right-handed so he joined the children on the right.

“Jasper take care of Veric and the children in the upper half. Luke, Mark and Kala. Take care of the rest… oh and don’t forget about the kid on the ground.” Vence said and took the ambidextrous children with him. The children that followed Vence into the castle were pale like ghosts.

‘I don’t think I have ever been this happy to be not gifted at something.’ Veric thought while looking at the five unlucky children.

“How is he able to see? Can he see through the blindfold or something?” Kadyn whispered to Veric and waved his hand in front of jasper’s face.

“I can see you just fine number 3, My hearing is perfect too, now get on the ground and give me 50 push-ups.” Jasper said and looked at the rest of the group.

“The rest of you take one and put it on your dominant hand.” Jasper said and pointed at the wooden chest containing wooden cubes.

‘I swear to god if there is a venomous snake inside and lesson number two is don’t put your hands inside of dark holes without knowing what is inside I will turn Vence into a snowman.’

Veric carefully lowered his hand inside the small opening in the wooden cube. Once wrist deep, the box released the sound of cogwheels turning and the opening of the box tightened around his hand. He grabbed the box with his other hand and did his best to pull out his right hand out of the box. ‘It won’t even budge, I bet this is going to be an annoying afternoon.’

“What now Jasper?” Veric asked.

Jasper was about to punish him for calling him by his name without using appropriate honorifics before realising that Veric’s social standing was slightly higher than his own.

“Your task now is to take your hand out of the box, If you can’t do it within 15 minutes I will provide you with hints. For now, all of you remain silent and do not exchange ideas. You will be able to speak after you take your hand out of the box.”

Veric looked down at Kadyn doing push-ups. “48.. 49.. 50.” He got up off the ground and slapped off the dust from his hands. “Oof, I think I managed to do a 500 this morning. Fifty feel like nothing now.”

“What part of remain silent do you not understand number 3? Get on the ground and give me another fifty.”

Kadyn groaned and dropped to the ground and continued doing push-ups. Veric smiled at Kadyn and looked at the wooden box that was gripping his hand. ‘Do you have any ideas Prometheus?’

Kinslayer

What part of do not exchange ideas do you not understand number 1? Drop on the ground and give me fifty.

‘It seems like even death didn’t manage to strip you from your sense of humour.’ Veric shook his head at the message and focused on the box he started to blindly wiggle his hands inside of the box.

After a few seconds, he heard a clicking sound. ‘Hmm, so there is some kind of locking mechanism inside. I wonder whether is similar to pins inside of a lock and if there is an order in which those pins have to be pressed.’

He continued to move his fingers around till he found the second pressure plate. After pressing it the first one collapsed followed by the second one. ‘Ok, so pull with your pinkie finger first, then it’s definitely not the middle finger. What if I try using mana to trigger the plates?... No, I feel like that would defeat the purpose of this exercise. I am pretty sure that this task exists to increase my meagre dexterity.’ He thought and continued looking for the pattern.

With each pressure plate, the position of the fingers became more and more demanding pushing the coordination of his fingers to the limit. After more than seven minutes he managed to locate all of the pressure plates and find their corresponding pattern. He raised his middle finger and the grip around his wrist loosened.

Congratulations You have opened the Dirty Paw’s [1st Goblin-cube].

Dexterity + 1

You have learned [Goblin Lock picking](Level 1)(Tier 0){Unclassed}

[Goblin Lock picking]

- While opening a lock without the use of tools your dexterity is increased by 2 points.

- While opening a lock with the use of crude tools your dexterity is increased by 1 point.

- While opening a lock with the use of fine tools your dexterity remains unaffected.

‘What? I have learned a skill for a goblin? Is this normal?’ Veric walked over to Jasper with the cube in his hand. ”I have managed to take off the cube but there seems to be a mistake. The system gave me the skill for a goblin.”

“If it’s the [Goblin Lock picking] then everything is normal. The cube you were wearing was designed by a man called Dirty Paw. Two centuries ago he was a renowned thief. He was never caught, neither did he spend his wealth, people still look for his treasure… Anyway, they say that once he got older he chose to live in seclusion and study the goblins. He designed these cubes to teach them how to pick locks and steal from the humans.”

”Those cubes were found among goblin tribes and some of the nobles started using them to boost their dexterity. They are very effective in that regard. In total there are ten cubes corresponding to the ten levels of the skill. Each time level of the skill increases the boost you receive is doubled. Now every time someone uses the box and opens it under ten minutes they are bestowed the skill. The last four cubes are impossible to open for a human without the use of tools.”

“How are goblins supposed to pick locks without tools then?”

“They use their long, thin, curved, hard fingernails. The system doesn’t consider them a tool.”

“What about mana? If I manage to open them with magic would the system consider it a tool?”

“I am not sure. But if I had to bet my money on it I would say yes. There are very few skills that can be improved or gained with the use of mana. Once you use mana for something the system begins to consider it a spell. Within the upcoming days, you will have the chance to test it. Right, enough talking. Put it on your left hand. I will go check on the rest of the group. From what I can see only number 3 is still struggling.”

‘How can you see that when we are faced away from everyone? There are weird people everywhere you go in this place.’ Veric thought and placed his left hand inside the cube. ‘It should be easier now that I know the order in which the pressure plates need to be pressed… due to the chirality of my hands the order should be a mirror reflection now.’

Veric started with his thumb now and pressed the first pressure plate however, he found the task far more difficult with his left hand. ‘Now I wish I was ambidextrous… Maybe the second goal is to make all of us ambidextrous. ’ He thought and continued to coordinate his fingers according to the previous pattern.

After ten minutes he managed to open the cube once more.

Congratulations! You have opened the Dirty Paw’s [1st Goblin-cube].

Dexterity + 1

Veric dismissed the system message and looked at the children in his group he noticed that the girl ranked second has also managed to open the cube. She sat on the ground looking bored, drawing clouds in the sand with her finger. She clearly managed to open the cube a long time ago. ’She looks like her highest stats are most likely dexterity and agility.’

Veric walked over to her. “I am Veric Martel, what is your name?”

“Number 2.” She replied in an uninterested tone, without even raising her head to look at him.

“No, I mean your real name.” Veric replied.