Chapter 11: 1-11 Sneaking Out

Stahlia Five Years Old, Sixth Month, 942

I was sitting on my bed deep in thought. At some point, this had become my default position whenever I was contemplating my next course of action. My little Sister Rosial had just had her one-year celebration earlier tonight, she was growing quickly, though far slower than I had done. She could now speak a few simple words, thanks to the efforts of my mother and me always being sure to talk to her at length.

Stil was laying on the floor at the foot of my bed, watching me think. Leaning forward, I scratched at his head and pushed a wave of mana into him. During the events of my sister’s birth, I had unlocked a new extension of my enhancement magic; through direct contact, I could cause magic phenomena in a target. At first, it had been fairly difficult, but by practicing I was able to refine the process. I could control the temperature of a substance like when I first discovered the ability by boiling water. I could enhance the physical properties of an inanimate object, for example, making my dagger sharper. I was also able to collect some information about the stats of the target like I was doing now to Stil. I was certain there were other applications but, as of yet, I had only found these. Information flowed into my head about Stil.

Name: Stil

Species/Level: Stawri, 6

Ability Values:

• Strength E:
• Endurance E:
• Dexterity D:
• Intelligence D:
• Charisma E:
• Mana E:

Special: Bonded Monster (Stahlia)

It was nowhere near as much information as my own status screen, but it was a massive improvement from what I had known about him previously. I tossed him a piece of jerky and leaned back letting out a sigh. From one point of view, I had made tremendous progress in the past year, but I was discontent. In my own opinion, I felt like I had hit a wall. According to my status screen, I had finally done enough to max out Prodigy’s experience.

Life Summary Screen:

Life Point Balance: 73

Name/Age: Stahlia, 5

Gender: Female

Class/Level: Custom Class, 1 Experience: 0/1000

Species: Human (Pureblood)

Social Strata: Fallen Noble House (Despita, Drakas Kingdom)

Starting Gift: Small Seed [LOCKED]

Ability Values:

• Strength C: 25 (50)
• Endurance B: 35 (70)
• Dexterity A: 50 (100)
• Intelligence S: 150 (150)
• Charisma B: 35 (70)
• Mana B: 35 (70)

Fighting Style: Shadow Blade [Swap Style]

Talents 1/1: [Browse Talents] Prodigy I*, Monster Handling II*, Dagger Fighting III* Unarmed Fighting II*, Alchemy Correction I*

Skills 1/1: [Browse Skills] Divine Authority[Class Features]*, Language Proficiency[Central Human]*, Fighting Style[Shadow Blade]*,

Talents Experience:

Prodigy 1000/1000*

Monster Handling 584/2500

Dagger Fighting 12/5000

Unarmed Fighting 713/2500

Alchemy Correction 200/1000

I had managed to level up Dagger Fighting twice, the correction provided by the skill was high enough now that Jacqueline had started sparring with me. Of course, she had my physical stats absolutely outmatched in every regard, and even with my enhancements turned up to maximum I couldn’t come remotely close to beating her. She wasn’t even using her own dagger, just her bare hands. I had likewise leveled up unarmed fighting once, but my weakened status still made that very slow going compared to dagger fighting. Alchemy Correction was my newest acquisition, I had gotten it while mixing potions for my mother and baby sister. Apparently, it reduced the failure rate of potions. Considering I had been mixing potions for nearly four years now, I had no idea why it took so long for me to earn enough experience to acquire it.

The elephant in the room though was Prodigy. I had finally gotten Prodigy to 1000/1000 experience after teaching Sven and Sieg how to make Ether. But despite being at the maximum required experience, it hadn’t leveled up. According to the description window for my prodigy experience, Prodigy was “level locked”. Indeed, the description window read like it was worded just to annoy me.

“[Prodigy I] has reached the required Experience. Class Level insufficient to acquire [Prodigy II]. Please increase Class Level to continue earning experience for Prodigy talent line.”

If I wanted to get [Prodigy II], I would have to level up my class level. I had no idea why Prodigy had a level requirement, while Monster Handling, Dagger Fighting, and Unarmed Fighting did not. The only thing I could think of was that I had purchased Prodigy as one of my class talents, whereas I had learned the others naturally. This set an irritating precedent; any skills or talents I purchased would see their levels restricted by my class level, if I wanted a skill or talent to progress as fast as possible, I would need to learn it through effort.

The other big problem was the line that informed me I wouldn’t earn any more experience towards prodigy until I increased my class level. I interpreted that to mean that by not increasing my class level I was wasting prodigy experience. So far, I had been using my alchemy lessons with Sven to earn prodigy experience, by continuing to come up with new things based on my Earth knowledge I had been inciting a sort of Alchemical Revolution in the Drakas Kingdom. I didn’t want to continue that if I couldn’t reap the experience, but I also couldn’t just stop either, I had a reputation to keep up after all.

I frowned to myself. There’s only one thing for it, I’ll have to find a way to level up, and soon. Resolving myself, I fell asleep. The next morning, I ate a quick breakfast and ducked out of the house as fast as possible; I had a mission to accomplish. Jacqueline was right behind me of course, showing no signs of falling behind. Yea, I shouldn’t have expected to be able to lose her. I moved along the main road towards the village’s perimeter wall. I call it a wall, but it was more of a moderately tall fence.

“Lady Stahlia, what are you scheming?” Jacqueline was giving me a pleasant smile, but her eyes were serious.

“I am not planning anything today, Jacqueline, I am simply curious is all.” Giving my most placating smile, I moved away from her to watch the entrance to the adventurer’s guild branch office. I was planning to slip out of the village and try to find some monsters, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew I could probably only manage the weaker varieties, so I had come to watch the adventurers. My plan was to observe how they were acting; if they were jovial then it meant the outside was rather safe. Conversely, if they were subdued, it meant there was probably something dangerous outside right now.

I had picked up on these behaviors a couple of years ago when the number of adventurers suddenly increased. At the time I hadn’t thought anything of it, but I later found out that a Goblin King had appeared in the mountains near the village. At the moment, the adventurers were behaving normally, so I assumed that there was nothing out of the norm in the area surrounding my village. Perfect, I should spend a week preparing and think of an excuse to be gone for a day or two… I wonder if my mother would let me spend the night at the temple?

I turned about and told Jacqueline I wanted to see Sana. Jacqueline nodded, though she was watching me carefully. We set out for the temple, and I became absorbed in thought; I needed to figure out what I would say to get Sana on my side. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I was barely paying attention as we walked, I wound up running into someone.

“Oi! Watch where your walkin- Mrs. Fancy? What’re you doing walking around with your head up in the clouds?” Of all the luck, I had run into Giogi. He was without his squad at the moment, the only small grace.

“My apologies Giogi, I will endeavor to be more careful; I was lost in my thoughts. Truly, it is a grievous error.” I promptly regurgitated an apology, hoping this would end our encounter early. Hopefully, he will be more subdued without his minions about him. I glanced sidelong at Jacqueline, and she gave a slight shake of her head; a motion I interpreted as an indication that none of his friends were nearby.

“A-ah, that’s alright, I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Excuse me? Who the hell is this? Giogi had apologized to me, what’s more, he looked nervous; his ears were slightly red, and he seemed liable to jump out of his skin at any moment. I knew it! Not so tough without backup, are you?!

“No, I am quite alright, if I had been hurt, I am sure Stil would have been so gracious as to inform you.” I gave a charming smile while delivering my veiled threat. I fully intended to enjoy this while I could.

“I-I See, I-I’m sure he would.” He glanced at Stil, “It really is impressive how you trained him…” He was fidgeting with his foot a bit. Probably trying to test his footing in case I set Stil on him and he has to run. Don’t worry, I’m not a bloodthirsty maniac.

“Yes, well there’s a trick to it. Properly training an animal is a lot of work, but the reward is well worth it.” I was of course implying that his own pets lacked discipline, but I was certain that would fly over his head.

“Hmmm, you mean there’s a trick to it? Do you think, m-maybe you, maybe you could show me sometime?” huh? I see, he wants to see how I control Stil so he can figure out how to disarm him. Cunning.

“Well, it’s not really a big secret or anything, I have a monster handler talent. Stil listens to me because of that.” Of course, I wasn’t going to tell him that all it took was properly seasoned dried meat. Giogi’s eyes got wide.

“How do you have a talent like that when you don’t know your purpose?!” Ah right, I forgot he’s jealous of how Jav overshadowed him.

“I am unsure, I simply seem to have developed it one day.” Giogi’s eyes got even bigger.

“Ah, you’re lying aren’t you! Well, if you don’t want to tell me that’s fine! I didn’t want to know anyway!” He turned bright red and, turning about-face, sprinted off down the street away from me. I turned to Jacqueline.

“Well, now that the pests have been dealt with shall we continue to the temple?” For some reason, Jacqueline found my statement hilarious because she suddenly burst out laughing.

We managed to arrive at the temple without any further interruptions, and I announced myself at the entrance to the attendant priest who was minding the doors. After giving a cursory prayer, though I made sure not to put any actual sincerity into it, I asked the attendant priest if Sana had finished her worship lessons for the day. The man nodded and let me into the back of the temple, escorting me to Sana’s room.

Normally, only those affiliated with the church were allowed into the inner portions, but Jacqueline and I had been given a special exception to visit Sana in her chambers due to my friendship. It came with the caveat that we had to have an escort bring us to them, but that was hardly an inconvenience. Sana greeted me cheerfully; we hadn’t made any plans to meet today so I was appearing unannounced, but she didn’t seem put off. Now I had to somehow get rid of Jacqueline, she kept a lot of secrets for me, but I doubted even she would agree with my plans.

“Jacqueline, it seems that I forgot to bring the tea set seeing as this was a spur-of-the-moment meeting. Would you kindly retrieve it?” That should take her about half an hour, long enough to convince Sana. Jacqueline gave me a very wide smile.

“Lady Stahlia, I suspected you may wish to visit Sana today, seeing how quickly you dashed off after breakfast, so I made sure to grab it.” She indeed produced the tea set from inside her bag and began laying it out. Shit.

Sana was watching her quizzically before she turned to me. “Stali, why did you come to visit me today?” I couldn’t very well announce my plans with Jacqueline listening in, so I was at a loss. While I was floundering to find what to say, Jacqueline addressed Sana in my stead.

“Lady Sana, if you will excuse my impertinence at speaking out of turn, Lady Stahlia wishes to enlist your aid in a scheme to slip out of the village. I imagine she will be gone for at least two days and one night; likely she wants you to invite her over to spend the night in the temple so as to deceive her parents.” I stared at Jacqueline in utter shock. How?! How the hell did she figure things out so easily?! “Based on her reaction, I would imagine I am correct in my predictions.” Jacqueline smiled smugly at me.

Sana was less impressed, “Stahlia how could you do that to your parents?! There’s no way I could help you with that!”

With the cat out of the bag, there wasn’t really anything for me to do. My parents would hear about this, and I would probably wind up grounded again. Contrary to my expectations, however, Jacqueline came to my rescue.

“Lady Sana, please again forgive my impertinence. You see, Lady Stahlia has been very troubled recently by night terrors. She sees a great calamity befalling Ris Village and feels that it is her purpose to venture out of the village to somehow prevent it. As you might expect, she cannot tell her parents; they would of course simply dispatch the militia, but according to Lady Stahlia’s dreams if they do that it will only accelerate the calamity. She is seeking your aid because you are the only one she can turn to.” What the hell? Night terrors? “my purpose”? Jacqueline, you know damn well none of what you just said is true! I turned to Sana, intent on correcting her and explaining myself, but Sana looked thoughtful.

“…your purpose? Well… if you really think so… I’ll try to help you as best I can… I am a servant of the gods after all. Let me go and ask the priest.” Wait, you bought that?! Jacqueline produced an envelope with a wax seal on it and passed it to Sana.

“Please give the Priest this letter, I have enclosed the details of Stahlia’s visions such as she has confided in me. Tell him ‘The shadows that stalk Lady Stahlia’s dreams are close at hand.’ He should understand the urgency of her dilemma.” Sana nodded and took the letter before departing to see the Priest. Seriously, how far did Jacqueline read my intentions?! How the hell did she come up with that stream of bullshit?!

I eyed her suspiciously. “Jacqueline, who exactly are you?” She gave me a troubled smile.

“I am simply your exceptionally proficient maid, Lady Stahlia.” Uh-huh, sure you are. Still, I knew she wasn’t going to tell me anything, so I let the matter drop. About ten minutes later, the priest came in and handed Jacqueline a letter.

“Give this to the mayor and his wife, it is an official invitation for Stahlia to spend the night at the temple; Sana has come down with an illness, and Sven, being a man, cannot spend the night in her room. We are merely asking for Lady Stahlia to attend to her while she recovers over the next couple of days.” Holy shit, what was in that letter Jacqueline wrote?!

Jacqueline accepted the letter and departed to deliver it to my parents. The priest gave me a very careful look once she was out of the room before shaking his head and departing. Sana promptly climbed into her bed, claiming she felt feverish. Apparently, they were not going to inform the other members of the clergy about her illness being a ruse. I kind of feel really bad about this… how in the world did my plan of sneaking out for a day end up turning into a low-budget heist movie plot?

Jacqueline returned after about an hour and a half with a pair of backpacks and two cloaks. One pair in her size and another fitted for my own measurements. I had some serious questions regarding the extent to which she was going to keep my secrets. That night, we slipped out of the temple’s back door and stole through the darkness towards the wall.

 

★★★★★★

We were moving quickly; I had moderately enhanced my legs to maintain a good pace. All of a sudden, Jacqueline held up a hand. Abruptly stopping, she grabbed the back of my cloak around my neck and pulled me into a doorway. Coming around a corner, a pair of the village militia walked past us. After waiting a moment, she motioned for us to continue. What in the world…? I’m starting to seriously question the whole “maid” thing.

We made it to the perimeter wall without running into anyone else, and Jacqueline addressed me in a hushed whisper, “There should be a patrol coming down along the inside of the wall in a minute or so, once they pass and go around that corner, increase your enhancement and jump over the wall; I’ll catch you.”

With that said she darted out and ran up the side of the wall, using a pair of daggers as climbing picks. She vanished over the top of the wall and landed softly on the other side. Exceptionally proficient maid my ass! She’s almost like a ninja… A memory came back to the surface of my mind when I thought that. A memory of a ninja-like figure disposing of bodies in the street out front of my house. Who exactly is my maid?!

I didn’t have much time to think though, as sure enough, a patrol of three men came around just as Jacqueline had said they would. I crouched low to the ground and held my cloak tightly around me, holding my breath until they had passed. Thank god Shadow Blade Style buffs my sneak score.

Once the men rounded the corner I enhanced my legs further, increasing power at the expense of mana consumption efficiency. I held myself low to the ground as I ran out from cover, as I passed within a few meters of the wall, I jumped up and forward. Kicking off the wall once as I ascended, I increased my height and sailed over the top. Looking over the dark ground below me I saw a shadow flit out from a hollow near the base of the wall. It drew closer as I descended and then resolved itself into Jacqueline, who grabbed me out of the air and let me gently down to the ground.

She nodded at me and motioned towards the forest edge; once we got into the forest, we should be safe from any patrols. In order to reach that goal, we held low to the ground and ran quickly into the forest. Once we were safe, Jacqueline turned to me, “Alright Stahlia, we’re out of the village, I think it’s time for you to explain what you are wanting to do out here.” Her speech had lost its refined tone now that we were out in the wild.

“Right, I suppose I do owe you that.” I sighed, debating the easiest way to tell her, “Recently, my enhancement magic has gotten to the point where I can read my own talents and skills. One of my talents is at the point where it should have leveled up, but it seems stuck. I think I need to increase my purpose before it can advance.” I tried to explain myself using terms someone from this world would understand.

Jacqueline looked thoughtful, “That’s a really advanced blood magic technique, normally it would take a decade of practice before you can use blood magic to appraise yourself… Still, you’ve been using it naturally for this long, I suppose you would have progressed that far...”

After a moment, she nodded, apparently having resolved whatever issues she had internally, “Alright, let’s move a bit further into the woods and make a camp. Call Stil." I nodded and whistled, doing my best to sound like an owl. Stil would know it was me though, thanks to our connection. Sure enough, he came trotting out of the brush after about fifteen minutes. I wonder how he got out of the village wall? There was no point in dwelling on that though and, following Jacqueline, our group moved further into the forest.

★★★★★★

Jacqueline woke me up early the next morning; I had asked when we would switch watches, but she insisted I sleep through the night; we would only be resting till first light, which was about four hours away from when we made camp. Jacqueline passed me a bowl of dry cereal; we were still too close to the village to make a fire without risking being spotted. After we ate, Jacqueline nodded.

“Right, so if you are wanting to increase your purpose, we will need to find monsters to do it efficiently. We bought two days with the priest, so we can move half a day further into the mountains, hunt for a full day, and then return. As long as we move quickly, we should have about six hours of leeway in case something goes wrong. I’ll of course jump in to protect you if things get bad, but to maximize your growth you will want to fight alone or only with Stil.” It sounds like experience is shared by the party, Stil is probably a special case as a result of my “bond” to him.

At this point, I had decided to just stop questioning Jacqueline’s abilities. She certainly wasn’t going to explain herself to me, and it wouldn’t accomplish anything for me to continue being surprised every time she did something. I gave the plan my assent and we broke camp.

I was riding on Stil’s back; I wanted to conserve as much of my mana as possible for enhancing myself during combat. As we moved deeper into the mountains, the trees grew thicker and thicker. After about five kilometers, the canopy was thick enough to completely hide the sky, giving the world a green tint.

It wasn’t just the light that was green though, everything around us was green; a thick layer of shrubs and ferns covered the forest floor, and a soft moss grew up the tree trunks. Occasionally, we would see some four-legged animal that looked a bit like a deer, but with rabbit ears bounding through the underbrush. We marched to the sound of birdsong and a gentle breeze rustling the leaves. I feel like I walked into a Cult of the Rodent movie.

We moved until around mid-day, covering a little over thirty kilometers before Jacqueline decided we had gone deep enough. We had ascended about two kilometers and were currently standing on the edge of a cliff. Looking out over the vista, I could make out Ris Village in the distance, tiny plumes of smoke coming out of people’s chimneys as they prepared lunch.

As for our own lunch, Stil got a sizable strip of jerky while Jacqueline and I had a smaller piece of jerky and dry cereal. Honestly, it’s a really good thing that Jacqueline figured me out. I never would have made it this far on my own. I need to get stronger. After eating, Jacqueline told me to have Stil scout for monsters; this area would likely have wild Stawri and small bands of Goblins.

The largest thing we were likely to find would be an Orc. Stawri might be too fast for me, and an Orc is probably too big. Hopefully, he finds goblins. I gave Stil the command and he bounded off into the forest. While he was gone, I approached the cliff to soak in the view. I really wish this world had cameras.

About half an hour later Stil came back; we knew it was him and not a wild Stawri because I had tied a length of orange cloth into his collar. He sat down as soon as he arrived and looked in a direction further up the mountain. Presumably, that was where he had found monsters. I asked him a couple of questions, trusting in the Monster Handler talent to get my intentions across. He answered me by flaring or flattening his neck feathers. Based on what I was able to gather, we were looking at a small group of goblins. We moved off as quickly as I could manage while still being stealthy.

About twenty minutes later, I was standing behind a tree and peeking out at a party of six goblins. They were ugly green little things, a little shorter than I was. They had rough faces and long pointy ears, their teeth were chipped and yellow. Listening to them communicating with each other, their language sounded vaguely like nails on a chalkboard. I whispered to Jacqueline, who was crouched beside me, “Jacqueline, do you think I can handle six?” She thought for a moment before replying.

“Yes, you should be able to handle six of them if you take two within the first couple seconds; that will scare the other four and give you time to pick off another two. If the last two don’t run away increase your physical enhancement and aim for the neck. Two on one shouldn’t be an issue for you. If they do run away have Stil chase them down; we don’t want them to warn any other parties in the area.” I absorbed her advice and formulated my attack plan.

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I whispered some commands to Stil, “Stil, circle around to the other side. Wait until I attack and try to take down two of them with me.” Stil let out a low growl and moved to circle the goblins. I slipped out from behind the tree and drew my dagger. Enhancing my legs, I darted from cover to cover, closing the distance as quickly and quietly as I could.

Once I was within five meters of the goblins, I peeked out and caught a flash of orange on the other side of them. Stil is in position then. I wrapped my mana around the dagger, increasing its sharpness, and darted out of cover. Staying low and fast I swiftly closed the distance on the first goblin.

I jumped up with my enhanced legs and pushed the dagger through the back of its neck. Kicking the goblin’s body, I freed my dagger and sent the corpse bowling into the middle of the group. Using the force of my kick to send myself towards my second target, I sliced open its throat as I went past it.

Out of the corner of my vision, I caught the sight of Stil jumping out of cover and tearing out the throat of a goblin with his beak. He twisted in midair and scored open the chest of another with his hind talons. With only two goblins left, I saw Stil running at one that was facing me.

The last Goblin was facing Stil, so I made a split-second decision and tossed my dagger up in the air, catching it by the tip of the blade I flicked it through the air, where it buried itself in the back of the goblin’s head. Stil’s momentum carried the last goblin to the ground as he bowled into it. He snipped the base of its spine with a quick snap of his beak and sat down to clean his talons. Walking over to my last kill, I pulled the dagger free and used one of the Goblin’s loincloths to clean the blade of gore.

Jacqueline appeared next to me, “That was splendid, your situational awareness was as superb as your teamwork with Stil.” She surveyed the six bodies before continuing, “Though, as a word of advice, you could have easily closed the distance on that last one, there was no need to show off by throwing away your weapon.” I accepted the admonishment with a quick nod and opened my menu. For six goblins, I had earned six hundred experience, meaning that basic goblins were worth a hundred each. Four more for the first level. I wonder how far I’ll have to level up before Prodigy II is no longer locked.

Jacqueline seemed a bit concerned; reading the menu made it look like I was spacing out, “Lady Stahlia, are you alright? I am aware that you have never drawn blood before, but you should not concern yourself over such a vicious creature as a goblin. They are little better than rats; mere vermin that destroy whatever they touch.” I shook myself out of my thoughts and assured her that I was perfectly fine.

“No, I am just fine Jacqueline, I was only thinking; six goblins do not seem to have made my purpose any stronger, we will need to find more.” Jacqueline looked troubled by my response for a moment before nodding.

“Give Stil a few moments to rest and then have him go and locate more.” She passed me a water skin and busied herself dragging the bodies into a small pile. Slicing open their torsos, she dug around for a moment and removed a small stone slick with blood. Noticing my questioning gaze, she elaborated, “Magic Stones, all monsters have them. Goblin’s stones are not worth any money but leaving a Magic Stone in a corpse can result in the corpse reanimating as an undead variant of that monster. Always be sure to remove the magic stones of any monsters you kill.” I nodded, accepting the trope as it was. Undead goblins were one of the monsters I remember from the Goblin’s page back during character creation. If I recall correctly, they cost about five times as many Life Points as a standard Goblin. Definitely wouldn’t want any of those showing up around the village.

We hunted another thirty-four goblins over the rest of the day. Stil would sniff them out and then lead us to them. Locating a small hollow, Jacqueline decided that we would set up camp for the night. It was still light out, but I understood the wisdom of setting up camp early. Since we would be spending the whole night out in the woods this time, I insisted we keep a watch rotation; Jacqueline seemed to want to cover the whole night by herself. I don’t care how skilled you are, there’s no way I’ll let you do that! I would be screwed if you wound up too tired to function.

At my insistence, I took the first watch with Stil while Jacqueline took the second watch. Secretly, I was planning to “forget” to wake her up so she could sleep for a little longer seeing as she had stayed up the whole night yesterday. I was intending to wake her up around midnight and then sleep from midnight to first light as I had done the previous night. Jacqueline, however, woke herself up when it was supposed to be time for us to trade places and forced me to go to sleep.

At first light, we had another quick breakfast before setting Stil to the task of searching for more Goblins. I needed another twenty of them to hit level four and presumably would need fifty after that to hit level five. It seems that the cost of each level was the cost of the previous level plus one thousand additional experience. I could only assume that this would change at higher levels since otherwise the growth of experience would likely be outpaced by the experience values of the stronger monsters.

The first group of goblins we found were in a band of seven, Stil and I made short work of them. While we were waiting for Stil to return from his search, I questioned Jacqueline about the monster ecology of this area; namely, I was curious how likely we were to run into an Orc. Jacqueline gave me a very concerned look when she realized that I was actually wanting to run into an Orc. Apparently, the likelihood of us meeting one here was infinitesimally small. If we traveled about a full day further into the mountains we would start to encounter one or two of them at a time.

Stil came back and we exterminated a band of nine goblins. At this point, I only needed another four goblins to hit level four. We sent Stil out and waited. I tried to make idle conversation at first, but Jacqueline seemed preoccupied with watching our surroundings; she did answer me, but she kept her answers short and to the point. Stil is taking a while…

Indeed, Stil had been taking only about half an hour to find a group of goblins for us to slaughter, but he had been gone now for nearly a full hour. Just as I was about to whistle for him, he came shooting out of the underbrush. Instead of stopping and pointing in a direction, he immediately turned around and glared back the way he had come.

Jacqueline observed his behavior and adjusted herself so that she could peer between the trees. Suddenly, she jumped up and drew a sword out from under her cloak. I haven’t ever seen her use a sword before… She interrupted my thoughts with an urgent voice.

“Lady Stahlia, I don’t know what it’s doing here, but that appears to be a Mountain Ogre. It will be a tough fight, even for myself. Please get on Stil and have him bring you back to the vil-” I cut her off.

“No. Absolutely not! Do you even know what you’re saying?! Go back to the village, I’ll meet you there? Bullshit! That’s what you call a death flag!” I firmly crossed my arms and planted my feet apart to enunciate my intentions; I was not leaving her here.

Jacqueline was looking at me, she appeared to be about to say something when there was a crash. We looked in the direction of the noise and saw one of the treetops about a hundred meters away from us falling over. Jacqueline frowned. “Never mind, it’s close enough to have your scent. Go in my backpack; there is a belt of daggers. Do not touch the blades; they have a very dangerous poison on them. Throw the daggers at the Ogre.” As she was finishing her stream of rapid-fire directions, the Mountain Ogre burst out of the tree line and into our clearing. “Go now!” she shouted at me and dashed towards the Ogre at full speed.

I scrambled over to her backpack, enhancing myself as I ran. I found the daggers she was talking about and carefully removed the belt. It was too long to go around my waist, so I wrapped it over my shoulder like a bandolier. Turning my attention to Jacqueline and the Ogre, I saw that she was dashing around it, cutting at its feet before darting out of its reach.

The Mountain Ogre stood nearly three meters tall, with arms and legs as thick as tree trunks. Other than its size, it looked like a large goblin with an underbite. If it wasn’t trying to kill us, I may have found its appearance comical.

Recalling what Jacqueline had said, I dashed around the perimeter of the clearing. As I ran, I called out to Stil “Stil! Stay!” I had noticed him getting ready to try and charge the Ogre, but he would probably only serve to trip up Jacqueline’s footwork.

I watched Jacqueline’s movements carefully; I was waiting for her to back away from the Ogre. Once I saw her leap backward, I drew one of her daggers and threw it by the handle. The blade sunk into the beast’s arm; it had raised its arm to block the throw as if to mock me. Before my eyes, the flesh around the wound began to rot and fall off exposing the bone beneath. Holy shit?! “very dangerous poison” is such an understatement! Jacqueline what the hell is this stuff?!

The Ogre roared in pain and his arm fell uselessly to his side; the muscle having rotted away. He was now glaring at me with eyes full of burning hatred. I felt my soul tremble, not with fear, but with excitement. Now, this is what I call a boss fight! Indeed, the goblins had been mere trash. This Ogre was the area boss and he had tickled my RPG gamer’s instincts. I was going to kill him.

The Ogre ignored Jacqueline and charged at me. I poured even more mana into my legs and jumped straight up, causing the ogre to shoot under me. I drew two more daggers and threw them at its back. The ogre seemed to sense my actions though, as it threw itself to the side. My daggers sailed past it and buried themselves into the trunk of a tree. The tree started crumbling as its wood rotted away but I paid it no mind.

As the ogre fell to the side, I started returning to the ground as gravity sucked at me. I drew another dagger and threw it where it looked like the ogre would land; I was a ranged fighter while he was a mere melee tank. I could attack him while he was helpless in the air but he couldn’t reach me. The dagger flew true and sunk itself into the space between the Ogre’s shoulders. The beast howled with a burning anger as it clawed at the space between its shoulders with its good arm.

With a shudder, the Ogre fell onto its knees; its spine had rotted, rendering it unable to send nerve signals to its legs. Jacqueline approached its now helpless body and finished it off with a quick thrust through its eye. I landed hard and winded myself but was otherwise unharmed; I threw the last of my mana into enhancing my durability. As I lay on my back catching my breath, I read the notification gleefully.

“[Prodigy I] Experience has reached the required threshold. [Prodigy I] has leveled up. [Prodigy II] Acquired. As an effect of acquiring [Prodigy II], the Prodigy Roulette has been spun.”

“Acquired [Ability Improvement +1] as a reward from Prodigy Roulette”

The Ogre had given me a whopping 7500 experience points, enough to hit level four, completely hit level five, and then get over halfway to level six. It looked like I leveled up Prodigy at level four based on the order of notifications, and level five had given me an extra Talent and Skill slot. I now had a menu that refused to close, asking me which attribute to assign a bonus to. Presumably, this is the “Ability Improvement +1” I got from the “Prodigy Roulette” I wonder if this is the SSR role? That’s a pretty strong “beneficial effect”. After thinking back over the battle I had just had with the ogre, I selected Mana. My Mana rating changed from a B to an A. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear to apply the level-up stat increases retroactively.

Having sufficiently caught my breath, I sat up and looked around. Jacqueline had retrieved the daggers from where I had thrown them and was currently occupied with carving out the Ogre’s Magic Stone. I stood up and walked over to hand her the dagger belt. She paused her work and studied me. “I can’t tell you about the daggers.” Damn.

“Jacqueline, do you perhaps have a mind-reading talent or skill?” She chuckled and assured me she did not.

“Jacqueline, are you some kind of assassin who was sent to watch over me for some reason?” I knew it was a risk to ask, for all I knew this would turn into a case of “now that you know my secret, I can’t let you leave here alive!” But after everything she had done in front of me on this trip, I got the feeling she wasn’t particularly trying to hide it from me.

She clenched her jaw and nodded slowly. “Yes… I thought you might figure it out. Honestly, I’m surprised it took you this long.”

I sat back on my heels, a position that made your center of balance really high; my way of indicating I didn’t plan to run or fight. “I see. So… what now?”

She studied me. “Assuming you can refrain from asking questions, and of course tell no one, I think “now” we should probably head back to town; killing that Ogre was probably enough to increase your purpose to the point you wanted?” I could only laugh at that.

“You never intended for me to go back to town, did you? Helping me kill it was your plan as soon as you realized it was targeting us.” She smiled and nodded before holding out her hand for me to shake.

“You are a very talented fighter Lady Stahlia.” We collected our things before setting off back down the mountain. It was just after midday, so by hurrying a bit we were able to make it back to our first campsite just as the sun was setting. We waited for it to be fully dark and then moved abreast of the village wall and cleared it much the same way as when we had left two days ago.

We arrived back at the temple with little difficulty after clearing the wall. Jacqueline left me by the back door and scaled up to the roof before letting herself in through a window. A few moments later the door swung open, and Jacqueline beckoned me inside. We slipped up to Sana’s room where a bath had already been drawn so we could cleanse the grime from our two days of outdoor camping. I suppose the priest was expecting us back around this time after all. The water was cold, but I used a bit of my now recovered mana to warm it to a decent temperature.

Jacqueline excused herself saying she had to let the Priest know of our return and slipped out. Sana quizzed me about what we had gotten up to. I skimmed over the details of Jacqueline’s career choice and summarized the events of the past two days, ending with the fight against the Ogre. Sana seemed incredulous that we had bested an Ogre, so I told her that I had used a mountain flower to brew a poison with which we coated our blades. The best lies contain a small bit of truth after all. Thankfully, she seemed to buy my excuse and congratulated me on fulfilling my purpose with a somewhat jealous look. Jacqueline returned from visiting the priest shortly after I got out of the bath, and washed herself as well.

We got back to my home around ten the next day, where my parents were all smiles, congratulating me on helping my friend in her time of need. I know I had to deceive them to go out, but I still feel a little bad about it.

★★★★★★

While we were traveling back to town, I spent the time I was riding Stil studying my menu and reviewing all my new information.

Life Summary Screen:

Life Point Balance: 141

Name/Age: Stahlia, 5

Gender: Female

Class/Level: Custom Class, 5 Experience: 3100/5000

Species: Human (Pureblood)

Social Strata: Fallen Noble House (Despita, Drakas Kingdom)

Starting Gift: Small Seed [LOCKED]

Ability Values:

• Strength C: 35 (70)
• Endurance B: 49 (98)
• Dexterity A: 70 (140)
• Intelligence S: 210 (210)
• Charisma B: 49 (98)
• Mana A: 49 (98)

Fighting Style: Shadow Blade [Swap Style]

Talents 1/2: [Browse Talents] Prodigy II*, [], Monster Handling II*, Dagger Fighting III* Unarmed Fighting II*, Alchemy Correction I*

Skills 1/2: [Browse Skills] Divine Authority[Class Features]*, [], Language Proficiency[Central Human]*, Fighting Style[Shadow Blade]*,

Talents Experience:

Prodigy 0/2500

Monster Handling 634/2500

Dagger Fighting 156/5000

Unarmed Fighting 713/2500

Alchemy Correction 200/1000

I had a lot more Life Points than I had previously, it seemed like I had gotten a bonus upon hitting level five, but there wasn’t anything in the level-up notification about it. I had a new entry in my Skills and Talents sections, “[]” was presumably an indicator that I had an empty slot I could fill by spending life points. Now that I had acquired the slots, I could also open the catalogs again, so I also spent a length of time running through the lists of Talents and Skills.

Initially, I wanted to buy a magic attribute talent, but the cheapest, [Fire Magic I], was a whopping five hundred Life Points. I had nowhere near enough. On the other hand, I did locate [Mana Efficiency I]; it was in the talents section, and cost only thirty Life Points. After some thought, I determined that the cost probably went down the closer that I was to acquiring a skill or talent naturally. I decided I would hold off on purchasing any talents and observe the Life Points cost for Mana Efficiency to see if it decreased, thereby confirming my hypothesis.

I turned my attention to the skills menu and started running through it. Skills were arranged a lot differently than talents. They all seemed to be priced in factors of 100, by default they were sorted by cost in ascending order, and none of them had levels. I vaguely recalled noticing this when I first browsed the menu back at character creation but based on what I was seeing, it seemed very likely that Skills couldn’t be acquired as easily through training as Talents could. Perusing the list, I noticed a general trend; for a lot of Talents, there was a matching or similar Skill. I took this to mean that upon hitting the max level of the same Talent, you would acquire the Skill.

Backing this theory up, in the description of my [Dagger Handling] Talent there was a line about acquiring the [Dagger Mastery] skill when I got to [Dagger Handling VI]. Searching up the [Dagger Mastery] Skill revealed that it cost 200 Life Points, and seemingly had the same effect as Dagger Handling, just stronger. The list of skills was far too long for me to memorize so I was mostly just idly browsing while occasionally searching up certain terms. As I was scrolling through the 300 cost Skills, I spotted one that seemed just screamed: “broken as hell”.

“Finesse Fighting(300LP): User receives a -1 modifier to Strength Score and a +1 Modifier to Dexterity. The base damage of all physical attacks moderately lowered. Critical hit rate substantially improved. Requires Strength Rating above E and Dexterity Rating Below S.”

I decided almost immediately that I was buying this skill once I saved up enough points.

★★★★★★

Priest of Ris Village, the day Stahlia Snuck Out

I was at a loss for what to do. A few hours ago, an adventurer arrived at the temple badly injured. He was a member of the B-ranked party “Orc Busters”. His group of five men made their living by venturing into the Ris Mountain range and hunting Orcs, and they were good at their job. In all likelihood, they were the best Orc exterminators on this side of the mountain range.

Of course, they got injured from time to time; adventuring is dangerous work. This time, however, they were all but wiped out. The injured young man was the only survivor. Sana performed a healing miracle on him after he made the appropriate donation of course, but the lunatic was just barely healed before he jumped up and tried to run out the door.

The attendant priests managed to calm him down and I asked him what had happened; according to the adventurer, his party had been wiped out by a Mountain Ogre. Mountain Ogres were A-ranked monsters, whose tough skin was nearly impervious to normal weapons. It did not surprise me in the least to learn that one had decimated his party. What did surprise and concern me was that one had appeared within three days travel of village. These beasts normally kept to themselves deep in the mountains.

I was preparing a report to the village mayor when Sana came to see me. I was in a bit of a rush and so was regretfully curt. “What is it, Sana? I am busy at the moment.”

The poor girl faltered a bit at my tone, but she took a deep breath and told me a most unbelievable story. “Stali… I mean Stahlia, is here with miss Jacqueline. Stahlia has been having bad dreams about a monster in the mountains. She thinks it is her purpose to go out and deal with it, and she needs our help to avoid her parents otherwise they will stop her.” Sana finished her piece and stood in front of me panting; she had spoken so fast she forgot to breathe.

A calamity in the mountains? That is very convenient timing… Receiving Oracles from the gods isn’t unheard of, but I don’t recall seeing any talents or skills one would normally associate with prophecy during her dedication…

“Unfortunately, Sana, I cannot assist in deceiving the mayor… If that is all, please inform Lady Stahlia that there is currently a danger in the mountains and that her father will need to dispatch the militia before it is safe to go out.”

Sana nodded and turned to go; I really had shaken her with my curt manner. I’ll have to apologize later once I’ve dealt with this issue.

Just as Sana was reaching the door she spun around. “Oh! I forgot something. Miss Jacqueline had this letter for you. She also gave me a message. ‘The shadows that stalk lady Stahlia’s dreams are close at hand.’ But I don’t know what that means…”

It took a great deal of effort on my part not to show the shock and nervousness on my face. I was a ranking member of the church; I was more than familiar with the dark shadows that wrapped around this kingdom’s underbelly. Miss Jacqueline was all but announcing her identity with that message, but in a way only those in the know would pick up on.

My fearful suspicions were confirmed when I looked down at the letter Sana presented me. It was a single piece of folded paper sealed with wax. Stamped into the wax was a simple seal. It didn’t match any noble crests; it merely depicted the letter S being stabbed through by a dagger. Hands trembling slightly, I broke the seal and read the letter.

Stahlia has business outside the village. The noon sun casts more than one shadow. We are already aware of the Ogre and will deal with it.

~Five

I swallowed three times before I managed to wet my throat. The seal on the letter was one that was only used when the king’s shadows needed to communicate officially with someone who knew about their existence. The fact that I was handed a letter bearing this seal was one thing; I had dealt with them a few times in my capacity as Head Priest of Ris. The contents guarded by the seal were however outright terrifying.

The first sentence could more or less be read as an order. “Assist Stahlia and do not interfere.” The second line was a veiled way of informing me she had a Shadow of her own, which was most assuredly a threat to ensure my compliance. Given everything I had learned that Shadow was likely the attendant Jacqueline, but I knew better than to bring any attention to that.

The last line basically meant “the ogre is in the way, so we’re killing it for you.” Anyone who could make a statement as callous as that was someone you didn’t want to cross. The signature line was the worst part and made my blood run cold. “Five” could only mean one person, and if they were involved, I wanted nothing more than the bare minimum to do with this. I looked up at Sana, who was waiting patiently for me to finish reading the letter. “Sana, I must apologize, I did not notice how under the weather you are. We should request the aid of a skilled female alchemist who can attend you while you recover.”

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