William reacted in an instant using [Flash Stride] to appear ten meters behind the mystery woman. He wanted to be able to see his attacker’s movements easier, and as he looked at the person, he saw a cloaked, hooded figure with a face mask bearing two daggers now, and turning towards him. The body language she exhibited however, made him relax slightly as she didn’t immediately attack. In a brief moment she seemed to do a similar thing to him and appeared behind him again. William whirled to find empty air and a finger tapped his shoulder from behind. He turned back around and saw the masked individual standing two meters away, hands empty at her sides.

That same feminine voice spoke once again,

“Nice teleportation skill. Seems to have its limits though. I suppose most do, but some more so than others. Who are you?”

William scoffed slightly before he replied, “Can you tell me who you are first?”

She seemed to cock her head slightly and assess William, as he just waited expectantly.

“I suppose you knowing my alias wouldn’t hurt. More dangerous people know it. My ‘name’ is Nite. I see your regional title, but I don’t know your name.”

“William. I’m assuming as a sea of yellow soldiers not surrounding me implies that you aren’t affiliated with them.”

“Hmmm, you’re half right. I’m affiliated with them, but not in a very good way. I saw you sneaking around and assumed you weren’t one of them. My instinct is as accurate as ever it seems.”

“Wait, what? Why did you hold a knife to my throat?”

“To make sure you didn’t run away or attacked hastily.”

William raised an eyebrow a that, unsure of she could see it or not. It didn’t matter either way.

“What if I had screamed in surprise? Sound would carry far?”

“I would’ve cut your throat and teleported away,” She replied, with a very cheery voice.

“How did you get past my [Danger Sense]? And… my other pair of eyes.”

Nite suddenly appeared to the right of him, standing in a passive posture.

“Simple. Your skill didn’t activate because I had no initial intent to harm you. As for your… flying friend, he is very, very useful at detecting people doing similar things to me, but my own skill allows me to… bypass such detection methods. With introductions complete, I’d like to invite you to where myself and my companions are staying to discuss recent… military events.”

William considered the information provided and was tempted to discover more knowledge on recent events and Nite’s affiliation as a whole, but he had to do his scouting and get back to his friends. Should he mention them? If he didn’t and then couldn’t return when he said so or got held up for a long while, then they may go after him, and if not, his friends wouldn’t have any new shelter beyond their current hiding spot and might get captured by a patrol.

“I have to do some info gathering on the encampment first and get back to my own companions by first light. These are my people imprisoned here.”

“Then I’ll accompany you and once you and your companions are reunited, I’d like to introduce you all to my own people. It’s always good to get friendly with other enemies of Stonegate after all.”

William was interested, but was still cautious of Nite. She didn’t appear to be lying, nor did her posture imply it. He doubted that he had the ability to escape her. She was too damned fast. He decided that he would assess if Nite was trustworthy enough by having her tag along to scout with him. If she betrayed him, he was probably dead, but he wouldn’t be able to shift her so he didn’t really have a way out.

“Okay, let’s go. The sooner this is done and we aren’t in the middle of like, a million patrols, the better.”

“Let’s get going then. Follow me and stay low.”

William nodded and used [Identify] as she took the lead, intending to gauge her ability.

{Ascension_Protocol}

Nite – Human Level 28 – Scout Level 25

{End}

So she was definitely stronger than William. By a large degree too. Maybe he could persuade her to take out the tougher soldiers stealthily. It would make freeing the others significantly easier.

As they walked, Nite asked, “Why did you start to approach this place recklessly before I… introduced myself?”

Warmth started to creep up William as his mind returned to his father’s resting place and how the soldiers from Stonegate had built a camp over it. This time, he had a better handle on his growing anger, thanks to Nite stopping him earlier.

“They built the camp where we buried our dead, including my father.”

“Oh.”

Silence thundered around and between the pair for about a minute.

“What do you want to do with these enemies, William? If you had the power to determine their fate with a snap of the finger.”

William almost jumped straight to slaughter, but he knew that not all the soldiers were malicious, only doing what they were ordered by duress.

Instead, William said, “I...don’t know. I’d like to kill the ones leading and advocating for the plan, sparing those just following the lowest level order. I think.”

Nite stopped and turned before replying, “Why?”

There was no anger, irritation, or frustration. Nor was there elation, exaltation, or admiration. The tone was neutral, as if it was assessing.

“Because Stonegate basically threaten its troops into compliance using there own civilians as an exploit towards those intending to guard them. It doesn’t justify the truly evil deeds, but I imagine most of the soldiers don’t even want to be in this region, let alone becoming more like their own oppressors.”

Nite seemed to tilt her head and raised a hand to her chin, thinking on William’s statement.

It didn’t take long for her to reply, “I guess our own goals align, however, I would kill every man if it was necessary. I want them gone from the region so my branch can flourish here.”

“Branch?” William asked, confused at what she meant by ‘branch’.

“As in a branch of the group I’m associated with. If you let me introduce you and your friends to my own companions, you can learn more about us, otherwise, I can’t explain any deeper into who I am or who else I affiliate with. That’s a later thing. All I’ll say on it for now is that we both seem to want Stonegate gone from here.”

William had a good few questions, but heeded Nite’s words and saved them for later. She then gestured to get down to the ground as they neared the crest of the hill just before the encampment. From William’s angle, Greenwell was in his peripheral vision, about fifty meters to his right, while the Encampment was roughly thirty meters to his left. Voices got closer, and the pair had gone prone, statue still by the time a patrol was near. Thankfully for William and Nite, the patrol veered away, continuing on its circuit around the encampment.

William let out a sigh of relief, and he thought a small sound of escaping air come from Nite, but if it had happened, it was so inaudible that he had no way to confirm his thoughts. He moved on, and was about to lift his head to peek over the hill, when Nite put her hand up in a halting gesture then did something to make the top half of her transparent. From William’s view, only her legs and waist were visible in the gloom. He lowered himself to lean on his elbows, ready to push himself to his feet if need be. He had Echo get an aerial view of the encampment.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nite’s top half appeared visible once more and she leaned close to William.

“Got some info from a glance. We have to retreat for now though,” She said, her voice fearful.

William grew cold at the fear showing on the suddenly panicked woman that was significantly more powerful than himself. Something had caused that fear.

“Why?” Was all he could say, his voice barely a whisper.

“For some reason the assistant to the Baron is here. He is the second most influential person in Fort Boulder, and the strongest fighter amongst them.”

William gulped but managed to reply, “Level?”

Nite looked down at the ground and muttered, “thirty eight.”

William put his hand on the hilt of Severance and replied, “A sneak attack would work right?”

Nite had looked at William’s hand and tensed, but hearing his words, she seemed to slacken again and shook her head.

“He has [Danger Sense] and even if he was killed, we would be surrounded and join him in the next world very quickly.”

William felt she made decent points. He really didn’t want to die and maybe Nite’s group would help him.

“Let’s leave then, I’m guessing we wouldn’t be able to outrun him?”

Nite agreed.

“He’s an active aura user, so getting caught in it is very bad.”

William frowned as he started to follow Nite away in a crouch, “I can also use mine. Not amazingly, but enough to force a reaction at worse, and harm or hinder at best.”

“Your level won’t do much to harm with an aura yet. Most people consolidate theirs as there’s a good chance of failure and permanent loss of potency in Aura control when failure occurs, typically on reaching a multiple of ten, in addition to the chance of physically and magically harming your soul. Once you reach thirty, you can risk it and go for the increase in active Aura use, or consolidate it down into your Soul Space further and strengthen your mind to mental manipulation. Sadly, that consolidation is safer and easier, but doesn’t scale as well through the levels. A level thirty Aura attack may match another level thirty consolidated Aura, but at level forty, the majority of the time, the attack is stronger. Not always, but more often than not.”

After a few minutes, the pair were now a good distance from the nearest patrol and paused to continue their conversation.

“Soul stuff is quite deep I guess? A lot to consider.”

Nite nodded and started fidgeting with a dagger in her hand, twirling it between her index and middle fingers.

“It always gets deeper as people progress. Legends say at the upper ranks, entire lifespans can come and go before new realizations about oneself come to mind. The more things you are Soul Bonded to, the better. It will make your attempts at growing your Aura in either way significantly easier. If you have a bonded creature, that doubles the efficacy of such attempts to grow.”

Nite glanced directly at Echo’s translucent silhouette in the sky above them. She most likely had [Darksight] or something. Her perception seems to be quite high too. That was a large guess, but seeing the eyes of Nite scanning everything around them, he assumed that Perception was focused like one would apply to a rogue type class in an RPG.

“Thanks for the information on soul stuff. I’m surprised you know so much, no offence, I not long learnt a good chunk of my knowledge in the subject from a learned Druid.”

Nite seemed to assess William with an intelligent gleam this time.

“So a learned Scout isn’t as plausible to learn from?”

William looked slightly regretful then and replied, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

Nite raised her hand to pause him and shook her head.

“I was teasing you, no harm done. I get it, but that underestimation and assumption of my ability has allowed me to take out a lot of bad people.”

William paused his reply as he tried to picture that, finding it somewhat amusing.

“Another question for you, Nite.”

“let’s talk and walk then. I’ll try and help answer your questions. Not much else to do with the time. With my perception and your bond, we have plenty of coverage.

The pair started making their way back to William’s group, Nite following, as her eyes constantly scanned the area around them.

“Why do most people here not bother levelling their secondary Class much?”

“Isn’t it obvious? The effort to grow both together is expensive and time consuming, not to consider denial of stronger skills and primary Class abilities. For lack of better words, people don’t often have the patience to grow both classes together and would rather grow the other in future ranks.”

“That makes… Quite a lot of sense. Why does [Identify] typically only show the Primary class next to the race level? Does it grow and show both classes later on?”

“No, it’ll only ever show Race level and primary Class level. This is because at level fifty, people get to choose an Advanced Class, consolidating the two starting classes into one. It won’t be an issue beyond that point as everyone identified will have both relevant levels on display.”

“Good to know. Thanks Nite. Don’t suppose you’ll be happy to answer more questions for me as we continue on our way?”

Nite simply nodded and the pair continued on their journey, reaching the woodlands before long, the logging area visible about eighty meters away. Echo spotted Kam and Jalle stood there still and relayed the recognition to William through their bond. William and Nite entered the woodland and kept on walking, slightly slower due to the foliage.

“Depends on the question,” Nite replied shrugging her nonchalance.

“Can you explain how Race level milestone skills are offered?”

“Aren’t you already over Human level twenty, William?”

“Yes, but I want to know why my companions weren’t offered the same things completely. I assumed that the skills were specific to the human race, like [Identify].”

Nite let out a soft chuckle before replying, “A common misconception for newly Integrated people. Your Racial skill is the only one related to your race specifically. The skills you gain at racial milestones are just what the system has offered you based on your behaviors and are always general skills. Some synergize better with your combat classes than others, but all the skills offered are deemed appropriate for your way of living.”

“Well… That was cleared up nicely for me. Thank you. Something else I’ve been wondering, and I might sound weird asking about it, but its purely for education… and maybe power levelling. Do you know much about Medic related stuff?”

“I know a general amount of information on every standard class and a bit on some advanced ones, for future reference at a later time. What do you want to know? It won’t be massively in depth so I hope that a surface level understanding is fine.”

William nodded, stepping under a low branch and over a fallen log. The night air was providing a stronger breeze that was nice and cool, making a light whistling noise through the canopy.

“Can a Medic be boosted through levels by self harming and healing the wound, or having a friend harm themselves to be healed?”

“You’re right. That was a weird question, but one that is rather common. The System knows the intent of every living being and knows when someone tries that approach. It gives zero EXP gain if it sees an intention to game the levelling process. Other ways to ‘power level’ exist for all classes, but one that direct is immediately shot down.”

That made a lot of sense. Otherwise, healers could run around with hundreds of levels, destroying everything in their way with raw stats alone in a short time.

“Thanks again, Nite. The System hasn’t been clear since being integrated here.”

“Of course it hasn’t. It can’t be as clear to non-natives because your life originated outside of its influence. It gives the bare minimum it has to so that it can observe if the newly integrated sink or swim, become blessed or cursed, and attain greatness or ruin. You can get more info by asking a native to GAEA. If the information requested can be provided by the system, it will use that to inform you. This is a work around it can use and does so when needed.”

“Then why has it not given me any prompts for asking my questions? Surely the info you gave me is within that scope of the System.”

“Did you ask the right questions for that though? Souls and Soul Space stuff is outside of the System. You aren’t a Medic class so you wouldn’t get the information for that either.”

William saw the point she made but one question he asked still hadn’t been accounted for.

“What about my question around Skills? I should’ve got something for that.”

“You didn’t ask the question in a way that would generate the info. Let me trigger something. Bring up your Skill Query.”

Before William could ask what the hell she meant, a prompt appeared:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Skill Query}

Racial – Identify:

Racial Skills are unique to each race and only one skill exists for each. If your Race changes, you may choose to keep the existing skill, or take the skill related to your new Race.

[Notice – Race Change exceedingly rare and difficult to achieve.]

General Skills:

General Skills are offered when Milestones for Race Levels are met (not to be confused with Racial Skill). These Skills often complement the Race of the Individual and/or their classes, dependent on activity, behavior, and performance between Milestones.

[Notice – Activity monitored only occurs between two Milestones. E.G. Activity between level 10 and 20 determines the Skills offered on achieving level 20.]

Class Skills:

Skills for Classes can be learned by trying new things with the tools of those classes if the System determines it is an action that can be optimized through a Skill. This criteria of Skill acquisition is variable based on the Class. For example, Fighters, Scouts, and Archers start with simple Class Skills and can learn knew ones by using different weaponry, or using existing weaponry in new ways. Mages, and Medics gain Class Skills every 5 levels. Enchanters can choose between a selection of new Runes, or new Skills every 10 Class levels.

{End}

“It really only took someone to mention Skill Query and I got a response-” William said, his voice flat and fed up with the System and its process. “-Stupid and annoying.”

Nite laughed slightly and replied, “Apparently, most newly integrated people feel that way from what I’ve heard. You’re the first one I’ve met though. It’s amusing that what I heard has a modicum of truth to it.”

William waited for half a minute until her mirth whittled down to a standard measure and the two continued on their way. It was nearly daybreak when the pair arrived at the hideout. His friends emerged and all smiled at him, giving William’s travel companion wary glances.

“Everyone, I’d like you to meet my Nite in not so shiny armor,” William said, his face and voice as cheery as the morning sun.

Nite turned to look at him with her piercing purple eyes.

The look was flat even with the rest of her face obscured.

“I could still stab you, you know?”

William gave a buttery smile, or his best attempt.

John chuckled and said, “I like her. We have Jane here so it could be a fun show.”

“I’m sure my dear sister wouldn’t want to see me bleeding from such an unwarranted attack.”

Jane looked at Nite, then John, and finally at William.

“I do have my healing spells available if needed.”

Stacey gave him an empathetic smile, and William sighed.

“Sorry for the puns. Meet Nite. Nite, meet my party.”