The days after the celebrations were boring. Although I had been separated from it and hadn’t felt it, the city had been abuzz during the celebration with so many nobles visiting. Grandfather didn’t want me to start training before most of the nobles who had come to the city left, and to give the city some time to calm down. We also wanted to keep me remaining in the city and not leaving with Mother back to our estate a secret, so I was confined indoors. I still trained, practicing physical combat and magic with Liam in the large basement of the estate, and sneaking through the halls of the estate at night with Jessica, but I had been looking forwards to training in the city, and it was a big letdown for me.
Finally on the eve of the third day after the celebrations, Grandfather told me over dinner that I would start training tomorrow. I went to sleep excited and full of anticipation.
The next day the maids woke me up before dawn, and I quickly bathed, ate, and followed Jessica to the basement, where a large assortment of clothes had been gathered. I started looking through them as Jessica told me what they had planned for me today.
“You will be going to work for The Leafy Thorn today, a small company of traders and alchemists that mainly focuses on making, buying, and selling potions and poisons. Logar Pierce oversees their warehouse and has been told you will be arriving to work for him today. He has been told you are eight years old and the son of two tailors, who after discovering you have almost no talent for tailoring hope you will find a job as a trader or alchemist. Your name is Layton. Anything else about your identity you will have to invent yourself. You will be paid five coppers a day and be provided a midday meal.”
“Now, for your protection. Take only one of the 50-point Health, Stamina, and Mana rings, and also your Inspection resistance ring. Leave the others behind, and instead take these two”. I was still changing into the clothes I had chosen from the pile, so she placed them on the table before her.
“You will also be moving all of your rings to your toes to hide them, so make sure you pick large enough boots. Apart from the rings, you will also have a hidden guard detail with you. I will naturally be following you all day, and apart from me there will be two others hidden and keeping track of you. There is also a group of six warriors and a life mage within shouting distance ready to save you should the need arise. It is likely I will not be able to always have you in my sights, so if you believe you are in danger, one of the rings has a castable spell that will be heard by all of us and we will come to help you. The other has an active healing effect that you can use if you are hurt. Only use it if you are seriously hurt, not if you stubbed your toe or fell and got bruised. Naturally, you are to avoid casting any spells or doing anything that will hint at who you really are. Any questions?” Jessica asked as I finished getting dressed.
I had picked a worn grey pants and shirt, well-made but having been worn many times, hopefully selling the impression that my parents were tailors, but weren’t too well off. Likewise, I had picked a pair of worn leather boots that I had yet to put on as I still needed to move my rings to my toes. I had also lightly rubbed dirt that had been helpfully provided into my hair, skin, and clothes. I didn’t want to look like I had just rolled through the mud, but also not like I had bathed last night, as bathing everyday wasn’t something most commoners did. I had also roughly cut my hair down last night with a knife, making it much shorter and less elegant than our own Barber had cut it for the celebration.
“Yes” I said as walked towards the table where she had placed the new rings. “Won’t it be suspicious that one of you went to tell Logar I will be coming to work? The son of tailors would hardly have such a service done for him.”
“Good” Jessica smiled, “You paid attention. Mister Serrick is a man who runs a small business of connecting between children who are looking for work and places that are looking for cheap labor. He helps dozens of children every day and gets a small part of what the workplace would have paid them. He will likely be making a copper a day for the five that you make. The Black Rose often uses his services to send children to inconspicuously gather information for us, and he is paid on the side not to ask questions. Of course, the children the Black Rose sends don’t know they work for it, thinking instead that they work directly for Shade. Shade is the nickname of an innkeeper who secretly sells information on the side, and who also works for the Black Rose. Anything else?”
“No. So I just need to say Mister Serrick sent me and Logar won’t ask questions?”
“Yes”
I took a moment to inspect the new rings before I moved them to my toes.
Enchanted healing ring
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Very High
Enchantment: Twice a day, instantly heal 157 Health
Charge:2/2
Enchanted Sound Ring
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Very High
Enchantment: Once an hour, Cast Sound Wave (Earth, 12)
Charge:1/1
Both were rare items, and they were very impressive. Rings like these were something only the most powerful and wealthy would have. Even my father likely had rings that weren’t better than this.
I had such a small amount of health, that the healing ring let me heal myself from scratch twice a day, without needing to cast a spell. It made me feel much safer. The Sound Wave spell was an earth spell that I knew. It was a level 12 spell, and casting it sent sound waves in the direction it was cast. Apart from doing small damage from the vibrations, the spell also made a lot of noise. If I was attacked, I would be able to call my guardians and attack my attackers at the same time, and wouldn’t have to waste my breath on shouting for help.
“Okay. What do you hope I learn working from him?”
“It should mainly be practice for your Acting, and your general social skills and experience. I’ve told you many times, System Skills aren’t everything. There are many things you need to learn to truly master social interactions, and you can’t learn them practicing with me. Also, depending on how it may go, I could see you being sent to help run a stall they have set up in the marketplace. Now come, you need to be there a bit after dawn, and it’s quite far from here.” I followed Jessica out of the basement, and we headed outside. We were joined by two men, who I assumed would be my other hidden protectors. Both men left through the gate while we waited, and five minutes later one of them came back.
“All clear.” He said, waving us forward. Me and Jessica left the estate, and she started leading me away, while the other two had already disappeared.
“Your other bodyguards will be arriving there separately, so there is no need to wait for them.” Jessica told me as we started making our way towards the warehouse. We kept to the side of the street and took the first turn off it as soon as we could to not be noticed. After 40 minutes of following Jessica through the streets we left the residential and market area, and entered an area with large storage warehouses, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, and others who were better kept far from the residential area because of smell or noise. The sun had already risen when Jessica turned to me.
“Turn right on the next crossroads, and it should be on your left. Any last questions?”
I shook my head.
“Good luck. When you’re done, just start heading back the way we came, and I’ll join you.”
Casting one last look at Jessica, I started walking in the direction she indicated. After turning right on the crossroads, there was a large, two-story tall stone building to my left. There was a man guarding it, and I could already hear sounds coming from inside. I hesitantly started walking towards the guard, and he turned and made eye contact with me. As he looked at me, I felt suddenly very nervous. Although I had done some pretty incredible things in the four years I had been in this world, this was the first time that I was doing something alone, without constant supervision and instruction. Although for someone who was mentally over 30 years old it may seem foolish, suddenly leaving the familiarity of Jessica’s presence and protection, and approaching this man alone, even if I knew she was secretly protecting me, was hard.
I had been sheltered growing up in this world, but I knew that it was harsh. I wasn’t learning how to swing swords and cast magic spells so I could take part in a play. This world was harsh, and things like equality and rights were distant notions. Although I had lucked out in being born a noble, one of the lucky few who actually had rights and education somewhat similar to what I had been used to on earth, it was still scary.
I swallowed my nervousness and kept walking towards the guard. Leaning into my acting, I let some of my nervousness show, but not too much. As I approached him, he turned to me.
“You looking for something, kid?” He said gruffly, but not in a mean way. He was an older man, his hair already mostly gray.
“Y-Yes. Mister Serrick said I should come here to work.” Once we started talking I felt my Acting kick in, and I let my natural nervousness show, slightly stuttering in my answer, but remaining with a firm back and meeting his eyes for a moment. He was a large man, leaning on a spear, with a shield on his arm and dagger sheathed on his belt, wearing armor.
“Well, I wouldn’t know about that. You’ll have to find Logar and ask him. Go inside, turn right immediately and walk till you reach a small office. Logar should be in there, and he’ll set you straight.”
“Okay. Thank you”
I entered the warehouse. Inside, there were a couple of rows of crates stacked onto each other, and there were five people moving them around and loading some of them into a cart in the back. Four of them were older people, 3 men and a woman, while one was a child, who looked around 8 years old. They looked at me but didn’t say anything as they saw where I was headed. I walked until I reached the door the guard had pointed me towards and knocked.
“Come in!” a voice called from within. I entered into a small office with wooden walls. It had only a desk and small filing cabinet beside it, with one chair on each side of the desk. Behind the desk was the man I assumed was Lager, who had long brown hair tied into a ponytail and was looking at me intently. In front of him was what looked like inventory ledgers he had been working on before I came in.
“Ah… Mister Serrick sent me. He said you have work for me?”
“Yes, he told me he’ll be sending someone. You’re a bit small, but very well, come with me.”
He left the office, and I followed after him. We walked towards the group that was working on the crates, and as we got closer, he called out.
“Tim! Come here!” The boy that had been working with them came to us after he had been called.
“Yes?”
“This here is, Hmm… What’s Your name boy?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Layton, sir”
“Good. Well Tim, Layton will be working with us for today. Take him and both of you go wash the flasks. Make sure you teach him how to do it properly.”
“Okay. Come with me, Layton.” Tim told me and started walking towards the other side of the warehouse. I followed him, and as we walked, he turned to me and asked.
“So Layton, where are you from?”
“I’m from the Crafters Quarter. My parents are tailors.
“Oh really? That’s cool. I live nearby. My father is a smith, but I don’t have any affinity for it, as you can see. I want to be a guard, but my parents want me to be a trader or an alchemist, so they sent me to work here.” Layton quickly shared with me. I nodded as I looked at him. He was tall and lanky, definitely not what you would expect from a blacksmith, so I could understand why he said I could see he had no affinity for Blacksmithing. He was also a bit of a chatterbox and kept telling me about his dreams of being a guard as we walked. Eventually we reached an area with a large water barrel, and a crate of used potion flasks. Our job was to wash them with water and soap, and then set them aside to dry on a large wooden rack.
It was very boring work, and there were a lot of flasks to wash. Tim kept a constant stream of conversation going, and I slowly came out of my shell and started responding more and more, taking a more active part in our conversation. I started enjoying myself. It was my first real conversation in four years, one that wasn’t instructional. Talking with my peers in the celebration a couple of days ago didn’t count, since I had been too tense and focused on my Acting to enjoy it. Now though, I slowly let my personality peek through, conversing with Tim as we cleaned flasks. Tim was very easy to talk to. He was naturally charismatic, always keeping the conversation going. The prompt I got after cleaning a couple of the flasks also added to my enjoyment.
Congratulations!
You have learned the skill Cleaning(Tier 1)!
Cleaning is now Level 1!
+1% to speed of cleaning.
+1% to quality of cleaning.
You have become a Novice.
I knew that this skill existed because I had seen it on our maids that I Inspected, but seeing it now on my status made me think; Had I truly not cleaned anything in four years? It was a truly strange thought, but it was the truth. In the estate maids took care of everything for me, and I didn’t even need to clean myself since they bathed me. Even now, when I was training in the city, I would come back to our estate, and maids would bathe and cook for me, even if it was in the middle of the night. It seemed ridiculous to be so pampered, but I had gotten used to it.
Eventually, lunch came around and we took a short break to eat with the others. Logar brought us all a meal of hard bread and stew, and I mainly stayed quiet and ate while the others talked. After that, we went back to cleaning. After we were done, we helped with moving some crates, then Logar had us counting herbs and making equal piles that we packaged back into the crates. Around every hour or so during the day a cart would come and drop a crate, then it would take a different crate somewhere else.
Once evening fell, Logar gave me five coppers and told me to be back the same time tomorrow. I bid Tim goodbye and headed out. It was already almost fully dark outside, and after walking a block back the way I had traveled in the morning, Jessica joined me.
“So, how was it?” Jessica asked me with a smile.
“It was great! I don’t think I trained Acting that much, but I did get Cleaning! And also, I met this other kid who was working there, Tim. He talked a bit too much, but it was still fun working with him. The work was a bit boring though, nothing like training.”
“Sounds like you really did have a good time.” Jessica responded, smiling at me in a motherly way. Seeing that smile made a sudden pang of longing for my family to strike me. It made me think a bit about our relationship. I knew Jessica had never married or had kids, and in her view, I was a child that she was practically raising since I was two. I could see why she would see me as similar to her child.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be training with Vesper tonight, so I’m sure you’ll get your fill of training and adventure. Now come, we have a rendezvous point with him, so we won’t be returning to the estate until after dinner.”
Jessica led me for ten minutes between the warehouses, until we reached a small, slightly dilapidated one. She led me inside, and waiting for us there while chatting quietly were Vesper and two other man wearing leather armor and cloaks.
“Rainer, Jessica! Come, get dressed and we can start our training!” Vesper called as we came in.
“Your two other hidden protectors switched with these two for tonight. These four will be switching often between each other, so make sure you memorize all of their faces.” Jessica explained,” These two are Halt and Marth. Now go, put your armor on, and we can start.” Walking towards the table, I saw that a set of dark leather armor my size had been laid out on it. Beside it were a pair of daggers, a sword, a small one-handed axe, and a small buckler. These were all real weapons, not the training ones I had used last time when training with Vesper. There was also a ring there, which inspect showed was a weaker version of the active healing one I was wearing.
“Switch your Resist Inspection ring for that one. And you can move the rings back to your fingers.” Jessica told me. Although enchanted rings could be worn on the toes to the same effect, it was generally very uncomfortable.
I excitedly took my clothes off before I began putting the armor on, while Inspecting all the various weapons. While I had mainly trained with real weapons in the last two years, those had all been simple weapons meant for training. They had been well made and of a high quality, but nothing special. My Inspect showed that these, though, were different.
Enchanted Dagger
Rarity: Uncommon
Quality: Very High
Enchantment: +20% damage when attacking an unaware enemy
Enchanted Dagger
Rarity: Uncommon
Quality: Very High
Enchantment: +20% damage when attacking an unaware enemy
Enchanted One-Handed Axe
Rarity: Uncommon
Quality: Very High
Enchantment: +20% damage when thrown
Enchanted Shortsword
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Very High
Enchantment: +10-50 Freezing damage to hits
The armor and shield were quite good as well.
Enchanted Shield
Rarity: Uncommon
Quality: Very High
Enchantment: +10% durability, -10% durability loss
Leather Armor Set (Chest, Shoulder, Arms, Back, Legs)
Rarity: Uncommon
Quality: Very High
Set effects: +10% durability
Defense: 10-20
The armor wasn’t enchanted, which made sense. Unlike the other weapons which were usable by others, the armor had likely required a skilled Leatherworker to make it specifically for me. The whole ensemble was completed by a leather cap and a cloak and boots that each decreased the noise I made by 10%. After I finished donning the armor and putting everything in the right place, I felt quite dangerous. Of course, compared to the three people who were with me I was still very weak, but still.
After I was done, Vesper told me, “Good. We’ll be starting with the same training as last time. No magic. Follow me.” I followed Vesper through the streets, while Jessica and the others disappeared to our sides. We continued the same training we had done last time, except this time I was wielding actual weapons. Vesper was also using real daggers, but he was only weakly tapping me with them to indicate a hit. On the other hand, I was swinging at him with everything I had with my real weapons, but I didn’t hit him at all. Every couple of minutes, he would call for me to switch weapons. Two daggers, a shield and an axe, a sword and a dagger. I noticed that Vesper wasn’t pushing me as hard as he had last time. Instead, he was prodding me to walk faster whenever I slowed down to try and spot him. Clearly, we were hurrying to reach somewhere.
Sometimes he would go a full minute without attacking me, before appearing on my side, tapping me with the dagger, and telling me to turn right on the next turn. After around an hour of walking, Vesper told me to stop, and climbed to the roof of one of the buildings, indicating that I should follow after him. As we had walked, the large warehouses had slowly transitioned into smaller, wooden buildings, the streets getting narrower and less organized. The streets were less clean, and some of the buildings looked like they were ready to fall over. We had arrived in the slums. After I climbed the roof, Vesper turned to me and explained what we were doing here.
“It’s time for you to get some practical experience. While training is good and all, nothing beats true experience, and I was told that after you Unlock fighting will be problematic for you, so your grandfather wants you to get as much practical experience as possible. The building before us is the headquarters of some local unnamed gang. There are about a dozen of them, and they mainly resort to small thievery and petty extortion. They are frankly very weak and unimportant, most of them are quite young. The main interesting things about them though, is that they are quite proud, and don’t have the protection of any of the more established guilds and gangs around here. They keep their operations small and quiet so no one has dealt with them yet.”
“What this means is that there should be no significant blowback form any guilds or gangs if we eliminate them, and this is too far into the slums for the guards to bother coming. Your job is to kill them. This is also not training for your stealth. There will be no sneaking in and slowly killing them. I have here as many mana potions as you want. You are to cast whatever spells you wish, then charge through the front door and fight them head on. I have had them investigated, and they should all be under level 10 and not even apprentices in any skills, so you shouldn’t need any help.”
I stared at Vesper, dumbfounded. I had killed people in my past life as a marine, but they had always been the enemy, someone who was dangerous to me, my friends or my country. Never just a bunch of people who were “disposable”. And also, I was still a kid here. Did they really expect me to go in there and kill a dozen people?
“I know this is a lot to take in, but it’s time you left your sheltered little world. These people have no money, prestige, or power. You, on the other hand, have all three. So they will become fodder to make you stronger and more mature. I’m not saying you should go around killing people because they are unimportant, but these are also definitely not innocent people. I can assure you they have all killed and stolen. Now take these potions and go kill them.” Vesper handed me what I recognized as a Spatial Bag.
I took it in shaking hands and took a deep, calming, breath. Vesper’s reasons for killing these people were ridiculous, but I could understand them. Just earlier today I had been thinking about how lucky I was to be a noble. Using these weak unimportant commoners to teach me a valuable lesson and gain fighting experience was a worthwhile trade in his and my grandfather’s eyes. Life was much cheaper in this world than it had been in mine. I took another deep breath and started planning. I could debate the morality of this later. For now, I could tell from the look in his eye Vesper wasn’t going to let this go, so I had no choice.
I was only wearing one of my mana rings, which meant I was working with a maximum of 203 mana.
I started by summoning my protective air spirit, which could last for 30 minutes. Different than air elementals, which I had seen my instructor summon, air spirits were much less tangible, almost invisible. Their main use was blowing projectiles that had been shot at you off course. Then, I took a mana potion from the bag, drank it, and started casting buffs. I cast them in order, starting with those that had the longest duration, and moving to those that had a shorter one.
I cast a level 17 Life spell that increased my health by 40, then a level 27 earth spell that hardened my skin and increased its defense by 5. Then I cast a level 32 air spell that increased movement speed by 25%, and a level 12 air spell that increased attack speed by 17%. Then I double cast my night vision spell and moved down from the roof to the street.
Through all the casting I constantly drank potions from the spatial bag. Potions were never exactly the same, but those I used all restored around 200-250 mana in 20 seconds. The last spells I would cast would be more summons, and those would have a harder time climbing down the roof. I sneaked through the street with Vesper behind me, until I was hugging the side of the building, they were in. I could hear talking and laughing coming from inside. I had 3 more spells to cast, and then I would attack. First, a level 16 fire spell that summoned two fire wolves. They were small, reaching around the mid-thigh of a normal adult, and were only level 8, but they were quite fast. They weren’t elementals, instead just fire-aspected wolves. Their eyes glowed red, and smoke slowly wafted up from their paws and mouths. Then, I drank a potion and waited, and when my mana was full cast a level 24 earth spell that summoned an earth elemental spider. It was around the same height as the wolves, but probably weighed more than both of them combined. It was made fully of rock, with eight thick legs that each ended in a sharp point, and a pair of sharp, earthy mandibles and small quart stones for eyes. I drank another potion, and my last spell was a level 25 life spell that cost exactly 200 mana. It summoned a level 12 life spirit that could heal for 75 health 3 times. It was a small, glowing ball of light that slowly bobbed in the air, and I mentally ordered it to hover above me and heal me when necessary.
That last cast, which brought me down to 3/203 mana, brought me to my knees, pain lancing through my head. Although I hadn’t suffered a backlash, using so much mana in just a couple of minutes, controlling four different summons, and momentarily reaching 3 mana, was almost too much. I had trained a lot exactly for this kind of magic use, but even my grandfather couldn’t allow me to use so many potions just for training too many times. I took a moment to center myself, drink another potion, and let my mana regenerate. When my mana was full, I mentally ordered the wolves and spider to charge through the door and attack whoever was on the other side. As they crossed through the door into the warehouse, I drank another potion, handed the spatial bag to Vesper, drew my axe and a dagger, and charged into the warehouse after them.