Weylan lay on the floor and looked in disbelief at the message from the voice of the world.

"That doesn't make any sense! I wanted to raise House Servant as a class. I can't level up Assassin unless I'm taught by a higher-level Assassin." He hesitated, then quickly continued: "I admit it! I chose Assassin as my class. It was... a special situation. More of an accident."

The tip of the sword did not move from his neck, while the steward literally glared at him in disbelief from above: "So you were trained as an assassin by mistake? This is your defense?"

"It's a long story. After the fight against the wolves, I shot my father's killer in the back. He was a revenant, so I assumed he would come after me. I only had useless character classes to choose from. And Assassin."

"You claim to have unlocked the Assassin class through deeds? Without a master? Ridiculous."

"It's not the craziest thing that's happened to me since."

The steward raised an eyebrow, "If you think I'm going to let you live just because I want to hear your story..." He tensed the muscles of his sword arm.

Weylan closed his eyes and waited for the death blow.

Nothing happened. He peered out through almost closed eyes. The steward took the blade from his neck. "All right, then. You've done it. I want to hear your story."

Weylan now realized that the sword ended in a pommel like that of Jago's walking stick. A stick without a pommel in the steward's left hand. Jago inserted the blade into the cane with a practiced movement and locked it into place with a slight twist. "Non-magical cane sword. Most look for extra dimensional containers, magical tattoos, or other transformed weapons."

He touched something on the desk and a loaded crossbow appeared on the surface. "Something like this." He walked around the desk and took a seat behind it. Something crunched and a loud snap could be heard from the door. Weylan assumed that the door was now locked. An unexpected device for a steward's office...

"Can I get up?"

Jago calmly pointed to a chair. Weylan sat down: "You're not just a steward, are you?"

"What else would I be?" Jago leaned back and grinned.

"I can only raise my character class under the guidance of a higher-level assassin. After you taught me for a day, I suddenly leveled up. It's strange..."

"Well, I'm the steward. I manage the estate... and the local branch of the Royal Imperial Secret Service. Mulnirsheim is the gateway to the north. The Empire cannot afford for the fortress city to fall to treachery or for its military secrets to fall into enemy hands."

"Are you allowed to tell anyone?"

"Only if I kill him afterwards."

Weylan swallowed hard. For the life of him, he couldn't tell if Jago was serious. A drop of sweat rolled down his forehead and fell to the floor unnoticed.

The steward's face turned serious: "I'm a level 12 house servant. I'm also a level 10 assassin, so yes. That must have triggered your level up. However, I've never heard of anyone accidentally leveling up to a different class than they intended. Something like that would require incredible amounts of bad luck. You'd have to have a disadvantage like Cursed or Dark Fate..."

"Live in interesting times..." Weylan interrupted him tonelessly.

Jago leaned forward and looked at him thoughtfully over his folded hands: "Live in... Yes... That would explain it." He pondered in silence while Weylan said nothing.

"I once knew a guard with the disadvantage. Murphrin was always in the middle of the deepest mess. The guard captain wanted to fire him at first, but after a few incidents, it was clear that he wasn't causing anything unusual to happen. He was just attracted to it. Well, he also attracts moving disasters and monsters nearby, but here in the fortress city that's an advantage. They've stationed him on the northern outskirts of town and almost all the monsters that have made it into town have migrated to the guard building. He had to set up his apartment on the top floor of the guard station after the third time a Chamaelion tiger snuck into his old rented apartment to raid his milk supply."

"How is he?"

"Murphrin? He died when he got caught in the middle of an argument between two alchemists. The road was turned almost half a step deep into a viscous, corrosive slurry."

Weylan rolled his eyes: "Great. Something else to look forward to."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Well young man, now the first thing you're going to do, is telling me everything that's happened to you so far. The short excerpts sounded very interesting. If you were able to gain enough experience to advance to level six right away, you must have had a really interesting time."

Weylan swallowed. Then he began to talk. Jago only asked a few specific questions. In between, he fetched a carafe of water from a cupboard and poured them both a drink. Most of the time, he just let him talk and listened attentively. Weylan told him openly that they had only faked his father's death. When he suddenly became extremely vague in his detailed account while talking about the smuggler who had helped him with equipment, he noticed a smirk on Jago's face. He noted without comment and rather sympathetically that Weylan did not want to reveal Detter's identity.

After three hours, his eyes almost closed and he almost revealed the existence of the dungeon. But he caught himself and only mentioned the “Archmage Malvorik”, who lived deep beneath the mountains. He didn't even mention how he had come to the city. The steward naturally assumed that he had come through the gate with the other refugees.

The story ended with Weylan's experiences in the work distribution office. Weylan fell silent with a dry mouth. Jago stretched and then looked at him seriously: "Well... Now I have to decide what to do next."

"I could go back to the pub first. Then you can sleep on it again in peace."

"Nice try." Jago did something with his foot behind the desk and a piece of the surface in front of him snapped up. He reached in and suddenly held a vial in his left hand and a crossbow in his right. "Poison or crossbow bolt to the heart?"

"I suppose you’d prefer poison. Doesn't make such a mess."

Jago waved it off: "Don't worry, I have a cleansing artifact. It's no problem at all to remove blood and guts with it. I haven't leveled up this far without learning how to dispose of battle scars and corpses."

Weylan swallowed, but even though Jago's face gave nothing away, he didn't have the feeling that he really wanted to kill him. The two stared at each other wordlessly for a while. Then the steward suddenly began to laugh uproariously and stowed the weapon and vial away again.

"An apprentice that I can teach in both of my character classes? I'm unlikely to ever find that again. And an assassin with an affinity for shadows? I've never even heard rumors of such a thing. That could bring considerable synergy effects."

"Süner... what?"

"Something that works better together than the sum of its parts would suggest."

"Like a cake?"

Jago stared at him for a moment: "Maybe I should reconsider my decision."

"It's all right. I was only joking. I'm too tired to really think."

The steward nodded: "It's getting late. I'll put you up in one of the guest rooms. Tomorrow I'll have your own chamber prepared for you."

"Then I'll go to bed, distribute my attribute points and choose a few special skills."

Jago was on him faster than he could blink. He blinked all the more to keep an eye on the dagger that was suddenly aimed directly at his face between his eyes. "There's no way you'd distribute five levels' worth of boosts without discussing everything with your master first. You wouldn't do that, would you?"

Weylan refrained from moving his head and squeezed out a quiet "no?". It sounded more like a question than a firm answer, but the steward smiled, removed his dagger and held out his hand to help him up. "How are your stats at the moment?"

He called up his character sheet and read it out. Jago took a sheet of paper and wrote everything down.

Name: Weylan

Race: Human

Character class: Assassin (Level 6)

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 14

Intelligence: 10

Willpower: 10

Constitution: 14

Charisma: 10

He frowned: "That's two points more than you should have. Are you sure you haven't used up any of the new attribute points yet?"

"There are two points on constitution that I got for a quest."

"An attribute bonus? How many times did you almost die in this fights?"

"I didn't have time to count."

Jago left it at that: "We'll leave the feats until later. How would you allocate five points to your attributes?"

"Well, I was thinking physical strength plus three and dexterity plus two."

The steward nodded: "I expected that. A good choice. For a warrior. You are not a warrior. You are an assassin. Strength and skill will not get you where you want to go. You must maintain your stealth identity and you must not collapse in the first serious interrogation. For this you need willpower and intelligence. Twelve of each should be enough for now. You can put the remaining point towards dexterity."

"I can save myself willpower. I have a skill against interrogation..."

"Mind block. Of course you have. Otherwise you wouldn't have gotten this far. It won't help you if they just interrogate you for a few hours. Not to mention torture."

Weylan's gaze blurred as he looked longingly at his character sheet. Physical attributes had an immediate effect. He could be stronger and more agile. At level 6, low-level enemies and quests would hardly give him any XP. Level 1 enemies none at all, level 2 enemies only 80% of normal. Then there are the increased costs. From level 6 to level 7, he needed a full 500 XP. It would take him a long time to level up again.

He sighed and distributed the points as his teacher had suggested. As he made his character sheet disappear, his eyes focused again. Steward Jago was in the process of opening a drawer. He pulled out a copper bangle. Plain, with only a wider part bearing the seal of the city of Mulnirsheim. He tossed it to Weylan. "Put this on."

Weylan slipped the bracelet over his left arm. He tightened his grip just behind the wrist. Irritated, he pulled at it, but the bracelet could neither be moved nor turned. He looked up questioningly.

Jago pushed back his sleeve and an identical bracelet was revealed. "Officially, it is the seal of the city and is worn by all important representatives of the baron. Show it to the guards in the city or here at the manor and you will be let through immediately. This is also a magical artifact. You cannot remove it without my permission. I can use it to find you at any time. But it also has a useful effect. If you draw a circle around the crest with your finger, it casts a spell that makes you odorless. Handy for escaping dogs or anubians. Works once a day and lasts for about an hour. Get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow your training begins in two classes. You won’t actually be able to multiclass, at least not yet, but you need to learn skills and knowledge from both classes. You won't have much free time left."