Liliana sat in the carriage, body gently rocking along as it bumped down the road, staring at the notifications for not the first time that day. After the assassination attempt, she’d had to deal with the Earl and Countess apologizing profusely. Had to give her account so many times she could say it in her sleep. It had been unbelievable that a girl of her level could defeat an assassin in Rank 4, but her mutilated body had lent credibility to her story.

Doubt had been strong despite that, especially when it was revealed the assassin had an obscuration rune carved into his flesh. Something that apparently only the better assassins of the Death Adders had. It had been done by someone of a high rank as well, because no one in the manor had been able to [Identify] the man further than seeing his Rank. Eventually, as her cover story hadn’t deviated, others believed her despite the wild nature of the story.

The looks of fear and respect in the eyes of the nobles, the guards, and even Emyr and Alistair had stung. They were right to fear, but not her. They should fear the pendant that sat in her storage now. She hadn’t had a chance to try to destroy the damned thing, she’d been swept into answering questions as soon as the healer was done with her. The respect she’d gained from the event felt false. She hadn’t earned it. It felt dirty, and she’d be happy when the fear and respect faded so she could put the memory of that night, the violation she’d suffered, far behind her.

She was still struggling to piece together what emotions and thoughts she’d had that were her own and not influenced by the pendant. She’d thought her paranoia had been the effect of the pendant, trying to isolate her. But the notifications she saw now told a different story. Perhaps some of those emotions hadn’t been misplaced. The best lies were the ones that had a truth woven in them, after all.

You’ve unlocked the sub-affinity Astral.

You’ve reached the requirements for the spell [Astral Projection]. Would you like to accept the spell?

She accepted the spell, finally. It had been the last on her list after being flooded with notifications. Turned out the assassin was level 200, something revealed by the system. She’d gotten a good amount of experience from him. Somehow the System had detected that she’d done it with assistance and had penalized the experience she got as a result. However, it seemed because her body was what was used, she still got something for it. Her boon helped even out her experience from the penalty but she still got a level, and was almost at level 70 as a result. 431,400 experience was nothing to scoff at, considering it was what she got after the penalty. It seemed the assassin had registered like a normal monster, and Liliana wondered when a person became equivalent to a named monster to the system.

However, she left that train of thought quickly. If she could go through the rest of her life without killing another human, she’d be happy. She still felt queasy remembering the way it’d felt to shove the dagger through his body. The way she’d felt bones break, flesh split and the gush of almost too hot blood on her hands.

She’d also gotten three points into Vitality, and two into Strength after the fight. By far the most points she’d gotten in a single encounter, and surprising. She’d noticed she’d begun to get less and less stat points outside of leveling. Apparently, the trick was to fight things that should be able to kill you in a blink. Or be tortured by some kind of pendant lurking evil entity. Her skills and spells she’d used that night had also seen several level upgrades, which had been a nice bonus on top of the rest. [Pain Resistance] had seen the most growth, gaining ten whole levels. It made sense, considering the amount of pain she’d dealt with when the magic had turned on her to sell the story.

Liliana waved away the notification that [Astral Projection] had reached level 3 because of past experience. It was proof that what she’d seen in the dream was true. Her guards, or at least some of them, saw her as a burden. As someone they’d rather see discarded. The nobles in her father’s territory didn’t approve of her, and wanted her removed. Though the last part wasn’t a surprise of any sort. She’d known that the nobles didn’t think highly of her, no matter how pretty they acted to her face. They all held daggers, ready to stab into her back.

Liliana brought up more information on her new skill, curious as to how she could use it.

Astral Projection: Astral

Send your soul out as you sleep to collect information completely hidden from view. Spell can only be used when asleep, and must be activated before user falls asleep. User can only see other beings with souls, currently unable to see territory or environments. Can only view other souls within a 300ft radius of the user.

Channel

Cost: 200 Mana Per Second.

It would be useful, especially for gathering intel. Information was power, after all, and Liliana badly needed power. If the pendant had taught her anything, it was that there were things out there with enough power to flatten her without a thought. Things that had already turned their attention to her. If she had a hope of staying safe in this world, she needed every scrap of power she could piece together. That meant knowing who around her would have her back, and who would drive a dagger into it. It was obvious that the guards with her weren’t all on her side.

The thing is, what have I done to earn any of the guards’ loyalty? Liliana worried her lip as she looked out the window of the carriage. What hurt the most was the small grains of truth in the guards’ words. She had been keeping herself distant from the guards. Originally because she was so caught up with Alistair and Emyr, then because of the pendant pushing her away. Even before that, she’d been too busy to consider befriending many of the guards.

And then there was the more simple reason. The fear of rejection. After she’d seen how easily her dungeon group had just discarded her, she was hesitant to try to build relations with the guards. They obviously saw themselves as in a different world from her, separate. Would any of them even want to give her much time? They’d been kind after the first assassination attempt, but she knew now some at least had faked that kindness.

At the worst, they reject me and I can just keep an eye on them with [Astral Projection]. At best, I can build friendly relations with the people meant to keep me alive and breathing. Who knows if Imogen hired a third assassin, and if she did, I’d rather know that if I scream the guards will rush to my aid rather than pretending they didn’t hear. Liliana decided. She had bought those games with the purpose of building better relations with the guards. Now all she had to do was reach out. Liliana looked over at Jason, who seemed half asleep as he leaned against the wall of the carriage.

Summoning the chess set from her storage, she took a deep breath. Alistair and Emyr looked over curiously, but didn’t speak up. After she’d shrunk away from their efforts to check on her the day before, they had given her space, but she’d seen the hurt in their eyes. She still didn’t know what to do in regards to them. She missed them, the friendship they had. But she still wasn’t sure if Alistair would choose her over his own mother. And after recent events, Liliana didn’t think she could take the hit to her heart him abandoning her would be. So, for now, she focused on what she was sure of, pushing the other problems away to deal with at a later time.

“Jason, do you want to play chess?” Liliana asked. The lieutenant jerked, startled out of his half slumber. He blinked wearily before he focused on her, and his eyes cleared as he saw what she was holding.

“Is that a set from my family’s shop?” He asked as Liliana opened it, pressing the button on the side to open the squares to let the pieces out.

“It is,” Liliana smiled fondly as she looked at the lifelike pieces as they moved to their positions.

“Alright. Fair warning, I’ve been playing chess since I was old enough to move the pieces,” Jason smirked as he leaned forward.

“Well, I’m not too bad myself,” Liliana bantered back as she picked up a Horned Hare and moved it forward.

[https://i.imgur.com/wtMoTrS.png]

“It’s my turn to play! You got to play yesterday!” a guardswoman argued with another guard as Liliana set up her Monopoly board. Unsurprisingly, it was a favorite of the guards. Sergeant Amelia had already had to implement multiple new rules since Liliana had started playing the game with the guards. All weapons had to be left in storage rings or in tents. No skills were allowed to be used, and any fighting got you banned from gaming for three days, along with latrine duty. It didn’t stop all the fights, but at least Liliana didn’t have to dodge lightning bolts, flying rocks or shots of ice anymore.

Liliana had been playing with the guards for a week now, and the guards overall seemed more kind to her. She still knew some didn’t like her. She used [Astral Projection] every night. It hurt to hear the things people said about her, but not all of it was bad. And she was steadily leveling the skill thanks to the constant usage of it. More than that, though, Liliana used it to ensure another assassin wouldn’t sneak up on her in her sleep. Guards were posted around her tent every night, but still she didn’t feel safe until her own eyes were watching. Even Lelantos was patrolling the camp at night, unwilling to let the same thing happen again.

“Elen is right Tom, it is her turn,” Liliana called out and ended the argument. Tom pouted but sat down, glaring at the ground as Elen cheered and rushed to join the circle of people around the board. Liliana started handing out game pieces and wooden coins. Sergeant Amelia settled next to Liliana. The guards didn’t always listen to Liliana when it came to rules or arguments. So Amelia always supervised the games to be sure the rules Liliana had told them about were followed.

“We should be in Timberborn by tomorrow,” Amelia told Liliana. The girl paused for a moment as anxiety ignited in her chest. She quickly hid it as she handed the dice off for a guard to roll. Her attention wavered from the game as she considered what that meant. Tomorrow they’d finally see Timberborn. What would it look like? Would it be a ghost town? The residents fled from justice? Or would it be full of dead bodies from whatever plague had struck? Would it be full of ne'er-do-wells? Would a mob be waiting? Would there be the dead bodies of flowered serpents lying around?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

What if they were too late to save the last flowered serpent? What if they’d already caught and killed it? Liliana hoped that wouldn’t be true, but she had to admit to herself that it was possible. The merchant would’ve taken weeks to get to Ravencross. Then there were the over two weeks they’d spent on the road. A month or more had passed since the flowered serpent had been seen alive. The people of Timberborn would know the area well, and would have an advantage.

“Will we be going in tomorrow?” Liliana asked Amelia as she tossed her dice. Her piece automatically moved the five spaces, and she picked up a chance card and advanced to Go, collecting her two gold.

“No, we’ll send in scouts to assess the area and head in at first light the following day if it doesn’t appear to be dire,” Amelia explained. Liliana nodded, biting down on her lip.

“Jackson if you don’t put that knife away I’ll skewer you with it,” Amelia barked out and Liliana looked up to see a guard, who had to pay Elen five gold because he landed on her property, grumble as he put the dagger he was raising back in his storage ring.

“She’s fleecing me, ma’am! Five gold is highway robbery!” Jackson tried to defend himself.

“Elen always wins when she plays,” a third guard spoke up as he looked at his own small pile of fake coins. Liliana was glad she’d thought to have fake money made. She didn’t want to imagine what the guards would do if the money was real.

“It’s not my fault you suck at the game,” Elen defended herself, grinning as she counted her own hoard of coins.

“Greedy bitch,” Jackson snarled.

“Don’t be dumb and poor Jackson, it’s not a good look,.” Elen taunted. Liliana picked up the game board and moved it aside as Jackson flung himself at Elen. Placing the game board back down, she picked up the dice and rolled again and bought the land she landed on and handed the dice off to the next guard.

Amelia’s hand crackled and Liliana leaned away as the woman sent a lightning bolt at the wrestling guards. Normally watching the fighting would give Liliana a bit of amusement. The other guards were laughing as the two broke apart, their hair frizzed out and looking slightly singed. However, her mind was still caught on Timberborn.

Would she need to see an entire village put to the sword in the name of justice? She was angry herself about what they’d done, but she didn’t know if death was the right answer. But she didn’t have another one to give. She just hoped if that was the decision that the guards came to, she wouldn’t have to be there to see it.

Status Sheet

Name

Liliana Rosengarde

Age

14

Level

69

Class

Blade Dancer

Race

Human

Rank

7

Health

1,050

H-Regen

+10.5/1.1sec

Mana

1,400

M-Regen

+13.8/1.1sec

Stamina

2,670

S-Regen

+26.7/1.1sec

Magic Power

1,550

Magic Control

1,780

Experience: 472,987/490,000

Vitality

105

Endurance

267

Strength

147

Dexterity

261 (268)

Wisdom

140

Intelligence

138

Speed

313(323)

Charisma

245

Unallocated Stat Points: 0

Affinity

Light

90%

Soul

92%

Life

85%

Illusion

24%

Wind

4%

Astral

2%

Quintessential Skills

[Radiant Revelry] Lvl 4

Skills

[Identify] Lvl 60

[Dodge] 50

[Solar Samba] Lvl 50

[Dance of The Windsong] lvl 47

[Mana Manipulation] lvl 43

[Regeneration] Lvl 37

[Persistent Casting] lvl 37

[Leap] lvl 37

[Pierce] Lvl 32

[Dance Of The Vanishing Blade] Lvl 30

[Stealth] lvl 25

[War Maiden’s Waltz] Lvl 15

[Borrow] Lvl 9

[Last Stand] lvl 2

General Skills

[Polearms Mastery] Lvl 60

[Dancing] lvl 58

[Deception] Lvl 56

[Pain Resistance] lvl 45

[Reading] Lvl 40

[Etiquette] Lvl 35

[Embroidery] Level 31

[Writing] Lvl 31

[Persuasion] Lvl 32

[Skinning] Lvl 30

[Riding] lvl 29

[Mathematics] lvl 25

[Animal Husbandry] Lvl 25

[Herbalisim] lvl 20

[Dagger Mastery] Lvl 17

[Dual Wielding] Lvl 16

[Mounted Combat] lvl 16

[Hand To Hand Combat] Lvl 12

[Alchemy] lvl 10

[Wilderness Survival] lvl 6

[Archery] lvl 3

[Sword Mastery] Lvl 2

Spells

[Light Burst] LVL 47

[Light Burst Coat] LVL 37

[Dancer’s Domain] lvl 36

[Barrier] Lvl 28

[Light Barrage] lvl 28

[Shadow Sonata] Lvl 24

[Dancing Doubles] Lvl 22

[Shine] LVL 26

[Soul Strike] Lvl 17

[Adjust] lvl 16

[Bonding Contract] LVL 12

[Companion Heal] Lvl 5

[Gust] Lvl 3

[Astral Projection] Lvl 3

[Healing Harmony] Lvl 1