Ezra felt anxiety roll down his back. It was an easy question—but for Ezra, it felt like the man had just signed Ezra’s death warrant.

“None of your business,” Ezra said.

Dumrivil’s smile cracked.

“I see,” Dumrivil said. “Your weapon—the needle. It’s rather odd. Where did you obtain a weapon like that?”

Ezra looked up at him, letting the silence sit for dramatic purposes.

“None of your business,” Ezra said.

Dumrivil’s arms tensed. He clenched his jaw ever so slightly.

“Do you plan to tell anyone a single thing about who you are?” Dumrivil said. “Because I’m beginning to suspect that there are some things that the Guild deserves to know.”

Ezra adjusted his clothes slightly. “How many times do I need to repeat myself? I don’t owe you a single thing.”

Ezra walked by the man. This time, Dumrivil didn’t move to stop him. Borna glanced back and forth between the two.

“Please sign this,” Ezra said. He held out the quest paper.

Borna gulped, then nodded.

The deal was soon done, and Ezra started walking back toward the guild. Footsteps echoed behind him and he resisted the urge to groan.

“How’d you lose the eye?” Dumrivil said.

Ezra resisted the urge to cough aloud. Filamenta burst out laughing, shaking on his shoulder.

“And I thought you had no tact,” she said. “This guy is a total idiot!”

Even Filamenta agreed with Ezra on this one. Could he dodge and get away from this person? No, that was unlikely—best to just deflect.

“I lost my eye in a fight,” Ezra said.

“Really?” Dumrivil said. “Must’ve been a hell of a fight.”

“Yes.”

Ezra continued walking. Dumrivil’s lips drew into a thin line.

“What’s up with the spider?” he said.

Filamenta perked up on Ezra’s shoulder. “Tell him that I’m your partner, there’s probably nothing wrong with that—“

“It just came out of nowhere and latched onto me. I’m still trying to figure out how to get away from it.”

Filamenta’s voice snapped back. “I’m going to bite you.”

Dumrivil looked at Filamenta, then at Ezra. He stroked his chin and narrowed his eyes.

“Call me crazy,” he said. “But I get the feeling that you’re not telling me the whole truth.”

“Wow, how’d you figure that one out?” Ezra said.

“Many long years of being a mercenary,” Dumrivil said. “Have sharpened my lie-detection abilities to a fine point. I can perfectly discern truth from fiction. Why, just yesterday, I saw this cute barmaid, and when she said that she was interested in me, I instantly knew she was lying to my face—“ He paused. “Wait a second, you’re distracting me from the main topic!”

“No, you did that all on your own.” Ezra walked up to the guild door and opened it up. “If you’ll excuse me…”

Dumrivil’s eyes widened and he reached out his hands. “Wait!”

Ezra slammed the door shut behind him, then barred it. A moment later, the doors shook as Dumrivil tried to get in.

Ezra ignored the sounds and approached Prise, who staredat him with furrowed eyebrows.

“Should I ask…?” she said.

“Nothing of importance.” Ezra reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the piece of paper with Borna’s signature. “Will this suffice?”

Prise took the sheet and frowned up at him. “It’ll take longer to process this because you didn’t bother giving this to me first.”

Ah. Ezra probably should’ve seen that coming.

“Idiot,” Filamenta said. “Why didn’t you just wait and go through the normal procedures?”

Price sighed and looked over the sheet.

“I’ll try to get it processed quickly, but no promises. Do you have any questions I can attend to?” she said.

Ezra nodded. “Yes, actually. I was wondering where I can obtain the [Hunting] skill.”

Prise did a visible double take. “Sorry, what?”

“I need the [Hunting] skill,” he said.

“B-but why?” Prise said. “Surely you have it already.”

Ezra stared at her.

“Truly,” Filamenta said. “You are the master of conversational competence. I am blown away by your sheer charisma.”

Prise stared at him for a little bit longer. “Right, um, well, I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. You’ll have to find a teacher.”

“How much do you think it’ll cost me?”

Prise put a finger to her chin. “I’d say 10 gold or so. Maybe free, if the person likes you.”

“How much is 10 gold?” he said.

Prise blanched. She held up her hand and pinched the bridge of her nose. ”Please tell me you understand our currency.”

Ezra shook his head. “I’m a foreigner.”

Prise made an ‘o’ shape with her lips.

“Oh, okay,” she said. “That explains a lot. Your Cortian is excellent, by the way.”

Ezra tapped his fingers against the desk.

Prise coughed into her hand.

“Right, um, anyway,” she said. “10 copper coins to a silver coin. 10 silver to a gold coin. A loaf of bread is a copper, whereas, say, a house in the town would cost 50 gold coins to buy outright.”

“That seems simple.”

Especially compared to some of those stories where you had seven different denominations. How anyone kept track of that stuff, Ezra would never know.

“You’re receiving 10 copper for your mission completion,” she said.

Ezra’s eyes widened. “Wait, that means that to get a teacher, it’ll take 100 missions similar to the rat slaying thing.“

Prise stared at him and cocked her head. “That’s… right. You can do mathematics inside of your head?”

“Is that unusual?” he said.

“Um, yes? Especially for a warrior. Were you training to be a scholar or engineer? But if that’s the case, why become a mercenary…?”

There was a pause.

“My,” Filamenta said. “You just keep on building that aura of mystique the longer you stay here. It won’t be long before they think you’re some kind of immortal vampire.”

“Oh, shut up,” he muttered, then raised his voice. “I have one last question.”

Prise’s back stiffened. “Yes?”

“Where can I get a room? I’d rather not sleep outside.”

Prise winced.

“Well,” she said. “Normally the guild would offer rooms at discounted prices, but…”

“But?”

“I’ll be straightforward. Do you have currency?”

Ezra paused.

Filamenta cackled in his mind.

“Oh, this is brillaint!” she said. “Ezra, you never cease to amuse me.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Prise held up a hand. “I can’t flex the rules about the guild’s beds, unfortunately.”

“So I’ll be sleeping on the streets.”

“Not quite.” She looked at Ezra and her eyes glinted. “I have an alternative offer for you.”

Ezra instinctively leaned back.

“Really?” he said. “And what would that offer consist of?”

“Simple,” she said. “Me and my mother run an inn at the edge of town. I’ll let you stay there in exchange for 2 copper coins per night. The best part? You don’t even have to pay now. Just pay me when you’re paid.”

Ezra’s eyes narrowed. Was she about to tell him about a Nigerian prince of some sort? If that happened, he was walking.

“What’s the catch?” he said.

“Simple!” She slammed her hands down on the table. “You’ll have to stay there for the duration of your time here in the city!”

Ezra crossed his arms. The whole thing smelled incredibly fishy. The way she was talking, the generous terms and conditions, it all felt like a trap of some sort. But did Ezra have a choice? He doubted he’d find much better deals. No one would be willing to let him stay somewhere for free. As irritating as it was, Prise’s inn was probably his best option.

“Fine,” he said.

Prise clapped her hands together, a wide grin on her face. “Finally, a customer! Mom’s gonna be so excited!”

Ezra felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. What exactly had he agreed to?

“Anyway, she said. “Let me get your name for the guild processing. Who should I make the payment out to?”

Ezra couldn’t use his real name, he was already being pretty reckless with using nothing but a makeshift eyepatch for his disguise. But then, what should he use? A false name? Or perhaps a title…?

No, all of that sounded too hard. Plus, it might invite people to dig into his nonexistent past. Why not just cut to the chase, so to speak?

“Nameless. Just mark me down as nameless.”

Prise raised an eyebrow, but her fingers quickly wrote out the name. “Got it. Nameless it is.”

She dropped her pen onto her desk and looked up at Ezra. “Right then!” she said. “Just give me a few minutes to take care of things, and then I’ll be able to lead you back to the inn! I’m sure you’ll have a great stay.”

Off to Ezra’s side, Villscha exited out of some doors gripping something in his left hand. For a moment, Ezra was worried that Villscha would approach him, but the man ignored him. Ezra turned his eyes back toward Prise.

“Very well, then,” he said.

----------------------------------------

Prise was soon done and skipped toward him in the guild hall. He was dragged outside and led through the labyrinthine structure of the city. Each of her steps was confident, despite the lack of visible signposts or landmarks. All the buildings just seemed to blend together from Ezra’s perspective.

Overhead, the sun was nearly set. It’d been a long day, and he was honestly looking forward to getting some rest. Well, unless Prise was planning to eat him or something. After the Skinwalker incident, he wasn’t inclined to be trusting of strangers.

As they went further into the city, the houses and buildings became more ramshackle. The people had more ragged clothing and more than a few stared at Ezra and his comparatively fine black jacket. Ezra glared right back, and that cowed most of them into looking at the ground. Eventually, they found themselves at the end of an alleyway where there was a door leading into a building.

Ezra stared at it.

Prise looked back at him and rubbed the back of her neck. “Um, it looks a lot better on the inside, I promise.”

It wasn’t as bad as Ezra was expecting.

It was worse.

The wood posts were rotting and splintered, only held together by makeshift supports and rope. The air was stuffy and humid, and the faint smell of decay and mold filled the air. On top of that, it seemed like someone had brewed as much herbal tea as they could to cover up the smell. It didn’t work, obviously. It just smelled like someone had vomited up a ton of mystery plants.

Prise skipped over toward the stairs and grabbed a candle off the wall. She made it halfway up before she turned around.

“Your rooms up here! I got you the best one in the building.” She paused. “Well, you’re currently our only guest, but still.”

Gee, Ezra wondered why.

Ezra opened the door, and a blast of dust assaulted him. Moments later, dozens of bugs dashed away and crawled into the stone wall’s cracks and crevices. Prise stepped forward and pointed her index finger at an unlit candle. A moment later, it lit up, casting the room in light. She looked back at Ezra and smiled.

“Always important to have a few spells for home, you know?” she said.

Ezra’s eyes surveyed his new quarters. The bed was wet. A drip from the ceiling had completely soaked the sheets and Ezra was fairly certain that Prise hadn’t changed it out in weeks. There was a desk along with a chair, and that was it.

Perhaps he should just take his chances with sleeping under the stars?

Prise dashed forward toward the bed and cursed.

“Not that damn leak again,” she said. She pulled the mattress off the bed, then scooted the bedframe away from the leak. “I’ll be right back with something dry.”

She dashed out of the door, her footsteps echoing as she ran through the inn. In seconds, she was back and holding a dry mattress. She slammed it onto the bedframe, then seemingly materialized a bucket from out of nowhere and dropped it under the leak.

“I promise I’ll clean up the room tomorrow,” she said. “I just don’t get the chance to attend to this place much, and it’s just me and my mom, you know?”

Ezra stared at her. She chuckled and shrank into herself. She backed out of the room.

“Right then,” she said. “I’ll be seeing you!”

She slammed the door shut. Dust fell from the ceiling.

For a few moments, Ezra stood in the middle of the room in silence.

“What the hell was that?” Filamenta said.

Ezra stepped toward the bed and sat down. It was low-quality—straw or hay? Not at all like the luxurious mattresses he’d gotten back in the castle.

“Well, whatever,” Ezra said. “It’s a place to sleep, and that’s what’s important. You defend me from the bugs, okay?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Thanks.”

Ezra popped open his menu.

Name: Ezra Hawthorne

Age: 16

Race: Human

C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸

Sub-class: N/A

Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding

Health Points: 300/300

Mana Points: 245/245

Level: 31

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 40

Constitution: 10

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 56

Personal Skills:

[Calm] - Lv. 14

[Inspect] - Lv. MAX

[Canefighting] - Lv. 3

[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 30

[Stealth] - Lv. 15

[Ranged Needle Mastery] - Lv. 2

[Precision Prick] - Lv. 1

[Air Attack] - Lv. MAX

[Spirtual Seal] - Lv. MAX

[Mana Perception] - Lv. 1

[Telekinesis] - Lv. 1

Abilities:

[Bind] - Lv. 5

[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX

[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX

[Restrain] - Lv. 10

[Web Trap] - Lv. 7

[Entangle] - Lv. 9

[Polymorphism] - Lv. 8

[Lockpicking] - Lv. 25

[Poisonous Prick] - Lv. 1

Skill points: 37

Stat points: 20

Ability points: 16

Titles:

[Otherworlder]

[Perfect Resonance]

[Monster Slayer I] - Equipped

[Spirit Weapon Wielder]

[Bane of the Mind]

First things first, he was starting to get a little irritated with his tiny mana pool. He clicked his intelligence up.

Intelligence: 17

He looked over at his mana.

595/595

Not great, but certainly better than what he used to have.

He moved down to the titles section. [Bane of the Mind]—where he get that from? Oh, the telekinetic boss monster.

[Bane of the Mind]

[This prestigious title is awarded to those who have triumphed over a formidable foe possessing extraordinary telekinetic powers. By overcoming this mental juggernaut, you have proven your resilience against psychic assaults and demonstrated a keen tactical mind capable of outwitting even the most cunning of opponents.]

Mental Fortitude: +20% resistance to mind-affecting abilities and spells.

Psionic Insight: Gain a passive ability to sense nearby telekinetic or psychic activity.

Kinetic Deflection: Once per day, automatically deflect one physical projectile using latent telekinetic energy.

Tactical Mastery: +10% to all strategy and planning-related skills.

That was insane. If he ever ran into a psychic or telekinetic monster he needed to fight for whatever reason, this would be immensely useful. Not only that, but Tactical Mastery would probably be useful even in other situations.

He clicked on Telekinesis.

[Telekinesis] - Lv. 1

Allows the user to manipulate objects with their mind. Objects can be lifted, moved, and controlled without physical contact. Mana cost increases with the weight of the object, adding 100 mana per additional pound.

10 m/s (with one pound)

Ezra’s jaw dropped.

“100 mana?” he said. “That can’t be right!”

“No, it’s right,” Filamenta said. “Telekinesis is a stolen skill, it’s not part of you in the same way as the other skills and abilities. Let me show you something, try to lift that candle over there.”

Ezra frowned and held out his hand.

The candle didn’t move. He grunted and tensed his hands further.

Nothing happened. Sweat dripped from his forehead and he concentrated everything he had into moving the candle by an inch.

It wiggled.

Ezra let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding in and slumped over.

“You see?” Filamenta said. “Even if you should technically be able to do it, it will always be many times harder than one of your naturally gained skills.”

Ezra fell back into the bed. “Go figure. I get the bonus skill and it turns out to be a total scam.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

Ezra furrowed his eyebrows together and held his weapon in front of him.

“What are you talking about?” he said.

“Try the skill on me.”

Ezra raised an eyebrow and opened the palm of his hand. Filamenta crawled onto it and transformed into a needle. He focused his mind on it.

Instantly, the needle started to float away from him and into the air.

Ezra’s eyes widened and he stood to his feet. He looked left. The needle slowly moved in that direction. He looked right, and the same thing happened.

He opened the palm of his hand and Filamenta dropped into it.

“The connection between you and I runs very deep,” Filamenta said with a glow. “Deep enough that magic done to me will almost always feel natural and easy compared to magic done on anything else.”

Ezra hummed. “Interesting. This opens up a lot of possibilities.”

“So, do you still want to throw me away?” Filamenta said.

Ezra rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you’ve made your point. You’re useful, I suppose.”

Filamenta chuckled. “That’s the best I’ll get from you, I think.”

Ezra looked at his skill levels. It’d been a while since he’d grinded his skills. What better time than now?

“Filamenta, strap in,” he said. “We’re in for a long night.”