Another week had passed, Lucas getting more restless with each passing day. Truth be told, there wasn’t much for him to do at this stage that to wait the events to unfold. Only bit of good news was that Bruce managed to negotiate with Rose Leon the deal Camp Hearth had sought out to sign, although les strict on taxes, keeping almost all of the money in pocket of adventurers. Even more, he managed to secure the preferential treatments for jobs posted by the city, especially in scouting department. With this secured, Bruce expected to have completely accurate maps of surrounding one thousand kilometers in a matter of month or two, making immediate surroundings of the settlement a most explored territory in the Earth, at least to their knowledge. Bruce was also excited about the fact that their charting effort should bring the total number of known territory of the post – System Earth above fifty percent. Speaking of Bruce, the knowledge he forced out of the former archivist of the General’s unit brought new understanding of how classes worked, with some of his colleagues all around the world starting to report successful experiments in regards to changing class and more importantly, crafting a new class.

Armed with that knowledge, Loremasters all around the world started pushing for theirs long time dream of creating a class that could make or maintain portals, allowing for quick travel between civilized places. That would be the last step necessary to finally link all of the settlements together, rebirthing human civilization from ashes, at least according to the Loremaster. Lucas was a bit skeptical about that, speculating that the isolated communities got so used to live in complete isolation or with sparse travelers that they would put up a fierce resistance to any kind of linking up with one another. And that is without counting a slew of death cults or settlement dominated by the powerful individuals who abuse the people underneath them who will loathe giving their people a chance to escape from their grasps. Bruce, however, was certain System liked that and that incentives both from the System and outside of it will prove enough for most of humanity to link up. He backed his claims by a number of history books taken from fallen invaders, almost all of them having some kind of World Congress after the System came to their world.

Bruce and Lucas argued day after day, in between lessons about family of classes with a Root class, as Bruce labeled it, denoting what it was all about. There were a lot of Root classes, and usually a class had one Root class and then took elements from the family of two or more Root class. Those Root classes didn’t had any tangible impact on one’s life, except for the fact that it governed which skills could one potentially have, main Root class allowing for all skills that belong to it and other Root classes, if present, allowing for half of theirs. Of course, people could still learn new skills by themselves, sometimes even combining two skills not from their Root class, in which case the new skill would embed itself in the main Root class of the individual who did it. Bruce even theorized that “Infused piledriver”, a skill Lucas learned a long time ago was one such case, where he took concepts unrelated to his Swordsman family of classes and fused them together, potentially allowing for every being into the multiverse to potentially unlock that skill if he belongs to Swordsman family of classes.

“We went on and on about the theory behind it, but are there any practical way to use that knowledge” Lucas asked Bruce, sitting at the table in old Loremaster’s office.

“Well, my colleagues are using that knowledge to craft a class for teleports and portals. And you saw how the mercenaries used that knowledge in real life, crafting identical classes for very one of its members, although a low potent ones. Your medic, Margaret, is currently pushing on the boundaries of her class and my guess is that she will soon start crafting her own skill to further the path of her class or get an option to change it. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she even got an Advance class for her effort” Bruce explained

“So technically, I should be able to craft my own skills?” Lucas asked, his mind already working on the challenge.

“You? No. But it is possible and we even saw it” Bruce said.

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“And why exactly you think I’m not able to do it?” Lucas asked, his anger flaring.

“You have neither the knowledge, which can be remedied, nor the skills, for which there is no solution. That is strictly the domain of the Loremasters and I think you are aware, but you don’t have any contact with that family of classes” Bruce patiently explained, ignoring Lucas’s anger.

Just as Lucas opened his mouth to continue arguing, he heard faint click from the door. He quickly turned, bit he found them closed and he couldn’t see anybody behind him. Still, he was certain he heard them opening, so he drew his sword and took defensive posture. Bruce chuckled and the voice was heard, right next to Lucas.

“There is no need for that. But do stay sharp like that” the voice spoke, vaguely familiar to Lucas. Somebody materialized from where the voice came, Lucas recognizing the cloaked figure from the night when he had his altercation with Rosenborg.

“Let me guess, you are head of spy network” Lucas said, his cheeks burning when the memory of his ignorance back at the headquarters of the said spies.

“Good catch. You can call me Goldilocks” the figure said, lowering hood and revealing a feminine face unsurprisingly framed by the curls of blonde hair “I’m sorry for the deception last time we meet, but time was short. And actually, we can argue that semantically it wasn’t a deception, seeing as you are my boss and you do like to know information like that” she said, smiling slightly.

“Well, nice to meet you” Lucas said, deciding to ignore the second part of her introduction.

“You do keep my men busy, you know. You should try to act like a real boss. You know bossing around and not doing anything. I guarantee it’s better than surviving assassination attempts” Goldilocks said.

“I thought the same thing myself” Lucas said, chuckling.

“Anyway, you are late, old man. I had to let myself in” Goldilocks said, turning to Bruce.

“What can I say, being a mentor is taxing. I’m all yours now” Bruce said and Lucas prepared to leave.

“Actually, I would just told you to call Lucas, but that would be dumb as he is already here” the spy said “our friend back at the guild is in a bit of the trouble” she finished, casting a meaningful look at Lucas

“Who exactly?” Lucas asked, clueless about who he is talking about.

“Why the stalwart Rose Leon, of course. It looks like she is currently being framed for murder”

“Framed?” Lucas asked.

“My operative saw with his own eye Rosenborg doing the deed. I put him under constant surveillance after that night in the tavern. But, as you can guess, that isn’t the evidence that would exonerate the woman of the deed, as we don’t exist” the woman spoke.

“Why would Rosenborg do that? Last report predicted he and Leon are on even footing” Lucas asked.

“One of his staunchest supporters and most effective recruiter is the victim.” Goldilocks started explaining

“That would get him a lot of credit and maybe even eliminate Leon completely from the race” Bruce interjected with the explanation of his own, Goldilocks shaking her head.

“It is more devious than that. It would be enough for Leon to stay in the cell, alone and isolated. It would be child play to make that one morning she simply doesn’t wake up” she corrected Bruce

“And what can I do?” Lucas asked, growing frustrated. Rosenborg was on his list, the first and only name. There was no way he will let him win and even if he did, that wouldn’t save him. Lucas was resolved to see the matter through, even if he had to mow down the entire Adventurer’s guild, but he would like that outcome to not come to pass.

“First thing I would suggest is that you go to your Town guard and get her out of there. And then to have a conversation with her, to see what she wants” Goldilocks said

“Ah, I guess my method was a little to effective, scaring the man into action. As we agreed, I started sowing rumors about retaliation that awaited Rosenborg for the attack he made against you. Basically, I leaked the events from that night to the whole settlement. He must have figured it would cost him when the election came and decided to take matter into his own hands” Bruce said, sighing heavily.

“Well then, I guess I’m off to the central plaza. Bruce, can I count on you to gather the rest and send them there?” Lucas asked and was content to see Bruce nodding before exiting from his office and started running towards the headquarters of the Town guard.