The next morning Marcel stood stupefied in front of an empty box at the stable. The gray sickish horse from yesterday had vanished.

He idly scratched his head, and for a second even played with the thought that he had dreamed it all. Despite the leftover pain in his abdomen from yesterday, and the wet sheets he had woken up in this morning, Marcel almost found it more believable that he had dreamed it all then that the horse might’ve been able to walk away.

After at least putting in the token effort of looking around the stables Marcel chalked it up to a case of not his problem. Maybe the creepy guy from last night had simply decided to pick up his horse early this morning.

Instead he decided to simply go about his morning tasks, they kept him from thinking too much.

To his surprise though, he found it unreasonably hard today. He had barely finished sweeping the floor to make the mess called stable at least somewhat presentable, when he found himself in need of a little breather. His clothes were starting to cling to his body from him sweating so much.

Usually he only took a break after he had finished everything. Which included hurling a few pounds of oats towards the thankless animals, brushing them down, and getting fresh water. He couldn’t even think about one of those right now.

To add to that, the animals seemed more skittish around him. Marcel had to pull back his hand twice when brushing down the animals, because a horse snapped after it. Something that hadn’t happened since his second day.

When he finally did carry the giant bags of oats for the animals, he could swear they were heavier than just the day before. Was it a different kind maybe? Despite the recent stat boost from his new class he found himself surprisingly weak.

Just to check Marcel pulled open his status menu again.

“Marcel Houst: [Warrior of Rhea Level 1]”

Str 5

Dex 5

Int 4

Wis 4

End 5

Vit 4

Per 4

Indeed his levels were still showing quite a steep incline. For the first time since arriving in this world Marcel even felt a little proud. Or at least not so embarrassed about his status screen.

But why then, did the work feel so much harder for him today? He had literally more than doubled his Strength and Endurance stat. Was it maybe a coincidence? Getting stabbed and thrown into a canal didn’t exactly constitute the best night of sleep. And he had indeed felt somewhat sluggish this morning.

It took a few moments until it dawned on Marcel. All his skills had been changed as well, each being replaced with brand new ones. That meant there was no more [Cleaning] or [Animal Handling] supporting him. Apparently they had made quite a big difference. More so than actual stats.

Some of his new skills sounded intriguing though, whereas others he wasn’t sure about. All seven of them were back to Level 0, which sucked a little, and none of them seemed to have anything to do with throwing fireballs or lightning around. Although they had technically saved his life yesterday, so he couldn’t complain too much. Besides they were way better than the skills his [Stable Boy] class had given him.

He had no idea what a [Warrior of Rhea] was, but it sounded way cooler than being a stable boy.

“Sir?”

Marcel jumped scared when he suddenly found two guards standing behind him at the stable. He hadn’t heard them approach. They were an odd pair, one of them looked barely old enough to be wearing a uniform, the other grizzled enough to have one foot into retirement.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Gods dammit, has everybody stopped making walking noises all of a sudden?” Marcel clutched a hand to his chest.

The guards shared a look. “What?”

“Nothing. I guess I really have to stop daydreaming so much,” Marcel said. “How can I help you officers?”

He couldn’t help the antagonizing tone from creeping into his voice. There was only one reason why people in uniform usually came to the stables.

“We’re looking for a certain man, and were wondering if you might’ve seen him?”

Marcel raised an eyebrow and gave the men’s uniform a closer look. He hadn’t exactly lived his whole life in this town, but he had been here long enough to recognize the city watches uniform. Those two definitely didn’t belong to the regular city guards nor did they wear the typical tax collectors attire.

What Marcel did recognize though, was the embroidery the two had stuck to their chests. It was the aristocratic guard. They must be here on a special mission.

“Well who are you looking for?”

“Old man, roughly this height.” The man gestured a little below his own forehead. “Average build, a little on the slim side, and completely clad in black.”

“Well that could be almost anybody.”

“He has a horse with him,” the man added helpingly.

Marcel gave him a flat stare. “We’re a stable. All of our clients have horses.”

“Well… but his horse is different you see, it’s uh…”

His colleague sighed audibly, interrupting his fellow. Then he opened his palm and a little hologram appeared, depicting exactly the man from last night. Down to the last detail.

“Damn it Garry you take the fun out of every investigation.”

“I’m sorry but your descriptions are just circumspect. *around this height, average build* what should that even define then.”

“It is the old fashioned way. The way I used to do it before you even joined the forces.”

The younger man rolled his eyes. “Back in the days when they still used trains?”

“Don’t start now with the ageism. Your generation is responsible for us not having trains anymore. And now you want to ruin this as well.”

“Okay, A:Trains were wreaking the environment and if we wouldn’t have stopped that it would’ve slowly killed all the ambient mana, B: what do you mean ruin? Your thing woudl probably get us twenty different leads we all have to investigate.”

“That is where the detective work comes in. That's where the chaff is separated from the weed.”

The younger man rolled his eyes again. Even louder this time.

“Uhh, sorry to interrupt,” Marcel said. “Don’t let me keep you from having your obviously very sexually charged discussions in my horse stable, but I’m afraid I’ve never seen that man.”

“Do you know where we could find him?” The younger man asked.

Marcel shrugged. “Good old detective work maybe?”

“Please not you too…”

Marcel turned around and left them standing, intent to return to his work.

“Sexually charged…” the old man said helplessly.

The afternoon continued in a similar manner as the morning for Marcel. After the men had left he went back to work. Unfortunately it didn’t become much easier. He found out the hard way that the only thing worse than having the smell of horse dung in your nose for the whole day, was having the smell up in your nose and killing yourself while moving mountains of hay.

His increased perception stat didn’t exactly come in handy for ignoring the smell.

It was during this work, while Marcel’s mind was wondering, that a little worry started taking root in his head.

There was one other thing he needed to do first. After the two men had come in looking for the old gentleman from last night, Marcel's thoughts went spiraling.

Just what did these guys want from the nice old man? They had seemed rather easy going, but if he had learned one thing during his life before, it was to not trust guys in uniform too much. Especially if they held real power.

Should he try to warn the guy somehow? There was no way to find him though. What if they were also after him. He had no idea why these people looked for him, but it could certainly be due to his powers at granting classes. Could he also be in their crosshairs maybe?

Marcel just knew too little about how these things worked. He didn’t understand the class systems really, and he had no idea who the old man was. Marcel had no idea who the man was though, but he was pretty sure he was in some way responsible for his class change. In a way he wanted to thank the man.

But then again, there had been something truly unnerving about him. The way he had talked about having judged his character enough. The fact that there now were also guards after him made Marcel uneasy.

He intended to find at least some answers though, which is why his feet were carried to the one place where he felt sure he would get some.It was maybe a cliche. Probably wouldn’t work. But his years of playing RPG’s had taught him the one place where he could search for information.