The guild master checked the area and then sighed in relief when he confirmed that everyone was alive and the girl was unscathed. He would obviously get in trouble if she had suffered even just some small wounds.

Before long, he laid his eyes on me and studied me with a serious expression… I immediately understood that his Identification could bypass my magic implement to hide my identity and information. Still, he soon looked away… I truly hoped that he didn’t use that skill on me.

As it turned out, those guys didn't arrive earlier because four of the assassins stayed behind to get in their way. Even though the guild master killed each one of them instantly, their guerrilla tactics made them lose some time. They also killed a scout earlier, which caused the guild master to decide to come in person.

Thanks to the presence of those guys, we finally had the chance to rest properly… after four days without a single proper night of sleep, we finally had the chance to sleep once and then three days later, we finally left the dungeon.

Outside, we didn't find any signs of battles, but we had heard that the guards of the dungeon were poisoned and one of them was missing... one didn't have to be a genius to know what happened. That kind of incident can end with the deaths of a lot of people connected to the perpetrator.

‘I won't accept this kind of offer again, I won't accept this kind of offer again, I won't accept this kind of offer again…’

“Are you listening, Clive?”

“... Yes,”

“Are you going to accept the offer, then? We need some good archers to defend our city from attacks, we will pay you better.”

“As I said, I have a contract to fulfill…”

At some point, the girl pestered me to work for her… she finally revealed her name and confirmed my guess. Her name was Louise, Louise Garnier… She was truly one of the kids of the head of the Garnier house. I had heard Gerald's mother mentioning that name once… and she said something about a prodigy. That didn't matter, what truly mattered was that she was Gerald's aunt… even though he was supposed to be older.

‘Middle age families were a mess like this too… I heard that some of them didn't have family trees, they had family wreath.’

She decided to introduce herself to me before trying to recruit me. I helped her a bit during the fights as well, so she probably wanted to do me a favor. Just staying away from me would be enough, but I couldn't say that out loud.

“Well, the train must be departing soon and my boss will skin me alive if I don't work even a bit today. Seven days off was everything she gave me.”

Mixing a bunch of lies and half-truths sure was a bit troubling, but as long as they helped me avoid more troublesome situations, I wouldn't mind. Besides, nothing good would come out of being honest... it was truly a weird situation, where being honest could lead me to endless problems.

“Wait, it will tarnish my family name if I don't repay you properly for helping us when you were just tagging along.”

“Those three did more than me, you can split with them whatever rewards you have in store for me.”

“Rose.”

“Yes, my Lady.”

The maid suddenly appeared in front of me. She had a blank expression on her face, but that didn't make her any less scary. I wanted to run for the hills if I ever saw someone like that again.

“You can have this. Being unable to carry enough arrows is a problem.”

The maid showed in her hands something that I truly wanted… it was a magic bag. It looked like a small and ordinary bag people would usually use to carry potions, but it was enough to carry a lot more than that since one could put things enough to fill a box three meters long and wide.

“I couldn't possibly accept it… the fact that I survived without a single scratch is more than enough of a reward.”

“It isn't enough then? Give me your address and I will send a better one then.”

“I gratefully accept it, then…”

After taking the bag, I dashed to the train station…. Fortunately, the sound of the approaching train was heard and they decided not to stop me any further.

… …

“My Lady…”

“Yes, he probably had a combat class before coming to this dungeon and had enough time to train for it as well. I am not sure if his boss paid that for him, but he is no ordinary boy.”

“I sensed from him a smell that I never felt before…”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Well, he doesn't want to get involved with nobles and he must have his reasons. I can at least spare him that much trouble to repay my debt.”

“It made sense as to why you kept staring at him, even though he wasn't that strong, but skilled with a bow. Well, enough about him for now. We need to discover who let out the information about me coming here… unless we deal with this silently, Father might start a war with the Talimor kingdom.”

“It will be done, at once.”

… …

I sighed in relief when I got onto the train… I checked my back just in case to confirm that the maid wasn't nearby or behind me. Since I couldn't sense her eyes, I was clear.

‘What rotten luck…’

Louise also told me that I could look for work from her later… as if I would sell my freedom to nobles after leaving that mansion. I felt like sighing… and then let out a sigh. Hopefully, she will be busy looking for the perpetrator of this incident… otherwise, I could imagine her looking for me to repay more for my help or to try to recruit once again. Hopefully, she won't have much free time for it, but knowing my luck, I couldn't be certain.

‘I can't leave the shop for another year, after all… disappearing now would make me suspicious too. What a massive pain in the ass…'

At least I got a magic bag from this and that will help me a lot. I used Identification and confirmed that it was an uncommon one. The common ones could only store one cubic meter worth of things. The next rank increased its efficiency by two hundred percent. Creating those were pretty hard and I heard that the best one of was of the Epic rarity rank. Still, they used enchantments, and I could do that too... which was my goal to study it.

Eventually, I returned to Ironcliff and as one would expect, Ovelia thought that I had run away, she calmed down when she saw my bow and then I resumed working. I didn't want to talk about what had happened, but she kept pestering me.

“I see… it seems that my plan almost cost you your life.”

“I returned unscathed, though.”

“That changes nothing… I should have pressed for more information. If I knew that Louise Garnier would be there, I could have imagined that something would have happened, but not something of this scale.”

“Is she that important? Aside from being one of the daughters of the head of the Garnier house?”

“People say that she is a pretty good dual wielder, she even received training in the order of the sword maidens.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It makes sense, it was only created ten years ago. People said that it was created to create a guard, especially for the queen and the princess… Anyway, the head of the Garnier house only has two daughters and no male heir. He is only a Viscount, but people still frown upon letting a woman take the lead of the family, even more so when she only studied how to fight and not how to manage a territory like that.”

She had a good head, but she was still young… in any case, her sister already had a son when she was born, so her father probably didn't think that she would be his last heir… otherwise, he wouldn't have let her follow such a path.

“If she appreciated your skill, then you would have made your name serving her family.”

“We had a deal, I prefer to make things instead of following orders to fight those who aren't really my enemies.”

That wasn't all… I was considering leaving this country earlier after I experienced after the battle. The assassins deserved to die since they aimed for our lives, but even I couldn't get behind the treatment their corpses received… everyone looked at the heads with utter disdain and disgust… not because they were assassins, but because they were half humans… half-orcs, half-elves, half dwarves… one of the adventurers even kicked and smashed the heads of one of the assassins. No one tried to stop him or even showed their disapproval in their eyes.

Ovelia didn't say anything after that, but she studied me a bit. Regardless, a new contract had to be signed… I had to work for her for another year. Aside from my usual payment, I asked her for some skill books about enchanting, just waiting for my skill to level up would take too long and since that was another investment for her, she readily accepted. More advanced enchantments would give me more experience too, so it was fine.

The contract became like this, I had to produce six rare bows with enchantments daily. That was easy since with my Dexterity, I could make one in half an hour. The enchantments were a bit more complicated since I didn't have mana cores to use, but occasionally, some clients brought some from monsters and even bosses to increase the enchantment's ranks as well. Still, I managed after increasing my mana regeneration and using the rings that Ovelia granted me.

Each one of those enchanted bows granted me two Terra coins, so I was making money pretty fast. I also was only working four to six hours per day, so I had enough time for my own projects.

I checked my notes and the things I had planned to make for myself in the future. I could make some simple things, but I still needed some other skills. Every month, Ovelia would give me a skill book with information about enchanting. Finishing reading them made my skills gain a bunch of experience and I also learned some new enchantments, but they weren't enough.

‘Classes like smith, weaponsmith, and armorsmith exist in this world and I can finally know why it is the case. They have limited knowledge of their respective fields. A blacksmith can make all of those, but they can't do everything, even as a class… those have evolutions too, and for a good reason. The specialized classes also help when creating certain types of gear of higher rarity ranks.’

Frostbite: Infuses the weapon with a chilling aura, dealing cold damage and slowing the target’s movement slightly on hit.

Spark: Charges the weapon with electricity, dealing lightning damage on hit and briefly stunning the enemies.

Venomous Edge: Coats the weapon in magical poison, dealing minor poison damage over time to the target after each strike.

Lightweight: Reduces the weapon's weight, allowing faster strikes and reduced fatigue for the wielder.

Sharpness: Enhances the weapon’s blade, increasing its cutting power and base damage for cleaner, more lethal strikes.

Knockback: Adds a forceful impact to the weapon’s blows, pushing enemies back on hit and disrupting their balance.

Those were the enchantments I learned… they were only for weapons, though. I wanted more utility ones, but the goal of the shop was to arm the guards of the town against the attacks. So, it couldn’t be helped. However, when I completed the list of lesser enchantments, something good happened when the class reached level ten.

You have learned a new skill in the Enchanter class.

Arcane Transference: Transfer an enchantment from one item to another, allowing you to move powerful magical effects without losing power. The success of the transference depends on the level of enchantment and the quality of the items involved. Cost: 100 Mana