‘Someone looking for a room to rent… it couldn’t be her, could it?’
I wondered if Clarice would be crazy enough to follow my footprints in the city… during the day and with so many people coming and going, it would be hard to find them. However, I had no idea of the full extent of her abilities.
I opened my door a bit and soon I saw the old lady opened her door and then I face palmed when I saw Clarice there. She was half drunk, but she was still showing her smile as usual.
“Excuse me, Granny. I am looking for someone who might be here and I am also looking for a room to rent.”
“We have some rooms to rent, but I am not going to tell who is here.”
That was odd… the old lady didn’t look that bothered by Clarice’s arrival. Her appearance was obvious, and considering that a bunch of her sons died protecting the city, I imagined that she would have a thing or two against the elves.
“That is fine, thank you very much… Hey, huh? Where did they go?”
Clarice looked to the side and tried to call someone… probably those three, but they were no longer there. She frowned, but soon shrugged. She was too drunk to care. In any case, I wanted to face palm… I could only blame myself for opening my big mouth when Clarice asked about places to rent.
I considered for a moment looking for another place to rent, but it would be too much work, and I had already gotten used to the room and that place. My only option was to make sure that we would reach the next boss and defeat it in the next run.
After one hour, the old lady called me to have dinner… I told her a bunch of times that I liked to eat in my room, but she ignored my words every single time. She called Clarice a couple of times as well, but she only heard the sound of her snoring in her room.
‘She wasn’t lying…’
“Do you know her?”
“... More or less.”
“I heard that a weird elf girl was walking around town, looking for a party to dive into the dungeon, but it looked like she picked your eyes.”
“Not mine, the other guys at my temporary party.”
I had a lot of things to do, so I didn’t take my time eating my meal. Three days to prepare wasn’t nearly enough if I truly wished to get another class in the next run. Since people wouldn’t find me in this dungeon for long, I might as well go all-out to achieve my goals.
Combat classes were very useful, but since I hadn’t prepared to get those in years of preparation, it was a bit hard to use them well. Perhaps it was because I was getting them too fast… even in the Knights Academy, the kids there only took one class per year in order to get used to the skills and add them properly to their fighting style.
“What are the names of the people that are your party? They must be pretty young if they are stupid enough to work with an Elf.”
“... Their names are Jalal, Gao, and Rebecca.”
I didn’t find any reason to hide that kind of information. That wouldn’t change anything, after all. Regardless, I saw the old lady’s face twitching for a moment.
“Do you know them?”
“... Yes… Jalal is my stupid grandson.”
It wasn’t like I didn’t consider that there was a small chance that they were connected. There weren’t many parties around with ages that were around the age of grandkids for the old lady. Still, that raised some questions. I could understand why the old lady wouldn’t hold a grudge against all Elves. She was mature enough to know that Clarice wasn’t the one who killed her sons.
That didn’t explain why Jalal didn’t treat Clarice badly. He should know that Elves were the ones who caused the death of his father and uncles, and perhaps even his mother. He didn’t seem particularly bright or understanding, even though he was the final caller of the party.
“How is he? Does he look like he is about to die anytime soon? That might make him give up on living that kind of stupid life. No offense.”
“He only got minor wounds so far. They probably would be in a bind if it weren’t for me and Clarice. A party of three is too small for a challenge at this level. Our party won’t last forever, but they should be able to do it fine for a while if they don’t try to overreach or get careless.”
“Those three are too stupid for that. It will eventually happen… Why do kids these days only think of having fun and becoming famous instead of living a peaceful and regular life?”
One can’t blame them, for one, kids usually don’t do it well with rules. Most of them think that they are stupid and that they are above what is considered normal, so it is necessary that they suffer a bit to learn how difficult the world can be. I wished that things weren’t like that, but they were…
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In any case, once I was done with dinner, I resumed my work, but I was so tired that soon I fell asleep. I woke up before sunrise and soon resumed my work. With a fresh perspective, I was able to have a good idea…
Scorching Bone Bow (Epic)
Enchantment Slots: Flames (Expert), Flames (Expert), Flames (Expert). (Increases the power of flame-enchanted arrows by 60%)
Bonus Effects: Eagle Eye - Provides an increase in range and accuracy of 20%, allowing the archer to shoot from great distances with little penalty.
Blazing Strike - Enhances the power and effects of fire-enchanted arrows by fifty percent. Fire arrows explode upon impact, dealing AoE fire damage within a small radius.
Attack: 100
Durability: 50/50
I didn’t have any idea of a gimmick for the bow, but I had to do the arrows. I changed their shape a bit, to make them look like hooks that were once used to hunt whales. It was a bit of a cruel way to do things, but I was dealing with monsters, so it was better to be serious about it.
I could tell that my crafting skills had improved, but I didn’t know if it was thanks to the Weaponsmith class or thanks to my increased dexterity.
‘I bet that changing my bolts like this and attaching a rope to it will do quite the damage… another idea to write down.’
Before breakfast, I finished my job and then I went to eat. Clarice didn’t show up again, but the old lady was checking on her. She probably wasn’t used to drinking that much, or maybe she was just plain dumb.
“Are Elves that weak at alcohol?”
“I am not sure. I never heard of an Elf drinking in the city. She is something else. Anyway, she probably will stay like this until night.”
Clarice was weird in all senses of the word. While she was also a walking magnet to trouble, she didn’t give me bad vibes. Then again, few people passed such vibes to me. I couldn’t say for sure, since it could be that thing… the halo effect.
The halo effect is a cognitive bias where people’s overall impression of someone, often based on a single trait like physical attractiveness, influences how they perceive other qualities of that person. In this case, physical beauty leads to the assumption that the person is more trustworthy, competent, or kind, even if there’s no evidence to support those traits. I was fooled by that a bunch of times…
Regardless, I decided to check the shops in the city with more caution this time and try to invest in some nice enchantments. I didn’t think that we needed new ones to deal with the fire crows, but it was always good to have more cards in our hands.
‘Hm?’
I looked over my shoulder since I felt something weird… but I found nothing aside from people coming and going. It felt like something slimy was on my back, but that was definitely my imagination.
‘I felt like this before… Where was it again?’
I had a hard time recalling it, so it definitely wasn’t some place nearby or recently. Eventually, I recalled that I felt something similar when I was in that dungeon where the assassins ambushed us to kill Louise.
I wondered if someone was watching me or if I sensed the presence of an assassin. In a place like that, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that people from other organizations would be around. They were probably trying to obtain some useful information. In any case, I wondered if they were from the Unseen Arrow or the Twilight Brotherhood.
‘I want to think that I can’t be on the Unseen Arrow’s radar, but when we are working with Clarice… it is very likely that it is indeed true.’
She was definitely someone important and someone was watching over her from the shadows, but would they be doing that inside the dungeon? It was hard to believe that we wouldn’t notice that… with Clarice’s eyes, she probably would have noticed that too.
That was annoying. We had to worry about that kind of stuff. Regardless, I wasn’t able to focus on my shopping, so I decided to return to my room and think about what I could do about that. I checked my status screen for some sort of clue of what I could do…
Name: Regulus Dawnshield
Race: Dhampir
Health: 70/70
Regen: 0.1 per hour
Mana: 130/130 (0/1400)
Regen: 4.9 per minute (0/3400) (1.3)
Stamina: 210/210 (0/2200)
Regen: 3.8 per minute (0/3900)
Strength: 27 (0/2500) (1.1)
Dexterity: 108 (0/5400) 2.0x
Spirit: 05 (0/600)
Movement Speed: 8.5 (0/3700) 1.1
Stamina Conservation: 0.3 (0/3000)
Traits: Minor Weakness to Sunlight, Minor Sensitivity to Holy Magic, Minor Aversion to Silver
Classes: Archer, Explorer, Dark Scrollmaker, Fletcher, Mystic Tattoist, Bowyer, Hunter, Enchanter, Dual Wielder, Merchant, Bolt Crafter, Smith, Weaponsmith, Assassin, Rogue,
Aptitudes: Precision Training, Master of Exploration, Magical Scroll Creator, Master of Archery Craft, Arcane Artist, Master of Bowcraft, Unseen Hunter, Arcane Craftsmanship, Swift Strikes, Master of Trade, Precision Engineering, Master of Forging, Master of Blades, Shadow Mastery, Sneak,
Experience: 599
Nothing came to mind, but soon I had another idea and then walked back to the old lady’s home without a care. When I turned to the street where her house was, I used a camouflage scroll and then hid in the shadow of an alley. I kept using the scrolls several times to keep myself hidden. Eventually, I heard some light footsteps approaching, but soon they stopped moving.
Before long, the footsteps began to move away, and then I went to check things in the direction I came from… I found nothing there aside from some people in the distance doing their own thing.
‘Did they use camouflage too?’
I tried to sharpen my senses to deal with that, but I didn’t notice anything odd… My Camouflage skill wasn’t at that high level, so they probably noticed me. I clicked my tongue in annoyance and decided to return to the old lady’s house.