I am an Idiot. As I sat there recovering, I thought about the fight. “I am an idiot,” I reiterated, this time out loud. I am letting the Slayer Class lead me around like an idiot warrior, and I am not an idiot warrior. I am a smart thief.

I could have avoided this fight. If I had been moving in stealth with Light wrapped around me, I could have backed out of this room and not fought and almost died. I could have figured out a way to steal that crown from the orc’s head. Maybe I would have needed to take the head with me, but that would have been better than stomping in here like I bloody owned the place. Arrogant like an idiot warrior.

Sure, I have been fighting undead who can sense through stealth, but there is more than undead here. There are Infernals and Orcs, both of whom I can sneak around. I am an idiot, and I am letting the Slayer Class change me. I need to get back to my roots, get back to being a thief.

I have been waiting to level my Spectral Slayer Class, and for that, I need Basic Longsword to max out, but I am an idiot. I have been raking in the experience, and I have another class I can level. I have the experience to level Thief twice, so why don’t I?

I am a bit scared. What happens if this trial hijacks my Thief class into something weird? I steel myself and feed the XP into Thief. It levels normally to 15. I guess all my new skills are fighting skills, not thieving skills, so I do it again.

I now have eight attribute points to spend. I only need to use five to bring my strength up to 35 to use the new weapons… Think about it. Do I need more strength and not just to use the weapons? That is the Slayer Class talking. Climbing the wall, I needed more Strength. The Zombie Guards are stronger than me. The orcs definitely were. Being able to use the swords and the shield would help, especially the shield.

I put five into strength, two into intelligence, and one into wisdom. Intelligence and Wisdom will improve my Light Skills. Then I noticed my Constitution had gone up two points. That must be from the damage I took.

By the time Basic Longsword is maxed out I will have enough XP to level Spectral Slayer.

Okay. Good. I get out the shield and practice the dance moves, and then I do the same with the paired swords. My Ambidextrous lets me use the swords competently, but I really could do it with a technique for them. From everything I have collected to date, they are the weapons that will deal the most damage.

I browsed the skill list, but three points are still not enough for anything decent.

1. Stop and Think. Think like a thief. This is the Throne room. There are going to be some hidden caches here. There will be defensive weapons for the Monarch if they are attacked in the middle of an audience with their plebs. These will be close to the throne or behind the throne, where the monarch will retreat to the back room.

I start examining the throne itself. The armrests are where I would put a knife or two. This is where Spectral Vision and the See-thru part comes into play. Mana's Sensitivity enhances this, and there are enchantments all over the throne. The more I look, the more I want to take the whole throne with me, but I can’t. Storage would have to level a lot, and something this large and magical may never fit.

I found a knife under the righthand armrest. It was a named weapon as well and paired. Lightreaver was a fighting dagger made from a metal I did not recognise. It was almost a short sword, and my mana Sensitivity and the Appraisal said it came with +1 Dexterity and self-repair. Self-repair was unusual on a weapon. The dagger was designed for speed strikes. Now, where is its pair?

I found the pair, Shadowbane. It was a sword cleverly hidden in the back of the throne. It was a double-bladed longsword with a straight blade. I found that interesting as more than half of the swords I have found here are single-bladed and slightly curved. It was only made to be wielded with a single hand, which made sense if it was paired with a dagger, but again, most swords I have found were capable of being used with two hands. It had +1 Agility and Self Repair. The metal for both the dagger and the sword was light. They were designed for fast movement.

Oh, sweet goddess. These two weapons are not just named weapons; they are soul-bound weapons. The damage was as good as the blood brothers, but being soul-bound, they would grow and change with me. I fed mana into them and bound them right away.

I appraised them as a soul-bound pair, and there was more to the appraisal.

Lightreaver Dagger: +2 Dexterity, Self Repair, Radiant Counterpart.

Shadowbane Sword: +2 Agility, Self-Repair, Radiant Counterpart.

Radiant Counterpart was interesting. I would need to explore what that meant, but radiant was obviously a reference to light, and a counterpart is a copy or duplicate or where two parts complement each other and work together. It seemed these would work well with my light abilities, but now I just need to work out how.

I guess it made sense the monarch would have his soul weapons close to them when they were in public. This was the sort of thing you rob palaces for. They were worth a fortune, but now they were mine. The Shadow Dance Technique would be fantastic with these weapons.

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Then I stopped. Shit. If the king finds out I have soul-bound weapons from the ancient monarch of the Al’rashian, he will take them. They are soul-bound to me, and the easiest way for him to take them would be to send my soul to the gods so he can have them for himself. I will need to be careful to hide these until I leave the kingdom. Then, I will still need to be careful as they are great weapons, and others will just want them.

That is alright. I can be careful. I am a clever thief and not an arrogant warrior. I strap them to my belt. They will be my main weapons while I am in this trial.

I carefully searched the throne again. There was a trap. I carefully disarmed the trap, and a small compartment opened. Inside was a ring. I appraised the ring.

Signet Ring of the Al’rashian Monarchy

????

Oh, this is definitely one of the items of the Monarch’s Raiment. It was a gold ally band with a large red gem surrounding my smaller gems of different types and colours. It would barely fit on a finger. My appraisal couldn’t determine the properties of the ring. Mana Sensitivity said it was heavily enchanted, but I could not access those enchantments.

I pulled out the Crown. It was made of similar materials and had similar gems. I guess it had meaning to Al’rasians. I Appraised it.

Crown of the Al’rashian Monarchy

????

Maybe you need to be Al’rashian to access their properties or a descendant of Al’rashian Royalty or something. It certainly didn’t work for a random human thief.

I went over the throne again, but I could not find anything else. It's time to move onto the room. I start with the floor around the throne. There are enchantments there, but no secret stashes.

I moved to the back wall by the obvious exit door for the monarch. I say obvious exit door because I am betting there are hidden doors for troops to swarm in and the monarch to exit unexpectedly. There was a false panel by the door that I only found with Spectral Vision (See-thru), and there was a stash of greater potions: three mana, three Stamina, four health, two purification, and several anti-venom potions of various types. These will sell for a fortune to alchemists who will try to figure them out.

They may also keep me alive. If I need them, I will use them. They all go into my Storage. I love that ability.

I don’t go through the door for now but start working my way around the room.

I find a hidden door just in front of the throne, and it opens easily. There is a large room behind the door. It is obviously a staging room for troops, probably ten or so. I imagine I will find a similar room on the other side of the throne room. The one had already been looted as someone came in through the troop entrance and raided the place. I check anyway. There is an upper platform but no ladder. I climb up, and there are slits that can me opened for archers. There are quivers of arrows but no bows or anything. It all goes into my storage.

I check the other side of the throne room, and the set up is mirrored there. It has also been raided, but I do find two short bows on the upper platform.

I work my way around the room, but I don’t find anything else. I am looking for trap doors and escape routes, and I am puzzled that is all I find.

Then I realised what an idiot I was. I looked up. The ceiling above the throne end of the room was lower than the rest of the room. The taller walls were for the archers, but why the lower part if not for an escape route?

I pull out the orc’s spear and start poking it at the ceiling panels. That sounds hollow. I move the furniture to give me some height and climb up, and the trapdoor opens up, so the person escaping only needs to jump up at the right spot to get up there. I could do it easily.

I climbed up, and this was large enough for someone to stand. There was a nice carpet on the floor. This was for the monarch. I looked around carefully. I found a potion cupboard stocked the same as the one below. There was a fancy bow and two quivers of arrows. There were more knives and swords. They were good quality, but nothing named. The Al’rashians are a warrior culture, and the monarch is no less than the others.

It is time to see where this leads. I moved forward with full stealth and light manipulation. I can learn from my mistakes. The small but comfortable room turned into a short corridor and then opened into a more public room from a hidden door. We were one floor up from the throne room. This is probably the dressing room. It had been raided and trashed.

However, I am not here for the obvious but the hidden. I am betting there are more weapons here and probably more potions.

I found the potion cupboard, but it had been broken into and raided. I found the hidden weapons locker. Al’rashians are paranoid. I smiled. I am doing very well from all this.

I decided to follow the wide, richly decorated corridor as it probably led to the living chambers. It used to be richly decorated. A few meters down the corridor, a fire ripped through the area. My Mana sensitivity indicated the fire had been controlled by some sort of enchantments and was limited in scope.

I had a chance to test out Lightreaver and Shadowbane when I came across some Zombie Guards. My stealth and light didn’t fool them, but I kept it up anyway. My new soul-bound equipment was amazing.

The living chamber might have been protected from the fire but not from the destructive raiders. Walls had been smashed, and the place had been torn apart. The floor was stone, but following on from the throne room, I bet the ceiling was the place to look.

The ceiling was the place to look. The ceiling was absolutely the place to look. My Observant Eyes, Spectral Vision and Mana Sensitivity all levelled when I found it. This is why I became a thief. This is what I love doing.

This door was heavily trapped, and I had to get something to stand on to reach. My Disarm Trap and Mana Disruption both levelled and it took me an hour of careful work to open this without it killing me. This is how I prefer to risk my life. My brain is figuring out how to get into where somebody doesn’t want me, and I am smart. I am a good thief!

When the trap door finally opened, a ladder lowered. What have you got for me this time?