Thief is my last specialised basic class. The book explained it as a Basic Class, like Rogue, Warrior, etc., followed by Specialised Basic, so Thief, Swordsman, and my Illusionist Class. Then there are the Advanced Classes and Specialised Advanced Classes, and then there are Rare classes. There are higher classes, but they are only hinted at.

The difference between Advanced and Specialised Advanced is not in the attributes they give, but in the bonuses they give. Because Spectral Slayer and Seeker are not listed in the books I read, I don’t know if they are Advanced or Specialised Advanced. It doesn’t make any practical difference to me; they are what they are, and they do what they do.

I hoped some skills I learned and levelled would allow Thief to advance. They did, and the resulting class was in the books as a Specialised Advanced Class. I went from a Level 19 Thief to a Level 1 Pilferer. My total level dropped, which was a bit depressing, and I only got two skills from it. BUT, what amazing skills they are!

No, neither were skills. One was an Ability called Helping Hand. This Hand could be made from Mana, but it might also be made from Light, Shadow, or Death. At Level 1, it was about the length of my arm and could hold the weight of a small knife. At each level, it could grow longer and hold more, PLUS, I got an additional hand every second level.

This will make pickpocketing a breeze. It will make pilfering a breeze. The hands could access my storage, and I could hand out potions without pausing my fight. Or feed me a potion without pausing. I can do so many things, and all the arms are Incorporeal. I can reach through walls! I am not sure if I can take objects through walls, but that can be tested right now.

The answer is... only objects that can be fully enclosed by the hand. That is OK. They will get bigger as the hand grows and becomes more flexible. Speaking of making them flexible, I can’t change the shape of the hand much at level 1. That will come, I think. What I can do at level 1 is give the hand claws. I can slash against Light with my shadows and vice versa, and I can infect something with Death magic with my Death hand—added damage at no extra cost.

And that is only the first thing.

The second thing makes three alterations to another of my abilities. It alters Storage in three ways. The first is a straight-up doubling of space with the addition of the Thieves Cache. Doubling at each level.

The second addon is called Golden Plunder. It opens Storage to the world in the form of a display stand where I can display goods for sale. The goods remain untouchable in my storage, but they can be appraised. I can pull them out if I want to sell them. It is a salesman's stall where I can sell my loot.

I am wondering if Ranar’s Emporium is an advanced version of this.

The third add-on got me the most excited. It was a Disguise Wardrobe. I could wear a disguise and then activate the Disguise Wardrobe, which would store it directly. When I wanted that disguise, it would equip it exactly as I had stored it, including false teeth, ears, wigs, boobs, etc.

The first ‘disguise’ I stored was my Dance of Death armour and weapons. Pretending to be warriors was fairly normal. I could only have one disguise per level of storage, so at this time, I could only have five disguises. I stored the nobleman with the overbite, the old lady, and the young crafts lady. There are old people around, and they are always non-adventurers. Adventurers either die young or slow their ageing after level 50. I debated the last disguise but settled on normal casual street clothes.

I could switch from normal clothes to my armour, to an old lady, to a noble, to a young crafting apprentice, all one after the other, and it took about a second each. This was fantastic.

I was so glad I took Mimic Sound to make these people come alive. I can act, and now I sound like the person as well. I played around with that for a long time, practising switching and acting. I really wanted to show the skill off, but it needed to remain a secret.

I remember Ranar saying the Wardrobe would not be available until Storage reached Level 7. There are obviously exceptions to that, and maybe it is limited to five because Storage is under-levelled. Maybe when I get to Level 7, it will open up. I can’t wait.

I have a week to practice my disguises and my new skills in the Trial before we leave for the Happy Farm. Sorry, I meant Merryport.

The first thing I did was borrow a Tailor's shop with mirrors and create Copy Images of each of my disguises, including the ones I did not have in my wardrobe. Then I can Project and Animate those images and now I can even add sound with Mimic Sound and Voice Throw. Now, I am starting to feel ready.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I don’t want my new abilities to get out, so I decided to solo the trial and test out everything. That night, I sneak past the guards and drop down the hole.

Technically, I am only level nine now. Maybe the trial will give me more rewards for fighting above my level, or, more probably, it will recognise my strength and give me fewer rewards. Knowing Trials, it will be the second.

In order to level my new Pilferer Class, I need XP and to steal something significant. The Pilferer class gives significant bonuses to agility, dexterity, and all my movement skills, including cat reflexes, ambidextrous, and light speed. I mean all my movement skills, and I have fifteen of them. It is pretty amazing.

I equip my Haladie and Lightreaver. I am close to finalising my own knife technique with the Haladie, and this is a good opportunity to refine it. I move into the first rat chamber and just start to get used to my new movement speed. I dance. I am pleased I have not finalised the knife technique, as Sleight-of-hand has something significant to add. The Steel Serpent Technique is about snaking around defences, but Sleight-of-hand means the knives are not where you expect them to be. It adds a layer of trickery and deception that I like. It needs refining, too, as there are wasteful and unnecessary moves. I have time and a whole trial.

The chamber is cleared too quickly. I get out my mining equipment and go over the chamber in careful detail. I mine every crystal I can sense. I have figured out how to weave a ward to draw power from a crystal, so I need as many crystals as possible. Using the section of the vault door ward, I repaired I have the trigger for the ward and using the safe I opened, I have one effect I can cause. The effect will come from the powering source at this time. I haven’t figured out how to imbue my own effect yet, but I am close.

In the next chamber, I start experimenting with my Helping Hand. It feels natural to use, like a normal hand. Ambidextrous works with it, so it can work independently. It is not strong, so it doesn’t work well with a knife, although the skills work with it. It is just not that powerful. It is more a utility tool than a weapon. Using it to make monsters flinch is better than cutting them with it. Tripping and tossing darts work fine to distract the opposition. The claws of the Death Hand probably cause the most damage. I am looking forward to fighting people and them reaching for a knife or potion only to find I have stolen it.

I encounter the first shadow creatures here, as two of them materialise near the end of the fight. I switch my hand to a light one, which is effective and damages the shadow creatures.

All in all, it is a successful testing chamber. I get to harvesting and mining.

I do something different in the next chamber. This one is bigger, and there are more rats, two shadows, and one fire creature. I pulse out, Provoking Aura to get them all to come to me, and then I bring down the Nights Embrace. They get a little confused, and their movements get a little sluggish. Then I chant the spell Umbral Cold. They slow down again, and I see their muscles shiver in the cold. These skills have good synergy and will only improve as they level. I move through the slow, shivering rats, putting them out of their misery.

This is possibly better than manipulating and slowing time. Umbral Cold would not work with Time as it is not Shadows, and Night’s Embrace dulls the senses as well.

The shadow and fire Creatures are not affected by Night's Embrace but teh fire are affected by Umbral Cold. I deal with them early. The Shadows are easy with my light, and the fire takes longer. The Fire Creature actually negated Umbral Cold on the rats near it. That was new information.

Each floor of the trial was larger than the previous version. Many teams would skip side chambers and go for the boss, but this time, I went systematically from chamber to chamber and cleared everything, including the crystals in the tunnels.

I started using my new images to trigger ambushes and distract as I wanted to incorporate them into my fighting again. I had not been using them with the students and didn’t want them to know about them. It is time to get back into using all my skills

Kill. Harvest. Mine.

I practised, tested different skills and combinations, and refined my new technique. Learning fighting techniques that have already been established and proven to be effective has benefits. The Three Steps unarmed technique was proof of that. It provided excellent footwork for almost everything else.

Making your own technique is even better in my book. It combines my unique skills in ways that are uniquely me, making them hard to predict and counter. It also makes the best use of my combinations—well, I keep refining them until I think they are the best use. Because I created the technique, I can continue to tweak it in small ways. You can’t do that with techniques made by others.

By the time I got to the Rat King, I could name my knife technique, but I didn’t yet. There were still things that could be better. I don’t want to lock it down until I have the best version I can for now.

I controlled the Rat King's swarms with Nights Embrace and Umbral Cold. I turned on the Rejuvenating Aura, which was really close to my body, as it would boost my body to heal small wounds without the distraction of Minor Regeneration.

I Provoked the Boss and worked on perfecting my new techniques as we fought. I wore him down and got a Rattail whip for my trouble. I have had a lot of those.