Of course, nothing happened when I stepped into the village as I was still wrapping light around me, and I had re-cast Self-clean to remove any smell. I looked around with my Observant Eye.

There was an open square just inside the gates, and around the square were dilapidated one-story buildings. It looked like they could have been shops, craft people's workshops, and accommodations. Planks of wood were missing, and roofs were generally fallen in. The floors look rotted out as well.

I used seak to move around and get an idea of the layout and how many creatures there might be. These buildings were the best of them, and further back were small huts and hovels, some of which did not have a lot remaining.

The layout was a couple of larger lanes and then a small alley between buildings where walls were still standing. The walls of the mud hovels stood the test of time better than the wooden buildings. Nothing was left of their roofs, which probably had been thatched or similar. Some buildings were just a pile of rubble.

There were imps, a lot of imps. There were Infernal Lynxes, and I couldn’t get too close to them, or their noses would start twitching despite my self-cleaning. There were three Lesser Devils. They had fangs, horns, and hooved feet. The Lessor Devils were spread out throughout the village, and I would start the fight by removing one of them. They were the strongest and highest-level creatures here.

I retreated to a hovel that still had all its walls but no roof and planned my opening moves. Plan A was if I could kill it without alerting any other beast, and they got more complicated from there. There was going to be a lot of improvisation later, but that was normal and I was well practiced.

I would start with a two-handed sword strike, but I had my knives close by, especially my throwing knives. My throwing knives were my only way to take out the archers from a distance, and I had a limited supply of them. I still had a few rocks, but not many.

I gripped the sword and waited, and waited, and wai… Now, I dashed out and performed a two-handed sword thrust into the heart of the Lesser Devil, using my Thrust Skill. This was successful but didn’t stop it from squealing loudly and moving violently.

I grabbed a knife with my offhand and used Razor Edge for the first time to cut his throat and silence him. He, in turn, had turned around, and I barely held onto my sword, but I did, and it came out of his body. How much constitution does this devil have? As he turned, he struck at me with his claws, and my poor abused chainmail gave up and was torn off, leaving me momentarily off balance and claw marks on my chest that started bleeding. I lost control of the light and became visible.

I stabbed his body with the sword and cut his arm with the knife, and then I did it again. He finally went down. I could feel Minor Regeneration working at the claw marks, and I looked down because they should have been shallow cuts. The skin around the cuts was turning black from some sort of poison or death skill, and the Minor Regeneration was fighting it.

Shit. “Fuck you, Trial!” I yelled regardless of the consequences. I needed to save more mana as if I ran out, Minor Regeneration would stop working, and the poison would kill me. This will also take longer for Minor Regeneration to fight and heal.

The trial answered my yell as my head was violently jerked forward as an arrow bounced off my helmet.

I would have to be careful with my illusions and Light manipulation. I started to move as Imps were running toward me. I was with an unfamiliar dance partner, and I felt awkward and stiff. I dodged another toothpick arrow, decapitated an imp with my sword, and then cut the tendons on another's arm with my knife. I was pushing my Clever Hands Skill in doing this, but I knew I needed to push things.

I moved into an ally out of line or sight of the archers and killed the imp coming down it. Then, I turned around to fight backwards as they followed me. I was not used to the length of the sword, and it hit the mud wall when I turned. I need to learn new moves from my dance partner.

The sword's reach was great against the Imps, even with the alley's restricted movement. I left two more dead as I exited the alley and ducked, bringing my sword up to rake the Lynx that pounced at me.

My acrobatics turned the duck into a roll, and I came to my feet as the lynx turned to ponce again. It was bleeding from the cut. More imps were coming out of the ally.

Regeneration was still fighting this poison. It was a strong one.

I used my Flash Skill to blind my opponents temporarily and struck at the lynx before it could recover, Thrusting my sword deep into its body and slicing its neck with my knife. I think that I finished it, but I didn’t stop to check.

I anticipated this rolling, moving fight, but I had to be careful. One thing I absolutely need to avoid right now is engaging another Devil. If they can stack the poison on me, it will overwhelm the Minor Regeneration, and that will be the end for me.

I move and cut. I was thinking and saving my mana. I would need to break from this fight and rest soon and I will need a hunk of mana to do that.

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A toothpick arrow pierced my shoulder, and I ripped it out. Another thing Regereation will need to work on. Any stacking damage will keep Regeneration working and eat at my mana pool.

I sliced, stabbed, parried, dodged, and slowly started learning my new dance partner. I left bodies and limbs behind me, but I was careful to stay in the same general area and not go close to the other devils. I hope they stay where I saw them.

Fool. Of course, they won’t stay where I spotted them. It is time to break away from this fight, find a hiding spot, and let my mana and stamina replenish. I identified possible hiding places when I scouted the village. It's time to action that.

I moved to where I could escape, and suddenly, the timing was right. The first was a huge green warty frog the size of one of the hovels that appeared directly in front of me. I manipulated light around me and disappeared, and then I cast Self-clean to get rid of my smell. The lynxes hunt by smell.

I set off a huge flash of light with the Flash Skill as the frog disappeared and leapt for the top of the mud wall near me, activating Steady Footing. Having this skill was new. I was usually just relying on my Agility and Acrobatics, but Steady Footing made it much easier.

As I took some quiet steps along the wall, me in different clothing, ran down the road in the opposite direction. I do have three sets of that clothing in my bag.

I lept from the wall over one of the still-standing timber walls into one of the wooden buildings. I didn’t quite think through the landing as I crashed through the remains of the timber floor and onto the ground underneath. Fortunately, it was only knee-deep. I found myself straddling a floor joist, so it could have been really painful if the ground had been below my waist.

I climbed up onto the joist, crouched, and listened to see if I had been heard and if anything was coming to investigate. I didn’t hear anything and may have got away with the mistake. That was lucky. I don’t like relying on luck. That will just get you killed.

I cast self-clean again and moved to hide behind a counter. I released my Light and let everything go except Regeneration. Regeneration had finished dealing with the poison, but I don’t know how long it took or how much mana it consumed. I sat and rested, letting my mana pool fill slowly. I ate some rations and drank water. My stamina also started going up.

To be safe, I think I will try not to go below a quarter full in my mana. I will refine that once I have a better handle on Minor Regeneration.

I look around. I am crouched behind a shop counter, although most of the front wall of the shop is gone. I am out of sight, and my use of Self-clean should keep my smell down. If one of the Infernal creatures came into the shop, I would be discovered quickly enough, so I can’t really rest. I might have time for a short sleep after I clear this quest.

How far through the quest am I? One Devil is dead, and maybe a quarter of the monsters? It is hard to estimate in this type of fight as I can’t stop to make sure of a kill.

Time to check my Status. Holy fucking, Terah’s tiny tits. That is awesome. No, Not the Basic Longsword. That is there, too. No, it is my Clever Hands. It has maxed out at ten, and I have a new skill, Ambidextrous. This is going to make it so much easier to use a different type of weapon in each hand. This is amazing. I got a point in Dexterity for it as well.

Now, levelling will give me more attribute points, so what class can I level? I have enough XP to level Thief, but with that amount, I can level Illusionist once and be very close to levelling it a second time. Levelling Illusionist will increase the bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom, and this time, mana is my scarcest resource. Intelligence makes me smarter, but it also increases my Mana pool. Wisdom helps me with my thinking through wise choices and with how fast mana regenerates.

I pour the XP into Illusionist, and it goes to 9, giving my total level to 23. I have never levelled up so fast before, nor have I ever gained so many new skills in such a short time. I assign one attribute point to Intelligence and one to Wisdom to boost the bonus, and the other attribute I need is Strength. The monsters are getting stronger and harder to hurt, and I need to be stronger, too.

I also need more weapons skills than just my Thrust. People with weapons classes like swordsman or axeman generally get additional skills like chop and triple strike, etc. I don’t have a weapons class. If I had gone for Assassin instead of Thief, I would have things like Backstab, but I didn’t. Thief gave me Pickpocket, Lockpick, and Detect Traps.

I can’t change the past, and until now, I have been very happy with my life. Now, I need more just to survive.

I sat back and just rested. My eyes wandered over the part of the ruined shop that I could see. I couldn’t work out what it used to sell.

Then, my Observant Eye picked up a small anomaly. There was a low cupboard that still had a door attached. I looked around. No other cupboard had that. I crawled over, keeping low. I looked carefully for traps. There didn’t seem to be any. I got out a knife and worked it into the gap between the doors. No trap sprung. I put a bit of pressure on the knife to lever the doors open slightly. The was a small sound of rotten wood breaking, and I paused. No monster came to investigate, and no trap sprung.

I used the knife to gently open the doors to see what was inside. It was a small cupboard and not very deep. Sitting on the bottom were two skill stones. Yes, yes, yes. I stopped myself from reaching in to grab them in case it triggered a trap, and I used the knife to roll them out of the cupboard.

Once they were out of the cupboard, I picked them up and used Appraise to appraise one of them. It was the skill Holy Strike, which gave bonuses against Infernal and Undead. Yes, maybe I was too harsh on the trial. This is just what I need to fight with. It takes mana to use, but the cost would go down as it levelled, and the power would go up. I learned it right away. It had to be used with a weapon, but any weapon was fine. It was a weapon skill. Awesome. This was so helpful that I appraised the other stone, hoping for something equally helpful.

Well, fuck you, trial. Yes, it was equally helpful because it was a second copy of Holy Strike. If I get out of here, I will get good gold for this when I sell it. No, when I get out of here. No, if about it. In the meantime, the trial is definitely fucking with me. I will have the last laugh. I will get out of here and sell this for gold.

I put the second stone in my bag for selling later. Right, it was now time to bring the Holy wrath of Marvin the Magnifique to these creatures.