*unedited*

"Don't be so tense, just make sure you don't show your skills off. We don't know the strength of the people in this town, only that the Treant said they are weak. We must ascertain their abilities and mimic them to not stand out." I give a small reminder to the two walking beside me. "Necalise, dismiss your Thorn Invoker class skill before we enter town."

Immediately, Necalise drops the shield and wooden spear, which seems to melt into the forest floor. The nearby trees seem to be revitalized by the action, as the leaves turn greener and the branches grow ever so slightly.

I wonder what the regular stats of an adventurer are in this world.

*ping*

[ Analyzing... Question too vague, please re-define. ]

What are the stats of someone who can fight a magical beast compared to an average human.

[ Analyzing... B Class Adventurer stat total: Fourty. Average Human stat total: Ten. ]

Interesting... Show me the total breakdown.

[

B Class Adventurer:

Strength: 13

Dexterity: 12

Vitality: 10

Mind: 5

Average Human:

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 2

Vitality: 3

Mind: 2

]

The direct information system displayed a game screen in front of me that displayed the information I was looking for.

Ah! I just remembered something!

"Faerie, can you see how much magical power we have?" I try to say it calmly, but it's something that often gets overlooked in similar situations like mine.

Or so i've read.

"Now that you mention it..." The faerie makes an 'o' shape with her hands and looks through them like binoculars.

The moment she does so, her head slumps down and she passes out. Before she can hit the ground I catch her small body in my hands.

"I knew it." I said with a deep sigh.

"Master, what happened to the faerie? She's not dead but the Forest Guide spell is in disarray right now." Necalise mentions the spell that summoned the faerie off-handedly.

"We are giving off enough magical energy or something like that to make a faerie pass out. If someone with magical ability resided inside the village, they might already know about us." I advise Necalise and Stal.

"What creature seeks power and then hides it?" Stal asks quizzically.

"We are only hiding because we do not know the strength of our potential enemies." I interfere when Necalise was about to answer.

"So what do we do now?" Necalise takes the faerie from my hands and puts it in one of her pouches.

"There should be a spell, if I am not mistaken, for identifying magical power." I nod toward Stal.

"Detect Magic." Both Stal and I cast the same spell at the same time.

While i'm at it, I also cast 'False Information."

False Information is a spell intended to display what you choose if someone attempts to identify you or your items. I chose for all three of us to have the same stats of seven except for mind which was three.

Apparently the classes were also simply named, without much specialization. Things like Warrior, Mage, and Healer were common, whereas a Berserker would be a unique vocation.

Stal's invocation speed is a little faster than mine.

Since I knew that the games magic spells worked in this world, I decided to cast the spell myself. I wasn't sure if it was going to work at all personally, since I can only assume visualization of the spell was a component to casting. I visualized concentric rings flowing from my body outward, and when it hit anything with magical ability it would relay that information. It seems that despite it being vague, it indeed worked.

Stal looked at me and began to breathe heavily, soon after fumbling backwards.

'Are you okay?" I was going to step toward Stal but Necalise stops me.

"Give him a moment." Necalise nods gently.

"What has no arms but grips you tight." Stal sits up and shakily pulls out a cup of water.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

I look to Necalise and shake my head to indicate that I don't know the answer.

"Fear." Necalise answers, and Stal nods his head.

Now I really feel bad for walking around this whole time without hiding my magical power.

I look up and compared my magical power to his. My current power without any boosts is like a small mountain, where his would be a well built tower. No wonder the faerie passed out.

"Verdin." I call out to the Assassin who has been hiding in my shadow since I got here.

"Master." Verdin calls back.

"Can you show us how to hide our magical ability. It seems to be a specialty of your class." My request to him was simple.

"Of course, please allow me to come out." Verdin answer back.

"I allow it." My answer is the final step for Verdin to appear from the back of my shawl.

Now that I get a closer look at him from under the sun, his half-covered face is marked with alot of deep scars.

"Are you ready?" Verdin calls to the three of us.

"Yes, please begin." I advise him.

Necalise and Stal nod their heads as well.

Verdin takes a deep breath in, and begins to force his magical power out of his body. His magical strength is similar to what Necalise is currently displaying. It is less than Stal's since he is basically a pure caster class. The magical energy seems to be coming out of every pore on his body.

I get a sense of what he is trying to show me, and try to focus on sending the magical energy into every pore in my body.

After seven attempts, I finally succeeded in having my magical energy recede into my body. Can this be considered good?

Necalise and Stal were successful on their third and fourth try respectively. Their ability to detect and control their magical ability is naturally better than mine.

"Thank you, Verdin. I hope your stay in my shadow is not too taxing?" I give my thanks to the man in black.

"No, Master. It is a pleasure to serve. There is plenty of room for me as well so it is no issue." Verdin nods to Stal and Necalise, then bows deeply to me and returns into the shadow of my cloak.

It feels like he is a company employee and i'm the boss. It's definitely a weird feeling to be admired like that.

"Necalise, you can de-summon the Faerie now." I tell Necalise to release the spirit contract.

"Yes, Master." Necalise re-casts the Forest Guide spell, de-summoning the faerie.

I have a feeling i'll be seeing the faeries before long anyway.

"Looks like we are ready to go. Confirm mission objective." I do a last minute check of my gear and inventory.

"Pretend to be mercenaries, sign up with adventurer's guild, return before nightfall." Necalise recalls the objective while counting each one on her fingers.

"Correct, let's go."

The clearing to the forest was within throwing distance, so our precautions may have come to late. Still it's better to do it now instead of regretting it later.

We walk out of the forest and reach the smooth dirt road leading into the village. There is one carriage and three people currently waiting at the same entrance that we intend to go through.

There seems to be only three entrances to the village, including the one we are currently on. From the road, we can clearly see the other end of the village at the end of our vision.

The people in front of us seem to be simply dressed, the bottom of their brown trousers and foot-wraps covered in dirt. A young man, older woman, and a small child who is holding his nose closed. The stale air and smell of manure is quite heavy and coming from the carriage specifically. The barricade into the village can barely be called as such, as it is mostly made of red dirt stacked four feet high with sharpened timber sticking out.

This was clearly only designed to keep out wild dogs and other such creatures. Against something with intelligence, this would be little more than a hindrance. The red dirt is interesting though, as the roads are clearly not of the same color. This means they may have gotten it from a nearby mine, if i'm lucky.

A man with a thick beard and simple guard attire motions for the carriage and three people ahead of us to go through.

The young man bows to the guard before leading the carriage donkey into the village.

When we approach the gate, the guard's hand goes up to stop us.

"Identify."

The guard doesn't appear to be magically inclined, but he is still able to cast a rudimentary version of the spell.

"Everyone's clear. State your business in our village." The guard is incredibly neutral, a very practiced face.

"We are not from around here, we are looking for an adventurer's guild and somewhere to sell our things." I step forward and talk to the guard.

"Both of those things are handled through the adventurer guild, unfortunately this village is too small to have one." The guard looked over all three of us again before walking over to the other guard at the entrance.

The other guard nodded his head and straightened up from his rather sloppy posture.

"You guys can follow me." The guard motioned for us to follow him into the village.

As we walked, the guard asked us a question.

"One of you can cast the spell 'False Information', right?" The guard placed one of his hands on the back of his head as if he was relaxing.

I see Necalise slowly take a defensive posture, and wave for her to not worry about it.

"That is correct." I confirm what he seems to already know.

"Between how you speak like a noble, and the spell, i'm guessing you guys are in hiding. If you can cast 'False Information' you're already stronger than anyone here can handle. We don't intend to pursue the issue, so long as you don't go causing any situation." The guard placed his other hand on the back of his head as well, stretching himself under the sun.

"So that's what it was, I see now." I relax my stiff speech patterns, since i'm not directly addressing my followers.

"That more relaxed way of speaking will get you alot farther. Want to tell me your story?" The guard took us to the fountain in the middle of the village and placed a brown cotton blanket on the ground.

"As long as you can keep it a secret." I nodded to him and sat down with Necalise and Stal.

The guard nodded as we took our seats.

[All good lies are born in a kernel of truth. Time to tell a good lie.]

I removed the 'False Information' spell that had been cast, but only on Necalise.

"Please confirm." I said as I finished removing the spell.

"Identify. Pfft-" The guard casted the Identify spell again but coughed as he sucked in air too quickly.

[

Name: Necalise

Race: High Elf

Level: 82

Class: Thorn Invoker

Sub-Class: Artisan

Strength: 65

Dexterity: 41

Vitality: 74

Mind: 11

]

The guard held his chest as it heaved up and down. In his entire life, he had never seen such high stats.

He continued to cough until I offered him a cup of water from the fountain.

"Ah... Thank you. I thought I had died and gone to the afterlife." The guard's eyes were cloudy like his reality had just been broken.

"Just breathe." I stroke the guard's back as he drinks the water I give him.

"It's real... Isn't it."

"Yes."

"Hope you have a good explanation."

"I do."

The guard rubbed his eyes and checked the information one more time before he stopped channeling the spell.

"Alright, i'm ready." The guard's breathing seemed to become regular again.

"You saw her race, you should know how rare a high elf is." I watch the guard's expression closely.

Take the gamble.