Considering her current ammo situation, Sophie wasn’t too keen on practising her shooting. She would need the bullets to defend herself after all. Instead, her attention zoomed in on the other two skills she had received from the Huntress class: Stealth and Investigation.

Sophie wasn’t interested in being a bulky, hyper-aggressive merc. Stealth and quick, clean kills felt like a much more appropriate path. Thus, Stealth was the first skill to be examined.

The influx of knowledge that she had received when she picked her class was interesting. It was all basic stuff, like a slightly quieter way to walk or body language that made hiding easier. However the knowledge felt…incomplete. There were holes in it.

Some of the information seemed to rely on concepts and ideas that simply weren’t there. As though there were originally three, connecting blocks and someone had taken out the middle one. It was odd.

Sophie did scrutinise her Investigation skill as well, to see if the situation was similar and her theory was confirmed. So I have to actually figure the skill out and discover how things work myself. I guess the system just makes that process slightly easier?

To test her theory however, obviously she had to actually try and use her stealth knowledge. Thus, she was in one of the pipes near her hideout.

Taking a tentative step, Sophie focused on moving as silently as she possibly could. Almost immediately, her first attempt was a failure. One of the straps on her boot scraped against the pipe floor. She adjusted her oversized boots, tightening the straps to stop the same thing occurring again. Fuuuuuck. These clothes are gonna make things way harder. They’re gonna keep getting in my way cause they don’t fit. Although, maybe it’ll help? Training on hard mode. She tried again.

It was just as bad as the first attempt. She stepped forward and immediately, her foot landed on a loose piece of glass. The sharp crunch seemed to echo down the tunnel, and Sophie froze, grimacing.

“Stupid,” she muttered under her breath. Her mistake was clear. She had been so focused on actually moving forward that she hadn’t paid attention to the ground in front of her. The sewer floor was littered with hazards; random debris, uneven surfaces and puddles of water. Her Stealth skill told her they were things that could give her away. Unfortunately, there was no indication of how to avoid that outcome. It was also made harder, considering she didn’t have any kind of muscle memory. No experience, only knowledge. That seemed to be how the skills functioned.

Unfettered however, Sophie stepped back to her starting point and tried again, this time sweeping her gaze across the ground ahead of her. It definitely wasn’t skillful or smooth. The teen was basically tiptoeing her way across the floor. Sadly, after only a couple of steps, she lost balance. The weakness of her body, paired with her inexperience meant her balance was terrible. Her raised foot came down and once more, a crunch echoed in the tunnel. She sighed.

“Okay, there has to be a better way to do this. Stealth doesn’t say anything about tiptoeing, so is it wrong? Or maybe it’s too advanced. What exactly does ‘light footsteps’ mean?”

It took a while before she was able to figure anything out. It wasn’t much but she noticed that keeping her strides shorter allowed her to keep more weight on her stationary back foot. It was a noticeable difference. So, she decided to try it out, to see if it worked.

With her new theory, Sophie took her first step. She deliberately avoided loose debris and stuck to the driest parts of the tunnel. If she couldn’t walk quietly on the easiest surface, she had no business doing it on the harder ones. The small reduction in sound was reassuring, and she enjoyed the feeling of improving.

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Then her oversized jacket brushed against a metal ridge, creating a faint scraping sound. She winced. Right, forgot about the clothes.

She took a moment to assess. Her jacket sleeves were still tied up with straps, but the fabric was puffy and prone to catching on things. She tightened the straps further and rolled up the excess material around her wrists. That’s about all I can do with these on.

Sophie started again, this time managing a couple of meters without making any major noises. It wasn’t perfect. Her footfalls were still audible and she occasionally brushed against the wall. But it was progress.

She spent the next hour repeating the exercise, moving back and forth along the same stretch of tunnel. Each time, she noted her mistakes and tried to adjust her approach. By the end of the hour, she received a notification.

Stealth Proficiency +1

Stealth [1/100]

With that message came a small influx of knowledge. It wasn’t much but anything would help. Her theory about the shorter strides, for example, was true. A couple of other holes in her knowledge were filled, but there were still dozens, if not hundreds more that remained empty. She gave a wry grin at the thought. This’ll take a while, huh.

Still, she was satisfied with her progress in stealth. So, the teen decided to shift her focus to another skill: Investigation. When she looked over the skill information, she quickly grew puzzled.

“Hey system. How come I didn’t get any extra proficiency points for Investigation? I was a recon specialist in the army.”

You failed to discover the mine that claimed your leg and resulted in the deaths of your entire squad. This demonstration suggests your recon and investigation skills are poor. Thus, no proficiency points have been awarded.

The reply caused Sophie’s face to darken. Even though it had been a decade since it happened, those memories were still fresh. “Fuck you.”

A spark of determination appeared in her heart, a desire to prove the system wrong.

She picked a spot in the sewer pipes where the floor was particularly muddy, the soft surface ideal for leaving tracks. Sophie started by walking across the area herself, deliberately leaving footprints. Then she stood at the edge of the muddy patch, studying the impressions she had made.

Her face, already grumpy after her system’s comment, darkened further. She couldn’t figure anything out. Am I actually bad at this? But I did well in recon training…The knowledge from her skill was helping her realise there was something wrong with the prints, she just couldn’t figure out what it was.

She knelt down, running her gaze over the edges of the marks. They were deep. The realisation made her complain. Her previous Stealth training seemed like it hadn’t helped at all. There was also an unevenness between each print. Her left foot dragged behind just a little.

“That’s something to fix,” she muttered. Her Stealth knowledge agreed with her.

Next, she tried to follow her own trail, stepping carefully into the mud and tracing her steps backward. It was harder than she felt it should have been. The uneven lighting and the general messiness of the area made it difficult to distinguish her prints from the natural marks of the muddy ground. She had to stop several times, retracing her steps to make sure she was on the right path.

Her first attempt ended in frustration. She lost the trail halfway through, unable to tell which prints were hers and which were just natural marks. Sophie scowled, crossing her arms as she stood in the middle of the mud. “I’m missing something,” she muttered. “There has to be an easier way.”

She stepped back and tried again, this time marking each of her steps with a small object—bits of debris or scraps of metal, to help her keep track. The markers made it easier to follow the trail, and she began to find it slightly easier to keep following a trail. That was all though. She couldn’t actually gather any information from the tracks.

As the hours passed, Sophie experimented with different trails. She tried walking in zig-zags, circling back on herself, and even hopping to see how the marks would differ. She studied the prints carefully, noting the changes in depth, shape, and spacing. The girl made sure to include the more stealthy movements she could perform as well, comparing the difference between them and regular tracks.

There was a clear synergy between her Stealth skill and Investigation. Applying her stealth knowledge made tracking her movements more difficult, thus allowing her to further improve her investigative skills. Interestingly enough, it worked the other way too. The observations she made about her movements allowed her to find small issues with her stealth.

“I wonder if something similar will happen with other skills? I certainly hope so. It feels like every proficiency point is going to be harder to gain than the last.”

Despite her concern that progress would be slow, she continued her efforts.

By the end of her training, Sophie was exhausted but satisfied. Her boots were caked in mud, and her jacket was smeared with grime but the filth didn’t stop her from enjoying the fact she had improved. The system agreed with her too.

Investigation Proficiency +1

Investigation [1/100]

She looked around, then spoke. “Time for some food, I reckon. Then I think it’s time to explore NC.”