I glided gracefully through the night sky. Lights from the towns and villages gleamed a moderate distance away from me. The fields sat in total darkness, as did most of the plains and thickets. There were a few spots of light from floating fireflies here and there. The brightest places in the night were however the mansions. Thaumaturges apparently worked until late into the night, if they slept at all.

I was looking out for monsters. Something that would let me progress my Class. There was however very little movement. Most likely the larger predators were diurnal. I had to look for their resting spots. Maybe I would even go for a herbivore if it looked strong. Sneaking up and taking out a single target in a herd of deer should net me a good amount of experience, especially if I could avoid being seen at all. That reminded me, I should probably try to break through in [Sneak]. Maybe [Surprise Attack] as well, if I could. Those Skills would make an infiltration far easier.

[Sneak] could probably be improved by combining it with darkness mana. Maybe void could help as well? The absence of sound and light in combination sounded like a good way to improve my sneaking abilities.

Then I finally spotted something living. A boar family was sleeping on the edge of a thicket. Or rather, a mother and her piglets. I wanted to have them awake and try to sneak up, but for now, this would do. No running before you can walk, or something like that.

I landed on the other side of the thicket. I wanted to eliminate the chance of breaking through in [Soundless Flight] since for the infiltration I would probably have more need for walking and hiding. The thicket was about seven to eight metres across. I wanted to take a walking and jumping path through the middle and touch the boar with a talon without waking it up, then return. First, though, I would simply walk around.

My steps were placed carefully. Grass and twigs were all over the ground and I had to carefully avoid them. My ears might be far better than a boar's, but I still tried to be quiet enough to hear nothing myself. As I took my steps, the grass rustled almost as loud as my heart beat. This would not do. Carefully I started drawing on my inner gate and pulled out small amounts of void mana. Focusing on my [Sneak] Skill, I tried to combine it with the concept of the absence of sound. My movements should be soundless, just like my flight. The mana drew into my feet. Very slowly it seeped into the surroundings. The rustling of the grass beneath my talons grew more and more quiet until finally it completely disappeared. I had done it! And immediately sound returned. My concentration lapsing for just a tiny moment broke all my mana off and it seeped into the air. I even spotted a bit of it building up as flux inside me. I had to be careful, it seemed. If I had used a significant amount of mana, failure to hold it might have knocked me out.

I stopped moving and drew on my inner gate again. This time, I would not lose focus! Slowly, I guided the energy to my feet. Only a minute later at most, my concept of silent steps was settled again. I took a careful stride forward. No sound. My mana held. My Skill held. Another step. Again. And again. Slowly I improved my pace. I even tried intentionally stepping on a twig. It broke without a sound reaching my ears. A thought came to me. Did I make the mana void sound I would hear? The wind rustling the nearby leaves stopping told me, I did not. Until now. Carefully, I pulled the void mana away from my ears. The rustle returned. Good. I could do it, but it was not part of sneaking. I checked my Status. No level up in [Sneak]. Right, Breakpoints had an extra notification. I would see it, the moment I succeeded.

I returned to my walk. The grass rustled again. This time, I was a lot faster at silencing my steps. Then I noticed another sound. As I turned slightly to follow the curve around the trees, my feathers rustled. It was a tiny sound. A sound so weak, it was probably impossible to hear over the rustling wind, if you did not have ears as good as mine and were right next to me. Still, I heard it. And it was a sound I made. It had to go. More void mana flowed out of my inner gate. This time, I barely even had to guide it. It flowed into my feathers all around. Then I thought about my heartbeat. Others could hear that as well. Or my breathing. Even more mana spread around my body. I had not enough to soak every part of myself. Instead, I created a cover, like a delicate sheet, all around me. My mana was enough. It stabilized. I took a step, then another. No sound. Anything I touched would be filled temporarily with void mana which sucked up any sound it made before the energy drew back into my body when I moved on. It was perfect.

I finally reached the boar family. The piglets were piled up next to their mother to draw on each other's warmth. I slowly stepped around them and put a talon on her. Immediately, the soft breathing sound disappeared. Shocked, I retreated my foot and the sound returned. This would not do. I needed more control. The piglets stirred from the short disappearance of their mother’s noise. I thought about my intent again. I wanted to be silent, but not unnatural. I wanted to avoid being spotted. Sounds produced from my movements needed to be removed. Sounds from others I touched should keep going normally. This would also avoid a tree I sat on making no sound of rustling leaves. I retreated and touched a tree. Yes, it worked! I tried on the boar mother again, and her breathing was still audible. No change at all. This was perfect. I was absolutely silent!

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Time for the real test. I stepped away and spread my wings. A jump and a few flaps and I was in the air. Perfect silence. I even saw the grass below my wings ignore any turbulences my taking off should have produced. This was absolute perfection!

Only, I had not reached a Breakpoint. My sneaking and flying were both perfectly soundless and neither had levelled up. The only explanation I could find was there was more to the Skills than just being silent. [Soundless Flight] was obvious after thinking about it for a moment. It was a flight Skill. I would have to improve my flying ability. How exactly, I did not know. I thought myself to be a rather skilled flyer, but apparently, there was more to it. [Sneak] on the other hand was not just about moving silently. It was about moving undetected. There were other senses than sound that could spot me. Vision and smell being the most likely. Touch was not something I could avoid spotting me, but I could avoid touching. And taste was not really a concern. Then there was what my [Owl Senses] showed me after breaking through. Some sort of magical sense. I was not sure what to do about that.

For now, working on vision and smell would be enough. And smell was rather easy. I could just add it to what my sheet of void mana prevented from moving out. Just as I thought that a small ripple went through the energy covering me. It was just that easy, huh?

I landed again on the other side of the thicket. I had not gotten a breakthrough, so I would work on vision. There were two ways to go about this. The first was to use even more mana, this time darkness, to hide me. That would only really work in darkness though. I had no light mana to create camouflage and make myself invisible. The second was to move in a way that avoided detection. Basically, just hide and seek with higher stakes. I was already using quite a bit of focus on keeping my silencing sheet of void mana stable so I decided to try the latter approach first. Maybe [Owl’s Shadow] would help out, but I could try that after.

I stepped forward into the trees. This time, I tried to find spots where I would be difficult to spot and moved in between them. I hid under ferns and beneath bushes. I hugged trees, taking advantage of my primarily brown plumage to camouflage myself. I even jumped up on branches and found cover behind leaves and sprigs. Nobody would spot me! Okay, I probably moved way too much. Whenever I left one of my hiding spots, unnatural movements of greenery announced my presence to the world. I really wanted to avoid that, but it was difficult. And so I practised. Always using my void mana silencer and smell removal, I moved through the thicket back and forth for the rest of the night. And then the next night, I found a new place and trained more. At some point, I started integrating [Owl’s Shadow] into my practice. It had more of a physical presence since the breakthrough which allowed me to dampen movement of the foliage around me. It also deepened the shadows, hiding me even more. This way, it took nearly four nights before I finally got the desired notification.

~ding~ Congratulations! For advancing the Skill [Sneak] past the first Breakpoint you have gained bonus experience.

~ding~ [Assassin] reached level 38. 2 Attribute Points awarded.

Yes! I did it! And this time I got [Assassin] levels? So, because this was a Class Skill, it granted Class experience? I had to get [Surprise Attack] levelled up as well! I dumped my points into Wisdom immediately, bringing it up to 22. With this, my magic Attributes had almost overtaken my speed Attributes. I considered for a moment, maybe putting more points in physical Attributes would make me stronger, I was an [Assassin] after all. However, magic was awesome! I wanted more magic.

Maybe I could get a magic Class to swap to? Or as a second Class, whenever that unlocked? There was after all the dash in my status right behind my [Assassin] level. Sadly I was unable to take a second Class. Whenever I thought about it, I only got a notification asking me if I wanted to change my current Class with one of the others I had unlocked. There was no way something like [Goblin Alchemist] or [Goblin Hunter] would outperform [Assassin]. The compatibility of my Racial Skills with it was just too good. Additionally, I knew nothing about what I would lose when changing Class. It only said, “all progress will be lost”. Definitely not a risk I wanted to take. What if I lost all my Attributes? My Skills would definitely disappear.

No, I would not take that risk, unless something really amazing showed up like [Immortal Archmage]. That sounded more like a Class evolution if those even existed. If evolution at all existed. Which I assumed it did. I had seen that lightning snake creating a huge storm shortly after leaving my home. If that was not an evolved being, I would need to really rely on my Class levels to survive in this world. Speaking of which, it was time to hunt and try to break through with [Surprise Attack].