...

[Your Maid class has reached Lv 19.]

[Your Assassin class has reached Lv 21.]

[Your Gladiator class has reached Lv 21.]

[Your Tailor class has reached Lv 14.]

[Your Artisan class has reached Lv 22.]

[Your Warrior class has reached Lv 25.]

[The Mana Armor skill has been awarded.]

[Your Swordsman class has reached Lv 25.]

[The Blade Aura skill has been awarded.]

[Your Bodyguard class has reached Lv 25.]

[The Unavoidable skill has been awarded.]

[Your Idol class has reached Lv 25.]

[The Entrancing Voice skill has been awarded.]

[Your Idol class has reached Lv 26.]

[Your Blade Dancer class has reached Lv 25.]

[The Weight Reduction skill has been awarded.]

[You have reached Lv 25.]

[Your Entrancing Voice skill has reached Lv 1.]

[Mana Armor]

[A skill which allows its user to form an armor from mana, not unlike an aura, yet much more focused. Hits taken will shave away the mana stored in the armor instead of reducing the user's health or damaging equipment worn. However strong hits can still breach the armor or shatter it entirely. Mana stored in the armor is lost and will slowly dissipate. A faint glow will surround you while you are shielded by the armor.]

[Blade Aura]

[This skill allows its holder to infuse a blade with mana, increasing its sharpness and durability. In addition, it will speed up the repair of an already damaged weapon. However due to the nature of the skill, this is limited to blade weapons like daggers, swords, spears and similar ones. When active a faint glow can be visible around the blade. Furthermore, damage against incorporeal foes is increased.]

[Unavoidable]

[You may negate any stealth bonuses on yourself to draw in the attention of those able to see you. Increases in effectiveness when working alone or when one's own combat ability surpasses those of other party members. This is not mind magic and therefore unaffected by common defense options. However people can still choose to ignore you.]

[Entrancing Voice]

[Lace your voice with mana to attract the attention from those around you. While this effect is by far not as versatile as the Song affinity, it is not mind magic and therefore unaffected by common defense options. Though people can still choose to ignore you.]

[Weight Reduction]

[Allows you to reduce your own weight and that of items bound to you through the use of mana. Weight change and duration depends on mana used and skill level. Weight of everything can only be reduced as a whole.]

The time spent on the stage had been quite fruitful, too bad she had to leave already.

A lot of her classes had been quite close to level 25 even before the show and now reached the threshold of unlocking the first class skills. The leveling speed was rather slow for someone of her level, but she also had to put in ten times the effort of others. However now gaining all those skills only proved that her decision was the right one.

Sera couldn't wait to test them out! Sure, she could have done the testing during the "fight" with the other performer, but even if she was insane, she knew what she should and shouldn't do. And trying completely new skills were unfortunately part of the latter. What if the glow of the armor clashed with the rest of the composition? What if it drained too much mana? Too many questions to risk the show! So she had limited herself to the safe ones with entrancing voice and unavoidable.

While the warrior was lost in thoughts about her new skills and the glorious fight against the assassins which would soon follow, the party left the building.

Yet once outside those idle thoughts quickly vanished.

Her intuition already informed her that someone was keeping an eye on them, yet she couldn't make out from where. Maybe if she looked around, she could get a better read, but more than likely the assassins would then also know that someone had discovered them.

Suddenly she felt quite small again, like in the war, just that back then she had the advantage of the shadows and the situation was reversed.

Suppressing her irritation, she could only follow the guide. Again through the small empty passages, then to the more populated ones. Sera would like to do something about their followers, but without even knowing where and how many they were, it was too risky, even for her.

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She had to get creative.

Burn down something nearby to create a smokescreen? There was nothing nearby she could identify as burnable.

Covertly attack the masses? While she had the assassin class, aside from ambushes, her skill-set was more focused on flashy attacks. Normally not really an issue, but now the most covert way of attacking would be to first scatter flames, then draw the attention of those around her and finally let her fires explode. However that would require a lot of mana and even then, with her build, wouldn't do all that much damage.

Also she didn't know how those following them had found the party in the first place. Were they using skills or items to track them? Would any chaos in the settlement even help or just aid the others, giving them an opportunity to act?

So many questions.

Her head hurt.

Returning to simply listening to her intuition unfortunately also didn't offer new insights, but by now they had left the settlement and soon reached the tear in reality.

Entering the darkness, the silence was finally broken. "So, how many are there? Have you managed to make out any levels?" Everyone turned to Sarah, not expecting her to be the first to speak. "What? I've been in enough similar situations to notice what was going on, even while thinking about more important things! Pity that my virus is still in development, would have been a good opportunity..." The last sentence was added a bit quieter, yet in the otherwise silent space still audible.

"Hard to say. If i had to guess, with their abilities probably one or two around level 100?" Nia offered.

"Yeah. I also couldn't get a good read on their position or number, but strength wise level 100 seems reasonable" Sera added.

"So four above level 100. Hm... no below 100 seems more likely. If we assume they are after me or us and not here because of you, the soul affinity organization and the participants of the war would be the only potential candidates. Furthermore we can probably exclude the latter, as they would have either attacked us sooner or lost interest by the time we picked up sis. Which would leave the question why they haven't attacked yet. Too afraid of the law? Shouldn't be much of an issue if they have a soul affinity. So maybe after that one guy vanished they are more careful and send low level or contracted assassins. Any other opinions?" Sarah reasoned, using her own knowledge, experience and logic.

"Maybe they just try to collect information or covertly contact us?" The guide answered, well aware, that that was likely not the case. Having people collect intel about them would be an issue by itself, however only one they would have to solve later and not now by fighting one or more assassins, which outleveld them, unprepared.

"Well, i prefer to ask questions after we make sure they can't cause further problems, should they manage to follow us after we switch realms. Even if it seems unlikely that they have a soul affinity, we are missing preparations. Not to mention the longer we are here, the higher the probability of them noticing that we are aware of them." The scientist explained. She preferred to err on the side of caution. Accidentally killing a suspicious messenger and losing a good deal was better than welcoming a hostile assassin with open arms.

"Okay. What about your current project and your other projectiles?" Nia then asked in an attempt to get a plan or two together.

"I doubt i'll get the chance to use the latter, unless we get them to stand still for a while, which will be hard while they are searching for us and even harder in a fight. It also requires us to find them before they find us. If the opportunity arises, sure, it's an option i'll use, but don't count on it.

The former is still a prototype. I would need to give them the source somehow and afterwards we would need to survive for a minute or two, depending on their level and abilities." Sarah paused. "Actually, if there is a realm where small pearls or ice-shards on the floor don't seem strange, we could use it to trap the entrance of the realm. Though they would melt and dissipate after a while, since a mana flow in them might give the trap away, and we would still need some distraction until it affects those following us. Furthermore, i'll likely be useless for a bit, if i have to create the items." The girl suggested.

There was a realm, where Nia knew those shards wouldn't appear out of place. But the girl still grimaced at the idea. Sealing a realm entrance with a rather dirty trap even for a few minutes was frowned upon. But they were out of options and fortunately the destination was rather unpopular. Also should that plan fail, the properties of the realm would make a hunt rather atrocious for those following the girls. "I guess that should work..."

So a new destination was set and a confirmation of the usual dialog-box from the system later, they were entering a new realm. One which at the first look presented a quite familiar scene to the twins.