Aden awoke to the sound of many voices shouting, and as he wiped away the grogginess of sleep from his eyes, he realized they were all calling his name. What's going on? he thought, How long was I asleep?

As he squeezed his way out of his hiding place, he idly wondered whether he'd won the game of Seekers, and where his sister's friends could be. The gentle blue aura of Stealth still enveloped him, so he assumed he at least hadn't been found.

The minute he emerged from the hollow beneath the tree, however, all thoughts of the game were driven from his head the sky outside was as dark as it had been beneath the tree, though the woods were lit here and there with the dancing flames of torches.

Suddenly, the shouting voices took on a new meaning, and a shock of worry ran through him. He must been asleep for hours, and since no one could find him, they'd started a search party. He quickly shut off Stealth, and the darkness beneath the trees suddenly grew... darker. He had been able to see quite well a few moments ago, despite the darkness, but now he struggled to see his own feet. Apparently, improved night vision was one of the perks of the Stealth Skill.

For a moment, he debated turning the Skill back on, as he was torn between the need to see where he was going and the need to be discovered as quickly as possible. In the end, he decided that it wasn't worth a sprained ankle, so he turned the Skill back on, and he was able to see in greater detail once more.

He made his way toward the nearest torchlight, and it didn't take long for him to be spotted. A cry went out that he'd been found as a stern-looking woman approached him and roughly checked him for injuries, "You okay, boy? Where have you been? You've got half the village out looking for you, and the other half is debating whether to send the Seekers after you."

Aden averted his gaze as he replied, embarrassed as he was to have cause so much trouble for a silly game, "I'm sorry. I was playing hi— err, Seekers with some other children, and I guess I fell asleep."

She stared at him without blinking for an awkward moment, then burst out laughing, "Well, that's a story for the bards! It's been a long time since the Seekers recruited so young a child, but perhaps they'll make an exception for such exceptional talent."

She gave him a hearty pat on the back and continued, "Well, so long as you're not hurt, I guess there's no harm. You gave us all quite a scare, though, so don't go doing it ever again, hear?"

He nodded solemnly in response, and started to walk away, "Come then, Kadir Pelichros. Your parents are waiting."

She led him home, where his parents took turns scolding him, once they confirmed that he was unharmed.

"Do you realize how worried we've been?" his mom said, "The whole town has been out looking for you, and when no one could find you, we feared…” she trailed off, unwilling to finish the thought.

His dad filled it in for her, “We feared you’d been taken or killed. What if you’d been hurt, and no one could find you to help you? Or worse, if the humans had gotten you?”

Aden’s thoughts froze at his father’s statement. Were humans in this world so evil as to be the bogeyman for another humanoid race? That would certainly seem to corroborate the death god’s claims. Aden filed this new knowledge away to investigate more later.

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At the moment, however, Aden was not too proud to admit that he cried. He apologized profusely, telling his parents all about how he’d crawled under a tree and accidentally fallen asleep in the middle of a game. He hadn’t intended to cause so much trouble; he thought Ryl and her friends would find him, for sure.

His parents tried to keep stern expressions on their faces, but his mother melted before his tears, and his father let out a loud laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

“It’s okay, baby,” his mother comforted, even as his father exclaimed, “Fell asleep, he says! He hid from trained Seekers by accident…”

In the end, his parents left him with a warning to never worry them like that again, then told him to wash up and get ready for bed.

While going through his nightly routine, he decided to look through his action log to see everything that had happened since he’d fallen asleep. Aden had discovered weeks ago that the action log included an archive of previous events, labeled with the date and time they occurred, and it never deleted entries.

Now, he scrolled through the archived events from the last day and was surprised to find that he had actually failed a lot of his stealth checks at first, at least until he realized that those were the stealth checks from when he was running around, looking for a place to hide. Then, his bonus stealth bonus rocketed from a meager 12% to over 60% because of “environmental bonuses,” which must be referring to his hiding spot beneath the tree. He recalled that the Skill description had mentioned that heavily shaded areas would provide a greater bonus, and doubly so if it would help to mute any sounds he might make.

With the earth packed tightly around him beneath the tree, whatever minor noises he’d made while hiding must have been muffled enough by the surroundings so as to render him silent to anyone trying to listen for him. That, coupled with the darkness and inaccessibility of his hiding spot, made it so that he was virtually undetectable to anyone outside.

While the result was this whole fiasco with the town in emergency mode, looking for him, it also had another result, and when Aden saw it in his action log, he couldn’t help but smile.

> Congratulations!

>

> You have leveled up the Skill: Stealth from Level 1 to 2.

>

> This Skill has gained a new effect: Elusive

>

> Receive an additional 5% chance to avoid detection whenever you are being actively pursued by another party within 60 meters of your location. For each hour that passes while successfully avoiding detection by your pursuers, gain an additional 2.5% chance to avoid detection.

He stared at the message before him as a smile crept across his face. As bad as he felt for making everyone worry, he couldn't help the burst of excitement he felt at the level-up. All it took was falling asleep while hiding, and he'd gained not only a Skill level, but also a specialized Skill effect. While the bonus seemed pretty small at first glance, it had the potential to be a huge benefit if he ever found himself pursued by a persistent enemy—or even just a particularly persistent sister.

As great as the boost was, Aden couldn't imagine that the next level up would come as easily. His action log confirmed his reasoning with a successful Wisdom check. The missive on Skill levels may not have said it outright, but he knew from his previous life that doing the same thing all the time wouldn't lead to the growth he desired, only stagnation. It made sense that his skill levels would reflect that principle.

He'd have to test it some more to discover how quickly he could advance the Skill. Perhaps he could level the Skill one more time before he made his attempt on the repository. Even though he had a long way to go before he had the skills to succeed at the attempt, he hoped to obtain a book of magic by the end of the year to begin on his path toward his goal of becoming a magical healer.

First, he needed to scout out the repository to figure out how best to prepare for his heist. Maybe a scouting mission would allow him to make some progress toward the next level of his Stealth Skill, too. It all came down to preparation, practice, and patience.