I look over to see probably the largest man I’d ever seen, standing at easily 8 feet tall, wearing a typical chef hat and apron that says ‘Kiss the Cook’ on it. Alongside his impressive stature and chef outfit, he had four arms that were bigger than my legs and an angry scowl on his face.

“Delorie! My friend! Its has been too long!”

“Not long enough you asshole! You have the nerve to show yourself after what you did here last time I saw you!” Delorie shouts angrily.

How Uncle Moren is staying calm in front of this hulking beast is anyone’s guess, but I know damn well I wouldn’t be calm in his situation.

“Oh please that little incident? Your still hung up on that? That guy had it coming and you know it. Also, didn’t I reimburse you for all that?”

“Ha! Reimburse my ass! For the repairs maybe, but the amount of lost revenue from being out of business for 2 months still hasn’t been paid.”

“Whatever. Anyway, on to more important things. I got a transfer here.” Uncle Moren says while motioning towards me.

Delorie grumbles angrily before looking me up and down. After a few moments, he sticks an arm out in front of him.

“Nice to meet you kid. I’m Delorie.”

“Rowan.” I say while shaking his hand.

He then looks over at Moren.

“So why are you here? Usually if one of you agents finds one, you just send ‘em here.”

“Well myself and Rowan here are wanted men right now, so I’ll be heading out with him. Also he’s a rank 2 talent, so the Kingdom placed him on high priority. Even got Gael and some other guy on protection detail for him.”

“That so…” Delorie says while assessing me once again.

Just as Delorie opens his mouth to say something, the door swings open, revealing Gael and Garut both holding a suspiciously human sized sack.

“Ah perfect just the two men I wanted to see!” Uncle Moren says loudly.

“Got the two guys who were on your tail. Haven’t interrogated them yet, but hopefully they’ll be ‘susceptible’ to a little questioning about this situation.” Gael says while sporting a ‘warm’ smile that sends a shiver down my spine.

“Gael! Old Friend! How have you been?” Delorie says heartily.

“Very good, very good! Stomach could definitely use some food though, if you catch my meaning.”

“Hahaha! Of course my friend, of course! And who might you be?” He says turning to Garut.

“Garut.” He says curtly.

“Man of few words I see! Well I’m sure your hungry from the long trip no?”

Garut nods.

Uncle Moren pipes in,

“I could definitely go for a nice stew!”

“HA! You can go to hell and starve!” Delorie says boisterously.

“Uh guys not to interrupt, but what are we gonna do about those guys.” I say pointing at the two unconscious sacks on the floor.

“They’ll be fine, won’t be waking up anytime soon, that’s for sure. They were only tier 4, poor guys had no clue who they were messing with.” Gael says sagely.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Delorie then brings out a whole feast for us, with Uncle Moren somehow convincing him to give him a plate too. Don’t know how he managed to do that.

The food itself was probably the most delicious thing I’ve ever had, not that I’ve had a lot.

“This is amazing!” I say while stuffing my face with some sort of beef kabob.

“Haha! It’d better be! I got a subclass for it and everything!” Delorie says boisterously.

“You have a chef class?” I ask confusedly.

“No no no, subclass. Big difference. Also it’s battle chef to be more precise.” He says proudly.

“When will I be able to get a subclass?”

Not till tier 5 kid, sorry. But hey, there’s plenty of things to upgrade in-between. You still got a status upgrade at tier 3 to look forward to.”

“What’s that?”

He stares at me confused before turning to Uncle Moren.

“Moren, what the hell’ve you been teaching this kid? Actually never mind, I’m not surprised.”

He turns to me and continues,

“A status upgrade just lets you upgrade literally any part of your status that you want. You can upgrade an existing attribute, get a brand new attribute, upgrade your class, your race, a mastery, a feat, a skill, anything you can think of. A person will only get two of them before they reach the second realm, at least through leveling, so use it wisely when you get there.”

“Will do.” I say seriously.

Once we’re done eating, Gael and Garut tie up the two unlucky prisoners onto a chair with some sort of enchanted chain that Delorie has for some reason. I assume for situations like this.

“So uh… how do we wake ‘em up?” I ask.

“Simple, Rowan my boy! Watch and learn.” Uncle Moren says before slapping them both on the face and shaking them violently.

Somehow this works and they both start to slowly come to.

Before the two can fully come to, I take a look at the two men. The left one has a wide nose, with almost caveman like features. I’ll call him caveman.

The right one seems to be of the same race as Delorie, sporting four arms, though this guy is no where near as huge. I’ll call him four-arms.

‘Guess that’s just a Delorie thing then.’ I think to myself.

“Wha-What’s happening? Where… Where am I?” Caveman says in a slight stupor.

“What the hell? Who the hell are you fucks?” Four-arms says.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen. Relax for a second will you? We just have a few question and we’ll send you on your way.” Gael says sweetly.

“Why should we believe you? Who the hell even are you?” Four-arms says angrily.

“Enough questions. Talk or we break you.” Garut says sternly.

They both gulp nervously.

“Ok so question one, why were you tailing those two fine gentlemen in armor?”

They both look at one another and nod, before remaining silent.

“Anyone? No? Ok first one to answer doesn’t die right now. If neither of you answer, I’ll pick at random” Gael says calmly.

Once again silence from the two men.

“Fine. Garut.” He says while motioning towards the two.

“Ok ok! I’ll answer! Just don’t kill me!” Caveman says pleadingly.

“No you idiot! Don’t tell him shit! We were trained for this!” Four-arms says, scolding caveman.

“Screw the training! I don’t want to die yet!”

Garut halts and motions for him to speak.

“Rodenburrow! We were sent from Rodenburrow!” Caveman says quickly.

Garut nods and begin to walk towards four-arms.

“To hell with all of yo-“ Four-arms says while Garut brings his axe down on his neck, severing it.

“Rodenburrow huh? What the hell do they want I wonder…”

“Uh who’s Rodenburrow?” I ask.

“One of the largest espionage schools in the Empire. It’s where a large portion of the Empire’s elite spies come from. The question is what the hell are they doing here and why did they send some nobody weaklings.” Gael says while looking at caveman expectedly.

“We’re part of a large scale investigation into Lady Mary Steel. I don’t know much, but we think she’s been actively working against the Empire’s interests. We were following those two armored guys because they said they had some association with Lady Steel. Plus those two didn’t look like they’d be able to detect us so we tried our luck in hopes of a promotion…” Caveman says nervously.

“I see… so you aren’t aware of who this young man is right here?” Gael says while pointing at me.

“No, never seen him before. Though looking at him now, he does look strikingly familiar…”

“Shouldn’t have said that kid, now there’s no chance I can let you go. Sorry.” Gael says sadly.

“W-wait, no! No, don’t do this please! I have so much ahead of me. I don’t want to die please.” He says while Garut slowly walks towards him.

“Wait! If you kill me they’ll know! They have life sensors on me! You can’t kill me!” He says quickly.

“Fat chance of that, he’s just making excuses. Garut kill him.”

“Wait.” Gael says, causing everyone else to go silent. “Is this true.” He says looking at caveman.

Caveman nods.

“Where is it.”

“U-under my shirt, where my heart is.”

Gael looks at Garut and motions him forward.

Garut tears off his shirt and does find some sort of circular magitech device surgically implanted in front of his chest.

“Shit! Check the other one! Quick!” Gael says urgently.

Garut does so and finds the exact same device.

“We need to get the hell out of here! NOW!”