After Fred showcased his new skill, Roy and Robb filled him on the details that Aswad didn’t or couldn’t mention. They discussed the defeat of John’s army, the death of the red bear, and the divine powers of the system to raze half of the forest’s trees and rocks. By the time they finished recounting all the events that happened while Fred was unconscious, the rest of the fighting squads came back.

Roy scanned the two groups to find only Alfonse and Alric were present from their group.

“Where is Derek and Thomas?” He asked.

Alfonse scratched the back of his head leaving Alric to explain, “Thomas is having a rough time and Derek is there to keep him company.”

Roy was about to respond when the words got stuck in his mouth and he just let out a big sigh, “Let him rest tonight, he deserved it.”

“So, what’s the surprise this time?” Gerald changed the subject with a grin. “Last time it was the dungeon, is this one as good?”

“Oh, it’s much better,” Robb chuckled. “At least you won’t risk dying to get much stronger.”

Gerald nodded with a laugh at Robb’s response, “That’s what I like to hear.”

Clark was also intrigued by the proposition, “How much stronger are we talking?”

“Well, you get a free skill, and the possibility to buy other skills from the shop,” Roy listed out the benefits. “Ah, and you also get this ‘talent’ that makes you stronger. But these talents depend on which class you get.”

Hearing all the benefits, Marth was stunned for a second before he burst out laughing, “Then what are we waiting here for? Let’s go get these classes.”

Roy guided the now much more enthusiastic crowd. Even though the fighters were all tired from a full day of work, the prospect of increasing their strength by leaps and bounds energized them. Today’s terrible war made it even clearer in their mind: strength is the only insurance and weakness is a sin.

After going to the Village Hall and seeing their talent and affinity screen, the group made their way to Class Hall where they received their combat and production classes.

“Which class you got?” Roy asked Alfonse as the latter made his way out of the Hall.

“Apprentice Holy Priest,” Alfonse answered with a smirk. “Now you can call me father Alfonse, I will listen to your sins.”

“You look the part too,” Robb chuckled. “You just need a white robe, and you’ll be the full set.”

While the two were joking, Roy asked the important question, “What kind of skill you got?”

Alfonse shrugged, “Minor healing. I think the name is self-explanatory.”

“How much can you heal?” Robb raised an eyebrow. “Just flesh wounds or also lost limbs?”

Alfonse took a deep breath before answering, “Right now, just cuts, bruises, and surface level wounds. If I get it to a high level, I can heal burns and frost bites too. It didn’t say anything about growing limbs.”

Robb’s shoulders slumped at the disappointing answer, “I guess that makes sense. It would be too much to ask for more.”

“This is just the apprentice class,” Roy consoled the two with a wry smile. “I’m sure we’ll get much better skills once we upgrade our classes once or twice

“Oh yeah, Aswad did say something about class advancement,” Robb pointed out. “I think it had to do with just maxing out our class skills.”

“So that’s how you upgrade your classes?” Alfonse’s eyes brightened. “That makes things much easier.”

While the three were talking amongst themselves, Jaimie hopped out of the Class Hall with excited steps.

“I just got a new skill, it’s so cool!”

Without explaining any further, Jaimie’s body shimmered with a silvery white light as he ran toward Roy with a speed that assured a collision. Roy’s body instinctively took a stance to block the impact before Jaimie jumped, confusing him even further.

With a quick step on Roy’s shoulder, Jaimie launched more than five meters up in the air while doing multiple flips and somersaults. He landed on the ground as gracefully as a feather before making a leg swipe and comboing it into a hand stand.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

While the three young men looked with shock and horror at Jaimie’s otherworldly acrobatic abilities, the latter chuckled and jumped from a handstand to his feet while looking as smooth as a newborn’s butt.

“What do you think? It’s cool right?” Jaimie smiled with a proud expression. “My body feels so light when I use it. It’s like I could fly!”

“Color me green with envy,” Robb muttered under his breath. “Your skills are always so good.”

Alfonse chuckled at Robb’s comment before scratching Jaimie’s hair, “You really strike gold again and again. This might be the coolest one I have seen yet.”

While Alfonse was playing with Jaimie’s golden hair, Roy walked toward the the two and asked, “What class did you get?”

“Apprentice Moonlight Assassin,” Jaimie grinned. “And my skill was called Lunar Agility!”

Roy chuckled at the overflowing enthusiasm of the young boy, “You have a lot of speed and agility skills, your next one should be an attacking skill to balance it out.”

“Yeah, I also need better daggers,” Jaimie nodded with concern. “Mine can barely slash through wolves now. I can never injure those blue ogre’s skin with them.”

Jaimie’s comment reminded Roy of the crafting scroll they got as a reward in the dungeon.

Since there are production classes, maybe someone will get blacksmith? Lorenz could probably get it.

Roy pushed the thought to the back of his mind as there were still other important matters to deal with. The villagers could receive their production and combat classes tomorrow when they would well-rested.

As Alfonse and Jaimie were the last to receive their classes, none of the fighters were present any longer. Everyone was already tired after a long and exhausting battle, and they just wanted a bed to sleep on.

Roy gestured to Alfonse and said, “Fred is already at my place, let’s go there and have a meeting. I have something I wanna talk about.”

Seeing the shift in tone, Alfonse understood the seriousness of the situation, “Should we go bring Marth too?”

Roy bit his lips and shook his head, “No, it’s just going to be the six of us.”

Robb, who already understood Roy’s turbulent thoughts, did not say much and only looked at the meeting place with a serious expression. It was a small little house right next to the Village Hall.

On their way to the meeting house, the group of four walked by the shop and the house right next to it. Jack, who was waiting for them at the door, joined them without saying much of a word. The now group of five entered the house where Fred was waiting for them.

“This place is quite nice,” he said with a grin after Roy opened the door. “There is a living room, a kitchen, and even a toilet.”

Robb chuckled at Fred’s expression, “It’s so much better than our hideout. No more taking turns sleeping on the floor.”

“But I had fun sleeping on the floor,” Jaimie complained. “It’s cold and nice.”

Roy couldn’t help but shake his head at the young boy’s remark, “I think you’re the only person in the world that could say that seriously.”

He then looked at beds all over the living room and shrugged, “Anyways, let’s just sit down and cut to the chase. No need for too much chit-chat.”

While Robb and Jack didn’t have much of a reaction to Roy’s words, the rest looked at him in confusion.

“Why, what’s going on?” Fred asked.

Roy sat down on one of the beds while Jack and Robb followed him, “I’ll explain everything, so just sit down.”

After each one of the six took his place, with Alfonse and Jaimie sharing a bed, Roy started the meeting.

“Let’s start by this question, when did we make the decision to fight the red bear today at sunset?”

There were a couple of seconds of silence as Fred and Jack racked their brain for an answer before Alfonse responded, “Wasn’t it just before we did the normal difficulty?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Roy nodded. “After that, we decided to dig the trench, and Marth’s group stayed in the forest digging the whole time.”

Jack furrowed his eyebrows and continued the string of events, “Me and Alfonse’s group took turn guarding Lorenz in the morning before that shit happened with the knights.”

“After that, what happened?” Roy prompted the conversation further to get everyone thinking.

“Well, we used the afternoon to put the villagers inside the dungeon without anyone finding us,” Fred responded after a few seconds.

“Yep, now how many villagers did we bring?” Roy scanned everyone with his eyes as his point was getting increasingly clear.

Alfonse did some mental math for a bit before answering, “I think around thirty? More or less.”

With the last piece of the puzzle on the board, Roy laid out his thoughts, “If you don’t take into consideration Marth’s group since they were in the forest for the whole day, then thirteen fighters walked from the dungeon to the bear’s territory. Now, how come John found out where we were gonna fight so quickly and prepare almost all of his army to ambush us, but did not have any clue about the dungeon where all the villagers were?”

Silence encompassed the room at Roy’s question.

Fred’s expression grew mortified as the obvious thought germinated in his mind, “Are you saying there is a rat?”

“Yes, of course he is saying there is a rat,” Jack snapped and bit his lips. “The question is who is the motherfucker?”

The room was growing more tense by the second as everyone’s anger magnified at the thought of betrayal. The idea that someone who they considered a comrade, who they fought with their lives on the line with, could potentially be working with their enemies was growing too heavy to bear.

“I have a plan,” Roy took a deep breath and cut through the tension with his words. “A plan that will make it clear whether there is really a rat, and who that rat is.”