Marching along, the team crossed the road and entered the closest building, a hotel seven stories high. Martin took the lead into the lobby while motioning for the other two parties to flank him as they had previously discussed. The lights were still on, this gave them the ability to see the massacre that had taken place. Three elderly ladies lay blood splattered near the counter. One young man had clearly had his head bashed into the counter and was slumped over it, dead. Another man, middle aged, seemed to be huddled in the far-left corner in fear. Carefully treading forward, all heads swivelling for threats, they reached the man only to confirm that his fate was the same as the others. A thin metal pole had been shoved through his ribs.

Thinking it through, Rose came to a horrifying conclusion. It shouldn’t be all that surprising, but it still shocked her. None of the ‘challengers’ they had faced so far were tall enough to bash someone’s head in to the high counters. Nor were they tall enough to rip of the railings that were located nearly two and a half metres above the ground. Either this building had been challenged with a different far more dangerous opponent, or a fellow human had seen this as an opportunity to go on a rampage. Searching the others faces she watched as over half their team came to the same realisation. The others were just too busy looking for the next ‘monster’, not realising the enemy could be one in their own skin. Glancing at Martin, he gave her nod and once it was confirmed the coast was clear for now, he motioned for the parties to group close together. Speaking in a low voice he said “Good job so far team. After some investigating, we’ve found that these people were most likely murdered by one of our fellow man.”

There were gasps all around as the people that had been more focused on ‘monster’ threats gaped in disbelief. “From here on out we will take a more defensive approach to anyone we come across. We are still going to follow the plan and help these folks out, this was always a possibility after all. We just need to keep an eye out.”

Jason, who was in a party separate from Rose, spoke up while still keeping a low tone “I’ve been working my way through the screens and looking at the stuff that can be expanded to give more info. I’ve also started inspecting tags. The level can’t be expanded but the race and subrace can be, though that isn’t what I’m speaking about. I noticed that both you and Rose have titles. Martin, yours is a [KNIGHT] and Rose’s is [LADY]. They both expanded giving quite a bit of information and although Rose’s is much more useful there’s something important that both your titles let you do.”

Everyone looked on, interested. But not sure where this was going. “Your titles let you see [MURDERER] tags, red for intentional or orange for an accident. It will also show a sub tag which states if it was in self-defence or not. Apparently, murderer tags are only applicable to humanoid races that aren’t enslaved.”

At Jason’s revelation both Martin and Rose looked at the noble title on their status pages and focused on it.

[LADY]

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If the title bearer is within her region the title of [LADY] grants the following abilities:

- Can bestow [CLASS] or [PROFESSION] upgrades at a touch.

- Can bestow 1 [COMMANDER GENERAL] title, 3 [KNIGHT COMMANDER] titles and 5 [KNIGHT] titles

- Can discern [TAX UNPAID] tags. Also, may discern if the citizen has the sub tags [IN DEBT], [BANKRUPT] or [BROKE].

- Can discern [MURDERER] and [BURGLER] tags. A red tag constitutes intentional crime. An orange tag constitutes accidental crime. Also, may discern if the citizen has the sub tags [SELF-DEFENCE] or [BLACKMAILED]

- Can discern [HEALTHY] and [UNHEALTHY] tags. Also, may discern if the citizen has the sub tags [HUNGRY], [THIRSTY], [TIRED], [INJURED], [CRITICALLY INJURED], [NUMB], [HOPELESS], [HOLLOW], etc. A blue sub tag constitutes physical health. A purple sub tag constitutes mental health.

- Title bearer gains detailed map of region (Found on title bearer tab, tab 3).

- Title bearer gains detailed population numbers of region (Found on title bearer tab, tab 3).

- Title bearer gains detailed analysis of construction projects for region (Found on title bearer tab, tab 3).

- Title bearer gains permanent telepathic communication lines between direct superiors and subordinates to be accessed at will. (Found on title bearer tab, tab 3).

“Didn’t Larry get a title as well?” Rose asked, thinking that he would be the lookout for the other scouting team.

Martin nodded. “He got the [COMMANDER GENERAL] title.”

She sighed with relief. Wanting to warn the old stationmaster of their new findings she thought about accessing her title bearer tab and whether or not the two team leaders would be considered her subordinates. Her level of zero had the consequence of her not even bothering to look at her status, therefore, she hadn’t known about the other screens. Deciding to remedy the situation Rose focused on opening the green window.

[STATUS]

KIND: [HUMANOID]

RACE: [HUMAN]

SEX: [FEMALE]

AGE: 25

NAME: [ROSETTE SKY THORNE]

TITLE: [LADY]

[LEVEL 0]

STR – 4

VIT – 8

AGI – 5

DEX – 4

CON – 7

INT – 19

WIS – 15

CHA – 12

PER – 16

Interesting. Her stats looked pretty weak apart from maybe [INTELLIGENCE]. Perhaps she should look at getting a magic based class when the time came to choose. Thoughts for later. Glancing to the top of the screen she mentally selected the third tab. Information. Toggles. Lists. Numbers. There was so much to look at. She would have to go through this later. For now, she turned back to Martin who was still staring into the distance as he looked over the details of his title. “Hey Martin, have you let Larry know about the [MURDERER] tags?”

Exiting distant stare mode, the retired army officer responded “No, I’ll let him know now.”

After a brief time, Martin motioned for the team to get back into formation. He then called out in a quiet tone “We’ll head for the stairs and work our way up floor by floor as planned. Nobody use the elevators. This is no time to get stuck in an enclosed space. Especially with those ‘challengers’ popping up out of nowhere.”

Nods of affirmations went round and then they began their ascent.