I gasped, turning around to see Lady Xing standing behind me, arms crossed and looking over the scene with her classic raised eyebrow.
“How long were you here?” I asked looking at her in shock
“The whole time, I can’t exactly help you if I’m not watching you can I?”
“And you didn’t think to help” I asked voice raising to a shriek as the stress and anger at the situation finally caught up with me.
“Why would I” she asked scowling as she crossed her arms. “I’m not here to baby you, if you can’t deal with a low life merchant you aren’t going to last very long. Also if I was going to protect you the system recognises that and penalises your gains accordingly.”
Almost smacking myself in the head at my own stupidity I quickly went and checked my notifications, and by the upper planes there was a lot of them.
Absorb had failed to consume the class merchant
Congratulations Absorber class has levelled up from level 1 to level 2
Congratulations Rouge class has levelled up from level 2 to level 5
Congratulations General skill Senses has upgraded from level 1 to level 2
Congratulations General skill Running has upgraded from level 1 to level 5
Congratulations General skill Dagger Skills has upgraded from level 1 to level 4
Congratulations Rouge skill Fade has upgraded from level 1 to level 3
Congratulations Rouge skill Silent Footsteps has upgraded from level 1 to level 3
Congratulations Rouge skill Pickpocketing has upgraded from level 1 to level 2
Congratulations Absorber skill Absorb has upgraded from level 1 to level 2
Congratulations Absorber skill identify has leveled up from level 1 to level 5
“The improvements are significant aren't they” Lady Xing said with a smirk “If I was going to interfere the gains would have been half that at best.”
“The penalty is that big?” I asked in shock, still marvelling over the gains, thinking about how some of her abilities seem to grow, particularly she was sure in retrospect that she was running significantly faster at the end than at the beginning.
“Anyway your training ability seems particularly suspect, I still don’t know anywhere near enough about being a classer as I should, and on top of that just being told use your skills is not particularly helpful.” I said
“Help? I’m not here to help you by making things easy” lady Xing said chuckling “your a baby bird who wants to start learning how to fly, do you know how the only way to do that is?”
I looked at her suspiciously sensing a trap “no I can’t say that my education, which you provided me” I pointed out “ever taught me anything about birds”
“Their parents throw them out of their nest and let them fend for themselves.” She said flatly her arms still crossed. Turning she began waking down the alley stopping to kick the body with her boot as she passed. “Loot that man and follow me.” she continued, not bothering to stop. I will make sure no one comes down and bothers you.”
I walked carefully over to the body of the man who I killed, carefully prodding him with my dagger to confirm that he was dead, despite the notification about absorbing his class that seemed to confirm it. Shockingly there was no response.
A man looked much different in death I decided watching his pale slack face as I rifled through his pockets, using identify on everything to confirm that nothing he was wearing was particularly valuable. Unfortunately the man only had a few coins on him and a solid gold ring. On a whim I also grabbed the sword the man had wielded, which unfortunately didn’t appear to have any properties useful enough to appear on identify. However I grabbed it anyway looking at confusion when I saw there was no sheath on his belt.
Shrugging and deciding that the mystery was not worth further investigation I placed the ring and his coins into my coin purse. Placing the sword in a loop on my belt I ran to the front of the alley to make sure I didn’t delay Lady Xing and her potential teaching any more than necessary.
“Where are we going now?” I asked as I followed her through the winding streets, down closer to the entrance of the west gate of the city. Taking back alleys and paths I had never seen before I followed behind her closely as she walked with purpose. I had tried to ask her more about being a classer however she frankly had refused to respond to any of my questions.
“Finally a better question” Lady Xing said with what appeared with a sigh of relief “we are registering you with some guilds. What name should we register you under,” she asked almost seeming to talk to yourself “we can’t use your real name or identity after all.”
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“What guilds? Why?” I asked in shock. I had never been into a guild in my life and they were generally considered where low lifes and troublemakers hang out, and not somewhere a princess would be caught dead in.
“All of them I can get you into, particularly the hunters guild, the bounty hunters guild, the dungeoneers guild and the assassins guild.” Lady Xing said marching along. “Hmm, I think Lady Ink has a nice ring to it, we will go with that.”
“Hey do I get a say?” I asked almost jogging along to keep up next to her long strides.
“Do you have an opinion on your name?” she asked in a tone that indicated that it better be good for there would be consequences. Immediately my mind went blank and I ended up just shaking my head. “I thought as much” she said with a morbidly satisfied tone. “Anyway we’re here.” She opened a seemingly random door along a back alley filled with decaying foodstuffs and other rubbish discarded haphazardly and walked in dragging me in along with her.
“Shade I need you to craft an identity” Lady Xing said as soon as she walked in. Looking around I saw what looked to be the back of a tailor’s shop with fabric and scissors strewn everywhere, the feylight above was flickering causing odd shapes to be thrown along the walls with the rolls haphazard placement. Lady Xing walked in as if she owned the place and immediately sighed as she walked into the main room. Dirty plates filled the table with one chipped pitcher of water leaning precariously on the edge and mould covered several sections of the wall. as I stepped the floor creaked ominously as if the floor had been eaten by pests and was constantly at risk of falling through. Walking to the table she grabbed the half filled pitcher of water resting there and immediately threw the contents onto a grubby armchair covered in dirty fabric lying in the corner. The chair erupted.
“Did you have to do that Crimson?” Shade asked water dripping from his clothes and face and looking miserable. It turned out that Shade was a man standing at five foot flat, with a poorly maintained scraggly beard, and watery blue eyes, and waking up he had clutched two bottles of alcohol in his hands. I was not particularly impressed.
“You forget that I own the ground you walk on.” Lady Xing snapped “I could kill you now and not a single person would dare complain, you do as I say.”
“Fine you psychopath” he muttered, in a louder voice he asked “what am I doing.”
“Full setup for this one,” lady Cing snapped with a click of her fingers in my direction “mask, facecchange, armour, the lot.”
“When do you need it done by,” Shade asked the slovenly look melting off him as he looked at me closely, clearly not understanding the definition of personal space as he got himself well within touching distance. Instinctively I started to step back however he grabbed my hand and with a strength that belayed his size. Instinctively I used Identify on him as I was certain with his strength that he was a classer.
[Tailor] ???
“Hmm what was that” he asked looking at me closer “examine, appraise, some kind of identification skill for sure.” Shade asked
“Really? That is curious” Lady Xing said her eyes drilling into me “I thought you were just a standard stealth class, but that’s not a skill for those. Anything you want to add?”
Pursing my lips I shook my head vigorously making sure to not say anything. Now as a classer I couldn’t trust anyone with the specific details, even more so considering the churches price on my head. Thinking ahead I was already quite concerned about what I could reveal at the school. I was hoping to stumble across another class by that point, to give a further element of surprise, as I had heard two classes wasn’t unheard of. So If anyone peered behind the first class they would see the hopefully more exciting second class and leave it there.
“You do have some kind of stealth class at least,” Lady Xing muttered “I will work it out.”
“Anyway” Shade said hurriedly, doing his best to relieve the budding tension between the two of them “what do you want your mask to look like? It will conceal all of your details and modify your appearance slightly up to level 743 at a minimum.”
“That is an oddly specific level limit?” I said with a raised brow “And can you please go over exactly what you are providing me?”
“That’s the highest level I have had someone try to identify through the mask for testing purposes and they confirmed that they couldn’t see the identity of the person behind it.” Shade admitted, raising my arms and examining them closely. I will note that nothing is infallible and this can be seen through using specific skills at varying levels. However most skills need a very high level of proficiency, normally at least rare to penetrate it.”
The man rushed and grabbed an absurdly large levels of fabric from several rooms and continued. “And what I can do is make full basic armour sets, that conceal your identity, and will be plenty protective enough for quite some time. What name has she given you?”
“Lady ink” I muttered sourly still not really a fan of the name.
“Hmm I can see it” he said muttering. “I’m thinking a plain full faced mask with silver eyeholes and one silver tear running down the cheek.” As I watched his hands began moving faster than I could see and several dozen masks of varying colours appeared next to me, seven masks in black, and one white, dark green, grey and tan mask respectively, all with a silvery fabric covering the eyes and a single drop, of what appeared to be water yet was in the same silvery colour dropping down the left eye.
“That actually looks incredible,” I admitted “what’s with the colour schemes though?”
Shade smiled “the white is formal, black is for general wear, grey is for night stealth, green is for forest stealth and tan is for desert. The gray is better than black at night as even at night nothing is truly black, or else you wouldn’t be able to see anything at all.”
“And these will come with full armour, in matching colours?” I asked excitedly.
“Entire suits” he nodded
A thought struck me and I turned to Lady Xing and asked “can I also use this for the Academy?”
“Of course,” she nodded “what’s the point of making a name for yourself if you can’t actually flaunt it?”
“Thank you so much!” I exclaimed running over and quickly giving her a hug.
“No thanks for me.” Shade grumbled “it’s not as if I’m doing anything here.”
“Why are you asking for a hug too?” I asked raising my eyebrows. Shade went beet red and hastily changed the topic.
“Do you have any ideas for what you want to look like when not wearing the mask?” He asked hands still rapidly moving as he played with one of the black masks doing things with it I couldn’t even see “any suggestions on features whether you want to appear slightly larger or smaller etcetera?”
“Slightly slimmer” I immediately said, “and let’s give me a slightly softer face structure with blue eyes and short purple hair if possible”
“Nothing is ever simple” he grumbled grabbing the mask he was playing with and placing it in my hand. “This mask works completely. Get out, and come back in an hour or so to see the rest.”
“Thank you!” I called as Lady Xing turned and shoved me out the door.