“You’re sure that they’re working together?” I asked, looking down at her. I hadn’t returned to my seat since the incident with the poison. Something about standing helped calm my nerves. I was itching to go. Practically vibrating with excitement at the prospect of sneaking into a warehouse full of my enemies—even if those enemies just happened to be kids. Kids could still be dangerous, I told myself. I should be ready for anything.
“How many times do I have to explain it?” Henrietta asked with a sigh. She leaned back in her chair, the wrinkles around her eyes scrunching up as she met my gaze once more. “All I’ve heard are rumors. I’m not exactly an expert on criminal activities. But, everything that people have said indicates they’re working under someone new. Someone that came in recently, who’s been making waves, bringing them all together.”
That could certainly prove a hindrance to my plans to use the ranks of the underworld to my advantage, especially if there was any chance I might one day end up leading my own group. I’d need to learn more about this figurehead—perhaps even make an introduction.
I mulled over the possibilities. Ultimately, all I could do at the moment is speculate about how it might hinder or provide me with an advantage. But there was the possibility, and that was all I needed at the moment. A little hope could go a long way. Humanity had taught me that. First, though, I needed to get my coin purse back from that insolent girl.
“I need to think about some things.” I said, turning from the table. “Irinda, I’ll meet you back at the inn when I’m done.”
“Of course, Miss Aria.” She said from behind me.
I left the two of them without another word, heading out the back door and into the alleyway that ran beside Henrietta’s shop. I scanned the dim area, looking for any signs of the cat from before, but didn’t see anything that pointed to it being about anymore.
Maybe it really had been waiting for me. That was only somewhat terrifying to think about, especially considering the entire implications of the System’s existence and how far its influence seemed to stretch.
Not for the first time, I found myself wondering if there were others like me out in the world. Others who had been given another chance. An advantage. I shook the thought away and turned back to my current task.
If I was going to go traipsing into a gang’s hideout in the Eastern Quarter, I’d need to have a better idea of what I was capable of, even if that gang was a bunch of kids. Despite spending some time with my new body since reawakening, I hadn’t really given much thought to all the pieces of the puzzle that had been laid out before me.
It was time to change that.
I wandered away from Henrietta’s shop, deeper into the alleyways between the buildings that surrounded it. The last time I’d gone running headfirst into something with this form, I’d ended up with a hurt ankle and a Debuff—a piece of the System I still didn’t wholly understand. What else could work as Debuffs? Could not sleeping enough count as one? Would losing a finger or a limb or any other part of my body be considered such?
I assumed that poisons would count as one, had I not been immune to them thanks to my draconic powers.
I let out a huff of breath. So much for not letting myself get too distracted. There was just so much I still didn’t understand, and so many questions that kept popping up.
“If only you’d given me a damned mentor or something,” I muttered to nobody in particular.
My feet carried me into a new alley—this one situated between two buildings that looked to be abandoned, wooden boards covering their windows—and instead focused on the answers I already had.
So far I hadn’t unlocked access to much of what I assumed the System was capable of, or even what I was capable of considering I was only Level 2 by its standards. The only ability I had unlocked that I could recall was the [Swift Strike] ability, which I had unlocked in my fight with the thugs in the garden. I hadn’t really put it to use, though, so I wasn’t wholly sure how to activate it. There were also a few skills that I’d noticed when the System had spit my status at me, though I hadn’t thought much about them since that first day.
Now, standing in the middle of a dirty alleyway, I focused my mind’s eye inward on my skills and abilities.
=Abilities=
Swift Strike
=Active Skills=
Lockpicking – Level 2 | Sneak – Level 2
=Passive Skills=
Dual-Blade – Level 1 | Short Blade – Level 2 | Light Armor – Level 2 | Intimidation – Level 1 | Dodge – Level 1 | People Person – Level 1 | Perception – Level 3 | Physical Power – +2 Levels (from item) | Poison Resistance – Level 3 | Shadow Walker – Level 2
On their own, they didn’t seem all that useful. But, considering the profession I was quickly moving toward, and the fact that the System had even classed me as a ‘Thief,’ the skills at least sounded halfway useful. However, with so many marked as passive, I wasn’t really sure how they worked.
So how did I use them? The fact that they were separated from the Active Skills must mean I couldn’t activate them myself, right?
I focused on the first item marked under the Passive Skills.
Dual-Blade: The user is more capable of wielding two single-hand bladed weapons at one time. Directly applies a control buff to the user when these weapons are equipped.
"Huh," I remarked to the empty air. I hadn’t expected the description to be so unembellished.
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If [Dual-Blade] affected my usage of one-handed weapons used in tandem, then that must mean Short Blade affected my usage of short swords and other short weapons directly. I focused on the skill and another window popped into existence before me.
Short Blade: The user is more capable of wielding short bladed weapons just as short swords, daggers, and cudgels. Directly applies a control buff to the user when these weapons are equipped.
Having at least two levels in this is probably why I handled the dagger as well as I did. That likely meant [Light Armor] was similar, so I ignored it and instead focused on [Perception].
Perception: The user is more aware of their surroundings and may notice traps and other hard-to-see details more often. Higher levels may grant users the ability to see through lies.
I focused on the next skill that caught my eye.
People Person: The user is extremely charismatic, to the point of being able to hold a conversation with a statue if they wanted to. Ability to control conversations scales directly with higher levels.
Well, that very well might prove useful. But what about the last one?
Shadow Walker: The user has become one with the shadows. They are much better suited to sneaking than direct confrontation. Alerted targets may lose sight of the user if they remain still for an extended period of time within the shadows.
“Hells,” I muttered. “That will prove exceptionally handy with my future plans.” The bit about being better at sneaking than direct confrontation was troubling. As a dragon, I’d always faced my troubles head-on. But it seemed that this body the System had rewarded me with was much better at the alternative.
Perhaps there might be less honor in that, but I tried not to think about it too much.
[Intimidation] was easy enough to understand, so I ignored it and instead focused on [Physical Power], a skill which had been granted to me by the ring I’d taken off the man I’d killed with the needle dagger.
Physical Power: The user can feel the strength flowing through their muscles. They are more capable at strength-based feats and can undertake more challenging physical demands. Scales significantly as the user upgrades their Strength attribute.
The descriptions of each skill at least gave me an idea of what they affected, and knowing that I would be able to sneak more easily was nice, even if I hadn’t had much experience with it in the past. With such a small body, though, sneaking was far more feasible than it had been when I’d been in my dragon form. It wasn’t exactly easy to sneak when you weighed thousands of stone and had massive wings that took up all of the street, even when they were folded in against your body.
Turning my mind back to my abilities and skills, I tried to imagine how I could use [Swift Strike]. It seemed simple enough, as I already knew most of the pressure points on the human body. But, was the ability something I had to think about activating, or could I simply activate it by doing so?
I looked around the alley for something I could use as a target. There wasn’t much, but I decided on a piece of wood that hung down from one of the buildings. The wood hung precariously from one of the windows of the building, and it looked like it had been loose for quite some time. I pulled on it, and when it didn’t immediately give way, I let go and settled into a fighting stance, putting my hands up the same way that I’d been taught years before—one hand in front of my face, fist ready to catch any attacks that aimed for it, and my other hand loosely situated in front of it, ready to strike back against anyone causing me trouble.
[Swift Strike]. I let the words flit across my mind like a bird through a garden on a spring day. My hand shot out, moving faster than I’d expected, my knuckles connecting with the board just off from its center.
A loud thwack filled my ears and echoed off the walls of the buildings, eventually becoming lost in the other noises of the city, as the board snapped in half where my hand had connected to it, before my arm jolted back into position next to my other hand.
I stared at the wood as it fell to the ground.
“Seven moons…” My voice was barely a whisper. That had been much more effective than I had even dreamed it would be. Though I did notice that I felt slightly more tired than I had before. I thought about my status and the System spit out a window of information in front of me.
=Current Status=
Health: 60 / 60 | Mana: 80 / 80 | Stamina: 65 / 70
So using abilities like [Swift Strike] affected my Stamina, then. I supposed that made sense. I had wondered exactly what that particular part of my status had meant, and now it seemed I had inexplicably found the answer.
I let my hands fall to my sides and turned back toward the exit of the alleyway. Now that I had a bit better idea of what to expect from my known Abilities and the skills that the System had granted me, perhaps I could put them to better use. I’d also need to figure out how to restore my Stamina. Perhaps sleeping would refill it, or there was always the other potion that Irinda had brought to me. Unfortunately, I’d left all of that stashed away in my room back at The Slumbering Drake.
I started walking, my footsteps carrying me out into the street, where I turned toward the deeper parts of the Eastern Quarter. It was still a few hours away from when I wanted to make my approach, but it wouldn’t hurt to walk through the area, would it?
The street was crowded, more so than I’d expected for the time of day, as people hurried about their days. Some stopped to speak with one another, whispering in hushed voices about their days and the things they’d been seeing throughout the city. I caught snatches of conversation about the Imperial Court, and its plans to announce something in the near future, between a young-looking man and a woman with dirty-blonde hair who stood outside of a tailor’s shop.
That piqued my interest, so I turned toward the shop they were standing in front of, pretending to admire the goods through the wide front window.
“…the town criers said the Empress is set to make an appearance in the city later this week,” the man was saying as I settled in beside them.
“About what, do you think?” The woman asked, leaning in closer to him.
The man made a noise, like a scoff. “Hells if I know, but I wonder if it will have to do with those talks we’ve been hearing about uprisings out west.”
"Could be. I wish they’d focus more on what we have going on in the city. We have our own problems, like those thugs down on Dock Street.”
“My cousin said he ran into some of those ingrates just the other day. Robbed him dry of all his coin. He’d just gotten paid, too, the poor lad.”
The rest of the conversation trailed off as my mind focused in on the most important parts.
First, the ‘Empress’ was going to make an announcement of some kind? That was especially troubling being as I was the Empress, and I hadn’t planned to make any announcements. I also didn’t recall any information about an uprising out west ever reaching the streets of Caelthara. That was one particular issue that we had cut off before it ever got any legs under it.
The second most troubling thing was the fact they had complained about the empire’s attention feeling too far away. It was something that I’d been grappling with myself over the past few days, seeing as how nobody seemed to care about anything beyond the bubble that surrounded them.
But perhaps I’d been too hasty in my judgement of these people, and where their hearts truly lied. If there was another group of thugs bullying folks around, then perhaps I could find a way to use that to set myself up as a savior of sorts, at least to some of the people.
Becoming a ‘hero’ in my own right would certainly go a long way toward helping me build up a following that I could use against the true [Hero] when he made his debut.