• Excerpt from an old anti council pamphlet

  “It's just like home.”

  That is to say, it was a highrise with faded paint and stained walls and seedy looking residents that glared at me as I passed. That is to say that the landlord was an ugly old man with a beer belly who looked at me like I was something stuck to his shoe. That is to say that it was the best thing I could afford. That is to say that nothing worked in my apartment and that my rent was higher than it should be because habitable land was a rare commodity. It was also, unfortunately, my new home.

  It was not ideal. Medea had to be careful with the stairs that were not intended to support its weight. And of my neighbors that might attack it if they saw it while drunk. At least it had plenty of rats and other vermin to eat. It was a shitty place and I slept with knives under my pillow even with Medea around but I didn't have to worry about a growing debt. Speaking of which, my debt was fifty thousand Aetherites.

  My dingy flat was cramped with Medea around but smallest of all small mercies, I didn't have too much luggage of my own. It wasn't perfect but it was at least something and it was mine. A crashing sound and a slew of expletives rang out to accentuate the point.

  I shivered. It was early in the morning and the place was , which was absurd considering how hot the city was otherwise. My breath was fogging up in the air even indoors.

  Summoning a sprite, a tiny glowing fairy-like creature that existed more as an impression of mana than a corporeal being, I ordered it to fetch me a mug. Delport did not have coffee but it had something similar called fisjoui; sweeter and milder than what I was used to. Just as I was about to put the water to boil, someone started banging on my door, fervently.

  Outside were two people, one man and one woman. One of them, the woman, was the one who was cooling my flat. I could almost see the mana flow with how little she was bothering to hide it. The man smiled and stepped inside, somehow sidestepping me and the fact that I was blocking the door. Medea screeched threateningly but was ignored.

  “Good morning miss. I'm Fim and my companion here is Vinni. At your service. We had heard that a new resident had moved here and wanted to meet you. We were not told that you were such a charming young lady, otherwise I would have bought a present that was suitable for one such as you.” I had a sinking feeling that I knew what these two were here for

  “Anya. And may I know what I can help you with?” Fig, or whatever he was named smiled blandly and stepped forward towards me. I ordered Medea to stand down, the insect was becoming a bit too proactive now.

  “Help us? Oh no, we are here to help , Miss Anya. You see, me and my companion are associated with a group of volunteers that seek to keep our city and our people safe and healthy. You see, in these areas, there are a lot of violent criminals that can and will do terrible things to level their classes. Not only that but the cold is terrible here and it is not unheard of for people to freeze to death. New Delport is a wonderful city, Miss, it truly is but it is not a safe city, especially for a young lady who lives alone like you. And that is where we come in.”

  “And let me guess, you just want a very reasonable “donation” regularly

  to ensure that no unscrupulous men trash my place or attack me and that I have enough heat to not freeze?” I raised an eyebrow. To say that I was not impressed would be an understatement.

  “Exactly! You are a smart young lady, Miss Anya. People with brains thrive here and you most certainly will.” I sighed.

  “Fine, how much do you want me to pay to leave me alone?”

  Yep. Just like home.

  “C’mon, shouldn't you at least get them to stay off my back?” I complained to Tiamim three days later, I did whine.

  “You can officially hire a guild to get rid of them if you have the money but they are not breaking any laws, officially that is. And besides, they will be replaced by other people in a day or two even if you kill them all.” Tiamim retorted.

  “But surely they know not to extort guilders, right?”

  “Yes, but officially you are just a contractor. Unless you want to give us a public reason to fast track your membership, you are not protected. Also hush now, we have arrived.”

  Our destination was a manor that belonged to a very particular victim. One who was important enough that the guild could not take his body. We had to come to it.

  This body was a problem. A very big problem. Tiamim’s grim face was a testament to how big of a problem.

  Tirion Nevar had been, prior to the tragic break up between his body and his head, a drug lord. Well he was more than that but he was also a drug lord. A drug lord who had been trying to get into the Red Powder business for a while. Red Powder being one of the things that flowed through New Delport’s veins in vast quantities alongside things such as Aetherite and flesh.

  Tirion had not been successful so far in capturing the market; as no one really knew who controlled it but Red Powder had a shortage and had been rising in price lately.

  That was almost my fault. Apparently the carriage I had ridden to the city so innocently had been carrying Red Powder and it was confiscated by the guild and handed over to the Illustris Council in a huge public spectacle with newspapers and all that. My name had thankfully been kept out of the whole business because otherwise I'd be watching out for assassins every living second. But that brings us to this moment.

  Tirion’s augury didn't take long but it wasn't super helpful. A figure in black with a mask had killed him but my bones always landed in random positions when I tried to ask for the killer's location. Apparently divination could be blocked like that. But I now knew that the killer was someone Tirion knew or at least expected.

  Agitjin was recreating the mana flow at the crime scene and between his work and mine, we could map out the movements of the assassin within Tirion’s house reasonably well but that was our limit.

  Tiamim was saying something about how tragic the death of such an upstanding member of Dellish society was, a great patron of arts and a genius merchant whose loss would be mourned for years. And Tirion's kid nodded along, looking glum and we made sad ‘ahs’ and ‘tchs”. No one really believed in the charade but we played it nonetheless.

  But that brings us to a scene. A drug shipment is seized and the streets run dry and a rival drug lord trying to get into the market is murdered. And the Illustris Council’s municipal guild contracts were coming up soon too. Any one of these things were already a recipe for civil unrest, all three at once?

  A very big problem.

  Three days later, the assassin was found. He was found dead, poisoned by his own hand.

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  My crystal heated up early in the morning and I sighed. Another already?

  When I arrived at my workplace, everyone else was already there. And there was no body to augur. Instead, everyone was hauling files and evidence and putting them in boxes.

  “Oh hi, Anya! Help us out here.” Agitjin waved while almost invisible tendrils of mana picked up things.

  “So what is this?” I asked him while putting everything on Medea’s back, like it was the world’s ugliest shopping cart.

  “Renovations. Turns out the emissary was after something underground and it basically fucked over half the city’s foundations. We have to move this stuff before the Earth elementalists can come in.” He shrugged before jumping back as Medea almost stepped on his foot.

  Yay for gainful employment.

  Despite my (not) best efforts, my reputation as a reclusive hermit followed me to my shitty apartment. Other than Vinni and Fim, or bootleg Bonnie and Clyde as I thought of them, who came to collect every 9 days, and the landlord, I did not receive many guests.

  So when I was woken up one night by someone knocking on my door, I expected trouble. There was trouble.

  “Oh please, you have to help me.” The girl in a black dress cried out with Bonnie and Clyde looking uncomfortable as they flanked her.

  “Uhhh?” I said very eloquently before deciding that whatever it was, it could wait until morning and slamming the door shut. Just kidding, I just mustered up my grumpiest face, ruined by the fact that I was in a sleeping gown and stared silently. Fim swore and cleared his throat loudly.

  “Ahem, excuse us Miss Anya but it seems that your assistance is wanted. As a compensation, your next installment of fees for our protection will be waive—”

  “Fim, please cut to the chase. I was sleeping and so help me, the last time I was woken up by an unwanted visitor, I didn't have Medea and I still put a knife through that guy's skull. Like I don't hate you, I get that this is what you do but please, I'm not in the mood for bullshit right now.” Okay maybe calling a spider-scorpion hatchling a guy was overstating it a bit but my Cold Bloodedwas fine.

  I saw a hint of anger flash through his eyes but he smothered it with a smile. “Of course. This is Lady Hinaria, a close cousin of Boss Ila of the Five Jackals.” Was I supposed to know who that was?

  Oh wait. Fim had a logo on his back, didn't he? Of five jackals in a circle. God, I needed to wake up.

  “Ok hang on a moment.” I said before running to the kitchen and splashing water from a jug into my face. Wait, holy shit, I threatened the people that extorted me. I was fucked.

  “Err, sorry for that. I had a long day. So what is this all about?” Vim still looked mad but he continued.

  “Lady Hinaria is in urgent need of a strong beast. Her usual has started its evolution and the replacement is not yet rea—”

  The girl, Lady Hinaria pushed Fim aside.

  “I can speak for myself, Fim. There is an underground beast tournament. I was supposed to participate in it but my Grifigy started evolution prematurely. And now there is only an hour before it starts. I'll pay you to fight for me.”

  “Let me get this straight. You want Medea to fight instead of your ‘Grifigy’ or whatever?”

  “No, not fight. Just an obstacle course thing.” Bleh. Medea won't even get dinner from this then. But on the other hand, maybe if I win then I can wiggle out of paying Fim?

  Medea did not win.

  Days quickly passed after the visit of the divine emissary. For the first week or so I would wake up, go down for breakfast and then go kill slimes. Afterwards I would return and occasionally chat with Nerry if she was available and then retire to my room to read and then sleep. Nerry didn't seem like the most erudite person but she had a seemingly endless horde of books that I positively devoured. I even made, well I wouldn't call them friends but acquaintances with some of the other contractors despite my otherwise horrible first impressions and my skill destroying my ability to be normal around people for long. And occasionally, I would feel my crystal heating up and then report to Tiamim. Once it even happened while I was killing slimes and Fahria and Medea had to kill them without me. I did not get paid for that.

  And then I moved to my new apartment and between Nerry’s work and my own engagement at the guild, we could never meet up. For some ungodly reason, Dellish people didn't have Sundays but rather took a break on every day. And by then, I didn't have the energy to go track down the girl. Maybe I should try to do that one of these days?

  Speaking of work, Agitjin’s name was correct. A Git. A genius when it came to mana manipulation but with a terminal case of foot in mouth disease. Not a creep or an asshole but someone who did get us all in trouble with Tiamim more than once. Novas was fine, but he was a mute slime who didn't exactly get human body language.

  And there was Fahria, the only I would consider an actual friend. I learned more about her too. Fahria was . She was actual nobility from some distant land and was doing culling contracts to grind her stats in preparation for a brewing succession war. Though I was a bit miffed when Fahria had confessed that she had initially only approached me because I seemed like I had a powerful sponsor that she could ally with after an emergency where a contractor named Esk had called for backup in the labyrinth. That had only been a part of the reason why I had refused the other girl's invitations to hang out at some rich kid's club after work, I just preferred to be cooped up in a room with entertainment than going out. And in all honesty, I was too tired to have the patience for social niceties most days, even my fucked up skills.

  In those days, I had also grown in all my stats and I was finally not completely helpless on my own without Medea.

  NAME: ANANYA HARTFORD

  RACE: HUMAN

  ACTIVE CLASS: [MINOR EIDOLON BINDER 17/20]

  CUMULATIVE CLASS LEVELS: [125]

  MASTERED CLASSES: [9]

  AGE: 19

  MANA: 100/100 (REGEN 20 PER HOUR)

  STATS:

  STRENGTH: 14

  CELERITY: 15

  VITALITY: 18

  ACUITY: 19

  WILLPOWER: 20

  PERCEPTION: 19

  ATTUNEMENT: 20

  SKILLS:

  PASSIVES:

  

1. Assassin's Eye: 19
2. Large Knife User: 14
3. Cold Blooded: 23
4. Pain Tolerance: 7
5. Fauna Archive: 6
6. Greater Enslaved Familiar’s Bond: 34
7. Mana Direction: 15
8. Unseen Slayer: 13
9. Blood Bag: 3

  ACTIVES:

  

1. Improvised Tool Use: 1
2. Scavenging And Scrounging: 9
3. Bone Shaping: 32
4. Ossific Communion: 35
5. Blood Sense: 1
6. Calcified Mana Empowerment: 32
7. Call Lesser Sprite: 14

  

• Eidolon’s Evolution: 12
• Disposable Eidolon Synchronisation: 1

  SPELLS:

  

  

• Hasten Swarm: 25 mana
• Molting: 50 mana
• Induce Bleeding: 35 mana
• Dilute Blood: 20 mana
• Coagulation: 20 mana
• Muffle Sound: 15 mana
• Enlarge Tamed Beast: 40 mana
• Teeth Spray: 10 mana per second
• Spinal Shiver: 40 mana
• Summon Eidolon: 70 mana

  TRAITS:

  

• Low Maintenance:
• Dead Quiraion’s Blessing
• The Knife Of Quiraion:

  The bulk of my skill consolidations and evolutions came from classes but Knife UserBig Knife User for now. One other thing I had been working towards was working on my raw mana control to create new skills or spells but that had been a complete failure.

  I was still skinny and worryingly short for my age but I had gained some slight muscle definition just from my rapid stat gains if I really squinted. Or maybe it was just me imagining things. That just made me even more conscious of how strong Valdima had to be. The Goliath of a woman, if she existed in my old world, could probably snap me like a twig, system or no system. Physical stats did directly correlate to mundane physical abilities to a point and the Guildmistress had to be pushing those limits. But that also led to the discovery that in this world, the concept of physical exercise didn't exist at all. The closest approximation being physiotherapy after extensive biomancy or recovery from injury. Nerry had looked at me like I was insane when I accidentally mentioned exercising and then explained the concept. Thankfully she didn't probe further, only muttering something about the strange rituals and customs of Khagrans. If someone wanted strength, they would take a class. If someone wanted to run faster, they would keep running until they got a skill. Swing harder? Keep trying to swing harder until it was a skill. But exercise as a general thing? That was crazy talk. I didn't bring it up with anyone else after that.

  My current class, [MINOR EIDOLON BINDER] weird. Rev had been correct that the Sprite class would unlock something for Medea. It was a level 20 class with the stats to match but it only had two ephemeral skills for me and a spell. However it did merge my two existing physiology knowledge skills into one that gave me a mental archive of low and mid tier animals and their mundane and magical traits. I mean there was another skill called Bind EidolonGreater Enslaved FamiliarSummon EidolonEidolon's EvolutionDisposable Eidolon SynchronisationEidolon’s Evolution FaunaArchive

  .

  really really like it then take a gander over at my patreon. It has 3 advance chapters over RR but expect that to rise