Cless couldn't sleep. She was still alert, still on battle mode. The number of people staring at her, whispering, and staring at her was too much. Even though she was changing, growing in mind and spirit, breaking out of that introverted shell she cloaked herself in for the last thirteen years to avoid drawing attention to her, that shell was still there. Too much attention still bothered her. Especially when mixed with envy.

She got Shane to owe her an open debt. That was good. She got her Skill to work without any prompts, only with words. That was even better. There was still the fair trade portion. She knew that if she tried to force Shane into something too outrageous he wouldn't be compelled. But she basically saved his life. Favors owned and enforced were gold in the bank.

Cless waited until most of the people were asleep. She looked around and she could see perfectly in the darkness. The metal in the adventurer's weapons and armor cast a myriad of lights all around. She could see the scowls on the three wounded she refused to heal. One of the girls was a Cleric and she did her best to fix them, but her Mending was normal. It was a spell designed to knit flesh and stop minor bleeding, not heal hideous wounds. Besides that, she confessed that she could only use Mending three times on a full mana pool. Cless could use almost forty.

And right now that Cleric girl woke up and was once again doing her best to tend the three boys' wounds. One of them, the most resentful one, pushed her away. The girl went back to her resting spot and Cless could see she was crying when she moved her hand to wipe her face. She had a bronze ring.

They would get what they wanted but so would Cless. She gently moved Silverfang's snout away and went to talk to them.

"Do you guys want me to heal you? It will cost."

"Fuck off, aberration." The resentful one spat. Cless could see that his wounds were going to fester. And now the healing would cost even more.

"You want to die, then fine. Even if you make it to town, the Healer will charge at least a crown and you'll be out of commission for months if you even get back in perfect shape. Which you won't, by the way."

Another one of them, that probably had broken ribs, pleaded. "What is your price? Please heal us. We don't have gold but maybe the guild could help."

Cless noted there were some of the others watching them. 'Help yourself before asking for help from others', she thought to herself. Fearing being overheard, she negotiated in a low voice.

"No. You have to pay for the healing yourselves. I will heal you, but I don't want you spreading bad rumors about me. If you want to even hear my terms, you have to agree to do your best to just forget about what we will talk about the deal to heal you right after I finish healing each one of you and let go of any grudges. If the three wholeheartedly agree to that, I'll say my terms."

Only the rude one refused to listen. After some nudging and whimpering from the others, he agreed. Cless sat next to them.

"Good. I want..." She thought and decided to not ask for either Stat points or their Skills. It was bad enough. "I want you to grind Experience for me. Yes. Your levels are what? Twenty? I want fifteen percent of all Experience Points you have now as Class Experience and ten percent of all earned Experience points you get for ten years. You won't even see the points deducted in any messages or notifications. We can even team up eventually if an opportunity arises."

"You want to team up and grind Experience with us?" The second one asked.

"Yes. Eventually. Did you understand the terms? Fifteen percent of your current Experience as Class experience now, plus ten percent of all earned Experience for ten years. With an offer to team up in the future to work out this debt."

All three agreed. Cless focused to suppress the notifications but they saw another one.

"You!"

The rude one was about to speak but Cless punched his wound. He screamed in pain and she started to use Heal on him. She needed four castings to recover him, her punch aggravated them. She moved to the other two and they didn't resist. Soon they were all healed.

"Feeling Better?"

She asked out loud. All three nodded. Cless felt her contracts fulfill and the effects take root. She felt sleepy. She thought it was the hostility from the three that kept her from sleeping so she returned, found a place next to the big wolf and soon let her consciousness fade.

She woke up to the bustling of people milling around and the sound of flies buzzing everywhere. How she did not miss the stench of rotting orc entrails. After saying good morning to everyone and grabbing a bite from a communal breakfast, Cless resummoned her golem in a way it would put its back right next to where the cart could reach from behind a ledge. After strapping the cart at its back, they were ready to depart.

Shane approached, with Martin and Arnold behind him. "Cless, could we convince you to spare one or two of those spools of rope?"

"Yes. If at least the twelve strongest from your guild show up tomorrow at dawn by the treeline at the end of the east road to haul logs to the sawmill. And let Mr. Anders know that I am going to delay my delivery by a day to exterminate the rest of the orcs. Can't let these wander around and cause trouble. If they get their hands on six women, that's a hundred more of them to fight against."

Venaris shuddered next to her and Cless hug the gnome. "Sorry, Venn." Cless gave her sister a kiss.

"That's a deal, but wait!" Shane said. "What are the penalties if we skip on the job?"

"You're learning fast, Shane!" Cless giggled. "You'll just owe me a minor favor. Or better yet, let me borrow Arnold. I need another frontline defender, Golem is too slow."

Shane slapped the armored man, "Good for you, Arnold. You'll get tons of Experience while we retreat and lick our wounds."

Tons of Experience. Something was wrong. "How much Experience Points did you get during the last fight? I got nothing." Cless asked.

They answered with an amount varying between four and twelve thousand. "I mean just from the orcs." She also thought that orcs were not monsters either, even though they had to brutalize females of other species to reproduce. She still hated and would destroy them all the same, but her rational mind wouldn't misclassify them just because of hatred. She, herself, was wrongfully called monster too many times.

"I don't know, Cless," Shane told her. "My settings are for global combat Experience. I never had the patience for itemized Experience and the default is no better than overall."

Cless sighed and slumped her shoulders. She knew what happened. "Give me some time. I need to settle something." With that, she went around a rock, sat down and closed her eyes. What was about to come would knock her off her feet if she was standing up.

She unmuted the Experience notifications that she shut off after they sent the bandits away.

For using your class proficiencies, you earned 3,400 Experience Points.

For using your class proficiencies, you earned, 1,350 Experience Points.

....

For using your class proficiencies, you earned, 4,550 Experience Points.

During the flood of notifications whispering in her ear all at the same time and with terrible synchronization, she felt like there were a thousand people around her whispering. Cless clenched her head and fiddled with her settings until she found the granularity switch. She shifted it to "Global Combat" and to "Daily Proficiency".

...

For using your class proficiencies, you earned 21,400 Experience Points.

For using your class proficiencies, you earned 17,300 Experience Points.

For fighting 120 orcs, you earned 4,345 Experience Points.

You reached level 55. +3 Stat Points.

You reached Dabbler level 25. +1 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Health, +1 Intellect, +8 Wisdom, +1 Charisma, +1 Magic.

You reached Vicar 5. +2 Intellect, +1 Agility, +1 Health, +3 Magic.

You reached Veteran Warmaster 23 (+16 to all allies' weapon proficiencies).

She sat there with her head clutched for quite some time. That's it. No more suppressed notifications for Cless. She remained there, absorbed in her thoughts.

Funny how nobody teaches how to set notifications at school. Cless knew that the Priest would have taught more than he wanted, but probably he was wary that one of the nuns was a spy...

Or one of the students. Nah. No way. She bound most of the boys and some of the girls, and the spy would stay around her. None of those that remained around her can leak her secrets and all of them stayed behind or died.

Except for Lyle, he went away. But Lyle was the same Lyle all the time. Even if Lyle was a spy, he is bound to secrecy. If they try to pry things out of his mind, he'll forget everything.

The inquisition rushed their schedule. It means two things, that they had a schedule and something triggered the change from their original schedule. The Priest told Cless that now that she was fifteen she could go live with Karen. It means she had to stay under his guard, or observation until she turned fifteen. The rite of passage. Acquisition of Skills. Were they worried about her Skill? No, because they didn't pry that information. Unless they appraised her. All of the heroes had some levels in appraisal and she was weak at the time of the rite.

The Inquisition was responsible for killing her mother and also burning Witch Hill. The Witch was attacked under accusations of consorting with demons. It is not farfetched to believe that the same accusation fell on her mother's household. And probably several others. If they had to strike blindly, they didn't know where they were hiding. Probably the work of the heroes.

Zoe did say they scattered to far lands. Probably to hide her mother. It means her mother is not the sharpshooter but the one they rescued. Her mother must have discovered some secret the church was willing to kill to hide. She said they spent seventy years inside the Infernal Realm, but they didn't seem to have aged that much. How long between the first two Hero incursions?

Her father died in the Infernal Realm. They were nine heroes initially, probably her parents were the two that stayed behind. It means she was conceived in the Infernal Realm.

Maybe that was the reason she was kept quarantined in the church until her rite of passage. They were not concerned about her Skill, even Karen or Balthus didn't know what it was so probably it is very hard to appraise an S-rank one. No, they were concerned about another piece of her Status. After all, the Status can only be accessed after the rite. What is in there when you finish the rite? Name, race, stats, and the meager proficiencies you picked up while growing up as the level cap for someone without status was zero.

Of these traits, which ones were determined based on your birth? Only Race and Skill. And even the Skill has a huge factor in the Desire of the person. Desire is determined during the rite. It must be, otherwise, nobody would have Skills like the Virility one. The bandit Cless got that Skill from must be some guy concerned about his genitals. But she already discarded her Skill.

All that was left was the race. They wanted to make sure Cless was human. The Priest only released her after he confirmed her race. Probably after the spy, or spies, or Church liaison agreed to it.

It begs the question, why wouldn't she be human? Just because she was conceived in the Infernal realm? It makes no sense. If that would be the case, both factions would import lots of people into their realms and just breed them there.

If the location didn't matter, then what other factors influence the heritage of a child upon birth? Only the father and the mother. She knew her mother was human. The Inquisition would be able to pinpoint her easily if she wasn't.

It left the only unknown element. Her father. They never mentioned it, even during their talks. Blame on Cless for never asking, stupid. No, they did. They said her father died in the Infernal Realm. Balthus said that they went there a second time to rescue their friend who was trapped behind.

Friend, not friends. Nine went in the first time and seven went in the second time to rescue one. It means they knew they only had one left to rescue. The other died during the first incursion into the Infernal Realm.

It excludes the Hero other than her mother from being her father. They were sure my father died in the Infernal Realm. Another captive? They killed the Devil while there. Were their first mission to rescue other captives? Maybe her mother's lover, who knows?

No. They said they were naïve. It was not a rescue mission. They were manipulated into going there to kill the Devil. That was their main objective, at least publicly. Rescuing their mother was a hidden goal. They couldn't make the rescue operation public knowledge.

Even after they rescued Cless, they had to make stupid deals just to make her safe. The Inquisition mobilized a large contingent to come here because of her.

The witch hunt was based on accusations of consorting with demons. She was conceived in the Infernal Realm. Her father was killed by the Heroes. The church is worried about her race. Her father was not human. The heroes killed the Devil.

Cless stood up, her chest heaving to keep enough air flowing in her lungs. It was like she had a bad dream but she was conscious the whole time. She took in her surroundings, she was at the place she sat to review her notifications. Five whole levels waiting for her. She didn't know if the levels were withheld or just not displayed on her status. Probably the latter. The status is not updated without being pulled up. One might be underperforming or overperforming without knowing.

Nobody came to check on her, or if they did, weren't there. Cless checked her energy and found just a little trickle maintaining the golem. Maybe...

She dumped the three points in Wisdom. It increases recovery speed for magical energy. The trickle dimmed. She felt she could keep the golem up for almost a month like this. Of course, her power wouldn't grow and she had to use magic.

She returned to the entrance of the cave, only her guild and Arnold were there.

"Where are the others?" She asked.

Arnold pointed west. "They went back to town."

"That is fine," Cless said, visibly irritated. It was not with the people that left though. "They were just Experience leeches."

Venaris came and held her hand. "Is something wrong?"

She forced her feelings down. She also blinked to avoid tearing up. "More like what is not wrong. Maybe fighting the orcs is less wrong. We are going to the mountains back to the gnome village. We got orcs to farm."

Status:

Name: Cless (no surname)

Race: Human.

Level: 55 ( 1,489,347 / 1,540,000 Exp )

Class: — Dabbler 25 (300,000 Exp / ** ) — Priestess 25 (975,000 Exp / ** ) — Vicar 5 (241,500 / 265,000 Exp)

Profession — Veteran Warmaster 23 (255,156 / 276,000 Exp) — Crafter 18 (Skill) — Farmer 18 (Skill)

Base Stats — Strength: 64 — Agility: 87 [143] — Health: 102 — Intellect: 103 — Wisdom: 61 — Charisma: 50 — Magic: 154

Available Status Points: 0

Skills:

S-rank: [ Absolute Contract ]

B-rank: [ Succubus’ Kiss ]

C-rank: [ Crafter ], [ Dangersense ], [ Elven Longevity ], [ Eat Anything ], [ Earth Magic ], [ Master Miner ]

D-Rank: [ Trick Shot ], [ Nimble Step ], [ Tinker ], [ Grounding ], [ Dancer’s Grace ], [ Great Leap ], [ Druidwalk ],

— [ Tremorsense ], [ Gemsense ], [ Ore sense ], [ Brownie Magic ], [ Courtier’s Charm ], [ Curmudgeon crafter ]

— [ Singers’ Talent ], [ Poison Resistance ], [ Merchant sense ], [Steelshine], [ Heavy Handed ], [ Farmer ], [ Twin Strike ],

E-Rank: [ Gravebreath ], [ Architectural Ingenuity ], [ Coin Sense ], [ Weavertouch ], [ Silk Hair ], [ Wanderlust ],

— [ Giant's Stamina ], [ Hearth’s warmth ], [ Seamstress Talent ], [ Lady’s Countenance ], [Enhanced Touch],

— [ Howl], [ Air Sailing], [ Splinters ]

F-rank: [ Gardener’s touch ], [ Florist’s Wonder ]. [ Cheat ], [ Inner Compass ]

Spells (spells under 20 hidden):

Cleric: — Mending: 50 — Detoxify: 50 — Light: 50 — Turn Undead: 34 — Blessing: 50 — Holy Bolt: 50 — Purify: 50 — Protection: 50

— — — Hallow: 50 — Flametongue: 40 — Cure: 50 — Uncurse: 40 — Banish: 40 — Heal: 50 — Warding: 40 — Revivify*: 40

Mage: — Detect Magic: 35 — Armor: 46 — Shield: 45 — Resistance: 34 — Deeppockets*: 35 — Blink*: 35

Priestess: Censure: 42 — Bulwark: 45 — Mass Mending: 50 — Sacred Dance: 41 — Judgement: 47 — Song of the Accord*: 48

House: — Detect Dust: 32 — Doorwatch: 26 — Prestidigitation: 32 — Never Overdone!: 35 — Touch Up: 27

— — — Dry: 34 — Repair: 46 — Clean: 50 — Bloom: 45 — Hearth Recall*: 24

Earth: — Soften: 40 — Earth Armor: 48 — Stone Shape: 50 — Terrakinesis: 36 — Golem*: 50

Proficiencies (values under 10 hidden):

Appraise: Status: 50 — Resistance: 50

General: Prayer: 50 — Reading: 16 — Skinning: 11

Social: Negotiation: 39 (+3) — Persuasion: 24 (+4) — Bluff: 17

Martial (+14 profession): Leadership: 48 (+2) — Intimidation: 50 (+2) — Tactics: 44

Weapon (+16 profession): Long Blades: 27 — Unarmed: 27 — Archery: 44 — Maces: 38