Before I could get out of my stupor, two of the figures huddled together and started whispering in hushed voices. It was only thanks to my prodigious ears that I picked up on what they were saying.

"Boss, I can't [Inspect] him, it's all question marks."

"Shit. What's someone like him got to do with us?..."

I immediately [Inspect]ed the one who was apparently the boss.

Jessica Edwards - Human - Shadow Rogue - Level 32

Attributes: 67 STR, 168 AGI, 32 END, 24 VIT, 13 INT, 18 CPT, 17 SPW, 9 CHA, 65 PER, 7 WIL

Skills: [Descriptions: OFF]

Inspect (Level 2)

Passive - Dagger Familiarity (Level 6)

Shadowblend (Level 4)

Description: Ringleader of the Lexum branch of Shadow Emporium, one of the cities where the Shadow Emporium control is the weakest, she wants nothing more than to climb up the ranks and get sent to a more powerful branch. In combat she is slippery and good at ambushes, but especially weak against AoE's and restraining skills.

Her level... wasn't terribly high, but after I inspected everyone else, almost all of the others were over level 25, and doing some fast maths, I didn't like my chances of getting out unscathed, much less winning, since I had yet to master controlling this body.

I would have to try to talk-no-jutsu my way out of this one.

I ignored the increasingly angry stares drilling into me as I activated my reliable info-dump skill.

'[Olden Knowledge], tell me everything you can about Shadow Emporium, that shady organisation these guys are from.'

Shadow Emporium is a massive organization that almost monopolises the continent's black market operations and also dabbles in other illegal business such as assassinations. It basically rules it from the shadows. Their grip over Fairland is a lot weaker than in other countries, and so their branches in Fairland's cities mostly limit themselves to small-time under-the-table trades with nobles and merchants.

'Alright... I think I can do this.'

"Ahem. Your reaction was much too slow. I have been standing still and waiting for you all to attack me for over a minute, yet you just stood there. Had I been a real intruder, you would've all died already."

The boss, Jessica, couldn't believe her ears when she heard what I said, and answered back enraged.

"What the hell are you saying? You think we're stupid? Haap!"

A poisoned dagger came hurling at me from her hand, but thanks to my Endurance and Agility I managed to swat it away like a fly. My reaction time was barely fast enough, but my quick movements made up for my delayed reaction, and the hardness of my hand prevented me from getting cut despite hitting the blade by the sharp part

They looked at me in shock, and I did my best not to make any obvious movements under the cloak to mantain the guise of mystery. After a brief pause, I said, my voice as even as I could muster,

"Not too bad, but you should've done so since the start. Anyway, you should stop showing open hostility to your superior like that, Jessica."

She was about to hurl her other dagger, but she staggered at the last moment when she heard me.

"Eh? I should have the amulet on, how do you know my real- Wait, superior? Are you really expecting us to beleive that?"

"Of course. As someone from the headquarters, I know everything about you, Jessica Edwards, little level 32 lamb. Of course, that also extends to the other four,"

I started looking at them one by one.

"Marks, Larck, Rondo, and lastly Aimee, am I right?"

The look in everyone's eyes turned colder, but they now seemed much more hesitant to attack me. I even heard the one who whispered something to Jessica earlier mutter,

"Inspecting 5 people with Amulets of Unreading in a row? Impossible, it would take way too much mental power, even if his Soul Power was high enough to get past the amulet's defences..."

Jessica must have been thinking something similar too, as she stepped forward, eyeing me warily, and replied "If you're who you claim to be, tell us the regional code."

I really wanted to facepalm right now.

'Shit. I should've asked [Olden Knowledge] this, instead of useless info about their organization!'

I tried to stop those thoughts from reaching my face, although I wasn't sure if they could even see it, what with the shadow from the hood and the dim lighting.

Anyway, with no code to prove myself, I could only rely on my masterful art of bluffing.

"Are you really asking me for that? Why would I bother with learning the regional code of some backwater small town, where the Shadow Emporium barely has any dealings, and where I'm barely planning to stay a couple of nights? Did you really think I came here to see you lot? I only came to check on you in passing. Look, I'll even give you one of the alchemical product the client I'm meeting doesn't need, just to show my sincerity."

I quickly thrust my hand into my backpack before any of them could react and chucked the first vial I grabbed to Jessica, forcing her to catch it. I sounded and acted confident, but if I had a human body I would've been sweating profusely, and inside my mind I was pleading for them to buy my half-assed lies.

She was going to throw the vial away, most likely thinking it was some sort of bomb or poison, but stopped when the only other girl said, in a fairly loud voice,

"Wait, isn't that an Absolute Antidote!? The concoction that only top-tier alchemists can make and that can even cure the poison of Hydras!?"

I did a double-take at that, cursing a my own stupidity for taking out something at random. The Absolute Antidote wasn't the most valuable thing in my backpack, as those were all stored neatly at the bottom, but it was definitely one of the best things I was carrying.

Jessica also seemed to recognize it after a couple of seconds, but the look in her eyes just became even more wary.

"So you're saying this,"

She pointed at the vial in her hand

"is something you can just give at random?"

I was going to respond, but she cut me off.

"And also, how come you learned all the names of a small division you were only going to visit in passing?"

'Dang, she's good.'

At this point my cover was pretty much blown, but the scheme I had brewed up only required my bluffing to buy time, not to convince them completely.

You see, as I was making my way to Lexum I had fiddled around a bit with the enchantments I had yet to try out, and one of them, located on my forearm, turned out to be a kind of 'hatch' if you will, which opened up a small storage space inside my arm.

It was probably designed to hold a vial of something, because it had just enough space to snugly fit one inside.

And so, I had put inside of it the only vial of poison I had. Similar to the sleeping solution it was volatile and turned into a deadly mist upon contact with air, but it was more similar to something like carbon monoxide.

It worked extremely slowly, but it steadily made the affected people drowsier and drowsier without them noticing, until they were knocked out. And even if they noticed, they couldn't do anything about it. It was actually much, much more potent than carbon monoxide, but since The System allowed people to have much greater Endurance, that smile was appropriate.

From the beginning, I had never planned to let these guys live, as I would eventually be exposed and having an organization as big as the Shadow Emporium behind my ass would've been a pain. That's why I had grabbed that poison vial from under my sleeve and destroyed it as soon as I started bluffing, and the effects were already showing, especially on the lower-levelled members.

But Jessica, who had quite a lot more Endurance than the rest, still had almost all of her mental faculties, so I had to keep up the act a little longer.

'I just have to last a couple of minutes. Some half-truths should do the trick.'

"Well, you caught me. You see, I actually didn't know all your names, but I got them using [Inspect] to seem more trustworthy. I suppose it was an oversight on my part. You must be wondering how I got past your Amulets of Unreading, right?"

'I think that was what the guy called them earlier...'

"Well, they were given to you by the Emporium, so of course we modified them slightly to not work on those who have enough clearance. In fact, it even makes [Inspect]ing you lot easier."

'That was one hell of a lie. Good job, me!'

At this point, almost none of the five could think straight. Even Jessica's eyes were starting to glaze over, but unfortunately, she still had it in her to retort.

"I just don't understand why you would even need to lie to sound more believable if—"

As she was saying this, one of the men fell down to the floor, followed by the only woman other than Jessica. A third one shortly after slumped onto the wall, and then slid down to the ground while rubbing himself against the wall, covering the bricks with drool.

As Jessica stopped to look around in shock, the other one who had yet to fall started trying to shake himself awake, but eventually began hurling out his lunch before collapsing on top of the puddle he made. Gross.

I expected Jessica to do something similar, but her reaction was sharper than I'd expected. She immediately started trying to uncork the vial of Absolute Antidote which had remained in her hand the whole time.

I had hoped she wouldn't have enough presence of mind to remember to use it, but I had still prepared a countermeasure just in case. I immediately activated another one of the enchantments on my forearm, and a 50-centimeter-long blade sprung up from my wrist (above my hand, not below it), and as that happened I hurled myself towards Jessica, with absolutely zero finesse, and aimed for her arm with the blade.

My lack of expertise made me miss, but I still struck her in the shoulder, causing her enough pain that she dropped the flask. Well, the poison also played a big part in her clumsiness.

It fell to the floor, and I had no time to check if it was still alright, because Jessica was already trying to flee through the trapdoor.

"Oh no, you don't!"

I once again pushed myself off the floor, swiping at her general direction with the blade, and luckily enough tearing a grisly wound through her side that made her fall down.

As she writhed on the ground, barely conscious, I shut my eyes and swung my blade down at her neck. I felt it connect and slight through her, ending her life, which made me grimace.

I know it was hipocritical, as I had already killed countless people as a soul before and four more with poison just now, but doing it with my own hands was a lot tougher for me.

But, fortunately or unfortunately, that weird feeling soon dissipated as it was replaced by pure disgust when I looked at the place the Absolute Antidote had fallen in. Yep, it was the puddle of puke.

Well, at least the chunky liquid broke the fall.

As I gingerly picked the vial up with a cloth and started to fervently clean it, I had a thought.

'Using lies, poison and hidden blades... It's almost as if the actual rogue was me, huh.'

As I scaled up the trapdoor and left the town through the wall section whose guard was still sleeping, unbeknownst to me at the time, a small bug made of mana, containing a recording of what had transpired in the last half hour, detached itself from Jessica's robes after it stopped feeling her lifeforce, and started making its way to... somewhere.