“Well, who hired you,” I say before kicking the Leaders knee causing him to drop to one knee, “Was it the guards or some stupid noble I pick-pocketed.”

“Fuck you, kid,” the leader says spitting at my face, “If you want to know so badly about who hired us, go find the King and ask him yourself.”

“What does the king have to do with me,” I ask confused.

“Everything scum bag,” the leader says before going to grab my throat, “DIE.”

“Quick Strike,” I yell my skill’s name just in time to activate a lighting fast slash to the guy's throat just as his hands grab's my throat, “Damn, I needed him alive.”

As I curse at the leaders lifeless body I hear coughing from behind me causing me to look at Seraph clutching his gut in pain, “Seraph, thank the gods your alive still,” I say rushing over to him, “I’ll get you fixed up I won’t lose you as well okay.”

“Ethan, find the crown prince, he’s an ally,” Seraph says before coughing up blood, “He’ll protect you and you’ll be able to make your dream come true.”

“Seraph, no, please don’t die on me,” I say panicked as Seraph goes limp in my arms, “No, no, no Seraph please.”

As I hold Seraphs lifeless body in my arms I feel the same sensation as when Yra spoke to me, “Ethan, I’m sorry, but he’s dead, however, what he said is true the crown prince is your ally,” Yra says sincerely, telling me she is sad by seraphs death, “Ethan, I’m sorry to say, but now isn’t the time to mourn, you have to leave and fast.”

“Okay, I understand, but there’s something I need to do first,” I tell Yra slightly annoyed at her for not letting me mourn my friends, “I’ll be about an hour, then I’ll head to the tavern that adventurers frequent, and see if I can find a group to take me to the capital city of Esellda.”

After approximately an hour I’ve finally finished my mourning of my friends, I head back inside to loot the bodies of the adventurers, however, as I’m taking the cloak off the Hunter I notice that the two daggers on his lower back are made of Viridian steel a highly prized metal that is said to be able to withstand any form of corrosion be it magical or alchemical, I also notice that the pack he has would be well suited to my needs.

“So altogether they had 3 gold, no food, medicine, or supplies that would be useful for long trips,” I say annoyed, “These guys were fucking idiots.”

As I leave the warehouse, I turn and look back towards the room that is stained with blood I vow that I will never rest until the person behind this attack is dead. Walking towards the main road I lift the hood up over my face, stopping as I try to remember the directions to the tavern. After walking around for about an hour, I finally make it to the tavern. Upon entering the tavern known as the Singing Dragon I see 5 small tables and 4 rows of booths all the booths are occupied and 4 of the 5 tables are filled with mostly drunk and passed out adventurers but I notice one group of people sat next to the only open table, They look as if they’ve been there for hours but none of them happens to be drunk or passed out.

“Miss, could I please get a drink of chocolate milk please,” I ask the young women, who came over to me as I sat down.

“Sure thing Honey, is there anything else you’d like to order,” she asks me as I look over the menu she handed me.

“Um, I was wondering if you know how to get to the adventurers guild in Esellda,” I reply trying to catch the attention of the adventurers behind me “I just received my blessing a few hours ago and I was wondering if they could teach me what I need to know.”

“Well I’m not entirely sure on how to get there but I know that its a three to four-day trip,” She says clearly upset that she can’t help me.

“Hey Kid,” I hear a voice from one of the tables call out, “You’re an adventurer too are ya, we can take you to Esellda for a fee,”

“What would the fee be, kind sir,” I ask trying my hardest not to kill the drunk bastard.

“Oh, the fee would be 5 gold and those fine daggers you got right there,” He says smirking and walking over to my table, “Place the gold and the blades on the table and you got a deal.”

Once he puts his hand on the table to steady himself I stand up and take out the daggers placing one on the table, “Thief and Quick Strike,” I whisper quietly as I steal his money and stab my other dagger into his hand, before turning my piercing gaze to his eyes as he screams in pain “I’m not some idiot who would willingly hand over all my money and my weapons, now get out and don’t ever return.”

“Ethan, you know that is reckless right, what would you do if that group decides it’s too risky to travel with you,” Yra says scolding me for my behaviour.

“Yra, it’s fine, trust me, the adventurers didn’t even look at me when I asked that question to the young women who served me,” I think to myself knowing Yra can hear me, “Now look at them, they can’t keep their eyes off me.”

“Hmmm, that man he can’t be, can he,” Yra says causing me to be confused, “If he is him, then you have unknowingly found a powerful friend. I’ll talk to you more in the morning I have some things to find out Ethan.”

“The hell, Yra!” I say causing the barmaid to look at me strangely, “It’s an um skill I have, it allows me to talk telepathically to a friend no matter the distance.”

After I say that I notice two of the men at the booth behind me look at each other strangely whispering something to each other before one of them turns and starts to speak to me.

“Hey kid, come take a seat at our table we’ve got room for one more, plus it looks like you know how to use those daggers you got there, so we’d be glad to help you get to Esellda for free,” The man who looks to be the leader says impressed, “My names Eric, what’s your’s, kid.”

“My names Ethan Ser,” I say trying my hardest not to sound polite and well raised, “Thank you for letting me sit at your table, I’m sorry for interrupting your drinks and meal, however my father always taught me to never show weakness when it comes to people who would try to exploit me,” I say adding a slight hint of sadness to my voice.

“Your father taught you?” Eric asks me before continuing, “That explains the fast reaction time nicely done with the double skill usage, I particularly liked the Quick Slash and Steal combo you did.”

“Yes Sir, my father taught me, he was a renowned swordsman around my hometown,” I lie to Eric, “We was camping in the woods about 3 hours out of town.”

“I see, is that when you got your blessing Ethan?” He asks me.

“Yes, Ser it is, my father and I was going on our usual hunting trip, however, we were attacked by some monsters and he died defending me,” I say crying as to add to the story, “I was lucky to escape with my life.”

“Well Ethan, I am glad you managed to survive, and I’m terribly sorry to hear about your father,” One of the men with a bow next to him says but I can tell he’s lying and just trying to sound polite.

Skill Gained: Lie Detection Level 1/10

“You’re lying,” I say pretending to sound hurt, “I got a skill called Lie Detection just now when I thought that you were lying and just being polite.”

“HOW DARE YOU,” the man yells, “I am not lying, Eric are you seriously going to bring a kid like him, who is just going to cause problems.”

“Oh shut up, have you forgotten that I have Lie detection to 10,” Eric says looking at me smiling but it was a weird type of smile, “I saw through your lie before you even thought of it remember I’m the party leader so I decide who joins and who doesn’t.”

The man glares at me then looks back at Eric, “I’m going to bed,” He says continuing to glare at me and Eric but all I can do is smile at the man as he storms off to the stairs to the rooms.

“I think its time I got some rest too, good night Ethan,” the two other men say as they stand and say their good nights and head upstairs to bed.

“Now, Ethan as I can already guess by the look on your face, when you found out about my level 10 lie detection you knew that there was no point in continuing its why your holding your daggers and readying to use a secret move you got am I right,” Eric says still giving me that weird smile, “Don’t worry, we won’t let anyone harm you but those 3 men will, we work for the prince, you know my name already but this man is James he’s my brother.”

He’s lying about something I think its about James being his brother, Lie Detection Level 2/10, Strange It went up that must mean I was right, James isn’t his brother, “James isn’t your brother is he, my lie detection went up when I thought you were lying about James being your brother,” I say looking closely for any change in their behavior but not finding any.

“He is and he isn’t,” Eric says keeping his expression solid, “Also your perception won’t be high enough yet to detect any changes in our behaviour, why don’t you bring up your stats and share it with me and James, so we can have a look at it.”

“Okay, but I’m not sure how to share it as I said I only just got my blessing,” I say bring up my stats for myself.

“There should be an option on the bottom left of the stats screen that you have up that’s the share button,” Eric tells me as I click it and select Eric and James from the share with options, “Okay, let’s see now.”

Name: Ethan Shadowmark

Age: 16

Blessing: Shadow Blessing

Species: Elf Level 1 0/100

Primary Class: Shadow Novice level 1 30/100

Secondary Class: Thief level 1 30/50

STR:15, AGI:20, WIS:20, PER:15, CHA:18, CON:25, INT:10, LUK:15

Health: 250/250

Mana: 300/300

SKILLS:

Tier 1: Quick Strike (LVL 2/10), Steal (LVL 7/10), Lie Detection (LVL 2/10)

Tier 2: Shadow Bind (LVL 1/10), Shadow Step (LVL 3/10)

“James, have you heard of that primary class before?” Eric asks James, “How did you manage to get Steal to level 7 already and what are these Shadow skills and that Shadow Blessing.”

“I’ve never heard of it before, however, I’ve heard Master Magikan muttering about it now and then,” James says as he studies my stats, “Your attributes are quite high for a kid it must be from how you were raised, Furthermore, being an Elf with that name it makes sense to assume you to be the target of the crown prince.”

“As there’s no point in lying, tell me what the royal family want with me, I have already killed 3 adventurers who killed my friends looking for me, furthermore, I have the skills to be able to do it again with you two,” I say threatening the two of them as I grip my twin daggers and ready myself for an attack.

“Calm down, Ethan, we mean you no harm, if we wanted to we wouldn’t have spoken to you and waited for you to leave then attacked,” James says smiling the same smile Eric had what is with these two, “Plus look above you, and you’ll see why we said your perception isn’t high enough spot any changes.”

As I look above me I see a magical circle, “What type of spell is that, and why hasn’t no one else noticed it,” I say preparing to dive out of the way hoping I can avoid it.

“That’s a spell known as, Heaven’s Fist, It’s a tier 4 Lighting attribute spell,” James informs me before continuing, “The reason no one else has noticed is because of a skill Eric uses known as Deception you need to have a perception of 45 to be able to see through any it.”

“Very well, it would be pointless if I tried to attack you as I’ve no way of knowing what defenses you have up, so I’ll remain your prisoner until I find a way to escape,” I tell them honestly, “However as I’m your prisoner you’ve got to feed me and make sure I survive the trip to the capital right, so you can collect the reward for the quest on me.”

“Ethan, you’re not our prisoner,” Eric says holding his face, “look eat up and then get some sleep and meet us at the gate at 9 A.M sharp or else we’re leaving without you.”