Luke was intent on keeping his eyes closed a bit longer to ensure he’d blinked all the way to the ground, but a notification popped up, informing him of his forced materialization.

[Unknown] has timed-out, user materializing…

+---------------+

|Auxiliary Alert|

+---------------+--+

|“Phase Blink” - - |

+------------------+------------+

|Class: Bonus Skill Registration|

+-----------+-------------------+

|Limitations|

+-----------+-------------------+

|Intangibility Timer (2 seconds)|

+-------------------------------+

|Vertically Bound - - - - - - - |

+-------------------------------+

|Phase Boundaries - - - - - - - |

+---------------------------------+

|“Allows the user to Phase-shift -|

|- -through certain surfaces.” - -|

+---------------------------------+

New auxiliary skill has been registered.

Well, he thought, at least it now has a name and clearer limitations. Of the new information, the phase boundaries limitation was the one that he had the most questions on. What were they, and how would he know to identify them? Would appraisal reveal such information, or would he have to find out through trial and error?

These were all questions he’d need to answer to make the best out of the skill tonight but unfortunately, he wouldn’t have enough time for experimentation so for the most part, hypotheses would have to suffice.

“Hey!! How did you get there? Everyone’s been looking for you,” came a panicked voice from the main station. It was a nurse, and a quick appraisal revealed her as a closeted adherent. He had managed to phase all the way from Gertie’s room, and since he hadn’t bounced upon materializing, he could guess he’d already stopped moving by the time the timer ran out. He could hypothesize this being due to the final floor being a phase boundary, but what would designate it as such, he could only guess.

Maybe the aspect of this being the lower-most floor in the building? Or a type of enchantment on the floor, or-

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” came that same nurses voices, her frustration unmistakably coloring her tone. Luke regarded her and made to answer but it seemed the nurse’s shouts had alerted the other pursuers who were in the vicinity. They did not waste a lot of time, immediately rushing towards the landing area of the clinic.

The first to appear was a town guard in full regalia, garb, halberd, and all. Upon identifying Luke, he blew his whistle loud enough to inform every other guard within 2 blocks of where he was. The way he’d rushed to spread the word told Luke there’d been an order to do as much upon spotting him, confirming he’d been the cause of the commotion all along.

Appraisal noted a single button with the insignia he’d identified before, revealing the guard as being deeply affiliated with the mayor’s house. Something in the way Luke had been looking at him during the appraisal must’ve spooked him, for he immediately took a defensive stance, brandishing his halberd at a tilt in front of him.

“Answer the question, boy! How did you get here and where have you been all this time?” questioned the man, shaking the tip of his halberd menacingly. Although his voice hadn’t cracked, Luke could still see through the man’s bravado, as he talked himself up into questioning Luke. He’d had quite the reputation, and although WIND wouldn’t answer to his calls anymore, he wouldn’t have trouble confronting a town guard, and the guard instinctively knew this.

“How? Through the door to my room and down the stairs of course,” he responded to the former whilst ignoring the latter portion of the guard’s question.

“Don’t lie, boy!” he said, turning the ‘boy’ part into an insult. “There is no way we didn’t see you going through the front!”

That had indeed been true, but the guard’s face went pale at the smile tugging on Luke’s lips. The guard had more than suggested they’d been watching him, and Luke pressed his advantage on that slip up.

“Watching me, are you?”

The guard at least knew when he’d messed up and chose to swallow his next response in favor of not worsening a bad situation. By now, the closest of the guards and nurses who had been in pursuit were nearing his position, and the few who’d already reached their floor moved to block all of Luke’s exits.

“Am I to assume I’m a prisoner then? Or do you take care of all patients this way, free or not?”

That seemed to heighten the tension even more, and Luke could see the guard tightening its formation around him. As they stood in stalemate, a new voice cut through the thick tension, penetrating the silence, and triggering the guard to stand at attention. Even if he hadn’t been familiar with the voice, the guard’s reaction would’ve been enough to hint at who the owner of that voice might be.

“At ease! The boy’s not intent on provoking the town’s ire further than he already has,” said the voice, addressing the town guard. “Are you, Wind Sword?” it said, finally addressing him directly.

Like that combative nurse from before, the use of his adventuring name had been laced with derision, given he no longer had the ability to command {WIND}; or at least that’s what one would guess, if they didn’t have an inkling of the history between the mayor and Luke. It was contentious to say the least, and while the mayor had always been the aggressor in all the situations, he’d never come out the winner in any of them.

Chief of the issues they had was the mayor’s obsession with a townhouse the Vallarius family owned. He’d always had designs on the property, but given their family’s prominence in adventuring, the mayor had known to not push his luck. That had changed though when Luke’s parents had fallen during a quest.

He’d done his best to force Luke to sell, but Luke had managed to weather all the trouble the mayor had sent his way. He grew with the pressure till he, like his parents before him, was beyond the mayor’s reach in terms of ability and influence.

The mayor had known to back off then, but Luke considered his sudden acquiescence to the calls of wisdom 2 years too late and had single-handedly worked to expose his affiliations with the Fyre nation raids. Although the mayor had managed to weather the external investigations, even managing to have the whole case disregarded as slander and an overreaction to past conflicts; the stain of the accusations would never leave him, and fewer and fewer persons of influence chose to deal with him as the days went on.

Luke, as the eventual victor hadn’t forgotten about the event, so it went without saying that the victim, the mayor hadn’t forgotten either. With a vindictive nature like his, Luke had no doubts the mayor wanted a bit of retribution for what had happened in the past, and seeing as he was here personally, and with a sizable force to back him, it seemed farming Luke till now and getting the Villarius townhouse at a discount hadn’t been enough of a price.

◆◆◆

Luke lowered his gaze to a level with the mayor’s, who had been throwing him a challenging glare up to that point. The mayor initially sneered at Luke, but something in the way Luke stared back, undaunted, told him Luke still wasn’t as soft a mark as he’d like to think, despite his weakened state.

Luke knew the mayor’s train of thought, and knowing he was surrounded and unprepared for his escape, he toned down the challenge in his own eyes, but the resulting relaxed state seemed to have the opposite effect. Someone as small as the mayor would always want to be perceived as threatening, so the fact that despite the guard’s presence, Luke seemed unruffled rubbed him the wrong way.

He stepped back, prepared to issue a command for the collective guard to subdue him by any means but a sweet voice forestalled this.

“So, this is the mighty Wind Sword,” the voice asked, causing every head to turn in its direction.

The mayor’s stance also changed, and forgetting himself for a moment, he checked out the owner for a second. An icy glare from the lady-mercenary immediately cooled his ardor, and his lustful considerations quickly turned to a mixture of relief and wariness.

That wariness is from knowing she could end us all on a whim, Luke thought, and the relief is from the fact she’s contractually bound to assist him.

Luke met eyes with the lady, and though they had a bargain, he wasn’t sure she would stick to it. An almost imperceptible signal flashed in her eyes a split-second later, and Luke knew they were still on.

“Ahem!” went the mayor, grabbing everyone’s attention, “Since we have a guest of honor in today, we can expedite the dinner plans for the day.”

◆◆◆

The mayor assigned Luke an escort detail, and even though the elevation platforms were functional, he couldn’t avoid being petty enough to direct Luke and his escort to the stairs. Luke accepted the humiliation with grace, taking this as an opportunity to warm up for tonight’s major event.

He was drenched and hunched by the time he got to his own floor, and a shower followed by a change of clothes would’ve done him good, but a guard detail in front of his door told him it wouldn’t be coming as soon as he’d hoped. He tried his luck with the guard in front of the door, asking for admittance to grab his towels and a change of clothes, but the guard refused, citing his orders to not allow Luke an extra moment in the room.

A bit peeved, he made his way to the common area, where he asked one of the ladies in the sawing club for a towel, and another in crafts for soap. They were more than pleased that someone had found a use for their products, immediately gifting Luke the requested items, and a few extras on top. He accepted them all and noted how the guard who was serving as his shadow paid close attention to all the items he received, and where he stored them. This wouldn’t be out of place, seeing as he’d disappeared earlier, but if they’d been instructed to pay this much attention to the smallest details, he’d just have to use it against them.

Arriving at the communal showers, he picked a stall and undressed, placing the hoodie on one hook, and the rest of his clothes on another. He would’ve stored everything else in his inventory were it not for his plan. He’d bait the guard into revealing how much of an interest they had with his stuff.

He began taking his shower, all the while paying attention to his stuff on the rack. He turned up the heat on the stream peppering him from above, ensuring a thick enough curtain of steam settled on the area, thereby obscuring the view. Although it would be enough to hide him from the escorts view, the converse wasn’t true, but his shadow didn’t know about this.

Lulled into comfort by the obscuring steam, the guard assumed he was out of view from Luke. He immediately began rummaging in the pockets of Luke’s trousers, followed by the hoodie, and ending with the shoes. He’d counted the items in the hoodie pouch to ensure everything tallied up nicely after considering the items Luke had taken with him, and the ones he’d left behind.

Seeing this, it was good Luke had had the foresight to only use physical storage, otherwise his shadow might be reporting his inventory use after this. Although most people had limited amounts of inventory space, if any, Luke had been known for his prodigious volumes. The aftereffects of the backlash could be unpredictable though, so he hoped that unknown, coupled with his seeming loss of inventory abilities would be enough to ease any concerns.

He'd anticipated the guard searching through his stuff, but he hadn’t anticipated him taking knife to his belongings.

What the hell? What does he wish to accomplish with this? Luke mentally questioned, as the guard knifed his shoes. The guard waited for a minute, observing his handiwork intently. When nothing happened, he moved on to the trousers, repeating the ritual and moving on when nothing happened there as well. Luke panicked when the man got to the hoodie, but he managed to hold himself from alerting the man and continued watching.

Unlike with the previous items, he felt a minor sting when the blade sliced through the cowl, but it had been too light to even elicit a wince from him. A notification popped up right after that, explaining why he’d felt that.

has taken minor damage.

+---------------+

|Auxiliary Alert|

+---------------+

|“Conjoined” - -|

+---------------+---------------+

|Class: Bonus Skill Registration|

+-----------+-------------------+

|Limitations|

+-----------+---------------------+

|Other abilities disabled during -|

|- - - - Base Regeneration - - - -|

+---------------------------------+

|Base Regeneration Time (2 hours) |

+---------------------------------+

|“A percentage of the user’s and -|

|- auxiliary item’s stats and - - |

|- abilities are linked, allowing |

|- one to function as long as the |

|- - - - - other exists.” - - - - |

+---------------------------------+

|“WARNING: Damage beyond a certain|

|- threshold will trigger Base - -|

|- Regeneration, and the item will|

|- automatically dematerialize.” -|

+---------------------------------+

New auxiliary skill has been registered.

It seemed he would be able to sense whenever damage was dealt to the hoodie, and as long as he was alive, the hoodie would eventually recover on its own. His eyes lit up at the implications of that before a panic settled on him on realizing what it would mean should the guard see this in action.

He turned off the waterspout and made to rush for the guard, but it was already too late. The nick the guard had made on the cowl healed up on its own, and the guard was watching when this happened. A creepy smile found its home on the guard’s face and when he met Luke’s eyes, a triumphant tinkle could be seen in them.

“Keep the rest, the mayor will want to see this,” he said to Luke, before turning to leave the showers. Luke had used the wrong items for bait, and just when he’d begun to notice, his prey cut the bait for him, and made out with it.