The girl looked up at him with a bothered expression. “Did you not hear our instructor in the morning? Till we graduate we will have no names, just numbers. Except for you of course.” She said while looking at the ground. Vence did use his name rather than his number before which clearly annoyed the girl.

“I didn’t set the rules and I don’t really agree with them.” Veric replied.

“I am sure you don’t.” She replied and rolled her eyes.

“I can sense that you don’t really like me.” Veric said and sat down on the ground in front of the girl ranked second. She had pale skin and shoulder-length raven black hair.

“No, me lord. I think that you are too handsome, strong, clever and regal to be concerned with someone as lowly as me.” The girl said and batted her eyelashes bashfully. Her cheeks became red and her whole demeanour changed into a far more meek one. Veric was taken aback by the change in her behaviour.

Veric rolled his eyes once he realised that the girl was mocking him, which caused her to smirk. He pointed at the [Goblin Cube] and asked. ”You are clearly ambidextrous. Why didn’t you go with Vence?”

“I am not ambidextrous and even if I was would you rat me out lord Veric?” She looked as if the word ‘lord’ tasted like an old gym sock in her mouth.

‘Jeez, where is all that hostility coming from? She is acting like I killed her hamster.’

“I guess not I am just curious.” Veric said while looking at Kadyn, struggling to open the box for the first time. His voice lacked any pretence which made her lower her guard slightly but Veric wasn’t sure whether she was just acting.

“I don’t want to stand out.” She said and placed the cube in her hand again. The opening of the cube clamped around her wrist and within twenty seconds the cube released her hand.

“You are not doing a very good job hiding.” Veric pointed at the cube. “You are ranked second which means your stats are definitely above average.” Veric said.

The girl ranked second scoffed. “Not much I can do about that. I can’t convince my family to alter the results of the test.”

For a moment Veric wondered whether she knew about him hiding his intelligence and wisdom stats. But after comparing his body to an average person in the blue ranks he realised that she probably thought that his rank was unearned.

“I can assure you that I received no help in acquiring my rank.” Veric replied honestly but the girl scoffed again.

“Do you want to bet?... If I win you will give me your medallion right now.” She asked with an uncertain tone.

“How would you even check if I am faking it? It’s not like we have an access to the artefact right now.” Veric replied with a smirk.

“ We don’t need an artefact… My father was a merchant and he taught me one of his appraisal skills. I can estimate your real stats with it.” She replied.

“How accurate is your skill and how does it work?” Veric’s eyes lit up at the idea that there was a skill capable of appraising people, he knew that Prometheus was capable of analysing information inside of mana but he didn’t think others were capable of doing something similar. The mana of the artefact behaved in a strange way which was almost impossible to reproduce right now but maybe it will be easier if a human uses it on him.

“After I touch you for 10 seconds the skill allows me to see colours corresponding to each stat. The brighter and larger the colour the higher the corresponding stat. As for how it works, I cannot tell you. It is a trade secret .” She replied with a grin.

“Fine, but promise me that you won’t tell anyone about my stats.” Veric said.

“Why is my lord afraid that everyone will mock you when they find out about how low your stats are?” She replied.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you are really annoying.” Veric said and lifted himself off the ground. He was about to leave but she stopped him.

“Fine, I won’t tell anyone.”

Veric turned around. “Sure. You are not trustworthy anyway. I will go practice with the cube instead.”

“Let’s make our bet official then.” The girl said to stop him from leaving.

“How? It’s not like the knights will agree to it. I am pretty sure they want us to fight for rankings.”

“We can create the contract using the system.” She replied like it was the most obvious thing possible. Veric tilted his head and squinted his eyes.

“Merchants use it all the time.” She said and started writing the contract in the sand with her finger.

“Wait it’s that simple?” Veric said and walked over to see what she is writing on the ground.

The contract described how in case Veric’s attributes are lower than the ones displayed by the artefact she will receive his medallion and that she won’t divulge the results of her test to anyone. In case she breaks that promise she will permanently lose 10 random attribute points. Which Veric found to be a strong deterrent. The same penalty applied to himself in case he lost and didn’t give her the medallion.

“All done. Just place your hand at the bottom of the contract.” She said and pointed at the spot beneath the contract.

“Didn’t you forget something.” Veric said when he realised that the contract lacked any mention of reward in case his stat points are not lower.

“Nah, I think everything is there. Don’t chicken out on me now.” She shook her head and started to re-read the contract in case she missed something.

“What about the reward for me in case I am not lying.” Veric asked.

“Do you seriously think that you will wiggle out of it on a technicality? The contract is iron clad. I saw hundreds of my father’s well-written documents. But all right, big shot. What could you possibly want from me?”

“In case I win, you will never challenge me to a duel.” Veric said after considering what this girl could possibly give him. He thought about asking her to teach him the skill but it seemed doubtful that she would agree to that demand. After all, it was a trade secret.

“Ok, fine. Now place your hand there.” She pointed to the ground impatiently.

Veric did as he was instructed and he received a system notification.

Would you like to accept the terms of the contract?

[Yes/No]

Veric selected [yes]. He didn’t feel any different than before accepting the terms of the contract but there was something at the back of his mind reminding him not to break the terms of the contract. The feeling was similar to the feeling of fear and foreboding he felt every time he thought about using Aether.

“I didn’t know you were such a sucker. You might as well give me the medallion right now.” She said after seeing that Veric agreed to the terms of the agreement.

“Didn’t your father teach you not to count chickens before they hatch?”

She scoffed and grabbed his hand. ”We will see about that noble boy.” Veric was ready and he filled both of his hands with mana ready to reabsorb it into his core after she is done testing him. He wouldn’t pass on the opportunity to learn this skill.

She closed her eyes and she stopped breathing. Veric was doing his best to use [Minor mana sense]yet he didn’t feel any mana which surprised him. Instead, he could feel certain warmth enter his body it was almost resonating with him.

After about ten seconds she opened her eyes and yelped like a small animal. She looked like she was blinded by whatever light she saw.

She recoiled and started rubbing her eyes. “How did you do that? How is this possible?” She asked.

“I am just super smart you know,” Veric said smugly. He picked up his [Goblin cube] and walked away from the girl rubbing her eyes. She saw him leave through squinting eyes but she didn’t dare follow him. The light she saw scared her, they were the largest and the brightest lights she ever saw in her life. She couldn’t even differentiate between different attributes because she was blinded too quickly.

He sat down on the ground and started to pretend he is busying himself with the cube.‘Prometheus, did you manage to analyze that skill? What did she use on me? I don’t think it wasn’t mana nor Aether.’

Kinslayer

I do not know what it was but it felt similar to something within the meat you ate before.

‘So do you know how it works? Or how to use it.’

Kinslayer

Whatever she did it stimulated something within your body which allowed her to peer into you.

This skill had two steps. Stimulating your “cells” and then observing the effects of that resonance. Those could be two separate skills used synchronously.

I do not know how to reproduce this effect…

‘Interesting…’ Veric rubbed his chin while considering what this strange force could be. ’Oh well, we can’t win every time. Thanks for trying though keep me posted if you figure it out.’ Veric thought and finished opening the [Goblin Cube] on his right hand.

He then walked over to Kadyn, struggling to open the box with his left hand. ‘Well I could give him a hint but I am sure that Jasper will somehow see us talk from a hundred meters away and I am not in the mood to do push-ups.’

Kadyn’s tongue was hanging out of his mouth, he looked like a kid that got his hand stuck inside of a cookie jar. “Almost… almost. There! I did it!” He shouted and removed his hand from the box.

“I did it! Look!” He said and showed his left hand to Veric. “Great job. Jasper said we have to open 9 more of these during the upcoming weeks.” Veri replied.

“Do you have to piss on my parade? It was a real achievement! I released my hand from this devilish contraption. Oh, my beautiful hand I have missed you so!” He said and looked at his left hand like it was a long-lost friend.

“Alright, everyone. It seems everyone managed to open their box. Now within the next two hours try opening the cube with each hand in under 30 seconds.” Jasper said to the group of children.

“You got to be kidding. I have to put my hand in there again?” Kadyn said and reluctantly placed his right hand inside the dark abyss.

“How high is your dexterity now?” Veric asked not understanding how Kadyn could struggle so much with the task.

“Now, it should be… 7.” He replied after a moment of thought.

“How come even though your dexterity is higher than mine, you are having a harder time with the cube.”

“it’s because I have thick fingers. Whenever I use my middle finger to press the plate on the right I press the plate in the middle as well and then I have to start over.” Kadyn said while doing his best to open the cube with his right hand.

‘Interesting so the number represented by the system is not completely uniform across every individual. So, if two people have 10 agility it doesn’t necessarily mean that their top speed will be the same.’ Veric thought and continued unlocking the cube. Within the first half hour, he opened the [1st Goblin cube] with his right hand in under 30 seconds. After more than an hour of trying he managed to open the cube with his left hand after which he received a notification.

Congratulations! You have mastered Dirty Paw’s [1st Goblin-cube].

Dexterity + 1