Chapter 366 – Secret Lair.

‘And Umbral Stalker? Never heard of a class like that one…’

Roland looked through Mary’s status screen and tried to figure out what her new class was all about. Considering that even he who had gone through an extensive evolution to his senses could barely see her, the class had stealth as its main option. She didn’t seem tired while moving around so it made sense that it was some type of passive which probably came with her new class acquisition.

‘I wonder if her presence disappears if she disengages during combat, it would be quite the broken passive…’

In the past, Mary was using a tier 2 passive that allowed her to not make a sound when walking. Her presence was faint but not something that he couldn’t sense. Thanks to his armor such skills didn’t really faze him as he could still feel mana that was being produced by a person’s body. That problem seemed to be alleviated with this new class as he could barely feel any mana being exuded.

Everything in this world had mana inside of them, even rocks and trees. Thanks to this phenomenon his eyes of mana skill could function by perceiving the world’s manaflow. The amount of mana everything had varied, a simple rock would have a lot less of it than a living creature. What Mary was doing now was lowering this perceived amount to be more aligned with a rock.

‘I need to analyze this skill, it will make perceiving assassins much easier in the future.’

This class was not something common and it was probably fixated on hiding. If he was able to study Mary’s skills it would allow his armor to warn him from hidden threats. It would probably be also possible to enhance his sensors that were also placed around Arthur’s villa. Even if he couldn’t increase the range that much it could be alleviated by placing more sensors. When an assassin passed through such a sensor, they would trip the alarm.

“Wayland my headset of head knights, what do I owe this pleasure?”

“…”

While thinking Roland arrived in Arthur’s office which looked to be covered in more papers and scribbles. It was clear that the man wasn’t sleeping much either and the empty bottles of stamina potions confirmed his hunch. This noble had developed a liking for his new head knight and would throw strange one-liners like this whenever the two were alone. Mary, who was standing to the side, even chuckled before covering her mouth with her hand.

“I heard that.”

“My apologies.”

He was getting a lot more respect from the cat maid at least. She had even become a bit more trusting after achieving a higher tier. Perhaps it was also because she now knew that the man before her was also a noble’s son. Maybe they were just having fun teasing him, who was usually more of a serious person but it was usually better to keep things light so he ignored it.

“I see that you have also improved, congratulations.”

“You need to do something about that habit of yours, it’s going to get you in trouble one of these days.”

Roland glanced at Arthur’s status screen almost instantly as he stepped into the room. He had grown accustomed to using this skill whenever he conversed with almost anyone. His propensity for not trusting people or what he saw was still there and this somewhat made interacting with others less stressful.

Arthur had actually managed to get a rather prestigious variant of the Duelist class. This class was poised in handling dual swords and more specifically rapiers or fencing swords. It specialized in agility over defense and landing precise critical hits whenever the opportunity arose. It was a somewhat difficult class to master as the person couldn’t rely on brute force but had to instead predict their enemy’s movements.

“Were you making secret visits to the dungeon or did you manage to create the training chamber?”

“The latter, I wish that I could go there but we don’t always get what we want, right? Plus, Mary also approves of that training method, thank you for giving me the idea.”

Mary nodded as the idea was brought up by Roland that had to go through similar training when he was younger. It was just a training facility where Arthur could fight monsters at his level. Just like Roland defeated goblins in his youth, Arthur could fight monsters that were either caught or brought from outside.

It was a safe training method that nobles used for generations. Mary could just simply watch over and help out whenever things got dangerous. This method was a lot slower than just going through the dungeon but it was also a lot safer. It was only limited by the amount of money a person had and currently things were looking up for this young noble.

‘You can’t normally smuggle monsters out of a dungeon but I wonder…’

The fastest and safest way for Arthur to get his levels up would be through feeding him tier 3 undead skeletons just like everyone else. It was also possible to immobilize a reasonably high level monster and let people wail on it. Skills that required a person to hit something would raise faster if they were performed on a living target.

‘I heard that some people use trolls for it, they can regenerate quickly and can eat almost everything but the costs are high, and if it breaks loose…’

What they were working with were undead monsters that were trapped in the dungeon. The Lich that he fought proved that there were ways of getting dungeon monsters out of a dungeon. Considering that these creatures didn’t require oxygen or sustenance, perhaps it was possible to smuggle them out with the help of a spatial storage spell.

‘Maybe if I extract the core and just leave enough of it intact, it could work as a dummy for hitting…’

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it’s taken without the author’s consent. Report it.

“I think our friend has done it again, Mary would you be so nice to bring us some tea, this could take a while.”

“Of course sir, I’ll be right back.”

“I uh…”

Arthur smiled as Roland had gone silent for a few seconds after coming into his office. This behavior didn’t go unnoticed as the man would randomly space out from time to time while lost in his thoughts. He attributed this to bouts of inspiration that arose due to his crafting profession.

“It’s fine, I like that unique part, it must be nice to be a craftsman, always thinking about your new creations. However, think we will have to move this along…”

“Of course, I just wanted to speak to you about one of the city’s districts, the one ruled by the Thieves Guild.”

“The Thieves Guild? Has the time come?”