The Eternal Assassin

Asher walked calmly down the road toward Whikoga, his new hireling by his side. Honestly, he hadn't understood just how rough Rosh's situation must have been until the man jumped at the offer of a job, even after everything that had just happened. He was clearly strapped for shards, and when Asher promised him he wouldn't be made to do anything illegal or told to attack anyone he practically cried tears of joy.

They made a quick pit stop to return the horse to the stranded leatherworker, even managing to right the downed carriage thanks to their combined efforts and Rosh's impressive strength. After promising to visit his shop once the man was back in town and waving him goodbye, Asher headed off once more toward the city. As the two of them reached Wes' and Latch's bodies once more, the corpses already beginning to attract flies, Asher shook his head.

"You honestly think we're fine to just leave their corpses on the road like that? There won't be any sort of investigation or anything?"

"For them? Hardly," Rosh snorted, glaring at Latch's body as they walked past. "The reason we were hired on as guards in the first place is because it's dangerous on the road. Monsters, bandits, you name it. Unless you're somebody important like a noble or you have important people that care about you, nobody is going to come looking if you go missing outside the city walls. Anyone else traveling by will take one look at them and carry on, and within a few hours nature will take care of the bodies. It will be like the two of them never existed."

Wow, this world is far more hardcore than I thought. Sure, it was self-defense, but the fact that you can just kill someone on a decently well-travelled road and get away with it so easily is crazy. Was this what things were like on Earth before phones and stuff?

Shaking his head, Asher pulled up his interface, dismissing the notice that his Spatial Lock had leveled up. Focusing on his Eternity element, he dropped nearly every shard he had and unlocked his fourth skill.

Shards: 1,176

Permanence (passive/active) – Lvl 1 – Lock a status effect in place for as long as you will it.

Well, not healing-related, but definitely falls in line with the theme of 'Eternity.' Wait a minute…

"Hey Rosh, can I borrow that locket of yours for a second?"

Asher may as well have just asked if he could practice stabbing the man based on the look of fear on Rosh's face. "Why do you need it?" Rosh asked, clutching the locket like his life depended on it.

"Calm down, it's just for a second. I just unlocked a new skill and want to try it. It won't hurt your locket." Probably.

"Okay… But only a second," Rosh said, carefully taking off the locket and handing it to Asher like it was made of glass. "I was wondering why your shard total suddenly dropped so low."

Definitely a useful power for a bunch of thieves, Asher thought, blinking in surprise as his Identify suddenly worked on the man.

[Instructor] – 2/3 Elements

"Wait… You're an instructor? What did you teach?" If Rosh used to teach magic or combat or something, this could be huge. I could get him to train me, and-

"Logistics!" Rosh exclaimed, a large grin on his face as he held up a finger proudly. "In fact, I was the youngest logistics instructor at Whikoga's military academy in the school's history! Most people don't realize this, but supply logistics play just as large a part in winning wars as tactics and firepower."

"Mhm," Asher mumbled, already tuning out the man as he slipped the locket around his neck. Immediately, he felt something like an invisible, impossibly sheer cloth drape itself over his body, the sensation vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared.

Concealing Shroud (tier 1) – Envelop yourself in a shroud of concealment that prevents information gathering skills from working on you.

"Hey Rosh," Asher said, interrupting the man's mini-lecture on the importance of supply chains and the dangers of not having enough shovels as he looked at the message he'd gotten upon putting on the locket. "This is my first time wearing an enchanted item like this. What does 'tier one' mean?"

"Oh, well all enchanted objects are just carefully prepared items that have someone imbue one of their skills into," Rosh said, still fully in lecturer mode. "Imbuing the skill is easy, it's preparing the item to accept the skill that's difficult. Or so I've heard. That Concealing Shroud was provided by someone who had the skill still in the first tier, meaning they either hadn't raised it to level twenty yet or just didn't have the shards needed to evolve the skill."

"So you're basically just borrowing another person's skill when you use an enchanted item?" Asher confirmed, looking more closely at the small locket hanging from his neck. "Could I imbue one of my skills into this if I wanted to then?"

"First you'd have to find a skilled enchanter to wipe it clean, and I think certain gemstones make certain skills more efficient, but in theory, yes," Rosh said, his face paling as he realized what Asher was asking. "…again, please don't do anything to my locket."

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"I know, one second," Asher said, rolling his eyes and activating his new skill. The moment he did, a strange sensation hit him, almost like a massive, invisible hand had suddenly wrapped around him and squeezed tightly before vanishing.

Well that was freaky… Alright, moment of truth.

Removing the locket and handing it back to Rosh, Asher looked at his status, grinning when he realized the Concealing Shroud was still in effect.

Ah, Eternity, you never let me down.

"So if the skill is only tier one, how effective is it really?"

"It depends on the skill it's combating," Rosh said, putting the locket back around his neck and shuddering, the tension seeming to leave his body as the shroud enveloped him once more. "Defensive skills nearly always have the advantage over offensive skills at the same tier level, meaning a tier one investigative skill will fail completely against the shroud. It will be partially effective against any skills in the second tier, so they'd be able to see your class but not your elements, but it will do absolutely nothing against anything in the third tier. Basically, as long as you're just worried about hiding your elements, you're safe against anything less than a truthseeker or a noble from a powerful family. Nobody else would have the funds to evolve an investigative skill to the third tier, after all."

But a truthseeker is exactly what I want to protect myself from, Asher thought, grinding his teeth. I guess I should start making a to-do list while I'm in the city. Hit the library. Gather information. Find a stronger concealing item. That all sounds doable.

The two of them spent the last few hours of the trip mostly in silence. Asher didn't want to give away just how little he knew about this world, and Rosh simply seemed to enjoy the fact that he wasn't getting constantly yelled at. As they got closer to the city and merged onto the actual main road, they also had actual traffic to deal with, and Asher entertained himself by simply listening to different people chatting around them.

"Ten shards per bushel, you hear me? Ten! I nearly had a heart attack when I found out! If Whikoga doesn't lower their entrance tariffs soon, I'll be bringing my business somewhere else next year, mark my words."

"Did you hear? Silver Wind and her team took down a roaming monster the other week that had already destroyed two villages and was heading for a third. I heard it was three stories tall and could spit acid!"

"I heard the head of the Polk family just announced she's planning to turn the family over to one of her nieces rather than her own daughter! Can you believe that? Might be wise to stay clear from the city center for a while..."

Asher wished he had a second set of ears as he did his best to take in all the interesting gossip coming from his fellow travelers on their way into the city. There was no way of telling what was truth from rumor, but it was still fun to listen.

And if that wasn't distracting enough, the occasional pegasus flying by overhead, lugging entire floating carriages behind them certainly was. Asher heard plenty of people around him chuckling and pointing as he stared up at the skies in awe whenever one of the beasts flew by. No doubt this was a rather regular sight this close to the actual city, and he was coming across as some sort of country bumpkin.

It wasn't long before they found themselves at the city gates, and Asher watched as the throng of travelers naturally split into three lines. As far as he could tell there was one line for ground-based carriages which underwent an actual search, a line for individuals where each one was stopped for questioning, and some sort of express line where people would simply flash something to the guards and be waived on through.

Asher let Rosh lead them over to the line of individuals, and he quickly found himself standing before one of the guards.

[Guard] – 2/3 Elements

"Name and purpose for entering the city?" the guard asked, looking only mildly bored as he waited with a quill and pad at the ready.

"Asher Holden. Here to use the library," he said, blinking as a ring on the guard's finger began glowing a dull blue. Evidently this was a good thing, as the guard merely grunted, marking a quick note on his pad and holding out his hand.

"The library is in the third ring, west side. Can't really miss it. Entrance fee is five shards."

Willing five of his shards to manifest in his hand, Asher handed them to the guard who promptly absorbed them before waving him on through the gate. Walking over to Rosh, Asher looked around, impressed with what he could see of the city so far.

The walls surrounding the city were impressive enough to put any castle he'd seen pictures of back on Earth to shame. Guards patrolled along the top every so often, and he couldn't see any easy way into the city without going through one of the gates.

The first ring, Rosh explained as they went deeper into the city, was mainly shops and businesses, with some residential sections. Apparently, craftsmen working within the city could get cheaper housing in the first ring. Asher looked into windows as they walked by and saw shops selling everything from clothing to dangerous looking weapons, and he made Rosh pause for a few minutes to watch a burly man hammer away at a red-hot piece of metal, forming it into some sort of curved sword. The smith clearly had an element related to his work, as he didn't bother using anything as mundane as tongs, instead holding the white-hot metal in his grasp as if it were nothing as he hammered it into shape.

When the sword was finally finished, Asher let Rosh lead him into the second ring and immediately noticed a difference in the city's atmosphere. The second ring was almost purely residential, although the entire ring was broken into different chunks, each one clearly for people of different economic classes. Rosh explained how the further you traveled from the main path, the more dangerous people you would encounter, and he recommended Asher stay clear of the seedier parts of the second ring unless he wanted to run into more people like Latch and Wes.

Eventually, they entered the third ring, and Asher finally had his breath taken away. The third ring held critical infrastructure and areas run by the city itself. Unlike the wall-to-wall houses and humble shops in the first and second ring, there was actual space between the different buildings in the third, and each one of them looked like it was designed by a professional architect.

Rosh led them to their destination while Asher played the tourist, and Asher finally got to take in the library in all its glory.

Stretching over their heads at four stories tall, the library was designed like its own miniaturized castle. Built from sturdy stone of varying, dark colors, the building gave off the impression that it was a venerable fortress, its individual towers making it easily one of the largest buildings in the entire ring. Occasionally, what appeared to be glowing birds of prey made from pure energy would sail out of the upper windows with books in their talons, headed over toward the fourth and final ring of the city that Rosh had mentioned contained the nobles.

Chuckling at Asher's expression, Rosh gestured to the front entrance, where Asher was almost disappointed to see a regular door instead of a moat and drawbridge.

"Shall we?"