To be fair to her, Maximilian hadn’t been lying. He had been contacted by the guard to investigate the Pedo Poacher, which was still one of the stupider names he’d heard for the guy. Personally, he preferred Child of Vengeance. Or maybe the less obvious Tiny Trickster.

  “Why are nicknames always either ridiculous or try too hard to be serious?” He said, mostly to himself. The small marsupial on his shoulder nuzzled his cheek and he reached up and scratched it behind the ears. “I’m not talking about yours Biscuit.”

  There was a happy cheep sound and it started to sniff at the air. Maximilian concentrated and linked up to the several rodents he’d sent out to look for information. They were specifically looking for two things: The scent of blood and a child wandering around at night.

  Meanwhile, he took a drink from his tankard and offered his tiny friend a small nut from the snack tray he’d gotten with his ale. While his friends were looking for his target, he was listening for ‘suspicious’ news.

  Maximilian wasn’t hearing anything too unusual though.

  All the news was currently about either the attack on a guard transport escorting ‘highly dangerous and deranged criminals’, that made him roll his eyes. There were the occasional comments on the damage the swarms were doing to the farmland, but we weren’t anywere close to a famine. There were enough stockpiles inside storage spaces it’d be weird if they didn’t last at least a year.

  “Can’t believe there’s still no word from the Grave Woods. Are they even still alive over there?” Maximilian heard one person ask. It was a valid concern. Even the guild wasn’t getting a lot of news. The last reports had Gilbert and Topa there, though, so he wasn’t worried. Gilbert was a defensive expert and Topa was the guild’s only Tier 4 healer.

  One of the rodents pinged him on the smell of blood. Maximilian finished his mug and got up to head off, grabbing a handful of the nuts for Biscuit.

  It had been a false lead. One of the problems working with small creatures and a high sense of smell was they thought any amount of blood was a lot. The one he’d been lead to was a butcher shop. They had a strider strung up and the blood draining into a drain. Maximilian had let himself out the same way he’d come in, making sure to lock the door again.

  A couple more alerts had come in, and he headed over to the closest one. I could just take over their sight but it feels so… weird. It wasn’t like he was in a hurry anyway. Hasty action would lead to a bad time.

  He turned down an alley and frowned, looking for the rodent. Maximilian didn’t have darkvision or anything fancy like that, but his friend pointed out the child hiding under a pile of refuse. They were unconscious and bruised, but alive. It looked like he’d crawled under it on his own volition too.

  Maximilian sent a message to one of his friends in the guild he knew was still awake.

  Hey, on a job and I found an injured kid. You mind collecting him and getting him to a shelter? Bring a potion.

  He waited for a response, which he got quickly enough.

  Fuck, man. Where?

  Maximilian sent him the location and waited for confirmation before taking out a piece of chalk and putting his personal mark on the wall. Then he went to the next location, confident the kid would be picked up soon. With a bit of effort, he avoided wondering what had happened with the small boy.

  Speculation wouldn’t help anyone when he wouldn’t do anything about it.

  The next two alerts were similar stories to the first two. One was blood splatters in an alley, no signs of who did it or where they went. The other was a dead guy who had been robbed. Missing purse, nothing of value on him.

  He left marks and sent messages to his contacts in the guard to relay them to the appropriate places. Not that it’d matter. There weren’t enough guards to do anything about the rising crime rates. They were all busy dealing with the Grave Woods, the swarm, or placating the slave traders with extra security.

  When it finally grew fully dark and the lights came on in the street, he climbed up onto a building to get a better look across the city. He wasn’t worried about looking weird now, especially since anyone who’d notice him up on the rooftop highways knew his cloak. It was hard to hide, since he couldn’t take it off. It’s innate ability also meant people wouldn’t notice him in the ffirst place.

  Patchwork Cloak (Cursed, Soulbound)

  This cloak contains numerous patches and pockets that act as individual Spatial Storage Spaces of various size and shape. Occasionally, the pockets will connect to other Spatial Storages in the nearby vicinity (30 Meters) and give the user access to withdraw one item. Items from the Spatial Storage the connection replaces are moved to a different pocket. The user has no control over this feature.

  Cannot be Unequipped

  User’s presence is reduced by 50%

  Living creatures can be held in pockets.

  It had been one of his first finds as an adventurer, and had actually grown more powerful as he himself grew in power. The few adventurers who remembered him often called him by his own nickname because of it: Patchwork Max.

  He hated being called Max. He’d rather go by his last name, Stewart, but nobody could ever remember him as Stewart. Maximilian had gotten people to call him PM for a while, but some asshole had called him PMS at a previous guild, and he’d never gotten them to change it.

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  As he was reminiscing, he caught sight of a small figure mantling up onto the roof. The motion was fluid, practiced. Just from the outline, he felt it could be his target. So, at a sedate pace, he started to stride across the rooftops.

  His upgraded Seven League Gait got him next to the kid within seconds, though it seemed like he had been noticed doing so. Without warning, a kitchen knife was thrown at him as the small figure started to run.

  Really? Maximilian mentally groaned as he snatched the knife out of the air and slipped it into a pocket on reflex. With another step, he was in front of the boy again. “I’m not a guard, kid. Chill out.”

  The little shit actually scoffed at Maximillian, “Yea, there’s only two Tier 4 guards in the city and they’re both busy.”

  Wait, what? There’s supposed to be five… “Then we talk?”

  “Nah, fuckhead.” The kid said before simply jumping into a shadow and disappearing. Maximillian rubbed at the bridge of his nose and sent a command to his rodent friends to start looking for him in the area. Well… at least I found him.

  Who the fuck was that?! Adelhard thought as he shadow jumped two more times, getting more than a kilometer away and onto the ground level before he stopped. He leaned against a wall and caught his breath.

  Adelhard had actually been trying to take a break from killing, looking for a place to get some sleep for the night. He didn’t feel like using the shelter, too many strings attached, and most inns refused to rent to a child, much to his ever growing irritation.

  “Why couldn’t I come back as a soldier or something? They die all the time!” He shouted in frustration, kicking at a can. The music he was listening to was starting to piss him off so he turned it off.

  One of his skills triggered and he sensed he was being watched. Immediately, he shadow jumped again and got two streets over. The feeling of being watched came back a moment later, and Adelhard looked around frantically for the source. Is he invisible? How is he tracking me?!

  Considering how many traits and skills he had just to avoid detection, even if they were weakened until he caught up to their tier, it shouldn’t be possible for someone to attach some kind of tracking skill or spell to him. Even high level ones broke when he shadow jumped.

  Then he saw the rat. It was staring right at him with far more intelligence than it should have. Fuck, he’s a trainer of some kind. He shadow jumped again, and just to be safe climbed through the second story window of a shop that was closed. He’d used the place before as a safe spot, and figured it’d be fine.

  Then he felt the attention on him again.

  Shit. I’m going ot have to confront him. He thought about killing the man outright. Minion masters and beast tamers were all pretty weak themselves. All of their class power came from their pets, part of why Adelhard and never bothered trying out the class in the early days. It all took too long, and wasn’t as fun.

  But the weird guy wasn’t trying to capture him. Adelhard knew he could have, especially with how fast he moved. He wasn’t a fool, and knew what Seven League Gait could do when someone was skilled with it. Not to mention the other kinds of movement abilities the branches off Outdoorsman gave. The guy could just keep following him until Adelhard was exhausted and out of mana and would barely break a sweat, even if they were on equal footing.

  With a resigned sigh, he sat down in a shadow and fell back into it, jumping back up to a rooftop. The weird guy with the patchwork cloak was next to him in almost no time and sat on a little rise in the rooftop. “Ready to talk?”

  “Sure, what is it?” Adelhard grumbled. His stomach also grumbled and he rolled his eyes, “Can we do this over food? I haven’t gotten a good meal all day.”

  “Really? Surprised you haven’t been snatching crystals all week.” The man said with a smirk.

  “I’ve been spending them on levels. I’m trying to finish off this stupid Street Rat class. Even with the conversion bonus for reincarnating, it’s taking a bit.” Adelhard admitted.

  “Huh, I’d figured it was something like that. Either that or some androgynous gnome.” He shrugged and nodded towards the street. “Walk and talk? I know a good tavern that should be open still.”

  “Alright.” Adelhard shifted his hair and eyes to match the man in the patchwork cloak, “But you get to pretend to be my dad.”

  The guy laughed, “How about older brother? Or cousin, god knows this place in inbred enough for that to be reasonable.”

  Adelhard snorted. “Just as long as it’s not step-brother. We aren’t in a porno.”

  The man blinked, “What’s a porno?”

  Maximilian brought the weird kid outside the walls and to a small tavern he knew. They’d just gotten a new waitress who was bringing in more business than usual. Beastgirls tended to do that, no matter the region, especially the ones more person than beast.

  We got a stew and I found a table off to the side. I sent Biscuit searching for my privacy stone while we ate a bit. Maximilian was drinking a weak cocktail that came in a glass showing off it’s pastel rainbow of colors. The kid, whose name he still hadn’t gotten, was just drinking juice and not happy about it.

  When Biscuit came back with the stone, it had gotten into a pocket on the back of his cloak, he activated it and set it in the middle of the table, adjusting the barrier so it’d mute the room around them and prevent us from being understood by scrambling our voices and lip movements.

  The kid whistled, “That is a powerful item. Where’d you get it?”

  “Country I used to live in had a lot of skilled craftsmen and paranoid politicians. I have seven of them from various jobs.” Maximilian admitted. “Though they’re a pain to find when I need them.”

  “Your little friend seemed to know where it was.” The kid pointed out.

  “I’d hope so. It’s his only job.” Maximilian said as he fed Biscuit a small piece of the bread that had come with the stew.

  The two were quiet for a while before the kid spoke, “So, what’s the job?”

  “What makes you think there’s a job?” Maximilian asked.

  “You don’t go finding an assassin and not turning him in unless you want someone dead.” Adelhard said simply. “So, who and how much?”

  Maximilian pulled his notebook out of his normal pocket and wrote down a place and time. “No idea. I was asked to find you by a system agent. She goes by Danielle Rosecrest, or Moderator Thorn if the system quest is right.”

  The kid squinted his eyes at the man in the patchwork cloak. “Isn’t that the person who bought me? I already told her no when she asked if I’d work for her.”

  Maximilian shrugged, tore out the page and set it in front of Adelhard, “I was asked to find you and give you a message. I do not know, nor do I want to know what it’s about. Anything you do from here is on you.”

  Smirking, he dropped off a key on the table. “That’s to a room at that inn. It’s booked for the month. And stay out of trouble for a bit?” With that, Maximilian got up, grabbed the privacy stone, and headed out.

  Adelhard watched them man go and looked down at the note and the key. So… she’s also a system agent? He stirred the piece of bread around the bowl absetnmindedly soaking up the last of the stew. Maybe I should hear her out. Couldn’t hurt for a mod to owe me a favor…

  He popped the bread into his mouth, grabbed the key, and headed off towards the free room. No sense wasting free stuff.