Morning arrived far too soon. I was loath to leave the soft embrace of my bed but fate had it out for me! The sun was up way before it had any right to be and so was an annoyingly energetic Rev. Even Medea, who was napping at the foot of my bed, stiffened into awareness at the cheery voice.

  “Good morning Anya! I brought breakfast. Eat it all up before we have to leave. New adventures await us!” Rev announced in what was definitely not an indoors voice as I suppressed a groan. And considering that his normal cadence was NOT like this at all, I was sure that he was being annoying on purpose.

  Rev once again paid for a carriage and for the first time, I had a closer look at the currency used in New Delport. It was a thumb nail sized flat square of the same blue mana crystal as what I had used earlier but it could be attached to four more crystals, one on each side by a series of interlocking grooves and edges. Rev had counted and detached seven of the squares from an entire tray of them before putting the rest away in a small pouch inside his armor.

  The city in the morning was downright pleasant. No towers were billowing clouds of acrid green smog that actively smothered the city and the tense mood of the night was replaced by lazy contentment. But I knew from my talk with the Guildmistress that the city wasn't as it seemed; if anything we were probably just in the nicer parts of it.

  We were back at the guild. The Aurum Bolt was not that different during the day unlike the New Delport Regency, which had a drastically different atmosphere with natural lighting. It seemed just as hectic as it had been last night, if not even more. This time however, our destination was different. Rev walked through a partially hidden side door that led down to an underground floor.

  We ignored what sounded like drunk off-shift guards gossiping in a circle and instead took a hard left turn into a small storage shed. It smelt absolutely terrible and my skin prickled. I was still wrestling with myself about whether I should complain when Rev levitated me again and everything went black.

  When I could see again, we were in what I was sure was a secret facility affiliated with the guild. Medea looked disoriented as well to my left. Rev was now accompanied by a woman in similar armor and a mask that covered half her face. But the metaphorical elephant in the room was a table with a mana crystal and three human skulls. One of them was partially smashed.

  “Good luck kid.” Rev said with uncharacteristic brevity before disappearing once again. The woman spoke as soon as he had left.

  “Good morning, I am Seventh Guildmistress Tiamim, leader of the forensics department. Please take a seat, Miss Anya.” The woman said and I obliged. The woman did not seem to be particularly scary after the nightmare that Valdima had been. Maybe it was a ruse?

  “Guildmistess? Like Guildmistress Valdima?”

  Tiamim laughed. “Oh no, not like her. She is the Guildmistress, I am just the seventh in command.” I nodded even though that sounded stupid to me. Why not call her the Chief Guildmistress or something? Or Tiamim a Senior Guildswoman? Gah, focus.

  “So the Guildmistress told me that I will be tested for forensics. How does that work?” I asked when it looked like Tiamim was not the most talkative of people around. I mean fair was fair, I was not either.

  “Yes. I was informed that you can glean information from the remains of people. Here is the task. These three people were attempting to steal an artifact from a distant cousin of an Illustris Council member. But by the time the guards noticed what was up, they had all been killed and the artifact was missing. Tell me what really happened here.”

  I touched the first skull, the smashed one and used my skill.

  I was going to be rich! We were all going to be rich. We had secured the tome and without alerting anyone. I turned to his compatriots, unable to keep the smile off my face. And a dark shape raced towards my face and I knew no more.

  “His fellow thieves betrayed him once they had acquired the tome.” I observed as Tiamim stared dispassionately. She said nothing and I continued.

  Gerhin’s face twisted into hatred. A familiar blade plunged into me. I knew it, knew I was dead the moment it had penetrated me. And yet I… I… I will not die alone here. I will take Gerhin down with me. I stumbled towards Gerhin but my legs failed me, my arms, poised to strangle his disgusting face, fell to my sides. I laughed before the blade decapitated me. I saw my own body, without my head, kneeling as if in supplication and something else. A glimmer of a shadow behind Gerhin. It was smiling.

  “Where is the hidden illusionist who was behind Gerhin?” I asked and my charms fell in a fan-like shape, imprecise but unmistakably pointing somewhere. This illusionist had been making these three idiots progressively more paranoid until they ended up killing each other. Only, the last guy had almost heard the footsteps before being killed himself.

  \\Ossific Communion is now level 31!

  “And can you actually find them? Your skill only tells you the general direction in a cone shape. That is not very helpful.” I frowned. No, this was easy. It was so easy that my old world had a term for it. Triangulation.

  “I would ask for a guild member who can transport me across the city really quickly. Oh, and I would grab an aetherite for mana of course. I would then, uhh, I will also take a map first actually. Then I would use augury to get direction cones from different points in the city and mark overlapping zones in the map until it is small enough to be manually searched.” I finished, stumbling at the start but feeling confident by the end.

  Tiamim stared stonily for a second before smiling. “Congratulations. You pass. You will get your security screening and meet the rest of your colleagues later this week. But for now, you are clear. Also, for your information, the perpetrator was already captured by us and handed over to the Illustris Council.”

  Rev clapped from behind me and I jumped before glaring at the sneaky guilder.

  “Alright. Time for your biomancy then.”

  Wait. Now?

  “I will remind you that we are paying for this and that you are only getting your old injuries fixed. You want anything more such as cosmetic touch ups, extra appendages, organs and the likes, you have to pay for them yourself.” Rev said. I nodded, strapped to what looked suspiciously similar to an operating table.

  “Your stuff will be waiting in your room when you are done. Don't worry, you will be fine. See you then, kid.” Rev’s expression softened into that seemingly genuine smile again. I returned it before I was distracted by the new arrival. I supposed they might have been human at some point but they just looked like something out of a Clive Barker movie. Tall, not as tall as Valdima but still tall, thin, pale and androgynous with black eyes and lips; small conical horns emerging from a bald head completed the picture. They held a clipboard in their hands and muttered to themselves.

  “Malnutrition, improperly set bones, physical trauma. And what brain damaged medic stabilized her legs? She would need actual flesh grafts before I can even do anything. Did a medic even look at those or just you meatheads? Tsk tsk.” Their voice was silky smooth and I found it oddly attractive.

  “Right, that's my cue to leave.” Rev once again vanished as the [BIOMANCER] finally directly acknowledged me.

  “Oh hello! You can call me Mitria and I'll be doing your biomancy for today! Usually we don't do this but you have years of micro injuries that need healing so I'll have to put you under. Don't worry though, I'm the best on this side of the sea at what I do. Now just relax that lovely little head of yours and I'll start once we are ready. I hope you had enough to eat though, my dear. I can see your ribs.” They said all that in a single breath.

  I tried to relax as the biomancer puttered around, occasionally dragging in machinery or reports or conversing with an assistant. I wondered if learning from another biomancer would progress my class faster. I tried to pay attention to what the biomancer was saying even though I didn't understand almost any of the terms used.

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  \\[BLOODMAGE INITIATE] is now level 4!

  I woke up in my bed. I hadn't even realized when I had lost consciousness but the light outside my window told me it was evening when I regained it. The towers were reawakening to life and the air had a noticeably thick feeling to it. Nothing was hurting but I was sore all over. A quick look at my status showed that my physical stats had seen a minor bump across the board.

  NAME: ANANYA HARTFORD

  RACE: HUMAN

  ACTIVE CLASS: [BLOODMAGE INITIATE 4/15]

  MASTERED CLASSES: 4

  AGE: 19

  MANA: 75/75 (REGEN 15 PER HOUR)

  STATS:

  STRENGTH: 9

  CELERITY: 9

  VITALITY: 10

  ACUITY: 14

  WILLPOWER: 15

  PERCEPTION: 14

  ATTUNEMENT: 15

  Vitality had grown the most out of all my stats and was now my highest physical stat, ironic considering that it was my lowest when I had arrived.

  I was also sure that my debuffs should mostly be cleared out by now between the biomancy and Cold Blooded but for whatever reason, they didn't have a screen dedicated to them so I couldn't be sure.

  “Excuse me Miss. Can you please request your… companion to let me come inside?” A timid voice came from outside the door. I started and turned towards it to see Medea in vigil with its tail raised facing off a terrified girl in the same black-silver uniform as the other hotel staff. She was holding a tray with what looked like a bowl of soup. ‘Stand down’, I commanded and Medea deflated, hair, tail and everything else.

  The attendant set the bowl on a bedside table, closed the windows and left after a hurried curtsy. The tray had a straw beside the bowl. It was a struggle to force myself into a sitting position, nothing moving quite like it should. I took a tentative sip; and almost spat it out all over Medea after choking. I hadn't meant to suck in so much hot soup at once; I had underestimated my strength. That had never happened before, even when I had gained +2 strength at once.

  After consuming about half the bowl, I decided that I had enough and tried to get used to my body post fixing. I was clumsier than before but that had to be temporary. I was a lot more worried about them putting things inside me while I was under. Magical explosive collars, here I come.

  I knew that I would be better than I was before once I had some practice with my body. And I had an idea about how to practice using my hands, surely my new temporary handicap would make it level at a different pace, maybe faster or slower but I had to try. I brought out my knife, placed a crutch on my lap and began to carve. I carved through most of the night, awake through a combination of being out for so long during my surgery and anticipation.

  \\Lesser Bone Crafting has reached its highest level and has absorbed Lesser Bone Harvesting to evolve into Bone Shaping

  \\Bone Shaping: 30

  Bone and similar substances are like wet putty in your expert hands. You can shape them freely into whatever you can with your bare hands and simple tools like hammers, chisels, knives and presses. You can mold bone like a potter molds clay and make wonders out of remains. You can also selectively adjust how rigid or malleable you want them under your ministrations. Bones revert to their normal material properties once you stop working on them.

  Uses 18 mana per minute.

  That was actually better than what I had expected! One more short term project completed. I still wasn't tired and I hadn't properly walked in over a year so testing that was my new goal. Rev would almost certainly arrive in the morning and I expected at least some of what passed for physiotherapy here but I'd rather get the worst parts done by then. I wasn't a completely reckless idiot though and still held on to one of my crutches, the one I had spent three hours clumsily carving on.

  And I crashed onto the floor.

  “Ow”, said the girl in a heap on her wooden floor, a trickle of blood on her forehead.

  \\Pain Tolerance now level 5!

  Said the notification.

  “Ma’am, are you alright? Do you want any help? I'll come inside in three minutes if you don't respond.” Said the voice knocking on the door.

  “I'm fine!” I called out. I hoped the hotel had some kind of health monitoring system going on and didn't like, just spy on all the guests all the time. That would be messed up but it was a different world, they might have different notions of privacy if any. I cast Coagulation on myself and my bleeding stopped within a minute.

  \\[BLOODMAGE INITIATE] is now level 5!

  For a moment, I seriously considered grinding my class and Pain Tolerance by cutting myself. I really did but then I remembered that the hotel staff were keeping tabs on me. Also it was a slippery slope that I wasn't quite ready to jump off, yet.

  By dawn, I still stumbled a bit but I was only using the crutch as more of a walking stick than anything else. I had the distinct feeling that the recovery time was mostly for acclimatization and Cold Blooded had just let me brute force through it without noticing. I was not going to complain though, I felt better than I had in ages. And I was sleepy, so sleepy.

  The girl from before came in with now thankfully solid food and I decided that I needed a conversation partner who wasn't terrifying. In fact the girl was so scared of Medea that my own facade of bravado just felt unnecessary if not downright mean.

  “Thank you, say what's your name again?”

  “Me? I'm Nerry, just Nerry.” Nerry replied while trying to keep a healthy distance from Medea without seeming rude. I ordered Medea to go sit near the window.

  “Well Nerry, I'm Anya. It's nice to meet you.” I held out my hand in the clawed Dellish equivalent of a handshake that Nerry matched before letting go far too quickly. She also realized her faux pas and started to bow before I interrupted her.

  “You see I'm new here and don't really know anyone and I'm bored as hell. Do you think you could get me some books or the likes? I'll of course repay you once I can but I can't promise that will be soon.” I tried my best to look pathetic, which wasn't hard.

  “Of course! I would love to! Do you like romances or adventures? There's a great series about Regdren, The Silver Flame who founded this city during the time of the empire.”

  “Yeah that sounds good.” I couldn't help but grin; bingo, something to keep me occupied that wasn't just worrying about the future. That's all a girl really wants in life.

  Nerry and I talked for a few more minutes about other heroes of yore, The Dirge Singer of the Sea personally interested me as she seemed to have taken [CHOIR SINGER] in a direction that the class description hadn't even mentioned as a possibility.

  And then Nerry had to leave to attend to her work and I was alone again. Without any real means to tell the time, I could only guess at when she would next come.

  Wait. Did I have no way of telling the time? System?

  \\541:20

  \\541:21

  Okayyy. That was something at least. 541:20 was not a format I knew but I was reasonably sure the second half was seconds.

  With nothing in particular to do, I just ate my food in silence and went back to bed. When I next woke, there was a sandwich and some sort of sweet fruit juice and a change of clothes waiting by my bedside table.

  \\Bone Shaping is now level 31!

  The setting sun illuminated the serrated edge of a bone knife held loosely by the girl. The jagged blade didn't glint like metal did but the girl knew from first hand experience and a splotch of red on her white tunic that it cut just as well if not better. A series of runes carved on the blade also made the weapon double as an augury charm. A small band of bone separated the handle from the blade so that her fingers wouldn't slip or grab on to the sharp edge. Satisfied, the girl jumped down from the window ledge she was sitting on and put the knife next to five other identical knives. Once she had successfully created one, the rest were replicated quickly. Her old metal shiv was still on her side as the bone knives were suboptimal for quick slices or stabs but it would no longer be her go to weapon. With her new arsenal completed, the girl was finally out of ideas for things to do. She could go down to the hotel’s dining hall and socialize, or she could go for a walk but Anya was a solitary creature and just looking at the city from above suited her fine.

  The city lit up as the sun went down the horizon, streetlights, lamps and more all illuminated the still busy streets. Across the city, three massive black towers flared to life and clouds of green smoke slowly began to cover the sky and the ground. Sometimes the clouds would briefly light up as if there was lightning present in them but no flashes or rumblings would follow and inevitably the clouds darkened again.

  I closed my window before the noxious gas could enter my room and waited, Nerry had promised me that she would bring some books with her when it was time for supper. I yawned, still far too tired to consider doing anything strenuous.

  By the time Nerry returned with the promised books about Regdren’s adventures, I could barely keep my eyes open but Nerry’s enthusiasm was infectious. And soon enough, a short but animated lesson took place in my room. The Dellish treated their historical figures as superheroes and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these stories were just fabrications. I learnt about the historical Catri Empire that had once spanned the entire continent and had subjugated and driven off everything from dragons to liches to even an evil god hellbent on scouring the land of all life. My ears figuratively perked up at that bit and I asked for more details with far too much enthusiasm before catching myself. Nerry opened her mouth to tell what was no doubt a long story and —

  And then entered the only guild journeyman I had interacted with with any frequency, Rev himself. He didn't knock, he simply strode in like the guild owned the place and for all I knew, they did. Nerry hurriedly bowed and made her excuses before leaving.

  “I was informed that your recovery is going faster than expected and so I came to check and to congratulate you.” Rev flashed me a grin and then his face sobered up.

  “The guildmistress wants you to report tomorrow. At 500 sharp . Do not be late.”