Chapter 189: The Veiled Knife

Arthur lay on his bed in the dorm room, listening to Felix snoring quietly from the opposite bunk. The academy clock had struck midnight an hour ago.

He hadn’t opened his consolidated status sheet since the Thorne compound. The Ironblood refinement had provided the biggest raw jump, and since then, he’d dealt with the individual notices whenever they appeared, spending the points without bothering to open the entire interface. Rauk Hollow, Bracken Mine, and the Sector C aqueduct had added another three levels between them.

It was time to see exactly where he stood.

He opened the primary interface.

[Status Window — Arthur Vance]

Class: Phantom Sniper (Unique) Level: 36

Strength: 58

Mana: 320

Dexterity: 121

Perception: 114

Intelligence: 30

Stamina: 56

Unallocated Attribute Points: 0

Traits:

Soundless Steps — Lv.6

Eagle Eye — Lv.9

Ghost in the Woods

Skills Mana Quiver — Lv.4

Mirage Shot — Lv.3

Phantom Shots — Lv.4

Shadow Step — Lv.3

Silent Knife Technique — Lv.3

Three levels. Six points. Two into Dexterity, two into Perception, one into Strength, one into Stamina.

Arthur flexed his left hand once, then rolled the wrist Morwenna had strapped down during their Tuesday-night session.

Fifty-eight Strength still wasn’t turning him into Emily, but it was a long fucking way from the body he’d started with.

His attention moved down to the individual categories.

The physical side of the build was finally catching up. His Dexterity crossing 120 and Perception at 114 kept him incredibly lethal from a distance. The extra points in Strength and Stamina, combined with the Ironblood refinement, meant that Morwenna’s resistance training actually had a foundation to build on.

Eagle Eye at Level 9 caught his attention. One more level and he’d finally get to see what double digits actually changed.

Mana Quiver had reached Level 4 after weeks of constant use in the practicals. Mira had also beaten a lot of the waste out of the way he formed rushed shots, making his overall mana consumption far more sustainable during prolonged fights.

His close-range tools were progressing just as steadily. Shadow Step and Silent Knife Technique had both hit Level 3. Coming out of Shadow Step with a weapon ready no longer felt like a separate, conscious action, and the Necrotic Dagger had already proved its value in the aqueduct.

Arthur knew the game mechanics well enough to recognize where the build was heading. Phantom Sniper killed things before they reached him. Shadow Step, Silent Knife, and Morwenna’s training were making him increasingly difficult to punish when they did.

Skills still weren’t classes.

He needed an Extension Rune.

In this world, one class was the norm. An Awakening Rune established it, and leveling didn’t open another class slot. Extension Runes were the rare exception.

They were ancient relics recovered from tombs, inheritance trials, sealed dungeons, and other places that almost never opened twice. If someone wanted a secondary class, they needed to find one.

More importantly, the combination was compatible. Assassin could sit beside Phantom Sniper instead of replacing it. Assassin used the same things Arthur already relied on—Dexterity, Perception, stealth, and mobility. He wouldn’t have to rebuild himself around it.

Acquiring Assassin was another matter.

Arthur knew where an Assassin Extension Rune existed.

In the game, one of the more infamous hidden questlines ended at a dungeon called the Tomb of the Veiled Knife.

The Tomb held the rune.

Unlocking the Tomb required three specific keys.

Arthur pulled up a regional map around Lornfell on his phone, scrolling past the academy districts and the merchant sectors.

The first key was the easiest to track. A minor undead boss beneath an abandoned roadside shrine carried it. In the game, the shrine was called Saint Orlan’s Wayside Shrine, located roughly a day’s ride north of Lornfell’s outer walls.

The second key was held by a named bandit captain who operated in the eastern foothills. Arthur would have to check the guild bounty boards to see if that specific group had been active recently.

The third key was the Black Prayer Bead.

The third token had used a randomized spawn pool in the game. Antique dealers, minor noble collections, monastery inventories—each playthrough could put it somewhere different.

Which meant Arthur knew what the bead looked like, but not where this world’s version had ended up.

Saint Orlan’s was a day’s ride north, and disappearing from the academy without preparation would draw questions. He had classes again in a few hours, and Sylvia’s Iron Anvil paperwork was still waiting for him.

Arthur saved the old shrine location and added one line beneath it.

Veiled Knife — Key 1?

Saint Orlan’s Wayside Shrine remained pinned on the map when he set the phone down and finally went to sleep.

The next afternoon, Arthur pushed through the heavy doors of Warehouse 9.

Sylvia was currently arguing with a merchant over the price of a bulk delivery of preserving salts. Sophia was sitting behind her desk, organizing a stack of newly processed bounty completion slips.

Arthur walked past Sylvia’s argument and leaned on Sophia’s desk.

"You busy?" Arthur asked.

Sophia didn’t look up from her paperwork. "Extremely. What do you need?"

"A name check," Arthur said. "I’m looking for a specific bandit group."

Sophia picked up a pen and pulled a blank ledger sheet toward her. "Who?"

"They operate in the eastern foothills," Arthur told her. "Usually target smaller merchant caravans that try to bypass the main toll roads. The captain goes by the name Kaelen."

Sophia stopped writing.

She looked up at him. "Kaelen."

"Yeah."

"That name sounds familiar," Sophia muttered, setting the pen down.

She stood up, walked over to one of the massive wooden filing cabinets lining the back wall, and started pulling out old bounty sheets.

"We haven’t had an active contract on a Kaelen in months," Sophia said, flipping rapidly through the files. "But I remember the city guard circulating a warning about a group in the eastern hills right after the last rainy season."

She pulled a thick, slightly yellowed sheet out of a folder and brought it back to the desk.

She slid it across the wood toward him.

It was an expired bounty posting.

WANTED: KAELEN’S COMPANY

Operating: Eastern Foothills / Old Quarry RoadsCrimes: Caravan Theft, Murder

Same name. Same region.

Arthur stared at the posting.

Kaelen existed.

That was enough to keep digging.

"Why is it expired?" Arthur asked.

"Because nobody caught them," Sophia said, leaning back in her chair. "The city guard put a bounty up, a few minor guilds went looking, and Kaelen’s group disappeared deeper into the hills. They probably moved their camp, laid low, and waited for the bounty to rot."

Sophia looked at him. "You aren’t seriously thinking about hunting an expired bounty for free, are you?"

Arthur handed the paper back to her.

"Just checking the area," Arthur said.

He turned around and walked out of the warehouse, a faint smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

The trail to the second key was real.