“So you’re telling me, you have been in the Guild for one day, having forced yourself in through one of the few people in the city who I wouldn’t fight and then you come here and drop this in my lap!” The guildmaster said his voice raising to a shout as he spoke.


    I opened my mouth to protest and he raised his hand to forestall any comments. “I know this is not your fault but now I will have to do something about this before it becomes a major issue, it’s already going to cost significant money to resolve and means we will have to increase the number of people doing the rat task as clearly they are expanding too far.” He grumbled rubbing at his temples. “As if my life wasn’t hard enough already, however that does explain the increase in deaths from that mission.” he muttered to himself ignoring me entirely.


    Ignoring his muttering and cursing for the moment I used the opportunity to examine the office. For the head of the Guild and considering his size he dwarfed the space, a solid oak desk taking up the majority of the room. Piles of papers haphazardly littered the room and a basket was overflowing with crumpled pages. The only sign of any decoration, if one would call it that was the massive scull of a horned creature, it’s horns stretching to touch both walls, and a massive utilitarian war hammer lying propped up against the wall. I watched curiously as the man rifled through the pages on his desk becoming more and more frustrated if the sounds of his muttering was anything to go by.


    Tentatively I asked “Was there a mission or something like that I was meant to grab for this?”


    “Hmm, what” the guildmaster asked clearly paying minimal attention. “No, go back to the front with Glenda and leave the rat here, along with any others you got.” He said vaguely gesturing in front of him. “Glenda please give her a level 3 intelligence reward and set up a code 3 mission for a week from now, and make it somewhat enticing so I don’t have to go down there myself. We can’t let this become a bigger problem, and it’s absolutely not worth my time.”


    I deposited the remaining rats on a convenient tray that Glenda provided and followed her out. Walking down the stairs I asked “how much is a level three intelligence reward?”


    “A level three reward is a mid level reward” Glenda said neutrally, seeming to choose her words very carefully. “And is used for when a mid level threat is discovered, and the reward is 500 gold crowns and the ability to cancel the related missions with no consequences.


    I remained silent, shocked at how much one poorly done mission had turned out purely because of luck of the draw.


    “Don’t get me wrong we absolutely appreciate the information and understand that you risked your life on the understanding that this was a task that would have low risk at your level but that amount is mandated by the crown” Glenda said in a rush clearly misinterpreting my shock for anger, hidden as my expression was behind my mask.


    “I will take the crowns and the return of the mission now.” I said in a firm tone, hiding how overjoyed I was with the amount. This was enough to potentially get some empty land in the new section of the city! Maybe that secret base was not as long term of an idea as I thought it would be.


    ***


    Leaving the guild with a storage ring with much less space than when I arrived, I had to hold myself back from skipping down the street. Ducking into an alley I withdrew my mask and slipped my boots back on and was just about to duck back into the street when I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind me. Immediately I grabbed my daggers and turned around and prepared to throw.


    Only to lower them ashamedly seeing Lady Xing standing behind me, hands on her hips. “If I were an assassin you’d be dead.”


    “Yes because I, having been a classer for less than a week should have a reasonable chance of defending myself against someone who has at minimum fifteen more years on me and I suspect more than triple that at a minimum.”


    Lady Cing snorted at that “No but you should have heard me or seen me, I wasn’t exactly hiding, are you a rogue or not?” Lady Xing asked “how have you been progressing?”


    Realising that I hadn’t checked how I had progressed since the sewers I opened my status and barely avoided gasping aloud.


    Congratulations Absorber class has absorbed class Beta Rat, as this class is not suitable for a human you may either convert the class to a human equivalent or have a 100% Absorption chance on your next kill.


    Ignoring all my other notifications I stared dumbfounded. I had almost believed I would never absorb a class again! I almost immediately decided to keep the class but the 100% guarantee was too tempting. I knew very little about the class the Rat had but what I saw I wasn’t a huge fan of. It had some leadership qualities but also a rage ability? Not for me I decided. I was sure there were better options.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    “What happened, lady Xing asked seeing my expression “you look like you got a significant


    Internallarms immediately started blaring. she was dancing against a very sensitive topic and this was one area I could not let her discover. So I decided to change the subject. “Have any advice on how to set up a legitimate fake identity so I can buy a house?”


    Her penetrating gaze let me know she saw straight through my change of topic but she decided to indulge me anyway “depends, how legitimate are we making this identity and how separate we are going to make it from yourself.”


    “As legitimate as possible and as separate as possible” I responded


    “A good decision” she nodded “I thought I would have to nudge you along to set up a safe house for yourself but clearly you beat me to it.”


    “Good to know I can occasionally have a good idea,” I muttered somewhat defensively


    “Indeed,” lady Xing said nodding seriously. “Fortunately for you I have already been doing this for you because it’s surprisingly easy to set up.”


    “Really?” I asked curiously “I wouldn’t have thought it was easy, I was debating whether it was even possible.”


    “Almost everything is possible if you try hard enough” Lady Xing said dismissively waving her hand. “But with this all we do is pretend that you are a street urchin who came into the system with an ability that you use to make you money.”


    “Isn’t that a bit, I don’t know, risky?” I asked “I wouldn’t think that it’s particularly common and won’t I have to prove that I have an ability to quickly get money?”


    “This is actually surprisingly common” Lady Xing admitted, that’s why the city is constantly expanding to allow new classers an easier transition and so they aren’t forced to leave. The whole city is designed primarily for classers.”


    “Can we go down here,” I asked nodding to Florets street as we walked past. Lady Xing looked at me curiously but turned down the street as I asked.


    “As to whether or not you need to demonstrate that you have an ability to make money yes and no. You see in your pocket is your identity and that speaks for itself.”


    “Are you crazy” I whisper shouted at her, trying to convey my anger but also not to pronounce it to the whole street. “I’m trying to hide my identity, not get myself killed. This mask is becoming an assassin, at your insistence by the way, if you remember correctly.”


    “And your going to do such a poor job at that you are going to reveal that your masked identity is an assassin?” Lady Xing asked eyebrows raised “and to be clear the plan was to get you to make a business and the business owns the property. So to truly work out who owns the house they would have to find the company, then work out who owns it and then work out who is behind the mask, and if you’re that incompetent you may as well slit your throat now.”


    She came to a stop in front of me and looked me straight in the eyes. Have you ever considered why there is a Shadow Guild that is operating in the city, fairly easily obviously and without your dad coming down on them with some glorious light show to kill them all?


    No I actually hadn’t and my expression clearly gave that away. Lady Zing snorted at my expression “figures” she muttered to herself. “The reason is that they operate with the full knowledge and backing of the majority of the noble families and definitely all the royalty.”


    “That doesn’t make sense” I muttered to myself “why would they allow such an entity which can cause them significant harm to operate?”


    “Because they use them you silly girl” lady Xing replied “Also every month nobles and royalty can pay an eye watering sum of money to make sure that the Shadow Guild does not kill them”


    Then clearly something has gone significantly wrong, surely king Titus pays for our protection every month? I thought. Surely he would have at least provided me with a courtesy warning.


    “Okay fair enough that does sort of makes sense” I admitted deciding to push the personal matter aside, “Two questions though, firstly can masked adventurers even own a business? And doesn’t there need to be a person’s name attached to it?”


    “If they needed that they would have stopped the whole process at the adventurers guild” Lady Xing said acerbically. “Registering at the adventurers guild is good enough to have a legal identity, mask or not, and as a legal citizen you can own whatever you like, now come along.”


    Walking back I scanned the houses and area particularly focusing on number 83 and its neighbours, and realised I had a lot more work to do.


    ***


    Back in my bedroom several hours later I poured over a map of the city and scanned the most recently updated list of known classers in the city. Reading over the people listed under M I let out a sigh of relief at seeing no one with the named Matterson. From my research I had discovered that the Matterson family was an incredibly small merchant family and Simon portrayed all the classic symbols of a wastrel who would end up destroying the wealth his great grandparents had generated. He already seemed to be doing an excellent job of that, being known as being quite common in the cities brothels. His family had all but abandoned him except for a monetary stipend and he appeared to be up to his eyeballs in debt. I was incredibly confused as to why someone would want to kill such an unimportant and frankly useless man, but that was not my responsibility.


    I was also confused as to how he owned the house he lived in, it seemed to have been purchased a few years ago outright in coin. Considering that some of his debts were almost a decade old and his current financial situation didn’t seem to lend itself to good decision making processes it boggled my mind that he had anything of value in his name.


    Examining the city map one last time I confirmed my plan, and a few backup options if required. Sighing I rubbed my eyes, laughing at how much my life had changed in less than a week. If someone had told me a week ago that I would be planning an assassination I would have thought they were possessed. I thought to myself, hopping into my bed. But I absolutely like my life now so much better.