After we returned to Fallcry, the first thing I did was begin looking around for a shop that was suitable to use as a branch connection for the League of Assassins. There were still quite a few storefronts that weren’t being operated yet, simply due to the lack of available workers. For instance, although we had a tailoring shop prepared, we didn’t have a dedicated tailor to run it.

  Instead, we had Hammerhead, who seemed to be proficient in every form of crafting. Although I knew that hiring someone to run the tailoring shop would create competition for Hammerhead, it would also lighten his workload if he were able to spread things out more. Not to mention that the shop run by the league would likely deal with materials produced in either Fallcry or the Sunset Isles.

  With that in mind, I made my way towards the unopened storefront, carrying the connection device that Wisteria had previously given me. As I walked, I sent a message to inform Wisteria of my choice, that way they could have a suitable craftsman prepared to operate the facility.

  Thankfully, she seemed pleased with the situation, assuring me that she would have someone ready by the end of the day. When I moved to the back of the store, pressing the item against the back wall, I received a prompt asking me whether or not I wanted to anchor a gateway to the League of Assassins at this location.

  Naturally, I chose to accept, and the device sank into the wall. Afterwards, the wall seemed to shimmer, distorting slightly. Bricks twisted and realigned themselves, an arch gradually forming that lead to the familiar sandstone passage I had seen when first visiting their headquarters.

  My task complete, I made my way to my next destination, which was the martial training hall operated by Kelly. To my surprise, she seemed absent when I first arrived, so I opted to wait for her return. Given what I had heard, she had likely left to briefly deal with a monster assault on the rift.

  I sat, cross-legged on the ground near the door, patiently awaiting her return. As I did, I decided to begin training some of my skills, even if I knew that I wasn’t going to have a particularly long training session.

  No more than fifteen minutes later, I heard the door of the training hall open. Kelly stepped in, an amused smile on her face as she looked at me. “No matter how many times I see that, it’s just a total cheat,” she muttered, looking at where I was surrounded by shifting orbs of fire, water, shadow, and projected ki. In addition, I had three different types of shadow blades orbiting me, and was trying my best to maintain individual control over all of these creations. “I take it you’re not just here for the ambience?”

  I nodded my head in agreement, dismissing my skills. “That’s right. Given that you’ve decided to help protect this area, there’s something that I thought that you should know. However, what I’m about to say is confidential, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t share the information with others.”

  Kelly arched a brow, but nodded a moment later. She snapped her fingers, erecting a barrier around the two of us. “Go ahead, Drake. What’s this about?”

  After taking a deep breath, I explained to her what we had learned about the dungeon cities for monsters, as well as the fact that one such city was connected to one of the dungeons under Fallcry’s control. As Kelly listened, I could see alternating looks of confusion and understanding on her face, as if she were finally receiving an answer to a longstanding puzzle.

  “So that’s how those bastards always managed to get around,” she muttered to herself, shaking her head in frustration. “We figured that it had to have something to do with dungeons, but we were never really sure what they were using them for. After all, we’ve never seen an active Chosen among the dungeon bosses, or even a Fallen that had maintained their sanity. It’s always been your typical instinct-driven bosses.”

  “Have monster Chosen really never been caught like this before?” I asked skeptically, finding that hard to believe. Surely, some organization must have discovered this ages ago.

  However, Kelly shook her head. “While they’ve been captured, whether Chosen or Fallen, they’ve been pretty tight-lipped. Just like we have ways to capture them, they have their own methods of breaking their people out. I don’t know how exactly they do it, maybe through some type of summoning skill, but captured intelligent monsters don’t remain in captivity for very long. And because they know that, the Chosen or Fallen refuse to share information.”

  Confused, I couldn’t help but asking, “If that’s the case, why did the League give us a mission to find and imprison these three? If they know that they’ll just be pulled out soon anyways…”

  Kelly simply chuckled. “First of all, it’s probably to send a message,” she explained. “If they are captured in a certain area, the monsters are unlikely to send them or any weaker ‘agents’ to the same area. Secondly, it is a mark against their record. The method to summon them out of prison can’t be easier than the act of imprisoning them in the first place. If the same monsters fail again and again, and need to be repeatedly broken out of prison, maybe the upper management will decide that they’re not worth it anymore?”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “If it’s like you told me, they probably have their own prison, where they store incompetents who aren’t worth letting out into the wild. Otherwise, there would be no reason for them to be concerned with being captured in the first place. They’d just see it as a brief vacation from battles, rather than something that they needed to fight their hardest to avoid.”

  Listening to this, I felt like I understood a bit better. “I see… have you noticed anything suspicious from the burning skeleton dungeon, by the way?”

  “Not a thing,” Kelly responded with a small smirk. “Though, that doesn’t mean that nothing’s happened. I haven’t really been paying all that much attention to that dungeon in the first place, since your people have been fairly good about keeping it cleared out. Never really felt the need to give it any special attention. And now, I’m not sure if I should.”

  Seeing the confusion on my face, she readily explained her reasoning. “See, if they know so much about the surroundings, they probably have a grandmaster with espionage skills that scouts the area around connected dungeons. There are some skills that allow you to detect when someone is actively observing you. If they sensed that I spotted them, it would only encourage them to close the connection before your friends in the league made any progress.”

  My eyes widened at the mention of a skill able to sense perception. “How hard is it to learn that kind of skill?”

  “Not very. If you want to train it manually, it’s a basic fusion of Perception and Sneak called Awareness. Most people simply avoid it because they don’t want to have to level up those skills again after fusing, which makes trainers for it harder to find.” Though she said that, she had a knowing grin on her face.

  “And you’ve got it, of course,” I rolled my eyes with a chuckle. “What are the downsides to the skill?”

  “I wouldn’t really call it a downside so much as the mechanic that they use to operate the skill,” Kelly explained thoughtfully. “When it comes to the Awareness skill tree, you have to compare multiple skills with your opponent. If you both have Awareness, it’s possible that you can both notice that the other is watching you.”

  “When you have Awareness, you are comparing your skill with your opponent’s stealth. If their stealth is higher than your awareness, then you won’t notice them watching you. However, if your awareness is higher, you’ll get the warning. And if your regular perception is higher than their stealth, you’ll be alerted to their exact position.”

  “Likewise, if you want to spy on someone without being noticed yourself, you need high levels in both perception and stealth-related skills. At that point, your own awareness is just to let you know whether or not you’ve been noticed.”

  I listened, pursing my lips. “It sounds like you generally want Awareness to be at a higher level than either stealth or perception?” I asked, to which Kelly nodded her head.

  “That’s typically true. Awareness is also a passive, unlike the other skills that require you to maintain focus. For most people, that means that it is easier to train, because it has no mana burden. However, for you, that means that it will likely level up more slowly than most of your other skills that you can just casually maintain at all times anyways.”

  Hearing Kelly’s answer, I let out a long sigh. I knew that she was right. Even now, I maintained my Tremorsense-X skill at all times, allowing me to perceive everything in my surroundings. Although it had originally been disorienting to keep this skill active, I had learned how to tune the skill out for the most part. That way, I could let it passively train in the background, much like King of All Trades, Adrenaline Surge, or False Identity-X.

  “Still, I’d like to learn the skill. Even if I’m getting it a bit late, it would be nice to have it in my collection. I use stealth skills too often at this stage, and need a reliable way to know when my opponent is able to detect me before they’re right in my face,” I said with a bitter smile.

  “That’s about what I figured you’d say, kid.” As Kelly said that, she began to create a skill quest, assigning it to me. “This should be more than enough for you to get the skill.”

  Perking a brow, I turned to look at the quest. Her requirements were for me to identify at least one hundred different individuals that were actively observing me. At first, I thought that the task might be a bit much for a basic quest, but after a moment of thought, I realized that it was actually pretty easy for me to accomplish.

  I was understandably famous in Fallcry, so most people looked in my direction to watch me whenever I went out. Identifying a hundred people would be no harder than walking down the street for a few minutes and seeing how many people watched me. With a smile, I stood up and offered a small bow to thank Kelly.

  After that, I walked out of the dojo, sending a message to Diane and Bella to let them know about the Awareness skill. Given how we operated, I figured that all three of us would benefit from this skill considerably.

  While thinking that, I began to walk down the street of Fallcry, silently noting anyone I caught watching me with my Tremorsense-X skill. As I had expected, this led to a rapid increase in quest progress as I made my way towards the palace to meet the other two.

  By the time that I arrived, I had already completed the quest and earned the new skill, which I planned to immediately share with the other two via the same quest that Kelly had given me.