Assimilate All Talents

Done with siphoning the skills, Sol begrudgingly began to search Weaver’s corpse. He hated the idea of looting others, but he direly needed something that Weaver had on him. After searching for a while and removing a few other magical items like his spatial ring, shoes, and belt, he finally found it.

Deceiver's Earring

Unique

Skills:

[Status Deception] Lv 8, [Item Camouflage] Lv 7, [Facial Disguise] Lv 4

[Status Deception] Lv 8: Create a fake status page that others will see when using [Analysis] or [Inspect]. Can have three saved presets to swap between or toggle off at any moment.

[Item Invisibility] Lv 7: The item blends into obscurity, becoming perfectly invisible.

[Facial Disguise] Lv 4: Can slightly modify the wearer's face for a limited duration. Duration: 12 hours. Cooldown: 1 week.

Sol almost didn’t find it until his hand accidentally brushed against his ear, where he felt something metallic. It seemed the item's invisibility was still in effect even after Weaver's death, likely because it didn’t require the user's mana to maintain.

The quality of the item honestly surprised Sol, as he didn’t expect it to be a unique item. Sol didn’t truly know how far the connections of Cane went, as he was one of the most influential crime bosses in the city. Not only that, but because Kerman was located on the border of the kingdom, they were right next to not only the Frostaxe Clan, but Sylmasera and the Holy Kingdom of Delvania, making it extremely easy to access their markets to gain rare goods.

Sol didn’t have any piercings but the item magically latched onto his right ear. Once in place it once again became invisible. Since Sol had his Locket of Safekeeping taken from him Sol decided to make a preset just in case anyone felt like peeking into his status. He made the fake status page consistent with his current public abilities, with [Sword] and [Water Affinity] as his two talents.

Name: Sol

Race: Human

Talents: [Sword], [Water Affinity]

Level: 35

Exp: 14,380/165,000

HP: 350

MP: 400

Str: 40

Vit: 30 (+5)

Agi: 30 (+5)

Int: 30 (+10)

Wis: 40

Available Stats: 0

Talent Skills:

[Water Form] Lv 4

Passive Skills:

[Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 2, [Parry] Lv 7, [Quick Cast] Lv 7, [Agility Up] Lv 1, [Vitality Up] Lv 1, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2

Active Skills:

[Cross Slash] Lv 1, [Sprint] Lv 6, [Wide Swing] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Heavy Blow] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 5

‘I also rolled a few skills to their pre-evolution just in case. I made up [Water Form] on the off chance they ask how I was able to escape. Hopefully they won't ask me to show them…’

The spatial ring Sol retrieved from Weaver was rather lackluster. It was full of clothes, wooden and cloth puppets, and common weapons. The only truly valuable item from all of this was the ring itself, which could hold 27 cubic meters of space. It was the same as the one given to him by the guild, but Sol knew he would have to return it when the raid was done, so it was nice to get an upgrade.

Sol also found some magic shoes off Weaver's body, but it was only rare and its effects increased mana regeneration marginally, so it meant nothing to him. Sol stored it in the ring as he could at least sell it later.

Once Sol was done looting Weaver’s body, he heard a loud explosion which shook the ground. While explosions underground would scare most people in fear of a collapse, Sol wasn’t frightened because he knew those performing it wouldn’t damage the actual structure of the base.

‘The raid finally started.’

…

The Guildmaster, donning her full adamantium armor that covered her whole body including her face, led her old party members into an open hole in the ground.

“Let’s go.”

One of the party members, a larger tigerkin with metallic claws, looked at the explosion and asked The Guildmaster a question, “Hey Loraline, I know you asked for help with these criminals, but doesn’t this seem overkill? Honestly, you could have done it with just the two of us. Why invite all five of us?”

The Guildmaster Loraline opened the visor of her helmet and looked back at her party. A tigerkin warrior, a human berserker, a human witch, a female catkin scout, and a catkin archer. They were her old party from her adventuring days; some joined her in the beginning of her journey, others joined midway, and a few were lost along the way. Out of all the people in this world, these were the few she trusted the most and could trust with her secrets.

“The public reason is they ruined my reputation. I need to give a show of force to not be underestimated. The real reason… Well, I miss you guys. You should come by more often.”

The witch found her usually stoic party leader very cute, “Aww! Why didn’t you say anything? You know we would do anything for you.”

“I have… but you are all busy with your nations or businesses…”

The witch remembered the letters she had received before to visit, which usually came at a bad time when she was either traveling or working on a big project in the Apothecary Guild. The rest of the party had similar reasons for being unable to go and only came because Loraline made it sound urgent in her message.

“My bad…”

“Yeah, we should have stayed more in touch…”

“Sorry…”

Everyone's sincere apologies made Loraline happy, “It’s okay. Let’s deal with these criminals and celebrate our reunion after!”

The tigerkin clashed his claws together, “Haha! Sounds good!”

The scout giggled, “Alright, but Sato is paying for my share.”

The archer protested, “What?! But I paid for you last time Mia!”

“You're the older one so of course you gotta pay for your cute sister!”

The human barbarian interrupted, “Settle this later. I want to clobber someone already!”

With the barbarian putting everyone back on track, the party dove into the hole and began their attack on the base in full force.

…

Sol at first was confident in the raid party safely neutralizing the entire base, but what he saw from his [Mana Perception] frightened him. Some moved incredibly fast, instantly taking down their opponents in one interaction. One mana signature cast spells that flooded entire rooms and passages with mana with the aftermath leaving multiple bodies on the ground. The scariest of the two were the two mana signatures that could not be stopped by anything. They even ran directly through walls Sol knew were there, so he could only assume they just destroyed the wall and anything else along the way.

He knew there would be A-Rankers in the raid, but it looked like they were all that ridiculously strong. While the level of power was honestly frightening, Sol felt motivated to one day reach that level of power.

One of the mana signatures was quickly running down the hall heading towards the cells. This led Sol to believe he was about to be rescued. While he was correct, he was wrong in who was saving him as just before the mana signature reached the door, the wall behind Sol shattered as a human wielding a large axe came through. Two seconds later, the metal door opened, revealing the catkin scout.

The barbarian immediately bragged, “Haha! Told ya I’d get here first!”

She pouted, “That’s not fair! You just bulldozed through the wall.”

“No one said I couldn’t!”

Mia grumbled but couldn’t deny it, “Hmph, fine! You win.”

Sol saw the interaction between the two adventurers and couldn't help but wonder.

‘This is the rescue party?’