As I peered at a sprig of cowthistle growing right next to a stalk of manaweed, I could see why people confused the two. Unlike the careful illustrations in books, real life was distressingly messy, and both plants had the audacity to not grow their leaves in perfectly uniform shapes. Even having read up in advance, it was difficult to tell them apart by eye. I could see why people mistook them.

  Not that it mattered. [Adept Foraging] told me that I could, if desperate, eat the cowthistle leaves. It said nothing at all about manaweed, so to humans the plant must have been either poisonous or indigestible, despite the stuff apparently being the favourite food of slimes. Having it the other way around would have been more efficient, but it still meant I could distinguish between the two with perfect accuracy. I plucked out the manaweed, being careful to get as much of the root as possible, and tossed it into a sack that I'd picked up from the adventurers' guild store.

  [Adept Foraging] was proving more useful than I'd expected, not just in identifying cowthistle, but striped woodcap—a variety of mushroom that grew around the base of trees—was edible. [Adept Foraging] didn't tell me what I was looking at, but it did tell me 'not poisonous, highly nutritious, low energy content', and the signals were detailed enough that I soon learnt to identify the specific mushroom purely from its nutritional information. I'd half-filled the sack with them already.

  Autumn dew wasn't edible, so [Adept Foraging] didn't pick it up at all, but it didn't matter because the stuff was so obvious. Vines covered in tiny green leaves dangled from branches of the same trees that striped woodcap grew beneath. They would stand out less in summer, but it was practically winter. The trees had dropped enough leaves that what was left was rather sparse, not to mention a golden brown, so the little spots of green were unmissable.

  By mid afternoon, I was wishing I'd brought more than one sack.

  As I was plucking yet another batch of mushrooms, [Mana Sensitivity] unexpectedly pinged, causing me to leap to my feet. At the first stage of E-rank, the Skill certainly didn't pick up little things like manaweed, which presumably was a little bit magical given its name. Thus far, it had only reacted to enchanted items or obvious uses of magic, neither of which should have been happening around me.

  In my enthusiasm to gather as many plants as possible, had I lost so much awareness of my surroundings that I'd let something sneak up on me? But there weren't supposed to be any dangerous monsters in this area, let alone monsters that could use magic. It was mostly just slimes.

  Spinning around, I came to the instant conclusion that monsters were not responsible. The clue was the party of Johns, standing at a distance. The spear-wielder, who, given our previous interaction, I assumed to be the leader, was smirking nastily.

  The staff-wielder had his staff raised, and was wearing a look of concentration as he stared straight at me. He was also the source of the magic that had tickled [Mana Sensitivity].

  Every alarm bell ever rang in my head all at once. I didn't know what the etiquette was around magic, but casting spells of any sort on someone unsolicited couldn't possibly be okay. These people hadn't said a single word and made no move to speak once it became obvious I'd spotted them. Combined with the face of the spear-wielder, it was obvious they did not have my best interests at heart.

  I dropped my sack, and had drawn both daggers and started charging before it even hit the ground.

  The bow wielder flinched, reaching for his bow on impulse, but then switching and grasping for his knife instead. Taking that long to work out that he could never nock, draw and aim an arrow before I reached their party implied low Processing. For that matter, the sheer slowness with which he was moving implied low Dexterity, too. Shouldn't an archer have decent Dexterity?

  The sword-and-shield user frowned as he hurriedly armed himself, looking surprised, but not flinching.

  The spear-wielder didn't even move. "Too late," he said, simply.

  "Sleep!" yelled the staff-wielder—obviously a mage of some sort—and I felt the mana spike.

  I stumbled as the magic impacted me, my body feeling as if it had just transmuted to lead and my eyelids sagging.

  I bit my tongue, hard, filling my mouth with the taste of blood. I stamped down, my Dexterity ensuring I regained my footing, and continued my charge, the brief interruption costing less than a second.

  Now the spear-wielder looked shocked. "Why didn't it work?" he demanded, but the mage was in no state to answer. I was still charging him, and given the time it had taken for him to cast his sleep spell, there was no way he could manage a second in time, and his face showed that he knew it.

  The sword-and-shield guy was moving to defend, but he'd relaxed when the mage had cast his spell, obviously expecting it to work. That mistake meant that he'd never make it in time. The bow-and-dagger guy hadn't even started moving, which I couldn't fault him for, given that he lacked weaponry suitable for defending another. Their leader seemed so stunned by the fact I wasn't unconscious that the thought that he needed to defend his mage didn't even occur to him.

  As for me, in the brief second before I made contact, I checked my status.

  My Constitution was high enough that plucking herbs cost me no Stamina, yet I'd suddenly lost a hundred points. I'd also lost a hundred of Mana, and nothing I could currently do cost mana. It was obviously the effect of the spell. Two more hits of that, and I'd be out. Given the effects of low Stamina, it was likely one more hit would leave me unable to defend myself effectively.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  And so the mage needed to go.

  His expression deteriorated from fear into panic as I came into range. He desperately swung his staff, but obviously lacked a Skill for it given the way he made an overhead blow instead of a sweep. It was simple for me to read and sidestep, and he was left with no way to parry. The impact of it hitting the ground even knocked him off balance, destroying his ability to dodge. He very obviously had zero experience in close quarter combat.

  And he paid for it with a slit throat, my dagger easily slipping into the gap between breastplate and helm. He was wearing decent armour despite being a mage, but it was obviously designed for defence against monsters, not people.

  Level seven, though? I knew they were low, but that low? How in the heck were they that low level? I still hadn't read up much about magic, but what I had read implied that learning a spell took a minimum of thirteen skill points due to [Mana Manipulation] being a prerequisite. He shouldn't have been able to cast [Sleep].

  The dagger-and-bow guy screamed, eyes fixed on the spurt of blood instead of on me. Despite my confusion over levels, I wasn't one to ignore such a gift, so I circled around the leader—who had only just got a proper grip on his spear—and ended another life.

  The sword guy had built up some decent speed, but that mattered little when I could simply move out of the way. Once on the move, he seemed to have trouble stopping, so I took the opportunity to engage their leader.

  Much to my surprise, he wielded his spear with skill—or, more likely, Skill—parrying my daggers and, with the same movement, kicking out at me. He caught me in the chest, pushing me back, but my Dexterity was more than sufficient to remain upright, and my Constitution enough that it didn't hurt.

  He looked horribly unbalanced. Kicking out like that and hitting me with so much force while on one foot should have sent him backward by any reasonable physics, yet he hadn't moved. Either he had higher Dexterity than me—which seemed unlikely, given the speed of his movements—or something else was subtly messing with reality.

  "[Adept Spear Proficiency]?" I guessed.

  His frown told me I was right.

  "We were just going to sell you to some slavers," he spat. "Don't expect me to be so nice now. I am going to make you suffer."

  Well, that was useful. Now killing them wouldn't impact the usual explanation I gave for having [Murderer II]; that all but one of my kills were people trying to enslave me. But there was one thing I couldn't understand.

  "Why?" I asked. "And no, I don't mean the suffer bit. The slaver bit. What did I ever do to you that you felt the need to attack me from behind? We've only ever spoken once, and I don't recall angering you."

  The sword-and-shield guy stepped up beside his team-mate, eyes flickering between me and the pair of corpses. He didn't look happy, which wasn't a complete surprise. Despite them launching an ambush attack, I'd ended up with the element of surprise on my side, and half their team had paid the ultimate price. Now I'd need to fight the other half more evenly, and I got the impression that this pair were heavier hitters than their dead counterparts.

  "What do you mean, what did you do? Do you think I'm a fool? Did you think you'd get away with lying like that? You pretend to be some sort of weakling, spat in the face of our generosity, and then soloed the Slime Pit!"

  "If not wanting to join your party is an excuse for attacking someone, you must have casus belli on half the adventurers' guild."

  "Careful," said the sword-wielder. "The way he talks, he's well educated. Might be the son of a noble or something, and we know he has the support of the Order of the Thorned Rose."

  "The hell he does!" spat the leader. "Look at his equipment... That armour is nothing but the shit the guild hands out to newbies. No noble gives a toss about him."

  I needed to resist the urge to let my jaw drop. Well educated? Me? How in the hells had he come up with that?

  Yes, I'd read a few books and, thanks to my Memory, maybe picked up a few new words, but surely nothing that would surprise someone with a proper education.

  How this group had survived this long, I honestly had no idea. Alas, when it came to combat, the leader's Skills were real, even if I beat him out on Stats. How should I fight?

  I charged back in, once again almost catching the spear guy by surprise. He didn't seem to have considered the possibility that I might attack suddenly while we were in the middle of a 'conversation'. Again, that cost him dearly; it let me draw close before he could react, and spears were not a great weapon when your opponent was up in your face. Nevertheless, he used the haft to parry my first strike. Alas for him, I had two daggers, and this time I was keeping my eye on his feet, too.

  Shame that sword-guy wedged his shield between us, blocking my blow.

  I pirouetted, avoiding a sword-stab from the second fighter, and tried to put spear-guy between us while keeping close enough to spear-guy that he couldn't bring the pointy end of his spear into play. He was damn good at parrying, though, deflecting another pair of my blows before a coordinated attack by sword-guy forced me back.

  Spear-guy sneered at my retreat. "You're not so tough," he goaded. "If they could be done in by the likes of you, perhaps letting those two into my party was a mistake. And I wasted so much money on them, too."

  So, all the money was his? And the way sword-guy had talked about nobles implied that these two didn't have noble support. It made me wonder where it all came from.

  ... Actually, the fact that he not only knew how to sell a person, but jumped straight to that option as a method of vengeance against what was, to any reasonable person, not much of a slight at all, suggested that it might not come from legal means. Not that that changed anything; whether he had the backing of nobles or bandits, he was a threat and was therefore going to die.

  I circled the pair, thankful that sword-guy was so slow, then charged in again, this time with my daggers held low. Spear-guy thrust at me, but a quick burst of [Expert Stealth] to disguise my footfalls caused his spear to fall wide. And then I swung upward.

  [Dagger Proficiency] screamed that it was a stupid idea; I was committing both weapons to an attack that lacked the force of gravity behind it. Spear-guy must have held the same opinion, given his look of confusion, but that didn't stop him swinging his spear inward to block my attack. Both daggers caught beneath his spear.

  And then I pushed.

  Gravity was all well and good, but I was a kid. I didn't weigh much, nor did I have heavy equipment. If I pushed down hard enough, the only result would be lifting myself up. Swinging upward, I could put my full Strength into forcing the spear into the air. My attackers didn't weigh much, either, and given that he was still trying to force my daggers down, the result was that the surprised spear-guy was lifted clean off his feet.

  And then I withdrew my daggers, dropping him to the ground. It was simplicity itself to slash his throat on the way down.

  And then there was one.