I took my distance once more. Sword-guy was slow, but his bulky shield was a pain. Thus far, I'd dealt with it simply by avoiding it, but that wasn't possible when the last member of my attackers was the one holding it.

  And then he solved all of my problems by throwing it away. His sword, too.

  "I surrender!" he exclaimed, holding his hands in the air. "We couldn't go against anything that idiot said, but now he's..."

  What the end of that sentence was intended to be, I'd never find out, on account of the way I'd slashed his throat.

  Betrayed eyes watched me as the body that contained them flopped to the floor.

  "Why in the hells would I leave a witness alive?" I asked the corpse.

  It didn't answer.

  I cleaned and sheathed my daggers as I waited for the adrenaline to fade. I needed to decide what to do next, and such things were best handled with a clear head.

  I'd just killed four people. Not bandits, this time, but 'legitimate' adventurers, at least officially. Thankfully, I'd be able to pass any lie detection Skills with only small tweaks from the last time. The Johns had never introduced themselves properly, so aside from the one soldier in Harvent Canton, I still didn't know the name of a single one of my kills. They'd all been would-be kidnappers. I just needed to remember to say 'slavers' instead of 'bandits' and I'd be fine.

  Unfortunately, things would be complicated by the way these corpses would be found. I'd avoided getting blood on my clothes, and what was on my hands would wash off easily enough, but the corpses wouldn't be so easy to deal with. This was an area close to the city, where many young adventurers would visit to collect herbs. I'd seen a couple of parties during my day's work. There was a good chance one of those groups would stumble across the evidence of our fight as soon as tomorrow.

  Even if they were found, and their deaths tracked to me, I'd probably be okay, as far as guards were concerned. I'd acted in self defence. Even sword-guy. Who knew what sort of revenge he'd seek if I'd let him go? The problem wasn't guards, but whoever was supporting the party. Whether nobles or criminals, or maybe even sword-guy's aunt, it was unlikely they'd let excuses like self-defence stand in their way.

  I could run again, but frankly, I was sick of running. I shouldn't need to.

  I could hide the corpses, but I imagined people would come looking for this group when they didn't return. I lacked the ability to hide them in any way that would prevent them being found, especially if the people searching for them possessed Skills that would aid them, and trying to pass a lie detection about it without being caught out would be next to impossible.

  Touching them and still passing lie detection seemed impossible, yet if I didn't touch them, they'd be found quickly, with dagger wounds, and fingers would quickly point at me.

  Disposing of the corpses without touching them—without even knowing for sure their fate—seemed like a mutually exclusive set of requirements, but an idea occurred to me. I'd need to trust to luck, but it had favoured me thus far.

  Taking a few stalks of manaweed from my sack, I crushed the leaves and smeared the slit necks of the bodies in the juices. There were supposed to be slimes in the area, and thanks to the Slime Pit, I'd done a lot of reading about slimes recently. If any were nearby, the aroma of the crushed leaves should attract them. With a little luck, they'd do enough damage to the bodies to hide the dagger wounds. With a lot of luck, they might hide the fact that another human had been involved in the deaths at all.

  Given what I was trying to do, I couldn't steal anything from the corpses. Leaving all those expensive-looking enchanted weapons grated on my sensibilities, and they were bound to have a few coins in their pockets, too, but taking anything of theirs risked linking myself to them. Reluctantly, I left the bodies unmolested.

  And then I returned to the city.

  It was odd how normal I felt. I couldn't imagine killing four people back in the village and then just going about my day. Was it because of my prior experience with the bandits? Or Mum had once said that the System changed people. Perhaps my mental Stats were compensating, turning what should have been a traumatic experience into just another memory.

  Annoyingly, despite all my use of [Adept Foraging], it hadn't granted me any experience. Presumably because I hadn't actually eaten any of the mushrooms, or even picked the cowthistle. It seemed a bit unfair, but it didn't much matter. Compared to slime slaying, it wouldn't have been a huge amount.

  At the city gate, it was almost a let-down that no-one questioned me on the way in, given that I'd spent the entire trip back carefully thinking through my answers to any questions they were likely to ask to ensure they contained no lies or inconsistencies. Probably for the best, though; there was a risk my answers would sound too planned, and I had no idea if anyone would pick up on it. Instead, the guard dealing with me just had me tap the scanner, muttered something about young adventurers thinking they were invincible, and then waved me through. Probably because I was on my own. Given everyone's reactions, it was becoming obvious that wasn't normal.

  It was evening by the time I returned to the guild, and I didn't recognise any of the receptionists on duty. There were three of them, but there was still a queue for their services, given the number of groups returning to report their successful missions.

  I ended up at the desk of a tall lady, her hair tied back in a tight bun, wearing a smart black jacket. "Yes?" she asked.

  "Herbs to turn in," I answered, dumping my sack on the counter. "Manaweed, autumn dew and striped woodcap."

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "... You better not have just picked everything and expect us to sort it out," she said, peering at the stuffed sack.

  "Of course not," I said, feeling somewhat offended. "I mean, I've mixed up those three in that sack, but there's nothing else apart from those three. I can separate them out if you want me to."

  "No, I can do that much," she sighed, emptying the sack on the desk. She peered at the mess that resulted. "Wow. Not a single cowthistle."

  "You sound surprised."

  "I am. You have [Identify Plant]? Most people don't bother, but I'll tell you, I wish more people did."

  "No, I don't have any identification Skills. It's on my list for if I ever find myself with more skill points than I know what to do with, but I'm afraid [Identify Monster] is higher up that list."

  She snorted as she worked through my harvest. "I suspect that 'more skill points than they know what to do with' is an affliction that has affected exactly zero people anywhere, throughout all of history. That's thirty stalks of manaweed, fifty-three striped woodcap and twenty-five autumn dew. An impressive haul, and I have to say, I've never seen anyone extract the manaweed roots so consistently. I'm not going to have to reduce the payout at all. Please touch the registration crystal so I can record your results."

  So they recorded what jobs I'd completed as well as my rank? That made sense, so I poked the device. Nothing appeared to happen, but the receptionist seemed satisfied, and handed over a large silver and a few regular silver coins.

  A large silver, for a single day's work. For an E-rank job. Not even a full day's work, either, given that I'd started it by clearing the dungeon. It was no wonder that the senior adventurers felt sufficiently financially secure to only work once in a while, and even gathering herbs, I had no need to worry about feeding and housing myself.

  More experience than a day of farming, too, although if I'd spent more skill points on [Farming] then the balance would likely have shifted back the other way.

  Admittedly, I had a few advantages. Not just [Adept Foraging], but the only reason I'd been so successful in extracting the manaweed roots—apparently the most valuable part of the plant—without them breaking was because of [Farming]. Again, my misuse of it hadn't resulted in any experience gains, but just because I wasn't using it for something the System considered 'farming' didn't mean that the knowledge it granted went away.

  It occurred to me that should slimes deal with the corpses, I'd probably get a huge load of experience from [Expert Stealth]. Ironically, the Skill hadn't much been involved in my actions, but what little it had been was used exactly for its intended purpose.

  "Thank you," I said to the receptionist, giving a polite nod of my head as I left the desk and let the next person dump their sack on the counter. The receptionist pulled a disgusted face as a small red puddle formed around the sack. Monster parts, presumably, and their gatherers hadn't bothered draining the blood.

  Deciding I'd rather not find out, I headed to the exit, intending to return to my inn. Alas, a rather burly man in a suspiciously shiny breastplate was blocking the way.

  Crap. That quickly? But who would have been in that herb gathering spot this late in the evening? Did one of them have an enchanted distress beacon or something? I still had no idea what was possible with magic.

  "Uh... excuse me?" I asked, trying not to sound tense. "You're blocking the doorway."

  "That's the idea," confirmed the... guard? Soldier? I wasn't quite sure, but the uniform wasn't the same as the guards manning the gate.

  "Can I ask why?"

  "There's been an incident," he answered, sending my heart beating wildly. "There'll be an announcement shortly, once my colleague is done speaking to your guild master. Go get yourself some dinner or something."

  What could I do? The building must have other exits. Heck, if I wanted out, I could just smash a window. The problem was that if the guards were in any way competent, they'd be watching the outside. I wouldn't get far.

  I could hide in the dungeon, but its guard would note me going in, and it wasn't as if I could stay down there. I'd just be trapping myself.

  Bereft of other possibilities, I did what the guard suggested, buying myself a bowl of chicken curry and taking a free spot at a table.

  "Any idea what's going on?" asked the young adventurer opposite me.

  "None," I lied. A random adventurer wouldn't have lie detection Skills.

  "Damn. Look, he's still letting people in, just not out. Think he's looking for someone?"

  "I have no idea. There's supposed to be an announcement soon. We can't do much but wait."

  Curry was an interesting experience. We'd never had anything 'spicy' back in the village. Heck, we hadn't had spices at all.

  "How are you just eating as if nothing is happening?" complained the adventurer. "There's a royal guard not letting us leave!"

  "Royal guard?" I asked around a mouthful of curry, that little detail immediately piquing my interest.

  "Yeah, don't you recognise his uniform? He's from the palace! I've heard you need to reach the fifth growth milestone just to apply to join that squad, and even then, they hardly accept anyone."

  Over level one hundred? Great... the guy blocking us in was in three digit levels, and he wasn't the only one here: there was at least one more talking to the guild master. Had I killed a prince or something?

  Honestly, I doubted it. If one of them had that level of status, they would have flaunted it.

  In turn, that raised the possibility that they weren't here for me. He'd said an 'incident', not a 'murder', and I hadn't seen any suspicion in his eyes when he'd stopped me. With the benefit of hindsight, I suspected that they weren't looking for anyone in particular.

  And with that thought halving my heart rate, the most muscular guy I'd ever seen entered the hall from the back, followed by another royal guard.

  Why did he bother? Yes, muscles added to System Stats, but at any decent level, the strength of Strength eclipsed any small difference physical muscles could make.

  He clapped his hands, the loud noise echoing around the hall, ending conversations as abruptly as a sudden brick wall stopping a carriage. The room was left in silence as everyone turned to look at the newcomer—presumably the guild master.

  "I have an unfortunate announcement," he declared, his booming voice perfectly audible from one side of the hall to the other. "As you're all doubtless aware, we recently dispatched a large contingent to Harvent Canton to aid in the clean up after the count that ran the place went a bit doolally. We've just received word that the contingent has been wiped out, along with the knights and officials they were accompanying. The king has declared Harvent Canton to be in rebellion."

  My jaw dropped open. So did that of the adventurer I'd been talking to. Quite likely, so did everyone's—the entire hall fell into a different sort of silence. A lack of noise that had previously been merely expectant shifted nature into one that was utterly stunned.

  What in the hells had happened?