BONUS CHAPTER: An Advanced Guide to Unlocking Awesome Skills [part 2]

Eliza followed the handler through the winding corridors of the guild’s underground stronghold, her boots making almost no sound against the stone. She had expected to be summoned tonight, she just hadn’t expected it to be so soon after eating. Not that it mattered. 

The handler, Rennik, was a man of few words, and she had no intention of making small talk. He led her into a dimly lit room, sparsely furnished except for a heavy wooden desk and a single flickering lantern. Stacks of parchment and sealed letters were neatly arranged, and behind the desk, another figure stood waiting. 

Varyn. 

Eliza’s stomach tensed slightly. Varyn wasn’t just any handler, he was one of the senior guild members responsible for high-risk contracts. If he was here, this job was important. 

Rennik gave her a curt nod and left the room, shutting the door behind him. Varyn didn’t waste time. He picked up a rolled parchment from the desk and held it out. 

“This needs to be done tonight,” he said. 

Eliza stepped forward and took the scroll, unraveling it with steady hands. The details were clear, written in the familiar coded language of the guild: 

Target: A small, ornate chest.

Location: Warehouse at the docks, heavily guarded.

Contents: Correspondence between Lord Braddock and a noble from the Emerald Shores, concerning the purchase of several ships.

Urgency: Critical. The chest will be moved to Braddock’s estate outside Alvar before dawn.

Conditions: Silent retrieval. No unnecessary casualties. If discovered, eliminate pursuit and disappear. 

Eliza read it twice before glancing up. “Do we know the guard rotation?” 

Varyn smirked. “That’s for you to find out.” 

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course. No easy answers. No hand-holding. That was the way of the guild. 

“Any idea why this is so urgent?” she asked, folding the parchment and tucking it into her belt. 

Varyn leaned against the desk. “Braddock has been buying ships, and someone powerful enough to care wants to know why.” He met her gaze. “That’s not your concern. Your concern is getting in, getting the chest, and getting out without leaving a trace.” 

Eliza nodded. “I’ll handle it.” 

Varyn gave a small nod of approval. “You always do.” 

* 

Eliza crouched on a rooftop overlooking the warehouse district, her cloak wrapped tightly around her to blend into the shadows. The docks were alive with movement—even at this late hour, workers hauled crates, ships bobbed against the piers, and torches flickered along the walkways. 

She scanned the warehouse in question. It was two stories, made of reinforced timber, with three possible entrances: 

The Front Entrance. Two guards stood by the double doors, weapons at their sides. No chance of slipping past them without making a scene. 

The Side Alley Door. Unlocked, but a rotating patrol passed by every few minutes. Timing would have to be perfect. 

The Skylight Hatch, likely the best option. No visible guards, but the latch might be secured from the inside. 

Eliza watched for nearly an hour, memorizing patrol routes. The guards were mercenaries, not city watch, less disciplined, but more brutal. That was both good and bad. 

She decided on her entry point. 

Before she could move, a soft voice interrupted her thoughts. “You always make things harder than they need to be.” 

Eliza’s jaw tightened before she even turned her head. She knew that voice. Marla. 

Marla stood behind her, her small frame wrapped in dark robes that did little to conceal how out of place she looked in the field. Her light brown eyes, sharp but too untouched by violence, studied Eliza with vague amusement. Marla wasn’t a fighter. She wasn’t a thief. She was something else entirely, a living archive. 

Perfect memory. A gift most would kill for, but one that had made Marla indispensable to the guild. She didn’t retrieve documents, she read them, committing every word to memory before leaving without a trace. When necessary, she could recite them flawlessly, or forge a copy so perfect no one could tell the difference. But her skill came with a flaw, she lacked the physical abilities to protect herself, which meant someone had to babysit her on every mission. 

Eliza sighed. She wanted to groan but kept her professionalism. She had planned for a solo job, but the guild had decided otherwise. That meant they didn’t want Braddock or his men to even suspect the documents had been compromised. Stealing the chest was secondary, what mattered was the knowledge within. 

Marla smirked, as if sensing Eliza’s irritation. “Don’t look so excited. I promise not to slow you down.” 

Eliza gave her a dry look. “You better not.” 

Eliza moved like a shadow through the warehouse, her steps silent against the wooden beams. Years of training made infiltration second nature. She kept close to the crates lining the walls, pausing only to assess the gaps between patrols. The dim torchlight cast long, flickering shadows, perfect for her to blend into. Every step was calculated, every breath controlled. One mistake, and the entire mission would unravel. 

She detected the first trap near a stack of barrels, thin wire, nearly invisible in the low light. It was stretched across the path, connected to a bell hidden behind the barrels. A crude but effective alarm. Eliza narrowed her eyes, mentally marking the location before slipping around it, pressing her body flat against the barrels to avoid even the smallest shift in air that could alert an overly perceptive guard. 

Further in, she crouched low as she heard approaching footsteps. Two mercenaries, chatting in hushed voices, walked past the crates ahead of her. Their armor wasn’t city-issue, private enforcers. That meant they were more brutal, more unpredictable. They carried torches, but their attention was lax. Still, Eliza didn’t move until they were well past her hiding spot, vanishing into the far side of the warehouse. 

She moved deeper, her sharp eyes scanning every crevice. A second trap, a pressure plate, lay concealed beneath a thin layer of dust near the back entrance. Eliza pivoted mid-step, adjusting her footing without hesitation, and continued forward, her heart steady. Disarming traps would alert the guards to a breach, so she left them untouched, making sure to remember their placements for the escape. 

The chest was where she expected: a locked room near the center of the warehouse. Reinforced wooden doors, an iron lock, and two guards patrolling in a slow but predictable rhythm. She observed them for several minutes, noting the exact moment they turned their backs, and then silently retreated the way she came. 

Marla was waiting in the shadows outside, shifting her weight from foot to foot. The woman was intelligent, but she lacked the patience required for this kind of work. 

“Eliza?” she whispered. 

Eliza motioned for silence and led her inside, following the same careful route. They avoided the pressure plate, stepped around the tripwire, and wove between stacked crates. Marla, despite her keen memory, wasn’t used to such delicate maneuvers, and Eliza felt the tension in her stiff movements. She wasn’t meant for the field, and it showed. 

It was going smoothly, until Marla knocked over a small wooden box. 

The sharp noise made Eliza’s breath catch. She reacted instantly, grabbing Marla’s wrist and pulling her into the cover of a nearby alcove just as a guard’s footsteps approached. The man stopped, his torchlight sweeping over the area. Eliza pressed herself against the wall, barely breathing. 

The guard lingered. Marla stiffened beside her, and for a split second, Eliza could feel the other woman’s heartbeat racing. The man muttered something under his breath before stepping forward, his boots creaking against the wooden planks. He reached out, shifting a nearby crate to inspect the noise. Eliza’s grip tightened on her dagger. If he moved any closer...

Another voice called from down the hall. 

“Oi! Hurry up, we got to finish this round before the next shift.” 

The guard hesitated, glancing one last time at the scattered box, before exhaling and turning away. 

Eliza exhaled slowly, turning to Marla with narrowed eyes. “Don’t touch anything,” she mouthed. Marla gave a sheepish nod, visibly rattled. 

They continued to the locked room. Eliza crouched outside, listening for movement inside. Satisfied it was empty, she nodded to Marla and gestured for her to enter. The other woman stepped inside and immediately began scanning the documents inside the chest, her eyes flicking over the papers with inhuman speed. 

Eliza kept watch at the doorway, one dagger drawn in case of trouble. The seconds stretched into minutes. Every shift in the guards’ patrol, every muffled voice beyond the walls made her muscles coil with tension. 

Marla worked efficiently, her perfect memory absorbing every word. At one point, a floorboard creaked outside, and Eliza’s grip on her dagger tightened, but it was just a draft, a shift in the old wood. She took a slow breath to steady herself, willing her pulse to remain even. 

Finally, Marla gave a small nod, she had what they needed. 

They retraced their steps, following the exact path they had taken to enter. Eliza remained on high alert, ears trained for any shift in movement from the guards. The tension in the air felt heavier, as if the warehouse itself knew it had been breached. 

As they neared the exit, Eliza heard a distant door creak open. A new patrol was coming in. She gritted her teeth and increased her pace, silently signaling Marla to move faster. They slipped back into the night just as the mercenaries entered the warehouse. 

Eliza and Marla moved swiftly across the rooftops, their boots barely making a sound against the old tiles. The city stretched beneath them, dimly lit by flickering lanterns and the occasional glow from shuttered windows. The docks were behind them now, but they weren’t safe yet, guards were patrolling the streets, and any wrong move could give them away. 

Eliza was focused, her body moving instinctively, each leap and landing calculated with precision. Marla, on the other hand, was struggling to keep pace. She had skill, but she lacked experience in high-speed getaways. 

As they approached the edge of a rooftop, Marla misjudged the distance. Her foot slipped, and she stumbled, tumbling forward. Eliza turned just in time to see her partner’s arms flailing before she barely managed to grab the rooftop’s edge. 

Then Marla screamed. 

The sound echoed down the alleyway below, sharp and panicked. The guards heard it. 

Eliza cursed under her breath as she dropped to one knee, reaching out. “Quiet!” she hissed, but it was too late. Shouts rang out from the street below. 

Boots pounded against stone, voices barking orders. “Up there! Someone’s on the rooftops!” 

Eliza gritted her teeth and grabbed Marla’s wrist. The woman was trembling, her grip slipping. With a strong pull, Eliza hoisted her back onto the roof, barely giving her time to catch her breath before snapping, “Move!” 

They sprinted across the rooftops, but the damage was done. The guards were tracking their movement now, shadows shifting below as they prepared for pursuit. 

They turned a corner onto a lower section of rooftops, only for figures to emerge from the darkness ahead. 

Eliza’s instincts screamed at her as she skidded to a halt. An ambush. 

Four men, clad in dark armor, stood waiting for them. Another two were climbing up from below. They had been prepared. 

“Eliza...” Marla panted, drawing her daggers. 

“No choice,” Eliza muttered. Her own blades were already in her hands. She lunged forward, meeting the first attacker head-on. 

Steel clashed against steel as she parried a heavy downward strike, twisting to drive her knee into the man's ribs. He stumbled, but another came at her immediately. She dodged sideways, her blade flashing as she slashed across his thigh, making him falter. 

Marla fought beside her, her movements quick but not as refined. She blocked a strike, then lunged with a dagger, catching one of the ambushers in the arm. He hissed in pain, but instead of retreating, he grabbed her by the wrist and twisted. 

Marla yelped as the dagger clattered to the rooftop. Another attacker seized the opportunity, rushing in with a blade aimed at her stomach. 

Eliza saw it happen in an instant. 

She moved. 

Knocking her opponent’s weapon aside, she spun toward Marla, her dagger whipping through the air. The incoming attacker barely had time to react before Eliza’s blade found his throat. He fell back, choking, blood spilling onto the rooftop. 

She turned back just as another guard closed in on Marla. The woman had drawn a second dagger, but she was struggling, her stance breaking under the relentless assault. 

They were outnumbered. And they had to escape now. 

Eliza’s breath came in short bursts, her muscles burning as she spun, ducked, and parried. The rooftop fight had turned into a desperate struggle. The mercenaries pressed in from all sides, their strikes vicious and relentless. She could handle herself, she had done so for years, but there were too many, and Marla was faltering. 

One of the mercenaries charged, his stance shifting as he activated Brutal Cleave, a skill that gave his overhead strike devastating force. Eliza reacted instantly, Silent Step allowing her to pivot around him soundlessly before Twin Fang Style sent two quick slashes across his exposed side. He grunted in pain, but another warrior was already coming. 

A second mercenary lunged at her, activating Bull Rush to close the distance in an instant. Eliza twisted, just barely avoiding the full impact, but his elbow clipped her ribs, knocking the air from her lungs. Gritting her teeth, she retaliated with Venom Strike, her dagger cutting across his thigh, not deep enough to kill, but enough for the poison to start its work. 

Marla was struggling, locked in combat with a third mercenary. The man had activated Relentless Onslaught, his attacks coming in rapid succession, forcing her onto the defensive. She parried frantically, but she lacked Eliza’s precision. She was going to get overwhelmed. 

Eliza had no time to think, only to act. She reached for one of her throwing knives, activating Quickdraw Throw, and sent the blade flying. It buried itself in the man’s shoulder just as he prepared to finish Marla off. He staggered, buying Marla the opening she needed to drive her dagger into his gut. 

A shout from behind, another warrior had activated Rending Strike, his sword cutting a brutal arc toward her midsection. Eliza barely dodged, rolling into a crouch. She saw an opening and lashed out with Garrote Use, her wire flashing as she caught the man’s throat. He gurgled, clawing at the wire, and with a sharp tug, Eliza ended him. 

She barely had time to react as another enemy activated Unyielding Guard, his defensive stance blocking her attacks. He lunged, aiming for her head. Eliza feinted left before vaulting over him using Wall Vaulting, landing behind him and driving her dagger into his exposed back. 

Another mercenary knocked Marla down onto her back. His sword hovered over her, ready to plunge into her heart. 

Marla tried to roll away, scrambling for her fallen dagger, but she wasn’t fast enough. 

Eliza had to do something. 

The book. The skill. The words burned in her mind. The blade is not wielded by hand, but by the will. To reap the unseen, the wielder must vanish their intent along with the steel. 

Her grip tightened around her dagger. 

This had to work. 

Eliza exhaled sharply, and something shifted. 

Aether surged beneath her skin, wild and untamed. It crackled at her fingertips, syncing with the steel in her grasp. The dagger flickered, its edges phasing in and out of existence, slipping into the aether and returning in an instant. 

A notification blinked in her vision: 

New Skill Unlocked: Phantom Reaping. 

Her heart pounded, but there was no time for hesitation. 

She stepped forward and vanished. 

No, not her. The blade. 

To the mercenaries, her dagger disappeared mid-strike. They blinked, momentarily confused... 

And then two of them staggered at once, deep gashes opening across their chests. Their bodies reacted before their minds caught up, blood blooming like ink in water. 

Eliza’s dagger reappeared in her hand, gleaming with raw aether. The energy still coursed through her, an unfamiliar but intoxicating sensation. She could barely register it before the next attacker lunged. 

This time, she moved on instinct. 

Her dagger flickered then vanished completely. 

She slashed. Nothing seemed to happen, until two mercenaries gasped, their throats opening at the same time, dropping lifeless onto the rooftop. 

Aether burned through her veins like fire, and Eliza stumbled slightly. The drain was immense. 

She wasn’t a mage. She had never invested heavily in wisdom, and now it was costing her. Every use of Phantom Reaping consumed the refined aether in her core. If she wasn’t careful, she would exhaust herself before they even made it off the rooftop. 

She gritted her teeth. No room for restraint. 

Another guard hesitated, his eyes flicking between Eliza and the bodies of his comrades. Terror crept onto his face. 

Eliza didn’t give him a chance to react. Her dagger flickered again, and she moved, her final strike cutting down the last of them in a single fluid motion. 

Silence settled over the rooftop. The only sounds were Eliza’s ragged breaths and Marla’s pained gasps. 

Eliza turned to her, her heartbeat still hammering in her chest. “Can you move?” 

Marla nodded weakly, pressing a hand to her ribs. “Yeah… I think so.” 

Eliza offered her a hand, pulling her up. “Then we need to go. Now.” 

She didn’t look back at the bodies. She didn’t need to. 

Eliza helped Marla up, steadying her as they moved quickly across the rooftops. The adrenaline was still coursing through her veins, but she barely noticed the weight of exhaustion settling into her limbs. Instead, she felt a bubbling excitement, a thrill she couldn’t contain. 

She had done it. She had actually managed to unlock a new skill, a magical skill, no less. 

A stupid smile tugged at the corners of her lips as they slipped through the winding alleys, staying to the shadows. Marla, still shaken but steadying with each step, cast her a bewildered glance. “Are you… smiling?” 

Eliza exhaled a quiet laugh, shaking her head but unable to wipe the grin off her face. “Maybe.” 

Marla huffed. “You’re insane.” 

They reached one of the guild’s hidden entrances near the fish market, ducking into the narrow passage and slipping into the underground tunnels. The smell of salt and rotting fish faded as they descended deeper, the familiar damp stone walls surrounding them once again. 

Eliza’s mind was already elsewhere, back in her room, back with her book. 

What else was in there? What other awesome skills were waiting to be unlocked? 

The thought sent a fresh wave of anticipation through her. She couldn’t wait to find out.