Early morning sunlight trickled through the dried leaves in the inn room window. Freya turned her head to avoid the light and pulled her blanket closer. 

Then she bolted upright. She focused on the top corner of her vision.

[Freya Evenkey]

[Lvl 16 Martial Artist]

[390/390 HP] [135/135 MP]

Tch, it didn’t hold. 

She had fallen asleep as a berserker, but it had changed back sometime during the night. Clenching her pillow with one hand, she used the other to open her extended stats. At the very bottom, it still read:

[Misidentify (Lvl 1)]

Ugh.

Freya flopped back into her bed. She had tried all yesterday to raise her Misidentify skill. But nothing had changed. If she wanted to go through with her plan, she wanted to get to at least level 3 or 4 so she could maintain her new identity for long periods of time.

Scrolling up through her skills, she frowned.

[Potion Brewing (Lvl 3)]

Since becoming a game player, her Potion Brewing skill remained at level 3. She made potions all the time and even tried more challenging recipes to level up the skill, but it stayed the same. Infamous Biscuit explained that her martial artist class had little affinity for Potion Brewing, so she was lucky her previous experience got her to level 3. Misidentify was also outside her class’s natural affinity, but Freya hoped it wasn’t as incompatible.

As she got ready for the day, she changed her class to Shaman. It was the easiest change to maintain, as it was natural for her to act like a shaman. 

Maybe the game will reward me for my good ‘acting’ while using Misidentify, Freya thought, darkly laughing to herself. Heilong had explained that the game system used an algorithm based on skill usage and competence to determine when a skill levels up. Hopefully, the game system would acknowledge her flawless use of Misidentify to mimic a shaman.

She put on her black shaman cloak, grabbed her staff, and headed outside. This morning she wanted to do her routine patrol of Safka and the surrounding forest. The story dungeon in Soliya’s Port District once again emphasized to Freya the importance of patrolling. She would not let anything like that happen in her town.

Walking briskly, Freya checked all of Safka’s major streets and chose a few smaller streets at random. Satisfied that nothing unusual was afoot, she began jogging out of town. With her new stamina, and the chance to increase it, she liked to run a large loop around Safka. 

As she ran, she carefully observed the forest. Amongst the sea of green leaves, a few splashes of yellow hinted at the coming of autumn. Spider webs crossed some of the game trails she used. Near the end of her loop, she passed by the sawmill then followed the river to the main road leading into town.

Freya slowed to a walk as she stepped onto the road. Few people used the road, but if anyone saw a shaman running, they would assume something was terribly wrong. She continued at a modest walking pace back to town. 

Beep!

[K13: I can help you practice]

[K13: When do you want to meet?]

Remembering her message from last night, Freya slowly responded.

[Freya Evenkey: Are you free now? We can meet at the town square.]

[K13: I’m free]

[K13: FTing now]

It took Freya a minute to remember “FT” was the shorthand for fast-travel. She also mentally groaned that the quiet K13 was faster than her at typing. 

Picking up her pace, she went straight to the town square. 

~~~~~~

“I- I still see Freya Evenkey.”

Freya slumped in her chair. Across from her, K13 fiddle with his shirtsleeve.

“But I do see ‘Shaman’ not, not martial artist.”

“At least that’s something,” Freya sighed. “I guess you’re too familiar with me not to see my real name.”

K13 nodded and shrugged his shoulders. Freya interpreted that as “maybe I don’t know.”

“Wait, what about this?”

Freya focused for a second then changed her class again. Although the shaman class was easy for her to project, it wouldn’t make sense for a fully trained shaman to be a demoniclast apprentice. She needed to pretend to be in an average NPC class.

Cows, fields, the countryside, she thought to herself to get into the mindset.

[Freya Evenkey]

[Lvl 16 Farmer]

[390/390 HP] [135/135 MP]

K13 looked above her head. He narrowed his eyes and blinked. 

“It says Martial Artist.”

“Damn.”

“But, but it was blurry for a second.”

Freya smiled at K13’s reassurances, “It’s okay. I just need to practice more, I guess.”

She got up to turn off her teakettle which was now at a boil. After putting some herbs in to steep, she sat down again to keep trying. She tried to think of a different NPC class that might be easier for her to imitate.

Knock knock

“Freya, are you there?”

“Yina?”

Freya opened the door and immediately found something brown in front of her face. Taking a step back, she realized it was a baggy shirt.

“Try this on,” Yina’s voice said from behind the garment.

“Okay?”

As she reached out for it, she noticed a text box for the shirt.

[Tailored Men’s Shirt]

[Item Class: Unique]

[This item is designed to fit a woman’s body but will give a masculine appearance. Also designed to provide flexible movement]

[+1 Dex, +1 Misidentify for male gender]

Freya gaped at the text box.

“... Yina, how? How did you do this?”