Fortunately for a preemptively exhausted fox, the rest of her trip back towards town was blissfully unexciting, the vaguely familiar stone walls rising up over the treeline. There was the distant noises of a town in motion, smoke rising from beyond the wall as a steady stream of players streamed in and out of the main gate.

Having already spent last evening trying to work out her... popularity issue, she paused while still a good ways out from the town. Pulling her inventory open, she quickly slotted her starting gear back on, the sleek and impressive spider queen garb she’d grown quite fond of being replaced with unexciting cloth robes once more. A little further adjustment was enough to get her very bright and prominent fox ears tucked under the witch hat, while her two tails had to be wound around her waist to not protrude out from the back.

Her gaze met with Silk after she’d suitably dulled herself down, the spider, understandably, a bit concerned about detracting from her disguise.

“Er… well, you hid in the other robes before, so…”

She scooped the spiderling up, tucking them under the cloth folds once more. The robes were decently oversized enough already, giving them plenty of room to cling against her back, hidden from anyone not looking too terribly hard.

“Chk!”

A muffled confirmation that they were settled in place, Monica standing again as she gained a heavier-than-expected new backpack.

“Just… don’t move around too much, or you’ll crack my spine- gah!”

They’d bitten her shoulder at the accusation of being heavy.

“I can drop you in a fire nearby if your piggyback ride isn’t sufficient, your majesty.”

Silk thought for a moment, and quickly decided to not go for a second bite.

“C-Chk!”

“Glad we understand each other then! Just try to not draw attention while we’re in crowds then, alright?”

“Chkchk.”

Their covert operation ready and her actually good equipment stored away, the duo headed the rest of the way to town. She’d kept her new staff out rather than returning to her starting one, with the thought that gear from the first dungeon probably wouldn’t draw too much attention if it wasn’t her unique set.

----------------------------------------

They reached the gate soon after, the distant sounds slowly fading in as the town came to life in front of them, crowds of people shuffling to and fro as they went about their business.

It was significantly less busy than the previous day had been. The number of players about the town was still absolutely overwhelming, but the massive day one influx had been given time to disperse at this point.

And thankfully not a soul seemed to pay here a single spare glance, the seemingly fresh faced Gloom Mage simply another normal (albeit much shorter than average) face in the crowd. One which attracted neither curious bystanders or murderous hunters.

It was deeply refreshing to not be hunted by the public for the first time.

She made her way through the town, weaving through bands of loose players that seemed to be already used to using the town’s amenities. People rushing in and out of shops looking for gear and knickknacks and any number of odds and ends otherwise. Groups huddled what she could only assume were quest boards, a fact she noted done for later. And in between them all, players idled and chatted and laughed together, sharing stories and inviting others to join their parties.

Walking idly through, she listened to any conversations within earshot, doing her best to gather any information she could while she memorized the lay of the town.

“You hear? A few people said they already found the first dungeon!”

“I heard, aye. Not that it’s worth anything, a bunch of oafs from the beta are sitting at the entrance and hunting any players that try to get in.”

“Oh you mean Night Castle? Yeah, I think they just gathered anyone they could from the early beta test groups and wrangled them together into a guild.”

Night Castle… now she had a name to stick to the idiots chasing her from before.

“Yeah, it’s downright unsportsmanlike. Buuuuut…”

“But what? Spit it out already!”

“Well, nothing confirmed, but… I saw a few of those Night Castle blokes crawling out of a spawn portal not too long ago.”

“Wait, really? You’re saying someone killed them?”

“I am! They looked bloody terrified too, like they’d seen a ghost or something. Muttered something about a ‘field boss’ or something. Whatever it was, it was enough to kill most of em off, even that boss of theirs.”

...Looks like she was getting even more of a reputation than she started with.

She’d make another note to keep her other armor hidden from any other players.

Smirking quietly to herself, she slunk back away from the group as they kept chatting with one another, a new spring in her step as she trotted along.

Information was always welcome, especially information about her newfound status as a mysterious superboss. But it wasn’t what she’d come back to town for this time.

Trotting along the cobbled streets, she wove between the other players towards the shopping district she remembered passing through before. Her dungeoneering adventures had left her with a hefty gold pouch, and a pile of unspent skill points burned a hole through her pockets.

There were almost too many stores to check, steady flows of people leading in and out of each one. She did her best to pick between them all from what she could make out in the windows, the street a bit too claustrophobic for her to go in to each shop individually.

A blacksmith selling hammered platemail… nope.

A tailor sewing ornate doublets and tunics… nuh uh.

A smoke-filled storehouse brimming with of massive weapons… not quite.

A quaint little library packed to burst with scroll racks… perfect.

She quickly slipped in through the other players, the tiny kitsune able to sneak though the small cracks in the crowds as she headed in.

Once inside, she found the structure was much more expansive than she’d expected. Racks of papers and tomes were lined haphazardly as far back as she could tell. A quick glance at a few of the scrolls confirmed she’d found the right place, and that this was, in fact, a skill shop.

Hunting through the tightly packed aisles, she dug through the orderly arrangements of skills on sale. Basic skills, melee skills, support skills, class-locked skills… almost too many to name as she hunted for anything of what she’d had in mind before coming in.

Most of what she found was either locked to another class or a role she couldn’t fill, or offered some effect she had no interest in, or simply made no sense for her to take. A nice ice storm or wind bolt spell seemed nice, but she’d already sworn off of attacks, so she wasn’t much interested in them.

Finally, she found the first of the few scrolls she had in mind.

[New Skill: Restore]

- Unlock: Healer Skill Scroll.

- Heals target by a small amount.

- Scales with MAG/WIS.

Not terribly exciting, but it was a starting skill for some classes after all. Thankfully, it was available to any caster, instead of being locked to full healers.

She’d found herself a bit too easily weakened from her earlier fights, and despite her shiny new ring reducing damage she took, she still had to live with a VIT of zero. With Sap as well, she’d be able to convert her enemy’s MP into her own HP, making the grind matches she kept finding herself in much easier to endure.

It barely made a dent in her pile of skill points, so it was an automatic purchase.

Monica browsed through the rest of the healer skills section but, unfortunately, Cleanse seemed to be exclusive to Clerics. A way to deal with that paralysis would have been nice but… she’d simply have to come at that problem from another angle.

Setting them all back in a more-or-less orderly heap, she left that section, exploring the other corners of the room for the rest of her shopping list.

The next area she’d been looking for wasn’t far off, quickly finding herself in the section for passive skills as she immediately dug in once more.

Another grocery list item found very quickly, emerging from the piled scrolls clutching it like a coveted prize.

[New Skill: Crafting I]

- Unlock: Passive Skill Scroll.

- Allows for basic crafting. Tools and ingredients are required.

- Higher level crafting requires higher skill level and a workshop.

Someone in town had mentioned something about crafting being locked behind a skill. And with the mountains of resources she’d acquired, it only seemed right to invest in at least starting to dabble in it.

Her two main goals acquired now, she purchased the Crafting I scroll and prepared to leave, having seen most every rack on display by then.

However…

As she turned to leave, her eyes fell on a final, hidden away pile of scrolls. Closer inspection revealed them to be mostly odd skills that didn’t fit into any other categories, the majority of them seemingly weak or underused as a thin layer of dust covered most of them.

A cursory glance through revealed nothing too pertinent to her… a few overly specific combos for a single weapon type, a couple buff skills…

But one scroll caught her eye right away, something about it calling to her.

She lifted the parchment, peeking over it. It was a pricey one, costing more than both the other skills she’d picked up combined. The name was written across the top of it in glossy, cursive handwriting.

[Dancer’s Weave]

Her eyes glazed over the effects, the overly fancy handwriting making it hard to read…

...And with a loud guffaw that drew the confused and concerned attention of the other shoppers in the store with her, she immediately purchased the neglected scroll and practically skipped back out of the store, adding to her skill list an ability that could only ever be good for exactly her.