Syl

Chapter 89: Dragon Knight

"Honey... Calm down." The woman tried to calm her son down, but now he was practically bouncing.

"But it's the Dragon Knight!" He protested.

"Dragon Knight?" I asked.

"It's the hero in his favorite story..." She answered, looking apologetically.

"Oh? Could you tell me more about this Dragon Knight? I'm curious."

"Because you have the power of the dragon!" he said dramatically. He gestured wildly with his arms and ran his hands down them, making sound effects with his hands before finalizing his performance by pretending to breathe fire.

I was silent. I didn't know how to respond. I had hoped that the barrier and all the orcs would have been enough to block most of what I did from view, but this child saw me using draconic scales and erupting in flame.

"Sorry miss... My son is too excitable." The mother apologized, sensing my discomfort.

"No... It's fine." I said, trying to dismiss my discomfort while searching for a solution. As if being thrown a lifeline, I felt my [Acting] skill was prodding me to lean into the Dragon Knight facade.

"I just need you to keep my secret," I said, holding a finger over my mouth. "I need to keep my power as the Dragon Knight hidden from my enemies." I winked and transformed scales over my single finger.

The boy's face lit up with unbridled enthusiasm. "Of course! Otherwise, dragons will come for you if we don't keep your secret." He said as if it were common knowledge, "We will keep your secret just like Squire Clyde and Princess Leanne."

"That's right, Hayden. You girls agree, right?" The mother said. The girls quickly agreed with her, while Hayden went on a little tirade about keeping secrets for the greater good to defeat the evil dragons. Internally, I sighed in relief that the boy was so impressionable.

I carried the unconscious woman on my back while the others followed closely behind me. Thankfully, we escaped the tunnels without any trouble. However, seeing how late it was in the day, I realized we couldn't reach the city before twilight approached.

"I don't think we can make it back in time. While I have some minor camping supplies, I don't know how safe it would be."

"There are some farms nearby. Perhaps one of them would be willing to help us," the mother suggested.

I brightened up at the suggestion, "Excellent idea. I know just the place."

Before heading towards the farm I had helped earlier, I distributed water to all of them. The minor display of magic seemed to brighten up the children a little from their unfortunate situation. About halfway to the destination, the unconscious woman finally awoke and was startled until the other woman settled her down. We took a short pause for water and for her to regain her bearings before we continued the journey. The girls were quiet, but the boy was still enthused and asked many questions about adventuring and some of the monsters I had fought.

While it was a bit tedious, it seemed like a good distraction for the victims, as even the silently crying girls were listening to the tales. I obviously avoided mentioning any orcs when retelling my escapades. By the time we reached the farm, it was well past sundown, and everyone was highly exhausted. One of the farmhands must have spotted us approaching as a group came to investigate, armed with farming tools; when they recognized me, they had a bright smile.

"Good to see you so soon again, ma'am." The farmer replied cheerily before glancing at the rest of my group.

"Orcs captured this group," I explained. "I freed them, but getting them to Kaerlin in their condition wasn't feasible. They had some minor injuries, which a healing potion fixed up, but they were tired and quite traumatized. I had hoped we could stay for the night so I could return them in the morning."

"Of course, ma'am! You can stay for a whole month if you like! You saved my farm." He replied and bellowed for his wife to help.

When his wife arrived on the scene and was brought up to speed, she immediately got to work organizing food, clean clothes, and sleeping arrangements for everyone. I turned down the offer of a bath, as I said I could clean myself with magic, but I partook in the humble dinner to not trample over their goodwill.

I was given a cot to sleep in, but I excused myself and went outside to clear my head. [Perception] was making it exceedingly awkward for me, as I could hear the quiet sobs of the two widows and children as the reality of their situation was sinking in. I clambered up to the barn's roof, and while lying on my back staring at the stars, I finally opened up the notifications I had been ignoring until now.

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I scrolled endlessly through the notifications until I finally reached the end and summarized my final gains. I had killed well over thirty orcs, although many were basic classes and relatively low-level. I had gained four race levels and six sorcerer levels.

I had three new skills revealed to me from my class, and the skill revealed to me for sparing Odark. I'd read their descriptions afterward. Speaking of skills and traits, I gained quite a few proficiency increases.

Between me and my [Sub-Cores], we flung endless [Acid Dart] spells, so this was an obvious increase. The new spell was mesmerizing. It would remove all afflictions on a target and deal necrotic damage per afflictions removed. The damage inflicted seemed to scale with a combination of remaining duration and infection level.

My hardworking [Sub-Cores] finally progressed. I mentally apologized to Alpha, who had been stuck at level four for far too long. Speaking of which, I had forgotten to give Delta the new core coloring courtesy of the white slime core, so I gave it the pale turquoise color. Now, I just needed a new color for Epsilon, who was still sporting my glorious crimson coloring. I looked over my final two proficiency gains.

Mixing poisons proved more effective than I thought, making me wonder if I put too much concern in the skill description, mentioning mixing reducing overall potency. Also, my [Dark Vision] was finally maxed out thanks to all the underground combat, benefitting my full maximum vision.

Spellcasting speed increases by 5% per level.

Mana usage is reduced by 2.5% per level.>

'Wow... Since when are skill descriptions so specific? Whoever created this must have been bored or tired of writing long-winded descriptions.'

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Enter a trance to increase your natural mana flow and mana regeneration.

Meditation can be used to stave off the effects of sleep deprivation, but it is not a true substitute.

Beneficial effects scale exponentially the longer the trance is maintained. This skill has no levels.>

'Well... I would have ignored this because I don't need mana regeneration, but the sleep part is interesting. Could I meditate and have my [Sub-Cores] continue my activities? They already can do work while I sleep.'

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Cast and maintain an additional spell per [Multitask] level.

Thoroughly complex spells may require more than one level per spell.>

'Ugh... I totally forgot about this skill. I don't even try to cast multiple spells alone when all my helpers can easily assist or cast independently. I wonder what counts as a complex spell to take up more than one multicast slot.'

Allows detailed creation of fake profiles that can greatly obfuscate attempts at identification.

The more believable the profile through physical features or closer to reality, the harder it is to pierce, and it is directly aided by traits or skills that provide shapeshifting or illusion.

Displaying a mismatching race, an unearned emblem, or a locked class will lower the success chance of obfuscation.

Adjusting levels to higher than earned will also lower obfuscation.

Can still be used as the basic [Identity Block].>

I had to reread the description a few times before it finally sank in. Gramps wasn't kidding when he said it would be a useful skill revelation. This was a massive upgrade to [Identity Block], perhaps an upgrade I would have received if I had taken the Doppelganger mutation or possibly earned through an advanced rogue class. Finally, I had a solution to a problem: my name.

A typical monster would be unnamed, so a mimic pretending to be something else would go undetected. However, despite my near-perfect disguise, my name would still be shown whenever I transformed. I could block my name, as Simon had shown me, but that still added a level of suspicion in myself that I didn't want. Also, if I tried to pretend to be anyone other than my Syl persona, I would be forced to block my name, which, if someone had a higher level of identification, would immediately rat me out. Of course, I could be wrong; I didn't know how often people blocked their profiles in public, as Simon was the first one I had come across, but asking the adventurers guild that question wasn't a path I'd like to tread.

The other immediate benefit I could think of was if I manually set my race to elf in my profile, then I could risk being a little more generous with my transformations if I mixed parts. While I didn't expect anyone to constantly have me under [Identify] surveillance, this way, if I slipped up, my race wouldn't suddenly change without my knowledge. Syl the elf suddenly changing into Syl the chimeric monstrosity because I reflexively borrowed a trait in an emergency would have been horrible.

I decided to buy everything except [Multicast], which I was determined to earn eventually. This still left me with many skill points, making me very tempted to purchase a skill upgrade.

'Should I try brute force [Water Magic] to level five and immediately upgrade it? Or Should I do the same with [Ice Magic] and bring it to the same levels as my other elements?' I pondered. My reluctance to do anything with my points was becoming a rather recurring anxiety about making the right choice.

'I'll ask someone at the guild tomorrow. Lisa might be a good option since she's the highest level I've seen. Then there's Thern, who is knowledgeable, and there's Dewi if they are finally back from their quest. Well, let's look at [Identity Fabrication].'