If Nina had to say anything about this, it would be that her talent defined her life and proved that everything in this world is just an information game.
The moment she was born, her talent came up a lot within her family. It was a wonderful power that allowed her to peer into others’ status boards, something that would be worth its weight in gold and then some to very influential people.
Everyone has secrets they wish to hide behind scanners. One bad title could mean the social death of a person, disabling them from having any form of meaningful connection to their society.
One specific skill, or one prominent spell, could prove disastrous in the wrong hands, particularly with those who have some less-than-savory titles. In the end, information was everything when it came to living in this world.
And throughout her life, she had taken advantage of this talent for everything. Without it, she would be some foolish girl living a lavish lifestyle, only to be traded away to be some old noble’s third or fourth wife and that would be the end of it.
She had much bigger plans than any of her family had anticipated. And they would all start here in Forontia.
It wasn’t exactly a great place, riddled with crime and violence in unseen places. But it was a city closest to the royal capital with a great amount of defenses against monster attacks from the outside. Forontia was one of the few places in the Ghalea country where it had a higher general level than average due to it living near the Ruinga Mountains, a well-known dangerous habitat containing monsters that could ravage the city should even one enter inside.
A frontier city where many adventurers would make their claim to take over the Ruinga Mountains. Though just as many had died trying to conquer it.
She had no qualms about entering such a place, but she was definitely interested in the many rare and valuable items that could be scavenged there. Even the smallest bit of treasure found there would be sold in the hundreds of gold within the black markets tucked within the Grim Corner where a notorious gang resided. And right now she was exploring it, her hood covering her beautiful features to avoid being seen while surveying the area around her.
In Forontia, three gangs lived within the walls, each following a specific theme. One handled enchanted items, which included many illegal contraband that was banned in many cities throughout the country, known as the Red Riot. Another, the Chainlords, handled slaves, which Nina didn’t particularly wish to deal with at any point. The last gang, the Stained Brotherhood, dealt in the only way that always brought results–violence wrapped in nice little bows. Hired mercenaries and hitmen that would take any job as long as it provided enough coin.
Right now she was within the Red Riot’s turf, and unlike the other districts where the Chainlords and the Stained Brotherhood resided, this one was the easiest to live in. After all, the gang members are only interested in rare and expensive items.
So as long as you don’t carry anything valuable, you should be good. A rule that Nina always followed whenever she would come around to the district where many of their members resided.
She walked along the sidewalk, noticing some men wearing baggy clothing with daggers and knives tucked at their holsters. Some wore masks that covered their mouths, and there were hoods aplenty covering many faces and hiding their identities.
It was too bad that none of it mattered to Nina who could just scan their appearance and see everything with her All Seeing Eye talent.
Emilio Cantas, Level 12
Class: Thief
Titles:
“First Blood”
“Kinslayer”
“Assaulter”
“Contract Breaker”
…
Wilford Sponz, Level 10
Class: Thief
Titles:
“First Blood”
“Kinslayer”
“Exhibitionist”
“Contract Breaker”
…
Throughout the years, she managed to make it so that her talent only pulled up the important information first before she deemed the other information, such as their attributes, stats, skills, spells, and abilities in lower priority. What she mainly wanted to know were their most prominent titles, which would normally paint their life story. She already saw who they were, how strong they were, and more importantly, how valuable they were in her eyes.
In the end, the only interesting one that caught her eye was Aidan Munez, a stranger from another land who has a rare talent that she had never heard of.
Talents were something that very few people were born with, where many barely even knew that talents even existed. They come in a wide variety of special powers, sometimes dictating the talent holder’s entire life depending on what it provides.
Out of everything she had scanned, it was the first time she spotted someone else with a talent. She had seen some others, but only rarely throughout her entire life, and they weren’t even that special, such as the Wood Whisperer talent where the user can sense which tree was ripe for lumbering or what specific shape a lumber of wood can become best suited for. It was honestly quite dumb in her opinion, but she can’t blame somebody for how they are born with such talents.
That was why she took the plunge by stealing Aidan for herself and signing him into the contract to be under her ‘guidance’. It may seem like a slave contract, but it was anything but. Sure, he had to follow her orders to the letter or else he would be punished severely, but personally there’s just no better way to do this. There’s nobody better to make a reliable servant than someone who owes you a debt.
She certainly hoped that man is doing his job, otherwise, she would find herself rather disappointed. But at the same time, she also wanted to see what happened to someone who would go against the orders placed by the Soul-Bound contract. They were quite strict when it came to their potency, often disabling someone for life if they break the contract.
No need to wonder about that when he barely did anything yet. Let’s just see how he plays out.
Besides, she had a job to do. She walked across the street, devoid of life for the night. She approached a storage unit a few meters away, reaching for the metal door and knocking on it three times.
On the other side, four knocks echoed out, reaching her ears. She then replied with two quick knocks, one delayed knock, and two quick knocks again.
The door opened up to reveal a scantily clad young woman, her arms placed across the side of the door while she hung her leg to one side, her hips splayed out. One half of her head was shaven clean while the other had dreadlocks that fell down to her shoulders.
“Ooh, it’s the pretty one,” Her contact cooed, swinging her hips. “Are you here for the goods?”
“Why else would I be in this trash heap you call a home?”
“Hah! Ain’t that right. Come on in, excuse the mess~”
The woman let Nina through, and her vision was filled to the brim with wooden crates containing all sorts of items with labels pasted on the sides displaying the names for the items within.
Nina walked through the corridor made up of crates, her hand floating above the wooden exteriors and making a mental note in her head.
“It appears to be in order,” Nina said, filtering through the inside of her coat and bringing out a bag of coins. “Have these sent to the location I specified over in the Rocks district.”
“A pleasure doing business with you, Key Slinger,” The woman responded, greedily taking the bag and opening it up to take one gold coin out of the bag, taking a gander at it between her fingers. She also took it to her teeth and tried to bend it, only to find the authenticity was real. “Though I got a question for ya.”
“Depends. What’re you willing to pay?” Nina asked.
“Nothing! It’s just from someone who’s looking out for you,” The woman said, raising her hands up. “You’ve been making the rounds between different turfs for a while now. Aren’t you afraid that some of the gangs might see it as an offense? I’m just saying–from woman to woman–that showing off is just begging for trouble.”
“I’ll take your advice to heart,” Nina grinned. Her eyes were sharply contrasted against the darkness around them, taking the woman by surprise. “But there’s no need to fret. There’s no one here that can take me by surprise.”
The air grew tense as Nina addressed her coat, leaving the storage and the woman behind now that her business has been dealt with.
But of course, that wasn't meant to be.
A knife was held near her neck, a curved dagger with a serrated edge to one side. She peered at it, noticing the hand that held it along with the man that came out of nowhere.
“You should really take her advice, sweetheart. That's how you stay alive.”
A voice entered through the other side, revealing another man. The two men wore red uniforms consisting of red jackets and black ripped pants, a fiery blast insignia inscribed at their left pockets and back.
The Red Riot members. The man beside her snickered, keeping the blade aloft to her neck, the tip pressed to her skin but not enough to cut.
“Oh, what is this? I thought we were friends,” Nina said, unable to turn to find the woman walking behind her, her hands lying on her hips as she smirked.
“I don't make friends that sniff for trouble and expect nobody to come after them. That ain't how the underworld works, sweety. See, I've been eyeing your purchases and… I figured the Red Riot would be interested if I brought you in.”
“Aww, and here I was, actually treating you like a friend,” Nina cooed, using the same tone as the woman. “I bet you have bad taste in men too, with your horrible judgment skills. You should really pick up a skill for that.”
“Bro, do we gotta bring her in to the boss?” The man holding the knife pleaded. “I wanna make this bitch my own and teach her some private lessons if you catch my drift. I had it up to here with her attitude.”
“You know as well as I know that she's the boss’ target. You wanna be the one to tell him that you had some fun? I'd rather keep my little buddy if I were you.”
The knife-wielding man clicked his tongue in annoyance. Nina peered at the man beside her, scanning his status. Then she giggled, surprising the man.
“The hell? You got a screw loose, lady? I got a fucking knife here. I can slit your throat faster than you can even blink, bitch!”
“Oh, I'm sure you can, Trenol,” Nina said, still smiling. Especially after seeing the man flinch slightly. “You got a rather interesting class. Assassin, huh? A Class that specializes in daggers and sneak attacks. It's no wonder why I couldn't catch you earlier either. You must have chosen ‘Hide Presence’ as your ability choice, huh?”
“Wh–How?” the man stuttered, his knife lacking slightly. “How did you–?”
“You idiot!” The second man shouted. “Pay attention!”
Before the knife man could react further, Nina quickly pulled a pellet from her coat and threw it straight down.
A sudden explosion of gray smoke billowed out, encompassing the entire storage unit and covering everything in a fog of gray and ash. Coughs echoed all around them, their vision blurry and wet.
Everyone was blinded–all except for Nina, of course. A mask covered her face the moment she threw the small pellet. It was specially designed for her to take in polluted air and cleansing it into pure air thanks to the enchantment on the mask.
Nina scanned the area around her, and when a status page showed up in front of her, she rushed into it, even if her vision was impaired. She searched through her coat to pull out a wicked looking dagger and thrust it right where the neck would be.
It hit the mark, the man's voice squeaking out before it was silenced by the poison enchantment, freezing the body's response and injecting it with a fast-acting poison. She pulled it away, her hands slicked with blood. Then she continued for the next man.
“Trenol!” The man shouted, then a powerful surge of movement blew away the smokescreen, revealing the storage unit with a single body on the ground, blood pooling into the corner and staining one of the wooden crates in red splotches.
“You fucking bitch!” The second man shouted, his long sword pulled out and by his side. “I don't care what the boss wants--I'll fucking kill you!”
“You can try.”
Nina simply said as she threw a small knife, the size of a pinky, with deft precision straight to the neck of the man with the Berserker Class. The man swung his sword to deflect the thrown weapon, but Nina smirked when the longsword hit the wooden crate that sat a little too close to the Berserker during the fallout, stopping it in its tracks.
The knife hit its mark, and unlike the dagger in her hand, the small knife was simply coated in paralyzing venom. It was a lot cheaper if you knew how to use it.
Nina charged right into the Berserker’s gut, driving her knife deep into his insides. She ignored the blood seeping out of the man’s mouth and marking her cheeks before she ruthlessly pulled out the knife, the man grasping at the air for a second before falling over to the floor, bubbles frothing out of his mouth with his neck exposing dark lines that throbbed viciously.
Nina let out a short breath, hiding her dagger back into her coat and staring right at the woman who squealed and fell on her ass, staring up at the woman who single-handedly killed two men by herself.
“H-How? They had their Class Upgrades! How did you take them out?!”
“Oh, you poor dear,” Nina cooed, stepping closer to the woman who was most likely about to piss herself. “Levels mean nothing if you know where it hurts. Having some decent equipment and items can also stack the odds further in your favor. And finally…”
Nina lowered her head towards the woman. In her eyes, Nina's face twisted into a cruel smile.
“When you can also see someone's status debuffs, like a wounded ankle or bad depth perception, you can plan out your next attack rather easily, even in a two-on-one situation. Now…”
Nina rummaged through her coat, taking out a set of papers. She delicately slapped them across the woman’s cheek as she continued.
“If you don't want to end up on the floor with these guys, I suggest you start signing these before my patience runs out. Don't worry, I won't bind your soul. It'll just create a more stable working relationship between us from now on. Now now, don't cry–all of this could've been avoided had you just sold me my goods like we promised. It's really a good lesson to learn.”
Nina's words were as sweet as honey as she finished. Her smile was equally sweeter when the woman's tears stained the written contract, marking yet another good business deal.
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