A Goblin’s Evolution

Min and Ellie woke up in the early morning, as the sun shone through the window, illuminating the not so big room. Min’s room was the smallest, while Kinder and Ellie had a bigger room. Of course, the living area was the largest, although still not that big. Originally, Min's room was going to belong to a caretaker, but since they couldn’t actually afford one, Min had taken that room, and her own had been made into the kitchen.

Min was the first to wake up. She spent a few minutes, looking at her sleeping daughter. She enjoyed this very much. She looked so peaceful when she slept; not a care in the world. She caressed her softly, while just staring at her until Ellie finally woke up. As Ellie awakened, she saw her mother looking at her. She sat up, her nude breasts lightly bouncing as she did.

“Good morning, mom,” she said. Min smiled, then kissed her softly on the mouth.

“Good morning, sweetie,” Min said. Min was happy. The last barrier between them had fallen that night. The mother and daughter had finally had sex! Now, Min could finally kiss Ellie in whatever way she wanted to! Be it on the mouth, with or without tongue, or all over the body. There were no limits between the pair, as if they were lovers.

Of course, they didn’t actually consider themselves as lovers. This was just how their relationship worked now. They had always been close, and now that relationship simply involved sex and kissing. Anyone else would find this inconceivably weird, though.

Min began kissing her daughter on the neck, licking her here and there, before working her way down to her breasts. She let her blue tongue lick from the bottom of her boob, up to the nipple. She twirled around it, making it wet with saliva, before taking it in her mouth. She started sucking on the nipple, biting lightly before she started kissing her way down again.

She kissed and licked her way down to her stomach, then continued further, down to her thighs. She spent even more time on the thighs, kissing, sucking on them, leaving several hickeys. She even used her hands to sensually caress her, while kissing and licking the thighs everywhere, even around the pussy, just not the pussy itself.

It was only after a few minutes, when Ellie had started getting impatient and wetter by the second, that Min let her tongue slide up the length of her pussy, stopping at the clit.

However, just before Min could continue, they were interrupted by the loud, high pitched, vibrating sounds of a bell.

“Oh no,” Ellie said, very hesitant, annoyed, and disappointed by the look on her face. This was the church bell near their home that rung out every morning at seven o’clock. Min rose her head from Ellie’s cunt, also disappointed and annoyed.

“We don’t have time. I need to work,” Ellie said, before jumping out of bed and jolting out of the room. Min got out of bed and walked out of the room, not even bothering to put on any clothes. She walked straight into the living room. Kinder was there, half asleep on the table, probably waiting for food.

“Were you out late?” Min asked as she walked past him.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Sarah was quite horny yesterday, and she also decided that she wanted to try drinking alcohol. In the end, we both got drunk and banned from a tavern, since Sarah decided to ride me. And she wasn’t exactly discreet, either." Kinder said.

“You got drunk? I’ve actually never had any alcohol before. Maybe I should try it sometime. Dralu seems to like it,” Min said. Dralu often went out drinking with his friends, when they lived in the village. Min never minded, since that’s when he fucked her the hardest. When he was drunk, he always seemed to care a bit less about Min’s wellbeing, and just fucked however he wanted to, which was just how Min liked it.

“Well, you’ll feel like shit the next day.  Ahh, dammit. Working is not going to be fun today,” Kinder said.

“You can do it, soldier! Also, come home when you’re finished. Ellie said she wanted us to have a threesome! Man, I’ve been waiting so long for this! Finally, my life is complete! We even had sex yesterday. Or at least as close to sex that two girls can have. But it was fun!” Min said. Only now did Kinder looked up, to see Min’s naked body. The last time he'd seen Min naked, was when he was seven and he’d caught Min and his dad having sex again.

Back then, he didn’t know what sex was, but he did now. So naturally, he knew that his dad had been having sex with Min. And now, apparently, he was going to get that honour, too. Or at least soon.

“Anyways, I’ll go make breakfast,” Min said, before turning around and walking to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Kinder stared at her bouncing butt, not saying anything.

A short moment later, Ellie came into the room, dressed in a short top, that only covered her breasts and was tied around her neck, with a hole showing a good amount of cleavage. She also wore puffy shorts that covered her butt, but didn’t go much down her thighs. She didn't wear any footwear, though. Neither she nor Min ever did. Kinder did, though. Min had grown up in the forest without footwear, and she’d raised Ellie the same way.

These clothes were made by Min. Min made all of Ellie’s clothes, which was how she’d gotten used to wearing revealing clothing. In fact, just like Min, she liked it. Both how free it felt, and being looked at by men. Although, the uniform from her work was still too much.

“Good morning, honey,” Ellie said cheerfully, as she sat down next to him and gave him a warm kiss.

“Not so loud, please! I went drinking with Sarah and now my head hurts. I don’t recommend you ever go drinking,” Kinder said.

“Although, It was fun. But I hear you and your mom had some fun, too?” He continued. Ellie blushed a bit.

“We did. I was feeling a bit sad, but mom’s tongue made it better. Much better,” Ellie replied.

“You know, I could never, ever do it with my mom, yet I don’t find it that weird that you’re sleeping with your mom. Maybe it’s because you’re practically the same age? Or because she would sleep with just about anyone. I even caught her and my dad having sex, once. Actually, a couple of times,” Kinder said.

“Haha, I’ve seen them having sex several times. I was even watching them the first time I masturbated. But as for me and mom, it’s different. Maybe it’s the goblin blood in us. Mom told me that back in her tribe, everyone slept with everyone. She even had sex with her dad and brother,” Ellie said.

“Oh? That’s interesting. Even though my teacher was a Hobgoblin, I never knew much about goblins, although she did teach me a bit when I was young, but I’ve long since forgotten about that. Anyways, do you know why she even left the tribe in the first place?” Kinder asked, talking a bit quietly now, since Min was in the next room.

“No idea, actually. She never talks about it, but whenever I ask, she seems to get a bit sad, for some reason. But I still don’t know why. I just know that she left with her mate back then. Can't really remember his name, though. He left before I was born. Maybe they were banished?” Ellie wondered.

“Oh right, I’d forgotten about him. My memory is foggy since I was so young, but I do know that he was called Kazz. I’ve heard my dad talk about him before. He was a Hobgoblin, too. But it is odd. I think my father knows the reason, but he won’t tell me. Probably because of your mom. But for two Hobgoblins to be banished from a Goblin tribe is just too odd. They’re the most powerful figures in a tribe, except if a Hobgoblin manages to evolve once more. If they can do that,” Kinder said.

“Exactly. It can’t be that they just left, or she wouldn’t be so regretful about it. I mean, she could just go back. Oh well. Maybe she’ll tell us one day,” Ellie said.

They kept talking idly for ten minutes, until Min finished breakfast, and then they left for work.

Ellie wasn’t very eager to work today. She might have told Min that she was fine with letting the boss use her, but that wasn’t quite true. She still felt ashamed for using her body like that. She also felt guilty for taking an opportunity away from someone who deserved it more than her. But today, she would still have sex with him if he asked. Even if he wanted to do her in front of everyone, she wouldn’t decline. Since she had already started this, she wasn’t going to back down.

And indeed, the head chef was quite horny today. He ended up fucking Ellie several times, filling her pussy with cum every time. Ellie had asked him to pull out several times, but he never listened. It seemed like Ellie would just have to ask Kinder to come inside her as well. If she got pregnant, hopefully it’d be from him.

Kinder usually pulled out, since they didn’t want children yet. Although, he did occasionally cum inside her, like when he took her virginity. Getting birth control here in the city was quite difficult. Since they couldn’t just go and gather the herbs needed, it had to be bought, and they couldn’t afford that.

If the Orc was going to continue to cum inside her, it was very likely she would get pregnant soon. Might as well try and get pregnant from Kinder first.

Meanwhile, Min was studying various things and books, like “The Basics of Magical Decay And How to Prevent it”, “Basics of Magic”, “Basics of Mana”, “Healing: How is it Done?”, “Theories of Magic, Vol LXVII: Theory of Healing”. Two of those books were for her healing magic.

She had already learned plenty of things. Before, she had already known that mana decays fast, and she also knew that it was the reason she needed healing so often. But now she knew in much greater detail. She had learned that the exact reason she needed constant healing was that when you used magic to heal, the magical healing would slowly disappear, however, since it happened slowly, the body would heal faster than the magic decayed, resulting in the wound still being healed.

However, her injury was not sustained in the flesh, but bone, and bones took much longer to heal. Thus, the healing magic would decay too quick, and the bones wouldn’t finish healing. In addition, the natural healing wouldn’t follow the direction of magic, and would often directly oppose it. Thus, using magic to make an internal cast didn’t quite work, since the bones would continue to heal into the deformed state.

The only way to fix this, would be to make a permanent magic cast, or one that simply lasted very long. However, permanent magic wasn’t possible, and making one that lasts long enough would require very powerful magic. Magic that the body wouldn't be able to withstand. At least not for someone like Min.

Magic was weird. This was a universally accepted fact. Magic wasn’t permanent, but some effects were. You could break a table with magic, but the table would remain broken. You could repair an item with magic, but the item would soon break apart once more. If you were a weak fire mage, you could start a fire in a barn full of dry hay, yet the fire would probably only burn a few kilos worth of hay, before dying out. But if you were a very powerful fire mage, you could burn down half a city, before the fire died out. However, when it did, it would all disappear in an instant, leaving behind the desolated city.

In short, broken things remained broken, repaired things would break apart. The only exception to the last one, was a living body, since healing magic would act like the perfect stitches. They would even disappear on their own, so you didn’t need to take them out. A healing spell would temporarily mend the cut flesh together, but as the mana left, the wound would slowly reopen. However, the body is capable of healing itself, so as the mana dissipates, the wound also heals. It even heals faster than the mana dissipates, if done skillfully, so it results in a healed wound. The work of a novice healer might leave a scar, but a skilled healer won’t leave a trace.

The process they used to heal Min’s legs, was to manually crush her bones, then use healing magic to heal the bones into their natural form, before they became deformed. However, the body was strange, and incompatible with magic. It would try to defy the will of the mana, and heal back into its deformed state, since that’s what the body had come to consider natural by now. This was one of the reason why she needed repeated healing. A flesh wound might heal faster than mana dissipated, but bones healed much slower than the mana dissipated. If they neglected re-healing her hips, it would heal back into the deformed state. In addition, the natural healing process, didn’t start until the mana started dissipating. So, if they just kept filling her hipbones with mana, making sure that the bones didn’t get a chance to heal on their own that wouldn't truly heal her, and would also be insanely difficult to do!

The art of healing magic was very difficult. It required  great amounts of mana, as well as perfect control of it. It required skill to keep the mana still and to make it mend flesh, and its capacity to make it last long enough.

Thus, healers rarely used their healing magic in battle. Instead, they used other magics, since they often possessed great power, due to their keen control of magic.

After a couple of hours of reading through her many books, something which she admittedly disliked immensely, yet was still forced to do because of that damn Master of hers, said Master came into her humble apartment.

He looked at the girl, who was seated in a chair, with her knees up to her chin, reading a book with a dissatisfied expression. He nodded with approval; she might not like it, but at least she obeyed and did her homework. He walked up to the girl.

“You can put the book away now. It’s time for you to start working,” Altraz said. Min finally looked up from her book, even though she had known he had been in there the entire time. Hobgoblins had a keen sense of hearing, due to their long ears.

“What do you mean, Master? I just did some work, and you said there’d be a while until I got another target,” Min said.

“That time was a special occasion. Now it’s time for you to start work that other people of your rank do. You see, in our Organization, you’re only ranked as a novice, the lowest of ranks. Novices are very rarely sent on assassinations. Only in cases such as yours, might it happen. However, that is not to say that they don’t work. Usually, novices act as information gatherers and scouts. And that’s what you will be doing,” Altraz explained.

“Oh, I see. So, I won’t be killing anyone. Then, what exactly will I be doing?” Min asked.

“As I said, information gathering. You’re going to go around, asking questions, maybe some snooping around, too. If you find some important information, like the location of a document with valuable information, you can act on it and steal it. However, if the location it is guarded in, is too difficult to infiltrate for you, you can report it to me when I come back. I’ll send someone else. Just remember to disguise yourself when you ask, and if you do infiltrate someplace, cover your face and wear something dark. It should cover your entire body, too. Especially your navel piercing, since it can’t be removed,” Altraz said.

“I understand, Master. I will do my best not to disappoint you,” Min said, as she stood straight.

“Do more than your best. Now, for the target. You will need to find any information on a man named Imperius Caladri. He lives on the Noble Road, eight houses next to your last target. If you can infiltrate it somehow, perhaps by posing as a maid, do it. It’ll be the best way to gather information. Else, do anything you can think of. You can consider this as a bit of a test. If you can accomplish your task, you will be ready for the next stage in your training. If not, it’s no big deal, as long as your identity remains hidden. We’ll just have to continue at this pace for a bit longer. Anyways, that’s your task. You have seven days to complete it. After those seven days, I’ll be returning here for your report. However, if something vital happens that could give you valuable information that requires you to stay longer, I can wait. I’ll just return once every day until you’re ready. However, that’s only if something vital happens. Do you understand everything?” Altraz asked.

“Yes, I do Master,” Min replied.

“Good then. I will see you after a week. Good luck,” Altraz said, then left.

Min immediately got to work. She took out her makeup kit, which had been gifted to her by Altraz, for the sake of training her skills with it. Min had become quite skilled with it and managed to disguise her face quite well. She was still lacking compared to Madam Seras, though.

An hour later, her face was disguised, hair coloured black, and she wore brand new clothes that covered her just a bit more, mainly her stomach. Then she wrote a quick note, using beautiful calligraphy, stating that she might not be home for a few days, due to a job her Master had given. She also apologized immensely for not being able to have that threesome with them. She could only hope that she would have time to come home.

Thus, she left. She immediately set for Noble Road, heading directly to where this Imperius Caladri was supposed to live. Only, Min wasn’t quite sure on which side of her last target’s home he lived, since Altraz had neglected to tell her. Thus, she could only ask someone walking by on the street. The first person had no idea, the second was the same, but the third knew that Imperius Caladri did, in fact, not live there. He didn’t even know who Imperius was, but he was quite close friends with the man who lived in this house.

So, Min simply walked sixteen houses down the road. After a few minutes, she stood outside another house. Still, she couldn’t be completely certain, so she asked around again.

“Excuse me, do you know if this is where Lord Caladri lives?” Min asked some old woman walking on the street.

“Hm? Caladri? Are you here for the servant job?” The woman asked. ‘Servant job? Lucky!' Min thought.

“Yes, I am!” Min said eagerly.

“How splendid! I happen to work there and I could put in a good word for you, if you help me carry this stuff for me. I’m getting old, you see. This is getting too hard for me, and I'll be retiring soon. In fact, I’m the one you’ll be replacing, hehe. If you help me, I can easily get you the job,” the old woman with a kind smile.

“Oh, you’re so kind, miss! I’ll definitely help you!” Min said eagerly, directly taking all the bags she was carrying without even waiting for her response.

“Oh, such a lively young woman. You’re just what this place needs,” she said, as she started walking next to Min.

“Thank you very much,” Min replied, being as polite as she could.

“How old are you, my girl,” she asked,

“I’m fifteen this year. But I really need the job, since I have a daughter to care for,” Min said, lying a little bit.

“Fifteen and already a mother. Is the father not around?” The old woman asked.

“No. The father took me by force, and I never saw him again. He was some wandering adventurer I think,” Min said. She had been trained in Acting by both of her masters, and she'd gotten especially skilled at it since gaining her second master. Altraz was quite the skilled actor, since it was a very useful skill for an assassin.

“Oh, you poor, poor girl. But how are you going to take care of your girl? You can’t really take her here, it’s not allowed, and your work here will require you to live in,” she said.

“Don’t worry. My mother doesn’t work anymore, so she’ll help take care of her. I’ll just go visit whenever I can, and for the first few months, I’ll just sneak out whenever I can. You know, to feed her,” Min said, not hesitating even slightly in even the smallest of lies. She turned out to be quite good at deceiving people.

“Oh, that’s good then. I’m sure you’ll be allowed to go out a few times a day if it’s to take care of your baby girl,” she said, as they walked. They had already entered through the gates, and Min hadn’t been questioned in the slightest since she was following this woman. They hadn’t walked to the main entrance, but a side one. They quickly arrived in a room that looked like a kitchen.

“You can just place the bags on the table, and sit down for a bit,” the woman said. Meanwhile, another, slightly younger woman, dressed in the same kind of clothes as the older woman looked at them.

“Oh, who’s this?” She asked as she looked at Min.

“Oh, I never did catch your name, did I?” The older woman asked, looking at Min.

“Oh, my name is Min,” she said.

“I see. Min, that’s a cute name. My name is Sally, and this is the head maid, Anne,” Sally said, before looking back to the head maid.

“As you can see, this is Min. I met her on my way back, and she helped me carry the groceries. Apparently, she was even on her way here for the job. She’s quite kind to help me out, so I thought I'd recommend her. She does quite need it, too. She’s a recent mother, only fifteen years old. Rape even, so there’s no father involved. So, why not give her the job?" Sally said. Anne looked at min, giving her a pitying look.

“I see. Poor girl. Fine, she can have the job. You can just start teaching her right away then. I’ll inform the master that she’s been hired,” Anne said, before leaving. Then, Sally sat opposite Min.

“Congratulations, you got the job. Now, since you’re replacing me, I’ll be your teacher. You'll also be staying with me in my room since we don’t really have any other quarters you can use. Now, I’ll just start with the basic knowledge. First and foremost, you must always wear this uniform, which you will be provided with in a bit. Well, it won’t be this uniform. There are two uniforms for the maids. One for the older ones, like me and Anne, and another one for the young ones, the ones around your age, into the twenties. It’s a bit more revealing, but, judging from your clothes, you shouldn’t have a problem with it. The master likes the young ones to look pretty, you see,” Sally said.

“Second, when you meet the master, that is Lord Imperius Caladri, you must always refer to him as master. If you don’t, you might be in for a whipping,” Sally continued. Min looked a bit surprised, but deep inside, she really, really wanted to get whipped… Okay, maybe it wasn’t that deep inside…

“Well then, let’s get going. I’ll show you where you’ll live from now on, and then I’ll show you around the mansion. As maids, we’re allowed to go most places, since we need to clean them, unlike the guards who can only go where they are assigned," Sally said, while Min listened intently. She was sure to take in everything which Sally told her, since even the smallest things could hold the most valuable information. For example, Sally had not said they could go anywhere, but almost anywhere, which meant that there were probably places that were restricted to them.

These places might hold valuable information or documents that no one could be allowed to see. For example, the schedules for the guards. Such information would prove invaluable for whoever was going to assassinate this guy.

Sally showed Min her room, which was quite modest, with just a single bed and drawer, as well as a desk.

Sally proceeded to give Min the complete tour of the mansion, minus the restricted areas. The mansion was quite huge, so it took more than an entire hour before they had been everywhere, not including outside areas. Min had made sure to memorize every single location. She had put even more effort into the location of all restricted areas. By the end of the tour, she had an extensive knowledge of the mansion's layout.

“Well, that concludes the tour. If you can’t remember the exact location of a place, you can just ask anyone,” Sally said.

“Don’t worry, I have a very good memory. I have printed every location into my head!” Min boasted happily.

“Oh, is that so? I’ll be very impressed if you never ask anyone for a location,” Sally said. Then Sally started taking Min though her tasks. Since Min was taking over for Sally, Min would naturally take all of Sally’s tasks. Thus, Sally just had to take her through her normal work day for a few days, until Min had everything under control. Then, Sally would finally be able to retire with all the money she had saved.

If a maid played her cards right, she’d be able to live quite a comfortable life after retirement. Especially these elven ones. After all, maids didn’t have to spend much money, since they were fed by their masters and even had a place to live. Thus, they usually just saved up all their money, and when they retired, they’d have quite a fortune. They’d at least be able to buy a comfortable house in a small town or village, if not live in the city. And elves could live for several hundred years, so if an elf worked as a maid since her youth, she’d have one or two dozen gold coins. One gold coin was a hundred silver, and one silver was a hundred copper, so that represented up to 240,000 copper coins. If she lived for another twenty years, she'd be able to use ten silver coins a month. That was quite the fortune.

By the end of the day, Min had already helped Sally with more than half the tasks she had for a day. It was only half because Min hadn’t been there for the morning. They were currently finished with all tasks, and Min was simply helping Sally carry some laundry up to their room. Min's new uniform was included there, too. Earlier in the day, she had her measurements taken, so that the mansion’s personal tailor could make her uniform. Both him and Sally were surprised by how quickly Min stripped naked when the tailor told her to.

He had told her to get naked as a joke, to embarrass her a bit, but she actually did it without hesitation. Both he and Sally were baffled. But the tailor took the opportunity and did her measurements while she was naked, getting perhaps a bit too close and touchy than was appropriate. Sally had given him a bit of a berating for manipulating a young girl into getting naked for him.

When they left, though, it had been Min’s turn. Sally had scolded her for lacking common sense and self-awareness. Min could only lower her head and take the scolding. If Min was to fit in here, she would need to act as if she intended to stay.

With all that taken care of, there was nothing more for Min to do. Sally urged Min to go home to see her baby daughter since Min had been kept all day now. Min, of course, agreed happily. Not that she actually had a baby daughter to take care of. Ellie was more than old enough to take care of herself…

Instead, she would use this opportunity for some classical espionage. The sun had long since set and the halls were mostly dark, only the light of torches keeping them illuminated. The clothes Min was wearing were specially tailored by herself. They were basically two outfits. If she turned it inside out, there would be extra layers of clothing that could be unfolded and tied together. The first outfit was her normal outfit that was comprised of a top that went just below her navel and showed much cleavage. She also had some puffy arm warmers that were tied around her elbows.

Below, she had a skirt that went halfway down her thighs, and on her feet, she wore simple footwear. But when she turned everything around and fashioned her second outfit, the skirt turned into pants that went down to her knees. They were turned into pants by tying the middle of the skirt together and extending the cloth. Her footwear was also much more than it seemed.

When she undid it, it became long and bandage-like. She could tie it around her legs, all the way up to the knees, and a bit under the pants. In the end, her toes and heel would become exposed. This was pretty much the only flaw with the outfit.

Her top would come to hide her cleavage completely and there was even a sash hidden in it, which she could bind around her exposed tummy. It also tightened the upper layers of her pants. Her arm warmers, when unfolded would also come to cover her entire arms, and also had some hidden cloves in them.

Finally, there was a hood, hidden in the top, along with a half face mask, which covered her face up to the eyes. Thus, the only recognizable features were her toes and heels, and if you could manage to get a look at them, her eyes. However, considering that her eyes were black as the night, and that the hood shrouded her face in shadows, you wouldn’t see her face, even if you shone a light directly on her.

The final touch was that the two sides of the outfit were differently coloured. Her assassin outfit was completely black, while her normal outfit was an assortment of colours. When she used the assassin outfit, none of these colours would be visible. This wasn’t as important with the normal outfit though. Although, all the visible black parts blended in nicely and became a part of the outfit.

Altraz had helped her in the design of this outfit, but Min had still done the brunt of the work. When the outfit was finished, even Altraz had said it was impressive.

When she had changed into her sneaky outfit, Min was finally ready for some sneaking. Thus, she went to the nearest restricted area, constantly staying in the shadows. Whenever she met one of the patrolling guards, she would easily make it past without ever being seen or heard.

However, the real troublesome bit was when she actually made her way to the restricted area. There were two guards posted right outside the door, and these weren’t your average guards. They wore an outfit that denoted their skill and status. Min hadn't actually gotten a name for them, she just knew they were higher ranked, and much more dangerous. She wouldn’t be able to sneak past them, especially since they were stationary, right in front of the door.

She needed a distraction. Luckily for her, the hallway leading to the door was narrow, albeit tall. Min was traversing from some wooden beams just below the ceiling. Only someone as small as she would be able to do it with ease.

The hallway was narrow and well lit, but luckily for Min, she already knew an assortment of spells. Most of these spells were useless in combat, but they still had their utilities. Thus, Min channelled her mana into her palm, forming a black, shadowy blob. She sent the blob away, and controlled it through the darkest parts of the wall, straight into a torch. The torch instantly extinguished as it came into contact with the blob. This spell was designed specifically to kill any light sources. It wouldn’t work on everything, but for something as simple as a torch, it was simplicity itself.

As the torch went out, the two guards immediately noticed it.

“Ah, damn, the torch went out. You stay here, I’ll go get a new one,” one of the guards said. Since the torch was their closest light source, it was also what gave them the most light. If it went out, they wouldn’t be able to see well. Thus, the guard hurried off. Luckily for Min, she knew that the torches were kept quite a distance away from here, which gave her a lot of time.

Thus, she went to phase two of her plan. This plan was only possible because of how stormy it was outside. If it wasn’t, she’d have to think of something else.

She channelled her mana again, this time forming it into a shadowy hand. This hand would function just as a normal hand; however, it would be much weaker and slower. On the other hand, though, it had far longer reach. She sent the Shadow Hand towards a window. Since it was much darker now, and the hand was made from shadows, the guard couldn’t possibly see it. Thus, she opened the window lock, which made the window blow open, sending a stream of stormy wind inside, which, in turn, extinguished several torches! As soon as it opened, Min made the hand fade away.

“What the hell! Shit!” The guard exclaimed as he ran to the window. Naturally, Min hadn’t opened the window closest to him, so he had to run a small distance. Then, at her quickest, yet most silent speed, she charged for the door! But it was locked! Figures.

Not hesitating at all, Min took out her lockpick and started working. Since she didn’t need eyes to open a lock, she also kept a close eye on the guard as she worked. When Min had gotten her lockpick into the lock, the guard had already made it halfway to the window. Fortunately, the wind was strong and focused, so it slowed down the man significantly.

When he finally got over there, he also had to close the window, which was rather difficult, due to its size. There were two frames to the window which needed to be closed, but the guard wouldn’t be able to close both of them at the same time.

He quickly got hold of the first window and started pushing. He had to use quite a bit of strength but still managed to get it closed quickly enough. Min panicked slightly at this, however she was quickly reassured when the window blew open again as he reached for the second window.

“Damn it!” The guard yelled. The window wouldn’t just stay closed on its own, and it was made in a way that both windows had to be closed before you could lock them. Thus, he could only grab the first window again, while Min worked hurriedly.

The guard closed the window again, however, this time he didn’t let go, and looked at it for a while.

“Oh, damn it! Surely they’ll realize I had no choice,” the guard said, as he took out his sword. He put his sword through the window handle, and stabbed it deep into the wood below it, making it stick shut.

Then, he went for the second window, as the wind struggled to blow open the first one again. However, this time, it stayed shut, although it was still very wobbly. The guard immediately tried to shut the second window, but this time it was even harder, due to the wind being even more focused.

‘Come on, come on, open!’ Min thought frantically, as she observed the guard while she tried to open the door. The guard had almost closed the window already, but Min still hadn't managed to open the door. This door’s lock was quite advanced, and her skill with the lockpick was limited.

Slam!

The guard finally managed to close the window. Or at least he managed to pull it in, but now his sword was in the way.

“Seriously?! God freaking damn it!” The guard yelled as he took out the sword. However, the wind was strong, and he lost hold of it. Worst of all, as the sword went away with the wind, it managed to cut his arm!

“Ah, shit!” The guard yelled, but at least he didn’t let go of the windows. Ignoring the pain in his arm, he finally shut both windows shut.

“Fucking finally. Now just to lock it securely,” the guard said.

‘Comeoncomeoncomeon! Open!’ Min thought frantically, as she tried to open the damn door! It was as if the guard was moving in slow motion, slowly reaching for the window lock. But then, just as his finger was about to reach the lock, a small click sounded in the door.

‘Yes!’ Min thought. Then, like a flash, she opened the door and disappeared inside, closing it behind her, without the guard ever noticing her. As she stood up, she fell back to the wall, letting a deep sigh out. That had been a close one. After calming herself down, she started walking.

She found herself inside a windowless hall, even narrower than the previous one. There wasn’t a single light inside, and if it wasn’t for Min's night vision, she wouldn’t be able to see a thing. At the end of the hall, there was another door, but this one was clearly far more fancy. Its frame was made of gold, and the door itself seemed to be made out of silver or something. At least the coating was.

She slowly walked towards it, being careful for any traps. Not that there would be any traps here, but one could never be too careful. Finally, she reached the door and she grabbed the handle, pulling it down.

“Locked. Come on,” Min mumbled.