The Many Lives of Cadence Lee

*Kingdom of Nuave, The Southern Frontier, Six Years Ago*

Karlin’s POV:

  Well, this had gone to shit - and that meant that everything was going according to plan for me.

  Adventurers were attacking the shity little clearing that the [Bandits] I was running with had been calling a camp. The grunts were yelling and scrambling for their weapons, sometimes screaming when the [Acid Mage] struck them. Can’t blame them for that part, it takes a peculiar kind of sadist to become an [Acid Mage] after all.

  The Boss was trying to pull the group into some semblance of order. It wasn’t hard to feign panic and approach him, after which a quick [Knife in the Back] with a poisoned blade put an end to that. I stepped over his body and into his tent, ignoring the scantily clad young woman quivering in its corner. Frankly, other than a vague sense of contempt towards the [Bandits] who engaged in such activities, I didn’t really care anymore. Besides, I had a time limit if I wanted to loot the place and get away clean.

  I started stuffing the late Boss’s stash of treasure into my pack, along with cloth to stop any jangling. I wish I had one of those Bags of Holding, but on the other hand those were pretty easy to detect. Getting away with the money was always more important than actually getting the money in the first place, so it was better to use mundane tools to avoid detection.

  I cut my way through the back of the tent, using my Skills to slip into the shadows outside. It was harder with the heavy load I had, but with everyone distracted by the fighting I probably walked out without even trying. I did try though, because you never knew what you would get with adventurers and it would be annoying to get caught.

  Not deadly, of course, because I was the one who had sold the [Bandits] out in the first place, but I’d have to give up the items I was carrying. Normally, [Bandits] rarely had things worth taking, but this was southern Nauve and that meant [Merchants] transporting gold. It also meant that the powers that be were keenly interested in hunting [Bandits] down.

  I’d known the score before I came down here. Blood flowed more freely than gold in Nauve. Between the Monsters, the Adventurer’s Guild, and Nuave’s military it was a death trap for the criminal Classes. But they baited their rat trap with gold and so a constant stream of fools were willing to try their Luck.

  But Luck had jack shit to do with it.

  I slipped out of the camp and into the forest, reflecting on the fact that the [Bandit] Class was shit. Unless you got a better one, like [Marauder], you were basically fodder. A large enough group could intimidate a [Merchant] and some D-rank party - maybe even a C-rank party if you had enough bodies - but at some point either a group of adventurers or a B-rank would show up and butcher everyone involved.

  It was far easier - and safer - to join the [Bandits], sell them out, and steal everything I could on the way out. If I was caught... Well, the faces of the Priest’s of Scalus when those Alet fuckers told them I was actively stealing and fencing stolen goods and that it was all technically legal, was always worth a smile.

  I didn’t go too far away from the camp; this was not a safe region in the slightest. Even with my Skills and skills I wasn’t confident I could make it back to civilization. I was a [Thief], not a [Ranger]. Fortunately, I just happened to know where a large group of adventurers were that I could let unwittingly clear the way back for me.

  I wish they would hurry up wiping my former comrades out, I would kill for a good drink after having to camp in the ass end of nowhere for so long.

  ...Actually, considering I’d be paying for my drink with the gold I’ve taken, I suppose I am killing for a good drink right now.

*Kingdom of Nuave, Nu City, One Week Later*

  “Fuck!” I groaned out as the dice came up Drake Eyes. I wasn’t the only one, as the audience watching the gambling table felt my loss vicariously. I had just lost more gold in one toss than most [Commoners] earned in a couple of years. The lady on my lap was more than happy to comfort me - she had cost more than most of the watchers earned as well.

  Some might say that I would be better served not spending my money at gambling tables and on expensive [Courtesans] - although I would argue that anyone would experience a good [Courtesan’s] Skills would end up admitting that that was hardly a waste - but no one ever got out of their game. A [Thief], retire? That only happened in the stories. Fantasy stories.

  It wasn’t only [Thieves] though. I thought as I waved the [Waitress] over to top off my wine. Reality was that a [Soldier] or an adventurer would never be able to retire unless they earned enough money to never have to work again in their life. Leave a life of fighting and danger and become a [Farmer]? How would they compete with the much higher level [Farmers] around them? Become an [Innkeeper]? With what Skills?

  Nah, I was in this ride for life - or at least until my life ended. It was better to risk it all and to live it up after rather than scratching at the dirt or whatever it was [Farmers] did anyway. I’d spend my gold like water and then go out and earn it all over again.

*Kingdom of Nuave, The Southern Frontier, Five Years Ago*

  “Find that damn [Thief!]” The [Bandit Lord] roared into the night, sending his lackeys scrambling. Over the past year I had been rather successful, too much so in fact. There were few things worse for a [Thief] than being known as one.

  I was not sure who had pointed me out to the boss of my current - former - crew and I was taken by surprise, but thankfully the [Bandit] Class was not one known for its intellect.

  “Oi!” I pointed to two random men who had heard the shouts, but obviously were not informed of who I was, “grab that torch and follow me! The bastard went that way!”

  Of course the idiots actually followed me without bothering to confirm anything I said. Hell, they would have been idiots even if I wasn’t lying to them. Three [Bandits] in the Southern Frontier might as well slit their own throats and save the monsters the trouble of killing them. Without a stealthy Class you either move as a group or not at all here.

  Even having a stealthy Class didn’t really make it safe, but I wasn’t going to have much of a choice tonight - and the next night, for that matter. It was going to be a pain in the ass making it back to civilization, and a pain to head north because clearly I was too well known here in the south now. That annoyed me enough that I was somewhat vindictive when I offed the [Bandits] who came with me.

  Had to leave my knives in them though, it was not a good idea to keep bloody knives with me when I was traversing the forest. You never knew what kind of monster was wandering around or how good their senses were. For that matter, it was better not to have bloody knives in a city either; people tended to ask questions about things like that.

  My timing in this turned out to be impeccable, because there was another group of Adventurers storming through the forrest and into the [Bandit] camp. Evidently, they had taken the commotion of my escape as a sign that the [Bandits] had seen them and decided to attack now. However, this time they seemed to have a much tighter net of fighters for me to slip through.

  That was the problem with places like Nuave, and another reason that I couldnt stay here much longer. The gold lured people, people lured monsters and [Bandits], and those lured Adventurers. That was fine for me at first, but now things were getting a little crowded, and I was getting that itch between my shoulder blades that always seemed to signal things were about to go from bad to worse.

  ...And it didn’t seem to be going away as I was getting further from the camp.

  Even as the sounds of combat started to fade, my paranoia only increased. I didn’t change what I was doing though, I didn’t want to start running only to be caught out of Stamina or to try and hide and be picked up by a search party. No, I was going to keep making my distance from the camp steadily. If I had a tail, they would surely turn back rather than go too deep into the forest.

  Or so I thought, but even an hour later that feeling had yet to leave me and my pursuer wasn’t quite as Skilled in Stealth as I was. I had caught the occasional glimpse out of the corner of my eye of a small bodied female through the trees. She had a bow, so perhaps she was some kind of [Hunter]? Hopefully not a [Bounty Hunter], although I don’t think I have a bounty here in Nuave yet. I would rather not tangle with their kind though. If any class could squeeze blood from a stone it would be [Bounty Hunters].

  This kept up for a little while until…

  “That is far enough,” a melodic voice called out; I couldn’t quite identify the accent. “If you don’t stop, I will shoot.”

  “No offense,” I replied, “But I think I will just [Roll the Dice] on that.”

  Hitting a moving target in a dense forest? A moving target that is actively attempting to dodge and that has my stats? And with my Skills?

  “Best of Luck to you little girl!” I thought to myself, rather insincerely though. After all, even with my Stats and Skills I could still easily lose a gamble. Of course, the trick was to only bet anything that mattered on bets you couldn’t lose. If I never gave my pursuer another chance to stop and draw their bow, then I could easily go all in on this one chance and as long as I don’t get a fatal wound, I win.

  The soft thrum of a drawstring, the whiz of an arrow, and a pulling sensation on my upper left thigh was enough to put a smile on my face. I had been grazed, but it wouldn’t hurt until my adrenaline ran its course. Hopefully, I wasn’t bleeding too much but I could hardly stop now to check.

  It was also good to know that the [Archer] was aiming to capture, not to kill. Not that I would stop long enough to allow them a second sho-

  Only a mix of my high Luck, Perception, and Agility Stats allowed me to dodge the next arrow. She was running and shooting at the same time!

  “Fuck me,” I grunted as I tried to keep the trees between myself and the shooter. “This is why relying on Luck is fucking stupid.”

  So she either had a Class, a Skill, or high enough Stats to allow her to move and shoot at the same time. Maybe some combination of all three. That would make this far more complicated, especially when a Monster came sniffing around the blood trail I was leaving. Or when she decided to stop trying to capture me and started trying to kill me seriously…

  It might be time to fold instead.

  “Alright, alright!” I put my hands up, showing that they are empty - although I could drop a knife from my sleeve easily enough. I’d kind of like to treat my wound, but now was not the right time for that. I didn’t want to make her twitchy. “I surrender! Don’t shoot me, I’m not a [Bandit]!”

  My huntress emerged from the forest, seeming to quite literally step out of the leaves and shadows. A sure sign of the [Forest Cloak] Skill, which would mean she was either a [Hunter] or some Class Evolved from the [Hunter] Class. She was certainly dressed for the occasion, in a cloak dappled in different shades of green.

  “[Bandits] always seem to say that when they are caught,” her musical accent made a lot more sense now that I saw her, or rather, saw her ears. An Elf! Of course an Elf would be able to shoot and move at the same time, although she must be a young one or she would have hit me the first time. “We will see what a [Priestess] of Alet has to say about that.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind that at all.” I said with a smile, only slightly lying. Stealing from [Bandits] wasn’t illegal really, but things got a little less clear when I wasn’t the one to sell the [Bandits] out. I don’t think that they would really be able to pin much on me though. “Any chance I could bind this cut before we go on? It is really starting to hurt.”

  As I started to relax and my adrenaline went away, I was finally starting to feel the cut on my leg. From experience I could tell it wasn’t too deep, but you would never be able to tell that from all the blood soaking my pants. It was going to be a long walk back and it would feel even longer if the Elf wouldn’t let me clean it up. What, by the Void, was an Elf doing out here anyway?

*Kingdom of Nuave, Nu City, Three Days Later*

  This fucking bastard!

  I was glaring at the [Priest] of Scalus who had delivered my sentence; that smug, smiling, little shit! Demanding that I give up my [Thief] Class? Just the Stat loss alone would screw me over, how - by the Void - was this supposed to be Justice!?

  “No need to look at me like that,” the man said after a minute of my stunned silence at his pronouncement. “The Gods assure me this will be good for you in the end.”

  “Fuck the Gods and fuck you too!” I let out a snarl, but the [Priest] remained impassive. Arrogant bastard, he was half my age and treating me like a whining child, wasn’t he? Of course he was, it wasn’t like I had a fucking choice. I doubt this [Priest] was powerful enough to actually strip my Class himself, but the [Guards] would hardly let me leave until I did. So my two options were either to give up my Class and cripple myself or rot in the city’s jail.

  I knew the prison of Nu’s reputation as well, which meant I was aware that this was actually a choice between becoming a cripple or becoming a corpse. I had no doubt that the [Guards] would accidentally forget I had been brought in and would accidentally forget to give me food or water. There was more than enough wiggle room between Justice and law to fit my dead body.

  Fifteen minutes later, I stumbled out of the temple feeling like someone had dosed me with Deep Cave Spider venom. My head was spinning, my vision blurred, and every bone and muscle in my body ached like I had been tossed down a flight of stairs after being beaten unconscious. I nearly fell over right there but was caught by a passerby.

  “Woah,” the man helped me sit down. “Are you alright?”

  Before I could say anything, a familiar voice replied, “Of course he isn’t, Rauvin. You heard what his sentence was. In fact, the only reason we are here is that you felt bad about it!”

  “Of course I do!” the man - Rauvin - became heated, “What is wrong with stealing from [Bandits]? This guy was the one to tip off the Guild to more than a few of those groups anyway, so you can hardly say he was doing more harm than good! How is that Justice?”

  “The workings of the Gods can be mysterious,” another male - younger - voice spoke up. “I find it interesting that the [Priest] said ‘this will be better for you in the end’ as it implies that Justice paid enough attention to work out the full impact of the Judgement. Scalus is not Alet, who is all knowing by her nature. He must actually work at knowing more about a situation than Alet tells Him and most Judgements are either too clear or too trivial to bother.”

  “Who are you people?” I couldn’t follow their discussion. In fact, I could barely focus my eyes enough to see a man in armor standing in front of me and… That Elf!

  “Your name is Karlin, right?” The man in armor, Rauvin, who was very obviously an Adventurer - and part of the same party as the Elf who caught me - asked rhetorically, “My name is Rauvin, and I am the leader of an Adventurer team… And, honestly, I kind of feel bad that this happened. Being forced to give up a Class? That just isn’t right, so I thought I would make you an offer…”

*Kingdom of Nuave, Nu City, Two Months Later*

  I had initially had some thoughts of revenge, but I quickly put those out of my mind. First and originally, because it was well known that killing an Elf was difficult and that success was more often than not met with the killer being hunted down by some millenia old Elf that was a relative of the one that was killed. Secondly, however, I put it out of my mind because I grudgingly had come to like these kids - and that was really all I could think of them as, even though Rei was nearly three times my age.

  They were driven, flexible in how they approached problems, and more than willing to reach out and share a drink with anyone they met regardless of status or how closely they hewed to what the Temples said was correct. Even Ylma, the bitchy mage girl, had another side to her, happily teaching magic to slum kids for free. She was still kind of a bitch, but she had more depth than I had first thought.

  The team - Seeking the Horizon, now that was a fanciful name - had been taking jobs in the city, helping me level my other Classes and I had been using my old contacts to help them complete jobs they normally wouldn’t be able to. Which was how this had happened:

  “[You have met the requirements for the advanced Class: [Rogue]!]

  [You have 7 open Class Slots.]

  [You have Classes available, would you like to see them now?]

  [Note: [Rogue] is an Evolved Class. You require a compatible Class to Evolve!]

  [Note: Requirements have been met to allow Class Evolution based on the Surrendered Class [Thief]]

  I think I might just stay with them for a while yet.