Lone: The Wanderer [Rewrite]

Lone and Hazel stood among a group of four other adventurers who were also perusing the billboard with the details of available skill tutors. It wasn't as sparse as Lone would have assumed but still, he already owned 70% of the presented skill options.

While the other 30% of course interested him, none were so special or critical for him to make the call. He was here for his little sister, after all.

"There's so many options and all of the interesting ones are so expensive..." she muttered.

Lone patted her back affectionately and replied, "Don't worry about the cost. Just pick whatever calls out to you. Nothing's standing out to me so I'm gonna head upstairs. Use this if you need me or if you finish before I do, 'kay?"

Hazel took the communication orb he'd passed to her with a nod and a warm smile. "I won't be long. Promise."

"Me too," he replied.

Immediately following that Lone made his way to the hidden stairway on floor two and he ascended through the third floor up to the fourth floor which was his current limit as a gold-silver plate adventurer.

The place was empty save for the staff and two adventurers, one of which was at one of the four credit slates, and the other was having a drink at a nearby bench waiting for the other guy to finish. They both looked liked mages and neither of them were human.

It took a considerable amount of willpower to not try to convince them to use their magic on him and maybe their racial skills too, whatever they were. Lone didn't recognise the species they came from but they had an almost ghostly tint to their skin and they gave him a very ethereal vibe. They were also both S-rankers.

Practically dragging himself to one of the unoccupied credit slates, he relied on Meditation to keep himself focused as he connected to the slate with a drop of blood.

Adventurer identified as Lone Immortus, gold-silver plate adventurer, nicknamed Immortus the Immortal. You currently have 42,797 credits. Would you like to record your skills?

Lone penned 'yes' with his finger and then as quickly as he possibly could and with the help of some applied Agility, recorded every single improvement he had made and every new skill he had earned since his last visit. Of course, he still excluded his unique and Primal skills from the information he granted to the slate.

He trusted the guild a good amount and every guildmaster he'd met so far, while a little unhinged, were all kind to him, but still, some secrets weren't worth the asking price. That was also why he was reporting physically with his finger instead of connecting his mind to the tool.

Still, he was done soon enough and the gains were fantastic. Some of his new earned effects had never been reported before so he got some massive bonuses for that, in particular.

You now have 123,450 credits. Would you like to request skill information? If so, please describe what you wish to be able to do and the database shall be checked to see if there are any skills within your credit limit that you can purchase information on. If not, would you like to continue recording skills?

Lone knew what he was here for so he immediately made a request for a skill that was passive, learnable by humans and foxkin, was undetectable, and most importantly, that could mask any amount of MP the host happened to possess.

0 skills that you can afford match your requirements.

'That's new,' Lone thought.

He wrote out the question: Is it that such a skill exists but I can't afford it? If so, how many credits do I need to be able to afford it and can I see its information even if it's out of my budget?

No. No such skills is currently registered in the guild's databanks.

Lone stroked his patchy stubble-haired human jawline and wrote: Do any similar skills exist? They need to at least be able to mask any amount of MP and be applicable to a human, the other details can be different.

3 skills that you can afford match your requirements. WARNING: 1 of the matching skills is a bloodline skill and the other 2 are unique skills, so the guild does not recommend purchasing the information on them. If you would like to regardless of this warning, then please note each listed skill incurs a charge of 1 credit and the holders of the unique skills will need to grant you permission to see their registered skills.

"Ah, fuck," Lone muttered. 'I had a feeling that might be the case, still, that tidbit about unique skill permissions is encouraging.'

Lone wrote: How many unique skills does the guild have recorded in the credit slate?

You do not have the sufficient adventurer plate to gain access to that information.

'That's fair. Well, I guess I just have to create a skill for Sofia. Or spend a few months meticulously making a device that can somehow mask millions, soon to be tens of millions, of MP... Yeah, I'll probably have better luck with the skill. I mean I created Fortress Shield Mastery by mistake. I should probably look into where I can find a mana well. I can sense mana now thanks to Mana Scorched, but I have a feeling that skill Magical Domain will give me enough understanding to make an uber mana masking skill,' he concluded.

With that out of the way, there was only one more thing that he needed to check right now before he would return to his sister's side.

With his finger he wrote the question: Does the guild have the information on any skills that can hide the intrusion of mental skill to those with defences against such skills? The intrusion doesn't need to work, it just needs to go undetected.

14 skills that you can afford match your requirements. WARNING: Due to the nature of suchs skills, you need to have a red-ruby or higher adventurer plate to obtain the information of such skills, or, the permission of a regional guildmaster. This is due to the significant danger of skills that can invade another's mind.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

'A regional guildmaster? Aren't there only, like, eleven of those?' Lone thought.

He'd heard of these regional guildmasters before in passing. They were two steps below Grand Guildmaster Sarah, just below the two legendary operational guildmasters.

He knew barely anything about the ordinary sounding operational guildmasters beyond the fact that they were incredibly strong and without them, the guild wouldn't be able to function at the level it current did whatsoever.

Regional guildmasters, however, were much less obscure. Six of them each managed a region of the inhabited continent, three managed all of the island nations that surrounded Teresa, and the last two manage undisclosed areas. Lone suspected one of those unmanaged areas was the underground areas like the Farwinds. The other was a mystery to him.

Every single one of them was a triple-X-rankers. Gilbert had told Lone before that he needed to report to Regional Guildmaster Ulbrix once every decade and that hadn't changed despite him being moved from Milindo to the Crimson Foxkin Clan.

That was just how large Teresta was and how vast the distance each regional guildmaster governed was. Lone could only drool at the powerful skills such individuals needed to be able to manage such a huge collection of adventurer guilds each.

'Well, there's not a scooby in hell that I can meet such a person and justify that I want info on skills that hide mental invasions just to help my little sis out with her unique skill. Guess I need to get a mind-invading skill of my own and figure out how to mask it too. That, or maybe this hero alliance group can help her out if they prove to be trustworthy,' he thought as he stepped away from the credit slate, disconnecting him from it.

Lone still wasn't sure if he wanted the kids to meet this supposed Extraterrestrial Alliance just yet since he knew so little about them, and given how dangerous he and Sofia were, a whole group of organised heroes sounded kind of terrifying.

'Then again, that pedo's skill wasn't anything to write home about. Still don't know what it really was. Super persuasion is telling, but not exactly specific. Gilbert didn't even know the skill's real name. I wonder if it was like, subtle brainwashing or something? Such a poorly suited skill for that scumbag. There was nothing subtle about him except his IQ. Credit where it's due, I couldn't even tell there was a brain between his ears at all,' Lone chuckled internally.

Before long he had left the gold-silver plate floor and it's two ghostly occupants, and he had returned to the ground and first floor of the building. He frowned.

Hazel was in a somewhat heated argument with two bronze-plated adventurers while she held a sheet of paper rather closed to her chest. Her hand was bleeding lightly as if someone had grabbed it only to scratch her instead of obtaining their target - likely the piece of paper.

The bronze-plated adventurers were both humans like his sister and they proudly wore their bronze plates around their necks. Judging from their equipment they weren't anything special, but that wasn't a certain thing. After all, Lone didn't use much equipment himself.

They were a male and female human pair, both of which looked to be in their early twenties and their aura betrayed the fact that one was a D-ranker while the other was a C-ranker.

"Stop it!" Hazel raised her voice. "I picked it up first, so why do I need to give it to you two?!"

"Cut the bullshit," the B-ranked woman snorted. "There's no way an iron-plated kid has enough money to afford tutoring from Sir Ashford. He's only in town for another day or two and there's no way I'm going to let a runt like you waste his time when he could leave any minute. We need and can afford his tutoring. It's not everyday a magic knight who's also a tutor rolls into the city."

"Yeah, so hand it over, kid. You're just wasting all of our time here. Look, I'll even help you find a tutor suited to your budget, okay?" the D-ranked man added in a tired but somewhat polite tone. "How much do you have? A couple of silver? I'm sure there's someone here that will accept some pocket change for an hour of two of longsword training. You might even earn a skill."

"You don't know anything about me!" Hazel protested as she dodged another attempted grab from the C-ranker.

A few adventurers watched on in amusement or with cold uncaring eyes, such was the ways of a city state where strength meant everything.

'Hazel must really like the sound of the skill or skills this Sir Ashford is offering to tutor. Still, 'sir'... Not a title I'm keen on these days. Whatever. Let's have some fun. Strength rules and I am most certainly stronger than them,' Lone thought with a smirk.

He hid his gold-silver adventurer plate under his shirt before he boldly approached the three and slung an arm over the D-ranked man's shoulder.

"Howdy. Now, what's going on here? Bullyin' my little sister, are we?" he asked a bit playfully.

Hazel visibly calmed when she saw Lone only to scrunch up her face when her unique skill slammed against his still mostly suppressed mental locks, but he ignored that.

The D-ranker tried to shrug Lone off but of course failed miserable, making him sweat a little. Such a difference in strength meant Lone was at least a C-ranker, the same rank as the man's companion, and Lone could see the gears in the man's head turning at that revelation.

"She's your sister, Lord...?" the man asked cautiously.

"McCullen. And yep, she is. You find a good tutor for us, Haze?" Lone asked before patting the man's shoulder lightly and then letting him go to step next to his sister.

"Huh? Uh, em, y-yeah. It's this guy called Sir Ashford. He's teaching an active attack skill for longsword users called Extended Swing alongside Longsword and Sword Mastery. He's also offering a lecture on how melding magical affinity with a blade works, but no skill related to it. It's expensive at five gold per hour per person with a limit of three hours, but uh, he's leaving today, tomorrow, or the day after. He isn't sure when, he's just teaching in his downtime between whatever business he has here," Hazel explained.

'Bitching and whining about a measly 30 gold coins. I guess they really must not be that successful despite one being a C-ranker if they think that's a lot of money. Hamish is barely above them as a B-ranker but he was betting entire gold pieces with me all the time,' Lone commented early.

"Hey! Even if you're her brother, it's a waste for her to get trained when someone more needing of those skills and that information could have the chance instead," the C-ranked woman complained, pointing a finger at Hazel with a scowl on her face.

"You wish for skills?" Lone asked a little bit cryptically.

The woman's scowl deepened. "Are you dumb? Of course we do! We wouldn't be arguing about this if we didn't. We're stronger than her, so it's only right she gives us that form! There's only one for today and we deserve it more."

"I can't promise a skill if you already own it, but do expect some levels. I'm a very good teacher," Lone replied.

"What the fuck are you going on abo-"

Lone smiled at her. For the first time ever, he started consuming his SP to weigh his aura down on the the entire room of adventurers, only excluding Hazel which actually took an incredible amount of effort given that this was his first time doing this.

At the same time, he held Hazel close to him so as to not let her see the incredibly mutilated fox that was his aura's manifestation. Thankfully, she didn't resist him putting an arm around her shoulder and keeping her in place.

There weren't too many people in this guild given it was in the magic district but there were still a little under thirty people doing things here or there as well as a half dozen staff members. Every single one of them without exception collapsed. Only a handful of A-rankers and the sole S-ranker present were able to get onto their knees instead of falling entirely.

Many eyed the silently snarling massive golden fox with missing limbs and more scars than fur that was standing behind Lone and Hazel. Dread and an unavoidable feeling of impending death washed over their entire existence.

Lone reckoned he could probably crank up the SP usage and knock every person present out cold, but that wasn't his goal here.

He didn't say anything to the people struggling, and Hazel was too shocked to even try to comment while everyone else was in a fight for lives to simple breathe.

It was only when Lone felt an SSS-ranked aura from near the top of the building lock onto him did he retract his own aura, though his manifestation looked up to the ceiling in a challenging manner as if the grotesque fox wished the push against that aura and crush it out of existence just before it faded and returned to Lone.

Dozen of gasps for air filled the room.

Surprising to most but not to Lone, the first thing said wasn't insults, pleas for mercy, nor was it outraged adventurers demanding an explanation, no, it was exclamations of skills gains.

The sole S-ranker in the room stuttered, "A-Aura Pressure R-Resistance gained four levels! That was... But you're only a B-ranker!"

"I gained the skill and it leveled two times!" an A-ranker claimed.

"Me too but I got three levels!" a C-ranker added.

Many more voices chimed in. Every single person in the room claimed to have earned or levelled the skill.

Lone let go of Hazel and reached down while crouching. With one hand for each, he helped the C-ranker woman and the D-ranker man back onto their feet. He patted their shoulders in a friendly manner.

"I'm a skill tutor myself with Teaching Mastery at expert rank. I happen to not own Extended Swing and this is a reward for my sister for a favour she did for me recently, so we will be taking the lesson, not you two. Consider the levels or the new skill you just gained an apology for not letting you have time with Sir Ashford right now. I'll be sure to speak on your behalf to give you two a session in case he needs to leave shortly after ours. Does that sound fair to you two?" Lone asked.

The woman was shaking in fear but the man seemed to have a bit more sense in him that she did. "W-We're sorry for causing trouble with your s-sister, Lord McCullen. We're very thankful for the experience and you don't need to speak for us, but we woul- would be appreciative if you did."

Lone's smile widened. "It's no bother at all."

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