The Girl of Dusk

"Yohan! Where the hell are you wandering off to this time? The Academy entrance ceremony is only three ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weeks away!"

I left the shop behind, tuning out my father's endless nagging. There was something far more important than helping with the family business.

The leather clothes I'd thrown on were more uncomfortable than I'd expected. This was one of those moments that made you appreciate the glory of modern factory-made clothing. It felt like I was wearing tree bark.

"Look, it's Yohan."

"Wow. He's disgustingly good-looking. That's the baker's kid, right?"

"I, um, I go to that bakery just to see him."

The murmuring carried all the way to me. My face burned.

Did I get a little too self-indulgent with the character customization?

This was a feeling I'd never experienced in real life. It felt good, sure, but it was also pretty embarrassing. So this was the burden of the unfairly handsome.

Admission to the Academy.

That was my first goal right now. Getting in, however, required some preparation.

First, I need to learn a skill.

To pass the Academy entrance exam, you needed at least one skill. And a garbage D-Rank skill wouldn't cut it — you needed C-Rank or higher at minimum. Right now, I didn't have a single skill to my name.

In Legend Route, there were two ways to learn skills.

The first was through a skillbook, sold at skill shops. Naturally, the better the skill, the more expensive the book. You could scrape together enough for a low-grade skill of D-Rank or below, but those wouldn't get you through the entrance exam. Buying from a skill shop was out of the question.

The second method was learning a skill from a companion who already knew it. Unlike the first option, this one didn't cost any money. To receive a skill transfer, you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠needed 70 or more affection. Affection grinding was an incredibly tedious slog, so without some serious dedication, learning a skill from a companion was basically impossible. And even high affection didn't guarantee success. Skill transfers went through at a certain probability — and that probability was less than ten percent. For the record, higher Luck boosted the odds. That was one of the reasons Luck mattered so much in Legend Route.

Learning a skill from a companion was impossible for me right now. I didn't have any companions who knew skills. Which meant I had to acquire one through a skillbook.

Legend Route had something called a Hidden Piece — secret elements buried in the game, ranging from tiny easter eggs to bonuses that let you speedrun the whole thing with ease. Naturally, some of those Hidden Pieces were skillbooks. And that was exactly what I was after.

I arrived at the back alleys of the Royal Capital. A sour, filthy stench hung thick in the air — not a place you wanted to walk through with a clear head. You had to stay alert here. There was always a chance of running into the worst kind of thug. Pick a fight with those types, and you'd lose your money. In the worst case, you'd lose your life. This street was packed with desperate people who lived like there was no tomorrow.

I picked my way through the alleys until I reached an old warehouse — a half-burned wreck of a building. The in-game geography matched reality closely enough that finding it didn't take long. Rumor had it ghosts came out here every night, so even the homeless wouldn't go near it. The rumor wasn't entirely false. There was something here that called ghosts to it.

"This place is filthy. Better find it and get out fast."

I searched the warehouse. The same sour mold-stench from the alley stabbed at my nose. A worry flickered through me — what if it wasn't here? — but that worry died the moment I spotted a small chest beneath a heap of dust-caked rubble. It gleamed with a silvery, luminous light. It was here, just as I'd known it would be.

I opened the chest. Inside were a single book and a small dagger.

The silver blade was the Ghost Soul Dagger, an A-Rank weapon. Despite having no equip requirements, it packed a Power of 30 — the strongest raw-damage starter weapon in the early game. It even came with a 10% Critical Rate, so if you upgraded it well, it could stay useful all the way into the late game. Of course, that required a bit of Luck.

The problem was the chance of cursing the user…

That's exactly why I stacked Luck.

The curse chance dropped as Luck increased. Once Luck exceeded 50, the curse wouldn't trigger at all. My current Luck was 20. I couldn't seal the curse completely, but I could suppress it considerably. The whole point of Legend Route's "dagger run" was getting Luck to 20.

The skill contained in the skillbook was Knife Shot. On the surface, it was a simple skill that created knives and flung them — but it was A-Rank.

There were two reasons this skill sat at A-Rank. The first was the Instant Kill Dagger, which guaranteed a critical hit. Ten percent didn't sound like much, but that rate received a correction from Luck. Once Luck exceeded 50, you were looking at Instant Kill Daggers nearly half the time.

The other reason was the skill coefficient. Knife Shot's coefficient was Luck multiplied by Skill Level. As the skill leveled up, the coefficient itself changed, which meant the skill's potential was enormous. Most skills just hit harder when they leveled up. Skills that increased hit count or scaled their coefficient were extremely rare. Knife Shot's formula was, by any measure, exceptional.

I used the skillbook and learned the skill.

The moment I learned it, I knew how to use the skill. I tried it out as practice.

"Knife Shot."

Three knives of condensed mana materialized in the air. One knife per five Mana. I flicked my hand, and the blades flew toward the spot I'd aimed at.

Shnk!

The knives that had buried themselves in the wall vanished a moment later. The holes they'd punched into the stone remained, clear as day.

"The power's still just so-so. Probably because the skill level is low."

Aiming the knives was going to take some practice too. I'd use this place as my training ground for a while.

The date of the Academy entrance exam had drawn close — just one week left.

Anyone could apply for the exam, so plenty of commoners put their names in. Tuition was a bit expensive, but the Academy was almost the only real path to social mobility. It wasn't uncommon for entire families to pool everything they had to support a single applicant. Legend Route had quite a few commoner characters with that kind of backstory. Of course, the students who actually got in were a mere handful among the countless challengers.

"I'm starting to get the hang of these knives."

Those were the skills I currently knew. Two combat skills, one support skill, and one crafting skill.

Knife Shot, Haste, and Shadow Chain were all skills that helped in a fight, directly or otherwise. With this much, I'd pass the Academy entrance exam without any trouble.

Sun's Gauntlet was a crafting-line skill. There were all kinds of crafting skills, and baking happened to be one of them. If you picked up a crafting skill in Legend Route, you usually went for smithing or alchemy — those were more intuitive and more useful. I had my reasons for choosing baking anyway.

When it comes to affection grinding, the cooking tree is unbeatable.

Legend Route's Affection System was sophisticated enough to rival any dating sim. Raising a specific character's affection meant watching every single action and picking the right choice from a sea of options. There was, however, a way to make that grind much easier: gifting them delicious food.

Of all the cooking skills I could have taken, I chose baking for two reasons. One, I'd always liked bread. Two, my family ran a bakery. Thanks to that, I'd been able to practice constantly and push the skill all the way to level 5. My parents had been delighted that their son had finally come ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to his senses — unfortunately, this late-blooming son was planning to leave home the week after next.

"That should be enough training for today."

My training ground was the half-burned warehouse where I'd found the Ghost Soul Dagger. Nobody ever came here, which made it the perfect place to practice alone.

I finished training and headed home. I was winding through the crooked alleys when a rough voice slammed into my ears.

"Heh heh! You little rat bitch. Finally caught you."

That swaggering tone belonged to a thug, no question. It wasn't aimed at me. The voice had come from the mouth of the alley.

"You snatched a whole two silver off us. You ready for what's coming?"

"Boss. This one's actually pretty easy on the eyes. How about we sell her off to a brothel? We'd make a killing."

"Obviously. But first, let's have a little fun ourselves."

The conversation was as vile as the voices delivering it. I started walking toward the sound.

Two men and one woman stood there. The men were thugs infamous even on these streets for how rotten they were — One-Eyed Hans and Lanky Sam. Each of them actually had a physical disability, and both were known for a brutality that didn't know when to stop.

The woman in front of them was a striking beauty with a black bob. Her eyes didn't match her petite frame at all — they looked like they'd weathered every storm the world had to offer. Her clothes were shabby and worn, but the butterfly-shaped hairpin in her hair was shiny and new.

That's Sierra.

The girl was a character from the original story. Her full name was Sierra Grimkeeper. She was one of the mid-bosses in the source material.

Sierra, known by the epithet "Visitor of Dusk," was a thief-class character. Thanks to her striking looks and cool personality, she was quite popular — she always ranked high in the "characters we want as playable" polls.

"Heh heh. You're gonna pay back that stolen money with your body."

One-Eyed Hans said it with a greasy smile. His words made the whole situation click into place.

Running into Sierra here, of all places… Wait. Isn't this a huge opportunity?

Sierra's trait was Empress of Dusk — a trait that synergized perfectly with the skills I'd learned.

I'd just stumbled onto an incredible opportunity in a place I never expected.