Two-Star Promotion

"Aaaargh!"

"Hah!"

Kyle stopped my charge with a front kick. The impact that slammed through me made the snake monsters of the E-rank dungeon feel like a joke. Even with my shield up, the force was this brutal. The thought of taking Kyle's fists on bare skin was starting to scare ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me.

Fucking attribute!

Kyle's attribute was Darkness — a hard counter to my Null. In game terms, every one of his attacks was hitting me for 150% damage. His stats sat lower than mine, but the attribute advantage was more than enough to close that gap.

...I'm still holding on!

The idea of eating Kyle's punches terrified me, if I was being honest, but I crushed the fear down. I wasn't the only one standing in this room. If Aquaril was anything like what I'd seen of her so far, she was more than capable of killing Kyle.

That was when it happened.

...What?

A prompt appeared in front of my eyes, telling me I could switch my main attribute. The second I read it, my brain short-circuited.

Wait, what the fuck? They don't stack?

I'd had multiple attributes, so I'd just assumed they all applied at once. Apparently not. Come to think of it, simultaneous application never made sense. I'd hold the advantage no matter what the enemy used — which also meant I'd always be wide open to an attribute counter of my own.

Shit!

A few seconds of thought would have been enough to figure this out, but I'd been too buried in grinding to notice. A mistake unworthy of a former ranker. Then again, I couldn't really blame myself. Switching attributes wasn't a system that existed in Fairy Masters.

This is embarrassing. Switch it. Now. Water as the main attribute!

The prompt vanished, and my status window appeared in its place. Only one thing had changed: the order of my attributes.

"How dare you soil my Master's chambers with those filthy feet! You'll pay for this crime with your lives, you thieves!"

Kyle charged me in a rage, fist already swinging. I dismissed the status window in a hurry, drove power into my legs, and thrust my shield forward.

His iron fist slammed into the shield. The shock was still considerable — but nowhere near what it had been a moment ago.

This is doable! No — I'm winning this!

Kyle had lost his attribute advantage. My stats were higher than his. On raw specs alone, I had no reason to lose.

"Hah!"

I snapped the shield forward like a jab. Kyle took the hit hard enough to stagger back, a grunt tearing out of him. Close combat was his specialty, and he wasn't afraid of getting hit. He'd probably figured he could tank whatever I threw at him.

That was a serious miscalculation.

We were both one-star, but I was riding the stat boost from my trait — plus eight to every stat — which put my Strength at a full twenty-four points. My attacks were not something he could afford to shrug off.

"Hhk—!"

Kyle hit the floor and rolled, scrambling. A sword carved through the air where his neck had been a heartbeat before.

"You thieves...!"

Aquaril's timing was perfect. Kyle shoved himself up and lunged at her instead. I could read the thought as clearly as if he'd said it out loud. Dropping the guy with the shield would take too long, so he'd put down the real threat first.

There was one more thing he hadn't accounted for.

"I've got a score to settle with you, you son of a bitch!"

"What?!"

My Agility sat two full points higher than my Strength. I closed the distance in a blink, leapt, and brought the shield down at his head.

Kyle threw both arms up just in time, catching the blow against his forearms. Reflexes like that were nothing to sneeze at.

But like I said.

I wasn't the only one here.

Kyle had lifted both arms to protect his head, and his abdomen was wide open. Aquaril didn't waste the opening. Her blade opened his stomach. We were in a house, so he'd been wearing casual clothes instead of leather armor — and casual clothes did nothing against Aquaril's sword. Moonlight pouring through the window gleamed on the blood coating the steel.

"Your turn to eat one in the solar plexus!"

The instant he clutched his stomach, his head was sitting there unguarded. I slipped the shield into my inventory as smoothly as water running downhill and drew the iron sword. I'd been practicing those quick swaps in every spare moment of dungeon crawling.

Sword in hand, I swung for his neck the same way I'd taken the head off that Chimera Rat in the sewers — the one with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the stitched throat.

I didn't take it off in a single stroke the way I had with the Chimera Rat. But the blade cut more than halfway through.

Blood fountained. Kyle grabbed at his own throat, trying to stop the bleeding. It was a wasted effort. I stepped in front of him as he sank to his knees.

"When you hit me in the solar plexus, it fucking hurt."

"Y-you can't be..."

He stared up at me with shaking eyes. Keep hammering the solar plexus and even he was going to figure out who I was.

"Training under you was hell, too. But honestly, that part's fine. I was getting stronger because of it, at least."

This wasn't just about the shots he'd put in my gut. Kyle was the Fairy of Prisia Lily — the woman who'd betrayed me. That bitch had thrown me away knowing full well I was going to die.

This time I took his head clean off. His head and the fingers I'd severed hit the floor. A moment later, Kyle's corpse dissolved into light and vanished.

"Master. Soldiers are approaching."

I didn't need Aquaril to tell me. I could already hear them running outside.

"Buy me a little time? I'll grab what we need and be right out."

"Yes, Master."

She nodded at the request, sword in hand, and stepped out. The blood on her blade had vanished along with Kyle.

Screams erupted beyond the door. If I didn't finish looting soon, those poor soldiers were all going to die.

I stepped through the secret compartment, which still stood wide open. Inside was a massive safe that came up nearly to my chest, along with paintings, sculptures, and other art pieces that looked expensive at a glance. Part of me wanted to take every last scrap. Unfortunately, my inventory wasn't big enough for that. I settled for the safe itself and the small valuables that would fit in a bag, then slipped out of the mansion with Aquaril. The soldiers, unable to pull up a status window, had no way to track us.

I'd collected a very generous settlement.

Prisia Lily's eyes flew open.

She had been shut in the basement, meditating, drowning in guilt over causing Ivan to die yet again — just as he had a year ago. Just now, the thread bound to her soul had snapped.

A Master could sense whether their Fairy lived or died from any distance. Master and Fairy were bound by the soul; she might not know the circumstances, but she could always feel whether they still drew breath.

And she realized her last remaining Fairy was dead.

"Ah, aaaah... AAAAAHH!"

The moment she felt Kyle die, Prisia Lily screamed. Tears of blood ran from her eyes, and the sobbing would not stop. The shock of it finally dropped her where she sat, and the world went black.

We didn't go back to the inn. Strike while the iron's hot — I intended to head straight for the temple.

We've got enough money, right?

The worry crept in on the way there. What if we arrived and came up short on gold? I'd stuffed the entire safe into my inventory, so I had no idea how much was actually inside.

...Ah, fuck it. Don't start worrying already. Just go. If it's not enough, we'll rob someone else.

It was three in the morning — the hour when even a righteous thief didn't have to feel guilty. Right now I was a hero of justice, acting in the public interest. A thief, rather.

Public interest?

Don't know, don't care. If it benefits me, it's the public good. Wait. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Actually, this is pretty good...

I glanced at the safe occupying one of my five inventory slots. There were clearly different kinds of items inside it. But because they were in the safe, they only took up a single slot.

What if I put everything else in the safe, then put the safe in my inventory?

That would mean I could carry a lot more. A nice little exploit.

"That's the place, Master."

Aquaril stopped after a long run and pointed at a shabby, dilapidated building. Cracks showed here and there, as if no one had been looking after it. For reference, Prisia Lily's mansion sat in District 4. The temple was in District 5.

"Does nobody maintain that place?"

"That's correct. There are no practitioners, so people do occasionally come to offer prayers to the Nameless God, but there is no caretaker."

"Got it."

No caretaker was good news for us. It meant we could rank up to two-star without anyone watching.

"Let's go."

"Yes, Master."

Aquaril and I stepped inside. The temple was surprisingly spacious — maybe half a schoolyard — but aside from the pillars holding up the roof and a broken statue standing dead center, there was nothing in it.

"So I just put money here and pray?"

"That's correct."

"Hmm... is that so? Let's see..."

I pulled the safe from my inventory. Opening it required a key.

And my hands were the key. I grabbed the handle and wrenched. The lock broke — no, it came undone.

"These are... gold bars?"

Instead of coins, the safe was packed with gold bars. High-value jewels caught the light as well, along with a few strange documents. I picked up one bar and dropped it into my inventory.

"Oh, fuck."

A single gold bar was worth a million gold. There were twenty bars in the safe — twenty million gold, converted. More than enough for Aquaril and me to rank up.

I pulled ten bars from the safe and set them in front of the headless statue, then slipped the safe back into my inventory.

"You rank up first."

"Yes, Master."

Aquaril knelt before the statue, clasped her hands, and closed her eyes. I watched from behind.

What is she even praying for?

Blinding light erupted from her body. I flinched, caught completely off guard.

"Ugh! Wh-what?"

The light faded a moment later, and a string of notifications bloomed in front of me.

One look at the status window confirmed it. Aquaril had made two-star without a hitch.

"Master."

"Alright. My turn to rank up."

Aquaril rose and turned toward me with a bright smile. I grinned right back.

I took the spot where she'd been praying, dropped to my knees the same way she had, closed my eyes, and started to pray.

The prayer itself...

Please lower the promotion cost. Five million gold just to hit two stars? You've got to be fucking kidding me.

A moment later, the notifications appeared again.

I was finally two-star.