Laying Low

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What is a Rat?

Leon surely didn't think of it as something important. From his knowledge, it is a street rank. He didn't mind how demeaning it is or the fact that it targets the beggars and the lowest end thugs but to gain a title for it all of a damn sudden… he needed to get down to the bottom of this.

"It seems I'm your senior now." Jordi patted his shoulder.

"Wasn't it a bit easy?" Leon asked.

"You're staying?"

"Getting hired by the Madam, I mean."

"Oh!" Jordi laughed, "I'll give you a week before we find you beaten in an alley somewhere before you take your hide and go back where you came from."

The way he said it was natural yet Leon had to take a few blinks to realize the challenge carried in his words. He looked well at Jordi and read his status.

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< Jordi - Lv.1 N/A >

[STR: 8] [END: 10] [AGI: 4] [PRC: 7] [INT: 4]

- Titles: {Rat} {Fatso}

- Skills: N/A

- Talent: (Proficiency: 12%)

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So there are people who are even worse than the previous Leon.

"You don't look anything special yourself." Leon stared at Jordi.

"Oh! You see this." Jordi pointed to his fat belly then slapped it, "Armor!"

Leon couldn't help but laugh as he left the table and took the empty bowl to the bar.

"You don't believe me? Take me in any fight and I'll take hits like a knight." Jordi felt offended being laughed at.

"Right right, don't mention those fuckers and jinx my morning, please." Leon replied walking past Jessica.

"Hey." She called.

"What?" He replied.

"That was a stupid decision, you country bumpkin?" She said.

"Getting hired? How so?" He asked.

"Once a Rat, always a Rat. You are now branded." Jessica said in a hateful tone, "You should have just left."

"What do you mean branded?" He asked.

"Don't listen to her." Jordi tried to pull Leon away from Jessica but he was impossible to be moved.

"A bumpkin like you won't understand anyway." Jessica said and shrugged her shoulders.

Leon narrowed his eyes. He surely doesn't want to be branded by something or someone but the word didn't sound right to him.

"Does it…" He thought about something to ask but he hesitated yet he eventually asked, "Does it have anything to do with… let's say… a Title?"

His question took Jessica by a surprise. She blinked at him twice then walked away.

"For a pumpkin, you do have a brain. I wouldn't ask more questions if I were you now." Those were the words she left for him before going up.

"What the…"

Leon felt he had more answers sooner than he expected yet it still left him with questions. Still, a brand or not, it is nothing he can't handle.

"Hey, let's go. I'll show you around." Jordi pulled Leon finally out of the saloon, "As Jessica said, keep your question to yourself and do your job, alright?"

"Whatever."

Jordi sighed and pushed out the gate of the saloon out to the street. The first thing to come in before they go out was sunlight, warm golden rays of warmth and beauty. The cold weather of Karanberg may have affected Leon a bit especially after the dib he took in the river but this sunlight felt him with life instantly.

"What a feeling!" Even the dark Leon himself felt blessed as he stretched his limbs in the sun.

"Yeah, the blessing of Nar is the sweetest in such a cold morning. Spring is fucked up, man. You'd never know if a storm will come or it is just sunny."

"Yeah." Leon agreed.

"Good, here."

Jordi didn't even wait to throw a piece of dirty cloth at Leon and a brush then he grabbed an empty water bucket.

"What's this?" Leon asked.

"A towel and a brush, I bring the water, you wipe the floor." Jordi replied.

"I thought you're showing me around!"

"While cleaning… and evaluating your skill."

"Fuck!"

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***

The amount of space required to clean was legendary for just the two of them. Leon proved himself faster than Jordi but the fatso would leave any place he cleans spotless.

During the storm, mud and dirt would assault every part of the building with people coming and going. On top of that, the condition of the streets in the Northern District was so bad that a small puddle of water would generate an endless amount of mud. To make it worse, the people who started to come and go wouldn't even bother leaving their dirty footprints wherever Leon and Jordi cleaned.

"A Rat, huh?" Leon laughed as he cleaned the long trace of mud on the sidewalk outside the saloon.

"Feel it now?"

"Not that bad actually."

Leon didn't mind a bit of hard work. Back in the day when he finished high school (as Shady), he had to go through the basic forced conscription of the army as a basic requirement for the Medjay. He spent two years as a soldier mostly scrubbing the floors and everyday drills. This level of wiping mod is nothing but a walk in the park to someone who went through the real shit.

Anyway, from wiping the sideways to cleaning the tables inside to sweeping the backyard, Leon understood the layout of the ground floor and the cellar.

When he asked about the upper floor, Jordi told him that the upper floor is where the girls of the tavern sleep and as they mostly work at night, they wake up only in the afternoon. Jessica being an exception as she is the poster girl of the saloon and the most expensive when it comes to prostitution.

"The most important thing to keep in mind is to never touch the girls." Jordi made that point clear, "Well… unless they touch you first."

"Why do I hear sadness?" Leon asked with a sly smile.

"Yeah, very funny." Jordi felt bitter as he looked away.

From the looks of it, Jordi is as old as Leon but with a meek, cowardly and careful attitude. He surely fears confronting people higher to him in the hierarchy and since he is the Rat at the bottom of the ladder, it makes him at an all-time bad position. Still, temporary workers like Leon are the easiest for him to get involved with.

Eventually, Jordi showed Leon back to the laundry room where there were two other rooms separated, each for one of them. Calling them rooms is a stretch as they were barely enough to stretch one's body on a creaking bed amidst the smell of the laundry.

All in all, the theme of the saloon was just disgusting especially in the laundry shack connected to the main building where most of the wood is rotten and the roof is barely enough.

The reason why Leon chose such a place to lay low in is because of how "low" it is. The Knights will surely look for him in places where they may expect him to spend the money he looted from the dead Academy guards but never in their wildest dreams would they expect him in such a place. After all, even Leon had the sense of an aristocrat, unlike Shady who is used to slums and poor lifestyle.

Also, the saloon's backyard has direct access to the river which he fell on last night. Waterways like this are way too good for anyone who wants to vanish. They are connected to the sewers, the smaller waterways, the main streams, and eventually out of the city if he wanted. The boats and transport vessels were all over the river as well.

This place is just perfect for hiding.

"Hey, you want to go out and buy some stuff for yourself? A garment or two?" Jordi asked.

"Hm? No, later. I'll take some rest now. My head's still dizzy."

Leon made up an excuse to find a leeway from work right at the time of noon and went into the room he was given. Jordi didn't bother him as the next shift of work should start when the customers start arriving and he is going on some errands at the moment.

Leon still needed to sort his head and put some plans.

He is now mostly hidden but who knows what circumstances that may arise in the future so he needed a Plan B if things went south and he was discovered here. On top of that, he needed more resources. The salary of the Rat job is 20 copper pennies weekly which isn't anything great as far as he understands it.

He has some weapons stored in [Space-Time Magic: Storage] such as a couple of swords and a spear in addition to a crossbow with no ammo and lastly the Mithril Dagger which is his secret trump card. On top of it, he gained something extra yesterday.

When he was pushed by Knight Eric Marth and fell together in the river, he managed to store the Mithril Dagger and the cloak which the knight used to sneak up on him.

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[Chameleon Cloak] <Rare>

- Blend with the surroundings. Works better in the dark.

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It was some sort of a treasure handed over to him. Still, a treasure he has no idea how to use.

"Let's keep it away for now."

Leon sat on the bed and kept thinking of what to do or which direction to take. He doesn't know anything and escaping out of the city is risky. He can surely leave but he still lacks on everything relying only on bluffs to blend in the place.

But there's a limit to how he can survive this way.

Now that he lost his tail, what he needs before food and drink is a source of information to fill in the gap about his lacking common sense about this world. Jordi is naive enough to use in such a situation but not enough. What Leon really needs is connections, a backer, someone to support him.

"Status!"

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<Status>

- Name: Leon Dark

- Age: 16

- Race: Human

- Level: 13

- Class: Warrior (+10% STR)

- Class: Sentinel (+10% END)

- Titles:{Legendary Thief} {Humanoid Slayer} {Black Cobra} {Loser} {Rat}

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<Attributes>

[STR: 17] [END: 18] [AGI: 19] [PRC: 19] [INT: 18]

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<Proficiency>

- Talent: 200%

- Affinity: All

- Special: Dual Class

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<Skills>

[Artillery Technique Lv.9] [Blade Technique Lv.6 ↑] [Unarmed Technique Lv.5] [Stealth Technique Lv.8] [Riding Technique Lv.5] [Martial Technique Lv.5] [Engineering Technique Lv.3] [Poison Resistance Lv3] [Pain Resistance Lv.2] [Physical Resistance Lv.1 ★] [Space-Time Magic Lv.1] [Knowledge Magic Lv.1] [Air Magic Lv.1 ★] [Earth Magic Lb.1] [Combat Magic Lv.2]

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<Features>

[Ring of Relife]

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"Level 13? So I leveled up twice from killing that Level 17 Knight? This is broken but… am I not leveling up a bit too fast?"

Leon tried understanding why he was actually skyrocketing the levels? Yes, he has a Growth of 200% meaning that he is gathering experience twice what is possible. From Leon's memories, those who have more than 100% Growth rate are called [Executioners]. He doesn't understand why but people hold those Executioners in high regard.

Still, if he has so much Growth and can level up twice as fast, why are people like the Prince and the other students stuck around level 10? He is currently higher than most of those students in the Academy in a single night.

The only theory he can think of is the Dual Classes. He can level up twice as fast but two classes enjoy this benefit and they all share the same level and don't have their own level meaning… he doesn't level up twice as fast… he actually levels up Four Times as fast.

The level cap from the game was Level 10, it may not sound great for an RPG but it was a story-based progression.

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In the end, nothing made sense and as Leon predicted, the information of a game is hardly useful in real life. That's why he ignored most of the information from the game.

Still, something was bothering him about the Rat title thus he decided to use the skill "Read" on it

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[Rat] <Trash Title>

- Lowest tier title in the criminal syndicates.

- Disadvantage against all higher Ranks.

- Disadvantage in Sociability with those who are aware of the title.

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"A problematic thing indeed."

So basically the harm of this title comes if someone is aware of it or with someone higher in rank. Other than that, he can just keep it hidden. After all, it is proof of the fact that he is a subordinate of some shady syndicate and makes people frown on him.

Still, reading about this title made him read the others.

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[Black Cobra] <Unique Title>

- The Title of a Legendary Thief from another world whose fame spread beyond sense.

- Advantage of all Assassination Actions by 100%.

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[Legendary Thief] <Legendary Title]

- A title given to those who stole more than the worth of 2.5 Million Gold during their career.

- Advantage on all Thievery Actions by 100%.

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[Humanoid Slayer] <Uncommon Title>

- A title given to those who killed more than 100 Humanoids.

- Advantage in attacks against Humanoids by 25%.

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[Loser] <Trash Title>

- A Title acquired by the infamy of being inferior among one's peers.

- Disadvantage in All Actions against those who are aware of the title.

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"Holy shit! These titles are as big of a deal as even the skills."

All these game mechanics were translated to real life in a strange way making Leon almost not believe himself seeing them. If there wasn't any of Leon's persona against him, Shady would be trying hard to slap himself to wake up from whatever nightmare this is.

A total of 1 Unique, 1 Legendary, 1 Uncommon and 2 Trash titles. The sheer benefits of the beneficial three titles are simply crazy but this "Loser" title is very dangerous. Even its description is humiliating.

"How to get rid of this?" Leon thought.

The answer was there right in front of him. If the title was that of infamy because of what his peers from the royal Academy think of him, the best course of action is to put them in place and wipe out the title. To make them regret looking down on him. To break their pride and squash them like bugs beneath his feet.

A dark sensation rose from within causing his smile to become obviously evil for a second before he came to his senses and returned normal.

What a sudden feeling that was!

Leon's mind felt exhausted from all the thinking and he covered his face with his two cold palms. He has a lot of things to do now and they are mostly priorities. Getting information, getting support, getting rid of the disadvantageous titles.

"Assuming that Knowledge Magic is a rare commodity, I think there are methods similar to the Magic Identification Plate which I have here to recognize the titles of people. If I used the [Knowledge Magic: Forgery] skill, I can completely falsify my status like this…"

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- Name: Leo

- Level: 2

- Class: Warrior

- Titles: {Rat}

- Skills: [Blade Technique Lv.2] [Combat Technique Lv.1] [Physical Resistance Lv.1]

- Proficiency: (Growth: 20%) (Affinity: Air)

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"This will make my Status within the range of the common people but good enough for the big-time criminals to recruit me in their ranks. I suppose one day the chance will come when I will have to show it to someone."

Leon finally had some peace of mind and a rough plan ahead. His next course of action is to prepare.

*Knock knock knock*

The door to his room was knocked on and Jordi's voice followed.

"Hey, Leo. It's time to get back to work. We're helping in the kitchen." Jordi said.

"From his voice, I can tell that this is his favorite chore." Leon smiled and walked out.

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