"I don't mind if he joins us. I'm sure you know already, but we aren't exactly in the best of spots. We're willing to take all the help we can get, so we'd be glad to have him on board. Especially if he's strong," said the knight named Carlotta. "Anyways, why don't we head inside?"
God damn Nell, talk about trust. I almost can't believe they're actually going to let me inside just 'cause you vouched for me. I followed the hero, who traced the other knight's footsteps as she made her way inside the run-down shack.
"What was that…?" I was assaulted by a minor sense of discomfort the moment I walked through the door; an unpleasant sensation shot through my body. The hell…? Did they do something to me just now…?
"Wow. You actually noticed that?" The knight regarded me with a surprised gaze. "I guess that means you really are fairly strong after all."
"What did you just do…?" I asked.
"No need to be so alarmed. It wasn't anything out of the norm," she replied. "While, yes, Nell did introduce you to us, and that does account for a certain degree of credibility, we're not so foolish as to let just anyone enter our ranks without prior inspection. The fact that you were able to enter the door means you don't bear us any ill will."
Carlotta took what looked like some sort of document from a man that came from further within the building and began to skim through it, muttering as she did. "It looks like you're human… And that the mask is just a normal mask. I was almost expecting it to be some sort of magically enhanced device…"
"Huh…?" Hearing the report caused Nell's face to contort with surprise. She looked like she was about to say something stupid, I gave her the look and used my eyes to tell her to keep quiet while shrugging in response to her confusion.
"What else were you expecting? I only came to help, after all."
"Hmmm…" she seemed to give me another judging, suspicious look. The tense air lasted for a good bit, but she eventually relaxed. "I see. I hope you'll excuse us for how rude we were being then."
"All good." The calm natural manner in which I spoke failed to relay my real emotions. The truth of the matter was that my heart was pounding. Hooooooooooly sh*t. This woman be scary. She totally managed to get me to relax the moment before she tested me, just so I'd drop my guard. And she even managed to smile like nothing was up. Goddamn, she's terrifying. I need an adult.
Oh man, I'm lucky I actually listened to Nell when she was talking about how they had items that would let them ID people. I would've been taken off the field before I even got to swing if I hadn't had any countermeasures in place. The reason that the item Carlotta used to analyze me had identified me as a human was obviously not because I had experienced yet another rebirth. Rather, it came in the form of a skill, a skill I had only recently acquired: Disguise.
Disguise was what I had ended up choosing over the remote-controlled golem strategy that I had in mind at first; it was just a better use of DP. The skill seemed more or less identical to the one that Lefi used to stop me from seeing her stat numbers. It showed my enemies what I wanted them to see and hid what I didn't. Of course, I had already set up my character sheet to look a certain way in advance.
***
General Information
Name: Wye
Race: Human
Class: Thief
Level: 35
HP: 1603/1603
MP: 1167/1167
Strength: 411
Vitaility: 443
Agility: 682
Magic: 451
Dexterity: 638
Luck: 72
Skills
Martial Arts Mastery III
Stealth IV
Enemy Detection III
Sword Mastery I
Titles
One Who Judges
***
My name, Wye, came from the first letter of Yuki, my actual name. Now, I know where you're going with this. Yeah, I know I sound like a goddamn simpleton, but that's not the point. What matters is that I didn't forget that I needed a pseudonym.
All my stats had gone through a bit of tweaking. I adjusted them all to make them significantly lower than the hero's. My class, thief, was just one I happened to think of and like. I went along with the whole thief theme by giving my falsified agility and dexterity stats a little bit of a boost. The only skills I left on my character sheet were ones that were likely to be found on an actual thief, and I'd intentionally kept all their levels fairly low. Apparently, level 5 skills were only supposed to be found amongst the truly skilled, so I avoided them like the plague.
While I could have just left my title section blank, I felt as if not having anything would've made my stat page seem a bit empty, so I kept the most normal one visible and hid the rest.
I had no idea what the item in question allowed the knight to see, but either way, I assumed I would come off as someone that was fairly capable as far as humans were concerned either way.
Of course, the stats I had on display were a far cry away from my actual stats.
***
General Information
Name: Yuki
Race: Demon Lord
Class: Demon Lord of Judgement
Level: 43
HP: 3101/3101
MP: 10442/10442
Strength: 911
Vitality: 926
Agility: 818
Magic: 1161
Dexterity: 1423
Luck: 73
Skill Points: 0
Unique Skills
Magic Eye
Translation
Flight
Skills
Item Box
Analyze VIII
Martial Arts Mastery IV
Primordial Magic V
Stealth V
Enemy Detection V
Sword Mastery II
Weapon Transmutation IV
Enchant IV
Trap Techniques I
Greatsword Mastery II
Disguise II
Crisis Detection I
Titles
Demon Lord From Another World
Supreme Dragon's Owner
One Who Judges
One Hostile to Humanity
DP: 104356
***
I was coming along fairly well, if I did say so myself. My level had risen, and most of my skills were a good bit higher than they'd been just a while ago. I was particularly proud of Sword Mastery, which had finally risen to its second level. Hnnng.
I'd also gotten several new skills: Greatsword Mastery, which I had naturally obtained while swinging a massive blade all willy nilly; Disguise, which I bought with DP for the purposes of this outing; and Crisis Detection, which seemed pretty damn useful as far as I was concerned. Unlike the Greatsword Mastery skill, the Disguise skill had been levelled artificially; I had dumped all my skill points into it in order to provide it with a bit of a boost. Like many other skills, its effectiveness was based on both its level and the difference between my stats and the stats of those around me. That was why I was able to deceive many others despite the skill being only level 2.
"Wye, was it? I'm going to refrain from asking exactly who you are for now. I've no problems with you since you don't seem to be harbouring any sort of malicious intent," said the lightly armoured female knight. "Can I count on you to use those skills of yours to help our cause?"
"That's why I'm here."
"Thank you. I do appreciate it given how understaffed we are." She nodded. "Alright, why don't we make for our destination? For real this time."
And so, Nell and I followed Carlotta deeper into the shabby excuse of a building. I looked around our surroundings from behind my mask as we moved, surveying every last detail out of sheer curiosity. But soon, I was stopped. The hero tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in a voice too quiet for anyone but me to hear. "What did they do? Why do they think you're human?"
"Oh, you know, just messed with my stat page a bit" I whispered back. "And, see, I told you there wouldn't be any problems."
"To be honest, I was feeling really anxious and on edge. Thank goodness nothing happened."
Me too. Me too. The she-knight honestly deserved to have found me out. The way she had come snooping the moment I let my guard down had me spooked. Chances were, she'd been planning it all right from the start.
"Over here. Watch your feet. The floor here isn't exactly in the best of states." Carlotta issued a few instructions after stopping in front of what looked like nothing more than just another wall. "May the Lord guide us to salvation."
A secret panel rose to reveal a hidden pathway the moment she finished reciting some sort of phrase or passcode.
"…Woah." I blinked a few times as I looked on in astonishment. Holy sh*t. Is that a secret passageway? Fuck yes! I've always wanted to try using one of these!
The door the knight had opened seemed to lead deeper underground. Dim lights hang from the passage's ceiling, illuminating a dull looking path.
"Let's go." And with her words as the cue, the knight once again began to lead us.
I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement rise within me as I followed.