"A Rogue?" he repeated her words, his eyes narrowing. The word hung in the air, a different kind of threat than he'd expected.
"Y-yes," she said, her voice pleading, thin with fear. "Please don't kill me."
"Hmm…" Ash didn't lower his sword. His grip remained steady, the blade a cold gleam near her throat. "Why did you come here?"
The girl hesitated, her fingers fidgeting with the strap of her sling bag. Her gaze darted around the room, avoiding his direct stare.
He moved his sword a fraction closer to her neck. She raised both hands hastily, a quick, defensive gesture.
"I-I am going to steal an item from here!" she blurted out, half a shout, the words tumbling out in a rush.
"What item?" He pressed further, his eyes still narrowed, studying her reactions.
"Emm… a-a grimoire," she answered, the hesitation clear in her tone.
"Is that the item in your quest?" He pushed, a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"Ah, no...no..." The girl shook her head as quickly as she could, her red hair swaying.
"Then why do you want to take it?"
"B-Because I want to steal it…"
"What the f—"
"I am a Rogue! What do you expect?!" she gritted her teeth, annoyance now mixing with her fear.
Ash was stunned. A Rogue wanting to steal something not on her quest list was unexpected. He regretted not reading all the profession descriptions when he first started the game. This world, he realized, held more unique player roles than he'd known.
She tilted her head slightly, her gaze sharp, then asked him, "Are you new here? I mean, in this game world."
He just stared at her, unsure whether to tell the truth. Honesty could be a weakness here.
"Yet you are here, meaning your quest is to retrieve the grimoire. Right?" She asked again, her confidence growing.
"Yeah…" he admitted, a sigh escaping him.
Her smile widened, a flash of white against her freckled face.
"Please withdraw your sword. I don't mean any harm. I'll help you with your quest," the girl persuaded him, her tone now more confident, almost a coaxing whisper.
Ash raised an eyebrow and pondered, 'Can I trust this girl or not?' His instincts, honed by the System's harsh lessons, urged caution. Yet, a part of him acknowledged the benefit of cooperation.
Seeing his hesitation, she tried harder to persuade him. "I swear. My skills aren't for fighting. That's why I need a partner."
"What are your skills?" he asked, a flicker of curiosity replacing his doubt.
"Treasure Sense," she answered, a slight frown touching her lips as if the skill itself was a simple, obvious thing.
He was astonished. "So, you steal valuable items with your Treasure Sense skill?"
"Yes," She nodded, enthusiastically.
"No fighting skill?"
"Yes," she nodded once more.
He raised his left eyebrow. "What exactly is your quest?"
"Mmm... Most of them involve stealing from monsters or something," the red-haired girl answered, her eyes still on the tip of his sword. "Please withdraw your sword first."
He thought about her demand for a moment. Her words hinted at knowledge, a different way of playing the game. He slowly sheathed his sword. "You'll face the consequences if you mess around," he warned, his voice low and steady.
She shook her head, raising both hands in the air. "I won't, I swear on my life."
"Huh, it's easy to swear something like that. We'll see," Ash said, skepticism clear in his voice. He walked toward the table. He picked up the penknife he had repaired, turning it over in his hand, wondering what to do next.
Maya, who had watched his every move, suddenly spoke. "Let me solve the puzzle for you. And the item remains yours."
He glanced at her, narrowing his eyes, clearly not convinced. "Then what's the payment?" he asked. "You're not going to help me for nothing, are you?"
She grinned, making her freckles stand out when she smiled. "I need your help to steal an item from the Pterodactyls' nest."
He turned to her in surprise. "A Pterodactyls' nest? Are you kidding me?" he exclaimed, disbelief in his voice.
"Nope," she answered, still grinning. "That's my quest."
'Huh, pterodactyl… This is crazy,' he grumbled inwardly, pondering the offer. With so many people wanting to kill him, he had to be careful. But a Rogue with Treasure Sense and a quest involving a Pterodactyls' nest... that was certainly a unique set of circumstances. Perhaps, a useful one.
"Okay, but the agreement is valid only if you can get the grimoire for me," He finally agreed to her proposal, a calculated risk.
"Deal!" she said, her smile broadening. She stretched out her hand for a handshake, which he took reluctantly, his grip firm but wary.
Then he noticed her examining the objects he had found.
"Let me see, can you decipher the puzzle?" he challenged.
Maya just grinned mischievously at him, then took the penknife. She scanned her surroundings, her eyes moving with a practiced speed, then approached the tied sack in the corner.
She cut the rope that bound the sack. Then, from inside, she took out a pencil and a handkerchief.
"How long have you been in this game?" He asked, leaning against the wall next to the window, a bit amazed at how quickly she'd known what to do with the penknife.
"A year," she answered, then placed the pencil and the handkerchief on the table.
"But you seem to have a lot of experience here," he pressed again.
She took a deep breath and answered, "If you're stranded in a place you don't know, it's better to keep yourself busy than to get stressed thinking about a way out that doesn't exist."
He was silent, processing her unexpected answer. He just watched her as she approached the window next to him. Her words held a quiet resignation that he, despite his own desperation, couldn't fully grasp.
"Do you have family?" he couldn't help but ask, curiosity overriding his caution.
She looked at him with a flat expression, devoid of emotion, then answered, "I have six brothers. My family isn't well off, so my parents don't care if I'm there or not. Honestly, I was a pickpocketer myself."
She rummaged through the soil of the flower vase while saying, "Maybe I'd rather be here than that world. The world back there wasn't so friendly to me. Here, at least I can hunt or gather food or meals for myself."
"..."
Ash didn't know what to say. He silently watched her actions, the raw honesty of her words painting a stark picture.
She suddenly took a pair of tweezers out from the soil in the flower pot and then cleaned it with the handkerchief. After it was clean, she dipped the tweezers into the ink bottle on the table.
While doing that, she asked him in return, "What about you? How is your family?"
He answered honestly, "My only family is my mother. I'm different from you; I want to go home and be with my mother."
She looked at him for some time with sympathy, a brief softening in her green eyes, but then went to the shelf with ink bottles neatly arranged on top of it. She rummaged through the ink bottles one by one with the tweezers, and not long after, she lifted a plastic containing a flash disk while grinning.
Ash widened his eyes. "How did you know that thing…"
While wiping the plastic with a handkerchief, she answered, "I like playing with hidden objects or escape room genres. So this is easy for me."
After taking out the flash disk from the plastic, she walked over to the computer on the table. Then she turned on the computer and inserted the flash disk into the USB port.
The screen instantly showed a type of puzzle game. The objective of that game was to fill in the cut-out images with the correct images. It was similar to a jigsaw puzzle game but with a more specific theme.
With astonishing speed, she solved it in just mere minutes. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, her eyes sharp and focused.
After the game ended, a code with the number 71092 appeared on the screen.
"What code is that?" he asked, pointing his index finger to the screen next to her.
"The combination code to solve a certain puzzle. Usually, we have to insert it in a safe or something," she answered, writing the numbers down on a paper with the pencil she had found earlier from the sack.
"Oh, I see..." He nodded in understanding.
Hearing his response, she turned to him and asked, "Have you never played a hidden object game? Or escape room?"
"Ha..ha..ha.." He laughed, scratching the back of his head. "I prefer playing Action type games."
"Hehehe, boys your age usually play that kind of game," she chuckled. She walked around the office, touching or pressing various objects, her movements quick and purposeful.
When she pressed the painting behind the work chair, a clicking sound was heard, and the painting shifted upwards.
Behind the painting, there was a small safe with numbered buttons.
She grinned at him, then pressed the buttons according to the combination code she had written down earlier.
Click.
With a soft click, the small safe opened. Inside it, there was a book with a black leather cover. She took it with the handkerchief, then handed it to Ash.
"Tadaaaa! There you go, your grimoire," she said, laughing proudly, a hint of childish delight in her voice.
Ash, stunned by what Maya had done, accepted the book in a daze.
A screen appeared in front of him, showing that he had finished the quest.
[You obtained the Supreme Magus' Grimoire.]
[Item Rank: Special.]
[You received: 10 points.]
[Total points: 15.]
[You have completed 1 quest.]
[Remaining quest: 1.]
Reading the screen, he happily opened the grimoire and saw various notes about magic. Maya enthusiastically looked alongside him.
The Grimoire contained extensive and complex magical knowledge, a record of the Supreme Magus' experiences, an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of magic, and hidden secrets and powers.
"Maya? Can we use magic in this world?" he asked, eager to know more about the game world's rules.
"Of course. We're in a fantasy world, after all," she replied, her tone matter-of-fact.
His eyes sparkled. He would have a chance to learn magic! The thought ignited a new kind of hope.
Then the two of them discussed the book's contents and planned to rest in the hotel that night.
***
They were already asleep in their chosen rooms when two tigers entered the hotel through a broken window. The sound of their footsteps was not heard on the dusty floor, their movements silent, predatory.
One of the tigers went up to the second floor and sniffed at the closed room door where Ash was sleeping.
Then the tiger pounced at the door, and it made a loud bang.