Entering Downtown

In the tabletop room, the Game Master spoke.

[This makes you level 3. The bonuses provided are as follows.]

───
· Two Aptitude Points you can allocate freely.

· A new level 2 spell.

· Your usable level 1 spell slots increase from 3 to 4 (⚀⚀⚀⚀), and you gain 1 level 2 spell slot (⚁).

· You can use the enhanced effect of your innate bloodline trait, 「Shadow Bloodline」.
───

“Oh, and your hit points have increased as well.”

“My hit points?”

[Yes.]

The robed man in front of him answered. Solomon looked down at the character sheet on the table.

But where his hit points, HP, should have been, there wasn’t a number. Instead, messy handwriting sprawled there like graffiti. It didn’t look like digits. It looked like some indecipherable alien script.

“Does that stop me from dying if I take an arrow to the head?”

[That depends on the ‘total amount’ of your hit points.]

“…”

Solomon didn’t press. He simply scanned the room in silence.

It was small. A single table sat in the center, and the walls were draped in blackout curtains. No windows. No visible exit.

“…Where is this?”

[Didn’t I tell you? The tabletop room.]

“What even is this world?”

[It is the world of Dark Camelot, Guild City.]

The robed man continued.

[And from this point on, questions that disrupt enjoyable gameplay are prohibited as well. Didn’t I say that at the start?]

Beneath the hood, a dark shadow writhed where a human face should have been.

“I want to read the rulebook again.”

[That is impossible at this time.]

“Then can I review the die rolls or results so far?”

[That is not possible.]

The voice replied. Solomon cursed internally.

“Then show me the list of level 2 spells I can learn.”

[Here it is. Take your time and look it over.]

With that, a sheet of paper was set in front of him from nowhere.

A new level 2 spell. Expanded spell slots.

With this, he could use four level 1 spell slots and one level 2 spell slot per day.

───
Flame Blade

Paralyzing Strike

Toxic Cloud

Leap

Silence

Petrifying Gaze

Veil of Darkness

…
───

Solomon didn’t hesitate for even a second.

“I’ll learn the level 2 sustained spell, <Veil of Darkness>.”

───
「Veil of Darkness」

Tag — Level 2 spell, Shadow attribute

: Unfurls a veil of darkness. All attacks made within the area, by enemies and allies alike, are treated as ambushes.

: Within the veil, both enemies and allies suffer reduced accuracy, while Defense and Evasion increase.
───

[Understood.]

“And I’ll use the bonus effect of the innate bloodline trait I just gained, 「Shadow Bloodline」.”

There was no reason to hesitate.

All he had to do was move toward the ideal build that already existed in his head.

An innate bloodline trait. Proof granted only to those of the Bale household, one of the Five Great Houses.

Beyond that, the very thing that defined the Five Great Houses as the Five Great Houses.

[Understood. One last time, I will ask again. Will you use the bonus effect of 「Shadow Bloodline」?]

“Yes.”

With that, ink danced across Solomon’s character sheet, writing itself into being.

The core of level 3, and effectively one of the abilities that formed the axis of this build.

───
Innate bloodline trait 「Shadow Bloodline」

When reaching levels that are multiples of 3, the holder of this trait…

「Enhanced Attunement」: You can apply Enhanced Attunement to one Shadow spell of your choice.

: (Unlocked after level 6)

: (Unlocked after level 9)

: (Unlocked after level 12)
───

A trait only the Bale bloodline of the Five Great Houses could use.

The result of using that power was as follows.

The level 2 spell reborn through Enhanced Attunement, Veil of Darkness.

───
「Veil of Darkness」

Tag — Level 2 spell, Shadow attribute, Enhanced Attunement

: Unfurls a veil of darkness. All attacks made within the area, by enemies and allies alike, are treated as ambushes.

: Within the veil, both enemies and allies suffer reduced accuracy, while Defense and Evasion increase.

…

Enhanced Attunement: 「Lord of the Veil」

: The caster does not receive the negative modifier (reduced accuracy) within the veil.

: Hostiles do not receive the positive modifier (Defense and Evasion increase) within the veil.

: Hostile attacks are not treated as ambushes within the veil.
───

A modification that erased any semblance of fairness, turning it into something one-sided.

“I’ll hold onto my Aptitude Points (AP) and not spend them yet.”

Solomon checked his character sheet one last time, then spoke to the Game Master.

The next trait he needed was already decided.

‘I’ll save these two points and learn it next time.’

A build was never something you threw together overnight. You pulled beads from wherever you could and threaded them, one by one. If gathering wasn’t enough, you made them, even if you had to force it.

Even so, Solomon’s character was steadily moving toward the ideal he wanted.

‘The remaining hurdle is getting through level 4 without trouble and reaching level 5.’

The ultimate ambush build that, in theory, could one-shot even an elder dragon, the strongest creature in this world.

───
Available spell slots

Level 1 spells: 4 uses (⚀⚀⚀⚀)

Level 2 spells: 1 use (⚁)
───

Last, he checked the extra die that would form the foundation.

───
Additional dice list

: <Glass Die ⚅> x1
───

Dice had meaning. So that die felt all the more special to Solomon.

“I’ll finish all character adjustments with this.”

[Then, have a good night.]

The darkness beneath the hood flickered like candlelight.

Creepy and bizarre, like a thing that couldn’t understand people forcing itself to mimic human emotion.

He opened his eyes.

The first day after reaching level 3.

Light seeped in through the window. It could barely be called sunlight, but even that was bright enough to dazzle him.

There was a shower, a bathtub, and a toilet he could use whenever he wanted. Luxury so obscene it nearly brought tears to his eyes. And hot water, too, steaming like it belonged there.

“Your meal is prepared, Mr. Solomon.”

Still half-dazed with emotion, he stepped out of the room and found breakfast waiting.

In the restaurant, velvet curtains softened the lighting. On each table draped in pure white linen, silverware was laid out neatly, forks and knives aligned like ceremony.

“The standard menu is smoked herring and an omelet, toast and sausage, and lastly grilled mushrooms and tomatoes. We also have croissants, salad, and fruit prepared. Please order as needed, and use the jam and butter placed there.”

A skeleton waiter stood at his side as he spoke. Solomon nodded lightly.

Fortunately, with only bones left, there was no rotting-corpse stench to deal with.

He could already see other guests being served the same way.

All of them wore dried-out expressions. Blades and mechanical armaments hid beneath their coats. People from the same line of work.

And their hierarchy was carved into numbers, divided cleanly by floor and room.

So Solomon focused on his meal and avoided everyone’s eyes. There was no reason to invite attention.

Soon the food arrived. Despite the grand introduction, it was a plain English breakfast.

Even so, that ordinary, unremarkable English breakfast felt like luxury beyond comparison to Solomon.

After eating, he gathered his clothes and gear and left Hotel Snark.

As the hotel rules said, he headed to the first-floor “Door Room.” It was packed with countless doors, like something out of a René Magritte painting.

Beyond each door, different scenes flickered, each one leading into another corner of Guild City.

He had business in District 6, the base of his contract target, Gilbert Graham, and the Biotech Guild.

Solomon found the right door and opened it.

Beyond it was, literally, just outside.

‘A portal?’

As if magic were smoothing reality over, no one passing by paid attention to him stepping through.

‘So this is Downtown, the heart of Guild City….’

He had no intention of carrying out the contract today.

Before the mission, he would scout Downtown, his new stage, until he understood it.

Downtown District 20, the symbol of Guild City and its central business district.

Towering structures rose everywhere, metal pipes and gears exposed like muscle. Neat, stylish houses stood among them. None of it belonged to the Lowlands slums.

Even here, the clocktower stood out in the distance, looming like a symbol of Downtown and the guild bourgeoisie.

The phrase Belle Époque surfaced the moment he saw it.

A beautiful era.

It wasn’t just the difference between a backwater and a city. It was a different world.

In particular, the idea that you could commit a crime and get arrested was shocking.

The idea that criminals could actually be punished by law felt like “cultural diversity” the Lowlands would choke on.

Along with the city guard, the 「Sword Watch」, which maintained Guild City’s order, it seemed that in certain key areas even the kingdom’s regular military, the royal army 「Red Coats」, were stationed.

So for today, Solomon simply walked the city.

On the main roads, Sword Watch patrols moved in steady lines. Sometimes, in grim back alleys beyond their sight, he also saw crimes unfold anyway.

He even rode Guild City’s famous subway.

The Biotech Guild, his target’s guild, was one of the newly influential powers in District 6.

Its crest was stamped all over the district. People who’d undergone modification procedures overflowed the streets, as if showing off the guild’s tech with their bodies.

The other nineteen districts were no exception.

Each district’s representative guild left its own stamp, and walking the city felt like crossing borders into foreign cultures and histories.

The Faceless One had said there were hundreds of guilds, large and small, across Downtown District 20.

Giant gears meshed throughout the city. Springwork mechanisms whose structure you couldn’t even fathom. Machines belching steam without end. Workshops lining the streets, too many to count. Each and every one bore its guild crest, its guild name, and its guild technology.

This was the city of guilds.

Everything Solomon had seen in the Lowlands up to now was the inside of a well.

A city of endless ascent and runaway growth.

And Downtown District 6, the Biotech Guild’s base, stood at its center.

The place they called a ‘Guild Hall’ was a fortress rising in the city.

Not metaphorically. An actual fortress, the kind medieval people built to repel invaders.

The difference was that it wasn’t built of stone. It was stacked from interlocking gears, machinery, steam pipes, and metal.

‘And they want me to go in there?’

The sight made Solomon’s stomach sink.

Beyond that fortress waited the man he had to kill, Gilbert Graham.

The Faceless One had been right.

There weren’t many contractors skilled enough to take jobs against guilds. And someone who could do it would be courted and treated well.

‘That’s to be expected.’

Taking a job against a guild meant breaking through that fortress to kill a target inside, or stealing whatever you needed from within.

It wasn’t remotely comparable to roughing up a few people in a slum bar. Half-baked skill didn’t even buy you the right to try. You’d just die.

Which meant the moment you proved you could do it, everything would change. Probably more than he could imagine.

Hotel Snark’s fourteen floors, and the forty-four rooms on each, existed to prove that.

‘Can I do it?’

Solomon kept thinking as he studied the Biotech Guild’s fortress.

Where to go in. Where to come out. Which passages to use. Entering without the interior blueprint carved into his head would be suicide.

That was why he could only feel Hotel Snark’s value more deeply.

Among the documents provided as room service were the fortress’s internal layout and every secret laid bare. He would go back and memorize them first.

‘Infiltrate for sure, kill for sure, and get out for sure.’

If anything went sideways, it was over. From entry to exit, infiltration, execution, escape route. Not a single mistake could be allowed.

Only now did Solomon feel the weight of the job he’d taken.

And the opponent wasn’t some nobody guild. It was one of District 6’s major powers. The fortress in front of him made that obvious.

Yet, strangely, it didn’t feel impossible.

How high the number on his current room at Hotel Snark, first floor, room 104, could climb.

The thought lit a spark in his chest.

He could prove the skill of the contractor named ‘Solomon’ to the people of Guild City.

Because this was the story of strength he had wanted so badly.