Shiina inspected the two newcomers as they waited for the fire to get hot enough to cook. They were very unique, though mid level adventures tended to be. Especially those that wandered far from home.

  The dark skinned woman called herself Ife. The staff she carried indicated she was some sort of spellcaster, but most people would be distracted by her attire. She had a figure that was usually reserved for sailors' descriptions of mermaids, and not only was her dress slit up to the hip, but it stopped just below her breasts. Instead of a blouse or shirt she wore a massive sweeping gorget of silver, turquoise, and colored glass that covered her chest. She had long black hair, and her large ears and bushy tail outed her as some kind of fox beastwoman.

  Zanya was between Ife and Delilah in skin tone, and decidedly more slender than either. She wore a full cloak and carried a double headed battle axe, but beneath was the abbreviated outfit of a magic knight. A hefty belt used to cover her chest, leather shorts, and two more probably magic belts to keep a brace of knives and potions. Her short hair was a dark green and her slit eyes and the dark scales that dusted her back and sides marked her as an Ophidian.

  "So," Ife began. "Let's start with why we were looking for you." She folded her hands and looked at Shiina. "The simplest answer is, Mali told us about a very smart mimic she'd become friends with. In fact she gave you her personal recommendation."

  Shiina looked at the two. "You knew Mali?" Her friend had never mentioned such interesting partners in the past.

  "She was our local contact," Zanya said. "Only did a couple of jobs with us, before settling down. Didn't like the travel."

  "Which is why she probably didn't mention anything about us," Ife said. "Since it was all Arbiter business."

  Delilah chewed her lip. "Should I be here? If it's a secret..."

  "You should know as well. Since you've been involved in matters." Ife's smile vanished. "Sadly we didn't get word of the conspiracy here soon enough. We arrived after Mali had been killed."

  Silence reigned for a little bit, before Zanya continued the explanation. "When we learned what had happened we started dealing with those responsible. The local Count was first, which is why we didn't meet up with you earlier."

  "There we learned about the mercenary band posing as adventurers in the area. But sometime last night our Arbiter contact told me the leader we were going to assassinate was already dead." Ife's smile returned. "And then I did a quick little search spell on the feather token that Mali left to her mimic friend and wouldn't you know, it was very close to where the target had been."

  "Not sure how," Zanya said mildly.

  It was a fair question given the massive level difference. Shiina looked over to Delilah who started. "I opened the barrier of a dungeon they were camped next to. There were wyverns inside."

  That got a raised eyebrow. "Clever," Zanya said.

  "And I poisoned Graves with Mali's dagger before the wyverns attacked," Shiina finished.

  Ife chuckled. "Well, it seems you've started learning the job already." She looked between the two. "You both seem to possess the skills and temperaments we need as part of the Arbiters. It's a dangerous job, and it involves a great deal of travel, but it's one that needs to be done. And fortunately it also pays well."

  "We also do normal adventurer work," Zanya added. "It helps maintain our cover."

  As Shiina considered the revelations, Ife continued. "You don't have to join us. If you want to stay independent we'll just disappear and you'll have a hard time remembering our names and faces. And you don't have to decide now." Her onyx eyes hardened. "After all, the King of Gaius was the ringleader, which means we need to kill him to finish this job. And your revenge."

  A simple glance decided matters. "We'll do that job at least," Shiina said.

  "And discuss the rest after," Delilah finished.

  "Good." Ife pulled some plates out of a bag of holding. "Now, I'm sure you have questions. We'll do our best to answer."

  Shiina grabbed a nice crispy piece of bacon while the humanoids had their meal. "So how'd you find that token? That seems dangerous for me."

  "Mali personalized it with an Arbiter rune. It allows us to track our agents," Ife said. "You don't need to worry about people outside the Arbiters learning that trick. Anyone good enough to use the spell without alerting our organization has better spells to find people."

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Delilah was next. "What skills do I bring to the party? Shiina's obviously unique, so she's got plenty of powerful tricks but I'm just a level 14 healer."

  Ife paused. "Do you know about attributes?"

  "Those are the statistics used to judge your physical and mental prowess in certain fields right?" Delilah blushed. "I never bothered learning how to scan those because it's so hard to get useful information."

  "It's honestly messy," Ife agreed. "I rarely use it myself. Now, do you know the seven primary attributes?"

  Shiina perked up. "Oh, I learned that one! Strength, Agility, Fortitude, Personality, Intellect, Willpower, and Luck. Right? And they're ranked from F to S."

  Delilah blinked. "Those are the names, but I thought they were ranked from -4 up to +10 or sometimes higher?"

  "That's one of the problems with looking at attributes. There's so many different systems." Ife snorted. "I don't know why people didn't stick to the traditional 3 to 18 base scale."

  "Percentile strength," Zanya said, getting a dark glare from Ife.

  "In any case, that's all correct." The fox woman took a bite of her eggs. "Now, a question for you. What's the best attribute for a warrior?"

  Shiina considered that. "Strength?"

  "Fortitude?" offered Delilah.

  "Luck," answered Zanya simply.

  Shiina considered that, then looked to Ife. There had to be an explanation to that. It couldn't be something as simple as 'luck is good.'

  Ife nodded happily as if answering the unspoken question. "Think of the toughest warrior you've ever met. Now what would happen if someone slit his throat?" She motioned to show she meant all the way from ear to ear.

  "They'd die," Delilah said. "They might survive if healed immediately." That sounded right to Shiina's ears. She wasn't sure exactly how vital specific organs and blood were, but she knew humanoids needed them.

  "Humanoids are surprisingly fragile," Ife agreed. "And yet those lucky shots only seem to happen between people of similar level. Or when someone has a unique destiny. Most of the time when a lowly level 9 cutpurse tries to stab a level 30 warrior in their sleep the warrior wakes up. Or turns in their sleep at just the right moment. Or the knife slips, keeping the wound from being fatal."

  Shiina considered that. "Weren't we talking about luck, not level? And what about the necromancer we killed? Or Graves? He had to be in the mid twenties, or higher."

  "Luck increases with level," Zanya said.

  "And you are a rare case." Ife made a religious gesture Shiina didn't recognize. "The mighty gods of law designed this system. Those that 'earned' power can't be randomly killed off by 'lesser' men. The powerful rule over the weak as they ordain." She made another supplication. "But the gods of chaos created a skill to oppose this rule. Assassination."

  Ife's eyes locked on Shiina. "And all Mimics have that skill. With yours being the highest rank" Her gaze turned to Delilah. "And so do you. Though your rank is much much lower. Which should answer part of your question."

  "Oh." Delilah looked surprised.

  Shiina considered that. It all made sense, and yet at the same time it didn't. "So how does this Assassination skill work? Because I've never noticed it."

  "Scholars have broken the skill into five tiers," Zanya said, taking over the explanation. "But unlike other skills the tier doesn't affect how much luck you steal from the target. Whenever you use Assassination divine luck just stops mattering for your enemies. The skill level changes how much luck you have to sacrifice to make your opponent vulnerable.

  "E tier, the bottom and most common, is what Ife has. She loses all her luck. Whatever happens happens when she's using Assassination." Zanya looked over at Delilah. "You're better at D tier. You keep a little luck. Random animals and commoners probably won't interfere.

  "I have C tier. When I choose to use my ability I keep enough luck to avoid getting my axe stuck in people or losing my grip because of sweat. It's a slight edge, but I'm still in danger." Her eyes finally turned to Shiina. "And you have A tier. You don't lose any luck. Which means you're always in Assassination state. No one has any special defense against your attacks, no matter the level difference."

  "So as you see, your levels aren't as important as you think." Ife shrugged. "Though after a bit you'll get stronger anyway. After all, killing important people is a tried and true leveling method."

  That was a lot to take in. Shiina relaxed a little and mused on the revelations. It was hard to tell if they were telling the full truth, because based on what Zanya claimed Shiina would never notice the difference. This 'luck' thing happened to other people.

  After another silence Zanya added, "We also really need a rogue and a healer. I'm tired of having to hire temporaries whenever we need to go into a dungeon. It comes out of our pay."

  Delilah snickered. "Well, we can at least help with your next dungeon."

  Shiina nodded. "And what comes after."

  The King of Gaius was marked for death. Why shouldn't she have the satisfaction of killing him?

  I asked Ife if there are other secret skills like Assassination, and apparently there are! Assassination is just the most common one, with a lot of people having E tier. Especially people without a lot of magical potential.

  Next up is believed to be the "Boring" skill. People with that will miss out on huge dangerous events. They'll go on a trip right before their village is raided, or the tornado will be two farms over. It's not well studied because people who have it are kinda boring. But they tend to have very comfy lives.

  "Passion" is another big one. Dedicated artists and performers seem to gain it. It draws them to other artists and things they can use to boost their creativity.

  Other skills Ife said we might bump into are 'Survival,' 'Health,' and 'Comedy.' There's lots of minor skills but most aren't well known, and they're hard to find, much less scan for.

  Interestingly people with heroic destinies tend to just have a lot of luck. Though sometimes their luck isn't really a good thing. A lot of, "How lucky! Your village is the one the new demon lord tried to attack. Now you have a heroic quest to bring you fame!" Lords and other bigwigs get the better luck.