The room was admittedly nice. It was quiet, the windows let in a good amount of shadows, and with two raised beds, a table, and a washbasin there was space to properly hide. All things a proper room should have.

  Shiina put herself where a footchest would go while the humanoids put down their gear and sat on the beds. Delilah looked worried for some reason. "Sorry, did we draw too much attention downstairs?"

  "Oh, no don't worry about that," Ife replied. "I'm a little miffed the proprietor tricked Shiina into being cheap entertainment, but that'll work to our advantage."

  Shiina blinked. "What do you mean tricked? I just won a bet fair and square."

  "He runs an inn catering to adventurers and experienced merchants. He knew most mimics can pull off that transformation with some effort," Zanya said flatly. "Because of that act he'll have people sitting around gossiping longer. And buying more drinks. That's why performers get a free meal for even a small set."

  "Oh." Yeah, Shiina had almost made a meal's worth of money from the coins. But she was a very light eater. She'd have to remember that for the future.

  "It is mildly annoying, but I suppose we do owe him for reminding us your skills can be used for more than just simple pranks and killings," Ife added. "In larger towns it's worthwhile to draw a small amount of attention. Especially in fields unrelated to assassination. I was going to suggest Deliliah do some charity healing actually."

  The half elf looked surprised, then smiled. "That would be nice. I did it back in my home village, but I've been too poor for that recently."

  Shiina considered that. "How can you be too poor to give away healing?"

  "Finding paying work can be a full time job," Zanya offered.

  She supposed she didn't have any experience on that front. Shiina's job had been 'surprising adventurers' and she'd been handed that shortly after her creation. As a bonus, that gave her most of her 'food.'

  Ife stretched and opened the window a bit. "Well first we should plan out our dungeon run. Rogues and healers can be underleveled in a party, but you two are a bit low for our usual work. And we need to get Delilah out of that starter gear and into something passable."

  "Uh, we actually never asked your levels," Delilah said. Shiina nodded. The whole 'Assassination' and 'Arbiters' talks had kinda gotten in the way of that.

  "Twenty six," Zanya said. Shiina's lid fell back against the bed. That kind of level difference put them way out of Shiina and Delilah's league.

  Delilah looked similarly shocked. "Can we even help you? I mean sure you say our skills will overcome level differences but-"

  Ife patted the girl on the shoulder. "You'll catch up rather quickly. As I said, killing powerful people is a great way to get levels. And we're doing dungeons for quick cash and an alibi. Two experienced combatants helping a rogue and healer power level is far more common than you might think."

  "Especially among traveling adventurers," Zanya added. "Local groups can be picky but we can't."

  "What dungeon are we going to then?" Shiina asked.

  "The Crystal Manor," Ife replied. "I'm hoping to get the greenhouse wing, but we could do a gardens run as well. That will give us a proper staff for Delilah, and enough money to get some new robes. Fortunately you've already got a fine weapon, Shiina."

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Shiina nodded, feeling the dagger hidden inside her.

  Delilah looked at Ife's outfit. "I think I'd prefer to find my own dressmaker. Also aren't you mostly wearing cotton?"

  Ife's tail wagged as she laughed. "Oh, you do have some bite! It's fine I realize ladies from more prudish lands are hesitant to enjoy such high fashion. You can keep the cotton robes, unless you've got a passion for wool. But we do need to get you some proper jewelry for defense."

  "How does jewelry help with defense?" Shiina asked. Armor made sense for fleshy beings, but there was no way a bit of silver would stop an axe blow.

  Zanya raised an eyebrow. "You weren't taught about material enchantments? I'd have thought you'd at least have seen the differences in gear."

  "I lived in a starter dungeon. The big gear differences were how much starter crap people had on," Shiina pointed out.

  Ife snorted. "Fair I suppose. Delilah, perhaps you could explain."

  "Ah, sure." Delilah looked down at Shiina. "Most materials enhance some magic types, and disrupt others. Iron and other hard metals enhance strength and fortitude, materials taken from animals that have been killed enhance agility and natural skills like poison, and crystals or wood enhance pure magic. Precious metals can hold any enchantment. So getting good jewelry will let me use my magic to defend myself better."

  "Oooh!" Shiina nodded along. That explained a lot. "So that's why magic knights don't wear much. Because their clothes would keep them from using their magic."

  Surprisingly Zanya shook her head. "Wool doesn't kill the creature and cotton plants don't count, so they're safe to use for mages. I picked this style because my homeland is really hot, and I did want some speed enhancements."

  Shiina looked over at Delilah who returned the glance. That seemed like a lot of skin to show just to keep cool.

  The half elf decided to take the obvious next question. "Where are you from anyway?"

  "I'm from Tepeta, to the far west," Zanya said. "Though I spent a lot of time traveling. My mother's a wizard and her tutor is one of the big bosses. So I was aiming to join from the start."

  Ife sighed. "I'm from a little closer. Nubili, down south. The pharaoh's third son and one of the governors both started praising my beauty at the same time, so I decided it was time to take a long vacation before I ended up in the middle of a political incident. Early on I joined a strike team to help put down some fourth rate 'Dark Lord.' The Arbiters noticed my Assassination skill and recruited me."

  "Do they offer everyone with the Assassination skill a job?" Delilah asked. "I have a hard time believing the ability is that rare."

  "About five percent of the population, but very rare for spellcasters," Zanya replied. "No person capable of mastering complex attack magic has ever had an assassination skill over D."

  Shiina blinked. "Wait, how can it be job based? I thought humanoids like you could do almost anything if you put your mind to it. You only specialize because it's too hard to be good at everything."

  "As I said, it's a gift from the gods of Chaos." Ife made her supplication. "In their wisdom they probably thought granting too much Assassination skill to people capable of dropping poison mist over an entire city would be bad."

  Ife shook her head, ears swiveling. "Anyway, that's the sordid story of our pasts. We'll need to do some minor runs and get your gear settled while we wait for our information gatherers to finish."

  Shiina and Delilah nodded. The other half of their job, revenge.

  ----

  For any people who popped up in a dungeon like me, I'm sure you're curious about why you can speak the same language as everyone else. And for that matter, why everyone speaks a language pretty obviously invented by humans. Apparently it's a really famous story.

  Many centuries ago, a human queen declared that she was going to conquer the whole world. And as such she created a massive ritual so that her 'future subjects' would all be able to understand her commands. Gathering all the mages she could she effectively cast a spell that force taught everyone her country's language.

  The following war is called the First World War, or the Lightning War, both for how fast it went and how it was conducted. Casting worldwide rituals gets you attention from archmages, and they raised objections to her conquest plans.

  When the storm had ended, the queen's successor invited all the local nations for an apology banquet, where they pointed out that at least it would make diplomacy and trade easier. Mali said the city is now a bastion for learning languages.

  Meanwhile everyone now knows the common language, though people keep their local languages alive. And local idioms still confuse people.