"Just because you didn't get the class you wanted doesn't mean you can't do what you wanted,” my sister comforts me.

  We've sat down at the table now and Mom decided to busy herself elsewhere to give us time to talk privately. Natalie sat across from me, one hand placed over my arm. "I'm sure you'll do great even as a rogue."

  “I hope so," I said slowly. She may not know my real class, but that didn't mean her words had any less significance. I wish I could tell her the truth, I really do. I even tried to tell her as I was sobbing, but no words left my mouth.

  “Look, I know it’s not what you wanted, but you can still do a lot of good as a rogue. Sneaking around and picking pockets isn’t all they're good for.” she said while wiggling her eyebrows.

  I barked out a laugh and quickly rubbed at my face. “Why did you have to make it sound so filthy?”

  “Well … they are typically good with their hands.” she mutters while glancing off to the side.

  I froze and stared at her in stunned silence. She mirrors my expression and we remain like that for a solid five seconds before we both burst out laughing. I was so thankful for the lighter mood after being stressed out all day. “That ‘typically’ part makes me feel like there is a story there,” I chuckle.

  “Well…” and that was when Mom decided to aggressively make her presence known again. “It seems Elvira is starting to feel better!” Mom said with dramatic emphasis. “You should probably clean up a bit first, dear. ”

  “Here,” Natalie reached for a towel near the sink.

  “Not that one!” but it seems like mom has second thoughts. Natalie grabbed that towel anyway and threw it at mom’s face instead of at me and then reached back for a second one, this time simply handing it over to me.

  I accept the towel while mom pulls hers off her face with a huff. “Oh, will you just tell her already? Honestly…”

  “Right,” Natalie chuckled. “We decided we’re going over to have dinner at Summerfall, our treat!”

  I cocked an eyebrow at that. “Summerfall? Why there?” I asked.

  Natalie grinned but didn’t say anything, handing the conversation over to mom.

  “Well… I wanted to go to Chelberry but your sister didn’t think that was ‘adventurous’ enough. I was fervently against celebrating your birthday at Summerfall but she convinced me to leave it up to whatever class you got. Chelberry if you got a nice and peaceful class, and Summerfall if …otherwise,” Mom informed me.

  “I see, that makes sense to me!” I nodded.

  Mom shook her head but didn’t argue.

  Before we left, I made sure to change out of my casual clothes. I knew better than to dress up for a place like Summerfall but I did want to dress up a little for my birthday. Choosing to match my sister, I put on a pair of leather pants and a white, long sleeve shirt while settling on a simple pair of blue stud earrings.

  Upon arrival, the noise from inside was audible before we had even entered the building. Mom looked like she was preparing to walk across shattered glass while Natalie was positively vibrating. The moment we opened the door, the first thing we saw was a mug of some kind flying across the room. Someone shouted and a brawl immediately began. Despite the fighting, the Bard in the corner of the room kept singing like nothing was wrong. This also seemed to go for the rest of the patrons who continued to chat amongst themselves; and loudly at that.

  “Now this is how adventurers celebrate!” Natalie cheered, promptly pulling me in by the arm. I looked back at my mother who had propped herself up against the door frame and was looking positively exhausted.

  What followed was a night of drinking, music, singing, shouting, and celebrating. After a few drinks, even mom began to lighten up. The highlight of the night was definitely when a couple of drunks walked over and began to hit on me, causing my sister to immediately introduce their face to the table. If this was how adventurers celebrated then I can’t help but feel excited about what adventures I might go on that would be worth celebrating in such a way; even despite my class. I’ll push aside my worries for a time and let myself be happy, at least for now.

  Time limit: 1308 Minutes

  “You do understand your attributes, yes?” The next day, Natalie took me a little ways outside of the city to help me figure out my class, or at least, the class she thought I had. Considering I needed to trick people into thinking I’m a Rogue, I was grateful for the help.

  I had briefly considered doing things that Rogues typically wouldn't do to out myself as The Villain, like taking magic traits, but I figured it would be a long shot to guess that someone was a Rogue just because they acted a little weird. It’s a pretty big jump in logic to go from seeing a Rogue throw fire around to guessing that they’re public enemy number one. So instead, I’ll act like a Rogue for now so that any groups that recruit me BECAUSE I’m a Rogue won’t end up with dead weight.

  “I’m supposed to focus on … finesse, right?” I answer my sister’s question.

  “Yup, but you won’t want to ignore endurance or willpower either. Wouldn’t want you to die because your quest partner is too strong for you,” She explained.

  I paused. “Is it … normal for adventurers to accidentally hit each other?”

  “Not accidentally,” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  “Natalie!” I grabbed a stone off the ground and threw it at her. She didn’t even bother avoiding it as it harmlessly thumped against her shoulder. Regardless, she raised her hands in mock surrender. “Sorry, sorry! For now, go ahead and just ignore strength and intelligence, since rogues don’t use them very much.

  “Alright but… will that mean I’ll be dumber than other people, if I never put anything in intelligence?”

  “Not at all! A lot of people get that part of the attributes confused. Attributes, and traits too, have no effect on things START doesn’t mess with. If you hit me, your strength and finesse would help you hit harder. If you hit the ground … well, the ground has no name above it does it?” She punches a rock in demonstration. It shifts a bit but does not break or budge.

  “That makes sense,” I nodded. “So does it sound good if I go ahead and put nine points into finesse?” I was thinking of putting nine into finesse and five into both endurance and willpower. She said nothing about charisma so I just decided I’d put one into it, just in case.

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  “Noooo, that’s way too much! Save more than one for other stuff!” she said, waving her hands widely in front of her, causing her chain mail to jingle violently.

  Save more than one? Oh right, normal classes typically only get half of what I got. “O-kay.. Does four sound better?” I ask carefully.

  “Yea, that should be fine.”

  For now I’ll spend my points like Natalie recommended and just save the rest due to not being too familiar with all this right now. Especially considering I won’t always be restricted to acting like a rogue. “All done,” I confirm.

  “Good, now you should go ahead and get the Sneak Attack trait and Trap Detection. Can’t really be a Rogue without those!”

  At her recommendation, I go ahead and open my trait list and look for the two she mentioned. However … this is a huge list to look through. I look and look but I can’t seem to find them, even after the traits organize themselves alphabetically at my command.

  Sable Heart-no, Savage Strike-No, Second Chance-No, Shadow Severe-no, Skill Break-No, Strengthen Soul- No; dang it, it should have been there!

  “Having trouble?” Natalie asks, arms crossed and head tilted.

  “Yea… it's just hard to find…” I complain.

  “Dear sister… I highly doubt there’s more than ten traits to pick from. Just pick the ones I mentioned, you can look at the others later.”

  Shit, what am I going to do if I can’t get Sneak Attack? Pretend I have it? Surely START wouldn't force me to act like a Rogue when I can’t actually do anything Rogues can! Oh… wait. Of course I'm not actually a rogue, it’s probably called something else because of course it has to be evil sounding. Thinking like that I remember the trait I saw at the very top after sorting alphabetically: Assassinate.

  Close enough, I take the trait and decide to worry about Trap Detection later. “Got them!” I say excitedly.

  She rolls her eyes but doesn’t complain further. “Alright. Unless someone put a bear trap out here I don’t think I can show you much on Trap Detection. Instead, let’s go find something for you to sneak up on!”

  She motions for me to follow and leads me along the nearby creek. We walk for a few minutes until we finally hear some noises nearby. It sounds like a pig taking a drink of water so we climb a nearby hill to get a better look and finally spot what we’re looking for.

  Unfortunately, it has no red mark which makes me question what exactly START considers innocent. Or am I just supposed to assume this boar is a blood-thirty murderer?

  Natalie stuffed a pair of daggers into my hands and then motions me forward without a word. I give her a look that says “really?!” and she just holds a thumb up. I wasn’t prepared to kill anything yet but at least it’s not a person. I decide to worry about the straps later and leave the sheathes behind with Natalie.

  I creep forward on my toes, doing my best to stay quiet. I not only succeed a little bit, my sneaking is quiet to an uncanny degree! The grass that sweeps past my legs don’t make a sound as they rustle and even the twigs I accidentally step on avoid snapping. If it wasn't for the noises of the creek and the boar in front of me, I would think that I suddenly went deaf. I guess this must be what two hundred percent increased stealth is like! Even when I am within arm’s reach of the boar, it still continues to drink from the creek.

  Feeling hesitant, I look backward at Natalie who is still laying where I left her. She gives me another thumbs up accompanied by a toothy grin. I sigh, and mentally apologize to the poor creature.

  Raising both of my daggers, I prepare to strike, but then I notice a few small red boxes on the boar. Realizing this must be Assassinate at work; I stab downward onto two of the various red boxes. I briefly hope the boar survives this and can simply run off; but after a loud squeal, it collapses to the ground. The text above its head immediately turns gray and slowly fades away.

  Standing up, I turn away and close my eyes, feeling absolutely dreadful.

  “Wow! I can’t believe you killed it in one attack!” Sister yelled as she ran over, handing me back the sheathes for the daggers.

  “Maybe it was weakened or … I don't know, a lucky hit?” I say unwillingly while shrugging. Lies, It wasn’t a lucky hit, it’s because I have Assassinate rather then Sneak attack.

  “Even still, you did a great job! After seeing you in action, I just know you will be an amazing rogue!”

  Instead of smiling or thanking her for the compliment, I can’t take my eyes away from the boar that I just killed. The poor thing was minding its own business until I came along and killed it for no reason. I didn’t even level up.

  I can feel a hand on my back as Natalie comforts; "I'm sorry. It’s not easy killing things. Just try to remember that it was a monster. We kill monsters so we can save the lives of others.”

  “I guess…” I sigh. Changing the subject, I decided to ask about experience. “How many would it take to level up?”

  “Oh, quite a few. If you want experience you need to do quests. Killing stuff doesn’t actually give all that much experience.”

  I see… so if I don't want to kill people to finish my quest then I’m going to have to kill a ton of monsters. I wonder if I’d even be able to catch up to The Hero if I killed every monster there is. Wait, no, that’s the wrong way of thinking. I already decided I’m not going to be a real villain. I don’t need to catch up to him because I have no intentions of fighting him.

  Now if only he shared my thoughts.

  “Has START given you a quest yet?” Natalie asks.

  “Huh? Oh, yea. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it though.”

  This causes Natalie to snap her fingers, as if she had just remembered something important. “Oh yea, this is a good opportunity to bring you to the adventurer’s guild!”

  “Why is that?”

  “For your quest! Anytime someone has a quest they need help with, they head over to the adventurer’s guild! Come on!” Natalie starts practically dragging me back towards town. Not expecting it, I nearly fall flat on my face until she catches me.

  “Keep that up and I might be able to complete my quest!” she chuckles.

  “And… what quest do you have?”

  “Protect allies from harm! I’m at 1332 out of 3000 now!” She looks back at me with an impish grin and says. “I’ve been working on it slowly for a month now. You also helped me a lot when you nearly slipped and fell in the mud last week.”

  “Hey! There’s no way you got any more than a tiny bit from that fall!” I tried to poke her in the cheek with my free hand but she let go and began jogging ahead of me.

  “Not with the way you were about to fall! You almost cracked your head open against the fence post!”

  Face flush with embarrassment, I reached down for another rock to throw at her. This time she decided to dodge it. “No sneak attack for you!” she yelled back, cackling wildly.