The next few days had Zack chomping at the bit.

  He had the [Makeup] and [Disguise] skills, but they were still low level.

  He had finished [Memorizing] the script the Director had given him.

  There was little for him to do during the rehearsals and performances other than help out the stagehands.

  But, little by little, he gained the other [Skills] he needed to become another person.

  A morning backstage with Vlad practicing diction and expanding his vocal range.

  *ding!* The skill [Voice] has been acquired!

  A few hours here and there practicing with the extras under the Director’s tutelage.

  *ding!* The skill [Pose] has been acquired!

  *ding!* The skill [Gesture] has been acquired!

  [Mimic] came easily enough. Wearing one of Ronaldo’s spare costumes, he simply copied Ronaldo’s movements during one day’s rehearsals.

  *ding!* The skill [Mimic] has been acquired!

  The improvement from each additional skill was small, but the effects compounded.

  It was Emily who brought him the good news.

  “Jack, the Director says you can join the rehearsals! Eeeeee we get to be on stage together! How exciting!” she squealed.

  They both got costumed and Zack found himself on the stage in an actor’s position.

  The lights were shining directly on his face.

  The audience seating was dark, but the sheer size of the gallery was intimidating.

  His breath hitched.

  And then Emily smacked him on the back.

  “Don’t you go getting stage fright now! Just relax and have fun!”

  [Calm Down].

  Zack inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, then smiled. “You’re right. Thanks, Emily.”

  She simply beamed at him and gave him a thumbs up, a gesture that this world shared with Earth.

  The Director arrived at his usual spot and glared at the assembled actors.

  “Begin!”

  Zack had the entire script memorized, though he had no lines. Still, he followed along as the main actors strutted up and down the stage, delivering their monologues and soliloquies and fighting their false battles amongst themselves.

  He and Emily and the rest of the extras gasped and turned and expressed themselves through exaggerated gestures, and for all that Emily claimed she had no talent, her long and tireless effort paid off.

  She blended in with the other extras perfectly.

  Zack had a few small mistakes. Gestures not grand enough. Gasps a beat behind the rest of the extras. Still, he thought he did fairly well.

  That is, until the Director began his critique.

  “Jack! You were slow!”

  “You need to move your arms more!”

  “What was that expression? You need to look shocked, not constipated!”

  It felt like every other critique was about him.

  “Hang in there, Jack!” Emily whispered to him.

  “And you, Emily!”

  She jolted ramrod straight as the Director started critiquing her performance just as harshly as he had Zack’s.

  At the end of it…

  “Thank you, Director!”

  She smiled.

  Zack was honestly impressed at her ability to take critique.

  “That’s all! Get ready for the matinee, everyone. Jack, grab spare costumes for Lance, Bernard, and Gorman and come to my office!”

  The Director stormed off.

  Emily swept Zack into a hug.

  “You did it! Your first rehearsal! And now you’re gonna get some individual training, how lucky!”

  Ronaldo approached, and Emily let Zack go. “So? Did you get the [Acting] skill?”

  “Not yet,” Zack admitted.

  “Well, I’m sure you’ll get it quickly with the Director’s instruction.” Ronaldo clapped Zack on the shoulder, smiled, and then turned to prepare for the matinee; for him, that meant practicing his swordplay.

  “Good luck~” Sandra called softly as she swept off the stage.

  “You got this!” Emily balled up her fists and huffed through her nose, more excited for Zack than he felt for himself. Still, he smiled. “Thanks, Emily.”

  They walked together backstage, where she changed into her concessionaire’s uniform and he gathered up the spare costumes. Lance was the male lead character played by Ronaldo, Bernard was the character Fyodor played, and Gorman was the villain played by Vlad. For the Bernard costume, Zack also grabbed padding to wear underneath.

  Fyodor was a big guy.

  Zack carried the bundle of costumes up to the Director’s office and found the floor free of obstacles, for once. Everything had been pushed to the sides, and the Director himself sat behind his desk.

  “Hurry up, we only have about an hour. Do you have the [Acting] skill yet?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Alright, start with Lance. Act 1, Scene 3,” he said, not missing a beat.

  Zack hurriedly changed into the costume and took a step forward, as though he were coming onto the stage before launching into Lance’s monologue.

  The Director voice-acted the other character’s lines, and they went through the scene.

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  Then came the critique.

  “More emotion! You’re trying to convince your lover that you must go to war! Convince her!”

  Halfway through the third attempt at the scene…

  *ding!* The skill [Acting] has been acquired!

  Zack lost his focus.

  It was almost overwhelming. When he had gotten the [Running] skill, all the tips his [Trainer] Barclay had given him became semi-automatic.

  And it had been the same for his other skills.

  [Posing] had become semi-automatic.

  [Voice] had become semi-automatic.

  But he still had to consciously blend all the skills together.

  The moment he acquired the [Acting] skill, that blending became automatic. It was all just wrapped up in the one skill.

  Synergy.

  “Focus!” shouted the Director, and Zack resumed his lines.

  [Acting] felt natural, now.

  Even at just level one.

  They made it to the end of the scene, and the round man looked at Zack knowingly.

  Zack nodded. “Yeah, I got [Acting].”

  “About time,” the Director grumbled. “We don’t have time for Bernard. Change to Gorman, we’ll do a little range work before we have to stop.”

  Carefully so as not to tear the costumes, but as quickly as he could, Zack changed. He recalled how Vlad acted the part, and [Mimicry] helped him sink into the role.

  They ran through Act 2, Scene 4 for about fifteen minutes, starting over repeatedly so that Zack could incorporate critique, and then all too soon their time was at an end.

  “That’ll have to do,” the Director announced, and he stood from his chair.

  “So, am I clear to go out, now?”

  The Director glared at him anew. “How’s your talks with Ronaldo going?”

  The olive-skinned southerner and Zack had been talking about Fortinian society and customs on and off the last few days.

  “Well enough, I think.” Zack wiggled a hand indicating it was about so-so.

  “Then you should be fine. Now that you’ve told me about the you-know-what, some things have made more sense. I think the party has gone to the forest for training, so the focus should be outside the city for a bit. Just be careful.”

  With those last words of caution, the Director swept past Zack to oversee the matinee.

  Zack grinned.

  [Acting]!

  He had it!

  Sure, only at level one, but the difference it made!

  The Director was surely a genius.

  All the other skills were synergizing so well it was like he could just become another person as easily as he could snap his fingers.

  He changed into his normal clothes, sewn by himself under Millie’s instruction, and returned the costumes to the hangars backstage. Jason, head of the stagehands, said he wasn’t needed for help with the sets, and so he was free to head outside.

  Before he went, he lightened his hair to a medium brown and darkened his skin tone. Not quite to Ronaldo’s level, but enough that he didn’t look like he never saw the sun.

  Shoe lifts to add a little height, and a little padding to give himself a paunch, and he struck a pose in the mirror.

  Unrecognizable.

  The final touch was the scar he had been wearing when he registered with the Guild. It was a bit unfortunate, since he’d need to put the scar on every time he visited from now on and it made him more memorable, but it was one more distinction from his normal appearance.

  Jack Werdruf, accidental tamer of a B-rank snake, departed the Rose Theater one sunny early afternoon to learn about how a new Adventurer could make some money and keep his familiar well-fed and happy.

  Sienna, incidentally, had been displeased with the cold dead mouse he had given her the other day.

  He would need to either catch live mice for her to kill herself, or bring them to her freshly killed.

  And she had indicated she wanted to do the killing, if he wasn’t going to let her go hunting.

  He wasn’t quite ready for that yet, so he could ask for advice from the Guild.

  Now that he was done laying low, Zack had two goals:

  Information gathering, and growing stronger.

  Bradley, the [Hero], had had the right mindset.

  The system of this world was like a video game, and practice paid off much more visibly than it did back on Earth.

  He certainly hadn’t seen anyone in theater club back in high school get this proficient in acting in just a little over a month.

  In fact, most of the other students were still flubbing lines at that point.

  [Skills] changed things, for the better.

  Zack cut a path through the red light district, almost entirely closed at this time of day, the early afternoon. Windows were shuttered and doors were closed and there were fewer people walking these streets than the main roads. He headed mostly north and a little west along cobbled streets and stonework buildings with red tile roofs and, eventually, arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild.

  Like the last time he had come, over a week ago, there were people here and there but it wasn’t very busy.

  Zack Adder entered the Guildhall.

  It was dimmer this time. The bright lights of the dismantling station were off, and only candlelight lit the interior, but Zack had no trouble penetrating the gloom with his [Night Eye].

  [Skills] really were great.

  He’d have to see about getting those magic skills at some point, too.

  Not something that Jack Werdruf would ask today, but eventually, perhaps.

  No, today Jack Werdruf had two problems:

  A picky-eater snake, and he was broke.

  Ronaldo had explained a bit about the Adventurer’s Guild, and one of the things they handled was couriering: the delivery of letters and packages within the city of Fortinium.

  It didn’t pay particularly well compared to other kinds of work, but it was easy and low-risk.

  And it would help Zack learn the lay of the land.

  He walked over the the receptionist desk, only one of which was open. It was, in fact, Stacy—the receptionist who had been on duty last time he had been here, with Sienna, right after taming her.

  Stacy…

  That was the name of Bradley’s ex-girlfriend, wasn’t it?

  Not relevant.

  “Hi,” he said, walking right up to the window.

  “Welcome to the Guild,” she drawled lazily, but then did a double take.

  “Oh, you’re the guy with the snake!” Her voice echoed through the mostly empty guildhall.

  Zack held up a hand. “She’s not with me,” he said, and Stacy breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Phew, okay. What can I help you with, er…”

  “Jack.”

  “Right, Jack. Sorry, what can I help you with?”

  “Well, I need some advice. Sienna—that’s what I named my snake, Sienna—she’s a bit of a picky-eater.”

  “Uh huh,” Stacy’s eyes were starting to glaze over.

  “And, uh, I was wondering if the Guild knew a good way to catch live mice for her?”

  Stacy visibly restrained herself from rolling her eyes. “You can buy those from the pet store. We don’t stock live mice here at the Adventurer’s Guild.”

  Zack could hear a snicker from across the guildhall.

  “Ah, uh, okay,” he said, [Acting]. “Er, money’s a bit tight right now, and since I’m registered with the Guild already, is there any fast jobs I can do?”

  Now Stacy perked up.

  “Oh, you’re looking for work? Now you’re talking, Jack.”

  She pulled out another oversized book with a multitude of tabs sticking out from the pages, but she paused before opening it.

  “Oh, right, you’re brand new.”

  And then she pulled out a blank piece of paper and wrote Jack at the top, then under that—

  Snake guy.

  Zack restrained a grin and said nothing.

  “Right, so, you ever hunted monsters before?”

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