The Bazaar of Ravenshire was not small by any means, Lily often found it funny whenever she thought of the name of the city it made her think somewhere small, a town deep in rural Europe. But instead Ravenshire was one of the largest cities in the Elsetean Kingdom. From what she understood it had started out as a simple small town near the coast, a fishing village even. But with the hard work of the Clawwood family over the generations it had grown into the beacon of civility that it was today.

  There were of course your normal stalls, people selling food and clothing, different jewelry mostly of poor quality. The occasional one sold furniture but there was also a strict reminder of the type of world she lived in now. [Adventurers] trying to circumvent being scammed were set up on anything from carpets to full stalls selling materials, obviously harvested from Monsters. She saw all kinds of horrid things, the beak of a bird that had spikes lining it, jars full of different color slimy liquids, purple furs and one man was even selling monsters.

  One of the creatures was humanoid in nature, a heavy and thick collar wrapped around neck, its eyes full of hatred as it watched people pass by, she might have felt bad for it, if it wasn't for the fact that it had six arms each ending with a razor sharp talon, more spider than human she thought. Its body was disfigured looking as if multiple torsos had been fused into one to create it. Upon using [Inspect] on it she received... an interesting result.

  Name: Null (Erased)

  Race: Reaper Sinborn (Tier 10)

  HP: 370/370

  Mana: 50/50

  Strength: 155

  Dexterity: 273

  Constitution: 113

  Intelligence: 40

  Wisdom: 55

  Charisma: -70

  Luck: 0

  Skills

  Climbing 10 (SEALED)

  Rapid-Stab 7 (SEALED)

  Speed-up 7 (SEALED)

  Flesh Consumption 8 (SEALED)

  Stealth 10 (SEALED)

  Assassination 10 (SEALED)

  An erased name and sealed skills? It must be a result of the collar and whatever magic was used to make it obey. But a creature focused entirely on quick stealth kills was... dangerous. She hadn't thought that monsters could have such... strategy. It made things worse, it didn't matter if she was an obscenely powerful mage, if something focused entirely on gaining the skills to kill her before she reacted then how could she protect her Alice? Worse! Something could focus on stealing, taking what belonged to her!

  The other monsters were less... curious in nature. The majority seemed to be bestial in nature, she paused at that moment thinking, her family did not own any sort of pets, were there even domesticated animals or were they all monsters? Well monsters could be domesticated or rather enslaved but were any just naturally domesticated as dogs and cats had been? She would have to look into it in a way that did not draw attention to herself.

  She did see something, resembling a dog being sold, upon using [Inspect] she discovered it was a [Young Worg], a tier eight monster. It wasn't quite a dog to her mind, it was larger than any she had seen and had a face that was more rat and human than anything, fur lined its body but in most places it was so thin she could see skin, while its great mane was more akin to hair than simply being fur.

  "Did you want to buy a Monster?" Her "mothers" voice cut through her inspection upon the monsters being sold, she took a glance at rabbit with two curved antlers and a bat in a cage both lower tier than anything she had seen thus far.

  "No, I have no interest in that. It was simply my first time seeing them." She answered as she moved on, not bothering to look back at the monsters. She prudently ignored how many followed her with their gazes, ignoring their returned interest. She ignored the way that some strained against their restraints as she left. That was not something for her to concern herself with at this moment.

  "Shall we try here?" Lily asked motioning to one of the many [Adventurer] Stalls selling assorted gear, random pieces of armor and weapons some of it was bright orange while one brimmed hat was a vibrant magenta.

  Heather shook her head, "No no, we shan't be buying from any stall on the street unless you see something you like. The better quality items shall be in the permanent shops. The ones that have their own buildings." She explained guiding Lily's gaze to a building that simply said: Razor's Smithy, from the imagery and the name she understood it was a place that made its own weapons instead of salvaging from [Monster Dens].

  Lily was led to a store quite simply named The Veiled Arcana. Inside was... something that Lily did not expect at all, at the counter was not a human. She knew other races existed but Elsetean had a high human population. But the... thing in front of her was only humanoid at a glance, even a moment longer looking at her you would notice the centipede body that her humanoid half was attached to, it wrapped around the entire room, her mouth was also off putting, it opened all the way to where pointed ears sat.

  "Ahh... Countesssss... Lightlasssh... it hass.... been... sssometime." Her words were slow, and as she spoke to Lily's "mother" she never tore her gaze from Lily.

  "It has been Wynna, has business treated you well?" Heather spoke, not reacting at all to the appearance of the... creature.

  "Itsss been... sslow, you... ssshould know... that! But.... you are.... not heree... about... that.... you have... a... tiny one..."

  Lily reflexively thought about what spell was the most destructive she had, she quickly thought to [Flame Pillar]. Which caused the creature to laugh, its laugh included the sound of joints scraping against each other.

  "Yes, this is my daughter. She needs a [Cloaked Stone] item." Heather's words were a bit more firm now, which ultimately finally got Wynna to snap her gaze over to Heather, she then snapped her gaze over to a wall, making it apparent the sudden jerking of her gaze was not hostile but merely how she shifted where she was looking. Lily could hear clicking, she quickly realized that the centipede body was moving.

  Before long one of the many legs had extended out, presenting a ring with a black gem on it.

  "Thissss.... hassss.... ressssizeee magicc...." Her slow words flowed out, as she presented a big smile to the pair which only made to unsettle Lily further. Heather pulled out a small pouch, pulling the ring off and placing the pouch onto the leg. It retracted the leg and let out an awkward giggle.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Heather guided Lily out of the store, clearly noticing her discomfort. Once they were outside she crouched down slipping the ring onto one Lily's fingers, it quickly resized down fitting onto the tiny finger.

  "What... was that mother." Lily asked with a serious tone. Which only caused her "mother" to laugh and grin.

  "Wynna is a Trapapede, a rare evolution that can make itself look human, if she wished she could appear far more human than what we saw and often does. But she likely sensed it was me coming in and dropped the facade. She is... an intelligent Monster, one that I helped negotiate a deal with Marques Clawwood to allow her to set up a shop here. She gives birth to hundreds of her kin below the shop, causing the System to view it as a [Monster Den] which generates items, she then slaughters her young before they get too strong and the numbers become too high. It works well."

  Heather's explanation didn't make Lily feel better, if anything it made her feel worse. She quickly noticed how many more guards were in this particular part of the Bazaar, it was... gross negligence! It didn't matter if you stationed a few extra guards, you were allowing a monster to fester hundreds of others right in your city! What if Alice was living in this city somewhere and accidentally found her way into the shop? How hard would they truly search for a missing child?

  "I... see. And why did you do that?" Lily asked, watching her "mother" carefully. All of this further enforced in her mind that the woman was not normal. Not a mere countess of a small town.

  Her "mother" only smiled in return, patting her on the head before standing up, "Because I get a percentage of all her profits and reduced prices on everything I want to buy from her. You would do well to learn more than just magic Lily, one day you'll need to make these kinds of decisions."

  Lily rolled her eyes inwardly, she would never work with a monster.

  Lily was sitting on a bed in the guest room in Clawwood Manor, they would return to Fairhill the next day, she looked at the [Cloaked Stone] ring on her finger with curiosity, she had been able to interact with the item and assign a fake [Class] for it to present and selected skills to not be shown. It was... useful. She fell backwards onto the bed stretching out her arms. She was... exhausted. Everything from the ceremony to the visit at the Bazaar had been a lot.

  She still didn't know what Kayla had seen, or what she thought. She grumbled lightly to herself, the invasion of privacy and how it had felt... sickened her. It wasn't Kayla's fault, she knew that. To Kayla she was actually younger than her, two years separated the two in terms of their physical age. But... ugh, it made her sick all the same. A child having a crush on her was unsettling, she wanted to scream, to break their friendship just to escape the feelings of the young heir.

  That of course was a bad idea, if she wanted to rise in the ranks of nobility she could not create a reputation of someone who burnt friendships, she wanted to become royalty and to do so her record would need to be... flawless. Hopefully it was a temporary thing and she would move on as Lily did not reciprocate. It was time to focus on more important things, she had yet to take stock of her skills nor of her new spells.

  Calligraphy: Your ability to write words with style and readability.

  Noble Etiquette: Your ability to act with precision and nobility, this affects everything from the manner you speak in to how you pick up silverware. This skill can be disabled when desired.

  Old Elvish: Your ability to speak, read and understand a variation of elvish that was first utilized during the 1st Era.

  Mana Control: Your ability to control ambient mana to utilize magic.

  Mana Circulation: Your ability to circulate mana throughout your body, this provides passive health bonuses to your body including slower aging and faster mana regeneration.

  Arcane Favor: Your ability to understand and learn magic, those with true love for the arcane commonly gain this skill.

  Riding: Your ability to ride mounts.

  Slight of Hand: Your ability to move your hands deftly and avoid notice while doing so.

  Cooking: Your ability to prepare and cook meals.

  Blaze Magic: The next stage of Flame magic, it allows access to hotter fire and more destructive spells, it is commonly used to burn battlefields.

  Elvish: Your ability to read, speak and understand Elvish.

  Dwavern: Your ability to read, speak and understand Dwavern.

  Draconic: Your ability to read, speak and understand the language of [Dragons].

  Wind Magic: Magic that allows you to control the wind and air around you, it is commonly used to push objects.

  Water Magic: Magic that controls and draws out water, it is commonly used to shape water.

  Ice Magic: Magic that creates and controls Ice, it is commonly used to create ice constructs.

  Painting: Your ability to paint imagery most commonly using paints and oils.

  Sculpting: Your ability to carve solid materials into different shapes.

  Mana Heart: Your heart has permanently changed to include a Mana Core, this core constantly circulates pure mana through your body greatly enhancing all other mana based skills.

  Arcane Master: Your ability to fully master the arcane, this is the first step in spell creation. Further upgrading of this skill is based on a deep understanding of the very core aspects of magic.

  Chantless Casting: Your ability to cast magic without chanting, casting this way has reduced power, this reduction is reduced with every level. Currently 80% weaker.

  Shadow Magic: Magic that manipulates and controls shadows, it is commonly used to create illusions.

  Earth Magic: Magic that controls and shapes earth, it is commonly used to shape earth into constructs.

  Healing Magic: Magic that shifts and brings back life, it is commonly used to fix wounds.

  Holy Magic: Magic that sanctifies light, it is commonly used to destroy undead and purify land.

  She rubbed her forehead, it was a lot of information and she still had more to process, she had so many spells to go through. Not to mention all of her skill points, truly she hoped not every advancement was like this, with such a sudden surge of skills. She laid there looking up at the ceiling, wondering how her Alice was doing. She'd need to devise a way to find her, it shouldn't be terribly hard to track someone down with enough wealth and status. She had retained her first name so it was to be expected that Alice would as well.

  She slowly closed her eyes, it had been a long day... and all she desired at that very moment was to sleep.

  Kayla was in absolute shock, spirits of such high caliber were in front of her that she was almost worried she was in trouble, if not for the one who had taken the form of a stylish prince speaking to her.

  "Moon Walker, your gifts are needed. You must serve as conduit, we wish to present our Queen with a present and you the little ones tell us have been by her side and spoken words with her." It spoke with a mystifying accent that Kayla had never heard, it was only the first time a spirit had spoken to her so directly. Usually they gave off emotions that she could feel to communicate but never had they spoken so directly.

  "Y-Your Queen? I'm... I'm afraid I don't understand." She managed to get out, completely confused by this situation.

  "We speak of course of the Queen of Fairies, the one your kind calls Lily."

  Which of the following schedules is more appealing