6: Forge identity
“I need a favor,” the woman, who Aidan now realized was Nina, asked nonchalantly.
“A favor?” he asked, his voice sounding reedy with a bit of phlegm in his throat.
“I need a fake identity for this kid.” Nina gestured her head to Aidan. “Something that would hold up in the main square.”
“You know how expensive those things are?” the man asked, putting his newspaper down and placing his arms on his desk as he stared. “And what, you want me to give one to him for free? Fat chance.”
“You know as well as I do that it would be a bad deal if you don’t help me out on this,” Nina said, her voice clear and unhesitant. “Doing me a favor would only help you in the long run.”
“Bah,” the man sneered. “I ain’t that desperate that I need the Key Slinger for aid.”
“There’s a reason I got that name, you know. I can open many doors for you, but as usual, there’s always a price involved.”
“And what makes you so damn desperate to want to have a kid like him under your wing? What’s so special about him? I ain’t ever seen this guy before at all.”
“He’s new in town, and he caught my interest when I spotted him. That’s all you need to know.”
“...Your interest?” the man asked, this time with a raised brow. “Now ain’t that a surprise.”
“Who knows?” Nina said, her lips curling into a sweet smile. “If you help him, he might even open up more doors for you than even I could. Doors that are far beyond your own imagination.”
the man narrowed his eyes at her, then peered at Aidan who remained quiet this whole time. He honestly didn’t know what made this woman so damn interested in him, but considering how fucked he was, there wasn’t much else he could do about it.
There was also something else that made him recognize that Nina wasn’t lying when she said that he could get in trouble if he tried to make his identity known in a regular part of town. There was once again that melody she often played from her soul, and his Humanoid Tongue was somehow involved in it.
When he focused on the vibrations to keep listening to the language to understand, he could also tell that her soul shifted every so often, in small ways that were hard to discern. It had always been like that since he met her.
When she told the guy from the wall earlier that she was going to tattle on his wife, her soul spiked in an uncertain way that he first thought was normal. But now as he focused inward on that soul, he noticed that it was when her words didn’t reflect what her rhythm was keeping up with.
In other words, she lied back then, probably not wanting to bother with such a thing.
But this time, when she said that he got her interest, her soul continued with that solid rhythm, having no changes to it.
He wasn’t quite sure how this exactly work, but he could tell that she wasn’t lying. And the little notification popping up was once again proof of that.
Skill Upgraded! Sense Vibrations (Bronze) became Sense Vibrations (Iron)!
It keeps upgrading the more I understand how to use the skill. It’s becoming more and more intrinsic to me the more I focus on her soul.
It started to get more and more invasive than he liked, but he had no reason to hold back on surviving by learning vital information, such as what this woman was intending to do. So he decided to keep this little tidbit to himself, since now he could tell when someone’s lying.
Though he might have to focus some more on that as he still had no idea if the guy was lying himself.
“...Alright! Fine,” the man suddenly decided, clapping his hands together, then slapped his knees as he stood up. “But you owe me for this.”
“I never forget my debts. My reputation should tell you that much.”
“Sure, sure. Kid, follow me.”
When the man left the desk and went into a side room on the other part of the little building, Aidan glanced one look at Nina, seeing her nod in agreement. Her soul kept playing that steady rhythm, but he had no other idea on what that might mean so he followed the man into the other room.
When he entered, it was a lot smaller, around a few feet in diameter. There was a pillar that reached his chest at the center, but there was nothing on there except a square and flat platform. The man closed the door and walked over to the other side, gesturing with his head for Aidan to come to the one side opposite of him.
“You ever done this before, kid?” the man asked.
“N-No…” Aidan answered. He hated the fact that he sounded like a timid kid like he expected. He still wasn’t sure if this was actually the smart thing to do.
“I’m not sure what you did that caught her fancy, but there are worse things you could’ve gotten into. I won’t bother prying into your lifestory or anything like that, so don’t worry that pretty little head of yours. Now, put your hand onto the platform, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Aidan hesitated for a moment, not sure whether doing so might electrify him or burn him to a crisp if he did. But seeing no other option, he slowly placed his hand on top of the platform, and before he knew it, something churned underneath that got him to flinch.
The platform began to glow, a white circle that surrounded his hand before several lines separated from the circle, establishing into bent lines that seemed to corrode the platform and down through the pillar.
“Keep your hand there, and don’t move. Otherwise we’ll have to redo the entire thing, and I hate wasting my time.”
The man said, almost threateningly, as if he was daring him to try to mess it up. Obviously Aidan wouldn’t do so, continuing to stay still as a white panel showed up in front of the man.
It glowed a bright blue, almost like a notification box, but he couldn’t read what was on the other side. It looked like it could only be shown to the man. But he wasn’t sure why it was showing up at all.
What kind of spell does that? Or is that a skill?
Considering he needed to use this pillar to activate it, was it more like using some kind of equipment like in most video games? It was starting to remind him of those visits he had to the DMV where he had to wait for the clerk to finish up their paperwork.
“Huh, you sure lived a sheltered life,” The man suddenly said, taking his attention. “Only five titles? And you’re only Level 3, so you have no Class. How did you even kill anyone like that?”
Panic overrode everything else in his system as he started to list off the things that were from his status. He should’ve figured, but he didn’t know whether he was seeing just those, or perhaps reading everything that his status page had to offer. Could he also peer into his spells and skills? Because that would make things a lot more complicated.
“Well, I don’t give a shit enough to care. What you do is your own damn business.”
Hearing his words, Aidan relaxed a little for him to use Sense Vibrations to the fullest. He kept studying his soul, but unlike Nina’s own, this felt somewhat moronic. There were chords and notes that seemed out of place, as if someone was always interrupting what could be a nice piano performance by suddenly blaring out a trumpet out of nowhere.
He wondered if the trumpet part was because he was currently scanning his status. If that was the case, then nothing seemed to be at odds with his soul. However, Aidan was still cautious and asked.
“A-Are you seeing everything? Even my stats and abilities?”
“Huh? No, of course not,” The man answered flatly. “Damn, you must have been a really sheltered kid if you don’t even know that. This is the same thing the guards and soldiers would use when applying for an entry pass for anyone who enters a city.”
“So, just levels and titles?”
“To see what the guards are dealing with. You don’t want some weirdo with titles like ‘Cannibal’ or ‘Pedophile’ entering into your city with a high level, right?”
Aidan gulped. Now he was glad that there were scanners like this in cities. He certainly wouldn’t want anyone suspicious like that. Sure, Kinslayer sounded like a bad title, but those two took the cake, and you definitely needed some messed up reason to have either one of those on hand.
“But what if you had no other choice but to get Kinslayer?” Aidan asked, and he might as well, considering that the man was still fiddling with the scanner, pushing what sounded like buttons on the other end of the platform. “I mean, say you get mugged on the street.”
“There’s probably some rules exempting people from that, but don’t count your luck on it here in Forontia. By the way, at the front, they also check your highest attributes too. I heard in some other towns, they scan your entire page. Crazy fuckers, that’s what I say. But if you get an item that forges a special status, you won’t have to worry about anyone spying on your skills and spells.”
Aidan nodded, figuring that it was like making forgeries in the real world. Though he didn’t expect that he would be in need of that on just the first day of his new life in this world.
“Alright, all done.”
Just like that, the notification box in front of the man vanished, and the platform under his hand slowly dimmed and turned off its glow. The worst feeling was that he didn’t feel anything while he was getting scanned, his Sense Vibrations not picking anything up.
Was it because it wasn’t hostile? Can I even sense that kind of thing? Maybe if I increase Perception a little more, I can tell it apart better.
The man kept pushing what sounded like buttons, but when Aidan peered closer, there were no buttons and he was just pressing the sides. Eventually the platform underneath glowed again, and out came what looked like a rectangular-shaped black card.
The man picked it up, staring at it for a while before tossing it over to Aidan who almost fumbled the catch before managing to grasp it. That was totally uncalled for–he was right there.
“There you go, a fresh new identity for the baby boy.” The man even clapped a little. “Congratulations.”
Yeah, I really don’t like this guy.
Aidan, however, nodded and thanked the man for the service. He might not like him, but he was still going to be polite.
“And don’t forget–my name’s Randal.” The man introduced himself. “Remember that you owe me for helping you out like this.”
“Let me guess,” Aidan said dryly. “I don’t have to pay?”
“Exactly.” He snapped his fingers. “Good to know you got a good head on your shoulders. You’re gonna need it considering who’s backing you in this.”
Randal said in a mysterious tone that made Aidan shiver at the mention, opening up the door and leading him back into the first room he entered. Nina waited there, her foot tapping on the ground with her arms crossed.
“You finished?” she asked, with Randal pointing over at Aidan with the card in hand.
“What do you think?” Randal said, waving his hand. “Now get on out of here. Remember–you owe me.”
“Sure I do,” Nina said, then gestured her head over to the door. “Let’s go, Aidan.”