What could I possibly have to offer to Beldrogar? What could a young dragon want? Beyond more coins for his hoard than I can easily part with. Honestly, compared to his bed my purse isn't even like a drop in the ocean. He'll want something else, and it would be in my own best interest to make an offer instead of letting him make a demand. Well, there is one angle I know about that I can play.

"How are things with Sezemat?"

At first he seems a little confused at the sudden turn away from my previous inquiry, but he catches on quick enough. In fact he doesn't miss a beat at all.

"Oh! Everything is marvelous! Thank you for asking! Since you mention it, I could use your help with another little issue regarding my relationship with Sezemat."

I tilt my head slightly. Oh yes, now we are getting somewhere. At the same time I can't get his confused expression from just now out of my mind. Who would have thought that confused dragons would look so adorable? No, I can't let this distract me! I have to focus! I look him up and down once, before I continue our negotiation.

"Want me to shine up our scales again? Although, I have to say, you don't look like you would really need it right now. Your scales are still quite lustrous."

He preens a little at the compliment. Then he flashes me a toothy smile that could just as well scare anyone not on good terms with him.

"Oh, thank you for offering, but you are right. My scales don't need that kind of attention right now. No, I have something else in mind. Nothing too hard though. Just some busy work."

He nods in the direction of one of the nearby shelves.

"The silver wares section could use a little dusting and polishing."

He clears his throat.

"I want it to make a better impression than it does right now. Just in case Sezemat decides to drop by."

I head over to check out the shelf in question. Silver wares is a very wide term it seems. There is table ware, spoons, forks and knives of various kinds. They are usually displayed in wooden cases as whole sets. This is the kind of thing I'd expect to find in the households of nobles or at least reasonable well of traders or master craftsmen.

Even those families can fall upon hard times it seems. Otherwise these probably wouldn't be on display here. Beldragor's fences wares for the guild, but I doubt he would so brazenly put stolen goods on display. Especially ones so easily recognizable.

Those aren't the only silver items though. There are candlesticks, hand mirrors, combs, brushes and even some music instruments too, as well as plenty of other things. I can't even begin to guess at the purpose of some of those.

Beyond the shelf with the silver items are more with similar items made of bronze and brass. I have a sneaking suspicion that polishing up his silver wares might include those too, even if they are not made of silver. All of these shelves certainly could use some attention and a thorough dusting.

Finally I turn back to face the dragon behind the counter. I cross my arms and scowl a little.

"How can you even neglect these things enough for them to gather dust? Honestly! And I suspect when you speak of silver wares, you mean the brass and the bronze ones too. I could do it, of course, but that much work deserves a little more reward than just an answer to my initial question."

Beldragor clasps his paws over his heart, as if I just landed a mortal blow, and swoons for a moment.

"You drive a hard bargain. What else do you have in mind?"

I lift a few of the items in question off their places on the shelves and run my fingers through the dust. I make a show of gathering up some cobwebs too. Only then do I answer.

"Well, since you have such a fancy training room above the shop I was wondering if you could organize some other training for me too. Some lock picking training for example. Or a way to train a magical resistance skill as well as a skill to counter identification skills. And of course I would appreciate it, if you could be discrete about it."

He perks up at those words. Probably because I just shared some juicy little tidbits of information with him. I can almost see his thoughts racing. I have got him now. Oh yes, he is baited and wants to know more. Hook, line and sinker.

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"Well, locks and their picking, that one is easy. There are some upstairs, behind the fake storefronts you saw last time. You certainly could use those. Do you need some lock picks by the way? There might be some hidden somewhere around here behind all the other clutter."

He taps his snout thoughtfully before he continues.

"The rest is a little more tricky. Well, the part regarding the magic resistance skill anyway. You'll need someone willing to cast combat spells on you if I'm not mistaken. Am I right? Preferably someone not too powerful? So a wizard's or a witch's apprentice? I might be able to reach out to someone. It'll take a little while though until I can give you a definitive answer. As for training up a skill to resist identification, I can help you with that myself. At least a little. I can spare a little Mana and use a skill on you a few times while you are busy cleaning, if you don't mind."

I take a moment to think about it, then I nod in agreement.

"Fine. Let's do it that way. You have a duster, some rags and polishing paste for the silver?"

As if to answer my question the door of a nearby cabinet springs open, revealing various cleaning supplies, including the ones mentioned by me. It's of course no coincidence, but rather a casual display of the Beldragor's powers of telekinesis.

I check on the cleaning supplies and, as I find everything I'll need, nod again before I head over to the counter to finalize my deal with the young dragon.

"Alright, I'll clean the shelves and polish the metal goods, silver, bronze and brass alike. In exchange you use your identification skill on me while I work and you'll get in contact with a spell caster who can help me improve my other resistance skill. And you'll tell me about skills or items that can identify people and reveal their secrets without them noticing."

The dragon nods eagerly and we shake hands to seal the deal. There is an immediate benefit to this, beyond what I'll get out of the deal. A whispered notification informs me of the fact.

[*Ding!* Your skill Haggling has leveled up to level 3!]

This skill improvement counts towards the progress of my scoundrel class again. Just as well, as it'll probably be quite a while until I can expect the next level up for it. Maybe it would progress faster if I were to improve the class quality in some way? In all likelihood the number of class skills would increase in this case, which in turn might result in more experience points being counted towards the progress of the class too.

That's just idle speculation though, as there is nothing, or at least nothing that I know of, that I could do towards that end. I focus on things I can do instead. Right now that means that I get started cleaning. My first order of business is gathering up the rest of the cobwebs with a feather duster. I can take care of the actual dust afterwards. That promptly results in another notification.

[*Ding!* You have unlocked the Housekeeping general skill at Level 1!]

Very nice! This one counts toward the progress of my new masked mediator class, reaffirming that the experience earned through general skills is evenly split in between classes. Maybe I'll even get a few more level up notifications for my skills, or rather this new skill out of this! That certainly would come in handy!

As I return from shaking the gathered cobwebs off the duster out on the street, I can feel the tingle of an identification skill being used. A glance over at Beldragor confirms that he is the one responsible. Good. He is keeping up his end of the deal already.

A moment later, probably just about as the dragon receives the results of his skill use, I receive another whispered notification.

[*Ding!* Your skill Shrouded Soul has leveled up to level 4!]

This one actually makes me pause briefly, as I can feel a whole series of additional changes wash over me. The skill is a rare one after all, which means it increases its governing attribute, in this case spirit, much more than a common skill. As a result both my spell power and my Mana pool improve too.

As I get back to work, dusting down the shelves themselves now, and in some cases some items that have gathered a thick coating of dust too the young dragon starts to explain about identification skills and items.

"Well, Viviona, you probably have felt different identification skills at work already. What you feel is indeed keyed to the user's intent. A regular identification skill feels a little like someone prying into your secrets. Not nice, but not that bad either. Then there is the variant, [Appraisal] the guards most commonly use. Now that feels really nasty. Like you are nothing but goods to be traded in the eyes of the user. I won't elaborate on the implications of this right now. You probably can come to the right conclusions on your own time."

My brows furrow at that. Oh, yes, I certainly can come to some conclusions with that tidbit of information. It takes some effort to keep cleaning without muttering curses under my breath.

Beldragor retreats back to his bed of coins to make himself a little more comfortable as he keeps explaining.

My eyes widen as I feel my [Shrouded Soul] skill improve a little without the telltale signs of an identification skill being used on me. I whip around to face the dragon.

He smirks a truly draconic, toothy smirk and holds up an eye shaped pendant dangling from a fine metal chain.

"Items enchanted to mimic a skill on the other hand have no intent. Or rather, most items don't. In fact if you ever come across an item that triggers the usual reaction to its identification skill you can assume that it has developed a consciousness and thus a soul of sorts. It's quite rare, but it does happen sometimes. Especially with highly magical items like powerful grimoires or highly enchanted, equally powerful weapons."

I nod and am off to get a bucket of water to wipe down the shelves for good measure.

[*Ding!* Your skill Housekeeping has leveled up to level 2!]

My agility improves this time together with the skill and so does my attack power as a result.

For a while the dragon falls silent and I start humming the melody of one of the songs I heard in passing last night at the gambling den, as I don't want to work in utter silence. Beldrogar doesn't complain either.

As I get the polishing paste and a new rag to start shining up the silver wares, the dragon shopkeeper uses his identification skill on me once more. Again my [Shrouded Soul] skill is nudged a little closer to the next level up. After wards he speaks up again.

"And then of course there are some individuals in possession of highly advanced identification skills or a very special, impartial mindset, freed of all prejudice and intent. They can use their skills on you and you won't ever know, unless of course you happen to have a special skill protecting against such an invasion of your personal space. My mother has a skill like that. I think it's called [The Eye of the Beholder]."

I can feel my [Gather Information] skill improving a little as I swallow hard at this particular revelation. Could it be? Is the head maid, Lady Izolda, an older, more powerful dragon in disguise?

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