Once it reached 100% the status screen dinged, alerting them that it was finished.
Tapping on the screen brought up their status as they looked at it, they were mostly satisfied with what they saw but some questions needed to be answered.
"Gregory, why do you have the Leighla Kingdoms assassination methods?"
Chronos stared at him without blinking, being greatly surprised, wondering just when and how his best friend had become a part of one of the most feared assassin orders in the northwestern part of the continent.
Leighla Assassins were not particularly skilled at killing but you could never hide anything from them. Their secret methods enhanced instincts and sensitivity to minute differences in their immediate environment, combined with their training this allowed them to notice any signs of lies or hidden compartments in a house.
Thanks to these advantages they had never failed to dig out the secrets of the nobles or the surrounding nations.
As long as you weren't causing problems then they weren't a threat, but many nobles made secret deals, some of which they didn't want the King hearing about.
Many noble families had been disciplined, and some erased, because of the Leighla assassin's but the Ulv family had never seen a reason to be concerned about them. They had never had the intention to betray the kingdom, and the King was already well aware that they would always side with the people even if it meant opposing the King.
However, they were also extremely loyal so as long as the King didn't become a tyrant that harmed the commoners the Ulv family would always stand on his side. Even if they had to fight the Vhalic Empire, the sworn enemy of the Leighla kingdom, on their own.
What surprised Chronos was how Gregory had managed to become one of them.
They were notoriously strict with who they allowed to learn their secret methods. Chronos wouldn't even have known that Gregory was a part of them if his methods section hadn't named the Leighla assassin arts as a part of his known methods.
"Remember a few years ago when your mother, Lady Margeret, caught us trying to sneak out of the city?"
"Yeah, she caught me almost immediately, but it took her half an hour to catch you. Didn't you just outrun her?"
"No, I hid and changed my hiding spot several times. When your father, Lord Mathew, heard about it he decided that I needed professional training and brought in one of the retired members of the Leighla assassins to train me."
Chronos' face scrunched up as he thought about who had been brought into the city during that time period and who could possibly have taught Gregory, but nobody stood out as being that capable.
Wait a minute, the bakery that made his favorite afternoon snack had been founded right around then. Gregory often went there too, it couldn't be...
"You don't mean the fat baker Dorin do you? He can't be one of the Leighla assassins. He is way too fat!"
"Yep, he's the one. Despite how he looks he is exceptionally skilled at gathering information and extremely knowledgeable about poisons. He uses poison to make up for his lacking combat skills and that seems to have given him a great deal of knowledge about cooking.
Beneath his bakery is an entire training ground that extends into the military's corner of the city. They only dig under the military buildings when they need space for an armory, making it difficult to find his training grounds."
"I see, being a baker is also a good way to gather information as nearly everybody stops in to buy bread or desserts."
Nodding Gregory agreed with him. Turning to Lyla, Chronos saw that her status screen had an inheritance section that he hadn't seen on anyone else's.
"Ooh, what is an inheritance? If you don't mind answering."
He asked with curiosity, there was so much to learn even after he had seen his own status.
With a big smile she answered, "It's a technique that my teacher created, it was approved of by the god of order, but my teacher passed away before she could pass all of it to me. I'm so happy that it is here, I only managed to learn the first two ranks in the past. Now I can learn all of it."
She was practically bouncing at the mention of this inheritance. It would be very powerful if she was this happy.
"Can you tell us what it does? Or is it a secret?"
"No, I can tell you. It's a spell called [The Axiom of Dominion] and it passively increases my physique and spirit permanently and with the system analyzing it I can finally tell how much. I'm 25% stronger than those at my rank so I have 5.0 points in physique and spirit compared to other knight ranks.
My teacher was much stronger than that so I think it can be further increased upon some unknown condition. It also makes it so my power cannot regress upon receiving serious injury, contamination from miasma or other poisons, or techniques meant for crippling me.
But what I'm happiest about is the Knight rank ability of [Divine Form: Judicator Ascendant], this ability is what made my master so powerful against her enemies. And it is the final part of the spell she was never able to pass onto me. It is going to take me some time to learn it."
She clearly had no idea what the specifics of this divine form was but if it was as strong as her teacher claimed then it would be a superb trump card.
"Oh, that is impressive. Since it boosts your physique and spirit it must be a spell that influences your constitution. I wonder if there will be side-effects like being weakened after actively using it?"
"Probably, but the power is definitely worth it." She exclaimed as she bounced in joy.
Sariah's status was the last one to be examined but as they looked at her status Chronos felt actual fear for the first time.
She had the basic support spells although it looked like she had only mastered [Wind's Grace], [Bears Strength], and [Lifeweave] but those three spells covered most forms of support you would need in battle.
She had also learned the basic control spells of the four elements and fused them into the spell [Elemental Control]. It wasn't strong but it was very versatile and allowed for using the four elements in various ways.
But what scared Chronos was another new section in her status called Curses. Including the one she used earlier she had 9 rank 1 curses, three of which weren't meant to be used in combat, 6 rank 2 curses that could greatly disturb combat and 4 rank 3 curses which were the only ones she had not yet mastered.
She had mastered more curses than he had skills! Some of them could be used in terrifying ways.
Her profession was the terrifying job of Curse master.
The worst part about fighting a Curse master is that most curses are undetectable or only noticed after it has taken effect. Without a clergyman casting a detection spell on you it could be very difficult to know when, or where, you were cursed.
No wonder the battles were so much easier when she wasn't tired. She had been secretly casting curses from the back line to assist them in battle.
Gregory hadn't seen her status yet, turning to him Chronos set his hands on Gregory's shoulders and spoke in his most serious tone.
"Gregory, this will be the only time I give you a serious order. You can sell my information and cause as many problems for me as you want, but you are never allowed to betray Sariah."
"Is her status that bad?" Concerned, Gregory looked at her status and then paled. "I understand, I will never betray her!"
Confused and slightly annoyed at why these two were so insistent about this, Sariah spoke up.
"I'm not so weak that I need constant protection. I do have my ways."
Lyla laughed before speaking, "I think it is those same "ways" that they are scared of. Don't worry about it too much, men always fight harder when they have something to protect."
Sariah wasn't sure what they were afraid of, after all she wouldn't be using curses on them, but agreed with Lyla anyway. If they need someone to protect, she could certainly be that person. But she would be secretly casting curses at their enemies while pretending to be weak.
"Most of the status is straight forward but we are going to have to study it to find whatever secrets are hidden inside. Like these professions, how are they earned, and can we only have one or is it possible to have more? What benefits do they give?" Gregory said.
"I think the status can only show one, but it doesn't stop us from learning others. It's also possible that it can fuse professions together to create a new profession. As for the advantages of having a profession, according to the goddess of order a profession will boost our learning speed when we study something related to it. The degree it is boosted depends on the rank of our profession." Lyla said.