R.O.A.D.

(5) Blackmail

"You hate the Count, right?"

Nick looks up with a startled look.

"Yes, I do. But why does that matter?"

"Because we're blackmailing him."

"What..?"

"Let me guess, your father-not-father told everyone that you were dead right?"

"...Yes."

"If we just threaten to tell everyone that you're alive, then we can get the job ceremony for advanced classes."

Everyone faces lit up in understanding, with the light of hope deep within their eyes. In this world, if you didn't have an advanced job you would never be truly respected. Even if you reached the peak of a basic job, you would never be able to withstand the low level blow of an advanced job. Some geniuses were able to come up with their own path, but they would never be able to get an advanced job if the nobles didn't permit it. A job ceremony is essentially upgrading the existence level of a organism. It required a special location that had naturally occurring space cracks. It was only there that you could absorb primordial chaos. 

'Basic is Earth, Advanced is Heaven, and Peak is Space.'

Back in the day, Reina and her friends all had peak level jobs. Priest of the Radiant Dawn, Primordial Magus, Bearer of Hope, Titan, Twin Sword Saint... The Dancer of the End. They were all geniuses that made their own paths on the cusp of godhood. 

'Well, I don't even have a job right now.'

All of the basic jobs, like their name had very basic requirements. An assassin had to kill an organism without them seeing the assassin-wannabe. An organism can literally refer to a chicken or a human alike. A little known fact was that the stronger the target you killed, the better chances you had to advance to a higher class. It wasn't solely influenced by your initial kill, but it helped in the long run. Similarly, if you killed a bunch of strong people in a row... You would get a 'rare' basic job class.

No one knew this information currently as it only spread around during the war.

'Information is power.'

"Wait! You-you still lied to us!" Nick said as he turned around to look at his little group; rage clouding over his eyes, "We can't trust her just like that!"

Reina slowly walked over to Nick one step at a time, fully milking the little intimidation factor that her young body could induce. Slowly but surely her black pupils with no sclera (1) directly looked into his piercing lavender eyes. Before she had a permanent illusion magic cast over her eyes to make them look as normal as possible, but she didn't have the required resources right now. If they were startled by her eyes, then they didn't say anything.

"I only have one question for you, if you could bother hearing me out that is."

His only response was a strained nod.

"Why should I trust you? For all I know, you'll sell me out to the nearest guard for some bread. You guys didn't have the best first impression either, robbing the nearest little girl to fill your own stomachs. If I was anyone other than myself, I would be dying of starvation."

Her only answer was an ashamed silence. The bandits had never thought of what would actually happen to the person they robbed.

"Of course, I don't hold your actions against you. This world is dictated by the law of the jungle, a dog eat dog world if you will. You were only doing your best to survive, the same as I am. However, know that I truly am sincere when I say I want to kill all of the bastards in this rotten kingdom of ours."

Reina looked up at her little group of skeletons, a challenging smirk on her face.

"Keep in mind that this is your only chance to take revenge. Now tell me, are you in or not?"

Needless to say, they all agreed despite their misgivings. The rest of the day was spent teaching the rebels how to gather food in the wild, body strengthening methods (for the future), basic magic incantations, and information about various job classes. She evaluated their potential, and the best job for each of them. Most were disappointing, but a couple had surprisingly decent potential.

'It's all because this kingdom makes it hard to even get a basic job, that all of this talent was left in the mud. If they would just let up on their damn taxes...'

"Andrew, you have middle class Advanced potential. You're the most suited as a barbarian in this group. Just make sure you don't slack off."

"Yes, Boss!"

Potential is generally accepted as the stage you are most likely to reach at your prime. Although it's possible for someone with low potential to reach a higher stage, it has a very low probability. Thus people with high potentials are looked up to as geniuses, and low potentials are looked down upon as trash. Of course, strength is everything in this world in the end. Even if they had the lowest potential in the world, if they had high strength no one would dare look down on them. Similarly, high potential does not absolutely translate into high strength.

Take Andrew for example. If he never met Reina then he would have simply starved to death, never making use of the potential he had. 

A teacher was generally seen the same as a parent in this world for they gave out all of their knowledge and experience. Knowledge is literally power, from magic incantations, to body strengthening methods. Although Reina didn't tell them everything she knew, the group still felt very grateful to her.

That was the main reason for the skeleton group's change in attitude.

'Everything is going according to the plan.'

She was going to kill this withering tree down to the roots. Then it would be their turn.