In the midnight, At the Park.
A lone female figure could be seen sitting on the bench while pondering about the key she was holding. The key doesn't look like an ordinary key of anything ever seen, and it seems like something that involves stuff that ain't normal. It's colored in all black as if being paint like that of the night sky. Aside from how unique it looks like, it also holds a mysterious origin. With this key in hands, one could enter a whole new world called the Trial Tower. In gaming term, it's an Instant Dungeon's Key.
The Trial Tower that Sheila entered via the phone was different from the key. Both are the same instant dungeon, but it is entirely different at the same time. The difference between entering via the key and the phone was, the instant dungeon would merely look like a natural grassland somewhere on Earth. But if Sheila entered the instant dungeon via her phone, she would be in the safe zone but outside there exist slimes that are waiting to launch at you at any time.
Only when the key user accepts any quest(be it slaying slime or goblin) would the monster appear in the field. They have to fulfill the quest, or they won't be able to exit the Trial Tower in any other way. And apparently, as the host of the leveling system, Sheila could monitor when someone entered the Trial Tower via the key on her phone. It was akin to watching another player in MMORPG. But for this one, she could switch the view or even move the invisible camera around the player. She literally has eyes everywhere, and none could hide anything from her when intruding in her holy ground.
Sheila put the key back into her inventory before bringing out the skill book to her left without touching it just yet. She could click the icon of the book on her phone to summon it out without ended up learning it. The book materializes to her left, and she tries to analyze it from the cover.
The front of the book was nothing different than the back aside from having a title on it. The size and thickness of the book could be considered just like one of the Japanese light novel. Sheila doesn't know how the book's weight since she couldn't touch it.
"So, this is how the skill book looks like."
To be honest, she was expecting it to be more— you know, magical? Something like the grimoire in the fantasy world. But the skill book in front of her looks just like the one in the game. And the title on the book said, Disguise. One would think that it was an ordinary book about how to disguise or something. That was how she thought at first when she received it, and if not of the system notification alerting her what it was, she would not have concluded that it was a skill book.
One shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
Anyway, from the name of the book, she could guess what the skill would be. It was an essential skill for one who has a job that requires them to hide their real identity. It was not a job where one would be proud of saying it in public; they would expose themselves otherwise. If it were before she got the key, she wouldn't have any need for this skill. But now, she could come up with a plan where she could give the key to someone without exposing herself. That is if she finds someone worthy enough, she doesn't want to ended up making a monster, after all.
Her hand was about to touch the book when it came to a halt. Does it hurt when a memory of something was suddenly imprinted itself deep inside your brain? Most of the novel she has read regarding taking over the dead body; the protagonist would be in agony when the original owner's memory suddenly rush to their mind. If it hurt, it wouldn't be that bad right?
Well, even if it hurt, it wouldn't kill me anyway, right? Did I just raise a death flag here?
The moment Sheila's hand touched on the skill book, she could feel a warm sensation rushing from her hands to her whole body. She closed her eyes to enjoy the warm current in her body as if basking in a warm bath. Because she closed her eyes, she didn't see the skill book disappearing like a flickering light to nothingness. After a few seconds that feel like an hour to her, Sheila finally opened her eyes.
"Surprisingly, it feels good."
The know-how of using the disguise skill has already imprinted in her mind. With the skill at level 1, she could change how her facial looks, including changing her hair and pupils color. Silently, she pulled out a small mirror from the inventory in the phone. You would not be a woman if you didn't carry at least one mirror with you.
Sheila changed her hair color from black into a crimson red, followed by the brown pupils into beautiful golden eyes. She also changed a little bit around her facial and before long, an unknown beautiful red-haired girl with golden eyes appeared in the mirror. Even the person herself was surprised by the result. She feels like she was staring at someone else instead of herself.
After that, she tried to make a lot of change in order to get used to the skill. From a beautiful girl into grumpy grandma, from grumpy grandma into an ugly girl before turning into a belle. It was a bizarre experience, yet she had a lot of fun doing it. She only needs to give a thought of turning the skill off and she would return back to her real look, it didn't require any real cost(such as money for dyeing hair) whatsoever. It didn't take long before she gets used to it.
Apparently, changing the hair and eyes color only cost 5MP while to change any part of the facial requires 10MP. She also thought if she leveled up the skill, the cost would eventually go down along with more part of her body that she could customize. It's also possible for her to completely disguise as an animal!
She could spy someone by disguising herself as either cat or dog by making her target let their guard down, which could also give her a chance to send a deadly strike. If she couldn't fly with magic, she could also fly by disguising herself as a bird! Anything work for the sake of her goal to conquering the sky!
Now that she was done with her business here, she decided its time for her to leave. She decides to change her look to someone else before getting up and left. She doesn't want any of her neighbors accidentally see her walking back from the park in midnight, after all. Although the chance is small, it was not zero.