After leaving the alley Jared wanted to do nothing more than go to his room in the Inn and sleep or lie down in his case.
But he couldn’t, if he behaved abnormal and didn’t deliver the rest of his letters he would just draw attention to himself.
So he went ahead making sure to be on guard and keep away from alleys.
On his way he thought about what happened in the alley, his heart picked up speed at that, but he was a lot more calmer than before.
He didn’t feel guilty about killing the man or at least he thought so, it was a bad situation and he owed the bandit nothing. Chuckling he thought to lift his spirits,” A bandit in the middle of town.”
No, it wasn’t guilt that he felt but anger, not at his attacker, but himself. How could he be so stupid, letting his guard down a mere 2 days after arriving in another world. The only saving grace about the situation was that he didn’t let the fear paralyze him.
And of course the level ups and the corpse, he didn’t think that there were a lot of skills out there with the ability to stop time like his inventory.
A fresh naked corpse can be used for all kinds of things, framing someone, for example, sure he could have left the rags on but he doubted Inspectors would believe that anyone worth framing would kill a beggar in their bedroom, but a love affair turned bad that could work.
Laughing to himself, a few days ago he would have never thought to even agree to anything like that, let alone do it himself. Maybe he was still in shock over almost dying.
But he didn’t want to let life just pass by him. Jared had no idea if he desired to become a fighter for justice, a criminal mastermind, or something else entirely, but what he knew was that he wanted to be something, to be someone.
But shaking off thoughts of megalomania, he checked his status.
Name: Jared Jotter
Race Human
Titles: Otherworldler; The Strongest of them All; Bibliophile; Two-Faced
Age: 0
Class: Smuggler
Level: 8
Mana: 220/220 M.Regeneration: 7.5/s
Stamina: 110/110 S.Regeneration:11.6/s
Strength: 17
Endurance: 18
Dexterity: 22
Intelligence: 29
Wisdom: 8
Willpower: 15
General Skills: Language Translation; Inventory; Appraisal; Everlasting Life (Lv. 2); Script Sniffer; Sure Lie
Class Skill: Distract (Lvl 3); Unnoticed (Lvl 2);Sprint (Lvl 2)
Choose a skill.
Disguise (Lvl 1)
Disguise yourself with an illusion only capable of small changes.
Cost: 30 Mana (1/s Mana)
Speedy Mind (Lvl 1)
Increase the speed of your thoughts.
Cost 10/s Stamina
Five level ups were a lot, but he guessed that committing the crime of murder on someone 16 level above you, needs to count for something.
He pulled out a coin and flipped it in the air and around his hand, he already noticed that double the stats didn’t mean double the capability but now with a dexterity of more than triple he could see the difference.
Together with the alertness of Everlasting Life, he felt in control of his body like everything he wanted to accomplish with it would work out.
“OK, maybe not everything.” He thought and picked up the coin he just dropped.
But he wanted to further enhance that, so the choice of skill was clear to him.
Congratulation the Smuggler Class granted you the “Speedy Mind” Skill.
He felt that the Disguise skill would add to little for him. Sure it would have been useful in the alley, for example, a quick change to make him look less bloody would be awesome but he achieved the same with his inventory.
And once he stashed it with more things like different kinds of clothes he could just will on himself, maybe even wigs, the skill lost even more of its appeal.
But Speedy Mind had a lot more synergy with his high dex and his Distract skill. The skill could only create one illusion at a time but as long it is an instant one, he could chain multiple ones together, even faster with his new skill.
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Just imagining a loud bang next to someone's ear at machine-gun speed brought a smile to Jared. That is if he had the Mana, but he wasn’t worried the cost of the skills seems to be going down at higher level.
Finishing up his last delivery and writing another person into his journal he felt a good deal better about what happened today and made his way back to the guild, snacking on an apple.
There were a lot of things he needed to do.
Jared guessed that he could make about 30 delivery's a day so a daily income of 30 sitch if he works from morning till night.
So let's say 20 sitch a day and with the Inn costing 10 without bath, he would need a more permanent place and fast.
Jared also wanted to better equip his Inventory, the water bottle scare almost gave him a heart attack, but here he was back to money.
He hadn’t gathered any information worth anything nor did he know who to sell it to.
Kicking himself for ruining his mood again he arrived at the guild about an hour afternoon.
It was a lot emptier than this morning, only the receptionists and a few couriers, but maybe it was the time.
Giving Julie a quick wave he went to one of the back counters to cash in his requests.
The guy behind the counter gave him the “Are you crazy look” when he saw they were all for the South-district, but Jared only grinned at him and took his money.
With his expanses of 17 sitch, for the inn room and the other things he bought, his total profit today comes to -7 sitch, yay. Jared could feel a headache coming. But he ignored that and went to Julie's counter.
“Hi there do you have a minute, I wanted to ask something,” he said and leaned on the counter.
“I’m sorry but I don’t date people at work.” she shot back giving him the practiced customer smile but with a glint of mirth.
Taking a step back and holding a hand over his heart he exclaimed,” What, but that's the only reason I joined the Guild, life lost all its meaning. Well goodbye, I have to drown myself in the fountain now.”
Chuckling at his antics she rolled her eyes with a smile and said.” Yes of course you do that, but jokes aside yeah I have some time the most work comes in the morning and later in the evening.”
Going back to the counter he asked.”Nice, so I’m new in town and wanted to ask if there’s is away to rent a place somewhere, best if it's cheap and that the neighborhood isn’t infested with gangsters.”
“Sure if you want cheap then The Springs and Silverboruogh are out and South-district if you want to avoid neighbors with lax morals. So the only thing left is West-district and Moonwall.” Coughing lightly she continued.
“You should be able to easily find one with roommates in the upper West-district for cheap.”
Interrupting her there.” No roommates please they never clean up after themselves.”
”And are probably going to freak out when I start cleaning my bloody clothes.” He thought to himself.
Furrowing her brows she said,” Then it’s going to be harder, I know how much bronze couriers make and the only place I could think of would be the lower West-district near the craftsman but that's going to be loud and stinky.”
“Perfect I don’t mind a bit of noise and some smells,” he said smiling.
Shaking her head she said,” Don’t underestimate it, there are blacksmiths, tanners, and butcher store livestock there temporarily.”
“Not a problem.” He said giving her a thumbs up.
Pulling out a map she shrugged and said,” Don’t come complaining to me later, you need to go here they deal with all rents in the West-district tell them what you want and they should be able to find you something.”
Looking deeply into her eyes and with the greatest emotions he could bring forth he said,” Thank you, truly.” Jared held that look until he could see her blush. Grinning he said,” Ha I got you to blush.”
Rolling her eyes she said.“Get out.” but there was no heat in her words. Waving to her, he turned toward the exit sidestepping the person who tried to run into him. He truly loved his Unnoticed skill.
James Gedar Lvl 26
Swordsman
James stumbled slightly missing his mark and scowled at Jared,” Watch where you’re going, shrimp.” And turned towards Julie with a smile.
“Ah yes, the love triangle with the counter girl and the dastardly nobles son how could I forget, though I’m neither in love with her, just met the girl, and nor does he look like a nobles son.” he narrated to himself with amusement.”But I have to give him the shrimp comment he is more than a head taller than me.”
Walking out of the guild the look of amusement left his face and he pulled out his journal,” Well wouldn't hurt to remember him.”
James Gedar Lvl 26
Swordsman
Male; brown hair, tall over 2m, courting? Diplomat Julie, hostile?
Important family? Possible occupations; Adventurer, guard, ….
After he was done he made his way to the Inn to wash up.
Arriving quickly with the use of his Sprint skill, he went inside. About half the tables were occupied with dinner guests but he moved to the counter where Amanda was pouring a drink for a customer.
Seeing him coming she frowned and went over to him.”Hey, where were you this morning.”
Putting on an apologetic smile he said,” I’m sorry Amanda I completely forgot I had an appointment this morning,” changing the smile to a teasing one,” whenever I talk to you everything else just seems to be thrown at the back of my head.”
Blushing with a small giggle she lost her frown, but Jared didn’t miss the stink eye he got from Baros polishing a glass.
Changing the topic he asked,” Could I have the bath key had an exhausting day until now and I want to wash up.”
“Sure, are you gonna eat lunch afterward?” She asked giving him the key and taking his 2 sitch.
“Sadly no I have to be somewhere after, even if I would rather be here,” Jared said getting up from the bar and giving her a wink.
Jared waved to Baros and made his way up the Stairs.
He liked flirting with the girls but he was under no illusion that something romantic would develop from it, casual or otherwise. It was just harmless fun and he needed to focus on his goals when he ever figured out what they were, but for now to level up and equipping his Inventory was his top priority.
He closed the door of the bath, activated the crystal, and undressed. Seeing his red-tinted skin he stopped and remembered the encounter from this morning and the cold when he lay dying on the alley floor.
Shaking these thoughts away he climbed into the tub and started to scrub himself down with the small piece of soap.
Finishing with that, he relaxed in the hot water and looked over his new skill.
Speedy Mind (Lvl 1)
Increase the speed of your thoughts.
Cost 10/s Stamina
He activated the skill and the world around him slowed down. It wasn’t anything close to a standstill but still noticeable, as he moved his hand through the air it felt like he was underwater and the sound was distorted.
His first thought was that it would be harder to control his body, but it was the opposite. Coupled with his higher dex Jared wondered if he could have become a world-renowned surgeon in his old world with the amount of precision his fingers seemed to have.
Pulling a coin out of his Inventory he tried the trick from before and this time it worked perfectly. “I should buy throwing knives or something similar it would be easy to learn.” Jared thought with a silly grin.
The best part about all that was he could use the skill indefinitely, the cost not catching up with regeneration. And if the sound wasn’t so distorted he probably would.
Leaving the skill active while he was in the bath to level it up, Jared finished with his bath and put on some new cloth.“I need to do laundry soon.”He thought looking over his Inventory and shoving all his dirty cloth into a new folder.
But it was still afternoon and he had some other things to do. Filling up his water bottle at the faucet he took a sip and left the bath.