As I continue to pace inside the small stone room, I expand my All-Seeing Eye and enemy detection perks to follow the path of the two men that just left.
To my surprise, they head back to the center of the city.
It doesn't take more than a few minutes for the duo to make it all the way to the fountain square where I stopped not too long ago.
Once they do, a large reading of dense mana erupts from the ground in that area for a few seconds, then both of the men are completely gone from my radar.
I raise an eyebrow at this, and think about using a much higher percentage of my mana control to do a deep scan of the city to see where they went. But doing that would be like putting a signal of my own out, probably much more intense than the one I just witnessed.
It may not be a bad idea, but I'd like to scan my surroundings bit by bit first before I go all out with a scan that could give up my own location to someone with exceptionally keen eyes.
However, while pondering this situation, a system notification rings in my mind.
[Skill Transfer To Main Body: Complete]
[Screech][Legendary Grade]
My attention turns to this, and I open my status to see what kind of skill my body double just farmed.
Using my All-Seeing Eye, I read over the description a few times to conclude this isn't a skill I'll likely be activating often. It allows the caster to let out an ear-shattering screech up to 50 times louder than an average yell.
Some of the special and legendary grade perks here state that this skill can be used to increase the volume of a normal voice over long areas, but this kind of skill isn't useful for a stealthy situation like this.
Still, I'm happy there are some unique dungeons in that canyon, and by the look of how fast a new skill was farmed, this shows good odds that this one probably won't be the last today.
As I close my status, the large influx of mana from the center of town comes back, and the two men show up in my enemy detection radar as clear as day.
I get back in line, and once a few minutes pass, they come back down the steps inside the tavern, Fin, the dagger user, crosses his arms and speaks up.
"Alright, I'm taking the team with the new guy. All of you follow me, we're doing the first 6-hour shift right now."
The man at the front of the line I'm in perks up and begins to follow Fin. Then, everyone else in line does the exact same thing, following in an orderly fashion, so I do the same.
As we leave up the stairs, the larger man says a similar thing to the second group, and they all begin following him too.
We walk out into the open air and begin making our way further away from the center of town toward an empty small section of village. Fin speaks up from the front of the line as we approach a sturdy-looking locked steel door on a large wooden barn.
"Here's one of the irregular warehouses. There may be something interesting in here. Hunters with skills, crack that door open. Weaklings, stand back and take note of what's being hauled away. We need records kept of all items sorted."
The one-eyed man pulls out a large wheeled cart from an item box around his waist, using the invisible ghost-like hands to gently place it next to the door as two men begin to bash it open with body-hardening covered fists.
It opens with a crash, and everyone floods inside to begin their work, getting into lines and sorting through the piles of meticulously marked untampered goods lining the walls of the warehouse.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
I do a full appraisal to find there must be at least two thousand items of decent quality in here. Some E grade, mostly D, and a few are even C.
The dagger user speaks up again.
"C-Grade gear goes in the cart, E and D will be sorted and left to pick up at a later date. Get to work! I'll be surveying the area for any Green Mist intruders. If you see anyone with a green flag on their waist, you're ordered to kill them on sight."
He turns away as the last of us make our way into the wooden barn and begins moseying around the streets nearby. I walk in and pretend to be productive, but in reality, I'm just doing a bit of shopping for myself.
Some time goes by, and I slip a few crates of C-Grade HP and MP potions into my storage along with interesting looking unmarked crates with higher mana readings coming off of them, but overall most of this gear is just common low-grade goods.
It's just items that would be sold to guilds training up new recruits, mercenaries for their armies and workers, or local shops in any Hunter-friendly city.
None of the mind controlled worker do or say anything when they witness me acting differently than them, they just carry on with their tasks as usual.
I would be bored out of my mind, but the constant ringing in my head is keeping me very occupied.
[Skill Transfer To Main Body: Complete]
[Phantom Step][Legendary Grade]
[Skill Transfer To Main Body: Complete]
[Flare][Legendary Grade]
[Skill Transfer To Main Body: Complete]
[Confusion][Legendary Grade]
[Skill Transfer To Main Body: Complete]
[Blast][Legendary Grade]
Four new skills come in, and they're much more interesting than the first one I received. Phantom Step is a movement technique that creates multiple phantom-like visuals, confusing the opponent so they're unsure of which direction the caster really went.
Flare summons an incredibly bright light used for blinding an opponent to escape from battle or use a sneak attack. The Legendary grade perk allows it to be ejected from the caster, with mana control strength varying its distance of the shot.
Confusion has similar properties to my Intimidation skill, but it leaves the ones afflicted in a dazed state only until the skill is deactivated.
Lastly, Blast allows the caster to explode anything they make contact with. It is a self-destructing skill, so if the user activates it on the wrong portion of their body or channels too much mana into it, it could be a fatal move.
While studying the intricacies of these new skills and wondering how to add them to my usual battle strategies, I continue to keep a close eye on the dagger wielder that patrols the streets around this block.
He keeps doing the same routes, going in circles and staying within 200 meters or so from the warehouse. His [Bind] skill is sporadically activated every time he rounds a sharp corner like he's on guard and ready to fight.
Interestingly enough, the further I let my detection range go out, the more fascinating this city becomes.
At first, it seemed random and unorganized, but after about 3 hours of studying the movements of everyone within a 5km radius from myself, it's clear to see there's many teams of level 250-350 guards handling small sectors of land.
There are warehouses being raided systematically, and the C-Grade and higher items are all being separated from the E and D grades brought to different safe houses.
This would be very standard behavior, if it wasn't for the fact that both this Crimson Dagger gang and the Green Mist on the other side of town were doing the exact same looting strategy.
The systematic process that both of them loot and separate their gear is identical to each other, and it doesn't make any sense.
On some of the spare material in this warehouse, I begin writing down an exact mapped-out system of where every guard is located, and which warehouses are currently being looted while also marking ones I pick up on my perception skill that have seemingly not been found or messed with yet.
I slowly let out more of my mana control once I'm positive no one in this general vicinity is capable of detecting me, and the only mystery that still remains is a large rectangular bunker I find on my radar beneath the fountain in the middle of the city.
It's hidden well, but once I begin using over one third of my mana control solely on perception skills, it begins to appear to me.
However, even if I can sense that it's there, it doesn't mean I can see inside. The mana shielding covering this bunker is incredibly strong. The more mana control I use up, the more I believe it's possibly on par with the shielding back in the walls of the Galeheart Tower.
For some reason, I can't see through them at all. That's exactly where Fin and Raze left to go meet their so-called Boss earlier this morning. This is exactly where I'd like to go next.
Fin comes strolling back toward the barn on his routine route, but this time stops in front with his hands on his hips and calls out.
"Alright, 10-minute lunch break. I don't want all of you dying on me, so stop working for a moment so you can eat and drink these."
He pulls out bars of food and dried meat that look like they've been sitting in a storage locker for years along with cases of water bottles tinted light pink.
Immediately, I pick up on small traces of mana in the liquid, and my Appraisal skill detects traces of the same [Elixir of Suggestion] in the drinks.