"Alright, Amelia it seems you may be a perfect match for what my employers are looking for." She seemed happy at that, Seth by now had formed a hypothesis that she needed money or was highly ambitious. Now he needed to test where her moral compass lay.
"There is a bit of an issue. It has nothing to do with you, it's about the job. Now before I tell you what it is, I'll have to ask you to sign an oath that you will tell nobody about what you heard today."
Yep, Seth had brought out the big guns. For a generous donation to his guild treasury, Seth had gained a highly elusive contract that he had himself written up. It both looked good for his imaginary guild and proved Amelia's doubtful loyalty.
Her shock was evident and to herself, she elevated her new job prospect to a whole different level. Even the people around them looked at the parchment with intrigue, though none walked over in case one of the young adults was highly levelled in disguise. Disrespecting such an individual was never going to be worth the minor curiosity they would sate if they were to interrupt.
Though they did keep their ears peeled in case they could catch a whisper of a conversation that could deem the ten-gold item a necessity.
The conversation did need to go on, and so Seth continued albeit with a lowered voice.
"Alright, so the job is illegal." Seth waited for a bit to see her remarkably calm reaction. "That's why the Oath was needed, does this affect your willingness for the job."
No hesitation, "No, it depends how much you're paying."
Great, Seth had found a morally ambiguous person number 3.
"The pay depends on how much you contribute to the success of the job. For now, act normal. Our organisation can underlay any other and only acts when money can be made. Welcome to Fortune's Syndicate Amelia, I will be in touch when the job is prepared and ready."
Seth prepared to leave but Amelia stopped him in his tracks and asked, "What's the job about?"
Seth's mouth curved up to form a smile and he whispered back, "Stealing."
Happy with a day's work Seth went home and went back to work trying to open his tiny collection of safes. He now had an inventory of one rank 5 safe and a rank 3 safe, both of which he struggled to open.
The rank 5 might as well not be on the same plant as Seth, as he had no way of opening that until he came across a specialist or he simply gained the brute strength to open it. The rank 3, on the other hand, he was making decent progress with.
It had a complex enhancement done by a skill from a Smith that increased the strength of the metal. This made it harder to break into, as Seth was finding out right now.
He had bought himself a trusty sledgehammer and was using his strength to try and break into the damn thing.
Mana was something he could use if he evolved because when someone evolved, they usually got to specialise further into a certain area and mana usually came as a byproduct of that specialization.
From class, he had learned that in the first levels, you gain soul maturity and some physical fitness, and the first evolution allows for someone to start to build upon their soul.
Much like the Inner Soul Space where your skills are stored are transformed into an area relative to their own lives and from that access, they can better express their own abilities and strengths.
Damn, Seth wanted to evolve so bad. He needed to find a job, a big one: that would guarantee his evolution. For that he needed information, and the best place for that was obviously a tavern.
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Out the drain, he exited, and into the tavern, he entered.
Darter, a city that thrived from few industries but mainly did well because of its great geographical placement. It had a great port and had great road access to many nearby cities that it traded with to great success. From this many merchants brought goods from around the world and coming with them were rumours and gossip.
The place to unload these whispers was over a good pint and decent music. Seth was here to receive, and he did.
He heard that a task force for investigating the Demon was created, which wasn't great, but Seth heard no news of them being in town. But he made sure to keep a closer eye on any stalkers or a person eyeing him too much.
Tensions were obviously brewing; in Darter, a warehouse of the Abyssal Sect was burnt down yesterday and the mess that was created as they blamed the Baskerville Family was not pretty. People were running bets on the fact that the city was going through a power shift and for Seth this was neither good nor bad news.
If he was a Merchant then this was great, war was a time of great wealth to be made and oppositely if he was a Stall-Salesman then he would be taking the first carriage away.
For a thief, war was a time when greater money could be made with greater risks, usually this meant Seth would run away: he was traumatised by death after all and so would run from such a dangerous thing as war, but sadly, he needed to evolve so he decided to stay.
He now needed a place to rob and there were three main targets he could choose from: The Abyssal Sect Main Vault, The Baskerville Inheritance Vault or The City Sect's Treasury.
The Abyssal Sect had a focus on Meditation and focus so there guards were likely specialised for cathing sneaky thieves so they were out of the picture.
The Baskerville Family was just hunters on crack, so they were off the list.
So it seemed the only real option was the City Sect Treasury. Now the reason The City Sect was not considered a local powerhouse, and why the barber did not describe it as one, was the lack of physical strength it held in the city.
It was a bureaucratic powerhouse far more than in real strength, it was owned by the Noble who had control of the city so the guards would be hired from a list of trusted individuals. That meant Seth had no chance of being legitimately hired, sadly no rinse and repeat.
Seth also wanted to use his newfound talent in his robbery, so he needed to form a plan with that in mind.
The City Sect Treasury was a large stone building on a very busy road. It acted as a bank for those who trusted the government enough and gave loans as most usual ones do, though at comparatively ridiculous rates.
Money was a way the powerful stayed powerful and the poor stayed poor, but they had to give the illusion of hope else a revolution may start and that was utterly dreadful for business.
Pillars were a sign of trust and history; such banks used them as decoration to unconsciously attempt to make people trust them. Not many feel for it here, and whilst prosperity suffered equality saw improvement.
Anyway, Seth was walking into the bank and noted the security: 2 guards by the door and 1 in the lobby. The receptionist likely had some form of protection as well. The receptionist was behind a barred wall and Seth had to speak through a hole in the wall to ask for him to open a bank deposit.
Hearing how much it cost, he rethought his plan but bit the golden bullet and handed over a `small`, the receptionist's words, fee of 10 gold to just open an account, not even mentioning how much they would charge him per month they protected it.
Yet again, Seth was questioning who the real demon in this transaction was.
For his patronage, he gained access to an account that he could transfer money in and out of as he wished. Seth was wondering why banks even existed here, ATMs didn't even exist so retrieving money was a serious hassle.
He deposited a bag of coins, that were mostly copper, and went into the bathroom. At least they had something here that wasn't a rip-off, Seth thought.
Seth had luckily not been scammed here and his plan was in action, In the bag he had added a special little mana beacon and once looking through a special lens he could see that beacon, even through walls!
A marvellous invention that Seth was going to put to great use. Looking at the beacon that looked like a white dot, he saw it move further away, this was the bag going into the backroom and then the light went downwards, this was the stairs down, then the light walked around a bit before it cut off.
Okay, he now knew where the vault was, mentally Seth remembered the path the white ball went but he was kind of hoping the vault didn't block mana interference.
Okay, the security was not a joke; it was serious business: it needed to be high-ranking to block outside intervention. Luckily Seth had no plans to physically break into it, he wasn't that dumb, no his plan was starting to form, and it involved a bit of switching and snatching.
For now, he exited his stall and went back to the busy high street. He then navigated his way towards the entrance to the underworld. He told the Barkeeper the set password and flashed him the ID before making his way into the city's underbelly.
The Colosseum was much the same, it still baffled Seth why anyone would bother making such a structure underground but ultimately it didn't really affect Seth, so he gave up on his curiosity.
He was here to buy a couple of gadgets; he already had bought that mana beacon and tracker earlier, but now he was here for some more goodies. `Time for a shopping spree`