The morning after the heist Seth woke up like he had the worst hangover of his life, Seth managed to ward off of most the effects with Serene Mind, but it still ached.

He still had his security guard clothes on and Seth needed to burn them ASAP, so he went to the small balcony that led to the view over the city and he started a small fire.

Seth always had a matchbox on him just in case he wanted to start a distraction and maybe because he was a pyromaniac. After having a bit too much fun burning all the evidence of the equipment he used last night he immediately set off to go towards his hideout.

Without the bricks in the way it truly made the bunker quite extraordinary. Not in aesthetics but in size: you would never get this amount of space for that sort of price anywhere in Babylon, but Seth couldn’t act like it had no problems.

For now, he just needed to store a few books, so he piled them up in a sad corner and sat down next to them as he started to flip through them.

Skill books were the direct result of an Expert (75-99) making them from his own skills or a Master (100-124) making them from his knowledge. In essence, the Expert had to reproduce his own skills whether the Master could make up new skills from logic as long as he had a decent understanding of why the skill worked the way it did.

It was, in a way, an infinite money glitch as they could sell them all for good prices and it simply was. People did make nearly all their money doing exactly that and it was one of the reasons many tried to level to 75 as they would likely never work again.

Or would they? Kingdoms blocked access to skill book selling from everyone but themselves so you could make skill books and sell them to the kingdom but for a reduced profit. At that point as a person at such a high level making a skill book is still too many hours if not days so if money was the goal you were better off just working normally.

There were exceptions to the kingdom's monopoly like the nobles got free access to sell a certain amount per year but in general, it was the royal family that held the power.

Anyway, Seth didn’t really care about making skill books unless he was nurturing subordinates but for now, that was incredibly unlikely.

He opened the first skill book which held a sealing symbol on the front. On the first page, it named the skill it would give, `Strength Overload`.

Seth recognised it as a very standard skill for Berserkers and even Warriors. He was disappointed with the first one as it wasn’t very rare, so it would sell for much, and it was not a skill Seth wanted, so he would have to sell it.

Hoping he would have better luck the next time Seth opened the next book, yet again seeing the sealing symbol on the front.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

It read, `Customer Attraction`. Again, a very standard skill to have if you were a business owner. Considering this was the vault of a Casino owner then something like this was expected. Still a disappointment but it would sell for more than the last one.

The next was a `Moral Compass` skill which was an incredibly interesting skill. It showed the user where others' moral compass lay and was a skill Seth was genuinely interested in. It would allow him to recruit far more easily, and he could better act in front of marks in accordance with where the morals lay. Great skill and it would sell for a good amount as well as it was fairly rare.

The final one was the thickest of the books which usually meant the skill was more complex. How a skill could be more complex? Seth had no idea, but he thought complexity = rarity and rarity = £$£.

Seth gave a quick prayer to the God of Luck and opened the book, to which he saw the words `Eyes of Fortune`

Yeah, Seth was using this skill. He immediately grabbed the other three and hid the last one in a little gap in the wall which could be hidden using a covering brick.

The reasons for Seth's immediate choosing were rather simple. It was an eye skill which in general was rarer and more expensive than normal skills. Second was the word Fortune which could not only mean luck but also money and Seth, as a Thief, fit those two words nearly perfectly.

Before that, he needed to check how far he was away from getting another skill slot, so Seth got into the lotus pose and returned to his soul island.

It had gotten more palms and plants than before, his Casino and Manor heist both created palm trees with the Manor heist being a particularly tall one. Other shrubs such as his creating his false identity made small shrubs that littered the island. Overall, his soul island had grown in greenery and Seth was happy to see it.

Walking to the centre he opened the emblem-covered pedestal and looked over his stats.

Name: Seth

Class: Mastermind Thief/ lvl 37

Skills:

= Phantom Hands, (Mastery/ Intermediate 126/1000)

= Serene Mind, (Mastery/ Intermediate 248/1000

Looking at the growth, Seth was happy to see two new levels and a good amount of gain towards his skills upgrading. His phantom hands skill was seeing good gains from the fight he had, and it seemed experience growth during life-or-death situations was unsurprisingly heightened.

Still, Seth felt the long road ahead at the thought that there were 13 levels between him and the next evolution and each one was harder to gain than the last. It was not surprising that many young men aspired to be the next Grandmaster (125-149) but after years of being in levels 30 and 40, they gave up on their ambitious goals.

Seth still remembered his father’s level, 49. No doubt the man would have been higher level if he didn’t have children, but he still got married and did because he decided that would make him happier.

It was known that those who had children experienced reduced experience gain for a certain amount of time and it was the reason why the world wasn’t infested with children of the higher levels. Nobles usually only had 1 child, to carry on the legacy but they could have more if they wanted to political alliances.

Seth thought that his father had likely evolved by now and had likely become chief of the village. Seth's mother was likely in her level 40s and so would evolve soon as well.

Unless they had more children. Seth didn’t think about that, he could be a big brother. Seth started to think about a lot of unnecessary thoughts until he shook himself free.

Seth had to be safe first, so he went back to making friends and living a normal life. All the while scouting for places to rob.