Seth opened the hatch to find a ladder leading down. He found it odd they would use a ladder, but it was space-efficient, so he left it at that.
His intuition was far too focused on what he saw when he looked around.
Traps, and not just one or two. Seth could literally see the mana coming off from the sheer amount of passive mana consumption needed to sustain such an incredible number of traps.
Seth waved a glob of mana around the room using his mana control and he found around 10 concentrated areas. It seemed evident that the Baron was a much more paranoid man than Seth had profiled him as.
Maybe it was just the average security, Robbers would be much higher level after all and so the necessary protections would have to be installed.
The room itself was pretty small, 2 metres wide, and 2 metres tall but around 4 metres in length. At the end of this room was a safe and next to that were bookcases of books Seth could assume were skill books and other mana-related treasures.
Seth focused and used his Serene Mind. He allowed his extra mana control to start looking closer at the tripwires.
Seth looked for its sense range and noted in his head where he could and could not go. He did this for all the traps, even the ones further away from his using his now pretty good mana control.
To do this he sent a tentacle of mana towards the traps and felt around the trap as to where the densities changed. He then allowed the tentacle to evaporate and then get a feel of the inside of the trap.
Changing the state of the mana was hard and Seth’s mind felt exhausted every time he did so. By now and thanks to his evolution, his mental capabilities were far from average and so he kept it up until he had a mental map of every tripwire in the secret room.
Seth then slowly lowered his head before he jumped past one of the traps. He landed in an area he knew was safe and he stayed still.
He took a breath and started to lower his body until his chest touched the floor. He then did 2 full roles towards the safe.
He then made a ball position and wobbled towards the left side of the wall where he shuffled forwards.
He then stood as straight as a pencil and leapt towards the wall, he kicked back off the wall and turned his body towards the safe.
He then fell and heavily hit the floor as his body pained from the impact. He needed to do this to avoid 4 traps in annoying positions and this was the only one he could access from his pencil position.
As he got up he smiled at his work. It wasn’t graceful, or anything close to it, but it was effective, and he was now ready for some loot.
`Hold on a sec` Seth looked back.
He had to do that again with any loot he would take with him. He couldn’t do that; he wasn’t James Bond he was Seth. He could hardly do it with what he had now but imagine it with a mental headache from opening the safe and with whatever loot he took with him.
That wasn’t happening he needed to find another way out.
The walls were mostly made of wood but the ceiling, leading to the study was made of wood so Seth could only rely on his backup matchbox.
Seth started his Pick Lock magic and started sifting through the books but behind was one a tripwire. He set it off.
He felt his soul tremble. Something from above him was hurting, no, pressing down on him. It felt like a pulse like a wave of mana crashed into him at every second.
Seth collapsed; he couldn’t bear it. He felt the stone floor ever so close to his face. His heavy eyelids struggled to make out the pattern on the dark grey stone. His mind was unsettled but with time came resistance and come an unknown amount of time and Seth was back to organised thought.
His body was still pressed to the floor. Seth felt his hands, the cold feeling of stone met his synapsis. He felt the rest of his body and found he was still in the same spot, which helped a conclusion that he wasn’t out of consciousness long.
Seth felt through his intuition that he was in danger but whether it was the soul suppressor or the owner of the house returning was yet to be known. For now, Seth could only hope it wasn’t the latter.
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Seth felt the regret of his rashness and anger at his pride. He had already had a lesson on this when his father caught him, but it didn’t seem to stick.
Seth took in a deep breath; it wouldn’t matter now. He just needed to grab a few items and leave.
After all, Seth was only a couple metres away from a bookcase of skill books and other assorted items and whilst Seth was fully conscious, his mind was still plagued with a disease called greed.
He had to get up first, so he prepared to push and almost like a push-up he used all his force to get his knees above his waist. HE could then pull his back into an upright position and attempt to stand.
Everything was hard, Seth's breathing was hard, blinking was hard, hell he even felt the beating of his heart had extra strain from the soul suppression.
Seth was starting to doubt his information, `maybe it wasn’t a soul suppressor but something like a gravity increase`
Seth could only wildly guess. This was a whole new world of magic and wonder and Seth had only the slightest clue about everything. That is why he needed the library.
Seth clenched his fists and forced his weak body to get up. Using the wall as a support he managed to move his way towards the bookshelf, and he only glanced at the titles before either throwing them down or swapping them for a book he already had taken from the Baron’s library.
Trashy skills were a waste of weight so Seth threw them to the floor, as well as all the previous books he had on him. They would only further weigh him down.
After collecting 4 that caught his interest he threw away his tool kit and took off his employee jacket. Anything to even remotely add any weight was thrown away in favour of speed.
He needed to leave and now.
Seth sadly couldn’t, he would need to break a whole wall first. And by that, he meant burn one, it even came with the extra benefit of removing evidence, especially the toolkit which could be used to track down his fake identity.
He lit the match and waited as the fire slowly heated up and spread. Sadly, whatever builder made the building was truly an expert and the sheer tenacity of the wood made the once minute process take more than 10 minutes.
A circle of fire slowly burned with the centre as black as wood could even become. Seth punched the wall with some force and the ash was displaced and fell like sand. Sadly, the wall was still the ceiling and so with a bookcase and the safe, Seth climbed up into the study where he found it no different from when he left it.
He thanked his fortune, and he struggled as he made it to the door. Here the soul suppressor was even tougher but since his mass had dropped so much, his weight was now less than what he had been under previously.
Still forced to crawl, Seth ignored his dignity in favour of escaping and thanks to this he managed to reach the door.
Unfortunately, the glass from a shattered painting was scattered across the floor and Seth's blood was now everywhere and he had several cuts across his palms and legs.
But it didn’t matter. The weight was reduced, and Seth started running. He found an open window in a separate room and after looking down he felt fear.
He hated heights, but death was something he feared far more. Looking outside he saw the night sky enter his eyes. He needed to go and so with hesitation, he jumped and landed inside a tree.
Bruised, bloody, and sore Seth wanted to reach the bathroom, where he hid before. Yet, as he looked at the night sky and felt blood rush free from his body. He felt calm, to calm and his consciousness started to slip.
But he couldn’t let that happen. Seth would die then, and he would rather take a thousand days of torture than return. So, he forced his body to move, but it wouldn’t.
His body ignored him and remained still. Seth was still human, and as much as his soul wanted to force his body to move, he still had to follow biological laws. Or did he.
Seth remembered that skill was the exact breaking of these very laws and so he used his latent skill, Phantom Hands.
They moved, not fast, not strong, but they damn well moved and that was all Seth needed. He dragged his body towards the bathroom and once in there he locked the door and breathed.
Seth wished it was over but obviously, it wasn’t. he couldn’t stay here, the first thing they would do was search the mansion. Seth pulled out some bandages from his pockets.
There were things from his childhood he would never give away, his waterskin and his mini first aid kit. He had bandages and ignored Noah and now it was time to do the same for himself.
Seth used his hands to move his leg and applied his rookie talents to wipe the blood clean and make sure the wounds weren’t visible.
He wasn’t trying to heal himself; he was trying to make himself look healed. Seth needed to escape.
He applied the last piece of cloth and scrubbed on the last bit of cheap medicine. He thanked his family for their good habits and tried to stand.
Unlike before, his body did respond but not exactly in the way Seth had hoped for.
His left leg was great, his right felt as though it was wading through mud and was slower than his left by a mile. Seth could still move but he hobbled like an old man. Much like the gardener from before.
Seth's mind came up with a plan.
He unlocked the door and checked the time. Roughly 9’oclock. Seth looked around the garden and saw only a few busy workers. How they didn’t see a groaning Seth. Well, to be fair they were all wearing sound blockers, to keep them focused and they were all well-aged, so the sight wasn’t a strong suit either.
Seth then returned to the bathroom and waited until an old man with a hunch back came in and started to do his business. Seth forgot he didn’t have a sleeping potion, but he still had swift hands so they quickly incapacitated the old man although he put up more struggle than one would guess Seth still held too many advantages to not lose.
On Earth Seth was no fighter but a headlock and some training on this planet had made him a favourable opponent against an old man even if he was heavily injured.
With the old man knocked out he took his clean clothes and his name badge, most importantly he took the old man’s hat. It draped a dark green cover over where most would be able to see his face.
Now it was time to escape.