POV Change: Seth
Days passed, and continually rising cases of missing pouches and wallets were becoming a widely talked about issue in Darter’s taverns. The perpetrator of this was sleeping in a small wooden rental house that cost nearly nothing to him now.
He thought about upgrading it but found it too inconspicuous for a rich criminal to live there, so he decided he would wait out the lease before moving. Seth was becoming quicker and more efficient in his pick-pocketing and was contemplating retirement. I mean he had gathered a whopping 5 gold in these 10 days: that was enough for a deposit on a nice house!
Of course, Seth did not have real gold coins, he just had the value of 3 gold coins in various amounts of silver: for reference, 1 gold is 100 silver and 1 silver is 100 bronze.
Sadly, the ever-ambitious Seth was determined to go as far as possible, I mean he already found his spectral hands to be super cool, though he would never say those words out loud, and he wanted to get more of these powers. He could imagine himself now, destroying mountains and rivers at the flick of the wrist.
With a silly grin on his face, Seth was undressing to get into bed when that smile was swiped from his face. Seth felt like he was in grave danger; that intuition he felt whilst planning robberies or other thievery tasks had returned with a vengeance: screaming at him to move!
So he grabbed his shirt, slid it into his dirty trouser pockets, and ran out the backdoor, not forgetting to close it on the way out. He then ran as fast as his 2 legs could run as far as he possibly could. `Wait a second`, Seth stopped in his tracks as he felt he was forgetting something.
“THE MONEY!” Seth cursed as he continued running. By now, he had already done a funeral for his blessed coins but gave up on the dead as quickly as he could. He would much rather his freedom than some silver and bronze coins and luckily for him he did store a few spares in his clothing in case he bought a snack whilst on the job.
As he turned down corners and made his way across the city, he reckoned himself far enough and so laid down next to a garbage container that was just a glorified bucket. He breathed in its stank in a trade-off for its safety and stayed there until he felt that it was safe.
Seth's mind was in shock at how close he had been to getting caught and he felt incredible curiosity to this intuition of his. `Was it from his talent or maybe a gift from his reincarnation?` So few answers and so many questions left Seth by the bucket until dawn broke.
The funny thing about Darter was its day and night cycle were different from most; it was a 14-hour night and a 10-hour day, with that being the standard, so it was even more dramatic during winter when the night could be up to 18 hours long. That was why it was called The Dark City, and the river that ran through the city, added by the Sea nearby, made the Of The Water part of the name.
So, the short day began, Seth felt immense fatigue from thinking all night, so he resolutely booked an inn, slept for 4 hours, and woke up to redeem the rest of his day. He was still tired, but he knew he needed to get back to stealing. Seth thought for a while about this need of his.
Was he perhaps addicted? Seth decided to go back to sleep at such a thought and after thinking about the fact he was so tired and still managed to wake up after 4 hours, he decided to take a break or maybe switch it up a bit. Looking at his Inner Soul Area he saw his progress in the last 10 days.
Name: Seth
Class: Thief/ lvl 8
Skills:
=Deft Hands, (Mastery/ Rookie 68/100)
=Slot 2, (Empty)
If anyone had shown such progress in 10 days, Seth was sure they would be called a saint. `But me, nah let’s call me a demon`. Seth felt injustice at these thoughts but bottled them up and stored those feelings away. He needed to progress and get stronger so nobody would dare call him a demon. Might was right, was a lovely saying that Seth thought fit this world of personal power perfectly.
Seth slept until his mind could sleep no more and, with a clear mind, he decided to vary his stealing this time. Home robbery was a thievery of sorts and so Seth decided to dabble in this area as it would bring much better rewards at minimal risk as long as he sought out the best targets.
Home security was an issue and was usually set up by a Trapper class who, depending on how much they were paid, could make tripwires or other warning methods to reduce burglaries. The class Robber did exist and was allowed by the crown as it let the security sector grow, which would help against spying, so robberies were not as uncommon as pick pocketers, which were nigh fantasy, and were instead just a rarity, the complete opposite of Earths situation.
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Walking around the local area with medieval wooden houses surrounding the stone walkways, Seth looked for houses that looked not too poor to make the house not worth stealing from, but also not too rich to attract some danger.
Here, houses made of stone were costly as they had to be made by a knowledgeable builder, or a builder with the skills to compensate for his lack of knowledge. In this world, people were much less reliant on knowledge and opted to specialise in what their skill made easy. For instance, a Builder with the inherent skill Strong Beams would heavily specialise in making the beams as they would get unnaturally stronger due to their skill.
They did not even have to be good at that job as the skill would compensate for it and they would make it better than those without the skill even if the unskilled one was better at doing it naturally. This was another key difference in society compared to Earth, as knowledge there was king, but here you get away with having a strong skill and skip the studying.
Seth thought those people were idiots, as their skills would take years to level up and their levelling would be heavily slowed down by the fact that they weren't testing themselves to the limit. These were the wastrels that rotted in the taverns day and night but, to be fair to them, they were anything but bad for the economy.
Anyway, after a couple of hours of meandering around the city, Seth found 5 targets that looked ripe for the taking. But his past knowledge of stealing told him he needed more information, so he spent the next 5 days looking at who owned the property and learned a little bit about their schedule.
The first house was owned by a Flower Seller called Rose, she was in her lvl 40s and had a very regular timetable. She was single and so her house was empty during her working hours, so her house was an easy score.
The second house was owned by a Library Assistant, and he lived with a wife and a kid. The wife though ruined Seth's chances as she was home 24/7 with the kid, so Seth had to cross that one out.
The third house was owned by an Adventurer and was left empty for 2 months and he was expected to be dead. But for due process, they had to wait for 3 months to repossess the property, and so, Seth gave this one a 5/5 for consumer rating.
The fourth house was a no-go: the owner was the daughter of a Police Captain, so he crossed out that one.
The fifth and final house was an apartment on a 4-story building in the upper district and was a complete shot in the dark. Seth had heard from the City Sect Receptionist that this person was found dead in the slum's back alleys and so his house was going to be up for sale in the next week after they cleared it out. The high-risk-high-reward was the final house, and it was the most time-sensitive.
With nothing but expectations, Seth decided to go for number 5 first. Now he just needed some specialist tools and to get them he needed to visit the black market. He learnt of the black market when the barber Jack slipped him a note giving the details of it. Was it lucky? Yeah, Seth would say it was his charm and bravado that persuaded the barber to allow him a ticket to get in, but he would likely be wrong.
Pretty much all the Barbers in town were hired by the black market to give invitations to those who looked like they could be exploited, so maybe Seth was not as charismatic as he thought.
In his blissful thoughts, Seth snapped out of it and made his way to the location mentioned in the note, `24 Marlborough Road, The Flying Dragon Tavern` was the location.
Walking into the Tavern he saw some Sailors sitting around a table playing cards and a couple other people sat around the bar. Seth walked to a table and looked through the menu to which he placed an order for a sloppy cube, which was essentially just meat in a cube with various breads placed around the cube which you were meant to mix and match, It was a local favourite and Seth enjoyed the variety.
As he was enjoying his meal, Seth also was carefully surveying the Tavern, hoping another came in to see if he could get any extra information on this black market. Anything was better than going in blind.
So, Seth waited and, as he was finishing his meal, he heard something by the door. He sighed in relief as his plan came to fruition. His eyes drifted towards the bar doors, and he looked around for the Guinee pig, nope, It was just the wind.
With a crumbling smile, Seth then ordered more food and continued to eat. Luckily his stomach was prepared as he ate nearly nothing before this and, considering the exercise he had done, he still had plenty of room to eat.
2 wooden plates later and finally some blokes entered the tavern and walked up to the bar.
“Your finest for me and me pals here” His mouth drifted as his yellow teeth and rotted gums curved into a smile, “Oh and make mine a double that would be plenty appreciated.” he flashed the barkeeper a silvery medallion of sorts and with that over, the barkeeper led them to the backroom.
The door shut and Seth thought over the scenario. He now knew he needed a medallion of sorts and a password which consisted of the words `Finest` was only the first tier of password.
He could assume that `double` was the next tier and adding to that he needed a silver medal which should have unknown engravings on it. Stuck in a dilemma Seth breathed in and out and decided that his best option was to simply wing it.
He had silver on him that he could use to deceive the barkeeper and he had enough confidence to lie with a straight face, that was all a crook needed sometimes.
`Let’s see if that’s the case here` Seth walked up and made his way over to the bar. The barkeeper had returned and was polishing a glass.
“Excuse me but I am in dire need of your finest wine. Actually, hold that thought, my wife has been extra money these days so make that a double.” Seth flashed a silvery object beneath his shabby clothing and the barman grimaced at needing to deliver another customer.
He quickly recovered though as showing disrespect to people of these types tended to make your head a little loose around the neck, “Of course, good sir just follow me, and you could choose one for yourself.”
Seth followed the man through to the back where they were in a storage room full of drinks. The man then pulled a lever and wished him a good day.
The floorboards pulled themselves away like magic and stone stairs revealed themselves. Torches flickered in the dark, the stairs seemed to carry on until the underworld and in some way they did.
As Seth walked down further and further, he came out to a cave where a massive underground Colosseum came into view. The exorbitant use of stone shocked Seth, as his mind could hardly calculate such a preposterous cost.
This place was home to his fellow evil classes, and this haven had a simple but fitting name.
The Devil’s Paradise