I've always gone under the radar, never being noticed by anyone. That was completely intentional, living in Jerain means you are barely above the bottom of the barrel and if you stood out you were beaten into complacency.

Being a Thief wasn't my first option but it was the only viable one long term, other offers of hard labor for little pay never lasted long. Hundreds of homeless who all have back problems are hint enough at what that route gets you.

So where are we now?

"Move it you scum, I said move!" a voice shouted. Clearly a noble or high merchant, trying to get his carriage through the streets. Looks like an easy target for someone like me, or it would have been without the 3 adventures following him around.

"Rolt, please don't risk it." a voice said up at me, pleadingly

"Myria I must, you know how long it's been since we stocked on supplies." looking down at her with sad eyes, she understands but dosent like it.

This is Myria, a younger sister of sorts. About 5 years younger then me at 12 years old from the same orphanage I came from. At her own insistence I've been teaching her the trade of Thievery, and knows that that carriage is a prime target, if very risky.

We usually pick pockets in the lower merchant district, then buy supplies with the money. Stealing items from rich people is always lucrative, since they wouldn't bother taking cheap things with them.

There is a fence we sell items to sometimes, he gives us a good deal but I don't trust him at all, always wearing jewelry. Probably a plant by the guards. Fortunately I've always worn a mask when dealing with Ferd and haven't gotten caught yet.

Myria tugs on my shirt, making me look back down at her.

"But, those are adventures, silver rank ones." she said warily, pointing to the badges on their collars.

Adventurers are someone who's absorbed a monster core, the stronger the core the higher potential you get, not to mention the abilities, silver ranked adventures like these have probably absorbed cores from monsters like Minotaur's or Lesser Wryms.

Adventurers are basically mercenaries here in the Human kingdom's, in other kingdoms they are closer to the stories, delving dungeons and killing monsters. In Jerain there's only one dungeon, and it's a weak one with only goblins. Most of the guards have at least absorbed a goblin core, to keep them above the general riff raff.

"They have to sleep some times, I'm sure. Besides they must have something valuable to have hired 3 silver ranks." I argued, not taking my eye off the carriage.

People are moving slowly out of the way, that goes a lot faster when one of the adventures pulls out a sword, the sound of it being taken out of it's sheath scarring the people.

"He said MOVE!" He screamed the last word, seemingly not seeing that they already had.

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"I have to know what they have, it could change everything for us." I said down to her, giving her a hug and pushing her back. "I'll be fine, you know I always get away."

Years ago when I still had a Master to teach me how to be a Thief myself, I had absorbed the core of a Shadow Hound. Master had given it to me as a graduation present when he had taught me everything he could.

The Shadow Hound is an artificial monster, and the cores are ranked lower then the abilities they can give account for. They can be completely invisible on command, as long as there is not much daylight. Artificial light dosent seem to effect it, same with magical light.

Hounds are fast, extremely fast. And it makes some sense that some of that ability would transfer over their core, I'm far faster then I had any right to be. The thing with cores is that they only give one ability with absolute certainty, they can give more but it's rare.

I was lucky, Absurdly lucky. I got 4 abilities from that one core. Invisibility, Enhanced Physique, Shadow Storage, and an enhanced sense of smell. My master was shocked I got the invisibility, it was apparently absurdly rare and only 1/75 people got it. The Enhanced Physique was expected.

I hadn't discovered the other abilities until after my Master had left, And I hadn't shown anyone any of my abilities. Not even Myria. I could easily become a master thief if I used those abilities but I'm still waiting for my ascension.

When orphans turns 18 they get a free core from the church, usually they become guards but some of them stay and become priests/priestesses, a rare few go out and get a trade like my friend Aleks who's training to be a blacksmith.

There are plenty of magic items that can tell if you use an ability, most shop keepers have them so I can't just throw stuff into my shadow storage, that would be to convenient.

I'm waiting for my ascension because apparently a core was left for me when I was dropped off, according to the director who runs the orphanage. My mother was a tall woman with red hair I didn't inherit, who wore armor fitting someone of high silver or low gold adventurer status.

Hopefully the core will be from something good. The average person can absorb 5 cores in their life, and with Royalty getting more, up to 10. There was once a person who had more but those were special circumstances.

"I'll be back tomorrow, do not go looking for me if I go missing. I will be back." looking her in the eye one final time just to make sure she understood, I start walking in the same direction the carriage went.

This is where my talents of going unnoticed shine brightest. Patience is key. constantly pulling my cowl over my head and taking it off every other time one of the adventures look my direction, eventually I got close enough to hear their conversation.

"Oh my Gods this has taken so long, I can't wait to get to the guild and mark this job completed" the adventurer with the sword said.

"You will wait, because it's our job. we're still following this carriage till tomorrow in case you forgot." a female Adventurer with a Spear said.

"Leave em be, you know he just likes complaining, besides this job wasn't supposed to last this long. I've got family waiting for me back in Keen." the last adventure said, male with a longbow.

Keen was a neighboring City to Jerain, 2 day walk or quarter day by horseback. It's a lot smaller but has a lot more farms and a training facility for rangers, the city was named Keen because there's a dungeon there with bird monsters, they give the "Keen Eyes" ability which helps a lot for archers/rangers of any kind.

"Are we staying in another inn? The last one had bugs and I'm still itching." The first adventure complained again

The Spearwoman sighed "Yes, we are staying in another inn. This one should be better considering it's in the middle ring of the city."

"Who's keeping watch of the carriage overnight?" the archer asked

"Not it!"

"Not it!"

"oh c'mon, again? I did the last one!"

"Sorry man you know the rules." the Swordsman smirked while the Spearwoman giggled.

Looks like the archer is going to be watching the carriage at night, tonight is literally my perfect chance.