Chapter Seven: Cross Alley
2014-11-28
Author: Floating Tower
Sure enough.
When Soren stealthily went around and pretended to pass by again, two fully armed guards were already standing at the entrance.
There must be something valuable inside!
Since there was no way to proceed here, Soren could only look for the next target. The dock area had many opportunities for picking locks, enough for him to increase his thief level to above level 3. Once his profession level reached 3, ordinary locks would no longer help him improve his thieving skills; he would need to find ways to infiltrate Amber City and pick those higher-level locks.
However, having the abilities of a level 3 thief would be enough; normally, there would be a hidden treasure cave near each city.
Inside, apart from trap monsters, there would also be a treasure chest.
That was the only way for players in the early stages to obtain extraordinary items, and their value was absolutely astounding!
Generally speaking.
Such treasure caves would require a team of adventurers around level 5 to conquer, but that was where the thief had the advantage. If the skills were superb enough, a level 3 thief could infiltrate solo. Caves were a special geographical environment, and inside, a thief’s stealth ability would have a hidden +5 bonus; dark caves made it much easier for them to sneak around.
All skill points were allocated to stealth.
Soren had boosted his stealth skill to 68 points in one go. The stealing skill was currently not very effective; a skill value of 35 was enough for him to steal from some sluggish targets. This was easy for a former legendary domain thief, as Soren could easily judge which plump merchants would not notice him stealing. As for lockpicking, he already had 45 points, which was more than enough to handle ordinary locks; he would need to improve it later when he entered Amber City.
The lowest skill was traps, which could still be used to dismantle some simple alarm devices, but it was probably not enough to handle traps inside treasure caves!
When he next leveled his thief, Soren needed to raise his trap skill to 30 points.
………………
“Based on this.”
“When the thief profession reaches level 3, I can also gain an extra profession specialty.”
Soren’s figure mingled in the crowd, and by the time he emerged, he had already acquired a few silver coins, with an extraordinary human agility value reaching 20 points, allowing him to steal what he wanted before others noticed. Not to mention that he also had two very nice personal specialty abilities.
“Agile Left Hand [Personal Specialty]: The thief has developed an incredibly agile left hand through long training, permanently increasing their agility by 1 point and gaining an additional 3 points bonus when stealing, picking locks, or dismantling traps.”
“Photographic Memory [Personal Specialty]: Long-term training grants you the ability to remember the targets you’ve seen, permanently increasing intelligence by 1 point and gaining an additional 3 points bonus in memory checks.”
The former is a very rare personal specialty.
The latter can be cultivated but is not so easily obtained as a special specialty.
Many spellcasting professionists have spent considerable effort training to gain the photographic memory personal specialty.
A day soon passed.
Soren picked more than ten locks in the dock area while also stealing some belongings.
If it were in the past, someone would have come by to collect tribute; the gang had one or two level 5 warriors, and Soren was no match for them at all. A qualified warrior had a strength value of over 15 points and possessed excellent weapon specialties, along with corresponding combat skills. Warriors above level 5 had special combat talents, and their strength attributes could even reach over 18 points. Soren, who had never undergone professional combat training in the past, was simply not their match.
Without a gang to squeeze these assets, all of it belonged to him alone!
It was quite a substantial income.
Soren had stolen a total of twelve silver coins, enough to support him and Vivian for over a month, and he had accumulated over 200 points of profession experience.
A thief profession’s advancement to level 3 required 500 experience!
At the current pace, it would take him at most a day to level up his thief.
Level 10 civilian, level 5 thief.
This would be considered entering the second tier of professions, at which point Soren would master a special ability called ‘Shadow Assassination.’
Among second-tier professionists.
A stealth-specialized thief mastering ‘Shadow Assassination’ was the most dangerous!
It had the ability to deliver a one-hit k*ll to others.
Slums.
When Soren returned to the low-roofed house he lived in, he immediately heard voices coming from inside.
He pushed the door open and walked in, seeing a strikingly beautiful young priestess sitting on a stool. Upon seeing Soren, her expression immediately turned cold, and she lightly hummed as a form of greeting, then smiled at Vivian beside her, saying, “Since he is back.”
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
“Be careful on your own here. If anything happens, you can come to the Temple of Dawn to find me.”
Vivian obediently nodded and then thanked her, saying, “Thank you, Anya Lee Sister.”
This girl was an apprentice priestess at the Temple of Dawn, worshiping the deity Karsoros, who represented the light of dawn—a deity that fell quickly after the chaotic year of awakening. Karsoros is a subordinate deity of the Lord of Radiance, and during the chaotic era, he was one of the first to be struck down by the abyssal demons. Over half of the deities within the Lord of Radiance’s pantheon perished!
It’s likely that this girl would soon lose some of her divine techniques.
Her name was Anya Lee, and she had taken quite a liking to Vivian after their chance meeting; her helping Soren was also because of her.
Unfortunately, her divine technique level was too low to treat Soren’s injuries.
As a priestess who worshiped the light of dawn, Anya Lee actually disliked Soren, who was a thief, so she rarely showed him a friendly face.
Perhaps, in her view, it was precisely because of these petty thieves that the order of Amber City remained so poor.
“What happened?”
After the young priestess left, Soren squatted down and gently patted Vivian’s little head, asking, “Why did she come here?”
Vivian glanced at him and said quietly, “Today someone was lurking around nearby.”
“It seems to be Cole’s underlings.”
“Fortunately, Anya Lee Sister came, and that scared them off.”
“She even healed the wound on my back!”
Vivian lifted her little hand to lift her shirt; the dark purple bruise on her back had already faded, rendering the slightly healing potion Soren had previously bought through special channels useless. The slums had no blacksmith shop or potion store; to buy these, one had to purchase them from some black market merchants—many weapons were lost this way.
“Cole?”
A hint of murderous intent flashed in Soren’s eyes; he didn’t expect the other party to be so audacious—they dared to send someone over right after he rejected them.
Did they really think he was easy to deal with?
“Tomorrow I’ll take you into the city and find an inn to stay at.”
Soren handed Vivian a piece of candy he had stolen casually and said softly, “The guards will patrol inside the city, and the order is much better than here.”
“You’ll be safer there.”
Vivian nodded her little head gently, reached out to take the candy, unwrapped it, and immediately smiled happily, saying, “Brother!”
“So sweet and so delicious!”
“You should eat a piece too.”
With her small hand, she placed a piece of candy into Soren’s mouth; she was always so easily satisfied. Even the cheap, low-quality candy from the slums made her very happy.
Soren smiled slightly and took a bite as well.
It was bittersweet.
This was the low-quality malt candy that many nobles in the city would disdain.
It was the only thing available in the slums.
Vivian stood up from the stool, patted the dust off Soren’s clothes, and said softly, “Anya Lee Sister is a good person.”
“When you were unconscious, no one was willing to help us.”
“Only she was willing to help.”
Soren smiled and gave her little nose a scratch, saying softly, “I know.”
“She is a good person.”
“If given the chance, we will repay her.”
Even though that young priestess disliked him, it was undeniable that he owed her a favor.
Soren was someone who clearly distinguished favors and grievances.
The sky darkened.
The two began busily preparing dinner. Soren had brought back some smoked meat and some oil and salt for seasoning.
The corpses from the tavern had already been discovered.
The gazes of the nearby people looking at him carried a hint of awe; whenever they occasionally smelled the aroma of meat wafting from over there, they couldn’t help but swallow.
Vivian ate quite a bit.
Her small belly was round, and when she caught Soren’s teasing look, her face couldn’t help but flush; she waved her little fist in annoyance.
She hadn’t eaten meat in a long time.
Today, she felt very satisfied!
Soren merely fondly patted her little head. The two casually chatted, and as the sky gradually darkened, they crawled up to bed.
Night fell.
After lying with his eyes closed for a while, Soren opened his eyes and carefully pulled out the arm Vivian was hugging.
He tiptoed out of bed, got dressed, and slipped a dagger into his lower back.
There were some problems.
It was better to resolve them early!
Soren glanced at the sleeping Vivian on the bed, carefully closed the door behind him, and left.
The night was the time for killing.
Soren had no energy to trouble himself with these trivial matters, nor did he want people threatening Vivian’s safety.
Since they dared to set their sights on Vivian!
Then let them all go to hell.
In the darkness and shadows, Soren infiltrated silently, and his figure gradually became hazy, a trace of cold murderous intent flashing in his eyes.
Cross Alley was still bustling with activity.
This was the most prosperous place in the slums, though that was only in comparison to other run-down areas.
Cole had become the new leader.
He had gathered a group of ruffians from the slums and seized the fat of this poor district.
There were dozens of prostitutes here, some of whom were quite attractive, and occasionally, people from the dock area would come to play, so mastering this place meant grabbing hold of an important financial vein in the slums. Because a few days ago, they had just competed with another group of thugs, many people in Cross Alley were armed, and fewer customers came to play; the prostitutes stood idly by, occasionally being pulled away by Cole’s underlings into nearby low-roofed huts.
In the darkness.
A figure silently appeared, sneaking closer along the corner of the wall.
The slaughter was just beginning!
