A warm but crude breakfast
When Suǒ Lun was preparing to leave Weiwei stood up in silence, with a small hand she reaches out to finish doing his sleeves and then she stands on the tips of her toes a top the stool to smooth out his collar.
Because of their tacit understanding, without to many words he touched her head gently then walked towards the outside of their small shed.
“Ge… GeGe*!”
“…….”
After Suǒ Lun’s figure vanished from view, Weiwei shrunk back while locking the door tight.
Before when Ge went out like this she’d feared nothing because she’d still have Xisi, even if there were wicked intruders she’d still have the old dog to protect her.
In the ghetto there are stories of break-ins all the time. Now that Xisi was gone, she was by herself it’s unavoidable that she was not just a little afraid.
After all.
She was only an eight year old little girl
She never had a sense of security, fearing being alone and afraid of unknown people.
But she couldn’t tell Suǒ Lun.
Suǒ Lun had very important things to do, he needs to get money because what they had left to eat at home was not much.
She didn’t want to become a burden to her brother.
Even if the things that she could handle weren’t many, she didn’t want to make Suǒ Lun worried. “Weiwei”, in the little girls hands was a tightly clasped broom handle; she whispered: “You have to learn to be strong”
“You have to learn to look after yourself”
“Ge is awake, nobody will dare to come and cause trouble again.”
“They fear GeGe!”
Wharf area.
This is Amber City’s most densely populated area, the economy of the entire city is supported by Cornelian River. In the slums most men come here to toil, Cornelian ships continuously trafficked goods around the river which required a massive labor force to transport .
This place also has the densest population of struggling factions, large and small more than 10 gangs* resided here. Be it stolen property, embezzled cargo, or extortion for protection money, here you’ll see many of the methods gangs use to bring in money.
“Is that Suǒ Lun?!”
A tall, thin man spotted Suǒ Lun from a distance, immediately after he arrived at his side and instructed in a low-voice: “Suǒ Lun”
“The boss wants to see you!”
Suǒ Lun took a glance at the man, his brain trying to remember who he was; this guy was called Jia Li Si.
He was a very skilled soldier.
He’d once been an adventurer for a period of time, but no one thought that just as they’d left Amber City they’d run into a group of earth goblins & Chailangs*.Chailang is a dangerous creature that often acting in groups, frequently sneak attacking adventurers in the middle of the night.
The entire party of 7788 ended up dying, by luck he managed to escape though one arm was still received very serious injuries.
Afterwards he’d joined a local faction, never to journey out to become a mighty adventurer again to gain wealth or prestige.
If calculated in accordance with professional stats he would be rank 3 warrior / rank 10 civilian.
When compared to the Cornelian guard some were weaker!
“Boss?”
Suǒ Lun gazed at him then shook his head: “Boss died”
“He was killed by that sorcerer.”
An assignment that shouldn’t have been taken, not only was Suǒ Lun killed but most of the core members of the gang as well.
Was the sorcerer affable?
In this world, there are qualifications for sorceres to meet in order to venture out alone is to advance to first-order with their profession stats meeting rank 10 Scholar / rank 5 Sorcerer.
Let alone a mere gang, even if a team from the regular army might be defeated by him.
Regarding the horrors of the first order ranked Sorcerers, Suǒ Lun was clear, it’s not that they are extremely weak but that it was one of the most powerful occupations.
The period of worldly turmoil is about to begin, let alone advanced professions even those of the legend domain may be wiped out, butchered like chicken and dogs.
He has no interest in wasting time on a no name local gang.
“Suǒ Lun”
Jia Li Si silently watched him with one eye, saying slowly: “Ke’er has become the new leader.”
“Must see him to decide.”
“Ke’er is not a well spoken person.”
Suǒ Lun was an outstanding thief, regardless of which faction none would easily give up such a good source of wealth.
Previously when he was in a coma no one was willing to pay attention to a dying man, but now that he was awake they were trying to win him over.
Suǒ Lun emitted a subtle menacing aura, eyes narrowed slightly showing a hint of killing intent!
He was a Thief / Rogue.
A rogue was also an assassin in the shadows, they risked more than anyone. “I will decide.”
Suǒ Lun no longer bothered with Jia Li Si moving past his side heading towards the harbor area.
He had other things to do!
Suǒ Lun had since taken into account that because he cared about Weiwei he seemed spiritless in the faction. Each time a large part of the things he stole were exploited, what remained was almost sufficient for them to get by. This was also the main reason Suǒ Lun had not received formal combat training even with 18 points allocated to agility, but it’s battle efficiency by far couldn’t compare to the formal training of soldiers.
But now Suǒ Lun was different, the man in front of him might last for three moves from his hands!
In a not so humble warehouse, there were lots of goods being deposited; very common in the wharf area.
A shadow unobtrusively nears.
Suǒ Lun carefully evaded the guards outside, these were merely average people, after entering he quickly found a box.
This was a locked chest, in which were placed the more valuable goods.
He took out a piece of wire with a hook from inside his pocket, he could currently only unlock it with the most rudimentary tools.
Suǒ Lun gingerly extended his fingers, immediately rotating them flexibly.
Ding!
Kacha!
Only a moment of time was spent, the lock on the box was soon prised open. A row of data surfaces:
Lock-picking [Successful]
Thief skill have obtained a promotion
Obtained 15 occupational experience
Suǒ Lun upon seeing the data that recently reappeared, immediately relaxed slightly.
It looks like the method to gain occupational experience was retained. The early stages of the thieves occupation is not strong in a fight, not being as strong as soldiers or having the mastery of special abilities like Paladins. Killing in the wild is dangerous for thieves, be it the lowest Kobold or a Goblin which appear in groups one after another many have a strong sense of smell and would easily detect a low-ranking thief.
In the early stages, the only way to improve the strength as a thief is by disarming locks and traps.
This is the safest way!
Before profession rank reaches 5 thieves can use lock picking to gain experience, before ranking up to 10 disarming traps can still be a decent way to obtain occupational experience.
As for after, there are only some special magical locks and advanced high-quality traps that are useful!
Ordinary locks and traps have a hard time improving a thieves burglar craft.
Crunch!
Suǒ Lun gently lift the lid of the box in which contained several bricks of tea, but he didn’t move those goods instead he continued onto an unusual case. Prying open the same lock twice was unable to give occupational experience, getting experience is a must in order to improve the thief’s skills.
The wharf has many such locked chest, plenty enough to increase his rogue rank.
Two or three boxes were broken into one after the other.
Suǒ Lun footsteps suddenly stopped at a gate, he took a careful look at the ground before taking in a deep breath.
Fwoosh!
He jumped gently upon an oak barrel, soon after extending his fingers pinching a piece of obscure thread, fixing it around a nail; cutting it to length with his knife he proceeded to quickly remove an alarm device.
This was a crude trap, if accidentally touched the wire trap would sound an alarm on the other side.
At that time the thief would be at a disadvantage, being caught meant being crippled with certainty!
[Clash of Titans] is a cruel world.
Those thieves who’ve been left crippled and in need of treatment wouldn’t be able to afford the high price of the procedure, ultimately succumbing to their disability which would lead to their death.
It was exceptionally difficult to promote the occupation from a low rank all the way to the legendary domain!
Many, fail time and time again.
It wasn’t just about strength, luck was an very important part of it!
Suǒ Lun cautiously observed the ground for signs of any possible traps.
In such a warehouse.
If there are warning traps installed then it’s impossible for there to be only one, there would still be others.
There was also a possibility of there being something valuable inside.
Sure enough!
Suǒ Lun quickly found differences in the flowing lines of the wooden planks, he carefully pried them up with his dagger, fingers set firmly not daring to have the slightest shiver.
There was a very dangerous trap!
If actuated, throwing knives would shoot from both sides very likely killing the person instantly!
Kacha.
Suǒ Lun struck the trigger with his dagger, he moved to one side as he saw two knives shoot over his head embedding themselves into the nearby wall.
The row of data once again appears:
Disarming trap [Successful]
Thief skill have improved
Obtained 50 occupational experience
Disarming trap [Successful]
Thief skill have improved
Obtained 120 occupational experience
Haaa~
Suǒ Lun breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing a bit he muttered: “As expected, it’s really better dismantling traps the experience is a higher!”
But can also be very dangerous.”
Two traps were removed consecutively, also picking locks to obtain occupational experience. Suǒ Lun finally obtained an experience value of 200 points which he didn’t hesitate to promote the rank of his thief class.
Thief occupation advances to level 2.
Received 23 skill points
*agility: 19+ ( Intel: 18-10 ) *0.5
HP increased by 9
occupation HP: 6+ ( physique: 15-10 ) *0.5
Receive 1 free attribute point
For every rank skill points will be received, it’s very difficult to get free attribute points.
In order to receive 1 free attribute point, the only way is to promote the occupational rank 2 times.
In other words, Suǒ Lun had to wait till the Thief class was promoted to rank 4 before his next free attribute point.
This free attribute can be said to be quite precious!
Suǒ Lun took a look at his attribute stats, he assigned the free attributes to agility without any hesitation. 20 attribute points was a threshold, having less than 20 attribute points would be in the scope of being an ordinary person; having higher than 20 points would be equal to being in the ranks of super-humans.
Sounds of footsteps could be heard from outside the warehouse.
Suǒ Lun nimbly jumps, arms clinging to a beam of the roof as he quietly made his exit.
This was only a quick boost of agility.
It was sufficient enough to let him accomplish many feats he’d previously been unable to do, be it physical reflex or reflex sensitivity they’d already exceeded the scope of an ordinary person.
Soon a man arrived.
He glanced about the warehouse, his face slightly changing as he sounded a shout, soon the area was flooded with a group of security men.
After arriving it was apparent that someone had come to the warehouse that normally no one was allowed.
Later they discovered that a thief had invaded the warehouse, in the future they’d be certain to strengthen defenses!