The first thing Jared did when he left the Temple, was to look up and check the time, "Ok it's still early enough, I need to test my skills and then go to Jaques to sell the clock." He looked around and found one of the benches at the center of the plaza empty.

As he moved to the bank he activated his Unnoticed skill. At first, he felt a small tingle all over his skin before it faded into the background.

He thought that was going to be all but after a few steps more, he stopped and noticed a particular feeling and it felt like he shouldn't take that step forward. Actually, the feeling told him to step nowhere not even where he was standing but the one in front of him was the strongest.

Confused he looked around himself, something the feeling told him not to do too fast, or any fast movements for that matter.

And then he saw it, to the right of him a good distance away was a man leaning against a wall, with a bottle of some kind of alcohol. He was staring intently at a group of quite beautiful women chatting near the fountain to the left of Jared.

If he took one step forward, then he would not only step into the line of sight of the man but also block his vision of the women.

" Ok, let's check the skills description again." He thought, not moving from his spot and opening the skills description in his status.

Unnoticed (Lvl 1.)

Become less likely to be noticed and more likely to lose the attention of others.

Cost 3/s Mana

"So, the less likely to be noticed part is the feeling telling me what to do, and the more likely to lose the attention of others is the tingling on my skin." Jared hoped he got it right.

He focused on the things around him and figured out that he could tell, where and where not to go, in about a 2-meter radius. Not the biggest but more than enough for him.

The skill told him that the closer he was to the woman the less the man would notice him when he cut into his line of vision.

So Jared walked over, but not close enough that they would notice him, apparently, that action would be discovery central for him, and then crossed the man's line of sight.

Jared flinched, just as he crossed the man's vision, he felt a pinprick of heat at the back of his head.

Only to disappear a moment later as the tingling around his body flared up and he walked past the women.

"Okay wow if I want to leave the skill on 24 hours a day, then I need to get used to that. Can't be flinching all day long, or people are gonna think I have some kind of seizure." he thought amused as he made his way to the bench trying his best to move in a way the skill told him to.

Sitting down, he was quite pleasantly surprised by the skill, not only did it tell him what to do and actively diverted attention away but it also lets him know if someone was paying attention.

But he couldn't be overconfident there were all kinds of skills. Hey, a normal stealth skill could most likely fool his. Still, he was happy with that skill and wanted to try his next one.

Distract (Lvl 1.)

Create a minor sensory illusion within a 20 meter radius

Cost 30 Mana (1/s Mana)

"Ok pretty easy to understand but can this be anything not only sight and sound but also something like the smell and maybe even touch."Jared thought," anyway let's start with the least inconspicuous."

First, he tried to create an illusion of touch, like someone poked his arm." Yes, it worked" he thought excitedly. The next thing he wanted to try an illusion that stayed, so imagined the feeling of a spider crawling across his arm.

Jared shuddered and got goosebumps all over himself." Ok having an invisible spider walk across your arm is just wrong and I was right, the cost is 30 Mana upfront and 1 Mana per second as long as the illusion stays." Jared thought. He also tested if he could poke himself during the spider illusion but apparently, he could only make 1 illusion at a time.

The last touch illusion he wanted to try was pain. While being able to inflict pain with just a thought, sounded quite evil it could also be incredibly useful.

Sadly the skill wasn't strong enough for that, it felt like an enthusiastic shoulder tap.

Leaving that behind, the next thing Jared wanted to test was smell, and as he activated the skill he suddenly felt incredibly hungry. The front of his shirt smelt like the most amazing pizza.

Swallowing his saliva he looked around but he didn't think that anyone else could smell the pizza.

The illusion was incredibly realistic but not strong enough to waft further away. He changed the illusion to a light floral scent and left it on his shirt to level up and decided to do that every time he wasn't using the skill.

He didn't want to use visual or sound illusions in a crowded plaza so the last skill he could try was.

Sprint (Lvl 1.)

Increase your Running/Sprinting speed and your Running/Sprinting stamina cost by 100%.

Duration 10 sec

Cost 48 Stamina

Jared couldn't exactly run around the plaza but that wasn't what he wanted to test. He activated the skill and felt a rush of heat enter his legs and he started to tap his foot as if in anticipation.

"Woah that's a rush!"Jared exclaimed and tried to stop his foot from tapping.

Ten seconds later the heat disappeared leaving his legs feeling oddly cold. But nothing else happened and his stamina was full long before the skill ran out.

For the second test he stood up and activated the skill, the heat came again but no foot-tapping this time. He slowly started to walk and didn't notice any increase in speed to his normal walking.

But just as wanted to take one step with a bit more speed, the heat in his legs started pumping and he shot forward. Almost falling on his ass, and apparently getting the attention of two people for just a second, he started to walk at his normal speed again.

"Ok running/sprinting also includes a light jog good to know, but this confirms it. I can just keep the skill on permanently as long as I don't sprint or jog." Jared thought excitedly.

With the testing done, he turned south and made his way to Jaques's shop.

He looked around one last time, as he noticed the weirdest thing, something that he should have been aware of since he entered the town.

The people here are dressing weird, you have your victorian dress next to a modern summer dress, from tailored suit and tophat to wizard rope with a pointed hat and he could swear he saw someone walk by with a replica Zoolander suit made of leather.

It wasn't that their individual choices were weird, except the Zoolander look alike, but it was as if everyone was living in fashion anarchy with no regard to the time or overall culture.

That was most likely why nobody batted an eyelid at him for his clothes. And he kind of liked this fashion anarchy, makes people watching a lot more fun.

"Maybe it had something to do with the essence of a class." Jared thought, remembering the person in the wizard robe. Not thinking too hard about it he moved on.

As he exited the plaza, he saw one of the paperboys standing at the entrance to the street yelling out the latest news, something about the capture of the Rue Street Killer, and looking at every person exiting and entering the street.

His skill told him that if he is going into that street, the boy was going to see him so he wanted to try something.

He moved normally into the street and just as the boy was going to see him he used Distract to tap him on the back of his shoulder. The boy turned around but there wasn't enough time to get away from his vision, should he turn back, without running.

So as an additional distraction, just as the boy turned he used Distract again, to plant the smell of feces and rotten eggs right under his nose.

He started retching midturn almost falling but dropping his paper, the others still safe in his bag.

Not only was the boy's attention occupied but half the street looked at him and Jared was able to move along without a single look. Feeling slightly sorry about the poor boy.

Every house in this street seems to be a shop, there were clothing shops, general stores, jewelry, bakers, and so on, no weapons shop or something similar. Everything looked a bit posher than what he saw near the wall. Middle to upper-middle-class people shop here, was his guess which made sense being this close to the plaza. A Store must cost a fortune here.

There were a couple of things to remember, that one men's wear store had some bags. He needed to stop using an old shirt as one and to use his Inventory in secret. And further down he saw a somewhat bigger storefront with a yellow colored front window and a sign with the picture of a bed, an inn most likely.

He arrived at the corner where Jaques was supposed to be and found him easily.

The biggest shop around occupying a hole corner, and with a full glass front.

From the outside, he could see all kinds of things, form elegant looking furniture to the skulls of monster prepared as decoration.

Jared opened the glass door and went inside ringing the little doorbell. The inside was a combination of chaos and class. Things were collected in a random assortment without ever looking like somebody needed to tidy up.

But all that stopped mattering when saw the bookshelf. He was standing in front of the books in an instant. All leather-bound and looking like they would cost an arm and leg

"Can I help young man?" a soft voice of a man said from behind him. This time he didn't scare, having already noticed the look he was getting because of his skill, but what's with people calling out from behind. Turning the skill of he faced the man.

Jaques Musee Lvl 84

Scholar of History

The first thing he noticed was the man's high lvl of 84 meaning he was rank 4. But shortly afterward, that was forgotten because bevor was the most impeccably dressed and styled man he had ever seen.

Salt and pepper hair, clean-shaven, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and an older style suit that was so perfectly tailored Jared would believe if the man said he was born with it.

He almost didn't look real and Jared needed to stop himself from poking him.

"A sorry I was just taken by your beautiful collection here", he said.

Jaques's eyes lit up, obvious pride showing for his collection,

" Why thank you, not easy to gather them and even harder to sell, but for every book, I sell another more often than not joins, and apologies for my late introduction, I'm Jaques Musee and this is my shop. How can I be of help?" he introduced himself with a slight bow.

" I'm Jared Jotter nice to meet and a friend of mine recommended I come here," trying to sound as sophisticated as Jaques and failing," I have a piece I wanted to sell and he told me to come here."

" Oh, of course," Jaques said and pointed to the counter. Jared followed him and put the Clock wrapped in his shirt before him and revealing it.

"May I?" Jaques ask and motioned for the clock and after a nod from Jared started to inspect it.

" Mhm, yes decent craftsmanship, if a bit flimsy with the materials and no manaport?" He asked giving Jared a raised eyebrow in question.

" No, a mechanical design without mana, you twist that key in the back to wind up the clock, it should run for about 10 days." He answered pointing at the back of the device in Jaques's hand.

" Oh really," Jaques exclaimed and looked at the already ticking clock, before giving the key a short twist," marvelous I have no idea how it works."

Afterward, he gripped the clock with both hands, only for them to start to glow." Sadly the clock doesn't have much history with it." he said sounding genuinely disappointed.

Seeing Jared questioning glance he explained, " I have a skill that let's know how old or deep history of an item was, not what that history was just how rich the experience was it went through. This clock is only a couple of months old and if I had to guess at its history it was bought, used normally, and then landed here at my counter."

Still holding the clock with his glowing hands, he startled slightly and looked at the clock before he said" Well, that was the case until about 2 days ago, there is a short spike, haven't seen on that high in a while, before it went down a bit but still a lot more important than before."

Jared was starting to sweat as Jaques looked at him. He couldn't bullshit himself out of this as easy as it may have worked for Chiran, I doubt his class as a Master Alchemist grants him people skills. But this was a 4th rank with a focus on gathering knowledge he probably has some kind of skill to filter truth from falsehood.

And so nervous as he was Jared told the truth....,

or at least some of it," Ah quite simple, I lost most of my possession 2 days ago leaving me with little of worth, this is one of the things I have left." There, not a single lie.

Jaques looking sorry for him said," Ah I'm sorry to hear that, what happened?"

He pretended to get annoyed and said somewhat brisk," That's private".

"Of course I apologize, when it comes to history I always forget my manners, now I assume you want to sell this clock," seeing Jared nod he continued, "I cloud give you 3 Royals now, but if you could wait for about a week or two, I could look around and maybe get you 5-6 Royals for it."

Jared shook his head and said," No that's sadly not possible, I need the money today." not knowing if 3 royals were a good price or a ripoff.

Jaques nodded and went to get 3 gold coins from behind the counter, laying them in front of Jared, before taking the clock and putting it away on one of the shelves to his right."Could I have one of them in shanti?" He asked hopefully.

"Of course," Jaques said with a smile and took one of the royals to exchange it for 20 shanties.

"One Question before I leave, these books", Jared asked pointing at one of the bookshelves," what would be the price range for them?"

"Mhm, hard to say they're collector's items, first editions and so on. The price depends on what a collector would pay for them. But if I have to give a general range on their worth I would say 10 royals for the cheaper ones to hundreds of royals for the rarer works."

Feeling like someone punched him in the gut he asked" Not all books are that expensive right, there are cheaper books stores in this city!" He didn't know if his voice was shaking or not but he didn't care.

Being taken aback by the emotion in Jared's voice he hastily answered," Yes of course, yes the closes are on Southstreet about a couple of shops after the Autumn Inn."

Heaving a huge sigh of relief he said," Thank you, for the direction and for buying the clock, but I need to go it's getting dark." Looking out the store's front window the streetlamps have already turned on and it was moving rapidly past twilight.

"Of course and if you have anything else like the clock, please don't hesitate to come, have a good evening," Jaques said in a slight bow.

Jared nodded and left the store, he looked at one of the street lamps, the light not coming from a fire but some kind of crystal.

Looking for a couple of seconds at it, he turned and walked towards the Inn he saw before.