Chapter 7

They continued watching for it to re-emerge.

Several hours had passed before a light in one of the upstairs rooms went on. After ten minutes it was turned off and the house was allowed to fall back into the still silence of the night. Two figures crawled out from behind the opposite hedge row.

The hobbit rogue led him stealthily across the road, hugging the iron bar fence all the way to the far end of the estate. She was a little in front of Mandeok as she turned the corner and he was surprised to find only the empty street when he rounded the bend. She had vanished into the night. Anxiously he called out for her in hushed tones but she didn't answer. He was about to try again only a little louder when a small voice somewhere behind him whispered for him to hurry up.

He spun round to see the arm of the small hobbit lifting up the overhanging foliage and peering out from a hidden gap in the fence. A gap that looked freshly made.

The hole may have been wide enough for the female hobbit but his bulky dwarf build provided more of a challenge as he tried to squeeze through. After several minutes of groaning, and thinking thin, he eventually burst forth from the vice grip of the iron bars; before emerging from the undergrowth.

He stood at the bottom of the Grand Garden, just hidden by the shrubbery.

From his vantage point the whole landscape was laid out before him. Rolling lawns flanked by boundaries of iron and hedge, with lines of trees that canopied over the wide gravel path. Beyond flowerbeds and immaculately manicured topiary the back of the house was visible. A rustle of leaves drew his attention back to his immediate surroundings.

By the ornate wooden summerhouse crouched SilentBlade, she was squatting down beside what once may have been a very practical well but had now lost its function in favour of a more ornamental look. It was encompassed by and housed several potted plants.

He crept closer to her. Without even a word she jostled a loose brick in the wells masonry and lifted up the secret lid with ease. What had appeared to be a deep seed bed was in fact a tray of no more than two inches in depth. As she held it up Mandeok poked his head over the precipice and squinted into the darkness.

"Every night he takes a constitutional around the garden. It took me a while but I realised I had never seen him return to the house; found this only last night."

The little hobbit thief sounded quiet pleased with herself.

Several feet down the shaft was a heavy looking grill, the only other thing he could make out was the equally heavy looking padlock on the top of the grill.

'If its a secret escape passage from the house then why is the lock on this side?' pondered Mandeok

A familiar chime broke his train of thought as a message window popped up before him. He watched the last 35% of the quest bar fill up and the text change slightly.

-: Careless Whispers:

You have discovered a hidden passage on the Beaumont estate. what lies beyond the locked grill in the secret passage of the hidden well? :-

The difficultly of the chain quest remained the same as did the penalty for failure.

He closed the window and handed his benefactor a single gold coin. It was more than he should have paid her going by what he had stated and what he had paid everyone else but he felt it was justified. Without her aid he would not have made this final connection,;the connection needed to advance the quest.

The more links of a chain quest one could complete than the greater the rewards. Of course the difficulty may also rise to reflect the current progression.

"Well, this will definitely buy my silence."

She was about to turn to leave but Mandeok was itching to know.

"SilentBlade-nim didn't you even try to see what was down there?"

His eyes were full of fear and apprehension as he watched her shrug and sigh.

"I don't have the skill to unpick the lock."

It was a simple enough answer. So simple in fact it seemed to blow away any doubts as to whether or not she would hinder him.

"Ah I see. In fact neither do I! Do you know where I could buy some good picks and a few practice locks?"

She suppressed a laugh and marked on his map the location of a place she knew had what he needed: The Rogues Guild.

And with that she disappeared into the night: Literally. Mandeok watched as she walked away getting more transparent with each step before he could no longer she her at all. A thief's stealth skill.

He sat silently in quiet contemplation for a few more minutes after she left before turning and squeezing back through the hidden gap in the fence. Skirting through the secret hedgerow highway and the still slumbering streets he arrived at the main gate just in time to re-open his small stall for another period of business.

******************************************

When it ended Mandeok put a sticker on his crude sign, paid his tax and headed further into the citadel.

For the first time in a long time he opened his stats and skills window.

StatusCharacter nameMandeokHealth800Mana800AlignmentNeutralProfessionMerchantTitlePart-timerLevel2Vitality70Strength70Agility70Intelligence70Wisdom70Charisma25Luck25Fame10Offense0Defence0Magical resistancenoneEndurance35Poison resistance10%Number of unallocated skill points: 5

The effects from the Training Hall, the Library and gaining a class were shown clearly as both his Health and Mana had reached frankly ridiculous heights for his current level. An astounding boost of 700 points each.

And he still had 5 points to distribute from his level up

Offense and defence showed the base values of armour and weapons. Currently he had neither but in combat they would be enhanced by his agility and strength.

Other pleasant surprises were the twenty point class change boost his luck and charisma had received, his endurance also benefitting from this and finally his 10% resistance to poison. Resistances were highly sought after and he could see why, as not only did his own reduce the risk of being poisoned by 10%. It also decreased the time he was poisoned by 10%. He could only imagine what have a resistance to magical affects would be like.

He had yet to hear of any player gaining 100% resistance to anything, would they report it if they did, but he was aware of several often fought Boss Monsters who had such high resistance to certain elements and attributes that damaging them with one would actually heal them.

Making such a mistake on a boss fight would defiantly be a costly one.

He thought back to his own experiences fighting with a mage against enemies with resistance to magical effects. Especially after he witnessed the devastation her spells had wrought.

He let out a deep sigh and viewed his current skills.

Skills

-: Handicraft: (Intermediate level: 7 (19.5%)):-

-: Staff Mastery: (Intermediate level: 1(42%)):-

-: Staff Ward: (beginner level: 6(93%)):-

-:Brutal Smash: (beginner level: 8 (52%)):-

-: Precise Strike: (beginner level: 8 (33.3%)):-

-: Cooking: (beginner level: 5(75%)):-

-: Alchemy: (beginner level:4 (12%)):-

-: Identification: (beginner level: 6 (84.63%)):-

-: Herbology: (beginner level:7 (0.0%)):-

-: Medical Botany: (beginner level: 3 (99.88%)):-

-: Trade: (beginner level: 9 (23.00%)):-

-: Barter: (beginner level: 9 (12.45%)):-

The Golden Treasure skill of the Dwarven race had rocketed up to intermediate level 7 while he wasn't looking but since he had the handicraft skill since the moment Mandeok was born on this continent, and then proceeded to grind jobs that mainly emphasised the use of his stubby Dwarven hands, it was no wonder it had climbed so fast. It boosted most of his skills and was boosted by them in kind. Every time he held a knife; grinded a herb; stirred a pot; pulled a weed or even twirled his staff his handicraft was at play and as such was receiving experience from it all.

His only combat skills had not really moved since he cleared the Archive but that was okay. One of the main penalties of his race was that in return for starting with handicraft any and all weapon skills could only be raised to Advanced level 10.

The rest of his skills had stagnated around the middle of the beginner levels. This he put down to not having been outside of the starting zone and thus exhausting all sources of experience. There was a limit to how much he could gain from the same thing and this was clearly it. Crafting skills needed new sources of inspiration to advance; just like warriors sought out tougher foes so too did artisans seek stronger stimulation.

What Eun Seok had failed to realise was that in Royal Road non-class specific skills grew at half speed; a warrior's sewing would grow slower than a tailors and as a racial skill Handicraft grew at almost four times the speed but this would be balanced out later in the later game as the wall between advanced level and master level was four times as high.

Content enough he closed both windows and approached his destination.

A small weathered door was the only thing of interest in the dim dead end alleyway and even that would have been missed if he was not looking for it.

When Mandeok had checked the map the marker SilentBlade had placed on it indicated this was the spot so somewhere nearby would be the Thieves Guild. It was only then that he had noticed the door, partially concealed behind some crates and of a similar colour to the brickwork around it.

He took another moment to recheck it before one sturdy fist rapped out three knocks. He was surprised to find that the door resisted his blows. The force of the impact showed it was a lot sturdier than it looked. He knocked again, only this time with a little more force.

Muffled voices could just be heard on the other side before metal sliding over metal drowned them out. Without so much as a squeak the door opened, sliding sideways.

Mandeok entered the shadowy room and as he was growing accustomed to the darkness he felt metal at his throat. He glanced down to see two long daggers cross in front of his windpipe, they rested just below his Adam's apple and had he gulped in horror he was sure the motion itself would have ended his life.

These people were professionals; no other way to look at it.

Nervously he cast a glance down the length of the blade and up the arm of the person holding it on his left. He wore a long hooded robe that concealed his entire body bar the leather gauntleted arm he was holding the blade with. A blood-red cloth covered his face so only his piercing gaze was visible from under the hood.

Mandeok turned his gaze upon the figure on his other side. The one on the right was dressed identically to the one on the left.

**cough**cough**

His attention was drawn away from the two shadowy assassins and directed to the small old man lounging on a chaise longue and smoking a long pipe. He blew a few smoke rings before he spoke.

"And who are Y...O...U."

The last word was emphasised by three more rings and a long trail of smoke rising through their centres.

Sweating bullets Mandeok knew that long explanations wouldn't be necessary and he doubted they would let him live long enough to give the full story so he attempted to say the only word he knew that may be effective without slitting his throat on every syllable.

"..Bu..s..in..es..s."

the old man smiled slyly. With an "Ohoho" and a subtle motion of his head the two shadow guards slowly retracted their blades as they disappeared into the darkened corners of the room.

Rubbing his throat he tried to begin but his nerves were shot and all that came out was.

"Thief....thief tools....buy locks..."

The old man took another long draw from the pipe and contemplated what this intruder had said.

"Through there."

After the brief silence he indicated with the end of his pipe a simple hanging curtain. Jittery and with little grace Mandeok inched his way toward the velvety partition. He moved it carefully and stepped through.

Silence and a multitude of eyes greeted him on the other side of the curtain. Many people had their hands on weapons and several were drawing them when the old man stepped through after him.

"If you have business with us please use the front entrance. Valued customer."

He was escorted to a booth by the far wall and told to wait for someone to take his order.

Mandeok stared around the room, not stopping too long when his gaze fell on one of the patrons of the tavern, it was spacious and full of shady looking people. He quickly realised this was the legitimate front of the Thieves Guild.

Being an actual thief class SilentBlade had indicated the entrance way to the guild she was used to using. She had not thought of how it might go if someone unaffiliated with the Guild tried to enter it through their Back Door.

Lost in thought or distracted or maybe it was just to be expected in such an establishment but Mandeok did not even hear his waitress arrive. For that matter he didn't hear her leave either. One moment an empty table, the next a menu and the lingering smell of subtle fragrance.

He opened it up and perused the contents: three pages of alcohol, two of food and the last page devoted to a set menu. He re-read it.

Unexpectedly the menu had a hidden code, thankfully it was simple enough to break in time for the reappearance of his waitress.

"A number 5 set and two number 7's to go please."

Moments later she brought him an unassuming brown paper bag. He verified the contents; paid and left. This time through the front door, which lead out onto one of the side streets off of the main square.

He lightened his bags of all non-essentials before returning to the Beaumont Estate via the Hidden Hedgerow highway.

******************************************

When the players returned once more to their favourite stall outside the main gate of the citadel they were surprised to find a banner across the usual price guide. It was something players were more used to seeing in older games, a simple three letter phrase; --A.F.K--.

And where was the store's owner.

At that moment he was crouched behind a bush twirling picks in one of the locks on the key ring.

It was part of his order from the Thieves Guild; a set of five padlocks on a large metal loop. The largest was the easiest, They decreased in size and increased in difficultly as they went round the ring. Since he had returned to his hide he had been busy occupying his hands so as to occupy his mind.

He would deftly toy with the padlock until it either opened or he became frustrated enough to almost throw it against a wall in a very aggressive manner. When either state occurred he would put it down before reaching into his bag to pull out his sewing kit and a piece of material.

Broken cloth robes and leather armour were cut into small strips before being sewn together, unpicked and sewn together again. When the lengths of cloth fabric had been sewn together to the point of fraying he would roll them up and place them neatly back into his bag.

The used leather he crafted into very crude shoes of very poor quality.

After he felt his mind calm again it would be back to the locks. If he had opened the first he would move on to the second only attempting the next one after succeeding in opening the previous. If he failed to open it before his rage grew he would have to move back a level and start the process again.

Sometimes he would pull an animal pelt from his bag and cut it into pieces then return those to the deep recesses of the holdall.

Like this the days passed.

He was rudely awoken by the thunder of hoof beats and metal steps on the cobbled street. When he peeped through the obscuring foliage he was greeted by an armoured procession. Four brilliantly armoured knights in full colours seated on horseback guarded an equally resplendent carriage. The crests on the carriage and their shields as well as the patterns on the horses caparison were the colours and images of heraldry for the Rosenheim Kingdom.

Behind the carriage a single column of warriors; four men wide and ten men deep. Forty of the Kingdoms finest foot soldiers armed with a shining steel buckler, a solid looking spear and a sturdy sword held in a neat leather scabbard at their sides.

From the Estate the target, dressed in his finest clothes and wearing his gold chains of Office, slithered into the awaiting carriage. He gave a signal and the whole procession departed; the feather plumes of the Cavalry Knights bobbing gently.

From the information he had gathered Mandeok had become aware of an event that was about to occur.

The Kingdoms economic policy was about to be decided upon and for that they needed the "Crop Report" of the lands they owned. It would contain figures on planted acreage, expected yield and production. As well as allow a comparison to previous years giving an insight into the economic state of the country.

Problem markers that gave indications of draught, flood and infestation could be highlighted and addressed quickly. This information would be very profitable to both Players and NPC's alike, hence the armed escort.

From his recon stage he knew he would have a very small window of opportunity to infiltrate the Estate. Lord Beaumont would be out assessing the villages and towns of Rosenheim for around a month. That gave him a little under four weeks to finish the quest in. If not he would have to wait for another Golden Opportunity to present itself.

He would waited till nightfall, not wanting to risk being caught, before he made his move.

During all of this his hands had been fiddling with the third lock on the ring and as it popped open with a small click several boxes blocked his view.

-:Level Up: Handicraft (Advanced level: 1(0.0%)):-

-: Bonus gained when using tools, increased damage with all weapons and hand combat skills can be learned regardless of profession. You can now learn certain craft skills :-

-:New skill: Mind Hand (Beginner level: 1 (0.0%)):-

-: You may now summon a 'third hand' using your mind. It can manipulate objects and attack enemies but cannot use skills. Cost: 2 Mps :-

-:New stat: Dexterity:-

-: Deft fingers that work with finesse and grace. You are prohibited from distributing points to it :-

-: New skill: Lock Picking (Beginner level:1 (0.0%)) :-

-: A Thief skill used to open simple locks and doors. Cannot be used to open magical locks or objects sealed by magic :-

Mandeok choked holding back the tears, all he had wanted was enough skill to open the lock without have to rely on someone else but to think it would have such a profound effect; two new skills and a new stat.

The Lock Picking skill he had worked towards and Mind Hand, finally a skill to drain his vast mana pool on. The Dexterity stat was different from agility and handicraft. If agility was focused on evasive movements or quick limbs and handicraft was basic hand eye coordination then dexterity was solely about the nimble and delicate touch of just the fingers.

By the time darkness had descended he had managed to raise his Lock Picking to beginner level five and his Dexterity by ten points. he had yet to try using mind hand.

Feeling the time was right he stealthily crept across the street, hugging the wall and disappearing through the secret gap. The garden was even more still than it had been the first time he had been there. So still it almost felt unnatural and he expected an ambush every step as he picked his way carefully towards the faux-fountain.

The loose brick moved easily and the hatch revealed itself without much fuss. He was down the hole like a shot, leaving the hatch propped open just enough to let what little starlight there was filter in. He looked to the lock on the grill, no less imposing then the last time he had gazed upon it. Withdrawing the Torsion wrench and Hook-pick he began the slow process of 'feeling' the pins.

Sweat beaded up and trickled down the dwarfs face before being absorbed by the matted beard. Several hours had passed and still he was no further forward then before. The hot stuffy oppressive darkness of the shaft was getting worse now the sun had risen. He had also had to stop to rest; eating and drinking just enough to continue quickly. Finally he felt the tumbler give, rotate and the lock opened with a rewarding click.

A couple points in dexterity and a little increase to his lock picking.

He removed it from its place and two thirds of the grill fell away. It swung down to open revealing a set of iron rungs jutting out from the wall. Mandeok retrieved his tools and the lock before starting his descent.

The hole dropped for twenty more feet then stopped abruptly.

As he stepped off the lower rung he felt the solid stone slab floor below him. Even the sunlight wouldn't reach down here, regardless if the well had a lid or not. Peering into the darkness gained him nothing but strained eyes.

Thick Dwarven hands reached out to greet the wall before sliding hand over hand to circumnavigate the well.

Under the last rung of the crude ladder was an opening, he had missed it the first time as he stepped straight off thinking any opening would be on the opposite side. It was just wide enough for a person to crawl through and as he placed his first hand over the threshold a flash of light blinded him.

'TRAP!!'

Mandeok's mind raced, it was a possibility he had over looked.

Slowly he opened his eyes and as they refocused he saw several light crystals blink into life in a chain reaction that stretched the length of the tunnel. The entrance itself was only a few feet and before long he had emerged from the tunnel to stand bathed in the light of the long passage.

He was more cautious now after his near miss with the non-trap.

On his hands and knees from the safety of the small entrance tunnel he activated his untested skill.

"Mind Hand"

A transparent limb grew from his chest.

Slowly his mana began to drain, as it was a channelling skill the decent regeneration rate he got from his inflated wisdom cancelled. It would restart after six to seven minutes provided he didn't engage in combat. That same inflated wisdom would allow it to refill within two minutes leading to a cycle of ten minutes: two to gain, seven to drain. The remainder would be a buffer or margin for error.

Using his will he turned the hand over, flexed the fingers and made a fist.

With the systems check complete he used the ghostly appendage to meticulously check every inch of the corridor before him. It transmitted sensations as well as either of his real arms and he could even utilise his full strength and moderate dexterity with it.

He threw it three tools from the lock picking set.

Whenever it encountered a loose brick, a slightly raised stone or a suspicious tile he would use the half diamond pick, the saw rake or the snake rake to fully investigate it. It paid off; a pressure pad for hidden floor spikes, a trip wire for wall arrows and collapsible floor. He disarmed and navigated them all thanks to his third hand scout.

This corridor was one long death trap.

He had covered one quarter of the distance, crawling on carefully after fully checking the floor, walls and ceilings. Pulling himself up to the latest uncovered trap he found a more sophisticated trigger mechanism. Most so far had just been simple switches or levers but this one was an array of small wooden cogs and gears.

Assessing the function of each visible part he determined it would be impossible to disarm it without triggering it.

From the safe distance at the end of his Mind Hand's range he depressed the hidden pad.

A soft clink of metal chimed from the mechanism as a small metal ball dropped down and rolled along a track. It put him in mind of the child's game mouse trap. as it dropped from the end of the run the transparent hand plucked it from the air.

He waited for a few moments but nothing else happened, crawling once more to the precipice of the trap mechanism he followed the supposed route of the ball with his eyes.

Curiosity got the better of him and he used Mind Hand to manually trigger what he believed to be the next stages of the trap. Without the timing effect created by the rolling marble he could quite safely activate one part without dominoing the whole thing.

Translucent stubby fingers triggered levers and spun cogs; several weights on pulleys dropped and ratchets engaged.

Jets of flame shot out of the wall from obvious holes at head height after a moment a multitude of blades cleaved the air from slots hidden in between the mortar of the lower wall and floor. They sliced and diced in all directions.

They then retracted into the wall before a low rumbling tilted sections of the floor. Half rose clockwise the other half anticlockwise and both would have tipped anything that stood on them into the awaiting bubbling green pool below.

Mandeoks jaw hung wide open as he watched all of this unfurl.

He been in a relative safe zone but he still felt the heat from the flames and the air pressure from the blades. The acrid smell of the pool confirming his suspicion that it was some sort of strong acidic liquid.

He flicked a small switch at the end of the channel, where the ball should have come to rest and with the whirring of coiled springs the whole thing reset itself.

"If I had ducked to avoid the flames I would have been sliced. If I tried to avoid being hacked apart I would have been tipped into the acid bath. What sort of thing needs this much security?"

Mandeok pondered as he pocketed the metal marble.

He began crawling forward again and had just passed the titling floor when his head bumped the roof.

'What?'

He thought as he simultaneously reached upward with his regular hand and outward with his third one. They both hit something solid at the same time.

The last trap of the long corridor was an optical illusion.

From the well end it seemed like the corridor was incredibly long but in actual fact the walls and ceiling slowly tapered off thus giving the impression of great distance.

The door at this end was no larger than the entrance tunnel at the other. No sooner had he touched the door with his real hand then up popped a message.

-: You survived the 100ft Death Crawl; tackling traps that were far above your level using only the wit and skills you possess.

Fame has increased by 150: +150 Fame

Nature of Quest Prohibits Fame gained during Quest: -150 Fame:-

-: New Skill: Disarm Trap (beginner level: 2 (73%)) :-

Eun Seok sighed Mandeok was growing in odd directions; he was definitely becoming the worst kind of Japkae but he had planned to be since the beginning so this should be seen as a step not an obstacle. Sooner or later his Merchant would find a use for these skills.

He made quick work of the locked door at the end of the passage and slowly opened it. With great trepidation he pushed it fully open and entered a new room.

Nothing happened.

No traps, no ambushes and no armed guards awaiting his arrival.

With his way forward secured he did the most unthinkable thing ever. He headed back through the door and into the Corridor of Death; confidently he walked back to the start and began re-arming all the traps he had painstakingly disarmed.

He crawled backward slowly; using sewing thread to fix trip wires and re-engaging levers.

-: You have re-armed traps. Retreat is now impossible but the chances of being followed have decrease by 50% :-

Ever since he had destroyed the evidence of his information gathering he had wondered how to continue to obscure his presence during the quest. If he should fall and Lord Beaumont should return what would alert him would be the fact his trap network had been triggered.

And then he would do the only sensible thing; he would raise his guard. Possibly even move any quest objective and Mandeok would definitely lose any chance to retry if such a situation occurred. Plus this way he would definitely hear anyone coming along there thinking he had removed all the obstacles.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the people he had interacted with it was more a sense of you just couldn't be too careful.

Mandeok now stood in the room beyond the trap hall. In the darkness he could just make out the shape of a tall candle stand, slowly he edged his way over as his eyes grew accustomed to the dark. He lit it using the flint and striker from his cooking supplies.

The small flame flickered gently as he guided it to light the other candles on the candelabra.

The small room was now washed in the flickering orange light of several candles. He could make out a worn book case and desk, a large stone structure and a heavy looking chest. Black curtains were hung, draped in a manner to hide the stone work

There was nothing on the shelves of the books case and after picking the desk draws open all that greeted him were a couple of flighty moths. When he approached and inspected the stone structure he found it to be something he was very familiar with: a forge.

For something like this the room must have adequate ventilation but all the walls seemed like solid stone. When he stuck his head under the flue he could just make out the clouds leisurely drifting by in the pin hole of sky above.

The trunk was another mystery it was an ornate vertical slatted dome top with a padlock that hummed with magical energy. He left it for the moment and continued searching.

He moved one of the long black curtains to reveal a highly polished section of wall. Moving around the room he removed all the curtains only to reveal a hidden opening. As soon as the heavy blackout curtain was removed a blinding light emanated from the newly discovered space.

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Sorry this one took a little longer to upload then originally intended.

Thanks to certain diversions I was able to calm down and write again. Unfortunately I realised I had written myself into a bit of a corner.

ORZ

Note: To all those Fanfic Authors who are writing stories in worlds created by other people please make sure you have all your facts straight to start with.

If your character has to be on the other side of the continent don't just magicall place him there, unless of course he can Teleport or Fly or is Summoned etc. Or, as in my case, if you need your MC to have a certain skill by a certain stage of the plot, make sure he is at a stage to reasonably acquire it.

Thankfully after taking some time to research (re-re-read LMS) I found the Author does make some allowances; non-class skills grow at different rates compared to class skills; so why not racial?

This is why the growth of our MC may seem a little rushed in this chapter.

Thank you for taking the time to read this

SL