"So what happens to the guy I brought in now?" rlin couldn’t help but ask. One of the reasons for his self destructive gamble was because he wanted that guy to suffer for attacking a kid, but clearly he couldn’t prove him to be a snitch.
The woman standing at the doorway turned to rlin and responded to his question with a cold deanour, "He has been retired for reasons outside of your concern."
rlin could only assu that retired was used instead of killed, that was typically the way things worked around here.
"You will be expected to undergo basic training in our training facility." She spoke once more, "An instructor will be present at the facility to give you your tasks."
"When you leave this room, turn left and make your way down the tunnel, there you will find the training facility." With that last piece of information being delivered successfully, she left the room. rlin could hear the woman’s light footsteps quickly fade away as she rushed to catch up with her father who had walked off without her.
rlin waited a few monts before standing up and leaving the room, he followed the woman’s instructions, walking down the tunnel until he eventually arrived at what he could only assu was the training facility.
The room was larger than the gambling ring, the roof was much higher too, and there were clear signs of walls being knocked down. This room in particular had the biggest overhaul in structure alone, not ntioning what was actually in the room.
The various channels in the ground had been filled, and a thick layer of loosely packed dirt covered the entire training facility floor. The most obvious thing in the room was the large obstacle course that took up most of the space, but there were other things in the room, like various treasure chests, free-standing doors and devices that looked like trip wire traps.
"How co the city above hasn’t caved in on this place?" rlin couldn’t help but wonder out loud. There was always a reason for the most mundane of things, the ga never entirely relied on hand-waving things away with the excuse of it being magical.
"We’re not under the city anymore laddie." A voice resounded from behind rlin, which caused him to jump forward in surprise. "We’re under the forest a little bit away from the city walls. There is nothing above us but a mass of dirt and trees."
rlin could not sense the man’s presence at all, even when he turned around and looked directly at him, it felt like the man would suddenly vanish if he blinked.
"The tree roots are mostly what’s holding the mass of dirt hovering above us from caving in, or so I’m told." The man continued explaining, not paying attention to rlin’s reaction.
"So, you’re the ghost everyone’s talking about, huh?" The man inspected rlin’s appearance before talking again, "I heard you saved my son, thanks."
"I sort of put your kid in that situation in the first place though." rlin confessed, "It was only right that I got him out."
rlin’s eye briefly inspected the na hovering over the man’s head, "Pelear Ladrona".
rlin was expecting Pelear to get angry, but the man smiled at him instead. "You’re a good lad, aren’t ya, Ghost?"
"It’s rlin. Ghost is a cruel nickna I received due to a misunderstanding." rlin had a bad feeling he would be explaining himself a lot if he decided to talk to more people in the thieves guild.
"What a sha, you should stick with it, it’s a lot cooler than rlin, no offence." Pelear teased, "I’m not sure what those circumstances were, but it’s surprisingly fitting for this line of work."
rlin couldn’t help but sigh in response.
Pelear ruffled rlin’s hair while laughing. He just seed like a jovial uncle at the mont, but rlin knew that everyone in the thieves guild was a criminal to so degree, with so even bordering on psychotic.
"Alright, so the boss told to give you the fast course, it seems you’re already capable enough for his liking." As Pelear finished talking, a quest window appeared before rlin.
┌───────────────────
[Common Quest]
Path of the Thief I.
You’ve been given a task to show off your abilities on the obstacle course.
Complete the obstacle course in four minutes or less.
• Reward: 1 Dexterity
└───────────────────
"You can spend so ti practising lock-picking and disabling traps before you start, we’ve got plenty of spare lockpicks laying around." Pelear gave rlin ti to prepare. "Don’t worry, you can attempt it as many tis as you need."
"Alright, I’ll give it a shot." rlin accepted the quest.
rlin received a set of lockpicks from the trainer before walking over to one of the free-standing doors. It was just a locked door within a door fra that was standing upright in the middle of a field of dirt. It didn’t take much for rlin to figure out that it was supported from underneath the dirt layer.
There were various locks in this world, so much harder to pick than others, and so even guarded with magic. But the most common locks, especially early in the ga, were old fashioned warded locks that could be easily opened with a paperclip or other thin strand of tal, such as a wire.
Within a couple seconds, rlin had successfully unlocked the door with little effort. rlin felt sowhat dissatisfied, he wanted sothing more difficult. He was used to solving elaborate puzzles and disarming traps, a simple warded lock was simply unsatisfying.
"Well, that was fast." Pelear gave light applause as he watched from the sidelines, "I guess you really are capable enough."
rlin awkwardly accepted the complent as he made his way to one of the treasure chests laying around, there were a couple that had weak locks, but rlin’s eyes locked onto a fancy-looking chest that he knew had a more intricate locking system.
The chest used a standard pin tumbler lock, one of the most common lock types in the modern world. aning it contained pins of varying length that prevented anything but the correct key from opening it, but it was also one of the easiest locks to pick open.
By spending a few monts skilfully picking at the various pins while applying tension to the lock, it eventually clicked open, revealing an empty chest.
rlin seed satisfied now, he was happy that even without his stats and his old body, he retained the ability and muscle mory that allowed him to perform more difficult dexterous tasks.
"Impressive." Pelear seed genuinely impressed. "That one still gives a lot of our rising stars a challenge."
rlin smiled, he seed satisfied with his performance, and was now ready to challenge the obstacle course. He briefly scanned over it as he walked towards the starting line, there didn’t seem to be any major issues, but he couldn’t see the later portions of the course due to it being elevated well above eye level.
The course area was raised periodically, with what seed to be the last platform roughly five ters high. Fortunately the ground was loosely packed dirt, so there wouldn’t be any serious injuries if you fell, in most cases.
"Alright, when you’re ready." Pelear started yelling, giving rlin ti to prepare himself, "Get set, go!"
rlin dashed forward the second Pelear finished his countdown, the first task was knee high hurdles, followed shortly after by rotating unstable platforms. His first major hurdle was a two ter high wall without any textures that’d help him scale it. He challenged the wall by running at it directly, kicking up the wall and using the montum and his upper body strength to vault over it.
The obstacle course was ultimately based around expected environnts and situations, aning there was a lot of balancing, jumping and climbing. A few lockpicking tasks were thrown in for good asure, one of which forced rlin to unlock and use a zip-line to reach the opposite side.
The last task before the finish line was a ruthless one, it appeared to be a straight run to the finish, but one of the floor panels contained a hidden pressure plate that released the levers that were holding up so of the platforms. Stepping on the unsecured platforms caused them to swing out from under the participant, dropping them five ters into a patch of dirt and effectively sending them back to the start.
Fortunately rlin knew about the trap, so he threw himself over it rather than spending the few seconds it would have taken him to diffuse it. Noticing that he wasn’t dropped into the dirt, rlin quickly scrambled towards the finish line. As soon as he passed the finishing line, he was bombarded with notifications.
「You have completed the quest, "Path of the Thief I", visit Pelear Ladrona to receive your rewards.」
「You have achieved a record ti of two minutes and forty-six seconds on the Macedonia Thieves Guild obstacle course.」
「You have earned 5 reputation within the Thieves Guild.」
rlin began panting heavily as he slumped on the platform, not yet having the energy to climb back down.
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