The alley of Strong Horse Hotel’s back door.
The young Thief is yawning out of boredom and lifelessly keeping a lookout.
This mission is really too boring. The other party is a half-elf Warrior which apparently is wanted by the client but boss’ request is only to keep track of her location. What they have to do is to report that female half-elf’s whereabouts to higher-ups regularly.
“In the middle of the night, who will go out. It will be troublesome if met with patrolling guards.” Thief tries to fight against the drowsiness.
Akron Gang’s boss is very ambitious and is no longer satisfied with trivial things like collecting protection fees. This is an attempt for him to go into related dark areas. Everyone in the gang knows that if they mess up this mission, their heads will roll.
Hm? Sounds of wind from behind?
The Thief suddenly looks behind vigilantly.
In the dark alley, there is nothing, not even a person is there.
“Oversensitive?” The Thief frowns and looks for a while before slowly turning his gaze.
……
“This fellow’s Sense is not bad.”
The Ma Wen shocked by the Thief’s action just now takes half a step back.
Ranger’s Stealth has 40% reduction penalty in cities and cannot be compared to the effects of Thief’s. 24 Stealth is kind of low in front of Thief’s Sense. This is not in the wild, Ma Wen has no advantage.
Luckily, he predicted the Thief’s sensing radius correctly and tested a bit.
Ma Wen secretly feels lucky, if he goes near in impulse just now, the Thief will definitely discover him. If he was able to send out a signal, things will be very tricky tonight.
He hides in a dark spot, thinks for a bit and finally allocates all the precious remaining Skill points onto [Stealth]. 44 Stealth, even if there is a 40% discount, there is still more than 26 points, there is still some hope.
After adjusting the Skill, he slightly closes in again, stretches a leg out and steps on the ground.
As expected, the Thief shows no reaction this time and is focused in staring at the hotel’s back door.
Everything that follows can be easily settled.
Ma Wen sneaks to the back of the Thief with silent steps and pounces before he can react.
Skillfully covering mouth, cut throat and bleed him.
Other than some smell of blood in the air, no traces are left behind.
This is a Level 2 Thief. Ma Wen casually deals with the corpse and gets some materials for making traps and 30 silver coins. These gang members are actually not that wealthy. Their equipment is worse than the blank machete Ma Wen bought himself. It is mostly used for threatening normal people and is hardly useful in fights with real Cla.s.s-er.
The Thief’s corpse is dragged to the drain by Ma Wen. Every day, there will some unlucky fellow that died be found in this drain. Other than undertakers, no one will care about these faces.
Quietly entering from the hotel’s back door, Ma Wen goes up the stairs in Stealth and enters the room.
Who knew at the instant the door opened, a cold light is suddenly put onto his neck.
“Sneaky fellow! What do you all actually want to do?”
A woman says coldly.
Ma Wen bitterly laughs and hurriedly says: “Sister Anna, it’s me.”
“Young Master Ma Wen?”
Using a flint to light a candle, the dark room brightens up slightly.
Anna, holding the candle in her left hand and sword in her right hand, shows a trace of surprise.
“Didn’t you say you’re not coming back tonight? I thought you’ll spend the night at Silver Church.”
Ma Wen shakes her head. Although Silver Church do provide lodging for travelers, their rent is even more expensive.
“Listen, Anna, we only have 15 minutes.” Ma Wen speaks quickly. His eyes scan every corner of the room and surprising discovers that the window is covered up tightly.
“What did you discover?” He looks at Anna.
Anna hesitates for a bit and uses her sword to point to outside of the window: “Your words before you left reminded me. I scouts slightly and discovers someone is always staring outside on the streets outside. At our room.”
“Akron Gang.” Ma Wen nods: “2 at the front door, 1 at the back.”
“Young Master Ma Wen, how did you suddenly……” Anna looks at Ma Wen in surprise, just like looking at a totally different person.
“No time to explain.” Ma Wen shows a firm look: “Anna, you have to believe in me. After I recovered from my serious illness this time, my mind became clearer and I know what I should do. And, I’ve gotten some guidance.”
“Guidance?” Looking at the mysterious Ma Wen, Anna is even more confused.
Ma Wen randomly makes up stuff: “When I was in coma, I dreamt of many things. I dreamt of a person. He claimed to be my teacher. In the dream, he taught me many things. And just now, I followed his guidance and did some necessary steps, see.”
After saying, he displays that Sika Deer Crest.
“Ranger Crest? Young Master Ma Wen, how did you suddenly turn into a Ranger? How is this done?”
Anna is completely stunned. It is common knowledge that for normal people to become a Cla.s.s-er, many years of training is required but Young Master Ma Wen had never went through any combat training. Could this Ranger Crest be a fake?
Or did he met some swindler?
Compared to Ma Wen really completely changed and became a qualified Ranger, Anna is more willing to believe the latter.
Looking at Anna’s eyes, Ma Wen knows that she does not believe him and thus says: “Leave the unimportant things in the room, take the important stuff. Oh right, leave a letter to the proprietress of Strong Horse Hotel and let her help take care of our stuff, we’ll come back for them later.”
“Now, I need your help.”
Ma Wen’s tone left no room for doubt, Anna takes a deep breath and secretly swears in her heart that if Ma Wen really met a swindler, she definitely will shred the one who cheated her young master into pieces!
For now, she can only nod obediently. After preparing for all kinds of situation——She was trained from young to be a qualified bodyguard and a competent butler. She is the greatest help to White River Valley’s master. When Ma Wen made his choice, she will only give her full support.
The two quickly pack up and leave through the back door quietly.
……
In the quiet alley, Ma Wen says in a low voice: “Akron Gang’s lookouts confirm each other’s safety every 20 minutes. The method they’re using is partridge"s call. I observed for a while before, about 3 partridge"s calls means safe. It’s a pity we do not know partridge"s language so our time is very limited.”
“I still do not understand what you mean.” Anna asks softly: “You said there is a hidden lookout at the back door? Where is he?”
Ma Wen coughs: “At that drain behind.”
Anna is silent but is really shocked in her heart. She knows the best about Young Master Ma Wen, someone so kind actually actively killed someone.
However, it is not like she completely cannot understand this mutation of Ma Wen.
A wise man once said, human’s potential is unlimited. When someone sinks into desperation, it is highly possible to undergo some transformation——good, or bad——No matter what, man will always change to live better.
Throughout these days, White River Valley and Young Master Ma Wen had too heavy of a blow. It is way more than what this 14 years old young man can handle. That kind Young Master Ma Wen becoming decisive and callous is not something that impossible after all.
It is just that she is a bit worried that Ma Wen will go into another extreme henceforth.
No matter what, since the lookout is already dealt with by Ma Wen, then not long after, the 2 enemies at the front door will also discover this.
That is why Ma Wen keeps saying, their time is limited.
“I’ll go kill them.” Anna lets out a trace of murderous aura. In the room just now, Ma Wen explains to her his encounter with Akron Gang members’ interception and only avoided the crisis based on that teacher’s guidance in his dreams and returned to the hotel.
This made Anna shocked and angry.
Whoever dares to have ideas on Young Master Ma Wen, she will definitely not left them off.
“No no no, Anna, if it’s just about killing them all, I’ll not have ask for your help.”
Ma Wen calmly says: “We have to at least leave one alive.”
“Alive?” Anna frowns.
“Because I want to know, exactly who is trying to kill me. There’s no way Akron Gang will touch me with no reason. Someone must be instructing them.”
Ma Wen says softly: “In my impression, there is no enemies in Hirst City.”
“No!” Anna seems to have thought of something suddenly, her face shows signs of disbelief and instantly changes into anger.
“What is it? Anna?” Ma Wen asks.
“Young master, I think I probably know who is trying to secretly make a move on you already.”
Anna gnashes her teeth and says: “These few days, I was working at your Uncle Miller’s house. I inadvertently heard, he is very close with Akron Gang!”
“The leader of Akron Gang, Tiafes personally entered your uncle’s mansion a few days ago and took away many jewelry! This is something the cook A-Tao saw with her own eyes. She later told me as gossip. Why did I not notice it then!”
“Thinking back now, the one secretly making a move on you, is very possibly that Uncle Miller of yours!!”
“Uncle Miller?” Ma Wen stuns for a bit and begins searching for related memories.