Ch. 14: The Magic Pickpocket
Seeing the young man with a beast of immense aura, even an idiot could see that he was different from others. Sablan, who was a veteran at the job, always looked at his customer and recommended jobs that fit their level, so he didn"t feel like making Shion do something like pick up garbage or go on patrol.
"Mister Shion, how would you like to try a job as practice?"
"Yes please!"
"Usually we would have you start at jobs that are worth a few hundred points, but you two are aiming for expensive items. So, how about these?"
Sablan showed them jobs with very hard difficulty, knowing he had nothing to lose.
Help restarting the fountain …… 1 million P
Capture the uncatchable pickpocket …… 3 million P
Case of the stolen magic tools …… 6 million P
All of them were unsolved for over a year, and for the pickpocket, even the lord of the land had given up on catching him.
The magic tools had been stolen in a flashy manner, but the culprit hasn"t even been identified.
"10 million if we clear all of them, huh. That makes my imagination run wild."
"But all of them are several times more difficult than others."
"In any case, we"ll try them out. I guess we could start with the fountain."
"I"ll guide you there."
Sablan took Shion and Haku to a park in the residential area. There were many children and housewives, and everything was slow and peaceful. But the fountain in the center wasn"t working.
"The client is a group called the Clean Club. There is a magic stone fit into that stone device, and it powers the device to spray water. But it requires a tremendous amount of energy."
The mana in the magic stone had completely depleted over a year ago, and it had been just decoration for over a year.
"We used magic absorption stones to make the magic stone, but normal people don"t have the amount of mana needed to start the fountain again."
Mana and powers poured into magic absorption stones didn"t come back. Shion was already weakened so he wanted to avoid losing any more of his strength. Haku realized that and offered to do it himself.
"Let me try."
"Are you sure Haku?"
"I"ll just try putting in a little bit, so it won"t affect me at all."
"Then please, mister Haku."
Haku touched the stone that Sablan had brought and poured in less than a very small fraction of his total mana. The stone started to glow slightly, indicating that mana had been stored.
"Let"s put it into the device and see if it works."
Sablan walked in knee deep water towards the stone device and put the stone in, and--
--Water spouted out high into the air. It meant that it was a great success.
"Whoaaaaa!?"
"It looks like it"s working now~."
"Good job."
"You"re incredible mister Haku!"
Sablan danced with joy because in fact, if the one who got the job mediated to him succeeded, it led to the reputation of the mediator to increase as well. It was very rare for someone that could succeed in 1 million P quests to show up.
"Your mana must be different than humans in both amount and quality!"
"So, we can receive 1 million points just for that?"
"Of course. I"ll record it right now."
Gaining a million points meant that Haku could trade it for the boar meat he was after. But when Shion congratulated him, he shook his head.
‘Let"s focus on your weapon first. I don"t mind getting what I want after. Okay, let"s get on with the next quest~."
"I"ll guide you there!"
The next quest was the uncatchable pickpocket. The client was a prideful n.o.ble and had sent out a quest with a large sum of money in hopes of putting the b.a.s.t.a.r.d that stole his wallet in prison. Three million was way more than the reward for the previous quest, but it was that more difficult.
Shion and Haku stood in the corner of a large street with Sablan, who was looking into the crowd to search for the culprit.
"This seems like a job more suited for someone from the adventurer"s guild, doesn"t it?"
"It would be impossible. The culprit is an infamous pickpocket. His name and face are known, but no one could catch him."
"If he were strong, he would make money more efficiently doing something else, so I"m guessing he has a special way of escaping."
"You have a keen eye, mister Shion, as I had thought. The culprit Satsuro is very good at perceiving presences, and even when he"s driven to the edge, he suddenly disappears."
"s.p.a.ce magic, I think…?"
"I"m not familiar with magic, so I"m not sure…But even excellent soldiers and adventurers haven"t been able to catch--There he is!"
Sablan pointed to a middle-aged man with a shaved head, moving quickly among the crowd. Shion narrowed his eyes as he saw the man take a wallet from the pocket of a pa.s.sing person.
"That man, he just stole one."
"As expected, I guess. Alright, let"s go after him quietly."
As they started tailing Satsuro, he went into the park from before and stopped in front of the fixed fountain.
"Huh, someone fixed the magic stone. I guess there"s some weird people out there."
After muttering to himself, he checked the inside of the wallet he had stolen and raised his fist.
"Yeah, jackpot…Hmm?"
Satsuro turned around, feeling someone behind him, and almost fell over in surprise.
"W-w-w-w-what are you guys! What do you want!?"
He was surprised seeing Shion and Sablan, but he was completely afraid of Haku"s expression, which looked like he was looking forward to eating him. In fact, this was Haku smiling that they would be making more points.
"M-m-more pursuers? With such a beast with you too!"
"You"re deeds of evil are done now Satsuro. This time won"t go the same way as its always been."
Satsuro"s pride was triggered at Sablan"s confidence.
"So, you"re saying that those guys could catch me, huh?"
"Please, mister Shion, Haku."
Deciding that capturing the man came first, Shion was about to use magic, but his eyebrows twitched at the unexpected situation. Strangely, Satsuro"s figure started becoming more and more transparent.
"Hahahahaha, nice try. It doesn"t matter how strong you are. Try breaking through this unstoppable ability if you can!"
Saying that, Satsuro completely disappeared.
Hey guys Kaoto here.
Might do Broke Mercenary like a chapter per two or three days, and work on this one during exams since it doesn"t take too much time.