Chapter 59 – The one who lurks
The first race that got robbed was the Merfolk. They originally lived in the forest, and even though they could travel on both sea and land, the continent is not their home. In addition, their bodies were special. After a period of time, they needed to spend time in the water to recover and recharge. If they did not do so, then they would feel dizzy and lethargic, affecting their abilities to fight.
After they set up their camps near the lake, the merfolks would investigate the Tree of Life as well as hunt everyday. They then spent their remaining time swimming in the lake, at least five times a day. They even did it just before their meals which made their appet.i.tes better.
The tragic incident took place on a certain day at a certain evening. When every merfolk finished swimming and went back to the sh.o.r.e with much hunger, and was looking forward to a sumptuous meal. However, they discovered that all the food that was placed on the sh.o.r.e had disappeared.
“Enemy ambush—” Some sensitive merfolk had yelled out at the first opportunity they got. Although it was possible that he was just hungry to the point where he was over-reacting……
Missing food = Someone or some beast stole it = Unable to see anyone = Malicious intentions = Enemy attacks…..
People tend to be scatter-brains when they were at their weakest moments, if someone said something to a person who just woke up, they might connect strange ideas to an unrelated thing.
The more imaginative one was, the more off-topic it could be…….
A ripple started in the merfolk team leader’s head, and before he could stop his subordinate, he had alerted the surrounding races.
The t.i.tans showed themselves from the tent.
“Enemy ambush? But we didn’t feel any mana activated…… the enemies must be extremely terrifying!”
“……..” The team leader was silent. He personally thought that a five-square meter tent could fit in ten t.i.tans who were 2.5 meters tall and 300 kilograms heavy, was more terrifying. Even though his mind told him that the tent probably had an area-enlarging spell attached that made it ten times bigger, but every time when he saw them, he felt it was like watching a boar making its way out of a squirrel’s den.
The Night Clan had a wary nature, and they had quickly took up defensive positions.
“Who are the enemies? Did you discover their tracks? Explain the situation in detail……”
“Haha……” The demon race’s representative appeared with his black cape still covering most of his body. He laughed like he had seen something interesting.
The merfolk team leader knew what he saw in an instant….. A brave half-beast boy who knew how to steal.
If the demon team leader knew what Fedrus’s true ident.i.ty was, he might be even more delighted….. A royal prince who inherited half of the n.o.ble Elven bloodline became a criminal thief…..
In that instant, the merfolk team leader nearly broke into tears. He felt like he had become a witness to how the human royal family had fallen to a deplorable state. The fact that he was unable to stop this made him feel the guiltiest he ever been in his whole life.
With the number of people increasing as they came out from their tents, the entire situation looked like it was about to blow up. In order to prevent the demon team leader from revealing the truth about the criminal, he quickly stopped tried to placate them: “Misunderstanding! It’s all a misunderstanding! Don’t panic everyone, my men had seen wrongly, it was just a rabbit that pa.s.sed by……”
The merfolk who was accused of making a mistake refuted him: “But our food was obviously…….”
“I’m really sorry, please continue what you are doing, we’re going back.” The merfolk team leader tackled him, covered his mouth and dragged him away….. The other merfolks had already guessed that their team leader knew something and cooperated by returning to their own camp in silence.
Once they were back, the merfolk team leader explained how Sue starved the little prince in order to force him to learn the Stealth skill. They immediately understood and the mystery of the disappearing food was solved…….
“But captain, are you not supporting his thieving behavior?!” One of the merfolks said in hesitation: “Is it really okay for the little prince to grow up with this education?!”
The words behind them were: If the Tobias Kingdom knew that we did not stop it, would they break the alliance between the humans and the merfolks?!
“…….” The merfolk team leader found tears rolling down his cheeks: “This isn’t important right now.” As long as Sue help the prince, everything was not important, at most when they finished investigating the Tree of Life, he would go back and request the merfolks to close relations for 500 years…..
With the intentional protection from the merfolks, Fedrus’s Stealth skill quickly improved at an incredible rate.
As the day went by with the prince practicing his skill constantly, he was considered to be a pa.s.sable user in the Stealth skill.
He was able to hide in plain sight.
He followed someone from behind and entered into the camps’ area with his head held high, but at the same time he made use of cover and dead angles so that no one was able to spot him. He even lurked behind a demon for the whole afternoon, until he was ready to switch posts where he then jumped out and scared him into falling off the tree……
At first Fedrus was being forced into doing it to survive, but he gradually learned to enjoy himself.
Soon enough, the various races understood why they kept losing food and artifacts, and witnessed a beastboy becoming a thief.
Losing items did not compare to witnessing a small child becoming a…… The G.o.ds’ b.l.o.o.d.y socks! He’s becoming a full-time brigand!
After many days of chaos, they finally could not stand it any longer and selected the merfolk team leader as the representative to complain to Sue. He carefully and subtly indicated that the beastboy had learned the Stealth skill and there was no need for him to continue learning it. He hoped that Sue could restore the three meals provided to Fedrus, so that he need not go to the camps and ‘took’ their food again.
The merfolk team leader swore upon the lake he was good enough because Sue was the only one Fedrus did not strike yet, while all the other races were completely at his mercy.