Chapter 53: Path of the Thief - I

"So what happens to the guy I brought in now?" Merlin 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 Merlin and responded to his question with a cold demeanour, "He has been retired for reasons outside of your concern."

Merlin could only assume 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. Merlin 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.

Merlin waited a few moments 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 assume 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 mentioning 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 come the city above hasn't caved in on this place?" Merlin couldn't help but wonder out loud. There was always a reason for the most mundane of things, the game 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 Merlin, 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."

Merlin 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 Merlin's reaction.

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"So, you're the ghost everyone's talking about, huh?" The man inspected Merlin'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." Merlin confessed, "It was only right that I got him out."

Merlin's eye briefly inspected the name hovering over the man's head, "Pelear Ladrona".

Merlin was expecting Pelear to get angry, but the man smiled at him instead. "You're a good lad, aren't ya, Ghost?"

"It's Merlin. Ghost is a cruel nickname I received due to a misunderstanding." Merlin 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 shame, you should stick with it, it's a lot cooler than Merlin, no offence." Pelear teased, "I'm not sure what those circumstances were, but it's surprisingly fitting for this line of work."

Merlin couldn't help but sigh in response.

Pelear ruffled Merlin's hair while laughing. He just seemed like a jovial uncle at the moment, but Merlin knew that everyone in the thieves guild was a criminal to some degree, with some even bordering on psychotic.

"Alright, so the boss told me 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 Merlin.

┌───────────────────

[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.

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• Reward: +1 Dexterity

└───────────────────

"You can spend some time practising lock-picking and disabling traps before you start, we've got plenty of spare lockpicks laying around." Pelear gave Merlin time to prepare. "Don't worry, you can attempt it as many times as you need."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot." Merlin accepted the quest.

Merlin 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 frame that was standing upright in the middle of a field of dirt. It didn't take much for Merlin to figure out that it was supported from underneath the dirt layer.

There were various locks in this world, some much harder to pick than others, and some even guarded with magic. But the most common locks, especially early in the game, were old fashioned warded locks that could be easily opened with a paperclip or other thin strand of metal, such as a wire.

Within a couple seconds, Merlin had successfully unlocked the door with little effort. Merlin felt somewhat dissatisfied, he wanted something 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."

Merlin awkwardly accepted the complement as he made his way to one of the treasure chests laying around, there were a couple that had weak locks, but Merlin'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. Meaning 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.

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By spending a few moments skilfully picking at the various pins while applying tension to the lock, it eventually clicked open, revealing an empty chest.

Merlin seemed satisfied now, he was happy that even without his stats and his old body, he retained the ability and muscle memory that allowed him to perform more difficult dexterous tasks.

"Impressive." Pelear seemed genuinely impressed. "That one still gives a lot of our rising stars a challenge."

Merlin smiled, he seemed 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 seemed to be the last platform roughly five meters 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 Merlin time to prepare himself, "Get set, go!"

Merlin 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 meter 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 momentum and his upper body strength to vault over it.

The obstacle course was ultimately based around expected environments and situations, meaning there was a lot of balancing, jumping and climbing. A few lockpicking tasks were thrown in for good measure, one of which forced Merlin 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 some of the platforms. Stepping on the unsecured platforms caused them to swing out from under the participant, dropping them five meters into a patch of dirt and effectively sending them back to the start.

Fortunately Merlin 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, Merlin 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 time of two minutes and forty-six seconds on the Macedonia Thieves Guild obstacle course.」

「You have earned +5 reputation within the Thieves Guild.」

Merlin began panting heavily as he slumped on the platform, not yet having the energy to climb back down.

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