"I will do a short introduction. I am Trish. As you can see, I am a thief. And this person with a moody face is Lighttress. You met yesterday right? She is a crusader and shouldn't have any skills that are useful to you."
"Hello! I am Kanike, nice to meet you, Trish!"
The open plaza behind the adventurers guild. Trish, Lighttress and I stood at this desolate open space. By the way, those 2 companions of mine were sulking at the table all this
while, so I left them there.
"Well then, we will start from 'Sense Enemy' and 'Hide'. We will work on 'Disarm Trap' next time, traps are rare in such a crowded place. Hey… Lighttress, could you turn and face that side?"
"…Hmmm? …. Okay."
Darkness turned and face away as instructed. And so, Trish got into a wooden barrel some distance away and showed only
the top half of her body. I don't know what she was playing at, but she then threw a rock at Lighttress's head and hid into the barrel.
"…"
Could this be the hide skill? Lighttress who was hit by the rock moved silently towards the only barrel in the area.
"Sensing enemy… sensing enemy… I can strongly feel that Lighttress is angry! Nah, Lighttress? You should know I only did that to teach him the skills, I couldn't help it! Please have mercy ahhhhhh, stop ahhhhhhhh!"
The barrel she was hidden in was toppled over and Trish screamed as it rolled on the ground.
… Could I really learn skill this way…
"Alright, let's try the skill I recommend the most, 'Steal'. This was a skill that can snatch away one item possessed by the target, it could be anything. Be it the weapon gripped tightly in their hands, or the wallet secured deep in their pockets, it can steal one item possessed by the target. The probability of
success is dependent on the luck stat. You could rob the weapon or treasure of a strong enemy and run, a great skill to have under any circumstances."
After Trish recovered from the dizziness of being rolled around in a barrel, she explained 'Steal' to me.
Stealing sounded very useful indeed.
And it was dependent on the luck stat, so my only stat that is high would be of use.
"I will demonstrate with you as the target! Ready, 'Steal'!"
Trish shouted as she reached her hand forward, and a small item appeared in
her hand.That is…
"Ah! That's my wallet!"
It contained all of my cash, a thin and pitiful wallet.
"Oh! Jackpot! It's used this way. Well of course, I will give the wallet…"
Trish smiled deviously when she was about to return the wallet to me.
"… Nah, let's have a match alright? Try learning 'Steal' now. I will then let
you steal one item from me. I won't complain even if you steal my wallet or weapon. Your wallet is so thin, so my weapon or wallet would definitely be more valuable. That means we will be trading whatever items that were
stolen… How about it? Want to try?"
This person suddenly said something amazing. I thought about it. My luck seemed ridiculously high… I could steal one item from the opponent… So I would get something even if the skill failed.
… Let's give it a go. Such gambles seemed like the way rash adventurers would interact, just what I was looking forward to! That's right, I am finally experiencing something adventurer like after coming to this world!
I looked at my adventurer card and saw a new box that displayed skills that could be learned. I touch it with my finger and 4 skills were displayed. 'Sense Enemy' 1 point, 'Hide' 1 point, 'Steal' 1 point', 'Beauties of Nature' 5 points.
… 'Beauties of nature'? The skill used by Aqua, the party trick of flicking a seed into a cup? The party trick had such a flashy name! Eh? And it took a lot of points! Party tricks were cool in some way, but I decided to learn 'steal', 'sense enemy' and 'hide'.I used up all my skill points and it turned to 0. I see, so that's how you learn skills.
"I have learned the skill. And I accept your challenge! Don't come crying to me no matter what I steal!"
I stuck out my right hand as I spoke, but Trish just smiled fearlessly.
"That's great! I like people who aren't spoilsport! Alright then, what could you steal? The special prize would be my wallet. The grand prize would be this magically enchanted dagger! This is a great item worth 400,000 Eris! The consolation prize would be this piece of rock I threw at Lighttress!"
"Ahhh! That's cheating! Using such a method!"
I protest loudly when I saw the rock Trish took out. I was wondering why she was so confident, so that's the reason! If she had more trash items, the probability of important items getting stolen would be lower, a sort of safeguard against thieves.
"This is my teaching fee. As you can see, no skills are all powerful. You learned something great right? Alright, give it a go!"
Damn, I was really schooled! Looking at Trish laughing out loud, I felt I was foolish to fall for this trick. This is not Japan, but a dog eat dog world. It is the fault of those who are naive enough to be tricked. But it was just the chance of winning or failing, it's not a total loss.
"Alright, watch this! My luck had always been good! 'Steal'!"
As I shouted, my outreached right hand grabbed something. She said the chance of success was dependent on the luck stat. To succeed in one try, my luck wasn't too bad. I opened my hand and looked at what I stole…
"… What is this?"
It was a piece of white cloth. I took the cloth with both hands and raised to the sun for a better look…
"Yahoo–! It's the grand prize, and it's a big one—!"
"No–! Return my panties to me–!"
Trish pulled down her skirt as she screamed with tears in her eyes.