The guard quickly finished his business, but it felt like an eternity for Zarin. Still, he kept trying to keep himself hidden.
____________________
SKILL LEARNED
You have learned [Stealth] (C-Rank)
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 2 minutes and 30 seconds
Lvl: 1/50
Description: You have learned the art of blending with your environment. During the Skill's duration, targets have a more challenging time seeing them. The user's [Agility] affects the concealment effect. The concealment effect is reduced by 90% while in combat.
____________________
Zarin kept staring at the notification even after the guard had been out of sight. He knew about the [Stealth] Skill, as mentioned in the Journal.
Lady Emlyn's father had a Mage-based class, but he could learn Skill from every class as far as he consumed a creature who had access to said Skill. So his ability wasn't limited to monsters but people too.
As for Zarin, till now, he understood that his class was Mage and Warrior-based, but he just got a Rogue-Based Skill.
'Could it be that I have no restrictions to which I can learn?'
From what was written in the Journal, not all Otherworlders could learn every possible Skill, as some Classes were truly restricted. However, only exceptional cases like Lady Emlyn's father didn't follow that rule, and Zarin seemed to be included too.
He had sneaked his way in the past, but he never had that close call like today, which should be the trigger of learning the Skill. He wanted to forget that last encounter, but his new Skill reminded the small torture he went through.
At least he didn't go through it without any reward in the end.
After making sure that nobody else was around, he opened the door and entered the kitchen.
He then pulled out the enchanted tool at his disposal and moved towards the mana battery. It was still there, and so he just put the tool on a particular slot it had for it to recharge.
After a couple of seconds, it had recharged enough to be used for a bit, and Zarin used it to clean himself a bit. Of course, it wasn't the same as taking a shower, but it helped a bit.
After doing so, he examined the recharging slot a bit more. At the bottom of the slot, a carving lit up a little when an enchanted item was getting closer.
Zarin touched that rune, but nothing happened. So he continued examining the slot and the rest of the mana battery.
He continued doing so for a couple of minutes, but then he stopped and sighed.
He hoped he would get an identify roll, but he could feel that he made no progress like he did with the other items. However, with the time he had spent examining the dice, he got a better understanding of what he could get an identify roll and whatnot.
He gave it a bit more thought, and an idea came to his mind. It was dangerous, but sometimes the more hazardous choices are the most fitted ones.
He had his index finger touching the rune in the slot, while with the other hand, he brought the enchanted tool at his disposal to the same slot. Of course, since his finger was in the way, he couldn't fully let the tool in the slot, but it went close enough to trigger the rune.
As the rune lit up, Zarin could feel something happening to him. He could feel some kind of energy moving through his finger into his body, like getting electrified, but without feeling pain or getting damaged.
Zarin focused on opening his Status window and looked at his MP to see if there was any change.
It was still 0/100.
But he didn't stop. He didn't feel like it was hurtful to himself, so he wanted to see if maybe there was some other benefit he could get instead.
A couple of minutes passed, and the run went back to its idle state. Zarin was confused for a moment but soon understood what had happened. The toll was fully charged, so the mana battery didn't release any more energy to it.
The only way to uncharge the tool was by using it, but using it for a long time would cause noise, and maybe the guard would notice him. So his only option was to leave, empty the tool, and return, but that meant that he had to keep doing it for who knew how many times.
He had noticed no change on his body, and there was no notification either letting him know of any change.
'If only I could get the mana battery with me.'
If he could move it out of here, he could keep using it back at his base without any worries. But the mana battery couldn't be moved that quickly; otherwise, Oriel would have taken it long ago. There were special runes on it, on the floor, and on its surroundings walls that helped with its functions. If one wanted to move the battery, they first needed to release the connection with those enchantments and make new ones at the new place it would be put.
But doing so needed an experienced Mage with knowledge of Runes and Enchantments, which Zarin was far from being one.
'It is getting late, and I need to rest, or I will earn [Exhaustion I] again.'
Since he had no other choice, he left, for now, to return another night to keep trying.
He used his newly acquired [Stealth] to feel its use and train a bit on it on his way out. When he activated it, he noticed that his steps made less sound than before, and his breath was also lighter. He was still visible, but he left out fewer audio cues, making it harder to get detected.
Even if the Skill lasted for only 10 seconds, it was enough to cover enough distance away from the house.
He reactivated it on his way out whenever the [Stealth] was out of cooldown. By the time he reached his base, it was already level 4. For C Rank Skills, the 5 first levels were the basic levels, like the first 10 levels for D-Rank Skills.
Earning them wasn't that difficult unless one was utterly clueless about the Skill. However, Zarin had played enough video games back when he was on Earth that he had a few ideas of how the Skill could work.
Zarin climbed up to his tree base and went to sleep after looking from there, making sure that the surroundings were clear. He wasn't afraid of someone from the village following him but of someone or something from the forest to have noticed him. He knew that the woods at night were more dangerous than during the day, so he didn't make any trips that late unless necessary.
The night, fortunately, passed without any incidents.
He rechecked his status to see if any delayed change by his actions last night, but there was none.
After being completely awoken, he climbed down and headed towards a nearby lake. He still needed to clean himself, as he hadn't had the chance to do so yesterday. Using just the enchanted tool wasn't enough as it was designed to clean plates and such, not humans.
His body smelled a bit because of yesterday's accident, which made it hard for him to sleep, but he did it somehow.
The lake wasn't that far, and a few beasts already drinking water. Fortunately, none of the beasts were hostile like the Demon Wolves or the Demon Bear. Instead, they acted like ordinary earthy beasts, although they didn't look like them.
There were a pair of deers; one was half the size of the other, meaning that most likely it was the child of the other. The difference between those deers from Earth's deers was that their fur had green lines on them, and the horns of the old one looked to be made of gold. The younger one had no horns yet.
A couple of smaller beasts looked like weasels but had long front teeth like a beaver. Each of them had a different line pattern on their back, with some of them also having circles and different shapes.
Zarin didn't spend any more time checking every beast, as he didn't notice any trying to attack it. Still, he kept his distance and moved to a part of the lake that was free.
He removed his clothes as he didn't want to get them wet, even if they needed to get washed somewhat. He, fortunately, had a change of clothes that he had acquired from Eddie a couple of weeks ago, as he couldn't stay in the same clothes forever, even before yesterday's events.
He had a hard time cleaning himself since he had no soap, but after some intense rubbing, at least the smell was gone. Some of it was still on his mind, Zarin, and now and then, he thought he could still smell it.
As he finished his bath and started drying himself, using a towel he had borrowed from Eddie. As he started putting on his clothes, he noticed that most beasts had left. He considered it weird, as it wasn't the first time he had a bath in the lake like that. A few beasts had left in the past, but never all of them.
But it didn't take him long to find why they left, as the answer came in the form of a roar.
Zarin turned towards the roar source and finally noticed the beast he didn't want to see.
The Demon Bear had found him.