I looked around, standing in the exact spot and position I was in before receiving my skill. It was as if time had stood still. The only recognizable difference was the small golden card I had once grasped was now replaced by a big brown book weighing down my hands.
Lifting the book to my face, I examined it thoroughly.
It was the same book the god had held moments ago. The book looked ancient and worn, yet my eyes couldn't pick out a single flaw that would support the notion that it was anything but brand new. The book itself seemed completely full from the outside, but opening the book revealed only one page within. I spent several minutes trying to see through this illusion but I couldn't understand it.
Finally, I looked at the single page inside, reading it from start to finish.
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[Steal]
S Tier
This skill lets the user use all skills inside this book as well as add new pages. You can add new pages by stealing other skills in use whilst within proximity of their users. This is done through the imitate and agree clauses, either by imitating the skill or getting permission to take it. Failure to obtain a skill in the time provided will result in death.
Skills stolen (0)
[]
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…Surely there was a better skill to fit the title "Steal", right? I mean, it's hardly theft if you can get their permission. Did the gods lack a sense for naming?
Well, I suppose that's not what matters right now.
Moving on to more important things, I checked the backside of the page but found nothing. Presumably, because I didn't need to steal my own skill, the backside didn't have an imitate condition written on it.
Now that I'd gotten familiar with the book, what came next was to use it. The largest problem that presented itself was that I had no way of knowing what the condition to take a skill was until I'd already accepted pursuit, meaning I had to stake my life in advance. It's like betting on a hand before it's been dealt.
I ultimately decided the best course of action would be to gather information. If I could gather a list of skill users that might be easy to steal from, it would give me a good starting place. Skill users are hard to get information on, but there are some small snippets of information here and there.
With my goal in mind, I left the rundown building and set out for my home. Those bastards never bothered driving me back home, so I always had to walk. Though, that had worked out well for me today, I suppose.
I continued onwards while double-checking my plan over and over in my head. While I was pensively striding back towards my home, a peculiar face caught my eye. I studied the face for a moment, then instantly went on alert.
It was Seo-jun, the user of [Radar]. It seemed like he had business in the area, so the other guys dropped him off in town.
Tempting thoughts seeped into my mind. "If I take *his* skill…"
This was obviously a rash and risky idea. But it had its upsides.
If I took his skill now, it meant I wouldn't have to worry about getting exposed by it later. We had another raid in a few days, after all. And besides, it seemed like the perfect chance to give my skill a spin.
Ah, fuck it, right? If anything else, I just wanted a chance to get back at this guy.
As soon as I felt like taking his skill, his skill page appeared in the book.
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[Radar]
B Tier
This skill allows you to summon a holographic radar that can search a 30ft radius around yourself for anything you ask. The radar can only search for one type of thing at a time.
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The newly summoned page was translucent. It was a ghostly, ethereal blue that was weaved together like a carpet of raindrops.
I flipped the page to the backside and found the blank space I was told about waiting at the bottom. I didn't have a pen, so I borrowed one from someone nearby.
After gathering my courage, I eventually signed the back of the page.
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Imitate Condition
Time limit: 12 hours
Track the user's location for 1 hour. Tracking must be accurate.
Progress:
(0/60 minutes)
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The condition immediately confused me. How exactly did it want me to track him? If I followed him for an hour would the condition auto-complete?
What answered my questions was a folded piece of paper that fell out from the pages of the book.
I opened it up and was met with an odd map. It reminded me of that one map from a wizarding movie, but this one didn't show people's footsteps or anything like that.
It instead showed the outlines of buildings and streets, and I could rotate the view of the map with my fingers. It also had the time in minutes at the bottom of the map, and I could send that number back or forward if I wanted to. Included with it was an inked feather that encouraged me to mark the map.
I marked the map and a large dot of ink appeared. I waited for something to happen, but the ink dot just faded after a while.
As I tinkered with the map, I realized that the ink dot was stored on the map at the exact time I had marked it, and I could see it again by turning back the clock on the bottom of the map.
When I marked the map multiple minutes in a row, the progress meter on the skill page went up. If I failed to mark it in a minute then the progress reset.
All the information I'd collected led me to one conclusion: I needed to mark the location of Seo-jun on the map each minute for a consecutive hour. Thankfully, It seemed like a reasonably simple task to get such a good skill. Thank god for my good luck.
I'd lost track of Seo-jun while I was figuring out the map, so I had to look around for a bit before I spotted him again.
I placed a dot on the map where he was standing. This task was astoundingly easy. To get such a sick skill for such low effort made me feel like I was cheating.
I repeated the procedure continuously, with the progress meter slowly rising. It seemed like he was heading somewhere and doing errands or small jobs along the way.
Progress:
(48/60 minutes)
I saw him go into a building I couldn't see into. I waited for a moment, hoping he would come out, but I was forced to enter the building as the minute neared its ending.
Shit.
I saw him there, in the building. Just as he saw me, with my brand new ability.
He bolted.
Fuuuuuuuck.
I ran out the backside of the building to chase him. While we ran through the streets, I still had to jot his location on the map each minute. Although there was plenty of time left on the limit, if I messed up now I felt like I'd be captured much sooner than I'd have the time to do the whole hour of tracking over again - And to put it lightly, execution wasn't on my agenda.
As we turned street corners and weaved through people and cars, I was slowly falling behind. It took more and more effort to catch up to and chart his location.
I was exhausted, breathing heavily and nearly crying.
"Ah, fuck it, right?"
No, you fucking idiot! Think it through! Goddamnit!
"Thank god for my good luck."
…I was beginning to really spite my past self.
I put my best effort into catching up, because I saw him frantically fumbling with his phone while he was running. If I couldn't catch up, he'd have a window to call the organization on me… I had to keep moving.
Fatigued, my legs gave in while I was running and I saw Seo-jun vanish behind the corner. I got up while ignoring the pain and rushed to find him.
I couldn't see him anywhere. The street was full of people, but I couldn't find his face among them.
Progress:
(59/60 minutes)
I'm so close… Why now?!
My brain went into overdrive. The combination of my looming peril, the adrenaline pumping in every vein of my body, and above all else, my unwillingness to let that bastard get away, caused me to focus harder and faster than I have in my entire life.
I turned my attention to the map in an attempt to search for clues. Abusing the location history feature, I watched Seo-jun's dot as it moved throughout the city streets.
I noticed one peculiar thing; He visited all of his destinations in a planned order. Perhaps he had traveled this route before? Either way, he hit each place systematically while heading southward.
I scrolled with the map to see if there was anything in that direction. A large, square building permeated in the center of my view. I remembered this place. It was one of the organization's headquarters.
It made perfect sense. He must have been traveling in the direction of the headquarters while he was doing side-jobs.
I turned the map back to the present, looking at the last known location I had charted. Based on my observations, he should be running for the headquarters right now while phoning for backup.
I looked back at the three-way intersection that stood in front of me, and I saw the towering headquarters building in the distance.
With only a dozen or so seconds left to spare, I ran in the direction of the looming building and towards the street corner, hoping he'd have gone the way I'd predicted.
My time was surely running out, and perhaps Seo-jun had already readied himself to fight once he had caught his breath. Or even worse, he was already calling the organization. This realization made me instinctively take action. Looking at the street corner, I noticed a sharp metal bar leaning against the wall there.
Maybe I really was lucky after all. I ran to the corner, tucked myself behind it so that I was just out of sight, and grabbed the metal bar. I knew he couldn't have run too far, so I strengthened my grip on the object and threw it around the corner, trusting my instincts about where he was located. In the same instance, without even turning the corner from the fear of a readied assault waiting for me, I marked an estimate of his location on the map.
Just after I marked the map, the minute counter at the bottom of the map turned on to the next minute, and simultaneously, the magic map I was holding disintegrated into thin air.
I opened the book just to make sure. The once-ghostly page filled into a light shade of tan. The backside of the page automatically penned in a date of completion.
I… really did it. I predicted exactly where he was, without needing to take a single look to even check.
But most importantly, after what was the singular most difficult experience in my life so far, I had stolen my first skill.
Skills stolen (1)
[Radar]