The night passed quietly. After eating in the morning, he did stretches and performed a small strength training routine. This habit remained from the army and he liked it. Then he stood a while before the capsule and decided to take a walk to think about the warehouse situation in fresh air.
RAVen stood under the open sky, and his soul wasn't cheerful. He had to find a way out.
"Kill the rat, kill the rat, kill the rat, kill the rat... How do I kill the damn rat?!"
Wind chased fallen leaves across the asphalt, and sun illuminated passersby and windows of nearby high-rises. Walking, he looked around, various thoughts spinning in his head. He wandered past well-kept yards and children playing with balls. In one of the yards, he noticed a two-story house with beautiful fancy tiles. The fence was low and allowed viewing the inner garden, where swings were installed, and near the garage was a parked car. Passing by, he suddenly stopped. Something seemed to click in his head. He turned around and looked at this house again.
"Exactly! Why didn't I think of this immediately?! Damn, this should work! Need to check immediately. Ah-ha-ha."
Without delaying a second, he ran back home. And twenty minutes later was already lying in the capsule. Appearing in Skiavra, he immediately rushed to the warehouse. After catching his breath, he started walking around.
"Come on! It must be here!"
This idea came to him when he saw the attic of that two-story house. A small window under the roof, or rather not even a window, but a through hole. What was it — ventilated attic, something like that. It might be closed, which is why he couldn't notice it before, so now he carefully looked up.
RAVen studied the back wall for five minutes but found nothing. Deciding not to abandon this idea, he put the ladder, recently left here, and climbing under the roof, began carefully examining the wall again. Some time passed, but he finally found it. As he thought, the hole was tightly closed, but its contours could still be distinguished.
[Your observation allowed you to find a loophole.
You receive +0.5 to luck.]
Luck was one of those characteristics that couldn't be increased by investing points. It could be increased by finding caches, hidden paths, and similar lucky circumstances. And the higher the luck, the greater chance of discovering all this. Plus, the probability of finding really expensive items, like unique, set, or epic ones, increased. But it leveled very, very slowly. Developers, right at the beginning, before launching the game, mentioned in the thief class description that earning even ten units would be quite difficult. The comment to all this was just one phrase:
"Search very carefully."
Now, after finding the cache, killing rats came one step closer. Without wasting time, he inserted the sword's end into the gap. And pried up something like shutters. Then the guy suddenly stopped, trying to remember something, but the upcoming actions swept all thoughts from his head.
RAVen carefully crawled through the small hole and found himself in a small room.
[Congratulations! You have discovered a cache!
You receive:
+5 influence points;
+0.5 to luck.]
"What a surprise! Finally my efforts are rewarded."
It was a bit dark here, so he stood a while, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Several minutes passed, and after his eyes began to distinguish the surroundings, he looked around. The place where he stood turned out to be a room, three by three meters.
RAVen slowly moved his gaze until he discovered something in the corner. A small chest stood nearby. Chests, like weapons, were divided into ranks.
"Oh yes! In such hard-to-reach places there's surely going to be something good."
Crouching near the chest, he felt a strange smell coming from the rags.
"What the..."
These turned out to be not rags, but clothes decayed by time, and they were covering someone's yellowish bones.
"How unexpected..." — Kane was calm, understanding this was just a game. The unknown's empty eye sockets stared into the distance, letting know that his secrets remained with him.
RAVen carefully examined the skeleton, trying not to miss anything. On the dead's knuckles dangled a small ring. It looked quite ordinary. In the clenched hand, RAVen discerned a crumpled piece of paper. There was nothing else. Slowly pulling off the ring, Kane applied "inspect."
["Ring of Twilight"
Rank: Diamond
Description:
"Only true light will dispel shadow";
Ring of adepts from the Shadow Order.
Characteristics:
+14 defense;
+9 strength;
+23 dexterity.
Skill: "Twilight Step"
Active skill.
Description: Allows player to disappear into shadows. During this time owner can move in connected shadows. He cannot be detected by normal methods and magic. Physical attacks don't affect him.
Duration: 2 minutes.
Cooldown: 90 seconds.
Requirements: None.
Restrictions: None.]
"I am truly happy."
The ring was a unique item and could go for minimum fifty gold if put up for auction.
"But I'm not fool enough to sell it..."
Each character had the ability to wear three rings on each hand, besides the sign of heaven's messenger. Also besides the ability to wear necklaces and medallions, each character had seven slots for accessories.
Putting on the ring, RAVen felt that staying on his floor wasn't in vain. Unclenching the skeleton's hand, he carefully took out the note, trying not to tear it. Opening it, he found that words were written in blood. The text was smeared, but letters could be made out. Coming to the window, he tried to read what was written there, but realized this language was unknown to him.
[You are offered quest: "Last Will"
Description: You discovered a dead shadow adept. His last will remained unheard.
Objective: Find someone who will help you read the letter, and deliver remains to his brotherhood. Take remains and hand them over to the order's head.
Reward: Unknown.
Accept? Yes/no]
"Why not? Even if not soon, but someday I'll get out of this village. Now the chest!" − Collecting the remains, thankfully inventory allowed, he turned back to the chest and examined it using identification.
[Chest
Rank: Silver
State: Not locked.]
"Lucky again. This is even a bit scary..."
Opening the chest, RAVen found only two things: a compass and piece of map. The map was old, but inscriptions on it were in understandable language. Some route was drawn on the map: many arrows, and a small city in center of Alivian mountains circled.
[You found a map leading to the shadow order. Don't stray from path. This brotherhood isn't called order of shadows for nothing. They must always hide. Only chosen ones can find the way.]
[Compass
Rank: Silver.
Features: Enchanted.
Description:
"In shadows find the hidden path.
And solve the secret.
In common thing lies essence deep,
Look at shadow through light."]
Something about this compass wasn't right, but what exactly he couldn't understand.
"Not what I was counting on, but still not bad. And all this relates to one quest. Quite possibly this is a hidden quest chain. Plus, in brotherhood I probably can acquire skills I need. After all, thief and shadow can't exist without each other. Ha-ha-ha..."
Nothing else was found in the room. In center was a small door, locked with a padlock. He thought again that this small room didn't fit the place at all. Breaking the lock using the initial set of lockpicks, RAVen looked outside. His position turned out to be right above the rat.
"No, seriously, for what purposes was this room created?"