Act of Theft

As soon as the situation was resolved, most of the prisoners chose to leave the cafeteria in fear of being implicated.

Those that left included Garland and some of the notable ten prison bossess that weren't intimidated by him at the slightest.

Despite being humiliated, Bones King Garland didn't seem to mind and simply walked away. But his actions didn't escape Elias notice.

Once an enemy was always an enemy.

In this downtrodden prison cell, the worst mistake one could commit was underestimating other prisoners and being too over-confident.

Elias was not lost in his power and authority to dismiss everyone around him, and it wasn't going to happen in the foreseeable future.

The originally crowded room was now left with only a few people.

Elias nodded slowly. With a lot of people gone, the cafeteria turned quiet. He appreciated this silence as it helped him think without distraction.

[Sleight of Hand - To execute the act of theft a thousand times.]

As he sat on his seat, he thought of the passive skill that he needed to obtain.

Sleight of Hand.

A rare, passive skill with great practical use. It gave the user unmatched ability to steal other things under the other persons nose.

It's requirements was to execute the act of theft a thousand times.

In theory, the requirements sounded as simple as it gets. But... on the contrary, it was a tad bit troublesome.

One reason why anyone rarely obtains a passive skill granted by the world will was because the requirements needed to be accomplished must be specific and accurate.

Therefore—he thought for a moment, what would the act of theft mean?

Theft, by definition, refers to stealing objects.

But there were two definitions of theft; both robbery and stealing.

While they might be similar, the former uses threats and violence to rob other people, while the latter uses stealth to steal.

Both were acts of theft, but specifically which would satisfy the requirement for the skill? It had to be specific and accurate to work.

If he were to blatantly rob others in front of their face, forcing them to give him the object against their wishes, would it still be considered an act of theft?

However, what if the requirement was more specific and thieving like—such as to stealthily steal something, behind others back?

To be specific, Elias' main question was; should the act of theft be known (robbery) by the others or unknown to them (stealing)?

If it was the former, then it would be considerably easier. If it was the latter, it might be harder.

After thinking for a moment, he came to a decision.

He figured that the context behind the passive skill was important as well. Sleight of Hand refers to stealing objects niftily, thus the latter seems to be more suited.

'Between the two, the latter seems to be more right…' Elias thought for a moment before deciding to do the latter.

A thousand times was a lot, he needed to make sure that he's doing the right thing or else every work he's going to do would be for nothing.

Nonetheless, he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed.

Back then when he thought of the skill requirements, he originally planned to ask one of his subordinates to stand still while he steals something from them.

Or maybe even use his authority to blatantly rob low level prisoners during cafeteria hours.

But those options seemed to be more like robbing than thievery.

Of course, there was a chance he was just overthinking things and robbery could also be counted as a requirement, but he wouldn't count on it with his little time.

While he was thinking, a voice suddenly disrupted his contemplation.

"Young master, are you still visiting Old Swain later?"

To his left, Donato suddenly asked, snapping him out of his daze.

"...That's right. I'll try to arrange a meeting after I finish eating."

Elias nodded slowly, remembering the matter. Meeting his father's right hand man, Swain, was one of his goals today as well. He wanted to see his legendary uncle.

Swain was touted as the Dark Sword. He was one of the most strongest active mafioso back when the Castellano family was still at reign.

Elias tapped the table. If the Goblin person was who he thought, then there was no need for a complicated or risky plan.

But regardless he still had to get Sleight of Hand. Ignoring that it was important to his escape, it also had great practical uze

He already had a rough outline on how he should go about accomplishing the requirements of the skill.

If he remembered correctly, there were many facilities in this prison, one of them was the library, the bathroom and this cafeteria…

Elias eyes flickered a strange gleam.

His plan was rather simple.

The gist of his plan was to continuously steal objects in the prison. 

In different days, he would visit different facilities and steal different things. That way, it wouldn't incur suspicion easily.

He would alternate between any facilities in each day, broadening his area to steal in.

It wouldn't be too difficult, considering his experience with thievery in his past life. Every crook and juvenile learned to steal by the time they walked the streets, him included.

After thinking about it, Elias looked at his food and suddenly stood up.

"Wait for me. I'll go get more."

The five seemed to be wanting to volunteer, but he raised his hand and stopped them.

After a few seconds, Elias went to the back of the cafeteria and arrived at a long table where there were countless spoons and forks.

The prison was rather generous, they allowed refills for food. But the food was not that great anyway, it was just tasteless monster carcass and plants.

Elias didn't take any longer to take a plate and choose a serving of food. Most of the food was unappetizing vegetables and fruits, lacking any meat or fish.

As he finished getting a serving, he quietly took a spoon and fork. And slightly moving his body to block a nearby camera, he took ten more pairs.

Afterwards, he quickly hid it inside his clothes. Then he returned to his own table, without anyone noticing his actions.

Luckily, the cafeteria didn't have many people around. And also the security was rather lax, even the cameras could easily be avoided.

'One, two, three… twelve.'

Elias counted the spoon and fork he stole in his mind. It was only twelve, he needed a minimum of thirty five and maximum of fifty.

There was still a lot of time for the day. More importantly, he finally started a step of his escape.

***

After finishing eating in the cafeteria, he bid farewell first to his subordinates and went directly to the library without anyone following him.

Surprisingly, stealing in the library was much easier. There were very few people and cameras.

There were also a lot of objects to steal freely without incurring suspicion. He stole bookmarks, miscellaneous stuff and more.

At the end of it, he executed the act of theft thirty five and more times, accomplishing his objective for the day.

***

Thump! Thump!

"Swain… hmm.."

As the night came, Elias temporarily stopped his plight of stealing things. He made his way to the third floor as he recalled the man named Swain in his memories.

He had just finished doing the requirement for the day and this used the time to might as well meet his father's right hand man.

Swain was the right hand man of his father, Andolinio Castellano. He was considered as the sword and shield of the godfather.

The Godfather, Andolinio Castellano discovered him as a beggar during the underworld war, then he took him in and let him join his gang.

Not long after, Swain was discovered to have immense talent in the sword and improved leaps and bounds through every fight.

In the present, Swain "the Right-hand man of the Godfather" or "the Dark Sword" was a genuine B-Rank powerhouse.