Luck and Landlady

The level of his <Appraisal> Skill increased only once after using it on everything he could find in the park, a couple of dozen things. He could also tell he wasn't near the next Skill Level.

He used <Appraisal> on the phone to check for any changes. But it seemed like a single level didn't help much, as there were none.

Next, Mark opened his [Inventory] to check that item he earned from the Challenge—- the Rabbit's foot. The image looked nothing like a rabbit's foot but a red piece of paper with some strange writing on it.

It looked like a Japanese talisman to Mark, but even if he didn't know Japanese, he was confident that the words on it weren't Japanese. So as he pressed on it, he just saw two options—- <Inspect> and <Equip>.

Of course, Mark picked the <Inspect> option first.

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RABBIT'S FOOT

Rank: D

Description: An item that belonged to a being of immense luck, and the item has part of its aura imbued to it.

Effect: +1 <Luck>

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'That should be useful for my appraising in the future. But isn't a single point too low?'

By his understanding of the description of the Luck stats, it should affect the chance of his Skills failing or not. He currently had zero <Luck>, but he had somehow succeeded on his first appraise without one.

Since he found no reason not to, he next picked the <Equip> option, as he was also curious about how that would work. As he pressed the option, he started feeling something over his chest at the heart side. It was like multiple needles were piercing him there in different spots.

It didn't last long, and Mark tried to check that area by pushing his shirt collar out a bit. There was a tattoo, which he couldn't see too clearly, but looked like the writing on the image of the item. He felt nothing different, but since it affected his <Luck>, it probably had no effect that he could physically feel.

He also checked his [Status], and his <Luck> had increased to 1.

Next, he started going towards the nearest subway to make his way home. His house wasn't in Odonta City, but the subway was connected to Vever Town, where his rented apartment was. Vever Town was maybe a quarter of the size of Odonta, which was why they called it a town, not a city. Still, it was sizable to not be considered a village.

He had a card for the subway, which he had prepaid for a year, as fuel for his truck was more expensive, and he was saving money if he needed to visit a client in another town or city to discuss a job.

There was a station not that far from where he was, but it took more time than it should have as he kept using his <Appraisal> at any item he hadn't already used to. He wanted to level it up to see if he could get more info about the Seal on the phone.

Unfortunately, he didn't get any Skill Level by the time he reached the station. He focused on its progress and could tell he hadn't reached its upper limit over the current level. He was maybe three-quarters there or so.

As he entered the subway and found a seat, he wanted to focus on something else than his <Appraisal> Skill. So he closed his eyes and focused on his surroundings. Again, he tried to feel out any of the surrounding energy using his <Minor Energy Manipulation>, but he didn't draw closer to him this time.

As he entered once more the state where he had visualized the energy ball before, he started noticing similar balls appearing around him, some smaller and some larger than the one he faced before. This time, not everything was in front of him, but at a different distance from him, which probably was where the energy source was, to begin with.

He tried to manipulate some of them to move closer, but not by much, and the moment he let them, they returned to where they were before. He only didn't manipulate one of the largest ones because he was sure it had something to do with the subway itself and didn't want to cause any damage. Everything else seemed to be of different items, people in it with batteries.

He opened his eyes now and then to ensure how far from his stop he was, as he noticed that the time passed a bit differently while he focused on his Skill. Or, in reality, it wasn't so much time that passed differently; he just couldn't tell how much time passed because of his intense focus on using the Skill.

By the time he was just a few minutes from his stop, he had increased <Minor Manipulations> Skill's level to be at level 20. At that point, he could feel his control over energy was much better, as he could change them into different shapes than a ball, which he could not do before. Also, the range in which he could detect energy and manipulate it had increased many times.

He noticed that the upgrade in his Skills was more significant from 19 to 20 than from 18 to 19, more than expected from previous level-ups. So it seemed like some levels had more significant benefits from reaching them.

Mark stood up from his seat and got closer to one of the subway's doors passing one young man who looked at his phone curiously as its screen kept going off and on. That was a side-effect of Mark's changing the shape of the energy he detected from it into a pyramid.

Exiting the subway and then the station, he didn't have to walk much to reach his apartment. It was one advantage and disadvantage of the apartment, as he could get to the subway in just a couple of minutes, but he heard it every time it passed from this apartment as it wasn't that far.

As the apartment was within sight, he noticed a person getting out of its main door, holding a big box. Mark recognized the man as it was the owner of the building.

Mark hoped the box didn't contain his stuff, but he thought the chance of it not being the case wasn't that much. But before he could get closer to him, he noticed another person behind the man with the box.

It was a woman that looked familiar to him, but he couldn't tell from where he knew her from. The man took the box to a moving truck parked outside the building.

As the man left the box and turned, he saw Mark, and he looked towards him with a look Mark was familiar with—- a look of anger.

"You dare show your face before I am gone? I knew I should have evicted you a long time ago."

Mark was confused about what the man said, as the box didn't contain his stuff.

The woman got closer to them, and after lightly coughing to draw the attention of the building owner, she stared at him intensely. The man looked at her with even more anger than he did on Mark and turned, closed the truck's door, and signaled its driver it was good to go. He then turned and moved towards his car, which was around the corner, but first, he turned towards Mark with a look that was like throwing a dagger at him.

Mark's confusion hadn't disappeared yet but was increased as he looked towards the woman, who seemed in charge now.

"You must be Mr. Mark. I heard you had shown up for some time and are behind your rent a couple of months already."

Her voice wasn't angry or frustrated, but it was very calm. Same with her eyes and the rest of her face and body.

It surprised Mark, as when he owed people money, they had a look ready to eat him if he didn't pay them soon. Nevertheless, he nodded in response to her question, as he was still processing what happened to actually talk.

"Well, as you probably can tell, I am the new owner of this place, and so are your new landlady. I heard you were a truck driver. Is that true?"

Mark once more nodded in response to her question.

"You don't need to be that shy. I may need someone like you in the future, as my company is looking for new drivers. As for the rent you owe, we can discuss about them later. I have some tasks to take care of first."

As she finished speaking, she turned and moved toward another parked nearby car. It was quite a luxurious car, which one wouldn't expect to see around this neighborhood. It was not a poor one, but not a fancy one either.

Mark kept following her with his eyes as he was still processing everything. But, in the end, he hadn't lost the place where he lived and even got a possible new job.

He couldn't but started Questioning if it was an effect of increasing his <Luck>.