- this stinks

Huh. Would you take a gander. I've been assigned to stay in the abusive man, I mean, Alder's home.

He's apparently quite a successful store owner and had plenty of rooms to spare for a vagrant to rest in.

After some prodding he admitted that his business savvy was mostly peddling the stolen or robbed items from the beyonder meeting.

In other words, he's a smuggler selling stolen stuff.

But I'm not complaining as he seemed to be quite generous with his wealth, even purchasing new blankets for my new room.

He also basically ordered his abuse victim, who is actually his daughter, to buy lots of ingredients and cook food for me.

The whole thing was a bit uncomfortable as he basically treated me like a golden son and told me to eat plenty while barely glancing at his own real blood related daughter except when scolding her or throwing random things at her when she was too 'slow'.

Uh... Man why you gotta be such an asshole? But I'm eating your food so it kinda makes me complicit. Man this stinks...

I blame this uncivilized world! Totally not my fault! I'll just be nice to her when Alder is not around and ignore her when he is nearby. No use being a hero in my current situation. At least until I am powerful enough.

While waiting for the date of the planned raid, sometimes I followed Alder around while he taught me how he runs his stall, sometimes I spend the day fishing. There are also times when we discuss plans to make the operation a success.

One of the result of such discussion was that Alger bought me a knife. Not one for cutting food but a combat knife. With it, I was able to practice cutting and I discovered a cool way to apply my skill.

While holding a cutting implement, and injecting a certain amount of spirituality, I borrow knowledge on an object's symbolic weak point. Sort of. I am able to cut an iron beam in two with a single swipe. Takes a third of my spirituality though.

So I might be good in a short and quick fight but have to be careful in a prolonged engagement.

Softer materials consume less spirituality but I once tried with the skill to 'cut' the air and an alarming amount of spirituality was being drained that I had to forcefully stop the process. The backlash was enough to make me cough out a moutful of blood.

So there was a certain danger that random things might cost more to symbolically cut. Probably some beyonder bullshit.

Still, with my smog acting to cover my silhouette, I should be able to 'stealth kill' quite efficiently.

Also. In an unrelated event, one day my spirituality decreased suddenly, not by a lot but it was noticeable. After some cogitation, I discovered that the skill 'I Stink' had been triggered. Some random beyonder might have thought about divining about me or near my area but suddenly changed his mind? That was the instinctual feeling I got from my spirituality.

Unfortunately the skill does not enable me to trace back into who was doing the divination. Maybe I should learn how to divine?

I'll need a staff or amulet or something for that magic shit right? Who's gonna teach me though? Meh.

***

Finally, the night of the raid came. Our group consisted of me, Alger, a sequence 9 hunter named Denny, and three non-beyonders who would act as support.

Also, I smelled ozone nearby. Seems like a certain someone does not fully trust us and is peeking from a distance.

We arrived in a walled complex, housing several buildings within, with the biggest at the back a fortress-like mansion.

Our target building however, was located at a dark and silent corner, and after slight surveying, only the entrance was guarded all the time, with the area surrounding it having sporadic patrols.

Our group slowly got in a discussion, whether to take out the wandering patrols, or wait until they left and take out the single lone guard at the entrance.

Alger, being the head of the operation, suggested that I stealthily kill the guard while the rest waited around the area to ambush the patrols in case they come at an inopportune time.

I shrugged. Time to be a stealthy assasin.

I hugged the walls leading to the storehouse, allowing the shadow to conceal my pressence. There were some lit torches along the way and I was able to smother the flames with my smog.

As I approached the guard, I sniffed and... Huh... Smells like roast turkey... Its not this guy though... Seems like there is at least one beyonder inside the building... A trap?

I shrugged, and approached behind the guard and almost two thirds of my spirituality was used up as I did something stupid. I tried to be a hero and instead of cutting his neck, I decided to imagine his consciousness and 'cut it out'.

Amazingly it worked as I made a gesture as if forming a small incision in his helmet and he dropped down, snoring.

Whispers started forming in my ears as my spirituality dipped too low and I retreated back to the group.

Alder raised a single eyebrow at me, questioning why I left the storehouse without even opening the door and looting the place.

I answered his silent question, "It's a trap. There's at least one beyonder inside the building. Still wanna rob the place?"

"Heh. Figures, that was too good of an opportunity. Looks like the tall guys are starting to get annoyed with us huh?" Denny, the hunter, spoke out.

Then he looked at Alder, "So, what's the plan now?"

Alder looked at the three non-beyonders following us and thrust his right hand forward, palm up. "You trainees bought the pitch and tar? We're gonna block the doorway and burn the building down."

Oh. Adding arsonist to our growing list of criminal action. Alder doesn't belong in the sailor pathway at all...