Stealing

Ye Ming was ecstatic. He could never have imagined he would obtain so much by coming to Benguela. Not only had he gotten the ability to walk in daylight, he had now obtained a {Stealth} skillbook too. It was quite a harvest.

He carefully put the {Stealth} skillbook away. After putting down his bag and organizing himself, he came to the storefront, where the boss was waiting for him. Seeing Ye Ming, the boss told him, "Come here for a minute. I'll give you some instructions."

Ye Ming put on the act of an attentive listener. The boss said, "Most of our customers are humans, but we have no lack of Vampire patrons too. The Vampires usually visit at night, so you have to be prepared to make deliveries at night sometimes."

"Not a problem, boss. Don't worry, I'm at your beck and call," Ye Ming immediately replied.

The boss nodded in satisfaction. "Come, let me show you around the trading house." He led the way, taking Ye Ming to the storeroom.

"Our trading house trades in everything. Not only can our customers buy things here, they can also sell. The second floor and third floor are all storerooms," said the boss as he took out a key and opened the iron door to the second floor.

Ye Ming followed him in and saw that there were ten rooms in total on the second floor, and all the rooms had a lock. The boss said, " I'll tell you more after you get more familiar with the work." He then pointed to the ceiling and said, "The third floor's basically the same, so we're not going to go there this time."

After giving him a tour of the trading house, the boss took Ye Ming back to the storefront on the ground floor, just in time to see a customer walk in. The boss started chatting up the customer enthusiastically while Ye Ming stood and listened next to them without paying any attention. His mind was occupied with the storerooms above. When he learned {Stealth}, the first place he would visit was upstairs.

While Ye Ming was still in a daze, he heard the boss say, "Deliver the goods for this customer, Yelina."

"Oh, oh, okay." Ye Ming was in a daze just now, so he had no idea what kind of agreement the two of them had come to.

The boss was already walking towards the storerooms. When he realised that Ye Ming was not following behind him, he turned around and reprimanded, "Come with me to get the stuff."

Ye Ming quickly followed after him. The boss looked at Ye Ming in dissatisfaction but did not say anything else. After all, Ye Ming was new, so it was understandable that he was not accustomed to the work yet.

Ye Ming followed the boss to retrieve the goods from the storeroom, then followed the customer out of the store.

'It's just a normal pot! Is it strictly necessary to lock it in the storeroom?' Ye Ming secretly grumbled. Carrying the iron pot which weighed over thirty pounds, Ye Ming followed the customer all the way to back to his home.

This was the first delivery task Ye Ming completed. Rather than hastening back to the trading house, he took some time to stroll around the city of Benguela a little, mainly to familiarize himself with the place.

Over the next few days, Ye Ming would help the trading house make deliveries at day and practice the {Stealth} skill at night. The few times he had to make deliveries at night, he would also use the chance to practice the skill.

After doing this for about a week, Ye Ming had now gained some level of proficiency in the {Stealth} skill. He could finally put into action the plan he thought up when he first arrived here.

Today, the boss had to go out, so he asked Ye Ming to look after the trading house. The instruction he left was: if the customer was a human, tell them to come back later; if the customer was a Vampire, Ye Ming should write down their request, and the boss will personally pay them a visit later.

This showed that the boss still did not trust Ye Ming enough to leave him in charge, or he could have just entrusted the storeroom keys to Ye Ming and let him handle the business.

After seeing the boss out, Ye Ming actviated the {Stealth} skill and sneaked to the storerooms on the first floor. When he came to the iron door, he pulled out a key – he had made a mold of the key using clay when the boss was not paying attention, and found a craftsman to reproduce the key afterwards. A week's time was enough for him to make a copy of all the boss' keys.

Ye Ming opened the iron door and went inside. He opened the door to the first room and found that it was filled with household items. After circling around the room once and did not trigger any system notification, he went back out and locked the door.

He then tried the second room. The moment he opened the door, a system notification sounded, to Ye Ming's delight. There was a treasure chest just a short distance away from the door.

He hurried over and saw that it was a golden treasure chest, which he wasted no time in opening. Within, he found some ingredients; nothing too rare. Ye Ming put them away and retreated out of the room.

The rest of the rooms failed to give Ye Ming any surprises. Much to his regret, his only loot from the first floor was a single golden treasure chest. He climbed upstairs to the second floor and, like before, decided to check the storage rooms one by one, starting from the first room. The stuff he found inside were indeed better in quality than those stored on the first floor, like fine porcelain and more high-end decorations, but for Ye Ming, this was inconsequential – his goal was only treasure chests. After looking for some time and not finding any, he left the room.

He went on to check the second room, then the third, then the fourth...all the way until the ninth storage room, and still found nothing. Just when Ye Ming thought this floor might not have anything for him, the tenth storage room gave him a pleasant surprise.

Only a few steps inside and he already heard the familiar sound of the system notification:

*Ding* [Congratulations, you have discovered a golden treasure chest!]

Ye Ming quickly searched the place but could not find the chest's location. While he was at a loss as to what he should do next, he perceived a pile of stuff covered up by oilpaper. He lifted the oilpaper and finally found the treasure chest sitting underneath it. 'Ah, so this is where you're hiding!'

Ye Ming opened the second golden treasure chest he discovered today and like the one before, it also contained some ingredients.

Putting them all away, Ye Ming moved to the last floor: the third floor.

Similar to before, he went into the storage rooms one by one to check the rooms in turn. This time, the first room already yielded the desired result. The moment he opened the door, the system notification sounded:

*Ding* [Congratulations, you have discovered a platinum treasure chest!]

The notification excited him. He already saw the treasure chest lying in the corner with a single glance. Much to Ye Ming's delight, he obtained a Blood Essence Stone - a platinum-grade forging ingredient - was well as a drop of Count Blood Essence from the chest.

He quickly put them away and checked the other rooms. Unfortunately, he found no further surprises; there was nothing in the remaining storage rooms.

He left the storeroom area and did not forget to lock the door behind him.

The moment he arrived back in the storefront, he saw the boss coming back from the outside.

'That was close. A little later and I would've been found out.'

After his work for the day concluded, Ye Ming returned to his room and eagerly began his training routine. Ye Ming was now already at the peak of Baron-rank, and he could vaguely feel the tendency to break through once more. If he could get his hands on ten more drops of Count Blood Essence, he was confident he could break through to the rank of Count. A hundred drops of Viscount Blood Essence or a drop of Marquis Blood Essence would do as well.

(TL: I already had a suspicion before this, but this pretty much confirms it. The author mixed up the order of Baron and Viscount. Baron should be one rank lower than Viscount, not one rank higher. Baron < Viscount < Count < Marquis < Duke < Prince )

But things would not always happen according to his wishes. He simply did not have these resources on hand. He could go to other trading houses to trade for them if he were to sell the Blood Essence Stone he had just obtained, but the Blood Essence Stone was a very rare item, so much so that he would be attracting a lot of attention simply by selling it, and he would risk exposing himself.

Considering that, Ye Ming decided not to sell it for the time being.