Chapter 40: A Lack of Public Order (1/2)
”I hardly think this is worth 8 gold, let alone 15. You see the stitching here? Its clearly second-rate work. I'm sure this thing would barely stand a hit before falling apart.” Mike was saying while gesturing at suit of armor made from alchemically treated leather. Supposedly, it was much more durable than standard leather, while maintaining the same level of flexibility.
The stingy armor merchant was shaking his head, clearly becoming increasingly infuriated with his customer. ”Fine! I'll give it to you for 12, and not a coin less!”
”Tell you what,” Mike muttered to the merchant in a conspiratorial manner. ”Make it 10 gold and I won't spread around that the 'Dragon Bone' breastplate you have over there is really only made of Thunder Lizard bones.
The merchant was speechless, mouth flapping soundlessly for a few seconds before his shoulders fell in resignation.
”You are pure evil.” He said while pushing the stack of armor with disdain.
Mike dropped a stack of coins on the table and swept up his new purchase. ”Oh, don't be so dramatic. I'll even throw in some professional advice. Free of charge.” He glanced around, before pointing on a piled-up chain mail shirt.
”That chain shirt, right there, is actually enchanted with an anti-rusting spell. Its only a minor effect, but it should allow you to sell it for three times what you are charging.”
The merchant blinked at him suspiciously. ”Are you sure? How do you know?”
”Let's just say I have an eye for these things.” He said while tapping his temple with a finger.
”I see. Very well, you have my thanks.” The merchant replied with a knowing smile.
Mike turned and raised a hand acknowledgement. ”Pleasure doing business with you.”
[And thanks for giving me the opportunity to level up my skills.]
He had already spent much of the morning touring the market, inspecting everything of interest he'd seen. His Inspect and Basic Haggling had risen to Rank 5 and Rank 3 respectively.
[I wonder what the tier-upped version of Inspect is going to be. Hopefully, I can use on other people. I'm getting a little tired of not being able to gauge how dangerous some individuals are. That's like the trademark ability of every novel protagonist ever.]
He wandered the district aimlessly, looking for lunch. He ended up getting a kind of spicy chicken salad like substance wrapped in something resembling a tortilla. Overall it was pretty good.
[Now that I think about it, I've been in a lot of dangerous situations, but I've never gained any kind of sensory skill. In novels the MC always ends up with some kind of presence detection or hostili-]
He suddenly noticed that someone in his near vicinity was directing hostility towards him. After looking at his [Status], he couldn't help but wonder if the System had a sense of humor.
- Detect Hostile Intent (Tier 2, Rank 1) -
Users can perceive the hostile intentions focused on them, within a certain range. In order to be considered hostile, the individual in question must wish to harm the the user in some form, or cause some substantive loss to the user. Range and precision of the effect is determined by both the user's Willpower and skill rank.
Incredulous, he also noted that his Basic Poison Resistance had not only ranked up, but improved to Intermediate Poison Resistance.
- Intermediate Poison Resistance (Tier 2, Rank 1) -
Frequent exposure to harmful substances has increased you body's ability to resist them. Provides moderate resistance to poison and poison based effects.
[HOW?! HOW FAR WILL YOU GO TO PREVENT ME FROM GETTING A GOOD DRINK, SYSTEM?!]
With some difficulty he managed to calm himself. He tried to ignore the cautious stares from passerbys, like he was acting insane, as they walked around him.
After lowering the fist he had been shaking at the sky angrily, he face palmed. [This is starting to get ridiculous. Anyway, I guess I should figure out what is causing this skill to act up.]
Walking through the market, he tried to remain casual, as he scanned his surroundings. Evidently he needed to improve the skill a bit, because he could only get a rough idea where the hostility was coming from. It seemed like there might be a handful of possible enemies, but he couldn't be sure.
[I need to lure them out. If they are actually hostile, they should try to attack me when I am alone.]
Mike chose a likely looking alley and waited. It wasn't long before he was surrounded by thugs.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
”I'm so going to kill that lucky bastard.” Julia said through gritted teeth, ears pressed flat against her head. She had been trying to separate the newbie adventurer from his new cloak for nearly two hours at this point, but every attempt had failed.
At first she had tried to grab it in passing through simple sleight of hand. An ordinary pickpocket would have had trouble removing a cloak from the newbie without him noticing, but Julia was was an expert.
However, no matter how many times she tried, he always seemed to avoid it at the last second. Sometimes he would turn into a store at exactly the right moment, others he would bend down to pick something up or stop suddenly as a fast moving pedestrian cut him off.