Chapter 53: Path of the Thief - 2 (1/2)

Merlin spent a fewdown the platfor his presence

"Good work, you passed!" Pelear spoke while writing down on a clipboard, "You got the highest score on the recruit leaderboard too"

"Alright, next up is the most important skill to know in our line of work, so pay attention" Pelear put the clipboard away before speaking onceyou the basics of how to hide your presence, like so"

And once again, although Merlin could see Pelear in front of him, it felt like he would disappear the next time he blinked His presence had been coh there werehim, visually was the only method Merlin could currently use

For a thief, or any stealth based play-style, theyour presence This could be countered through a variety of ways, such as through various detection skills, a high awareness stat and visually or audibly detecting the player using your own senses But those counters could also be countered via otherskills and items that allow you to becoher stealth stat than the enemy's awareness

"While you can still seeis wrong" Pelear started to explain while pacing around slowly, "Yourin your surroundings at all tihtest shi+ft in wind on your skin, even the tiny change in te creatures near you"

Pelear paced behind Merlin while still talking, causing goosebu a wave of anxiety through his body

"What I' all the aspects I can control that your brain uses to confir Merlin's body to automatically dash a s his self control

"And as you can see, your brain doesn't like that, but it doesn't knohat to do" Pelear started laughing oncehis concealment "If your opponent hasn't seen you before you stealth, their brain doesn't tell theet too close, how close that is depends on how perceptive they are Take for example my son, who you didn't notice walk up behind you"

Merlin's anxiety spiked once more, and as he turned around, the boy he once held his sword against was standing behind hi Merlin to jump back in surprise His stealth was even better than his fathers, at this close of a distance Merlin's brain still didn't register that so

Pelear had dropped to the floor while laughing, it see they rehearsed just for hi incident

A worriso him to check his inventory, specifically his wallet His concern was later proven right, the two silver and eight copper he had left was reduced by two copper pieces

"Seriously?" Merlin sighed out loud, "We're on the same side, don't treat ht on Was that just intuition?" Pelear seeive it back"

The kid seemed reluctant to part with his score and even pretended to be sad, leaving Merlin at a loss of what to do He felt guilty pointing a weapon at the kid earlier, and the situation with the other thief was partially his fault, even though the kid probably deserved it for trying to steal from him

"Fine, keep the two copper, that'll be your co else froave in, buthiuard around hiht, back to the task at hand" Pelear tried to get back on track, "I'll have you practice hiding your presence now"

As Pelear started explaining the basic methods of how to hide his presence, a quest notification appeared before Merlin

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[Common Quest]

Path of the Thief II

You've been instructed on theyour presence, Pelear Ladrona will close his eyes, you must approach him undetected

Hide your presence and approach Pelear Ladrona undetected

• Reward: +1 Dexterity

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What would have been a tricky concept to wrap one's head around had co,of hishishis heart rate All the techniques he could e a bike, although he could feel his body start to strain

Without any additional bonuses to his stealth outside of what his agility stat gave him, this is the most he could reduce his presence at this currentould have been expected in such a quest, and well above ould generally be expected from someone at this level

Merlin observed that Bell had a shocked expression on his face, and he could see that Pelear looked visibly unco one step at a ti that the loose dirt didn't crunch under his feet, he approached Pelear, as now breaking out in a cold sweat, not knoas going on Merlin placed his hand on Pelear's shoulder, causing his body to jump in surprise