Thief of Time

“A middle-ranked lifestone for one thousand gold…” Claud stared at the dangling signboard outside one of the many shops that were buying lifestones now, and then felt a touch of absurdity. Normally, such a lifestone would go for around five hundred gold, ten times the price of a low-ranked lifestone, but since low-ranked lifestones were now a hundred and three gold each…

“Customer! You looking to sell lifestones?” A woman, dressed in lots of scarfs, walked out of the shop. “We offer one of the best deals in Licencia! Sell a lifestone to us, and receive two skillsticks!”

“Skillsticks?” Claud asked, intrigued. “What kinds of skills do you have?”

“We offer five different skills: Detect Falsehood, Clairvoyance, Fool’s Fortune, All-Seer and Future Sight!” The woman grinned. “This is a deal of a lifetime; you usually won’t get to see such skills being put up on sale!”

Claud let out a quiet whistle. “True. Skillsticks with these are really rare. Still, if I’m selling something, I should get the best value for it, right? Tell me, why should I choose your shop over the others? I mean, they’re nice and all, but some of the others are offering things like memberships and whatnot.”

“Are you the kind to use these memberships?” The woman grinned. “And, well, we also offer great discounts to anyone who buys artefacts with lifestones.”

“So does virtually every other shop around here.”

“Please, don’t compare us with the motley crew. The artefacts we offer are really good ones. Possession of even one is equivalent to having a level five skill!” The woman rubbed her hands. “You must see it to believe it!”

“Level five skills, eh? Impressive, but I think I’ll check out the others first.” Claud nodded at the woman, who smirked back in return.

“Come ask for Anthea once you return to this shop. I’ll give you great discounts!”

Waving goodbye to the polite staff, Claud made his way to a tree and leaned on it. This was the seventh lifestone shop he’d visited, and just as the bartender said, all of them were particularly…keen on buying up lifestones for some reason.

That woman, Anthea, seemed to be a bit more enthusiastic than the others, though. If, all things considered, Claud wanted to make a choice, he would go with Anthea’s shop, for the sole reason that she was the first person to not treat him like a bug at first sight. His clothes weren’t doing favours for first impressions, as far as things went, but it did help him make a choice.

Looking up at the sky, Claud’s mouth thinned out slightly. Someone was flying above the city, circling around the centre of Licencia in what looked like a search for a good landing spot.

Amateurs.

Once one flew enough, they would know how to land without needing a wide-open space, but in the first place, the Flight skills was rather rare. After all, there were two conditions to learn it.

The first one was to be in freefall.

And the second one was to be lucky enough.

There were some ways to game the system, as usual. One could prepare a huge net underneath a tall tree and try to fall over and over again. Something like this would, with some luck, guarantee that they would learn the skill within a year or so, if one were to spend their whole time climbing and falling.

It was a skill that was learnt through luck, which placed it as a rather rare skill. Skills that could be picked up through repetitive actions, like Cleaning or Spearplay, could be picked up quickly. And when skills like these levelled up, their effects were more pronounced too. Skills that defied conventional logic needed unconventional ways to even learn, which, other than odd ways like learning Flight or Water Breathing, included skills conferred through bloodlines and divine blessings.

Usually, however, simply being blessed by one of their priests or a Blessed was enough. Gods weren’t that free to hand out skills every day.

One reason behind why Claud was so impressed with the shop he just left because of the skillsticks they offered. Future Sight, for instance, was a skill that only a Blessed of the Blue God had. It was somewhat unbelievable that a tiny shop would have such a thing, but that was beside the point.

Of course, some were more mundane, like Detect Falsehood, which someone like a gambler or a guard would probably have the option to learn after a while. But that didn’t make it less valuable either; few people picked those skills because they were mundane, but their effects were incredibly useful.

Claud looked down on the map, and then frowned. He didn’t really feel like paying a visit to every lifestone shop in town and be treated like some beetle that had crawled in, but he had no choice. The shops in Licencia probably had their storage full of lifestones; if he didn’t take this chance to replenish his remaining life, he would be an idiot.

This naturally meant that he had to scout these shops out, and then pick on the easiest one. The shop that offered some skillsticks, the Brilliant Green, was an easy picking…if not for the fact that Future Sight had been offered as a skillstick. Claud had no intention of messing with a Blessed of any god beyond what was inevitable and necessary, so he would give that shop a wide berth.

There were other shops, so he would make do with them instead. Furthermore, the fact that the shops he’d visited up until the Brilliant Green didn’t use skillsticks as a freebie hinted at the types of backing they lacked, which were people with odd or rare skills. People like these had a tendency to be part of a larger organisation, or be head of such an organisation themselves.

Slapping his cheeks twice, Claud pushed off from the tree and made his way to the eighth lifestone shop on his list. After enduring an unfriendly gaze, he looked through their offered price, heard their offers, before patting his butt and leaving.

The same process repeated over and over, and by the time the sun was setting, Claud had found his self-esteem to be at an unprecedented low. It was even lower than the many times he found himself tossing aside his dignity to bootlick some noble or their guards, which was saying a lot.

Beyond that, however, he had accomplished his initial goal, which was to scout out his viable targets. He would spend the next few hours narrowing down his target selection, and then spend the next day observing his targets…and when night fell, he would strike.

But first…I think it’s good if I get some insurance. Making his way to Brilliant Green, he stepped into the shop and asked the guy on duty for the woman named Anthea. Doing so wouldn’t cost him anything, and it would also improve his relationship with someone who was going to buy a lifestone from him.

The young man bowed and led him to a private room. Moments later, a woman who looked younger than twenty-five entered, carrying two cups and a jug full of some bubbly drink. Claud mentally compared himself to her, and wondered if being twenty-six automatically marked one as an old person.

Sweeping her pink hair over her shoulder, she bowed, filling the cups up. “Hello, customer. Told you you’d be back.”

“Not because of the deals, though.” Claud let out a wry grin. “It’s because you treated me like a customer.”

Anthea winced at those words. “The problem with the newer shops is that they treat anyone who isn’t wearing silk or satin as some rapscallion. But you also received the same treatment from the older ones?”

Claud shrugged. “Pretty much. Well, enough about me. Let’s get down to business. I have a small batch of middle-rank lifestones here, five of them.”

“Five? That’s quite a lot, considering that you don’t seem to be from a noble family.”

Claud said nothing, and after a moment of silence, Anthea rolled her eyes.

“Did you strike a vein by yourself or something?”

“Who knows?” Claud picked up one of the cups, and downed it in a single gulp. Obviously, his Ring of Poison Resistance didn’t activate, but it was always better to be safe. “Anyway, what offer would you make?”

“Five thousand gold, ten skillsticks and a twenty percent discount for up to five selected artefacts.”

Claud leaned forward. “That’s the baseline you’ll offer for usual customers, right? What about me, who asked for you?”

“A thirty percent discount for up to five selected artefacts, each of them with a ten-hour period of recharging in between.”

“Do you have anything that can be used for a set number of times before needing to recharge?” Claud added. “I’m looking for artefacts like them.”

“Why does everyone always want an artefact like that?”

“Ten hours between every use isn’t going to be all that helpful, compared to five uses every ten hours,” Claud replied. “Of course, I know that their value will be higher, but that’s something I can afford.”

“Alright.” Anthea downed her own cup. “Sit tight here, while I bring out artefacts that would fit your requirements. Don’t get your hopes up, however. Artefacts like these are rather hard to come by in the first place.”

“Of course,” Claud replied. “Bring out your goods.”