Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“Am I really drunk?”
Aladdin shook his head and saw a water tank next to him. He tiptoed to dip his head in for a while and considerably sobered up afterward.
One shouldn’t judge him by his short physique. Aladdin’s alcohol tolerance left Soran in the dust. Some Halflings drank so much that they could even finish barrels of alcohol that were as tall as them. It may be due to their living habits since tobacco, beer, and food were three essentials of their lives.
Aladdin still believed in his own eyes, so he felt like he shouldn’t have been dreaming.
He roughly cleaned himself a little and went towards the direction of where he last saw Vivian. There are many people in the City of Wealth, and there were many victims. However, Aladdin was someone who knew how to restrain himself. He had many rules that were only known by him. Like, how he only stole once a day, or how he never stole from the same person twice. If he managed to steal a hefty sum, he would use it to do some good deeds, or donate to a temple that he believes and pray for a blessing from the gods.
His alignments have always been hovering in between chaotic good and lawful neutral, but nowadays, he has been more willful.
If he hadn’t met Soran, he might have leaned towards chaotic neutral. But because he had struck a small fortune, Aladdin has been quite restrained on stealing. After all, stealing that bit of Gold Dehrals can’t be compared to adventure gains. Aladdin hardly stole from professions because the chances of getting caught are higher. He then turned from the streets and headed towards the market.
He lost the trace of Vivian.
Because of the initial hesitation, it seems that her figure had already gone quite far away. But judging by the flow of people, he went towards the general direction.
The marketplace was the one place where there were many people. Consequently, there were many thieves too.
Aladdin roughly swept across the crowd and found a few other people that were finding their targets. Rogues had their own sets of rules and territories, and it was best not to fish around here. Aladdin didn’t manage to find any traces of Vivian, but he might have spotted the woman that had first appeared with Vivian. She had attracted quite a bit of attention by purchasing a horse carriage. As the City of Wealth mainly uses a hinny, buying a horse carriage would require quite a bit of money.
Aladdin followed sneakily as she seems to be on the alert. She frowned as she saw the feigning rogues walking past.
Then, she let out a word: “Scram!”
This was a profession!
Aladdin roughly gauged with his eyes and even deduced that the other party specialized in using short-ranged weapons. It might even be a knife or a short sword. Her strength was roughly grade 3 and leaned towards a dexterity fighting style of person. But he wasn’t able to figure out his target’s profession, fighter, rogue, ranger, and more, as people mostly don’t put their symbols on their bodies. Aladdin could only infer from the other’s attitude and figure of speech that she might not be easy to get along with.
The woman negotiated a deal very quickly, and afterward, had someone to move the carriage to a specific location.
Swiftly afterward, she turned and headed towards another direction. Seemingly on alert as she looked at her surroundings. Aladdin sneakily followed roughly a hundred meters behind and arrived at the front of a secluded inn. This spot was two streets away. There’s an alleyway in the middle, and a fish market further down, where you can even smell from here. The woman quickly entered the inn. Aladdin hesitated a little but didn’t enter from the front door.
He had yet to confirm if he saw Vivian, or if it was an illusion, or was it simply just someone that looks like her.
Aladdin skirted to the back of the inn.
He spat on his hands and climbed the walls of the back of the inn. As if not much strength was needed, he easily climbed to the second floor. The entire process didn’t make the slightest sound. Halfling rogues were renowned for this specialty. He listened quietly for any sounds in the first room, and it seemed like there wasn’t anyone inside. Then, he made his way carefully towards the second. There seems to be a man inside, snoring.
He seems to have heard a door opening, and hastily backed up to a position at the corner of the room.
“Who’s that?!”
Before he could sneak in and observe a little, a snort could be heard from the room. Then a female’s voice rang out: “You dare to run wild in front of me! You’re a dead man!”
“Hold Human!”
Aladdin’s body froze on the spot. The woman from earlier came out and stared at him coldly. She carried the puppet-like Aladdin and went into the room.
“Ayeee?”
There was a pretty girl sitting on the bed. She frowned and saw Aladdin, and went: “It’s you? …. Aladdin?!…”
Aladdin couldn’t move a single inch of his body, and could only manage to mobilize his pupils.
Little Vivian frowned slightly, and then gently waved to remove her spell, and domineeringly said: “Why are you here? You even followed me!…”
The Halfling fell to the ground, seemingly surprised as he stared at the little girl in front of him and said: “Vivian?…. Since when have you been so powerful?….”
The little girl was a little angry, and glared at him and said: “I am not like that idiot! …I am Lily… Yes, of course! …. I am Vivian! …”
“Is it very weird that I’ve become powerful?”
Having said that, the little girl held her head high as her voice improved, looking like everything was meant to be that way.
Why is it that what she said before didn’t match with what she was saying after?
Aladdin was a little suspicious of the little girl in front of him. If she was Vivian or was it her twin sister or something. Anyhow, based on Aladdin’s quite-accurate intuition, this girl in front of him doesn’t match his memories of Vivian. Although her looks are the same as his memories, her attitude, her figure of speech, etc, were not the same as his memories. In his memories, Vivian was an obedient little girl that spoke very softly and treated everyone very gently and kindly. Comparing with the current domineering one.
Furthermore.
Vivian seems to like white? Her clothes were mainly white dresses!
However, the little girl in front of him was donned with a black princess dress and black silk gloves. At first glance, she gave off an arrogant vibe, as though she was a spoilt princess in a royal family.
But!
She seemed to be Vivian!
Aladdin believes that his judgment was not wrong because even if they were twins, there wouldn’t be exactly the same. As a brilliant Rogue himself, any slight differences are still identifiable.
“Vivian! ….”
The Halfling hesitated, and said in a low voice: “Why have you come here? Didn’t you follow Soran heading to the north?”
The little girl subtly rolled her big eyes.
The cute little face of hers seemed demonic for a moment as she had a slight naughty grin. However, it disappeared quickly. Her big beautiful eyes suddenly turned teary as if a sad memory relapsed. She was a little scared, as her eyes were covered with tears. She spoke with a tender voice that made people’s heartache, “It was actually like this. My brother and I met a bad guy! ….”
“In the end, we separated.”
“Luckily, I met this elder sister, and she was kind enough to help me and brought me here.”
Women were born with acting skills.
The pretty woman beside her immediately changed her expression, to a face as if everything was supposed to be the way it is.
The little girl then stood up and looked at Aladdin as tall as herself. She pitifully said in her crisp childlike voice, “I thought you were that bad guy, that’s why I used magic on you!”
“Please don’t blame me, okay? …”
The story was a success.
The little girl’s pitiful appearance soon put Aladdin’s doubts aside. This was because the Vivian now was very much like what he remembered.
Maybe it was because she has met with trouble, that’s why she seemed to have changed a little?
“Who were the ones that attacked you guys?”
Aladdin was slightly dazed for a moment, but he himself didn’t notice. He said with a little anger: “Don’t be scared! If any bad guy dares to bully you, I will help you deal with him!…”
Charm success.
A seemingly cunning smile appeared on the corners of the little girl’s face. Her expression was somewhat naughty and there seemed to be a strange light in her eyes. She continued in a pitiful voice: ” It was a very very bad vampire!… But, he seems to have offended other people!… There’s a very very powerful Paladin is after him!… One look and I can tell you’re an amazing Rogue! … Oh, brave and courageous Aladdin!…. Would you be able to help me find his whereabouts?…”
“Then, we can tell the Paladin! … Let him handle that Vampire!…”
The Halfling unhesitatingly smacked his chest and said: “No problem! …”
In the vast wilderness, Soran’s figure came from afar and had left the Shipwreck Harbour for some time.
He was now planning to go to the City of Wealth, which is the busiest and most well-informed place along the Shipwreck coast. If any Sons of Fear ever appeared, he should be able to gather some information. Moreover, one of them seems to have appeared there, and Soran felt that the other party would not leave so soon. After gathering the materials for the blood purification ceremony, Soran immediately took the time to complete it. The requirements for non-legendary advancements were not high. In the future, the blood purification ceremony of legendary grade needs the help of high-grade Spellcasters.
Soran had an additional [Toughen] Ability!
“Toughen [Gifted Ability]: You will always be way tougher than others, this is a type of powerful Bloodline Ability. It can be attained through the blessings of God. Having this Gifted Ability allows every one of your profession to additionally raise their Hit Points by 1. It also raises your Fortitude by 2. When you’ve been attacked with the Test of Death, you can enter into Near Death State and will not die instantly!”
[Prerequisite for Epic Toughen Ability]
