Chapter 156 – Underworld dealings.

“I’m truly sorry Wayland, if I knew it was you, … please forgive me and these idiots!”

“Hey, who are you calling an idiot!”

“Put your head down you dimwit, do you want to die?”

Roland was now looking at the three people that attacked him. All three of the thieves turned up to be Lobelia and her friends. It seemed that the half-elven girl was actually part of the thieves guild.

“Also please don’t tell this to big sis… or that big idiot… they will kill me… uh, that is if you don’t do it now…”

Lobelia peeked her head up to look at Wayland that had lowered his hood a bit. He was still wearing his mask which would protect him from any gas attacks that these thieves could try to employ.

“I’m not going to kill you, but you’ll have to explain a few things to me…”

“Yes! I’m very good at explaining things!”

While Roland somewhat knew Lobelia he wasn’t so sure about the other two that were with her. For now, he continued to point his hand on them, a small orb of fire was still there and he had no problem in keeping it there.

“First, why did you try to rob me, didn’t you see this?”

Roland pointed to the small emblem that he was given by the bartender at the brothel. This symbol that he attached to his robe was supposed to get him through the thieves guild without a problem. After the guards saw it they did allow him to trade and the merchants didn’t have a problem in interacting with him after taking a glance.

“Ah, well…”

Lobelia shifted his head to the side and glared at one of the two young men. Both of them looked to be of mixed races. One had long animal ears that made him seem similar to a fox but was lacking a tail. The other one had floppier ears that were more dog-like.

Sometimes it was hard to tell them apart but most of the time they had less animalistic features. Pure beastmen had more animal-like faces along with fur below their knees and on their forearms. Their fingers also had sharp claws or tallons depending on the beast tribe.

These two on the other hand mostly looked like regular humans with some added accessories. He could also use his analyzing skill to see their race after the scuffle they had.

“Well… that’s just a black merchant insignia… but you didn’t have any bodyguards with you, so we thought you would be an easy target.”
The young man with fox ears was the one to reply.

“Renny, I told you that you got ripped off with that thing!”

Apparently, the dog boy was named Renny as the young fox man started talking to him in an angry tone.

“I’m sorry Jasper, but the magician said that it should work!”

Renny slumped his head down even more while Jasper started berating him. Roland on the other hand raised his brow and gave another question.

“That thing? Could you elaborate?”

“I’m sorry Wayland, I’ll explain, you two be quiet.”

This time around Lobelia replied and gave him a more detailed explanation. The thing that the young man was talking about was an identification eyeglass that was supposed to measure a person’s level and present their stats.

Apparently, the young thieves started examining him as he was acting a bit suspicious. The readings that the magic item gave them put him down at a lower level than them. Thus they decided to try their luck and rob him.

“We never intended to hurt you, we would have just taken the money, that’s all…”

Roland frowned but it went unnoticed as he was wearing a mask. While he believed Lobelia as he wasn’t so sure about the other two. During the fight, the half-elf did aim her bow lower towards his legs. The arrow also was coated in some kind of paralyzing agent.

The story somewhat checked out as after he was paralyzed they would be able to rob him blind. If they would have left it at that was anyone’s guess.

It did look like the item that he received from his old gnome boss was still working. It was not a runic item thus he could not examine it. From his testing, he found out that it gave various readings depending on one’s skill level and even time of day.

Sometimes it showed him as a totally different class. Other times it would block out the text from showing at all while on different occasions it would present the status window all jumbled up. It appeared that for these three he showed up as a low level merchant which made him appear as an easy target.

“You didn’t think that I was wearing an item that blocks people from seeing my status?”

“It did cross our minds… but we thought that we could still escape from one person…”

Lobelia laughed a bit while slowly sitting up. Roland had slowly started moving his hand to the side as he didn’t really intend to kill these three. This didn’t mean that he would just let it be, they did try to rob him and for that, they would need to pay.

“You two can leave, but you Lobelia, we need to have a talk.”

While he was somewhat annoyed that they attacked him, it seemed like this would actually be something he could profit from. Just as he had an emblem for black market merchants these three had their own. He wasn’t quite sure what rank these three had but they were clearly members of the thieves’ guild.

“Lobelia… are you going to be alright…”

Renny asked her while looking at Roland. This didn’t go unnoticed as he realized that the two young men were somewhat apprehensive about letting Lobelia be left alone with him.

“It’s fine, I know him, I’ll be fine. Just go back and say that everything is alright.”

The two nodded and looked at Roland with a bit of a glare. This stare down he returned in full as he didn’t move his eyes away. Ever since coming to this world, Roland noticed that showing weakness would get him nowhere. Thus he kept eye contact which made Jasper the fox man flinch slightly before vanishing behind the corner.

“First… let us get out of here and then we will have a long talk…”

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Lobelia gave Roland a weak smile and the two continued through the path to the nearest exit. On the wall there was a lever and after lowering it the wall shifted in a similar fashion as in the brothel. The two ended up in some kind of basement that was filled with some old tools.

“First time?”

“Is it that obvious?”

Roland replied to the question as he was clearly slow with walking up towards this strange basement. Lobelia showed him how to leave it and the two found themselves in the backyard of some house in the city.

“There are many places that are associated with the underground like this.”

“You mean the thieves’ guild, does that signify that you are part of it.”

Roland pointed to Lobelia’s emblem that was in the shape of a kite with a circle in the middle. It was different from the one that he received which meant that she was not part of the underground merchants like him now.

“You are right, this is a sign of my rank…”

Roland wanted to ask about the thieves’ guild ranking system but they were still dressed in their robes while being in someone’s backyard. The person was apparently affiliated with the guild but this didn’t mean that he wanted to stay here.