Hide.

The sun shined down dragging Marcus's shadow along. He arrived in front of the auction house after going down a slanted road for a few blocks.

He was now in the fourth district. This was where the wealthiest businesses, manned by the king's loyal dukes, were located.

The auction house was just down from where Sam lived, and the town walls were directly behind it. There was smoke rising as bodies were tossed in the cemetery and burned to keep the corpses from spreading diseases.

Marcus felt minorly bad that a few women were in those piles as well.

The rules in this world stipulated not to harm women, children, and business owners in war. Yet, these types of women often wore masks and tried to fight off the Fortuna in the name of 'liberty'. There was nothing he could do but sigh and ponder why liberty was usually linked to death.

He didn't take more then a second to contemplate it before he got distracted by the auction house.

The Auction house was beautiful, and because of it he got over the burning beauties quickly. It was a shame that that their beauty would fade in a few minutes. However, without reflecting on it anymore, he made his way past the front door, and into the main shop.

The walls, when he went inside, were decorated with elegant rugs and a few women were posing by them.

He was sort of remembering this popular place, from his time in the game, but not really anything important. The auction house obviously auctioned things, and the rug was just the icing on the cake. The rest of the room had quite a selection as well. He proceeded to the front desk before he turned around looking at the beautiful women in the distance.

They decided to follow him while fixing their dress straps.

"Hello, we're glad to welcome you to the Thompson auction house! What items are you looking for today," They asked sweetly as their enchanted tones made him stand up straight.

"I… have a wife, I'm embarrassed to say this, but she's trying to see someone else." He cupped his hands against his head before the girls pouted.

"Oh, so you must want the ward of infidelity? We have two in stock right now for the 200,000 each, buyout price. However, since you're so handsome, we'll give it to you for 150,000 without having to wait for the auction" They said and glanced over in a certain direction. Right after, Marcus looked over in that direction and a small piece of paper that was surely the ward.

"Well, I'll probably buy it today, but do you girls mind waiting for me? I'll be back in ten minutes. I promise, you won't even notice I was gone."

"well, just don't forget about us and not come back! We don't want your wife doing anything bad now do we?"

Marcus nodded his head. "I promise I'll buy it out when I come back. Now, just make sure you tell the auctioneer that Sam really wanted his item when he gets back, so don't sell it!"

Giving fake names was common in his profession. Also, he figured it was better to say a name, and what better name then the person who had motive.

"Uhm, well, we'll do our best. But, Mr. Thompson has been very busy. If we see him, we promise to mention your name sir," one girl said. She guided Marcus through the doorway as she sighed watching him go down the block.

Marcus left out the door and glanced back at the two belles that were clearly trying to get his attention. He still felt their warm touches against his elbow.

However, now he had to ruin their days. A few minutes later he was walking up the block. It was called gold street, and there was a park at the end of it with a smell trailing behind him. Once again, it was the cleanup process for the dead bodies. The line of smoke seemed to spread into the park near the top of the town. He sat down in the bench before he sighed trying to activate hide. He finally gave up on doing it himself.

"Uhm… system… how do you activate hide?"

There were no buttons, only his human body. It also didn't come with a manual, however, he did have a system that answered his questions.

[Ding! To activate hide just think about hiding.]

"Seriously?"

[Ding! Yes, hide level 1 wears off in twenty seconds. Concentrate on being invisible.]

Well, he did that and sure enough he was invisible.

However, then he dropped a twig off his seat and realized he still made noise. He got up and sighed before he walked back towards the auction house.

On the walk back, there was a few more shops on gold street he noticed, but none of them were as worth robbing as the auction house.

He immediately activated [Hide] as he went through the gilded entranceway.

It took him roughly ten seconds to reach the ward, and another 5 seconds to realize there was a lock on it.

'Shoot, why would they put a lock on a piece of paper,' Marcus complained internally as he hid behind the pillar.

However, when he tried to go back into hide, he was stuck.

"Hey, syste—"

[Ding! Hide requires 2-minute cooldown at level one.]

….

"Hey, that man was kind of cute, right?" A girl's voice spread through the auction house.

"Yes, however, what's taking him so long… He should be back by now…"

"Hmmm, you don't think his wife is who I think it is, do you? Apparently, the boss has been going out every night with a girl. She has a ring on her finger, too. What kind of girl doesn't even take off her ring from her ring finger…"

"Well, you know the boss likes breaking the rules. I think 99% of this stuff is stolen anyway…"

Marcus listened to the two girls siting behind the pillar. Finally, he smiled a little bit realizing the implications behind the information the girls spoke. It seemed like everyone was cheating with everyone's wife, and it made such good blackmail material.

Regardless, a few moments later, his countdown was up.

The next thing he did was obviously activate hide. He only had twenty seconds to leave and took out his locking picking kit to pluck the lock. Fortunately, he didn't make a lot of noise, and the lock pick was very handy.

What he had to do was use two different keys to turn the lock open. It was like his hands knew it while his mind tried to understand it. Unfortunately, He couldn't even breathe loudly as the girls kept talking about this 'Mr.Thompson.' The guy was funny with his girls apparently. The rule for him was two weeks too long. It was kind of catchy, and he made a giggled under his breath. Regardless, in 5 seconds the lock snapped opened under the girl's breath.

He still had fifteen seconds, so he took his time to quietly leave the room.

The two girls happen to glance over in his direction before they realized something looked different. However, it wouldn't dawn on them for a couple of hours.

[Ding! You've stolen the ward of infidelity.]

[Notoriety – 5]

[Notoriety has reached 10. System has granted 1 bonus SP point]

[New notoriety skill has been unlocked, Backstab [lvl 1]]