Stealing treasures (panties) with my right hand!
Part 1
"Nah, I have something to ask the both of you. How do you learn skills?"
The day after fighting the toads.
We were having a late lunch at the guild's bar.
Before me was the penniless Megumin who didn't have any proper meal before meeting us and was focusing on eating her set meal. And Aqua calling for the waitress to order more food.
Their appetites were too good for ladies of this tender age.
… Two women and a single man is still a harem party, but it was totally not feminine…
Megumin lift her head while holding her fork and said:
"Learning skills? That's easy, look at your card and choose from the 'skills that could be learned' column… Oh right, Kazuma's job is adventurer. For basic tier jobs, you need someone to teach you the skills. You need to see the skill in action and ask the user to teach you how to use it. 'Skills that could be learned' will show up, and you could learn the skills by putting in the required skill points."
I see.
I remember the counter lady saying that the basic tier job adventurer could learn any skills.
If that was the case…
"… That means if Megumin teaches me, I could use explosion magic?"
"That's how it is!"
"Woah!"
Megumin reacted strongly to my casual words.
"That's how it is, Kazuma! The skill points needed would be absurdly high, but adventurer is the only job other than arch wizard that could use explosion. I can teach you if you want to learn. Or rather, there are no other skills that are worth learning except explosion right? Of course not! Come, let's take the path of explosion together!"
Your face is too close!
"Wait, calm down loli! I only have 3 skill points, there's no way I could learn it right?"
"Lo, loli…?"
Megumin was too excited to hold a proper conversation, so I asked Aqua instead.
"If an adventurer wants to learn explosion spell, 20 or so skill points won't be enough. You will probably need to train for a decade or two and invest all your points to learn it."
"Who has that kind of patience?"
"Fu… To call me a loli…"
Megumin seemed stunned by me addressing her as a loli, eating her set meal in small bites dejectedly. But the only good point about my job– adventurer was the ability to learn all skills. Of course I want to learn more skills.
"Nah, Aqua, you should have many convenient skills right? Do you have any easy to learn skills to teach me? I prefer those that don't need a lot of points and are very useful."
Aqua thought for a moment while holding her cupful of water.
"… It couldn't be helped– but I have to warn you, my skills are amazing! It's not meant to be passed on lightly!"
I wasn't happy about Aqua mouthing off like that, but I had to bear with it since I am requesting her to teach me.
I obediently nodded my head and watched Aqua's every movement.
"Well, look at this cup. Put this cupful of water on top of your head, and don't let the cup fall off. Here, try it."
It's a bit embarrassing to do that in public, but I mimic Aqua's action and put the cup on top of my head.
Aqua then took out an unknown seed from somewhere and place it on the table.
"Alright, now use your finger to flick the seed into the cup, you must do it in one try. Something amazing is happening! The seed is absorbing the water and sprouting…"
"Who asked you to teach me party tricks you worthless goddess!"
"Eh–?"
Aqua became as dejected as Megumin for some reason and rolled the seed around the table with her finger.
I don't know why you got so down, but could you remove the cup on your head, it's drawing a lot of attention.
"Hahaha! That's so funny! Hey, you are the party Darkness wanted to join right? You want to learn something useful? How about thieving skills?"
Someone interjected suddenly.
I turned my head and saw two women occupying the neighboring table.
The one talking to me was a woman wearing light leather armor.
She had a small scar on her face and seemed to be street smart. She was a pretty girl with silver locks and a bright personality.
Beside her was a blond beauty in full plate mail.
That unapproachable cool beauty…
That's right, it was the female knight that wanted to join our party yesterday.
The thief girl should be a year or two younger than me.
"Erm, what do you mean by thieving skills? How are they like?"
The girl that looked like a thief responded cheerfully:
"Good question. Thieving skills are very practical– such as 'Disarm Traps', 'Sense Enemy', 'Hide', 'Steal', they are all skills that are worth learning. Your job is the basic tier adventurers right? Thieving skills don't require much points, so it's a great deal! How about it? I can teach them to you if you treat me to a glass of crimson beer!"
So cheap!
That's how I felt, but when I thought about it, she had nothing to lose from teaching me the skills.
And I could just ask any other thief if I really want to learn thieving skills.
"Okay, I leave it in your hands! Excuse me– Please get a glass of ice cold crimson beer for this lady!"
Part 2
"I will do a short introduction. I am Chris. As you can see, I am a thief. And this person with a moody face is Darkness. You met yesterday right? She is a crusader and shouldn't have any skills that are useful to you."
"Hello! I am Kazuma, nice to meet you, Chris!"
The open plaza behind the adventurers guild.
Chris, Darkness and I stood at this desolate open space.
By the way, those 2 companions of mine were sulking at the table all this while, so I left them there. "Well then, we will start from 'Sense Enemy' and 'Hide'. We will work on 'Disarm Trap' next time, traps are rare in such a crowded place. Hey… Darkness, could you turn and face that side?"
"…Hmmm? …. Okay."
Darkness turned and face away as instructed.
And so, Chris got into a wooden barrel some distance away and showed only the top half of her body.
I don't know what she was playing at, but she then threw a rock at Darkness's head and hid into the barrel.
"…"
Could this be the hide skill?
Darkness who was hit by the rock moved silently towards the only barrel in the area.
"Sensing enemy… sensing enemy… I can strongly feel that Darkness is angry! Nah, Darkness? You should know I only did that to teach him the skills, I couldn't help it! Please have mercy ahhhhhh, stop ahhhhhhhh!"
The barrel she was hidden in was toppled over and Chris screamed as it rolled on the ground.
… Could I really learn skill this way…
"Alright, let's try the skill I recommend the most, 'Steal'. This was a skill that can snatch away one item possessed by the target, it could be anything. Be it the weapon gripped tightly in their hands, or the wallet secured deep in their pockets, it can steal one item possessed by the target. The probability of success is dependent on the luck stat. You could rob the weapon or treasure of a strong enemy and run, a great skill to have under any circumstances."
After Chris recovered from the dizziness of being rolled around in a barrel, she explained 'Steal' to me.
Stealing sounded very useful indeed.
And it was dependent on the luck stat, so my only stat that is high would be of use.
"I will demonstrate with you as the target! Ready, 'Steal'!"
Chris shouted as she reached her hand forward, and a small item appeared in her hand.
That is…
"Ah! That's my wallet!"
It contained all of my cash, a thin and pitiful wallet.
"Oh! Jackpot! It's used this way. Well of course, I will give the wallet…"
Chris smiled deviously when she was about to return the wallet to me.
"… Nah, let's have a match alright? Try learning 'Steal' now. I will then let you steal one item from me. I won't complain even if you steal my wallet or weapon. Your wallet is so thin, so my weapon or wallet would definitely be more valuable. That means we will be trading whatever items that were stolen… How about it? Want to try?"
This person suddenly said something amazing.
I thought about it.
My luck seemed ridiculously high…
I could steal one item from the opponent…
So I would get something even if the skill failed.
… Let's give it a go.
Such gambles seemed like the way rash adventurers would interact, just what I was looking forward to!
That's right, I am finally experiencing something adventurer like after coming to this world!
I looked at my adventurer card and saw a new box that displayed skills that could be learned.
I touch it with my finger and 4 skills were displayed.
'Sense Enemy' 1 point, 'Hide' 1 point, 'Steal' 1 point', 'Beauties of Nature' 5 points.
… 'Beauties of nature'? The skill used by Aqua, the party trick of flicking a seed into a cup?
The party trick had such a flashy name! Eh? And it took a lot of points!
Party tricks were cool in some way, but I decided to learn 'steal', 'sense enemy' and 'hide'.
I used up all my skill points and it turned to 0.
I see, so that's how you learn skills.
"I have learned the skill. And I accept your challenge! Don't come crying to me no matter what I steal!"
I stuck out my right hand as I spoke, but Chris just smiled fearlessly.
"That's great! I like people who aren't spoilsport! Alright then, what could you steal? The special prize would be my wallet. The grand prize would be this magically enchanted dagger! This is a great item worth 400,000 Eris! The consolation prize would be this piece of rock I threw at Darkness!"
"Ahhh! That's cheating! Using such a method!"
I protest loudly when I saw the rock Chris took out.
I was wondering why she was so confident, so that's the reason!
If she had more trash items, the probability of important items getting stolen would be lower, a sort of safeguard against thieves.
"This is my teaching fee. As you can see, no skills are all powerful. You learned something great right? Alright, give it a go!"
Damn, I was really schooled!
Looking at Chris laughing out loud, I felt I was foolish to fall for this trick.
This is not Japan, but a dog eat dog world.
It is the fault of those who are naive enough to be tricked.
But it was just the chance of winning or failing, it's not a total loss.
"Alright, watch this! My luck had always been good! 'Steal'!"
As I shouted, my outreached right hand grabbed something.
She said the chance of success was dependent on the luck stat. To succeed in one try, my luck wasn't too bad.
I opened my hand and looked at what I stole…
"… What is this?"
It was a piece of white cloth.
I took the cloth with both hands and raised to the sun for a better look…
"Yahoo–! It's the grand prize, and it's a big one—!"
"No–! Return my panties to me–!"
Chris pulled down her skirt as she screamed with tears in her eyes.