Now that he was equipped with the three most useful utility spells, Merlin's next goal was to improve his armour and stats.
With only two silver and eight copper to his name, he wasn't going to be buying armour any time soon. Which left him with the next goal, improving his stats. The quickest method currently available to him being the beginner class quests, as they provided bonus stats as quest rewards, as well as stats in the form of souls.
Macedonia was somewhat special in this regard, being one of the biggest cities on the island, they had several establishments where one could enter and acquire classes. This included several beginner combat classes, such as clerics, fighters and thieves.
Unlike the barracks in Lycoa, which also provided the fighter soul, the barracks in Macedonia provided quests to further upgrade your soul.
Merlin instead decided that he'd rather obtain his second soul than upgrade the one he currently had. There were a few time-sensitive things he had to do, so he couldn't dedicate the time required for an advancement questline.
He decided on the thieves guild, seeing as it was the class he was most common with. In the previous timeline he spent the beta working on the warrior path, only to find out near the end that he was better suited for a dexterous fighter role than a strength based one.
There was one issue though, getting the thieves guild questline was a pain. There were a few quests that led to it, but they all took a fair amount of luck or time. The most commonly known method was to enrol as a town guard and work until you received a quest to infiltrate the thieves guild. You could then betray the town guard and join the thieves guild instead, but this act would ruin your reputation and make you a wanted criminal.
What Merlin wanted to do instead was try and skip the process, forcing himself in somehow. He wasn't yet sure if the method he thought of would even work, but figured it was worth a try. The biggest obstacle for him right now was that the thieves guild had roughly four locations it would shift between to avoid getting caught, but he was only aware of two of them.
Leaving the market area, he made his way to the slum, preferring to slip between alleyways than walk on the main road. It took longer with this method, but within a couple minutes, he had reached an area that felt almost separate from the rest of town.
He stepped into the slums, the various buildings around him being of a similar style to the rest of town, their state of disrepair becoming more obvious the further he walked down the littered street.
The atmosphere differed greatly from the rest of town, he could still hear the sounds of people talking, and the sound of wagons being tugged down the busy streets, but it felt distant behind him. The atmosphere in front of him was dull and stagnant, there was no liveliness in the streets, and the few people who were on the street only stared at Merlin with suspicious glares.
After a few minutes of walking around the slum, Merlin felt a presence behind him, it seemed that the person following him was trying to hide their presence, but it was a clumsy job.
There was a possibility that they were a part of the thieves guild if they were operating within the slums, which meant he could extract information from them.
Merlin slipped between buildings, just fast enough that the person following him could barely keep up, and on his last corner he turned into a dead end. Looking around, he couldn't see any spots to hide, so he pushed himself against the wall with his sword drawn.
A few moments later a figure popped out from around the corner, Merlin grabbed them by the collar and threw them to the ground. The interaction happened within a few seconds, not giving the pursuer any time to react.
Merlin drew his sword on the hooded figure, but something itching the back of his mind was that he couldn't feel their presence now, and the presence he did feel shouldn't have appeared around the corner at that moment.
Shrugging off the weird sensation, he focused his attention on his pursuer, who had just pulled the hood back, revealing the face of a young boy.
"Are you a pickpocket for the guild?" Merlin asked the boy in a stern voice, his sword now pointed at the child's throat. Merlin knew that the thieves guild didn't appreciate snitches, so nobody ever talked, but he didn't want to torture a kid for information.
The boy's eyes widened, but he didn't make a single sound.
"Just point me in the way of the guild's hideout and you're free to go." Merlin tried to reason with the boy, "I don't want to hurt a kid."
The boy shook his head in response, it seemed he was more frightened of the thieves guild than he was the man with a sword to his throat.
Merlin felt a dangerous presence nearby, he turned around just in time to see the glint of a dagger flying towards the kid. He barely managed to knock the dagger away, sending it into the wooden frame of a nearby house.
"The stalker who sucks at hiding their presence, it was you." Merlin's attention locked on the ugly man who attacked the kid. His hood had flown off and he was clearly out of breath due to pushing himself when Merlin was leading him. "How fortunate, you look expendable."
The clumsy pursuer pulled out another dagger and charged towards Merlin, but was promptly disarmed and cut down. As Merlin threw the man against the wall, he turned around to find that the young boy had vanished.
"Now, would you happen to know where the guild is?" Merlin bent down next to the man, grabbing a handful of his greasy hair. "I'm looking for a new occupation, and I hear you guys get all the fun."
Merlin spent the next few minutes getting various expletives thrown his way, to which he responded by injuring the man and repeating his question, eventually the guy broke and gave the thieves guild's location away, but he refused to disclose any secret codes. Any further questions resulted in the man confidently threatening Merlin with the guild's power.
"Alright, I guess I'll sell you as a snitch, we'll both lose." Merlin remarked as he grabbed the man's broken arm and dragged him down the filthy street, a thin streak of blood trailing behind.
The short trip that followed was obnoxiously loud, as the man screamed at the top of his lungs, calling Merlin crazy, telling him he'd regret it, until he eventually begged him to stop, informing him that there was a secret code, and he'd give it to him if he brought him to safety.
Merlin had no intention of letting the guy live, if he didn't have fast reflexes the boy would have been hurt and eventually killed. The only reason Merlin had caught the kid was because of the incompetent scum he was currently dragging down the street, he felt more respect for the kid than he ever would this man.
They eventually arrived at a shady tavern located somewhere down an alleyway. The man was quiet, thinking he'd figure some way out of this mess as long as he was smart about it, but Merlin knew he'd be killed for snitching regardless of what he did.
Merlin knocked the man out and left him against the wall, before casting cleanse on himself, sheathing his weapon and walking in.
Much like its exterior, the inside of the tavern was run down and shady. It was somewhat rowdy, but the noise quickly died down into a stifling silence as Merlin entered the building.
It was always uncomfortable having eyes on you as you walked into an unfamiliar area, but he was getting plenty of practice as of late.
The people within the tavern were even more shady looking than most of the mercenaries in Orchomenus. He was just hoping that he didn't have to shove another person through a table this time around.
There was a woman manning the counter, and unlike everyone else in the room, she was rather attractive. Her hair was a very fair blonde, almost as white as Merlin's hair, and there was a slight point to her ears.
"You're a new face around here." She stated out loud, causing several people sitting at the tables to stand up and slowly move closer. "What can I get you?"
"I'd like a job with the guy downstairs." Merlin spoke without any subtlety. He heard various weapons being drawn after he spoke, but his attention was locked on the woman.
"Sorry, we're not hiring at the moment." She spoke without any change in her facial expression, and instead signalled to the people behind Merlin, causing them to surround him.
Merlin couldn't help but sigh, he knew it wouldn't be that easy, but it was worth a shot.
"Well, before you attack me, aren't you curious as to how I know about the guild and its location?" Merlin asked, obviously hinting at a snitch. "I left him at the door, you can consider it a gift."
The woman looked at him with some level of intrigue before signalling one of the men to go look. He returned shortly after carrying the beaten up thief that Merlin dragged there. A couple people in the room, including the woman at the counter, clearly recognised who it was, and he received some glares. The woman's facial expression was hard to read, but she seemed indifferent to the man's appearance.
"Peace offering?" Merlin spoke with a charming smile and a light shrug, realising he probably had to fight his way in now.
