30 Following the Guild Master

While following the guild master out of the city Bell and Finn were both anxious about the upcoming fight. They had to fight someone who can not only steal skills but someone who has already used that power on multiple other people.

Even though they were both prepared to have their skills stolen they were worried that if the Plunderer stole the guild masters skill, he would be able to turn the fight. The two of them seemed to have the same worries as they looked at each other.

As if the guild master had understood their worries he sighed and spoke to them as he continued to run through the forest. The surroundings were quiet so all that could be heard was the guild master talking.

"You don't have to worry about him stealing my skills. I have a way to block appraisals as well. We've found that he can only steal skills if he had first appraised the target. Avoid getting appraised and he can't steal any skills from you."

"If you knew that much why didn't you say it at the guild." Hearing the guild master explain Finn couldn't help himself and asked why he hadn't mentioned it at the guild.

"It's because of this one." He said while pointing at Bell. Almost immediately Finn nodded as if he agreed with the guild master's decision.

"We can use this opportunity to give him some experience, as well as give him a chance to go wild without strangers watching. It's best to keep the fact that he's the hero a secret." The guild master said as he started slowing down.

With the guild master giving Bell the opportunity to get some experience with an enemy that is stronger, as well as enabling him to not have to hold back. Bell felt that he had been seen through from the very beginning. He couldn't help but ask, "How long have you known?"

"I've known for longer than you can think. The reason that I hadn't told the adventurers or make it public was that people around here are known to never keep a secret. Not everyone is like that but a lot of them are the type that will sell your information to an information broker for a profit. If that happened then we would have to deal with people who are following that information trail looking to take control of you. Many kings wouldn't hesitate to be able to own the "Hero" of humanity. And if they couldn't take control of you, they would silence you." The guild master explained as he came to a full stop.

The surroundings were still quiet but there was an eerie vibe in the air. All three of them had come to a stop due to the drastic change in their surroundings. Even though they were still in the forest the aura coming from whatever was in front of them had caused them to stay in place. It wasn't as oppressive as they had initially thought, and after a couple of seconds, they all continued to advance forward through the forest.

"We're here. Once we reach the skill taker's hideout we'll check the situation, if he's alone with only his tamed monsters then Bell can go in and get some experience. If he has any company then we'll deal with him with the three of us."

"Yes sir." Both Finn and Bell had answered as they steeled their hearts and readied their weapons. Even though they were nervous they both recognized that this was something that they would have to do.

Upon approaching the domain of the skill stealer none of them could feel his presence. No matter how much they had searched through their presence detection skills they had felt nothing. He's confirmed to not have a presence detection kind of skill so he may have a stealth skill.

"There doesn't look to be anyone here, let's search the cave. He may have left something that we can use to track him with." Guild Master Zach had decided that since they couldn't sense anything then they would check the cave that he had been hiding out in.

The inside of the cave there was evidence that someone was living there but in the end, the skill stealer was nowhere to be found. They continued to look through the cave until Finn had found something suspicious.

"Guys, I think that I found something. There's an orb right here, it's glowing black." Finn had found a glowing black orb so he told Bell and the Guild Master. Although the orb could be harmless, at the same time it could be dangerous as well so he decided to have the guild master check it out.

"I know that orb, it's an artifact that the Demon's found a while back. It can grant a single wish, but upon granting it that person would become corrupt giving in to the simplest desires that they had. Bell, wrap it up, we'll take it back to the guild to get it examined." With the guild master knowing what the orb was he decided to take it back and hide it from the Demons.

As Bell had walked over to the glowing black orb a voice yelled at them from the entrance to the cave.

"What are you doing! Don't touch that!" The voice screamed in anger as if the orb was his lifeline.

Even with the voice coming in to stop Bell from grabbing the glowing black orb it was too late. As Bell got into the proximity of the orb it was immediately drawn to him and absorbed into his body.