Chapter 5: Pondering

Chapter 5: Pondering

After returning to his cell, Elias naturally returned to his bed. He was pondering on how he should go on about getting the Sleight of Hand skill.

The Sleight of Hand skill was a rare passive skill that allows the person to move their hands niftily and steal anything unnoticed.

Upon realising his predicament, his mind instantly went into that skill.

It was the only chance he has to escape this place, because the use of mana, the fundamental energy, was forbidden here.

After being sent to Tartarus, the prisoners would be shackled by an anti-mana collar on their body and be suppressed of their strength.

'No wonder I couldn't sense my mana at all...' Elias thought silently, his eyes looking at the unfeeling collar attached to his neck.

As far as he knew, there were only two ways to remove such restraints for the current him.

The first one, believe or not, is to break the collar by overflowing it with mana from an outside party or external source. Ironically, the anti-mana collar's greatest weakness was mana.

That was rather simple but impossible for him. Tartarus didn't have any source of mana outside of the guards and security.

He couldn't just walk up to them and ask "hey could you break my collar?" They surely wouldn't agree to that.

'Surely...' Elias sarcastically thought.

The second one or his only choice was the old fashion way, to steal the key for the anti-mana collar and remove the restraints.

While the two choices sounded relatively simple, it really wasn't. The former was impossible. While the latter was almost impossible.

The keys to the collars were not only tightly guarded but also located in an unknown room he didn't know yet.

That's why he needed Sleight of Hand skill.

However, if that Goblin existence was really here then, he could use another method. But he wouldn't bet on it.

'If I remember correctly, the requirement for Sleight of Hand is rather simple but troublesome in a different way...' Elias thought with a frown.

Being one of the skills he created himself, he was familiar with the requirements of getting the passive skill.

The requirement was to do the "act of theft" for a thousand times, the target object could be different or the same.

That's why it was relatively simple and yet troublesome. It took a thousand times... it would take him more than a week to finish that.

If he were to do so fifty times a day, then by a week he would achieve more than a quarter of the needed requirement.

Thinking of that, Elias nodded to himself and thought about another thing he needed to prioritize.

The second most important thing for him to do was raising his strength. The second subquest was enrolling in the prestigious Arcana Academy.

The Arcana Academy was where all aspiring young heroes would gather so the requirements to be a student of that school were definitely not small.

It was also where the main story actually starts. n0VElusb.C0M

The minimum rank they accept is low Rank D, less than that was an automatic rejection. There were no special privileges, even for great families and nobles.

'For my current state, I'll just be automatically rejected when I enroll there...' Elias thought with a snicker.

Truthfully, the number of young people that could reach Rank D at the age of 16 or 17 were few and in-between.

Those that could reach Rank D at a young age were either sufficiently talented or spoon fed of resources.

Elias looked at his status. His lips twitched when he saw his own Rank.

...It wasn't that Elias Vito Castellano was untalented and poor that he couldn't reach Rank D at his current age, 16, but rather he just didn't work hard enough.

His father was the ruler of the Underworld, it could be said that he was privileged for the most part of his life. It didn't help that his predecessor's father also doted on his family too much.

That led to him not taking his training seriously enough and not thinking of his future, keeping him stuck at Rank E.

From Elias calculations, it wouldn't take long before the past him could reach Rank D anyways, with his stats bordering D rank.

Unfortunately before his predecessor could even reach that rank, his life ended before his eyes.

"It seems I will be here for quite some time..."

Elias sighed. Oh well, not like that was bad, atleast that gave him more time to devise some plans for the future and adapt to this world.

That was for the best. In any case, he would start training and executing his plans for the skill tomorrow morning.

And maybe meet the people who are maybe potential keys to his plans in escaping this place.

Thinking of that, Elias' eyes flashed a cold glint before returning to normal as his lips curled.

***

On a wider cell covered with pitch black darkness, the silhouette of a tall figure could be seen leaning on the walls unnaturally silently as though dead.

Light shone through the cell, revealing the tall silhouette's appearance.

It was a middle aged man with messy white hair and facial hair. His whole body was constricted and restrained, as chains from the walls shackled his arms and legs.

Upon seeing the light, the man's eyes immediately flashed a dangerous glint.

A faint sound echoed as the cell door opened.

At that moment, a tiny pebble blasted to the cell door in breakneck speed that could not be seen in the human eye.

The security guard, who just came inside the cell, moved without interruption as the tiny pebble suddenly turned left before it could hit the person.

"I'm here to deliver your food, Swain."

The middle aged man, Swain, was silent for a moment before nodding.

"Leave it there."

The guard, indifferent, carefully placed the plate of food inside the cell and left without saying anything.

After the guard left, silence returned to the cell. Only after a while as a loud gurgling sound resounded did it break apart.

Swain raised his head and looked at the food.