Rebirth Of The Noble Mage Behind The Scenes-Chapter 641 - 159: The City of Sin

After slipping from Anvis’s fingertips, the silver dice rolled to the ground, spinning a few times like any ordinary dice, and then stopped with a crisp ’ding’ sound.

Twenty points—

"Crack—"

At the same time, a crack appeared on one corner of the dice.

As a practice piece, Anvis had not put too much strength into it, leading to the dice’s inherently low quality.

"Is this the price for interfering with fate?"

Anvis touched the crack, feeling that probably three more cracks of the same size would completely ruin the dice.

"So, what happens next?"

Thinking about the Mercury Dice’s mechanism of action, Anvis slowed down to wait a moment.

........

Keen was an unemployed vagrant, idling his days away.

Of course, that was just his cover identity; for a living, he would occasionally take on some "side jobs."

For instance, picking up a few ’lost’ bulging purses from others, or helping those enthusiastic gamblers who were unable to collect debts from money they lent out in emergencies.

That day, he had just completed a deal, teaching a lesson to a guy who refused to pay his debt. But just as Keen was basking in self-congratulation, a gift from nature suddenly fell from the sky, smearing his face.

"Fuck! You bitch-raised filthy bird! Don’t let me catch you!"

While wiping the bird droppings off his face, Keen cursed loudly at the sky, but the culprit had already flown far away, leaving only its cackling behind.

"Tss tss... Dammit! Sooner or later, I’ll pluck all your feathers and roast you for a drink!"

After cleaning off the bird droppings, Keen sniffed and felt as if a smell was still lingering. He cursed quietly once more, his mood turning very sour.

While inwardly cursing the bird to a thousand cuts, Keen walked angrily out of the alley, intending to find some water to properly wash his face.

But as soon as he reached the other end of the alley, he noticed a handsome blond youth standing sideways at the alley entrance.

"Whoa—"

Keen paused for a moment, his gaze instinctively scanning over Anvis before pausing at the rings on his hand.

"Well, well, such tender skin, and look at that ring—a rare fat sheep!"

A thought instinctively flashed across Keen’s mind.

Although Anvis had already taken off his noble attire and hidden the Magic Aura of his Space Ring, Keen’s sharp eyes needed only a glance to sense the preciousness of the ring’s material.

Keen pretended to be nonchalant and continued walking forward, his gaze discreetly scanning left and right.

"So young, no Guards, a Noble young master who sneakily ran out to play? Could it be? Perhaps that’s a Magic Ring? Or even, a Space Ring?"

He swallowed secretly, a strong hue of greed flashing in his eyes.

Unlike other aimless riffraff, Keen had once had the good fortune to see a real Mage up close.

—That time, he unwittingly stole from right under a Mage’s nose!

Fortunately, the Mage didn’t turn him into a toad with Magic; he only commanded Keen to guide him for half a day, leading him to the Underworld Boss of the area.

Keen didn’t know what had transpired between the Mage and the Boss, but because of his act of leading the way, after the Mage Lord left, Keen endured a brutal beating and lay in bed for half a month before barely being able to set foot on the ground.

If not for the bag of Gold Coins he had hidden away which he gave to the innkeeper, he would have probably starved to death during that half month.

However, during this time, the ring on the Mage’s hand left a deep impression on him.

A big box, one and a half meters tall - the Mage Lord simply laid his hand on it, and with a slight flicker of the grey-black ring on his index finger, the box went whoosh and disappeared!

The material of that ring was very unique, Keen had never seen it before, but that didn’t hinder him from committing the appearance of the material to memory.

"I need a closer look... He looks unfamiliar, probably not a descendant of the local Noble Lords. Oh gods, if I’m careful enough, maybe... I could pull off a big heist this time!"

Carefully approaching Anvis, Keen sensed Anvis’s Strength covertly, finally realizing that he was merely an Official Professional, not much different from his own Strength.

That made Keen even more convinced that this was simply a naïve Noble youth, ignorant of the dangers of the outside world, who dared to casually wander around Dragon Shadow City on the basis of owning one or two pieces of Magic Equipment.

Keen’s throat moved slightly and he stared at Anvis out of the corner of his dark brown eyes, his heart thumping uncontrollably.

It seems that today is Uncle Keen’s lucky day!

If he offered such excellent goods to the City Lord, and the higher-ups were pleased, he would prosper along with them!

Little known to others was the fact that Keen, aside from being a pickpocket/thug/jobless vagrant, was also a Secret Spy for the City Lord Mansion, responsible for covertly monitoring the city’s situation and helping the big shots of the City Lord Mansion locate ’good merchandise’.

However, before making his move, Keen still looked around cautiously, making sure there were no meddling strangers nearby.

Due to the large number of dimwitted people in the past two years, who caused trouble for laughable ’justice’, as well as those rule-breaking foreign Professionals, Keen’s life had become much harder.

He was afraid of death, but those madmen were not.

He had witnessed first-hand the fate of the "Bloodthirsty Balzar" from that year, a Fourth Rank Great Thief. Relying on his Strength, he publicly tortured to death two foreign Thieves who stumbled onto his territory and sent a message to all foreigners:

No matter your previous Profession, once you come to Dragon Shadow City, you must follow the rules of the city!

But the result was that, within one Magic Time, along with the initially deceased two foreigners, nearly half the city’s foreigners gathered together and attacks nearly covered half a block.

After desperately killing dozens of foreigners, the Great Thief despaired to find that the enemies knew not the emotion of Fear. His killings not only failed to scare off others but made the Madness of the enemies grow stronger.

And what chilled Keen as a spectator was seeing several of the foreigners, previously fatally injured, reappear unscathed in less than twenty minutes.

Since then, he has been much more cautious in his actions, afraid of provoking these eerie individuals.

But it seems as if the goddess of fortune had favored him this time; there were neither oddly dressed individuals nearby, nor quirky Professionals hopping about, nor people all over the streets asking if you need help.

Feeling that there was no time to lose and confirming it was temporarily safe, Keen no longer concealed his intentions and immediately approached Anvis with a helpful demeanor.

"Greetings, young Sir, have you lost your way? Do you need my help to point you in the right direction?"

With a sycophantic smile typical of a lackey, Keen raised his hand to greet Anvis, putting on a harmless air.

He had calculated very clearly; although the other party was just a green young master, he would most likely have no hope of victory in direct combat. He had to get the other party to lower their guard first, and then take advantage of the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

"...Lost? Maybe I am. I need to go to a tavern nearby, but the person didn’t tell me the specific location of the tavern, so I have to search slowly."

Seeing Keen who had dilly-dallied for a long time finally approaching, Anvis gave him a ’wary’ glance, then relaxed as if he confirmed that Keen was not a threat to him, and began to openly explain his situation without any defense.

To avoid trouble, Anvis had specially adjusted his appearance, hiding his Extraordinary Charm along with his Strength and Bloodline. He just didn’t expect that his appearance would still attract the covetous gazes of others.