The Villain Can't Catch A Break

After a good night's rest, Adam had breakfast at the hotel with Henrietta, it was about time he went around the city for hidden pieces.

He gave Henrietta 10 silver and told her that she could buy anything she wanted with that money.

For Henrietta, who had spent her entire life in the Dacre Estate, this was an amazing opportunity.

As soon as Adam handed her the money, she had vanished instantly.

Adam did worry at the back of his mind, whether something might happen to her or she might attract too much attention, due to her immense beauty.

He chose not to think about it anymore, it was quite a rarity for crimes to occur in broad daylight in Duke Ivrea Arlae's capital city.

Adam now had 49 silver and 90 copper coins left over from what he had looted from the bandits that had ambushed him.

While he was concerned about running out of money, he chose to let go of his concerns since he could easily do missions for the adventure guilds in Brahken to gain a good amount of coin.

He knew that once he made it into the academy, he would never have to worry about money again.

Adam chose to go for the easiest hidden piece in the city.

This hidden piece was an Easter egg put into the game by the devs to pay homage to cultivation stories.

It was a very cliché setup to get this Easter egg, similar to many cultivation stories.

Adam made his way to the main market of the city where the easter egg was located.

There, he saw an old man with torn-up clothes and dirt all over them, his skin was covered in dirt as well along with his incredibly long white beard and hair.

He sat on the floor with many old and worn-out books displayed in front of him in a clumsy manner.

He kept screaming at the top of his voice deliriously, "BU... BU... BUY MY MARTIAL ARTS MANUALS FROM AN ANCIENT TIME! DOMINATE THE BATTLEFIELD IN CLOSE COMBAT! IF YOU MASTER EVEN ONE OF THESE MANUALS, THE DUKE HIMSELF WILL MAKE YOU A GENERAL IN HIS ARMY!"

The crowd of people that roamed the market stared down at him with a mocking chuckle as they passed by, someone seemed to have reported the old man to the guards, complaining about how annoying and disturbing his activities were at the marketplace.

He was probably just a shopkeeper near the area where the old man sat on the road, this man was probably annoyed because nobody was coming to his shop due to the old man nearby acting as a turn-off for most people.

The guards soon made their way to the old man, grabbing him by the arm and trying to drag him away after telling him that he wasn't allowed to sell things at the marketplace since he didn't have the proper papers nor did he rent a stall to sell his goods from.

Oddly enough, the guards were logical with their reasoning, he had thought they would just blatantly bully the old man like some third-rate villains without a brain.

The guards were just doing their job to maintain order in the city.

It was time for Adam to intervene.

As Adam walked towards the conflict taking place in front of him, the crowd of bystanders who were observing the old man getting dragged out by the guards suddenly noticed Adam's presence in the marketplace.

A little girl who came to the market with her mother to get some candies looked at Adam as he walked toward the old man with an aloof and indifferent expression on his face.

The little girl then went on to poke her mother's leg incessantly until her mother paid attention to her, then the little girl pointed towards Adam as he walked towards the old man and his pop-up shop.

The mother had her eyes fixated on Adam now, and so did everyone else, his beauty seemed otherworldly as if he wasn't of this world.

Even the shopkeepers had stopped all their work and just stared at Adam as he walked towards the old man.

Adam approached the guard, "Excuse me, I have some business with the old man that you're about to drag away, I would really appreciate it if you could let me speak with him before you drag him away."

At first, when the guards heard the voice, they were angry at whoever the voice came from, since they wondered who dared to stop them from doing their job.

Then, the guards turned their heads with furrowed brows, towards the source of the voice, the anger that had warped their facial expressions was replaced with a blank look, as if the anger had never been there in the first place.

They looked at the man in front of them, he wore clothes of nobility, had fair skin with a chiseled sharp jawline, hair as white as snow itself, and purple eyes that felt otherworldly when looked at, even just looking at his eyes for more than a second made them feel that the eyes emitted illusionary magic that they would get lost within if they looked into his eyes for too long.

One of the guards replied," Ah sir you are too polite, please go ahead and talk to this old man, we won't bother you anymore."

The last thing the guards wanted was to get involved with some big shot and risk losing their job or in the worst-case scenario, their life.

It was obvious no matter who looked at the scene that Adam was no ordinary man. Expensive noble suits like the ones he wore weren't given out like hotcakes to the common folk, his physical features made it even more obvious that he was an outsider in the city.

He seemed like someone from a rich noble bloodline who had come to the city to take care of some important matters that were way above the pay grade of these foot soldiers who roamed the streets.

Who knows, maybe the man in front of them had some connection with the Duke, maybe he was someone who came to the city with an invitation from the Raikiri Guild, one of the top 5 adventure guilds on the continent.

Adam was confused, the guards gave up on trying to persecute the old man a little too easily. They didn't even get angry at Adam for disturbing them as they did their job.

Adam didn't think much of it as it was such a minor incident.

Little did Adam know, even drops could make waves in the ocean.

The old man was rubbing his buttocks when he was dropped by the guards haphazardly in a hurry, which caused him to fall onto the pavement, buttside down.

While rubbing his *ss vigorously, the old man said, "Haha boyo, thanks a lot for helping me deal with those unruly guards, a man cannot even sell his books in peace in this town nowadays."

The old man then looked at Adam, what he saw caused him to have a big smile on his face.

"Young man, you look like someone with an extraordinary temperament and backing, since you helped this old man out today, I will give you a discount on any book you choose to buy from me."

"Senior, that won't be necessary I came to buy a book from you and I will pay the full price for it. It is wrong for me to take advantage of a person due to their bad situation."

Adam didn't mean any of the words he said, it was the womanizer trait forcing him to say whatever it wanted him to since a large crowd filled with both men and women was observing the situation.

Free speech is no more.

Adam pointed towards a worn-out book with a half-torn cover that was of the same color as the bark of a black acacia tree.

"Senior I would like to buy this book from you."

"Oh, this one? The young man you truly have an eye for treasure, this martial arts manual came from a sect that had ceased to exist for over 1000 years."

Adam took the old man's words as gibberish, he didn't think anything of the information provided by the old man.

Anything related to sects, cultivation, or martial arts didn't exist in the game except for this Easter Egg.

The old man was probably making things up about the book on the fly.

"Young man, this book, I will give it to you for 10 copper coins."

Adam paid the full price of the book and had the book in his hands. Before leaving, however, he chose to give the old man 10 silver coins.

It wasn't due to his ego or a sense of pity that he gave away the money, the old man reminded Adam of his childhood.

Even if it was for a little while, Adam wanted the old man to enjoy himself with the money he had given him.

"Senior, I know it's not much but I hope you can eat something nice with this money.

"Haha, Young man, you truly have a heart of gold. This old man hopes that your future is filled with blessings."

As soon as the old man said that, a system notification popped up.

|| A being with great divinity has blessed you. You gain +10 luck.||

After a long time, Adam saw a system message that was quite pleasant, while it didn't mean much that his luck increased since it was now -90 luck instead of -100, even a little help with his current predicament was appreciated.

'An old beggar who sells ruined books is now a divine being? This world never ceases to surprise me no matter how much I know about it.'

Adam chuckled inwardly at the thought of the beggar that reminded him of his childhood to be some sort of hidden divine being. It was a truly nonsensical notion. It was probably a joke played by the devs since this was an Easter Egg.

Adam then bid the old man farewell, turned, and left the market, the aloof expression that the old man had, vanished as he stared at Adam's back as he walked away, it was replaced with an insidious smile. Adam was clueless about this development that took place behind his back.

Adam moved on to the next thing on his agenda for the day. He had to prepare more than he normally would have for the next hidden piece. Even though his luck had improved a little, he still didn't know when it was going to trigger again.

Adam walked forward with the same belief that he had learned in his past life.

'Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.'

It was time to spend the causality energy he had gained by successfully completing the journey to Brahken with a messed up vehicle.

||HOST HAS SPENT A 100CE TO BUY THE TRAIT [FORMATION BEGINNER]{E}. ||

Adam had bought a trait that gave him the knowledge of magic circle formations which is a field of magic that allows you to make magic scrolls and large-scale magic formations to apply magic on a large area.

Adam's plan was to absorb the GRAV affinity that was there in one of the graves in the Brahken cemetery.

He made his way to the Raikiri Guild's equipment shop to prepare.

He greeted the shopkeeper, once again, everyone present in the shop had stopped doing whatever they were doing and everyone was looking at Adam, paying attention to his every action.

Adam was already used to it after the hotel lobby and the marketplace so he didn't pay any heed to it.

"I would like to buy 72 formation nodes, a simple sword, a shovel, and an F-grade mana stone."

Adam waited for the shopkeeper to tell him the price of all of the goods he asked for, but instead, the shopkeeper just stared at his face with a blank expression, it seemed like she was out of it.

Adam snapped his fingers with [Oscillator] to bring her head back to reality.

"Ma'am, can you please bring me what I ordered?"

"Ah?.... oh.. oh yes, sorry for the delay customer, here is your stuff."

Adam was now flat-out broke. He only had 5 silver coins to his name now. Just enough for all their meals during their stay in the city.

Adam went back to his hotel room and left a note for Henrietta for when she returned.

'I won't be back until early in the morning. I have something important to take care of, sleep without me, I have left some money for dinner as a paperweight on this note.'

After nightfall, Adam made his way to the Brahken Cemetery with all of his equipment in tow.

He was stopped by the guards who asked him why he wanted to enter the cemetery at midnight.

Adam looked the guard dead in the eye and said," I used to live in this city during my childhood, we moved away after my grandparents died, and now my father and mother have passed away as well, it was her dying wish for me to leave our family's heirloom at our grandmother's grave as a means to pay respect to her since it serves me no purpose."

It was a stretch to say that the guard's suspicion of Adam going to the cemetery at such a time was all gone because of Adam's made-up explanation.

Somehow, it seemed to have worked, the guard had been moved to tears by Adam's story, and the guard beside him was already crying.

"Living like that must have been so hard for you, it's a shame that life in Brahken didn't work out for you, I wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors, we hope your grandma rests in peace."

After saying that both the guards made way for Adam and gave Adam a slight bow as they opened the gates for him.

Adam was very confused at the situation unfolding before him, he had never thought it would be this easy to lie his way through the gates.

He was already preoccupied by the contingencies that he had to prepare for in the cemetery just incase his bad luck acted again.

Adam went into the cemetery, it was was an incredibly large area with at least a 100k graves.

Adam moved his attention to the task at hand. He had to cover the entire cemetery with an anti-magic formation.

Adam began making the formation by placing formation nodes according to the information in his head.

It took him 4 hours to finish making the formation.

Not a single soul was around the cemetery at this time. The guards had probably fell asleep by now as well.

Adam went towards a tombstone at the centre of the cemetery. The tombstone seemed to have been cleanly cut in half diagonally as if a person well versed in the way of the sword had slashed it.

It was time for Adam to dig up a grave. Completely oblivious to what was taking place unbeknownst to him, in the city of Brahken.