"YOU! COME HERE!" A high-pitched voice came from the front as Abium was in deep thought. Upon hearing the cold voice, Abium narrowed his eyes and noticed that the owner of that voice was a rough-looking blonde-haired man. He was around 25 years old; he had a round face and deep blue eyes.
'Heh, even though I look like a servant boy, this guy instantly noticed something odd about me. He is good.' Abium stared back at the silvered armored guard for a second and then walked closer to him, showing a nervous expression.
As he arrived before the blonde hair guard, he bowed his head and greeted him.
But to his surprise, the royal guard ignored his action and quietly looked at his palm.
No, the royal guard was looking at his spatial ring!
'Tsk, I should have hidden it inside my pocket.' He cursed inwardly and soon spoke with a respected tone.
"Why did you call me, sir?"
"Where did you steal this silver ring? Give it to me." Without even glancing at Abium's face, the royal guard stared at the ring with glittering eyes and ordered. That blonde-haired royal guard knew that the silver ring with blue crystal must be some treasure and became overjoyed.
'How could a boy from slum hold a gem embedded silver ring? He must have stolen it from somewhere.' The blonde-haired guard judged.
Meanwhile, Abium started to have a headache. If this royal guard had asked the same question a while ago, he would have kicked his balls on the spot.
Unfortunately, he didn't want to attract too much attention now.
He instantly moved his hand towards his pocket and took a normal gold coin from it.
"Please take this gold coin and let me in, sir." Abium turned his expression pale and said in a hurried tone. He made his face look like he was panicking inside and started showing nervousness.
The blonde-haired royal knight's eyes lit up upon seeing his naive action. At that moment, he knew that this young man had more gold coins with him and said with a low tone.
"Heh, you have more gold coins, huh? If you give half of your shares, I will let you enter the slums without checking your identification number. How is it?" The blonde-haired guy asked with a wide grin on his face. When he saw a kid wearing a luxurious silver ring, he thought this kid was very immature in disguise and hiding skills and decided to make use of him.
Who would show their spoil to others if not an amateur thief? The blonde-haired guard quickly grabbed Abium's shoulder before responding and dragged him to a dark corner near the wall where fewer people were standing.
"Okay, kid. Listen to me carefully. You mustn't show your spoils like this. If you put a ring like this, it will attract more attention, and even the guard captain would become suspicious of you. Now take out your all the money." He said while showing his palm towards his front.
Meanwhile, Abium became speechless and quickly took out another three normal gold coins and a few silver coins while casting the 'Disguise' spell again. He didn't have any worry about being discovered by this guard.
'He is just a third-tier warrior.'
At the same time, the royal guard became dumbfounded as he saw another three shining gold coins on this little thief's hand and was shocked inside.
'He is good at stealing but doesn't know how to hide his treasures.' He rapidly nodded and took two gold coins while leaving one gold coin and a few silver coins on his palm.
"This time, I took extra gold for the ring on your finger. If you come here next time, just come and meet me. Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Palmer." The blonde-haired guard said with a wide grin and turned around before walking back to his position, leaving Abium stunned.
'Damn, did this mother f*cker just rob me?' Abium stood there with a dumbfounded expression and soon followed after Palmer while muttering with a helpless smile.
'At least, I didn't have to worry about me being interrogated by these guards from now on.'
Without minding a few gazes cast on him by a few ruffian-looking people, Abium joined one of the queues and waited for the gate to open.
Unlike the gates in the other three Boroughs, the Slum Borough gate would open only four times a day.
'I remember the gate opens in the early morning around six o'clock and closes after fifteen minutes. I don't know about the other two exact times in the day time. But I know the last time the gate opens will be around 11 P.M.' He glanced around and guessed that thousands of people were gathering around in front of the entrance.
Creaaakkk!
While he was in deep thought, the tall metal gate opened and made a creaking noise. Soon, Abium mingled with the thousands of people and entered the Slum Borough.
Once everyone entered the Slum Borough, they dispersed in different directions.
Meanwhile, Abium went on his own and soon found himself walking alone in the main street.
'Hmm, there are eleven different streets in this Borough, and each of them is controlled by a gang leader. For now, I should enter a random street and make a name for myself. After a few days, I will kill one of the gang leaders and steal his position.' Abium's eyes glinted in the cold moonlight.
He then glanced around to confirm if he was being followed and entered a narrow street on his right side.
Multiple small huts and half-broken old brick houses appeared on both sides. The street road stretched up to the city wall, two to three miles from where he stood.
'I need to find a place and change my facial appearance.' Abium thought to himself and looked at the left side alley.
Two tall building walls blocked the moonlight, making that area look gloomier. Before anyone could notice Abium's presence, he stepped forward and stealthily entered the dark alley.
After that, he took out the 'Faceless Glass' artifact from his space ring, imprinted it with his spirit power, and put it on his face.
The next instant, he sensed a slight decrease in mana.
Simultaneously, his face began to change slightly, and his elongated ears started to reduce in size.
'Heh, It seems this artifact can completely change my face into a new person. Even if someone touches my ears, they wouldn't be able to notice that I'm an elf.' Abium touched his face with his fingers and nodded with a pleasant smile on his face. Then, he took out a bottle of black dye from his spatial ring and opened it.
After checking the surroundings, he took out the magic lamp and lit it. The entire alley shone brightly in a split second while scaring a few rodents.
Without wasting much time, Abium started to take out a brush, mirror, and water pouch from his spatial ring and placed them one by one on the ground. After mixing the dye with water, Abium started to dye his hair. After a few minutes, he glanced at the palm-sized mirror and smiled lightly.
Instead of an elven face, his face now completely looked like his former self!
'It's time for me to go and get a fake identity.' Abium quickly put all those things into his spatial ring and moved towards the next street.
'But the problem is that I don't know much about this place. Although I heard that there are few places where I can get fake identities, I don't know where it is. From whom should I ask for help?'
At that moment, he noticed that he had reached the nearby street and halted his footsteps.
It wasn't because he was lost, but because he saw a few ruffian-looking guys moving in his direction while holding sharp knives in their hands. All those knives started to emit cold light in the full moonlight and looked dangerous.
'Trouble is coming.' Abium thought and soon noticed that many onlookers were running back to their houses and shutting their doors.
The slum people knew that even watching the ruffians killing a normal newcomer would bring them trouble. So, all of them shut their doors tightly and didn't even let out a shout.
'Gang members? They should know where to get a fake identity, right?' Meanwhile, Abium's lips curved upward.