13 Incident

One week after Clay had started his grind.

On this day, Clay was selling, as what he did for the past 5 days, until, an incident happened.

On this fine evening, Clay was waiting for the person in front of him to finish using the map, when he suddenly dashed away with the map in hand from Clay, Clay took a moment to process what had happened before screaming, that moment that Clay paused gave the man a headstart.

"THIEF! THERE'S A THIEF!" Clay shouted at the man who suddenly took off with his map.

Passerby looked at the man running and at Clay who was screaming, none seemingly trying to take action.

Clay was dumbfounded at this scene, the thief was clearly running away and passed by some who were looking at the situation, they didn't even block the thief's way.

'Alright, I'll remember you guys' faces so I can blacklist you from my shop' Clay thought before deciding to run full speed at the thief under the blazing sun.

The man stopped soon after, he was out of breath, panting from the heat. The man seemed to have forgotten that no one could really have run for a long time in the heat. Clay was not that much better either, he was sweating buckets before coming to a screeching halt, relieved that the thief also felt tired, otherwise, he wouldn't have hung on much longer chasing after him. Then anger bubbled up from Clay's heart.

"You can't go anywhere in this village, I remember your face and I will come to find where you live, give me back my map, if you still try to run away, then I guess you can spend the rest of your days living in fear of when I find you, should I remind you that I have a map of Cantor's Retreat? I can peek at you at any time, so, sir lay down the map and we will all pretend that this had never happened" Clay lied through his teeth, as he would have never moved on like nothing happened, at most he will spy at the man for a little bit and spread rumors about him, he wasn't one who could forgive others easily, Clay is quite petty, mind you.

The man hearing what Clay said, hesitated, and while taking some steps away from Clay, the man proceeded to drop the map and get out of there quickly, hoping that Clay wouldn't remember most of his facial features.

Seeing that the man had dropped the map and had backed away, Clay heaved a sigh of relief, then his relief turned into desperation.

'If only I was stronger this wouldn't have happened, if only' Clay clenched his fists.

Too bad that there were no 'ifs' in this world, there are only 'what did happen' unless, Clay would find a way to time travel, then there is surely no way to change what had happened in the past.

Clay picked up his map from the ground, inspecting it to see if it is damaged in any way.

'System check item description'

*Ding!*

|Unnamed Map (Tier 1)|

\A tier 1 map created by Clay Mapa, an amateur mapper, this map can show a first-person view of areas in Cantor's Retreat shown in the map./

Seeing that his first-ever map was undamaged, Clay was relieved. Clay was bluffing to the man when he said that he could find him with his map because the map that the man had taken was the same map that Clay said he was going to find him with.

'It was a good thing that the adrenaline got into the man's head, otherwise, he would have known and seen through my bluff'

'Anyway, now I gotta watch out for thieves thanks to that experience, maybe I can call Josh so he can help me deal with them robbers' Clay thought as he knew if a robbery happened again he wouldn't be able to catch up, given that most of the other adults of his village had higher stats than him, the only reason Clay got his map back today was that the man was scared of the consequences. If Clay had met a seasoned thief then he would have no choice other than to accept his fate.

Clay didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he had an experience that made him feel bitter but on the other hand, he was also given a reminder that something like this could always happen.

'Gotta ask Josh today then, he might be busy tomorrow so it is best to inform him today, rather than just surprise him and drag him with me when he had something important to do' Clay thought considerately.

As Clay went to his stand to pack things up he glanced at his earnings for the day and pondered how much he had earned for the past week.

'I got 200 Cits for the first day, but then gave 50 to Mom, got 560 Cits in the second day, gave 50 away as well, then for the third day 410 Cits gave 50...'

'In total, I have earned 1560 Cits in just this week alone, and that is with 200 subtracted, my earnings lessened over these last few days' might be because most of the people here had already used my map' Clay calculated.

'I reached the halfway point much more easily than I expected, seems like I'm gonna reach my goal much faster than I thought, but I feel like I can get a well-deserved rest, so maybe tomorrow I might just stay at home' Clay thought as he walked to Josh's house.

He knocked gently on the Daskt family doors, this time Josh answered the door.

"Hey, Clay, what are you doing here?" Josh asked as he knew Clay wouldn't come at this time, especially in the morning.

"I was looking for your help again if you don't mind" Clay asked, trying to see if Josh was busy.

"Oh, what do you need help with?" Josh tilted his head.

"Well, you see, I got robbed today, so-" Before Clay could finish what he was saying Josh interrupted him.

"YOU GOT ROBBED?!?!" Josh exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah, but it's okay now, I got my stuff back" Clay calmed his friend down.

"Oh, phew, that's good to hear, now what did you need help with again?" Josh nodded his head.

"Uh, yeah, I need a bodyguard of the sort, to help me in case I get robbed again, you can refuse if you have anything important to do in the next few days" Clay said.

"Hmm, okay, what time do we go?" Josh replied.