"Steal!" Chris made a fist and Kazuma saw it be engulfed by light. On the way back to town she had pulled him off the road to demonstrate this ability. She opened her hand and inside it was a familiar cloth purse. Kazuma checked and sure enough his money was no longer at his side.

"That's awesome! So, I can just take whatever I want from people?"

"Not quite," she playfully tossed his purse into the air and caught it. "You can't control what you take, but if it's a successful attempt you'll get something. If your target has a much higher level than you the attempt may fail. The good news is this is a luck-based skill. So, the higher your luck the better your prize will be."

"Oh, hell yeah!" He was all too aware that his one good stat was his luck. He pulled out his card and swiped to add Steal to his inventory of thief skills.

"Now keep something in mind, Kazuma." She started to walk over to him holding out his purse. "Stealing is a crime except when you're doing it to monsters or enemies during an adventure. I won't tell you to never use it outside of those times, but do be careful who you steal from. Got it?"

"Sure thing." He held out his hand to take his purse back.

Chris was about to drop it into his palm when she got a mischievous little grin. "Hey Kazuma, how about a little contest?"

"Huh? What do you have in mind?"

She took a couple steps back from him and picked up some pebbles from the ground. "I stole from you, how about you try and steal from me? Whatever you get you can keep. Maybe you'll get your purse back or mine. If you're really lucky you might get my dagger, it's worth 400,000 eris. Or you might just get these rocks. What do you say?"

Kazuma couldn't keep from smiling. Thanks to Chris he now had five amazing skills and was level four. When he got back to the guild he would collect 15,000 eris. Where this morning he'd felt hopeless and a failure he now felt like a real adventurer and was excited about the future. It was all thanks to Chris. He'd have happily split the reward with her 50 / 50, so the idea of losing the 1,500 eris in his purse didn't bother him. But more than that, just the idea of having a thieving contest her was so cool!

"You're on! Steal!" He made a fist and it filled with light. Inside his fist he could feel something materialize.

Chris had a startled look and let both the pebbles and Kazuma's purse fall.

Kazuma opened his hand to see what he'd got. It was a pair of white panties. "Whoa! Jackpot! Oh yeah!" He began hooting and hollering and waving the panties above his head. He was so excited at having his hands on a pretty girl's panties that he didn't notice when Chris started to cry.

"Ka- Kazuma, (sniff) h… how could you? I thought you were a nice guy! You're awful!" She put her hands to her face and began sobbing.

Kazuma immediately felt guilty at making her cry. "Hey, no! I didn't mean to I swear! Here, take them back! I'm so sorry, please don't be mad at me."

As he came over to return her panties Chris dropped her hands and pulled down the lower lid of one eye as she stuck her tongue out at him. "Just kidding."

"Huh?"

Chris began laughing as Kazuma just stood there holding her panties out.

"Oh? It's like that huh? Then I'm keeping these. That was the rule right? I keep whatever I steal."

Chris nodded. "Those were the terms, but you know it does feel a little drafty and I don't really want you to keep my panties. We've only just met after all. Tell you what, how about you let me ransom them back?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. "Fine, give me back my purse and yours."

"Whoa, I'm impressed, you sure your job class is adventurer and not thief?"

"What can I say? I have a great sensei. And it's your own fault for laughing at me. So, have we got a deal?"

Chris tapped her chin and thought about it. "I don't know, there's a lot of money in my purse. How about I give you something else?' She suddenly leaned in and whispered in his ear. "How about I let you watch as I put them back on?"

"Wh… What?!" He could feel his face turning red and his heart start to beat a million miles an hour. "You serious?"

She nodded. "I'll stand right on this spot and put them on. I won't even rush."

"Deal!" He practically shoved them into her hand.

"Thanks," she said. "Vanish." She and her panties disappeared.

"What? Hey! That's not fair!"

Apparently the vanishing ability didn't affect sound as he heard her laugh. "The deal was I'd put these back on right in front of you. I never said I'd be visible. Always consider your words carefully when you make a deal with someone. Think of this as another lesson from sensei. Now let me get these shorts off, they're soooooo uncomfortable like this."

He could clearly hear her unbuttoning her shorts.

"Oh, breezy."

"Noooooooooooooo!" He dropped to his knees crying to the heavens.

Chris kept laughing at him as she gave him a detailed account of putting her panties and shorts back on. And of course, she kept his 1,500 eris. Though she was nice enough to return his now empty purse.