Xu Nan's Workbench

The alley fell silent. Xu Nan had completed his mission and was considering how to send Qin Lele away, but he seemed to have accidentally revealed something.!

After a long while, Qin Lele eyed him warily. "You investigated me?"

Xu Nan let out a breath, then looked down and laughed. "No. When you fell from that banyan tree just now, you dropped your student ID. Look, isn't your name right there?"

Qin Lele looked down and found a student ID on the ground.

She hurriedly picked it up, looking utterly baffled. "Couldn't tell, but your eyesight's pretty good."

"Of course. Both my eyes are 5.3!" Xu Nan joked, only to be ruthlessly interrupted by Qin Lele. "Don't try to change the subject. My senses are sharp. Were you trying to hide something just now?"

"You were going to confess to me, right? What would you do if I actually accepted?"

Xu Nan looked awkward and sheepishly shifted the rose farther behind his back.

Qin Lele stared at Xu Nan for a full two minutes. Suddenly, she drew her fruit knife and pointed it at him. "Were you carrying this bouquet around tonight, looking for people to confess to?"

"Could you be a professional too? Are you grinding skill proficiency like me?"

Xu Nan was stunned. This silly-looking little girl actually had a shrewd side.

He answered decisively, "Impossible. What use is a skill like confessing?"

Qin Lele thought it over carefully and realized it really was useless. She could only snort coldly. "I won't like you."

"Move the flowers aside. I'll ask you one last time: are you helping me or not?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Xu Nan readily agreed. He had already completed his mission anyway, and Qin Lele's Pickpocketing Technique had probably lost quite a bit of proficiency because he had interrupted her repeatedly. He definitely had to help her make up for that.

With that, he spread his arms, looking as though he were at her disposal.

Qin Lele immediately got to work!

Whoosh!

Without Xu Nan stopping her, she was actually pretty fast. She stole his phone, keys, and some loose change from his pockets.

"Wait, I'll put these on the ground, then you pick them up yourself," Qin Lele explained. "That's the only way the theft counts as successful."

Xu Nan cooperated fully. He had always been a nice guy, and since he had tricked Qin Lele a few times, he felt guilty and was naturally happy to help.

And so, in the corner of the alley, the two of them began playing a game of close-range stealing and returning.

Xu Nan had it easy enough, since he was the one being robbed.

Qin Lele, on the other hand, was struggling. Before long, beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. It was clear that her Pickpocketing Technique was truly mediocre. She was not even as good as ordinary local thieves, much less a Master-level thief.

But not long after, when Qin Lele used Pickpocketing Technique again, Xu Nan suddenly felt a chill below his waist.

"What the hell?"

He stared dumbfounded at the Winnie the Pooh underwear in Qin Lele's hand.

Qin Lele was equally shocked. "You're a grown man, and you wear this kind of underwear?"

Xu Nan got angry. "Aren't you only supposed to steal money? How did you steal my pants... Huh? These aren't my underwear..."

A tough, straight-laced man like Xu Nan could not possibly own Winnie the Pooh underwear.

After thinking carefully, he realized something was wrong. He must not have checked properly when bringing in the laundry yesterday. This was Xin'er's underwear. No wonder it had felt so tight when he sleepily got dressed that morning.

"You like wearing other people's underwear?"

Qin Lele was even more shocked.

Xu Nan had no way to explain himself and could only snap, "Put them back on me, now!"

Qin Lele hurriedly said, "It's a side effect of Pickpocketing Technique. Sometimes it steals unexpected things. I don't know how to explain it either."

"I'll put them on for you. My hands are very nimble—it's a specialty from swimming. I guarantee you won't feel a thing."

The next second, Xu Nan felt a tightness below his waist. Looking down, he found that the Winnie the Pooh underwear had been put back on him—but over his pants!

"Do you think I'm Superman?" Xu Nan looked at her numbly.

Her face reddened. She tried to yank the Winnie the Pooh underwear off again, but apparently used too much force. With a ripping sound, the underwear tore apart.

The air froze.

Xu Nan trembled as he accepted the shredded pieces of underwear and looked at Qin Lele. "How about we call it a day?"

Qin Lele checked her Pickpocketing Technique proficiency and nodded. "Next time, wear something sturdier. It'll be faster for me to gain proficiency that way."

Xu Nan: "..."

"I'm leaving. Be careful." He did not want to stay in front of this bizarre thief girl for even another minute!

Qin Lele waved her phone. "Add me on WeChat! I still have to introduce you to beautiful women!"

"No need." Xu Nan refused firmly.

Beep beep beep. The sound of scanning a QR code rang out. At some point, Qin Lele had stolen Xu Nan's phone. Since this honest man had not set a password, she easily added herself as his friend!

"See you next time!" Qin Lele playfully stuck out her tongue, then suddenly leaped toward the alley wall. Her whole body began running along the wall at an eerie ninety-degree angle!

"My Agility is 20 points! This is Wall Running, a specialty brought by Extraordinary Agility!"

"Cool, right? Want to learn it?"

Her voice gradually faded away.

Xu Nan was stunned. Watching Qin Lele's dashing figure, he could not help nodding.

Then, the very next second, that figure missed a step at the end of the alley and crashed to the ground.

"Damn, it's so slippery..."

Qin Lele limped out of sight.

Xu Nan held roses in his left hand and Winnie the Pooh underwear in his right, with half a WeChat screen still sticking out of his pocket. His emotions were a tangled mess.

Xu Nan's WeChat contacts now had a new friend with a panda avatar.

This girl's nickname was rather fierce too: 36D Qin Lele.

Xu Nan laughed when he saw it. 36D, huh? He had originally wanted to block her, but after laughing, he casually changed her note to Flat Qin Lele.

Then he made it home without incident.

He definitely could not bring the underwear home. If Xin'er saw it, there would be no explaining the matter. Xu Nan found a trash can and threw it away.

His home was a row house left behind after his stepfather and mother passed away, complete with a garden and garage. Security around the neighborhood was quite reliable.

Even so, Xu Nan used the Magic Alarm he had learned that day to set up three alarms around the garden and garage.

If any unusual creature approached, he would sense it immediately.

Each alarm lasted only twenty-four hours, so Xu Nan had to renew them every day. But as a fledgling spellcaster, every casting was a brand-new experience, and Xu Nan never grew tired of it.

Only after finishing all that did he return home at ease.

He turned on the living room lights.

Quietly, he went up to the second floor and skillfully pressed his ear to the door.

A slightly husky, magnetic singing voice came from inside the room.

Xu Nan listened quietly for a while. It seemed to be a cover of a recently popular ancient-style song.

"Sounds pretty good. Looks like he's in a good mood today."

He cleared away the meal tray from the cabinet, then opened his phone again and found that he had been removed from the blacklist.

Xin'er's temper was strange. Being blocked was normal, but he would usually add Xu Nan back afterward. Though the kid was a little odd, he knew Xu Nan was his only family.

"I didn't take care of him all this time for nothing."

Xu Nan happily sent over an emoji, tidied up a little, and went to take a shower.

By the time he finished showering, it was already ten at night.

He returned to his room, drew the curtains, and shut the door tightly.

"Time to inspect this so-called secret method."

Sitting at the edge of his bed, he opened the Ron Sorcerer Secret Method list. Most of the secret methods on it were grayed out and sealed.

Only Xu Nan's Workbench could be activated.

Learning other secret methods required a large amount of Shame Points to exchange for them, making them far more expensive than ordinary spells. Before he understood the Ron Sorcerer Secret Method system, Xu Nan, who was short on funds, had no intention of spending recklessly.

He gently tapped Xu Nan's Workbench.

Something miraculous happened. A sturdy oak workbench suddenly appeared before him, twice the size of a laboratory table.

The workbench had every tool imaginable: flasks, an alcohol lamp, tweezers, basic processing tools, alchemy materials, and an instruction manual.

Instruction Manual: Every Ron Sorcerer is a born alchemist. After activating the workbench, you will automatically gain the specialty—Item Creation—and the secondary class—Alchemist. You may choose from the most basic item crafting options. Further alchemy study requires extensive reading of alchemy books.

At the same time, Xu Nan's character sheet did indeed gain the Item Creation specialty.

Under Item Creation were four branches—potions, mechanics, enchanting, and basic. The first three required at least second tier, meaning character level 5 or above, to activate. Only the basic branch was lit up.

Item Creation was a specialty, but while the workbench was active, Xu Nan automatically gained the Alchemist secondary class. Therefore, this specialty was quickly assigned to the Alchemist's class skills.

He currently had one Item Creation skill point. There were not many basic items available to him, only three: rings, scrolls, and spyglasses.

He immediately ignored scrolls. Xu Nan was a sorcerer himself, so copying scrolls was no problem, and he did not have enough materials anyway. Spyglasses might be useful in the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons, but on Earth, he might as well buy one on Taobao.

That left rings.

Without hesitation, Xu Nan invested the skill point into rings, and a stream of information immediately flooded into his mind.

You have learned to craft the basic item: Ring

Several boxes of raw materials appeared on the workbench. This was the Ron Sorcerer beginner package. Once he used them up, he would have to find ways to purchase more through various channels.

Xu Nan opened the material boxes and discovered that, according to the knowledge he had acquired, each box could forge one ring.

The most basic ring could provide one point of Perception and had no other attributes.

Even so, he eagerly began trying.

For an entire night, he experimented with polishing and crafting rings at his workbench.

Out of six sets of materials, he failed four times. In the end, only two rings took shape.

One was the most basic ring, increasing Perception by one point.

The other was an unexpected delight.

Ring (Bloodline Enchantment +1)

Description: Perception +1; can use Misty Step three times per day

...!