CHAPTER 118.

Amber immediately headed to the Magic association even though it wasn’t even midnight yet. She had long grown familiar with the Sacred Forest, no longer needing Silvette to tour her around or to use her family name in order for her to gain access to things. Instead, the Dazdril family had given her a document that appointed her as their most trusted associate and mistreating her would be akin to mistreating the family.

In short: she had complete freedom inside the Sacred Forest and was essentially treated as nobility. And it was quite nice. Of course, that hardly mattered inside the Magic Association because social standing wasn’t important in the field of magic in the first place. Instead what was important was fame, or… the opposite of that.

Amber smiled at the elven guard at the entrance who flinched.

Ever since she became the crazy girl who made her finger blew up, no one really dared disrespect her. And so, she waltzed through the halls as people looked at her with wariness. Hearing a myriad of various rumors.

“I heard that she is planning on discarding her flesh for metal…”

“Never thought that a warrior would be the one to try to revolutionize body enhancement magic…”

“Do you think she wants to punish us for how we’ve treated her⁠—”

“Shh, she’ll hear you.”

In all honesty, Amber ate up every single reaction she got; it was vindicating after all. However, she didn’t linger around, instead she headed in a straight path towards Maxwell’s lab reaching it in no time, and when she opened the door she found Remmel sitting on her desk, looking at the ceiling, the chair knocked to the side.

And not too far away, there was an anxious looking Aveline.

Remmel looked down, surprised. “Oh, you’re here much sooner than I expected.”

“Right, where is Maxwell?” Amber asked.

From what she remembered of her teacher he would normally spend most nights in his lab, but he seemed to be missing.

“Also, why reunite here?”

Remmel smiled at her questions. “Maxwell is out, I arranged an errand for him for this meeting. As for why here? Well, I just figured a familiar location would be best.”

He hopped off the desk, turning serious.

“After all, we have to review our plan to ensure this goes smoothly.”

At that, Amber nodded, remembering the circumstances of what was happening tonight. And so, Remmel began to explain his plan.

* * *

The plan had been revised, quite a lot actually. Before, it required them to sneak in with a teleportation spell whereas now they would just walk right in, quite literally. And it was all because apparently Aveline had reached her level 150 advancement in the two weeks during Remmel’s tutelage.

And using her unique class, they would walk around the place and strategically knock out the high leveled guards before accessing the so-called Forbidden Archive and then heading to the treasury to end the heist. As for the Arcane Council members? They would get hunted down the day after if all went to plan.

Amber took a deep breath to steel herself, they were all hidden under the darkness, right next to the elven parliament building, and it was also the place they were about to access. She was currently wearing her usual armor, though Remmel had dyed it white with some kind of artifact to make her a lot less recognizable⁠— she had also braided her hair and changed her hairstyle completely.

Amber looked over at Aveline who was preparing a spell.

[Mage. Lvl. 150]

That was all her class said and yet…

Remmel smiled. “She can erase anyone’s presence now, you see? Before it was limited to just hers. And that’s the core of our plan. Aveline is a non-combatant so we’ll both have to protect her should anything happen.”

Amber found it a bit hard to believe; not the fact that Aveline wasn’t a combatant, but that her class was as good as to let the entire operation rely on it. But she decided to ultimately just go with it.

And finally, after two minutes of preparation, Aveline raised her staff as it shone with a dim light.

“Erase.”

And at that moment, magic particles surrounded all of them. Amber blinked, and for a moment she lost perception of Remmel and Aveline, but with a following spell of blue light, she was able to see all of them again.

Was that the work of her class? Amber was surprised, the fact that a class like that even existed.

“Ah, but if we attack anyone the stealth will be broken for a whole minute, so make it count,” he said, in a hushed whisper. “If we kill anyone while in stealth the skill will go on a month long cooldown, so don’t hit anyone too hard.”

Amber nodded at that. At least the skill wasn’t completely broken, though she was curious about asking Aveline to use it for testing purposes in the future; the last thing she wanted was to be a victim of a skill like that in the future after all.

“Well if nobody has any questions, let’s go then. No talking within a meter of anyone.”

Amber once more nodded as they walked across the street and surprisingly walked past the guards at the arched entrance and quickly found themselves in front of a locked door. One that Remmel unlocked by⁠— using a key.

The door clicked open and everyone went in before it was locked behind. And just like that, they made it into the building’s reception. One that was covered in green carpet and filled with rustic wooden furnishings and the occasional well cared for plan.

However, Amber didn’t stay around to admire the room, but rather quickly follow after Remmel as they passed by the occasional guard, and needless to say that they were…

[Mage. Lvl. ???]

[Mage. Lvl. ???]

…

Probably above level 250 would be Amber’s guess.

But they didn’t let that deter them,

* * *

They quickly descended various floors. On average, there were about six mages per floor, and about three sets of detection runes — that Remmel would simply deactivate with a skill of his. And on about the sixth floor the guards became more scarce, reducing to four and yet their level seemingly increased as they became seemingly unable to sense them at two meters away.

At first, the whole operation was almost ruined, but Amber sent a gust of wind towards a plant, making its leaves rustle as the guards immediately rushed to take a look of whatever was going on. And soon enough, that became the go to plan to continue descending the floors.

By the ninth floor the security got so tight that they had to stop walking every five seconds for Remmel to wait on his skill cooldown to disable the various runes for detection. The drawback was that his skill had a grand cooldown of a whole minute. So the descent slowed down to a crawl there and it took a whole hour before they reached the 10th floor.

And also the final floor, which happened to be devoid of detection runes.

Amber’s eyes narrowed as she saw two guards in the distance, guarding a pair of black double doors. The floor itself was circular with a garden in the very center.

“Now, we knock those guys out and access the Forbidden Archives,” Remmel whispered.

And to her surprise both of the guard’s eyes darted towards both of them, but they simply frowned as they continued their station. Remmel in response to that frowned, but reached for his back pocket and handed Amber a curved dagger with a purple blade. And to her surprise, she could observe tiny rune etchings that were barely visible along the blade itself.

She blinked, recognizing it, and soon enough Appraisal went off.

[Relic Grade ⁠— Remmel’s Prized Dagger ⁠— Superb Quality

This is a dagger forged for Remmel the assassin that has been enchanted to its limits. This sword bears the following enchantments.

Defense Breaker: This dagger will be 1.5x stronger against anything that protects the enemy’s vitals.

Master of Venom: Allow the wielder to select a particular venom on the weapon, in order for this venom to be selectable the weapon must be in contact with the venom for a one week. Current venom: Ancient Nebulae Moth.

Heavy Piercer: Stabs from this dagger will have double the weight behind them.

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Ability: Self-repair: At the cost of your mana Remmel’s Prized Dagger will be repaired from any damage.

Ability: Deadly injection: At the cost of your mana cause the dagger to release venom at will.

To her surprise, Remmel’s dagger was damn strong, and it was her tool to use. She met Remmel’s gaze and again nodded. She was the minion in this mission and she had no issue with that, because after all, she only cared about the information to be received.

Amber and Remmel slowly walked towards the guards, well Amber mostly mirrored the assassin’s movements, to approach but quickly frowned as she saw the level of the guards.

[???. Lvl. ???]

[???. Lvl. ???]

They were at the very least level 283, but Amber mainly guessed they were level 300. And as they reached the three meter mark, both of the guards entered alert, and with whispers as cue, Amber executed.

In a single moment, she used the 3rd Rank of Quick Dash, her Essence flaring to the max her core straining, her Essence pushing into her Legacy Branch, enhancing all of her skills, and Amber’s body cracked as she stabbed towards the mage’s back.

His eyes widened and the barrier that was protecting him⁠— exploded. The mage barely dodged as his shoulder was nicked, and even then Amber injected her venom. The guard was shocked, but he raised his staff as it glowed with a yellow light ⁠— probably to trigger the alarm ⁠— and Amber stabbed forward, her eyes narrowing.

Inexorable Will.

The man froze for a moment and the dagger drove right into her stomach as it pumped the man full of venom, he convulsed for a moment before he collapsed. And Amber heard another thud shortly after.

“I knew I could count on you,” Remmel said. “Your level truly makes no sense.”

Amber scoffed and threw his dagger at him, she was sweating. “So, now we gather information?”

“Yep, elves are so sure of their security that we can just waltz right in now. Of course, if the elven patriarch were here, it’d be a different story.”

“Why’s that?” Amber raised her brow.

Remmel walked to the double doors and pushed, smiling. Amber blinked as she saw a grand library and also a bed in the middle of the wide room. A fancy one with curtains.

“Because this is also his private chamber,” Remmel said.

“Oh huh…” Amber was lost.

And Aveline popped out of thin air. “Let’s get to work, there is probably another patrol on the way.”

“In an hour or so, they kinda slow at that,” Remmel shrugged. “Besides, it won’t matter when we open the vault.”

Amber paused, “Wait, what?”

And in response he grinned. “You’ll see.”

Remmel stepped forward and headed towards a bookshelf before pausing. “Oh, yeah the information about primordials we’re trying to find should be somewhere on the bed or in the bed, so look for that, will you?”

Amber didn’t even so much as agree as she teleported on top of the bed, the double doors were closed as Aveline finished dragging the unconscious guards inside and then she began to use some spells. And soon enough, Amber got to work.

The first thing she did was grab the pillows and pat them roughly, and then disassembled them until finding nothing⁠— though she didn’t break them. Oddly enough deliberate destruction of property felt weird to her, instead she simply tossed them aside and moved to the mattress.

The mattress itself was normal. There was nothing there, so she tossed it aside, opting to break it later if necessary. And finally, she got to the wooden bed base, she placed her fingers on it and, blinked.

Huh.

Amber followed the rough feeling on the wood, it was most definitely uneven, incredibly so. It was like a perpendicular slope from one part of the wood to the other. She frowned roughly following it along the frame until her finger felt something loose, and she pressed.

There was a click and a compartment popped up, much to her surprise.

“Was that supposed to be hard to find?” she wondered out loud, grabbing the wooden box. She had expected it to explode or something at this point, but to her surprise a thin booklet came out of it.

And she flipped through the pages.

Primordial Spirit of the Arthra forest: Not much is known about them other than the fact that their light color is blue. Every few hundred years they will terrorize adventurers that dare challenge their tower.

“Oh, huh.”

It seemed to be an encyclopedia of spirits. She continued reading. Val’leri had multiple paragraphs about her, mainly how to talk with her and how to address her as well as good gifts to bring during negotiations, surprisingly enough.

Then there was Sid’fril, who was mentioned as mysterious but also life-ending if one should encounter him.

After that, Amber read about the Primordial Spirit of the continents of Arveil and Lathyzia, not much was known about them other than they changed residences every few decades between the two continents. And they loved advancements in magic; showing them one would end with receiving their blessing.

She read about one in the continent of Kartil, who actually had an empire and was its ruler. Though he lived deep in the mountains and was mostly isolated from all the politicking of the mortals it seemed.

Amber continued reading, not finding anything else interesting other than general locations⁠⁠— about five primordials, not including her friends. And finally, she reached the end.

The Primordial Spirit of the Republic of Mercenaries.

Status: Sealed.

That’s… everything it said. Amber blinked, and a moment later the last page combusted into flames as she tried to store it into her ring but found herself unable to. Then her core trembled as she felt Essence come from the ashes themselves, a minimal amount of it. And words were being forced into her mind as she absorbed the meager amount.

Punishment. Penance. Rempetance. Capital sin.

And for a moment Amber saw a sandstone monolith above ground, then for a moment she saw a Primordial Spirit, one with a dim green light, chained inside a black void by Essence shackles, before it all vanished.

Amber blinked, staring at the air, she thought of everything she had seen and then just paused, finally moving her mouth.

“What the fuck…?”

A fucking Primordial Spirit had committed a capital sin and was fucking sealed away. How did that even work? She couldn’t make sense of it. Did another spirit seal them? Most likely. Was there a chamber of spirits that unanimously decided to imprison him? Most likely not.

Her mind was reeling from the revelation she had just witnessed before Remmel arrived, appearing by his side.

“Discover something?”

Amber blinked, and turned her mouth to speak. “The dormant Primordial Spirit in the Republic of Mercenaries is⁠—”

And Amber lost her voice as she tried to speak.

“Is?” Remmel raised his brow.

“Is…” Sealed. Is what Amber wanted to say, but she couldn’t. “There is information that I can’t tell you, for…” She also couldn’t say that.

“Huh.” He cocked his head, curiosity in his expression. “I’ve actually seen someone cut out like this before, interesting that it suddenly happened to you. But it's also annoying.”

“Annoying?” Amber blinked.

“Well how am I supposed to sell the information if you can’t tell me,” he explained simply.

“Fair…” Amber acquiesced. “You can keep some loot too then.”

“That was already planned.” He snatched the notebook in her hand, flicking through it. “At least some of this is useful. Was the last page detailed?”

Amber shook her head.

“Should I be worried?” He raised his brow.

“If nothing happens, no. If something happens, maybe. Imagine waking up someone that shouldn’t be woken up,” Amber explained cryptically.

And he nodded. “Okay, just don’t wake him up then.”

“I have no reason to.” Amber snorted.

Yet⁠—

And the door exploded with a loud explosion, alarms immediately blasting as Remmel threw a cloak over Amber.

“That was faster than I thought,” he scoffed. “Aveline!”

“Right away!”

Amber peeked from between the fabric and Aveline appeared, her staff shining a golden light as she hit it on the ground.

Shuffle.

All three of them appeared outside the archives, in the middle of the small patch of forest that was by it. And Remmel laughed hearing the guards.

“They stole a quarter of it, get them!”

“You people won’t escape.”

And Remmel reached for a branch. “Unfortunately for you people, I know more than any random assassin.”

Then he pulled as the branch cracked with a mechanical sound and the guards screamed as a blue barrier was erected around the patch of forest. No one but them inside. And then, it began to slowly descend, spinning as if it were a screw.

“He knows of the vault, this is bad!”

“Break the barrier!”

And Amber blinked, readjusting the cloak seeing over thirty guards gathering and attacking the barrier desperately with spells that even terrified her. And Remmel cackled.

“God, would you believe it? They haven’t gotten a breach in fifty years, talk about their hubris getting in the way,” he said, smiling.

Amber looked over. “What happened fifty years ago?”

“Your friend happened.” He wiped a tear of his eye. “And her break-in caused the entirety of the vault to be remade into the current one.”

“Right…”

Frei is fucking infamous, huh?

“Anyway, let’s focus up, leaving is gonna be a pain soon so we gotta hurry,” he said. “Don’t want the level 350 head guard to show up.”

And a moment later the platform clicked into place as the now solid barrier opened up to a doorway made of metal. Which Remmel gestured at her to take down. Amber immediately kicked it, and dented it, and with a second kick it got blasted.

Remmel shrugged, walking past her. “They kind of just assumed a warrior would never get here, so… it’s kind of useless against you.”

Of course.

Amber shook her head and walked into the vault, it had white marbled walls and pillars that were covered with leaves, and also there was gold. A lot of gold. However, Remmel ignored all of it, and Amber did too. Turns out, the idea of stealing felt beneath her. Weird morals she had. Aveline however, quietly helped herself without trying to draw too much attention while following them.

They walked through the long vault as Remmel frowned, looking around before his eyes fixated in a direction and he grinned.

“Aha. Follow me.”

He immediately sprinted over all the piles of gold, and Amber followed using the 3rd Rank of Quick Dash, Aveline appeared with teleport a moment later. And Remmel was… feeling a wall.

They were at the end of the vault at this point, and yet Amber almost saw it coming but he pressed a brick down and the entire vault trembled as the wall began to slide up, revealing a pedestal made out of nearly fossilized wood.

“The information passed by the leader was true,” Remmel whispered, excitedly.

And Amber blinked as she caught sight of a staff made out of metal with engravings and a green crystal at its tip.

“It’s really here…” Aveline gasped.

Amber used Appraisal and she immediately realized it.

[??? Grade ⁠— ??? ⁠— ??? Quality

??? ??? ??? ??? ???.]

It was a divine artifact.

“Let’s get that money,” Remmel grabbed the staff and at that moment a deep blue light flashed behind them with a burst of green.

And Amber turned, feeling four presences. All of them were mages in robes, and their levels were…

[???. Lvl. ???]

[Mage. Lvl. ???]

[Lightning Mage. Lvl. ???]

[Fire Mage. Lvl. ???]

However, they weren’t from the Arcane Council.

“So you’ve betrayed me in spite of my benevolence, not only did you refuse my invitation to come here, you also lied about not wanting to achieve the greatest heights of magic,” Grand Mage Lubaum said gravely, immediately recognizing her before pointing his staff at them. “They have the staff, kill them! It’s for us to take!”

They were from the Magic Association.

And they were here to steal the divine artifact as well.