POV Change: Locke
A minute was the estimated time between the police arriving and the thieves getting away. The entire department was ashamed, to be so close and just miss them was heart-wrenching. Especially after the long week, the police had been hoping this victory could have turned it all around.
Where was the justice here? Locke was having a hard time believing in karma when things like this happened. What happened to the good guys getting the bad guys?
Locke was not stupid, he was naïve. But as error eroded his natural failures, he became more heartless. Used to the natural pain of the world he could start to ignore it, but he still chose to listen, to fight for his father, to fight for those who had been harmed. His mind had yet to crumble, the foundations stood firm if not with little minor injuries.
But as they say, all it takes is one crack for the whole building to collapse.
POV Change: Seth
Arriving at the warehouse the trio started to unload the goods. Sacks of pure gold and reinforced boxes were hauled in the bright of the day at Darter's industrial zone.
The carriage was then dismantled by the group and then burned before the three finally got inside the warehouse, locked the warehouse's doors, and got some rest.
The three definitely wanted to see the loot and summarise their gains, but exhaustion called first, and it was not backing down, so the trio slept on the cold hard floor of the wooden warehouse.
Partly because the warehouse had too much ventilation and partly because the warehouse itself was far too big, the trio woke up shivering. Their scary clothes and the cold winds made this summer day unrealistically cold.
Seth still managed and before the three knew it they were in front of their hall with a different kind of shiver. They were rich, and the golden glow of gold lit up their faces.
Seth counted it all up and this was his report to the group in preparation for the splitting.
"Okay, partners in crime. I could say a motivating speech, but I'll just get to business. Together we stole the equivalent of 320 gold and there are a total of 6 reinforced boxes. Now we do have a problem, one we will vote on the 6 boxes we either open and share the contents or we each take 2 and gamble our luck. It's up to you but I place my vote on taking 2 and leaving it up to lady luck."
Amelia and Liam thought about it and eventually, Amelia voted for an even split but Liam voted for Luck so in the end the three got 2 unopened reinforced boxes and 106 Gold, Seth obviously took the extra, for being so kind as to do the counting.
For reference, the gold alone was roughly worth 1 million pounds.
But first, he had to do expenses, now before he had got things like the potions on a long-term payment plan, so he didn't have to murder his first-born to pay the full cost.
Each sleeping potion was created by an Alchemist above level 100 so needless to say that was a massive cost. That added up to 180 Gold for the 4 potions and that was with 20 taken off as a discount.
The rest of the expenses were things like the carriage and the warehouse rental, those added up to 20 Gold.
Seth ran them down the expenses and delivered them their final payout.
"In total, we will each get 40 Gold, 2 Reinforced boxes. Any questions?"
Liam and Amelia were mildly annoyed at seeing 60% of their gains taken away from them but those items had made the heist possible, so they sucked it up and happily took their 4 hundred grand.
After they both said no, Seth said "Alright then, from now on, we all do not know each other and we will not use any of the funds excessively until you either move to a new city, or 2 years have passed. Do you both agree that this is reasonable?"
"Yes"
Good, Seth warned them of betrayal in the name of the guild and said that he would praise them to his higher-ups. The two of them then left, taking their loot away in their own hired carriages to a place Seth did not know. From that moment onwards, the three would only see each other in the name of thievery.
Liam and Seth had to give up their friendship but the two were far too ambitious to let the other potentially connect them to the crime so they couldn't meet as friends for a while.
Standing alone in the cold warehouse, Seth would have felt lonely if only he wasn't staring at a mountain of cash. He wanted to laugh, let the world know his glee but he had one more job to do.
The reinforced boxes. Seth had many questions as to why the Treasury of the City Sect would hold boxes and the only logical conclusion was that they were temporarily storing something. The City sector was owned and operated jointly by the common citizen but mostly by the ruling Lord.
Had he stored something as a favour for a friend, at that level of influence the things he could be storing were near limitless.
Seth bought a crowbar, returned, and started opening box number 1. He tried to not harm whatever was in there and as the wood was torn apart Seth found himself looking at an egg!
Seth's face was one of perfect stillness, the cold winds seemed to flow past Seth's frozen face until finally, Seth's mind could compute what he was looking at.
`AN EGG! I ROB AN ENTIRE TREASURY AND I GET AN EGG! No, wait! I know, it must be the egg of some sort of mythical creature! Yes, that makes sense.`
Sometimes Seth was frightened by his own `genius` intellect.
Leaving the egg of the mythical creature, Seth moved on to box number 2.
Now something he may not have told the trio was that he chose the lightest of the 6 boxes. That was to increase the value to weight density entirely because the best chests he got from the Caravan raid were also the lightest.
After hacking away at box number 2 he found a multicoloured light emitting from the box. Seth's mind was all over the place, thinking it was both a rainbow trapped in a box and at the same time, the extremely expensive jewel called God's Tears.
It was neither...
As Seth walked over to take a better look at the box the light got brighter and the source of the light, a white ball, flew into Seth like a moth to a flame.
Seth tried his best to fight it but as the ball absorbed into his body Seth felt what could only be described as pure bliss.
He stood there for hours just taking in this feeling, savouring it like a cold drink on a summer's day. But once the feeling dried up, Seth had to look at what changed. The ball clearly must have done something, and Seth was eager to see what.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Looking into his Inner Soul Area he found some major changes.
Before it was dark, with 2 slots for his abilities that Seth had since filled. Now instead of darkness, he was standing on an island.
The island was filled with greenery, palm trees, and foliage, it was like a tropical paradise. Around this island was a sea that lapped onto the shores of the island. Right now the waves were quite aggressive, but Seth could swear that the more he looked at it, the waves grew calmer.
In the middle of the island was a pedestal which once Seth interacted with it showed his status screen.
Name: Seth (***) Add new, updated screen after)
Class: Thief/level 25 (Evolution available!)
Skills:
=Deft Hands, (Mastery/ Rookie 100/100) -> Phantom Hands, (Mastery/ Intermediate 0/1000)
=Calm Mind, (Mastery/ Rookie 92/100)
Unsurprisingly there was a lot of change but the most important one was obviously the fact that Seth was able to now evolve. This was a qualitative change in a person, and it led to the first lifespan increase in the path of Seth's goal of immortality.
Without further ado, Seth selected (evolution available!) and after Seth immediately blacked out.
Instead of being on a tropical island Seth now found himself sitting on a chair next to a desk. His surroundings were completely black, with the only light coming from a lamp sitting on the desk with Seth.
He felt fear, the dark surroundings were a hotbed for the imagination which crafted the darkness into a horror of abyssal creatures and abominations.
He felt the cold ice of Calm Mind return Seth back to normal. The darkness was just that, darkness.
Back to the desk, apart from the lamp, there was also a book and pen on it. The title of the book read, `Available Evolutions for Seth/ Ali Greyson`
Shock, Seth was beyond shocked that he saw that name again. That was his name before this, before all the thievery and before his death. `How do they know` Seth thought.
But as Seth thought about where he was it started to make sense. He was in his own soul, picking his next evolution so obviously his old name would come up and to be fair it wasn't actually that big of a deal.
He was already labelled a demon, Seth doubted much would change if people learned if he was a reincarnated demon: he would still die either way.
Now came the best part, Seth got to open the book and see what he could evolve into. Checking the thickness it seemed like Seth had around 4 options, which from his lessons he knew was a good amount to get.
More options were always a good thing, but the quality of them made just as big of a difference.
The first option lay open, and its content was clear to see.
Option: 1
Class Name: Superior Thief
Description: You have upgraded your latent skill and for it, you get the option of an upgraded class. It adds to what you have already been doing, giving access to magic whilst at it. Keeping you on the path of a pure thief, whether good or bad.
Provides: access to Thief magic and, a general increase in Thief ability.
This was simply a good option. It wasn't special like the others, but it built on the foundations that Seth had already built upon. Seth would pick this if the others weren't to his taste.
An illustration was on the page, and it showed a Thief using magic to pick the lock of a safe. Simple but useful, that was a good summary of this class.
Option: 2
Class Name: Patient Thief (Uncommon)
Description: Through your skill Calm Mind you have unlocked a specialisation of Thief that focuses on staying calm and collected even during the highest stress situations. A patient Thief waits as long as needed until the time is right and when it is, he strikes with a collected and masterful plan prepared beforehand.
Provides: slightly faster experience gain for the skill Serene Mind. Increase in general Thief abilities and Thief Magic
Seth again thought this class was solid: he liked the idea of being calm and patient as it was properties, he needed but lacked. His skill helped and the added experience boost was great, but Seth felt this one wasn't going to get him to immortality, after all, he couldn't wait forever to rob a single bank.
The illustration was a Thief looking at a watch, this was whilst he was in the middle of a vault and the thief showed no sign of being stressed in the slightest: no sweat was on his brow and his expression was one of excitement.
This one wasn't great so onto the next.
Option: 3
Class Name: Tricky Thief (Uncommon)
Description: Through trials and triumphs you have learnt that the best way of thieving is through tricks. Sleeping potions are your weapons and deception is your best friend. In this class, you better specialise in gadgets and gizmos.
Provides: Access to Thief Magic Tree, access to Trap Magic Tree, General increase in Thief ability
This class was more up Seth's alley, another magic tree was great albeit costly and time-consuming but would lead to a better range of abilities that would be harder to counter.
On the page was an illustration of a smiling burglar holding a remote as he walks away from a bank covered in confetti, a comical money bag in his hands.
He could only choose after seeing them all, thinking so, Seth moved on to the next one.
Option: 4
Class Name: Mastermind Thief (Rare)
Description: You are the planner; you have led a group on a successful heist. Your henchmen are pawns in a game they will not know of and as their leader, you weave a web to benefit yourself the most.
Provides: Minor boost to intelligence, access to Thief Magic, general increase in Thief ability.
Rare classes were unsurprisingly rare, for Seth this class was the clear winner. An increase in biological abilities was something that only came through Rare and above evolutions and levelling. But, if 2 knights at the same level fought each other a variable that could tilt the favour would be these small but significant boosts.
Not to mention that if you repeatably evolved through rare and above classes you could build on your strengths and even fight above your level.
The illustration was the best quality one, with a string of webs floating above several henchmen as the Mastermind connected the threads and a gold thread seemed to flow into the Mastermind supposably symbolising gold flowing into the Mastermind's pockets.
The choice was now easy and wanting to escape from this playground of the dark imagination Seth used the pen and signed an area on the page of the Mastermind Thief to signify it was his choice and he felt himself return to his Inner Soul Area.
Back at the pedestal, Seth returned to feel his head start burning with pain. Around him his island started shaking like an earthquake was happening and whilst Seth closed his eyes to distract himself with the pain the island around him transformed.
Once the agonising pain disappeared Seth found his mind to be quicker, and clearer than it was before. It was the difference between feeling tired and being in optimum mental shape and this clear difference was going to be Seth's advantage as he evolved through the ranks.
After Seth got used to thinking faster, he looked around to see what had happened around him.
The island that represented his body was now larger and the once completely green island now had an outer ring that was completely barron. It seemed the old area of forest remained whilst the area that expanded hadn't grown leaves and trees like the old area.
Seth wanted to take a better look around, so he stepped over some foliage and made his way to a palm tree. As he did, he accidentally touched the plant and Seth was shocked as a memory of a certain pickpocketing appeared in his mind.
It was when he was going shopping in preparation for the Caravan heist, that he stole a young man's money pouch from his overcoat as he walked past.
Seth thought it odd to remember such an oddly specific memory for no apparent reason but as he touched the large palm tree, he got an idea of where it came from.
Once he touched the palm tree the memory of his First house robbery came to mind.
The planning, tree climbing, his fear as he kicked in the window and the delight once he noticed the safe was hidden behind the drawer.
Seth pulled his hand back in shock as he noticed that these trees that grew from his island were his experiences. Each and every plant here held a separate memory of when he stole something and learned from it.
But then what did the waves signify, he noticed that the waves changed based on how long he looked at them, so it had to be related to thought.
The increased intelligence helped in uncovering that they were violent when Seth's thoughts were clouded and calm when Seth's mind was calm.
Seth tried to touch the waves, but he felt unparalleled fatigue and sadness when the waves hit him. They eroded at his experiences, but he was clearly outgrowing the erosion caused by the waves.
His skills clearly played a role here as the way he found the sea grew calmer when he was calm as he simply used his Calm mind skill and as a result the seas immediately grew noticeably smoother.
But what about Phantom Hands how did that appear on his Soul Island?
Well since his mind could be the water it must be the land that was his body, that meant some part of the land could go faster than normal but what? And how in any way was that meant to be useful?
Enough of that, Seth decided to focus on what he knew.
Soul cultivation, unlike levelling, was an absolute pain. It was complicated and mistakes were harshly punished, yet appropriately sizable rewards lay for those who mastered the arts they gambled on.
Gambled isn't really the right word, it was more a combination of willpower, which Seth wasn't worried about, and skill which Seth was worried about.
Luckily Soul cultivation only started in earnest after the second tier (Evolution) as that's when the first organisms appeared in your soul. The rest was closely kept information, and to be fair, most of the stuff he knew now was only learned through the unbelievable privilege of his free lessons.
Seth remembered back on Earth he hated school with a passion, as he grew older he started to respect the gains that came from it, but he didn't deny that most of the stuff learned there was absolutely pointless.