After finishing up their business, Stormy and Treo left the Adventurer's Guild and checked into the local Inn, agreeing on adjoining rooms. Stormy was gazing out the window of her room, apparently lost in deep thought when there was a knock on the door.

: "It's me. Would you like to have a bite to eat with me, or did you want to rest a bit first? I can come back later if that's what you want."

: Thinking about his offer for a minute, she thought it would be better to keep him close just in case of any further trouble from others out to get her. "Sure, I'll be right out."; she said making a few adjustments to her hair and her white robe before opening the door.

: Fighting the urge to stare, he checks his display to verify she's still set as an active target of his 'Defend Other' skill. "I'm new to this town, so I don't know what's here for food. Do you have any cravings at the moment?"

: "No, not at the moment. You decide!"; she said playfully tossing the ball back in his court.

: "Erm...okay. Let's walk around and see what's available."; he said stealing a brief glance at her face resisting the urge to stare, finding it easy to get lost in those emerald-green eyes of hers.

He leads her downstairs to the lobby of the Inn and towards the main counter.

: "This is our first time in Ryoma. Where's a good place to eat around here?"

: "They serve good food right next door, but they aren't open for dinner yet. You can get a quick bite to eat at the market stalls if you don't mind how noisy it gets at this time of day."

: "That sounds good to me. How about you?"; she asked smiling slightly.

: Returning a small, soft smile of his own; "Sounds good to me as well. Where is the market?"

: Coming around her desk and walking them towards the exit, she turns to the left and points down the road; "Just follow this road further into town and you'll see the market. Just look for all the vendor stalls, it's hard to miss."

: "Thanks! We'll be back later."; he said turning to Stormy and extending an arm towards her. "So...shall we?"

: Not wanting to go too fast, she resists the urge to wrap her arms around his and simply followed along beside him. "Yes, thank you."

As they made their way towards the Market, a slight headwind brought the faint smells of cooked meats their way and Treo's mought began to water.

: "Mmm...that smells good. I wonder if its from that stall right there. Want a skewer?"; he said reaching into an inside breast pocket of his cloak and pulling out a small bag of coins.

: "Yes, it does smell good. I'll take one, thank you."

: Turning to the stall vendor; "Two skewers, please."

: "That'll be 3 copper."

: Pulling out three copper coins from his bag before putting the bag back in his inner breast pocket and paying the vendor, receiving the skewers and handing one to Stormy. "Here you go."

: Taking one of the offered skewers; "Thank you!"

: "The flavor is pretty good, not as gamey as I was expecting."; he said stealing glances at her, nearly mesmerized by her emerald-green eyes.

: Blushing slightly; "Yes, it is good."

: Feeling something make contact with him, he turns around and notices a dark blur inches away and retreating towards a nearby alley. Checking his coin pouch and finding it still there, he sighs in relief. "Just my imagination, then."; he mutters.

: "Something wrong?"

: "I thought I just got pickpocketed, but maybe I was just imagining things. Got to be careful, though."; he said as they continued enjoying their time in the Market.

Meanwhile

The dark blur retreated into the alley until certain of not being followed, then slowed and stopped to hide in a doorway, glancing back towards the Market.

"What the hell was that?"; mentally reviewing what happened. "He wasn't even aware of me and had a barrier up? Maybe the boss knows more, but I can't go back to her empty-handed. I've got to return with something. I'll just have to select another target, but...nobody else looks like they have more than a few coppers."

The dark blur took another route back to the market to select another target.

Later

: "That was fun today, thank you."; she said as they returned to the Inn to prepare for dinner.

: "I had fun, too. When would you like to have dinner?"

: "I'll be ready in an hour, ok?"; she asked as they head up to their adjoining rooms.

: "Okay, see you then."; he says opening the door to his room and noticing his room ransacked and messy. "I guess housekeeping missed a few spots"; he mutters under his breath sarcastically as he looks around the room for anything missing, grateful he keeps his valuables in his item box. After a few minutes of checking the room and finding nobody hiding, nor anything missing...he begins to try to clean up the room while wondering what's causing this.

As he bends down to pick something up of the floor, a shadow quietly and quickly moves behind him and stabs with a dagger, puncturing Treo's back, impaling his right lung and causing him to collapse. A second shadow emerges a moment later.

: "You made that look easy, Master!"; he whispered.

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: Whispering back, she says; "I have a special skill, that's why it looked easy. Let's just finish up here and go. We'll talk more later. C'mon, lets get his money pouch and leave."

: Trying to take Treo's money pouch and finding it nearly empty; "Master, he's only got a few coins in here and I don't see anywhere else he keeps his valuables. I know he had more than this."

: "He might lead us to it if we follow him. Let's back off and monitor him...for now. His companion will come revive him shortly, so let's get going."

The two thieves disappear back into the shadows and out the window when Stormy starts knocking on his door.

: After knocking for a few minutes and sensing something wrong, she gets the Inn staff to open the door to check on him at her panicked request. "Treo!"; she exclaimed worriedly seeing him face-down on the floor with a puncture wound on his back. She runs over and begins to cast her heal spells to revive him.

: Waking up a few minutes later, he looks up and sees Stormy looking down at him; "What's going on? Are you okay?"

: "I was about to ask you the same thing. You've got quite a nasty puncture wound on your back, but I healed that up for you. Get some rest and you'll be fine by morning."

: "How about I rest after our dinner date? I was really looking forward to it."

: Smiling brightly; "I'll have them bring dinner here to your room and we can eat here...if you're okay with that."

: Smiling back at her; "It does. Thank you, Stormy....for everything!"

After the two have dinner, Stormy checks on his condition to make sure there are no further complications.

: "Now you need to get some rest, so it's time for bed. I'll stay here to make sure your condition doesn't worsen."; she said as she begins to cast what looks to Treo like another healing spell.

: Feeling the effects of her spell, he begins to yawn as he lays down in the bed; "I'll be on my best behavior, so no worries from me okay?"

: Grinning at him; "My spell is a strong rejuvination spell, but it puts you to sleep, so...no worries. Good night!"

Minutes later

The two thieves stealthily make their way back to the Ryoma Thieves' Guild Headquarters before they resume their talk.

: "So what was the deal with him, anyways? I've never seen or heard about a passive barrier that strong on someone other than a Hero."

: "I don't know if he's a Hero or not, but it's definitely not standard. I only succeeded because of my 'Negate Defense' attack...otherwise I might not have been able to beat his high defense. My analyze skill is maxed out, otherwise I likely wouldn't have been able to see what his defense value was."

: "How high was it? And can you teach me that skill, Master?"

: "It was nearly 1000 defense. And no, it is not teachable like other skills. You have to go to a special location and go through a tough gauntlet-like labyrinth in order to earn it. There are very few people in the world that have survived and learned that skill."

: "How do you know that, Master?"

: "Once you complete it and learn the skill, it magically adds your name to a 'scoreboard' there that lists all others who have also succeeded. I was one of nine who were on this list, but I don't know how many on this list are still alive...who knows how long this list was created. "

: "I want that skill, it'll make things easier for me going forward."

: Shaking her head; "No, many have tried and none have returned. Vekk left to try for it a month ago and hasn't returned. When I tried for it, I returned within a week. I'll be surprised if he returns having succeeded. Don't attempt it until you're much more experienced."

: "Vekk? Weren't you grooming him to take over the Guild for you?"

: "Yeah, but now it looks like I'll have to start looking for someone else. C'mon, let's get back to work."

Meanwhile, in a place far away

A dark, cloaked figure sits in a corner breathing heavily and looking around anxiously. Pulling a potion bottle out and drinking it, a bloody wound in the right leg heals after several seconds.

: Thinking to himself; "I thought she was just exaggerating...but this place truly is only for the most skilled thieves. I almost had it....just a little further and I'd have gotten it....if it weren't for that...whatever it was. It saw right through me, even when invisible. How am I supposed to sneak around that? There's no other path I can see."

A rumbling sound emenates from somewhere nearby, causing the ceiling to shake and cause dust and a few pebbles to drop in the corner he's at. A few seconds later, a loud roar echos throughout the corridors and the rumbling gets louder.

: "I can't stay here...gotta keep moving."; he says getting back up and continuing to move away from the rumbling, which ends up sending him further in. "I've either got to find a way to defeat it, or sneak past it. Maybe the answer is hidden here somewhere."

He takes another few steps and the rumbling suddenly stops, making it deathly quiet and causing him to also stop. Instincts kicking in a second later, Vekk drops and rolls forward as something whizzes above him where his head was just a moment ago and thuds into the wall at the end of the corridor behind him. The rumbling resumes and Vekk continues down the corridor, trying to be mindful of more dangers ahead of him when he comes to another 4-way intersection and instinctively goes left as something else whizzes past. Had he not turned just then, it would have hit him.

Continuing down the corridor, Vekk's instincts kick in again and he dives up and forward narrowly avoiding something flying towards his legs. He lands, rolling forward and getting back on his feet only to have the floor drop out at an angle and causing him to slide downward toward what looks like a bit of spikes some 15 meters ahead. The slide gets more narrow as it gets closer to the pit of spikes, giving him the idea to try to push against the side walls with all his force to slow his descent, stopping just a meter from the edge of the pit.

: "Now what? I can't hold this position forever."

After bracing himself against the walls for a few seconds, the trapdoor behind him closes shut and a panel simultaneously slides across the top of the pit in front of him, allowing Vekk to crawl past the now covered pit into another passageway opening up before him. Carefully proceeding forward, he looks around and notices the texture of the walls changing as he continues forward.

: "I can climb this....but to where, and for how long can I keep this up?"

His instincts kick in again and he jumps up and to the right, clinging to the upper part of the right wall, narrowly avoiding a jet of flame from above him burning where he just was on the floor. Vekk continues making his way along the wall, clinging to it near the ceiling when he notices a slight seam forming in the ceiling above and about a meter in front of him. Recognizing it as another mechanism, he's not sure if it's to trigger a trap or to open a new pathway for him.

Taking a chance, he reaches forward and presses it inward, causing a panel in the ceiling to open and allowing him to continue climbing upwards and possibly out of the corridor he's in. After struggling with the climb in his tired state, he emerges back in the corridor he was in earlier only 10 or so meters ahead of where the trapdoor opened that slid him down towards the spiked pit.

: Breathing heavily; "I need to catch my breath at some point. It can't go on like this forever, can it? The Guildmaster did this and got out with that skill...I should be able to as well."

A moment later, the rumbling resumes and he notices roughly 20 meters further up the corridor before him is what looks like a roaring Minotaur wielding an axe. Both Vekk and the Minotaur pause for a brief moment before another roar behind him causes Vekk to turn around to see another roaring axe-wielding Minotaur roughly 20 meters behind him.

: "Oh sh--"

Both Minotaurs were charging at him before he could finish his internal thought.