I had finally entered the room to which the secret entrance led. It was spacious and well lit.

The room, which was dome-shaped, must have been about 10 yards in height at the center. Its diameter, though difficult to measure, seemed to be roughly three times its height.

There were chests and wooden crates all around the room that must have held all sorts of treasures.

In the center of the room, there was a small, luminous round object, resting on some sort of scepter stuck to the floor.

It was probably the famous orb I was supposed to steal. I wanted to take it, but it was safer to wait and see what else was in the room. After all, if a trap were to activate, it would be when attempting to steal the most valuable object.

I headed towards the wooden crate closest to me, lifted the lid, and pushed it aside to see its contents. Inside, there were only bottles containing black liquid. I took one to look closer. The liquid strangely reminded me of something, yet I was sure I had never seen it before.

I wanted to analyze it, and as soon as I did, my screen displayed the information related to the bottle. "STOLEN BLACK TURCOS JUICE! 25DP 15PP!"

"Turcos juice?" I repeated in a whisper.

It seemed ludicrous, Turcos were very dry tubers, the idea of extracting juice from them seemed impossible. And yet, the crate was full of these bottles.

"How many thousands of Turcos went into the making of this juice?" I wondered.

It would require a lot of space and resources to have such crops.

It became difficult to ignore who this infamous 'Merchant King' was.

He was very certainly the alter ego of Hermine village's leader. Everything pointed to this conclusion.

And if it was indeed him I was stealing from, I was particularly glad I had accepted this mission.

He deserved to be completely plundered. But I also had to be careful, the men under his orders were Assassins, therefore the best suited for a surprise attack.

I put the bottle down and checked the possible entrances to the room in which I was.

There were two: the wooden door through which I had entered, and another thick metal door with a small window with bars, blocking the passage to a dark corridor.

I shivered imagining what traps lay there.

I checked the metal door, it was locked from the inside. I then went to the wooden door and placed one of the heavy wooden crates in front of it.

I was now reasonably sure that I couldn't be surprised.

I returned to the crate I had opened and asked for the sales page to appear.

I dipped the bottle into the square as soon as it showed up. Then another one, and yet another one. There was no loading when I sold multiple items of the same nature in a row. This allowed me to sell very quickly.

I watched my point counter scrolling. My hands trembled with each sale.

I was intoxicated by the abundance of points, but at the same time I felt that everything was too good to be true. And a corner of my mind thought about what awaited me if I were caught stealing.

If the leader sacrificed innocents for his own interest, what would he do to a thief? I had no desire to find out.

I sold the bottles as quickly as possible until the crate was empty.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I looked at my screen, my body was shaking, as if I were a child who had just done something naughty.

A terribly exciting mischief.

My screen was flashing. I was at level 9, I had gained two levels without even realizing it.

I was missing 68PP to be at level 10. And I had a stock of 937PP.

Right there, just like that, I could go to level 10 and unlock a new ability. But there was still so much in this room, the priority was to continue selling everything I found before someone arrived.

I was heading towards a new crate when I heard a noise behind the wooden door.

Someone was there? Already? There must have been a device that had alerted them.

"Who's there? Open up!" shouted a male voice.

"Damn, I'm trapped." I thought, teeth clenched.

I ran to the orb and grabbed it to put it in one of the large pockets of my pants. It was small enough to fit in my hand, a slight warmth emanated from it.

When I removed it from the scepter, nothing happened.

I was no longer afraid of running into a trap, or rather I no longer had the luxury of being cautious.

The person trying to enter wouldn't hesitate to kill me, or worse, capture me and bring me to the village.

Once the orb was in my pocket, I turned to see what the man trying to get in was doing.

Weirdly, he was still trying to push instead of just breaking the wooden door. He was probably strong enough to do it if he was one of the merchant's men.

I walked up to the door and, with my face close to it, I watched through the keyhole.

I saw something move. My screen showed a profile: "PLAYER 0QX3TR211 - LVL 42 - 190/190HP - CLASS: ASSASSIN."

This was a high-level player, an Assassin.

This proved my theory.

I stepped back and looked around me.

"Well, what can I do now?" I asked myself.

Fighting a strong enemy like this wasn't an option. But getting out would be hard.

The only other exit was the metal door that led to the entrance of the dungeon, and therefore the traps. Normally, this would be a really bad idea, but maybe going back the way I came could help me avoid the traps.

I made my decision, I had to run for the entrance door before the wooden one broke.

Before that, I used my PP to level up to 10.

I felt my body relax, it was strong and full of energy.

I opened the page that showed my abilities to see if I had unlocked something that could help.

To my surprise, two pictures popped up. The screen gave me a choice. Two abilities, but I could only pick one.

On the left, a picture of a man with a chain around him said: EP regeneration. A small text underneath said this ability would let me slowly get my EP back if my skin touched a chain.

This was the answer to my stamina problems.

The stress of seeing the Assassin show up any second almost made me pick this option, but I turned my head to the right to see the second choice.

The picture showed a man in the distance and a chain moving by itself. The caption read: Remote Control. The text underneath said this would let me control my chains without having to touch them. "Damn. That's tempting." I thought.

I hated making choices. That's why I liked being in situations where there were only a few options. But in this case, I had to choose between two really useful abilities.

"On one hand, regeneration is helpful, but I can lower the cost of using my chains. On the other hand, remote control is irreplaceable..." I thought.

I tapped the option on the right. Being able to control a chain without touching it seemed way better than the first option.

After choosing, I ran to the metal door, opened it, quietly closed it, and moved into the dark.

I held a stick in my hand and was feeling the floor with it.

The small orb in my pocket was giving off a little light. I took it out and held it in my hand to see around me.

This time, I knew for sure that there were deadly traps all over this big hallway. It was 3 yards tall and 5 yards wide. I could see the hallway split into three further down.

One path kept going straight, another went left and one went right.

I heard a dull noise behind me, I guessed that the Assassin had managed to push the door. He would realize soon that I had left through the metal door.

I decided to take the right path. I moved quickly, sweeping the floor with my stick, lit by the orb.

The stone floor didn't leave any traces, so I could escape my pursuer easily, but If I got lost, I would have a hard time finding my way back.

As I went a little further, the path split into three again. All the walls looked the same, all the paths seemed the same.

The dungeon was a trap itself, a maze.

I didn't hear anything behind me, did I lose my pursuer? No, even if he was getting closer, I wouldn't know. He was an Assassin after all.

I decided to keep walking when suddenly, a face appeared just a few inches from me.

I jumped in fear. There, just in front of me stood a slightly see-through man.

"Quick, we don't have time, I need you to let me haunt you!" he said, in a hurry.