Duncan and Ryan sat together, a heavy silence hanging in the air, the tension between them almost tangible.
Ryan's hand began to grip the hilt of his sword tighter, as his eyes gained a cold calculating look. Noticing this, Duncan felt a pool of cold sweat wash down his back. With Ryan being [E-] rank currently, two major ranks higher than Duncan, his bloodthirst could practically cut the air.
"W-woah calm down man!" Duncan blurted out, raising his hands in the air to try and calm Ryan down. "Have you not checked the Bastion rankings? Of course I would recognize the person ranked in first place!"
Ryan carefully eyed Duncan with a piercing gaze, contemplating what he had said. Slowly, he released the tense grip on his sword, as he put on a sheepish smile. "Errrrr... Sorry about that Duncan, I'm not very good at trusting people. Wait! You said I'm ranked first?"
Duncan let out an unamused snort, feeling somewhat unnerved by Ryan's earlier display of dominance. "Yeah I can tell you're not the most trusting, I thought I was about to be diced into pieces! *Sigh*… whatever. Yes, you are ranked in first place for our grade. How in the world did you manage to get first place without even knowing about it?"
Ryan's eyebrows knit in confusion, as he put on a thoughtful expression. "Now that you mention it, I did hear some people in my dormitory talking about rankings. To think I'm rank one though, I assumed the competition at Bastion would be tougher honestly. What rank are you then?"
Duncan: "..."
Ryan: "..?"
Duncan turned his head to the side slightly as his ears turned a shade of crimson. "I'm uh... rank 1750, 1750 out of 1800."
"Oh." Ryan gave Duncan a pitying look, as he realized why the man had hesitated to share his rank. "I'm sure if you work hard, you can someday reach the top of the rankings like me Duncan. Don't worry about it too much."
Duncan couldn't help but feel slightly ticked off by Ryan's half hearted consolation. Work harder my ass! You just abused the system to shoot your way to the top. He let out a depressing sigh, as he turned towards the stage. "Yeah sure, whatever you say. More importantly, I think the auctions about to begin."
The lights began to dim, as a handsome man donning a clean brown suit took the stage. His striking features gave him a sharp air, which was contrasted by the warm smile he wore. "Welcome folks, to the Luminite Auction House! Tonight's items are sure to impress, so don't be afraid to spend on anything you may think is worth your money. Now, enough beating around the bush, let us get started with the first item!"
One by one items came out, but neither Duncan nor Ryan placed any bids. Duncan kept careful track of the items coming out, making sure his information on the auction house stayed accurate.
Eventually, a [D+] rank sword came out, which Ryan bid for and won, but Duncan still hadn't put any bids out. Ryan couldn't help but be slightly perplexed as to why Duncan came to an auction house if he wasn't going to purchase anything.
Then, the item Duncan had been waiting for finally appeared.
The auctioneer removed a black cloth that was concealing an item beneath it, revealing a strange cube like device. The cube had wires and tubes jutting out of it, with glowing multicolored runes running along it's side. "Ladies and gentleman, this item right here is a Mana Condenser. Have you ever needed to store a highly concentrated amount of mana in a small space? Then look no further then this device."
The Mana Condenser essentially functioned as an extremely high end mana battery. By pumping mana inside of it, you could potentially create enough energy to power a city. This was purely theoretical of course, most Mana Condensers could not withstand the strain of too much mana at once. For such reasons, the price of an average Mana Condenser was astronomical.
Eyeing the item, Duncan turned towards Ryan. "I have to go use the bathroom, I'll be back in a bit."
Ryan glanced at Duncan out of the corner of his eye, before turning back to the mana condenser and giving a slight nod.
Getting out of his seat, Duncan made his way towards the auction houses bathroom. It was time to begin the heist, Duncan's plan to steal the four-star boomerang art from the Luminite Auction House.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Opening up his music playlist, Duncan changed the 80's blue jazz, to something more fitting. "This looks like it will work." He swiftly selected a song and put it on loop.
================
Mission Impossible Theme
0:00 ▶----------------- 3:27
+ Volume -
================
The first task Duncan had to accomplish was diverting security from the auction houses storage room. The four-star manual for the boomerang art was currently being stored there, and the room had a high amount of security. He would need a distraction in order to get his hands on the manual.
Luckily, Duncan had already prepared for this. Before coming to the auction house, Duncan had brought a duffel bag with him. Inside of the duffel bag lay a Mana Disruptor. As the name implied, Mana Disruptors had the ability to temporarily disrupt the flow of mana in an environment. The Mana Disruptor Duncan had bought was honestly rather low quality, but it would be enough for his plan. The key to Duncan's plan was the Mana Condenser currently being auctioned.
Mana Condensers were incredibly powerful, but their sensitivity to mana was a double edged sword. When the mana around a mana condenser began to go wild, well...
Duncan opened up the control panel for the Mana Disruptor he had secretly placed outside of the auction house.
[Aether Tech, Mana Disruptor (ON/OFF)]
Turning on the mana disruptor, Duncan began sense the flow of mana grow chaotic throughout the auction house. Waves of mana undulated in the air, as the mana condenser simultaneously tried to collect and disperse mana in the air. The Mana Condenser reacted stronger, and stronger, until...
*BOOOOM*. A loud explosion rocked the auction house, as the mana condenser began to release explosive bursts of mana. Satisfied with his makeshift distraction, Duncan moved onto the next step of his plan.
Distracting security was one thing, but Duncan still needed some way to get close to the four-star manual. Duncan had a rough layout of the building, and had been researching a method to reach the manual during the past few days. Turning his attention upwards, he spotted a ventilation duct in the ceiling of the bathroom.
Duncan may have been able to sneak through the ventilation system himself, but the auction house was covered with cameras. The only place without cameras were bathrooms such as this one, so Duncan couldn't risk entering himself. That's why he had brought another piece of tech along with him for the night.
=== Inventory (1/1) ===
- 1x Aether Tech, Miniature Drone
==================
Normally, security would've detected Duncan slipping such a valuable piece of technology into the building, but his inventory let him smuggle it inside easily. Scavenging through his pocket, Duncan took out a vial filled with a crimson red liquid. He put the vial inside of the drone, before carefully sending it up into the ventilation duct.
The clock was ticking, and Duncan knew he didn't have much time to execute his plan. The Mana Condenser may distract security for a few moments, but it wouldn't be long before they realized what he was really after.
Opening up a hologram projection, Duncan sat inside a toilet stall as he guided the drone through the ventilation system. The vents twisted and turned chaotically, but Duncan's perfect memory allowed him to effortlessly draw a path to the storage area.
After enough piloting, Duncan's drone had finally reached the storage area. The storage room was filled with a wide variety of items: claymores, spears, bows, blueprints, and potions were the tip of the iceberg. The security guards seemed to have left, as the room was completely desolate of life.
Flying around the room, the drone scanned through piles of riches, searching for the four-star boomerang manual. Duncan could hear footsteps rapidly approaching from outside the room, there was not much time left.
Weaving through crates of items, the drone continued its relentless hunt. But the more Duncan searched, the more fruitless it seemed. No matter where he checked, the four-star manual was nowhere in sight.
Suddenly, the door burst open with a loud bang. Passing through the door, a man wearing a traditional dark blue Japanese kimono strode in. The man had a long scar trailing down his left eye, inflating his already domineering aura. A slender katana hung by his hip, as he calmly observed Duncan's drone hovering in the storage room.
"Crap!" Duncan began panicking "Was all that planning really for nothing?!"
The security guard cocked an eyebrow in surprise, he had not expected to come back to this sight. "Well what do we have here? Looks like a little rat managed to sneak in." His hand reached into his kimono, as it shuffled around for a moment before pulling out a tattered old book. "Is this what you're looking for kid? The four-star boomerang art? Sorry, but I can't let you have it."
Duncan's heart froze, as he witnessed the man holding the book. That was the four-star manual! Why didn't he think security would've taken it with them?! Wait, now isn't the time to panic, he still had one last trick up his sleeve.
Revving the drone, it quickly rushed towards the security guard at blistering speed. In one swift motion, the security guard unsheathed his sword and sliced the drone in half. Just then, the vial of red liquid Duncan had placed inside the drone splashed all over the guard.
"What the hell?" The guard muttered in disgust. His nose sniffed the air, as he recognized the familiar metallic scent of the liquid. "Blood..."
The guard wasn't sure why the drone had exploded into blood, but he chose to maintain his vigilance, ready for any surprise attack launched at him. He sat there in silence for a few moments, before eventually dropping his stance after concluding the thief had left.
Observing the wreckage of Duncan's drone, he reached into his kimono to store the four-star manual away. But, that's when he noticed something was terribly wrong. The four-star boomerang art had disappeared!