Training was fun.
Malum had come to that realisation long ago and it was part of the reason he did it so much. It wasn’t fun because it was strenuous, no he liked training because it fulfilled him.
Every sweat that dripped down his shirt, every muscle ache he felt as he fell asleep, those were reminders that he was walking in the right direction and that made him happy.
Today he also received another piece of good news. He noticed it when he was training, a slight blend of green following the path of his sword.
Intuition was back!
Malum thought to how long it had been and found it to be around a month. 30 days for a potentially life changing opportunity, if that wasn’t a deal, then Malum didn’t know what was.
Now with his ability his training reached the next level and with 15 days having passed since he last took his potion he could now safely take another.
That night he prepared the materials according to his extra sense and prepared his bath before he down the drink.
He felt the fire rage but nothing but smiled held onto Malums face.
Now it was just a matter of time before he perfected his body, then his mind would soon follow. At the peak of mortality, could he begin his next step.
`I spoke to soon.`
Malum thought as he felt the iron clasp around his hand. Around him was 4 soldiers and each were looking at him with pity.
Malum looked to puddles on the floor and wondered why it was raining in summer. Perhaps even the Gods were taking pity on him.
Yeah right.
He got pushed into barred cart and was driven towards the cities jail. Inside the cart, he wandered how Jameson was doing. Perhaps his poison had been a bit much.
“ALL RISE!” Announced the judge. Malum wasn’t paying much attention to his surroundings and was instead looking at how white the man was.
`Has he ever seen sunlight` he pondered.
“Malum you are here today on suspicion of committing the robbery of the Bank of Roosevelt. Do you plead guilty?”
Malum looked at the judge, then around him.
He could see a few people sitting on the rows behind him. One looked like a student, on was a runner from some gang of merchantry, and other was the Butler Malum had seen inside Jameson house.
On the prosecuting side was a Knight who had just completed a rather riveting speech. Malum would make fun of him but he was right about most of his accusations, Malum just didn’t see anything in terms of proof.
Oh, and the judge was in front of him on a raised stand.
With his mind set Malum said, “I am not guilty your honour, frankly I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The judge looked at him, then sneered.
“Really now? You just happened to be the single person the Knight identifies as the perfect match to the culprit. I’m no fool, and this court most certainly will not stand for your lies! Malum you are hereby detained for execution. Your will be interrogated before you confess your co-conspirators and perhaps if you give enough names you will get off with life in the mines.
You are dismissed.”
Malum looked to see two guards coming to take him away to the jail cells.
Strangely though, he was smiling as they were taking him away.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Several suns before then, and Malum was about finished with his enhancement. He cleaned of his body and felt strength run through his veins.
He clasped his hand and pushed. Feeling his fingers contract against each other, he smiled.
Now done, he went to go and eat and thanks to some good timing it was about time for Jameson to join him inside the lovely inn.
He walked down and sat at their table and whilst he ordered himself and Jameson some seats he looked towards the entrance to see his friend rushing in with sweat on his brow.
Going back to the table, he asked Jameson, “You good mate?”
“I’ve done it?” He said, he looked happy yet confused at the same time.
“Done what?” Malum asked and they both sat down.
“Revenge. I managed to find something which could do it.”
“Great news!” He patted Jameson on the back but he looked towards Malum with a guilty smile.
“Not exactly.” He pulled out something from his bag and looked around. Once he was happy no one was looking in their direction he laid out something on the table.
It was a piece of paper which read the lines, “Roosevelt Bank Celebrates 1 thousand VIP customers!” and it was an invite directed towards Jameson to attend.
“So what about it?” Maluma asked. Confused to how that was relevant.
“You see every single enemy of mine will be at that party. In fact nearly every Noble in the city has an account with the bank. Now with all their money inside that vault, I manage to steal it not only will we get insanely wealthy but I will also have gotten my revenge.”
“So we’re thieves now?” Malum asked, not too happy at the idea.
“Yes?”
“So let me get this straight. You want steal from one of the most secure vaults in the kingdom. Risk the entire kingdom looking for you, just to get revenge on a few of the effected nobles. Aren’t you allies with a few?”
“First, those bastards let our house fall without a single piece of assistance and second it’s not about the money. I could bury it for all I care, revenge is all I want, I just thought money would entice you into joining me.”
Malum thought about it. The risk it involved was too much for him.
“I tell you what. You give me a foolproof plan and I’ll join you, but so far all I’ve heard is hopes and your only getting this much because it’s you man.”
Jameson looked at him confusion having left his eyes. “Of course, I’m going to make a perfect plan. In fact, I’ve already got a decent idea for how we get in.”
“Man you better not get me executed.”
Jameson smiled at his friend and said, “Tell you what I’ll give you a small role. Something you’ll never get caught with. You good with that?”
Malum felt relief pour over him. He got the best of both worlds, not only did he not let down his friend, but he also had little risk to death. He was only giving the idea an iota of thought because he trusted his Intuition to make sure he got away. Jameson on the other hand did not have such a wonderous ability.
He breathed out his relief and the two continued to talk about potential ideas of the robbery. Keeping their conspiring voices low as to make sure those around them couldn’t hear their devious schemes.
Even as the moon rose, they continued to chatter on about their plans.
Malum went back to training as usual. He had left Jameson to conspire on his plans so Malum was left to his own devices until the plan was complete.
Doing nothing towards the planning of the heist, it felt wrong to just do his usual training regime so he instead opted to learn some generic skills a thief might need. Even if the plans fell through, they were still skills he wouldn’t regret learning.
Many times had he been the prey of the slippery shadows and he had to admit that stealth in fights could allow you to hit above your weight class.
That meant higher risk, but it also meant higher reward.
So far he had copied some of the movement he had seen from the stealthy demons but nothing except some quiet footwork was achieved.
If he was to beat cultivators he was going to need more than mediocre. With that in mind he looked towards his savings to see gold leftover from his forever torch sale so he went towards the Town Hall to see if anyone would sell him there technique.
He set a small notice up on the bulletin board which was like the nationwide one except it was just for the local town and city it was located in. It was far cheaper, and matched Malums demand well.
He placed a price of ranging from a single gold to a hundred and set the time limit to a single day. He named it and gave it a brief description before he headed back to do more training. He had left his location on the notice so anyone wanting to sell him there technique would have to go to him.
Little did he know just how much traction his notice would get.
Not everyone in the city had a stealth technique, perhaps 1 in a thousand had one. Yet in a city a few hundred thousand and then suddenly Malum had 2 hundred visitors in a few hours.
Needing to analyse each piece took time so Malum got to work and studied each martial art as quickly as his mind could handle.
His intuition played a large role but ultimately Malum had the final say. One of them wanted him to reduce his presence by cutting of every one of his recognisable features. From his face to his hands, to even his third leg.
His intuition said it was pretty good technique but Malum wasn’t half willing to make that kind of sacrifice just so he got noticed less.
He decided upon three. One was a silent step technique; another was a silent breath technique and the last one was an odd one that was called Shadow Self technique.
It was full of strange movements and the merchant who brought it seemed to think it was a scam. He even offered a reduced fee for it in sympathy.
Malum, having read the nonsense was inclined to agree and yet his Intuition said otherwise. It wasn’t nearly the same level of euphoria as the poison body technique but it wasn’t too far off.
He took the merchants deal and was happy with what he had gotten. With his new gains he needed to consolidate them and that meant extra training. But, it could wait untill morning. All that bartering was hard work and the studying in between didn’t help.
Tomorrow he would begin practice.