“So you’re just going to lay down and wait? You won’t even try something?”

Liliei felt a tinge of guilt at the accusing tone of Nalaine, but she squashed it.

“And what am I supposed to do? It not like I don’t want to, there’s just nothing I can do!”

This morning, the first thing she had seen when waking up had been Nalaine, sitting on the groung beside the bed and looking at her with a stern look. It seemed Reig had told the Demon to check on the young thief, without explaining everything, and Liliei had just finished recounting what had happened. And if yesterday she had only felt an emotional void – probably the realization taking time to sink in – now she was in full despair, unable to get any energy other than short bursts of anger, which quickly dissipated back to hopelessness.

“As you said the Ability Level and the soul mage are just not possible. But you’re a thief aren’t you? What’s stopping you from trying to get this thing the World told you about?”

“I told you, it impossible! When it crammed all the things I had to know for the quest inside my head, the World told me more or less everything about where that damn thing is. It’s in something like the most secure place on the whole continent, the vault of on of the most important Elven family. There’s just no way a puny thief like me can steal anything from there.”

Even to herself she sounded whiny, but she couldn’t help it. She wasn’t even good enough to steal a simple pouch without being noticed, how could she even dream to steal something from a place that would certainly be one of the most secure there was.

“Then become more than a ‘puny thief’! You are still low Leveled, haven’t trained much, and have hardly any Ability Levels, but you have ten turns, it’s all things you can improve. But if you stay there wallowing in your despair, then yes, you’ll never be able to do it.”

Nalaine’s voice was full of reproach as she harangued Liliei, but she couldn’t muster the will to try. The wall there just seemed too high, and the time too short, yes ten turns was long, but to get to the level of skill a stunt like that would take? Forget ten, thirty wouldn’t be enough. She would get it easier when she Leveled, but even that would take too much time to do her much good.

While she continued to let herself sink in despair, Nalaine was beside her muttering to herself. After a moment she sprung up, shouted something about coming back soon, and left, Liliei barely registering it. At some time she turned herself, laying on her back and started fiddling with a small mana construct, making it take different forms, but quickly giving up when she didn’t get one right. After all, what was the point?

It must have been night when Nalaine came back. She sighed when she looked at the girl lying on her bed, before taking a deep breath, muttering something, before setting herself in front of Liliei as much as she could.

“I know what the problem is. Your goal is too high in one step, we’ve got to make it more gradual, so forget everything about getting that thing in ten turns, for now we’ll set the objective as stealing something from one of the big houses on the tenth floor of the city.”

The city was fifteen floor high, and growing richer as you went higher. The tenth floor was where the people who could be called rich started appearing. This was the point where the real anti-theft measures were first being put in place. There were some on the lower floor, but never something too impressive. As such it was a perfectly good first goal if she planned to go higher. However...

“Forgetting about it, won’t make it go away though.”

Liliei could see the logic in what Nalaine was saying, but it wasn’t as if logic could make her forget that huge wall in front of her that she would hit way too soon. All the logic in the world couldn’t do a thing against the waves of negativity that kept washing over her as soon as she thought back to the impossibility in front of her. Seeing the lack of reaction from Liliei, the Demon in front of her sighed again, deeper than before.

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

“Well then, I guess that’s that.” as she talked, she took a small necklace from her pants’ pocket, getting it closer to her head as she continued. “Guess I’ll have to go about it the hard way.”

The moment the Demon let down the ornament around her neck, light filled the room as the amulet shined in a bright turquoise light. Liliei finally reacted looking at Nalaine with large eyes, but she could do nothing other than watch as the girl started groaning in pain from the enchantment’s effect. A slight smile stayed on her lips until she tensed up with a grunt and was unable to keep it anymore. All the while Liliei was watching distressed at what to do, but a little relieved when Nalaine didn’t start disappearing – it seemed it wasn’t the same thing that had happened to herself. Finally after a few excruciating minutes, Nalaine seemed to relax as the light slowly faded.

Immediately, Liliei stood and got to Nalaine’s side, grabbing her to not let her fall. Just in time, as she felt the girl’s whole weight push on her.

“Hell it hurts.” The Demon’s voice was faint, and raspy, barely audible in fact.

“What the hell was that?” Liliei was angry at the girl, but couldn’t exactly do anything right now.

“I’ll tell you in a moment, just … let me sleep … for a bit.” The end of the sentence was more than half guessed by Liliei as the Demon fainted, her head lolling forward.

She slowly and carefully laid the older girl on her bed, before going outside the house, all her bad thoughts replaced with concern for the girl. She went straight to the house of the group, before meeting Joln, one of the older boy of the group, a Dwarf with a round face and dark-gray hair, who gave her a happy look when he recognized her.

“Ley! How’s it going, I heard you were sick.”

“I’m better, but I don’t have much time right now, Nalaine went and did something dumb again, so she’ll be sleeping at my house today. Now I’ve got to go back check on her.”

Joln shot her a knowing glance at her declaration – it wasn’t the first time the demon acted impulsively, and it had sometimes not gone too well. She then turned back and ran again to her house, glad that her body didn’t feel physical tiredness, even if by the time she got back to her home, running all along, a bit of mental fatigue was taking hold. She just powered through it, ignoring it as she went up and sat beside the bed, waiting for Nalaine to wake up.

----------------------------------------

Nalaine woke up the next day around noon, Liliei immediately letting go of the mana construct in her hands to check up on her. When she saw her, a large smile spread on the Demon’s face.

“Glad to see you moving again.”, her voice was still a little feeble and raspy, but clearly audible now.

“So, I’m ready, do tell what you’ve done, even if I’ve got a feeling I won’t like it.”, There was a certain resignation in the girl’s voice as she spoke, obviously nearly sure of what her friend had done.

“Well, you seemed unable to get enough motivation to save yourself, so I increased the stakes. It’s a bit funny how your problem is incredibly hard to solve, but so easily replicated. And it worked didn’t it? You’re going to do your best to get this thing, aren’t you?” She finished with a chuckle.

“And you dared call me bullheaded!” exclaimed Liliei, falsely outraged. “You’re worse than me!”

Nalaine looked abashed, but Liliei knew she did so just to make her feel better.

“Well, then I guess there’s no choice huh? We’ll have to do it. Just so you know, it still doesn’t seems any less impossible to me.”

There was still this huge wall right in front of her, seemingly impossible to pass, but now she wasn’t the only one that would be affected if she were to give up, she couldn’t allow herself not to try at least. And the moment she agreed to do something a huge evil grin spread on the Demon’s face as she started speaking at a fast pace.

“Right, so then we better start as soon as possible. Since you’ve already got your guild card we’ll just have to create a party at the guild before going in the Dungeon. We’ll also need to up your Abilities, so you’ll have to train them as often as you can. Training to get inside a secured house and out without getting caught will have to wait a little until you’ve improved the rest at least a minimum. Finally, since gaining Levels will give you Stats, you’ll also need to work on your base to use them efficiently.

“So when you’re doing anything that allows you some free thoughts, try to see how you can improve your body, putting more mana in there was the right move, but you should try to see if you can, I don’t know, arrange it somehow? Like, a normal person has muscles, bones, and everything, but from what you said you’re just a uniform block of mana, right? There’s definitely something to do there. And that’s all I could think of for now.”

Nalaine took a deep breath as she finished her tirade, having said the whole thing nearly without breathing. Liliei had taken a step back and looked a bit stunned. After a second, she sat on the edge of the bed before tuning to Nalaine with a serious expression.

“In fact, your list just gave me the need to lay down for a few turns. So wake me up then ok?” As she finished her sentence she laid beside Nalaine, face planted on the bed. A grin just as huge as Nalaine’s was on her face.