Kael hops back , sending a gust of wind forward. Aeris on the receiver's end, endures through the force thrusting forward. It’s midday, the auction is tomorrow night. Aeris decided to spar Kael for some reason, probably to test him or to break a sweat. At least what Edric thought as he sat leaning against the wall, observing the duek from a distance.
Edric thought he was a decent fighter but after seeing those two spar , he had second thoughts. The precise movements, the uses of their mana, style and Aeris actually broke a sweat .
Why does she look kinda happy? Damn, here I thought I was decent.
He sighed , his muscles were still sore from the past days training . Aeris ordered him to take rest, though she might have just wanted to fight Kael.
As the auction came closer , his anxiety increased. In his mind he came up with various back plans- whether they should go full throttle combat or finish it in stealth was still not clear.
That morning both Kael and Aeris went incognito, as to where Edric didn’t know. That stressed him out even more, he felt like dead weight compared to them. As the thoughts resurfaced - he remembered something he hasn’t done in a while.
“System” he muttered, it’s been so long that he forgot there's a System in the first place.
[Skill/Abilities]
Marksmanship (level 20)
Martial Arts (Level 13
Ice bullets(Active)
Magic Bullets (Active)
GhostSteps (Level 9-> 30s)
Mana Cultivation (Level 7)(Passive)
Mana Heart (level 0)(70%)
Endurance (Passive)
…
Edric smirked as he read through the long list of skills and abilities. Though he wasn’t really surprised, stuff like mana cultivation and mana heart had improved from training . Martial arts level increase also made sense.
The more he thought about it, the more he thought the system was quite useless. No one else had a system as far as he knew, he can’t level up or get state points like one would expect.
It’s more of a list of stuff he learns the traditional way. The only real use is the item appraisal by the system, which isn’t a listed skill. The waypoint though limited and maybe the progress and time for ghost steps.
Though it doesn’t show the full details , like the fact that ghoststeps time depends on the things carried. The more items to phase through the less the time, the only expectation was his gun for some reason didn’t affect the time and if he tried hard enough he could extend it to maybe 35 seconds.
*BOOM*
Edirc quits daydreaming, snaps his focus to the stage. His eyes widened, Kael disappeared in his smoke. Aeris wielded her two sabers, looking like she chanted a spell, after completing her unknown chant. She jumps mid air, creates a flame tornado sucking the smoke away.
Kael gets thrown out of the ring,headed towards the wall. Edric got up , about to run to save him. But Kael twirled his staff, used wind to cushion himself and landed safely on the ground.
“What was that?” Edric scolded glancing between them. “Someone might have died or been severely injured.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Kael shakes dust off his hair. “Relax, this is just practice”. His expression calm and relaxed. Unlike the usual charismatic cockyness.
Aeris scoffed as she walked down the stage. “If he couldn’t handle it, then he's useless.”
Well then I am beyond useless.
“Alright , Alright. That's enough training” he says while in motion of reaching the stairs. “ Why don’t we discuss the plan over tea.”
In the study room on the third floor- a rudimentary map of the hall is placed on the center table, some tea cups with tea on the side are placed and some pouches with gemstones and coins lie on the table. Other items include the file that Vance gave, the drawing’s of the golden lotus.
Kael and Edric sit at one side of the table while Aeris sits across.
Kael sips his tea. “So , what's your big scheme? Are we breaking in ?”
“Nope, We’re walking right through the door. Meanwhile your plan B or a backup depending on the situation.”
Kael frowned. “Sounds boring.”
Aeris places her hand on her chin, thinks for a moment before speaking. “So, you plan for him to sneak in while we act out our part.”
She got it without me even saying anything.
“More or less. From seeing you two spar I can say Kael does pretty well in the stealth department. What do you think?” Edric looks at Aeris.
“True, he is quite exceptional. If you don't mind his personality.”
“Thanks for the compliment.” Kael said. “But what am I supposed to do in stealth?”
“Simple, the auction will start after the ball at midnight right?” Aeris nods to Edric. “Kael can disguise himself as a waiter or guard while the ball happens. Then when the auction starts he gets in their base.”
Edric continued. “If he somehow manages to get to the storage room or wherever they keep their items. Then he can save Xantha and might get a hold of your fathers work in the process. If he saves her incognito , there’s no need for us to participate .”
Kael leans back and thinks for a second. “Easier said than done. One, the security would be tight . You can probably guess who the owner of this shindig is. No telling how many guards are located, nor their shifts. Besides, even if I somehow go to the storage room . How am I supposed to find which one?”
“Which one?” Edric muttered. Both Aeris and Edric look in confusion.
“Wait, don’t tell me you guys don’t know” Kael slaps his head in disbelief. He grabs the invitation on the desk and imbues magic in it to reveal the hidden text. “See this,” he points to a small piece of text in the back. “There’s more than one auction happening . That place is massive.”
Edric covers his face, “What the hell.” Even with all this preparation, they missed a very very important detail.
“This complicates things,” Aeris said. Her voice in genuine disbelief and a part blames herself.. “But hope is not completely lost.”
Edirc looks up. “What do you mean?”
“You,” Pointing at Kael. “You have a good mouth and can pick pockets. So sneak into another hall and make your way to the back. If she doesn't appear in our auction. We can go to another hall or sneak our way in.”
“Well, alright. But that’s so much extra work.” Kael frowned.
“By the way how did you know? About the auction details anyway?” Edric asked, his voice low.
“You don’t know but my father has some connection . But don’t misunderstand, he ain't those corrupt guys.” Kael said. “By the way what's the other plan?”
“Oh that, well in the off chance she does appear. I mean we don’t even know she will but if she does . We bid her to win it.” He grabs a gem from his pouch. “This is an illusion gem. Bought when both of you went on errands this morning. We can use this to make our money pouch bigger than it is.”
“The security guards will inspect the bag. ” Aeris interrupted. “Besides, do you really think? the security in a place, where nobles with more wealth than you can imagine, have a shoddy security setup? A decent mage, or intimidate mana control can detect the oddity even before you open the pouch.”
Those words Edric like a brick, but he didn’t weaver.“True, but it's only to buy time. Kael plays the next part”
Kael leans in , curious. “Next part?.”
“Simple, just do what you usually do. Cause chaos, enough chaos for us to slip out.”
“All well and all. But how would I know the exact time to do my part.”
He grabed something from his pouch, revealing it to be a small handful of gems with a dull blue color. “These are signal gems, if we imbue mana like this.” The gems glow in unison. “We can signal each other and they can signal at least 1.5 km.”
Kael grabs one and observes it . “Where the hell did you get this? It looks like junk from afar.”
“I have my ways.” In truth he used the system on various gemstone shops, in hopes to find something useful.
“Sounds like a decent enough plan. But what do you plan on doing?” Aeris glares at Kael.
“The disguise ? I can find a waiter's outfit quite easily. As for the distraction part well” he chuckles. Edric didn’t like the sound of that. “I always wanted to do this.” talking to himself in amusement. Looks like his going crazy again.“Anyway don’t worry about it. Now if that’s that, I have to go get something. BYE” he got up , bids his goodbye and leaves.
Edric looks in disbelief. “Did he really just waltz out of here?”
Aeris gets up next, approaches Edric and puts her hand on his shoulder. “Relax , this is the best we could do . Take some rest, I will go buy some items for emergencies.” Just like that she walks off to the door.
The door slams shut, Edric gave out a deep sigh. Leans back , stairs at the ceiling. “Hope this works out well.”
He gets up from his seat. “I think I will go for a walk, it’s almost night anyway "
