"Kraeth’sol"

The temperature inside the room shot up crazily, melting the corpse of the dead Alchemist and, at some points, even the walls!

The Titankin was stunned when he saw this; a chill ran down his spine when he saw a blazing, smoke-filled fist mere inches away from his face.

"Did this...bastard have Spirit Fire? Just who is—"

Before he completed his words, his head burst open like a watermelon as a heavy fist passed through the empty air.

The impact was so strong that even the wall behind was blasted completely.

BOOM!!!

There was a large explosive sound, akin to that of a bomb exploding. For a second, even Emperal was stunned when he saw this. But then he immediately came to his senses.

"No! I have to get out of here before the Town Lord arrives!" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

He hurriedly dragged the three bodies together and set them on fire, turning them into ashes in mere seconds.

Emperal’s form flickered as he dashed through the blasted hole and... ran straight towards the forest.

"That bastard better have completed his job, or I have to eat a fried snake tonight."

...

A few hours earlier, after Emperal separated from Calder.

"Damn, what is that man smoking? Did he really say that!?" Calder almost felt like crying when he recalled Emperal’s words.

He couldn’t help but rethink his life choices after choosing this new boss of his. In the end, that guy didn’t even give out a proper plan and just said a single line.

"You better ’collect’ all the supplies and Verth crystals from the warehouse and meet me at the spot where we ’hunted’ the Ridgeback boar."

"Collect my rubbery ass! How the hell am I supposed to rob them all alone!"

This is exactly what Emperal had planned—well, if this could even be called one. According to Emperal, it would be too wasteful to just fight and return empty-handed while he was engaging in the fights. Calder would sneak inside and steal as much as possible.

Calder shivered. "Shit, I haven’t done something so big in my entire lifetime! This heist...I will be skinned alive if I am caught."

Burying those thoughts deep, Calder soon arrived in front of the warehouse of the Alchemy Branch.

The godown was at the back of the Alchemy Branch, a separate stone building connected by a walkway. It looked larger up close than it did from the street.

Two guards stood at the rear entrance, doing their hard work, but from their posture, Calder couldn’t help but think that they were just paid for their presence rather than their alertness.

Calder took a deep breath. "I should have at least visited my favorite hooker! Lilia, don’t worry, your knight will definitely return!"

Saying that, he crouched in the alley beside the building and quietly assessed.

Two guards, both at the Second Stage of Verth Seeker with beast blood. Their breathing had the slow pacing of people three hours into a night shift and had stopped expecting anything to happen.

Taking another step, he released the gas—a controlled diffusion from his pores, directed with the precision of someone who had done this many times.

"Hmm, I guess two minutes would be more than enough for the gas to affect these two."

Calder concluded, and that was exactly what happened.

The two guards’ noses twitched slightly, but they didn’t react much to it. Finally, the first guard’s head dropped against the wall.

"H-Hey, w-what happ—"

The second guard snapped his head towards the first. At first, he thought that the first guard had pulled some sort of prank on him.

But he panicked when he saw him not waking up even after several moments. A horrifying realization dawned upon him.

But it was too late. His knees buckled as his eyes rolled back in his head.

Thud.

Even after they fell, Calder didn’t immediately rush in. He waited for thirty more seconds, then walked to the entrance. Rummaging through their pockets, he checked for the keys and found them in the second one.

He hurriedly went inside and dragged the guards’ bodies in, too. After coming inside, he released the breath he was holding.

"Phew, finally inside!"

Looking around, he couldn’t help but whistle. His eyes went green with greed when he saw the materials inside.

It was a bulk storage warehouse!

Shelves going from floor to ceiling along three walls, organized with the meticulous labeling of someone who took their job way too seriously.

Raw herb bundles, sealed in Verth-preserving cloth. Pill component jars—the truly expensive ones. Ingredients that took weeks to prepare, and at the back corner in the locked cabinet... There were a few boxes.

Verth crystal reserves!

"Holy shit! W-What the hell! The branch had this much in stock!? Then why the hell are there just two wastes of guards out?"

He couldn’t help but mutter. Unbeknownst to him, the two men that Emperal killed earlier were the protectors of this place, present 24/7 to monitor it.

Calder’s eyes suddenly twitched. "How the hell should I take all this out? There’s no way I could run properly with all this baggage on me."

His concerns were true—even one of those Verth crystal boxes weighed more than a hundred kilos! Not to mention the delicate bottles of pills and precious herbs.

"With supplies this large, there ought to be a spatial ring!"

Calder muttered before dashing to the shelves, searching for the spatial ring.

But spatial rings were incredibly rare materials. Finding one in the borders wouldn’t just be difficult.

He searched every shelf and corner, but to his frustration, he couldn’t detect a thing even remotely close to a storage ring.

"Dammit! I would be discovered if I don’t hurry!"

Calder huffed. After searching for a few more minutes, he didn’t find the ring. Just as he was about to give up,

He saw a small box behind the Verth crystal packages and stepped towards the cabinet.

Bending down, he picked up the box. When he opened it... he couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.

"T-This! A high-grade spatial ring! What the fuck is wrong with my luck!? There’s no way I’d be this lucky!"