Calder was overjoyed when he saw this, and the most pleasant thing was...it didn’t contain anyone’s Verth signature. Basically, a newly made spatial ring!

"Damn, do all spatial rings look like this one?" Calder muttered as he saw how beautiful the spatial ring was.

It was silver-coloured, with black designs carved upon it intricately.

Without wasting a single second, he passed on his Verth to the ring. It trembled in his palms for a moment before stopping.

"Goddamn!! The space inside is more than enough to keep all the materials inside."

He muttered happily before waving his hand.

The three boxes of Verth crystals on the ground miraculously vanished, turning into Verth before entering the spatial ring.

Calder was overjoyed when he saw this. Without wasting a single second, he stored every single thing inside the storage.

The man didn’t even leave a speck of dust behind. "Alright, now let’s get the hell out of here before someone arrives."

Just like that...Calder stole the goods, which were worth thousands of Verth crystals in a single hour.

...

The nights of Greenvale have always been quiet. The Greenvale’s town lord had been asleep, like genuinely asleep after a long day of administrative work and other duties.

The explosion of Emperal reached him before his servants or the reports could. In an instant, his eyes snapped open.

He was already dressed before even the second echo faded. He was already moving.

His name was Dreyke. Forty years in Greenvale’s border territory had made his body look like it had been built for this exact work—the border work. He was broad and packed with the right muscles.

The Dragonic bloodline was evident in his lineage. Verth Wielder Stage Three; he could be considered a powerhouse.

Within a second, he arrived at the building with four of his people behind him. The rear wall was gone, blasted to be specific.

An entire section of stone, roughly two meters...gone. The edges were still blackened.

Dreyke swept his eyes across the entire building, scanning each and every corner.

"My Lord, it seems some high-level cultivators fought here."

From behind, one of the servants spoke.

"I can see that. In fact, I can still feel the heat."

"Heat...? My Lord, do you mean Spirit Fire!?"

Another one sucked in a cold breath when he heard the words, Spirit Fire.

"No...this heat is different...It doesn’t give the destructive waves of Spirit Fire."

It was something controlled, the Lord muttered inwardly.

Stepping inside, Dreyke’s expression changed. His eyes immediately caught the particles of ash and...the burnt smell, which was foul.

"Is that fire...what I think it is?"

"Town Lord." One of his people stood at the entrance holding something. "I found this outside...caught on the doorframe."

It was a scrap of cloth. Dark, and border-region common fabric—basically a common type of cloth that could belong to anyone.

Dreyke’s eyes narrowed as he inspected the cloth. There were stains of blood on it.

"This...Verth’s signature feels familiar...Liret?"

For a second, his eyes turned confused. But soon, he shook his head. Turning around, he gave out the orders.

"Tighten the security around the entrances, look for clues, and call the Alchemy master to my residence."

He spoke. The four of them hurriedly nodded, but one of them couldn’t help but ask,

"My Lord, aren’t we...going to chase them?"

Their path of escape was pretty clear, and if someone like their lord joined them, they could easily capture them.

For a second, the Lord turned silent, his eyes calculating the situation and the decisions. After a second, he shook his head.

"As far as I’m concerned, this building was abandoned, and the person killed still hasn’t been found. One of the common folks must have offended someone they shouldn’t have. Now, there are many other matters I have to attend to. Call the Alchemy master tomorrow morning."

Saying that, he stepped outside the building and vanished.

The four of them looked at each other for a second before shrugging it off.

...

The spot where they ’hunted’ the Ridgeback boar was dark and quiet. Calder was sitting on a root, the spatial ring gleaming on his finger as he sang happily. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Lilia~ oh Lilia~ How are you so tig—!!"

He snapped his head down. The shadows twisted as Emperal walked out of the dark. Calder looked at him—the blood on his robes...and his face. Ashes mixed with blood stuck to his robes and forearms, and the faint smell of burned stone lingered.

"Uaa~ Look at you, you really look terrible." Calder chuckled. With a swing, he jumped down in front of Emperal.

"The Alchemist is dead. Did you secure the goods?" Emperal spoke. For a moment, he was tense. His fingers twitched as he waited for Calder to utter, ’I failed.’

Seeing this, Calder hurriedly took a few steps back and raised his hands in surrender.

"Dude, calm down! I’m sure even with your nature, you’d be all smiley when I show you something."

"It better be something worth your life."

"Hehe~ Don’t worry, it’s wayyy more worth than it."

Saying that, he took off the ring he was wearing and tossed it to Emperal. Emperal’s eyes narrowed in shock when he saw the ring.

"No...way, a spatial ring? That too, in the borders!? What sort of insane luck is this?"

Emperal muttered. He, more than anyone, knew the worth of these things. Although previously he had used Vraelyn’s spatial ring many times, he wasn’t unfamiliar with it.

He looked at the ring intently for a few more seconds, then looked at Calder.

"Where exactly did you find this?"

"Behind the Verth crystal reserve boxes, in a small case. It was easy to miss, but my eyes are obviously superior." Calder smirked. "Why? Aren’t you happy we found such a valuable treasure?"

He couldn’t help but ask. He had at least expected Emperal to smile.

"A brand new unregistered ring hidden in a border territory godown behind what...a fucking payment reserve?" Emperal sighed. "Someone had, of course, put it there. Either it was being held for someone who never even visited to collect it, or it was stored to give to someone really...really important."

Emperal concluded. Hearing this, Calder couldn’t help but ask, "Do you think that was for the...City Lord?"