Eve observed the thief through her Aura of the Library. No longer would she require Paper Spy Eyes or other such tricks. Within the Aura, her Bibliotheca Mind knew everything that was occurring. She could read the mana level in a person or object at a glance, thereby deciphering the level with ease. Currently, it wasn’t possible to know Skills or Spells though Eve felt it would be possible with time. After all, her new cerebral upgrade told her that Stats, Skills, and even Spells were merely striations in the Primal Energy Source. In essence, it was carefully layered Mana in specific patterns from the System that created the miracle powers Eve had grown used to seeing. Bibliotheca Mindkept the information overload from the Aura from turning her into a drooling idiot, much like Celestial Mind did in the past. Since she didn’t want to cause a scene, Eve quietly handled the current robbery in progress.

It wasn’t because Eve wanted to test out her new powers. No, not at all.

Paper notes floated to all the other customers in the shop, notifying them that their purchases were fifteen percent off for a short period. All that was required to receive the discount was the customers purchase whatever they wanted and leave within the next minute. There was a short pause as each customer read the note before suddenly a quick, quiet rush for the counter. Eve was manning occurred.

Eve smiled and created a floating sign that said, Silence is Golden, placing it to her left. As a jest, she made the sign look as if it was made of pure hovering gold. The commotion died to nothing in mere moments after everyone saw the sign. Quickly handling the sales, Eve processed everything and shuffled the customers out of the shop. As the last customer left, sound muffling paper started to enclose the shop’s walls, while the door locked itself shut via a paper key. Eve kept her senses focused on the thief, ensuring they were still unaware. A quick scan showed that the interloper was a short young boy.

As a secondary precaution, Eve formed a large paper box around the thief, specifically with spatial magic disrupting runes in place to prevent escape. Eve's Domain's glass paper formed the box to be effectively invisible in the shop’s artful lighting setup. Even though she was confident her control of the surrounding space with Domain of the Library was unmatched, it didn’t pay to be lazy or make basic mistakes. For all Eve knew, some super master thief Skill or Spell allowed for instant escape. She placed her staff into inventory and pulled a long paper pipe with herbal relaxants out before lighting it.

Finally, when the trap was set by Eve, she shifted both herself, the chair she created to sit comfortably on, the long paper pipe she was smoking fake weed from, and the green-furred mouse Pan who happened to be nearby eating his favorite cheese directly to the boy’s left. To the thief, it was as if she had appeared from thin air, which she had. A quick look at the boy showed him dressed in fine clothing that blended well with her own. The child artfully hid the thieving gear through a series of inner pockets sewn inside the clothes. A soft long-sleeve grey shirt ending in brown fingerless gloves, a brown over -tunic, and grey pants capped with brown leather boots all glowed with the gentle light of a minor enchantment. Likely something to move unseen with, which would explain why the other customers hadn’t raised a ruckus.

Spatial manipulation is such utter crazy good fun! So Eve thought as she blew a cloud of smoke from her fake long opium weed pipe at the boy. I have to watch it. I might get fat from moving around via only space ninja sorceress power!

Eve enjoyed the utter gob-smacked look the little boy gave her as she took another long puff on her fake weed pipe before saying, “Boo!” Finally, there was a satisfying shriek that reminded Eve of the times she had pranked her brother Matt. Before her eyes could register the movement, the small boy attempted to flee, aided by some escaping Skill.

Unfortunately, he ran directly into the prepared paper wall. There was a soft crunch, and Eve observed the boy’s nose subtly shifted out of alignment. When the kid fell to the ground, Eve wrapped paper bands around his arms, legs, and torso to float him over to in front of her. She kept him immobilized for his own good. It wouldn’t do to have the well-dressed urchin trigger her combat reflexes.

“Relax, shorty,” Eve said, applying a quick twist to re-align the nose with a small bit of paper. Then, grabbing one of the treasures she’d gotten from farming the Dungeon in her house, she healed up the nose with a wave of one of the more common Minor Healing wands. A glance at the ring the boy had tried to steal made her raise an eyebrow.

What could he possibly want with a Ring of Minor Water? Eve thought. Those are just Uncommon junk pieces I throw out for a few golds. Well, I’ll get the answer eventually.

“So, what should I do with you, shorty?” Eve said, puffing on her fake weed pipe before blowing smoke ring that had taken her four years to master at the boy.

“Let me go?” the shorty asked hopefully. His chubby little face had the beginning expression of artful innocence pasted on it.

Eve rolled her eyes. Clearly, this would require a hardened application of diabolical force to make the child talk. Pulling one of the soft brown leather boots that made up the shorty’s costume off, she applied a time-honored tactic.

Tickling.

After several minutes and the loss of a second boot that joined the first on the floor, the boy gasped out, “Tell! I-I’ll tell!”

“Start with what you were aiming for the Ring of Minor Water for,” Eve said calmly as if she hadn’t just used tickle torture to force the boy to talk.

“T-Treasure!” Eve’s captive managed to get out. She put the boy’s boots back on him and took a good look at him with Aura. With her level being akin to a mountain compared to the child, her mana's weight pulled back the curtain to reveal his Status.

Name: Tim

Race: Halfling

Class: Thief

Level: 30

Age: 7

Health: 200/200 (2 hps regen)

Mana: 200/200 (2 mps regen)

Stats: Str 20, Dex 60, Con 20, Wis 20, Int 20

Free Stats: 10

Skills:

Minor Fleetfoot

Minor Mana Tools

Minor Detect Trap

Spells:

Minor Illusion

Minor Weightlessness

Minor Silence

Mental Talents:

Shadow-Stone Mind

Physical Talents:

Shadow-Stone Body

Eve winced, seeing the two Traits listed. While they might be natural for a Deep Forest Wolf such as Shadow to have, there was no way a small child got them the same way. There was probably a great deal of natural talent and pain for Tim to have such Traits.

“I’m going to put you down. Don’t try to flee. It won’t work.” Eve said casually, forming a comfortable chair for Tim to sit in. As soon as he was sitting down, Tim pulled a small leather-wrapped bundle from his chest. Offering the bundle with both hands, the boy kept his eyes down.

“H-Here, it’s the map,” Tim said.

Eve checked it with her Aura and said, “What’s the key?”

“I solemnly swear I’m stealing a crown, forevermore to be unbound!” Tim chanted in a sing-song voice. Pulling the leather Map to her, Eve watched as the previously blank parchment filled in with images. A pull of her Domain stripped the information bound within the leather. Tossing the treasure map back to the boy, Eve looked at the paper Map she had created through copying.

“This treasure is in the boundary line between this layer of the Endless Forest and the next one?” Eve said, taking a draw of her pipe. The relaxing combination of herbs that no longer did anything to her Bibliotheca Body got blown out as another smoke ring.

“Yes, big sister,” Tim said, smiling ingratiatingly as he put away his leather Map. Eve removed the paper box she had created since it was clear after focusing on her Aura that he didn’t have any escape method. Even if he could perform Forgery on his status, this close, the effect would have been stripped easily by her own mana.

What I have here are all the ingredients of something to relieve boredom. Eve thought. She was about to make an offer when Pan squeaked from her shoulder. Lifting the boy, she set him back on the ground. Ignoring the strange way his shadow shifted, and especially the furry tail that disappeared into it, Eve patted the boy down. After removing her paper bands and cleaning up the area, she grabbed the Ring of Minor Water with a piece of paper-pushing it into Tim’s hands.

“Here. If I see you back in my shop, I’ll be displeased. Good luck on your adventure, shorty.” Eve said before waving the boy towards the door.

Tim looked confused before fleeing, but Eve smirked as the small Halfling exited her Aura range.

“Are you certain?” Eve asked Pan. There were some languages that Polyglot could let her understand the gist of but were physically impossible to speak even with mana involved. Pan, as well as the other elemental mice, happened to speak something she couldn’t replicate. The mice mostly came across as emotional sub-text without actual words involved to understand.

If this is really baiting, then it follows the place is probably a death-trap-filled ruin or something dangerous along those lines. So Eve thought, slightly excited as she used her Domain to swiftly follow the trail Pan pointed out to her using his superior mouse powers. As a mouse that controlled wind, it was child’s play to follow the shorty. On the few occasions where Pan got lost, there were always a set of unobtrusive claw marks to show the way.

Finally, after a short hide-and-seek session, Eve found herself standing in front of the local headquarters of the Flock. That this was the criminal organization that was stupid enough to send bait into her shop made sense, the fact that she hadn’t been seen for several days while breaking through to level five hundred must have given these idiots some backbone.

Well. I might as well clean up a bit before we head out. So Eve thought, moving towards the doorway guarded by a few lounging toughs.