Never underestimate a pervert. Their thinking is abnormal.

~Aine, Goddess of Love and Vengeance

A small knife appeared in his hand, and using the sharp point, he stabbed it into his finger. A bead of blood essence formed, and its reddish-black hue didn’t startle Crow like it used to. Approaching the Devouring Box, he held his breath until he placed his blood essence on the seal, which was the symbol on the side of the chest.

The blood smear faded as the chest absorbed it, and Crow knew it wasn’t nearly enough to claim this object. Squeezing out two more drops, he watched as those too disappeared. It wasn’t nearly enough, but at least he could feel the faint stirrings of a connection. It’d need way more blood essence than Crow could afford to lose. Quickly calculating the essence he still had left, how fast it regenerated itself, and the current state of his bond with it—it’d take a dozen years in his present state to nurture the box until it became a Soul-Linked item.

It was because blood essence was hard to replace and directly affected his vitality. If he lost enough of it, there was no way to regenerate it back to his normal state. Losing too much would cause him to age prematurely, and he’d die of old age. It was a condition that few things in this world could fix.

Not sensing any hostility from the box, Crow gently tapped it. Nothing happened. So he pressed his finger against it, his body tense and ready to use Ghost Steps to vacate the area. Still, nothing happened. Crow didn’t let his guard down even as he picked the box up and stored it away in the Vortex Pin. Weirdly, the box was light and felt fragile in his hands. It wasn’t at all like he expected.

Mar blew out her held breath and startled Crow, who was already tense. They looked at each other guiltily and then burst out laughing.

“That was too intense,” Crow finally said. “I feel like I’m carrying an activated Fire Stone, and the slightest bump will set it off.”

“You sure it’s safe?” Mara asked, still unsure if they were making the right choice.

“It should be fine. We cannot leave it here. No matter what, we never mention it. Not even to my master.”

“And you promise you’ll get rid of it the first chance you get?”

“If I can ensure it won’t be found for a long time, or won’t be linked back to our world, then yes.” Crow felt that was the practical answer, but there were doubts in his mind. A greedy part of him wanted to hold on to it indefinitely.

“Okay, let’s get out of here.”

“What about that Acco guy?” Crow asked. The thief was annoying and very good at his job, but Crow didn’t feel he’d been wronged to the point of ending the thief’s life.

*Before you leave, check the top of the bookcase. I sense some spiritual energy coming from there.* Nin said.

Crow saw Mara turn to him out of the corner of his eye, but before she replied, he was already walking toward the bookcase. Nin wasn’t wrong. When he focused his mana sense directly onto the bookcase, he did find a source of energy. The fluctuations were so minuscule that it was easy to miss unless someone was meticulous or very sensitive to mana.

Mara, excited about more loot, was right on his heels.

“What did you find?” She asked but didn’t seem agitated. Instead, she looked excited. Crow never realized how much of a thrill addict she was until they started exploring strange places. Not even ghosts rattled her.

Crow silently shrugged but didn’t take his attention off the fluctuations. There was a pattern to them, and he realized this was a type of lock. Six pulses and then a longer pause kept repeating over and over. So after the break, Crow analyzed the six pulses and realized it was almost like musical notes. As a bard, part of his training was to learn a musical instrument. The Druid Order already registered him as a Bard because of his bloodline. The reality was that there was one step to make it all official—he had to design his own instrument. Most made some version of a lute, but Crow wanted something that fit him, so he thought about it frequently.

Regardless, he knew what he had to do. Each pulse was the mana equivalent to a musical note, so he just needed to tap it into the pattern to unlock the formation. His finger glowed with mana and gave off a tonal sound that couldn’t be heard or felt except through mana sense. Everything was related to the waves given off by the switch, and when his finger touched down on it within the blank gap, they both felt a light rumble and vibrations in the ground.

Click!

Several breaths later, nothing happened except that sound, so Mara and Crow looked at each other. Confused about what had just happened. As he was about the speak, they both heard the middle bookcase move backward before sliding to the left.

“Classic!” Mara clapped excitedly.

“What kind of crap do you fill your head with?” Crow snorted. He let Mara enter first. It wasn’t out of chivalry, but because she was more robust and had better armor. She was a front-line fighter, while he was more of a scout type.

There were five steps down, and then they stepped into the hidden room.

“What is this?” Mara asked, seeing no treasure, just a square room with strange markings on the walls and floor.

Crow walked forward, so he stood in the center of the room, which was also the only place without any markings. The clearing was only about two meters wide. Thinning his mana sense to the utmost, he gently touched the formation. He didn’t want to trigger anything, and once he got a sense of things, he realized this was the core of the formation. The location was a little shocking, but Crow sort of expected it.

What he didn’t expect was the secondary formation linked to the same core. He did not know it was even possible to use a core for two separate formations. Most experts could weave multiple formation patterns together, but it was a blend, not separated. The more he inspected the layout, the more intrigued he became. He could tell that the perverted master that created this place was only a dabbler in formations, but his creativity was highly unique. It made Crow wonder if knowing the rules about formations was aiding or hindering him.

“What is it?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m standing in a teleportation formation,” Crow told her.

“Where does it go?”

“No idea. With the war going on, I don’t think we should tempt fate.”

“What if it goes to a pocket world?”

“No. The formation is short-ranged—maybe a thousand kilometers? We’d travel quite a distance but wouldn’t be able to leave the tower’s Basement. Before you ask, it doesn’t list or have any way to control the destination. However, I can tell you it’s a fixed location,” Crow explained. The Basement was a term they picked up almost as soon as they entered the tower a year ago. Most people didn’t use the official name for this floor. They just referred to it as the Basement.

“This wily old pervert,” Mara muttered, and Crow had to agree. “If we used it, could we come back?”

“Nope. One way only. I know what you are thinking, but even if the destination is secured, there is no way to tell if we’d end up in the middle of those dead things.”

The Hexen Witch Doctors were really making a mess of the Tur Briste’s Basement. They controlled a third of this floor but had small scouting groups targeting smaller towns to turn them. They’d then command those newly turned to attack bigger settlements. This method wasn’t always successful, but it had taken down a few bigger towns or cities.

“Yeah, but loot!” Mara said sadly. He didn’t believe there’d be any loot on the other side. After all, this was that guy’s underground fortress. They called it a tomb, but really this was a cultivator’s hideaway. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“If you really want to tempt fate, I’ll go with you.”

“Really?”

Crow just nodded. It was about time they started heading back to Master Torcail, so there wasn’t much left for them to do in this area anymore. The business his master’s parents ran was the epitome of thick-skinned. They took money to handle nearly any task and rarely flinched at any request. Crow checked to make sure he had all his things every time he visited and left.

“First, let’s let the brat go,” Crow told her.

“How do you think he is getting into places like this?”

“Probably a treasure. I’m convinced Acco’s method of getting past formations is the same he uses to steal my research. It is odd, though. With my memory, I’d notice if my things were even slightly out of place, so I know he hasn’t touched my things.”

“Old fashioned spying,” Mara said.

“Huh?”

“You do all your research in libraries. Being unfated doesn’t mean you should become complacent. Have you ever tried to use your own sight ability to monitor everyone around you? He probably just copied your notes as you wrote them.”

“I check, and that isn’t it.” Crow shook his head, and they both looked up at where Acco used to be and were dumbstruck. “How did he get out?”

“Simple,” Acco said from behind them. “You two aren’t so bad. At least you had the intention of actually freeing me. Others would have outright killed me.”

Acco was on the ground. His body was in awful shape. He clearly broke his leg, and Crow frowned at the other superficial wounds.

“You did this to yourself?”

“Perfect. You are worthy of being my nemesis.”

“Wait, why am I your nemesis?”

“Because you are the only worthy challenger I’ve found. You aren’t as good as me, but you manage to get into places like this. You are very diligent in your note-taking.”

“You will not tell me how you did it, will you?”

“I can tell you that your wife wasn’t too far off. I’ve been a treasure hunter for far longer than you two. You’d be surprised by the things I’ve discovered.”

Crow tossed him a pill. “Take it. It’ll help with your wounds. A day or two, and you’ll be as good as new.”

Acco stupidly stared at the pill. It was as if the world had just flipped upside down. It took several long seconds before he looked up at Crow. “Why?”

“We have no real enmity. You’ve been annoying, but I know your trick, so good luck stealing my secrets,” Crow smirked. There was no reason for him to write notes. He only did that for Mara, and she never really read them. In the future, he’d just keep his research in his mind. “Go on, take it and go.”

“You will not rob me? Torture? Touch me inappropriately—”

“What the hell is wrong with your head!?” Mara shouted.

“You called him a pervert. Why are you yelling at me?” Acco yelled back, feeling aggrieved.

Mara went blank for a second before she burst out laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” Crow asked. “I’m the wronged one here.”

“It’s your fault for setting this kid up by sending him to a perverted cultivator’s hideaway.”

“Wait, you did what?” Acco asked. “You aren’t right in the head.”

Crow laughed. “I know.”

Acco took the pill and scrambled out of the room, trying to escape back the way he came. “Dammit, I truly met my nemesis today.”

After Acco left, Crow and Mara stopped laughing.

“Ha! You think he’ll keep trying to chase after us?” Mara asked.

“If he’s smart, he’ll stay as far from me as possible. Guess we’ll see. Besides, I’m pretty sure I know why I haven’t noticed him. He isn’t scrying me but using some kind of portal treasure. That means he is physically watching me. Anyway… ready to try our luck?”

Mara nodded, and they both walked back into the secret room. They shut the bookshelf in case Acco doubled back. No reason to let him know about the teleportation platform. Knowing how that kid’s mind worked, he’d probably end up using this place as his own hideaway if he knew he had a quick escape.

They both stepped into the circle, and Crow took out several Mana Crystals. He didn’t make these crystals but found them in various tombs they raided. Finding the five critical nodes, he placed a crystal on top of each except the core, which didn’t need one.

Finished with his preparation, Crow activated the formation. The crystals dissolved into mist which swirled around the room but didn’t enter the central area of the layout. Seconds later, Crow felt the twisting pull of space and time warping around him. His hand was locked onto Mara’s, so she naturally came along with him. The moment they appeared at their destination, Crow turned his head to the left and swore.