It is a moonless winter night in the human town of Barnsley. One of those any sane person would just hide inside a warm home and sleep with a wish morning would come earlier. The dark clouds that loomed overhead and threatened to rob all the blue of the sky were still there but hiding in the very darkness they brought about, promising to bring the curse known as snow.

It seems the prospect of doing mischief makes me poetic.

From above the town wall, we observe the movement of the torches on a section far away from us as the sentries were gathered to keep watch over the pack of fire gorillas that is racing at the edge of the fields. I pick up my girls and jump down into the alley below with a dull impact. Besides the cloud of dust that was pushed aside, nobody heard a thing, courtesy of the sound barrier Helen placed on the alley before I jumped. I gotta learn this barrier magic thing. At least there is a teleport anchor set on the ground next to the wall. In case I need to cross the wall without going above it, below or through it. All these other methods are problematic in their own way.

"Where do you think they stored our things, Marcy?"

"These scum always use the guild lodging because it is cheaper than any inn. Some of them must be there, we can get them and make them talk."

I understand that having adventurers right at hand is useful, but for the prices the guild charges for the lodging, they are losing a lot of money. Why does the guild need to do so?

"Sounds good. Let's go."

We move through back alleys with Emory scouting ahead of us. One hungry cat with no notion of danger or depth perception decided to make Emory his dinner before realizing the size of the rat scout. The current Emory would give a wolf lieutenant a run for his money.

One not-so-fun fact about this world is that glass is a commodity too precious to use on commoner's windows. They board the windows during the winter, so nobody is dumb enough to open a window to peek a glance in the dead of this cold night. We have an almost free reign of the streets. And this is awesome when one towers over thirteen feet tall when you count the horns.

"The guild building is in the next street. We will need to cross that main road," Marcy gives us the directions.

"But how will Grendel cross the street? There are people outside!" Helen points out.

Even if most of the townspeople go to sleep at night, there are always those that seek the heat of a burning ale or of another person's body to get through the night. Some of these are wandering in the street right in front of us. They carry oil lanterns because public illumination is an unthinkable concept. I take a peek at the street and a few buildings to my left there is a pile of hay bales. I got an idea. "Summon Elemental: Gnome!" A small creature of earth and pebbles a little over 3 feet tall rises from the alley dirt and looks at me with an air of eagerness. Elementals have the ability to meld into their element and glide effortlessly inside it, and it doesn't matter if it is natural or worked materials. The gnome can swim in the cobblestone and do my bidding.

But I'll also set a dimension anchor here at the back of this alley. Just in case.

"Gnome, when I give you a signal, go to those hay bales and topple them." The gnome may be small, but it is as strong as a strong man. A couple of drunks sharing one lantern pass by and I give the signal. Gnome glides through the stone and pushes the corner of the hay pile into the street and on top of the passerby, blinding them and shutting the lantern.

We cross the main street into the side alley leading to the guild courtyard. Now that we are next to the guild building, I try to sense treasures. I pick up several signals. The job-crystal that is the core of the guild building. It would be terrible if I were to touch it. Some C-rank and B-rank pemadras stored in the basement, a very powerful enchanted sword is also in the basement and so is Marcy's bow.

"Marcy, your bow is in the basement. How do you want to proceed?" She is surprised.

"Why would... Ah, I got it. That bow is rather infamous. It belonged to Master after all. The idiots must have shown it at the guild and then someone confiscated it." Even months after dying that guild master still causes us trouble. That bow is rightfully Marcy's after Hrothgar gave the loot of Mirfield to me.

"I will break into the basement and get the bow back. Are you still going to question the thugs in the hostel?"

"I don't think it will be a good idea to show our faces right before raiding the guild. Besides Marcy's bow, there was nothing really irreplaceable in what was stolen from us," ponders Helen.

"Then it is better if you girls get away from here. I have an idea. Find an inn and check into a room. One closer to here. This way you can deny involvement with the raid."

"Don't go after the job-crystal again, G!" Marcy gives me a goodbye kiss and walks into the main street with Helen.

I check their positions on the tactical map and they go into an inn. Soon after they stop, probably inside their rented room. Time to break in and raid yet another branch of the adventurer's guild. Three times its a pattern, they say.

The wall is a palisade and is easy to jump over. In the courtyard, I can hear some horses in a sheltered stable to the right. The layout of the building is almost the same as the other branches I have seen. The main building, a training area, courtyard, the warehouse. The basement should be below the main building. And Grendel got a little problem. One of the reasons the guild employs mostly females as the staff is that some corridors and rooms of the inner area can be made smaller. Cramped, but they save some square feet, and there is a secondary security effect because big monsters like me can't just walk in and raid the place. Or big adventurers like some brainless idiots.

But it all amounts to me having to make another entrance to the basement. I move around the main building sensing the position of the treasures in the basement. I'm trying to find a good place to dig a hole. There is a spot behind a wall that looks fine. "Summon Elemental: Earth elemental!" I gather the dirt and rocks below the passage next to the wall and animate a cylinder of it. An earth elemental taller and bulkier than me climbs out and leaves a hole where he was. I command him to glide to a corner of the wall and lean over it creating a ramp. After it is in position, I dismiss the guy.

Inside the hole, I can see the basement wall, flush with the first-floor wall. It is worked stone, I can't just animate it. The wall above might collapse and demolish part of the building. Without options, I create two more earth elementals out of the ground and dig a tunnel underneath the basement. I have to lay a pelt above the hole to keep the light from seeping out before using a lantern to illuminate the tunnel. I'll use two logs from the item box as weight bearing supports to strengthen the tunnel. Now I have the basement floor above my head.

Using one of my long toenail spears I poke and remove the mortar of one stone block until it comes loose. And into the item box, it goes. Above it, there is what looks like the bottom of a chest. Touch it with a finger and suck it into the item box. Nothing else above it. Two more blocks are gone and I can see the inside. I can even poke around with an arm, but I need to climb inside. I remove enough blocks to fit myself through. Very little noise because I don't have to grind one rock against the other. They just vanish into the item box.

Inside the guild vault, there are some chests, armors on shelves, weapons neatly organized in their racks and some barrels. The fastest way to know what they are is to store them in the item box. Coins, pemadras, potions... There is Marcy's bow. Stored.

The magic sword is also next to it. I am baffled by the magical aura it sheds. it is similar to Zahariel when he glows. This sword is without a doubt the most valuable item in this vault. I'll leave it behind. There is no way I would be able to fence or use it without having my name tagged to this heist. There should be more stuff that is too distinctive in the mix I took. I'll just dump them later elsewhere. They might even come in handy to incriminate someone I don't like.

But for the rest? Item box for the win. Nobody will guess what I came here for if only the sword is left inside this basement. I'll have to leave some logs to make room. A fair trade? I don't care. Should've thought twice before seizing my woman's property. Now back to the tunnel and set the floor stones back in place. Board the bottom with the help of an elemental, and also close the hole above with another elemental. but before that, let me open an exit gate back to that alley.

Outside. Fresh air. I skulk back in the path to the wall guided by Emory. No encounters. The dimension anchor also serves as a way-point. I can sense its location direction and distance if I concentrate a bit on it. And now that we are here, "Short Jaunt!" and I am on the other side of the wall. Emory can cross through a sewer grate later.

I duck to avoid the sentries walking above, and when the [Presence Detection] shows they are moving away from me, I sneak out into the night fields. Once I reach the treeline I light up a lantern and signal for the rat squad. Emory and his not-pups-anymore return safely. I am sure Helen is watching me. I take Marcy's bow out of storage and show it to Emory. I know Helen is watching through the familiar link. Then I blow a kiss to the rat and we vanish into the dark woods.

Title Phantom Thief Lord (B) awarded.

Those that succeed at a perfectly stealthy heist worth over 10,000 gold coins and leave an identifying trademark behind.

50% more efficiency for the Stealth, Presence Detection, Sabotage, Lock Picking, and Alertness skills when conducting a heist as long as no combat is triggered and the identifying trademark was left behind during the last heist.

Identifying trademark: Wooden logs. Left at last heist: true.

Job: Thief available.

And the legend of the wooden log phantom thief begins today.