Red stared at Rimold with some wariness. “You know I stole from the Adventurer’s Guild before, right?”

The rogue nodded. “That’s why I’m asking for your help. Since you stole from it once, you shouldn’t have much trouble stealing from it again.”

“And you think they wouldn’t be wiser to it?” the boy asked.

“Why would they?” Rimold shook his head. “If I have it right, the last time you stole from them was six months ago. They might have been a bit more guarded with that incident, but after six months of nothing else happening, do you think they would still be so attentive?”

Red sighed. “You might have a point, but you know there are other reasons this is risky too.”

The rogue snorted. “Gustav is just the owner of that inn. He might be angry, but as long as we don’t target him directly, there is no need to worry about retaliation from him.”

While that might be true, this wasn’t the only thing Red was worried about. For a merchant to be moving around with so many Spirit Stones, they might have a strong backer that would investigate this matter. Of course, the boy knew that if he wanted to gather enough stones to build his formation, he would probably need to resort to theft, and it was inevitable he would provoke the ire of many people.

In the end, he didn’t press Rimold on the matter.

“Are we going right now?” Red asked.

Rimold nodded. “We’ll meet in twenty minutes at the entrance to our street. I need time to prepare some things first.”

The boy nodded and the two parted ways.

Red returned to his room and prepared his equipment. There wasn’t anything in particular he needed to take considering his mission, but the boy wanted to have some items he could rely on if things went south.

He opened his hidden stash stored below one of the floorboards, picking out one slip of paper in particular. It was a talisman that the boy had been able to exchange with Hector for his contributions during these months.

After the hidden trial, Red recognized how useful talismans were to people like him who hadn’t opened their Spiritual Sea. They could mean the difference between life and death, and the boy made sure to stack up on them whenever he could.

‘This should be enough.’

Best-case scenario, Red didn’t have to use any talismans, but he knew to prepare for the worst.

After he was done putting on his uniform and equipment, Red checked his surroundings again with his crimson sense before sneaking out. He traveled down the uninhabited street before sensing Rimold’s presence behind another ruined building.

He made sure to make his presence known with heavy steps so as not to surprise the rogue. The man turned around in surprise once he heard his approach, but he immediately relaxed after noticing it was the boy.

Rimold scowled at Red. “You know, it’s a bit unfair…”

“What is?” the boy was confused.

“How you can just tell where people are.” the rogue said with a frown. “I’ve been sneaking around my entire life and have managed to stay unnoticed even by Hector. Yet, a brat like you can spot me with little effort. Do you see how that’s unfair?”

“I do.” Red nodded.

Rimold grunted. “And I suppose you don’t care, do you?”

The boy didn’t respond.

The rogue sighed. “How did you even get that power in the first place?”

“We should focus on the mission.” Red tried to shift the topic of conversation.

“Right.” Rimold nodded. “We all have our secrets.”

The rogue didn’t say anything else and pointed forward.

“You follow me.” Rimold said. “We’ll climb a few buildings once we get near the Guild so we can scout the area and I can point out the room they’re staying at. After that, we’ll split up and you will wait for my distraction.”

“It’s already late at night.” Red said. “Won’t they already be inside their rooms? How are you going to drag them out?”

The rogue smiled with some arrogance. “You don’t need to worry about that. I might not be as strong as the others, but when it comes to ingenuity, no one in our sect can match me.”

The boy didn’t know if Rimold was just boasting or not. Since returning to the sect, the man didn’t do much other than scout and gather information around the region. Red didn’t even see him training even once, which was why he wasn’t too confident in his strength. That being said, there were no ordinary individuals in the Water Dragon Sect, so perhaps the rogue had reason to be confident.

“Just stay close to me.” Rimold said. “I know the best route.”

To Red’s surprise, the man did indeed know his way around town.

Although it was the middle of the night, there were plenty of guards walking the streets on the lookout for thieves just like the two of them. Rimold, however, not only knew how to make his way through the ruins and buildings, but he also seemed to know the patrol’s route by heart. They had an easy time making their way over to the Adventurer’s Guild and climbing one of the nearby buildings.

As soon as they approached, Red’s crimson sense covered the building. The boy felt at least 30 fluctuations within the guild, but one of them in particular stood out to him.

Rimold squinted as he examined the building. “The merchant should be-”

“In a back room on the second floor.” Red completed his sentence.

The rogue’s eyes widened. “How did you- Oh wait, is it your power again?”

The boy nodded. “I can feel the Lesser Ring Realm cultivator.”

Rimold smiled. “So he’s really here… I was hoping that maybe he could have left to take a walk.”

Red shook his head. “In the middle of the night? That seems unlikely.”

The rogue looked troubled. “I know, I was just making a- Ugh, nevermind. How many people are with him right now?”

“I can’t tell exactly from here, but I can sense four other people in close proximity.”

“The merchant and his three other bodyguards.” Rimold nodded. “That matches.”

“How strong are the other ones?”

“I don’t know, but they probably have all opened twelve veins.” the rogue said. “Suffice it to say, you don’t really want to face them in combat, so just stick to using the talisman.”

Red nodded. It was what he was planning on doing.

Rimold continued. “I will go create a distraction and as long as it works, you should sense the Lesser Ring Realm cultivator leaving the room. That will be your cue to break in and use the talisman.”

Red frowned. “Won’t they all be awake by then? How am I supposed to sneak in?”

The rogue snorted. “You don’t need to sneak in. You can just break the window and throw the talisman in. Trust me, there will be plenty of noise to cover your movement.”

“What are you…” Red trailed off before shaking his head. “Nevermind. Where are the Spirit Stones?”

“A strong box, about the size of your head.” Rimold exemplified it with his hands. “It will be hard to miss. The key is kept with the merchant at all moments, so you’ll need to search through his body to find it. If you can’t locate the key, just bring the box outside and we can figure out how to open it later.”

The boy nodded. “Where will we meet up after this?”

“We’ll try to meet up back at the Sect’s street when we can.” Rimold said. “By that point, the town’s guard might be on high alert, but they won’t dare to come barging into our Sect’s territory so easily, so we should be safe to reconvene... Of course, if things go wrong, just make sure to hide until everything calms down.”

“As long as you can drag out the Lesser Ring cultivator and the talisman works as intended, we should be fine.” Red said.

The rogue snorted. “Do you think I’d make that kind of mistake in planning? If the Lesser Ring cultivator doesn’t come out, then there’s no point in even continuing our heist.”

Red sighed. “Whatever you say.”

He still wasn’t sure how Rimold was going to pull that cultivator away from the room, but as the man said, if he didn’t manage to do that, Red wouldn’t dare to break into the room in the first place.

“You can scout the place while you’re waiting.” Rimold paused in thought. “I can’t give you a signal for when I will be acting, but it should be very obvious.”

“How much time do I have to act?” the boy asked.

“It depends on how long I can keep that cultivator away.” the rogue hesitated. “Probably no more than a few minutes.”

This really wasn’t a lot of time, but Red supposed he didn’t need that long if things worked as Rimold suggested.

“Ah yes, I forgot about something.” Rimold picked something from his pouch before handing it to Red. “Here.”

The boy picked it up. It was a black leather mask. “A mask?”

“It will be useful to keep your identity hidden.” the man nodded. “Of course, if they spot you, a kid, running around in the crime scene, they probably will suspect you immediately, but at least you will have something to fall back on if things get complicated later.”

Red frowned. If his identity was revealed during the heist, that would mean no end of troubles for him. However, as Rimold said, it was best to have the mask on just to be safe.

Rimold wore his own mask, which only left two holes for his eyes. “Then I’ll be going.”

The man walked to the edge of the building, where he was about to climb down, before he paused and turned around to look at Red.

“Oh, and don’t screw this up, brat.”

The rogue jumped down, disappearing from his view.

Although Rimold said his farewells, Red could still quite clearly sense the rogue’s exact position with his crimson sense, which made the whole interaction awkward for him. Either way, the boy didn’t stay idly by and immediately got on the move.

He jumped and scaled a few other buildings, a task he accomplished with surprising proficiency compared to the first time he sneaked through the town. Although the boy hadn’t stolen anything for the last six months, it didn’t mean he hadn’t been sneaking around town.

After all, Red still had a lot of secrets he had to keep away from his sect members.

Soon enough, he arrived at the backside of the Guild. He was standing across from it, on the rooftop of a building adjacent to the inn where he could clearly see into the rooms of the second floor. He was able to identify the room of the Lesser Ring Realm cultivator very quickly, but he didn’t let his gaze linger by their curtained window.

Red learned to be more cautious since his encounter with Rickard in the trial. Cultivators in this world possessed all kinds of strange and otherworldly abilities, so the boy couldn’t discount the possibility some of them could detect if they were being spied on.

The boy laid down on the rooftop and waited for the “signal.”

He felt Rimold’s fluctuation moving around the front of the building, but he couldn’t see what the man was doing from his position. To his surprise, though, he felt the rogue approaching a handful of other fluctuations that still seemed to be awake on the bottom floor.

Red knew that two of those belonged to horses, but one of them clearly belonged to a human.

‘He’s at the stables.’

Rimold continued to approach this individual’s position until he was only a few meters away from him. The boy, who could only monitor the rogue’s actions through his crimson sense, braced himself.

‘Is he going to kill them?’

Red waited and prepared to move, expecting this to be the signal. However, to his surprise, nothing happened even after twenty seconds had gone by, and Rimold continued to be right next to this fluctuation, doing nothing.

‘Is he biding his time, or are they talking?’

Red felt confused, but finally Rimold moved again, doing nothing to the other fluctuation as far as the boy could tell. This time, the rogue was moving towards the horses.

‘What is he doing-’

Before Red could complete his thoughts, a scream resounded from the first floor.

“There’s a thief!” a man’s voice yelled in alarm. “They’re stealing the carriage!”

Immediately, the whole guild stirred awake. To the boy’s surprise, he heard the sound of alarmed voices coming from the merchant’s room.

Suddenly, he heard the neighing of horses, and the sound of a heavy carriage barrelling down the street, which Red couldn’t see from his position.

An enraged scream came from inside the merchant’s room.

“DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY!”

The windows were immediately thrown open, and Red saw a shadow jump down to the street from the second floor before running off. It was the Lesser Ring Realm cultivator, and before long, he was out of his field of vision.

Rimold had done as he promised.

Now, it was Red’s turn.