Loot is a pirate’s reason for living.

~Manannan, God of the Sea & Weather

Once inside, he pulled them out of the Mana Wall in the last room on the south side. The entrance faced the east, which faced toward the central region. The last few rooms didn’t have much in them; mostly, they appeared to be items that held little or unknown value. Crow felt it was probably trash, but because they weren’t sure, they just used these last rooms to dump it all. Therefore, the three rooms on the north and south sides of the main hall had little to no restrictions.

“This looks like the Witch vault,” Minnie whispered after trying to peek into the main hall. She was stopped because Crow grabbed the back of her cloak.

“Slow down, and let me talk first.” Crow didn’t bother whispering because there were formations present that weren’t restrictions, such as sound-dampening etched into the ceiling. “I chose this vault as the second target because I believe the Hex Vodun are the most dangerous group in Unhulde, and I was right. They’ve already set up traps. Also, tell Leila that there are three of them upstairs in the living quarters. If she senses or sees any disturbance, more people arriving, or whatever—warn us immediately.”

Zoe nodded and closed her eyes while Minnie went around the room, pocketing everything. Her Shield was like a strobe light with how fast she was robbing the place, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.

The High Priestess of a coven could communicate with any of her sisters at nearly any range, which made him a little jealous. Crow knew that Acco’s Constellation had that ability, but for now, he could only sense the people linked to it. It didn’t surprise him much that after leaving Wistman’s Woods, Hooligan had a star, and now Zoe did too. Only hers was unique as it had twelve moons circling it.

Thinking about it, Crow wasn’t even sure why he was still calling it Acco’s because the people inside were clearly linked to him. Still, he didn’t have enough information about it to make any determination. In his mental list of things to research, he added it, and when he had the chance, he’d sit down and have a long talk with Acco. He gave the guy a hard time, but he’d long moved past his mistrust. The guy was dependable and contributed to the group.

“Okay, she is aware of the situation,” Zoe informed him.

“Here is how we’ll do this,” Crow outlined his plan. “Always pay attention to where I am—never pass me up. I’ll disable the traps and secure the room so you can loot to your heart’s content.”

“You are just going to let me take everything?” Minnie asked with a grin.

“You might be devious and vicious to people you hate, but I don’t believe you’ll betray me for a few trinkets,” Crow grinned and rubbed her head. Minnie stuck her tongue out at him, and his hand moved faster than she could react. The soft, pink appendage was caught between his finger and thumb. Her eyes widened in shock, and Crow licked her face to further agitate her.

Zoe just opened her eyes and witnessed the entire scene before giggling. “Little girl, it looks like you met your match.”

“Hmph,” Minnie grumbled while rubbing her cheek dry. “I’ll make you pay for that later.”

“Looking forward to it,” Crow chuckled. “Ready to steal some shit, Madam Lightfingers?

Minnie nodded and took off for the room across the hall. Crow rolled his eyes and smiled at Zoe before moving toward the first trap. He’d already scanned the rooms closest to them to be safe, so Minnie should be fine.

The first trap was in the room with various rare crafting resources. It was mostly ores, wood, and stone that were unceremoniously dumped on the shelves, so it didn’t have much organization, but unlike the previous rooms, they still considered it valuable. Clans liked to show off their wealth up front, so those rooms closest to the entrance had high-end goods. The location also made it easier for the custodian to use his Mana Sense to scan over it. The super rare treasures were probably held by the elders—at least, that’s how Crow would have arranged it. Let the clan have access to all this stuff as rewards, but secure the rarest treasures with the most powerful cultivators.

Five minutes later, he dismantled the first formation. It was hastily made, so it had a lot of flaws and was definitely not on the level of a Celtic Knot. That didn’t mean he could take it easy because a cunning expert would hide traps inside the formation to alert them if someone tampered with it. Inexperienced formations experts would destroy the formation, but that was crude, ineffective, and almost always created a backlash. It was why many of those that specialized in these types of Scholarly Talents carried sigils or defensive artifacts to protect against it. While it would save them, it wasn’t uncommon for that same backlash to destroy whatever was protected within.

Regardless, he left the trap intact and disabled the triggering function. In other words, the formation was inert now and wouldn’t do anything, even if the entire room was destroyed. One thing that bothered him was why they took the extra effort to secure this room. While Crow was an exception, the Shield at their level didn’t have a lot of storage. A room like this would probably fill up the limited space. It didn’t make sense unless someone wore a ton of spatial treasures. Tactically speaking, he’d have concentrated on the most valuable content or, at the very least, focused on hiding these formations better. Even without seeing their map, he sensed the trap long before entering.

Warily, he picked up some rarer resources and inspected them for Soul Imprints or potential locator tags but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Out of caution, he tossed the goods into his Soulverse instead of his Vortex Shield Pin—a name he decided to call it since it wasn’t solely a Shield anymore.

After emptying the room, he checked the other rooms without looting. He’d let the other two have the fun, but he still wanted to confirm it was safe. He didn’t go through them thoroughly because he relied on the vault map, but he didn’t recklessly bypass the rooms. Minnie and Zoe were cleaning up behind him, and he wouldn’t let them get harmed.

The next trap was in a room filled with books. He could tell they’d already moved a good portion of the books away, but it didn’t stop Crow from smiling at what he felt were the true treasures. The formation wasn’t hidden this time, but that only made him extra cautious.

Scanning the patterns and complexity, he felt this time, a true master of formations was at work. If the master had more time, Crow was sure the number of flaws he saw would greatly diminish. This time, he didn’t react for at least ten minutes. It was enough time for the girls to catch up to him, but he didn’t let that distract him. The master chained the various runes together so if one fell, they all went. It wasn’t the most masterful formation he’d ever seen, but it was impressive.

Since he couldn’t break or disable the triggers, he’d just have to shift them. It would allow him to enter and loot, but he wasn’t confident the girls behind him could follow his steps precisely.

“Wait here, and don’t move,” Crow told them. “This formation is good, and neither of you can navigate it.”

“Destroy it!” Minnie frowned.

“Brute. If we did that, we’d alert the watchers. I’m going to finesse my way through without breaking it. Don’t worry; we’ll still get all the goods.”

With that, Crow stepped into the room and walked to the nearest shelf using a shuffling step that reminded Zoe and Minnie of ocean waves. They didn’t understand why he walked that way but knew Crow enough to realize he wasn’t doing it to goof off. If Crow knew what they were thinking, he’d laugh. The rune shifting and steps were something he’d learned from that little book given to him by the Ghost Eater elder, and it was called Tidal Shift.

Using that method, it was easy to steal all the books and the shelves they rested on. Crow’s cave abode inside his original Soulscape was turning into an actual library. And while thinking that, he ordered the Soul Butlers to build his own private library underneath his cave home. He’d work on preservation formations later, but creating a space like that would be beneficial. Especially since he’d been thinking about Zoe and her coven. It’d be easy to store them inside his Soulverse before he left. The question was whether they’d want to stay hidden away like prisoners. The wood nymphs didn’t count as they were simple creatures and didn’t care where they lived as long as their tree remained safe.

The following rooms held herbs, then treasures such as weapons, armor, and life-saving devices. It was a good haul. Everything went smoothly until the final two rooms.