Kael didn’t know much about the [Lockpicking] skill, and even less about this legendary [Omni-Key] tier.
In the game’s meta, [Lockpicking] was a core skill for Rogues. A common, and infuriating, tactic involved a high-level Rogue using stealth to bypass a boss, sneak to the final chest, and loot it while another party was still engaged in the difficult fight. They’d defeat the boss only to find the treasure room already empty.
It was the signature move of players like Nyxar, the Rogue who had screwed him over in the Hidden Realm.
The thought of Nyxar sent a jolt of cold anger through Kael. Nyxar… you’d better hope I don’t run into you.
After bidding farewell to Corin and Pip, Kael turned to leave the shack, only to stop dead in his tracks. A player was walking towards the entrance, a freshly picked [Ghost Orchid] held carefully in his hand.
Kael’s eyes met the other player’s. Recognition was instant.
“Nyxar?”
The other player was clearly just as surprised to see Kael’s ID. The name ‘Ullr’ had become infamous server-wide after the day’s events, especially among the players of Crescent City.
They gave each other a curt, silent nod, then brushed past one another.
After exiting the shack, Kael didn’t leave. He scouted the area, then deftly leaped onto the roof, flattening himself against the dilapidated shingles. A hole in the roof gave him a perfect vantage point of the room below.
Corin and Pip were already putting Nyxar through his trials.
Nyxar was blindfolded, his hands outstretched towards a straw-stuffed training dummy. Kael recognized the test for the [Thievery] skill. A malicious thought sparked in his mind. He picked up a loose pebble from the roof and waited.
The very instant Nyxar’s fingers made contact with the dummy, Kael flicked the pebble. It landed on the dummy’s shoulder with a soft thwack, causing the poorly balanced figure to tip over and fall to the floor with a clumsy thud.
“What the hell?” Nyxar exclaimed, thinking his touch had been far too rough.
Nearby, Corin’s brow furrowed in clear disapproval of Nyxar’s lack of finesse. “Pip. The next test.”
Pip nodded, removing Nyxar’s blindfold. He then produced a dozen thin ropes, each with a small, sharp knife tied to the end. He secured them to the ceiling beams, spaced less than a foot apart. Pulling them back at staggered heights, he released them. The knives began to swing back and forth like a chaotic pendulum, creating a simple but deadly gauntlet.
“Nyxar,” Corin said, his tone stern. “Pass through to the other side within one minute, without being touched by a single blade.”
Nyxar nodded, took a deep breath, and stepped into the path of the swinging knives. With his natural talent and high agility, dodging the blades shouldn’t be a major issue. He focused his mind, muttering a quick prayer to the RNG gods. Can’t screw this up like the last one.
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He moved with painstaking care, successfully navigating past the first three daggers. Only nine more to go.
On the roof, Kael picked up another stone. He let it roll from his fingers.
Clink.
The pebble struck the very tip of the fourth dagger’s blade, altering its trajectory just enough. It swung wildly off its normal path, arcing directly towards Nyxar’s head.
Schlick.
-393
“Ah!” Nyxar cried out as the blade grazed him. Another failure.
“What the hell!” he cursed, his face flushing with anger. He instinctively looked up, a flicker of suspicion in his eyes, but all he saw was the decaying roof. In a shack this decrepit, it wasn’t unusual for a bit of debris to fall.
“Damn, my luck is trash today,” Nyxar muttered, feeling utterly helpless.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Corin announced, his voice laced with disappointment. “I will now impart the [Thievery] skill to you. Based on your aptitude… you have achieved the rank of [Journeyman].”
Outside, a grin spread across Kael’s face. [Thievery] was a notoriously difficult skill to level up. With only a Journeyman start, Nyxar’s dream of becoming the master thief he’d been in the previous timeline was now significantly harder.
He stole one chest from me, and I just cost him a master-tier skill quest. An eye for an eye. Yeah, I definitely came out ahead.
Kael’s mood lifted big time. His burning urge to kill Nyxar ten times in a row had cooled down—he could deal with that later. He slipped out of the shack carefully, headed back to the teleport nexus, and got ready to finally kick off his Treasure Map quest.
Just as he was about to select his destination, a friend notification popped up. It was Rena.
Rena: Dawnbreaker, you got a minute?
Dawnbreaker: What’s up?
Rena: The guild master is in a total funk. She’s barely talking to us. We figured… maybe you could cheer her up?
Dawnbreaker: Huh… Did something happen?
Rena: We don’t know. Lila just logged on and has been completely miserable. She won’t tell us what’s wrong.
Dawnbreaker: Okay. I’ll see what I can do.
Kael closed the message window, searching his memory for anything related to Lila at this point in the game. But their real association hadn't started until a year or two after launch. He had no idea what she could be dealing with right now.
The only thing that came to mind was the Sunfire Bell. Could her family be refusing to let her buy it? That seemed unlikely. At auction, the bell would go for a hundred million at most. For the Whitmore Group, that was pocket change.
He opened a chat window with Lila, trying to think of an opening line, but a message from her appeared before he could type.
Lila: Dawnbreaker, are you free tonight?
Tonight? Kael blinked.
Dawnbreaker: Uh, yeah. I am.
Lila: Where do you live?
Kael’s heart did a little stutter-step. She was asking for his address? Did she want to… His face suddenly felt hot.
Dawnbreaker: Oakwood Apartments, Building 11, Apt 601…
Lila: Okay. What’s your number? I’ll head over.
Dawnbreaker: (555) 867-5309
Lila: K.
And with that, her status switched to offline.
Kael stared at the screen for a moment. Then, the reality of his rundown rental apartment hit him like a physical blow. He immediately logged out.
Without a second’s delay, Kael launched into a frantic cleaning frenzy. He kicked scattered shoes and socks into the closet, and furiously wiped down every surface. Within fifteen minutes, the room was visually transformed.
“What is that smell?”
He took a deep breath and was assaulted by the apartment’s signature scent: a potent cocktail of stale pizza, foot odor, and sweat.
Ugh. The smell was overwhelming. This was the first time Kael had ever really noticed how bad his place smelled. He threw open the windows and the front door, trying to air the place out, but the stench was stubborn.
Air freshener! Right, I need to spray something!
He tore through his drawers and cabinets. Of course, he didn’t own anything remotely like cologne. Just as he was about to give up, he spotted a can of bug spray under the sink. He picked it up and sprayed a generous amount into the air.
Hmm. Smells pretty good, actually.
He stood with his hands on his hips, admiring his handiwork.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
