Chapter 52: Heist
He crossed the street in absolute silence, his Phantom Talent suppressing his footsteps and body heat. The lock on the shop’s front door was simple, barely worthy of the name, and he had it open in under five seconds.
The front room was dark and empty. He moved through it like a ghost, following the sounds of labored breathing and rhythmic creaking from the back. The door was slightly ajar, letting a sliver of lamplight spill into the workshop.
Through the gap, he could see them on the bed. Venn was on top, his pale back glistening with sweat, his movements urgent and graceless. Delilah lay beneath him, her eyes closed and her expression carefully neutral. On the nightstand beside the bed, coiled like a sleeping snake, was a golden chain with a small silver key attached.
Too easy.
Nacho’s tentacle extended through the gap, invisible and silent. It crept across the floor, up the side of the nightstand, and wrapped around the key with a gentleness that bordered on obscene.
Neither of them noticed.
He withdrew the tentacle, bringing the key with it, and tucked the prize into his inventory. The whole operation had taken less than thirty seconds.
Now for the hard part.
He slipped back out of the shop and made his way toward the Sanctum, the stolen key burning a hole in his pocket. The streets were empty at this hour, the good citizens of Valdris safely tucked in their beds while the bad ones conducted business in the shadows.
The Sanctum loomed against the night sky, its white marble walls glowing faintly with enchanted light. The wards were visible to his Apex Senses as a web of interconnected threads, pulsing with magical energy that would trigger the moment an unauthorized presence crossed the threshold.
Time to test that blind spot.
He circled to the back of the building, where the loading dock sat silent and unguarded. The delivery entrance was sealed, but a small service door nearby showed signs of regular use. According to Mira’s map, it led to the mundane storage area, the one section of the basement where the ward coverage was thin.
The door was locked.
Nacho pulled the stolen key from his inventory and examined it in the pale moonlight. It was ornate, covered in tiny runes that seemed to shift when he looked at them too closely. A master key, designed to open every lock in the Sanctum.
Let’s hope that includes this one.
He inserted the key and turned.
Click.
The door swung open silently, revealing a narrow staircase descending into darkness. No alarms. No magical backlash. No guards rushing to intercept him.
So far, so good.
He descended the stairs with his Combat Precognition on high alert, every sense straining for the first sign of danger. The air grew colder as he went deeper, carrying the musty smell of old stone and older secrets.
The basement level opened up into a series of interconnected corridors, dimly lit by guttering torches and the faint glow of ward lines embedded in the walls. He could see the magical threads now, thanks to his new Thread Sight, a complex tapestry of detection spells and alarm triggers that covered almost every surface.
Almost.
There was a gap, just as Mira had promised. A narrow corridor leading to what looked like a janitorial closet, where the ward coverage thinned to almost nothing. He slipped through it, pressing himself flat against the wall to avoid brushing against the nearest detection line.
First obstacle cleared.
He consulted the mental map he’d memorized earlier. The vault was two corridors away, past the guard station and through a reinforced door. The guards would be the tricky part.
He found them around the next corner. Three figures in chainmail, sitting around a small table and playing cards by torchlight. Their weapons leaned against the wall within easy reach, but their attention was focused on the game. One of them was complaining about his wife. Another was bragging about a conquest at the local brothel.
The third was losing badly and not happy about it.
Nacho considered his options. He could try to sneak past them, but the corridor was too narrow and too well-lit. He could fight them, but the noise would bring reinforcements. He could try to charm them, but three targets at once would be tricky, and if even one of them resisted...
Or I could cheat.
He pulled a Silverion Dagger from his inventory and examined it in the dim light. The blade gleamed with an eager hunger that was almost visible.
Then he threw it.
Not at the guards. At the torch on the far wall.
The dagger flew true, guided by Dagger Duchess’s homing enchantment, and struck the torch holder with enough force to knock it off the wall. The flame guttered and died, plunging half the corridor into sudden darkness.
"What the hell?"
"Did you see that?"
"Something’s wrong. Check it out."
Two of the guards grabbed their weapons and moved toward the fallen torch, leaving the third alone at the table. Nacho was already moving, his Phantom Talent rendering him nearly invisible in the shadows.
He reached the lone guard before the man had time to react. His tentacle wrapped around the guard’s throat, not squeezing, just holding, while his other hand clamped over the man’s mouth.
[First Tentacle effect activated. Charm multiplied by 10x. Current effective Charm: 880.]
The guard’s eyes went wide, then unfocused. His struggling stopped. His body went limp in Nacho’s grip.
"Sleep," Nacho whispered. "You’re very tired. You’re going to take a nap right here at this table. When you wake up, you won’t remember anything unusual happened."
The guard nodded dreamily and slumped forward onto the cards, already snoring.
[Target’s receptivity: 100%.]
[Lewd Act Performed: Tentacle Restraint]
[Talent Stolen: Iron Constitution (Uncommon)]
One down.
The other two guards were still investigating the fallen torch, their backs turned to him. He moved up behind them like a shadow, his tentacle splitting into two thinner strands that wrapped around both their necks simultaneously.
[First Tentacle effect activated. Charm multiplied by 10x. Current effective Charm: 880.]
[First Tentacle effect activated. Charm multiplied by 10x. Current effective Charm: 880.]
They went down without a sound, their weapons clattering harmlessly to the floor. He arranged them in comfortable positions against the wall, their heads lolling like sleeping children.
[Lewd Act Performed: Tentacle Restraint x2]
[Talent Stolen: Danger Sense (Uncommon)]
[Talent Stolen: Quick Draw (Common)]
[Danger Sense (Uncommon) + Combat Precognition (Epic) = No change. Talent absorbed into existing Epic Talent.]
